CHPT 485: God Blood

"[Three skills? Some of these gods sound a bit more charitable than I imagined….. or you're getting royally fucked by Fenrir.]" Arne commented as Claude waited for Donna to catch up to him and his.

The sands swirled in the winds of the desert biome, moving the heat around like a suffocating see through blanket of fire. Claude could feel his mouth go dry as all his moisture was slowly sapped.

He looked down at his sweaty hands, seeing the tiny spirals of steam.

"Perfect." After ordering Frosty and Loba to remain in Predators forest there was only one person who'd truly feel the heat reflected off the sands.

"Ohhhhh long legs!?" Donna called out to him before a purple line of fluids flew overhead and cleaved through the boulder Claude stood in front of.

Donna walked through the severed remains, spinning her blade as a trail of magical ale followed its blades edge. Like those streamers dancers use at events. Only a thousand times more dire in the current moment.

"You look bloody insane. If all Druids are like this I see why the gods hate you, unfortunately." Donna commented before slashing out with her sword.

She was still too far away to physically hit him, but the stream of maddening fluids closed the distance.

Like the tentacle of an Octolepid the fluids lurched at Claude.

He sidestepped and found himself behind another rock formation.

The assault continued with her sending stabbing blasts into the rock that shook the dust from it overhead.

"[I hope you have a plan.]" Arne commented as the rock slowly wilted from the liquid assault.

"I do. I'm gonna run her down. She's got no speed or stamina— and if I try to take her down with heavy blows….. I can win, but I can also ingest whatever she's using as her Element. I have no interest in ale."

"[Fair enough. But might I suggest upping the pace to tire her out faster? The whole point of this was to stop Samuel and Bengal from seeing any of there potential. The longer she stands the more you fail.]"

Claude activated his Malevolence Tether. The silver and green lined gauntlet encased his forearm and hands, fitting perfectly over his arm bracer as if they were two pieces of the same set.

The chain fell from around his wrist steaming and lined with green sparks of flames.

Claude looked to his left to find Diamondback waiting in the shadows of a cliffs edge.

All was set to sail. Now to face the tide of battle.

BOOM!

The boulder shattered. Claude wasn't there.

Donna looked a—

FWIP!

A chain wrapped her legs followed by a yank that nearly broke her ankle.

"ACK!"

She landed on her back hard. The moment she opened her eyes Claude stood above her, his aura flowy and shadowing his previous movements like a steady afterimage.

Not Aura.

She reinforced her Aura on the frontside of her body as Claude slammed his spear down into her chest.

WMBLWBOOM!

He fought off the bouncing surface, holding his spear with both hands.

No damage.

"Hehe—ARRGH!"

SHLSH!

A hole exploded through her shoulder as if she was stabbed from behind which would've been impossible since she laid on her back.

It didn't take a genius to know Claude was using a physical Spell.

She swung at him, only for him to dart out into the distance again.

"Cheap shot! Don't count on it happening again. Here come try." Donna opened her arms.

Another chain grab, wrapping her arm this time.

She smiled as she turned and grabbed it, putting her weight into pulling it to her.

The moment she leaned backward it disappeared in a burst of green flames.

Crnch!

Diamondback took the chance to sneak up and wrap his jaws around her shoulder. The reflective bounce of her Aura triggered his hunting instinct causing him to mangle and shake her. The muscles in his scaled neck bulged like a column of biceps as he shook her slowly.

"Enough!" Claudes voice echoed with urgency.

Diamondback tossed her aside and ran off.

As Donna fell, she swung her sword the reptile. The fluid trail reached for him, gaining with every millisecond. Until Claude grabbed her with his Malevolence Tether and yanked her into him.

Her weight smashed into his chest like a wrecking ball. He hit the rock wall behind him twice due to her aura. Hard enough to leave cracks as he disengaged.

In her exhaustion he tripled down on the pressure.

Like his battle with the Pit-Gnoll two months ago. He flew and dashed around her with his Tether and spear in an unpredictable flurry of blows. Every gut he landed was doubled with a punch, elbow or slash elsewhere.

Cut….

Stab…..

Rip…..

Tear….

Again. Again. Erase the potential.

After a while her armor started to fall from her as her aura waned like an early months Moon.

And her ale disintegrated slowly with every missed strike under the sun.

The battle was over. Even the announcer said s—

ENOUGH!

A small earthquake hit in a fast and hard burst that rose the sands like snowfall in reverse and sent Claude tumbling. He laid in the sands, smelling moisture from the newly formed cracks.

"She pulled the moisture from underground..?"

"[Impressive to do so quickly while also holding in her blood and aura. If this girl had stamina and speed she'd be….. oh I don't want to theorize.]"

He came to a stop in front of her— no more than sixty feet away. Covered in cuts and bruises shown from the holes and cuts in her uniform.

She looked like an angry drunk.

Eyes low. Slobbering. Hair a mess.

"Gibme…. My dAMN SKILLS!" Donna raged and rose her sword as she threw her head back and opened her drooling mouth.

The magical ale flew into the sky.

"Oh fuck that."

No reason to watch what came next. Claude threw out his Malevolence Tether, the bladed end shifted shape in response to his will, becoming a shield silver embroidered with sigils of forestry and demonics.

As the ale fell towards Donna's mouth, the shield flew overhead, blocking the fluids from her body like an umbrella to rainfall.

Claude's Tether vanished as the fluids sunk into the sands with her blood and sweat.

Before she could say anything else he punched her out.

She hit the ground snoring... muttering?

"I….win."

Claude's ears twitched as the sands moved. He looked around at the ground beneath him. Worried that the moisture she called from underground before was a warning to something greater.

But it wasn't that at all.

It was the sand. No, it was her. It was Donna's essence.

Her blood…. Her sweat …. Her foul ale saturated drool.

Wherever it lay the sands gained animation. A swirling coalescence of magical fluid and physical earth. Life and it's imposing will on what lacked that very thing.

CRNCH!

A hand burst from the sand where her blood pooled. The sand clung to the surface like armor, but he could see the skin beneath— in between the chinks and spaces. Red and fluidlike.

All around, more of the blood-skinned sand warriors rose from the earth. Some had snakes heads, others wielded tridents and spears made of hardened earth and sand.

Claude unsheathed his second spear.

"Sand Nymphs?"

Diamondback hissed as he guarded his backside and let out a roar as the magically born elemental spirits closed in.

Loba stood atop the rock wall at his back, sabered fangs glistening in the sun, as Frosty grew large enough that his shadow gave her a chance to slip into pure invisibility.

He could hear the crowd grow louder.

He could also hear the guards coming.

"Easy." Claude raised his hands

FWSHHH!!

Heavy winds blew his hair into his face, blinding him from the swift violence if only for a moment.

The Sand Nymphs were dead. Heads rolling into the sands until they lost form and were returned back to blood and sand.

Sunlandian Guards surrounded him with swords already back in their sheaths and bodies hidden in their dark cloaks. They turned their Pyramid heads onto him.

"You may return to the Ra Stadium Grounds to claim your victory."

Claude made his way towards the noise.

"Now to do it all again."

"[Indeed. Hopefully all Greco-Roman Chosen can't spawn Monsters from their bodily fluids.]"