The once civilized and quiet-- if only slightly tense, beach had been flipped on it's head. Flipped out of the studius realm of due process and evidence examination it once inhabited entirely. All thanks to three transformative events that took charge at once. Like wolves on a full moon.
The serpentmancer walked among them. A fellow student who was lying about their class and abilities. Someone quick on their feet and fiercely intelligent. Someone you wouldn't expect. And their only known goal currently was to kill students.
Even worse, Carmen's wizard-blooded cousin had never left the island as promised. As explained. He was among them as well, using the serpentmancers call to carnage as a shield to protect his plans from destruction.
And lastly-- most presently, a dozens foot tall tidal wave was heading straight for End's Island as the first wraith of Wraith Night made himself known.
Nearly everyone ran for the jungles, praying the trees and stones would cut up the solid blue blast and save them. Naz led students to the pigpen to ride their razorbacks. Not all would make it.
Claude ran the opposite direction. He ran for the quaking shoreline where Stella and Grimm thrashed at their cage as wave grew closer, nearly full white from all the beasts within turning the water frothy.
"Get me the hell out!!!" Stella snarled.
Claude grabbed the stone bars and pulled.
Nothing.
He strained with all the strength he didn't have until Ren growled at him, nearly shovin him aside before taking a few steps back and charging the cage.
The stone bars crack and sand flew off the beasts fur. Seemingly, it only made him angrier. But they were running out of time and the wave wasn't slowing.
Then two streams of ice blasts flew overhead.
Behind him, Ursula and Xander worked to try and freeze the wave. A foolish task. Something Claude would've tried if the ice element chose him.
Even closer, the trio of surfers ran past him, getting in front of Stella's cage where they began moving blue tinted hands with an almost artistic fluidity.
"Should've made Isaac stay if we're going for a PR!" Tyrell blurted with a nervous chuckle.
The wave was altered, splitting and freezing from all the manipulation. But still, it came crashing, right as Stella and Grimm were freed.
Percival's shout was the last thing Claude heard.
He split the wave. Right down the middle with a wild chop. But only barely.
On each side the water came crashing-- which wasn't much better. The sound popped Claude's ears. Fishmen and sharks were crushed by the jolt of their own home, sending teeth and bone shards flying at them like bullets.
Then the waters swallowed them as the wave warbled and reconnected over the beach. Smashing the walls of blue with them inside.
Claude flipped and spun like debris. Equally as weightless compared to the beasts inside. Unequally as adaptable. He felt for the connections in the spinning water, growing murky as sand and dirt and blood mixed.
Rivera dashed past him.
He moved to follow only for a huge black log to smash into him.
[80% HP Remaining]
The crunch of his nose rattled in his ears. He held onto the glacial shark, taking on it's traits. His skin took on a dark hue, going thick and leathery. His smaller bones transformed into cartilage, making him lighter and more flexible in the water. Gills split open in his throat and on his sides.
He flipped just as a bladed fin grew along the ridge of his spine, ripping through an excessively blubbery fish-man.
[+75 EXP]
He came out the other side covered in blood and guts and never stopped moving. As he slithered through the tidal wave, he sniffed out the students inside, throwing them for the surface as the water levels shrank the more they neared the jungle. From there, the Island-Dogs kept them afloat as best they could.
A school of fish-men spun in a focused horde. Ripping into something blonde haired--
"Stella!"
Claude cut through the waves, using his claws to rip open his palms, leaving streams of red for the disoriented shark breeds to follow.
He was on the fish-men quickly. First, he split the horde by calling to the nature beneath the sandstone steps and chairs of the beach. The wooden spikes ripped into the slowest of them. The fastest fled in a blur of giant tails and wild eyes. It was all happening so fast.
Stella was covered in cuts and choking on water.
Claude grabbed her and turned, taking them both into the open jaws of the adolescent greed-shark trailing them.
It swallowed them whole.
They rode it's tongue like a wet fleshy slide all the way down to it's acid lined stomach.
Right before they could crash into the scorching fluids, Claude jumped off it's tongue with Stella in hand and latched onto the inner walls of it's belly. With a groan, he lifted her, forcing her palm to touch the beast.
She didn't need to be told what to do. She was already changing. Mouth expanding. Eyes bulging. Skin going spotted and dark. When the gills split open in her sides, water flowed until she was breathing again.
Before she could say anything, a crash shook up their environment. The sharks intestines popped and it's insides shrank down, threatening to crush them.
The wave crashed.
They stopped moving finally.
Stella lunged, wasting no time as she began biting and tearing through the shark to reach outside.
On the outside, Ursula was only just recovering as the last of the tidal wave sunk into the muddied sands at the edge of the jungle. It could've been worse. She could've been crushed like the sharks at bottom of the wave but Claude's dogs seemed intent on playing superhero. She was beginning to love dogs.
And hate--
She punched into the mud where she was on all fours, grabbing a clump and freezing the water into an ice spear.
"RAHH!" She spun around, throwing the glacial javelin into the stomach of a stalking fish-man.
Others began to rise, shaking off concussions and broken limbs.
"Claude!! Where are you?!" Ursula got up and flexed her iced fists.
[Berserker's Rage 45%]
"Everyone alright?" Xander yelled as he got to his feet. "Where are the surfers? Ursu--.... Oh hell."
Ursula charged the first fish-man. The aquatic monster slashed at her. Ursula headbutted the swipe, shattering it's claws agains her ice crusted aura. Before it could recover, she grabbed it's hand, stabilizing it as she used her other arm to upper cut its elbow joint.
The snap was palpable.
She yanked it's broken arm towards herself at a downward angle and jumped, sending her knee deep into its slimy fish-face.
As it crumpled to the ground, another came slithering on two legs.
Ursula roared and caught the beast, suplexing it into the frozen sands behind her. Immediately she back rolled onto her feet just as two more came.
The tail swing was blindingly fast.
It hit her right in the face where she kneeled.
She flipped three times before hitting the ground to the left of Xander.
[75% HP Remaining]
They didn't stop coming.
As she tried to get to her feet, the beached shark behind her flailed, kicking her forward.
She crashed into them in a daze and hit the ground in a roll.
She came to just as they were about to descend. Behind them, Xander sent arctic lightning blasts at another trio trying to overtake him.
[Berserker's Rage 67%]
The fishmen lunged for her.
Rivera and Riptide came from the rear, bitting down hard on their fishy legs.
Behind Ursula, Ren came charging, jumping up to maul the face of the center fish-man.
Then from behind her again, Claude and Stella ripped their way out of the shark that previously kicked her forward. They were covered in blood and looked like fish-people themselves.
Stella took off for Xander.
Claude closed in on the fishmen and finished them off before they could break his hounds jaws with their tails.
Then he was helping her back to her feet, eyes wild.
"What?"
"The surfers." Claude mumbled.
She turned around and found them floating on the surface of the ocean over a hundred feet out.
Wraith-Brutal was nowhere to be f—
Ursula disappeared from his peripherals almost instantly.
The dark blur came like a lightning strike. Missed with a single blink. Too fast to comprehend. Too strong to defend.
He turned to follow where she landed. He couldn't see her, the titan was in the way.
He was even larger up close. Eight feet tall. Probably over six hundred pounds of pure muscle. Thick wiry fur that reminded him of the razorbacks the students rode covered his body. At least what was exposed.
If Claude had to guess what was behind the mask, it was some sort of Orc. But something was off about it. That same thing must've been what made it Wraith-Brutal.
Instead of fighting him, it turned and ran for Ursula.
"The game! If they capture two students, the island lord loses all his points."
Claude tried to catch its legs in risen roots but they tore like they were made of paper.
He gave chase, by the time he was in tackling distance, Ursula was already slung over Wraith-Brutals shoulder.
The beast dropped low, preparing to jump some inhuman distance to escape Claude.
It did.
But he willed the roots to rise from the sands and wrap Ursula's leg, causing the titan to drop her as it flew for the clouds.
It landed on the shores of the beach.
Claude unsheathed his construct blade.
Wraith-Brutal turned away from him and ran into the water.
Where the Surfers awaited. Like a perfectly placed back up plan.
Claude moved to give chase but something about the silence of the island stopped him.
Naz wouldn't just leave them.
Goren, Trey, Isaac, Marion, Enzo, Raegan, Finn….. they wouldn't just leave him.
So why….
A hideous dragging noise grew from the trees as Ursula got to her feet.
He turned to face the jungle, knowing the surfers were captured anyway.
Ursula followed his eyes.
Out from the shadows came Sapien Witherings.
Though, it wasn't the Sapien they spoke to before.
He wasn't the same sickly timid smart mouth in loose cloaks.
He was a made anew.
Almost as tall as Wraith-Brutal. Strapped with bulging muscle and veins that glowed with pulsing magic. His blood pumped so hard it gave his tanned skin a red hue. A lot like Ursula's berserker rage. Only he wasn't angry.
Just smug. Smiling as his freshly grown long black hair flowed in the wind. He even had a beard. He looked like the quintessential warrior in a child's adventure novel.
Behind him, he dragged Naz, Isaac, Carmen, Marion and Enzo.
"Sapien." Claude said.
"Hero." Sapien replied.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ursula asked.
Sapien looked down at his defeated students, "I thought it was obvious. I'm going for first place— well….. I am already." He looked down at the students, "Naz was second place…. Isaac was fourth, Marion and Enzo were top ten. Carmen….. I just took her because it would make my brothers proud. Not to mention, Claude lost all of his points."
Claude tried to ignore how much it stung.
"I told you." He even spoke differently. Animated. Full of energy. "I told you, you're predictable. You're going to take the risk. You can't be risk taker and coordinator... or else in times of great risk, your team will be without a plan. Without a leader. Ripe for the taking…. like fruit, in a jungle."
Sapien took an apple from a hanging tree above him. As soon as it touched his hands it grew old and slimy, eventually turning to dust. He looked both disappointed and satisfied.
"How'd you get past my nose? And the night patrols?" Claude asked.
Sapien pointed to the waters. "There's plenty of life out there for me to absorb and survive on. Even without oxygen….. even if it did hurt like hell. But it was manageable— especially since your trinkets and repellents kept all the big threats away. I waited. I cultivated my strengths. I saw your little trial. That was fun."
"Why did you lie? You could've done all this while telling us the actual date wraith night begins." Ursula said.
Sapien shook his head, "Claude was already thinking about how to win it while doing what he always does. Playing hero. He probably would've found a compromise— he could've done it. But that doesn't teach anything. He'd still become a waste of potential in the real dangerous tangents— where you have to let the weak fall. I don't like that."
"Oh, so you're teaching me?" Claude said.
"No. I'm learning your faults. Like how you suck at buying time." Sapien dropped the students and charged him with his life force sucking hands outstretched.
Claude flipped backwards, unveiling the three pillars of nature grown behind him.
A flower.
A braid of roots.
And a tree.
Atop each of them, his previously gained golem-making cores rested, transforming the structures into nature-golems.