CHPT 185: Lose Here. Win There.

The events that followed after what happened on

Monday and inside the Astral Realm with Fenrir, we're mundane in comparison— an old fashioned usual week at the University some would say.

Aside from Ronin's looming presence randomly exploding to reality before suddenly disappearing, it was normal. He'd go through his classes, eat and train with his friends and then spend the rest of his days at the Library. Studying everything from Monster Anatomy, Demons and the epic tales of Old Heroes to books on weapons— spears in particular.

Sometime along the way, Ursula began to accompany him— sometimes with Maris who had a thirst for practical knowledge much like Claude. Although, she didn't have his care for Heroes at all.

Even though his face often felt permanently twisted into something unpleasant, he felt himself smiling on the inside whenever he watched Maris question Ursula about the many oddities of the dangerous world she only recently learned she was part of.

When Ursula came alone, her face was often grim— fear stricken. He could almost see the gears turning inside her head, considering and learning. Aside from her suspicion for her closest friend, she was also plagued by the thoughts of the twins and a certain scorpion-like Demon that could be stalking the lands outside of the University.

Eventually he ended up joining her in her quest for knowledge about the possible danger awaiting them. Only, he didn't need to read to learn much about them. The HellBreeder had him marked, and it became very personal after he killed its spawn for a second time. He knew enough afterward. He played into its sickening trick. He learned how it fed on his negativity as if it were as sweet as honey. He knew what he'd be up against, he only hoped his friends wouldn't be involved.

This was a thought he carried with him all the way until the end of the week. The most dangerous— yet important day for all students. The day they stepped into the Tangents.

***

Friday Nov 9th, 2240

Claude packed his bag with the books he read through during his Monster Species Studies Class, while he continued his conversation with Arne.

"[So when do you think you'll be able to use your God Form?]"

"I don't know, Arne. All he said was I'm not ready. And I have no idea what to do to get ready." Claude replied before saying his goodbyes to Prof. Alvis, closing his backpack and leaving the classroom to head to Training.

"[Hm. It's so off that this is my first time hearing of such a form. It's got to be something gained after hours of training and gaining understanding of your respective God. For Chase to be unleashing what I assume was the beginnings of it at such a young age is positively frightening.]" Arne commented over the loud chattering wave of fellow students heading to their next classes.

"Yea. He's better than I gave him credit for." Claude admitted.

After walking down the halls and twisting staircases of the University for another few minutes, someone approached him while he was deep in his own thoughts.

"Well, if it isn't the scowler himself."

Claude turned to greet the student that appeared to his left, "Hey, Warren."

He watched the Archer for a moment, noticing the bounce in his walk and glow of his ebony skin. He looked pumped.

"You ready for Training today? What do you think we'll be up against?" He asked excitedly.

Claude eyed him warily for a moment before leaning in and sniffing him.

"Ah! Dude what the hell are you doing?" Warren replied before shying away.

"He doesn't smell of fear…." Claude noticed, "Are YOU ready?" He asked in confusion of the odd turn of events.

"Yea. I'm ready." He replied, attempting to give off a determined glare.

"....Why?" Claude asked flatly.

He watched the slim and limber Archer deflate as Claude indirectly questioned where his fear was.

Suddenly, a scent of metals and heat filled his nostrils combined with a sort of expensive cologne that he couldn't describe. All he knew was it was getting closer.

"His loss to Chase bothered him. So now he's eager to enter the Tangents and prove himself." Isaac answered after suddenly appearing to the right of Claude.

"Isaac! Next time let me say it!" Warren complained.

Isaac moved his large shoulders and shrugged an apology in response.

"Hm. To say my loss to Chase didn't have the same effect would be a lie…" Claude added.

"Yea it would." Isaac agreed as they entered the main hall of the University— sour faced in response to the unpleasant memory.

"I feel the same then. I …..uhhh…I like that you're motivated, Warren. I think we all are to some degree, so let's take that into today's Tangent and go to work. We'll make up for the loss here, by winning in there." Claude said to them both, finding it hard to speak at first, but slowly he found himself expressing his thoughts comfortably. To some degree at least.

"Damn straight!" Isaac hooted, gaining the odd looks of the students walking with them.

Warren suddenly whispered a question over to Isaac from behind a Claude after a few seconds of walking in silence.

"Did Claude just compliment me?…"

Isaac slowed down, allowing Claude to walk ahead and nodded in agreement with Warren, "That was a new thing wasn't it?"

"Don't make me sound like an asshole."

"Dammit!" Isaac and Warren cursed after being caught.

"It's just new thats all. You got any more? I'm all ears….but it seems like you are too— how the hell did you even hear that?" Warren joked before asking.

Claude laughed to himself as they headed to the field, "Don't worry about it."

***

Maris was the first to get to Training, finding that if she pushed her way past students instead of waiting behind the large slow moving social circles, she'd cut her time to get to most classes in half. Surprisingly, not many of the students wanted to fight. Instead they were more interested in learning her name.

She assumed Ursula developed a similar strategy since she was the second student to step on the long green grass field— clad in tough leather reinforced armor around her midsection, shoulders and wrists that hovered over the twin axes at her hips.

She watched the Berserker approach her with her view obscured by the cold black bar she rose and lowered from after every pull up she completed.

"You're early." Ursula said as she looked around the empty field.

"He's not….here." Maris forced out, mid pull up.

Ursula was snapped out of her search, "W-what?"

"Claude hasn't made it to Training yet."

Ursula's eyebrows climbed up as far as they could to express how she was caught off guard. "Why do you assume that's who I'm looking for?"

Maris stopped and let herself hang from the bar as she eyed her muscular freckled friend plainly, "I know because you do that." She said before going back to her pull ups. "You also watch him a lot….the other girls here talk about the boys they watch a lot and say they are pretty— no, handsome."

A smile appeared on Ursula's face as she listened to Maris try to explain female students gossiping about crushes. "What does that have to do with me, Maris?"

Maris dropped from the bar after completing 18 pull ups and turned to face Ursula. "I just mean, if you think his face is nice you should say something. That's what the other girls do…"

"Maris…..WHAT?!" Ursula yelled in surprise at her friend's assessment of the situation.

She shrugged in response to Ursula's heightened voice calmly, "What? I think his face is nice."

Ursula felt like she was going to faint as she walked with Maris who casually continued warming her muscles. "Is….that right?"

Maris nodded, causing her shoulder length shinning black hair to jump and sway in the wind, "Yes. His scars are cool—And when he's angry his eyes remind me of the Hero in black."

Ursula suddenly remembered how he got his first set of scars— although he'd always come back with a few new ones she could never place the origin of. Before the saddening memory could fully come to fruition, the ending of Maria's sentence stuck out to her.

"The Hero in black?" She questioned while they both moved to the open field and dropped to the floor to perform a set of push ups.

"Yes. The Hero that came to my village and allowed me to get revenge against the Goblins." She replied, sounding almost happy at the memory.

"Yes, the village. I'm sorry you had to experience that, Maris. Wait…..a single Hero saved you and let you fight alongside him— isn't that like…I don't know— dangerous?"

Maris shook her head on the way down from another push up, "No. He understood that I deserved a shot to avenge my people. So, after he saved the rest, he came back for me and we killed them, his white sword was very nice." She said, once again sounding uplifted.

Ursula froze after Maris spoke, in a partially stiff armed plank position, "He saved the villagers first…..? How rare." She thought before another oddity stuck out to her, "Did you say he wore black and had a white sword?"

Maris continued her push ups while responding, "Yes."

"Explain. In detail."

"He was a tall man. He looked like a shadow in the distance. He wore a long tattered black cloak, and had a matching face mask…..oh! He had two swords. One of them was white— and it glowed like a magic stone. Do we even have magic stones that glow?"

Ursula froze again, unable to respond to Maris's barrage of questions about the existence of glowing stones and how she could attain one to make a sword for killing Goblins.

"Who is he?…" She questioned in wonder for a moment as the field continued to fill with students.

After a few minutes of being in her own head, Maris suddenly stood up and turned to face the University in the distance behind them.

"What?" Ursula asked.

"They're here. Let's go tell him his face is cool." Maris said flatly before heading over to the rest of their team.

Ursula perked up at her words, "WHAT!— N- Maris wait!"

***

Claude, Warren and Isaac stepped on the field, freshly motivated and ready to go do something with it.

In the distance, Maris and Ursula jogged over to them, Ursula lagged behind yelling at Maris who ignored her defiantly.

"The hell happened to them?" Isaac asked.

Warren and Claude shrugged as they walked over to meet them.

Maris reached the three first, nodding in hello before facing Claude.

"....Yes?" He said after Maris eyed him for a moment, allowing Ursula to catch up.

"Me and Ursula think your face is cool."

Claude suddenly felt the urge to hide behind his hair— immediately becoming very aware of his scars and damaged ear. But at the same time, he felt good. The last person to say something about his face was Samuel— and all he did was point out how ugly he was.

"[We must be living in an alternate universe….]" Arne commented.

Claude cleared his throat and said thanks awkwardly while Ursula covered her face and shook her head in disbelief. Behind him, Warren mumbled something about having a nice face to Isaac behind him.

"Anyway." Ursula said with a clap, "What's up with you guys? You look a little different. Usually you're all a bit more…tense." She asked, noticing Warren lacked his usual fear.

"We're motivated." The three responded in unison.

Ursula nodded along, "Good. I am too."

With that, they all went to go finish their warm ups while Claude jogged off to pick up his muscle bound canine Companion.

***

Claude jogged off to Predator's Forest, talking to Arne— who now addressed him as cool face. By the time he reached the forest, Arne got off a couple laughs and Claude's cheeks warmed like the sun.

Once he reached the entrance, he stopped in shock of the scent of fear surrounding the forest like a dark cloud of fog.

Immediately, Claude felt for his link to Frosty, noticing the PitWolf was alright— just slightly uncomfortable about something. But he'd seen more than most of the other animals, so everyone else had to be in a worse state..

"[What the hell happened?]"

"I don't know. Let's find out." Claude replied before entering the forest.

Inside it was much more silent than usual. The birds sang from above, while cats claws scratched on the dirty bark of trees. And in the distance he could hear the Canine pack bark every now and then— but it was audibly more silent than usual.

Nobody in a state of terror. But something was different.

He was pulled from his thoughts as Frosty emerged with the rest of the Canine pack.

They all huddled around him with their heads low to the floor and fur standing on end.

"What happened to you guys?" Claude repeated Arne's question as he crouched down to per Frosty and the black Vulbeast next to him.

"[You think it's Ronin's aura?]" Arne questioned.

"I don't think so…" Claude answered honestly through green eyes.

***

After Claude spent a while longer inside, checking the other biomes and seeing that they were all slightly shaken, he used his skill, (Sensory Focus.). He scanned the area in search of anything threatening only to find the usual scents and sounds of animals. There was nothing left to do but leave.

The first thing he did upon returning to the field was telling Prof. Raizen of the information . He listened to Claude's words and soothed his nerves by telling him he'd have a team of guards check the area to see if anything was hovering around the area.

For the next ten or so minutes, Claude warmed his stiff joints and sparred with Chase— who loosely explained the functions of his God Form to Claude.

In the distance, Ursula squatted a couple plates with Isaac, Maris unleashed a flurry of combos on a magically empowered dummy that fired off numbers in response to her strikes. And Warren joined the Archers in target practice.

"So that wasn't the full form?" Claude asked after dodging the swing of Chase's dagger.

Chase shook his head while he bounced lightly on his toes with his weapon raised. "No. I have to keep working to get there."

Fwoo!

Claude lunged and swiped at Chase's midsection with his sword, "And all it does is make you stronger?…..and really fast?"

Chase dodged and pushed Claude to create space between them— before abruptly dodging again to avoid Frosty. "No. You'll get a boost in your physical stats if your God is physically powerful. But you also gain a boost in other areas."

"Like?" Claude pressed.

Chase looked deep in thought for a moment, "Well, Cernunnos is a God of many things. One of which being the Hunt. So, when I activate his form; I gain the agility to chase prey, the strength to hold it, and the accuracy to kill it….maybe not in that exact order."

Claude's eyes widened in response to Chase running down the benefits of his God Form. "Speed, strength and accuracy…"

"[That's quite powerful…]" Arne commented.

Chase suddenly stopped, "Now that I'm learning my God Form, you need to learn yours, Wolfboy. I want to know what Fenrir has to offer you."

"I'm wor—" Claude was cut off as Prof. Brennan's Irish accented voice yelled out across the field to fall on everyone's ears.

"Alright everyone! Gather your armor and weapons and get ready to move out!"

The two sheathed their weapons and headed over to the cloaked and hooded Professor. It was time to enter the Tangents once again— now absent of three members that were there the last time.

Samuel, Tai and Det. Cyrene. All individuals who were labeled as missing. One being a young pretty boy, that was being turned into something hideous— a weapon, by force. Another being forced to roam the earth as a misshapen mess with an uncertain future. And the other who mysteriously disappeared on the night of the Full Moon.

Ronin would continue his search of them, while Claude left with other things to worry about. The most immediate being,

"What left the animals in Predator's Forest so uncomfortable?"