DICLAIMER: I do not own Claymore or its official characters. I do own my characters, non-canon story and alterations/expansions of the Claymore universe.
I am not going to say much, but "Endstille: The first two great catastrophes" will exclusively feature OCs. Those who have read Blankface will sooner or later see similarities in the story/characters. Consider Blankface an unfinished pilot. This will not meddle with the official story, at best make slight alterations to the universe. It will, however, extend the universe a lot.
Please enjoy.
001 – The promising problem child
Her empty eyes were staring into the overcast sky as in an attempt to tear it open. The barren lowlands around her were wreathed in mist and the radiant silver of her eyes was the only bright spot within kilometers. Enough for Lorenz, who was used to finding people like her in places one could usually not find them, unless one was aware of their presence. So, the bald man clad purely in black eventually found one of his girls, as he tended to call them.
"Karin" he spoke upon reaching her. She did not react. "Have you successfully finished your job?" She then sat up straight. "I am alive" she answered without the slightest hint of emotion in her voice.
"You know what I am talking about" the man in black urged her. "You are being watched. The higher ups are barely willing to clean up after you anymore. You…"
"All four of them are dead" she cut in.
He waited for a moment, then sighed. "You know, I am not saying this to be on your nerves. But if you continue to fail to accomplish the objectives of your missions, you will never get anywhere. You are talented and your talents are in demand. But all you do is wasting them, because you are hoping for a solution to a problem that only has one solution: to kill. I know, I know, you don't like it at all, but if you let a Yoma get away you are destroying more lives than you save!"
She then stood up, towering over the 180 centimeter tall man by more than a head's height. Her blonde hair that was bound to a ponytail reaching down to her lower back was then shining in the moonlight. After a short while of staring into no direction in particular she said with a lifeless voice: "The first Yoma I murdered was my brother. I became what I am fully aware of how other Yoma are the brothers of other little girls. I deeply respect those who can take away little girl's big brothers without a second thought. I can't."
A fierce pat from Lorenz hit her back that made her stumble slightly. As she wanted to complain, "Idiot!" resounded in her ears. A bit surprised she directed her gaze towards the man who was then looking at her with the austerity of a father chiding his child. "Let me tell you, you are not the only one feeling this way. The other girls don't feel differently about it, either. However, they have come to understand something crucial: If the only path available for one to walk will leave a trace of blood and corpses, one can either walk it or die without ever accomplishing anything."
"Is it not favorable to never achieve anything then, if murder is all one could achieve?"
"Somebody having the honor of bearing the name of the goddess of endmost tranquility should not think that way!"
Karin blinked amazedly. "You believe in those old fairytales?"
"No fairytales, idiot!" he countered harshly. "Sha-Karin, the ancient goddess of endmost tranquility, has ever since laid rest upon those who could not find it themselves…"
"…by killing them" Karin deadpanned.
"Think whatever you will, idiot" Lorenz answered shaking his head in disappointment. "I got a new job for you. Two day's marches to the north. Three Yoma are there, so I want three corpses."
Without a word she turned away, pulled her claymore out of the dry ground and struck off.
"Spread tranquility!" Lorenz called after her and chuckled faintly. She ignored him and eventually merged with the surroundings.
As he could not see her anymore he said to no one in particular: "One day you will be able to see that I am by far closer to the truth than you think now." He also set off then. There were others to supply with jobs.
###
The agitated and frightened citizens of the small town she had just entered she did not take into consideration. She knew what all of them knew: she, the "Claymore", as they called her, would once again bring death to their town. It had always been the same. The Yoma killed the humans, the Claymore killed the Yoma. It was the solution the men of the Organization had found and declared practicable. Reciprocate killing with killing, without the chance for the killing to ever stop. Karin was one of the few, possibly the only one, hoping to find a way to break the cycle. She and her comrades were the only bastion between humans and Yoma, who, as hybrids of both, always fell between the cracks – a fact that especially the humans never forgot.
As she passed the people avoiding her she had already made out her victims. Within her burned the desire to warn them so they could flee, because she firmly believed that Yoma could change. But she knew that from somewhere the silver eyes of one of her comrades were watching. It didn't take much imaginative capabilities to know what an association of unscrupulous murderers and their killing machines would do to her if she wouldn't do as told. In nature, predators and prey usually both had somewhat fair chances. In her presence, however, Yoma did not.
An inconspicuous man she passed taken by surprise pointed the tips of his fingers towards his face and, before knowing what was happening, extended his fingers to long, pointy claws impaling his skull. Under the outcry of the people surrounding him he collapsed, dead. Instantly the other two Yoma hiding in the crowd revealed themselves and began charging at Karin. The attacks of their expanding claws shot past her like projectiles, moved in an arc and then shot back at the aggressors to impale their bodies in vital points. In not even a minute the fight, that even wasn't one, was over.
The state of shock of the people made way for astonishment and relieve when they realized that the Yoma were dead. Hastily three men tramped towards the imposingly tall yet fragilely slender warrior which, without even drawing her blade, had eliminated three Yoma that swiftly. The one in front, apparently the town's headman, stuttering and stammering as he was, wanted to hand her a bag tightly filled with Beras, but instantly froze in his tracks as he caught sight of the marmorean face of the warrior. Not expecting him to be capable of uttering a whole another sentence, she preempted him with a trembling, yet lofty voice: "I am not taking money for this massacre. A man in black will come and collect the weregild."
As she was about to leave, she added: "Inter them in dignity contradicting their sad end." Then she left the small town.
Baffled the citizens of the town were looking at each other. They had heard all kinds of rumors about the "Silver Eyed Witches". But never before had they heard that they were able to shed tears.
Remote of the town Karin sat down and leaned against a tree, where she would grieve for hours the deeds she had been forced to do.
###
The sole woman that had not cared about the commotion in the town snapped her book shut and arose from her cozy spot near the town's well. For but a moment she gazed at the cadavers of the three dead Yoma. Incredible, she thought, that she didn't move a muscle to achieve that. She then massaged her nasal bone. "Damn drugs" she mumbled. She hoped that she would be able to stop following Number 82 around soon. At first she was glad to have a little diversion from her usual activities, but gradually she grew tired of it. However, she thought the fighting style of that woman to be highly interesting. Yoki manipulation was rare, especially on higher levels. In fact, only one warrior of the organization could use it to a degree allowing her to take on dangerous enemies. She began to see what the men of the organization saw in that crybaby. "Crybaby Karin." She chuckled as she thought that she might be called that in the future. She then left the town to debrief Lorenz about his "ugly duckling".
###
A small fire was crackling amidst a pit made of gravel. Its glow reflected in two pairs of eyes: A silver one and a grey blue one. Animatedly but factually Anna reported about her observations regarding Karin, or Number 82, as she preferred addressing the warrior not personally known to her. Her rank, so she told him, was not reflecting her abilities, but rather her mindset. Actually, or so Anna judged Karin, she should have to work very much closer to the center of the continent, just like she did herself. "The borderlands of the inner ring, would be much more suited for her" the higher ranked warrior explained to Lorenz, who absorbed every word intently. Out of the 23 warriors of the southern-east lands Anna was the one he trusted most when it came to judging the potential of one of her comrades.
"You think she should go to the north-west?" he inquired.
"Not remotely!" Anna countered. "She should go to region seventy-five, better yet thirty."
Lorenz raised an eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that! She might have a strange mindset, but after having followed her for three months there is but one advice I can give you: Throw her to an Awakened One. Either she manages to overcome her obscure ideals and becomes a big shot in the future, or she dies the death of the ones not fit for fighting. One thing is for sure, though, Lorenz. If you let her stay in Region eighty-two she will never change her mind. I daresay that she might grow up to be a danger to the organization in the future."
"Her?"
"Indeed. Within her is hidden much more than your eyes are able to grasp."
Lorenz gave Anna's statements some thought. Indeed, Karin's behavior had gotten better, only because she knew that she had been watched, though. If he would just withdraw Anna from her mission it would be very likely for Karin to just go back to her old ways of letting Yoma slip away all the time. Also, both region 75 and 30 were located next to the organization's headquarters. Better places to watch a problem child barely existed. He made his decision and arose.
"You have me convinced, Anna. She will be promoted to rank thirty and send to the region, accordingly. Sarah will have to make room for her, but I suppose you don't particularly mind?"
A wicked smile appeared on Anna's lips.
"I will be on my way now. Your mission here is done, you may go back to region twenty-one and wait for further instructions."
"Yessir!" she replied.
As Lorenz was moving away she thought about the gooseberry pie her region was famous for and for but a moment, even though it rarely happened to warriors like her, she had the feeling of being hungry.
###
"Ayame?" Lorenz whispered into the night as he became aware of a shadowy figure hiding in the trees. She remained silent. "There is someone who needs to meet an unfavorable fate…"
For a while neither of them said anything. Then Ayame spoke up: "Who am I, your personal assassin?"
"It's Sarah from region thirty. We don't need her anymore" Lorenz replied coldheartedly.
"No traces left?"
"No traces left."
###
Carefully Karin opened her eyes as the first sunrays of the day broke through the foliage of the trees. It was obviously too early for her which became clear to her as her first try to get up fell down due to her apparently still sleeping body. Wide awake she became upon feeling a Yoki right next to her. Blazingly fast she grasped her Claymore and struck.
Her blade stopped just millimeters away from the aghast face of a young man.
"Jonas?" she asked blinking the sleep out of her eyes. "I barely recognized you."
The Yoma's heart was pounding as he dropped onto his rear. "Barely recognized!" he stammered agitatedly. "As if you hadn't recognized a Yoki!"
For a split second her labial angles twitched upwards, carrying a slight bit of life into her face. "Regard it as punishment for waking me up this early. Glad you are here."
He stood up and grumblingly knocked the dust off of his clothes. He then sat down again, this time on purpose, and, getting a little cheery, asked: "'Sup, Kari?"
"I do have good news as well as bad news. First things first, however, how do you manage?"
"Since our meeting last month I have only eaten non-human food. It is terribly exhausting – mentally – but it does not seem to affect me physically. Me still being in this body should prove my words. On this occasion, let me say that it is good having someone like you, giving us the chance to live. Sucks, though, that your way of treating us has lured in less favorable people."
"What do you mean?" she asked a little dazed.
"Well, those of us that are really trying are leaving the humans alone, but your lax way of doing your missions has spread like a wildfire. Yoma are coming from other regions, believing you will let them be as long as they front to be willing to forgo eating humans. Carsten is an example of such people."
"He strives, but just doesn't manage yet. He needs time."
"Time his victims don't have! Not, that it bothers me much, but he is abusing your kindness, trust me."
"I will have an eye on him if you say so. Well, I'd like to, at least."
"Hum?"
"I am leaving this region. I've been promoted to rank thirty."
"You are kidding, right?" Jonas went indignant. "Are you saying we will again get such an indoctrinated slayer like before?"
"That is what I fear" Karin replied pitifully. "I need to decamp today. Hence I have got something to ask of you, Jonas."
"Whatever you wish!" the Yoma eagerly replied and began to listen attentively.
"Spread the word. Who wants to shall follow me. Separately, in pairs at most. And not in the next few days. I might have been released of my watchdog, but fifty Yoma following me as a pack would surely raise suspicion."
Jonas nodded understandingly. "I will let the others know" he said and leapt to his feet. "Oh, and there is something you might want to know."
"What is it?"
"Tarun… is gone" he said cautiously.
Agitatedly her gaze flashed towards him.
"It has, you might say, vanished over night. I do not know for sure, but don't get close to its ruins. As word has it, an Awakened One is there."
"Strange, isn't it" Karin deadpanned, her gaze glued to the ground, "I did not sense any Yoki."
"The Ogre himself could rampage right next to you if you're sleeping" he exuberantly said.
"Touché! I will have a look at it" she said, arose and, before Jonas was able to remind her of what he had just told her concerning getting close to Tarun, had left.
"Geez" he grunted in mental defeat. "It's Kari. Won't die that easily. I hope."
Shortly after he set off, too, to relay it to those he thought of as thorough supporters of Karin's ideals, that she had been promoted.
###
After four days of restless marching Karin picked up the Yoki of an Awakened Being, just as her Yoma friend Jonas had told her. Also the ruin of the once prospering, yet early deceased town of Tarun came into sight. She was able to remember very well how she had met Jonas there half a year before, wailing and cowering in the intestines of his family, begging her to free him of his fate. Instead, she had decided to befriend him like she had done with other Yoma before. She firmly believed that Yoma could live without preying on humans if they believed they could. And the utterly human traits she had sensed in him that day had convinced her that he could do it. He, meeting him in Tarun and the town itself – to her they were a memento for her idea and her struggle.
Filled with hatred she regarded the destroyed town, the violated ideograph of her dream of a world, were Yoma could peacefully live alongside humans. She knew that she could not reason with an Awakened Being, a former comrade who had abandoned humanity.
And she did not want to.
She drew her claymore and determinedly advanced.
###
Upon entering the ruins of Tarun, Karin could feel a huge Yoki filling the air. Close up, she had to admit, it appeared to be menacing. She judged that it had to be the Yoki of a warrior who had once served in the inner circle, just like herself. But she could also sense something even more dangerous hiding behind its facade. When she had first sensed that Yoki she had been confident, but her confidence was fading away by the minute. For a moment she considered turning back and leaving that monster to others, because she had not been detected then. However, and that is what she felt, it was her battle. Her heart only beat for the sake of her ideals – not to kill if there was a hope, however slight it might have been, to resolve it in another way. And even though she was well aware that one could not reason with an Awakened Being, that one could not lead her onto a better path, even though she thoroughly hated that monster for what it had done to Tarun and its citizens, she was bothered by the fact that she, after a long time, was going into battle willing to kill.
A scream tore apart the air. Instinctively Karin hastened her steps, hurrying towards the place she suspected the scream to originate from: the marketplace. Getting closer and closer she noticed cocoonesque structures in the streets. Instantly she realized that those structures were emitting Yoki. That explained, so she assumed, why the Yoki she felt was not originating from one place, but was scattered all over the town. And the closer she came to the marketplace, the center of the town, the more pressing the Awakened's Yoki became.
Abruptly she stopped in her tracks as a bundle of subtle strands of a sticky mass hit and entangled her left lower arm. Her instinctive approach of cutting it with her claymore rendered as a mistake, because, instead of actually cutting through it her claymore became entangled in it, too. She did try to pull it out of the mass, but the more she moved it the more entangled it became. Noticing the movement of more Yoki she avoided another bundle of strands of the sticky mass that had hit her in the middle of her face with a leap. Visually following the strands to their origins she noticed how they had come out of two of the cocoonesque structures surrounding her. Instantly both of them broke open and two black, many-legged creatures emerged from them.
"This is just great" Karin mumbled. "Spiders, is that not awesome" she grunted sarcastically. Both of them clearly had more Yoki than the average Yoma. And obviously the sticky mass, that had entangled her left lower arm and her claymore, was their doing.
Two other bundles of strands meant to hit her chest and face she was able to fend off with her already hard to move claymore, making it totally unusable. Shoot, she thought, concentrate! Blunders like this would sooner or later cost her life, of that she was sure. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and attuned her mind to the Yoki surrounding her. Then two attacks missed her, then another two. Unaware of why this happened, the two arachnoids decided to attack the warrior facing them directly and crawled towards her using the two strands entangling her as foothold.
The tall warrior found herself in a difficult situation: She could barely move and her weapon was all gummed up. At this rate the arachnoids would kill her before she could even lay eyes onto the Awakened One! She had to find a solution, quickly.
She was able to knock back the first monster with a kick. Letting go of her useless claymore she attempted to punch the second one, but ended up being bitten into her fist. Along with the scorching pain crouching up her right arm, her flesh decayed right before her eyes. Despite the immobilizing pain she watched what was happening in awe. It was, as if those creature had injected pure Yoki into her – with dire consequences for her arm, but giving her a brilliant idea.
"This is fairly interesting" she said as her eyes turned golden.
###
Anna stood atop an elevation and regarded the ruins of the town of Tarun. Clearly she could sense the Yoki of the Awakened Being. "It's just a facade" she thought aloud, "a lure, possibly. What is hiding behind it is… dangerous. And that idiot just ran slapdash into such an obvious trap!"
Attentively, with a stern face, she watched the situation. She gauged, that a group led by a warrior in the lower two digit ranks had to be the minimum array to face that monster. She made a mental note to later inform Lorenz about the quality of that monster.
She was about to write Karin off as, amidst the huge, ugly mass of Yoki, a small, bright and very dense Yoki appeared. Her eyes widened in genuine surprise. "Our little Yoma lover… won't be, at the very start of her career… on a roll?"
For a moment she considered getting closer, yet decided to stay put and not pop up on the Awakened Being's radar.
###
The white, sticky mass entangling her arm and blade turned black and dripped to the ground. The rotten flesh of her right arm regenerated swiftly and she again could grab the handle of her claymore that was yet again free of its restraints.
Both of the arachnoids shrunk back off her.
"A truly… interesting knack you've shown me. I don't think I would have found out myself." In a blink she rushed next to one of the monsters and impaled its body with her blade, ramming it into the ground. The second one flew. While her victim twitched for the last time she regarded her right arm. "As good as new" she commented objectively. Her cold gaze was then following the fleeing arachnid. "You pump your Yoki into a foreign body and drive out the endogenous Yoki. Unused to the foreign Yoki, so, as if it was only kept together by its own Yoki, the tissue decays and melts like butter in the sun. Truly" she praised as she was dashing towards the fleeing monster, skillfully cutting it in half, "that is impressively helpful knowledge."
As the second enemy was down she closed her eyes and took a deep breath again. Upon opening them again her eyes' color had returned to its usual silver. Directing her gaze towards the marketplace she said: "Let's see to your master, then." With solidified courage she proceeded to head towards the Awakened One.
###
"That little Yoma lover is good" Anna had to admit. "But will she be able to make it?" Her temporarily lightened up face darkened. "This Awakened One… from somewhere… however, in any case she will be hard to deal with. What will you do about her, little number thirty? She should have noticed your Yoki by now. It's standing out like a tree on a meadow. As soon as she shows her true power… will you live or will you die?"
###
Leaving a trace of dismantled arachnoids she advanced through the streets of Tarun's ruins with the tranquility of the powerful. The short moment of peril and learning of a new way to user her Yoki manipulation skills had restored her calmness she had lost when laying eyes onto the destroyed Tarun for the first time. Suddenly everything had become easy: effortlessly she was able to manipulate the trajectories of the sticky strands of the monsters so they would hit and immobilize each other. What was left was striking and killing.
Almost hilarious, she thought, how a few emotions could make me this useless. Her determination to kill the Awakened Being had strengthened. It was necessary and hence there was no reason for her to falter in her decision. Basically, even though Awakened Beings were once human, they had forgone all sense for reason and humanity completely. There was no reason for such beings to exist.
Karin knew that the Awakened One must have felt safe. Shallowly observed her Yoki did not seem special at all, but if one took a closer look one could see enormous masses of Yoki hidden behind it. But despite being a considerable amount it was tenuous and barely comparable to Karin's. She was convinced: She would shoot that monster down in flames!
Due to her own cockiness schadenfreude began to emerge. Schadenfreude, because the Awakened Being was likely exorbitantly overestimating herself.
###
The slender hand of the Awakened Being reached into the open abdomen of the still warm body of her victim. Tenderly her fingers slid around a kidney and carefully pulled it out of the corpse. Using her fingernails she separated veins still connected to the intestine. She arose and held the intestine upwards, regarding it in the bright sunlight. The shiny surface of the blood on it conjured a playful smile on the brunette woman's face. "What an astoundingly beautiful color" she romanticized and proceeded to hold the ruby mass above her face. Blood dripped onto her forehead and cheeks and a wave of lust rolled through her body. Again she squat down next to her victim and caressed his face with the devotion of a lover. Her longing gaze met the dead eyes of the young man she had murdered. Still they were reflecting the agony he had been through. "If you just… would still be screaming, my beloved. It aggrieves me that you can not enjoy our game anymore. I loved every second of it and surely did you."
The woman arose and let her gaze wander to the end of a street where the tall figure of a warrior was standing. "But now" she said plaintively, "our game would have been interrupted anyways. Am I not right, warrior?"
Karin felt the Yoki of the Awakened Being scattered all over the marketplace. She could count about 30 cocoons and also noticed that the greater part of the ground was covered by the sticky phlegm of the arachnoids. All over the place there were lying corpses of exclusively young men and women. And amidst all of it there stood a sole, naked woman who was sentimentally smiling. The Awakened One. She opened her mouth that became a gaping maw, shoved the kidney she was holding in and swallowed it whole.
Unemotionally Karin just stood there and regarded the woman she was about to kill. Whatever she had felt so far was gone. No hatred because her Tarun was destroyed, no grief over the murdered people and even the semblance of schadenfreude she had had were gone. Only the conviction that this kind of monster was incurable, had to be, had manifested in every cell of her body. The human traits she could sense in many Yoma, even though this Awakened One had actually been a human before, was entirely cleansed off her.
"You aren't saying anything" the Awakened One sneered. "You now, others at least call me names, become mentally disturbed and that one time one of them actually fainted upon seeing me enjoy myself. But you are just standing there with a face as if made of stone, like this here was the most normal thing in the world to you. Hello? Are you even listening?"
With staged idleness Karin drew her claymore. "I am Karin, the organization's number thirty. I am here for your head."
For a moment it was quite. Then the Awakened One began to laugh lustily. She rested her hands on her tights and literally convulsed in laughter. She tried to say something, but was completely unable to, for the imagination of number 30 killing her on her own was absolutely hilarious. Karin ignored her and just remained standing there with the tranquility of a mountain. Amidst corpses and cocoons.
After a while the Awakened Being calmed down and caught her breath again. "You're a strange one! Or are the old farts in black this desperate, sending me a cardboard character like you? One could think they want to get rid of you!"
"Are you done running your mouth then?" Karin interrupted her. The other woman blinked in surprise. "My apologies for wanting you to have one last, nice chat before you are dying. But I can see that you are not interested and the last thing I'd want is to bore you. Shall we, then?"
"Come!" Karin answered plainly.
Almost simultaneously all of the cocoons on the marketplace broke open and about thirty of the arachnoids were swarming over the place, towards Karin. The latter closed her eyes and tuned in her mind with the Yoki of her enemies. Meanwhile the Awakened One jumped atop a statue in the middle of the marketplace and proceeded to observe what was happening. Her spiders did not stand a chance: not a single one of their attacks hit what they were supposed to. On the contrary they were only hitting each other, hence ending up immobilized and becoming easy targets for the expressionless warrior's blade. The analysis of the Awakened One was that number 30 was a manipulator, an outstanding one at that. Using her inner eye she also had watched the first skirmish between the warrior and her Arachnoids and seen that the Yoki of her opponent also was of considerable amount and quality.
Maybe it won't be all that boring, she thought.
After the last Yoki of her arachnoids had vanished the Awakened One sarcastically slowly clapped her hands a few times. Karin paid her no attention. She was trying to sense other arachnoids but could not find any more of them. It was but then that she directed her gaze towards the Awakened Being who was confidently standing atop the statue of the ancient goddess Sha-Karin.
"Did you know" the Awakened One pondered aloud, "that another group of warriors failed to defeat them in the past? It was a superb tragedy how all of them cried and screamed as their immobilized bodies decayed right before their very eyes. And you just beat a whole lot of them with flying colors. You've earned yourself my respect."
"Sorry about that," the warrior interrupted the Awakened One, "but I really don't care about your praise. Actually, it's insulting. Still…" she then fully faced her, "it is regrettable to hear that a lowly number thirty like myself outclassed an Awakened Being hunting party. They probably were the four lowest ranking warriors on this continent. There is no other way I could picture them losing to you, otherwise."
After a moment of perplexed astonishment the Awakened One chuckled. "Are you actually trying to provoke me? That is so cute! But just so you know, that party was led by number forty-four. And as you surely are aware, this means that she is operating closer to the center than you are – in other words, her rank is higher."
"Out of respect for my fallen comrades I am not going to comment on that" Karin replied.
"Pathetic? Baleful? Laughable? Come on, you were about to unbend a little just now, why would you quiet down again?"
"For a dying person you surely talk a lot."
All expression was then leaving the Awakened One's face to be replaced by patronizing anger. "Dying! Me? By your hands?" She jumped off of the statue and instantly released all of her Yoki at once. "Don't be so cocky, brat!" her distorted voice growled all over the marketplace.
"I will teach you pain!"
###
Anna gulped as she could feel the unleashed Yoki of the Awakened One. She had known about its size, yet feeling it directly let her hair stood on end. In addition to that she could now recognize the Yoki. "That can't be true" she stammered in shock.
"What can't be true?" Lorenz asked interestedly as he was stepping out of the bushes behind her.
"You, here?" Anna asked a little startled.
"Karin is not in region thirty where she should be. You might not happen to know where she is?"
"I do" Anna replied and gulped. "Down there, in Tarun."
"My, my" Lorenz commented the sight in staged surprise, "what happened there?"
"No what, rather who."
"My, my. Who did that idiot pick a fight with this time?"
"Crimson Ariane" Anna answered sternly.
Lorenz laid, secretly grinning, his hand onto his forehead. "My, how dire is it?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?"
"Answer."
"If I must" Anna sighed. "Ariane is quicker, stronger, has more Yoki and is by far more experienced than number thirty. She used to have my position before she awakened, after all. If you take into account, what calibers she has already killed after awakening, the only possible end for number thirty is death" Anna explained her thinking.
Lorenz sat down next to Anna, who gave him a questioning look and for a while neither said a thing. Anna was watching the battle from afar, as Lorenz suddenly broke the silence: "I know you and your abilities well and greatly trust your sense of judgment. But, from time to time, even someone like you can learn something new."
"What do you mean?" Anna asked, right before a deafening noise was to be heard coming from the ruins. The silver eyed warrior did not trust her eyes as she saw the center of the ruins burst into flames. "What is this?" she asked in disbelief. A Yoki so powerful she could not remember ever having felt something like that almost took her senses away.
"Two things are not quite right. While it is true that Ariane has spent more time as a warrior than Karin it is also true that Karin has senses so skilled that even Ariane would have trouble landing hits. On the other hand Ariane may have more Yoki than Karin, but Karin's is so much more dense that objects in her surroundings sometimes just ignite – as you can see."
"That is unbelievable!"
"You see now, Anna," he berated her, "it is too soon to include her into your prayers."
I hope it is interesting so far. Please, tell me what you think.
I am not going to say that I will update on a fixed shedule, but I have material for about 40 chapters that I "only" need to translate. Second chapter to be expected still in August.