CHPT 162: Hellish Cruelty
Memories. More often than not, they're a bitch to have.
As Claude stood with his back to the broken cabin wall being superheated by the flames overhead that crackled and wailed in support of the being tainted by Hell itself entering the area, his own memories worked against him.
Like one of his usual nightmares, the cruel and violent memories forced themselves to play like a sick and demented slideshow in his mind while his heartbeat- amplified by the oncoming panic attack, provided a steady pulse in his ears that drowned out the world of madness completely. Allowing him no choice but to sit and endure his own.
The pounding heartbeat flowed through his limbs and up to his skull, morphing into a migraine that caused his vision to slowly fade to black with every jolting pulse.
He sat in the darkness with the sound of his increasingly fast beating heart for mere seconds before it started.
Badump.....Badump...Badump..Badump.BOOM!
Vermillion slitted eyes opened ahead of him in the darkness as if they'd always been there. They glowed like red lanterns, revealing the creatures dark scales and horns sprouting from its flat head.
"HisssSSss...."
FWOO!
He was frozen by the demonic creatures eyes that burned with malevolence. Unable to move as its sandpapery tail slithered through the darkness silently and coiled around his legs, arms and neck.
The HellBred Plated Snake rose to its full height as it restricted his body, mind and soul. In the darkness, the pair of blood red eyes closed in on him, moving like a metronome as the creature swayed from side to side following the pound of his heart that echoed across the infinite blackness.
He'd been here before. Right at deaths door. Being crushed and ground into shreds by the slithering monster that was tainted by demons. He could even feel it, slowly making him forget that this was all fake. He could feel the sharp scales cutting his skin and his hot blood pouring from his body like an everlasting river of red. It was making him tired.
Suddenly, his bones were lit ablaze with pain, stretching and thickening into columns of iron.
"AAAARRRGHHH!!" The pain was enough to knock him out of his fear induced silence.
The snake hesitated as his muscles rippled and burst to life under the crushing grip of its tail. His howls of pain continued as his skin began letting off white hot steam and his body became cloaked in shining black fur.
The pain he previously felt of being constricted by the sharp and prickly snake was nothing when compared to the intensity of turning from man to monster.
The snake watched silently as the trashing and snarling ball of steam continued to grow in its grasp until it suddenly stopped.
After a few seconds of silence, the smoke cleared enough for the snake to find itself looking into a pair of violent green eyes.
The two monsters stared at each other for a moment. The reptile suddenly didn't feel so large as it looked down at the smoking creature. It's fear smelled amazing to Claude.
"RrrrrRRRR....
The grip on his— everything, loosened and he lunged at the face of his nightmarish attacker.
"RAGH!"
CRSSHH!
***
"UHWAGH!" Claude was shocked awake, coughing up spit and shaking violently.
He continued coughing quietly while Frosty and the Phantom Wolves anxiously crowded around him.
Despite the smokey Wolves' worry, they were also wary. Ashe being the most wary and unwilling to even approach him. He could almost see the very human expression on her face.
He soon understood their confusion. He was transformed— transforming, actually according to the black veins trailing his hands and fingers.
"[The panic attack seemed to trigger your transformation, which also seemed to stop it immediately. How are you feeling now?]" Arne asked.
Claude was unable to answer for a moment as he fought to regain control of himself.
"...I've been better." He suddenly replied after standing up straight and wiping the sweat from his brow: it was relatively useless since his entire body was soaked in it.
"[Hehe. I bet.]" Arne replied, sounding almost sad. "[Now that your back, you remember what you have to do, I hope?]"
"Of course."
"[Are you sure you can?]"
He knew exactly what Arne was asking, "No. I'm not sure I can defeat the HellBred Arachnoid. And I don't want to take that risk with 9 survivors depending on me. That would be dumb as hell."
"[So...?]"
Claude began getting himself ready, already dead set on going with the plan— the most obvious decision to make in his situation. "So. I'll get the survivors first, that way if anything happens, they have a chance to run or hide."
"[Fair enough. I'll help in any way I can.]" Arne replied, matching Claude's determination.
He shook his shoulders and head causing strands of his deep black hair to break from the natural hand that held it in place. "Alright, let's do this." He said before stepping out from behind the cabin and doing something he was slowly getting better at.
Drawing attention to himself.
"Erhm...ALRIGHT YOU SICK 8 LEGGED FUCKS! WHY DONT YOU CRAWL OUT OF YOUR HOLE AND FACE A REAL CHALLENGE! I already killed one of you! SO WHATS A FEW MORE, RIGHT?" He yelled down the street to the large cabin at the end of the village.
It didn't take him long to notice the usual symphony of tiny poking steps inside the house had stopped in response to his voice. It reminded him of his first encounter with the Goblins back when he saved Maris.
The second he heard the movement start again, he dashed across the street and hid behind another cabin.
"What the....the h-hell are you doing?" The middle aged male survivor under the partially burned home asked frantically.
"Quiet! If this works, they won't even come over here. Just stay put." He snapped.
Right when he finished speaking, the door at the far end of the village swung open and 5 or 6 Arachnoids exploded from inside the building. The last to leave was their HellBred leader, looking like some sort of demonic king.
"Ok. Ashe, you and the Wolves need to lead them away from that building. Let them chase you but stick to the shadows and stay safe." He said to the previous Alpha female Phantom Wolf.
She nodded quickly and quietly barked at the others before running out into the street and letting the monsters feel their collective vibrations.
Once the monsters noticed the Wolves running straight at them, Ashe barked again at the rest of the pack behind her.
In response to the bark, the pack split causing the mob of spider monsters to scatter in pursuit of them. The leader suddenly stopped and just waited in the street, it's four snake-like red eyes following its subordinates as they did all the work.
"Alright. Frosty your with me." He said to the PitWolf he could feel planted at his side.
Frosty bumped him in confirmation before following Claude as they made their way down the street towards the survivors.
Wolves darted passed them across the dirt road, zig zagging through the broken and burnt remains of buildings while others took the Arachnoids into the forest causing the noise and distraction to stay at a maximum while Claude and Frosty inched closer and closer.
The tensest moment was when he came closest to the HellBred leader. It was an indescribable feeling to be close to something so wrong. So poisoned. The whole area around it stunk, like burning moldy rocks and chemicals. He could've sworn the thing wasn't using it's sense of vibration to follow the action taking place all around them. It looked like it was actually primarily watching with its eyes.
It made him wonder what really happened when the HellBreeder changed you.
The thought was banished immediately once he made it to the end of the street. There were much more important things to worry about now.
The cabin was large. At least 20ft tall with windows indicating it had two floors. Looking through the window at the bottom showed the place was a wreck.
Tables and chairs smashed to wooden splinters, kitchens and household supplies broken and scattered across the floor among tiny shards of broken glass.
"[Going through the bottom floor would risk too much noise and disruption. If the Arachnoids get too close they'll notice that your inside trying to take their food.]" Arne supplied.
"That's right." He said before activating (Beast Trait). "Frosty, you stay here and let me know if they start heading my way."
After delivering the message he reached up and latched his claws onto the wooden ridges that lined the side of the cabin. He quickly kicked his shoes off and did the same with his bare clawed feet.
He urgently scaled the building, leaving deep claw marks in his wake as he inched towards the upstairs window.
By the time he reached it, he could smell the overwhelming amount of blood and fear. There was too much of one of the scents but he chose to ignore it.
Creaaaak!
The window made a loud sliding noise as he pulled it open. His head swiveled to the direction of the HellBred Arachnoid only to find it unfazed with its back to him.
"Whew....too close." He said before turning and crawling into the cabin.
His feet silently pressed into the wooden floor inside, marked up with scratches and indentations made by the creature that previously crowded that space.
It was a child's room. He could tell by the carpet and tiny toys hanging over a carriage next to the window he just climbed through.
The survivors all hung by a thick web that joined their webbed bodies together at the top. The clump of bodies spun slowly in the dark room like a demented chandelier or ornament.
"I have to save them. Once I get them out of here, I have to make sure they're safe. And then I have to avenge the rest. I have to." He said to himself in the unnaturally silent room. The room with absolutely no noise, as if 9 people weren't occupying the space.
He made his way forward, ready to split the webs open with his claws.
"[Claude wait.]" Arne said with a chill in his voice.
Claude was too focused. He continued onwards.
"[Claude please. Allow me to explain. Just wait. Please.]" The Lupine guide begged.
"Tell me after, Arne." He said— in a trance induced by his will to save, before he made it to the webbed survivors.
He quickly reached out and stopped them from spinning, ignoring how cold the webs were.
"Please don't be afraid. I'm here to help, once I get you out of here just follow me and I'll do my best to keep you all safe." He said before sinking his claw into the webs surrounding the closest survivor and running it down its length to split it open.
Shhhrip!
Splop!
".....huh?.." Claude stumbled backward in complete shock. He tried to speak again but it felt like he lost the ability.
His mind tried to block out the traumatic event, causing him to move on to the next survivor web and rip it open.
Shhhhrip!
Splsh!
The next.
Shhhrip!
Splop!
6 more times. Same result. Further ripping his psyche to shreds.
By the time he was done, he sat in the room with his feet covered in the blood that leaked from mangled arms, legs, heads and the overwhelming amount of half eaten guts that spilled from the web sacs.
The sight was immediately followed by the smell. Thick and sour rot. They were dead for hours. Elderly, young, middle aged, babies even laid among the blood and guts that covered the floor.
The HellBred Arachnoid purposefully ripped them up and then webbed them to look like they were being collected. All for this exact moment. The moment where it could practically feel any shred of hope or victory bleed from the Heroes heart and leave him empty. Disgusted. The HellBred planned and hunted all this for the sake of pure cruelty.
"HSKHKSHKSHahaha..." the leading Arachnoid poisoned by Hell laughed from outside the cabin. It's voice no longer sounding devoid of emotion— in fact it was the opposite. It sounded so happy that it made Claude sick.
That was the last thing he heard before his vision mimicked the sea of red that he stood in and something else took ahold of his mind. Something dark, wild and predatory. Something that wanted to see red just as much as the monsters outside.
Absolute violence was on the horizon.