I do not own 'Claymore' nor any names of characters, locations, or anything else relating to the series. I have only watched the anime series and not yet read the manga. Any similarities that may be found between my story and any found in the manga series are coincidental and were purely unintentional. The names of Brahn, Cedric, and Iba were chosen from random name lists and generators and are not to be associated with any characters or locations of the same name from any other series or outside sources.

*NOTE Italics are used for inner thoughts, not dialogue.

Chapter Three: Silver Guard

"No, it can't be. A male fighter?" Helen was shocked at the silver eye now revealed and starring at her.

"Hmpf, not exactly," the man retorted.

"How is that possible? WHO ARE YOU?" Deneve demanded, her two swords now pointing at the mysterious figure.

"Very well then. My name is Brahn. I was with the Organization for merely a few days before I, 'broke', training. Since I never fully developed as a warrior of the Organization, I became a wanderer, roaming from village to village, studying swordsmanship in order to survive. As I said before, I don't have superior speed and agility, but my years of training have led me to understand that principles of combat and even the very laws of movement," he raised his sword and pointed at Helen, "No matter what style or manner you fight with, any attack follows certain patterns. A swing attack of your sword is guided by the direction and rotation of your wrist; a stabbing attack is matter of aligning the points of the tip of your sword and your hand; I can even predict where you're going by looking at your stance and weight distribution."

"ENOUGH ALREADY! I'll be damned if I'm going to be lectured by an amateur!" Helen yelled out as she lunged again at Brahn, her sword swinging quickly in multiple attacks. Her sword swung overhead for a downward strike, followed closely by a diagonal upward, and cross body slash, but each one clashed with his sword.

"You see? You can't change the nature of your attacks. And no matter how fast your movements may be…," he pointed to his silver eye, "my eye allows me to see every twitch of your wrist and hinge of your joints perfectly clear. Even with your superior speed, if I know where your attacks will strike, I know exactly where and how to counter them."

Helen jumped back again to a safe distance, "It's no use. If he actually CAN predict by judging the nature of my arm and wrist movements, I can't get through his defense. Well, I'm not done yet. I've still got one trick that he's never seen the likes of before…" Helen's eyes flashed gold, veins in her arm pulsed, and her muscles bulged as she was about to unleash her special ability.

"Helen wait! Don't do it!" Deneve turned and called out to her companion. "With that much yoki energy, someone could detect it." But her call went out too late.

Helen's arm extended in length and suddenly shot out, like a serpent springing to attack. She swung her sword at Brahn, brushing past his sword and swinging across, catching him on his left side, but the rest of her arm still shot out, using the forceful momentum to drive him into a pile of chopped wood by the house wall. Brahn's eyes gave a shocked expression and he gasped as he was drove into the wood. After a moment, seeing her opponent down and motionless, Helen breathed a sigh of relief as she gloated, "Hmph! Didn't see that coming, did you?"

"Haha, that certainly is something I've never encountered before," Brahn's voice rose.

Helen gaped at her opponent. "WHAT?" Her eyes fell on her sword and where she struck. She saw where his sword had moved from before. He had pulled it over to his left shoulder, right in the middle of where hers lay, protecting himself from her blow. He pushed back on Helen's arm, freeing himself from her pin and got to his feet. Helen quickly whipped her arm around again, wildly attacking him from all sides. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! Helen's arm whirled around Brahn as she tried attacking him from behind, but still found his sword deflecting her attacks.

Deneve gazed at the sight before her. "Unbelievable. Helen's arm isn't restricted by the joints and stiffness of her bones, but he's still able to see where she's attacking. How is he able to defend himself when her arm reaches around him?" But Brahn's sword wasn't the only thing that constantly moving and changing position. She noticed that his eyes were strangely glancing at her and Helen, as well as Helen's sword. "Why is looking and me? I haven't made any advance or attacked at all, but he keeps looking over at me. Does he think that I'm going to try and catch him off guard?"

Helen was getting frustrated and just as confused as Deneve. She didn't understand why he suddenly kept glancing at her and Helen, nor why none of her back attacks were getting through. "Something's not right. I need more power!" She tapped into her yoki aura, drawing more energy into her arm. She stretched out again, reaching past his back. Brahn brushed past it and charged forward at Helen, his eyes fixed on her, his sword in full front, leaving his back unprotected. "He's going offensive! He let his back guard down!" She turned her wrist around, pointing straight at the back of his head, and thrust her arm inward, using every once of strength she had. But just as she was about to reach him, without looking back, his head dodged to the left, and Helen gasped as she saw her own sword rapidly closing in on her.

"HELEN!" Deneve shouted.

FFWWWPPPTTTT! Helen's sword stopped, just inches from her head. She starred, shocked at what just happened. As she slowly got a hold of herself, she felt a strong force on her arm. She looked to find Brahn's hand, grasping her arm and holding it back.

"This fight is over," he said still starring at Helen, his grip still fast on her arm. "When your arm is extended and being extremely flexible, it did become harder to predict, but even so, the sword itself and even your wrist were still the same so the nature of your attacks is still easy to see. All I had to do was focus on how your swings were executed and where the tip of your sword was aiming at." Brahn slowly released Helen's arm. "You'd better retract this or you may draw some unwanted attention. I see now that you weren't sent here to kill me, so I have no quarrel with you."

"What? Suddenly you're backing down?" Helen snickered as her arm returned to its normal length and her eyes to their silver color.

"I don't see any reason for fighting against those whom have left the Organization as well," Brahn explained.

"How did you come to that?" Helen asked calmly, hiding the fact that he guessed the truth, they were on the run from the Organization.

"First, you're not here on any official contracts since there haven't been any attacks on the village. Even if there were, none of the villagers here would have known how and where to contact the Organization. Second, this village is not on any map and well out of the way of any roads, so you wouldn't be here on patrol or en route to another village. Finally, when your friend told you not to use your yoki power for your attacks, the only reason she would do so is to keep your aura low and under detection from anyone nearby." Brahn explained. "That was when I realized that I had no business to fight you, except of course just to keep you from attacking me. And that is my question to you."

"I merely reacted at the stench of Yoma blood coming from you," Helen replied.

"What?" Brahn asked. He lifted his arm to his nose and sniffed. "Hhmmmm…haha, I suppose you're right. I guess it's been a while since I washed this. I never developed the keen senses of detecting Yoma like the two of you."

"It doesn't take a special sense of smell to know when you need your laundry done," she sneered at him. "But if you really don't possess any 'keen' senses, then how were you able to block my attacks from behind?"

"Our armor," Deneve answered.

"Huh?" Helen asked her.

"Ah, I see I'm not the only one here with a gift for observation," Brahn remarked.

"For the first of the fight, he didn't take his eyes off your sword. It wasn't until after you extended your arm that he started shifting his eyes at us. It took a moment to figure it out, but I noticed that whenever your sword was behind him, he looked at the reflections in our armor and my swords to see where you were attacking," Deneve explained, looking at her own swords and seeing her own reflection.

"Very good," Brahn complimented her, sheathing his sword. "Seems like you've uncovered my secret."

"One maybe, but there's still a lot more. Who are you and what's your story? How did you leave the Organization? Why has no one come after you if you haven't awakened? Why has no one ever heard of this village?" Deneve asked.

"Alright, I'll tell you," Brahn answered, his silver eye fixed on Deneve.

Still working on making my writing a little more engaging. I hope there was enough action to keep you interested, but I know it still needs work to make it captivating. Thank you for reading so far. I welcome any comments both constructive and critical.