54 CHPT 54: Old Habits

Claude found himself looking at two men wearing the colors of the University with confusion. The last time he came to this class there was only one Professor.

"Claude, please don't think we'll accept you being this late just because you were out due to an injury. You look to be in tip top shape now, so hurry up and do your laps!" Prof. Brennan ordered after he regained his composure.

Prof. Raizen was the second man dressed in the University's colors. He wore a long deep navy blue coat with an orange interior that became visible whenever the wind ruffled the loose bottom half of it, his hair was also a bit longer and streaked with grey and white. He stood next to Prof. Brennan with a look of extreme bewilderment, "C-Claude? What happened to you?" He thought.

Claude dropped his bag off by the door to get into the University and headed towards the field— and the rest of the students. He could feel the eyes of everyone on him making his skin itch and temperature rise as he jogged through the grass toward the makeshift track.

"[You seem to have made quite the entrance, Claude.]" Arne said.

Claude heard him perfectly due to the complete silence of everyone behind him. He turned and noticed everyone was still watching him, including the Professors. They all quickly got back to work once they noticed Claude was looking back at them all, except for four people, two of them stared at him angrily with visible disgust while the two others looked at him with a mixture of other emotions.

"Alright everyone, today's a combat day so grab your weapons, fasten your armor and grab a partner!" Prof. Brennan said to the class as they all got up with their weapons and found their usual partners.

Claudes eyes accidentally fell on the one person he was trying his best not to look at as they all got up from the grass.

Amidst the chaos of passing students Ursula's gaze never wavered. She looked at him intensely, searching for any resemblance of what hid behind Samuel and Tai's eyes within his.

Claude felt uncomfortable and ashamed as he looked at her, ashamed that he got her jumbled up in his own mess and then failed to help her when she needed it— yet he still held the intense stare of her light brown eyes for what felt like an eternity.

"Claude, stop daydreamin and run!" Prof. Brennan yelled as he headed into the University for reasons unknown to him.

Claude snapped out of their staring contest and began running his laps with the sounds of swords and shields clashing like thunder in his ears.

***

Ursula stood in a combat stance with her battle axes held firmly at her sides, her partner had a dozen chances to strike her if he wanted due to her constant wandering eyes.

"You really think that's him?" Warren asked while they circled each other.

Clang!

Ursula swung lightly, causing the blade of her axe to clash with Warren's dagger.

"I have no idea. But I'm gonna find out." She said as they continued to lightly spar.

***

Claude finished his warm up laps feeling no different than when he started. "Perks of increased stamina I guess." He said as he anxiously ran a hand through his hair.

He headed past the sparing students and toward his bag near the door to the University. He pulled his sword from his bag slowly, while he was doing so, the door swung open and Prof. Brennan stepped out.

"Oh good Claude, your already here. I heard your armor was pretty badly damaged and no longer fit, so try this." He said while handing the new set of armor to Claude.

Claude took the armor saying, "Thank you, Professor."

"Don't thank me, Prof. Raizen was the one that told me you prefer light armor so you can utilize your speed and athleticism." Prof. Brennan replied.

Claude looked to Prof. Raizen who was watching them from the field where he was previously observing the students. He nodded his head in silent appreciation before proceeding to put the dark leather armor on over his clothing.

***

"[You look quite sharp, Claude.]" Arne complimented.

He was covered almost head to toe in jet black leather. The stitching of his armor was a faint shade of silver and the only places on his body that weren't covered on armor were the spaces between his gauntlets and shoulder guards. The armor made his radiant bronze skin stand out even more under the powerful suns rays.

"I look like a god damned super villain." Claude thought in response while he adjusted his gauntlets and picked up his short sword. He suddenly felt uncomfortable once he realized everyone had a partner to spar with. He walked over to the Professors to address the problem.

He couldn't help but continuously spare glances at Samuel and Tai as they sparred at one hundred percent, swinging wild and powerful strikes. The intensity of their fight caused students around them to flinch at the clash and bang of their weapons until there was a giant space in the grass where they fought.

"Excuse me Professor, I don't have a partner." Claude said once he reached them with a defeated expression.

Shhing!

He suddenly heard a blade being pulled from its sheath behind him.

"Sure you do." Prof. Raizen said as he pulled a beautifully crafted katana from its sheath. The blade looked like it was glowing under the light of the midday sun.

***

He followed behind Prof. Raizen to the field where everyone else was sparring. The students stopped every now and then to glance at the two people on the field with curiosity and interest for what was about to happen.

Prof. Raizen took them to the center of the field where Samuel and Tai scared everyone away from. The smell of Lupines of Remus filled Claudes nose, alarming him of their presence and dominant feelings or emotions.

"Bloodlust." Claude immediately thought as he watched them happily dish out lethal blows and counter strikes. He soon noticed the effect the two had on the class. Nobody had their backs turned to Samuel and Tai, instead facing them sideways and flinching every time the sound of their weapons rang out across the field.

Before looking away he caught Samuel staring at him mid swing, for the first time his battle hungry smile was gone. He looked to be silently snarling at Claude. He felt himself returning the show of aggression as his upper lip rose and trembled to show his white teeth.

"[Relax, Claude.]" Arne said.

Claude forced himself to look away and focus on what was in front of him.

He stood in the grass field a few feet from Prof. Raizen who stood patiently in the grass completely unnerved by Samuel and Tai's show of animalistic aggression. Despite his constant feeling of anger for everyone around him, he felt excited to be sparing with Prof. Raizen.

"You've grown, Claude" Prof. Raizen said as they began to circle each other.

"Yea, a little." Claude responded.

"I hope you didn't get too weak during your time in the infirmary, I'd like to at least warm up my muscles." Prof. Raizen said teasingly with a smile.

Claude gripped his blade and smiled faintly before charging in and beginning their sparring match.

Clang!

Prof. Raizen clashed blades with Claude and to his surprise he felt the impact vibrate all the way to his shoulders. Claudes attack was quiet a bit stronger than he expected. "Hm?" He thought as he noticed Claude looked angry or like he made a mistake rather than proud that he was able to surprise a Professor with his strength.

The clang of their blades rivaled the sound of Samuel and Tai's and grabbed the attention of the surrounding students.

"Fuck!" Claude thought once he jumped away from his partner. He forgot he was supposed to be hiding his strength in that very moment and accidentally drew everyone's attention to himself.

"It seems your absence had no effect on your strength. That's good." Prof. Raizen said as he rolled his shoulders and charged in.

Prof. Raizen took the offensive and delivered quick and precise slashes at Claude who blocked and dodged them all returning a few of his own in the process. They continued like this and gradually picked up in speed and power at a leisurely pace.

"How did you get so strong, Claude?" He wondered to himself while they continued to spar.

Claude soon fully understood why Samuel and Tai created such a large space in the field, the noise of their wild strikes was proving to be aggravating and they'd often find themselves right next to each other for brief moments due to the twins perceived lack of awareness. Claude soon became curious of something.

"They have increased senses so they definitely know when they're getting too close...they're trying to get close to me on purpose aren't they?"

"[it would be a safe guess. Due to their violent nature and race, they probably feel an intense need to harm you right now, so stay alert.]" Arne warned.

"Alright then, I'll be ready for them." He thought while dodging one of Prof. Raizen strikes.

***

Ursula and Warren completely ceased sparring and watched Claude and Prof. Raizen exchange blows of ever growing power. She watched in shock, he moved with intense speed but he also moved comfortably— she could tell neither of them were going all out, unlike the twins who would often invade their space and almost crash into them.

"How?" Warren said as he watched Claude dodge another high speed strike from the Professor.

Ursula suddenly felt uncomfortable since she had an idea of how he got so strong. "Tell me it's not true. Tell me they didn't change you into a monster too." She pleaded.

As she continued to watch the fairly intense sparring match, the other students also began to spectate. Eventually the field was silent aside from the twins, Claude and Prof. Raizen, even Prof. Brennan was watching— assessing.

As the sparring match continued, Claude and Prof. Raizen became more limber and agile in their movements, they started to perform more impressive attacks and evades and the onlookers would gasp and cringe whenever the twins looked like they were about to crash into them with their wild and careless movements.

Ursula suddenly shifted her attention to the twins and noticed they would only end up almost crashing into Claude when his back was facing them, they'd stop fighting almost completely whenever Prof. Raizen's back was facing them. She soon caught onto their game plan.

"Warren—"

"Yea, I see it." He said as he also watched the twins with an angry expression.

"They're planning to do something soon aren't they?" Warren said to her.

"It looks that way." Ursula said as she tightened the grip on her axes and started to walk over to the four fighters.

Seemingly in response to Ursula and Warrens realization, Tai yelled madly and swung his scepter. Time felt like it slowed for Ursula as she watched the silver and gold rod head for Samuel, in that moment he turned and flashed an evil grin at her as if he was saying "too late."

He blocked Tai's attack and the loudest clash so fair resonated throughout the field, CLANGGG!!!. Ursula watched Samuel stumble back with his blade flying behind him— straight for the back of Claudes head.

"CLAUDE WATCH OUT!" Ursula yelled.

***

Claude sparred with Prof. Raizen and kept himself aware of Samuel and Tai at the same time. His ears hurt from the continuous loud banging of metal and his anger was rising steadily since all he could do was wait for the twins to make their move.

"Hurry up you bastards!" He thought as his patience wore thin.

A few seconds after, Prof. Raizen swung at Claudes mid section prompting him to dash backward. He came to a stop in the grass a few feet from Prof. Raizen.

"AHHH!"

He suddenly heard Tai yell from behind him followed by a stunningly loud crash of metal.

CLANG!!!!

The noise was so loud he could feel his brain being rattled inside his skull, his vision shook and he clenched his jaw in an attempt to stabilize his head. It was all for naught as he stood stunned and unaware of his surroundings.

"CLAUDE WATCH OUT!"

Ursula's voice knocked him out of his stunned state. As he recovered, he could hear a sharp object cutting through the air straight for him.

Woo!

GASP!

***

Ursula and the rest of the students gasped as Claude stood leaning to the side with a bright silver blade inches away from his face. A trail of red liquid trailed down his cheek since he didn't dodge fast enough. The only thing was, he dodged when the blade was already basically touching his head. He moved so fast that anyone that blinked had to miss it.

She suddenly felt sick to her stomach at the sight of his face, his anger seemed to morph and embolden his features. His eyes held a similar look to that day they were abandoned in the Deviant.

***

Claude felt his hot blood drip down his face from where the cool blade cut into his skin. He no longer cared about spectators or Professors, Samuel and Tai were obviously asking for a fight and Claude was happy to oblige.

He smacked the blade away from his face and turned to face Samuel. The platinum blond haired young man raised to his full height and smiled smugly as he had to slightly look up at Claude.

"Sorry about that, Claude. My brother and I like to go all out which often results in us not paying attention to our surroundings." Samuel said.

Claude stayed silent for a moment and exhaled short heavy breaths through his flared nostrils. He whispered quietly knowing Samuel and Tai would be the only ones to hear it.

"Next time you want to fight, tell me instead of pretending to accidentally cut me, you bitches."

Claude— as always, found his way under Samuel's skin. He lost his smug grin and replaced it with one of anger as he stepped closer to Claude. The three Lupines' eyes began to change to the color of their true forms they didn't yet have full access to. Samuel's eyes flashed a cruel and dark shade of purple while his twin brothers flashed a violent shade of cobalt. Claude fearlessly held their gazes with his own wild and hateful green eyes.

Claude and the twins were snapped out of their trance as soon as a hand was placed on their chests to stop them from getting any closer.

"Easy you two." Prof. Raizen said, he chuckled to himself before continuing. "Some things never change do they?"