"Wow, a male claymore? Now that is a nice surprise, should be fun, didn't know they were making males again, it would be great if he would kindly awaken too, I need a new friend. I'm impressed with how he deflected my spikes." a soft female voice spoke loudly, casually too. "I am Serenity. Why don't you just awaken and join me at your will, instead of the hard way?" The Awakened Being revealed herself. She was in her Awakened Form, seven feet tall and humanoid with the face of a reptile creature with human eyes and mouth with pointed ears, the shape of her head was like a lizard. Her face seemed to have scaled skin, it was a steel colour, but it had a tinge of red. She stood at least seven feet tall, her body feminine, her build was more or less similar to the average claymore, her arms were quite thin but long, at the end, near the wrists were two thin rods, on each arm. Her legs were thicker than her arms but still quite thin with bladed feet, all but her head was a smooth black and crimson metallic shell of armor. Her left hand was a claw, much like that of a Yoma, while her other, from the wrist down, had a clean, thin long blade made out of the shell which was three feet long, it was smooth. She had her left arm aiming at Eira while her right was aimed at Rika. The blade retracted so she could fire.

Gray looked at the Awakened Being before him with a nonchalant expression, buying some time to study his opponent before speaking. "nah, sorry, not interested in working for a ugly creature like you, 'sides what would I get out of it, all I'd be is a pawn to your will, and I like to live my life my own way, thanks but no thanks." Gray smirked at the Awakened Being's reaction. "Fine, I'll show you the hard way! You are now responsible for your comrades suffering!" She shouted angrily and fired three rods in rapid succession at Eira and Rika. Gray charged at her and their blades clashed. Meryl stayed back, regenerating her sword arm. "You idiot! You will get yourself killed!" she shouted at Gray.

----- -----

For a moment, the Claymore was as baffled as the others were about the mysterious Yoki which apparently had the gift of teleportation. However, as Meryl and Gray discussed it, she figured that their target may well have Yoma working for them – she had heard of such cases. But it also did not mean they would have to fight the tiny minions, however.

And so she was fairly taken aback when a larger Yoki came coursing their way, and while Gray used some Yoki to fend the spikes off, Eira opened the dam to her own source. Maintaining a firm hold over the rushing river, she bent the Yoki's path such that it coursed along her bones – and finally in them. Familiar pain racked her body, but in a few moments it faded to a dull ache that would barely impede her movements.

She heard the exchange between Gray and Serenity, and scowled. "Bastard, you'll get us all –" and she didn't have time to finish her sentence, for her eyes caught sight of three rods being fired at Rika and herself. Still wearing the frown, Eira swiftly considered the possibility of whacking the rods off course – then decided it was too risky since agility was her forte.

So she sprang aside, cartwheeling across the forest, withdrawing her claymore in the process, and aiming for the thin, long arm of Serenity that could fire rods, not bothering to wait for Rika's instructions. Goodness knew what would happen in the time their leader would take to yell out instructions at them, not to mention Serenity would be able to hear every single thing said.

As the others struggled and did what they thought it was best Rika already got to a 30% release of her youki just enough to easily avoid the rods aimed at her.

"You idiots! I told the best release you can handle. All you sweeties defend in a group. If one is attacked the others strike back. All regroup near Meryl. Buy her time to heal her arm!" Rika yelled back at the others. She already had a plan how to buy time but by the looks of the Awakened being she was gonna have a hard time applying it.

Her best shot was to hold the AB back while the others regrouped. Since her group was very strong, she wouldn't have a problem taking out the AB, but apparently the lack of discipline took its token. She started to release up to 70% of her youki and then dash at the AB from it's back until she got as close as 15 meters. At that point she would jump and roll in the air as her sword would attempt to hit the head. This would give Gray enough time to regroup as well.

Gray knew he'd get heat from his group for his actions, but he had to buy Meryl some time. He dodged a swipe Serenity threw at him following the clash with their blades, he did a high jump into the air and landed right in front of Meryl, he took an offensive stance. Meanwhile Serenity smiled, this male was certainly worth the effort it would take to awaken him, and she already found his weakness, although Gray's attitude seemed like he cared for only himself, she saw through it, he was doing it to keep her focus on him to save the others.

She sensed two rises in Yoki, the first appeared to be the one cartwheeling to her position take her left arm out, the second was the leader, raising her Yoki so close to her limit already? Serenity almost laughed at this, and dodged the incoming attack that was coming to her left arm did a fast set of backflips to evade the incoming attack to an extent and then she blocked it with her arm blade doing a sideward stance, then with a smile, she did a low sweeping kick at Eira's legs with her clawed feet, which did no large amount of damage as only one leg was hit and the claws were not sharp enough to wound her severely to immobilise her.

Then just as she was about to fire some rods into the young claymore at point-black range, she heard the orders of Rika and sensed her moving around her at a distance, "an attack from behind? smart move, but not smart enough!" she said in an arrogant voice and made an agile jump-flip onto a nearby tree, then she jumped on the next, then she fired five spiked rods towards Meryl and jumped down, coming at Gray to engage him again, she had evaded Rika's attack but Rika was still more of a threat, instead of going for Serenity, Gray jumped and, mastering all the yoki he could gather in a short time, he raised it to thirty percent, his face distorting and becoming more like a Yoma's face, he gave a growl and swung the Scylon at incredible speed, successfully knocking three off course but one had hit HIM and the other passed him, missing Meryl by sheer inches and hitting a tree. The one that hit Gray was impaled through his right shoulder, causing extensive amounts blood to pour out and causing him to drop on his right knee; he pulled it out and suppressed his Yoki fast. Completely disregarding the wound as less blood came out.

This shocked Meryl, who had now almost finished regenerating her arm. Why did he put his own life on the line, taking that hit without hesitation when it should have been hers? On top of that she had done nothing but abuse him in one way or another since he arrived in the mission, and gave him a hard time during training. "Dammit! You idiot! That hit should have been mine! Why did you-?" she asked Gray in a frustrated manner and resumed a fighting stance. Gray chuckled a little. "I don't think I could've let myself live knowing I could've saved your life if you died right here. Lets take her down!" he spoke with clear compassion in his voice as Serenity roared angrily and began shifting her claw arm into another blade arm. Once that was done she concentrated a lot of Yoki on her right side, heading for Rika. "Rika!" Gray shouted to warn her.

****

Sweeties?"

Then there was no more time to ponder over what Rika had said. In a flash of what seemed to be a few seconds, Serenity had dodged her attempted attack and drawn lines of blood across one of her legs. A slow test of movement revealed her leg hadn't been too badly damaged.

Since Eira was still somewhere left – and slightly behind – Serenity, together with the fact that the Awakened was aiming for Rika, she drew a deep breath, and released as much Yoki as she dared. She didn't slam the barrier down until she felt her arms go limp.

At that instant, with her face distorted heavily, she extended her sword arm towards the head of Serenity. The rest of her body wasn't slacking either – her legs tensed for a jump that would send her over the Awakened, should her attack fail. Either way she would still end up near Rika, and for once Eira felt it was better to maintain unity, for the opponent was clearly no pushover.

****

"If I jump she will throw rods, if I dodge them Eira will be land here and we will be separated but I can't just leave this situation... Geez. what are these girls thinking of? And this one has deceiving abilities too... Guess I have no choice but to use that." thought Rika as Serenity approached step by step, sweeping the dust in front of her.

After analyzing all options she got a few steps back and jumped, attempting to make a cartwheel, right before the Serenity hit her. She was already with her head downward and her sword at the same level when her claymore clashed with Serenity's blade. The force of the impact was so great that it send Rika rotating in the air. While spinning in the direction of the impact Rika managed to increase her force so much that when she landed on her knees on ground near Serenity, due to the velocity and power of the attack created by that technique, her bade arm was lying on the ground. The cut was so clean that there could be seen no traces of force anywhere. As Rika attempted to take that arm from the ground and use it as a weapon her left hand flew into the air and blood spayed all over Serenity. Serenity's right blade arm managed to swipe her arm as it touched her former limb. This did not stop Rika from using her claymore to impale Serenity's former limb and kick it near Gray and Meryl. As this happened she rolled between Serenity's leg and got behind her, impaling her left leg right near the join where the skin was softer.

This did not stop Serenity from twisting her body and attempting to slice Rika in two. Since Rika sensed this movement she jumped backwards, catching her left arm and landing near Eira. No sooner had she landed there that her hand already caught Eira by her cloth and attempted to jump while cartwheeling back near Gray and Meryl. As soon as she landed blood sprayed out from her torso. It was a which intersected her left should area. She then forced herself not to loose composure and spoke quietly. Her left eyes was also destroyed by a shallow cut. A little bit more closer and she would have been dead.

"Honey I don't remember telling you to attack her directly. I would have just made it here fine if you didn't do that by yourself. And you two sweeties here... what are you doing at such a low youki level? I told you we will give this AB no chance so do you best in releasing as much as you can. NOW!" she yelled out the last words to make Gray understand the gravity of the situation.

"Sweeties listen carefully!" she whispered as she was reattaching her palm back. "When she attacks again Gray goes for her left side, Meryl for the right side and Eira goes for her head. Try to sustain minimum damage while inflicting maximum damage. I will try to finish her from the back when I get the chance." With this Rika ended her briefing and awaited the other to do what they were told.