THE OVERWHELMING ABSOLUTE DARKNESS

scene V, part VI

"And now... the monster hunt begins for real." The threat of silver eyes, as brilliant and deadly as a dagger's flash in the dark, narrowed on the yoma. No, this wasn't an ordinary yoma, from what the Claymore had been informed. This was a battle to the death with a voracious eater.

The yoma's maw had fallen open and remained fixed there in a look of astonishment - and perhaps fostered a glimmer of fear. It, too, was realizing that it faced no ordinary creature. Because the sword in the Silver-Eyed Slayer's hand was a...

"A... A Claymore..." The perturbed creature uttered, the very word rattling loose its confidence. As well as humans knew to fear and flee yoma, yoma likewise knew the terrible tales of what Claymore were capable of doing to their own kind. The knowledge didn't dampen the bravado of some, but for the decidedly weak, such as the flying yoma Clare encountered not long ago, would rather flee than face the power of a half-human, half-monster Claymore.

Sid the marksman, Galk the legionnaire, and the Claymore's ward Raki had been all but robbed of their wits as they had watched the Claymore's sword break free of the hollow statue it was encased in. So that's how the Claymore had smuggled her weapon in the holy city Rabona!The five-foot-long sword had been inside that fake art piece, and when the yoma had used Galk's sword on it, instead unwittingly armed its most dangerous enemy...!

Clare pulled the sword back, rotating her shoulder. Although the bandages wound around her chest were red and sticky, Clare showed no outward weakness. The hilt firmly grasped in both her hands did not waver. And then, before the dust began to settle over the chunks of plaster on the floor, the yoma charged.

"Don't push your luck, girlie," The yoma roared, Galk's sword raised above its head and a sneer distorting its hideous, one-eyed face, "You won't get anywhere with just one sword!" - What arrogance! And yet a yoma's fortitude and constitution were beyond formidable for any knight, for any rabble of humans - it's remark was well-supported. Yoma could resemble a porcupine of skewering pikes, spears and blades without landing a vital hit. And then, yoma flesh had fathered the Claymore's own inherited ability to regenerate from wounds. Even reattaching limbs wasn't completely out of the question.

With two fingers still amiss on the monster's hand from Galk's earlier attack, the yoma smashed the sword down into the ground with enough force to cave in the floor.

Raki cried out Clare's name, afraid her body was laying there as broken as the stones. But the yoma was wiser and with a growl seething through its clenched jaws, turned and succeeded to block the Claymore's swinging sword with its own. Another ambush foiled! But the Claymore's persistence was unnerving the otherwise confident yoma. It attempted to swipe at her with its free hand. Clare threw her legs over his sword and planted her heels into its eye sockets, kicked, and thrust herself into a graceful backward flip. Unable to see, the yoma's claw only raked at the empty air.

"Ugh..." The yoma stumbled back a step, light and shadow doing a fierce dance inside its eye. "You...!" Slashing indiscriminately with its sword, and the Claymore blocked it with her own. The impact of their respective strengths was like an explosion, and the Claymore sailed away from the clash. The yoma charged in pursuit. To control her stop, Clare stabbed her claymore into the ground and the stone was ripped apart until her momentum was spent.

Braced for the yoma's charge, its sudden decision to stop and send its fingers after her instead was a surprise. Already having proven to be lethal weapons in their own right, the yoma's fingers launched forward. Each one rooted itself in the stone floor as Clare narrowly evaded them, one after the other. Another frustrated growl tore from its mouth and the yoma sent the remaining fingers of his other hand after her next. One way or another, this Claymore would die tonight!

As the Claymore dipped under the attack and sprinted forward, the blur of her pale hair was suffused with the golden-bronze of demon eyes. With this much yoki pulsing under her skin, the Claymore devoured the distance between she and her foe and within moments crouched at the yoma's feet. She swung her large, immense blade with a single hand.

The yoma's own golden eye followed the trail of blood arcing into the air, back to the protruding stump of its shoulder. The missing arm, Galk's broadsword still in its lifeless grip, landed somewhere in the darkness with a thunkand a clatter. "Gyaaahh!"

"Gah...ah...You..." Its eye rolled, the black slit finally settling on the Claymore's stoic stance. Its muscles twitched. The thick smell of blood was quickly enveloping the room.

A drop of sweat clung to Sid's chin. "That's..."

"...Amazing," Galk echoed, "So this is the true power of a Claymore."

"...No." Raki refuted, the statement turning Galk's head and drawing the man's surprised eyes. Raki knew better. And if any of them looked closely enough, they could detect the tremors of exertion quietly racking through the Claymore's arms and legs. Blood oozed from underneath layers of gauze. Beneath the furious growls and clash of steel, Clare was panting for breath. This was a laborious fight for her.

"Look, she's straining," Raki quietly pointed out, "She's fighting beyond her limits. That's why..."

Naturally, the yoma saw all of this up close. And it was pleased enough to chuckle. "What's wrong? You look pale."

Unsettled by the yoma's aplomb, the Claymore didn't strike.

"I wondered why a Claymore would try so hard to show off. But I see now. You did that to make me panic so you could finish me off quickly. You're trying to avoid a long, drawn-out fight. You missedjust now," It's statements grew bolder as, yes, it knew with certainty it was correct. The diabolic fight in its eye was being rekindled. "You weren't aiming for my arm... you wanted my head."

The Claymore took deep gulps of air, ignoring the sensation of blood crawling down the inside of her leg and seeping from between the fingers gripped around the hilt of her sword. A dearth of strength left to her had her thoughts reeling for some stratagem to turn this battle around.

She didn't realize she was hit until the yoma outburst, "Ooh, a hit! This is no time to be daydreaming!"

"Ugh!" With her eyes on the rigid finger sticking through her shoulder, the Claymore moved to cut herself free, only to find her arm arrested in the very motion, as the yoma skewered that one, too. "Argh!" With her forearm punched through, and then the aligned bicep in the same manner, Clare was left with little mobility to negotiate.

"Too slow! Much too slow! Everything you do is too slow!"

Raki watched in horror as the yoma picked Clare up with those two snakey fingers and held her so high overhead that only her pale limbs and fair hair were the brushstrokes against the ceiling's black canvas.

"Like the view? Or are you afraid of heights?" Only stifled grunts answered the monster's resounding cackle. "Well, you don't seem to be enjoying it. In that case, I'll let you down!" The sound of Clare's battered body being slammed into the stone floor extracted a half-scream from Raki.

"Now, die!"

But the two lethal fingers sent to snatch away Clare's life punctured Galk's pauldron and vambrace instead, as Galk managed to throw himself to one knee in time to circumvent the attack. While the yoma grappled with its own surprise, Sid was already throwing himself at the knight's sword which had been left lying on the ground.

Sid seized the hilt and flung it into the air. "Galk!"

Galk caught the sword and one moment later cut Clare free. With a yelp, the yoma detracted the tendrils of its hand, two more of its claws lost!

"You all right? Can you stand?" Galk shouted at the prone Claymore, not taking his eyes off their opponent.

Wincing, one eye furrowed in pain, Clare's hand fumbled through the bloody gravel to try to pull herself up. "Ugh..."

"I'm ashamed to say it," Admitted Galk, "But no matter how hard we fight we're no match for that thing, just as you said." And yet, what the man said next suffered no waver in courage: "Use our lives however you wish. Just make sure to killthat thing."

Sid attacked next. The quick stroke of his fingers unclipped a dagger from the row on his belt, but before he could launch it, the yoma waved its spindly fingers and pierced one through his shoulder. Then another, tearing through Sid's leather jerkin like it was tissue. For a human, that pain was incredible. If there was any time to reflect on it, Sid might've had to own up to a new respect and admiration for Claymore, who he had watched endure so much worse. But for now, pain consumed him from the shoulder to the chest as muscle threatened to tear away from bone. He screamed, blood coating his lips.

"Quiet!" The yoma demanded, annoyed by the screams, "I should have killed you two from the start."

"Yaaaah!" Galk bellowed as he charged with his sword. Unfazed, the monster withdrew his fingers from Sid with two wet noises and turned toward Galk, whose suit of armor protected him no better than Sid's jerkin had done him. All four of the yoma's fingers passed through Galk's shoulder, ribs and gut without fuss. "Guh-!"

"Did you think charging at me was enough, weaklings?!" The yoma was jubilant as Galk slumped toward the floor.

Galk's woozy expression then suddenly hardened. "Now...! Do it!"

The Claymore, readied, planted a foot on his back and launched herself up into the air. Her gold eyes blazed, her mouth opened in a furious cry. She descended. Betting everything on the strength of that devoted soldier beneath her heel.

"Not bad, eh?" Galk gripped the appendages tighter as the monster tried to pull its hand free to defend itself with. A half-smile smattered in blood cracked at the corner of Galk's mouth. "For a weakling."

"Why... you little..." But then the yoma was free; its other arm fell from its shoulder in a great wash of blood. Clare landed at its feet. But her calm shifted to alarm when the yoma leaped straight at her, ignoring the sword in its way.

Did it just walk into my blade?

"Fool! No matter where you slice, you'll never hit my weak spot! And don't think you'll get another shot!"

She was too stunned to move, even as the yoma rushed for her, its eyes feral, its jaws driveling, and pushed the Claymore's sword through its own torso, with no regard for pain as it stepped closer.

"Clare!"

And then the Claymore unleashed her yoki. The muscles running down her arm bulged, the contours hardened and rigid, roped with dilated veins. The yoma paused; it found itself staring into a face being ravaged by the violation of unnatural power. Thiswas a monster.

The Silver-Eyed Slayer turned her wrist, the claymore twisting guts and popping organs with a new, grisly ease. "Is its head... the weak spot?"

In one fluid upward stroke the sword split apart the monster's body.

THE OVERWHELMING ABSOLUTE DARKNESS

scene V, part VI

end