CHPT 378: Kill the Lights, Save the Night...
Kill the lights.....save the Night Runners.
His words traveled across magical connective tissue of their Pack Bond. Like a trail of gasoline lit ablaze, it's flaming trail ran on a focused course straight to the Berserker who erupted in response like a bomb.
The world went cold. As if an icy white tangent swallowed the training room whole followed by a burst of ice winds and snowflakes that cut through the room like a frigid bladestorm all while inhuman roars shook the Runed Walls of the room. They glowed and shook in response to the icy assault as focused spikes of ice crashed into the torches that hovered above the battleground in glass bulbs connected to the high rising walls.
CRSH!
CRSH!
CRSH!
The room went dark, hidden from the light that seeped into the room from the other side by the towering nature of the stone walls that loomed over them all.
Perfect.
The stone battleground had turned into a gallery of shadows that all the unsuspecting Raiders were subjected to look into for as long as he needed. As long as they could until he emmerged from the dark.
From where he stood, the light of the other room fell on him. Like a spotlight, warm and exposing in all it's brightness that contrasted with the shadows. So close....so different.
His left arm fell into the shadows framing him. The tattooing engraved in his palm writhed against his skin. Pure black, marked by a foreign language that framed the shadowy circlet. A gift from Fenrir....a home to the darkness.
Deeper shadows spilled from the tattoo like a sentient stream of fog. Twisting and wrapping up his arm until the shadows gained a physical edge in the dark.
Teeth....jaws....snarling snouts...eyes. The shadows-- the ones that found a home in the dark, were ready. And Claude could barely hold them in. He needed to move. Flee the light.
The last thing he saw before he dove into the shadows were the cats in the other room, hugging the clear Runed wall like a family of invested spectators. Their eyes unnaturally incredulous-- their hairs erect like thousands of oily dark swords running down their rounded backs.
As he disappeared on his transformed legs, he could hear their hisses even over the sounds of yelling Night Runners.
***
Following Ursula's iced blast. The flow of combat shifted almost instantly.
The dark welcomed her. Something she never considered herself to be comforted by, suddenly felt just as that.
The Knight she'd previously fought lay face first in the ground. Even in such a position, the small spikes of ice and frost marring the front of his armor and flesh could be seen. He'd caught the brunt of the ice blast. Unfortunate, but she didn't really have a choice.
Without a moments more hesitation, she bounded over him and took off towards the closest Raider.
"Behind you....back at the entrance into the main area. Swordsman, female, fast." Claude's words filtered into her mind, steering her through the black the others couldn't navigate. His words were cool-- an electrifying and intense cold that had an edge of warmth. Combating the feral cold of her own mind-- even as he fought.
While she ran, smashing her shoulders into the unsuspecting Night Runners left to stand in the labyrinth-like battleground, ahead of her, a trail of deeper darkness rose into the air.
FWOO!
At the helm of the trail, six eyes glowed like a collection of stars, squinting as it's jawed face opened and latched onto the arm of the Archer who stood above everyone in confusion.
CRNCH!
"AAAAH! HELP!" The Archer screamed as the Phantom Legion yanked him from his highground.
Ursula could hear him hitting the ground as she encountered her first opponent. The Swordsman.
Naturally, the Swordsman was ready. Hardened by life in the wild, she wasn't as stunned as the others.
FWOO!
She swung her sword, vaguely in Ursula's direction. But a miss still as Ursula sidestepped out of their shared hallway of stone.
Now running on the other side of the stone wall to her right, she loaded up her thick legs and bashed into the wall like it owed her something.
"RAGH!"
BOOM!
Not enough. Again.
BOOM!
This time, Frosty's unseen presence joined her, slamming his massive paws into the wall with her. The wall cracked at the base before falling like a giant domino.
The Swordsman-- Kat, on the other side cursed before dashing out from under the wall just as it slammed into the other. Creating the loudest domino effect Ursula had ever heard.
While the small explosions of stones colliding rattled her brain, Kat stumbled out of the collision and swung in her direction again.
FWOOSH
Ursula activated her Aura but the precision of the wind still cut her cheek.
"Yes. Highlight yourself for me." Kat said before swinging again.
"Shit!" Ursula growled after realizing her mistake only to catch a booted foot to the chest.
THud!
[Berserker's Rage: 65...67%]
The kick and deactivation of her Aura sent them back into the noisy shadows. She landed flat on her back with barely enough time to recover as the spark of Kat's sword pursued her like a sentient element as the Swordsman swung at the ground blindly in her direction.
Before the sparks of her sword could reach Ursula, something heavy moved through the wind and smashed into her.
FWOOM!
PFOOF!
"ACK!" Kat yelped as her right side smacked into the wall hard enough to make her bounce. In the blackness, Ursula could see her walking in a daze, thoroughly concussed but still fighting.
Ursula moved on instinct, dropping her axes as frost fell from her clawed fingers.
"I think I'm starting to better understand why he hates you all so much." She growled before smacking her palm into the stone wall running alongside them. While doing so, she activated (Glacial Smash).
In a flash, a frosted film expanded across the stone wall like a virus, exploding with ice spikes along the way that eventually reached Kat, stabbing into her legs and knocking her off her feet with the intense barrage erupting from the wall.
Ursula was gone before she hit the floor with Frosty's running behind her. Despite his invisibility, she could feel his breaths falling down on the top of her head. Horrifying, but reassuring.
Their last enemy remained. And he'd been yelling ever since the light went out. She was eager to quiet him.
***
Since the lights died, Claude had barely ceased movement, bobbing and weaving through the labyrinth in search of injured Night Runners and Raiders. Erik had tried to hit him with one of his Aura blasts a few times. But Claude was too fast and the shadows only pressed him faster.
With every blast of the Tank's silvery white Aura, he only saw less and less. Less of the Heroes he'd previously beaten to a pulp. Less of his Raiders alive. His world was shrinking.
Since their last encounter, a long span of seconds passed in the blink of an eye. The room grew colder, and a large portion of the back half of the battleground collapsed in an earsplitting domino effect that shook the grounds insanely.
Claude ignored it. Knowing the cause as he carried two Night Runners slung over his shoulders. Their weight was heavy, but his transformation skill, (Partial Embrace) gave him the strength he needed. The real problem was the scent of their blood that leaked down his neck and onto his cloak like rainwater.
"Focus.." He told himself, trying to blink away the psychotic glow of his eyes as he rounded on the patch of Nature.
A small bit of land. It sat between two stone walls at the far left side of the battle course barely wide enough to hold a person. All along the way, healed Night Runners rested in a daze. He wasn't the best Healer-- but he was learning.
And the Raiders had given him all the practice one could ask for.
In a rush, he dropped to his knees and slid into the patch of Nature, bending down to softly lay the Heroes into the bare earth. As soon as their backs hit the floor, his hand smashed into the grassed dirt, filling the space where his handprint had been beaten into the floor.
Natural Energy welled up inside him. His Ancient Druidic Markings soaking up the power in large gulps until his arm glowed and his eyes went fully green with small arcs of energy emanating from them.
It expanded his vision, reinvigorated him, heated his skin. Such a beautiful boost of power. One that felt unnatural to any Nature user in response to taking so much of that which is pure. It creates an unbalance. Nature requires balance.
"...What..?" One of the Night Runners-- a Swordsman, mumbled as he looked at Claude in the darkness.
FWOO!
CRK!
"Sorry..."
His fist connected with the man before any more words could follow. He was well within the confines of slumber by the time Claude released the Natural Energy in a pulsing shock wave of green that washed over the two men, beginning the healing of their injuries and ailments.
When it was all done, he was back on his feet.
Just in time to feel Ursula run past him on the other side of a stone wall. She was closing in on their final target.
At the same time, Erik roared.
"I CAN HEAR YOU!!"
FWOOM!
Another blast of Aura, aimed at the only portion of the left side of stone labrynth still standing.
The impact sent the walls falling. Another cascading crash heading towards him and the unconscious.
"Son of a bitch!' Claude growled before reaching for the nature in the patch of land at his left.
The wall fell soon after, tipping overhead like a falling giant. As it fell into his hands, two thick wooden tendrils added to his strength, twisting around his legs and arms for more support. Slowly, vines followed, growing and thickening like his transforming muscles.
A growl escaped his lips. Growing louder and louder as his effort expanded.
"Come ON!"
"[Remember your mind.]" Arne said in hopes that Claude's current state didn't set off Ursula.
"In a few seconds it won't matter...." Claude growled.
And said few seconds were gaining on him.
Right as his face began to elongate into a feral snout, Frosty trotted into the alley and began expanding. Muscles popped, bones extended, until the hallway was too small for him and his growing back began pushing against the falling wall.
The VanaWarg snarled and yelped at the pain of the hard stone grinding against his spine. The sound only pushed Claude onward until the wall was falling in the opposite direction.
Soon after, he was breaking free of the wood and vine to close in on Erik who still stood at the center, sending his Aura flying.
Ursula wasn't much further ahead.
Claude moved on instinct, pulling out his spears before jumping on Frosty's back to ride him like a monstrous tusked horse.
Up ahead, Ursula stomped a small glacier into existence and used it to catapult herself onto the Tank.
One shot. Overrun him. Break his face, tear his limbs. All before the lights were reborn.
Claude dug his feet into Frosty's sides and ducked low as the beast moved quicker, only stopping to bunch up his legs for a powerful leap.
FWOO!
Once they were in the air, Claude departed from Frosty and raised his spears.
The pack soared through the air, now merely feet from Erik. The light of his lowrunning Aura waves barely reaching them. But reaching them nonetheless.
"WHERE ARE YO-- AHA!" He snapped before raising his arm as he ducked, just barely missing them all while a portion of the stone floor rose and threw them into the far wall like ragdolls.
FWOOSH!
BOOM!
The pack soared over a handful of stone walls before hitting the far wall by the door. They sank to the ground and out of sight. But Claude could hear Erik collecting himself in the distance.
"Take two..." He growled before rising to his feet, noticing they'd returned to their natural form. And he was....incredibly nervous.
No. Not him. Ursula.
He turned to look at her just as the door into the training room swung open.
A Knight stepped into the shadowy madness without an ounce of hesitation. His red and silver armor both well conditioned and worn, fitted with scarring and tainted in places by blood that wouldn't wash away. At the back end of the Knights multivisored helm, a small braid of red hair waved through the still wind. It smelled like fire.
FWOOOOM!
As if on que, the Knight unsheathed a gleaming silver Gladius. It's hilt fitted with an eye surrounded by fanged teeth. It looked so captivating yet barbaric. The eye was pure black with a single red ring where the iris glowed with an endless hunger. He would've been able to guess to whom the eye belonged even without the needle thin teeth lining the eye alongside Runes and magically glowing cloth.
They were parts belonging to a Vampire.
And the flames that erupted from the Knights hand were without a doubt what killed it. So bright it lit the room up. So large and warm it was like a small sun.
All the cold Ursula had previously called forth. Gone in faster than a flash, leaving them sweating and struggling to breathe as oxygen was burned to metaphorical ash.
Under the light, the Guild-tag on the Knights armor was perfectly visible and matching to the sun in the sword insignia in the other room. A symbol of the Grand-Knights Guild. Ursula's father.
He still didn't understand why she was so nervous until the man removed his helmet to look at the damage in shock.
His red hair looked like strands of blood. Shorter around the sides and ruffled spikes at the top. The beginnings of a beard ran across his squared jaw and over his upperlip beneath his thick nose. He was a spitting image of somebody he knew well-- or at least he thought he used to. He was also the last person either of them wanted or expected to see.
"It's.....it's my brother..."