475 CHPT 475: Cages.

"AHHH MOVE FASTER YOU ARTHURIAN FUCKS!"

"Get that weight up you damn INDUS BOMB EATERS!"

"ONE OF YOU BREAK THAT LITTLE GIRLS LEG OR IM LOSING FORTY GOLD!"

Ursula loaded another forty five pound plate onto the bar. She already had six on each side.

"Six hundred and thirty pounds?" The voice came into Ursula's mind. Familiar. Rough yet quiet, making it almost feel distantly intimate. If not a little awkward. He got better everyday though.

"Nice warm-up." Ursula replied before two hands slapped her traps.

"Let's go Berserker!" Isaac hyped her up amidst the crowd that was slowly going ravenous as they contained the combine.

Ursula grunted and took a deep breath, filling up her midsection to brace for the weight. She stepped under the bar and imagined shoving her feet through glaciers as tall as mountains. The weight moved.

The crowd continued to curse and roar amidst the suddenly fake feeling cheers.

"Negativity is such a good preworkout." Ursula managed with the bar on her armored back.

"Don't egg these psychos on." Isaac said after a quieted laugh.

"Egg them on. Piss them off." Maris said from beside Claude as they waited in line.

Ursula winked back at her with a turn of her head before she began cranking out rep after rep. The bar even began to bend and bounce with her speed.

For the first time, the crowd focused on New Glorian students. And Claude didn't have to worry. As he looked around he was reminded such a place was home to the outliers. The unnaturally strong. The mysteriously powered. And they had an alibi. Survival.

The squat rack clanged as Ursula finished her set of squats rivaling only to Donna Brewer. Hopefully she wouldn't offer her the bone numbing drink in her pouch.

"Well…. That was impressive. You guys might want to watch out for her from this point onward. Believe it or not I think she's a first year!" The announcer draped in golden jewels and expensive blue black fabrics coaxed the crowd.

Suddenly he could feel the millions of eyes in his area. It had a pressure to it… like a focused heat you felt in your senses more than your body. His eyes dried a little. His skin itches. His peripheral vision shrunk. Over eyebal—

"If you don't go, I will." Maris said from beside him.

Suddenly movement on one of the sectioned off areas for important people caught his attention.

He looked up to find four people seating themselves.

Ronin— wearing his culturally hybridized combat armor. The Red Knight, in a red and gold robe with a cup of beer as large as his head. A woman as hulking as Ursula with black hair and even blacker eyes. And a man with no body hair what so ever.

Four of The Nine he could only assume. There was no need to ask where the rest were. There was no need to hesitate any longer. Eyes would be on him forever. And Samuel would arrive shortly.

Claude approached the weights and got his numbers up.

The announcer had a blast building his mystery.

***

SLSH!

WOO!

FOOM!

An hour had passed by in a blur of mind games with Bengal the Lupine of Remus, look and not look with The Nine and try not to appear inhuman to the crowd. It was incredibly exhausting. Luckily he wasn't familiar with him. Exhaustion that is.

His team had moved three stations. In running he led the group, the announcer played with the idea that he had the speed record— he didn't like that. But the announcer also enjoyed talking and filling in the blanks of Claude's character gave him something to do. Unfortunate.

Since then Claude kept on his best— as if he wasn't before.

The last station of the day was the reactive Dummy. And Claude was getting into a groove. Much like the young girl chosen Kali, he attacked in high frequency, using his evades to twist and contort his body into unorthodox attacks. He could feel the important ones watching.

He just didn't expect one of them to be the Fiara Family he found staring when he finished on the dummy.

"TIME!"

He turned and eyed them. From so far they could've been looking at Maris who was next to him studying his attack patterns more intently. Or even Donna who waited in line looking Claude up and down like he was a drinkable substance for her to consume.

Claude shivered, although he wasn't entirely sure at who.

"Teams place reform at your previous spots for the end of todays combine!"

The stadium floors erupted with collective movement. Claude found his nose twitching at the rising scent of aggression. It took him no more than a few seconds to realize it wasn't primarily his nose catching it.

He swung around to find Ursula running in the distance behind him. Even further behind Bengal pushed through the crowd to reach her.

Claude took off, knocking over a few Arthurian students in the process as he ran against the grain of flowing students.

"Hey— HEY— watch out." Their voices blurred into a on and off regurgitating pool of cautionary and accusatory responses.

Ursula caught onto his mental alertness after he was only a few steps from her and stepped to the side, clearing a path for him instinctually.

Bengal growled as he dropped to all fours beneath the crowd, Chase and other students tripped and fell over his back. He snapped at their ankles. Reckless and enjoying every second. Fearful all the same as speckles of his black eyebrow long hair turned silver.

Claude's senses heightened the stronger the scent got. Like an evolutionary response to the enemy. Something like adrenaline with an exponent floating over it.

FW—POOF!

Claude collided with an unforeseen force that knocked him off his path for Bengal.

He was stunned just long enough to lose that heightened adrenalized focus. When he looked back up at Bengal and the interruptor the crowd of students was already crowding around the center of the stadium as they arrived.

Bengal was back up on his feet.

"You're going the wrong way."

Fenrir stirred suddenly and spoke a single word, "hahHAHAhah….. UssssSurpERrrrr…"

Claude turned to look at the other student.

Incredibly dark skin. It felt like it was stealing light. It made the whites of his reddish brown eyes seem fake. And the black of buzzed hair seemed light in comparison. He had piercings everywhere seemingly. Nose, eyebrows, lips, ears. Yet his armor was scarce. Nothing but a neck brace flowing down into an ornate yet modern chest piece and a armored skirt. He wielded a spear.

He spoke again, full dark lips moving in their respective language. As he watched he realized the male student was wearing lipstick. And eyeliner. Somehow he missed its golden brilliance.

"Why were you doing the wrong way? And why were you on the ground like an animal?"

"I owe no man my answers." Bengal replied.

The student seemed content with that answer as he looked to Claude.

"No r—"

"Hey, lipgloss!" Chase was up and moving to stand beside Claude, "Go find your own rival, poser. You too, weirdo."

The four of them stood in awkward tension for all varying reasons.

Claude didn't like it.

"Students! Please join your teams or risk removal from the event as a whole."

They dispersed immediately.

And with that, the combine was over. Lackluster in nature, meant entirely for the benefit of betting on students in gladiator style training events and simulations.

Dinner came in the form of Rail Rider transport into the City. They had free reign to travel to any stores and any hubs for food with vouchers belonging only to Tournament participants.

Claude and his friends roamed the city area freely along with the other students. Cairo was beautiful. A healthy meld of manmade modernism and historic natural wild.

Skyscrapers and buildings shielding by rare unknown glowing metals tan as far as the eye could see. Through that same eye— in between those same buildings Claude found himself watching the pointed tips of pyramids and sculptures of wild stone. It would've been nice if the whole place didn't reek of Lupine of Remus.

After they passed their fifth store full of only students, the group began questioning.

"Where are the people?" Maris asked.

"Yea really. I thought we'd be famous."

"I'm pretty sure they bought out a small portion of Cairo's City area for us to use. So we don't get slowed down by fanatics or kill people in a schoolyard fight."

"Don't spike my blood pressure, bro." Warren said while looking from building to building.

"If that gets you were fucked, Warren." Claude replied from the back of the group.

"Speaking my feelings is how I cope. Just let me work." Warren veered off from the group to look into the window of a candy shop. The smell made Claude and Ursula's eyes water.

"Man can we decide on what we're eating? Id like to sit my big ass down somewhere in good time. I could eat a Satyr."

"You could what?"

Ursula playfully elbowed Claude at the catch of her inside joke.

"Let's eat heavy carbs for tomorrow." Maris suggested.

"We're literally doing media for the rest of the week." Isaac reminded her as his armor clanked on the smoothed out stone roads.

"What is HE doing!?" Warren blurted out while pointing down at the end of the block.

They all looked to find a man standing at the corner of one of the taller buildings.

He moved the way Claude Wood Weaved. Only he was using Lightning, slamming his palms into a steel hand placement connected to the building. Everytime he smashed his hand into it, the runes built into the metal shielding pulsed.

"[Human batteries. ]"

He didn't look as well put together as the Sunlandian Warriors before.

And Claude could see more of them with his natural vision. Their life glow dimming ever so slightly with each shockwave to support the massive building.

"They do this to power all of them?"

Everyone looked to Isaac.

Claude could smell his discomfort as he truly watched them. Droning away like soulless muppets.

"I-... I don't know."

Silence.

"Yea let's get pizza." Warren supplied.

The crowd followed his suggestion and rushed to leave the streets as the rest of the students had.

All except two. Further away. Simply following a scent.

After an hour, the group was finishing their second pizza. Mostly thanks to Ursula. Claude smashed three servings of chicken wings as big as his head with a side of magically grown vegetables. They had a Nature user in back with skills that would impress Rollan.

As they ate he fell into his own mind. They were enjoying themselves. He couldn't allow himself the same luxuries with how full his plate was. Samuel and Bengal were the twin tips of an iceberg that could freeze the sun.

All that to say he needed to have a plan beyond poke and prod his enemies.

The only problem was he needed to know their plan.

"[I sift through your memories sometimes.]" Arne commented.

"I think I remember you saying that once." Claude replied while using his teeth to split a chicken bone and suck out the bloody marrow. Maris stared for so long he finally cracked a piece for her and handed it to her. She gave it back and took one to crack on her own. How like her that was.

"[A lot of dreams and nightmares usually. Your past intrigues me.]"

"How so?"

"[You have blank spots in core memories. It's weird, mate.]"

"What like somebody….. is playing with my mind?"

Arne laughed, "[You better hope not. I think it's something quite a bit simpler on a real note. I think you removed areas….. to cope.]"

"Cope with what?" Claude asked as his friends argued over which member of The The Nine was most attractive.

"[Pain…. Sadness…. Fear— loss. I can't say for sure. But you'll have important memories. They play like a slideshow, and that slideshow is clearly missing a few panels. I've never been in someone's mind before, but my important memories are never so jumbled.]"

To hear that suddenly was like learning someone was living in the walls of your home. Invasive in the creepiest way. Because whatever was there was already taken. Purposefully removed even.

"[Anyway that was a bit of a tangent I didn't mean to go on.]"

"You didn't?"

"[Well, I did— actually. I said all that to say their motivations on clear. Remember what Jack said before biting Samuel.]"

Claude nodded, "Something about planting a seed— metaphorically. Samuel is the seed."

He could practically feel Arne nod as he sipped tea…. With a finger in it. "[Now the only question is, will the tournament grounds be their soil for which he grows anew? Metaphorically of course.]"

"That seems stupid."

"[I admit it does. There's too many eyes here for him to make a big scale move like biting a powerful figure.]"

"Let's say he does."

The door into the pizza place swung open casually as someone stepped in to order.

"How do you get rid of an enemy being locked down like this?" Claude said with a sigh.

After a few seconds he noticed Arne stopped speaking, and the person that entered the pizza place wasn't at the counter despite it being twenty feet away.

He looked too the left of his cushioned booth and found a woman leaned over to look down at him. Her eyes pushed him into the seat like a fist in his back.

She was big. Physically and in presence. Physically first though. She had scars all along her neck like someone was dying to remove her throat and failed multiple times. Her black hair was jelled back and out of her face. Giving her a collected look while retaining a sexy sort of undertone.

But so much for undertone when her cleavage looked ready to turn into a full on flash from beneath her black v neck.

"Like what you see?" She asked casually, not in the tone he would've expected. Or pitch. Her voice was deep. Man deep. He expected Something similar to Det. Cyrene in her psychotic flirty manner.

Claude looked up into her eyes. The group silenced.

"Usually they skip over the neck entirely when I wear this shirt. Men are hilarious in that way. Like him." She flicked her sharp jawline back towards Warren.

He was too dark skinned to blush but he smelled like it.

"Man fuck that! Maris was looking too!"

"Yes. I was. I'm also not a man, cheeseface."

"Why are you not like most men, Claude?" She asked.

Claude felt his pulse quicken slightly as his brain worked to put the pieces together.

"They say that. But I don't see it. I think you're no different from most men."

He hasn't heard that in so long it almost felt refreshing.

"I think you have strong urges. I think you fight and fail to control them at times. I think you're overcome by pride…. Ego…. Revenge. Corny warrior bullshit. But then again, that isn't just men."

There was no room for anyone to speak. She beat the floor into her submission. Again, metaphorically speaking.

She looked back down at him, "You ever been to prison?"

Claude shook his head. "No, ma'am."

"You sure? The guys in there look just like you. Scars on scars. Grimace on grimace."

Claude didn't reply. There was no reason.

She shrugged, "Hmph. Well….. to answer your question that's fittingly on topic, you get rid of an enemy by turning them on another enemy. Criminal Syndicates are the masters of this. That's hard for a lot of people to do in practice, though. Again, ego…. Pride…. Revenge. It gets in the way. That's why they don't see the bars coming. They've been in a cage long before they reach prison. I feel like you're in a cage, Claude. Or else you wouldn't be asking that question. And yes, you have more than one enemy. We all do."

"Pizza!"

She pushed herself up off the wall lining their booth and headed to grab her pizza.

There was something so violently profound and hard hitting about her words that it dried out his mouth, forcing him not to speak and simply think. He didn't even understand all of what she was saying. But it felt so accurate in scope he almost had the urge to search for an impact wound.

As she walked out Claude found everyone's eyes on him.

Emphasis on prisons. Neck scars. Muscle from constant grappling and fighting. Possibly the woman standing amongst The Nine during the Combine.

"That was The Dominator."

The door opened again and Claude didn't need his nose to know who.

Warren spit out his food.

"SAMUEL?!"