503 CHPT 503: Blood and Eardrums

Transforming used to be Claude's greatest fear. That and reliving his fathers murder every time he went to sleep. There was something so perverse and terrifying about it. The burn. The tearing of muscle and bone. The collapse of the human mind. No longer being what you thought was yourself. No longer being viewed as you once were.

Times had changed since Claude first had those thoughts. He wasn't in a schoolyard anymore fanboying over Heroes and their tales of terror.

He was a Lupine of Romulus. A Potential. An Alpha in a SkyScraper full of Vampires in the midst of an ideological war.

Currently— maybe for the first time, he loved the shift. He yearned for it. The violence— death, in the air. It called to what he truly was. He embraced the cracking and rearranging of bones... the thickening of muscle and skin as it darkened like overcooked meat over a Mage's flame. He curled his lips as his jaw extended into a Wolven snout full of canines suited for snapping steel.

In his minds eye Cassidy and Ursula felt the Shift Inspiration and gave in. Ursula's muscles bulged. Her skin gained a reddish tint as her eyes turned blue enough to blind. Cassidy didn't grow so dense, but his body elongated and fur covered his skin all over in black and silver blades— almost as if their Lupine shifts were cognizant of their fighting styles.

He couldn't help but notice how much further along Cassidy's shift was. Like a Potential on steroids. Maybe his Wolfborn status made the Lupine connection stronger. No, it did.

Speaking of fighting, it had only gotten worse as Claude's foot hit the ground as close to fully transformed as ever. The Fiara family was stuck in their own skirmish.

The first flock of Vampires swarmed him like gnats. Black and purple smoke clouded his vision as he dropped to all fours and ran— steering them away from his pack. The bats nipped at his back and ears while others gained partial human form to try and punch or rip his throat out.

After the first blow he dove, spinning over onto his back to face the cloud. Green lightning coalesced and danced around his chest before a monstrous horned head emerged and spewed green flames into the cloud like a raging dragon. Gil had been waiting to get out.

FWSSHHH!!

"AHHHHHHCK!!!!!" The Vampire cloud dissipated with some fleeing as their burned skin steamed. Others hit the ground as dead bats that crumbled to dust.

[+550 EXP]

Ursula's stomps were loud enough to wake the dead as she came to a stop standing over him and lifted him off the floor, throwing him into another batch of lowly Vampires looking for Lupine blood.

Claude flipped in the air to face the group. Basic Vampires— Arthurian. Classic pale skin, long needle-like fangs, red eyes over blackness. Claws as long as his own.

Smoke began to spew from their clothing and skin.

Claude threw his Malevolence Tether at the closest one, wrapping him in flaming chains before he could lose his solid form. The others swarmed him just as he brought the Vampire to himself to hold as a hostage. They killed the Vampire in his arms and mauled him.

Claude poured his Mana into his muscles until they glowed beneath his skin— growing steadily. At the same time, he willed the shape of the bladed end of his Malevolence Tether into a short sword and began cutting them down. The green flames danced along the silver blade, burning through smoke and undead skin with deadly ease.

Claws ripped across his vision. Fangs sunk into the muscles in his back, secreting deadly relaxing poisons and magics. Surprisingly strong fists collided with his ribs.

He pushed onward. Every blow that connected with him connected with them as well. His Prey Drive demanded it as they moved in a blur.

The last two punched him square in his snout, making his eyes water. Without looking he swung his bladed chain in the midst of their bloodlust.

"AUCK!"

FWSH!

[+300 EXP]

"One down."

The other— a woman, dashed across his vision, opening three red lines in his stomach. Claude caught her by the arm and slammed her like a mallet.

KABOOM!

She hit the floor and bounced.

SWSH!!

While in the air, a black blur removed her head, sliding to a stop beside Claude. Cassidy panted as blood leaked from his wounds.

Ursula suplexed a final Vampire onto a sheet of ice, shattering it with the bloodsuckers skull. It died and she fled the slimming battlefield.

They watched in silent awe. So many died in so little time. Vampires went to war with deadly speed. Every shot for the kill and every kill as meaningless as the one before it. They were covered in their enemies and allies ashes. So much so that a aura of black smoke surrounded the fighters like a physically visible disease.

"What…. A night…" Cassidy growled before spitting on the ashes of a dead Vampire. Well…. double dead.

"The night isn't ove—"

BOOM!

A massive impact shook their ears. The black smoke and ashes in the air flew outwards in a tidal wave from the winds generated. The chandeliers above shook and flickered in and out of light. The other Vampires laid on the floor holding their ears, leaving Rupont and Sgt Bertrand facing eachother.

Rupont held the Vampires saber between his hands, looking up at him with a livened look in his eyes.

"The….. the book."

Claude turned to find one of the twins— Abina. She was on one knee, recovering with the rest as she pointed to the bag still at the podium.

"We need to keep the book…"

Claude reached for the podium from where he stood. Black shadows spewed from his palm, headed by a six eyed Wolves head. The Phantom Legion in its permiable form snaked through the madness and locked it's jaws around the bag, bringing it back into Claude's hands.

It was then that Sgt Bertrand spoke.

"The first Summit we allow…. Outsiders, and all of a sudden age old banned texts of propaganda and blasphemy are reintroduced? Coincidence? I think not!" Sgt Bertrand yanked his sword away from Rupont and it erupted in a screaming cloud of smoke and fire, reappearing as a gun.

He fired it at Rupont. A sound loud enough to wake the dead.

BANG!

Claude never saw Rupont move, but he was suddenly behind Sgt Bertrand, covering his ears….. to protect him from the sound?

Sgt Bertrand cursed and shook out of his grip, attacking him with an array of weaponry summoning. Whips, blades, guns…. Even artillery cannons that cracked the floors and threatened to send them down to earths surface in gory fashion. The air reeked of gunpowder and metal in seconds.

That's all it was. Seconds. And Claude could never see Rupont.

The two stood across from eachother. Sgt Bertrand's back was to them. All fight seemingly out of his system despite his politically charged and incendiary claims.

"You want to destroy what we've spent ages building. Fine. I'm resigning from the Heads of Night." Sgt Bertrand stood tall and threw his saber at Ruponts feet.

Rupont winked at Claude.

The smell of gunpowder heightened as the saber suddenly shifted into a bomb. Ursula flew in front of him and Cassidy, calling forth an ice wall in a flash.

Thmp!

Aether Magic in the air made his spine tingle. Claude hopped over the wall to find a glowing purple orb focused around the would be bomb. Sylvia lay near the podium with burn marks all over her, purple energy danced on her fingers and eyes.

She fell and the magical barrier dispersed.

Claude moved on impulse, wrapping SGT Bertrand in his Malevolence Tether and yanking him across the ballroom floor.

He lunged forward and caught Sgt Bertrand in his arms, tripling his muscles for more grip so the Vampire couldn't move as he unleashed a Sonic Howl right into the attacking Vampires echo locating ears.

He was like a bomb of his own in those moments. The muscles in his arms and back glowed beneath his skin with white-hot intensity. Energy spewed from his eyes. The Phantom Wolves rose from beneath his skin, roaring with him to truly stun the Vampire into a slumber he wouldn't remember.

It must've worked because when he found his voice raw and soundless. The Vampire had gone limp.

Claude tossed him back center stage. The others that were still alive— which were many surprisingly, were littered around the outskirts of the floor holding their ears and drinking the blood off the floor to recover. Others mourned the loss of their dead before being killed by their leaders.

"[Safety measure to stop them from losing balance.]" Arne spoke as the hideous actions came to a close.

Rupont barely looked touched. He clapped. Claude tossed him the bag. He had a story to hear.

Rupont beckoned to Claude and his pack.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Lupines. They would like to know more about The Red Queens. I know some of you do as well."

"We need to recover. We need to hold judgement and charge every member apart of this Summit that acted against Nights Law." Sylvia huffed.

Rupont shook his head, causing his middle-parted brown hair to shake and toss ashes. "No. We took out the trash on short notice, nothing more. Everyone here is here because they are strong and willing to listen. The ones quick to attack can't see the bigger picture with their eyes or ears. No love lost."

"And your Lupine friends? I witnessed them slay at least six of my own in a frenzy." Sylvia eyed Claude.

"Ahh! Don't start that bullshit, we had to fight. What do you want us to sit there and get sucked dry?" Ursula huffed steam.

"Getting sucked dry would've been way better than this shindig…" Cassidy ripped off the tattered remains of his shirt at the same time as Claude.

"Your Nights Law is flawed if we're being questioned but he walks." Claude pointed at the unconscious Sgt Bertrand.

"I didn't say that, Lupine." Sylvia spat.

"None of you, are saying ANYTHING!" Rupont started, "I'm here because our world may change at breakneck speeds. How many of you want to be at the helm of that, and how many would like to be left in the dust? Show of hands! Who wants to die in the past!?" His voice boomed, dropping an unnatural number of octaves.

Nobody raised their hands.

"Drink your blood. Recover. Listen." Rupont commanded.

Five minutes passed and the bloodsuckers looked as good as new— only their clothes were trashed and ashes laid everywhere. The attackers left alive were restrained and carried away— where he was not sure. He didn't care in those moments. He wanted to know more about Maris and The Red Queens. He wanted safer grounds to stand on.