Number Zero
"Hey, Clare!"
She blinked her eyes open and saw Wiess' face near hers. Blinking again, she moved away and looked around. It was morning, and the others were all geared up.
"Time to go!" he said excitedly, grabbing her hand and forcing her to get up. "Here!"
He passed Clare her armor, which she took with a smile. "I'm coming!" she said, socking him in the arm a bit. He wasn't the least fazed.
Wiess quickly slid his sword into his back sheath and made sure he had enough arrows. For the trip, he had reused every arrow he hunted food with, but he kept a bag full of around 200 as well. He carefully slid a nice chunk into his quiver and slung that onto his back as well. Since his sword was drawn from the right side, he had to keep the quiver on the left, which meant switching his bow hand to the right, which took some getting used to. Still, he perfected it for Clare. Not that she noticed of course, but it was the thought that counted.
They started walking the mountain path, and Helen started her grumbling again.
"What should we do with her?" she muttered, glancing at Clare. "Even her man is better than her! Can't we just leave her behind?"
"How many times do I have to tell you," Miria snapped bitingly, silencing Helen immediately. "We have to follow the orders from above. She and her man will work just fine together. Besides -"
"Hey!"
They were all alerted to a man's call. He came up to them, carrying what looked like traveling gear. He had a smile on his face, and most of his black hair was tied up in a bandanna.
"I've been waiting for you Claymores!" he said happily.
Wiess suddenly had a very bad feeling about this man. Miria did too, as she went to draw her sword in lightning speed. She slashed at the man, shocking the others.
"Miria!" Helen shouted, but then stopped as the man suddenly became a blur and dissapeared up the mountain path wall. "What the?"
He stopped up some 100 feet and peered down at them. Miria's right shoulder suddenly burst into red spray.
"Miria!" Deneve cried, rushing to her leader.
"Our information... was wrong!" Miria gasped, stemming the blood flowing out of her body as she used her powers to heal herself. "We heard it was an average voracious eater... But do they think we can really face something this powerful?!"
"Huh?" Helen wondered, but their attention was drawn upwards.
The man was growing, growing into something much more larger and scarier than a Yoma.
"It - it can't be!" Helen choked, fear taking control of her body.
"It's a male voracious eater!" Miria said in horror.
They all looked up in horror at the gigantic, multi-limbed Awakened Being.
"Is... that important?" Wiess asked stupidly.
"Male ones are much, much more powerful," Miria said shakily as she stood up. "Much more."
"Right, much more powerful," Wiess noted, notching an arrow. He pulled the bowstring back to its limits, making the bow bend fantastically and aimed upwards.
"No, don't!" Miria shouted, but it was too late. Wiess fired his arrow and it miraculously hit the monster in the face. It roared in anger, and merely tore it out before healing almost instantly. He turned an angry pair of yellow eyes on Wiess.
"Oops?"
"Look out!"
Wiess barely had time to register the fact that his right lung had been removed from his body and all that was left was a gaping 8 inch hole in his chest before he was thrown off the side of the path.
"WIESS!" Clare screamed, but the Awakened Being struck again, it's tongue removing Deneve's left arm from her body as she too, fell. She, Helen and Miria watched in terror as the being's tongue snaked back to its mouth, carrying both Wiess' lung and Deneve's arm to it. He took a few bites out of Deneve's arm then spat it out.
"This meat tastes foul," it said in a gutteral tone. "It stinks of Yoma energy. I can't eat it. However, this human lung..."
He gobbled it up greedily, chewing on Wiess' organ in bliss. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide and he spat out the mushed up remains of the lung.
"Another one?" he questioned.
Clare's heart nearly stopped beating.
Another one
Another one
Anotheroneanotheroneanotherone
"That was even fouler to taste!" the being spat. "I haven't had any good meat in a while."
"Shut up you son of a bitch!" Helen screamed, launching herself at him. She slammed her sword forward, but only succeeded in smashing the wall up.
"Helen, above you!" Miria shouted. The being was just above her, and was crawling down rapidly.
"Get away from the cliff!" Miria shouted while Clare stood there, frozen. "Hurry!"
Clare, meanwhile, didn't pay any attention to the deadly battle above her. All she could think about was Wiess. He had lied to her. LIED! He was a Yoma! Or - or maybe an Awakened Being as well! He was probably trying to kill her and her comrades! He betrayed her! He was a traitor!
Suddenly, she felt Miria's hand on her shoulder. "Don't dwell too much on it," the single digit said tersely. "From what I saw, he genuinely liked you. I don't know if he was a Yoma or not, but he felt like a good man."
Clare's reasoning came back. She looked over the edge again. "He could get dead for all we know."
Helen managed to stretch her arms out and cut off most of the being's arms. However, two of his spear-like arms went to impale her when suddenly, they were cut off as well, leaving him armless. Deneve had come back!
"Striking out of nowhere like that," she panted angrily, as her left arm was regenerating itself. "I'll make you pay for that! And for Wiess as well! TWICE OVER!"
-----
Somewhere down the cliffside, eariler.
Wiess honestly had no idea what he was doing. Here he was, hanging onto his bow, which had caught onto a rather sturdy branch sticking out, hanging as he wheezed from the lack of a lung and his open chest wound.
Actually, he had no idea how he was still alive. I mean, yeah, OW! but... Shouldn't I be dead? he wondered, looking at the sucking chest wound. He heard sounds of screams, and then a body with short hair falling down. Reacting quickly, Wiess grabbed Deneve's remaining arm and caught her just in time.
"Wiess?" she gasped, fighting to stay conscious. "You should be dead!"
"Yeah, I'm kinda thinking that too," Wiess coughed. "You okay?"
"It'll grow back," Deneve grunted, referring to her missing left arm. "Can you give me a boost? I kinda want to pay that bastard back for this."
"Sure," Wiess answered, helping the woman heft herself up so she could climb up to the branch. Her lack of arm made it slightly more difficult, though she didn't say anything when Wiess had to grab her ass to prevent her from falling. She reached the branch and looked down at him.
"Will you be okay?" she asked.
Wiess shrugged. "Maybe?" he replied. "Go kick some ass."
She smirked. "Oh I will!" she said dangerously. "Goodbye, wierdo."
She launched away and Wiess sighed. What was he going to do now?
-----
"Well I guess it's about time," the male Awakened Being said, "To show you all a taste of true despair!"
"All of you, run!" Miria shouted, but he dissapeared. A blur blew past Deneve, and his hand appeared out her back, having impaled her through the stomach. She coughed up blood in shock. Miria screamed.
"Why you-!" she roared, and leapt towards him, but he dissapeared again, this time in front of Clare. She raised her sword, but his spear-like fingers impaled her body, dropping her instantly. Miria watched in horror as he appeared behind Helen this time, raking his claws down her back, rendering her useless.
He stopped some distance away from Miria, as she stared at her fallen comrades. "Helen... Deneve... Clare..." she whispered.
"So," the being laughed. "How does it tase?"
Suddenly, Miria dissapeared much like he did, but much faster. She appeared off in the distance, laying Deneve on a piece of rock. She saw that Deneve had already started to heal her stomach, but she was too weak. It was 50-50.
"GRRRR," the being growled. He held up a clawed hand. "This is no time to be worrying about your friends. You'd do well... to worry about YOURSELF!"
He shot his fingers at her, and she turned around just as they pierced her body and forehead.
Then, Miria seemed to fade into nothingness as the fingertips impaled empty ground.
Clank!
The being turned to see Miria off in the distance, looking at Clare's injured body. Clare was whimpering in pain.
"She's alive?!"
"GRAAAH!"
She looked up to see the being in the air, raising his hand again.
"YOU'RE FINISHED!" he yelled. "TIME TO DIE!"
Once again, she recieved a fingertip attack, this time her head took the full brunt of it. But once again, they hit empty ground as she fizzled out of existance again.
She appeared next to Deneve, carrying Clare and Helen's slashed bodies with her. She assessed their wounds while the being assessed her powers.
"I see, I see!" he laughed.
-----
"She's incredible," Helen muttered through coughs as she and Clare watched 'Phantom Miria' move around the being faster than the eye could see. "Damn it! If she could do that, why didn't she do it before?!"
Helen started to get angry, though she had tears in her eyes as well. "We wouldn't be in -"
"It's probably a last resort," Clare interupted.
"Huh?"
"She must not have wanted to use it," Clare explained. "It's a strain for her to use large bursts of Yoma power. It would exhaust her body and mind."
They watched as Miria attacked the being ferociously.
"I'll be Miria can only do it a few times," Clare continued. "Maybe ten, no, twenty times at most."
She frowned. "But it's been over thirty times now," she said with a worried look. "She's really straining herself."
"Eh?" Helen asked. "How would you know all this? You're the lowest ranked of us all!"
WHAM!
"Got you now!" the Awakened Being chortled happily as it pinned Miria down with one hand while she yelled. They saw it's tongue come out and plunge into her stomach, making her scream shrilly in pain. He began to twist inside her insides as she squirmed and screamed loudly.
"Damn it!" Helen cursed, falling to the ground. "I can't even get up!"
She began to cry, her silver tears hitting the earth below her. "This is it!" she whispered to herself. "It's hopeless! This is the end! There's nothing I can do. It's like he said... This is true despair!"
She heard something to her right. Clare had picked her sword up. "Despair?" she asked softly. "After only this?"
"I've known a greater opponent," she said, standing up. "And known true despair."
She started walking to the being, who began to notice her.
"How - how can she still stand with thouse wounds?!" Helen gasped.