80 THE WOLVES DESCEND

They ran like death was hot on their heels. To anyone with a brain, it was.

Death.

The purest form.

Raw and feral and foul mouthed with eyes like the embers that burned before the entrance into hell.

Claude cried as he ran. He was the only one.

Naz was ice cold in her callousness as usual. Rallying them with her fighting urge as she tied up the grass to slow the beasts. Her actions caused the others to join in. Even if the dark shapes drifting through the green laughed and snapped through every attack with jaws of steel.

He was the only one who knew.

His father was a Lupine. He'd seen him first hand melt through an entire Tangent of goblins.

He'd seen him shrug off arrows through the face.

He'd seen him wield magical energies he couldn't even accurately describe. And from everything he'd learned, his father was one of the weaker members.

Now, they ran from a pack of them. For reasons that simply amounted to for the fun of it.

There seemed to be no plot.

They were just alone and at their wits en—

A massive Wolven head cut through the long-grass and snapped at Claude's side.

Reflexively, he swung down with his spear and cut the beast.

It fell back into the shadows.

Claude's brain went to work, "We're alone. Why are we alone!?"

Claude listened to his other senses, hoping to find an answer in the foul smells or heavy exhales.

Nothing.

The question remained.

The idea festered.

Claude ran up to the front of the group, he felt their questioning glances as he pushed and shoved his way to the front.

From there, he held up his fist to them, signaling a stop on the offensive gestures.

They ran still. Listening. Visibly yearning for any directive.

Then, Claude looked to his left and right before jumping out of sight.

"CLAUDE!" Ursula screamed.

Claude moved through the grass in a blur. Savage barks and panicked growls echoed as shapes and head rippled through the field in his direction.

Before his feet could even hit the ground, a Lupine came into view. A female. He didn't know how he knew but he was sure of it as their eyes met. Her fur was dark and her eyes were pink like nothing he'd ever seen. Her fur was also different from Prof. Whitechapel. It was smooth and longer. Almost shaggy in areas as if they were opposing breeds.

She shoulder bashed and sent him back with the rest of the group.

She could've ripped him to shreds. She could've bit him. And most importantly, any of them could've outran the best of them.

But they didn't.

Ursula caught him and kept running.

Claude didn't waste the opprotunity and squirmed in her arms until he was facing her ear.

"They're herding us." He whispered so low he wasn't even sure she heard it. But he couldn't risk letting the Lupines hear.

Ursula grunted, "What then?"

Claude pushed himself off of her and hit the ground running.

"Then we find out where we're going." Claude thought.

Immediately after, he began throwing his warp-fire javelin. No real direction. As he ran he simply threw it in a wide arc across the night sky.

Everytime it reached a certain elevation, he activated the warp-runes and teleported it back into his hands.

Again.

Again.

Again.

After every throw the spear grew hotter, turning into a red-hot sliver arcing across the skies.

"What are you doing, Cllllaude?!!!" Prof. Whitechapel snarled.

"Shit— I'm out of luck." Claude turned back to Ursula who was watching him like everyone else.

He pointed up and she nodded.

With nothing left to do, Claude turned around and jumped into Ursula's interlocked fingers.

His feet landed in her palms and she stiffened as he squatted— centering his power before exploding into the air.

Brink was suddenly right under him, throwing up a supporting gust of wind to send him even higher.

At the same time, an explosion of steam blinded the Lupines. He could only assume Samuel and Ursula either had their diversion planned or their opposing natures worked in his favor.

At least partially since the shape of a Lupine sprinting off from the group to follow him in the skies became very apparent. And terrifying.

Either way, he got to work.

As he soared, he aimed his smoldering spear and threw it at the grounds ahead.

It hit the ground, sending thin shockwaves of heat radiating out in bright orange circles.

The long grass flickered and caught fire.

He called the spear back and threw it again.

The fiery impact intensified, ashing the grass in a small radius.

He threw it a final time. The impact grew, sending spinning waves of fire out in an orange tidal wave.

He hit the scorched earth with a roll that was less than impressive due to Brinks wild winds forcing him to spin unevenly.

She was on him like shadows. Flowing dark fur and brilliantly hideous eyes. She burst from the burning long grass.

Flaming embers sparked on her magical frame, making the lupine look like a beastial apparition.

Claude rolled to the left, bouncing still from the impact of her land. He used the forced motion to roll to his feet.

She swung her claws, catching Claude by surprise.

Be brought up his hands and felt the talons rip through his gauntlets and nick bone. Before the scream could flow from him, she dropped back down to all fours and leg swept him.

While in the air, she grabbed him by the throat and slammed him back into the ground.

[60% HP Remaining!]

His wind was long gone.

So much for herding.

The Lupine didn't growl or bark or snarl. She studied him.

"No potential—"

Claude summoned his spear and stabbed at her face.

Casually, she smacked the weapon away and grabbed his wrist, shattering it with her grip strength.

"AAAAAAKKK!"

He could tell it wasn't on purpose.

[40% HP Remaining!]

She lifted him by the arm she held. Now beginning to snarl.

Then a ball of ice hit her in the back of the head. The impact caused her fiery pink aura to shimmer in response.

"Reactive aura. She's gold ranked…." Claude realized.

She didn't care about the snowball. Claude focused— using the time to began tracing roots around her legs. With the freshly burned ground and grass, the elemental reaction of nature being freshly burned gave it an intense growth boost. He needed the help. The pain frayed his focus.

And perception.

Another iceball hit, this time followed up with a dark-fire flame.

The reaction immediately engulfed the Lupines head in dark noxious fumes of poisonous steam.

She flung him across the burned clearing and swatted at the smoke as she erupted in a coughing fit.

Claude tightened the roots around her legs.

He hit the ground and rolled as the sounds of approaching bodies grew. All the while, he used the boosted flow of nature to make a cast around his right wrist out of vines and roots.

Claude didn't have time for much else. The marking on his left hand glimmered with arcs of green energy. He hoped Dandelon instilled the right kind of training in him. He'd only used (Vigor Blast) twice— each time was a fail. But the dryad said he had it down somehow.

If he didn't, he die.

He activated, (Vigor Blast). The marking on his left palm exploded with green fire. Like a magnet, all of the grass and vines and roots were pulled to him with so much force he felt his shoulder slowly exit its socket.

Nature in all its forms swirled behind the tattooing, copying the spinning design.

The lupine swatted away the smoke.

Claude swung in an uppercutting motion. Green arcs of energy spun off his hands, electrifying the Lupine with the shock of life.

Immediately after, all the collected nature behind him followed and knocked the lupine straight into the air with an upward slash of nature.

She yelped as she fell out of sight.

Claude fought down the urge to vomit. His hounds were surrounding him before he knew it, urging him to take on their traits for the sake of survival and strength.

His friends came rushing through the grass. Ursula was covered in superficial wounds. Samuel had ice crusting his armor. Naz was untouched. Tyrell was out of breath, Brink wasn't at all.

"Thanks for the help." Claude said.

"Everybody cover a zone. With visuals we can fight here." Samuel said.

"Hunts over." Prof. Whitechapel said as he stood up over the tall grass. The Lupines surrounded them.

Claude snarled— getting horrified reactions out of everyone due to his wolfed out appearance.

"We can't fight like this." Claude said as the creatures snapped and howled.

"Stop being a coward." Samuel spat.

"Do you even know what you're dealing with? You don't know them. You don't k—"

"Do you?" Naz asked.

"I—"

"Don't we all? We're dealing with something above our pay grade!" Ursula interrupted.

"We can't fight them on even ground." Claude managed. "We need to know what they're doing."

"They're trying to kill us. It's what all monsters do." Samuel threw a torrent of dark-fire across the valley, turning the shadows purple.

"Not these ones." Claude said.

"Claude!" Prof. Whitechapel barked. "You're pissing off my packmates! You're ruining the game!"

Samuel looked back at Claude.

"I thought you'd be more willing to play— or even join us….. you know with your smell and all. A couple of my folks here thought you were one of us!" Prof. Whitechapel said.

Claude felt his insides shrivel as everyone spared a glance at him.

"Hahaha! Aiko didn't though, she said you've got no potential. You're not a killer. With the way you're bugging me, I think you could be somethin….. you just need a little growth and development—"

"Jack, find silence." Somehow, Claude knew that was the pink eyed lupine speaking. She didn't sound even slightly affected by his heavy attack.

"Ok. You said we can't attack from here." Ursula said, "Where then?"

"Presumably up high if he'd also like to know where they're taking us." Percival added.

"Yea! Y'all get up there!" Prof. Whitechapel— now known as Jack, commented on their plans as he circled them, walking like a creature on stilts. He cackled from a snarling wolfish face.

They stared at him. Still stunned by his ghastly appearance.

He snapped, "WE AINT THE WAITING TYPE! THREE…. TWO!.."

"Brink!" Claude snapped, "Updraft!"

Brink pulled the winds sweeping across the long grass.

"ONE!"

He threw his hands up and sent them all into the air with a heavy blast of wind.

At the same time, Claude used his growth boosted nature, weaving vines and roots into a platform that rose up with them until they landed on a vine and braided grass platform fifty feet above the long grass.

They all recovered.

Claude sighed.

"Damn dude….. that's…."

"More than I planned.." Claude said as he stood up and looked around at the platform. Is was even wider than the clearing formed beneath them. And that had a radius of a couple hundred feet.

Sage smelling energies enveloped him and his wounds began to close.

Claude stood up at sixty-percent health points and walked out to the edges of the platform as the Lupines roared below him.

"We need to see where they're taking us." Claude said.

"I see nothing." Naz said.

"This is insane…" Tyrell muttered.

"That's the point, folks."

They all spun around to find Jack standing on the platform with them. A greasy furred humanoid wolf behemoth, grinning like a clown. Grinning like a starved man at the sight of dinner.

They brac—

Blood splattered, splashing against Claude's face.

He turned and found Jack standing beside him suddenly with Tyrell held by the shoulders. His head was missing.

Wrong. It was crushed between Jack's jaws.

Bits of skull and brain leaked between his fangs and open mouth.

He laughed, gurgling foamy blood as he watched Claude's face twist into one of pure horror.

The other Lupines began bursting through the floor of the platform.

They reveled in the fear— expecting the young heroes to be frozen in fear.

But Claude had already seen the Lupines. He'd seen gods and dark eaters and demon snakes.

Now all he felt was rage.

He moved. His team followed.

The braided nature they ripped through foretified, catching them halfway through and others by the legs. The vines hardened and grew poisonous edges that dug into the beasts.

Frosty took off, wheeling around behind a stuck Lupine and crushing its spine between his jaws.

It took all the hounds to make it happen, and somehow it wasn't dead.

Jack moved as a blur, dodging as Claude stabbed at him.

Naz came from behind with her scythe, sinking it into his shoulder and pulling herself into the beast to kick him in the back.

Jack used the boost to lunge at Claude.

Claude rolled out of the way.

Jack continued onward, smashing into Percival who was about to drive his sword into a snared Lupine.

"NO!"

Percival went down with the Lupine and basically exploded from the Lupines high speed ferocity.

He continued laughing.

Until Claude covered him entirely in vines and threw his spear through it.

He called his spear back and moved to do it again until he was slashed from behind.

"Better." Aiko growled.

Jack burst out of his natural prison with a roar, "Hate all this damn magic!"

"Jack. The objective." Aiko spat. Then sighed angrily as a wave of darkfire took her over.

She remained standing, only now her fur steamed.

Jack laughed, "Right. Hey, prince! Come here!"

Jack lunged, tackling Samuel off the platform at speeds that were difficult to comprehend.

Claude tried to chase after them only for Aiko to slam him into the ground. Her pawed hand held him firm, forcing him to watch his friends slowly be swarmed by the Lupines.

Forcing him to watch Tyrell's body continue to twitch without its head.

There was barely even a trace of Percival left beyond the bones and drip drop of his blood like rain.

His hounds surrounded Ursula— so overstimulated and afraid that they didn't even notice he was about to die.

He kind of hoped it stayed that way. He hoped as Akio's hot breath rolled down his sweating neck.

Suddenly another Lupine came crashing into her, letting of weird sounding barks. Almost like they were caught between English words.

Before Claude could react, many more Lupines were being thrown aside and surprise attacked by the one.

He was a bit larger than the others. Brown furred. Save for the grey streaks on the side of his head and blood covering his snout.

He turned back to Claude as he stood in front of Ursula, Brink, Naz and his hounds.

"…d-dad?"

Gil whined, "Kid…. we've gotta get you out of here."