Sakura grimaced, her breathing still short and shallow from her brief ordeal, before shaking her head. "It's disrupting my prana the instant I try to use my circuits. I'm sorry."
… It would have made it so that he didn't have to constantly protect her. Something he wasn't exactly suited for when surrounded on all sides.
"Don't be. It's not your fault." He didn't bother looking at her as a new blade turned arrow was notched.
Running away was impossible. Having Sakura fight back was also counterproductive as it would just give Caster an opening to exploit. He could blow a hole in the roof, but if Assassin had any more explosives hidden around it would just ensure the girl's death. Plus there was a high chance that Caster could just make more golems inside.
"Trace on."
A wide spray of unnaturally broad swords surrounded the surprised girl and impaled the roof. They were spread out in a way that they wouldn't prevent her from leaving if she wanted to, but they'd also stop anyone from getting a clear shot inside. Of course, the simple minded skeletons could always just shoot up blindly and hope their arrows strike her from above, but in that case she'd probably be ignored for the visible targets that actually were fighting back.
Speaking of which…
Taking aim in a fraction of an instant, Archer couldn't help but let a small smirk pass his lips. No matter what world he was in, the brat known as Shirou Emiya was an annoying pain in the ass. This world was no different in that regard. However at the very least, this one…
"Gradient Parallel."
… Had a useful trick or two that he managed to pick up from the bleeding effect.
The shot he fired was akin to an unholy marriage between a shotgun shell and an overpowered rifle round, only instead of pellets, they were said rifle rounds. In one release, the spray of sword arrows he unleashed had simultaneously eradicated all of the skeleton warriors, large and small on the building in front of him with discrimination.
It took less than ten seconds for the small army to reform itself.
It took less than three for Archer to blast away the populace of the next rooftop over.
"As easy as this looks, I can't do this forever, Caster!" He tilted his head so his voice carried over to his ally as he readied his next shot. The arrows themselves cost next to nothing, but enchanting them to duplicate to such high numbers did make them cost a bit more. He could do this for a while, but if an enemy Servant came it would better for him to have as much prana as possible in reserve.
The Princess didn't bother to say anything as she focused on her bounded field. She didn't recognize or notice the small slew of arrows that some of the golems had shot at her from behind, nor did she react as said projectiles were immolated by the field she had set up around herself.
She did frown a bit as another charged bullet hammered into the field several inches from her face before stopping in place and turning into slag.
She simply stayed in place, chanting at an almost impossibly low volume to the world around her.
Just a little bit more time. She had to be patient. She couldn't act rashly or else the Witch would figure out what she was doing.
She had to give everyone the impression that she was simply trying to keep Assassin locked in place and nothing else.
o. o. o.
"Things are turning towards an interesting path."
"Mmm." Merem watched from far above in the sky on his flying limb. "Shirou's paranoia is probably his greatest asset in this battle."
"Don't let him hear you say that. We're on thin enough ice as it is." The King of Rats chuckled, as absorbed in the multiple bouts as his creator. "I still can't believe he tore into Fina's subordinate as viciously as he did."
"Heh. Me neither." Merem cracked a grin at the memory. He had actually laughed loud and hard at the performance from earlier, seen from a rat in a nearby drain gutter. The look of surprise on the slave's face, completely flat footed. Professional his ass. Van Fem would no doubt go out of his way to meet Shirou just for that beautiful bit of entertainment.
"Still… at the rate things are moving, he might still need a bit of extra help," the Left Arm mused, observing everything carefully. "Caster did technically break the ceasefire first."
"Mmm, but you know Shirou is rather touchy when it comes to people interfering with his plans. Had he not had a connection with nearly everyone in this war, he probably would have eliminated more than half the competition by now." Merem brushed aside the suggestion.
"Oh no. I wasn't suggesting something as severe as interference." The Rat shook his head. "I merely think that it would be best if we… aided in tying a few loose ends a bit tighter for him. Nothing too significant."
The Ancestor paused for a moment before finally tearing his eyes away from the show below. "Oh? You mean to suggest that you yourself wish to partake in the activities below? That's rather rare."
The "kindly old priest" smiled genuinely, before sticking out his tongue mockingly, revealing the unnatural checkerboard pattern on its flesh. "The Lord's aid comes in many forms after all. Sometimes it is needed, sometimes it is not, but it is always for the benefit of his children."
o. o. o.
(Music: Fate Zero OST: The Battle is to the Strong)
A single clash of weapons. And they separated.
Three seconds later, another clash. Another disengagement.
Two seconds.
One second.
Half.
One. Half. Two. Half. Half. One.
Rapid skirmishes that repeated as fast as they ended. Travelling up and down the road alongside the Mountain. Back and forth. Scattering sparks along the street like small geysers of fireflies in the night.
"HAAA!"
A cursed blade met an unholy nail and chain.
The nail and chain were cut through with impossible ease… no, they were severed the instant they came in contact with the blade, allowing it to pass through the space between the separated parts with no interruption. The remains scraping against the flats of the victorious weapon as they passed. The sound of metal on metal invading the silence of the night.
The wielder of the butchered tools moved a bare centimeter out of the way of the edge of the tool that destroyed her weapons, and subsequently contorted out of the path of its matching partner. The maneuver prevented her from accurately lashing out with a kick that would have crushed the skull of her opponent.
The fighters passed one another, another failed attempt at the other's life. But it was far from the last.
Both kept moving, turning with the momentum they gathered. Prana was gathered. Tools were repaired. Bodies were reinforced. Eyes narrowed.
This was how Shirou and Rider had fought since they started. A never ending series of single passes that had them gambling with death every time.
It was a battle between two forces that did not possess the ability to stop the other without severely risking themselves.
Critically low on Prana she may be, but Rider was still a Servant. The legendary Gorgon, Medusa. Her speed was leagues above what mankind would ever achieve naturally, and her strength could easily destroy bones and bodies with even a glancing blow. Even while performing while at best a fifth of her normal potential, she should have been more than enough to take down any human, magus or not, with her raw physical prowess, and with her eyes uncovered, the fight genuinely should have been over on the first pass.
Weapons crashed. Bodies moved. And once more both combatants still stood, already on the move for the next round.
Rider had lost count of the count at around twenty, and that had been far too long ago.
How was it that Shirou was still able to keep up with her?
"Hah. Hah. Ngh." His lungs were on fire, desperate to supply oxygen to the blood in his body as he pushed it farther than should be possible. His limbs shouldn't have been able to move under the combined stress of his exhaustion and Rider's petrifying gaze.
The Princess' enchantments prevented him from turning to stone, but he was still slowed down.
His body was still in pain from overusing his circuits, but Avalon was perpetually healing him.
His body warmed up as he reinforced his twisted body to the limits.
His heart seared as his speed was constantly placed in double time…
… But that wasn't enough.
Chains shattered.
It shouldn't have been enough.
They turned around. Silver eyes met jewel eyes.
So how was he able to keep up?
Rider had seen him spar with Saber what felt like an eternity ago. When he quadrupled his speed and pushed himself to the limits, it had given her an idea of what his limits were. They were impressive for a human's, but that was it. That was his max. Half of that was far below what he was at now, and yet here he was moving at only double speed instead of quadruple and still keeping up. He shouldn't have been able to improve his performance by this degree in so short a time.
But that ultimately shouldn't matter. With Caster as her Master, she was gaining more prana than expending in the end. Her performance had nowhere to go but up.
Just a little faster, and he'll die…
Just a little faster, and I'll be able to keep up…
He had always respected Rider's speed. Saber had declared hands down that the blindfolded woman was the fastest out of all of the Servants summoned, even without Pegasus.
When Rider had more or less treated his demonstration of his max enhanced abilities against Saber as something adorable or cute, he had taken it somewhat personally. According to Saber, he was at least fast enough to hold his own for a short time.
He wanted to smack Saber upside the head for not including Rider in her general assessment. Even while running on fumes, Rider's speed was nothing short of absurdly unfair. If she had been at full strength he would have been killed before the word "go" reached his ears.
He was using everything he could think of to his advantage.
Natalia was a horrifically overpowered tool for this fight. Rider's nameless nail and chain put up no resistance to the thaumaturgic properties it held. Her body did not have that weakness, but it was still susceptible to being sliced as easily as any other body of flesh and blood should they make contact. She already had a small number of weeping cuts on her body from when she underestimated their nature early on. She had not made the same mistake since.
He reinforced his body far beyond what he normally thought possible. Filling and oversaturating every fiber of muscle and fragment of bone with power.
He temporally accelerated himself to double speed. He could go higher, but he wouldn't be able to last long if he did.
The moon was just past being full and there were only a handful of clouds out. It was a good night to be outside.
Every time they passed, Rider had to use her drained reserves to reconstruct her broken tools.
Every time they passed, Rider had to abandon her attempt to destroy his body with a single blow in order to avoid his counterattack with his offhand blade, lest she be crippled or worse. Her body was already sporting a small collection of paper thin cuts all over.
Every time they passed, Rider's features became just a hair more monstrous, and some of Shirou's facial features became less human, with scaled skin and sharpened teeth. Their faces scrunched up in frustration and inhuman annoyance.
She likely would have been able to get a solid hit in had she followed through, but the same was true for Shirou. The two focused on low risk high reward tactics. Exposing themselves like that wasn't in their best interests.
But Shirou had the advantage at mid-range battle with his magic, and she no longer had her mount available, so this was the best she could do for now.
The fight had devolved into a never ending series of skirmishes. Small bouts that compounded into a battle of attrition.
It was something that played against both of them, and was not in their best interests.
Every time they passed, Rider had just a bit more power.
Faster.
Every time they passed, Shirou lost himself just a bit more to instincts that were not his.
Faster.
Every time they passed, somewhere in the city, Berserker was recovering.
Faster.
Just a little more and Rider would kill him.
Faster!
Just a little more and Shirou would be able to keep up.
FASTER!
From an outsider's perspective that didn't know any better, it was a battle between Servants, or Monsters. The two labels were interchangeable by this point, as their performance was anything but human. There was little to no lull between one pass and the next. Sparks and fragments of chains flew in every direction as the two animals wove around one another with their metallic fangs born and their alien gazes ignoring everything but the other.
Had anyone bothered to keep notes or measurements, they would have noticed that Shirou, despite only moving at double time, had already surpassed what he normally performed when at triple.
It was a fight to the death that neither one of them wanted, yet, they were the only ones that they could vent their frustrations out on. A cruel and sick irony that they could have done without.
And it was also a fight that Shirou could have ended at any time. All he needed to do was summon a copy of Rule Breaker and Rider would be forced to kill herself.
But he didn't. Instead he fought.
There was a limit to how many openings could be exploited in a single pass. Rider had long since realized that Shirou knew that better than her. The seemingly easy shot to the back of his head nearly left her gutted from navel to chest. She abandoned the attack just in time to brush the hair on the back of his head just as he left a small cut on her stomach.
He risked.
Shriou almost didn't manage to turn in time for the next pass. Rider was on top of him almost instantly, but his arms had been moving before he had even noticed something was wrong, training, reflexes, and Archer's experience all coming to play to save his life, allowing him the fraction of a second needed to get out of the way in time.
He did not look away. Even if he was going to die.
It was bound to happen.
Rider's performance had nowhere to go but up from the beginning, but Shirou was perpetually pushing his limits far beyond what his body was designed for. Sooner or later he was going to slip or lose ground. It was an inevitable conclusion.
His muscles clenched painfully as he turned, and something in his left knee fractured. His body seized up, his teeth clamped down, and for just a moment, he stalled.
It was more than a big enough opening for Rider to exploit.
A hand shot out like a snake, grabbing his right hand with hold of a viper's maw and yanked him forward.
His free left hand barely had enough time to slice through the nail that had been coming around to impale his spine, but as a result he had left his stomach to the explosion of pain that came with the Servant's knee.
"AHK!? Ka?!" He folded in half. Air rushed out of his lungs first, but it was soon followed by stomach acid and what felt like half the organs in his body.
It hurt. Oh god did it hurt. Several of his ribs snapped despite the reinforced clothes and enhanced body he had. In the back of his mind, he genuinely wondered if he had actually been split in half, as the pain unanimously seemed to cut right through him from front to back.
His mind didn't seem to process the sight of Rider's other leg as it came to crush his skull in as her first left his diaphragm, but thankfully his eyes and reflexes made up for that. Both copies of Maya came up with the flat sides spread out to protect his head just in time to serve as a metallic buffer between Rider's leg and its target.
Both blades shattered under the blow, but dispersed just enough force for the damage to not be instantly be lethal.
Shirou didn't know how far he flew. Only that Rider had hit him hard enough that by the time his addled brain caught up to the fact that he had been hit in the first place, he was still in the process of skidding through the streets like a rag doll. Had he not reinforced his body and coat beforehand, he was certain that he, and his clothes, would be torn apart from the friction with the asphalt.
He was still alive. He still hurt all over, but that meant that he still had "all over" to begin with, so theoretically he could still use "all over" and fight…
A trickle of prana tingled all over his body. A blueprint entered his mind.
Good. He was still intact. A good portion of his body was injured, but he had Avalon. He would get better…
Warning. Diaphragm and stomach heavily damaged. Internal systems unable to support continued activity…
SCREECH.
He felt his insides shred slightly as they turned to blades, roughly stitching itself back together in a patchwork job. His broken ribs lurched painfully back into place, the pieces latching onto one another like locking pieces of metal. It would do more harm than good in the long term, especially if he kept on moving like this, but he had to live through the short term first for that to happen. Besides, it didn't hurt nearly as bad as when his heart was reformed. He'd be able to manage this.
He coughed out a wad of blood and forced his lungs to breathe. He made his nerves to ignore the signals his destroyed solar plexus was telling his body. He needed air more than the warning that he had been hurt.
His body had slowed down enough that he managed to reflexively flip back onto his feet while skidding backwards, a trick that Bazett had literally beaten into him when she first started to train him.
He was still reinforced, but his temporal augmentation was gone. The latter required constant attention in order to remain enacted while the former could last a while if done right. Sadly he didn't have time to scrounge up the focus to use the Emiya Crest right now.
Rider was closing in fast.
But fighting at midrange was to his advantage. Rider was fast and strong, but she wasn't capable of firing off Noble Phantasms like bullets.
The world of blades shifted. His hands flexed to grab onto a new set of Natalia…
His fists clenched, empty.
It really said something when Shirou's perception of time slowed down more than it had when he had been speeding himself up with time magic just moments earlier.
Blood drained from his face. His stomach felt suddenly bottomless despite it being on fire just an instant before. He could feel his heart beat unnaturally slowly. His nerves fired off in alarm.
Something was different. Something was on his arm that wasn't there before.
It was deceivingly harmless looking. A swath of purple colored leather, banded and seamless, wrapped around his right arm.
He had seen it before. Only instead of on a wrist, it had been covering Rider's eyes.
Breaker Gorgon.
Rider's third Noble Phantasm.
Of all her various resources, Breaker Gorgon was Rider's least notable, and yet, arguably her most versatile. A bounded field that could only target a single person at a time, it could do one of many things, or many things at once, depending on how and when it was used.
It could serve as Mystic Eye Killers. A mental prison of euphoria.
But in this case, a lock. A barrier between worlds. Between this world…
… And Unlimited Blade Works.
Shirou was unable to trace weapons.
It had happened when she pulled him in right after he had slipped up. The instant her hand grabbed his wrist, her Noble Phantasm, and victory was secured. All she had needed was that one opening and everything fell into place.
By the time he had put it all together, Rider was right on top of him once more.
Her weapon was drawn.
He was helpless. He wouldn't be able to move in time and he had nothing to defend himself with.
Her arm struck down.
The rattling of chains snaked through the cool winter air.
Her dagger struck nothing.
The sound of chains had not come from Rider.
"What?" The Servant could not help but voice her confusion as Shirou was yanked away from her by something she couldn't see faster than she could react to…
A shimmer of gold caught her eyes, and her mind managed to catch up.
Linking all the way back to the still struggling Pegasus, Enkidu retracted rapidly, dragging its wielder with it, wrapped around his chest and arms under his coat, and sticking out of the back like a trick harness.
The reason why he had the chain on him when he couldn't produce any weapons was because he had had Gilgamesh's precious treasure on him since the beginning. A final gambit, not as a weapon, but a supplementary tool to expand his range of tactics, and more importantly, enable him to cheaply move with a degree of speed and flexibility that surpassed what he could manage on his own.
If he didn't know that it would piss almost everyone he knew off, he would freely admit that he got the idea from playing that God of War video game that Sirius gave him a while back. Fiction or not, the Blades of Chaos were bloody versatile and useful things to work with.
Even so, Enkidu was a rather peculiar Noble Phantasm. So long as two of the three main parts existed, the two ends and the center chain link, it could produce and erase any link on its body without fail almost instantly. Even if one end was shattered, he could reproduce it almost instantly for a minimal cost so long as the bulk of it was still on him.
Even more interestingly was that it was a Noble Phantasm that didn't seem to care when multiple copies of itself existed. If two links of Enkidu existed, then by some mystery that even Shirou couldn't figure out, the pair could be united and connected as one instantly. Both were "Enkidu" and could function as separate existences, but at the same time, they were still "Enkidu", the singular shared existence.
It was an interesting mystery to be sure, but not Shirou's field of expertise. In the end he simply chalked it up as: "Since it was Gilgamesh's most prized treasure, there should be no question that it has a peculiar trait like this."
He clenched his teeth. He couldn't trace. He had no Noble Phantasms on him save a copy of Rule Breaker and Enkidu. He could still perform basic thaumaturgy on himself, and Avalon was healing him, but he didn't want to risk using his time mysteries anymore than he needed. Breaker Gorgon was on his right hand, but it was a Noble Phantasm of a similar nature to Bloodfort Andromeda, though more of a "Sealed World" bounded field rather than an "Enveloped World". Rule Breaker wouldn't get rid of it.
On the other side of things, Rider was slowly growing in power and catching up, but she no longer had any Noble Phantasms to rely on, not that she needed them anymore to kill him. She knew he had Enkidu and would be prepared for it now. She had super strength, but her speed was what was most dangerous.
He had five seconds left before he reached the Pegasus and ran out of time.
His right hand slipped into his coat pocket and fumbled with one of the objects inside. He had wanted to use this in a better setup, but beggars weren't choosers.
Rider had nearly caught up to him again. He could feel his body stiffen in close proximity to her eyes again and grimaced in annoyance and frustration. That bitch Caster must have put in an absurd amount of effort to ensure that Rider followed her every order like this.
But then again, sometimes being overly eager to finish a job could have consequences.
With less than a second left, Shirou withdrew the item from his pocket and tossed it up at eye level between them before quickly crossing his arms in front of his body, looking away, and pouring probably more Prana than was healthy into his ear canals to plug them.
It was a black cylindrical device. Rider had never seen its like before in her life. However, despite that she had recognized it almost instantly from its use.
After all, she had been subjected to and been present almost countless times in this tactic's use before… with Assassin.
"Shi-!" Rider's curse was cut off as the enhanced flashbang, curtesy of Sirius McGinty, went off violently as Shirou had pulled the pin prematurely in his pocket. Not a product of thaumaturgy, but definitely modified by it.
It might have been designed as a flashbang, but the impact of the explosion still knocked the air out of the teen's extremely tender stomach, knocking him back and over violently, stopping just a few meters away from the startled Phantasmal Beast.
But that was nothing compared to the effect it had on Rider, who actually did shout in alarm and pain as her normally covered eyes and sensitive ears were assaulted by the armament. Had she been virtually any other Servant, the bomb would have only bought Shirou only a few moments, but with her blindfold off for the first time in who knows how long, and her enhanced hearing, having it go off less than a meter away from her head was devastatingly effective. Unused to being attacked or damaged in such a way, the beautiful Servant collapsed and clenched at her head in unexpected pain she was experiencing.
Rolling to his feet again, Shirou weighed his two options for the briefest of moments. He could either wrap Rider up in Enkidu, using it up in the process, or run away.
The first was very tempting, as it would prevent Rider from fighting back or killing herself if he decided to use Rule Breaker. Most Magi would consider this the obvious choice.
Most Magi were, in his opinion, fucking idiots.
Rider had just gotten the upper hand and was on the verge of victory. There was no way that Caster wouldn't be watching to see his death, meaning if he tried something as obvious as taking back Rider now, Caster would intervene at the last moment with his defenses down and kill him easily.
All things considered, the Witch must be incredibly put out that he managed to shut down Rider like this, even if it was only temporarily. Then again, it wasn't his problem. Quite the opposite really.
He clenched his right hand and flexed his fingers. Four cheap rings made of crystal were on it. Just like the last time he assaulted the temple.
He shattered the ones on his index and middle one without a second thought as he staggered to the center of the rooftop. It had only been a few moments since Rider had landed her two kick combo on him and his body was reeling something fierce. Staying anywhere near the edge was no different than asking to be killed.
The connection between the chains on his body and the ones around the Pegasus vanished as he whipped his right arm back and threw it forward, extending the end of Enkidu sticking out of his sleeve and launching it like a whip. A second later, the golden tip impaled itself in the concrete that made up the roof of the devastated building next to him, all but collapsing thanks to Rider's earlier Hail Mary attempt on his life. It shouldn't have stuck so firmly to the building, but then again it was a Noble Phantasm of the highest quality and Shirou wasn't going to complain about that.
"Ngh." Retracting the chains rapidly to elevate himself to the rooftops of the town, he silently would admit to the jerking agony that putting all his weight and then some into one arm was worth complaining about. Had he not reinforced himself, his arm would no doubt have dislocated already.
Just a little bit longer. That's all he needed.
He grimaced as his feet slammed onto the side of the building as he shot up, sending a jolt into his very much not healed body.
Mysteries were nifty things, but if they weren't designed for certain laws of physics, then said laws would make themselves known quite blatantly. He had started off a dozen or so meters away from the vertical side, and unlike certain comic book heroes who could use grappling hooks, web, magic or whatever to scale buildings, he seemed to be susceptible to gravity, and thus was swung into the damaged wall somewhere between the second and third floors.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance. Because the chain he launched was embedded into the side of the building, simply pulling himself up would only get him to said point and no higher. He'd have to be a bit more creative…
The rattling of chains from below sent a cold chill down his spine.
… Sooner rather than later.
Not caring if he dislocated his arm, he doubled the rate he was being pulled up, making sure to keep his feet between himself and the wall, essentially sliding to the sky. Not even a meter to where his anchor was, he mentally commanded the end to "let go" of the building, launching him up with no connection to the world around him with enough velocity to have him well over four meters above the top of the structure he was scaling.
Wasting no time, he whipped out his left arm, throwing the other end of Enkidu into the rooftop in front of him and pulling him down again onto stable ground and out of the way of the nail that Rider threw at him just moments earlier.
He landed hard. He did roll into it, but the angle he came in at was off due to the pulling of the chain, making it awkward.
"Kah. Hah. Hah." Everything hurt. His chest was on fire. His stomach was a pool of magma. His limbs were made of lead. His head felt like it was perpetually exploding and felt swollen on the right side. His eyes were the same. His heart seemed to do nothing but pump more agony into his system. Every time he breathed, he could feel his insides tear themselves apart.
He wouldn't be able to last much longer. Fighting a Servant head on like that was stupid, but it was the only way to ensure that Caster didn't focus more on Rin and kill the easy target.
"You, are surprisingly difficult to kill, boy." Caster's clearly irritated voice permeated the air. She spoke as though she had trouble deciding what she should be feeling.
Don't reply. She's trying to distract you. His experience took over and he prepared himself to move in a moment's notice. He forced his breathing to steady itself despite how badly he needed oxygen. He forced his heart to pace itself. His eyes never stayed still. His senses reached out as far as they could go.
"That useful chain of yours is something new. Even I can tell it is not a treasure that can simply be overlooked. A trophy from your encounter with the King of Heroes, I take it?" she continued, not expecting him to speak anyways. "You have adequate taste, though I suppose that should be expected. You have long since proven to be more resourceful and adept than most."
Where would Rider be more likely to strike? From the damaged end of the building where there were more footholds? Or from the undamaged side where she would be less likely to make a sound? Had she recovered enough strength to attack him from below, through the roof itself?
"But that chain is all you have left now, isn't it? Save for maybe another copy of my dagger? If that's so, then maybe Rider is no longer needed…" A familiar black miasma covered the rooftop around Shirou, soon accompanied by dozens of skeleton warriors…
He moved on reflex. No, he moved at the guidance of the chain he possessed. His right arm flared out, moving as though he was giving a command more than utilizing a technique. In one grandiose gesture, Enkidu extended without limit, weaving about with a silky metallic rattle.
"Then again, I suppose it was wise that I didn't have my hopes up." The Witch sighed.
Each and every skeleton warrior on the building was ensnared by the single length of golden chain. None of them had been given an opportunity to retaliate, and none of them had the ability or potential to break out of their bonds.
"You're annoying." Shirou grunted. A single twitch later, the chain retracted instantly. Coils that were wrapped around the golems snapped taught, breaking all of his prisoners in one move.
"Oh? There's that dangerous look again. You really are something else, child. One could even say, inhuman." The Witch made a sound as though she was clearly amused with her comment. "Small wonder Rider has held onto that paltry hope that you could "save" her somehow. Just like you did with her Master. A fool that goes out of his way for mistakes and monsters."
On one of the far corners, a black and purple blur shot up into the sky before landing silently on the edge. A familiar feeling clamped down on Shirou's body as jeweled eyes once more bore down on him.
"NGH!?" Shirou turned to ready himself to move, but stopped short as the air stilled around him. The natural kinetic energy within the gasses surrounding his body no longer existed, freezing him in place, barely allowing enough flow for him to breathe.
"Now now. You didn't think that Rider and Assassin were the only ones to lay traps on the rooftops, did you? Of course, I had intended them to be for my fellow Servants, but having you ensnared is just as good. Cutting the head off the snake will make things so much easier, no pun intended, Rider." Caster all but laughed in triumph.
He struggled against the spell. His circuits flared, and he pushed out as much Prana as he could to disrupt the trap, but the best he could do was move a miniscule distance at any given time, and breathe. "You…"
"It really was a good attempt. I had to put in a good deal of effort to hold off Berserker for as long as I did, procrastinating his troubling revival. Keeping tabs on Assassin. Stalling your comrades. And I must applaud you for your maneuver with Lancer." Caster materialized mid-speech, hovering in the air right in front of him with a victorious smirk on her face. "Really, teaching Saber runecraft to preemptively cast that crude curse of his? That was a rather vile and brilliant move of yours, boya. Had I not known better, I might have even offered you a place at my side. It is going to be a shame to waste your devious mind."
She floated confidently towards him, a predatory gaze lingered in her eyes, just barely visible from under her hood. A hand emerged from her robes, holding onto the original Rule Breaker.
"But don't be disappointed. I'll be sure to keep Saber around. Out of all of the Servants, she appears to be the most useful and loyal, wouldn't you agree?"
Shirou grimaced and struggled more in the trap. His right arm, already injured from pulling himself up the building, finally dislocated, though it didn't do him much good.
"And oh the things I'll do with your body," she continued, just a few meters away from him now. "Such a unique resource. I don't think I'll ever be bored playing with it in my utopia."
"I'm too young for you, lady," he managed to grumble out irritably while still trying to break free.
The confident smirk waned a bit at the age comment. "Your mouth on the other hand, I can do without."
The woman paused she felt something suddenly change. It was though something had been severed.
An instant later, a towering pillar of fire erupted a moderate distance away.
"Assassin…?" The Witch's eyes widened in surprise before turning to him in anger. "You surprise me. I thought you wanted to kill only me."
"Kiritsugu Emiya is dead. I was next to him when he passed." Shirou glowered back, his eyes filled with murderous resolution.
"As will be the case with you and I, boy." His body stretched, arms splayed out despite his protests and pain. The dagger rose over his left arm…
… His single Command Seal glowed in the darkness with residual power. He wasn't even making an effort to use it in some way.
It was his eyes that gave him away. There was no desperation in them. Anger, rage, fury, focus, annoyance, yes… but there was also patience and a cold calm. It wasn't the eyes of someone that that stripped of all hope and options, or ones of a person that was still fighting against fate with all their might.
Caster froze. She didn't like his look. She shouldn't dally. Without Assassin, the only things she had left to keep Archer and her counterpart in line were her army of fragile skeleton warriors and a few well-placed bounded fields that would only stall them for a few moments. If she wanted to utilize Bloodfort Andromeda, she would have to do so soon if ever.
She had him. She had him she had him she had him! He was trapped! He couldn't make any weapons! He was separated from everyone! He couldn't summon Saber! He was surrounded by two Servants and he was just a human!
So why?! Why was she suddenly filled with terror as if she was the one that had been cornered?!
It was a bluff. It had to be a bluff! "What did you do, boy?"
Silver eyes looked up at her. It was only then that she noticed how twisted his image had become. A good third of his head was covered in some metallic scale like flesh. The teeth hidden under said flesh did not belong to a human, or any animal, as they shone with a metallic glint that no living being possessed.
"… You, aren't very good at this."
Was it instinct? Maybe her paranoia enhanced her senses. Or perhaps her connection with Rider allowed her to pick it up in time.
All she knew was that her body moved before she realized something was wrong.
And her chest exploded in blood.
o. o. o.
Assassin frowned in the heat. If he had the liberty of time, he might have been able to possibly deconstruct or make a hole in Caster's bounded field, but he had never worked with mysteries from the Age of the Gods before.
He couldn't escape. The bounded field was too powerful, and it extended all the way underground, so he couldn't use the sewers, parking garage, or internal maintenance tunnels to get away.
They were wasting time and resources. The Witch was preoccupied, but not blind. She knew his situation and didn't care. So long as he kept the Princess busy and wasn't needed for another task, she'd keep him there without a care even if she could easily use a Command Seal to save him.
These children were too green. They were trying too hard to keep everyone alive. They were…
His body stilled as the prana in the building spiked. The heat became unbearable. The power was overwhelming. So oppressive that he could barely feel anything…
So that's how this was going to play out.
o. o. o.
Rin liked to think that she was a capable combatant. She liked to think that with her natural abilities, intellect, and training in martial arts, she was able to deal with any adverse situation given enough time and preparation.
Rin would also like to think that she was not, once again, on the receiving end of a brutal beating courtesy of Bazett.
A large explosion shattered anything fragile in the narrow alleyway, forcing the pair away from one another.
No, that wasn't completely accurate. Rin was holding her own better than normal to be sure, but there was still a gap between their combat abilities.
It didn't change the fact that she was perpetually running away from her opponent out of fear of a potential brutal beating.
Zelretch was the key reason for why the fight had lasted so long to begin with. It was Rin's trump card, something on par with a Noble Phantasm. After her display earlier when she killed Kirei, everyone knew it was the strongest option in her arsenal.
As such, she couldn't use it.
Multiple black orbs penetrated one side of the kicked up dust and emerged out the other side in a blind attempt to hit the Enforcer. Said Enforcer in turn charged forward on her magically enhanced bare feet, holding her arms in front of her and pushed through like a bull. The dirty cloak she wore that barely covered her modesty negated the curses as though they were not even there.
The Irishwoman tore through the cloud of ash and grime, and witnessed three precious gems flying right towards her just as she came out the other side.
An accumulation of roughly three and a half years' worth of prana from Rin erupted, sending crack all along the plaster, concrete, and metal structures around them. The explosion damaged the infrastructure of the buildings. The women would have to move soon or else risk have everything literally fall down on top of them in the process.
Fragarach was a peculiar Noble Phantasm like that. It would only properly counter the opponent's strongest moves. Anything less than that would turn the weapon into a mere D ranked shot. Still somewhat potent, but ultimately a waste that didn't utilize time altering properties.
Until this fight, Rin's strongest attacks had always been her most powerfully charged jewels and perhaps a ritual or two. As a result, she was unable to use them as she had wished in their earlier confrontations.
With that particular tilted scale rectified, the bout between the pair was far closer than before.
Rin rode the blast wave instead of resisting it, allowing to be pushed to the end of the alleyway and turn the corner to a second path. She didn't assume for a second that the blast had been enough to take out Bazett, and she wasn't going to waste the time she had bought to think she could win an upfront fight. Her opponent may have lost the majority of her enhanced clothing, but Caster clearly had made up for it with enchantments from the Age of the Gods.
… Though it did not appear as if Bazett's performance was any greater or less than it was before. Rin didn't know if it was due to instinctual preference or some sort of compatibility with the spells, but all in all she couldn't really see a difference between how her opponent fought now in comparison to their previous confrontations.
As it stood, the only reason why Rin knew she was still doing damage to her opponent was because after every encounter, more and more of Bazett's dirty coverings was torn or burnt off.
This had been how things had progressed since Rin had killed Kirei. The instant the Priest was gone, all of Rin's attention had been on the Enforcer, falling back into the city and using her magic to keep a distance. The enchantments that Caster placed on Bazett did a tremendous job protecting the woman from Rin's attacks even if her choice of attire left much to be desired.
"Tch. Again? These things are almost as infuriating as Kirei!" Rin snarled as she reached out and fired off several Fin curses to destroy the skeleton warriors that were in her way.
Things weren't that straight forward though. In addition to dealing with Bazett, Rin also had to deal with those annoying golems of Caster's that spawned literally everywhere. The teen was almost killed when she was ambushed by three of them that barged out of a nearby window just as Bazett was getting close.
"Rin. How much longer do we have to wait? Caster's spamming her skeleton warriors everywhere and they keep coming. There are too many of these things coming from every angle to hold off forever. The Witch is making colossal warriors too which Illya and Luvia can't deal with easily." Archer's voice caused her to stumble. He wasn't normally the type to start a conversation.
"I'm a little busy at the moment myself. I'm fighting Bazett again."
"Again?" She could hear him almost groan in exasperation.
"I'm not exactly thrilled about it either, but I can handle myself this time. It's not like we didn't predict this might happen." She almost sighed in agreement. "I'm more worried about Sakura. How is she?"
"I managed to figure out a temporary solution, but she can't fight with us as a result. The best she can do is run and hide while the rest hold our own. On the plus side, Caster's managed to trap Assassin. Unless someone big tries to attack her directly, he won't be escaping anytime soon."
"Good." Rin breathed out slowly. At least something had gone their way for once. Still with the way things are going… "Tell Caster to get ready. We might have to move ahead of schedule."
"Is that you or Shirou Emiya saying this?"
Rin would have made a snappish comment, but her instincts had just kicked in at that moment and she had to duck to avoid being bludgeoned by a trash can flying faster than a speeding vehicle. "Shirou's busy with Rider! I couldn't talk to him even if I wanted to!"
"He's WHAT?!"
She looked around frantically. Bazett was catching up quick. Wasn't this the right alleyway? Damn it! They all look the same!
She rose her arm and readied another barrage of Fin curses. The dark orb hovered over her fingers, but she flinched as Bazett dodged them all, ran to the edge of the area, literally tore out a portion of the brick building next to her with a bare hand, made a fist and then threw her improvised scattershot straight ahead.
"Gah!" Barely managing to defend her vitals in time with her arms, Rin was stunned by the multiple small projectiles. Her reinforced body and enchanted clothes took a good brunt of the damage, but it still hurt something fierce.
The attack stalled the girl long enough for Bazett to close in rapidly before the former could react properly. Before she knew it, the woman was right in front of her with an arm cocked back, her gloves glowing with the runes that covered them…
The only sign that Rin had that something had changed was the rapid dilation of her attacker's perpetually dulled eyes.
The strike intended to crush a part of her body instead shot to Rin's right, grazing her side painfully…
… And barely deflecting the snakelike strike that had almost impaled Bazett's chest.
She didn't know if she had stumbled or was thrown away from the chaos, but the next thing Rin knew she was on her backside with half her body aching and watching with dazed eyes as her attacker was put on the defensive against the newcomer that had saved her life.
Dressed in a casual suit and tie as though he was ready for another day at the office, Souichirou Kuzuki showed no mercy against the Enforcer as he attacked.
Neck. Collar. Diaphragm. The man's movements were too sudden and unreadable for Bazett to keep up with after showing up so suddenly. His body, enchanted by the Princess' magic, ensured that he was able to hit as fast and hard as his opponent without breaking stride.
He didn't bother to turn around and look at Rin. He didn't bother to talk. They were just distractions for the task at hand.
The man had never returned from dinner with Taiga that day, as the latter had complained about the "workload" that she had brought over in combination with the stairs to the temple enough that they had "decided" to move their operations to her place. Since the man had the personality of a blank canvas, it wasn't too surprising that he went along with her requests.
It was a gamble, keeping Kuzuki so far away from the main group when they approached, but it was needed to keep the Witch from noticing him. He was a secret weapon, much like Kirei had been for Caster. Not to be unleashed unless needed.
Ideally, he wasn't even going to be involved if everything went well. He was just a spare body. A backup plan. Someone to help Rin if she and Shirou were separated and she needed to buy time.
All of this had been explained to the man when they asked him for help. He still agreed to join them without a moment's hesitation.
Many in the group had been skeptical of his ability to contribute initially. That was, until the Princess enchanted his body and he sparred against Saber.
Illya had a few choice words to say to her brother being a magnet for terrifying people after the display.
While Bazett was unable to express herself normally due to Caster's spell, it was blatantly clear that she was completely off guard and alarmed at the sudden change of events as her movements grew increasingly erratic and wild, unable to regain the control needed to fight back properly.
Kuzuki was relentless. He might have "retired" as an assassin, but his instincts and training were nothing short of crippling. All of his strikes were debilitating at the least, and the force behind them were just as ominous. From Rin's perspective it was difficult to tell if he was really trying to kill Bazett or just using lethal means to force her back.
Erratic and uneven strikes came from seemingly every angle at the woman with crushing efficiency. She didn't have any place to move except back if she didn't want to be destroyed, and even that option was restricted due to her unstable balance.
It happened quickly.
Bazett had slipped on something as she dodged at an awkward angle to avoid a jab to her neck. Whether it was on reflex or intentional, Kuzuki followed through with what appeared to be a heavy blow with all his weight behind it.
Suddenly, the world around Rin went white and her ears were ringing with a duet of high pitched tones.
The next thing she knew, she was picking herself up off of the ground in a daze.
"Ugh? What?" Her voice sounded muffled, as though she was hearing it through a filter.
She blinked and looked around. A short distance away, far closer to her than he had been earlier, Kuzuki was already on his feet. Well, on his feet was a bit subjective, seeing as he seemed to have trouble keeping balance.
In the distance though was a peculiar sight. Where there had been one woman, there were now three. Or rather, a woman and two girls.
Wait… there was more than just three.
"Now now. There's no need to be overly rough," a kindly old man in a priest outfit chided from the opposite end of the alleyway, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Uncle!" the two girls cried out in unison. "Help us! The mean lady's done something to mama! We don't want to fight!"
"Uncle?" Rin blinked in genuine confusion as she tried to recall what Merem had told everyone about Bazett's new legs.
"Don't worry, children. Everything will be just fine. Just stay still for a few more moments." The rat in the shape of man strode forward leisurely before looking up. "Tohsaka. While I am not human, I am a part of the Church's Burial Agency. May I trouble you with my aid, and in turn, I for yours?"
She was confused for only a moment before the hidden meaning of his words registered. Merem had been with them during their planning stages, so it was only natural that he and his... limbs, she guessed, knew about the possible ways she and or Shirou had planned on taking down Bazett. "I… r-right!"
Reaching into her pockets again, she took out a single low grade ruby with a fair amount of prana in it and tossed it into the air. The two Banshee girls looked around confused, as they didn't know what was going to happen, but their instincts also told them that there was absolutely no form of death coming from the girl's actions. "Zweite Licht. Zweiter Mond. Echo Dämmerung."
The gem froze in place and emitted a red tinged light almost instantly, bright enough to almost blind everyone there.
The shuffling of robes was heard. The slick grinding sound of metal. The screech of metal on something hard…
"E-eh?!" The girls choked out in confusion. "W-we can't move!"
"Ah. My apologies children. I seem to have accidentally gotten you as well. Your shadows must be overlapped." The King of Rats bowed regretfully, standing next to the three black keys that he had stabbed into the elongated silhouette he was standing on.
Black Keys. Tools of the Church Executors. They were rather weak tools in comparison to more esoteric and exotic ones like Noble Phantasms and specially made Mystic Codes that Magi make, but they did have uses. They were easy to make. They were potent against spiritual entities, and most importantly, they could be used to immobilize the target if they were stabbed into their shadow. The more the better.
Of course, when it comes to the Church Executors, they'd ultimately rather hit the body then the shadow in most cases. Taking their targets alive is a practice they are not particularly known for.
Rin and Kuzuki each had six on person. Shirou oddly enough didn't even have to make them. Rin had them in stock since her family was a part of the Church. Rin and Kuzuki had originally planned to attack her from either side and confuse the woman while Rin set up a light and catch the woman off guard before using their keys. Quick. Simple. And easy.
The King of Rats had only simplified the process even more.
"I thought spiritual existences like you couldn't touch Black Keys." Rin grunted as she picked herself up and gingerly patted herself down to see if anything was broken or her clothes torn. Thankfully, a cursory investigation yielded nothing concerning.
"We are harmed by Keys, much like humans are by firearms. Accessibility to them for those like myself is another issue entirely. So long as I only hold the handle, I might as well be just like any other Executor." The rat took out another blade and jabbed it into the ground. One key was supposedly enough to hold down anyone, but he clearly wasn't taking any chances.
Behind him, the silhouette of a rat trailed down the alleyway due to the light in the distance. A warped figure far larger than what should be possible, yet still possessing a twisted form of nobility in the way it held itself.
"You are not human," Kuzuki noted, already on his feet before anyone else noticed.
"And you are not just a teacher." The Priest smiled, not at all bothered by being found out. "You have done a good job with young Lord Emiya when he was in your care. It is a pleasure to meet you. I have seen why he has kept your existence a secret from everyone until now. His respect for your skills is regarded highly."
The teacher nodded slowly, his face unreadable. It was unknown if the man would still attack this newcomer or not.
"Oi. You kids. Banshees right?" Rin sighed and looked at the terrified children with a dry glare. Normally she'd be against scaring kids, but she had been smacked around too many times to care by this point. Not to mention her ears and head were still ringing form the latest screaming special the kids just gave her. "Why didn't you just come out like this in any of the earlier fights so we could hold, ugh, Mama, down?"
"We couldn't. The mean lady put a spell on Mama." The older redheaded girl shivered warily. "If we came out for any reason other than to stop her from dying, a spell would make Mama's chest explode."
"She used it once on that scary sad man with the empty eyes." The younger blonde one, despite being paralyzed, was perpetually shivering uncontrollably. Had she been able to move, she no doubt would have crawled into a ball. "It hurt just to see it."
"Don't let us go back. Mama can't take much more. She's tired and her body is dying." The red one begged, tears in her eyes. "The scary woman will kill her, but we can't stop it."
Rin sighed. "Don't worry. All of this ends tonight." She turned to the King of Rats. "Not that I'm complaining, but why did you help us? Did Solomon send you?"
"He didn't stop me." The Left Arm chuckled. "I'm certain that you would have managed to pin down Ms. McRemitz sooner or later. However, I was unsure if you'd be able to ensure that Caster would not be able to bring her back regardless. Her magic is old indeed, and powerful. It would be most dissatisfying if you lost a victory for such minor reasons. Regardless, I don't think you would have been adverse to a bit of extra aid, Miss. Tohsaka. If I recall, it is not in anyone's interests for you in particular to be in battle for an extended period of time."
"Tch. Keep talking why don't you? I'm certain that Caster didn't hear you the first time. What with another one of her tools gone." The girl grimaced, looking around warily for any sign of them being watched or more golems, only to be somewhat confused when nothing happened.
"There should still be more of those peculiar skeletons about." Kuzuki frowned. He had avoided most of them, using his previous experience to move about undetected, but there had been a few groups that he could not get past without destroying quickly. Thankfully, Caster didn't seem to notice his actions.
"Don't worry. I have that particular issue covered." The priest chuckled and nodded his head to either end of the alleyway, prompting Rin and Kuzuki to look and see multiple rats at either. As guards? As Barriers? They didn't know what, but there was a rolling and skittish tingle on their skins as they registered that they were surrounded.
"I believe you are familiar with the term "out of sight, out of mind" correct?" the Priest elaborated, unalarmed as a small troupe of skeleton warriors walked past the alleyway without noticing them. "A similar concept can be applied to this alleyway, as I have claimed it as the territory of my kin. Unless someone is actively trying to think or look for your existences in particular while in the area, none of you will come to mind to those on the outside, and thus none of you will be found. Even the grand mysteries of Caster would not be successful unless she puts her greatest efforts into the task, which is unlikely. Thus, a haven out in the open. Welcome."
Rin shivered as she looked at the beady little eyes staring at her from every direction. Rats. Why did it have to be rats? She didn't want to be ungrateful, but… there were rats everywhere! What self-respecting female wouldn't be freaking out by now?! Where the hell did they come from?!
"What do you intend to do now?" Kuzuki wasn't perturbed by the situation in the slightest, unlike Rin.
"Nothing that hasn't already been done." The fake priest shrugged. "This is Lord Emiya's performance. I have interfered as much as I am willing to, merely tying up a few stray loose ends. My Master is of the same mind."
"Lord. You keep on referring to him as "Lord". Why?" The teacher's eyes narrowed.
"That I'm afraid is a personal matter, and-" Whatever the rat was going to say was interrupted as two of the gem rings on Rin's hand shattered. "Oh dear."
"Index and middle." Kuzuki glanced at the dispersed remains of stone. "Emiya is requesting aid. In this situation, his next action would be…"
"Archer! We're out of time!" Rin shouted to her Servant. "Shirou needs backup!"
o. o. o.
"Of course he's the first one that gets in over his head." EMIYA relented as he cleared out another rooftop's worth of skeletons. Without bothering to explain or warn Sakura, he rushed to where she was nervously looking around and lifted the surprised girl up with one arm before jumping to his fellow Servant. "Caster! Time's up! We gotta move! Luvia! Illya! Gather to Caster!"
"About time!" Illya yelled in exhaustion. Taking out the skeletons and protecting herself wasn't the issue with her. She was a well of prana that no human could match. It was the constant riding of a bull that weighed over five hundred times more than she did what was wearing her down quickly. Even with thaumaturgy, she had to use literally all her weight and strength for the beast to actually register and understand what she was doing.
"I agree!" While Luvia didn't have the same issue when it came to moving her bull, the mysteries she utilized to protect and attack were nowhere near as elaborate. Her bounded fields did not last long when they were forced to constantly follow her, and her reserves were starting to get a bit too low for her liking as she unleashed another rain of curses onto a group of skeletons.
Caster didn't say anything in particular to acknowledge that she heard him, but she did start chanting faster in the forgotten language, causing the bounded field surrounding the building Assassin was in to grow in power and temperature.
Landing right behind the woman, he lowered Sakura quickly and turned around, unloading several more arrows seamlessly in the process. "I'm leaving Sakura to you. Keep her safe."
Without waiting for a response, he then jumped away once more in a direction that was neither to the girls nor to the mountain.
It looked to be an office building of sorts. It was several floors higher than those around it, so naturally he avoided it like the plague earlier since it was an obvious place to go to for long range fighters and thus rigged with traps. But now with Assassin preoccupied he could be a bit more reckless.
Arrows never stopped spraying from his bow as he leapt towards his destination, clearing out not only his path, but those of Illya and Luvia as well. He had lost track of how many he had unleashed at this point, but he had long since stopped caring.
A colossal skeleton was between him and his target. It was an ugly thing whose head couldn't support life even if the rest of the body could, but it was clearly powerful. The prana and sheen of its bones was of a different quality than the others. It was not something that could easily go down in a single hit.
Less than a second later it had collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Its joints at the knees, shoulders, and elbows had been hit so hard and fast it appeared from an outside perspective as though they had simultaneously detonated.
"How annoying. Thinking that something like that would actually work. Even the boy is capable of taking that thing out without effort." Archer grunted to himself as he leapt up the distance between the last building and his destination, flipping in the process and unloading an extra dozen or so exploding shots into the giant golem's spine at the base of the neck as a precaution.
He grimaced and braced himself upon landing as a tremendous flash and wave of heat overcame his position. Less than a hundred meters away, Caster had essentially turned the contents of her bounded field into a giant pyre so intense that even her magic couldn't hold back the power inside.
"If that didn't catch the Witch's attention and cause her to panic, nothing will." Blinking out the spots quickly from his vision, he focused on the buildings at the edge of the mountain. Almost instantly he saw what he was looking for.
"There's a good chance that Rin and I are going to be split up in town when things start. If that's the case, we are going to need some way to protect ourselves if things get too heavy. Kuzuki's a good start, and Rin has Zelretch, but those can only get us so far if we are up against Servants. Rin can summon Archer, but I can't do the same for Saber. In her place, I'm going to have to work around this a little. If we start fighting and I have my back against the wall, I'll send the signal to Rin. After that…"
Archer couldn't stop the snort of dry amusement as he saw Shirou standing on one of the buildings wrecked by Rider. He was clearly trapped if the warped air around him was any indication. His arms were spread out and he was facing the city. Facing him.
More importantly though, was the fact that Rider was standing on the corner of the building, and Caster, the fool, was right in front of the boy, out in the open. Not even Shirou had assumed that she'd be foolish enough to leave her seat of power just to gloat.
… No. Not to gloat. She was focused on his left arm and had Rule Breaker out. She was going to try and steal Saber.
In broad daylight. With her back turned to a fight where one of her enemies was an Archer class Servant.
"Stupid woman never bothered to wonder why he ran to the rooftops in the first place." It was a red arrow that was notched and drawn this time. An altered Gae Dearg designed for precision shooting. He'd have to be careful not to hit the boy… for once.
The distance between the two was over a kilometer, but still, Shirou Emiya's eyes met Counter Guardian EMIYA's almost instantly, and for just a moment, despite their animosity for one another, the single thought they had was identical.
"She's not very good at this."
A red streak flashed over the town, through half a dozen bounded fields, an enchanted cloak, and speared through the back of the Witch of Betrayal with negligible resistance.
o. o. o.
He didn't know if he had shit for luck or her luck stat was a blatant lie to trick Masters with, but the woman just wouldn't take a killing blow. At the last moment, Caster had moved to look behind her, making the crimson arrow that Archer had shot that had been intended for her heart to impale and pass through the right side of her body instead.
Shirou didn't run when she was struck and he was freed from her trap. He didn't collapse. He didn't gloat.
Instead, he grabbed the bleeding woman's arm closest to him, the one holding Rule Breaker and held onto it as though it was a lifeline.
With as much strength as he could muster, he jerked it straight out with one arm while spinning around behind her, and smashed her elbow with the other. The entirety of his weight and enhanced strength went behind the blow.
A Servant she may have been, superhuman and protected by many mystic spells, but Caster still possessed some of the most common weaknesses that nearly every mage had. A human body susceptible to physics, lack of training, and the lack of foresight to put the same levels of protection on her limbs as her body.
Servant or not, her arm cracked backwards as easily as a mortal's, and quite loudly at that.
She didn't even notice dropping Rule Breaker.
"AAAAGH!" The woman shouted in agony as she leaned back in response to the second devastating wound she had incurred in the span of three second, blood flying out of her mouth courtesy of the first.
Following the breaking of her arm, the next few steps in the combination to take down his opponent would have involved using his hold on her arm to throw the stunned Servant to the ground on her stomach. After that, he had a myriad of options available to execute, including pinning her down to kicking hard on the back of her head to dislocate her skull and kill her quickly.
Sadly, before he could do any of that, several more arrows from Archer exploded dangerously close by, throwing him and Caster away from one another.
More importantly, it prevented Rider from running him through with her nail.
"Damn it!" Shirou swore as he quickly pushed himself back onto his feet, ignoring the dust, grime, and cuts he incurred from the sudden interruption. That had been a near perfect opportunity to finish everything right then and there!
"Y-you. Monster. Y-you're not... you won't…" Caster on the other hand seemed to be taking things the worst. Bleeding from the chest and her arm at an odd angle, she made for a sorry sight.
Fear. That was the predominant emotion in her eyes as she looked at the boy. It wasn't a matter of power anymore to her. Of superiority. Of desire. Or of even victory. It was one of survival.
She was not capable of killing this boy. This boy is going to kill her.
That was what her instincts were telling her. That out of all the legends and heroes and monsters that were embroiled in this colossal farce of a War, it was this twisted child that would do her in.
She had to escape. She had to run. She was going to die. She didn't want to die. Not again. Not like this.
"▄▄▄███████████!"
A new horror was approaching and it was closing in fast. A black giant that she had once trusted back when she was alive. No. She pretended to trust. Trusting was for fools. Only power, strength, and control mattered.
The building shook as it sustained even more damage from Archer's assault. He was too preoccupied with keeping Rider away from Shirou to try and snipe the Witch a second time.
Before Caster had the opportunity to move or regain her thoughts though, a flash of gold caught her eyes just before a painfully tight sensation crushed her arms to her body.
"Enkidu," Shirou ground out with his right arm holding the other end of the chain that had ensnared the Servant and his left grasping Rule Breaker.
It wasn't a copy. It was her dagger. The one she had dropped when he had broken her arm.
She was wrapped in chains. Marched up the platform to her execution for all to see. It offered a wonderful view of the island, but that illusion of freedom only scorned her heart even more. All her hard work. For her children. For her future. For her life. And this was what it boiled down to in the end.
"No." This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be beaten by this boy! She had three Servants under her control! An unlimited amount of Prana at her disposal!
She was jerked forward as the golden links retracted. Her eyes widened in terror as her own Noble Phantasm was going to be used against her. A cruel irony if there was one, to be beaten by her own Dagger of Betrayal.
She had no skill in Divinity, but she was still the granddaughter of the God Helios. The chains' durability, while they were projections, had increased to that of only the strongest materials found on the planet today. Easy enough for Heracles to break through, but more than enough to restrain a physically weak Servant like Caster.
Physically at least.
"NO!"
What she shouted wasn't in Japanese, but was understood as such nonetheless. A word of power that had all of her strength and will behind it, a desperate plea and a frantic command combined with untold amounts of energy fueling the order.
The chains around her shattered under the pressure of the violet wave, breaking the tie between her and her attacker. The roofing collapsed in an ever growing crater that expanded and obliterated the floor below without pause. Despite Shirou stabbing into it with her weapon, it did next to nothing as what he encountered was raw power, not a mystery. Rule Breaker shattered under the stress of the attack faster than its wielder.
His barely mended ribs broke again, along with a few others, and several of his organs were punctured as his chest bent inward. His lungs were punctured, and his heart was momentarily crushed. For a few seconds he genuinely blacked out, unable to deal with the pain and damage that he had sustained so suddenly. The human body wasn't designed for such an intense impact, reinforcement or not.
Shirou was sent flying over the edge of building, several dozen meters above where Rider had almost killed him with her mount. He had a perfect aerial view of the crater made and the bottom half of the stairs to the temple, but he was too stunned to even register that he was even airborne.
The first thing that truly registered to him was the fog in his skull. The next, which was nearly immediately after that, was the crushing pain in his chest. It felt as though he had literally been flattened and everything inside his body was squeezed and crushed as a result.
He tried to breathe, but did so too quickly and ended up shifting his bones even more, making him cough fluids instead of inhale gasses.
His arms slowly began to move against his will, angling slowly up and forward. He felt himself leaning back in his parabolic trip through the air.
Through the air? Oh. That was right. Caster had hit him with some kind of spell. He was probably falling now.
Yes. The tops of the buildings he had just been on passed his view. They weren't skyscrapers, but the height was still something that would almost guarantee that he'd end up a red stain on the hard ground if he dropped the whole way.
But he wasn't that high. He wouldn't drop long. The fact that he actually had to register that he had passed below the roofs of the buildings meant that under most circumstances he was already out of time.
"… Hnnnng." Everything hurt. Just moving his head was agonizing, but forcing his left arm to point to the closest building against the air pressure was nothing short of self-mutilation, the brutalized bones in his shoulder and chest protesting loudly against the action.
The pain itself was a cursed blessing. It flooded him with nothing but unrelenting torture, but it kept him awake. It kept him aware. It gave his mind the focus it needed to survive.
With the last dregs of influence his addled mind could manage, the golden tip of Enkidu shot out from his sleeve and impaled itself into the closest building he could aim at. The moment he felt the chain connect, he reversed the process, retracting it as hard as he could.
*Snap. Pop. Crunch.*
If he wasn't already in so much pain and his chest almost impossible to use, he would have bellowed himself bloody as his arm fractured, broke, and dislocated in multiple areas as gravity did its work. His body had long reached its limits and this last stunt had only made it worse.
He would have blacked out again if it weren't for the fact that due to the direction he had been falling earlier combined with his new tether, his mind barely caught up to the fact that he was about to crash hard into the building he was anchored to.
"Damnit!" His face grew pale, his body curled up as much as it could to brace for impact, and he subconsciously increased the length of his chain just enough for him to change the area he collided into from a hard concrete wall to the glass window of a local electronics store.
His weight and speed were more than enough to propel him through the transparent barrier, and topple three rows of gadgets before he finally came to a stop. The gold chain he had been reliant upon had disconnected with the top of the building almost the instant he had hit the first obstacle, as if reflecting its owner's ability to hold on himself.