Kapitel 460: CHPT 460: Rush, To Learn and To Survive…
After the first bout of combat against the Moorseel, a steady stream of the wild men flowed. Keeping the group hydrated with violence.
They traveled through forests, running into other students and Professors along the way. As well as other Moorseel. Like man and Lupine, they were various. Some were larger. Others smaller and sticking to the trees. But whatever came their way they cut down.
And along the way Claude and his group became familiar with the others.
Claude became especially close to Evelyn. The Vulpine Beast Tamer. She didn't talk much, but Claude was able to learn from her in each combat sequence in new ways. And she didn't hesitate to use his assistance in battle. None of them did. Upperclassmen had witnessed danger of the upper echelons. They didn't have time for petty drama or prejudice. They fought to survive.
As everyone was currently doing…
WOO—CLNK!
A wooden club shattered as it connected with the back of Claude's head. He left his spear inside the Moorseel he just skewered and sent his elbow into the flanking attackers face.
He could hear it's teeth bounce off the trees in response. Before it could recover he took his spear back and swung it in a wide circle.
SWSH!!
The Moorseel in front and behind him fell with opened throats and blooded wood/leather armor.
[+200 EXP]
The fighting inside the forest tugged at his senses. He had a view of everything with his Natural Vision and connection to his pack.
It's that very thing that allowed him to see the two Moorseel bounding through the canopy above. No more than forty feet away. They were headed for Evelyn as she stalked above, dropping down on the ones attacking Ursula and the others.
Claude threw his spear.
SHCK!
The weapon ripped upward through its back and jaw as it jumped from one branch to another.
He took off for the other one, yelling out to Evelyn as he did so. She jumped to another branch the moment she heard her name. Another thing he noticed the upperclassmen do that seemed learned. Something that was practical. No reason to turn and see what's coming for you when you can just move. So obvious.
She turned around just as Claude jumped up over fifteen feet to grab a branch, swinging all the way around to slam his feet into the Moorseel lunging at her.
CRACK!!
"ACK— KCFU!" The Moorseel cursed in its twisted foreign language as it flew backward, slamming into the branch it previously leapt from.
In a rush it rose to its feet and waved its fanged dagger while watching them with crazy brown eyes. No pupils in sight.
"Tsaeb….nam—AHHRRR!!" The Moorseel's words were cut short as an invisible predator pounced, sinking thick fangs into its throat and shaking wildly until its neck snapped.
It was around that time that the others fled. Something they always did when the numbers shrunk.
Claude dug his claws into the tree he stood on the branches of. Holding to the wood. Focusing on its power within to ignore the urge he had to chase the prey. Sometimes it was like forcing yourself to stop breathing after a five mile run.
Ursula moved on them. He could see it in his minds eye. Claude rooted her to the floor with thick vines and dropped down to her. She stood with the others a bit ahead in an open area. The ground was all chunks of ice and puddles where the flames once burned too hot.
As they all cleaned their weapons and took resources he approached her.
She wasn't looking at him. Or maybe he was. He couldn't really tell when her eyes went white.
She was doing a good job hiding the shift. The ice kept her cool as it grew on her armor and exposed skin. But instinct overcame elsewhere. Blood dripped from her hands where her claws dug too deep while she gripped her axes.
He sent a healing boost through the vines that held her while grabbing her face to look at him.
"In the mouth…. Out the nose. Forget the smells and slow the pulse." Claude whispered as she stared at him through her bear skull helmet.
Ursula slowly nodded.
"You need to get into herbs." Evelyn said from the trees above him as she watched.
Claude looked up at her. Her black and silver micro braids stood out against the green backdrop, "What do you mean?"
"Aren't you a Healer?" She asked.
"It's a recent development." Claude said while also trying to send calming feelings to Ursula through their link. Multitasking was a pain.
"Berserker's are only as useful as their Healers are smart." Evelyn said before using her claws to slide down the tree.
The moment she hit the ground her Vulkura companions were trotting next to her with blood all over them.
"Ivy." Evelyn called out.
Evelyn came running from the bodies they searched further ahead.
"We've got Hector—"
"It's El Sombra!" The groups Assassin yelled from behind her.
Ivy rolled her eyes as she pushed her round glasses up her long nose, "He's got a trail to track with you guys so we're ready whenever."
Evelyn nodded casually, "Before we start that do you have any coolers? Our Berserker's heating up."
"Was that a play on words?" Ursula said, growling possibly more than she meant to.
"Depends on if my answer will get me eaten or not." Evelyn said casually before walking off to the others. "Help them please, Ivy."
Ivy nodded before facing Claude and Ursula, "We had a Berserker once."
She started digging through her belt.
"What happened to her?" Claude asked while still holding Ursula.
"HE…" Ivy started, "He went wild. He was a real meathead. His name was Blake. He never calculated his Berserker's Rage. He just let it build up and up. So one day he did that and ran into a Boss nobody was ready for. There wasn't much left of him by the time the Tangent was complete."
"Shit." Ursula whispered.
"Yea. That was year one. Before Healers were able to take lessons on Tangent Forgery and Healing Concoctions. But ever since I've kept these on me!" Ivy pulled out a small bag and took off the string binding.
Immediately lemon and minty scents filled the air. The two Lupines and likeminded creatures sneezed. Claude and Ursula bumped heads in response.
"Woah…. You guys have some strong noses." Ivy commented as Ursula took it.
"What is it?"
"Lemongrass…. Lavender oils and spearmint leaves. I had a Nature user grow it with a magical accelerant. It should help regulate the rag—"
DING!
Everyone froze.
[The Primal Sapien Tangent Boss has been found! Help your Allies destroy this foe to Escape the Tangen—]
KRAKABOOM!
A bolt of lightning fell from the sky and turned everyone's vision to that of pure blue-white for a fraction of a second.
An ear splitting scream echoed, dying out with every foot traveled. Like the essence of a living thing dissipating slowly.
DING!
[Your allies have slain the Primal Sapien! Collect your loot and escape the Tangent quickly!]
Slowly human voices filled the silence. He could smell fear wafting from the more experienced members in his group as they began yelling along with them.
"RUSH!!"
"RUSH!"
"RUSSSH!"
"What's going on!?" Warren questioned as he clutched his bow.
"The Tangent Boss was slain, but there's still regulars running around. We have clearance to complete these extra Tangents. But complete means slay everything. We have to kill everything that remains before the Tangent closes or we all die here." Evelyn explained to the group from beside Warren and Isaac.
"Aye! Who the FUCK made that rule?!" Warren questioned.
"Someone id like to meet." Maris commented.
"Doesn't matter. MOVE!" Evelyn said to Warren and the others.
Immediately everyone took off. With Claude at the front he became de facto tracker of the last runners. Easy enough, it would've been him anyway. Ursula and Ivy trailed him closest as he went to work.
Drops of blood hung to leaves and plants from their torn feet and arms after tripping and running through the trees.
A couple times he had to make hard turns through the greenery as he found smashed in bushes they fell through.
After a mile their trail straightened and led the group up a hill and into a set of caves covered by vines. It reminded Claude of where he found the HellBred Plated Snake. The memory made him shiver.
They entered with little hesitation. Not the smartest but they didn't have time.
"We need a way back. Not all of us have perfect vision in the dark and if the one's that do get injured we're screwed." Evelyn said as they looked around the dark interior.
"Why don't we use the back up weapons?" Isaac said as he lit his wooden club on fire and laid it on the floor.
"Good thinking, Knight." Ivy said.
From that point on the cave grew a bit brighter from the flaming weapons laid down their path.
The light gave the others confidence. It didn't take long to find the stragglers. And then some.
Then again they weren't really trying to be stealthy. The stragglers at least.
"AHH!! AHH!!" They screamed and panicked in the shadows, slamming rocks together and throwing them at the group as they took cover.
Claude shut his eyes as he sat behind a rock and felt his pulse quicken at the sight of many.
More than twenty. They emerged from holes and pathways inside a larger corridor within the cave and killed the two runners.
Nothing was as surprising as how they were killed.
ZZSSHhzz!!
The room lit up as the two Moorseel were hit with a blast of grayish liquid-like lightning.
Their fried corpses hit the ground like fallen loot.
Claude looked over at the others. He could see the realization on the upperclassmen's faces more than the others.
The Moorseel were a weird monster. Not because they didn't have scales or fur. Because they were human. Closer than even the apes on the outside world.
There were Tangent Biologists that believed Tangents are a time based reoccurring phenomena. Something that loads up and fills before disappearing and returning to do the same. Empty and refill. It would explain why Tangents hold Dinosaurs and Dire Wolves. And the Moorseel, who resemble cavemen.
Working in tandem with that theory is the concept of Rebirth. A power given to man. That's a rule with grey area. Whatever counts as man is found in certain Apes, allowing them to be Reborn…. In a way.
That same thing must be able to happen to the Moorseel.
What a terrible time to see that theory in real time.
He could smell more fear than ever off of everyone. It heated his blood.
Ursula bumped his shoulder. He could see in her face that she was listening to his thoughts the entire time.
"I didn't take the cooling herb yet."
"What's your percentage?" Claude asked as the awakened wild men in the shadows approached.
"…..sixty." Her eyes glowed.
"There's no light."
"Let loose?" Ursula asked.
Claude's chest erupted with green sparks of light and black shadows spilled from his hands as Monsters spilled out of him and he began to partially transform.
"Let loose."
Ursula took off into the shadows with Claude and his tamed beasts.
The others tried to call them back but were overpowered by the sounds of absolute violence.
***
Isaac shivered at the wolffish snarls that echoed and found himself watching the flashing images of a trail of blood slowly slither closer to them.
"Shouldn't we be doing something?" Ivy called out.
"First years either learn, die or overcome. We told them to wait. They made their own decision." Evelyn replied.
Isaac didn't hear the rest of the convo as he watched the blood slither over to Maris. It rose up and hovered as a ball in her hands. He could only see it and her with every burst of glowing light in the shadows.
She watched it, transfixed. He never took her to be transfixed. Then she touched the blood. And it glowed. Not red. But a multitude of other colors— properties even. Like the blood of a dozen things held together by something he couldn't even comprehend….
"What the hell….?"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein