Chapter Six
Shadows of Evil
"I have some things to attend to in town, catering for a nobleman. My friends also have business, albeit of a different sort." Yura had woken bright and early that morning, for once. Without his coat, he just wore his boots, a blue silk shirt and brown leather pants. Raki and Clare were already up. They had all shared a small breakfast of eggs and bread, prepared by Raki and Myles. Simple but elegant.
"Watch yourself Yura. The reports say there are at least three Yoma in town."
"I will Elena, don't worry. They wouldn't dare strike in the daylight, especially with Clare in town. We'll be fine." With that, Yura, Raki and Clare departed.
On the edge of town, three figures silhouetted against the mourning sun rose over the nearby hilltops.
They rode horses of radically different size and colour, a mottle coated one that was practically a pony, a black thoroughbred and a brown and white draft horse. This variety was likely a result of the horses having come from different sources, rather than any kind of preference.
The middle one snorted in derision. "I hate these creatures. Why do we need them anyway?"
"They complete the image." The one on the right rode the massive draft horse, and spoke with the loudest voice. "We want to ransack the place first. If some escape, all they'll know is that there was a bandit raid. We can do as we please after that, even if we don't find him. We can't afford to be found out right now. After the raid, the others will join us from the other towns."
"Good. I'm getting hungry."
The catering job went smoothly, but not as enjoyable as he was used to. He still enjoyed working with the other chefs, and creating something, in contrast to his kind's destructive nature. But the people were such snobs. What one liked the others despised.
The meal was either too cold, to spicy, too mild. The general guest population loved it, but the highest echelon of that group could not be pleased, which is why some of them found large insects hiding beneath their dessert plates.
Yura just pleaded his innocence in the matter, accepted his full payment, ignored the sneers and glares of the hosts, and took in the laughter of the crowd, inspired when the lady of the manor appeared to go completely insane when a cockroach crawled from her cake, and left.
Clare and Raki fared little better. Clare felt the presence of at least one Yoma, but couldn't pin it down to any single location. Raki had enjoyed his day. Charrow was a lovely city. Many of the buildings were very old, and well maintained. Most of the structures were stone, and a number of those were decorated with elaborate pillars and stone carvings. Raki had also never before seen trees growing in such even rows before in the middle of the street.
As planned, Yura met up with them in the center of the market. It was halfway between noon and sundown, the busiest time of day. Merchants were selling out of everything from makeshift wooden stands to windows opening from the stone buildings. Yura intended to do some buying, and Clare hoped to find the Yoma hiding in the crowd.
An hour went by, and Clare had no luck in her mission. She had a harder time than usual sensing Yoki. She thought maybe Yura was disrupting her senses with his presence. She would have to make sure to leave him behind next time.
Though she had no luck, Yura had plenty. He brought his bag along, but all of the things that had formerly filled it were stored at the ranch. By the time the sky began to shift colour at the horizon, Yura's bag was nearly full, and Raki's was slightly weighed down too. Yura had bought over a dozen jars of herbs, several types of meat and fish, and a great number of trinkets, such as a luck charm, all of which Clare thought of as self indulgent.
Raki had picked up some cooking equipment, a whetstone to sharpen his sword, and he too bought a few useless trinkets, one of which was a wooden carving of a Claymore.
"Not a bad day, in my mind." Yura smiled, shifting his bag on his shoulder. "A few interesting developments in my catering job, and a number of very good deals in the market. Tonight, we feast. I have plans for a large roast and a…do you smell smoke?"
On the eastern end of the town, along the market road where the buildings were newer, and made of wood, there was indeed smoke rising off the buildings. Moments later, screams could be heard, and a tide of retreating people could be seen at a distance.
The tide soon reached them, and the hysteria spread to the entire market. Yura reached into the panicking masses, and with a grip of iron pulled out a terrified young man. "What's going on here?"
"Bandits. Three of them. They rode in on horses. The town militia was cut down like nothing, and they started burning things."
"Bandits, hm? What do they look like?"
"There are two identical ones, and a giant with an axe." With that, Yura released the terrified young man.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Raki asked.
"If you think these are the same group of miscreants, then we are indeed of the same mind. I knew I should have hit them harder." Yura looked puzzled. The three began to gently push their way against the flow of screaming humanity. "Why only the three of them, and how on earth did those morons beat the town militia? There were well over a dozen of them at every end of town."
By the time they reached the scene of the commotion, the fires had spread through all of the wooden buildings, finally stopped by a barrier of inflammable stone. One wooden building was set farther in, and it had caught fire by way of stray sparks. The structure was already well and truly burning, the support beams cracking as thee fire weakened them.
People were being herded like cattle into the wide street by the twins, still riding their horses. The giant man was standing at the head of the street, using his axe to cut down several innocent people at a time as they scrambled out from the between the stone buildings. They arrived just as the giant swung his axe across the midsections of a group of five terrified men, bisecting them all.
Many escaped down the street, but many more found their blood staining the flagstones red. The massive barbarian licked his lips as the blood spattered his leather armour.
As the twins made exited the shadow of the buildings, and entered the square, the building that burned amidst the stone collapsed. The people headed its way stopped short, so none were crushed, but now they were trapped between the fire and three vicious warriors. Fortunately, there were now wolves mixed in with the sheep.
The bandits moved in, crowding the crowd closer and closer to the fire. The giant raised his axe, and just as he swung it at the head of a young girl, Yura stepped in and stopped the axe with his staff. The blow landed solidly, sliding Yura back several inches against the cobblestones.
"This is the second time in two days that I've had to stop your axe. You boys need to find yourselves a hobby."
"Ah, you. This one remembers you." The man licked his lips again, smiling in delight, eyes flashing in the firelight. "Are you the one that he seeks?"
"You're not the same man I fought before are you?" Yura twisted the axe aside and jumped back.
The twins dismounted, and the giant abandoned his axe. They began to swell, features remaining human, but twisted into animal snarls. Their clothing tore around them even as their hair thinned and turned white, skin became grey as a corpse. All three were Yoma.
"Didn't think so. I'll let you handle this Clare, if you don't mind. Not a lot I can do in this scenario without giving something away. Call if you think I can help." Clare stepped from the crowd, and the Yoma took a visible step back. The memories of the bandits, ingested with the brains, told them that Yura had been with a Claymore, but didn't think that they would still be in contact.
Though she had some space to work with, Clare would have a hard time with this battle. With so many people close at hand, she would have to hold back most of her power in order to avoid injuries in close quarters.
The Yoma weren't fazed by Clare's presence for long, and, unlike her, were not restricted by the crowd. They struck, forsaking their pilfered weapons for their claws.
As Yoma go, these three were powerful, almost twice Clare's height. The big one charged first. It covered the distance between itself and Clare in an instant. But powerful though they were by the standards of Yoma, Clare had one encountered a type of being far more powerful, and was more than a match for these ones, if she could find the space to fight in.
She blocked the first strike, but it pushed her back into the crowd, knocking down several of them, and sending some a step closer to the fire. She stopped its advance, and sent the Yoma reeling back with a kick to the midsection.
At that point, she could have jumped over the Yoma, giving herself more room to fight with, but that would have left the crowd exposed, and the Yoma could use the people as a shield. She instead placed herself between the people and the Yoma.
This time, she attacked. She lunged towards the smallest of the Yoma, standing in the entrance to a side street. It avoided her attack, and lashed out, stretching its fingers into lethal whips. She sliced off the fingers, ran at the Yoma and stabbed for its midsection. It was fast, and managed to jump over the blade and retreated into the company of its fellow Yoma.
Though she didn't skewer her opponent, she did accomplish her intended objective, clear the alleyway. Yura took advantage of the opportunity, and got the people moving towards the opening.
One of the Yoma took offence at this. It stretched its forearm, launching its razor sharp claws at a child near the front of the crowd. Before the strike could land, Yura had intercepted the arm. He thrust his staff forward, running it along the rubbery limb, and began rotating the staff clockwise, wrapping and twisting it around his staff.
He held the vicious claws at bay as the people pushed, shoved and crawled into the alleyway, and onward to freedom. As the crowd fled, a total of ten people were left standing in the fire ringed section of the city. Clare Raki and Yura remained, along with the three Yoma. In addition to them, there were four others, just standing there smiling.
Everyone stopped to look there direction. "Our lucky day today, eh boys? We heard one of these witches was here."
A runty one with a high voice chimed in next. "We heard a Claymore was coming to town and were just on our way out. What luck that more of our kind would show up." The four transformed then, swelling and stretching into the corpse-grey forms of Yoma, shredding the simple clothing that covered them.
"What say you?" The largest of the newcomers said to the Yoma that had played the part of bandits. He looked at Clare with a feral smile. "Shall we all work to kill the witch, and share the spoils of this village?"
"Well, this complicates things just a little bit." Yura began releasing his own powers, now that the crowd was gone, but immediately stopped. With the fire dying down, some moronic people were going atop the buildings to watch the action. They didn't realize that any of the Yoma there could jump up there with little effort.
"Damn. I'll still have to leave most of this fight to you if at all possible, Clare. Too many people watching.
"Fine. I wasn't relying on you anyway." She struck fast, aiming for the one that Yura had entangled in his staff. It twisted at the last moment, but though it saved its head, it couldn't move its extended arm. It was severed at the shoulder. The remnant quickly withered and retracted in a welter of violet blood. Yura set the staff aside. He'd have to cut the knotted appendage off later.
It retreated, and Clare lunged at the one that was eyeing Raki, who had sequestered himself in a blocked doorway. Its head was split before it ever saw her move. She leapt away, after the one armed one and Raki made his way to one of the side streets, somewhere that wasn't a dead end.
The one armed one was fast. It even managed to dodge several of Clare's strikes. She first aimed high, but it ducked, then swung low and it jumped. She thrust, and the shot grazed its ribs. During the stabbing motion, she saw the reflection of the giant Yoma in her blood stained sword.
She knew it was coming anyway. She heard its footsteps, and felt its Yoki. Without looking, she could sense how it was moving, sense its rage, and exactly where it would try to strike her. Seeing it was almost irrelevant.
It aimed its claws for her head. She had ducked before the blow got anywhere near her. She twisted her body right, bringing the two Yoma in her field of vision. The battle became a standoff.
The two bigger Yoma faced Clare's front, and were backing slowly towards a second alleyway. The three lesser Yoma were quietly approaching her from behind. She knew they were there, and wasn't overly concerned.
"Uncle Yura!" The fight stopped instantly. Everyone, even the Yoma, stopped and stared. From a back alley, opposite the burning of the town, ran a young girl in a simple grey dress. "Uncle Yura, I fixed your coat!"