Chapitre 491: CHPT 491: Something about cats.... and Her
Ra Stadium was massive. It had to be. It was a collection of biomes-- small worlds, all circled by stores and spectating seats. It was inhuman-- unnatural in design. And that fact felt even truer as Claude followed the cats. With the guardsmen elsewhere, they ran along the outer walls like wild animals, embracing their top speeds with no fear. No worry of revealing. Claude had never seen house cats run so fast. Then again, something told him that nomenclature wasn't very accurate. He and Cassidy didn't have much time to discuss it as they closed in on their destination.
The black smokey cloud of traveling cats dispersed in alleyways, corridors and scaled the building built beside Ra Stadium. Built into Ra Stadium felt more accurate to say, thought. It wasn't as breathtaking and glamorous-- or horrifying as he was mentally preparing himself for. It was..... plain. Crafted by an Earth Element User..... seemingly with better things to do. One solid color-- sand. A few windows, shaped in an odd amalgamation of round shapes and spires that blended with the Tangent area it was sculpted over. It looked like a camouflaged virus feeding off the rest of the Stadiums sturdy architecture.
"Well. Into the belly of the beast we go." Cassidy said as he unholstered his autobows and let some of his Lupine form to the surface.
To see it for the first time in such a way was shocking. It felt like Cassidy was human days ago. And now he stood beside Claude-- black and grey fur running along his sideburns and spreading over his sharp jawline. Facial muscles expanding and hardening to become more equipped for giving out bone crushing bites.
"No."
Cassidy's eyes lost their light like a dog pulled off a chase.
"What do you mean, no?"
"This isn't a man with a dozen house cats we're dealing with."
"Yea no shit-- that's why I have these." Cassidy referred to his fast firing weapons.
Claude nodded, "We're only just beginning. Whatever is in there has been functioning for.... well longer than a human lifespan. Us going in there asking for war-- us going in there openly saying we can take war, is the same as us saying we have no issues dying. I'll tell you right now, I can't die. I can't let you die."
Cassidy growled and holstered his weapons. Then he stood for a moment-- bones slowly crunching and growing even still.
"A little help." Cassidy muttered.
Claude lended Cassidy the control and focus he'd gained on his own, assisting in reversing the change.
In seconds Cassidy was himself again. Steam rose from beneath his leather long-coat. "Whew shit.... it's harder than it looks."
"Not forever."
Cassidy centered himself, "I hope you aren't losing your fight out here, wolfboy."
Claude's armor shifted and shadow enveloped green lights danced along his skin as the creatures within rose to the surface. Like sharks in a pond. Poorly fitting. Ready to emerge.
"Never that." Claude shook up with Cassidy and headed inside.
As Cassidy watched him step into the shadows, six eyes at the back of his head looked back at him. Bright as the Full Moon.
***
A hallway welcomed him. Long, black, cliche scary. At it's end a steel door strapped with a barricade stood alone. Lights from the cracks beneath showed him the feet of many moving around. Yet it was soundless. So quiet he could hear his footfalls and the shift of his pauldron on his shoulder with each movement.
Ashe was anxious. Gil was searching for Demons. Ursula was trying to occupy herself with Push-Ups.
Claude approached the door, stopping before it's cold surface. He took a steady deep breath.
"[I know Vampires-- and in saying that I'm telling you they knew you were here minutes ago. The fact that they aren't hiding can be a good thing. Coven Raids often start out with zero activity. Just stay aware-- don't let anyone see that you're unsure or out of your element. Like the Silver Cursed their predator nature penetrates social interractions. They feed Claude, don't give them the lifeblood of your anxieties.]" Arne advised.
Claude rolled his shoulders and moved to kno--
CLCK!
Some mechanism behind the door clicked loudly and the sliding barricade running across its surface slid out of the way, allowing the door to be opened by Rupont. He looked as if he just woke up while he rubbed his ear. His hair was as casually well as always, split down the middle and hanging below his sharp eyes. In the scarce light the jewels and metals embedded into his longcoat nearly blinded Claude.
"Bloody hell that is loud."
"[Oh great, a pun.]"
Claude stared at Rupont.
"[Avoid the eyes.]"
He kept his eyes in the general area but looked out from the depths of his chocolate brown irises. Rupont chuckled.
"Come on in."
Claude stepped inside and found-- something a bit more fitting to what he assumed he'd find within.
The floor was their source of light. Being that the building was sculpted over Ra Stadium, they had a bright blue ocean right beneath them. Separated only by a thick glass dome with integrated metal rods. Claude's back ached at the memory of Tufani sending him through them in a storm of sand.
As the ocean flowed, blue-white fissures of light danced and dashed through the shadows in the massive room. Shedding light on the bar, tables and stripper poles. Along with beautiful artwork hung up on the walls. Seemingly drawn through magical means with how the linework glimmered in the dark.
"Any reason your friends left the second I came here?" Claude asked.
Rupont nodded as he stepped behind the bar counter and began fixing himself a drink, "Yes. This is a private meeting, of course. I don't need any drunken ruffians ruining business."
Claude didn't feel like pressing that portion-- if he was anything like Rollan, pressing the topic would get you further from it.
"Your accent is back..... to not being English. Why do you do that?"
Rupont smiled as he dropped ice cubes in his shaker, "It's called code switching. We all do it. Sometimes with speech.... mannerisms, clothing. Physical forms..."
Claude grunted.
Rupont motioned to the seat, "Please. Join me."
"I don't know what you have behind that counter."
Rupont thought on that for a moment before nodding as if he hadn't even considered that. Then he exploded into a cloud of purple, red and black shadows, reforming in a seat on the other side. In the silence faint black mist rose from his expensive long coat with simmering crackles and pops.
"You may stay where you are. But I'd like to rest my legs." Rupont took a long swig of his drink after shaking it. Somehow it exploded into shadows with him.
"Ahhhh..... that's even better than a cigar." Rupont commented as he finished his drink. Suddenly he gained a more prominent complexion. And his eyes had a vital shine to them.
Suddenly he got serious as he set down the cup, "Let's cut to the chase, then. You know what I am, don't you, Druid?"
"I think you made it pretty obvious." Claude replied. Adrenaline leaked into his limbs.
"Well, what if I were to tell you, I knew the same about you."
"I'd ask you how..."
"How what, Claude? Perhaps, how long?" He took another sip-- looking more alive than before.
"[Bite.]" Arne said.
"How long?" Claude took the bait.
Before he could answer his brain caught the question and left it to be answered on it's own. He would've been an idiot not to know by this point-- and Rupont must've been testing him for that, because his smile widened. He knew Claude knew.
Claude's eyes flashed to the window at his left where a single cat was perched.
"You had quite a rough time in FeliAlu City... Lupine of Romulus." Rupont commented before he waved the cat over. "So much for the great extinction nobody knew of...."
Rupont looked to the cat afterwards, "I give you any New Age Vampire Covens eyes and ears, The Strigoi."
The cat jumped off the window sill, transforming midair. Oily black fur flattened and paled against its muscles until it was greying white skin. Its midsection extended and reformed into a gaunt human body of short stature and dense muscle. The creature-- man, kneeled in front of Rupont. Its massive sharp cavernous ears flicked once as it sniffed near Claude.
"[That's new....]" Arne said uncomfortably.
Rupont chuckled, "Ohhhh the day they returned to me speaking of you. You could make waves in the underground, Claude Grey. Your rarity is..... entirely too enticing. You really could."
"....Why haven't I? Shouldn't all of your Coven and who knows how many others know me.... in theory?"
Rupont waved him off, "Hell no. Information is currency to any organization. Rarity is food to any Vampire. Why would I give both when I can have it all to myself.... in theory?" He jokingly added the last bit to copy Claude.
"And that's what you want, my rarity?" Maybe a fight was underway. Claude didn't know how to fight a man that could explode into smoke at any given moment.
"Easy, Wolf." Rupont said before taking another sip, "You know, I once worked alongside the Lupines of Romulus-- well not exactly."
Claude listened.
"My family-- we all used to be very... conservative. Old fashioned. We didn't work with anyone but ourselves. A bad batch of Blood hit us-- hexed blood. We had more BloodGorged than we could manage. I lobbied against us keeping our dire situation in the family, and sought out the Lupines through meeting a Pack of WereWolves. Blah blah blah, political bullshit. The point is I am not this supervillain you see me as."
"You know Druids. You have the same last name as the man that tried to kill my Teacher and kidnapped his best friend."
Rupont cringed, "Well that's.... rough."
Silence spread. That wasn't the response Claude expected.
Rupont seemed to pick up on that, "Oh well it wasn't me. The only Druids I've killed are religious zealots. Cultists, eager to erase anything opposed to life. They're a real shitty bunch. They even poison their blood..... imagine that. You go through all that fighting, and finally get a meal..... and it tastes like flame broiled elephant ass--"
"Rupont."
"Oh, right. You want to know why you're here."
"Among many other things." He wasn't convinced it wasn't Rupont.
The Strigoi hadn't moved an inch.
"I brought you here for two reasons." Rupont held up two fingers tipped by white claws and the Strigoi copied him. He smacked the pale fingers away, "Stop making me look like a tyrant."
"Anyway, two reasons. One, whatever you're doing with Samuel and his Father. Don't."
"Rupont. If you know what I am, then you know I'm doing what I have to do."
"Yes, eternal racial war of the shifters. But the way you're going about it is... naive. Exposing Samuel to his father, will expose the Lupines of Remus to experiments that would uncover weakness better left unknown. And if they find that, they find you, Claude. You know how similar you both are, don't you?"
".....And you think Ronin would do this because, you've known him for.... how long?"
"A decade more or less, I knew Rory Longer. I'm bad with time."
"Then you know he'd kill his son in a heartbeat. Don't you?"
Rupont laughed so hard he spilled his cup of blood across the counter. "Whew my, Claude. You are.... refreshing."
He snapped his fingers at the table, "Have at it pasty." Hearing it in his mysteriously European accent sounded odd.
The Strigoi leapt up onto the table, transforming back into a cat to lick up the blood in a frenzy. With each lick its form altered slightly. A bat-like wing unfurled from its back. Fangs extended from it's mouth and paws. Portions of it's body went invisible. All until it was able to stabilize again upon finishing the red fluid.
"You don't think Ronin would kill his son? He doesn't even treat him like a child. Samuel is an investment on Ronin's legacy before anything."
"It's a bit more complicated than that. You'd know that if you knew The OceanLord."
"What the hell does that mean?" Claude asked, alarmed.
Rupont smiled, "So you have met her?"
Claude stayed silent.
"Well, let's think about it like this. Why would someone that strong, just obey everything Ronin said without hesitation? Could it just be because he's stronger than her? Or could it be something that runs..... deeper?"
Claude felt like his brain was melting.
Rupont clapped suddenly, "Fuck.... I love gossip."
"..... What are you gaining from helping me, Rupont?"
Rupont went serious again, "That brings me to our next and main point of discussion. Maris."
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
_Avatar0FFury_
_Avatar0FFury_ YO! Lmk what ya think and thanks for reading! Also thanks for the powerstones Sonuis, shazac, TheLucidParagon, alex99, shadowwolf1928, MAESTRO, black_rabbit4378, Ominous_Reader, drachen_k1nd, Stormer04, Bop_, W_G_Gates, Alex_Walk, Arameus, omeroford, Deadra606, Bored_Soule, krissch_, Fuang, Amith_Sydney and Bonb_Crusher!
Also we trusting Rupont or we killing him?....
Or we hearing him out?
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
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