CHPT 558:Not Unchanged, But Unbroken This Time— All the Same….

Saturday Morning, April 3rd 2241. Location, The Sunlands' Libyan Desert.

"Ohhhhh Ursula!!!!"

"HRAAGH!"

CHOP!

"...Dearest Maris….."

SHING!!!

"My beautiful sis—"

Rupont turned as the shadows cast by something….. a being, nothing short of massive swallowed his stylishly embroidered frame.

Its breathing caused his dark brown middle parted hair to sway in and out of his eyes.

He looked from the ground up, carelessly casual as a war waged on the sands behind him— hell, all around him.

Hooves bit deep into the bloody clumpy sands. Holding up massive legs wrapped in black skin. It reminded him of a horse in all its tight veiny intensity. Thin black hair tinged with red and grey thickened as his eyes rose up to a barrel chest. Every inhale released steam and brightened the internal organs that must've been as hot as the stars. Its face that looked like a cross between an Ape, Elephant and Rhino fit with a horn and two tusk was almost irrelevant. The organs….

All it did was make him hungry. He saw humans insides the same way when he was low on blood.

Like a psuedo frenzy laid out before him.

A dead Goblin flew across his peripherals full of frozen arrows and gaping wounds.

"So much stimulation…. If I were less of a—"

The Fire Troll raised its massive heavy arms to squash him. Trails of smoke spiraled off its knuckles as if they were hot coals.

They stayed there. Up in the air, keeping the bugs away as Rupont looked into its eyes.

No flare, no pizzaz. Just a look. Like the predators most ideal hunting strategy made real.

No effort. No pain. No struggle….

Rupont dug into his pocket and pulled out a cigar. He pressed the end into the Fire Trolls abdomen and watched it ignite.

While still watching the beast, he took a long drag. "You know….. I really don't like fire. But, where there's smoke…. Ah, you know the rest, don't you?"

He took another inhale, feeling it fill his empty archaic insides and dance around the active magic within.

"I suppose I should stop….. A Vampire doesn't need any extra addictions. Just blood is fine… even if it's hot as all fuck…." Rupont blew on the massive Fire Troll heart suddenly in his other hand.

He looked away from the beast finally and it fell with a massive hole in its chest.

The heart still beat in his hands. His skin slowly shifted to a dusky pale coloring. The fabrics at the back of his longcoat stretched. He giggled and opened his fanged m—

"AUURCK!"

Something bumped him, causing him to stumble forward and drop the steaming blood pie into the dirty sands.

"Bloody h…..haha… pun intended." Rupont turned around and stomped the Goblin into a paste, still smiling faintly.

He looked up to find Isaac standing awkwardly with his hands up. His Knights armor steamed as if he too was a Fire Troll, "S-So sorry, Rupont— I didn't mean…."

Rupont bowed, "Finally…. Someone acknowledges me. Young prince of the Sunlands….."

"….Erhm— Yes, Mr. Fiara?"

"I think it's time we head back. Not only does the sun come, but so does The Nine and many others within the Tournament walls. They can't hold us forever. That's not good. Never put a madman on a timer."

"Right…"

Isaac looked around as if for the first time. The desert spanned far. Seemingly too far to make it back to Tournament grounds in good time. Hills and valleys split them off from the rest of the world— gave them night longer as the sun fell behind its peaks.

Old World city remnants poked out of nearby sand dunes giving nothing but shadowy sanded corridors and halls full of corpses as old as the new age. Weird dark fiends hung to the insides like bugs on a corpse. No danger there. More than enough littered the sands.

They were dead now.

Ruponts sundown slaughter squad made sure of it.

He brushed himself off and clapped his hands, "Gather round friends…."

In the fading darkness many forms moved on him.

Suddenly he was surrounded by a gaggle of young warriors so wracked with anxiety and sleep deprivation it almost overpowered the smell of carcasses around them.

"Why are we stopping? Yesterday we were out here for five hours... today it's only been…. We need more time I didn't level up. Claude didn't….."

Rupont watched as Sloane put a hand on Ursula's shoulder. Something that took an incredible amount of reach considering Ursula's current size. Giant size.

"Remember the deep breaths. You didn't absorb any extra rage, did you?" Sloane questioned Ursula, making sure not to meet her gaze despite being an Alpha.

First time Rupont had seen such a reaction.

"No. Id like to absorb some extra experience though. Are we forgetting he's still out there somewhere!?"

"I'm not." Maris answered, "Let's keep going. Just the two of us if no one else is able."

"It's not about able…. It's about what awaits us." Rupont replied.

Ursula growled and Warren slipped on the sudden icy floor.

"Hell, if there were more Giant-Killer Lupines at the height of their power maybe they would've survived…." Rupont studied the intense nine foot tall shifter. Frosty and Loba circled her, bells jingling around their necks.

"What awaits us…. Why do you hold so many secrets but insist on helping us?" Maris questioned. Her shoulder length hair ruffled in the wind, masking her Royal features he could've swore he'd seen in blood dreams.

"Some secrets are kept as a kindness, young Queen." Rupont replied.

"You sound like Claude." Maris sheathed her sword, "But I like Claude more…. So what's the reason for risking his power gain by stopping us early."

"Safety… reunion. The night is different now." Rupont replied before turning to look at the others with him.

"I don't know if I like different, fangs." Cassidy commented from Ursula's right.

"I KNOW I don't like different." Warren said as he picked a Goblin finger off Maris' shoulder. She slapped his hand reflexively before hesitantly patting his shoulder in apology.

"You're all anxious and you don't even know it. A presence is dominating you from afar." Rupont thought before splitting the grouping.

"We're taking a detour, follow." He replied before bursting into a cloud of purple smoke surrounding a black wolf. He took off in a blur.

The others followed. Unsure of what was to come.

Ursula considered new and more strenuous training methods— possibly something to get her out of the Silver Ranking to aid Claude in whatever he faced across the ocean. Possibly some deeper Lupine knowledge Rupont was willing to share again….

Maris thought of evolution. Blood. Ascension. As she ran, she imagined swimming in crimson waves at the bottom of a cliff where women were held up on pikes. Just like her dreams.

Everyone had their ideas. No one was correct.

They ran for half an hour at least. Ursula wasn't one for feats of stamina— she had a lot of mass to move. She also wasn't one for patience. Not these days.

They all traveled down a massive sand dune. Something akin to a mountain. Ursula slid down the slopes, riding the waves of ice she blasted into the sands ahead of herself in a glacial slide that spanned for a mile.

Rupont trotted next to her. Vampiric wolf tongue dangling from his jaws.

Sometimes he played too much…

"Hey! Rupont, stop fucking with me. What are we doing here."

They hit the bottom of the hill. Rupont skidded to a halt, hopping around to dodge the less experienced and fast travelers who couldn't react to the suddenness.

Then he sat and howled. Frosty joined in instinctively.

Everyone else drew their weapons and panicked.

"Why does he always have to do random shit, man?!" Warren loaded up and Arrow. Cassidy adjusted his draw despite the madness.

"Fighting low ground. I like the disadvantage." Maris commented.

"How about fighting Ronin? The suns coming…."

Everyone looked up at the sky once.

Except for Ursula and Cassidy.

Rupont shifted back to his human form.

"We're not fighting…." Ursula grabbed her head and shifted back to human form. Tears rolled down her face.

Frosty and Loba began snarling and barking wildly in excitement and confusion as an old bond reconnected. Like a wire pulled taut and out of the shadows. Left as strong as before. No, stronger.

The rising sun ripped away the shadows ahead slowly, giving light to the band of individuals walking towards them.

Isaac removed his helmet. "No way…."

Maris looked to Rupont, "How'd you know?"

Rupont smiled and put a finger to his lips.