52 WRAITH NIGHT VS VERDANT KNIGHT

Claude had been neurotic for as long as he could remember. He was probably conditioned into a state of hypervigilance due to a life lived in the wild, where monsters roamed and things unnamed walked freely.

He had to keep his head on a swivel. He had to run through his tools and always make sure they were there.

He ran his metaphorical hands over his greatest tool. The tool he had before the gods and the plants.

His mind. His knowledge- no matter how one sided and unrefined it was.

Animals, monsters and heroes.

As Sapien, the evolved absorption wizard charged, he ran over what he knew of heroes. It fit like a puzzle piece. They fit a memory, like a puzzle piece.

"Ten years ago, Oakborn— one of the oldest high-ranking heroes before The Nine took over, fought against a rogue HexBlade cult known for experimenting on and adapting aspects of parasites to themselves. They could absorb life force energies. So, when Oakborn should've been the worst match-up as a former Druid and nearly retired Hero, he defeat the odds… and them, by overriding their absorption abilities with an overflow of life force. He had a skill called (Final Effigy)….. my dad called it a nature golem on steroids. I don't have any steroids…. But I have three nature golems. Better yet, I'm not facing a cult of HexBlades. Just one wizard. Just one."

Sapien hit the sands hard. A shockwave of debris and dust rose.

"Gods damned idiots! There's real enemies out there as we saw!" Stella snapped.

Claude brought up a wall of nature to defend himself. His ears twitched as the wizard dashed around to his flank.

"Oh to be ignorant." Sapien commented as he appeared behind Claude.

Claude didn't move and instead reached for the flower-based Nature-golem to his left. Like a puppeteer, he pulled the magical threads that bound them together.

The colorful golem in a cloak of petals spun and raised its hand. A spell-bloom unfurled in its palm and spit a forcefield of reversed mana in front of Claude.

Sapien face planted into the blue shield hard enough for his nose to splatter blood.

Claude manipulated the other golems. They ran around the shield and jumped the teenage wizard before he could recover.

The tree-golem was a giant. It moved like a tank with its bark shield and twisted branch Lance. The root-golem was a wiry swordsman with an arm that turned into a rapier. They stabbed and bashed the Wizard down to size quick.

But there were bugs in the sand, and Sapien was stealing their life force. Recovering even as he was stabbed and stomped.

It was only a matter of time.

The tree-golem front kicked him so hard he rolled towards the ocean.

As soon as the tide rose and took his arm, Ursula froze the water, locking him down. When she ran in to kick his face, he caught her boot and threw her into the ocean.

Claude whistled and sent his island-dogs to retrieve her.

Sapien burst to his feet and blew past Claude, punching Xander in the stomach hard enough to knock the dust off his back.

He tried to do the same to Stella. She dipped out of the way of a side kick and ripped open three lines of red in his back before slinking back into the jungle with Grimm.

Sapien turned back to Claude who was already charging. Before he could react, a volley of electrical fire bloomed from the shadows of the woodland.

Claude could've laughed. It was rule number one in nature to never turn your back on ambush predators.

Sapien didn't care about rules. With his power he probably never had to.

He stumbled forward with spirals of steam rising from his back.

Claude continued his charged and feinted a kick.

He bit and side stepped.

Claude brought the roots from below and locked his feet in place. Sapien took another electrical fire blast to the shoulder. Ursula came from behind and shoulder charged him back into Claude.

He jumped over the brutish wizard and let his tree golem shield bash him.

At least that was the plan.

Instead, Sapien jumped on the golem and began leeching its life force….

Like the parasite hexblades did to Oakborn's Final Effigy.

Only Claude wasn't Oakborn and Sapien may have been exactly what the hexblade cultists wished they were.

The ten foot tall tree-golem darkened six shades and began to turn to sloppy ashen mush.

Claude felt his insides cringe.

Ursula tackled him again.

Claude watched the two muscleheads roll in the sand. Sapien's palm rose. His fingerprints glowed with his unique absorbing power in flux.

"NO!"

Claude moved on impulse, taking off faster than he ever had before.

He crashed into the pile of battling students, realizing by smell that Ursula was long gone. Thrown aside by Sapien. Her job as bait was finished.

Sapien took top mount and watched Claude with a "I told you so." Sort of pompous grin. "You don't get how predictable you are do you?"

Another bolt of electrical fire came from the jungle.

Sapien lifted Claude and let it hit his back.

[78% HP Remaining!]

"Stop Stella!" Ursula yelled as she got to her feet.

Stella hopped out of the jungle and prepared for combat.

"Put him down or I'm going to kill you." Ursula said calmly. "I don't care about what this garbage university has to teach, I'll learn more in the Halls of the Basilisk. Drop him."

Sapien didn't pay her any mind as he held Claude by the throat.

"Stop being this way. I'm begging you. You're strong….. you have potential. Id let you assimilate into my family. Claude Witherings. With your nature element skills you could be a master at life force absorption. With your knowledge you could be far worse... but you want to stay in dream land. Stop or I'll be a thorn in your side for the rest of your life."

"That's kind of…. Intense." Claude said.

"You… telling me what's intense? Really?"

"I like irony." Claude coughed.

"You must like trauma as well. Fun fact, the average reborn individual can only stay at one health point for two hours before their organs start shutting down. You know what happens after? You enter suspended animation. System lock. No powers, no life, but you can't fully die. Even if a healer fixes you your mind is mush forever. Would you like a try?"

Claude's eyes widened.

Sapien's magic graced his bronze skin.

[77…76..757473727170–8….7…6…5% HP Remain—]

Ursula roared like a wild animal and charged.

Unfortunately she hit Claude to reach Sapien.

It felt like his spine broke as he was blown aside.

Ursula tackled Sapien into the ocean where they disappeared behind a wave of froth.

It didn't last long.

Ursula wasn't herself. She was the berserker. She threw him back out of the water.

He was covered in ice shards and bruises, fading as he got back to his feet.

"Your life force is strong, Claude. Must be a nature element user thing." Sapien's muscles bulged and his skin gleamed. His visual vigor and power was becoming inhuman.

Ursula charged again.

He caught her by the head with one hand. With his other he slapped her so hard two teeth fell at Claude's feet.

Stella had snuck to Claude's side, "What can I do?"

"Get everyone out." Claude said.

"And you?"

"I have an idea."

"There's only one person that likes when you say that." Stella whispered.

"Brink would love this." Claude said.

Stella stalked away.

Claude worked his magic as he laid in the sands, trying to ignore the sound of Ursula being beat to shreds.

His remaining Golems walked over slowly.

Flashes of his time with the dryads hit his mind, blending with reality as events mirrored eachother in bizzare ways.

The golems crouched at his side, perfectly in sync with how the dryads once did.

He used the memory as a blueprint. Only this time the power they'd give him wouldn't be entirely internal.

He needed protection. Inside and out.

The golems blended. At the same time, they merged with him, gliding over his skin like a suit of armor. Beneath, the vines and roots running like veins pierced his skin, infecting him with an essence he could digest. Slowly the pains and fears faded as he became something less human and more green.

Stella dragged the students back to the jungle, only stopping to spare a final glance back at Claude to see if she should help. She wanted to.

Then she realized she was out of her depth.

Claude was no longer Claude.

He was something she didn't have a name for.

He was as big as Sapien. Bark and stone skin covered him where a cloak of dark flowers didn't flow in the winds. His hands were tipped by bright poisonous claws. Another pair of arms extended from his back. One weilded a wooden rapier and the other held a shield made of a giant spell-bloom. His helm mocked the shape of a wolf but had no eyes. Only a mouth of sharp teeth. He growled and flammable pollen flowed from his jaws.

"Keep going Stella. " His voice came from the tree beside her.

She tried her best not to scream and continued pulling the students away.