384 CHPT 384: Wrath of The Cyclops, Mystery of The Tangent....

Since the sighting of the Cyclops, all hell broke loose within the Tangent. Giving Claude no more time to prepare-- no more time to think or fight with his fear stricken and paranoid thoughts. All that was left was the hunt. And every member of his pack longed for it all the same.

So when he moved, they followed. Bursting through the woodland as if the Tangent was their home as much as it was anyone else's.

The one-eyed giants moved as well. He could feel it in the ground as he sprinted after them-- smell it on the air. They reeked of old blood, fire and rage so potent it made his nose hurt.

He snarled in response, his sound echoed by the beasts that flanked him and returned by the monstrous men in the distance.

"UGGGHWAAAHH!" Another mannish roar shook the tree's and sent flashes of moonlight into their battle-ground. It burned his skin, leaving fur growing in it's place.

They were minutes from feeling the Moon at it's strongest. Minutes from transforming. There was no time for a pep-talk for the GiantKiller.

The battle had begun.

SHHZZkkK!

A wayward red bolt of arcing magical energy ripped through the woodland and headed straight for Claude's face, followed by three more in a mindless spray.

He bobbed and weaved the onslaught-- every dodge followed by a movement of his own that had the forest ahead twisting and stabbing at the Cyclops' ahead.

SHCK!...SQLCH!.....SLSH!..

"AHHHCk!" They one's assaulted by the trees and roots from beneath their gargantuan feet screamed in anger as the forest became a living land of wooden claw and fang.

He could see them now. Their tanned skin standing out in flashes as they stomped through bushes and toppled over small tree's like lumbering drunks with lazer eyes.

Claude cast a look back at the group, ready to issue an order. His lips parted to speak, only to stop when the entire pack split into a tight network of smaller groups and continued their charge.

He was getting better at not using his words. How fitting.

At the center, he ran with Ursula and Frosty. His tanks. And together, they faced far too many Cyclops to count. Far too many to survive the brunt of if not for that burning beacon in the sky.

"Minutes." He thought.

He felt Ursula's fear rise.

"Just follow my lead. Don't hide from the Moon..... and give them hell. Remember who you want to get back to." Claude thought.

Suddenly, Ursula roared and threw one of her axes with a wild sideways swing. The weapon smashed into the throat of the first Cyclops to fully step into view and knocked it on it's back where it died instantly as the others stomped over it's corpse.

More arcing bolts of energy flew as they emerged. Ursula responded with shards of ice and Claude with the lands around them.

In the dark it was all a flashing collage of blood, flesh and blinding light. Claude moved as if he were in daylight-- as if his eyes were connected to that of Frosty, Ursula and Blackbeak as he fought in sync with them, casually switching opponents and aiding kills along the way.

They fell. They got back up and fought again. And they grew stronger as the Moon rose.

***

SHLCK!

Claude's spear ripped through another Cyclops throat, with one gruesome pull he removed it and let the grimey muscle-bound body hit the floor.

[+200 EXP]

His ears twitched suddenly as they slowly sharpened to inhuman points.

"Footsteps...." He thought before spinning around and throwing his spear into the chest of another Cyclops seemingly coming for vengeance in the shape of a giant flaming club.

The spear whistled through the air and slammed into it's chest hard enough to take the Monster off its feet. Its flaming club hit the ground beside its head and lit the green grass ablaze that he could see perfectly in the dark as it burned over a hundred feet away.

It's attempts to get up were halted as natural life exploded from beneath the flames beside it's head and began strangling the Monster where it lay.

[+200 EXP]

[+1 Stat Point]

Another approaching the distance, sending bolts of energy towards him and ripping across the wooden surfaces of trees along the way.

Claude took off, ducking and dodging the bolts with all manner of flips and blurring sidesteps assisted by the power of Wild-Magic.

He closed the distance abruptly, using his spear sticking from the chest of the now dead Cyclops as a vaulting tool to send himself soaring through the dark woodland.

"NWaaAAghH!" The Cyclops roared from a mouth filled with rotted teeth as it sent more blast of energy with a few cutting deep gashes into Claude's legs and heating the armor covering his shoulder.

He fell all the same, using his built-up momentum for more power to channel into his legs as he kicked the Cyclops in the chest.

PWOO!

The Cyclops stumbled backward, rolling and tumbling through the forest.

Claude hit the ground hard with a snarl, recovering in a sprint on all fours before pouncing on the clumsy monster.

They wrestled through the bushes and across the grass with the Cyclops raising Claude off the floor and suplexing him hard enough to dizzy Claude's vision before he recovered and elbowed the Monster in the eye. In it's stunned state, he twisted to face the creature and began slashing it's face to ribbons with his claws.

SHLSH!.....SHLSH!...SHLSHKLSH!

[+180 EXP]

He didn't stop. Even as bits of it's blood and flesh caked beneath his claws and splattered on his masked face. The smell, the smell bits of fear that rose from it's flesh as it's life faded, the taste of it's sweat and thick flesh that fell on his lips.

"gO.....finISh IT bOY!....RiGHT NoW!.....As ThE MoOn RiSES...HAHAHAHA!" Fenrir's voice slithered into his mind like a poison, urging him to dine on the suddenly wonderful smelling carcass.

He would've. He really would've if not for his circumstances.

In an instant, the murderous haze faded.

"fuCKinG heLL!"

The Moon was up.

"Ursula." He thought immediately as he got up from the corpse, bathed in it's thick red blood.

Still on his knees, a team of Cyclops' surrounded him, as if the dozens upon dozens of other dead Monsters in the dirt weren't enough.

Before he could move, a Cyclops to his right fired a blast.

A flash of brown crossed his vision, soaring overhead.

Ursula skidded to a halt in front of him and blocked the blast with the blades of her axes.

Frosty followed, jumping over Claude to attack the Cyclops' on the right side, followed by Blackbeak and a pack of Wolfhounds with bloodied maws.

As he watched his pack tear through the Monsters ahead, a breeze hit the jungle. A furious breeze that spread the canopy above and rustled the bushes.

Immediately, the woodland brightened. No longer standing in darkness, the pure wild light of the moon filled the space with a force he couldn't describe. Almost like it was drawn to them. Seeking out it's children.

"The Moon's up..."

The fear was always the same.

So was the burn.

Claude tried to get on his feet. No reason other than the need to move-- to shake off the insane amounts of Lunar Magic seeping into his limbs by the second. The action was achieved-- due to his Partial Transformation, the shift suddenly felt worlds easier.

He was shocked-- appalled, at how surprisingly close he was to referring to the transformation as... seamless. Utterly seamless.....

He stumbled through the jungle, flecks of searing Moonlight burned the scarce amounts of skin still exposed and unshifted. His muscles and joints slithered within like snakes, breaking and reforming into something stronger-- more powerful.

He looked down at his hands, watching as the fingers extended-- palms thickening into something reminiscent of paws. Blood leaked from his cuticles as his claws extended into talons. His arms followed. Muscles thickening with feral power as the fur thickened and fully encompassed his limbs.

"AH-- Fuck!" He snarled and punched a tree hard enough that his fist went through.

As he removed it, a Cyclops tackled him in his distraction.

They rolled through the grass until the Cyclops came to a stop on top of him. It's eye began to glow and spark as it prepared to blow a hole in his face.

"FUck YoU!" Claude snapped in an unfamiliar voice as he slashed the monsters eye to steaming liquid mush.

[+200 EXP]

[+1 Stat Point]

A throaty roar suddenly shook the forest and split Claude's ears.

Immediately he was on his feet. "Ursula." He thought before taking off toward the increasing smell of blood.

***

As he ran through the jungle, the sight of Cyclops bodies grew by the foot. Some long dead, others freshly brutalized... and consumed.

In the distance, lights flashed and screams echoed. Something flew across the sight, large enough to touch the leaves hanging from the treetops.

Almost as if it were an instinct, he knew what he'd just witnessed.

His legs moved faster. Now seconds from his fully transformed state, he moved as a blur, ripping through the jungle and leaping across the small river that cut him off from the team of twelve Cyclops as they shot eyebeams at whatever stalked the shadows.

As he cleared the distance, the moonlight bathed him.

He howled to the sky, bursting into green flames as Gil exploded from within like a wingless dragon.

He hit the ground in a steaming ball of twisting shadows. As they faded, he remained. Fully transformed with the Phantom Legion at his back.

The Cyclops' had no choice but to face him. And as they did, the monster in the shadows emerged-- pouncing on the Cyclops furthest behind the others within the crowded Jungle. Before it could even be killed, the Monster began eating. Using it's thick inscicors to tear away at it's muscled back and arms.

It's screams rattled Claude's spine.

The other Cyclops' moved to thwart the Monster only to find themselves encased in vines and skewered by flaming quills.

The Monster continued to ear until there was nothing but bone left. Under the light of the Moon Claude could see her in all her horrifying glory. And as she stood, the sight only became clearer.

She was massive.....

At least eight and a half feet. Thick silky fur covered her like a second skin, the color of auburn bathed in shadows-- like a blood-soaked black. It did nothing to hide the thick and densely packed muscles beneath. Thick. What a fitting term. Even with the cover of dense muscle and fur, he could tell how abnormally thick her bones were. Her legs seemed as wide as tree trunks and her claws were now fully extended hook shaped talons.

She suddenly let out a chuffing sound, flinging blood and steam from her maw. Claude stared at her face for a long while. He could see the difference clearest there. Her snout was short-- thicker than his, full of blood-stained sharpened teeth that still held their humanoid roundness in places. Her hair that was once held in a ponytail had now laid slicked back out of her face to blend in with the thicker fur at her back and around her neck. Her traps were so unnaturally developed that she stood at a constant hunch. Her forearms so well-muscled that they were thicker than the rest of her arm. Despite all this, he could still see her. He could see that she was there in the glow of her icy blue eyes.

A howl broke the silence in the distance, joined by another..... and then four more as the canine creatures filling the jungle called out to one another.

The urge to join them was strong. But before he could, Ursula raised her snout to the sky and let out a breathy deep-voiced howl.

And then she was off on all fours into the darkness.

"[She has successfully changed. Your job as an Alpha on a Full Moon has just begun.]"

Claude took off after her.

It would be a long night....