CHPT 424: A Beast, In All Aspects, And All Terrain....

Wednesday Morning, January 21st, 2241. Inside Lupine Claimed Wilderness-Tangent....

Sleep was once again a timeless world of black for Claude. It was refreshing even. To sleep in a world he'd cured of it's ailments in undeath and primordial rot. It was therapeutic.... to simply exist in what he imagined for himself. Correction. The righting of wrongs. It was symbolistic. It was... needed.

As was a good amount of rest. Something he found for himself rarely. This time, he'd gained it after a night of discovery and understanding. He wasn't awakened in an icy marsh full of Trolls and Draugr by Fenrir. And there were no horrific nightmares to descend on his mind like Blood-Starved Vampires on the hunt.

Only sleep. That was until the warmth of the rising sun hit his skin, and the sound of gurgling undead grunts became to loud to miss. The night was over, and when he opened his eyes he felt undeniably refreshed. As he sat up like a corpse brought back to life, he could feel the muscles beneath his skin thrumming with power and untapped energy. It made him anxious and jumpy-- the usual. He'd take out his energy in time.

They had a Tangent Boss to deal with, he wasn't the only one aware of this. Well, not immediately.

"Hey.... everybody wake up. I'm sure the sun's up on the outside by now and we need to make ground so we meet Rollan and the others on time."

Not immediately at all.

Cassidy got up as if he was never sleeping. He didn't look groggy in the slightest. Ma woke up next to him, running a hand through her black and blue hair as she yawned. It sounded beautiful. How can a yawn sound beautiful.

He looked down at the bottom of the steps where Ursula laid near his gear. She was in the same position he found her in last night. Hibernating as usual.

Frosty howled faintly as he trotted over to her. He came to a stop standing directly over her and looked up at Claude.

"Do it."

Frosty took in a deep breath. His massive ape-like chest expanded and his muscles bulged, expressing how unlike a Wolf his form had become.

Cassidy plugged his ears.

Frosty let out a series of alarming barks at Ursula from point blank range. After five of them she rolled over and stretched as if all she received was a tap on the shoulder.

"Awe shit...." She said as her legs shook in response to what must've been a wonderful stretch, "Hey Frosty." She reached up and pet his tusks as he licked her forehead. "The Boss unthaw?"

"Just about. Let's finish this." Claude replied.

"Unbelievable." Cassidy chuckled as he slid on his belt and quiver.

"[Really.]" Arne agreed in Claude's mind as everyone started getting ready.

After no more than a handful of minutes, everyone was ready, following Claude as he hopped off the back of the boat.

There it stood. The Undead Bladefiend.

"NRRRAAHHHHH!" It roared from a limbless body as it hung from the side of the boat, shaking and wriggling with the twist and flexion of it's midsection. Pieces of frost clung to it's chapped blue lips and forcibly closed eyelids. Even for a Zombie, it looked like hell.

"Let's get this over with." Claude said before looking over to Ursula.

Without hesitation, she threw one of her axes, chopping the Boss free from the rooted rope it hung from. Before it could hit the ground, Claude caught the remains of the rope and swung the Boss out over dryer land.

FWSHSSHHH!

A wooden tendril exploded from the ground and caught it's airborne remains. Ursula lunged in with a (Mad Charge) and used her remaining axe to chop off it's head.

"AAAAGHHH!"

FWWWO!

CHK!

The action was quick-- seamless, despite it's many parts led without verbal communication. The head hit the ground like dead weight and rolled. All the while, the Zombie roared and bit at the floor, tearing out blades of grass with it's rotted teeth.

"Cassi--" Before Claude could even say his name, the Hunter filled the head with arrows made explosive by the sharp winds guiding each bolt.

PTOO!...PTOO!...PTOO!

SPLCH!

[+200 EXP]

Bits and pieces of it's head exploded, splattering rotted brain tissue and skin across the grass. Eventually the light faded from it's remaining visible eye, and then it was over.

DING!

[Tangent Complete! The Undead Bladefiend has been Slain! Collect your Loot and Exit the Tangent!]

[Completion Reward: 800 EXP]

[+1 Stat Point]

Following the System Notification, glowing beacons of Loot rose from the Zombie corpses in the distance like stars in a field. Ranging from Spears, Armor and Axes to the odd Spell or two. One of which being a Repeat Spell of (Second Frenzy).

The group began collecting, now able to take everything and hide it inside their boat with no added cumbrance. After everything they could manage in reasonable time was heaved onto the boat, Claude pulled it back into the river. With the boat going upstream, he needed the help of Cassidy, Ma and Ursula.

Even then, it wasn't the easiest job. But a completed job nonetheless after a few minutes traveling upstream with Frosty on deck barking orders at them like a monstrous captain of the seas, the Tangent exit swallowed up the front end of the boat.

VWWoooo

Suddenly they weren't pulling upstream, the boat was being sucked into the Tangent. Ursula and the others rushed onboard to leave with it. Claude followed up the flank, fastening himself to the boat with his Malevolence Tether to be yanked out after them.

VWOOOMP!

***

Ursula and the others emerged on the other side in a flash of sunlight and enough turbulence to almost knock her off her feet. The waters sloshed and shook as fins and tendrils whirled out of the water and slapped into their boat. It was like what her and Claude had seen before. The creatures of the sea learned to await Tangents after a while for free meals. They got more than they could chew this time..... and they didn't seem happy.

That was what she thought until she saw the bulleting frames flying through the dark waters.

"UEGH!"

Another smaller splash sounded off at the back of the boat. The only reason Ursula caught onto it was because she could feel Claude. He was pulled into the water.

"Claude!" Ursula yelled and headed for the back of the boat where his Malevolence Tether was ripped from.

The waters around the boat continued to churn and ripple with splashes as the chaos beneath grew with the intensity of Claude's entrance. She could see flashes of what he must've been experiencing. Shock... dark shapes, grey skin, endless rows of teeth, red skin, bladed tendrils.... the bubbles escaping his lips as he tried to keep in his breath.

"Cassidy! Shoot these fuckers." Ursula snarled before she started throwing her newly gained axes into the water whenever she found an all too obvious shape get close to the surface.

"Right on it." Cassidy replied.

Ma flew off the deck and dove into the water.

[Berserker's Rage: 15....35....40%]

Ursula slowly began transforming further and further with each axe toss, panic taking over her mind to the point that she hadn't noticed the boat shifting and jolting as Claude used his nature magic to turn the seeds hidden inside the boat into weapons. She also didn't notice the way his vision had cleared. No more bubbles, no more absolute shock.

Ma suddenly exploded from the water, surprise clear on her blue skinned face, "..... Well, he's doing fine."

Cassidy stopped firing for a moment, "What?"

"He's fighting..... they're running... some are helping. The wolfboy is not a wolf... he looks diff---" Before she could finish speaking, a blurring shape exploded from the water and landed on the boat.

Frosty let out a growl that ended in a confused whine.

Ursula spun around to view what landed on the ship.

A man.... sort of. He had dark grey skin-- like a shark. And his muscles were inhumanely defined, rippling and striated like cords beneath flesh. Cuts and odd looking stings covered his arms and chest where whitish-bronze softer looking flesh resided. Despite the shark-like appearance of the man, he also showed other traits. Suckers lined the underside of his arms like an Octolepid, fitted with two bladed appendages running up his forearms. From where Ursula stood, she could see a fin growing out of the center of his back.

She almost lost her breath when the man looked at her. His face, still human, was also covered in shark-like skin along with a set of gills on his neck. And his eyes... black pools housing bright green discs, almost like a Vampire. When he spoke, she could see he had three rows of razor-sharp teeth.

".....We need to get going... whatever made them run, it wasn't me."

"Well I'll be..." Cassidy mumbled

Ursula swallowed before speaking, "CLAUDE?!!"