Fog covered the mountain pass as two figures walked slowly along it. One was a tall young woman, with long blond hair that was pulled back to a high thick ponytail that rested in front of her shoulders and was down to her waist. Her green eyes had two short bangs resting on either side of them, making her ears visible. Her body was a well-developed hourglass shape, with her hips and breasts being rather large for a young woman of her age. Her companion was small, barely making it up to her elbows and was like a little twig, if it were not for her broad well-developed and powerful shoulders. The small girl's dark blond hair was only just long enough to touch her shoulders and her fringe was just above her eyebrows. Her light blue eyes was rimed with thick eyelashes that gave her a very pretty face, but she was very shy, clinging to the older girl as much as she could whenever there were people around. Now though the small girl was tired with many scratches and grazes from their journey and the older girl was worried about her, but there was nothing. They had to keep on travelling in the hopes that they would reach a safe place or become so called 'Claymores'. It was the only choice.
It was about mid-morning when the two finally came to stop by a fresh water spring. Kate wisely waited until Chloey had something to drink before getting some water herself. As she went to sit down, she watched as Chloey lay sleepily in the grass and thought about how drastically her life had changed since two days ago.
Two days ago, she was living peacefully in Lido with her husband, her daughter Chloey, her two-step daughters, and their mother. Her husband had been an influential man in the village for some time and was preparing for the eldest daughter, Teresa to get married. Chloey had a fight with Teresa because the older girl was headstrong and cruel, and ran away before Catherine could discipline the small girl. Kate had seen the whole thing of course, so she was more than ready to stand up for her little girl this time, but Catherine only saw the good in Teresa and the girl's body, and the price that she would fetch as a bride. Teresa fuelled by her mother was just as cocky, Teresa had judged Chloey before she had even had the chance to grow into being a woman herself and Kate was sure that even if Chloey did not look like much of a bride now, one day she would be. On that day Kate hoped that she would live to see it happen. It was as is the God of Rabona had intervened to save Kate's precious baby from the bloodshed that was to happen next. No sooner had Kate gone after her daughter then did a monster called yoma attack the family.
When Kate had gone back to confront Catherine with the truth, she came to see that her husband was laying on the ground, blood everywhere and the bodies of the rest of the family. Kate hadn't counted on Chloey seeing it…she hadn't wanted Chloey to see it as the small child didn't even know Kate as her mother, she just thought that Kate was her older sister and didn't realise that Kate was Thomas' favourite wife and her mother. Kate had planned to tell Chloey when she was older and her sister Claire was without Teresa for a while. Kate was too horrified to move and Chloey saw it all. Kate felt Chloey's small body slam in to her, shivering and shaking and Kate could not do a thing. The yoma upon hearing them no doubt came to fill its belly and be done with them. This was not the first attack of the yoma in the village, it was the fourth time that the yoma had attacked them and they already had called a Silver Eyed Witch to deal with it.
As luck would have it the Silver Eyed Witch was on her way there and casually strolled through the doorway. Chloey had seen her, heard her clanking forward as Kate rushed to move. The gold that the witch's eyes glowed was the same gold as the cursed yoma; her face far from what Kate would call pretty was covered in veins that were popping out, contorted by that looked like pain and pleasure. As she stepped forward Kate saw that her whole body and not just her face seemed off, muscles expanding as she continued towards the now terrified yoma. It tried to beg for mercy, but the Silver Eyed Witch ended its cries with a single-handed swing of her blade, the yoma's voice drowning in a gurgle of blood.
Kate sat bolt upright and was shaking, she looked over at Chloey and sure enough, the small girl was having nightmares. Her soft voice did little to break the silence of the still air and Kate carefully lifted up the small child hoping to keep moving and find what would be a safe place to camp for the night so that the wild beasts that were out in the mountain ranges wouldn't come near them. The worst part was the expectation that yoma were going to come after them, and Kate had such little sleep of late that she was solely focused on getting Chloey somewhere safe, potentially seeking out the men in black that had taken the money for the dead yoma. It was their only hope now and Kate knew that it was for the best that they do what they could to find them.
Once a suitable site was found, Kate cleaned up and made sure that Chloey bathed properly. She took out the last of the dried meat that they had and gave the larger portion to Chloey. Chloey took it with a quiet 'thank you big sis,' and ate as little as she could so that there would be enough for Kate. Kate ate her portion and settled for starting a fire to help keep the beasts away. Chloey helped her and soon a warm fire was burning. Chloey fell asleep not long after the task was done and Kate curled up around her, keeping her as warm as she could. What was left of the clothing they had were now rags and Chloey's were just too big for her, while Kate's weren't big enough, even if they swapped they would still have the same problem, so Kate just let it go for now. She was no seamstress and this wasn't the time to get picky about things. Their only hope would lie in the men that made the Silver Eyed Witches or Claymores as they were also called. Kate knew that the Claymores were half human and half yoma, half human and half monster. She also knew that by going to them, they would use her and Chloey, but there was no choice, it was the only way that they would have a bit more time. As Kate looked at the sleeping figure that was her daughter, Kate prayed that the God of Rabona would not forsake them because she was making this sort of choice; she prayed that his wisdom would protect Chloey and give her a way to be there when Chloey needed her.
The sun rose over the pass and again, there were two figures moving steadily over the rough terrain, and both of them were in no hurry, in fact they were looking for something. The one with the hooded black cloak was about to give up when his companion drawled, "Let's face it Orsay, they've moved again, we should go back to Sutafu now while there is still time,"
"And face Rimuto without the girl that he wanted, I doubt it you will want to receive his wrath, Dae," the man called Orsay snorted,
"Well then, we shall keep looking, but it really must be a waste of time now…"
The sun was high in the sky as Kate and Chloey continued their long journey from Lido, Chloey was trembling with grief and Kate was not surprised. She was focused on finding the men in black clothing, looking for any sign that they were out there all while heading towards the east and keeping the sun behind her, now that it was mid-day. Kate looked all around her and soon she saw them standing out like a sore thumb amongst some white coloured marble. Rocks crumbled underfoot as Kate picked up the pace, Chloey stumbling to keep up, the noise attracting attention from the two figures and making them look towards them Kate was about half way towards them when she got a good look at the one on the left and pushed Chloey protectively behind her. The man levelled his gaze at her and Kate felt sick just looking at him. He wore black, but he had no shame in showing his half-demolished face to the entire world. His eyes were the most telling part, one being fully visible to her and the other hidden behind a half closed eyelid. The worst part was that there was at least half his face as good as gone, muscles clearly visible and though Kate had always thought it rude to stare, this man took the cake and it was hard not to stare at him. She barely managed and her efforts weren't in vain. Chloey just kept clinging to her leg and Kate waited.
"Well, well, well, look here Orsay, there are two girls right here," the man with half a demolished face said, as if suggesting that he was right all along about finding the two girls that had appeared behind them. Orsay turned and looked at the two of them. As far as Kate could tell his face seemed normal enough, but she couldn't be too sure. Orsay seemed to be more focused on Chloey than on Kate and it was because he knew what the orders were, to bring the small girl that he'd told Rimuto about to headquarters. Rimuto had heard of the child's potential and had said that she might make a specimen, if what Orsay had seen of her untrained abilities when he was passing through Lido on the lookout for such a child. Nearly a whole week had passed since he had seen her take on a boy that was bigger than she was, and told Rimuto about it. Getting the yoma in Lido had been easily done, the creature wreaking havoc until the villages had begged to have a half-yoma warrior come and take care of it. The naïve fools had believed that the yoma was just a part of life, and that they had to deal with it all the time. They had no idea that the nameless Organization was responsible for the creatures that caused deaths and the Organization did not care, as long as they were able to make a way to stop the war over on the mainland where they were from. All of this ran through Orsay's head as he came to a dutiful conclusion. He would have to find out who these two were, it wouldn't matter anyway as they would soon lose all humanity and sense of self.
"What are your names?" Orsay didn't care, but he acted like he did. The taller of the two girls with the blond hair walked forward and the little one clung to her following the older one further down the path towards them, so that she didn't have to yell no doubt,
"I'm Kate," she said calmly and she indicated to the little girl, "She is Chloey,"
"Does Chloey talk?" Orsay asked,
"Yes I can talk," Chloey replied softly, her voice was so quiet that it was hard for the men to hear her, and it was odd for Kate to hear it after nearly three whole days of silence. The men made the choice to take both Chloey and Kate with them to a town called Sutafu, or rather the lands of the east where their headquarters were located and that area was called Sutafu. It was in Sutafu that the place that people went to become 'Claymores'. As Kate followed the men, she made a fervent prayer that Chloey would be protected from whatever harm the men had in store for her and that nothing bad would happen to them since it was Kate that had lead Chloey on this seemingly dangerous path.
The sun rose up in the sky waking all of the sleeping creatures of the forest. Birds called and chatted to one another as the last of the night gave way to the morning. One such clearing filled with dead leaves branches and dirt from the trees above it had a small blond haired figure sleeping in it. The blond was wearing white so she stood out from the dirt and dead leaves and sticks. The birds observed this figure with some caution; they knew as if by pure instinct that she was far more of a monster than the usual creatures that they saw in the woods so the chirped and kept their distance, not wanting to die by the hands of this creature. The sun rose higher as the day progressed, by the time it was about half way through the morning, the small figure jumped up furiously and began pulling on the amour that was flung all over the ground, angry that she had slept longer than what she needed to. Her handler would arrive shortly and she would need to be ready for the task that he was assigning to her. It would be one of the many tasks that she had been given since becoming a fully certified warrior barely six months before, and what a long six months they were. She sheathed the oversized claymore broadsword on to her back and used her ears and her eyes to pinpoint her handler. So much for peace and quiet, she would never get that as long as she knew that he was around in the shadows.
It was this small half yoma warrior that was one of the most powerful of the warriors in the ranks. She was given Number 7 right out of training with little or no competition from her comrades. Chloey had excelled at sensing what warriors called 'yoki' that is the flow of energy from either a half yoma warrior or yoma themselves. There were a special class of yoma called veracious eaters, but Chloey knew what they really were. They were awakened beings and they were dangerous, and it took a group of experienced half yoma warriors to take out one awakened being. Not much had changed for Chloey since she became a half yoma warrior for the nameless Organization, except that her hair was now blond instead of the dark blond that it had once been and her blue eyes were now cold silver ones instead. Her hair had grown a bit, falling to just below the start of her shoulders and her fringe now reaching her eyes. Chloey didn't care about it, she was more concerned with the fact that in time the fringe will grow out over her eyes and make it hard for her to see.
Meanwhile in the village of Strath several people were going about their business totally unaware of the creature that was in their midst, they were hard people who spent most of their lives working to the rhythm of the land and so far, they were lost in the harvests. It was easy for the creature to feed because there were so many people in that city…or so it thought. What was a regular day of hiding until it was time to feed was about to end, and swiftly.
Chloey was about half way through scanning the clearing when she heard the faint rustle of leaves that announced that her handler had or was going to arrive shortly. Chloey turned towards the sound as Orsay stepped out from the shadows of the large oaks and came near enough to Chloey that she had to lift her head up if she wanted to look him in the eye. As it was she didn't bother, too absorbed in what she was waiting for to notice that he might want to look into those silver eyes of hers. She knew what was going to happen soon enough and let it go. Orsay would say what he wanted when he was ready and not before. She could always outwait him no matter what the situation required and he knew it. She wasn't called 'The Silent' Chloey for nothing. All of her comrades knew that she was the quietest of them all and they knew that they would never sense her as her yoki was suppressed most of the time. In fact no one except Orsay and the people that Chloey worked for had ever heard the small warrior's voice, those that had heard it had passed away on an awakened being hunt and no one else knew what happened because Chloey didn't want to talk about it and Orsay couldn't push her to either. It was as good as a standoff between handler and warrior and eventually Orsay just dropped it. Today Orsay had a new task for Chloey, and Rimuto was more than sure that she could handle it based on her abilities. Too bad for him that Chloey was just too easy to handle, and Orsay's only real complaint was that she was just too quiet, but a quiet warrior was better than one who couldn't shut up. He cleared his throat and Chloey's head jerked towards him, it was about as good as he was going to get that she was listening to him. He spoke slowly and clearly, the damned girl was just too loud and Orsay found it hard to say words in the right volume, mostly it sounded like he was yelling when in reality he was talking just normal volume. Chloey's quietness had that effect on him it seemed,
"Your next job is in Strath, two days north of here if you travel slowly for once," he came off sounding like he was growling and in truth he was, Chloey got her jobs done so quickly that it was hard enough to get her enough work to keep her busy. Rimuto was astounded that the small girl travelled so swiftly the moment she got orders to take out the yoma. Orsay was constantly travelling between Chloey's region and his other warriors just didn't match the speed at which Chloey worked. He would be glad when the time came to replace the little warrior, but she was still so young, so useful. Orsay had been raking in far much more money than what he did with the other warriors, Chloey moved so swiftly between towns and any time she was on a job it was done, normally in half the time of the average warrior, indeed Orsay was willing to bet all of the warriors combined, but then again… "all information indicates that it is a 'normal' yoma; see to it that it is destroyed."
Chloey didn't even look up, she just stood there and her head tilted, he knew that she was sensing the yoma out and she was…and she doubted that it was a normal yoma, her sensing ability told her otherwise. It was an awakened being, so she was going to have to wait for others, but then again it was a really weak one, so she decided that it didn't matter, she would just do as she was told and leave it at that. Her amour clanked as she moved out, her blond hair flapping in the wind as she walked forward leaving Orsay behind in the clearing to do whatever it was that he was doing this time. She had little doubt that soon enough she would receive new orders as was always the case. She didn't really care too much. It was almost time for her to begin thinking about how she was going to take down the beast that was waiting for her.
The humans of Strath were the first to see her. They moved like a parting sea, all huddled against one another, fearful of her. Whispers and soft words went unnoticed at first, most were incoherent at best, but when she got closer the words reached her ears,
"What is she?" some human asked,
"That's a Claymore? Gods just look at how tiny she is!" another gasped,
"She's a Silver Eyed Witch, gods she's so small!"
"Do you think she'll kill us," the speaker was a young man and it was clear to Chloey that he was talking about her,
"Who knows, she's half yoma, and all half yoma are monsters," a man with his brown hair half-balding said,
Chloey glared at the humans and they shrunk back as if she was brandishing a stick with fire on it at them,
"Watch your fucking mouths you fools, what if the yoma half got the best of her and she attacked us, she'd have us dead like we're nothing,"
Chloey walked on through the crowd of humans until at last, she came before her target. The being was a smart one, but it was also stupid. Chloey took off its arm before it could defend itself properly and its head came off soon after, the stupid thing not even bothering to raise its other arm as it was just far too slow and Chloey was too fast. Of course to the human eyes it looked as if Chloey wasn't moving so when its head and arm fell to the ground, the humans started screaming about her killing a human wasting an unnecessary amount of time over the fact that all that had happened was that Chloey had done her job and they had to pay for it. Even if the fee for the yoma was high, she considered making them pay the full price for the veracious eater, that would shut them up for a long time, but a quick look at them revealed that they were just a poor tight knit community and it wasn't worth charging them for it, even though that was what she was supposed to do. Then there were the implications of her actions and she didn't want to tell Orsay what she could do, if he found out that it was really a veracious eater she had just killed like it was nothing she would possibly get a promotion and that was the last thing that she wanted. Chloey waited for a couple of seconds before saying, "My work is done, a man in black will collect the fee, give it to him,"
At least the humans had calmed down enough to hear her. No sooner had the screaming stopped then did it start again, this time cries of, 'oh gods a yoma' as Chloey left the town thoroughly pissed off. She wished that for once in her life she didn't have to deal with humans that were so fucking useless. She knew that Orsay wouldn't be too far away. He never was. Sure enough as she clanked her way up the grassed hill, she caught sight of her handler. He was standing on a ridge, his cloak flapping in the wind. Another job already? Chloey thought to herself, oh well, it's not like I care anyway. She continued towards Orsay, and as she climbed up she became aware that he was holding something. Chloey sighed, whatever it was she would find out. Her cape flapped as she at last reached the wind that was playing with Orsay's cloak,
"Finished already, 'The Silent' Chloey?" Orsay sighed as Chloey came to a stop just behind him. She never looked him in the eye anyway, so the gesture was lost anyway. He knew in his heart that the small warrior had once again proven that she was the fastest working warrior of the 47 active duty warriors. She knew it too he was sure of it. He turned to face Chloey, though her back was to him, he knew that what he had to say to her would get her attention and slowly spoke,
"Number 7, you need to go to Godar Hill, the Number 8 is waiting for you," he held out the black card and sure enough, Chloey whirled around so fast that he barely had time to breath, the card was out of his hand before he even realised that it was gone,
"Why?" Chloey demanded her voice as cold as ice, still soft, but cold all the same. Orsay felt his stomach freeze over and he could feel what was the 'yoma' side of the small warrior, even though her eyes hadn't even changed shape or colour.
"She…she asked for you, that is all," Orsay told her, struggling to find his breath, "you will need to act swiftly,"
Chloey turned to leave, her cape flapping in the wind as she made her way to Godar Hill. She knew the way and Orsay shivered as she left him. He was glad that Chloey was gone, he'd never seen such an ice cold reaction out of her before and it had shocked him more than what he'd expected. That witch is a monster…a pure monster and she could have killed me and no one would have known about it Orsay thought and another unbidden shiver ran down his spine. It would kill them if she ever turned on them and he knew it. Chloey was nothing short of a monster.
Chloey waited until she was well away from her handler and she actually looked at the black card that had been given to her. It was Rosilinda, it couldn't be anyone else. It was her red emblem on the damned card and Chloey paused. To what purpose do the Number 8, Rosilinda want with her, the Number 7? True the two had been classmates, but of all the people that Rosilinda could have chosen, why Chloey? Was it because of six months ago? Chloey wondered to herself. If that was the case then Rosilinda was a fool. She had tried to show Chloey up, and Chloey being the truly stronger of the two had broken Rosilinda's right arm. Broken wasn't the right term, she'd absolutely shattered it to near pieces, luckily she didn't have a proper blade or else it would have been a lot worse. Rosilinda was damn lucky that they weren't given real blades yet. She had fallen over since the force of Chloey's blows were so great that she couldn't parry, she was just too slow and they were sparring, not trying to kill one another, but Chloey was sure that if she didn't put up such a powerful defence Rosilinda would have probably tried to kill her and Chloey didn't want the class bitch to get the upper hand with her ever even if it meant giving her an absolute beating. Orsay had seen this, he knew that Chloey had done it, but he dragged the small child straight to Rimuto, had told him that Chloey was far sharper at yoki reading than the others and Rimuto had demanded in his bored sounding voice, "Since when did you bring trainees before me Orsay? I told you to get that lot tested and put out as warriors, now see to it," Rimuto'd looked at her then, and Chloey had shrunk back, instinctively knowing that her life was going to change, "And this one, put her with the final testing group, now!"
Suffice to say that after all of that Chloey was made a warrior before the cocky bitch Rosilinda. Upon hearing that Chloey was a warrior first, Rosilinda did whatever it took to reach the position of Number 8, even to the point it seemed of reaching her yoki limit. Rosilinda had been one of the oldest girls made in to a half yoma, along with Chloey's best friends, Lisa Misty and Kate. Yet for some reason that Chloey couldn't explain even before she broke Rosilinda's arm, the girl had hated Chloey from the moment she'd lay eyes on her. Chloey could understand the loathing if they were from the same town and knew one another or different towns close to each other and had met before, but to have someone hate her the moment they met was just too much. It didn't make sense and Chloey was sure that there was a logical explanation for it…even if there wasn't one now. Not long after they'd let the cells that they were in while they were changing from human to half human, Rosilinda had come up to Chloey and said cruelly and arrogantly, "You stay out of my way you little bitch, the same goes for the three of you, I'll kill you all if you try and fuck with me," a girl came up behind her with curly pigtails a large forehead and an oversized nose and snorted, "Yeah, she'll fucking kill ya; ya stupid bitches,"
Kate had growled and said ice cold, "You two had better watch you mouths before I smack them right off for you, don't you dare talk to us like that DO YOU HEAR ME," the last part being said with Kate at full height was rather impressive as Kate was quite tall, taller in fact than anyone there. Their sword master was even intimidated by Kate when she did this, and he swore more than Rosilinda did. Chloey had looked Rosilinda in the eye then and from that first look it was clear that Rosilinda wasn't going to be nice. Chloey had let it go, and as their training progressed it was clear that Rosilinda was a terror to those who didn't do what she wanted when she wanted it.
A group of Chloey's class had gathered together and simply tried to avoid Rosilinda as she got progressively worse until one day, a brave girl with a crew cut hair style that was cut above her eyes smashed Rosilinda in the jaw with a king hit punch because she was getting sick and tired of Rosilinda's bullying antics and had wanted to teach her a lesson. Rosilinda's blond waist length curls had been stained with blood that day and those who hated her laughed unmercifully until a handler had arrived and said rather convincingly Rosilinda had been breaking the rules and was going to attack their handler when she got the chance. The look on her face was just priceless and Chloey would have enjoyed the moment for a long time, had she been there to see it. She was still stuck with the sword master and nearly beat him to a pulp before he said that her 'lesson' was over. She hadn't missed out on seeing the blood on Rosilinda's curls though. She had enjoyed seeing it and for a while it seemed that Rosilinda was settled and put in to her place. Of course that hadn't changed the fact that she didn't like Chloey, but it did stop the attacks that she was doing on to others. It was as if Rosilinda was just purely evil and Chloey had no idea as to what it was that made her that way.
All of the past was going through Chloey's mind as she walked onwards to Godar Hill and as she did so it was clear that Rosilinda was already an awakened being, Chloey picked up her pace, annoyed that she didn't make it in time and also annoyed that Rosilinda was to blame for all of the trouble that was happening now.
Rosilinda stood at the top of the hill, angry with herself, angry with the entire world because she wasn't powerful enough to kill that little brat Chloey. She had been reminded by the little bitch that was her sister; the idiot had allowed the yoma to rip her apart, all so that Rosilinda, the older of the two could escape from the yoma that was their mother. Rosilinda had been thrown out of town and called a yoma's spawn, never again would she know peace. Now she felt powerful, why was it necessary to even hold back the yoma side when she felt so powerful, so powerful in fact that she would be free the moment she took her revenge on the little bitch that broke her arm, powerful enough that she would win and win and win. She hungered for flesh and blood and yet she had to wait…that little bitch was slow and Rosilinda was waiting to kill her and at last end that memory of being totally helpless.
Chloey reached the hill as the sun was setting, the golden colours casting deep shadows and making the hill look as it if were on fire Chloey walked on, the uneven rocks about as good as annoying her to pieces as she tried to see over the top of them, but because she was so small she couldn't even see beyond them. She sighed and at last she arrived at what was the top of the hill. Rosilinda was standing with her back to Chloey, her amour on clean and normal; however, her yoki was far from normal, she was an awakened being now and it wasn't what Chloey had liked to see. Chloey decided to grab her attention now, because it was clear that she hadn't heard Chloey's arrival,
"What do you want with me?" Chloey asked, her usually soft voice hard and cold, "Tell me, why are you wasting my time with your stupidity?"
Rosilinda turned, her face no different from when she wasn't awakened and it held the same fury of that time,
"You fucking bitch I told to stay out of my fucking way-"
"Shut up," Chloey hissed and for the first time in all the time that Chloey had known her the all cocky Rosilinda had shrunk back, and Chloey's yoki wasn't even at 10%, it was only up enough to be felt by anyone who happened to be nearby, "if you are going to continue with that crap, then I'll just kill you where you fucking stand, now answer my fucking question, what is the real reason that you are wasting my time? It's obvious that you are here to fight, if so then fucking get on with it,"
Rosilinda found her courage and attacked as fast as she could with her blade, the only thing that seemed to register as a weapon at the moment as she tried to break Chloey's ever up guard. It was as if the fighting had gone on or hours, but neither of the two were going to give up, the sun was beginning to sink lower in the sky casting even longer shadows and Chloey knew it wasn't long until night arrived.
Rosilinda, who was all covered in deep bleeding cuts, let her yoki go to full throttle in order to defeat Chloey, and again she powerful and safe. Chloey however didn't even flinch she managed to cut off one of Rosilinda's arms and then as if that wasn't enough, Chloey looked up at Rosilinda and her eyes were still silver,
"Tell me something," Chloey spoke clearly, calmly, "When did you send the card?"
"Bitch," snorted the distorted Rosilinda, not far from her awakened form and regenerating her arm, "after I awakened of course, what use is it bowing down to a little bitch like you?"
"I could have saved you," said Chloey sadly, "I would have saved you enemy or not,"
Rosilinda could feel her body elongate and grow her amour now in pieces as she began to shape in to her awakened form. Her arms, (the one Chloey cut off had finally grown back) elongated and became lethal looking claws still retained a somewhat human like appearance her lower body changed to that of a cat's, she looked like half a cat and she wasn't even half way through the transformation. The rest of her sleek coat grew and her hair became a mass of tentacles as the rest of her upper body twisted and formed what was Rosilinda's main branch, there was a second branch, another head, but it was useless to her, it did have enough yoki in it though to fool a regular warrior, but Rosilinda knew that it wouldn't fool Chloey. Both heads had a deformed cat-like face with large gaping mouths and both were equally hungry for Chloey's death. Still the small warrior just stood there, as if uncaring of what was about to happen to her. As Rosilinda struck, she should have noticed that Chloey was already poised to win the battle and had been from the start.
Chloey was more than ready when Rosilinda made what was to be her final move, and as she planned the final blow, Chloey was sure to make sure that she was in the best position to land the first of many blows that Rosilinda wasn't going to see. As she tipped forwards, Chloey started cutting at the body below the two heads and as Rosilinda moved more of her body was destroyed, and Chloey wasn't trying too hard, blood and flesh spilled as Chloey hacked and slashed her way through her greatest enemy and she couldn't help but think back to the last time that she was even near Rosilinda, the look of pure hate on her face as she glared at Chloey, the way those dark blond curls bounced as she'd turned away from the newly appointed Number 7 and uttered curses as she'd walked off vowing to be stronger than Chloey under her breath and making sure to terrorise anyone that was in her way.
What confused Chloey the most was that why Rosilinda would just let herself go like that and as she sliced off both heads from what was left of Rosilinda, Chloey felt regret that a comrade like Rosilinda had to die the way she did, like a damned monster.
Chloey sighed as at last the moon rose and the last rays of the sun died away, giving the land a grey colour that was like the dawn. She buried Rosilinda with care, about halfway between the rugged landscape and the side of the hill. Chloey waited for several minutes before finally turning to leave the impaled sword in the grave where Rosilinda would lay. She turned away and made her way down the hill, amour clanking steadily as she worked out what it was that she was going to say to her handler, not that she could really say much other than the job was done and a new Number 8 was needed now that Rosilinda was gone. She would be forgotten by the men come the new Number 8, who would most likely be Dark Heart Bryce, the Number 9, who would was a very dark warrior indeed, somehow pushing her comrades away from her like there was no way that she would ever sink as low as asking them for help.
Chloey landed lightly on a flat surface at the bottom of the hill, it was dark and the air was frigid. She heard nothing more than the rustle of leaves and as she looked Orsay came out of the trees to her left, "Number 7, you are to head to Mucha immediately, you are required to sense for Ermita to make sure that the hunt progresses well, do you understand?"
Chloey looked in to Orsay's dead dark brown eyes with a bland expression in her sliver eyes. She wouldn't complain, not now that she had work to do. She turned and knew almost without a word that meant go south, and she sighed inwardly, she hoped that this 'Ermita' wasn't going to make her talk or expect her to have many words to say because she was a warrior of so few words and didn't like wasting energy when she didn't need to use it. She was not going to play to his tune and would keep to herself like always…only the main events of the hunt was even worth reporting anyway in her mind, so if she wasn't needed she would leave without a trace or thread of remorse.
As Chloey walked past Orsay a breeze picked up her cape and made it flap, she ignored it and continued forward to where she was supposed to go, the southern mountains of Mucha and beyond.