Capítulo 56: 56 HEX SIN
"No."
He was surprised by his own answer.
He was as surprised as the elf. Both of their eyes widened in disbeleif. Mirroring one another for a fraction of a moment before the elf turned and pointed to the stone buildings.
"Others…. Will hurt…. Will kill. Please." The elf pleaded.
Claude didn't even enjoy killing deer for food. And there he stood, held to a stone pillar by the strongest being he'd ever faced behind a literal god…. And it was asking to be killed. Asking to be killed to be stopped from killing human children.
The same reason Heroes were born. To stop monsters from killing their children.
"Are you even a monster?" Claude thought. "Wait. Maybe we can help—"
"NO!" The elf twitched. Human eyes replaced the dark marbles, "EAACK!!— Beast-tamer. Where were we?"
"What the—" Claude grabbed the elf by the throat, "Who are you? How are you doing this?—"
The elf twitched again. A tear fell from its once again dark eyes. Only now they were hard, squinted as it snarled, "HURRY, child! Be strong!"
"I—"
The human voice returned, "What are you doing to this vess—"
The elf was back in control. "DO IT!"
"NO!"
"Kill, you cowa—"
Massive scarred hands held the elf's head. Icy winds spun. It's skin froze and went necrosed almost immediately.
As the elf died to the focused blizzard, it smiled.
"Thank…."
Ursula crushed its head into frozen giblets.
Claude fell to his feet, unable to blink or regulate his breaths.
"Why…. We…."
Ursula walked over and hugged him.
"Don't look at him." She said as she held him.
"But, Ursula... there was a human in the elf and the elf wasn't human….. I mean, the elf wasn't evil. Why wasn't the elf evil?"
Ursula disconnected from Claude.
He shook slightly.
She wasn't one to think deeply about things for the most part. It tended to hurt too much. But she did know if such a moment were to break anyone it would be the boy who held heroes and monsters as evil and good in the highest regard.
He once again just watched his vision shatter from the opposite end.
In a sense, she worried he had nothing left. Nothing to envision. To aspire to the level of.
She tried to lay out softly. "Sometimes a monster's greatest mistake is not being human." She shrugged.
Claude looked at her but his eyes were elsewhere.
"The hell does that mean?"
Ursula wiped the frozen brain bits off her palms, "The same way there's bad heroes, there's….. reasonable monsters. Elves are sophisiticated— just like people. They live in cities and have their own cultures. That one came from a Tangent where they had some sort of code. No killing children. I've heard similar. Some wild elves won't kill a wounded hero. They'll heal him up so he can face their chieftain in combat. My da—…. Rory sometimes tells my brothers a story about how stupid they can be. He said they healed him up just to die more violently. He thought it was funny. He's sick. They can be honorable. They can have morals. They just aren't us….. and the people in power can't have that. They can't control what isn't their's."
"Good monsters…." Claude mumbled.
"No, Claude. Reasonable. They'll still kill a man for next to no reason."
"No. That monster was good. He wanted to die before killing people that were trying to kill him. He was…. More than good. Irrationally good."
"Claude.."
"What are heroes who kill good monsters?" Claude asked Ursula.
"I don't know."
"Ursula."
"Yea?"
"I hate this place."
The body twitched.
Their eyes both switched to the elf carcass on the stone floor. Magical essence spewed from the bits of frozen skull and brain like smoke.
Claude approached the pieces and began picking through them as he tried not to gag. His hounds and Ren must've picked up on the disgust as they all gagged once for him.
Eventually he stopped, raising a rather large chunk of frozen brain up to the light of the leaderboard in the sky.
A rune he didn't recognize was burned into the folds of its brain.
He suddenly remembered back to the stitch marks on its forehead.
"Hexblades are doing this. They're using runes to mind control living monsters. It's not necromancy….. but it's not… not necromancy."
"It's a loophole." Ursula said.
"Yea…. That." Claude tried to itch his head before remembering he was wearing a suit of forestry, "I think I'm starting to get why my dad dislikes them."
"Yea no kidding."
Claude looked up to Ursula. "How do you defeat a Hexblade?"
She stood silently for a moment before nodding, "You become their friend."
"Not happening." Claude stood up and looked at the sky.
Ursula was even more first place than before. But Samuel was hot on her heels.
Hot on their heels.
Both literally and physically.
"We need to get moving. If Samuel wasn't here then he's at some other battle scene." Claude turned to Ursula. "Perseus teach you how to surf?"
"Tyrell." Ursula said.
"Oh, that's probably better."
"Yea, I didn't get to the night time courses, though."
Claude headed towards the water. Flowers had already begun to bloom around the dead elf, covering the body in beautiful petals of ever shifting light.
"Oh yea, you're free to go now." Claude yelled back to the stone homes as his feet elongated into wooden skis. Vines extended from the wrist portions of his suit for his hounds to grab and pull through the water. He ripped one off and tossed it to Ursula as she hopped on her ice surfboard.
They were gone by the time the students had emerged.
Burp came out and watched as Claude and Ursula surfed into the night.
"You all heard that right? He refused to kill the elf!"
***
Claude and Ursula rode for an hour. Until their eyes felt dry from the constant splash of salty ocean water and their abdomen and legs burned from maintaining balance for so long.
So many islands were left as barren wastelands. Covered with the bodies of giant spiders, goblins and things he couldn't decipher in the dark.
Not that he was really trying to. His mind was elsewhere.
"What is a good monster?"
"What do you call a hero that kills them?"
"If a bad hero is a villain…. what do you call a good monster?"
"What am I—"
"Claude watch out!" Ursula reached for him from his left.
A torrent of ice flew from her hands, morphing the waves into a ramp of ice.
Claude rode up the ramp and went airborne just as a massive Fishman exploded from the ice reaching for Claude.
Ren flew out of the water after him in his aquatic form, spinning around to catch the fish-monster by the throat with its massive muscled tail.
They went down in a snarling splash.
Claude landed. Blades of wood extended from his elbows, "How many?"
"All of them." Ursula said as they both looked back.
There were so many it changed the color of the water. They were just beneath the surface. A horde of glinting eyes and white scaled bodies. They were so many, that their fast-moving tails were bubbling the water.
It looked like a growing wave of rabid madness.
"How is that even possible." Claude said.
Ursula shrugged. "We need a plan. If I make a wall of ice thick enough, can you pin them to it by pulling the roots under water."
"If I was fresh." Claude said, "But I'm on ten percent for Mana."
Ursula cursed.
The wave grew closer.
"Get near shore." Claude said and steered his sled dogs left.
The wave veered left after them. Hungry. Getting faster.
They weren't going to make it.
Claude raised his hand to them. A fire flower bloomed in his palm and spit a ball of gaseous flame.
It sizzled the moment it touched the water.
"You can control fire!?" Ursula yelled.
"Nature is everything. Not that it matters. We're fucked." Claude watched the wave get closer.
Fifty feet away.
Thirty.
Ten.
Eight.
The bubbles stopped. The fishmen were gone.
A splotch of black moved in the waves. Like petals or….
"Is that ash?"
"Y—"
Samuel exploded from beneath the waves looking more like a dark-fire elemental than a human. Every inch of him was covered in purple flames, hiding the human and only allowing the heat of violence to be seen.
He sent a blast of fire at both Claude and Ursula, sending them crashing into the nearest island.
They hit the grass rolling and steaming.
Claude's hounds surrounded him and Ursula, defensively facing Samuel as he walked out of the ocean.
His cloak of flame faded in a flash of steam. He looked awful. Not an ounce of fat was on him. His high cheekbones punched through his pale skin. Bags sat under his eyes like dark makeup, making his blue gaze something haunting instead of handsome. His hair was short and uneven. Like he tried to give himself a buzz with a knife. His university uniform was a ashen husk, unable to withstand his constant heat.
"How the hell did he do that?" Claude asked.
"The heat.." Ursula realized. "He was hot enough to burn up the water in the ocean and create spaces of air."
"That's so badass."
"Claude."
"I know. I'm focused." Claude got to his feet.
Samuel continued walking.
"You cheat a lot for someone who doesn't have to." Claude yelled to him.
"You don't cheat enough for someone who needs to. You aren't ruthless enough either. I heard you refused to kill an elf."
"I—"
"That's the difference between you and me. That's why I'm level twenty-two and you're not even level ten. You don't take what you need. You take what you want."
"I take what I should, where I should. It's more than numbers." Claude corrected, "Now let's skip the idealogy battle. I heard enough from Sapien. I may be lost here but I know for a fact I'm not agreeing with y'all. "
"It's more than numbers, huh?"
"Yea." Claude said.
"You piss me off."
"The feelings mutual."
"Both of you, actually."
"The hell did I do?" Ursula said.
"Turned away from your legacy." Samuel said.
"My legacy?"
"Quiet. Everyone's got shitty parents. Tighten up. Take what you can from them and knock them off the throne if you want change. And you." He looked at Claude, "You think your some kind of revolutionary?"
Claude didn't have an answer.
"Liberator. That's funny kind of. You don't even know what you want. I do. Men like me make change. Men like you make hypocrites of themselves. One day you free my so called slaves, the next day you force a poor elf to live as a slave in its own mind."
"You'd rather I kill someone trying not to do harm than try to help."
"There is no try. Do what you know before you imprison yourself."
"Motherfu— we're fourteen!" Claude snapped.
"We're soldiers! Pick up your weapon and use it like you're told." Samuel seemed truly mad for the first time. "Don't delegitimize what I've done. You think monsters are the same as us? You calling me a Mankiller?"
"What?"
Samuel took a deep breath and collected himself. He coughed once and smoke plumes flowed from his mouth. Then he opened his eyes. They were fully purple.
Claude didn't realize he was sweating until it was too late.
"None of you know me."
Samuel coughed and an explosion of purple flames flash seared the island.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
_Avatar0FFury_
_Avatar0FFury_ It seems Samuels talk with the HexBlade was a little harder hitting than he let on. and Claude’s foundations have once again been shaken. Tao top dogs boutta bump heads. Anyway, big fight otw! lmk what ya think and thanks for reading! there’s one more Wraith left, y’all think they’re living or dying?
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