Claude entered the academy and was greeted by numerous pairs of eyes, all the students that were present at yesterday's sparring match must've still been thinking about what a spectacle the match truly was. Their gazes only reminded Claude that he got absolutely decimated a day ago, and that very fact filled him with a fresh dosage of red hot rage.       He went through his classes with increasing anticipation, he wanted to see Samuel, he wanted to see if the Rebirth changed him....even if it's only been a day.        As he continued to go through the classes they shared together he would only see Tai who seemed to be enjoying having him and Samuel's usual group of likeminded supporters all to himself.   ***       Claude silently endured all of his classes until he found himself in his last class of the day, with Prof. Raizen. It was a nice class

"Ok Warren, since we're running the back-point formation you stay behind us and just shoot at the face of the snakes, me and Ursula will deliver killing blows as frontliners." Claude said to Warren while the team prepared to head into the forest. Since the time of their walk Ursula seemed to cool off and now looked excited and determined, something he didn't expect to see on the face of someone preparing to kill monstrous snakes.       As the team entered the forest Claude could almost physically feel the change in atmosphere, this wasn't how a forest was supposed to be. He noticed he couldn't hear the usual chatter of birds in the distance that's a norm in most forests, and he couldn't see any squirrels or other small rodents scurrying about, the whole area felt how it does in a forest when a large predator is nearby. Absolute silence.   "Is this the affect an invasive species can have on an ecosystem?" He thought in awe at the ee

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

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

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