AN* see previous chapters for disclaimer. Well after a long break I have finally finished this chapter, so let the comments flow. I will post the next chapter once I am caught up with school and the other stories i am working on. So please R&R.
Blood on Snow
The six of them arrived quickly, mere seconds before the awakened ones did. Miria's team targeted one, Jean's another and Flora the next with the other two teams on standby. Christopher then went straight for the 4th one that was near the back of the village, apparently not wanting to fight but watch and report back to its master.
"Die." He growled as he struck, nicking the face of the human looking creature.
"Well, well, well. Some foolish woman thinks that she can take an awakened being by herself. What rank are you missy?" he asked, his grin lecherous.
"The fact you have already made this much of a mistake already spells your doom. First the rank is 0, I am the strongest warrior, second, is the fact you can't tell gender apart." He fumed as he unleashed his yoma energy at 5%. Already outclassing his opponent the monster chose to fully awaken which gave Christopher all of the time that he needed. Using the Wind fang he chopped off one of his right arm and left leg, leaving him to lie in the snow.
"Now tell me about this woman of Isley's" he demanded, aiming to take off his head in one shoot.
"Why should I?" it grunted. Grinning like a wolf he took his blade and cut off his last two limbs. He then ran the sword into his opponents heart and began to twist the blade.
"If you want the pain to stop then I suggest that you talk." Christopher grinned. After twisting the blade a few times the awakened one finally talked.
"ALRIGHT! She arrived one day and started killing off entire villages, so Isley went to fight and kill her. However she actually beat him, even at full power. So now Isley plans on taking her south so she can go home."
"Isley isn't the one in charge?" he muttered. With that he chopped off the awakened ones head and returned to the village.
He arrived to see that the rest of the claymores had dealt with the other three awakened beings, and to hear Miria say that now everyone had experience fighting an awakened being.
'Bad move Miria. You just showed them how bad things are going to be here.' He shook his head as Undine stormed off to go get a new uniform. He then approached Miria and said "That was not well played. Now they are going to lose hope."
"They needed to hear it, I will not give them a false hope." She countered. With that she walked off, lost deep in thought.
The rest of the day passed without event however they all knew an attack was coming. Christopher was restless, knowing that he would be fighting former comrades, maybe even Isley himself. Not knowing what to do he tracked down Miria in her quarters, to apologize for earlier today and to see if she had thought up a plan to try and save their skins. He knocked softly on her door and entered to see her changing clothes behind a screen, her body silhouetted behind it.
"Yes Christopher?" she asked, still changing.
"How did you know it was me?"
"Your yoma energy is faint but it has a pureness that ours doesn't. So what can I do for you?"
"I came to apologize for what I said earlier. I was out of line." He said, his head bowed.
"No. You had every right to say those things. You have always spoke your mind with me and I appreciate that." She said as she finished changing "Is there anything else?"
"Yes. I was wondering if you had found a way to try and save the lives of all of these women."
"I have a plan, but there is no guarantee that it will work, or that all of us will survive." She then walked out from behind the screen, wearing a fresh uniform. His eyes wandered from her face and took in her stunning body, and thoughts that he had never had before entered his mind, thoughts of taking her onto the bed and fucking her until she screamed. As he battled his inner thoughts he forced his eyes back to her face, seeing her smirking.
"You like what you see?" she asked coyly. Licking his lips he nodded "Then why don't you take it?" she asked her smirk growing.
"It would not be appropriate at this time. What if there was an attack?" His common sense said, before his instincts could take over.
Laughing softly she looked at him "So your thoughts are not completely clouded. That is good, for a minute I thought that you would give in to your desires."
"No. That is the reason I am still unawakened, because I can resist the urge to satisfy myself." He said "Now if you will excuse me I will go and take my watch for the night." As he turned to leave she grabbed his arm.
"Don't think that I did this to test you. If we survive this battle I would like to see what you have under that uniform." She grinned. Leaning towards her he gently kissed her and left, standing out in the frigid weather, hoping that they all somehow survived this suicide mission.
Once dawn came Miria called all of them into a building to explain her plan. On the table in front of her were the yoma suppressant pills that the organization had created. Drawing her claymore she cut one in half and held it up.
"We are each going to take one of these before we go into battle. They will not do anything until you lose consciousness, then they will surpress your energy, so that the enemy will think you are dead. This battle is no longer about winning, it is about survival." Miria explained.
"I like it!" Undine roared "This is a perfectly fair way to ensure that some of us survive this battle. No favoritism."
"I agree." Christopher said "This will be our best chance of survival. However, I feel I should warn you know. Isley will throw all he has at us now that we have killed his scouts from yesterday. Do not take any opponent lightly, and do not engage the lion, or the centaur."
"Why not those two?" Helen asked.
"Those were the former numbers 1 and 2. Isley is the centaur though I doubt he will be present in this battle. The other is Rigald, and he is one of the most dangerous foes that you can face. Once he releases he goes into a frenzy and will not stop fighting until all of his prey is dead. If you see either of them, run like no tomorrow. If Rigald shows up I think I could deal with him, but if Isley appears then we might as well knock ourselves out because we are as good as dead." Christopher explained. With that each of the warriors took their half of the pill and waited until someone said that they sensed the awakened ones approaching.
Spreading out throughout the town they prepared to fight. As the enemy attacked the weaker warriors lured the awakened beings to the stronger ones and let them kill them. Christopher struck from the flanks, luring the awakened ones away from the others or stopping ambushes. As they fought he sensed one awakening that he knew would be trouble.
"Rigald." He cursed. Sprinting across the village he found that all of the commanders except Miria had fallen and Clare, Helen, and Deneve were protecting her. "Wind Fang." He growled as the slash nicked Rigald's neck. Turning and seeing him he looked confused but then focused on Miria. After knocking away Clare and the others, and managing to wound Deneve to a shocking extent Miria started to fight. Unfortunately her body could not maintain her mirages and was eventually caught by his extending claws. Striking again, this time close range he managed to move him away from Miria.
"Those movements and this energy. It has been a long time, Christopher." Rigald grinned.
"Happy you remember me. You are the third former comrade that I have seen in less than six months." He said as he dodged his claws.
"Really who else have you seen?"
"Duph and Jacob. Jacob is dead and Duph is working for Riful of the west." He replied as he cut off one of the claws that was sent at him. Then Rigald picked up speed and was about to kill him when suddenly his arm fell to the snow covered ground several feet away.
"Didn't see that coming." Christopher said, clearly shocked. They both turned to see Clare standing with only her legs awakened "And that explains your missing arm."
"Only awakening her legs. That is pretty skillful." Rigald noted. Clare then charged at him again, nicking his leg as he leapt into the air. As Rigald prepared to kill Miria with his remaining hands claws Clare leapt from the building, attacking him, while forcing him to go after his arm. Right before he got to it though Helen leapt down and stabbed it gloating about how he wouldn't be getting his arm back. Clare struck while his back was turned but he moved behind her, forcing her to use her insane speed to dodge and move a good distance behind him.
"I see. So you cannot even keep up with your insane acceleration." Rigald said as Clare charged at him. Taking one step backwards and watching as she crashed into a building he continued "Once you start moving, minor adjustments are impossible. If I move just a little, you are completely you are completely unable to deal with the movement and are unable to break. And an unnatural awakening. There will definitely be an equal price to pay later." He said. Clare rose out of the rubble, starting to look more like a yoma. As the battle continued Clare made both of her arms awaken to kill Rigald, however she was close to fully awakening herself.
"Helen kill me now." Clare begged as she tried to restrain herself. Before Helen could Jean, who had somehow survived, stopped her and approached Clare, aligning their yoma energies Clare returned to normal but killed Jean in the process. As they stood Christopher sensed the energy of only seven of the warriors including him.
"Well it looks like this is the end." He said to Miria.
"Yes. It is time for the flashy showdown." Miria nodded.
"Then I guess I should go wild. Tell everyone to stay away from me. I am going to release 10% of my energy." He said as walked towards the awakened beings "I hope you all will remember this, because I guarantee that at least 5 of those monsters will fall before I do." Then releasing enough power for is eyes to change color he struck. Moving faster than they could follow and unleashing the Wind Fang on many of the awakened beings, he killed 5 before they started to gain up on him. Dodging limbs he slashed his way to the edge of the town to see that reinforcements for the awakened ones were on the way.
"Well this is the end. Time to show Isley that I will not go down quietly." He grinned as he released 25% of his energy. With the sudden burst, all of the fighters in the area stopped for a brief moment to see the column of energy that marked the strongest of all was prepared to fight. Swinging his blade with the Wind Fang roaring off of it, he struck one last time before five awakened beings stabbed him, causing him to lose consciousness.
Christopher was the last to awaken from his slumber to see that seven other warriors had survived.
"Eight out of twenty five. 32% of us survived, much better than I had hoped." Christopher said as he approached "Now what?"
"We live. Surpress our yoma energy and train. Become stronger so that one day we can return to the south and claim our revenge." Miria said.
"Well I already have several years on all of you with suppressing my yoma energy. I have to start from scratch again but I should be able to regain all of my old strength before we decide to leave." He sighed, sheathing the blade "As for training, I think I may have some ideas on what I need to work on, Clare I hope you will accompany me on this training, it could help improve your quick sword."
With that the remaining eight turned to the mountains where they began to become a new nightmare for the organization.