87 STARVED

Claude rode Frosty into battle. They were a massive blur cutting through the white storm-world they currently called home.

Somehow, the steppe-orcs could see. They fired arrows and threw spears of bone and fang at them as they closed in.

The thick icy snowfall cut Claude's skin and burned his eyes, causing him to close them and settle with seeing through Frosty's eyes.

His vision became more centralized and focused on the front of the world like all predators.

The massive god-eater Lupine blasted through snow banks and stomped across frozen ravines hiding the carcasses of long dead creatures and missed projectiles.

As he ran, Frosty dropped low and scooped two spears up with his tusks.

He barked as he looked back at Claude.

"Thanks."

Claude leaned forward on Frosty's back, reaching up to his head to grab the spears.

They were made of wood with black stone tips. In the stone, fissures of smokey blue essence glimmered.

"[Cobalt-flame infused obsidian…. these steppe-orcs are no jok—]"

Another volley of arrows fell from the skies.

Frosty zig zagged up the snowed in hill.

Claude oriented himself with the enemy based on how the arrows fell. Based on their chants in the distance.

He lifted his spear and threw it.

The weapon whistled through the air, erupting in icy blue flames before hitting someone in the distance causing a scream to echo through the white expanse.

The spear must've pinned the steppe-orc to a tree because deeper in the white haze, a flash of blue flame exploded in the shape of a tree before flash freezing around the branches.

Suddenly they had a location.

Frosty sped up the hill, taking massive hops and lunges to wade through the deep snow drifts until suddenly they were running on flatland and Claude had a firm smell.

They stunk.

But also.

The steppe-orcs were in range. He activated his (Beast Trait) skill. For the first time in ever, it was agonizing. Quick, but horribly painful. His bones ached. His skin split in places and his jaw cracked a dozen times in a blur of transformative movement.

He stayed focused on the enemy.

A simple pack of them. No more than six pale skinned goblins all over six and a half feet tall with bodies densely packed with muscle. They wore animal furs that made them nearly invisible and carried enchanted weapons.

Weapons they raised as they noticed the two beasts approach.

No dialogue was needed between Claude and Frosty.

Three arrows hit Frosty in the shoulders from a hidden archer to the left.

An unknown magical essence rose from Frosty's wounds. Cyan fiery energy with a cruel red outline. Like enflamed blood.

It hit Claude.

[Vengeance Trigger Activated!]

[+10% Damage Boost]

Claude didn't have time to truly take in what the system screen was trying to tell him as he jumped off of Frosty's back and soared in the air.

Another arrow hit him in the arm.

He snarled, but stayed on target as he crashed into the band of steppe-orcs.

He took down the center-most creature. They crashed into the snow, falling beneath the frozen white waves immediately.

Claude went wild, slashing through the visor of bone they wore to block the blinding brightness.

The steppe-orc screamed as Claude ripped out an eye.

Immediately, he was thrown off.

He went with the movement, rising up from beneath the snow to shoulder charge the next closest attacker.

The steppe-orc had bones of iron.

Claude regretted his decision as the pale goblin caught him in a bear hug and spun, throwing him across the snow.

Immediately the steppe-orc was taken down by Frosty in a massive flash of white fur.

But three more searched for Claude through the snow, stabbing and kicking at the white.

Claude waited for the sound of both of their attacks. Only then, he exploded from beneath the snow again, throwing a wall of white at them to blind.

From there, he manipulated the half-dead roots beneath the snow, pulling up a sloppy spike of wood behind the steppe-orc and impaling it.

[+100 EXP]

The remaining attacker lunged at him with a sword.

Claude sidestepped the overhand swing and grabbed its arm.

His ears twitched at the sound of a bowstring being pulled somewhere to the left of him.

He grabbed the steppe-orc and spun around, using the large goblin as a meat-shield against the arrow fire.

As it sailed, he caught the glint of blue.

More cobalt-fire obsidian.

As soon as the arrow hit the steppe-orc's hide cloak, it was frozen solid.

The creature overpowered Claude and broke out of its frozen cloak with a mannish roar and flash of rippling muscle.

It charged, leveling a punch straight into his face.

Claude stumbled backward with eyes full of water at the nasal pain.

[15% HP Remaining….]

He snarled.

The goblin punched him again in the stomach.

[10% HP Remaining…]

Claude held brought his arms out, digging his claws into its exposed back to hold the creature close. From there, he jumped, driving his knee into its bony face.

It's nose broke.

Blood squirted like a geyser.

Claude felt energized as he tackled the goblin beneath the snow.

It tried to push him off with a hand. Instinctively, Claude opened his jaws and clamped down on its hand. He could feel the bones shatter between his teeth.

The goblin screamed.

At the same time, Claude's hands were a blur as he mauled the goblin.

The white world flowed red.

And the boy became beast.

Hideous snarls and crunching bone echoed.

Claude tore away strips of flesh and choked on the hot flowing blood. It drove him onward. His gums ached horribly— only feeling release when he was biting through bone and sucking out sweet icy marrow.

Slowly the goblin stopped fighting.

Giving a final act of resistance with a roar.

Claude lunged, biting into its face savagely. He swallowed teeth and snot as he tore through its nose and mouth—

[+150 EXP]

He froze.

His human mind returned from the red haze.

A pool of half frozen blood surrounded him. He could see his reflection in the red ice.

He looked….

Like his father.

A Wolven face with sharp ears and sabered fangs. His hair was long. Black curly shadows failing to hide the wild verdant glow of his eyes. His maw was a mangled mess of blood and flesh strips.

He was naked. Covered in brown and black fur.

He wasn't human.

He was like them.

He was hungry.

So hungry.

His eyes gravitated back to the half eaten goblin.

"[Whats the hold-up, mate? You're starving. You haven't eaten in weeks. This is a great outcome. The fact that you were able to defeat these roaming creatures is a godsend! Eat up. Let's get strong. Let's—]"

"Shut-up…." Claude's eyes watered as he looked at the corpse. Nearly in a trance.

"[Wha—]"

"Shut... the fuck up."

Claude's lips curled as he growled. Saliva flowed from his jaws. Hunger twisted his stomach into a band that held his spine.

"[...Claude.]"

"I'm not like them. I don't do... this." The hunger was unlike anything he'd ever felt. It came in waves that assaulted his entire body.

He broke out into a sweat. He felt waves of seizing mania. He considered dying and joining his father as he resisted for hours.

When the exhale came he realized he just experienced a lifetime of pain in a matter of seconds.

The corpse remained.

He leaned closer.

His jaws opened.

He roared at himself and punched the ground so hard one of his fingers broke.

"STOP!"

To anyone else, he looked like a wild animal guarding his kill from nothing. A ghost.

The ghost in question being the ghosts of his very recent past.

He could still see Jack, Dier, Aiko and Dolion surrounding him. A foot on his back, pushing him to be this….

"I'm not this…" Claude hissed, words broken by his cries. "I'm not…."

He remained there.

Frozen.

Resisting instinct left to boil over for weeks. Resisting nature. Trying to manipulate and control it like the elements.

And try he would.

Because in trying, he was fighting.

And fighting was all he had.

No more friends.

No more heroes.

No one but his brother and the fight.

And the haunting realization that he was entirely unlike himself in a place he knew nothing of but the ice.