CHAPTER SEVEN: ALICIA OF THE NORTH PART TWO
Alicia had not sensed anything. She had just finished killing two awakened beings who threatened her territory and were now eating them.
"So this is an Abyssal One… What a great and monstrous youki!" Erica exclaimed.
They were now near enough to see Alicia. Suddenly, another awakened being appeared. It seemed to resemble a large metal insect.
"What's that?" Erica whispered.
"Must be a remnant from Isley's cronies. Looks like Alicia likes to devour any followers," Serafiel said dryly.
Alicia killed it with ease, and within a few seconds made short work of him.
"Impressive… Its extremely hard exterior was penetrated easily by Alicia's multiple blades on her appendages… Alright, we have seen enough, let's get back to the others, or Carine will be ordering Samantha around again.
"Erica, can I ask you something?" Serafiel asked.
"What?"
"How did you learn youki perception? You are a low-ranker, and I believe that it's not because you're unskilled, but rather because of your low levels of youki, right? In fact, I believe you are not even a full claymore. Even though your hair is blonde and your eyes silver… I have heard of an experiment where they inserted a warrior into another girl's body to make another warrior…"
"I—Clare is inside me, Serafiel."
"What?! Impossible! Clare herself is ¼ youma. That would make you 1/8 youma! How could the organization make such a choice?"
"Rubel did it."
"…That explains a lot. Rubel was always an… eccentric person. Maybe he just wanted to see what would happen when you put a claymore into a claymore into a claymore. What do you know about us before you became a warrior?"
"Nothing. Clare won't tell me anything. She said it's too horrible, and I'm too young to understand. In fact, it was right against her dying wishes for me to become a warrior."
Serafiel looked sideways at Erica. "So why did you become one then?"
"I have my own reasons. If you don't mind, I don't feel like talking about them right now."
"Alright. I won't force you. But I can't trust you either."
"All I will say is—I got this skill from Clare."
Nearing the cave, the two warriors fell silent.
They got back to their cave. Samantha was still sleeping while Carine was pacing around.
"Despite your nickname, you were quite slow, Lightning Serafiel. What happened to your teleporting?" Carine demanded.
"I had to wait for Erica. It's late now, let's get some rest."
"So this is Alicia. When I was number 3 the organization sure didn't gave me covert missions!" Carine commented.
"Now, get into positions, Carine and Samantha!" Serafiel ordered. Carine reluctantly moved into place.
Serafiel ran lightly, she would run here and there, occasionally using her sword to strike Alicia. Although Alicia got injured, she had a great regeneration. Thus, she was not injured for long. As for Serafiel, although Alicia used her blades to try to hit Serafiel, she could not manage to hit Serafiel. Their fight came to a standstill.
"Looks like I'll just have to either cut her up so much she can't regenerate, or locate her vital parts. Erica, tell me where her real body is," Serafiel asked.
Erica closed her eyes. "Her abdomen is where her real body is. However, it is protected by many blades. Even if you chop them off, they will just grow back in an instance."
"Even though number 9 Joanne, with her rotator blade isn't here… I'll distract her while you two strike at her real body.. Here goes!" Serafiel leapt up into the air.
Maybe if I release more youki, I'll be faster… Serafiel's eyes turned gold and her face contorted. I don't do this often… Maybe I should do this more often. She ran towards Alicia. I'll distract her. She changed trajectories every second, running everywhere.
Alicia was annoyed and tried to bat Serafiel like a fly. However, Serafiel was too fast. In fact, Serafiel ran so fast with her youki release that she appeared almost in five different positions at once. Finally, when Alicia was thoroughly distracted, she let loose a string of attacks that cut off Alicia's limbs.
"NOW!"
Carine and Samantha joined the fray and slashed at Alicia's body. However, at the last instant Carine tried to chop off Alicia's head, leaving only Samantha to strike. The end result is that Alicia realized and struck Carine with her tail, while Samantha only managed to cut off a part of Alicia.
"Carine!" Serafiel was distracted, and Alicia took advantage of that, healing herself AND wounding Samantha and Serafiel.
"Serafiel! Samantha!" Erica shouted. Alicia heard and turned to her. Oh no! There's no way I could fight her! Erica wanted to run away but it's like her legs are rooted to the spot.
Serafiel coughed up blood. What the hell. With my speed, I rarely get injured, but when I do… Takes me a long time to heal due to me being an offensive type. Damn, Alicia is targeting Erica. I think there's more to Erica than meets the eye. Can't let her die yet.
Serafiel ran and carried Erica. "Why didn't you do this before hand?" Erica asked, amazed. "It would sure save us a lot of time."
"Because I don't like to touch people. You rest here, I'll bring the others here shortly." Serafiel brought Erica back to the cave and ran off again.
She did the same with Samantha. When it's Carine's turn… Should I save her? There's no love lost between us. I could just leave her here to die. I'll just tell them she died in battle. But...I'm a warrior. Between fellow comrades, whatever our feud we must forget during battle. What the heck… Just take her!
"Carine lost an arm. Being an offensive type, it is likely she would lose never grow another one." And being a Claymore, we all know how losing a dominant arm will put you out of business very soon… "That is why I will be speeding ahead to get Carine to Number 5 as soon as possible. Only number 5 could give Carine another arm. Erica, take care of Samantha. When she gets better, make your move back to the organization as soon as possible. Take care."
With that, Serafiel sped off.
Samantha was unconscious for a few minutes, and then she woke up. "Ow, I feel like hell. What happened? Where's Serafiel? I thought I was a goner."
"Serafiel was injured too, but she managed to carry us here by running. She had to carry Carine to the organization because she lost an arm," Erica explained.
"Huh. She shouldn't have decided to ignore Serafiel's orders and attack Alicia's head instead. Now, she's gone and jeopardized our mission. Urgh, looks like I got a hole in my chest. Leave me alone to heal." Samantha started releasing her youki to heal faster.
"How was the mission?" Rubel asked.
"We managed to learn that Alicia, despite having no intelligent thoughts, knows how to take us unaware. Her regeneration rate is impressive for an offensive awakened being, and I think a team consisting of only one single digit is unable to take her on. With my speed, Number 6's image tracker and number 9's rotator sword, we would be able to kill her for sure," Serafiel reported.
"A small elite team, huh? Unfortunately, number 6 had been called for a mission, so we could not start your mission immediately. However, you have other things to be concerned about."
