CHPT 139: Come to Collect.

Claude abandoned his previously slow and purposeful walk into the forest and and started all out sprinting after seeing the bright and powerful sparks of Det. Cyrene's stunning red Lightning come back to life.

The wild red sparks jumped and bit at nearby trees and bushes, creating small fires and bursts of smoke everywhere nearby— making her own den of chaos inside the cold forest.

"Hehehehe...." Her laugh resonated through the forest as her Lightning aura intensified and branched out like the legs of a giant red spider.

Claude barely had time to react as the Lightning surged and blasted out towards him, cutting past trees and drawing lines of smoking embers into the ground while it scratched its way across to meet him.

He couldn't help but notice how the smoke was an odd color. Blood red.

SHHZZZSH!

The high pitched sound of the lightning assaulted his sensitive ears and shook his brain causing him to stop mid run to shell up and cover his ears.

In this time, all he could do was sit as the Lightning lashed across the outside of his arms and legs— burning through his fur and scorching his skin with its incredible heat.

"AAAARRRGHHH!!" He roared in pain before falling to one knee, shaking violently on and off as the shock of the Lightning forced his muscles to randomly tense up painfully.

The pain of the attack threatened to send him into a frenzy. He knew if he got hit by one again, he'd be back to fighting like an animal— which was what she seemed to be hoping for.

"F.....F-Focus!" He thought consciously— taking note of how far away his voice sounded in his mind now.

In the distance, he could now see Det. Cyrene much better. In the center of the burned plants and oddly smoking trees, she stood with her silver sword staked into the ground to the right of her. Her hands were held in front of her stomach where she was cultivating a small unstable red orb of Lightning.

Claude snarled as he remembered the pain it caused. His angered noises were cut short by something odd that stuck out to him.

Aside from the Lightning she continuously fed into the orb to heighten is power, she was also blowing thick and wispy spirals of red smoke from her mouth into it. The Lightning accepted it and mixed into a violent red sparking storm cloud.

Claude immediately recognized the smoke and realized what she was doing.

She'd hit him with the Lightning— that was infused with the smoke she used in the cave to try and make him transform. Then he'd be a mindless monster again, he'd become predictable to a person like her. A person who kills shape-changers for a living.

The realization angered him intensely and he felt himself being pulled to her. He was already affected by her first blast. He just needed to reach her and remove her from the area.

He began to search the forest as he lost more and more of his control.

***

"DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE DONE ALREADY, CLAUDE! Stop hiding! Monsters done hide, THEY HUNT!" She yelled as she sent another blast of her maddening Lightning through the forest at him.

She couldn't help but giggle as the Lightning slashed across the tree's and ignited more bushes into sitting balls of fire emitting red smoke.

Any second, she expected to see the giant monsters flesh ignited by her Lightning in the distance.

After a few more seconds, her attack ended and she couldn't see him.

"You're being very cowardly right now, Claude! It's unbecoming of you." She said, sounding angry for the first time before sending small blasts of lightning in all directions in front of her.

SHZZSH!....SHZZSH!..SHZZSH!

Slowly, that unusual amount of fear she first felt when Claude assumed a fighting stance earlier, crept back into her heart. He was nowhere, all she saw in the distance was Samuel's unconscious body next to a tree. The only monster that was still up to fight her seemed to vanish into thin air.

Her fear turned into something she hadn't felt in a while. Something she hadn't felt since she was a child— when she had to hide in a closet under the Full Moon, while her father padded through the small cabin trying to sniff her out among the sea of recently mauled bodies of her family. It was a feeling she imagined a solitary doe felt in a forest when it knew it was being hunted. The way the forest took on an unearthly silence— like it was holding its breath while the lurking predator silently waited to ambush the helpless creature.

The feeling could only be described as one thing, terror.

Scratch!

The sound of bark being scratched above her caused her to jump backward and look up at the trees. She waited silently with her hands raised, shaking slightly.

She was ready to chalk it up to squirrels until two hateful green eyes appeared in the distance, thirty feet off the ground.

"AH!" She yelled as she sent a blast of lightning in the direction of the eyes.

SHHZSH!

She missed but the blast lit up a portion of the forest, showing Claude three fourths of the way up a tree while he snarled at her and swatted his large free hand in her direction.

"No..no.. no.no....NONONONO! THIS IS NOT HOW YOU ACT!" She screamed while stomping her feet before sending off repeated small blasts of lightning into the trees.

The blasts lit up the forest with an eerie red glow that allowed her to see the giant green eyed predator in frozen strobe light images as he leapt and bounded from one tree to the next to reach her.

She continued shooting off her lightning until he was close enough to her that she could hear his snarls as he jumped and used his claws to fasten himself to the trees.

"Now I got you!" She thought triumphantly as she shot ahead, assuming he already jumped to the next tree which was right in front of her.

SHHZZSH!

The flash of red light revealed nothing.

Before she could react, she heard a branch snap in front of her. Her head swiveled in the direction of the sound just in time to see Claude's snarling face before he swung wildly down at her head.

"RAGH!"

WOOM!

Claude missed the powerful swing, generating enough wind to blow out the fires of a few bushes.

Det. Cyrene bounded away, flipping and jumping through the forest now armed with her silver sword.

Before he could pursue her, a large golden mass slammed into his back.

Claude and Samuel tumbled into the circle of fire and red smoke, growling and biting each other.

After a few seconds, they were both hit with a blast of lightning.

SHZZSH!

The blast untangled them immediately and caused them to fall to the ground— flinching and rolling around in pain. After a few seconds they rose up off the ground and walked around dizzily— being intoxicated by the red smoke until suddenly they both roared and ran to the source of it.

"HAHA! I'm in heaven!" Det. Cyrene yelled as Claude and Samuel bounded towards her on all fours, bumping and snapping at eachother whenever they got too close.

***

Now with the advantage in her favor, Det. Cyrene faced both Claude and Samuel. They swiped and snapped at her only to be met by her blade or each other's claws as they fought for the kill.

Red leaking slashes ran across Claude and Samuel's snouts and muscled arms as well as deep open bite wounds that overlapped and leaked down their fur.

The only damage Det. Cyrene sustained was; a head wound and cut that ran along her face from when Claude kicked her earlier. The two were no match for her in their current states, the realization that she'd have their heads soon if it continued like this excited her to no end.

SWoo!

Samuel leapt over Claude and lunged at her, swinging at near blinding speeds.

Woo!

Det. Cyrene sidestepped and focused her element around her leg before side kicking him in the gut.

SHZZCK!

The intense impact of the kick knocked Samuel off the ground and towards the river.

The noise rattled Claude's brain again and abruptly brought him back into consciousness. Just enough to be aware of himself and control his movements barely.

He ran for Det. Cyrene, trying his best to ignore her smiling face as he leapt off the ground and swung at her face with his left hand.

She ducked beneath the strike only to realize his hand stopped before it could reach her.

"A feint?" She thought as Claude's knee came crushing into the side of her skull.

CRACK!

He stood in the darkness snarling and shaking his head, trying to regain control. Once he was relatively back, he looked ahead at the Detective just in time to see a mangled and broken hand wrap around her neck.

"Tai!" He realized as the twin's hideous blue eyed head rose above her before lunging downward and biting down on the portion of flesh and bone between the Detectives neck and shoulder.

"AHHH!!" She yelled in pain as Tai bit down on her viciously.

Before the Lightning that came back to life around her could reach him, Samuel came out of nowhere and ripped Tai off her shoulder.

The fully transformed golden Lupine easily overpowered his deformed and broken twin, pinning him to the ground with almost no effort.

Tai growled and tried to fight, but Samuel pushed his face deeper into the ground, silencing him with a hostile bark.

The next portion of the exchange confused and disgusted Claude, causing him to begin running towards them both.

Samuel spoke.

His cruel purple eyes flared with disgust as his jaws opened letting saliva and blood fall on his brother as he forced out one word.

"...we.....WeaK!" He snapped before lunging at his pinned brother and closing his jaws around his neck.

CRSH!

"ARP!" Tai yelped as Samuel clamped down on his throat.

"NOOOO!" Claude roared as he jumped over Det. Cyrene's body and bit down on the back of Samuel's neck.

CRSHH!

Claude snarled and shook the golden Lupine in his jaws until Samuel had no choice but to free Tai and try to deal with with the Lupine biting his own neck.

Claude held on to Samuel's neck, as golden furred arms reached back and cut into his neck and the sides of his face.

As soon as the large amount of enemy Lupine blood filled Claude's mouth, he was overcome with an inescapable urge to kill him. To increase the flow of blood, tear more flesh, crush more bones.

He growled madly and began to lock his jaws while he lifted Samuel and held his arms so all he could do was sit and wait for his neck to be crushed by Claude.

So much blood flowed that it leaked from his teeth and down his chest. Slowly it was ending, he could feel it— Samuel was dying.

"AAAWWOUUUUURRRGGHH!"

An incredibly loud and haunting howl sounded from everywhere, but also from very far away. He remembered the sound immediately. The incredible power and malice behind the solitary howl was like a signature— allowing him to recognize who it came from without a shadow of doubt.

"Dolion."

Samuel took advantage of the opportunity and used his feet to push free of Claudes jaws before quickly turning and taking him to the ground.

Claude raised his arms as Samuel snapped and clawed at him wildly.

Samuel ripped and tore through his flesh for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, he stopped— settling with holding his arms and quietly snarling at him.

Claude's blood dripped onto his face and body as he looked around the forest for Det. Cyrene and Tai.

Tai— who was the closest to them, was gone. Nowhere to be found, all that was left was a pool of his blood where he previously lay on the ground. He decided to focus his search on the Detective, only to find another pool of blood where she was near the river.

As he strained his vision, he noticed a trail of red liquid that reflected the Moon's brightness.

"Her blood." He realized as he followed the trail across the river and deeper into the forest.

He followed it until he saw something completely unnerving.

Her legs. Someone or something was dragging her deeper into the dark forest. It's features or any indicator of what was taking her were hidden by the dense bushes and foliage she was being dragged into.

The last thing he saw was her polished black shoes being swallowed up by the forest.

"AAAWWOOOOUUUURRGHH!" The howl shook the earth again and straightened out Samuel like a dog after its names been called from far away. He suddenly jumped off it Claude.

Woo!

Claude rose up to a squatted position instantly, snarling quietly and baring his teeth.

The two face each other silently for a moment.

"AAAAWOUU!" A third howl echoed towards them, sounding smaller and almost sickly when compared to the first.

"Jack.." Claude spat with disgust.

Samuel suddenly turned and ran, jumping over the river and going to the right, deeper into the forest.

Claude moved to chase but stopped himself— fighting his Prey Drive that was weakened by his exhausted state.

He realized it was suicide without revenge. He was too weak to face three— possibly four, Lupines— one of which being incredibly powerful and somehow able to control and use a Deviant as a home. If he gave into his urges and chased him to Dolion and Jack, he would die and the injustice done to his father would go unchecked.

Claude dropped to his knees, snarling angrily as tears soaked into his fur.

Boom!...Boom!....Boom!

He slammed his fists into the dirt until his knuckles opened, at the realization that he'd have to let the twins go. There would be no revenge on this Full Moon and that drove him mad.

He snarled and turned, heading out of the forest by the way he came before turning left and roaming the vast expanse of valleys and other small forests as he finally fully succumbed to the Full Moon's Magic.