488 CHPT 488: To Gamble and Grapple; For Victory

The GodForm. Many would call it the pinnacle of a a Chosen's sole combative output and alignment with their god. Some would even call it the means to which gods are made immortal— reborn. In the shadows of a midnights battle, a Chosen can often be mistaken for a god walking the earth— laying waste to their respective battlefield with powers gained through hours upon hours spent in another realm.

There was a time when Fenrir told Claude he wasn't ready for his GodForm. There was also a time when he could barely stand against Bronze Ranked Ghouls.

Times change. As did his physical form upon the skills activation. GodForms were subjective. Various. Like fingerprints. Like the gods— riddled with arrogance, and a visible urge to stand out from their divine counterparts.

Tufani— a well established Sunlandian third year. A Chosen of Set. Wielder of spear and sandstorm. His armor was born of the minerals in the air hardened by magical sunlight. He looked like the stories of gods reborn. A Jackal headed epitome of light and power.

Claude found his form to be quite different as he glanced at his reflection from Tufani's armor. There was no great flashy armor to meld and build over his own. He was already doubled armored with his initial gear and reptilian scales. His muscles had grown— veins bulging like chords under sheet metal. His claws gained a steaming edge that seemed to swallow light. His eyes held that glow. Like twin suns. Like Fenrir.

Green light flowed from them and dissipated in the winds like a physical mist. His mouth hung open. Blackness. Endless blackness. Reflective all the same like river water in midnight.

Behind him the shape of a set of bones made of aura swung. Like a tail. He could feel the bones climb up his back, placed right above his own like a secondary spine.

"Unfinished…." He thought in the brief moment before making an immediate assessment.

Tufani— the only other Chosen in the area was well beyond him in that department. His GodForm had evolved three times over at least. Hell, it looked complete. Claude didn't know what kind of power boost that meant but by the gods he could hear the Deaths Ambience in his ears.

If he wanted to win he had to go all out. But to go all out he had to hold onto his only advantage over them. Control, ironically enough.

Claude panicked. Time slipped back into normality. Nothing more to realize or take note of.

"Samuel isn't human."

Felt like some kind of weird joke to make considering he had scales, fangs, a void for a mouth and an aura in the shape of a wolf gods spine.

Tufani and Aiko were unfazed. He could smell Samuel and Bengal's worry.

"You asked me why I'm fighting my own teammate. That's why. Samuel isn't human. He's a cruel shapeshifting Monster…. And I'll show you."

Samuel panicked and sent a blast wave of purple fire at them to throw everyone into combat. It would've worked if Claude didn't kick him in the gut and interrupt the attack.

CRACK!

"Ugh!" Samuel was lifted off the ground and sent crashing into the mountain behind them, causing a low level landslide of small boulders and dust.

Bengal lunged on instinct as the others readied their weapons. Claude caught Bengal, wrapping him in his Malevolence Tether.

"Listen dammit!" He held Bengal towards them as he thrashed. His spittle and smells wafted all around Claude. He half expected an Element. Aura. Anything. Then it occurred to him. Bengal wasn't Reborn.

"[Claude….. careful.]" Arne warned as a storm rolled in and the sounds of whips cracking echoed into their domain.

The Nine was finally watching.

"Silence, please. Let me focus." Claude replied in thought as Aiko shot him in the chest.

TWIP!

The wind blast smashed into his capped shoulder, biting through his aura and sending him sliding back over the rocky ground. He growled but refused to let go of Bengal.

Aiko sent three more before realizing Tufani wasn't attacking.

"What's wrong with you?"

Claude shook Bengal. "Run. He can't stop the urge to chase you. Just like Samuel."

Silence.

"Hey it's a free win. They're predictable."

"You…. Why wouldn't you want to win? Do you think we're dumb?" Aiko pressed.

Claude stayed silent as his nostrils told him what was happening beneath Tufani's sunborn divine visage. At the same time he prayed— he demanded the hardening of his resolve and focus. He leaned on his pack bonds to help him resist what was to come.

"You don't do post match interviews. Like you aren't here to build an image of any sort. During interview week you didn't talk to anyone…. You leaned against a wall and scowled." Tufani said.

Claude let the answer go unspoken.

Tufani— as weirded out as he was, took Claude's offer at the prospect of winning.

He and Aiko flew off. Watching as they did. Immediately, Claude released his Malevolence Tether and an explosion of purple cruel brilliance emanated from a hole in the mountain as the Lupines of Remus descended on their instinctually driven prey.

Tufani was baffled as his own teammate charged him with wild glowing eyes. He lifted his spear, aimed straight at him. The sands he flew on swallowed up Bengal, hardening as blades and spear tips inside that punctured and ripped at him.

Aiko lowered her bow at Samuel's explosive advance. He was hidden in the steam billowing off his searing hot black armor. All to be seen was the purple of his eyes.

She screamed. A loud and vicious sound, sending a blast of wind that shut out his flames and slammed him back into the rock floor where he was knocked unconscious. Blood leaked from where his helmet split at the back of his head, dying the stones.

When they looked back to where Claude stood he was gone.

Tufani stilled in the air as his sands twisted and folded in on themselves in an expanding and shrinking storm-like prism.

Aiko stilled and landed on the ground. Listening before pointing towards a patch of forestry to the west.

They took off. It didn't take any longer than a handful of seconds to reach it. They stood dozens of feet from its entrance. Knowing of his element meant avoiding it.

Aiko raised her bow. Something hybridized between the old world Daikyu and modern European hunting bow. The runed blades strapped to the front end balanced it in her grip as she took aim.

"Do you—"

"I hear them…"

Tufani stopped, "Them?"

"….."

Aiko turned the forest into a literal shooting gallery. Each finger held a charged wind shot. Even her lips fired off shots as she whistled an old eccentric war tune. And after the series of shots initially were fired, she ripped them through the forest once more.

Leaves fluttered and branches were stripped from trees. Wood split and animalistic howls shook the stone grounds.

"Mana's low, but he's done." Aiko announced before stopping.

She didn't have the eyesight. She was late to the party.

The forest continued to grow.

Shadows fluttered and grew like fire, collecting at the center in the form of a tornado of shadows.

If Tufani focused he could see the heads and bodies of Wolves inside the black winds. Green sparks crackled within like a storm grown from hell. Creatures barked and snarled at eachother.

"So you played us?" Tufani whispered.

"I'm sorry. I have to win….. and you guys are strong as hell. I have to get it how I can."

Movement behind them caused the group to spin around and find Frosty, Loba and Diamondback closing in.

Tufani readied himself. "So wh—"

The forest exploded as a dozen monsters spilled from Claude's insides like nightmares made real. At the same time he charged along with his tamed beasts, swarming the final two combatants in a furious blur.