400 CHPT 400: The Awakening of my Focus; Feral and Vengeful....

The war had reached it's apex. The heights of madness seemed unimaginable. Like a mountain built using the bones, blood and ichor of the dead that littered the grass over sanded landscape.

Once a simple war between the natural and unnatural. Had once been transformed into a chaotic mindless mess. A deadly high level Primal wreaked havoc in it's heartless pursuit of a meal, a meal that was interrupted by the deranged HellSlaying Serpentine Monster born from Liam's heart. The two catastrophes cut through both factions with ease as flames rose and glacial spikes tore through the landscape.

It would all end soon. It would all come to a close. The roaring would end, the death-- the pain and strife. The corruption. It would fall. For one simple reason...

***

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, CLAUDE! THIS IS NOT RIGHT!!! NO NO NO NO!!!" Cyrene had delved into full on demonic spasms in the midst of their battle.

Claude stopped speaking quite a while ago.

He was focused. So incredibly focused.

"AHHH!"

SWSHH!

Cyrene swung her blade at his face, it's pure silver surface stood out against her smoky skin and freely flowing coal black hair.

Claude sidestepped the strike and smashed a kick into her ribs. The second she came off her feet, a set of Hooves smashed into her back and sent her back to Claude to receive a clothesline to the throat.

He was chasing after her before she had a chance to stop rolling through the grass. His ears twitched in his pursuit, causing him to duck at the sound of deadly claws slicing through the air by his throat.

"RAGH!"

The PitGnoll's only remaining hand caught nothing but a few strands of his hair. Claude flipped out of the way afterward, leaving the creature to strain and fight against the roots and vines he summoned around it's body in his absence.

Once he was out of striking distance, he turned to face the PitGnoll. The Monsters surrounding it stopped their pursuit.

Cyrene screamed in the distance as the grassed grounds continued to swallow and constrict her. Slowly snakes arrived, biting into her and injecting her with mind-numbing amounts of venom.

Claude's eyes glimmered, slimming to reptilian slits as he borrowed their traits and his green-veined muscles increased in size.

The PitGnoll barked and snarled madly, spitting balls of blackish slobbery fire in it's madness.

Slowly, wooden spikes rose from the ground beside Claude. As he stared at the Gnoll, he could've sworn he saw a bit of remembrance in its eyes.

No matter. It wouldn't be the same.

Claude went to work, firing off on the creature with wood-woven attacks seamlessly blended with his god-given power and HellSlaying attributes.

He darted across the grass, the only semblance of where he once stood being the portions of nature that randomly exploded in growth from the effecting touch of his imperfect Elemental Shroud.

A cut. A stab. A bone shattering punch.

Life was fading from it. In his sensory focused state, he could tell in all aspects. As painful as it was in it's intensity, he could see the battlefield in ways he'd never been able to.

Cyrene screamed in the distance. Painful as every other one.

He closed in on the creature a final time, jumping onto it's chest and wrapping his Malevolence Tether around it's throat. The Gnoll had become demonic enough that the sizzling burn drove it mad.

He leaned backward, pulling the creature parallel with the earth like a man placed on the chopping block.

"Now!"

The Monsters had waited long enough.

The Centaurs took off like horses sent to race. Their serrated blades raised to the sky as they let out mannish neighing roars.

The first to hit sent it's blade through it's midsection, followed by the final riding past him and running it's sword through the Gnoll's massively muscled neck.

SHLCK!

"AH--"

It's head disconnected in a clean slice. Claude fell and hit the ground in a roll. As he got back to his feet, he witnessed the Satyr kicking it's head off into the distance.

[+550 EXP]

CSHH!

Cyrene burst from her binds in a bolt of lightning drawn from the skies. The crackling explosion sent waves of heat burning through the grass and shattering his ears.

He stumbled backward but made no move to shield his ears or give into the stunning blast. He knew Cyrene was coming.

As soon as the lightning blast faded, he found her standing. Fully transformed as the Demon she'd become. Horns sprouted from her temples, slim and graceful as they swept back following the curve of her head, blending in with her shadowy hair. Her red eyes reminded him of the Vampires.

She smirked suddenly, "Come on, Clll--"

FWSHHH!

Claude swung, a speeding torrent of wooden spikes followed his movements heading straight for Cyrene before she could finish speaking

As she cut and dodged the volley of attacks, Claude turned to the others, "Start running. The others will be behind you soon.... thank you all."

Hesitantly, they took off. The Satyr remained; Claude knew why. It was the same reason he was so nervous about his plan.

Responsibilities.

SHZSHSZ!.....SHSHZSHZZ!

"HAHAHAH! Is that it?" Cyrene yelled with a laugh.

Their eyes never left eachother as their zone of combat emptied. His closed fist shook, never opening ever since Rollan left. He stood. Even as the Primal roared in the distance, nobody moved until a fissure of green energy opened in Claude's hulking chest.

Energy poured from it, gaining feral shape and sharp scaled armor until it landed as his HellSlaying Hound. In its secondary evolution, it had grown in size and musculature. Not as crazy as Frosty, but it gained a new bulk, nonetheless.

It snarled madly at Cyrene, scenting her demonic heritage a mile away as green glowing slime poured from its jaws and exploded the growth of the nature beneath its feet.

"Can you keep my path clear?" Claude asked through the link that bound them.

Gil turned his eyeless head halfway and grunted in agreement.

Claude took a deep breath, bolting up his heightened nerves and bloodlust before taking off straight for the wild war below.

The Wild Magic of the world fueled his limbs as Cyrene followed screaming and questioning his actions in his wake.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!??!??! STOP!!! COME FIGHT!!"

Red bolts of lightning snapped and bit at the ground beside him as he surveyed the battlefield ahead.

The Primal stomped and snapped at the warzone, cutting Demons, Centaurs, and Wolves in half and swallowing others whole as the opposing hordes simply fought to escape the madness. The Serpent born from the Elven Murderer, ripped through the ground like a hellish scalled hurricane, twisting and grinding apart anything in it's path in a chaotic sputter of sands, grass and torn limbs. It looked like hell on earth.

Glacial shards stuck from its open wounds at the Primal's neck and thick scaled ankles. His heart suddenly lurched at the thought of Ursula fighting a Primal at high Bronze Rank. But he knew she was alive; he could hear her roars still. He could feel her rage riding on the mentally magical network of wires that connected the pack.

But it wouldn't stay that way if he didn't make a move.

"Focus.... focus...." He mumbled before leaping off the cliff.

The winds on his ears and ruffling through the fur growing on his body reminded him that it was all real. It and it's consequences.

Cyrene moved to shoot him again as a crossbow bolt whizzed over Claude's head, the lightning that cloaked it made the projectile look like a shooting star before it slammed into Cyrene with a wet popping sound.

It didn't slow the obsessed Demon. Nothing but his own actions would. But the Bounty Hunter fired on anyway, led by motives that were a mystery to Claude.

"YOU ARE WEAK!" Cyrene snapped as they entered the battlefield.

Claude ignored her, keeping her on his tail.

SHZSHZ!

"A WEAK AND SNIVELLING EXCUSE OF A MONSTER!!"

Another blast that smashed into the clutter of HellBred beside him. It blew their arms off and sent them rolling through the battlefield. Nothing in comparison to how her words hit him. So similar to the feminine voice in his nightmares.

It almost caused him to miss the densely muscled Cyclops running straight toward him to flee the Primal.

"Oh--!"

Before it could reach him, Gil pounced on the giant and snapped it's neck. Then it was moving again, shaking off it's barbs that sunk into the Demons surrounding them.

The ones that didn't fall from that were exploded by Cyrene's blasts.

He was almost there, flipping and jumping over obstacles effortlessly.

"WEAK!... WHERE IS IT?! Where is your ferocity YOU NEUTUERED MUTT!"

Almost.

The Primal was so close, he could see the magical glow from within shedding light on it's wildly colored scales. Dull in the darkness but bright in their intensity. Striped shades of green, black and speckles of midnight blue. It stood out on the field of blood and fur like a homing beacon despite it's murderous impact.

He needed to get there.

Four hundred feet....two hundred..... one hund--

SHHHHHOOOOM!!

In the midst of his pursuit, a massive drilling shape ripped through the battlefield, cutting apart HellBred and Monster alike. It's scales like blades of black.

The Serpent.

Claude jumped, landing on it's back once before leaping again.

"AHHHH!"

FSZHSHZ!!!

Cyrene sent another blast, missing him barely as he jumped. The blast hit the Serpent, stunning it momentarily.

Claude soared; claws outstretched to sink into the impossibly tough hide of the Primal.

CHK!

No luck. He panicked, scratching at its impossibly tough hide as he slid off the creature. He was seconds from falling when his eyes caught one of Ursula's iced shards sticking out from its ribs below him.

He let go, falling on the giant glacial shard before leaping again and landing on it's back.

As he stood, time seemed to lose importance. Off in the distance, Ursula fought off a team of Cyclops' with Frosty, the Glorian Lion and the Satyr's sibling. Off behind the battle, Rollan led Liam after him. He was coming. It was coming. The end.

Now it was all on one person. One action. One attempt. Kill them all, save everyone.

He felt the Wild Magic that heated his limbs, trying to remember the feelings that came with his final howl that drew all his allies to this very spot. It was the Wild-Magic, mixed and hybridized with a myriad of other things. Things he called upon as he stood atop the Primal.

The urgency, the connection to the wild. The force of one's own will.

He raised his head to the sky, feeling the Wild Magic within rising to the surface. When he spoke, everything returned to it's violent norm.

"RUN!"

All the creatures of the wild on the battlefield froze for a fraction of the second before taking off, fleeing all Demonics as they rushed through the HellBred and away from the Canyon he'd once been trapped in.

As they ran, the Serpent rose with a pained screech, sparking arcs of red lightning danced on it's scales.

"SSSHAAAAA!!!!"

"Fuck YOU!" Cyrene yelled in the distance, uncaring of the Serpent she'd just sent into a frenzy.

Another blast came, smashing into the Primal. The blast knocked Claude off it's back and crashing into the sanded grounds. All grass had been burned from it's surface.

He rolled, tumbling and connecting with the earth repeatedly until a hand gripped his arm and pulled him upright.

"You're cutting it rather close, no?" Rollan said, voice muffled by the wooden knight's armor that coated him like a second skin.

"Follow." Claude said to him in a rush before taking off, turning in the sand to head straight into the canyon.

Cyrene and Liam sped after them, uncaring of the Serpent and Primal following after them.

As they neared the canyon, his pulse raised. Rollan jumped in and out of his vision, deflected sword blows and lightning bolts sent from Cyrene and Liam.

"Monster don't run, CLAUDE!"

"You don't know what you're doing, Rollan! YOU HAVE NO IDEA!"

The Druidic Warriors stayed soundless as they sprinted into the canyon.

Once they were well inside, the two spun around to face their pursuers. In a rush, Claude conjured a collection of roots from the ground shaped in the form of a spear. With his claws he began scratching in the marking that glowed from the surface of the Ancient Seed.

Before completing the marking, he stopped. Even without it finished, the spear burst into wild natural flames that burned even him.

FWWWOOSHHHH

The wooden spike shook in his grip, vibrating with the power of true ancient magics.

He growled at the intense sting.

"Ready?" Rollan asked.

Claude took a deep breath and nodded as the sounds rose.

Cyrene and Liam burst into the canyon, the Primal and Serpent followed, smashing into the canyon walls and sending boulders flying through the night.

And then, they engaged in battle.

Rollan clashed with Liam.

And Cyrene launched off a frenzy of attacks at Claude, as they danced and dodged around the battlefield, they worked to dodge the Primal's cleaving jaws and the Serpents blade-like fangs.

Claude's urgency pulled him off the defensive, and when he noticed Rollan rip one of Liam's blades from his arm, he moved.

"FIG--UGH!" Cyrene's psychotic rantings were interrupted as Claude tackled her. They rolled through the sand.

Claude rose, holding her in his grip. He didn't let go, even as she blasted him repeatedly. He let it change him-- bring out everything he'd suppressed for the majority of the battle. He didn't fight the change. He embraced it.

Suddenly, he let out a roar and fully transformed in a flash, lifting Cyrene off her feet as he grew to his natural height of over seven feet tall.

Cyrene giggled nervously, caught between fear and excitement as Claude's flaming spear brightened and his muscles bubbled.

Behind him, the Primal chased after them, prepared to swallow them both in it's frenzied state.

With Claude's (Sensory Focus) still active, he could feel it's approach in every sense. He could see it in the back of his mind.

He knew what to do.

Claude pulled Cyrene's face close to his snout and growled. A wild and visceral sound that expressed all he couldn't before.

"This time.... STAY DEAD!" He snapped before spinning around and throwing her at the Primal Protartyrannus.

The massive creature roared as it opened it's gigantic jaws to swallow Cyrene. She no longer screamed. In fact, her psychotic obsession had seemingly faded in their shared moment. She looked sad-- like the girl he imagined when she spoke of hearing her family be mauled by her father that had one day been changed into the very thing she'd learned to hunt.

In the end, she had been reduced to what made her. Not the Demonic hybridization brought about by Liam. Not the Silver blades and nails. Not even the unique attributes that made her System perfect for killing Shifters. It was simple motives. Fear. Trauma.

Part of that same thing is what drove Claude. What made him finish the marking on the spear. What had him lunging forward to throw the flaming spear smack dab into her forehead.

POOM!

The flaming spear sunk, hitting like a bomb, it's noise only muffled as the Primal lunged forward and swallowed her and the spear whole.

He turned to call out to Rollan, they had to move-- or they'd end up like his Druidic allies all those years ago.

Before the words could escape his lips, he'd turned to face a chaotic wall of blue flame heading straight for him. It's heat was otherworldly. He couldn't dodge. It was too close...

And then it was twisting and turning away from him. In the distance, he found Rollan, moving as if he were Wood-Weaving, only wooden spikes didn't follow his movements. It was the fire. The blue flames cast by Liam were now being controlled by Rollan. His armor had transformed in the stilled moments, it's wooden accents no longer glowing with the green of nature magic. Instead, they burned blue along with the plants and vines growing on them that slowly burned and deteriorated.

"The hell--"

"Monsieur! RUN! It's happening!" Rollan yelled before sending the redirected fire into Liam and the Serpent.

Liam's screams shook the canyon, but Claude could make out a final word.

"AHH-- YoU AsSOCIATE wiTH the SCORned SHifTers...AHHH!.... you HAve YourS... I hAVe MiNE.....This ISN't OVER ROLLAAAAA--!!!!"

Why did his words sound so familiar--

"[Claude, for the love of the gods, MOVE!]" Arne snapped.

Claude took off, moving in a blur on Wild Magic boosted limbs.

In the distance, he could feel the world warming as if the explosion was changing the earth in it's preparation. Then, out of nowhere--

VWOOOM!

The Primal croaked and fell as a shockwave shook the earth and blew it's lower jaw off. The sound grizzly and deafening. He suddenly felt all the nature around him disappear as if a vacuum had been born.

He turned, unable to do otherwise and found Rollan stumbling behind him as his wooden armor crumbled and fell apart.

Behind the Druid, a green bolt of light exploded from the canyon and ripped straight through the clouds above.

VVVVVIRRROOOOOOOM!

"OH SHIT!"

Nature screamed, making thunder sound like a squeak in comparison and the canyon burst, rubble flew and boulders bulleted towards the ground. In it's wake, a solid green shockwave flew out in all directions, ripping up and decimating everything it hit. The ground behind it roiled and rumbled like a tidal wave ravaged the rocks beneath.

Rollan wasn't moving fast enough. In fact, he was only slowing.

"Dammit!"

"Monsieur, go...." Rollan yelled.

The wave came closer. He wouldn't make it.

Claude spun around and sent his Malevolence Tether after him. The chain snaked through the air and wrapped around his waist.

Claude yanked him off the ground and caught the now frail man and took off.

As he ran, the HellBred attempted to follow, they weren't fast enough. The massive natural explosive wave ripped through them and left nothing behind. Their screams so pained he couldn't hear anything else as he dashed and dodged through the battlefield.

He ran and ran. He ran until there were no more HellBred left and Cyrene Liam were a distant memory.

He ran until all that remained was the night, Rollan and the massive wave of destruction. There was something peaceful about it. Even as massive boulders crashed into the earth and deep magics shook the ground below, causing the world to shake and split into deep cliff edges and drop offs.

In the distance, he could see his pack of Animals-- Beasts.... and creatures born from the Tangents. They fleed to the horizon. The morning sun on them as they began to take notice of him and the explosion slowly beginning to swallow him.

The shower of boulders more frequent, the way they interrupted his sprint more deadly. If he fell, he could recover, but he could also drop Rollan.

"Let me go.... goatboy...." Rollan whispered as Claude tried to stay ahead of the madness.

"Shut up..." Claude huffed.

"You did good. You erased the touch, no? You did what I couldn't, and you gave me purpose once more. You made me feel like maybe... I did not fail. Oui. I didn't fail in teaching you, Monsieur. Let me go."

Tears streamed from Claude's eyes as he ran. He moved so fast that they flew from his face as they fell. Another boulder hit, sending stone shards into his legs.

SHCKK!

"ACK!"

"[Claude...]"

"We're not doing this again!"

The waves grew closer. He removed his Malevolence Tether and pulled Rollan to his front.

"Wh-What are you doing? MOnsieur!" Rollan yelled as he understood Claude's intentions.

Simple. Kill them all, save everyone.

Right before the waves could hit and incinerate them both, Claude jumped, as he held Rollan by the shirt and pants, he focused all the strength he had left and threw the Druid.

The pack watched in the distance, far ahead but invested nonetheless. Able to witness as Rollan rocketed toward them and Claude fell to the split and destroyed earth left in the wake of the explosion.

As Claude fell, he found himself facing the night sky. He'd viewed it under so many different circumstances. Never did he think when the last time would be. He'd never grown as close as he was today.

And he hated that.

Hated the idea of missing his revenge.

The idea of leaving Ursula.... Frosty.... Maris.... Warren... Isaac. Everyone. Even the beasts that howled and roared in the distance as he fell into the split earth below.

The last thing he heard before a boulder fell over the shadows he fell into was Rollan's voice.

And the absence of the explosive waves.

"CLAUDE..... NOOOOOO--"