CHPT 464: A Weekend of Many Changes

"RUAAAGHH!'l

SPLSHh!!!

Claude leapt up into the Marsh canopy to avoid the crushing swing of the Water Troll and the tidal wave that followed. He waited on a wet branch, his claws slicing through the soft bark like butter. The second the tidal wave passed he dropped back down to the floor now that the water levels lowered.

"Welcome ba—" The Water Troll took the bait as it looked at him and the black tornado behind it faded.

Claude used the shaft of his spear and shoved the massive creature backward just as the Phantom Legion bit down on its moss and algae covered head.

CRNCH!

[+180 EXP]

The Water Troll fell to its knees with no head. As the water level rose once more it's remains turned into a liquid, shifting and reforming into additional bulk to the water Troll blasting through the waters behind him like a torpedo.

Claude moved to avoid the Monster only for the water to grow thick and slowing like molasses.

"Wolf-Walkerrrrr!!!" The Troll yelled as it wrapped its arms around him and began to squeeze.

"AHHHCK!" Claude yelled and forced on more of his transformation, building his muscles and the thickness of his skin to protect himself against the crushing impact.

With one hand he manipulated the branches above him to sink and stab into the Monster holding him.

"hahah!" The Troll laughed at its scaly blue-green skin being punctured and filled with exploding seeds. "You like to…. Bite, Wolf?"

Gil didn't like games. The Water troll was playing games.

A burst of green lightning and sparks erupted from his chest, burning the skin of the trolls arms that held him as Gil ripped free from his chest, twisting around to bit down on the trolls head.

"RAGH!"

CRNCH!

The Water Troll continued to speak as Gil crushed its skull, only permanently silenced when he began blowing Natural Flames into the Monsters half chewed face.

Finally, it let up. Unfortunately, Claude's arm was broken.

[70% HP Remaining]

"I do." Claude replied to its previous question of if he liked biting.

[+200 EXP]

The Phantom Legion came out of the deeper dark, dropping a smaller troll at his feet. The massive shadowy hairless canine monster sniffed at his bleeding and busted arm, letting out a saddened whine.

It's many shadowy faces reacted in the ways each one of them would. He could tell which Wolf belonged to each of the six eyes on its face in those moments.

Claude brought their heads together, "We don't cry in here. We've all been through worse anyway, right?"

Ashe barked within and he let go, closing his hand into a fist aimed at the Troll swimming towards them. At the same time, Gil's snout emerged from his chest, spitting a ball of Natural Flames that hit the Nature he manipulated.

FWSHHH!

In a flash, the forest exploded in density and crushed the approaching Water Troll a dozen times over.

Claude scented the air. His eyes rolled as he looked around the landscape with his Natural Vision. The world was too dark to see without it. Nothing.

He pushed onward, somehow knowing where to go. Along the way he shoved his spear into the captured Trolls face as it taunted him.

SHLCK!

[+200 EXP]

"Area one cleared." He thought to himself while Wood-Weaving a pack of vines around his broken arm to keep it in place.

Then, he took off.

The marsh lands of the Astral Realm felt endless as he let his speed climb to its fullest potential. The dark left everything as one. Blackness. No Moon, no sun somewhere below the globe of his dreamscape. Just dark.

is this the world Fenrir hoped for? Or the absence..?

"yOUuuu….. RRRrrrAre— DISTRACTED! wHy!" Fenrir's voice boomed as he ran beside him like a moving thunderstorm.

suddenly the world had a sun. Two balls of fire flaring with Fenrir's words. It was his eyes. And they were huge. He was glad he couldn't see him.

"A girl— Maris…. She found out I was withholding some information from her." Claude said. He could still remember her face as she realized it was him. That was days ago. Three to be exact.

Fenrir snarled, "Women…. The dOwNfAlL of…. MAN….. rrrwEaK mAN."

Claude swung up above the trees with his Malevolence Tether, flying in the darkness before landing and running beside Fenrir once more.

"It's not like that." Claude explained.

"GooD….rrRrRomance! GEtS…..iN tThE waYyyyy….. oF wHaTs dEsTiNed forrr us! I tEll youR lIttLe bErSerkerrr the Same…"

"You need to stay out of her head." Claude said as he dropped down to all fours and moved faster.

"aNd iFf I DoNt….. boY?!" Fenrir chuckled with a clear undertone of violence in his breath.

"You'll regret it." He said calmly. No uncontrollable rage or intensity. Just…. Assurance that in some way he would.

Fenrir laughed loud enough to stun. "YeSssS…. That's goOd… so, WhAt of…. THiS… maRris?"

A Druagr rose from the waters ahead of him as he ran. He didn't stop, simply using his momentum and bulk to run straight through the undead warrior.

CRSH!

[+80 EXP]

"Well…. I can't tell my friends everything about me. Because it all leads to me being a Lupine. That was the plan. And then Maris….. she seemed different after finding out I was Allblack. I wanted to lie again. I swear I did. But Ursula thought otherwise, and Maris is as stubborn as….. well, anything. She's been watching me now. I can't tell what I see. I don't know if she's hurt…. Or angry… or anything else. She seems… the same? More open if anything."

Fenrir barked, "ISNT thAaat…. A GoOd THing , DuMbaSs??"

Claude began swinging through the trees to give his legs a rest as the ground beneath him grew colder, "It's a confusing thing."

"ThaT iS….rrrrYoUr faUlt! GoDs— i'vE neVer hAD sUcH a conFusssed cHosEn! I'vE trAiNed waRlOrds— alPhA WeReWolveSsss…. skInWalkErrrrs…. YoUr prOblEmmmm bOy, iS thAt yOu mAkE sHIt ToO gReyyy…"

Claude didn't have any reply to that.

"It'S EiTher blACk or WhIte….iS ShE cRyIng lIke WorThless Scum!?"

"No…" Claude replied.

"thEn yOu aRe FiNe, you PuSsy!" Fenrir pressed.

Claude flipped from the trees and landed on the Phantom Legions back.

"thE oNlY qUeStiOnnnn is… wHaT WIlll you DO nOw?!" Fenrir asked followed by a sinister laugh.

Why sinister thoug—

His words fell short as the waters began to bubble and erupt into steam. Light for the first time showed itself in the form of four gigantic Fire Trolls. They had horns like pitchforks and skin like dragon scales. All painted over the frame of man, hound and something between all of those and a bat.

The Phantom Legion growled as it came to an abrupt stop. They were about a mile ahead. The light they cast onto the ground showed the ice they melted effortlessly with each step, sending more water rushing in from the melted glacial lands left in their wake.

Claude hopped off of his shadowy brethren's back. The natural binds holding his broken arm tightened and grew into a Lance made of Nature.

"Right….. you weren't talking about Maris…. You want me to kill the lights."

Claude activated every strength boosting skill he had and took off.

***

Friday February 6th, 2241….

Claude burst out of his bed flinging beads of sweat off his superheated frame. He stood still in the silence of his room, gaining his bearings. Steam rose from his muscles. Not from any transformation. From heat. Scalding heat. Burning. Never ending. Never dimming the light he so wanted to swallow whole.

The dark of his room suddenly felt heavenly as he fell back onto his wet sheets, too tired mentally to cringe.

"[Quite the night?]"

"Like always….. or not." Claude turned his head like an interested puppy as he looked up at the cieling, hair spread like tendrils on the bed.

"[How so?]"

"It's not just physical feats to be gained. Not this time. Not like pushing boulders up a hill or killing undead hordes. First it was the dark… the water. Now it's the light. There's something he's teaching in showing me the difference between both."

"[Have you learned the difference?]" Arne asked.

"The light means death….."

"[Well…. That's…. I don't know what that is.]"

"Fenrir plans to eat the sun…" Claude provided.

"[I can't imagine what Skill comes from that.]" Arne admitted.

"Neither can I."

"[Well, you have another day of Maris to deal with to get your mind off of sun eating and fire giants. So that's….. good in a weird way!]"

"You're right." Claude said as he got up and began changing. He watched himself in the mirror for a moment. Were his ears getting sharper?

"[I am..? Because that was definitely sarcasm, mate.]"

"I'm going to tell them all."

Arne stammered audibly.

"There's never been a better time. Because after I tell them, I'm taking them into the Tangents this weekend. I'm putting them in more danger by not doing that…. I'm the reason they're in the Main Event of the Tournament. It's my responsibility at that point."

"[I see….. and what of Cassidy?]"

"I'll see him tonight." Claude's eyes flashed in the darkness before he shut his dresser.