CHPT 76: Secondary Scents

Claude and the rest of his squad eventually relaxed to a degree where they could carry on with wrapping up their first Night Run together. But, tensions were still high between him and the team as they started to wonder who he was and what he's been through.

Claude and Frosty now headed out of the forest quietly with everyone else walking a bit further ahead. He could smell the fear that came off of them in small doses ever so often. It hurt him to know how they felt about him, but nothing could be done at the moment.

"Alright guys, let's get our Loot." Chadwick said from the front of the line.

Everyone agreed happily and fell back into silence.

Claude was left to deal with his own thoughts while they walked through the forest. Thoughts about his future, the battle and his strength. He recalled the fight in his mind and cringed at how many times he came close to death.

The fight reminded him of the strange pain and other indescribable sensations he felt from forcing his transformation, his limbs and joints ached in response to the memory, reminding him of how painful it was to walk.

It also reminded him of that first day he woke up as a Lupine. The day he ran into the new and improved, Samuel and Tai, they forced themselves to fully transform individual parts of their own bodies into horrific beastial appendages like nothing he'd ever seen. It made him curious.

"Arne." He thought.

"[Yes?]"

"How come the twins were able to force their transformation so far along?"

"[It could be a number of reasons. They were quite strong— physically, before they were changed. They're also fundamentally different from you, it's always been a theory of ours that the opposing Lupines could change much easier than us— as a matter of fact, Lupines of Remus often stayed in their Lupine forms.]" Arne replied.

"What....like always?" Claude thought in confusion and astonishment.

"[Yes, always. They stayed in their Lupine forms for so long that it wasn't uncommon to run into one that lost the ability to speak the human language, they'd live as animals for so long that it was all most of them were. Most Lupines of Remus abandoned their previous human lives to live in large and reckless packs where they fought and killed whenever they desired it.]"

The idea sent a ice cold chill sliding down Claude's spine. He remembered Jack when he was transformed and how horrific he looked— how deadly he was. The thought of fighting a pack of monsters like that was simply unfathomable.

"That's....disturbing." Claude replied before adding, "How do you know so much about them, there's no way you picked any of this up from them if you're all lifelong enemies."

"[Im afraid that's a story for another time.]" Arne said in a sorrow filled tone.

Before Claude could try and get any more information about Arne's life, he was interrupted by someone and brought out of his own thoughts.

"You walk like it hurts, did you injure yourself somewhere other than your side?" Brenda asked. Her worried face and eyes looked him up and down meticulously, in search of a wound or break she might've missed earlier.

He could still smell her fear and yet, there was only a matter of feet away from him trying to help him..

"Brave.." he thought to himself.

"I'm fine, the fall just rocked me a little." Claude responded.

"Oh, I can fix that." Brenda responded happily before reaching out to place her delicate hands on him.

"Hehe, it's fine. I heal fast. Save your mana." Claude responded while stepping to the side and out of her reach.

Suddenly, Brenda stopped while the rest of the group did as well. They all looked at her, Chadwick and Ansel laughed quietly while Oliver and Riley shook their heads disappointedly.

Claude and Frosty looked from Brenda to the group in confusion at what was happening.

"You think you get to act all heroic and make me worry like this?.....and then refuse to let me heal you??!!?" Brenda scolded.

Claude looked towards the group for help. He found none, Chadwick looked away and held in his laugh while Ansel whistled quietly with his head down.

"Brenda, I'm fi—" he began to say.

"Nope, be quiet and don't move." She said before stomping over to him with a determined expression on her face.

"Eugh!!" He made a noise as she slapped her hands on his chest. Frosty snarled quietly in response to her aggressive action.

"Relax." He said to Frosty out loud.

"I'm perfectly relaxed." Brenda answered, thinking he was talking to her.

Claude quietly watched the yellowish-gold energy spill out of her hands and seep into his body like warm sage scented water. It sparkled and rose up into the air like smoke while she poured more and more of her magic into him. The beautiful magic framed his vision and Brenda's face, brightening her skin and adding a luminous golden highlight to her heavenly features. He was seriously beginning to think she was at least half angel.

He could feel his bones and joints loosening and losing the dull aching feeling by the second from the affects of her magic working with his supernatural healing. After a minute, he felt great and Frosty picked up on it as well. His tail wagged wildly in response.

"T-thank you." Claude said after the magic stopped flowing from her hands.

"Hmph!" She said while curtly nodding and slapping him on the shoulder.

"For future reference, don't deny healing from Brenda." Chadwick said with a smile.

"Right." Claude said before they continued walking and left the forest.

Brenda stayed next to him and would cast the odd glance or two his way to see if he was still hurt somewhere.

***

As soon as Claude stepped out of the forest, he saw the Ghoul's torn and burned bodies strewn out across the dirt from their previous battle. Now that the Tangent was complete, some of the bodies had weapons or armor floating above them simply waiting to be collected.

Claude learned a bit about the mysteries of Loot from Tangents during his studies at the University. He still found it odd that they were rewarded for viciously killing anything. But it made sense, since they needed Loot from Tangents to get stronger and make progress.

The only problem was; getting Loot strong enough to help you progress in Tangent ranking was a gamble and one of the reasons so many bronze ranked Hero's quit.

Claude walked up to the nearest corpse and inspected the Loot that floated above it. The boring light grey energy that surrounded it told him it was a weapon of very low ranking...along with the dents and dullness of the blade. It was a sword, unfortunately it was a longsword. Not his cup of tea.

"Maybe I can sell it?" Claude thought.

"[I'm going to put this as lightly as possible, nobodies buying that shit.]" Arne said.

"Thanks for the support, Arne." Claude replied sarcastically.

"Oh, Claude, I forgot to tell you. Since we aren't fortunate enough to be able to hire a Collector, only grab the Loot you plan to use. Can't have us weighed down by weapons and armor when we exit and risk being ambushed by raiders." Chadwick said to him while he inspected a pair of gauntlets.

"A Collector? I haven't learned about those yet." He thought.

"[Its just someone who comes into Tangents with the sole purpose of collecting all the Loot so the Heroes can focus on fighting. They're really important for higher level Heroes since raiders become stronger and more organized as well.]"

"These raiders sound like a serious problem. Why have I never heard of them?" Claude thought.

"[I get the feeling it's because it would make the city look bad, if merchants and tourists knew SkyHaven was riddled with thugs and thieves once night falls then they'd lose a lot of money and reputation.]"

Claude thought about what Arne said while he continued to look for Loot that might be worth collecting among the stinking corpses of Ghoul's.

"It's all shit! I'm beyond tired of working for nothing." Riley said after they all continued searching for a few minutes.

"She's not wrong." Ansel said before throwing a low quality shield off to the side.

"Not quite." Chadwick said.

"What did you find?" Brenda asked.

"I think it's the boss's Loot drop." He replied.

Everyone abandoned their search to see what Loot Chadwick was talking about and if it was any good. They all stood next to him and looked at the sword sticking out of the floor in front of the black lake.

"A rather fitting place for it to be." Ansel said matter of factly.

Claude caught up with them and looked at the sword. It was beautiful, to put it simply. It was a bit longer than his shortsword with a longer handle. The handle and hilt were a deep and smooth shade of black that blended in with the night and made it hard to make out any inscriptions or writings on it.

The main attraction was the blade itself which was a bright and pure shade of smokey-white. The blade shined brightly causing the black handle and hilt to look even darker in contrast with it. What was so odd about the blade was the fact that it looked like it was made out of stone instead of a metal.

"It's beautiful." He thought.

"Well, I think we all know who's getting this sword." Chadwick said after a few seconds.

"Yep! Our strong and intelligent Leader!" Riley said loudly.

Claude could feel his mind being filled with discomfort from Frosty every time Riley spoke.

Chadwick looked at Riley like she was an idiot. "No, I think our newest Assassin, Allblack! Gets to claim this sword as his own."

"Hell yea!" Ansel said in support while slapping Claude's back.

The slap was so strong he stumbled forward. He now stood in front of everyone with the sword within arms reach. He looked back at the group of individuals who he completed the Tangent with.

"Go ahead. You've definitely earned it." Chadwick said.

Claude listened to Chadwicks words and he still didn't agree. Everyone played a vital role in the Tangent and did more than what was expected of them. He simply felt like he didn't fully deserve to take the best piece of Loot.

"[Claude, you need the Loot. Last time I checked they don't have any reason as strong as yours to get more powerful, remember lives are on the line....one of them is your own. So take the damn sword.]" Arne said.

Claude gave in and took another step to pull out the sword.

Shing!

He pulled the sword out with little to no effort and inspected it closely. The blade was light— in fact, it was lighter than his other sword and surprisingly imbalanced like a throwing axe. Another thing he noticed was the writing on the hilt.

"Bane of the Undead." He read to himself.

"[That must be the name of the sword.]" Arne said.

Claude was about to respond when a quick burst of an intense smell forced its way into his nose. His head turned to the direction of the smell and he found himself looking at there other Damage dealer, Riley.

The smell of greed radiated off her in thick and disgusting waves. Her eyes looked at the sword in the same way the Ghouls looked at them all as they emerged from the lake.

Her face matched her eyes as well, her feelings of greed changed her features so much that she looked like a completely different person.

After she found him looking at her, she quickly lost her intense look and fiddled with her bow.

"Well anyway, I think we should all take one last look at all the Loot to make sure we don't miss anything." Chadwick said before they all walked off in search of good Loot.

"[I'm telling you Claude, I don't like her.]" Arne said.

"Yea that was definitely odd. But it's also perfectly normal for her to want the best Loot right?" Claude asked.

"[That wasn't simply just greed. Remember the smell Claude— remember how it forced its way into your nose and burned away all the other smells.]"

Before he could try and remember the smell to see what else it held, Chadwick yelled out to the group.

"Alright, let's get the hell out of here. Great work everyone, but I'd like to get back to my wife and son sooner than later."

Claude was hit with another smell and to no ones surprise, it came from the same person. She ran to catch up with Chadwick with a bright smile on her face.

The smell of intense excitement trailed off of her and settled over a large part of the field— it almost masked the scent of death.

Usually that wouldn't be too strange, but there was something else that mixed and intertwined with the smell of excitement like a poison. It was something dark and pungent that added a hideous secondary smell to the usually sweet scent of excitement.

"[You smell it, don't you? Beneath the excitement.]"

"Malice." Claude thought without realizing it. Frosty growled next to him while he looked at Riley as if he could smell it as well.

"[Very good. Now why would she be letting off that smell?]" Arne asked.

Claude watched Riley flirtatiously bat her long eyelashes at Chadwick while she happily spoke with him. They all headed out to exit the Tangent while Claude stayed back for a moment and watched her.

"Your right. Maybe I should be worried about her."