455 CHPT 455: Sink in the Shadows to arise like the Phoenix

"Come on, rat ear! Come down into the water!" The Water Trolls words sounded like they came from a pair of rotted out and waterlogged lungs. Drowned in chunky foul fluids he could smell as he ran through the upper canopy of the marsh.

Beneath his feet the branches and tree limbs extended, following his movements as he followed the Trolls. Something harder than he would've imagined. They weren't like the Trolls he'd fought previously in the mountains. These Trolls were slimmer— lithe if they didn't have hulking shoulders and craniums. They moved like snakes in the risen waters, they could see perfectly in the dark, dodging and swatting away Claude as he sent down spikes of Nature from above. Usually he faced creatures with senses worse than his and played on that, but the Water Trolls? They were just as adept in the darkness as Claude.

That felt deliberate. He couldn't play silent assassin. He abandoned that game plan a long time ago. The fight was meant to be up-close and personal. He just needed a means of entry.

Claude placed his hand down on the tree branches at his feet. The canopy bloomed and thickened until he stood on a cluttered and intertwining floor of wooden tendrils. He stopped moving, motioning for the Phantom Wolves to take off to the left.

They manipulated the shadows to appear as Claude.

The Water Trolls had incredible senses, but lacking intelligence. Even so, they'd play the mental games. A tango of intellect.

One took the bait. The smallest of the three with deeply cut gills running across the back of his capped and fish scaled shoulders. His hair was a Mohawk of jagged fins that ran down his spine.

Claude smacked the wood with his hand and a wall of spikes fell, closing off the straggler from the others. Wolves were known to split off their prey from the others and descend. Claude was no different. Usually, but this wasn't a hunt. It was training. And he needed to break to grow back stronger.

He burst from the marsh canopy and landed, slamming his hands to the floor with him like a raging ape. Wooden spikes fell in unison, slamming into the Trolls moss and algae covered shoulders and helmeted heads.

They barely budged. The larger of the two laughed— a dumb and numbing sound that was only interrupted as Claude exploded the wooden tendrils in their shoulders.

SPLSH!!

The tendrils grew curled spikes that ripped and sprayed their salty smelling blood all across the watery floor.

Claude whistled as he took off after the slow moving creatures. In response a ball of green fire slammed into the Trolls. Gil's flame was like a steroid to Claude's element growth.

The spikes within the Water Trolls twisted and grew further.

"Oh come on with the splinters….. we want a fight… and a swim…" One of the trolls said as it broke off the Wooden spikes and spun around to swing at Claude.

FWSHHH!!

The Troll became a blur of fish scales and moss. They were insanely fast. The fluidity in their limbs and midsection reminded him of an eel. Claude dropped down to a slide on his knees as the Trolls weapon ripped through the wind above him. The weapon was odd. Like a paddle for rowing only triple in size and given metal teething along its sides. The bladed edges cut the stray strands of his deep black hair. The glow of the foreign Runes was like stars above him.

He got to his feet just in time for the other Troll to swing its weapon at him. Another miss. Physically, but the ten foot tall tidal wave of marsh water was harder to evade. It swallowed him up in a flash of glowing runes and smiling Trolls. The scales on their humanoid skin glowed as they descended.

Claude roared a volley of bubbles and shrouded himself in his Elemental Shroud. The glow of his electrifying aura was his only source of light in the waters. So dark that even that wasn't enough.

They fought for hours on end from that point onward. In absolute blackness.

***

"AGGK!!" Claude exploded from his bed coughing up the dreamy remnants of marsh water filling his lungs. It was still early morning, the sun only high enough in the sky to spread orange fissures across the ending night. Even so, after being in absolute dark for so long it felt painful on his eyes.

So did the glow of his Elemental Shroud. Somehow it was both activated in his world and the Astral Realm. He stared at the glow covering him. The burst of green energy biting at the blankets beneath him and reaching out to the massive overgrowth of nature at his window. He suddenly remembered Rollan referencing its spiritual applications. Maybe both were related.

[+1 Strength]

[+1 Stamina]

"[How was it?]" Arne commented.

"Perfectly terrible." Claude said as soon as he got his bearings.

"[Details? Any idea what power comes next from the Wolf that desires the sun?]" Arne questioned.

Claude shrugged, "He never tells me flat out…. He likes to watch my get my ass whooped until I figure it out. Kind of like a Professor…. But sadistic and world eating. I was just fighting Water Trolls in a flooded out marsh. Blind more or less. A warm up."

"[And you don't feel you've understood what it is he wants you to learn?]" Arne questioned.

"No. All he said was in order to become a Monster when you swallow the light, you first have to learn how to thrive in the dark….. I think. I was oxygen deprived." Claude said as he stretched his long limbs.

"[Well, that sounds positively ominous. On brand, eh?]"

"No doubt." Claude got up and began putting on his newly issued University Uniform, equipped with a sleeve band issued to all Tournament Main Event Participants. It glowed a bright orange that stood out on the plain navy blue bulk of the uniform. A black insignia of a Phoenix shone on the surface, at its core a Rune glowed giving the black design magical pink sparkles like pieces of a star were sprinkled all along the artwork.

The design was unique. Old, impossible to decipher at a single glance. Part of the books of older Runes. Made more powerful by time and repetition. Claude learned that most Runes used nowadays were redesigned and restructured. Simpler. More Mana efficient and less volatile. But as a result much weaker. Apparently that was something only third years learned.

For the Tournament entrants they didn't want to risk weakness though, so the old Rune glowed on Claude's sleeve. It was called Acquisition Solidified. A mixing of two old Runes actually that allowed them to learn and absorb physical and mental instruction more intensely. Only drawback was the constant mana drain that could spill into life drain during prolonged use. Volatile were the old runes indeed.

Speaking of Runes. Claude approached his desk to the right of his undersized twin bed. It sat under the window framed by vine and flower. The rising suns glow made the pollen and greenery sparkle. It reminded him of the Grove.

He shook off the thought and pulled open the drawer, grabbing a notebook and pen. The pages were filled with doodles and notes from classes. But at the back end odd designs and insignia's were etched into the white paper. Clearly not man made. He'd written them a long time ago. Before leaving the University, before reaching the Gold Rank. Back when he fought his first Troll and learned they had their own subset of element morphing Runes that went according to their regions.

On the paper were many attempts at correctly scribing the Troll Rune that called to the stone of Mountains. It felt like the writings circling the black of his palm. He didn't know the language, just the feeling.

The same went for the newest Runes he'd found himself eyeing in his Astral Realm. Not to control the stone, but to tame the waters. Maybe tame wasn't the best word since they used the Rune's.to create tidal waves. Either way, he wrote it down. Surely it wouldn't be perfectly scrubbed as he ran his ink quill across the pages for the first time, but it would be a start.

He still didn't know if they worked on anything other than Trolls. But a chance at power was just that. A chance at power.

When he finished writing the newest addition to his Troll Rune down, he closed up the book and grabbed his gear just as the sounds of Prof. Brennan traveling down the hall began.