Chapter 3

"Grave robber part 1"


Another mission, another success. Grace and Eliah once again traveled the roads, moving towards their next destination for the time being. It was actually a pretty day and Eliah´s mood remained happy and jolly as usual.

"Okay, this time, you won the game, you found them first… can we play again?"

Grace had still not been able to find a village or town that she could leave Eliah in. According to the villagers there was something odd with her. Something in the girl´s eyes that scared them.

Grace could not understand why since those blue eyes were innocent after everything the child been through but Eliah didn´t mind the journey with her. Signs of a larger town in the horizon caught her eye and Eliah looked at it with a child's enthusiasm.

"Is that where the next false person is?"

"Indeed Eliah, but there´s no time for games this time…"

She pulled the hood of her traveler cloak up and hid her silver eyes in its shadow. This was not going to be easy.

The city looked perfectly normal. The people in it weren´t even bothered by the danger that hovered over their heads like a raincloud. They just smiled and lived their lives in ignorance of what occurred in their city.

A strange mood lurked over the whole town and a feeling of unpleasant stares at one another. The guard force seemed like they searched for something and had no friendly eyes at all. It was obvious that no strangers were welcomed here…

Grace looked at the smiling girl right next to her and remembered something that happened earlier.

They walked the roads and Grace thought about something that had bothered her for a while now.

Eliah´s clothes were drenched in dried blood and Eliah herself wasn´t any cleaner. Dirt on her face and on her arms. A faint smell of death came from the dried blood over her and Grace started to take notice of the unpleasant scent.

"Eliah, when was the last time you took a bath?"

"Bath? Don´t want to…"

"You do realize that the blood isn´t going to just fall off… right?"

"I don´t want to bath… I don´t need to… just let me stand in the rain…"

It had not rained in a week. Grace honestly thought that the dirt and blood would stick on Eliah if they waited any longer. She looked around and noticed the stagnant surface of water nearby.

"Come on… there´s a lake up ahead; you can at least scrub off the worst dirt stains…"

Eliah protested a little and these grew more in volume as they moved closer to the water. Grace didn´t understand it at all. It was a beautiful day and there were no one around that could harm them. Eliah still got scared.

"No! I don´t want to bath! Not bath! Anything but a bath! Please big sister! Not a bath!"

Grace turned around and saw Eliah shiver in fear while she looked out at the lake. Her eyes were wide-open and looked like those of a rabbit when it saw an eagle's shadow. Grace asked her a simple question and tried to understand.

"You do understand that you can´t walk around in blood soaked clothes… don´t you?"

"Not calm water, no, don´t want calm water! Calm water bad!"

"Why is it so bad? Eliah?"

"It…It…"

Eliah started to breathe rapidly, had some sort of panic attack. Curled together on the ground in a ball and held her arms around both legs. She still shivered.

"Calm water hurts…calm water hurts… daddy makes calm water red… it hurts… it hurts…"

Grace tried to get her out of the panic attack and turned Eliah around so she didn´t have to see the water. She tried to make her forget it.

"Okay, I am sorry, no baths…"

Eliah seemed to calm down after a while and she looked at Grace.

"Calm water… is bad…

"Okay, I understand that, but how about this, how about just washing the clothes? You don´t have to go into the water for the time being, and you get a little cleaner at least…

Eliah looked down on her clothes and nodded. Grace smiled a little with warm tenderness. A smile that made Eliah forget about the panic attack.

"Okay then. The sun will dry the clothes, so you know what to do…"

The upper part of Eliah´s clothes hung to dry and Grace looked at Eliah. She just sat right next to her and watched her clothes drip water as they slowly dried. She had several bruises on her body all over the torso and the back in different colors all in different stages of the healing process.

Some of them looked more recent than others and cuts could be seen too. No trace of it on the arms or the neck and only on parts where her clothes could hide them. Grace didn´t dare to ask, she already knew the answer and instead let out another question.

"Eliah… how long was your father a "false" person?"

"Since I was five…"

"And who gave you your baths?"

"…False Daddy…"

Grace felt a sting of sadness in her mind and empathy for her. This child must have been raised in a whirlpool of torment and she didn´t want to think of what that monster had done to this little girl.

"Didn´t your mother give you baths?"

"No… false daddy hides too well… daddy killed mummy, and I couldn´t tell…"

"Did you have any other family?"

"My big brother… kept me safe… until false daddy made him dead… ate him…"

"How did you survive?"

"Did as false daddy said… had to tell the lies of false daddy… hate to lie…"

"So why did you wanted to come with me? You will see a lot of "false" people around me… why didn´t you stay with someone else?"

"Because… with the false people, no place is safe…"

Eliah looked at Grace and smiled happily.

"…Big sister is the safest place…"

Grace was touched by that statement and looked out in the air.

She heard something far behind her and told Eliah.

"Eliah… you can wait here right? Watch your clothes; I will be right back…"

"Where are you going?"

"You don´t need to know, just sit here, and wait…"

Eliah nodded and Grace walked off into the forest.


Five hundred meters later she arrived at the source of the sound: a quiet and peaceful meadow with a fallen tree in the middle with no birdsong or crickets in the grass. Grace called out in the air.

"Okay, I know you are here… come out…"

No response came and Grace sighed. She let the world go dark in her perception while she searched for a light. The trees slowly turned transparent in the dark. With every inch of her concentration she finally noticed the weakest spark like a star behind one of the trees. The second one to her left.

She let the world return back to normal again and pulled the claymore out of its sheath behind her back. She was still a little angry on Hannah for last time.

"You better decide before I cut the entire tree down…"

"Okay… you found me…"

A claymore walked out from behind the tree. Grace sheathed her sword again since it wasn´t Hannah.

The claymore had the silver-white hair cut short and curled a little on the edges. A playful smile in the face and after a fast look on the symbol Grace could tell who she was.

Gloria, number 15, Her symbol was a "X" in the center and with a short horizontal line above and below it. She was one of the frail and light claymores. The one who never would invoke Grace´s anger down upon herself and almost never spoke without an apology in nearly every sentence.

She waved a little in a friendly manner to her.

"Hey Grace… I´m sorry for not showing up earlier… they wanted me to test you…"

"Did I live up to their expectations?"

"You at least get better on the perception…I think."

"Not as good as I hoped… Where is Hannah? I would like to talk with her…"

"Oh, she said that she had a mission of her own and I don´t think she will face you for a while…"

"I can see that, she lied about the numbers…"

"I am sure she just wanted to help you… after all, you really needed to practice perception…"

"Think what you want about her intentions, I guess that you came here for a reason…"

"Yes… There is a new assignment…"

Gloria pulled something attached to her claymore and handed it to Grace.

She was one of those girls who almost appeared like they could break from a mere look at them. But looks could be deceiving since she had a nickname of her own. Grace threw a glimpse at the order in her hands while she read it out loud with an uncertain and weak voice.

"It is a town called Natrice… two days from here…"

"How many dead?"

"Oh, a lot… 19 during the last two weeks…"

"That is too many… way too many…"

A yoma usually ate one or two people, with a break in two weeks between the kills. This many in such short amount of time could mean that the problem was bigger then she thought.

"I know…"

"How many yoma?"

"I am not supposed to tell you… either they are many, or it is just a big one…"

Grace just stared in realization of that and really hoped that it was the second option.

"You mean… you mean that this could be a "voracious eater"…?"

"Well, I hope it isn´t, but the option is still there… will it be too much for you?"

"No…"

Grace traveled in her memories and smiled a half smile. It looked unsettling for anyone that had the bad luck to witness it.

"It will do just fine, nothing I can´t handle… thanks for giving me the warning…"

"I have actually not…"

"I will deal with it… anything else that the Organization would let me know?"

"Nothing that is important now, except for one thing… You have to leave the sword here"

Grace looked on Gloria like she had uttered a joke or something but Gloria didn´t have it in her to tell jokes. She was serious. Grace started to smile and laugh before her voice changed mood into a more serious and defiant one.

"What? No, they can´t do that! I need my sword!"

"They said that Natrice´s guard force will confiscate and arrest anyone who carries a large weapon within the city-limits."

"There is a reason we have these swords, Gloria!"

"But you are the only one of us that has a reinforced claymore…"

"It is a part of my fighting style!"

"But the guards will arrest you! Throw you into the jail and leave you there to rot!"

"And what am I supposed to use then?! My fingernails?"

"No… they let you have this…"

Gloria pulled out a small dagger and handed it over to Grace, elegantly made and could be hidden underneath the armor. Grace looked at Gloria and inhaled deeply.

"I hope there´s a better reason to why I can´t carry my sword…"

"I don´t know… maybe because you usually fail on covert operations?"

"I could get in without raising suspicion!"

A quick look from Gloria said the opposite.

"Don´t worry, you will get the sword back after the test… I hope you can still handle the situation without it…"

Grace looked slightly frustrated and tried to calm herself down. What Gloria said was true. To try and force her from the claymore would be the same as signing a death warrant. Grace had to accept the circumstances as they were for the moment.

"Anything else...?"

"Nothing from them… but I have something to say on my behalf…"

"Then what is it?"

Gloria looked in the direction of the temporary campsite and then back at her. She appeared a little bothered and excused herself.

"I´m sorry… but Hannah told me that a girl traveled with you…"

"And?"

"…How long do you plan to let her follow? I mean… you can´t let yourself get attached to her…"

"What else should I have done? Left her to die? And who are you to judge my decisions… you, if anyone, should understand what happens to those suspected to be yoma…"

Gloria looked down at the ground out of shame. A poor girl in anyone´s eyes as she clenched her hands together. She never had a strong voice nor the courage to speak for herself. She only apologized and suppressed her own emotions. Grace eased the seriousness on the tone and apologized.

"I am sorry, I didn´t meant to bring that up…"

"It is okay… we all have to face our demons… one day, I will beat mine…"

"Gloria…"

"Don´t worry about me… I have to go back to the Organization… get a mission on my own… good luck Grace! And stay calm…"

She left and Grace now stood with a new assignment at hand…


Now, Grace stood in the window of a rented room and looked out over the strange mood in the town.

The people in it had stopped to see anything but the illusion of that everything was fine. They hadn´t even looked twice at Grace or Eliah as they were too busy about everything else. They all pretended to not know what went on in Natrice. They ignored the corpses and the guards with watchful and narrow eyes. Anxious eyes looked for anything that resembled a threat to themselves and the population they sworn to protect.

Eliah rested on the soft bed and looked up at the ceiling with a pillow in her arms and leg pointed straight upwards.

"It´s so strange… why does everyone have fake smiles?"

Grace didn´t listen as she still looked out through the window. There was something that made this mission a lot more complicated than the others.

A martial law had been invoked; the guards had orders to uphold it and arrest anyone with a sword, mace, axe or knife, all in precaution and to keep the violence in Natrice at a minimum. Grace had already seen a man that get taken away because he owned a broadsword and carried it around.

A curfew after dark had also been established. The law of using weapons appeared to be just as strict as Gloria said it would be. Grace knew why she couldn´t bring her trustworthy claymore with her to this place.

But to part with it had affected her. She boiled a little in anger over it without the flames of despise shown in her face. This would affect the already poor perception of hers as well.

She would not be able to even find one yoma with it, not like this.

Her yoki perception skills weren´t the best and got worse whenever she got upset.

Something she wasn´t so very proud of.

There was only one thing she could do now, to investigate and find the problem with the use of her senses instead. She at least had a clue of a place there she should begin her investigation; she turned around to Eliah and told her.

"I will go outside for a while; you can rest here if you want…"

"No, I am coming with you…"

Eliah smiled against Grace and they headed outside.


After a twenty minute walk they eventually turned up at the cemetery and entered to investigate the lack of people around it. The cemetery´s commoner stones had a simple design. Some of the tombstones were simple boards with names carved into them. There existed heavier stones as well, but it was the thing in the center of the cemetery that got their attention: a huge circular hole in the ground and sounds of someone that dug inside it. Eliah looked a little scared of the sights around her.

"Big Sister…why are we here?"

"This is one of the largest cemeteries in the country, and people actually send their bodies from far away to be buried here…"

"Why?"

"It is mostly because of the high guard presence and the fear of grave robbers, no one in their right mind would dare to steal from the dead. But people come here for their final resting spot, so their sleep might be undisturbed by these thieves…"

"Do they sleep here?!"

Eliah looked terrified and threw nervous looks over to the tombstones, like she clearly expected the dead to rise from her loud shout. Grace explained calmly.

"There is something called an eternal sleep Eliah, death, and don´t worry, they will not wake up from it unless disturbed…"

"Was that a joke? Big sister?"

Eliah looked up at her and Grace didn´t say a word as she kept her eyes focused forward. They stood two meters in front of the large hole and something moved up from below. Eliah reacted to the sound and began to shiver in fear. It sounded like something trying to get out from the graveyard. Eliah´s voice had a tone of panic in it.

"Big sis…"

A dirty arm came up and grabbed a hold of the edge, more tired moans from below. Eliah screamed in panic and hid behind Grace.

"AAHHH! Ghosts!"

A second arm holding a dirty shovel grabbed hold of the edge. A second later, someone came crawling out over the edge and muttered a little…

"That should be good enough…"

A man and older than Grace stood down there. He had hair in a brown color but that could just be the dirt in it. He wore brownish clothing with a plate over the chest, a very old piece of armor. He was slightly muscular as a result from all the digging and he looked a little taller than Grace was. He kept his eyes raised upwards at the new arrivals with tired stare at first. He opened them wider.

"Who are… wait… don´t say anything…"

Grace looked down at him with an emotionless stare and he finally came to a conclusion.

"…You… you are the claymore…"

"That is correct, and who are you?"

The man got up, brushed off the worst of the dirt and stabbed the shovel in the ground. He smiled a little and introduced himself. The large hole with a pile of bodies in it, a mass grave, didn´t make the first impression any more perfect.

"I am Mael… the local gravedigger… And the one who made the request…"

Grace looked at him and he informed her.

"You probably have some questions… I will answer them as well as I can."

"Start from the beginning…"

"…But not here… the archers see us… walk by my side, and pretend to look at a free spot… it will throw them off…"

Mael started to point with his hand in a direction while he looked there as well. He started to walk causally among the rows of tombstones. Grace followed him.

"… It started a couple of weeks ago, a beggar was found dead with his entrails gone. Then a second one, same thing, I actually knew the third victim, a good soul, but unfortunate…"

"I don´t have time for sentimentality… get to the point."

"Anyway… at first, the victims had a pattern, both in the cause of death and the way they were… beggars, thieves, prostitutes, people that moved outside at night. The guards' didn´t pay notice first, not until the first civilian got killed…"

"Where all the victims eaten?"

"Yes, well, some of them, others were just butchered without the entrails gone. Like mindless slaughter… and after the curfew was enforced, the latest victims have been guards… Three eaten, two butchered…"

"The yoma that is troubling you seems to be cunning, and hungry…"

"You suspect it is a voracious eater!"

Grace found it surprising that Mael came to that conclusion by himself. But she kept the emotionless face up to not show this.

"Yes… that is a risk…"

"But what are you going to do about it?"

"Usually, I would track it down and kill it… but due to the martial law in effect here, I can´t just do that… Why is there a martial law?"

"The captain thinks it is a cannibalistic murderer, and is too stubborn to listen to reason… I have tried to warn him on several occasions, but he just won´t get it! But I can´t blame him…"

Grace understood after all.

The city of Natrice had two notorious reputations. One, that it was the largest cemetery in the world with resting places for bodies of royalty and war heroes. And two, the guard force was described to be one of Rabona´s finest and kept the yoma out of the city-limits. It would be a hard blow to that reputation if it turned out that a yoma hid right beneath their noses. From their viewpoint, it made sense to invoke martial law. Mael continued to talk.

"…But I can´t let it go on like this… there people are dying faster than I can dig… people that wouldn´t have to die yet…And since no one is going to do something about it… I decided to take matters in my own hands."

"I have a question…"

"What? Is it about the payment? I have it all counted for, it is the required amount, feel free to take…"

"Not that… payment will be delivered to a black dressed man after the kill is done… but I am wondering… you are a grave digger…"

"Yes?"

"How did you get the gold to actually afford the request?"

"Well, the gold comes from the affected part of town…"

"Which is?"

Mael held out one of his hands against the scenery around them and looked over it. Grace´s eyes hid her upset emotions when she realized.

"You are a grave robber…!"

"No, it is from the families of the deceased… okay, I got it from the dead…"

"You do realize what the city guard will do to you if they ever find out…"

"I know, but you are in the same boat here… so this is a little secret between us… but it is for the better good… I don´t want to dig my friends´ graves…"

"I don´t care about where the gold comes from, it is not my concern…"

"So you will help us? How will you kill it?"

"It will be hard… since my perception skills are not the best, and I had to leave my blade to enter the town. The chance of success against this one might be…"

Grace stopped here and considered her chances against it, but soon stopped as she couldn´t afford to be a pessimist. No matter how many yoma the Organization sent her to kill, no matter how many of them had wings, no matter if she had to kill them with her bare hands, she would come through it. She had to make it out alive since she promised Blanc after all. She didn´t spent any more time to think about the odds, it wasn´t in her nature.

She looked back at Eliah, who stopped to catch a small yellow butterfly. What would happen to her if she didn´t return?

"Is there a problem?"

"No… it´s nothing…"

"Just tell me if there is anything I can do… Anything…"

"Like what?"

"I might not look like it, but I can help you in the fight. I have watched this thing attack for weeks, and know where it likes to hunt and when…"

"There is only one thing you can do…"

"Tell me then!"

"You can stay out of the way…"

Mael appeared a little disappointed and Grace looked down on him. What could he do? Swing with the shovel and hope to give it a bruise? No, unnecessary sacrifices should be avoided and she just tried to help him as well.

"Okay… but you should know that this thing likes to hunt at night…"

"No problem…"

"But the guards!"

"It doesn´t matter… just focus getting people away from the cemetery…"

Mael seemed to understand and it looked like he had no choice but to do as she said. Grace called for Eliah and they left the cemetery. Mael returned to expanding that mass grave and making room for more victims.


Later that night with no soul left around and the guards on their rounds. Grace stood in the dark by the window and slowly opened it. The cold air invited her outside for a walk in the night. She looked at Eliah who slept and visited her own dreamland.

A small smile appeared on her face and she whispered.

"Sweet dreams… I will be right back."

She then looked back out and leapt like a bipedal grasshopper.


Grace leapt over the rooftops and stayed off the ground. Every time she took another leap, a small cloud of dust flowed up. All to avoid detection from both the ground forces and the archers. She tried to track it again with her perception, but she was still too upset to get an accurate target. She had to search the hard way, waiting for it to attack first…

…Or simply look around where it picked its victims.

She landed silently like a owl on one of the roofs, hunched over and looked down on the street below.

A tavern with the lights on and someone who got thrown out by force caught her eye. The man landed on the street and acted drunk. He could barely stand up on his own feet. Grace prepared to move on when she noticed someone walk out from a dark back-alley and towards the man. She sat like on needles since this could be the yoma.

The stranger slowly approached him and the drunk man looked up with dizzy eyes at him. He said something; the stranger raised a hand…

…and then helped him up.

Grace let go of the breath in her throat as she witnessed how they left the scene. No drunks on the streets she guessed.

She moved on.

To find a yoma without perception in a city like this could be just as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.

Grace dropped into a back-alley as three archers appeared to her left. She leaned back against the wall and held her breath as they moved along over the rooftop. A fast look out to the street and she stayed close to the walls as she moved along the streets for now. She stayed out of the lights and leapt back up to the rooftops once the steps above her vanished.

To be on constant watch for any night patrols also added to the challenge.

Grace hopped the roofs for a little longer as she quickly reached the area of Natrice there the murders began.

The red light district.

From what Grace could see, the curfew didn´t seem to be put in effect here. Prostitutes, drunks and beggars had all been forced to live here as the crisis carried on but that was only a minor change. She looked down and noticed women standing at the street-corners and waiting for anyone to pick them up.

According to Mael, this had been the place where four women been brutally murdered by the yoma. If grace were lucky, this might be one of its territorial hunting areas.

Yoma had a tendency to create routine in their eating habits. One could only devour women, another might hunt little boys. Another could target blondes. All because of their taste preferences. Cold-blooded murderers in Grace´s eyes. Not any different from the human serial killers that stood on Tolaine´s most wanted list.

But they were a human problem; she was here to deal with the yoma.

Grace tried to not attract any attention to herself as she watched the people down below.

Any one of them could be the yoma since it could mimic appearances perfectly and blend in with the humans. That was what made them dangerous. The culprit in this case could be the red-haired woman down in the corner, it could be the homeless man with a bottle in his hand and unshaven appearance, it could already be inside one of the houses. It could smile, laugh and cry when it mimicked human emotions to avoid suspicion.

Grace observed the scene and soon realized it was a dead end.

"I can´t waste time here… There´s these days I wish that the Organization created a yoma bait instead of a suppressant… Just imagine how much easier that would be to lure them out…"

She moved on along the roofs and slowly searched the areas around the cemetery. She had to hide from a guard patrol on the ground and was nearly discovered a couple of times, but a number of fast maneuvers into the shadows turned her into a ghost that only received some scared looks over the shoulder.

"It has been a hour… and still no sign of it… maybe that thing isn´t outside tonight?"

She stood at the entrance to a back alley with her hood over her head. No guards in sight and if anyone looked out they would not see her in the shadows. A deep sigh from her and she looked down at the street beneath her feet.

"If so than I´m wasting time here… It´s not fair! If I had my sword I would be able to concentrate and at least get a track to follow… or a hint. But no… and here I stand and lament myself… That Voracious Eater sure is clever…"

A shadow appeared behind her and slowly moved along the alleys. Grace didn´t notice it at first.

"What am I thinking? That thing wouldn´t unleash itself in the middle of the night like this… it´s more likely that it remains in human form… and if that´s the case then I have to wait until it kills someone…"

The shadow stood right next to Grace´s left side now and she felt a presence. She ogled to the left and noticed a shadow on the ground.

"Stay calm… since it´s not a guard then it must be one of those beggars… or red light patrons."

Grace noticed how the shadow waited for something. It moved its hand up and down as it hesitated and she thought to herself.

"Oh great," Heavy sarcasm ", the guy must think I´m a prostitute… I just have to tell him off"

She tilted her head slightly to the right and hissed at it.

"The red light district is in the other direction… I´m not a whore!"

That triggered the shadow who grabbed Grace´s shoulder by force and she became furious at the touch. A fast pull with her arm and she nailed the hand to the wall with her dagger. She looked up…

…And straight into the face of a huge yoma.

A yoma, only a very large one. Close to nine feet tall with a very muscular body. Its skin appeared to be thick and covered of several scars after previous battles. It had a particularly large scar halfway around its neck. A black cloth wrapped around its left wrist with no apparent purpose. The claws on its hands looked sharp and deadly. The face appeared monstrous enough. It looked clearly older than the small fry she usually fought. Grace wished that she had her claymore at hand. The dagger wouldn´t be enough to cut off anything in a clean swipe, not to mention bringing this yoma down.

It punched her away with a heavy fist and she landed in the middle of the street while it retreated. The reason soon appeared around the corner in form of five guards on patrol. Grace dived into another back-alley and held her stomach that still ached from the hit.

"Don´t lose it…whatever you do Grace…do…not…lose…IT! After it!"

She leapt up on the rooftops and used her ears this time. Big thumps at a distance.

"It´s a big one… so he shouldn´t be able to move that fast in the back alleys… and he can´t jump the rooftops either… He would be easy to spot then… He´s not that far ahead… I found him!"

Grace then leapt over the street and pursued the heavy footsteps. All while she held the dagger ready to be used and had to dodge into the alleys to avoid archer patrols.

"If I lose it… then I won´t be able to find it again!"

Three guards patrolled along the edge of the cemetery and stood in front of its gates, just about to enter. One of them carried a lantern in his hand while the others kept their hands on hilts to their swords, looking around in a nervous manner.

"I hate the graveyard shift…"

"Don´t worry, if anyone tries to attack us, he will get a nasty surprise…"

"Yeah but…"

One of the guards turned around, slightly spooked and ready to pull the sword. The others looked in his direction and asked.

"What is it?"

They looked and saw the dark corners of the houses. Not one single sound except for the scramble of their armors. After a little while the guard responded in a tense tone.

"Nothing… I am just getting nervous…"

"You are not the only one… this is getting to us all…"

"I mean, how can one person do so much damage?"

"It is not our job to wonder… but to get the work done… or what do you think?"

No answer came, the light of the lantern died out and the two guards turned around.

"I said… what do you…"

The sentence faded away and the two faces turned pale of terror. Terror for the creature that now stopped right behind them.

It was only a shadow, but a very tall one. It held the lantern guard in one of its huge hands. He bled from four holes in the chest and was already dead. The large shadow raised the other hand in a fast swing and tore one of the remaining guards to pieces. The last guard unsheathed his sword and just shook in terror.

"What… impossible… Were the hell did that thing came from!?"

The shadow raised its right arm again and prepared to crush the last guard like a fly. The guard pulled his courage or foolishness, together and attacked dead on. It shot two of its elongated fingers to stab him and he swung the sword. The shadow just waved with the raised arm and the piece of metal the guard held shattered like glass. He was defenseless now. The guard awaited his incoming death.

Something moved in fast and sliced the shadow´s fingers. The towering shadow pulled back the elongated claws and jumped backward. It leapt into the cemetery while the fast figure followed it with haste.

It all happened so fast that the guard doubted himself that it even happened… but the corpses spoke their clear language. He ran to get back-up.


Grace looked at the opponent and considered her odds. She held the small dagger she had and stayed ready to attack. The target stood a couple of meters from her and it appeared to be on a bad temper.

"What the…? A human?... no it´s you again!"

The yoma talked in a dark confused voice and Grace tried to find a weak spot to attack while it ranted on.

"You don´t smell like a human… but I don´t care, you are just another annoying prey…"

It charged dead on, completely ignorant. Grace immediately started the counterattack while silently praying that the dagger would hold.

The yoma raised both its arms and smashed down with them while it clenched its fists together. Grace dodged it and the ground shattered from the impact of its attack. Grace quickly stabbed it in the left arm without inflicting any serious damage. The yoma swung an attack to the left with its left arm while she held onto the handle of the dagger.

It jerked out from his flesh by force and Grace flew slightly through the air. The yoma aimed with its claws and they shot forth like knifes against her. Grace got a foothold on one of the gravestones. She swiped with the dagger in the air and cut the fingers that aimed for her. She then leapt forward again, sliding under the arm as the yoma performed another attack. A stab to its left femur.

She then pulled it out as the yoma lift one of its feet to stomp her down. A fast side-roll to get out of the way while she threw some dirt in its face. Grace aimed the dagger upward with the handle at the ground. The yoma, now furious and temporarily blinded stomped with full force. Right onto the point of the dagger and it went all the way through his foot.

The yoma roared and Grace looked at the dagger. Her eyes turned gold as she grabbed and pulled the blade right through his foot. It got cut it in two until the blade reached the heel. The yoma kicked her with the mutilated foot and she flew through the air once more. She broke a solid tombstone that she hit with full impact from the attack. Pain spread through her body as two ribs snapped. She didn´t let the pain appear in her face and clenched her teeth instead. She looked at the dagger and noticed small cracks in the blade.

Grace decided to try a lethal move. She threw herself back on her feet and ran towards the yoma who still tried to get the dirt out from its eyes. It swung with the arm only for her to dodge it and attack with the dagger. The yoma suddenly moved to the left and she stabbed it right in the right shoulder. It roared as it turned to the left. Grace held her stance and tried to pull in the other direction and the inevitable happened.

The dagger broke in two halves.

The sharp blade was still stuck in the yoma´s shoulder. The part Grace held onto, just a little piece of the blade along with the handle, now became useless.

The yoma laughed in mockery and looked at her with its maw in a victorious grin.

"And… now…"

It turned its head around and got the broken part of the dagger stabbed right into one of its eyes. It bled and the yoma shouted out in pain. He shot the claws on his fingers out and at this distance managed to score five hits on her. One in the abdomen, two in the torso, one in the shoulder and one in the right arm.

Grace felt pain and the anger in her heart began to grow.

She reached out and grabbed one of the fingers. With one move she broke it in her hand like a piece of paper. The yoma pulled his fingers back. The wounds inflicted on Grace bled a lot and she tried to keep them closed. She held it together and kicked the yoma in its face. The yoma staggered a little and pulled out the broken dagger out from its eye. Grace slumped down on the ground, too hurt from her multiple wounds.

"I should have known… these eyes…you are yet another claymore…"

Grace stood up and tried to create a improvised plan. She wished that she could use her sword right now.

Something flew through the air and hit the yoma in the chest. An arrow followed by a second one five centimeters from the first. The yoma looked up and with a confused voice.

"What! Oh… it is that bastard again…!"

The remark got responded by a third arrow and a sound of guards would soon arrive at a distance. The yoma looked in their direction and then escaped the scene. Disappeared into the night.

Grace, now too wounded to move, had underestimated the situation and there was no way to tell what might happen if she got caught here. She had too many fatal wounds…

Someone approached her, dressed in a cloak and leather-armor with a bow on the back. The hood covered the owner in shadows and the world began to darken around her. The force from the yoma´s attacks had been worse than the usual ones.

"Who…?"

The hooded figure looked down at her, shook its head and she lost consciousness.