The spear whistled through the air. A blinking blur of metallic light that smashed into the ice cliff edge, shattering the ground beneath the archers feet and sending him falling over the edge.
As he fell, Claude's prey drive took over and had him sprinting at the falling figure.
All the while, he shifted. His bones lengthened. His muscles expanded, stretching against his cold skin. His bat features became hybridized and fortified by his lupine nature.
On strong legs and light bones, he leapt up into the air and caught the archer, sending them both into the glacial wall where he held him safely.
The archer gasped and fought against Claude's hand holding him to the wall at his chest.
"THEY GOT ME!" The archer yelled.
"I don't want to hurt you!" Claude said, "We haven't done anything. We—"
"Eat shit, foul-blood!" Arcs of light flickered in the archers eyes for a second before he spit a bolt of lightning into Claude's face.
Claude tried to dodge— but the level difference between the two was clear. The white-hot energy of the skies hit Claude in the face, ripping open his cheek and cutting dangerously close to his eye.
[70% HP Remaining!]
[Revenge Trigger Active]
[God-eater Lupine 15% Damage Boost!]
He was stunned by the lightning and sent falling back to earth.
To ice.
Unforgiving and deathly cold to the core.
He didn't feel the land. He was stuck on the man's words. On his face twisted by hate and horror at Claude's appearance. At his pleading for peace. He couldn't even grasp—
The Archer leapt from the wall. As he soared over them all, he sent blasts of lightning down at the kobolds, knocking off scales and scorching the muscle beneath.
Literally raining electrified hell on them.
And then he sent a final blast directed from the sky at Claude as he fell with a dagger aimed for him.
Before it could hit, Frosty bit down on Claude's shoulder and pulled him aside.
Claude slid and rolled, eyes transfixed on the sight of the rest of the team of heroes coming up over the cliff.
Six strong.
With Claude's bat-like ears and echolocative abilities still active, he could see it all unfold with unique clarity. The beat of their hearts. The flow and collection of mana as they prepared to unleash a brutal assault.
"They live for this..." Claude thought as he dug his claws into the ice and flipped himself onto his feet.
His bat traits faded. His bones thickened. He grew heavier. He grew.
Another few arrows, daggers and fireballs flew his way.
He ducked and spun out of the way with new speed.
He'd been using his lupine abilities with heavy resistance up until this point.
With the left side of his cheek ripped apart and steaming, the heroes watched as his molars sharpened and his jaw extended into a snout.
In their disgust, Crysta sent a blast of crystalline glowing ice at them, knocking them back long enough for everyone else to collect themselves and prepare for war.
"Are you done resisting?" Crysta asked. Cryptically. As if she could read his mind.
Claude took off after the heroes. All feelings of resistance left his mind and he found another mind calling to his own in that moment.
Frosty fell into step with him.
Even as he jumped up and began climbing the ice wall.
Crysta and her kobold mutates followed.
The scream-wing thrashed and fought to break free of the chains that held it.
Crysta let it free with a word. The other kobolds released the chains.
It took to the skies.
At the same time, Claude backflipped off the walls and landed on the scream-wings back.
The two flew out of the ice dugout and into the white skies of the white steppe.
Freedom fresh on their joined minds.
Freedom threatened by the people below them.
The heroes fired arrows, stone and steel bullets and other elemental projectiles in an attempt to stop their flight.
The scream-wing flew higher, spinning and strafing out of the way of the blasts as it cut through clouds in moisture heavy air-bursts.
Claude adapted in tandem with the magical primal. His skin hardened into scales where there was no fur. A new organ formed in his throat akin to the glowing mana-core in the scream-wings throat and lungs.
"[Claude, did you see their rank tags?]"
"Low-Silver." Claude replied.
"[Id say tread lightly, but we're not treading at all….]"
It was then that the scream-wing divebombed.
All the while, it roared pulse waves of winds layered with primal magics.
The ice and snow below fractured and rippled, throwing off the heroes even more as the Skylodraki Kobolds and their chosen queen rose up and entered the battlefield.
"ENOUGH!" One of the heroes roared followed by a massive shield bubble surrounding the heroes.
From across the shattered ice field, Crysta raised a hand and the crystalline ice form of a dog-headed dragon exploded out of the earth from underneath the heroes.
It caught the tank in its jaws and smashed him into the cieling of his own bubble.
At the same time, Claude jumped off his scream-wing and charged into the shield bubble with his claws shrouded in his aura.
It was a reckless move on paper.
Claude was around high-bronze ranking as a top performing in the Island-Gauntlet. That was before he was given new power and godly sponsorship though. It was also before his new motivation.
With the tank held against his own defenses, his saw clearly as Claude came crashing down and sent his claws through the bubble, shattering it as his claws ripped through the caught man's chest.
[+150 EXP]
All hell broke loose then.
The Skylodraki kobolds charged.
The heroes unleashed spells and skills in a hurry.
Frosty roared and expanded into a giant wolfish beast.
Crysta commanded dozens of crystal-ice dragons from the back line.
Claude was right in the middle of it all.
A swordsman was on him as soon as he hit the ground.
He went in at blinding speeds, looking to run Claude through.
Claude jumped over him. As he landed on the other side, he spun with a low kick, dodging the backwards swing of the swordsman and sending flat onto his back at the same time.
From the ground, another one of Crysta's elemental beasts exploded from the ice and knocked him into the air where the scream-wing flew by screaming him to ash.
[+70 EXP]
Another tank came from behind and tackled Claude.
Quickly, he used his (Beast Trait) skill and borrowed the traits of Crysta's maternal steppe-bear companion.
By the time he hit the ground, he was twenty pounds heavier and sporting claws twice as long.
The tank wearing full steel and fur armor raised his fists.
Claude slashed at his face, cutting through the metal and hittting the skin hard enough to maim.
He swung again and met iron-hard aura, causing him to knee him from behind and send him rolling forward. From there, he held the tank close and kicked him back.
Immediately, he was taken in a blur as Frosty ran by and snatched him up in his massive jaws.
They didn't stand much chance.
They didn't stand any chance. They were out of their element.
Claude had just stepped into his.
When it came to a close, they were all covered in blood.
The winds howled.
Claude's hands shook and his stomach spun.
DING!
[Fenrir is pleased with your actions…]
[Continuous actions made in favor of Fenrir will lead to a Title Upgrade and new Skill.]
In the distance a wolf howled.
Claude fought off the urge to reply.