Capítulo 94: CHPT 94: Prey Driven
The dark and infested village grounds were doused with a dark crimson hue of Goblin blood that shined over the grass under the bright crescent moon. It was getting fuller— making the nights brighter and more chaotic.
Everything was silent for a moment as Claude watched Maris violently drown the Goblin from the inside. Anytime it tried to cough up the water that flooded its throat, the liquid was forced back inside— reminding him of the way her blood slithered back into her wounds.
The Goblin died a quick but agonizing death, it hit the floor gurgling and clawing at its throat madly before the bright yellow glow of greed faded from its eyes.
Right after the Goblin fell, he heard Maris mumble, "What the..??" In confusion before also losing the glow in her eyes and passing out. She must've lost control over her liquid affinity since the tiny cuts all over her body began to leak again. She would live— but only if Claude and Frosty did. Only if they defeated the Shaman quickly.
Claude refocused himself at the understanding of the situation and turned to face the Shaman that stalked around in the distance. A glimmer of excitement shown in its greedy eyes from the loss of Claude's potential teammate. It thought it had an advantage now that Maris was gone.
"Looks like it's just me an you." Claude said while pointing a clawed finger at the Shaman. It continued to walk back and forth almost anxiously as it eyed him.
"[Claude. This Goblin's probably stronger than the others in every way— by quite a large margin, but combat has got to be its weakest attribute since it's a Shaman so stay in its face and use your speed to your advantage. Also don't cut its limbs off.....I don't know if it can use stuff like that as a sacrifice for power.]" Arne warned.
"Noted." Claude said before rolling his shoulders and preparing to fight. Frosty shook next to him before quietly snarling and crouching low like a loaded spring.
Once Claude settled into his fighting stance, the Shaman stopped abruptly— understanding that it was time to fight. It began reaching into its cloak and pulled out a thick curved dagger that was already stained with blood. Now wielding its scepter and dagger, the Goblin Shaman was ready to fight.
Claude felt himself being flooded with an unexplainable feeling at the promise of revenge.
"Ckckckck..." The Shaman made an odd clicking laughter sound while bouncing back and forth.
Claude took that as it saying, "Come on, let's fight."
Before it could even finish taunting him, they were off.
On the way towards the Shaman, Claude saw his sword nearby and quickly scooped it up. With his hand tightened around the handle, he sped up towards the enemy.
Once he was in striking distance, he dashed forward and swung at its left side.
Clang!!
His sword clashed with the Shamans dagger so strongly that the Shaman stumbled backward in surprise, arms flailing and chest completely opened. Before it had time to recover, Frosty came from the side and latched onto the Shamans stick thin arm.
Crunch!!!
"WOAOAOO!!!"
The weight and momentum of Frosty's body pulled the Shaman off to the side like a rag doll. It wailed in pain with a look of confusion and understanding on its face. It must've been wondering how the other Goblins were dying out of nowhere and now it's understood.
Swip!
The Goblin Shaman swung its dagger at the PitWolves invisible head as it chewed on its arm, Frosty let go and bounded off just in time leaving the Shaman swiping at nothing but air.
The Goblin Shaman stumbled forward from the reckless weight placed behind its swing.
Almost as soon as it stopped to try and recover from its hunched over position, Claude came in and delivered an uppercut to its face. His fist connected with the Shamans long gangly nose with a loud crunch.
Surprisingly, the Shaman reacted a fraction of a second faster than usual. As soon as Claude felt his fist drilling into its nose, it flung its head up while also bringing its dagger along with it in an arcing motion.
Swip!!
"AHHHGG!!"
The dagger caught on Claude's chest and drew a thin line of red up to the base of his neck. Right after, the Shaman swung its scepter at Claude's side.
Woo!!
Claude's sword hand was too far away so he brought his free arm up to protect his ribs.
Crack!!
The scepter smashed into his arm which in turn smashed into his— already damaged, ribs. The abrupt rebirth of searing hot pain in his side caused his vision to go blank for a moment.
The Shaman then hopped back a few steps and began spinning and swinging in all directions while huffing and snapping angrily.
"It can't see Frosty.....so it's trying to predict his attacks." Claude realized.
"[—And it remembers where you were injured by the Goblins. You need to end this. Fast.]" Arne added.
"That was always the plan." Claude replied angrily before activating his skill, (Combat Meditation) with a bright burst of vibrant green energy. He then forced his body to undergo the small bit of the Lupine transformation he could handle.
Immediately his ribs began to hurt even more— as if someone was reaching inside of him and pulling on them, and his gums itched from the growth of sharp canines. His change was concluded with the— previously white, claws that extended from his fingers, lengthening and changing to the color of an oily black.
He snarled at the Shaman angrily before charging at it again.
They clashed swords again. But this time the Goblin Shaman was ready— or stronger. It pushed Claude back to try and create space. But as soon as it did, Frosty collided with the Goblin's backside and sent it tumbling towards Claude.
Claude regained his balance quickly enough to see the Shaman's tall body stumbling towards him, he quickly spun and delivered a spinning back kick to its head.
Woo!!
The Shaman smartly let its body fall to dodge his high speed kick, with his back turned, the Shaman shot back up to its feet, ready to stab at his exposed back.
"RAGH!"
Shlck!
The Shaman was stopped mid attack by Claude continuing his spinning momentum to swipe at its face with his long black claws.
Claude faced the Shaman and noticed three superficial red lines that ran across its neck like additional smiling mouths.
The Shaman reached for its throat and felt the blood leaking from its wounds. For the first time, Claude began to smell fear leaking from the Shaman.
The smell pulled him to its source and he was once again charging at the Shaman. But this time the Shaman returned the charge.
CLANK!
They met swords again, only this time Claude was left stumbling backward with the pain of the impact rumbling down his arms. He was sure that the Shaman wasn't that strong before.
He didn't have much time to think it over since the Shaman was swinging at his side with its scepter again.
"Huh!"
Claude made a sound of effort from the pain of dodging so suddenly. Frosty locked his jaws on its scepter now that it was near him and yanked it out of the Shamans hands so hard that it spun the Goblin around 180 degrees.
Shwip!!
Claude swung his sword at its exposed back and felt his blade tear through flesh and slide over bone.
"AHHHHRRRRRR!!!" The Shaman arched its back and screamed in pain as hot red blood leaked from its back.
"Shut the fuck up." Claude growled in a voice much deeper than his own before lunging forward and smashing his foot into the Shamans ripped open back with a Lupine powered front kick.
The Shaman flew forward 6 steps from the impact. Claude was hot on its heels to finish the job.
The Goblin didn't even hear him as he leaped into the air with his clawed freehand raised— ready to tear out its throat from behind.
Claude swung as hard as he could to make sure his claws would force their way through anything in his way.
SWOO!!
"HUH?" He thought in confusion as his claws cut nothing but air.
He landed and rolled forwards to absorb the landing. Immediately, he scanned the area for where the Shaman could've gone. To his surprise, the Shaman was running. It's cloak fluttered in the wind as it increased the distance between them.
Claude could only be confused for a matter of seconds before his mind was overrun by the urge to chase....to hunt....to get the kill.
His eyes turned into predatory verdant orbs that focused on the fleeting figure of the Shaman and the sides of his face sprouted with jet black fur as he transformed further and his Prey Drive took over.
Woo!!
He was wildly running at the Shaman with his claws flexed and teeth bared in a matter of milliseconds.
As he closed the distance, he began to get faster and faster with the increased urge to chase down his prey. The thrill of the hunt had his brain taken completely over.
He was so focused on reaching his prey that he didn't notice the odd green object that tumbled to the floor from behind it and ended up under his foot.
The airy strong scent of excitement suddenly filled his nose, leading to the Shaman. Seemingly at the same time, it skidded to a stop, turning around with a wicked sneer on its face. It's green raised hand was dripping blood from where it was missing a finger.
Claude wasn't able to consider what this meant due to his overpowering predatory urges and simply kept running after his prey. He leaped into the air to vanquish the still target.
As he sailed through the air towards the smiling Goblin, he could barely hear a voice in his mind yelling something in a panicked tone.
"[Claude! NOOO! It was a sacrifice!]"
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
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_Avatar0FFury_ Hey thanks for reading!!!! Leave a review and let me know what you think! I’ll drop the next chapter later today! Also thanks for the powerstones alex99, Adam_Ketchum, Marco_Pricolo, YT_king_zero, dylanwaters1981, Shiso_lannoto, Dale_Childress, and Krissch_!!
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