Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

Chapter 11

The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 6

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The calm whispers of prayers echoed throughout the cathedral as Claire "prayed" in Father Vincent presence. Father Vincent presented a kind face but those that knew him could tell something was off. The priest stayed as quiet as possible as to not alert anyone to his and Claire's conversation.

"Two guards were killed last night," he breathed out, "It happened inside the Cathedral like the other times."

Claire still kept her calm façade, "Did both of them have their insides eaten?"

"Yes. There are more victims every day. This week alone there have been five,"

'Five?' Claire mentally exclaimed, 'The last five yoma even limited themselves down to one kill every two weeks. Either we got more than one Yoma eating at an increased rate, which I doubt, or . . .'

"It seems to have a voracious appetite,"

Father Vincent gulped in fear, "Vo. . . Voracious appetite?"

"Usually Yoma don't eat that much," Claire started calmly, "It's enough for them to eat the guts of a human once every week or two. But the longer a monster lives the more its appetite grows. They get more cunning and stronger. We call them 'Voracious Eaters.'"

"How do you know if it's not just more than one Yoma?" The priest questioned sincerely.

"If there was more than one normal yoma, the amount needed to warrant a need for frequent feeding like this would be about nine or ten. If there were that many, I would have been noticed by one of them and attacked by now."

Father Vincent stayed quiet, taking in the information. ". . . I see. What are you going to do then?"

"From what I can guess, the Voracious Eater is hiding in the Cathedral and does its hunts there at night. It knows that my kind can't come here into the city and that we're the only ones who can see them."

" . . . And at night the Cathedral is heavily guarded thus preventing you from getting in anyways," said Father Vincent, realizing the beast's plan.

"Yes. I'm afraid that this beast has given his hunting grounds quite a lot of thought."

"What do you think needs to be done?"

". . . On your part, nothing." Claire responded shocking the father, "All that you need to do is to be wary around people who frequently keep themselves within the Cathedral."

"Wait, everyone? I can't say that I don't trust anyone in this Cathedral. We're all like a family here."

Claire just calmly stood up and walked away, "Abandon your notions; a Yoma in disguise can fool anyone . . . even family members."

The Father looked in shock when Claire left the Cathedral, feeling the paranoia stained in her voice and words. He could tell that Claire was a bit colder than usual.


Denra had been sweeping the stony halls of the Cathedral when he was called down to the guard's room. As much as he disliked doing hard labor, he couldn't help but wonder why he had been called down.

Heck he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to him for the past week.

In the time frame of one week, he had been bored out of his mind as he waited for an escort to Rabona, fearing for his life when the bandits had attacked, amazed by Cole's amazing holy powers, and bored again in the same week.

'The twin goddesses' have such strange humor, but I must say that I have been blessed.'

Not only had these two men saved his village, but they had led his father finally to his faith, freeing his soul. Furthermore, they finally got Rana, his sister, and Eli, the kind workhand, together after forever.

'Why they thought they were subtle, I don't know.' Denra mused, 'Even a cow would have figured the two out just by looking at them.'

Eventually, Denra had finally shifted his thoughts back to why he had called. He thought back throughout the day as he tried to think of any reason. He had met the guard captain, Ganasu, sometime yesterday. Ganasu was a kind and wizened man. Even though he was not a priest, Denra gave him as much respect as any respectable man of the clergy.

Now that he had been thinking about it, Ganasu hadn't said anything about meeting up with him for any reason, thus his question went unanswered as he opened the door to the Guard's room.

Upon entering, Denra saw two men that had been locked up in a cell.

"Mr. Alex! Mr. Cole! Why are you guys in there?"

"Well . . ." Cole said with a funny look on his face.

Alex scowled, "This idiot thought that he could just climb up the building just cause he knew you."

Denra just looked at Alex strangely, "Wait. . . why are you here then?"

Alex just paused and looked at the ground, "I . . . thought . . . the same thing." A scowl formed on the Virus' face

Cole and Denra gave a little snicker as Alex just gave a grumble. The Captain, Ganesu, smiled as he watched the three interact. Cole and Alex had given the man quite a startle when he had found them climbing into the 4th story window.

A number of thieves had tried many different and bizarre schemes over the years to steal from the church, but was as insane as this. When Ganesu got his reports back, none of the guards could find rope used to get themselves up the tower. Upon asking where they hid the ropes, the two bluntly responded that they had merely climbed up. From the rough marks on Cole's hands, Ganesu could tell that he definitely wasn't lying . . . but still thought he was crazy.

When Cole and Alex explained the reason why they were there, the bald and bearded captain was reluctant to let them get close to Denra. However, now that he could see that the three clearly had a history, he couldn't help but quirk a smile himself.

"Alright," Ganasu said in a joking tone, "Since you three clearly know each other, let me get you out of that cell."

Cole smirked, "Ah, damn and I was just about to make a summer home here."

Alex rolled his eyes in response as Ganesu let out a small laugh.

"Ha, you got a smart mouth,"

"Hey, I'm told it's an endearing quality of mine," Cole responded.

Alex smirked, "Do you even know what endearing means?"

"Shut up, Alex."

Ganasu opened the cell and the three left the celled guard room and came into the stony hall with an attachment of guards.

Cole looked at the men with suspicion but Alex just patted Cole's shoulder, shaking his head. The three meandered down the hall and the two adults whispered to the little priest.

"Denra," Cole started, "before we talk about all that weird Yoma crap, are you ok?"

"What do you mean?"

Cole was a bit hesitant, ". . . Uh-um. . . No one's . . . touched you right?"

"Touched me?"

Alex immediately smacked the conduit upside the head, "What the hell's wrong with you."

"Hey man," Cole pulled Alex aside, "I saw that on the news with the Pope and shit. Can't trust these old religious weirdoes."

"Not our place, not our universe, and DEFINATELY NOT THE DAMN TIME," Alex hissed.

Denra looked at them confused as all hell, as the two men whispered to each other. It almost took them five minutes before they finally started walking again.

"Fine, fine. I'll be quiet then," Cole said as gave an annoyed look. He quickly lowered his voice again before he continued, "Denra, do you know anything about the Yoma attacks that have been going on?"

Denra answered with a small squeak as the three continued walking on, "Yes, last night killed two guards almost an hour after you were here."

"In the cathedral?" Alex looked at the child questioningly. The virus did not sense the creature when he was here the last time.

"Yes, the nun that found the two guards were in quite a shock."

Cole frowned, "How bad was it?"

"Horrible, apparently the two guards had no chance to retaliate. Their armor was pierced in their stomach region. Their guts were all spewed out."

Alex stopped for a second, "Wait, their guts were spewed out?"

"Yes, they said that while much of the guts were eaten, some of them were flung around the bodies."

Alex gave a hard and serious to Denra and contemplating for a bit before shrugging it off.

"Alright, enough about Yoma and crap then," Cole spoke up in a happily, "I gotta ask you a question."

Denra raised an eyebrow, "A question?"

"Yea, its been bugging me all this time."

"Oh," Denra smiled, "Do you wish to convert?"

"No, no, I've always wondered. Does God ever take a shi—"

Alex locked the Conduit's head before he could finish his sentence. Cole just struggled in the invincible super weapon's arms as Alex spoke, "Uhhh Cole's just gonna drop whatever he was gonna ask. You're probably busy and we gotta go anyways."

"Ok Mr. Alex. I hope you find that Yoma then."

"Yea cya kid," Alex grinned still choking the conduit.

Soon the two diverged from Denra and finally was led to the outside of the Cathedral. The guards stared at the pair strangely as Alex still had kept Cole. Eventually, when they had gone a sufficient distance away from the cathedral, Alex finally released Cole from his powerful neck hold.

"Damn," Cole shouted rubbing his neck, "You coulda broke my neck!"

Alex crossed his arms, "Don't say stupid shit then."

"Hey it was a serious question."

"Yea, serious and dumb as fuck."

Cole gave a scowl and kept rubbing his neck, "So Alex . . . whatcha you get from sneaking around the place?"

"Not much cause of your bitch ass," Alex snapped, "If you weren't there I could have checked out everything."

"You were gonna freakin consume that guard!"

"So?"

"The hell did I say about killing innocent people?"

"Yea, you said 'the needs of the many—'"

"Ok don't pull that bullshit on me."

"Well, this is just annoying."

"Ok fuck this, what did you find out Alex?"

"Well, I can definitely tell you that shit died."

Cole rolled his eyes, "No shit, you got anything else,"

"No, not anything . . . definite."

"Definite?" Cole questioned with a raised brow, "You holdin somethin out on me?"

Alex's eyes became unfocused and narrowed down, "No, just got a weird feeling"

Cole grinned, "What you're psychic now?"

"No . . . just got a feeling you know." Alex's face showed absolute seriousness, "There was something off about the kid's description"

Cole's expression changed to seriousness as well. "Denra's? I don't think he'd lie to us."

"Yea that's the thing. The kid was talking about how there were guts around the body."

"So what, they ate like pigs."

Alex shook his head, "Yoma, no matter how ferocious, will eat every little bit. When I ate the guy, the five always tried to savor every bite."

"Well, maybe this guy is killing more than he needs to eat."

"Why would a Yoma, one that's smart enough to keep himself stuck in the one place where Claymore's aren't allowed, start killing more than he needs to eat? He's wasting his food and god damn grabbing to much attention."

"I don't know man. Shit happens. Hell, we're the best examples of getting the luck of the draw. You died and became a viral superman while I got lucky enough to have a gene that gives me super powers."

"Whatever," Alex shrugged as he started walking away, "I'm gonna go back in there for a bit."

"Hey, don't eat anyone."

"I won't. I just gotta check something."


As night came, the female figure of the Claymore Claire leapt out of a window. The clear night sky gave her some moon light as she ran across the roofs yet again. The silence that came with the night felt different this time around.

Most quiet nights had given her time to think about her fight with the Yoma or had given time to reminisce. While this one did give her time to think, it was what she was thinking about that was troubling her.

Cole had yet again stirred up old memories of her past. Uselessness, weakness, and death . . .

'Does he really understand? Does anyone really understand?'

Most Claymores, while they avoided normal interactions, were actually known to form friendships and bonds with other Claymores. Claire, on the other hand, had never felt the need to work with other organization warriors let alone befriended her fellow warriors. There were some warriors that she was on good terms with, however, she had never considered them friends. Friendship wasn't something that she was never built to do. She was built to kill Yoma . . . a commitment she had made long ago.

Cole, however, had gone on to be something else. At first, Cole seemed normal like a normal man with friendlier tendencies despite his powers. She had never expected him to try and understand her nor had she expected him to prod on her life. He was curious and dangerous, a bad combination.

The problem was trying to find out what she should do. The first idea of accepting his bizarre behavior didn't work. He was starting to revive old memories, bad memories. The next idea that she tried out was to answer his questions about her, but that only served to raise more questions for him and annoy her further. Now she was trying to avoid her, but that was starting to fail miserably as well.

Despite her attempts to push Cole out of her mind, the action only served to make her think about Cole more. Who was this man that claimed to know how she felt? Why did he insist on knowing a monster like her? Why did she insist on treating her like a human?

'AND WHY CAN'T HE JUST LEAVE MY HEAD'

However, her thoughts were going to have to go on hold. Two figures took positions behind her and in front of her. Both of their faces were familiar.

"Heh heh, leaping across the roof tops, isn't as fast as running on the ground" said a smirking Sid.

Galk simply gazed at Claire with a look of a professional soldier. Claire narrowed her eyes and felt annoyed. They already knew what she was and, thus, the point of hiding her face now became irrelevant.

With one swift movement, her hood flew off and Claire revealed her beautiful silver eyes. The two men stood stunned for a second. They could tell that the kind and gentle woman that they saw at the inn earlier that day was a façade. This battle hardened and cold warrior had shown her true colors and that sent chills down their spines.

However, Claire had other plans.

"Sorry," Claire suddenly spoke as she brandished two short blades, "But I don't have time."

"Oh?" Sid said still giving a snake like grin, "Where's that huge sword that all you Claymores lug around."

Claire gave a hard stare towards Sid. "If you're going to come at me, go ahead," she responded as if she didn't hear the man's last comment, "I won't hold back if you get in my way."

Galk readied his great sword toward his side as Sid snapped his hands, revealing numerous knifes. The two men watched each other in anticipation as well as the Claymore

"Sorry, but the law here says that anything unholy must be eliminated." Galk said bolting the men into action.

Within seconds, the two men were descending upon her. Sid took the advantage to throw four knives at Claire. The knives flew swiftly towards her but they all were blocked by two swift motions of her blades.

A great sword from Galk came flying down towards the female warrior's back and it forced her to retaliate. The sword clashed with the two swords and the weight of the large sword forced Claire to place one blade behind the other. In retaliation, Claire weaved around the great sword and sent one of her blades in an attempt to cut his face.

Galk's hand shot up and safely blocked the short blade as several knife flew in her direction. With a roll towards the side, she had effectively dodged the knives and had got away from the hulking armored man.

'This really is annoying,' she said to herself. 'If Cole were here . . .'

She stopped herself before she continued, 'Stop thinking about Cole, Claire. You've always worked alone for all your life.'

She was quickly dragged out from her thoughts when more knives came towards her. With only moments to spare, she jumped up into the air and realized that a large group soldiers had start to gather around the area. By the time she landed, men started to come onto the rooftops and fill the streets.

"Heh," Sid spoke out confidently, "Give up witch. We got you surrounded."

She looked around her and the overwhelming numbers started to make her worry. Killing humans was absolutely forbidden and, in this situation, the odds of her getting out without harming one of them was starting to look grim.

But then a voice shouted out to calm her fears.

"HEY FUCK FACES"

Everyone turned to see two airborne figure jump towards the group. Sid, Galk, and Claire realized Cole had spoken. As Claire focused her eyes, however, she could see a glowing blue orb appear in his hands.

As their feet reached the roof, the armored soldiers came storming towards them and, at that moment, Claire watched Cole release his Ionic Freeze. The initial wave of energy emanated from him, sending a chilling wind over everyone. With that wave, time seemed to slow as the conduit's blue org released out in a large wave of ice, freezing everyone except Claire, Galk, and Sid.

Alex gave Cole a concerned look, "Um, what was that about killing people?"

"They're not dead," he said with a grin, "Just trapped in ice for a bit"

Alex shrugged. He would have given a lecture about the implications of hypothermia and frostbite but they had other matters to attend two. Galk and Sid were still shocked at Cole's attack and Claire mouth was gaping at the raw power that he presented.

'First, he can shoot out strange lights and now he can freeze people? This is unbelievable.'

Suddenly, a loud scream came out from the Cathedral; all five unfrozen individuals turned their heads startled by the noise.

"Damn it, it's attacked!" Claire shouted to the two super humans. They nodded to her and they quickly dropped down to the street level.

Various guards had started to wander around the door after the scream had echoed out. The guard opened it slightly and Claire swiftly swam through the guards and into the Cathedral. The guards never saw her go in, but immediately sprang into action when Cole and Alex came up to them.

"Hey there's a damn curfew you idiots. Get out of here!"

Cole raised an eyebrow, "The hell? You let her in!"

"What woman? You dare lie to us?"

Alex started looking around noticing some more armored soldiers starting to surround them, "Uh, Cole, I don't suppose you could do that ice trick again right now."

Cole also moved his gaze and grinned, "Ah crap, I didn't expect them to get reinforcements that quick."

"How long will it take to recharge."

"An hour or so,"

"Damn"

Cole lifted his amp up and out of his backpack's holster. The guards jumped a bit when they saw it light up. Alex simply took a fighting stance with his fists up and his legs spread out.

"No kills, Alex,"

"Yea, yea. I got it."


As she moved inside the Cathedral, Claire ran around in a desperate search for any traces of Yoki. The problem was, was that the pill she had been taken had been dulling her ability to sense Yoki and the smell of blood was too spread out to use as a way of finding the creature.

Thus she had to check every room and every corridor of the lower floor. Each empty room frustrated Claire as she imagined the horrors that the victim was feeling.

Finally, a scream rang out leading Claire to a large door that led to the inner sanctum of the church. With an ear placed on the door she listened in, trying to determine if the Yoma was, in fact, there.

A small whisper of mercy alerted her and she quickly kicked the door smelling the blood on the ground and around her. Her gaze followed the trail of blood up and up until . . .

"Well damn, I didn't expect a Claymore here." Said a filtered voice of a gruff man.

She had fully expected a large disgusting Yoma feasting on a young nun's guts, with its hands tearing into her and ripping her to shreds. Instead, another figure had appeared a completely new figure that she had never seen nor would have imagined to have seen.

Right in front of her was a figure dressed in long white suit made of a material that she could not describe. Various grays and blacks seemed to be on specific parts of the figure's body that made him seem like a strange metal monster. His face, in fact, was covered by a metal mask that only added to added edge of making him seem like a monster.

A gasp and cough led Claire's attention to the monster's arm, taking her off her guard. The arm had penetrated straight through the nun's stomach and, with a squelch, the arm was removed leaving an absolutely dead body on the floor.

"Now then Claymore," the monster said sending shivers down Claire's spine, "Lets deal with you."


Dat Awesome CliffHanger

Again, sorry for dropping this chapter late for you guys

To make things up to you guys I will update on the 12th or, in other words, tomorrow

Anyways keep Reading and Reviewing and All that jazz