13 SHINE

A lot of students living in the Angelos District never left their cities, towns and estates. Most well off people didn't. It wasn't smart. Monsters roamed as commonly as birds flew by in dotted flocks. Bizzare phenomena found a home in the desert valleys and forest overgrowth. It could be overwhelming.

Claude saw it in the faces of his classmates as they passed poorly buried remains of long dead heroes with shattered bones absent of marrow and monster hordes roaming the desert hills in the distance.

The heat of the early day sun shook the images and gave them a nightmarish aesthetic as they loomed in the distance.

Claude remembered the scariest thing his father told him during the march to the redwoods in those moments.

Tangents were safer than where they roamed currently.

Tangents told you what they had to offer. What brand of beast and brutality lingered inside.

Out in the wild— In the regular world, anything and everything coexisted just barely.

The dead heroes could've been gold-ranked powerhouses from another time. Reduced to nothing.

The horde in the distance could've been even stronger than the one that completely erased OldWorld New York two thousand years ago at the birth of the first Tangent.

It was all up to what you knew and chance.

The perfect recipe for Rebirth.

As they neared their destination, west of SkyHaven's entry outskirts, Ursula and the students relaxed.

Physical exercise, discovery, anxiety and fear tended to do that.

"What are you looking at?" Ursula questioned from behind him as they carefully step/slid down a desert slope.

Claude pointed to the sky where black shapes circled.

"Griffon flock. Something under this slope is dead…. And large enough to have a scent for them." Claude replied.

Ursula looked down at the sand, "Shouldn't we tell someone?"

Claude shook his head, "No. Griffon's only eat the dead. They come from Undead Tangents, they can't digest anything that isn't rotten or a few years past it's expiration—"

"AHHH!!" Victoria and Lucas screamed at the front of the line as a portion of the sand hill caved in and gave way to a pile of dead half-eaten goblins beneath them.

The Griffon's descended the moment they reached the bottom of the slope.

They could hear the crunching long after.

"So does your dad also run a bird sanctuary?" Ursula asked.

"No. But since I live in a forest, my dad thought it was a good idea to have a bird trained to hunt for me so I don't starve when he's not there." Claude explained.

"You live in a forest…?" Ursula flicked a sand-bug off her shoulder armor.

"He has since we first got here… and somehow he's not dead! Makes no sense." Warren commented.

"How does that make no sense?" Claude questioned.

"Look around!" Warren refferenced the great beyond. "You think any kid would naturally survive this with no parent for years?"

Claude looked around, sniffing like a dog.

"Why…. Why are you being weird?" Warren asked as he walked backwards to face Claude and Ursula.

"I'm not. I just don't smell any pitwolf urine." Claude replied.

Ms. Callisto laughed.

Warren snarkily mocked him, "Oh you're such a smart guy with your dog and cat and bird-dinosaur factoids. What is he saying, Ms. Callisto?"

"Farmers and village people use predator urine to make wards for fending off weaker roaming monsters. That's how Claude lives in relative safety." Ms. Callisto explained before taking a swig of water from her water skin.

"Ok…. But then he'd just be attracting stronger enemy monsters. Don't elves hunt pitwolves for sport? You ever seen an elf, Claude? Are you an elf?"

"He can't be! Elves are pretty….. horrifically pretty. Claude is…. Well, he's not that." Emma said from behind Warren.

"Thanks, Emma." Claude replied flatly before truly considering Warren's words.

It was a bit odd that nothing truly dangerous ever came….

"So. Do you three have a gameplan? Id hope you do since you're doing all this goofing around." Ms. Callisto questioned.

"No." Warren replied

"Hit hard, be tough." Ursula said.

"Claude..?" Ms. Callisto awaited his answer.

"We're disadvantaged." He randomly said.

"That's not really a plan…" Warren commented.

"Every group is set up by position. One defender, one long range support, and one basic fighter." Claude said as he pointed up the line.

"Oh…. Good point." Warren replied as the desert landscape ended and green patches of grass spread. "But what's that have to do with us?"

"We aren't set up the same way." Claude said. "Take Conroy's group for example. Duke is slow, heavy and defensive. He's also the biggest target of their group. He's most likely to be Reborn as a Tank. Xander is talented with his sword but even more so with his mind. He can lead them. Emma is their best fighter and I don't think I've ever seen her miss with her bow. She's probably the best ranged support you could ask for—"

"Hey!" Warren flipped him the middle finger.

"With us, I'd be filling Xander's position. But I'm not as smart. My sword is shot. And Ursula isn't exactly a Tank."

"Im not?" Ursula looked down at herself. Ms. Callisto did the same but gave a nod in agreement.

"You're too fast and you don't have a shield with you. You can't take hits safely for us." Claude replied.

"I can still take hits." Ursula beat her armored chest.

"You can. But you can also do more damage in less time than every other tank-type here." Claude replied.

"Everyone else is using the crescent-moon formation, why can't we just do that? Isn't that what we have to do against things like giant dumb snakes, anyway?" Warren said after turning back to face them following a mean session of eavesdropping.

"With the right team composition, sure." Claude explained, "Basic formations fit basic team compositions. We're more attack and speed dominant. We can't rely defensively on our tank the same way. Everyone else's tank will be their center piece except ours."

"Claude, don't count me out just because I picked up the axes. I have some anger to vent. This is how I do it. I can split some shit open with these."

"I'm not. This isn't about you." Claude replied as the redwoods loomed in the distance, trees breached the skies from across a river that split the earth in shimmering blue.

"This is about Warren." Claude said while thinking, "Mr. Raizen is still testing me. But he's also giving Ursula a final shot at something. Rebirth most likely….. but why would her father, The Red Knight of Rage, not want her to awaken her powers….. I wonder if he's worried about Ursula inheriting Solar Magic. She'd be a risk to everyone then—"

"What?" Warren looked lost.

"You're our centerpiece." Claude replied. "In combat formations, the centerpiece— or who everything else revolves around is usually decided by who represents the formation or strategies strengths the most."

"What's our strategy??"

"Reverse arrow-head formation." Claude replied.

"Isn't that used against hive-mind hordes in closed spaces? Like skeleton soldiers in a hallway?" Ursula questioned.

Claude nodded. "We can also use it on the snakes. With the redwood trees as cover, Warren at the back can attract the snakes with arrow fire, once they go on the attack, we close in with our speed and get the job done."

"How's your aim?" Ursula asked Warren.

"Good enough to tell your father about." Warren smiled arrogantly.

If Ursula could expel steam from her nose, she would've then. But they had other things to worry over as they officially entered the redwoods.

Silver-ranked heroes working with SkyHaven's SkyLight Guild guarded the massive forests perimeter on horseback.

They faded to the back of Claude's mind as the forest welcomed them.

Trees taller than OldWorld skyscrapers loomed like wooden statues. Bark as tough as steel with a tawny red hue absorbed the suns rays where it cut through the dense canopy.

The shadows shifted as giant megatherium climbed through the canopy with claws like swords. Craters surrounded the grounds beneath them where their kin fell at the hands of tree fairing predators.

In the distance, Claude could hear hawks and roaring beasts of unknown origin, but he was more focused on the track marks in the grounds they used as a walk-path.

"These are some rather large serpents…" Emma commented from the front of the line. Her accent was sharper then.

Claude had never heard fear in her voice before.

They truly were on new ground.

"Plated-snakes are deceptively large because of their relation to the black-flailers. They have larger bodies because of their tail that's used for mating and combat…." Xander happily explained as they delved deeper into the redwoods.

"That doesn't explain the depth of these travel marks….." Ursula huffed.

"They're eating the megatherium regularly. If I also had an endless supply of protein and fat I'd be heavier. Probably a lot stronger too…"

"Don't say that." Warren said as he flinched at a firefly whizzing past him.

Suddenly the line stopped.

At the front, Mr. Raizen held a hand up to the red letters, "AOI", marking a tree.

"Area of infestation." Claude thought.

"This is where your job begins." Mr. Raizen started. He wore no armor. Just a dark blue longcoat with built in padding and his sheathed sword. Even so he looked more comfortable than everyone else, naturally. "Ms. Callisto and I will be evaluating you all throughout the duration of this event. Don't worry about anything unwanted entering this forest, we're protected. Focus on the task at hand. Stick to the what you know and face this challenge the best way you see fit. The team with the most plated-snake kills gets one silver coin each. Because that's how the world works. Now get out of my sight!"

With nothing more to be done, it all began.

The students spread out like insects in a flower field, thirsty for their share of pollen in the form of war and experience.

Claude was no different as he ran along the path of the snake trails with his damaged short-sword drawn. Warren easily matched his pace while Ursula held up the rear— loudly.

Noise wasn't much of a problem. Even if they could sneak past a plated-snakes thermal vision, sense of smell and pretty acute hearing, the megatherium overhead roared every-time they passed like primal wind chimes.

The more the students spread, the louder the forest became.

"Thorn bush to my left!" Emma's voice breached the cacophonous chaotic ambience to Claude's right.

He could hear arrow fire and violent rustling immediately after.

"We're close." Claude said as they slid down a dirt hill and crossed a river.

"How close you think?" Warren unsheathed an arrow—

The plated-snakes didn't make any noise. Most snakes didn't, contrary to popular belief. Their twisting muscles and hard bodies did the talking when the crunch of their preys bones didn't.

Thankfully, they didn't hear the latter.

But the rumbling rustle of the ground was more than enough.

The snake pushed out of the bushes like a demon born in the green. Leaves and dirt rolled off the black keratin armor plating on its backside as it slithered and twisted, rising to its maximum height of eight feet/two and a half meters. Less than half of its true length.

Claude's ear twitched as its tail vibrated, causing a miasma of burnt wood chips, stone and dirt to coalesce like an aura from behind. The suns rays darkened.

"What the….." Warren mumbled. His voice shook as he backed away.

"Don't fire until it's down the hill." Claude said in a neutral voice. It took effort. His legs felt numb. Being in the presence of something so large took his breath away.

Warren pulled his bowstring back.

The snake's tail vibrations grew more violent.

"Wait, Warren!" Claude hissed and pointed toward the snake, "Wait until it's past the trees so it can't shrapnel blast us."

Warren seemed to have lost the ability to speak. A first. A welcome first under different circumstances.

They continued to lead the snake down the hill. Its slithering underbelly scored the earth as it followed, pushing apart the bushes and dirt all the way.

The river rushed behind them loudly.

But not nearly as loud as the young megatherium in the trees above Claude.

It roared. Signaling the emergence of a predator to its tree-hugging kin.

The plated-snake's slitted orange eyes pivoted, eyeing the massive long-furred beasts above.

It slithered forward and stamped its tail on the ground hard enough to quake the earth as a means to intimidate the creatures above and get them moving.

Warren fell, dropping his bow and arrow.

The snake switched its focus back to them, flashing fangs coated in bile-thick spit.

"Oh— shit!" Warren was off in a flash, trudging through the river on pure adrenaline.

"Dammit!" Claude thought as their centerpiece fled the scene and the snake was back to focusing on them.

"Give me an opening." Ursula demanded.

His mind cooked up the most logical answer— being no, before the heavy moving megatherium above changed his thought process."….. Ok."

Claude jumped back as the plated-snake snapped its flat jaws at him. Before he could wait for another lunge, he back-rolled until he was standing right beside Warren's bow and unused arrow. The river was now only inches behind him. His mind worked in psychotic ramblings fueled by adrenaline and animal factoids stored over years of reading.

"Adult male megatherium weigh more than two tons—technically more if you add in their high fiber diets and time of day— but this one's younger and away from tree clusters. If threatened correctly I could trigger a ground slam to distract the snake but then I'd be a human pancake before my Rebirth….. I hope Ursula's feeling as heroic as I am."

Claude sheathed his blade and picked up the bow and arrow.

The snake went on the offensiv—

Ursula bellowed and threw her axe right as the snake charged Claude. Heroism, check.

The heavy metal weapon slammed into the creatures sandpaper chest but did nothing to slow it.

Claude didn't expect it to and jumped backward, soaring over the river as he took aim with Warren's bow.

The sun would've been blinding.

Thankfully the megatherium's brown furred backside was in the way.

An easy target. He hoped. He aimed. He fired.

The arrow whistled through the air like a bird in flight, silver arrowhead gleaming in the forest illumination.

Claude never heard the arrow hit. There was too much screaming and violence surrounding.

His back hit damp earth. His feet splashed in the river. When he opened his eyes, he found the megatherium falling right on him as it detached from the redwood tree with an arrow sticking out of a place better left undescribed.

He was suffering from temporary success as the hulking herbivore fell. Its massive muscled arms full of endless stamina raised to flatten him in an instinctive ground slam. The beasts horse-like face twisted in fury as it neared him.

A hand gripped his arm and yanked him out of the way like he was weightless.

He felt the cold embrace of steel and leather as Ursula took him in a bear hug and rolled into a nearby bush.

It didn't help the impact. The megatherium hit the ground like a runewritten cannonball.

Dirt and leaves rose all around them. The earth split and Claude's body jolted so violently against Ursula's chest, he bit a chunk of his tongue off.

He'd never experienced an explosion. But the ground slam couldn't have been much different.

When the dust settled, the screams rose.

His very risky and unpolished plan worked.

Claude broke free of Ursula's grasp and scrambled to his feet, stumbling like a drunk as he wiped dirt and blood off his face.

Even if the dust settled around him, back by the river, it only rose as the plated-snake interwove itself around the megatherium, grinding up its thick fur with an underbelly as rough as jagged stone.

Chunks of fur, blood and busted keratin plates flew as the megatherium crashed into trees and rolled on the grounds to fight off the snake.

The two brutes had only just started their battle of strength. One, a whole network of shifting muscle and armor plating. The other, a massive hulking climber of endless stamina and defensive rage.

The megatherium was larger— stronger, even.

But the plated-snake was able to alter the rules of the game. Survival was a game played by advantages.

It was dying. The plated-snake bit and crunched on the giant-sloth's face and coiled around its neck, using its natural weapons to the absolute fullest.

When Claude heard the crack of bone, it was like a starter pistol firing at a race.

He was on the move, once again charging up to mount his metaphorical prey— only this time it was far less metaphorical…. And blonde.

Claude mounted the snake as the megatherium fell. Its plated backside was covered in gaping wounds like freshly torn scabs. The skin was still tough there as he climbed and climbed all the way to its cobra-like hooded head.

Predators were terrifying.

To Claude, their most terrifying aspect was the ability to see everything as nothing more than a meal. No fear. No hesitation. Nothing but pure focus fine tuned by primal instinct. He always thought of it as a strength. Something he strived for.

But as he stood on the snakes head with his broken short-sword raised, he could only see the weakness in its fiendish hunger. As it bit and stripped and gnawed at the massive broken megatherium.

Claude was invisible in the snakes bloodlust. The same way he was invisible in Samuel's ascent to power.

Only the advantage was more clear this time.

Claude slammed his sword into the snakes eye. Ocular white hot fluids splashed against his face as the blade bit deep. Deeper than the snakes fangs in the megatherium's throat. Deeper than Samuel's forehead into his own face.

The snake went wild, flailing and vibrating its twisted up body while also trying to unhook its fangs from the megatherium to do something about the small teenage swordsman on its head.

Claude dug his blade deeper, frantically sawing away in an attempt to reach its brain only for the sword to break further on the thick bone of its eye socket.

He slid forward, nearing its face right when the beast reared back and opened its jaws so wide they were going in opposite directions.

"Oh shi—"

Something scuffled up the megatherium's body.

Claude could only see the shape of an armored brute from the shadows cast against the broken ground.

She fell from above the snake, slamming her axe down in a wild and uncoordinated chop that split the creatures skull right down the middle.

Claude fell with the dead monster, busted blade still lodged in its eye. So did Ursula with her axe nestled deep in its face.

The two looked at eachother as they laid on their sides in the dirt with a giant snake wrapped megatherium between them.

Ursula looked like an undead knight. Her crappy black armor was mottled with blood and brain tissue. Her breaths came so hard from the slits in her helmet it almost looked like she was expelling steam. Like an inhuman engine of the OldWorld built for slaughter.

She was inhumanely strong. Stronger than Samuel and Duke. So strong she could power through things like giant armored snakes with no advanced knowledge. Just muscle and a fiery interior.

"You're cool." Ursula said. "You're insane…. But like, in a cool way."

Claude's felt his face warm up. But even more so he felt a giggle climb up his throat and release from his lips in a brief laugh.

He'd spent the last few months getting embarrassed, beaten and saved by his betters, then along comes an imposing steel brute princess wildly splitting skulls and boxing tanks.

And she said he was cool.

The change of pace was hilarious.

If he focused on it any longer, he might've cried. So he didn't. They had a job to do. A job done laying between them. A first. A first of many judging by the sounds of war surrounding.

"We're bettering the world…" Claude thought as he got up. "But it's not like the stories… not exactly at least."

The dead snake and megatherium laid intertwined and broken. It wasn't tragically beautiful like art meant to tell a story or evoke complex emotion. It was a mess. Horrific and undone in death— in ways even worse than a hunt between animals gone awry.

"All part of the job. This is what it is…."

"You laugh at my compliment then stand over the dead looking almost sad. What are you thinking?" Ursula asked as she dusted herself off and ripped her axes out of the snake.

"It's nothing. We have to keep up the pace." Claude pulled his sword from the snakes eye, now a sharded-dagger.

"What we need to do is find Warren so I can make him eat his quiver." Ursula huffed.

Claude almost forgot. "Warren's gone. What a weasel. We have to pick up his slack and fix this range disadvantage. I'm like the shortest and lightest person in my class there's no way I'm fighting an armored snake with a simple dagger. Not with only one other person. Even if it's Ursula."

He combed the grounds, now covered in thick redwood branches from the megatherium's ground slam. With his foot, he applied pressure to the straightest ones until he found his preferred strength and length.

"What are you doing?" Ursula turned in response to his rushed movements.

"Improvising." Claude thought, "I don't like how much I've had to do that already.." His hands shook with anxiety and adrenaline as he placed his dagger on the end of the wooden staff. "Could you grab my some of that." Claude pointed with his chin toward the megatherium.

"What the carcass?" Ursula asked.

"No. The fur. I need locks of hair. And chunks of meat."

Ursula sheathed one of her axes at her hip and got to ripping.

Less than three minutes later and Claude had his dagger tied down and secure at the end of the staff.

He stood and flipped his improvised spear a few times, checking the weight as if he'd do anything if it was off.

It was off.

It was about as unbalanced as their current team lineup.

"You planning to do two jobs at once?" Ursula questioned, "I suck at multitasking but I'm not a pussy either, so let me help."

Claude nodded as he fit on his quiver and slung the bow over his shoulder, "Sure. How good are you with throwing your axes?"

Ursula followed as Claude headed the way the snake came. "Did I hit the last time I threw it?"

Claude saw the simple reason in her reply but didn't feel any less anxious, luck wasn't the same as practice. "We'll cycle centerpiece positions. We can still run the reverse arrow formation. It'll just be…. Lopsided. We'll have to favor hiding more. Neither of us are really assassin types, but anyone can go unseen against plated-snakes if they're careful. Reptile brains are easily worked around."

"Ahhh so that's what you got the meat for?" Ursula questioned.

"At least it won't run away." Claude replied.

"Haha! Was that a joke?" Ursula's voice rose as they traveled. "Claude I think you're warming up to me."