Return of the Abysswalker
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story Thanks to Sunbro Wills It, Rickrolled, The Jackinati 275, The One and Only Mudkip and my two unknown reviewers for, well what else, reading and reviewing. And yeah I thought about that last line in ch 2 and ran both 'thine' and 'thy' with the sentence in my head and thine flowed more easily (to me at least). I will try to better my sentences in the future. \0/ Praise The Sun! P.S. Sorry for the long update got alot going on right now so updates may be sporadic.
Chapter 2: The mission
The clik clak of her armor reverberated throughout the hall as Galatea made her way to the main hall of the Organization's headquarters. All along the hall the torches that were hanging or were hammered into the wall did little to brighten the cave like tunnels of the Organization's complex, in fact if anything they helped make it seem more depressing and foreboding than it already was.
Galatea quickened her pace slightly as she drew closer to the enormous double doors of the main hall. As she approached they swung open to reveal the heads of the organization gathered in their respective seats. In the center of them, leaning forward with his eyes only half open, was Rimuto. Very few Claymore's had ever met or laid eyes upon the founder of the Organization since the day it was founded.
"You summoned me sir?" Galatea asked in a monotone voice. "Yes, I did." Rimuto replied in an equally monotonous voice. "I have an assignment that requires someone of your particular skill set." Normally Galatea would get her assignments from her handler Ermita, to be summoned and briefed personally by Rimuto was a bit of a shock, it also told her how important to the Organization this was. "There is a prison to the south of our complex that holds yoma that we successfully captured for future study." Galatea's eyes briefly shifted to the head scientist of the Organization, Dae the scarred researcher that made all the Claymore's both past and present generations.
"A possible new warrior was put there against my orders." the culprit behind that did not need to be named, Dae had obviously done it knowing that there would be no repurcussions for doing so. "Your objective is to find this warrior and if they are still alive to bring them back to the organization so that we may judge their abilities, if they are dead or have turned, well I'm sure you know the rest." She knew all to well, if they were dead then she would just simply report back and return to her regular assignments. If they turned yoma however then she would have to kill them and bring the body back for Dae to study, which is probably what he was hoping for in the first place. "Do you understand your assignment?" Rimuto finished.
"Perfectly sir." she responded. Turning to leave she briefly turned back as Rimuto added one last piece of information. "Before you leave there is one last detail on your mission, you will be joined by three more single digit claymores." he added. Outwardly Galatea maintained an emotionless facade, but inwardly she was brainstorming as to why the Oragnization would need to send more than one single digit claymore on a scouting mission.
With that Galatea left the main hall and made her way outside the main entrance of the Organization. Standing outside the entrance were three other claymore's gathered near the southern trail. As it turned out the other three were numbers 5, 6, and 9, Rafaela, Miria, and Jean. Wordlessly they all started off towards the south. Little did any of them expect that this encounter would radically change their lives.
Within a few hours the prison came into site and all four stopped taking in the building that stood before them. Old, dilapidated and battered by the elements this building did not look like it could hold much of anything let alone yoma. All four claymores became uneasy after spotting it, not for what they saw (or rather sensed), but because of what they didn't see. Despite their best efforts none of them could sense even the slightest presence of any yoma. Unease began to play at their nerves as they moved towards the supposed "Prison".
Neutral P.O.V.
In the depths of the prison a lone figure sat against the wall of the prison, the hood covering his face made him look sinister, to complete that image two piercing blue eyes stared into the almost black abyss of the prison. In the depths of his mind however a battle was taking place over control over this warrior's very being. "Well now your resistance is surely impressive. For a human that is." Inside Artoria's mind a creature similar to the one he had killed days earlier was attempting to take over his mind. What it did not count on was his famous iron will.
"I have faced a creature far more foul and terrible than thee, thine's attempt is naught more than an annoyance wrought on by a fly pretending to be a dragon." His comeback struck a nerve with the manifestation of the creature as it's face tightened with rage. "Then this fly will prove you wrong and kill you here and now!" the manifestation charged him, but Artorias simply dodged every single blow. However when his mindscape shook his instincts told him something was wrong. "Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that while we're in here your body is in a berserk state and will attack anything that moves." the smile plastered into it's face only made his instincts kick into overdrive.
Claymore's p.o.v.
When they walked into the prison they expected to find a fairly large number of yoma, instead they found the bodies of every yoma inside the prison brutally killed. Their bodies were strewn about some were even buried in the walls, others had been torn limb from limb. All in all the claymore's were utterly shocked. What happened next nearly drove them to their knees. A yoki aura filled with nothing but pure killing intent crashed down on them nearly driving them to their knees. Activating their own yoki power the claymores attempted to fight back, but as soon as it appeared it vanished. "What in the name of the twin godesses was that?!" Miria said in astonishment.
"I have no idea" Galatea said "But I have a feeling its headed this way." she finished and sure enough the sound of armored foot steps soon entered the entrance.
Soon enough a large figure entered. Silver armor and royal blue cloth wrapped around his body. Miria immediately recognized it as the warrior from before. "Wait, what's he doing in here?" This caught Galatea's attention, "Miria you know this thing?" "I don't know his name but I have encountered him before, in fact he's the one who slew the yoma that I was assigned to slay." all the warrior's present were shocked at that statement. "What?! How could a human slay a yoma they don't have the strength to do that." Jean said. "I don't know but he dodged it easily and slew it with ease, whats more he wielded a sword at least twice his body length with ease." Galatea stared at the figure with a mix of awe and fear, how were they supposed to fight something like this?
She would never know at that moment the warrior collapsed to his knees. He started a moment later shaking his head as if waking from a bad dream "As I said naught more than a fly pretending to be a dragon." he stated to nobody in particular as he stood up. As he looked around he spotted the four claymores standing at the entrance swords drawn staring at him disconcertingly. "Who art thou?" he asked. "Look out!" one of them cried. Sensing movement behind him Artorias dove forward and turned using his left hand to slow himself.
He then stared at his left hand in shock for he was quite sure his left arm had been broken quite severely by Manus. He had no time to ponder as the creature moved forward and brought both of its massive arms down on him. He caught both of them and drove his foot into the creatures gut pushing it back several feet. He reached to his back with his right hand for his sword but only found empty space. "What!? Of all things to lose it had to be my sword!" he swore in his mind. "Catch!" he heard and looking behind him he saw a sword come flying towards him. Catching the sword he found it to be lighter than he expected, although considering all he ever used was his greatsword that was to be expected. He brought the sword up and sliced the creature's right arm clean off, then crouched while turning to catch it across the midsection. He gripped the sword tightly in his hand as he brought it down on it's head, slicing the vile being in half.
The claymore's present stood in abject awe of this warrior who had slain an enormous yoma like it was nothing.
Turning around the warrior walked towards them stopping in front of Miria and turning the sword, offered it back to her hilt first. She grabbed it and sheathed it. "Who are you?" Galatea asked "My name is Artorias and thou art?" he replied bowing slightly to all four of them. "I'm Galatea, this is Miria, Rafaela and Jean." she said gesturing to each claymore as she named them. Artorias lowered his hood revealing his face (for description see chapter 1), each claymore (though they would never admit it) had a slight rosy tint to their cheeks. "I, Artorias, do hereby swear to repay this debt shall the time come." All four claymore's stood stock still surprised at not only his gesture, but the fact that he had just slain an enormous yoma like it was nothing.
Artorias stood once more looking to the four before him. Galatea shook herself from her stupor, remembering why they were there. "Actually there is something that you can do." Galatea said a small smile forming. "What would thou have me do?" he replied. "In this world there are two kinds of beings, humans and yoma. Humans are self explanatory, yoma however are creatures of pure evil that feed off of human flesh." Artorias was briefly surprised but reflecting back on his experiences he wasn't that surprised after all his encounters with the creatures of the abyss. "I assume the Organization was thus created to combat these monstrosities?" he aked. She nodded in response, "Throughout the years they studied the yoma and a brealkthrough was eventually made, the first generation of our kind." "Thine kind?" he questioned. "We are a special breed of warrior who have had the flesh of a yoma implanted inside us, it is this that gives us the ability to fight the yoma on equal terms." Artorias had folded his arms with his right hand on his chin in a thinking manner.
"However, the power of each of us varies so we are given numbers to identify how strong we are to other warrior's." Artorias then asked a question "What numbers were thou given?" Galatea looked at him briefly before smiling ever so slightly "I shall let the others tell you their numbers, as for myself I am ranked third in the organization." Rafaela then stepped forward and said "I am fifth within the organization." Miria stepped forward "I am sixth within the organization and I also bear the name Phantom Miria." Artorias looked at her intrigued "Phantom? Why would one as fair as thou bear a name such as that?" He questioned catching Miria off guard. "Now is not the time for demonstrations we need to return to Rimuto as soon as possible." Galatea curtly replied. "Before we continue though Jean did not tell you her number." Artorias turned to the short haired warrior an eyebrow raised "I hold the rank of ninth within the organization." she answered. "Now then with that done we must head back." Galatea said and with that they made their way back to the organization's headquarters.