CHPT 356: A Bear's Battleground...

Claude's sense of smell was almost always the first to return to him as he rose from the depths of unconsciousness...

Minerals, decay-- more sour than usual, blood, dampness....fear-- and rage. Scents often associated with terrain surrounded by rock...and combat-- slightly alarming considering the last place he was at was all sand.

The smells only increased in potency with every extra second spent further awakening in mind and body. Slowly, new developments joined the array of smells. Thoughts, feelings, sounds. They came in a swift reemergence of sensory development in a fashion that wasn't as jarring as he assumed it would be.

"--hit! The sun's going to set sooner than later....we need to leave."

Ursula's words opened Claude's eyes before he could take another second to collect himself. It was dark, too dark for them to be outside. The illumination of the sun outside split the shadows above him, splashing sharp rays of light against the hard and bumpy ceiling studded with rocky spikes. Cold water dripped from them, splashing against his forehead like raindrops.

A cave.

The smells suddenly made sense. Aside from two outliers. Fear and rage. Two scents that couldn't mean anything good while inside a cave near a desert supposedly full of horrific Demons.

"[Quite a bit has happened in your absence, mate.....]" Arne suddenly said, picking up on Claude's sense of confusion.

"How long was I out...." Claude thought while sitting up, surprised to find that his pained ribs were now only a dull throb he almost missed entirely. Not a good sign. That either meant he'd been out for hours, or his healing speed had once again increased.

As he sat up, Arne replied while he took in the violent display of past events in shock.

"[Erhm. It's been a bit less than an hour I'd say?.....But, as you can see. It's been quite an eventful hour. Just try to remain calm. Everyone's fine.]"

Easier said than done.

The entirety of the cave was plunged in shadows, growing thicker with every foot deeper within before being split by a halo of light. Assumedly from a hole in the cave ceiling where the setting sun burst through with it's warming yellow rays.

But, even if he didn't have the two sources of light from the entry behind him and the hole in the ceiling ahead. He still would've been able to see with relative ease how blood, fur and ice clung to the walls everywhere as if a blizzard had just run through the cave and blended any number of animals into their own feral remains.

Ursula sat at his feet. Her head hung low as her wide back expanded and shrunk with every heavy breath she made. His sensitive ears picked up easily on the internal rattle that rose and fell with every breath. She'd broken something.

Ahead of her, he could see torrents of blood tinged ice ripping across the cave grounds with an undeniable violent beauty. The pure glisten of the ice blue spikes contrasted so heavily with the old blood he was almost transfixed by the sight until he caught sight of Frosty pacing around something.

The PitWolf was visibly agitated-- alarmed. All the hairs along his back rose to thick points and his ears never rose from laying flat against his head.

Before Claude could try and see what Frosty was observing with visible hostility, the light of the sun from the entrance faded and a wet nose pressed the back of his neck and licked him.

When he turned to see who it was, he found himself looking up at a eight foot tall mass of muscle, pure black skin, shadows and far too many eyes to not look horrifying.

The many shadowy extra heads of the Phantom Legion rose and shook away from the original to watch him with an eerie level of intelligence.

"What the hell happened here?" He thought, standing up with little to no effort or pain in his leg.

When he stood, he found himself looking over Ursula and towards what Frosty was circling while Gil sat in the shadows patiently.

It was a Lion. A massive lion based on the length....it had to be at least six feet on all fours. It had been dead a while based on the smells and the way spikes of ice ripped through it's body gruesomely.

He ignored the sight and dropped to one knee beside Ursula. When his hand landed on her shoulder, she jumped as if she were asleep. When she fully stood up, he was able to amass the extent of her injuries.

Which were many....

"Welcome back to the land of the living, coolface.." She grumbled followed by spitting a mouthful of blood off to the right of her, trying for humour despite her battered state.

Hard gashes lined her arms where they weren't armored, including her left cheek along with a swollen eye and nose that looked very nearly broken. A pool of blood swelled on the ground below her where he realized more cuts marred her thighs and shins.

In a rush he ruffled through the compartments of his belt until he found his bandages....but no salves.

"Your left..." Ursula huffed, now back to her slightly dazed state.

Claude turned and found his bottle of salves against the cave walls next to Ursula's discarded cloak that wrapped a bundle of objects he couldn't accurately recognize until he approached the pile and grabbed his salves, catching the gleam of four oversized fangs beneath the fabric of her cloak.

He could see the needle-sharp hollow end of one, still died by his blood, causing him to look down at his leg where it once resided.

Now all that remained was a gross looking scab greased thoroughly with the strong herbal and minty scents of his salves.

"If only I'd been awake--"

"[Don't you start that shit. It happened. All you can work with is the cards you've been dealt now. Help your friend, assess the situation.]"

As tempting as it was-- naturally, to let yourself be swallowed by guilt over your own absence, Claude fought back the thought and poured all his focus into mending the situation as he could currently.

Starting by helping Ursula.

***

The two sat in silence for a few minutes while he cleaned and wrapped her wounds. He wasn't about to grill her for anything. Ursula was outspoken-- expressive. If she wanted to say something, she would. So he waited. Focused on her injuries-- that were already healing.....very slowly.

"I'm sorry..." She muttered while weakly checking the mobility of her bandaged arm.

"For what?" Claude questioned.

"I'm not like you....I wasn't able to speak to it-- calm it....I don't understand....it just attacked us...it was so weird...."

Claude could practically feel the guilt and remorse pouring out of her with every word. The sight aggravated him. The fact that she felt the need to apologize for protecting him in his own incompetence....

Before his thoughts could continue to climb in such a direction, he took a deep breath and looked over at the Lion again.

It didn't take much to realize it was no Glorian Lion-- definitely not like the one he was familiar with. Too big-- too muscular. Any concept of grace looked unachievable from a body so big and clunky. It was a powerhouse no doubt based on Ursula's injuries. But that was it. Defense and power. Even more so than the average Sunlandian Lion. The two were different despite their matching golden brown coats, massive chests and thick legs.

It was male-- something he didn't think at first due to it's lacking mane.

"Cave Lion....maybe..."

"[I knew it wasn't normal.]" Arne commented.

"What?" Ursula asked as he mumbled away while studying the creature.

"Exaggerated jowls....pre-existing facial and body scarring...pure black nose....worn golden-yellow incisors--"

"[Claude.]"

Claude turned back to Ursula, continuing to wrap her injuries where he could. "It's not your fault."

"How?"

"He was old as hell.....most likely insane. I wouldn't have been able to do anything differently. By the way, thanks for having my back-- just sucks we ran into something in here."

Ursula let out a humorless laugh-- but sounded already better than she was moments before, "Don't worry about it. Rather this than.....nevermind."

Claude's spine tingled as a question formed in his mind that he hadn't considered before with all the catch-up he was playing, "Ursula....why are we in a cave? Why aren't we back with Rollan?"

Before she could reply, a sound resonating from deep within his brain cut into their conversation..failing to stop him from noticing the look of fear in Ursula's eyes...

DING!

[Racial Evolution Assimilated!]

DING!

[Racial Skill Unlocked! (Multi-Magic Synthesis LV1)]