246 CHPT 246: Outside Stimulus brings Inner Resolve...
Chaos. Like a bomb, it exploded within the forest, spreading its shrapnel of madness outward to carelessly sink into every inhabitant .
It's explosive reach was expansive. Blood and screams of pain found a home on the bark of trees, the cold ground and even soaked into the small ravines trailing through the green warzone bathed in red.
The HellBreeder soaked in the madness like an addict getting a whopping dosage of her fix after being starved of it for a lifetime. She watched through joy filled eyes as they fought for their lives within the hellish forest.
"Paaatience willl rewarrd me kindlyyyy...."
***
SWSHHH!!
Claude scaled the length of a tree just as a torrent of fire flew up past him. He continued moving, claws scraping against the bark as he lunged further and further to avoid the Hellfire bursting from the HellBred Deer's mouth like a dragon.
While resting on the tree, his eyes snapped to nearby movement and found two HellBred Squirrels scuttling along the bark of a nearby tree looking down at Ursula as if she was dinner.
Claude roared and leapt-- just as the Buck below smashed it's antlers into the tree he previously occupied. In an instant, he began moving from branch to branch using his Wild Magic fueled muscles to maneuver his way through the forest like a Wolven Stone-Ape.
By the time the Squirrels tainted by Hell saw the massive dark shape traversing through the canopy it was too late.
BOOM!
He pounced on the dogsized Squirrels like a starving tiger in an explosion of claws teeth and fur. The furthest Squirrel let out a screeching roar before leaping to another tree, Claude's Prey Drive threw him after the creature.
He leapt off the tree after it in a rush, thrusting outward with his spear shrouded in green Aura.
SHNK!
"AASKSK!!"
[+70 EXP]
His spear sunk through the creatures back, severing it's spine and ripping through organs before breaching the other side and stapling it to the tree like a grotesque ornament.
Without a second to relax, he heard movement burst into existence behind him. With a snarl, he sent threw his left elbow out just in time for it to smash into the face of the Squirrel lunging at him through the air.
FWOO!
CRNCH!
The Squirrel flew back from the impact, hitting stray branches and trees as it fell to the floor with a loud thud. As soon as it's body hit the ground, a hulking dark shape pounced on the creature and crushed it's skull with its jaws.
Frosty shook the dead Squirrel a few times before tossing it aside, barking at Claude and taking off after more.
In the PitWolve's wake, the Buck came galloping across his vision after him. Claude's eyes snapped ahead, immediately noticing Ursula fighting off a group of Squirrels with the Phantom Wolves.
The Buck was looking to skewer her with a deadly charge.
Claude took off. Leaping and bounding through the trees before eventually letting himself fall to the ground and reach higher speeds on foot. Sometimes on two feet and other times on all fours.
The whole time, his glowing eyes were focused on the flank of the Buck with an intense focus. A focus that never wavered as HellBred Squirrels appeared behind him snapping at his heels and fighting to reach his constantly climbing speeds.
In seconds, he was in attacking distance-- so was the Buck.
***
Swip!...Swip!....
Two HellBred Squirrel heads fell and rolled through the grass limply behind Ursula following the beheading of another pair of them attacking her. She hadn't been granted a single break since the start of the fight and the HellBreeder had only thrown in more HellBred offspring.
Butchered and Frozen Squirrels lay everywhere, yet it felt like she'd made it nowhere with Claude's pack of Wolves. Her stamina was faltering. She had to make quick work of the rest and hope no more came. The realization of her weakness finally shining true made her eyes flicker with rage.
FWOO!
Another Squirrel exploded from a nearby bush, with an angry grunt she sidestepped and grabbed its thorned tail from behind and angrily began smashing the other attacking Squirrels with it.
By the time there was nothing left but it's tail, she was only angrier and her Ice mirrored her emotions perfectly. She began sending blasts of Ice and hacking away at the rest while the Wolves danced around her and cleaned up the rest.
When silence fell, a small portion of the forest was frozen and she stood at the center breathing heavily. Silence was relative. The forest was still full of sounds-- just none were immediate. Sounds of distant combat, snarls, cold winds and galloping...galloping?
She spun around just in time to see the Buck charging her like a Bull.
"Shit!" She panicked.
Before it could hit, Claude appeared at it's right in all his ferocious glory smashing into it's ribs and knocking it off path.
The two landed nearby in a rolling mess of fire, fur and claws. They moved with the electric speed of animals, making it hard to understand what was happening. All she knew was blood flew almost comically and ribbons of flesh splattered against trees like furry wet paper.
It didn't take long for her to realize he was shredding the creature down to the bone with the rending power of a pack of piranhas.
Right when she thought it was over, more HellBred Squirrels appeared in the distance moving as a small stampede. Claude noticed it as well, letting out a snarl from beneath the Buck before abruptly ripping his hand through it.
The hand shook and glowed an almost blinding shade of green.
"How about you stop sending puppets and come out so I CAN KILL YOU BITCH!" He roared before slamming his hand into a fist.
He continued to curse and roar, but she couldn't hear it. She couldn't hear his voice over the sound of the forest moving and morphing into a room of thorns.
Trees and branches erupted with ligneous spikes followed by the grass combining and jutting from the ground to do the same. In an instant, the stampede of the Squirrel's was halved. Members stood suspended off the ground, heads on wooden spikes, bodies run through by the sharpened vines and roots. Some were caught by many spikes, causing them to rip apart as the spikes continually grew.
In the distance, it looked like the forest was transformed into a spiked prison.
Ursula was stunned. Most students knew that Claude was one of the lesser talented Element users-- simply due to the fact that he had no teacher. He had power, but lacked finesse. As she peered into the forest of thorns she realized saying he had power was an understatement.
Even so, the move sapped him of his Mana. Beside her, he lay unmoving under the dead buck while he breathed heavily. Bad news.
The Squirrels that missed the volley of spikes began biting their way through the reach them like starving rats.
Her eyes bounced from Claude to the Monsters. Back and forth. She watched one of his elven ears twitch as the Squirrels chomped through the wood angrily, the sound got him moving from beneath the horse-sized buck.
Attempting to save the day again.
Ursula dropped her sword. Icy frost spewed from her hands as if they were the coldest substance on earth. Her eyes brimmed with power, like two icy white suns. Even her breath was cold, freezing the moisture in the air in front of her into glimmering snowflakes.
"In times of intense emotional or physical stress, the Element that calls you climbs in power in an attempt to react to the overwhelming outside influences.....An Elemental Survival Response if you will." The lesson from the first week of school played within her mind.
She checked off all boxes. Her Rage was as high as it would get before she went Berserk, and she was determined to be of use, determined to not let her friend be alone with the looming possibility of death.
Death was approaching in the form of a handful of muscle bound overgrown demonic Squirrels.
Before she knew it, her feet were moving, pulling her closer to the threat. Each step sending lily pads of ice exploding from where her feet once were.
The Squirrels did the same, coughing up tufts of Hellfire and burnt wood-chips as they closed in on her.
Demons Vs. Berserker, Unrelenting Flames Vs. Intense Ice.
Fwoo!
She jumped, the Squirrels eyes followed her before sending off small balls of Hellfire. The heated flames zipped past her while others hit her hands, erupting into balls of steam against her cold touch.
For a moment thats all she was. A cloud of steam falling through the air, and then the winds washed them away, leaving her to hit the ground in front of them in a flash of blues and white.
SCRCRSHCRHSCRH!!!!!!
Her hands smashed into the ground, causing wild spiking cascades of ice to jut out of the ground. She roared angrily, causing a steady torrent of frost to escape from her mouth, further empowering the rising spikes of ice that charged into the Squirrels and intertwined with the forest of thorns-- further ripping the caught Squirrels as spikes of Ice lined the wood and vine ahead.
True silence followed.
She stayed there for a long time. In a bed of Ice while mountainous frozen formations of glacial peaks surrounded her, dyed by blood and dirt. She did it. She was able to be of use.
DING!
[You have Leveled Up!]
Ding!
[You have Leveled Up!]
Ding!
[Acquired Skill Unlocked: Glacial Smash]
"...Nice." She thought before tiredly getting up.
Once on her feet, her skull pulsed painfully and a coppery tasting liquid fell on her lips. "Damn...too much Mana."
In a rush she activated, (Combat Mediation), causing her to shimmer with cool blue energy before returning to normal.
Thud!
Something fell behind her, taking her from her thoughts just in time to hear Claude's voice.
"URSULA WATCH OUT!"
FPOOM!
