CHPT 71: The Power of a Man and his PitWolf!

"Ghouls.....fuck, I've barely read anything about them." Claude thought as him and the group slowly backed away from the lake in their fighting stances.

"[Good thing I'm here then right? Ghouls are an Undead Race known for being impressively fast and having an insatiable hunger for human meat. They also have poisonous bites due to their rotting...well everything.]" Arne said.

"Great, fast Zombies." Claude said.

"They're breaching the surface, get ready!" Chadwick announced with his medium sized shield raised.

Claude felt the rush of adrenaline fill his entire being, giving him that little— but important, boost of physical power as he stared at the bubbling black water.

"Holy...." Riley said while she watched the first Ghoul emerge from the water.

The top of its hairless pale head rose up from the black rumbling lake like a demon rising from hell. The Ghouls face was stark white with sunken cheeks and haunting bright blue eyes that screamed with hunger.

WHOAAARRRGGLGLG!!!

It let out an awful guttural and inhuman wail causing the cold black water to seep into its hideous mouth and throat as it continued to rise from its lifeless underwater den.

"Riley, SHOOT!" Chadwick yelled.

Riley was shaken and out of her daze and aimed her bow at the hairless head of the Ghoul.

Thwip!

SQsh!

The arrow soared through the air and plunged into the Ghould head with a meaty sound of impact. In its process of dying and sinking back into the water, a scraggly and pale white hand shot out of the water and grabbed the Ghouls head. It's chipped and dirty black nails sunk into the Ghouls eyes as it used the monsters head as a grip to get out of the water.

The action showed how little the monsters cared about each other when it came to having a chance at human flesh. It sent a sickening chill through the entirety of the group.

Claude could smell the fear radiating off of every member in the group and realized they were all stunned.

"[Theyre not used to surprises like this yet....they've probably never been stunned like this in a Tangent if they're all recently Reborn. Claude, your the only person that's been in a scenario similar to this, you have to keep a cool head and help them.]" Arne instructed.

Claude looked up to their leader, Chadwick, and noticed he stared at the lake unblinkingly while he held his sword and shield weakly.

"He's been caught off guard, they just need to be reminded that we have the advantage." Claude thought as he began to look at the groups surroundings and the individual Heroes. A plan came to him once he saw Oliver.

"Fire...we need fire, but the dirt isn't flammable. Maybe I can fix that." He thought,

"Riley, keep shooting at the first ones to breach the water, Oliver I need you to get ready to use your fire at the front of the lake." Claude said from his spot at the back of the group.

"Alright." They said hesitantly.

"Keep me safe Frosty." Claude whispered while he crouched down and put his hand to the barren ground of the dead forest. Frosty huffed I'm response and planted himself next to Claude, the PitWolfs natural wild smell brought him a level of calm he couldn't have gained on his own.

"Carter, what are you doing? We have to get to the trees." Chadwick said.

"Just keep going, as long as Riley keeps taking down the first risers, I should be fine," Claude responded.

"They're not coming in ones anymore...." Riley said as three starved hairless Ghoul heads popped up from under the water.

"I'll be quick, just keep going, and Oliver get ready." He said while the group watched him with curiosity.

He slowly began to focus under the sound of arrows flying over his head and the starved wailing of the Ghouls as he felt the earth beneath his hands. He closed his eyes to center himself while he manipulated and strengthened the small bits of life beneath the layers of dry and stepped on dirt. He could feel it working. Green energy spewed from his hand and the life beneath the earth pushed and climbed to the surface, much like the Ghouls in the lake.

"Woah...." Brenda said as she watched tiny green strips of grass grow under him and slowly head toward the lake where they formed a sort of light green barrier that stood out against the dark and cold dirt.

Claude could feel his mana being drained and sweat covered his forehead from the intense amount of effort it took to simply create and grow a trail of grass from so deep in the ground. He opened his eyes and looked up to see at least ten sunken white faces looking at him as they pushed and bumped into eachother to try and get out of the water completely.

"Now, Oliver!" Claude ordered.

Oliver stepped forward and aimed his palms at the grass that formed a barrier to the front of the lake.

"Very clever." He said as two steaming balls of fire shot from his hands and lit up the night. They crashed into the grass and ignited immediately, forming their own barrier of flames to protect them from the first few waves of Ghouls.

"Nice job Carter, now let's get to the trees!" Chadwick said. The previous spark of leadership in his voice returned in full.

Claude turned to catch up with the group and headed to the trees a few feet away.

They all watched as the first five Ghouls to make it out of the water stumbled and fought their way through the wall of fire. One of the Ghouls was shoved to the ground by its comrade and it screamed and clawed at the ground as the fire cooked it to foul smelling ash.

Suddenly, Claude saw something appear in front of him before quickly fading away, "+3 EXP"

"Nice, I must be getting shared EXP for the ones that die from the fire." He realized.

The other four stepped through the fire screaming and swatting at the bright red flames in pain.

WOARRRRGLGLL!

They emerged on the other side of the flame wall with legs burned to a crisp that they ran on oddly, the good thing was they weren't as fast as they would be. 6 more heads emerged and clawed at eachother to get out of the water.

"Good thinking Carter." Ansel said.

"Thanks." He replied.

"Everyone get ready! We've got ten Ghouls coming. You remember what to do, don't you Carter?" Chadwick asked.

"Of course." He replied.

"You ready Frosty?" Claude asked. Frosty snarled quietly at the Ghouls as they approached.

"Get over here you fiends!" Ansel yelled while activating his taunt skill, (War Cry).

WOAARGL!!!

The Ghouls eyes flashed orange twice and they all dropped to all fours and skittered towards Ansel.

Thwip!.....Thwip!

Two arrows flew through the air and sunk into the two closed Ghouls. The rest carelessly trampled over them and headed towards the group.

"Everyone stay behind Ansel and brace for impact!" Chadwick yelled as he put his arm up against Ansel's back for extra support.

THUD...THUD..THUD!

The sound of bodies crashing into a hard surface resonated through the dead forest as the Ghouls mashed themselves into Ansel's shield like the mindless horde they were. They clawed and head butted each other and Ansel's shield in an attempt to get to the humans that hid behind it.

Claude watched them from his position off to the right of the group. He was squatted down on one knee with his free hand resting on Frosty's camouflaged back.

"Alright buddy. Don't bite the Ghouls— if you couldn't tell by the smell already, they won't taste good. Just use these." He said while touching Frosty's large clawed front paws.

He could feel the link between him and Frosty and knew he understood. He was starting to think he didn't have to speak at all.

"Now let's kill some Ghouls!" He said before they blasted from their positions and headed straight for the partially burned Ghouls attacking Ansel's shield.

They closed the distance in mere seconds.

Swoo!!

He felt his blade brutally swipe through the heads of the two Ghouls farthest away from the shield. Frosty tackled another to the ground and smashed its head with his monstrous paw without anyone seeing, the level of killing efficiency the PitWolf showed was chilling. They both continued their momentum and kept running to the other end of the trees after getting rid of the three Ghouls quickly.

It happened so fast, everyone behind Ansel's shield missed it. All they noticed was the force the Ghouls were applying to Ansel's shield was suddenly much easier to handle.

"Oliver, burn the rest." Chadwick said once he realized Claude already got rid of a few.

"Alright." Oliver said before stepping out from behind Ansel's shield and sending a couple fire balls at the small mass of bodies clawing away at the imposing shield.

Fwoo!....Fwoo!

WOOARRRGLG!!

The Ghouls wailed in pain from being burned before quickly being silenced by Chadwick stabbing them in the head with his sword. Claude noticed his sword sunk into their heads like butter, hinting at his impressive strength for a relatively low level Knight.

"Everyone get ready for the next wave!" Chadwick yelled.

***

The group continued this tactic for over an hour, running through wave after wave of mindless Ghouls. The waves increased in size over time until progressively, Claude needed more and more help from Oliver, Chadwick and Riley.

Luckily, Claude was still in tip top shape since he was proving to be a decent fake Assassin and any minor bit of damage he took was immediately healed by Brenda.

For the last hour or so, she watched in amazement as he ran back and forth along the edge of the lifeless forest dropping Ghouls left and right.

"Jesus, how much stamina does this kid have?" Ansel asked as Claude dashed passed them and killed 2 more Ghouls before running off to lie in wait.

"I don't know but he's got to be tired. How many Ghouls could be in that damn lake?" Chadwick asked.

Claude sat on one knee and breathed heavily while he waited for his chance to attack again, he could hear Frosty panting next to him. They both put in a crazy amount of work, but since the first wave, it seemed like at least 6-10 Ghouls stayed jumbled together fighting against the shield.

This wasn't good because he heard Brenda whisper something about being low on mana potions— meaning Ansel wouldn't be able to keep using his taunt skill much longer.

"Dammit! We need to lower these numbers." Claude thought while he watched Riley unleash a flurry of arrows into the heads of a group of Ghouls.

Claude placed his hand on the dirt again and used his Nature Element to manipulate the grass he already grew until it strengthened and expanded into medium length vines that began to wrap and fasten themselves around the ankles and legs of approaching Ghouls. He must've gotten better with his Element in this short time because he had a whole wave of 13 Ghouls tightly ensnared.

"Carter! Again!" Chadwick yelled to him as a reminder to kill some of the Ghouls attacking the shield.

"Right!" He yelled before he quickly got up with Frosty and ran at the Ghouls. Midway into his run, he was hit with an intense wave of exhaustion that greatly affected his speed and made his head throb.

"Damn, all this Element use is getting to me!" He thought while him and Frosty lunged at the Ghouls.

Once he reached them, he kicked a few off to thin the herd and sent them tumbling off to the side where Frosty stealthily bashed their heads into mincemeat. He then began to hack away at the rest that mindlessly fought against the immovable force that was, Ansel.

He began to grunt in effort that slowly boiled into anger at already being tired. Slowly, his grunts in between slashes became growls and animalistic snarls. It got to the point where the group thought there was a wild beast on the other side of the shield.

"RAGH!"

SWOOSH!

The entire group flinched at the sound of Claude snarling and swinging angrily at the final Ghoul. They all slowly peeked from behind the shield and saw him standing over dozens of mutilated Ghoul corpses.

"What the hell?" Chadwick said in surprise.

"You sure your new, kid?" Ansel asked.

Claude ignored them— finding that he was too tired and aggravated to talk. He instead turned to the Ghouls that were still locked in place by his vines. He noticed no other Ghouls were coming out of the water and it started to regain its stillness.

"The last wave.." he thought.

He tightened the grip around his blade and activated his skill, (Beast Trait) with not much mana left over. The tips of his gloves ripped as medium length sharp white claws cut their way through while— simultaneously, his teeth sharpened into natural saliva coated weapons.

"Knock them down for me, Frosty." He whispered before they ran at the final wave.

The group watched silently as he charged the Ghouls.

Claude grunted and snarled while he slashed at Ghouls left and right with his sword and claws. During this time, Frosty used his large muscular body to crash into them and send them tumbling to the floor. In response, Claude quickly came in and stabbed the ones Frosty knocked over, killing them instantly.

All the group saw was Claude delivering a flurry of wild and powerful attacks in every direction. Blood sprayed everywhere and severed heads rolled from the scene like scattered marbles on the cold dirt floor for minutes. All of a sudden everything around him was dead, he stood in the center of the carnage breathing heavily with eyes that flowed wildly in the dark night.

"Are we done? Did we do it?" Chadwick asked in partial shock.

"Even if we are done. We didn't do anything compared to him...who the hell is he?" Ansel asked.

[Mana levels below 30%]

Claude read the notification and grunted in response.

"[Well done, Claude. This Night Run seems to have been a success.]" Arne complimented.

Claude agreed silently.

This run was in fact, very successful. During their fight he was able to attain 300 EXP, meaning he was more than halfway to level 6.

He turned around at the sound of footsteps and noticed the group walking towards him.

"That was terrifying! I love it!" Ansel said before slapping him on the shoulder, probably harder than necessary.

"You are quite the Assassin." Chadwick said while Oliver and Riley agreed.

Claude found himself in an odd predicament. He wasn't used to this much praise and felt his cheeks heat up in response.

"Hehe....couldn't have done it without you all." He replied while putting his sword into its sheath on his back and resting his hands on his knees.

"We did have some impressive teamwork today." Riley said happily.

"Alright well it should notify us that we completed the Tangent pretty soon. For now we should look for loot, I know one of these Ghouls had to drop a sword or something." Chadwick said while the group began to look around the bodies for loot.

During this time, Claude decided to meditate and regain some stamina. The rest of the group strayed off a bit— including Frosty who sniffed around a few feet away from him. This meant none of them heard the water begin to move and bubble again. Except Claude, who turned just in time to see a large mass of pasty white flesh towering over him, he wasn't able to notice anything else other than Frosty snarling madly before he was hit by a metallic object that knocked him unconscious and sent him flying through the air...