Title: Fire, Wind and Death
Chapter Two: A New Power
Author: middnites0ul
Summary: The one thing Clare has never done in the story yet? Kick Priscilla's ass. And she's going to, right here and right now.
Disclaimer: I don't own Claymore, just the plot of this story.
As Cynthia and Lloyd walked back to where the others were, both of them sensed a yoma nearby.
"Do you feel that too?" Cynthia asked.
"Yeah, let's go after it."
The two warriors ran to where they sensed the yoma as they met up with Tabitha, Helen and Deneve.
"Where are Miria and Clare?" Lloyd asked.
"They're back at the house. It's not a very strong yoma so only the three of us came," Deneve answered.
They continued to run towards the human eating monster as they felt a burst of yōki was sensed by all of them.
"Whoa! That yoma feels almost like Isley!" Helen shouted.
"No, Isley was on a completely different level," Deneve argued, "but it still feels pretty strong."
Tabitha, Helen, Deneve, Lloyd and Cynthia all stopped and gazed at the yoma that was about three times their size. Deneve unsheathed both her sword as Helen did the same and rushed in to kill the monster.
"Doesn't he kinda look like Isley? I mean look at his legs. Same horsey look, no?" Helen joked around without an ounce of fear of the yoma.
She stretched her arm and sliced off one of the legs. Deneve went head on and aimed a swing at the yoma's throat. However, it anticipated Deneve's attack and stuck its arm in her stomach.
"Augh!" Deneve coughed up blood as she regenerated her stomach.
"Why are you acting so careless Deneve? Jeez, just because you're a defensive type doesn't mean you can regenerate everything all the time."
Helen swung her sword at the yoma's head but he blocked it with the back of his hand.
"Why are those three Claymores standing back?" the yoma had asked.
He was being ignored as Tabitha's eyes were closed, sensing the yoma's yōki flow and Lloyd was actually sitting down in the battle taking notes of the yoma's every step and move, including Helen's and Deneve's. Cynthia sat there in awe that Lloyd could do that while just watching.
"Don't ignore me!"
The yoma kicked towards Lloyd and Cynthia while Deneve rushed back and used her two swords to protect the two.
"What the hell are you doing sitting down newbie? Shouldn't you be fighting?" Deneve yelled at Lloyd as she got up and closed her book.
"I knew you were going to protect me so I didn't bother. Besides I thought you were strong enough. I'll help if you want."
Lloyd pushed up her glasses and smirked at Deneve. She was out mouthed and was just made fun of her about her strength.
"Forget it, I'll do it myself," she laughed as she released he yōki.
Her veins began to pop out of her face, arms and legs as she moved in super high speed and sliced off another of the yoma's legs causing it to fall forward with its head almost falling on top of Helen.
"Hey, hey at least let me back out if you're going solo!"
Deneve ignored Helen as he stuck both her swords into the yoma's throat and sliced them both outwards, separating the head from the body. Deneve lowered her yōki and placed her swords onto her back.
"We should leave, the villagers and gaurds are coming this way. I can also sense Miria and Clare heading for the gates," Tabitha told.
As the residents of Rabona caught eyesight of the Claymores in their city they pretended not to see them since they had just saved them from the yoma. The warriors ran out of their sight and out of the town. They met up with Miria and Clare directly outside of the city.
"Deneve, your clothes…" Miria noticed.
"Forget about it, I was just being careless."
"Now what? Are we just going to go after the abyssal ones just like that?" Yuma asked.
They began to walk into the woods as Miria said,
"Well there's only Riful left and I know she won't harm us in any way. We might have a chance of winning against Priscilla if we had her on our side."
"Priscilla's much stronger than that," Clare bluntly said, "We need to achieve a new power, something that not even the organization has thought of."
While crumbling the grass and stepping over tree roots the warriors thought of what was possible. Lloyd stepped up to the front and stopped everyone for a moment.
"I do have something. But I haven't tested it out yet."
Lloyd opened up the brown box that she had with her and opened it up. The liquid in the tubes were still bubbling.
"What is that? I can feel yōki coming out of that but it's very small," Tabitha asked.
None of the other warriors felt anything coming out of it.
"I was looking a way for myself to get stronger without using brute strength. I decided to create something that will allow us to infuse elements into our strength."
"A-are you serious Lloyd? This is taking us- any warrior, to a new generation," Miria stuttered from the first time.
Something that not even the organization has created, right here this warrior has. It shocked her that this was Lloyd's true intention of being a Claymore.
"Like I said… I haven't tested it. And I can't exactly test it on yoma. It's not the same. I've also thought about kidnapping a warrior from the organization but if it is successful, it'll just get us in a bad situation."
They stood in silence realizing that one of them had to be the test subject for the new power. The warriors looked around, down, at each other until Yuma had broken the silence.
"I-I'll do it," Yuma bravely stated, "I'm not much help anyway and if it does fail, I'm sure Lloyd-san can just improve it and maybe Miria could defeat Priscilla with it or something…"
"I am not just going to hand one of my comrades to their own death just like that! We'll think of something else," Miria felt angered that Yuma could throw away her life just like that.
The day became night as the wind blew colder. Miria decided to camp out here and rest for the night. It had been a while since they last slept. The fire crackled and burned the wood as time slowly passed. Everyone had fallen asleep except for Clare, Lloyd and Yuma. Helen was probably snoring as loud as she possibly could.
"You could probably hear her from a mile away, Helen," Lloyd stated.
Clare and Yuma nodded their heads with a small smile at Lloyd.
"What happens if your test fails Lloyd?" Yuma asked.
"Well… I'm not sure. But because of its power, it's possible you could die. The rush of yōki should first enter your blood stream. Then you should feel some pain as the elements try to balance out. It either rejects the balance or accepts it," Lloyd took pauses between saying those sentences.
"I see…"
They sat in silence for the next few minutes as the cricket's noise grew louder and the fire grew stronger. Clare wanted that power for herself. To kill Priscilla and protect Raki. But it couldn't be helped. Like Lloyd had said, she could possibly die.
"Preform the experiment now. While Miria is asleep. I'm sure that if it works then we can all get stronger right?"
Lloyd pushed herself up as she whipped back her hair and whispered to herself, "That's what I've been waiting for." It seemed as if her glasses glared a shiny yellow-red against the fire, not allowing you to see her eyes as she stepped closer and closer to Yuma. She placed her hand on her shoulder and slyly said,
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
Yuma felt a little scared at first but she gulped down her saliva and nodded her head. Lloyd led Yuma down a little deeper into the woods and turned her head back to Clare,
"I hope you'll be a good girl and you won't tell Miria. I have other things you can be useful for."
Lloyd left Clare standing there beside the fire and left with Yuma and the box in her hand.
Lloyd sliced a smaller tree down, then its bark in half.
"You can lay your back against this. It's not the best, but better than the floor."
Yuma layed on the bark half as Lloyd pulled out belts from only God knows where and tied Yuma against the piece of wood. She set up the tubes in the brown box she had carried so that they would slowly pour themselves through a pipe into a long, pointy syringe. Yuma looked around her and noticed nothing and no one except for Lloyd. She gazed up to the star filled sky and wondered if it would be her last gaze on it.
"It's done," Lloyd said as she grabbed a hold of the syringe.
"If I die… what will you do about Miria…? She'll be outraged."
"Well. It's an if, so I'll figure it out later. I'll be injecting the wind element into your right hand first. Then if it balances I'll add the stronger, fire element to your left."
"Wait, why right and left? Aren't you just going to inject it into my body?"
"If I do that it'll completely overwhelm your body and corrode yourself from the inside out. If I do it to your hands, it will transfer it to our Claymores instead of having fire kicks and strikes. That would be odd."
Yuma agreed as Lloyd told her once again that she would begin the experiment. Yuma closed her eyes and replayed her memories from the beginning of after the war. She had luckily survived along with Miria and the others. The fact that she was accepted and was able to make friends within the organization made her satisfied with her life. Lloyd slowly and smoothly injected the translucent fluid into Yuma's right hand. At first Yuma felt normal, then felt that burst of a new yōki entering her body. Her body began jerking every now and then, being held back by the belts Lloyd had placed. Lloyd wrote a few things down then noticed Yuma's body was stabilized. They both let out a sigh showing Yuma was okay.
"Thank goodness. I can't have my test subject dying on the first step."
That was right. Yuma had almost forgotten she had to inject the fire element now. She didn't feel as worried since she had already injected one of the elements. But then she noticed Lloyd was taking off the belts holding her down.
"W-what are you doing?"
"I have to test out how my new idea works. Here," Lloyd threw Yuma's Claymore to her, "let's fight a little."
Once Yuma caught the Claymore with her right hand she immediately saw wind curving around it like a snake, soon covering the whole blade. The same translucent color caught Lloyd's awe as she removed her glasses.
"Why'd you take your glasses off Lloyd-san? Don't you need them?"
Lloyd pulled her hair band off, letting her hair loose, flowing with the wind.
"No, not really. I can't exactly take notes at the same time while fighting you. Maybe I should have brought Clare. Oh well. But this way, I can remember this fight and replay it in my mind to take notes. These glasses are kinda special. Anyway, here I go."
Lloyd striked cautiously because this would be her first time fighting her and so she would not be able to use her data. Yuma was afraid at first because she was always weak, but this time she felt a bit different. She dodged the first attack and jumped back. Without realizing it, she pointed her Claymore at Lloyd and the wind had stretched to where she was, pushing her back and making her back slam against one of the trees.
"Oh god! Lloyd-san are you okay?"
"D-don't worry about me, I'm fine."
She coughed a few times and got back to her stance. This time Yuma attacked Lloyd, close up, and when their Claymores collided a burst of wind blew their hair out violently.
"Try and control it somehow," Lloyd asked.
Yuma tried to picture something like a lance and soon the wind was turning in circles like a tornado but in a shape of a lance. Yuma did not aim for Lloyd, but her sword. The warrior soon noticed what the blond was trying to do and allowed her to do so. Her grip on the Claymore tightened as the force of the wind was pushing Lloyd back slowly. It was then a very small chip of the Claymore came off. Yuma stepped back as they had just witness the breaking of a Claymore.
"Yes! You have given me valuable information Yuma! That is enough. Allow us to move onto step 3. Injection of the fire element."
Yuma stuck her Claymore on the ground as she once again laid her back onto the bark and allowed Lloyd to tie her back. Lloyd placed her glasses back on and grabbed the syringe with the crimson red fluid in it. She then injected it Yuma's left hand the same way as before. After injecting it all she let go and hoped for the best. The jerking was a lot more this time. The fire element was a lot stronger so it had been understandable.
"I feel a bit weird Lloyd-san…" Yuma faintly said.
Lloyd continued to watch what would happen as several sweat drops formed on Yuma's forehead. "Could this be the side effect of the 'fire'?" A few seconds later Lloyd sense a major disruption in Yuma's yōki flow. She jumped up and prepared her Claymore in her hand. Yuma screamed out in pain as her left arm began transforming. First a large spike came out of her shoulder, same as those that hand been launched into the air by that thing formed by Rafaela and Lucilla. Then her veins had popped out, but only on her arm. It began turning yellow, orange, and then a dark red. What had confused Lloyd is that why was it only occurring in her arm. That's when it had hit her. It would only be a matter of time before the elements completely had taken over her. All in an instant Lloyd swung her Claymore and sliced off Yuma's arm. Yuma's screaming was even louder in the pain she was. She quickly calmed down as she took a few breaths in and then out. They both thought they were very close to failing. But then Yuma's remaining arm had begun to transform. Though wind was much, much faster than fire. It rapidly took over Yuma's body from head up to all the way down to her legs. "S-shit… it's over for me…" Yuma thought.
"I'm sorry Yuma. I'm going to have to kill you,"
The only response Yuma gave was the loud scream from how fast the wind was eradicating her body. Then Lloyd sliced Yuma's head off, leaving her back to the failed test subject.
"Damnit… I was so close," Lloyd said to herself.
She began crying from the thought that she was so close to a new power. As she continued pouring tears from her eyes down her face the remaints of Yuma's body, both the fire and wind parts began forming into a new kind of yoma.
"Shit, I should've shredded you from the beginning!"
The fire yoma came from Lloyd's back and wind approached the front. Lloyd was surrounded and did not know what to do. Within an eye blink she saw the bodies on the ground piled up in tiny pieces, not able to form back. There was a small piece of the wind yoma that was able to fight. It was then Clare came from the shadows and used her Quick Sword to finish it.
"Will I be able to tell Miria now that you killed Yuma?" Clare asked.
"Forget about being able to tell me. I've seen everything."
Miria followed after Clare and revealed herself. She released her yōki allowing Lloyd and Clare to now feel it.
"Why did you go against my orders? Lloyd."
"Yuma brought it on herself I-"
"You should've told her that she should value her life!"
"You're right there. But had I not done this I wouldn't have found a way to stabilize the power," as Lloyd said that she held up her book where she wrote the formula to the elements, "would you like to be my next test subject, Miria?"
A/N: Liked? Hated? Please review and wait for chapter 3!