It was a smelly morning..

One would expect for one of the richest town in the whole province to be a little cleaner, yet the port of Woda was probably the filthiest place the silver-eyed huntress/hunters had yet to see. The floor was covering with half-cut fish heads and the remains of other fish weren't even good enough for stray hungry cats.

The sounds of bells, the sound of sailor still being drunk from their late parties, yet even drunk they tied their ropes professionally..and the screech of seagulls, which took what the cat's couldn't even look at.

..and the sea was green, not blue. Someone had lied to them about sea being blue...this one certainly wasn't and smelled awfully..

Although the battalion of ships were quite an impressive sight, most of them were quite far from the shore. Near the port, a single boats were clearing out the remains of ships which most likely wrecked some place and the sea simply brought them there.

The coffins of neighbour houses were working on it's full scale and the smog smelled like they were burning some animals there..which might not be far from true because what passing sailors were eating looked like half-fired rats, special delivery from lower decks.

The team of warriors had met their destination, a small hut just next to the border pass for merchant - the place where merchant needed to pay off for all the transports. Upon entering the room, even more enormous stench of came out of it. The room felt like seen some fresh air probably twice or three times in a century.

The room was simple, no windows, one table, one candle and few chairs in quite questioned state..and a silver-eyed hunter in white-blue attire, with a claymore and a javelin on it's back.

"Yo, my name is Lance, rank 19#. Confirm me the ranks and tell me about your experience about awakened beings - and fast so we can leave this stinky place"

The male warrior was a tall, quite handsome man, yet with a face of someone who didn't care much about others or his surroundings. Also he didn't wear shoes...

The first of the figures, which were standing at the threshold hesitating, who dared enter the room was a man wearing a black, flowing cloak that completely obscured his features. He went past the door in a slightly crouched posture and from beneath dark shadows of the hood, which was totally covering his whole face apart from a silvery pair of eyes that was restlessly, vigilantly observing his surroundings. Finally his glance focused on the single stranger that was nonchalantly standing in the middle of the room and had just “welcomed” him and the people, who were still waiting at the entrance, in a relatively impolite manner. Being silent for one moment longer than it would have been necessary to express his respect, the hand of the hooded man reached out for his cloak and removed it in a swift, fluent motion.
The face of a young man appeared behind the veil of darkness. Like many of his kin he had snow-white hair that showed a nuance of grey pervading its streaks and many little freshly healed scares run across his angular chin. On his back, he was carrying a huge weapon that was almost bigger than himself and could definitely not have been wielded by any ordinary human being.

“Number 39, Alan, reporting in for duty”, the warrior began to talk with a sonorous voice and continued in his usual bored tone, “I have encountered such a monster during my first training mission and having survived this confrontation, I guess I can regard myself as above-averagely experienced as I have heard of several higher-ranked and probably more valuable warriors, who died before they actually had spotted the enemy.. To cut a long story short I know what they are capable of and won’t make the mistake of underestimating them.”

After saluting sloppily, Alan folded his arms in front of his chest and threw a cold glare at the man that had introduced himself as Lance. He didn’t like that guy, albeit for no apparent reason, yet there was something with this guy that made him feel uneasy. Maybe it was related to the way the lancer looked at him, this expressionless, appraising glance reminded him all to well of his own.

- Alan -

"Hopefully, you will do a little better than just survive" said the man called Lance with face of displeasure, but then he immediately burst with laughter "Just kidding, did you like my impression of Rabant ? He told me about you guys meeting that thing, seriously, unfortunate for a trainee to meet such, but god damn impressive to survive" said Lance still continuing to laugh.

Then he quickly snapped his fingers and pointed at Alan, making a small smirk ""Whats your speciality, bro ?"

- Madalleine -

The door opened once again, and closed very quickly with a slight slam. The dim candle light revealed the youthful face of a female Claymore. A youthful, and very pissed face of a Claymore.

With an annoyed sigh, and in a tone revealing her lack of will to even be here. She spoke quietly;

"My apologies for my appearance, but harbors usually mean sailors, and sailors usually mean trouble and a certain dose of restraint on my part.

My name is Madalleine, I've only recently been appointed to rank 43. I've no experience with hunting Awakened Beings to my luck. Unfortunately, being a good standing favorite of the gods, my luck has changed. Now if you will excuse me..."

She went for one of the chairs, but noticing they're condition, decided that the floor and wall were a much better option. She sat down, and reached for a small pouch resting on her back. From it, she pulled out a wooden pipe and prepared it for a smoke.
Madalleine sat back, and waited for the last memeber.

OOC:

[spoiler=The pipe]http://www.smokingpipes.com/images/products/002-171-1092.jpg[/spoiler]

- Lance -

Lance went to Madelleine ignoring Alan for second

"Nice to meet you girl, well - no experience ? There is always a virgin in a group, no big deal. Well, I myself hunted 3, but they weren't really that strong and I was with Agatha and Rabant - those two are freaking perfectionists" said Lance but he suddenly closed his mouth.

"I am boring you guys, don't I. Well, the last guy or gal appears and we are off, no reason to stay sit and wait for the beast to slay itself from boredom" he said and laughed while sitting on the table in the room.

----------
Saphira
----------

For the third time, the door swung open, revealing the final Claymore. She looked the team up and down hastily, her expression turning slightly sheepish.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I hope I didn’t make you wait too long.” With the apology done, Saphira plunged into the main point. “I’m Saphira. I recently received my rank 46. Naturally I don’t have any experience in fighting Awakened Beings. For now.” As the Claymore spoke, her silver eyes scrutinized every single one of them, reflecting nothing of her inner intentions but a mere, almost doll-like obedience.

She hovered at the door, aware that the group seemed ready to move off soon, if not now.

- Lance -

OCC : For now I will NPC for Zyel to push it.

"What a luck, another beauty, then we shall start" said Lance and then looked at the gathered

"First" said Lance and pointed at himself "You are not to disobey my orders, if you don't like them, we can decide it in fight, but I will win anyway so don't try" and he smiled the way like he was hoping for anyone to challenge him right away.

"Secondly, you will be seperated. Sorry for all your teamwork fanatics, the ship is too big for us to sit in one place..pity thought, I would like to spend some times with the ladies" said Lance while giving a big sigh.

"I will talk with client, you can associate with crew but keep professionalism, kay. I saw the ship so I will tell you guys where to go

Then Lance made an elipse with his finger. And scribed three words.

Front bow, front mast
Middle mast
Rear, back mast

"We will show some class to the clients by assempling quickly without additional talk, Saphy - takes front. Your our main horizont eye, be careful - the front of the ship is lightest so it can shake a lot. Maddy will take rear, the most stable part. You will be sitting next to navigation wheel so don't glare at the crew too much or they will get flustrated and will get us on rocks. Alan and Milles will take right and left parf of the middle, one will look at left, second on right. There is no reason for any of us to go inside. I will be on the main middle mast, on "watchtower". Don't disturb me unless it's important"

Lance ended his long explanation and sayed

"Are there any questions ?'"

OCC : If no one will post in 24 hours with any questions, I will just push it. If all players will post "No questions", I will push it also.

- Mad. -

Still sitting on the floor, and not bothering to get up, Madalleine puffed her pipe, dimming the room even more.

"I've a few questions. Where're we sailing to, the route, how long will it take us, and did you just call me 'Maddy'?"

This last part left a bit of a shocked expression on her. The flirting? Fine. The smelly port? Fine. But, Maddy?
She was already plotting a revenge...it will be bitter sweet...

The sooner this mission is over the better...I'll need a drink quick...

- Madelleine -

Lance smiled and then he started to calculate in mind.

"Three nights and four days through the ocean if we will have promising winds. And yes, I did call you Maddy, I'm happy that you listened to me" said Lance while apparently still thinking about reply.

"We won't be really very far from the shore, just far enough to prevent from interupting winds from the land. No one is mad enough to get to the ocean and lose track of where we are"

Lance fixed his hairs and scratched forehead "Well, that's about as much as I know, I don't know if your satisfied Maddy" ended Lance, putting lot of pressure on the last word.

----------
Saphira
----------

Saphira groaned inwardly at the revelation of where she would be positioned on the ship. She wondered if she would be seasick by the time they reached their destination.

“Alright, so much for the ship ride. You didn’t mention where we were going though. What about information on what we’ll be doing exactly when we reach our destination… Lancy?” This guy was already starting to score rather low on her respect list.

- Saphira -

"I don't know how that is relevant, we are just to protect the ship when it's on sea, whatever happens when we reach the destination is completely none of our concerns, unless you have any destination in mind ? said Lance, taking his hand to hide the yawn he just made.

"We are going to some other port city which name I didn't bother to remember, I'm more interested in the monster we are going to deal with. Apparently it only leaves masts from the ships, nothing else...that should be fun" said Lance while smiling like little kid.

--/Alan\--


Despite the informal approach the man called Lance undertook and his seemingly cheerful character, Alan still could not convince himself to like that guy, but the praise he had received from him, proved that he was at least a proper warrior, who was able to acknowledge another one of his kind. Furthermore he also appreciated Lance’s teasing humour that was obviously annoying his female companions, this was going to be an interesting mission.

“I don’t have any questions”, Alan lied, while he was impatiently shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Of course, there were always questions that would nag his mind, but Lance’s first answer had made clear to him that every kind of information he could offer him, would be of little value and thus asking him would most likely be futile. Albeit he didn’t know what was awaiting them, he was eager to go and his posture showed that he was more than ready to begin with the mission.

- Lance -

"Right, question time over, let's move out" said Lance when he stood up and went outside, with his bare feet hitting the floor. The other could just fallow him.

Lance took a lead, but it was all of them that brought a lot of attraction to the crowd. Sailors were all looking at them, some amazed, most afraid, few disgusted with their sheer presence. Lance shown that he really couldn't care less.

Through the desks, Lance pointed with the finger the location of the ship which was about 100 meters from the shore.

"Our Client" said Lance while smiling to his comrades. All of them could see a great merchant ship.



A ship with mast of 40 meters heigh, the hull was probably 100 meters long. So it would be a ship for about 60 people crew. Not bad at all. That ship was not battle oriented ship nor it had any balist to shoot from.

"It's a peak of technology, that ship is" said Lance. Others couldn't really tell whatever he was right or wrong, other ships around look less stable than that one.

Surely, guy who owns this ship would be able to hire them. Lance like he was thinking about it already said

"A ship of local king, I didn't bother to remember his name said Lance. Figures he didn't.

The went to the part of the part where a lone man with a blue bandanna was standing. The man looked like was a little to old to play the role of sailor, no, he looked more like pirate himself as he didn't look very clean. Yet he had royal marine uniform - a blue overcoat and a blouse with white and blue stribes. And he also had no shoes, like Lance.

"Aye, been waiting for you" said the old sailor, showing no special emotions towards the ones who humans call "Claymore". It's rather rare to seem someone who is so indifferent about them or even could think about them as humans.

"So you've been, let's get to the ship" quickly replied Lance when he approached the man. Beneth the wood desk they were standing on, there was a small boat which was going to transport them. All of them went inside it and the old man started to row..

..

..They arrived at the ship. The crew consisted of 39 man and one woman. All of them watching them from distance, but then immediately where shouted by a man who came out from the cabine, from the rear side. A man with black hat, no shirt and black overcoat yelled at everyone. He semmed to eat some kind of strange fruit.

"Hey, this ship won't move on it's own, get back to work said the man"



"So you guys are claymores" said the guy smiling impolitely "Well, whatever, you guys will do your job, I will do mine, but anything about this ship and it's course needs to be discussed with me - on this ship, I am the commander, the monster slaying thing is your thing. Get yourself comfy and do your job" said the man, while looking at each of them.

"The last thing to worry about here is discipline and understanding of situation said Lance.

----------
Saphira
----------

Reflecting almost no emotion towards the many smells, reactions and stares that assaulted her five senses, Saphira followed Lance until they were on the boat and their leader had finished his one-line briefing.

The captain, or commander, or whatever, struck her as odd, especially since he was chewing on some odd fruit. She wondered if it actually tasted nice, or if he was simply eating for the sake of eating. Shrugging nonchalantly, the Claymore made her way to where she was designated to be – to the front bow.

- Mad. -

Walking is troublesome. Taking her position in the rear of the boat, Madalleine lit her pipe, with a still annoyed look on her face.

"Hmm...smelly town, annoying drunken bastards...hmpf...reminds me of when I was a kid back home...

She looked around the boat, actually her side of the boat in hopes of finding something to fiddle with until trouble came.

."Milles".

"Oh well, another crappy mission with mister I run faster with my tail between my legs leaving my comrades to their fate." thought Milles. Of course the target of his thoughts was someone he was well acquainted with.. He took his position to the left of the ship and started to pay attention to anything unusual. Of course he felt uneasy with two new comrades and a former 'coward', but it was all part of his job. He had to get over it.

"I better get some action soon or I'm going to get bored to death here." said Milles to himself out loud while scanning the are for any source of yoki.

- Preparation -

It took them few hours to start the voyage. The captain kept the whole crew so busy that couldn't afford to look at the warriors standing all around the ship. Lance was discussing something with the captain, they were quarelling a lot and Lance attitude was much colder than he had inside the ruined house at the port. After that the parted, the captain went downstairs through stairs in the middle of the ship and Lance..Lance run at the mast and he had run on it to the top, defying the gravity and without help of his arms to climb, he simply run on it.

For humans that was amazing, for other warriors the term "show-off" could come in mind.

The ship at front had a lot of ropes, both to the mast and on floor. It was the place where the anchor was stored. The ropes were solid and looked like they would endure few people hanging on them, as they are already kept toghether massive mast and front pike. The top was jumping a lot on the water and they didn't even start the trip. Saphira overheard from other sailors that today top is quite heavy so it will jump about 4 meters up and 4 meters down. That was just precious...

The middle part of the ship consisted of 3 trap doors which went under the deck. Both Alan and Milles didn't have chance to check what was under the ship. Most likely the transporting goods and quarters. As on the deck, there was nothing interesting. On deck alone there were no ropes which one could trip on, all of them were tied to the balustrade and some of them were quite solid.

The rear was a placed a little higher than other decks, because of build captain quarters and navigation room. The steering wheel, the big bell for alarms and busole were located at the top of those quarters, to which you could get on stairs. The stairs were the border between middle deck and rear.

The crew itself was made of various people and surely, not soldiers. Few of them looked like soldiers but majority of them were probably ex-pirates, pardoned by the king after pledging their loyalty.

The peak of technology, how Lance called the ship, was named "Tytan".

- Trip -

Boring. As there was no wind, it was really hard to sail. Sometimes some wind blew, sometimes it didn't. The sailors did their best to get at least a little boost for their ship, but mostly it was worthless effort. There was times where the ship was moving only thanks to the waves on the sea.

The shore could not be seen but they all knew it wasn't so far, it was just too far for naked eye to see it, but that ship had no intention to go too far from the continent, they were just searching fro stronger wind farther from the land.

It would seem like it would be a really safe trip yet a feeling of yoki appeared immediately. Lance, who couldn't be seen on top before, probably woke up when he felt the yoki and could been seen on the top of the mast. All warriors redied themselves.

From far, a flying beasts were coming. In air..30 of them, all of them coming from east but slowly spreading out when they noticed the ship. They were yet too far and could only be seen clearly from the right side of the ship.

But another sensation of yoki appeared..from undeground. They knew there was another 30 yoki signatures coming from the water. 15 beasts sprung from the water, 15 winged beasts with sharp claws and fangs, all of them 2 meters height and with 1.5 meter long wing.

"Sirens !" yelled one of the sailors when he saw the beast coming from the water and flying up to 100 meters up, passing by big distance all of them and Lance who was on the mast. But those were no sirens. Those were yoma, a strong, winged yoma.

Those 15 beasts were the closest the ship and they were about to attack. 5 from the rear, 10 from the front. From distance of 100 meters from air, they were air-diving towards the deck.

- Madalleine -

. . .

The painful boredom...Madalleine stood there like an idiot, and probably smoked off the tobacco she brought along.
More then once she looked over the side of the ship, in hopes of finding something sharp to throw herself on, just to make the boredom go away...
To no avail...

A more flat piece of sea I've never seen in my life...Why gods? WHY?! Isn't my life miserable enough?!

She gave a long painful sigh, and sat back down. Then the notion came. A painfully large amount of Youki signals, practically from nowhere.
The greatest shock were the 15 Yoma sky-diving down to the ships rear...and the ship actually needed that part the most...

Madalleine unsheathed her claymore, and waited for the Youma to get close enough. The plan she made was to send down enough Youki to send her flying into the air, and still spare some Youki to unleash a Howl to stun the Youma, at least for a few seconds. They needed to get close enough for this to work.

Roaring is out of the question. The humans would be easy picking then, and I don't need to count how many of them are too close range...I really hate humans...

----------
Saphira
----------

The other Claymores seemed rather bored, but Saphira was having a hell of a time clinging onto the thick, rough ropes, cursing and swearing as loudly as she dared while the ship’s nose bounced up and down excitedly. Curse the gods for chucking her at the front, where she was at the mercy of being kidnapped by the sea at any given moment. Curse her fate that she had been initially standing when the ship first started to move, until the up and down rocking made her lose her balance and slide halfway across the nose before steadying herself by gripping a rope. She was still gripping it now.

She was also feeling rather hot. And perhaps a little seasick.

Then the Yoki signatures came, assaulting her drowsy senses. She jumped to her feet and slid across the breadth of the nose when it bounced up, again clinging to another rope. Perhaps crawling along until she reached firmer ground, like the deck, would be a better option. Though the number of Yoma coming from the front was going to oppose that.

Saphira got up unsteadily, taking a few seconds to maintain balance on two legs as the nose bobbed precariously.

From what she could see and feel, ten of them.

Her eyes turned gold, though she still did not have a proper plan in mind. Just whack as many as she could. She waited until the nose bobbed up before using its momentum to leap up, intercepting the incoming Yoma with a couple of random sword slashes, while keeping one eye on where she was going to land. The main deck, probably. Hopefully avoid some humans as well.

Fortune was either a sadistic whore or had a suchlike bizarre sense of humour that it simply eluded his reasoning, why fate had made him cross paths with the all brawn, no brains guy again. From his point of view even the companion of a yoma would have been preferable to this simple-minded nuisance, which was affecting his mood by its mere presence. Leaning bored against the wooden railing of the ship, he turned away from the hurried and hectic ado of the sailors and the pitiful sight the mighty Milles offered and his gaze reluctantly wandered back to the idyllic, yet plain surface of the blue ocean that would have been perfectly flat if it hadn’t been for a little surge, crowned with spume, that would rise every now and then and softly bounce against the flank of the gently swaying ship.

This sight, about which poets could have written a thousand lines, bore no interest for his pragmatic mind as he couldn’t be satisfied by just staring into the endless blue. Furthermore the horizon and sea seemed to merge in the distance, which was in turn bothering him as he began to wonder when they would reach the end of the world and fall into the infinite void that was said to surround the world. Suddenly a strange, pestering feeling arose in him and before the sailor who had just spotted the creatures could even scream, Alan knew that there was going to be trouble.

“Sirens!”, when the cry had finally passed the lips, Alan had already reached for his sword and assumed the usual stance, which has become so familiar to him in the course of all this battles. The beasts then spread out and it appeared that the wanted to attack the ship from the front as well as from the rear and he pitied the warrior who had to defend the front, albeit he knew that the loss of a comrade was always a hard blow to the overall fighting power, but he would not leave his assigned position for he knew that if the enemy breeched one side, the whole ship would probably fall and as currently no yomas were approaching his post, he would just prepare for the case that the others let some of creatures pass and attack any of the flying monsters, but he would not be so foolish as to attack those winged yoma with a jump as it would be impossible to dodge a strike mid-air. Instead he would try to avoid the dive by pushing himself to the side and slashing at the yoma.

.:Milles:.

If anything could have described the journey, boring was just too plain and simple. Milles just did not had the patience to wait for the enemy to appear, and unfortunately he had to stand the presence of someone not so reliable. That didn't make him feel secure not even for a second knowing that in the middle of a battle Alan would most likely run away when encountering a enemy greater than himself. He would have rather skipped this mission rather than meeting Alan again, but that's life. Since he was feeling rather uncomfortable there he was always walking from one side to another on the deck.

In the end the thing he could count on was his claymore. It didn't disappoint him until now so there was nothing the claymore could do to disappoint him. He was playing with it in his hand, juggling it easily with his fingers in front of the sailors who were amazed by his amazing force. Of course he had to stretch from time to time in order to keep himself ready for battle, but he never let go of the handle of his most trusted and only true companion.

"Sirens" was the next thing he heard. Of course he was no longer focused on sensing yoki, but as soon as he heard that he realized it had to be yoma. Of course he sensed them in the air and to his surprise... in the water as well. Since they came from the front and the rear, he had nothing to do but to step away from the side and wait until he sensed something else near closing on him since he could not fight in the water.

- Saphira -

A completely unfair setting of 10 yoma on one poor Saphira..was not that unfair at all. The yoma's completely did not suspect that silver-huntress would protect the ship. A little to confident, probably it was not the first ship they destroyed that way.

Saphira had quite a luck, 3 of the yoma unfortunately went at her, 3 of them got slashed and killed in instant. Saphira was stronger now, quicker and more experienced than she was before, in that jungle. She went through countless missions..

..and those three yomas didn't live to hear the story. The problem were the 7 others. They dive made them go through the deck floor and make an enormous hole. Saphira noticed 7 holes being created all around her and..that her floor was starting to fall.

Now the lack of preparation on unexpected twist was on Saphira side as she felt underdeck on her bottom. She was in front quarters, hamacks, barrels and clothes were everywhere, destroyed, torn and tarnished.

The yoma were not as confused. All 7 yoma took big breath and rose their heads to air...

- Madelleine -

The roar was partly succesful. For some reason, the yoma were not affected by the voice wave as much as they supposed to. Sure, the sound of wind blowing in their ears was probably painful enough but her roar was far more stronger.

Only one of the yoma stopped and felt overboard, to sea. The other one simply avoided Madelleine but also stopped their dive. Four yoma, still in mid-air, surrounded Madelleine from all sides of the earth.

..Madelleine then heard a sound which annoyed her ears, but nothing more. Not as strong as her roar. It came somewhere from middle-deck area.

- Milles and Alan -

Girls weren't going to take all the fun. The 30 other yoma were getting nearer but all of them stopped about 100 meters from it and then.

"KRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"

The sound of the yoma yell was echoing everywhere. Humans around started to vomit, Milles and Alan almost lost their sense of balance.. the purpose of this yell..was to simply make people more seasick than they were.

But another loud annoying sound came from top

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOO" it was Lance howling and jumping from mast, taking 3 yoma with him to water and him himself falling to the sea.

-----------
Saphira
-----------

A scowl came to her lips as Saphira surveyed the damage before her. Large holes indeed. She was amazed the ship hadn’t started sinking yet.

Nonetheless as the Yoma lifted their heads, doing whatever they were doing, Saphira lunged forward, weapon in hand, this time not randomly slashing – but rather, aiming for each and every one of their necks, starting from the one closest to her.

A yell echoed about the place; her stomach suddenly churned uncomfortably, yearning to empty its contents by heaving them up, and up, and up, instead of downwards. It was followed by yet another yell, which sounded very much like Lance, but Saphira ignored both occurrences and continued hacking at the damned Yoma before her.

- Saphira -

There was not much time for comming up with a plan, Saphira took the "chop or be chopped" solution and went at the yoma which she thought would be the closest one.

She went for it and before it could perform what was to perform, it's head went smoothly on the ground. Then without loosing the acceleration she hit the chest of another yoma. The sword got stuck in yoma body for a second but yoma was definetely dead.

The five others weren't just watching in amazement. They released the breath and

"KRYYYYYYYYYYYYyyyyy"

If that is what sailors call "Sirens song" then it must have been described by someone who was completely deaf. The voice was highpitched, constant and it bombared Saphira ears. The previous sound didn't affect her since she was underdeck, but now she was bombarded with it directly.

Saphira couldn't help but fell on her knees as the whole world started to spin for her. The only good part of it is that she took out the sword which got stuck from the yoma chest and was still in her hands, she instictevily used it to not lose balance.

OCC : BTW, your just under the deck, if the yoma wanted to sink the ship they would need to make another hole to get to "ballast" and then another one to get to sea.

- Madalleine -

Ok, this can't be good...I'm hanging in mid-air...and falling...and there's Yoma under me...this is never good.

A surge of Youki spread through her body. Reaching to a steady 40%. Using the extra 10 %percent, she created a "bubble" around her vocal cords. The bubble was there to harden her vocal cords by a little, making them less susceptible to taking damage from vibrations created by Roaring.
She'd been dying to try this out. Waiting for the Youma to get to a relatively close distance, she prepared her Roar in hopes of stunning them completely and hopefully leaving a few dead from the vibrations damage.

If this didn't work, there's always the good hack 'n' slash tactic...that never failed before...

OOC: I'm really sorry for the delay.

.:Milles:.

"I pity the guys who dies before me" thought Milles while he saw Lance falling in the water with 4 yoma. Before that it was a annoying sound but Milles was already used to it after the first wave.

One problem would have been an AB who could be killed easily with 4 members and another problem was a bunch of flying yoma who could breath underwater. The scale was pretty much too large for Milles. If the yoma won't come to Milles willingly then Milles will bring the yoma to him by force. At least that's how it should have worked but they could disable him from wielding whatever he could use as a weapon. Since he didn't need his ears he decided to cover them, while holding his claymore in one hand. Sure it would be tough but he was trained for this. His ears were holding him back so he had to rely on his senses and wait for the first you which would get near him. In the meanwhile he decided to get away from the side of the ship and get closer to the main pole of the ship. He had to have his back to something while sensing each yoma to ensure that we wouldn't be attacked by something unexpected. The first yoma to get near enough to him would get cut by his claymore. Though this would leave his ears uncovered he had no choice but to cover them again. If not he had to fight any other threat.

-----------
Saphira
----------

“Bloody hell,” Saphira couldn’t help but swear explicitly under her breath as the world danced polka around her. Or was that her imagination? Either way she noticed she was on her knees, and that she had used her claymore for balance. Why was she on her knees anyway?

Using the sword as a support, she pulled herself up slowly, her senses coming into sharp focus. Five other signatures. Were they Claymores? No. Was she the lone Claymore here? Yes. All in all, a bad situation. Her eyes flashed gold, anger yearning to take control. She pushed it down firmly, but allowed her Yoki to rise.

At 30%, she slammed the dam onto it, wondering if letting herself go closer to the Yoma side could help her escape the effects of this ‘Siren’s song”, which was completely irrelevant to the Yoma’s screeching. She wouldn’t even call it a song. Fighting every wave of dizziness, she yanked the sword out of the wood, staggering slightly, and decided to continue… with what?

Oh yes. Hacking the Yoma. She leapt towards them.

From one moment to the other all his calmness and reasoning had been washed away by the incredibly loud cry and for the glimpse of an eye he lost his sense of orientation. Stumbling across the deck he nearly fell, but somehow, whirling acrobatically with his arms, he managed to maintain balance. The inhuman, high-pitched scream had hit completely unprepared and hence took him by surprise. Although even the united voice of several yoma had been anything but good for his ears, the growl was nothing, compared to the howl of the cloddish creature he had encountered during his first mission, yet it was still quite painful and irritating.

Leaning against the railing, he soon was able to regain his composure. Lifting his sword in its original position in front of him, Alan reassumed his stance and continued look for any monster that was either brave or foolish enough to set foot on the wooden ground of the ship. Then the second wave of those awfully loud screams hit his ears, albeit the strange ringing of the bright bell inside his head partly abated the sensation, it was still intense enough to make him want to throw up and only due to the fact that he was already leaning against the unsound rail, he didn’t fall.

Rubbing his aching ears, he tried to focus his eyes again on the flock of yomas, which were pending in the air in a safe distance above the dark blue ocean, complacently grinning to themselves. His head was throbbing from the consecutive attacks on his eardrum. He had to do something against this weakness! While he would be searching the deck for anything he could probably use to protect his ears from the brute force those cries entailed, probably there was a candle somewhere, hadn’t his parents told him tales of a man, who had overcome many hardships during his long journey to his homeland? He had forgotten the rest of the story long ago, but what he did remember was that he prevailed over the voices of the sirens by sealing his ears with wax. If he found a candle that was still burning, he could utilize this trick to defeat the monsters’ tactics or at least lessen their efficiency.

Furthermore, he would head for the middle of the ship where he would be able to make his stand far easier than at the rail. In the case of an attack, he would raise his yoki to 10% if he encountered less than three yoma, if he, however, was to engage more of them he would raise it up to 20% and attack anything that came close to him and definitely was not human and didn’t carry one of those huge swords.

- Lance -

Finishing off 3 he went down with, Lance hastily dived deeper to see what the yoma were doing - why they didn't reammerge to surface.

Lance saw them clinching to the bottom of ship, point zero of orientation.

"Sabotage..I hate that" thought Lance, thinking about..whatever he actually had plan how to fight underwater..

- Madelleine -

The yoma accepted the "Roar" challange from Madelleine with their "Song". The yell was immense and it was affecting everyone on the ship except for Lance and Saphira. Humans used that opportunity of being distracted of unevitable doom to gather to trap doors.

Madelleine couldn't stop her Roar since Yoma kept their challenge. It wasn't long thought that both sides got tired. Two of the four yoma hit the floor hard, other two flew away from Madelleine as fast as possible.

- Saphira -

The song was repeating itself and it was annoying her a lot. There were 5 yoma keeping screaming at her but Saphira took the option she found right - kill them until she has strenght to.

She attacked one, her attack was succesful and beheaded her enemy.

She attacked the second one, her attack was aiming for neck but hit the yoma shoulder. With her yoki increased, she simply cut the yoma in half.

She attacked the third one her first slash was inperfect and ended with her cutting his arm first but then she fixed it with another one.

To her dissapointment, the other 2 flew away up still attacking her with their "Song". Saphira didn't feel like she just lost balance now..she started to lose vision too. Her brain was simply too tired.

- Milles -

The isolation from the hand was not working perfectly but it was surely better than nothing. From the thirty yoma, a group of 15 went up while the other half have stayed back, continuing their annoying "Song".

Milles vision started to get blur as his mind was getting tired but even so, he could see what the yoma were planning to do. The top of the middle mast was about to be attacked by the yoma, probably to prevent them to run away..or to simply throw it down on both him and Alan.

- Alan -

Since Alan didn't really care for the ship at beginning, he didn't really knew where those objects were. The torch and candle places near mast existed, but they haven't kept any there. Milles hid himself behind middle pole yet Alan didn't took much notice to all of this. He went to the barell to see what he wanted - candles. Problem was, they weren't lit since it was still a day so wax wasn't so easy to get..is what would one say but Alan was desperate, he crushed the wax in his hands and heated it as fast as possible inside his sweaty fingers grip. Then he pushed it into his ears.

Although imperfect, the songs wasn't affecting Alan anymore and his mind was starting to slowly clear out.

OCC : From now on, any verbal and sounds are not noticed by Alan.

Alan let out a brief sign of relief. Once he had stuffed the wax into his ears, the effects of the awfully loud song of the yoma on his body immediately began to decrease and his mind was clear and calm again. The screams and cries of the monsters were now nothing more than dull noises that at the very most sounded unpleasantly. Standing safely and firm with both of his feet on the ground, his eyes were carefully searching the surroundings for the beasts that he had just gathered around the pole. It appeared that they now were trying to destroy pole and make it crush both him and Milles, of whom he had lost sight during the chaos, as well as a quite big portion of the crewmen, who were still terrified and aimlessly running around.

If the succeeded there was no way the would ever be able to reach the port again and even if they did Alan would most likely not be in the situation to enjoy it as he would have been reduced to a gory, sludgy mass by the falling pole. Raising his yoki output to 40%, he would prepare for a huge leap to the top of the pole were most of the yoma were carelessly performing their task. While he would be flying through the air, he would, depending on the circumstances of his jump whether he was able to reach the top at an instant or not, either retain his yoki at 40% and use the crossbar to push him off once more or drop his yoki release to 30% and unleash his Bladestorm and thus, holding the horizontally rotating sword above his head, cut everything into pieces that was in his way. Having reached the top of the pole, he would first make sure that he had a safe stand and then perform a number of random slashes, most likely horizontal as this would enable him to incapacitate and kill more yoma at the same time and hence end the the battle quickly.

---------------
Saphira
---------------

Exhausted, Saphira watched the two Yoma fly off. She didn’t quite care for them anyway, being more pre-occupied with her tiring mind. Well, she’d done her part at least.

She was not quite sure how, but she’d managed to make herself comfortable on the wooden floor. Lying there, she watched the motionless sky through one of the holes made by the Yoma. Maybe… it would be good to take a nap… but before that… Saphira struggled to cling onto consciousness, trying to climb back onto deck, make her way – albeit blindly – to the sides, and jump into the water.

Sure it was not the best way, but water was known for muffling the sounds of the outside world…

- Madalleine -

She fell down with a large thud. It was never pleasant.
Two got away...I'll have to get to them sooner or later.

She went in for the two on the ground to make sure they were dead, and that no life in them remained. Preparing her claymore, she slashed at both the yoma's heads.

Before she cut them off, however, Madalleine spent a moment thinking about their Scream.

The after affects are amazing... for one reason or another, at first my Roar didn't affect anyone on the ship the way it was supposed to. I can understand it for the Sirens, but everything else on board...heh... we'll have a look at you later. 'Till then, it's guess work and trial-and-error.

After getting rid of the Youma here, but keeping them in enough pieces to study them, Madalleine's plan was to go under the deck, to where the other Yoma were, if possible to catch them off-guard and strike then.

Only then did she realize...

Yesterdays lunch was coming back, sweat enrolled and the world started spinning...
Madalleine shook her head violently, to get the feeling of nausea away;

I have got to know how they do this!

OOC: Sorry, I made a double post here

.:Milles:.

As always things don't go as planned. A lesson Milles learned in Kara, and another lesson learned in Kara don't hesitate to attack if you're sure of victory. With the yoma trying to kill him both psychically and physically he decided to do something about his ears. Since isolating them temporarily with his hands didn't work he decided to tear his cape and use the cloth as ear plugs, and relying only on his yoki sense and sight if that would recover. After that the next thing he would have done was to raise his yoki to 30%, cut the targeted pole and then use it as a bat to whack the yoma out of the air and on the ship where he could cut them in half with his sword. Surely the pole wouldn't have been a problem for a guy as strong as him, but just in case he would raise his yoki to 45% just to be sure.

- Madelleine -

OCC : The Roar was directed at Yoma and was pointed in direction of the sea. Others barely could take notice of your Roar since the yoma were scretching too - it's like adding noise to already incredible noise - you simply stop to distinguish what is what.

While cutting the yoma's head, she noticed quite a feat. Not only they have lungs like every other, but had additional connection to their bloodstream which resembled that of a ..fish. Gills were somehow joined with something that resembled vocal cords, the air going through them would not let them able to speak properly but the sound they did was probably the effect of such mutation.

It is questionable how yoma shape shift to others - maybe a fish diet made them transform themselves in fish a bit. Madelleine had yet no time to take more interest in that.

Madelleine went underdeck - humans were panicking their, preparing everything for ship to sink by tying everything with ropes and packing everything.

12 signatures below the water and one which she knew whose was - Lance. Lance seemed to have a bit of trouble there but he was still alive.

Saphira was on the other side of the deck - Madelleine rushed to her..the door to Saphira part of deck were blocked by something but Madelleine managed to open it without much force to it's half-open state. Enough to slip in..

- Saphira -

It took some while to completely stabilize her state of mind so she could move around normally. But then she noticed - those yoma didn't abandon the ship, they returned to Saphira vision and from the deck level (Saphira was under the deck) they started to throw barrels at her. She instictevily dodged it and went to the wall from where she was hidden from the yoma sight. The yoma apparently jumped and then circled around the hole in the deck trying to find her.

The door next to Saphira which she didn't really saw before because they were blocked by part of the floor were attempting to be opened. A friendly yoki was on the other side, struggling with opening it and halfway succeeding - Madelleine.

- Milles and Alan -

Milles succesfully blocked his ears from and he was regaining his balance lost by the awful sound the yoma-sirens did.

Alan succesfully jumped from pole and pole and completely took the yoma off guard - the moment he was about to land one yoma felt from his hand, the other one was hit by his bladestorm technique once he landed on one of the main poles. That was two down..

Alan was about to take other yoma which were about to attack him but..

..Milles performed his plan, he couldn't hear anything but he noticed that there were two bodies of yoma falling down - but he couldn't stop now - he climbed the the mast and found the pole at 10 meter height. He cut it down and grabbed it with his 45% released yoki - he was able to lift it but handling it would be hard - a 12 meter pole, although not so thick, still weighted a lot.

..The balance of the mast was disturbed and Alan felt down - it had it's good parts and bad parts. Alan grabbed the rope attached under the pole and with that he succesfully dodged the simmilous attack of 5 yoma diving at his position, so he simply avoided the attack, the problem was that now, with one arm clinging on rope and one with sword he was almost a sitting duck for another attack.

The yoma were about to surround him and attack him from every side of the world. Alan was 20 meters above the deck.

----------
Saphira
----------
So her plan failed, but at least she was successfully hiding from the Yoma. Quietly Saphira thanked the gods (if they existed) for making the Yoma’s sensing abilities so crappy. She appreciated the supernatural contribution.

Her senses picked up a familiar signature; she turned around and saw Madelleine trying to open a door, made stuck by raised floorboards. Fearing Yoma on the other side as well, Saphira withdrew her claymore and ran over, hacking at the obstacles impeding the door’s movement, willing the door to be able to swing open as easily as any other door.

- Saphira and Madelleine -

The doors were fully opened thanks to Madelleine and Saphira effort, yet the sound caught the yoma's sensitive ears. But instead of attacking, both huntress could sense they were going upwards.

- Madalleine -

"Almo-...ACK!"

She fell through with a loud thud. When Sapphira swung the door open, Madalleine lost her balance and fell to the floor.

She stood frozen for a moment, hoping the Youma wouldn't notice them, but they were already gone.

"Eh...hey...how's it?"

She felt stupid. Once on her legs, Madalleine dusted off and made sure her equipment was still attached the way it should be.

"You alright?"

Just when Alan thought he had finally seized the opportunity to take out all of the yoma, which were surprisingly too astonished by his bold attack to do anything at all, he had lost his balance on the bar and had suddenly found himself pending twenty meters above the ground as he had instinctively reached for the nearest rope to stop his fall. Albeit he had managed to do so, he only considered this as a limited success due to the fact that the flying creatures now had been able surrounded him and were in turn preparing to tear him apart.

Gritting his teeth in anger Alan ignored what was going on beneath him and solely concentrated on evaluating all possible ways to escape death that was lunging at him from every direction and within a split second he had already made his decision. Loosening his grip around the rope, he would use it to quickly slide down to the deck, using the huge sword in his right to slash any enemy that dared to get into his reach, if the rope was long enough to allow to him to reach the deck safely, if, however, the rope was too short he would slide to the very edge of it and then jump to the deck, where he could defend easily defend himself and oppose the beasts much better than in his current position.

----------
Saphira
----------
"Almo-...ACK!" Saphira raised an eyebrow.

"Eh...hey...how's it?" Saphira raised both eyebrows.

"You alright?"

“Fine,” Saphira answered, two eyebrows still raised. The Yoma were going upward; she decided not to ponder on their actions and concentrate on the now. “… You?” she added, almost as an afterthought.