For a moment, he looked like one of the hounds. Bound in vine armor, bearing fangs. Only his came in the form of a wooden dagger on one hand, and claws on the other. He ran low to the ground, keeping stature with his new allies. They didn't look like dogs. Not the usual sort. Their bodies were longer and covered in dark blue-grey fur. Snouts sleeker. Tails swaying like fins in the water. Their front legs were bound in the same vine armoring. It spiraled down to their claws were a second layer of barbed poisonous edges gave them a new dose of damage.

The hounds didn't go for the goblin rat-riders. Instead, they overwhelmed the secondary foot soldiers already in the throes of terror.

Reality hit.

Ursula wasn't dying, but the second phase of battle was in full swing.

***

Claude rolled in a chaotic clump of goblins and island-dogs. He joined them in their snarls and skin rending slashes as they kicked up dust clouds.

Lights flashed like fireworks as the others engaged the rat-riders, reminding Claude there was more to the battle than the visibly younger goblin he held by the throat. Its face was bare. Head bald, much like his own. Only its body was cloaked in the skin and flesh of the dead. His was bound by the living.

Still, the fear in its eyes was a perfect mirror—

With his enhanced senses, he smelled the kick before it hit him. But only barely. Then a foot covered in old rotting wounds rocked him, sending him crashing into a scattering of mauled dead goblins.

He turned upright with his dagger held tight, ready to face the product of his hesitation.

This goblin was bigger— tall and thick boned. Its movements through the dust clouds of ash and dirt were sluggishly fast.

Before they could engage, an island-dog tackled the wiry brute. As they hit the ground, another came with an axe made of sharpened stone and hit the dog in the spine.

Claude heard the yelp just as he crashed into the goblin, running his dagger into the space between its upper ribs. Still not fast enough.

[+50 EXP]

Only angrier. Not even. There was no room for anger as he slashed and weaved through the horde. It only grew worse as Tai healed everyone and the defensive wall broke form.

Tanks went on the offensive, archers fled for vantage points in the distant trees. The battle lost all structure, and as heavy winds forcibly settled the dust, Claude felt his heart sink.

Of the nine dogs Claude freed, five died. Their bodies unrecognizable as more rats and goblins stomped over their corpses to reach the others.

It was like an endless flood.

At least twenty goblins laid dead around them. Twenty more were coming. Behind them, thirty more were climbing up onto the island.

"Did a Tangent open somewhere?! This is madness!" Finn said as he picked up a stone machete and threw it like a throwing knife. The weapon ripped through six green faces before slowing.

"Are you a professor..?" Enzo asked from behind him with a stone sword in hand.

"Wha— no! May I have your sword?"

"Watch out!" Ursula tackled both of them as they stood in the center of the island war, unknowingly about to be smashed by another boulder.

"EEEUUUUUAAAGH!"

In combat, yells werent uncommon, unless they sounded like the previous. But they all couldn't look away and marvel at whatever brand of beast shook the earth in such a way.

Only few could.

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The archers— except Finn. The hesitating ones.

From the ground, Ursula raised her head to look down the hill towards the base of the island where the sound originated. Before she could see anything, Claude blew past her with his three remaining hounds.

She started looking for an axe right away.

Claude slid down the hill of sand, dirt and loosely grown grass. His mind rambled. His lungs burned. His newest enemy loomed.

"….. I made a mistake. Dammit. I shouldn't have charged from the sides with the dogs. I didn't have enough information. An ambush only works if you get the enemy right then. I didn't. I got them killed. Now I'm rattled— in the way. But I have numbers. I have my power….. numbers only works if I have more than the enemy. Back there I didn't. There were more goblins than us. But there's more of us than you."

The beast loomed like a shadow. Dark fur over green leathery skin. Naked and chained everywhere but it's legs. Its left foot was bruised and bloody from lobbing heavy stones. A living, slaving catapult.

Also known as a bugbear. A feral mutate of the goblin race made by shamans injecting wicked magic into goblin embryo’s. Extremely rare. Known for their super strength, night vision and capacity for magical deviation.

It wasn't as reactive at his approach. Almost uncaring.

Claude felt the urge to hesitate— to question and consider behaviors, comparing what he was seeing to what he read.

Then he saw the dog die again.

He charged low— immediately going for the legs.

He cut a thin line of red in its left leg. At the same time, the hounds began to circle the brute like sharks in the water. Only sharks didn't bark and nip at ankles to disorientate.

As Claude slid away with fresh blood on his dagger, the bugbear began to stomp, causing the circling dogs to widen their berth.

More risk to be intercepted when they charged.

Claude leaned into his speed and went harder offensively. Pushed even more to get back to the war up the hill that raged on.

He ducked roundhouse kicks that pushed enough wind to move sand. Barely, he sidestepped and hopped over sweeping slashes of the creatures chained arms.

Over the course of the minute the two battled, his stamina burned and the bugbears skin tore.

He skidded to a halt behind the beast. Waiting as its massive leg came stomping down after another kick. With its weight focused there and speed lacking, he went in.

With his dagger he lunged, ramming it into the flat plane of flesh behind its knee.

"AGHHHCK!" The bugbear roared in pain.

Claude rolled away as it spun around, leaving his dagger inside the brutes leg. His focus was unbroken, even as students yelled and the smell of blood magnified.

The bugbear faced the island-dogs. He was once again facing the bugbear’s massive back. The hounds stood shoulder to shoulder, barking loud enough to stun. The brutes massive goblinoid ears flinched.

Claude charged again, jumping into a kick that pushed the dagger he left in its back leg, bursting through its knee.

The beast dropped. Taking a knee like a military guildsman in Arthuria preparing to be knighted. Claude dug his claws deep and climbed up onto its back, mounting the shoulders. Ready to go for the eyes.

Being up so high, let him see further up the hill.

Let him see they lost.

Vantage-Island was clouded by goblins. He couldn't even see the students clearly. He couldn't tell if they were dead or just defeated. They had to be alive, but why would the goblins not fight to kill. He couldn't ev—

Wind left his chest faster than one could blink as the bugbear threw its massive head backward.

He was so familiar with the sensation of his ribs breaking, he couldn't even be stunned by it.

But when he tried to get up and take advantage of the fact that he ripped out the giants eyes, the pain came all the same.

A scream took the island from the blinded bugbear. A team of goblins descended down the hill.

Claude looked to the dogs. The beaten students. Then the dogs again.

"Run."

The leading female whined.

"GO!"

With their tails low, the island-dogs ran off island and dove into the waters.

Claude turned and found a whole hillside of goblins facing him. Wiping blood from their weapons. Talking. Readying themselves.

The bugbear sluggishly— blindly, moved towards the sound. Wounds angry and red on its green skin from his jungle poison claws finally taking effect.

He dropped low, hiding behind the beasts bulk as he charged.

***

Claude Grey.

Fourteen year old beast-tamer.

Fifth-waver.

Son of a teratologist father and unknown mother.

Possibly being scouted by a god of death. Also possibly being scouted by other gods.

Nothing to brag over. Nothing stand out.

He lasted less than a minute before they had him tied up at the base of the hill to vantage island.

"Let me go! Stop!" Claude raged, twisting against the pelt binds and thrashing wildly. PTSD from being held by the plated-snake made his world feel small and entirely too vulnerable. Tears clotted his eyes and made his vision blur. But he saw him.

Up the hill— in the trees. But he was no archer.

"Tai??…. What the hell are you doing?! Heal them! We can win….. we can survive." Claude huffed the last words to the distant figure. He only knew it was Tai by the smell.

"I….. can't. No more mana. I was healing them. Then the wounds stopped closing. No more."

"Wha— help me!" Claude said as the goblins began moving. Assumedly heading back to their island where they hid.

"Tai! Get Samuel— somebody, anybody! You know where they live! You can get me!" The veins in Claude's neck bulged as his panick reached its apex. Not from the monsters hauling him away, but from the look on Tai's face in the distance as he watched him leave.

He was afraid. But there was more in the way he avoided Claude's gaze.

"You won't….. you won't risk losing your advantage as island-lord."