Claude continued deeper into the intracitlety built city cutting corners and going through alleyways until he ended up on the street that led to the Angelos Districts Combat/Strategy Academy. He could see students in front of him all heading into the cathedral-like building with various forms of weapons and armor, as they got closer the students began to seek out their friends to form their usual cliques.
Seeing this always made claude angry because he didn't have a clique….he didn't even have friends, but then again in order for him to have friends he'd have to let those royal scumbags halt his progress and ridicule him whenever they needed to reup on self confidence.
So, Claude came to the conclusion he always comes too. A simple, yet effective one that was often ignorant of his internal emotions and feelings.
"No friends it is."
***
He entered the grand gothic era styled building with the rest of the students, the building was beautiful to Claude-- from the inside out. The walls were spotless and had art of famous Tangent battles on them and the ceiling was incredibly high with expensive chandeliers hanging from it a few feet apart which gave the black marble floor beneath his feet an ethereal gleam.
His walk was interrupted as he came to a stop to look at his favorite depiction of a Tangent battle, the name of the piece was “Pure Dominance”
A little intense, but he liked it.
The piece was of a famous Hero named The Dominator, she wore her trademark horned helm with a skin tight light armor bodysuit, all jetblack and her bladed whip called Aggressors Wrath that glowed with brilliantly violent power.
She was standing over a Demon Lord who looked like he was smashed into his throne by the way his blood was shown splattered all over it, and there were what looked like thousands of low level Demons behind her all with broken bones or blown off limbs causing the expanse of hell to look more....hellish.
Claude liked this picture because he felt less alone knowing that someone else was like him in the friends department, although for different reasons, The Dominator rode solo just like him, and the thought that someone could get that strong alone put Claude's nerves at ease. It reminded him that there was a way and that power was attainable to all.
Claude also liked this picture because it was a statement, this was the fight when she let the world know exactly who she was, she gained her name through her actions, as the name of the piece states the battle was a show of pure domination. The Rancor of Demons never stood a chance. He could easily imagine her entering the scene, and using her bladed whip to turn the Demons into red and inky black skinned mash all before abruplty smashing the Demon Lord back into the throne he so proudly sat upon. It was almost poetic in nature.
Claude admired the artwork for a while longer, finding that no matter what the work never got old and it neverfailed to spark the flames of his imagination-- similarly to how stories of Animals and Monster's do. Even now, as he watched the painting he was so enamored by it that the approaching sound of footsteps reached his ears too late and left him with no choice but to feel the cold touch of hard steel smashing into his back and causing his face to smash into the wall near the painting with a loud cracking sound.
His face bounced off the wall and he hit the ground in a daze while nearby student's continued their movement like worker ants.
Claude could hear above him a familiar cocky voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard voicing an incredibly fake apology to him.
"Damn. Im sorry, Claude. I didn't see you there when Samuel pushed me."
****
Samuel and Tai are what you would call the top dogs of the Academy, they're the twin sons of the Leader of one of the strongest Guilds in the New Gloria, The Onslaught Guild. They have no problem boasting their inherited status with their flashy armor and weapons, and due to their blue eyes, platinum blonde hair and athletic builds they look like young princes straight out of fairy tails, unfortunately their personalities aren't as regal as their looks.
****
"Yea, its not like I wasnt standing here for the past ten minutes or anything like that, Tai." Claude pointed out sarcastically while he got up and wiped the trail of blood that flowed freely from his lip.
Before Claude even finish his response the royal duo was already heading to their classes with and outrageously large number of attractive women and burly students in their wake.
"I swear to god I hate ladiesmen."
Claude picked himself up off the ground and headed to his Tangent Studies and Preparations class, one of his favorites.
The beast spoke in between earthquake inducing growls. It's voice wasn't right either, it was speaking correct but hearing human language come from the vocal chords of a monster was absolutely horrifying. Claude didn't know who the giant monster could be talking to so he decided to stay quiet. Even if he wanted to talk, he'd have to wait for his spine to stop tingling first. The beast took another eerily silent step towards him— causing his body to betray him further as he began to try harder to curl into himself and away from the beast. "Hrmmmm...WHY DIDN'T YOU DINE ON YOUR KILL?....grrrrRRR!" The beast yelled at him in a questioning manner. He thought the question over before answering, trying to be careful in what he said. "I'm not an animal-- not a wild one at least....it felt...erhm...wrong. Taboo."
DING! [Additional Quest Complete! You have reminded the wolves of your position in the pack!] The wolves immediately moved out of Claude's way in a rush with their tails between their legs. "...About damn time." He thought while dragging the buck through the damp forest grass towards the injured wolf, feeling the light burn in his quads from the weight of the deceased animal. He sat down next to the wolf, as he got closer he could hear how hard the wolf was panting. The sight caused him to reflect on the situation as a whole. "These are the effects of not having someone to lead? They would've let him die due to their starvation.....they were almost mindless..." Now that he was close enough to see how hurt the wolf was he realized it wouldn't be able to get food itself, he reached for his tooth dagger at his waist and clutched nothing but
[New Quest!: Feed your injured pack-mate.] Claude looked at the injured wolf behind the other five and saw that it had a rather serious puncture wound on its side. "Feed the injured? What's that going to do for his wound?!" He yelled at the sky angrily with nowhere else to aim his anger and confusion. He made his way to the buck anyway. With a sense of urgency, he grabbed it by its one remaining antlers and tried to drag it to the injured wolf..but the other wolves wouldn't move. DING [Additional Quest: Remind the wolves of your position in the pack.] Claude looked at the five wolves in front of him that blocked his way to the injured wolf. One wolf in particular seemed to be spearheading this operation, despite their unnaturally similar features— even for animals, this wolf had a difference about it. All the wolves looked hungry..starve
Running....jumping...ducking under low hanging branches. Claude and the wolves had been in pursuit of the giant buck for miles, with him somehow keeping up. His lungs felt infinite, with every inhale of fresh Forest night air it filled him entirely, energizing his muscles and mind to continue giving chase. The buck had begun to slow down after a few miles and the wolves were now nipping at its heels. The buck let out a loud snort and spun around after one of the wolves got a good bite on its hind leg, all the wolves dodged the swing of the bucks great antlers but Claude was caught by surprise and got hit. FUUGH! He was sent skidding and rolling through the rough grassy forest floor. ".....I'm really getting tired of horned animals." He thought to himself as he rolled over onto his hands and knees to cough up blood. While he was coughing he noticed something odd about his ha
A star filled night sky was all Claude could see from his unnaturally comfortable spot on the grass, he was laying in the middle of nowhere, "where am I?" He asked himself. Where he laid, the grass was cold and stiff-- like nature itself was urging him to get, to witness his eviroment. He did. Upon rising from the stiff blades of grass, he realized he was at the entrance of a forest, a vast and beautiful forest. Tall and healthy looking oak trees with spindly, tendril like branches—much like the ones at the cabin, and many different kinds of plant life crowded the forest floor while lightning bugs began to glow across the entrance and inside the forest sporadically. He got up to his feet and was immediately puzzled by his appearance for a number of reasons. "Where the hell are my clothes?? He wondered while he looked down at himself and only saw a loincloth. After looking around the grass near where he lay for
The forest retained its unearthly silence, the only thing that occasionally broke it was the giant mother snake, it's predatory ambience hung on the air with an almost overwhelming intensity.... Claude couldn't feel any of his injuries— which he knew were serious, all he could feel was the weakness of his knees and his trembling hands. He knew his adrenaline was the only reason he was still standing so he decided he'd buy Ursula as much time as possible right now...while he still could. WOOSH! The snake watched Claude speedily jump to the side to try and attack its exposed side but it immediately lunged at him headfirst. He was barely fast enough to dodge the wild attack, but he did, he took the opportunity to lunge back in and cut the snake. SCHLICK! The cut barely did anything but further agitate th