"Oh good. Since the two of you are already acquainted this may prove useful." Rika said to the two of them. After a brief moment she resumed. "However... I completely disapprove of your behaviour and lack of discipline." with the words after which she drew her sword with her left hand but from her right side. With one flick of the wrist in the middle of a swing she cut both Meryl's and Gray's hands. She sheathed her sword back after that and continued this with the same warm and gentle smile as before looking at the troublemakers.
"This goes for you as well Eira. If you want to live remember these words. Since I am leading this hunt, during the battle you will completely listen to me. You will do whatever I say, whenever I say. If I say loose an arm for the team or get hit you will do so immediately. And no buts, big boy. Get it?" These last two sentences were told while touching Gray's lips with her finger preventing him from speaking further. She then went outside and looked back at the two.
"And I see why you got sent into so many AB hunts until now Meryl. That's because you don't learn anything from your previous. Now put yourself together and your past aside. If you don't then I'll decide who leaves and who doesn't. And my decisions are permanent. Now let's go guys. The target is somewhere north near a forest."
They all walked down the main path until they got out of the city and then went north, though a forest. A few minutes later all four members were walking in a forest, Rika first, Meryl second, Gray third and Eira last. Rain started to fall while they were walking and it wasn't showing any signs of stopping. For a moment Rika stopped and told the others.
"The weather will be against us, so try not to slip in a muddy area or something similar. Also we are getting close and our chances of an encounter are getting higher so get ready to release the maximum amount you can control. We will give our target no chances. Got it?" Since there was no answer she smiled and went on with her hand on her sword. "Good!"
****
Gray's eyes filled with disbelief and surprise as he saw Rika withdraw her sword but he did not see what she did after that, however he felt quick pain on the back of his hands, this was where Rika had cut them, he took a short look at them and saw two clean cuts on the back of each hand, thin and shallow, the pain was mild so he ignored it, it was nothing compared to previous injuries in the field, in training or the suffering he has endured. He kept his silence as Rika put her finger on his lips, his expression was neutral, no emotion of any kind. "She seems to have a high value of discipline, I respect that, as I myself do, but her methods...I don't know what to think, and her attitude, is it all an act?" he thought as she gave her talk to the group, the cuts on his hands already regenerating. After she gave her speech, Gray nodded. "Understood Commander, I'm sorry for my action against Meryl but I felt I had to restrain her, or things would have gotten worse if I took no action." He spoke formally; this was how he usually spoke in situations such as this. He followed Rika out of the door.
Unlike Gray, Meryl was angered at how the Single Digit acted in the situation, but fighting now would only make things worse so she did not fight back but she showed a slightly frustrated expression, Rika cutting her hands the same way as Grays were cut only annoyed her further, she stayed quiet during Rika's speech until it was finished. "Alright I've got no objections, but I WILL NOT let myself get hit to save him" she spoke in her usual tone and smirked after this and followed Gray, only to get ordered to put her past aside. That, she could not easily do. "Fine, but if he dies, don't blame me." She said with a snort.
As they entered the forest, the ground did start to unleash muddy areas on them, Gray avoided these and so did Meryl, following their leader. "got it" Gray acknowledged his leader's orders but he did the total opposite, he suppressed his Yoki, his "nonexistent yoki" technique he had been trained to do for so long. Now only those close to him could sense his yoki, but unless they had advanced yoki reading or were an "Eye," his yoki was rather faint, or small. Meryl prepared herself.
Rika's words infuriated Eira, and while she displayed no outward change in expression, she bristled ever so slightly at the heavy emphasis placed on 'completely'.
I'm not a dog. She would bloody well do as she pleased. But even as her dislike for Rika grew slightly, her respect for the single-digit Claymore also rose – and by a couple of notches, too. Perhaps she would indeed obey some of her commands depending on the circumstances. Although losing an arm or getting a hit on orders seemed a little too impossible for headstrong Eira to just blindly obey.
As raindrops pelted the young Claymore, who had been keeping her senses well on the alert long before Rika turned to warn them, it served to bring some sort of reprieve to her frustration at being so subdued. Still, she could find nothing to say that wouldn't warrant her a whacking, or cutting, for that matter.
Sensing Gray's Yoki shrink, Eira looked at him and raised an eyebrow, though all she could see was his back. Agilely navigating her way through muddy areas with ease, Eira decided she'd pay more attention to the mud and her surroundings instead, rather than focus on a male Claymore whose aloofness – well, in her opinion anyway - was truly starting to get on her nerves.
Having sensing Gray lower his Yoki so that it was now faint, Meryl had a bad feeling, she could not pinpoint it but as much as she hated Gray, she knew that when he lowered his yoki, something was bound to happen, this was from experience, on her last mission with him, near the end of their training, she remembered that Gray lowered his yoki, the Yoma they had to kill appeared shortly after by some coincidence, allowing them to complete their mission. She sensed another Yoki, heading their way from the left, after a second it disappeared. "Did you sense that!?" Meryl asked her comrades, showing genuine surprise and taking a grip on her blade.
Gray looked in the direction the Yoki came from; he drew his sword, the rare customized claymore that was named the Scylon. The Yoki of the Awakened re-appeared, only this time in a completely different location. "What the!?" Gray was surprised, one second the Yoki was to his left, now it was coming from his right. He got ready to move, then the Yoki disappeared again, he calmed himself and remained alert.
Meryl on the other hand, was tense as the Yoki changed places so fast." What is this Awakened Being doing!?" vanishing and appearing somewhere else!?" she asked agitated. Gray replied more openly this time, showing some emotion "It may be a deception, I heard of a technique that uses Yoki to deceive the users' opponents."
"and what technique is this Rookie?" Meryl asked with genuine curiosity. Gray sighed and didn't answer. She scowled at this. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" and then she reached to grab Gray's arm and make him face her, but a source of Yoki was coming their way, slightly larger than the others from their left again, then a black spike, seemingly made by metal, about the size of an arrow followed, it hit Meryl and impaled her arm, she yelled curses as the entire spike seemed to have gone completely through it, blood pouring out like there was no tomorrow. Gray sprung into action, although he found Meryl annoying, she was his ally so he reacted with instinct. "Meryl!" he shouted as he pushed her over as four more came. Meryl growled at this, she was injured and Gray was going to save the group and get the kill again, but she stayed down as Gray rushed to the spikes, and using some Yoki, he managed to collide his claymore with two spikes, knocking them another direction, but the other two passed him, going directly to their targets.
Meryl got to her feet letting go of her claymore. She pulled the spike out in succession, but with lots of pain, moving her arm was going to be a problem until it would regenerate, luckily this was not her sword arm, and she could fight with her Claymore one-handed. She picked up her claymore, ready to attack.