"Haaah… haaah…"
Sand whipped across the open plain, stinging his face and filling his mouth every time he tried to breathe.
Inside the middle of the storm, a small figure pushed forward step by step.
Raki.
Just a regular village boy.
Or at least, he used to be.
His clothes were dusty, his head wrapped in cloth to protect his eyes, and every part of him felt heavy.
He'd been walking since yesterday with barely any rest or food. His legs were shaking, and he's seconds away from being taken by the wind.
"I must… find her… Clare."
He had left his village behind after his only family members, his uncle and brother had been killed by yoma, chasing after her after she left.
It seems he might've wasted the last bits of energy right there. Because his knees immediately gave out under exhaustion.
His eyes clouded over as he fell forward—
But he never hit the ground.
A hand suddenly grabbed him by the nape of his shirt, holding him upright like he weighed nothing.
"Whoa—hey!" a voice said over the wind.
"Clare! This guy just called your name! He might be talking about you!"
Raki barely registered the words. Everything felt distant. Muffled.
His vision blurred, sand and sky blending together.
Footsteps approached from behind.
Then—
Another voice that he was familiar with.
"Yes. I've met him before."
It was Clare's. The girl he'd been chasing since yesterday.
He tried to lift his head.
"A friend of yours? Is he a claymore?"
The unfamiliar voice asked.
Who is that? A man?
"No. Just a stranger I've met before," Clare's voice sounded casually.
Raki tried to say something.
Anything really.
"Well, it seems to me like he thinks otherwise. Let's carry him to that village where we're going and leave him."
But his body had already decided it was done for the time being.
Ah… I found her…
Or maybe… she found me…
That was his last coherent thought before everything went black.
…
"…This Egon village, huh? Definitely more lively than the last one."
Seth glanced around at the steady flow of people moving in and out through the gates.
Merchants arguing over prices, adults going about their day, and children running around—it's pretty hard to see any effects a yoma might've had on the village.
Yeah.
Way less creepy than the last village
After about an hour and a half of travel, they'd reach their destination—longer if they'd walk.
For a normal person, that distance would've taken at least a day, maybe two.
But neither of them were normal.
Seth barely even felt warmed up.
Clare walked ahead of him like always, her silver eyes scanning everything without looking like she was.
"So," Seth said casually, hands in his pockets. "What's the usual plan? We just wander around until you feel something spooky?"
"Yes," she replied.
"That's it?"
"That is what I always do."
"…Okay. A little underwhelming."
He looked at the young boy who was slung over his shoulders.
"Oh right. What about the kid?"
Clare didn't slow down. "We should leave him at an inn."
"Sure."
Seth slowly let down the unconscious kid before he quickly checked the boy's pockets.
He found nothing.
"…This dude is broke."
Clare looked over.
"He doesn't have any money or food. Not even a crumb," Seth said. "It looks like he's sleeping on the streets tonight then."
"He would die in his sleep," Clare said flatly. "It looks like he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday."
Seth looked at the kid carefully.
"How could you tell? He doesn't look like he hasn't eaten to me…"
Clare reached into her small purse and pulled out a few small silver rods.
"We will leave him at an inn."
Seth looked at the money, then at her.
"You're nicer than you look."
She ignored his comment.
They found a modest inn near the center of the village. Clare paid for a room and a meal in advance, instructing the owner to let the boy rest as long as needed.
Once that was handled, the two stepped back out into the street.
"Alright," Seth said, looking down the lane. "How do we go about this?"
"We will cover more ground if we split up," Clare said.
Seth immediately shook his head. "Yeah, no. I have no idea what a yoma looks like in disguise."
She paused.
Right.
He wasn't a claymore so detecting when a yoma is nearby is not something he can do.
She had almost forgotten.
"You cannot sense yoma," she nodded in understanding.
"Yep. I'm yoma-blind."
Silence.
They both stood there for a second, brainstorming ideas to effectively make use of additional personnel.
Seth tapped his chin.
Unlike Clare and claymores in general, who would transform when a yoma is nearby, Seth, who has no such built in feature was clearly gonna have a harder time.
Wait.
I got thermal vision? Seth finally remembered.
He hadn't used it again since he used it once in the forest.
But would that even work? Yoma probably ran hotter than humans… right?
Hmm… I doubt that. Their disguise might've failed long again if that's the case.
Then something clicked.
Oh.
Infected vision.
He hadn't used it yet, but he remembered it from the game.
It lets him see other infected creatures. Viral signatures.
Mentally, he asked his system, Would that work on a yoma? Even if they aren't infected?
[High probability.]
His lips then curved up slightly.
"I think I might have a way to tell," he said.
Clare looked at him.
"You do?"
"Maybe. I've got something. Not sure if it works on yoma, so no promises. "
She nodded. "Very well."
Seth grinned. "Cool. We split up then?"
"Yes. We meet back at this spot in an hour."
Without waiting for him to say anymore, she turned and headed down the lane.
"I guess I'll go in the opposite direction."
Seth exhaled slowly and activated his infected vision.
The world around him lost its details as his pupil turned blood red.
"…Alright," he muttered. "Let's see if I can find some yoma."
Seth spent the next hour just walking and looking around.
Vision alternating between infected and thermal.
Luckily his stamina is infinite and could keep any ability active indefinitely or else he might've had to pause his search.
Everyone he passed looked biologically normal. Steady heartbeats. No strange distortions. No "secret monster in a human suit" flags popping up in his vision.
Which was weird.
Because the villagers definitely knew about the yoma problem.
He didn't even have to be subtle when asking.
"Has anyone gone missing recently?" he asked a shopkeeper.
The man's face immediately darkened. "Two people. In the last 3 days."
Another woman near the well chimed in nervously. "Old Marta's son was found without his guts."
It was quite clear from these reactions that these people were scared.
They didn't know who was gonna be the next victim.
Seth crouched near a group of men talking quietly outside a house.
"Anyone acting different lately? Eating habits, personality shifts, staying out late?"
One of the men muttered, "That's the problem. Whoever it is… they're good at pretending."
Yeah.
By the time the hour was up, Seth had walked through most of his assigned side of the village.
No obvious suspects.
Nothing strange popping up in his vision.
Nothing.
He met Clare back at their meeting spot.
"Well?" she asked.
Seth shrugged. "People are definitely going missing. They know there's a yoma. But I didn't find anything. No obvious tells."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yoma excel at blending in. They can reshape themselves to pass for ordinary villagers. So you might end up questioning the yoma itself," she said calmly.
"So I might've asked the yoma and possibly alerted it… got it."
Silence.
She turned slightly. "We will check your area again. Just in case your methods might've not worked."
"Alright. Round two."
He activated infected vision again as they started walking side by side this time.
If something was hiding in that part of town—
They were about to pressure it from both sides.
Chapter 8 end.
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