CHPT 479: Feed the Frenzy

The Dugout should've been scary. To anyone that's entered Cave Based Tangents full of Spiders and Nightmare Beetles it probably was. But to Maris— and many others, it was the hang out place.

Kind of odd considering it was an underground mini city.

But it worked. Much better than the surface at least.

There was no sun. Only Dye-Lamps of all colors stuck into the dark mudstone walls made to look like castles and dorms. It gave the place a shifting rainbow ambience that somehow didn't become annoying.

Maybe they were all just happy to get out of the sun. Maybe that was just Maris.

Either way, they were headed back in soon.

She knew it because of the hustle and bustle of Student bodies as everyone slipped into their armor and sheathed their weapons for the day.

Maris watched them all from her dorm window. Scouting her opponents. It didn't take much to know who was competing in the next event.

Some students yawned and slugged out of their mudstone homes like half dead ogres. Others were up— alert. Nervous.

And then there were those like her.

Watchers.

Her dorm room sat over a hundred feet above ground— filled with all manner of students. She liked being high up. She didn't like being level with who watched her from across the street though.

His eyes reflected the Dye-Lamps multicolored glow like inhuman jewels. Like the jewels that hung from a Goblin Shamans sagging throat.

Samuel. His matted and dreaded dirt blonde hair sat on his head like a wild mane in the shadows.

He was fighting. Even if she couldn't smell it, she'd heard his warnings of people not joining the Martial Arts competition.

For all she was concerned he could stick those words up his dirty blonde a—

The room got hit with a wave of cold that even she felt in all her numbness.

She turned around to find Ursula laying in her bed. Blooming flakes of ice spread across the metal framework as she lie still. One arm laid across her eyes. Her hair was spread out across her pillow like reddened shadows.

In the dark Maris could see the claws sprouting from her fingers.

She approached Ursula— who was never up so early, and grabbed her hand to pull it away from her face.

"What's the reason for your early rising?"

Ursula jumped, panicking to recollect herself and face anywhere but where Maris was for some reason.

After a while, the room warmed and Ursula faced her.

"I think Claude changed his mind about the Martial Arts Event."

Maris gripped her sword at her hip a little tighter, "Good."

"Aye! Calling up for Bear Woman and Goblin Girl! Feeling a little exposed without my people….hehe…" Warren yelled from the streets below their dorm.

They rushed out.

***

Like many others, they all walked the streets. Sunlandian Guards stationed at the ends of each block watched them go by one building after the other. Sometime along the way, they took staffs out of their pockets and aimed them to the sky.

Runes glowed along its length before it fired off a blast of fire that went straight to the globe-like chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Immediately the rainbow tones of the Dye Lamps faded with the ignition of their faux sun.

Suddenly it was daylight— signifying for the stragglers to get up and head to the surface. To feel the real suns warmth in battl—

"Ugh!" A heavy chested grunt followed the arms of someone wrapping around Ursula and Maris as they walked with Isaac and Warren.

"Hangovers and lights….. DO NOT mix…. Fucking hell….. where's your Beast Boy at?" Donna said as her messy brown bun of hair bounced with her lumbering gait.

Maris slipped out of her grip, ending up behind her just as Ursula pushed her so hard she was knocked off her feet. As if she weighed nothing.

"Let's respect personal boundaries until we're told not to anymore." Ursula said as they all watched her sluggishly rise to her feet.

She hiccuped as she faced them, her breath smelling of foul things even at her current distance.

"So…. I take it none of you lads want a drink then?" She offered her water skin once more. The liquids sloshed inside and made Maris' stomach turn.

Sometimes, she could feel what resides within the waters she controlled. The same way you could feel something on your skin or in your hair. When she reached for the fluids inside Donna's water skin she felt too much. Like a bar fight so full people walked on corpses bloated from bruises and breaks.

"Hey! Keep it moving or you're all getting removed from the Tournament!" One of the guards yelled to them from the end of the block.

Donna held up her chunky hands and the fabrics of her uniform screamed as they stretched.

"Right…. Right." She nodded, "Respect boundaries until we're told not too. I can do that…. Hehe…" She burped before skipping ahead of them.

Maris watched for a moment, unaware of the chaos approaching until Ursula shoved them all aside and jumped into the alley beside them with a Glacial Smash that knocked back a horde of what sounded like Zombies.

There was silence as the guards approached them angrily.

Then, a hand burst through the ice, bloody and crusted in frost.

"RAGGGFHHH!!!!"

SKCH!

Another.

SKCHHH!

Ten more.

The monsters began climbing over the ice filling the alleyway, veins glowing purple and pulsing like leeches left to feed. They trampled over each other and bit off noses and fingers like animals.

But they were not. Not animals. Not monsters.

They were students…..

Before the guards could reach them and the students, the floor rippled like an oceans surface, turning into thousands of hands that reached up and grabbed the frenzied students, locking them in a bind of earth that quickly reinforced into pure stone.

The guards approached and gave one look before signaling to the others.

"Get a medical unit down here, now! The rest of you move it or you'll miss the event."

Ursula and the others were rushed off.

Behind them a student walked casually. He was tall— like Claude. But much darker and much more expressive in his clothing. He wore golden jewels and armor that held his long neck and broad shoulders. The spear at his back was also similar to Claudes.

"You four are first years correct?" He suddenly asked. Ursula's response was delayed— she was still getting used to seeing people's mouthes move one way while their words did something else.

"Yes." They all replied.

"And you were the one who helped us back there?" Ursula guessed.

He nodded. "You were targeted…. By Donna."

"So that was her?" Isaac guessed.

"She's the Chosen of Bacchus. She does this every year. Her family puts so much into this whole charade that investigations never go anywhere. It's simply an event to overcome now."

None of them knew who that was. So the name held no weight in their memory.

"Like the rest of the Tournament?" Maris said.

The Sunlandian student nodded as the faux suns light shined on his black glossed lips and eyes, "We call it Frenzy Horde."

"It's the drink, right?" Ursula guessed.

He nodded again, "It is. And for whatever reason, she aims its power at you all."

Ursula cursed, "Is Bacchus a Greek or Roman god by any chance?"

"He is. An angry one as well."

Ursula pinched the bridge of her nose.

"That explains everything."

She was after them, because Bacchus was after their Druid.

Donna sang as she tripped and fell up the stairs in a drunken stupor to reach the surface. To reach Claude.

Ursula suddenly wondered how many other enemy god chosen walked the mudstone grounds with them.

How many enemies other than the Lupines of Remus, The Nine and the Rupont family were there?

She punched her fists together in a self rallying manner as she realized they'd know just how many very soon. She could already smell the blood coming.

She could already feel the madness.

Claude as well. He welcomed it all as he sat at the center of the stage amidst the crowd. Ready for war.