"So are you, considering the speed you understood what I had in mind." Lyle threw me a confident smirk and I could not help having one appear on me as well.
Ise was right, we really were similar in tactics as well.
...
"I guess we don't need to go over the plan. We go on three." Lyle took out his last grenade and pulled the pin. "One. Two. THREE!" He threw it over the cover before we split in opposite directions.
"Oh, so you guys have some plan? Okay, I will play along." Creed slashed at the grenade before it hit him, only for it to explode and spew out smoke, followed shortly by some flares that blinded him.
"GARRH! My eyes!" Creed started swinging the Excalibur randomly and releasing huge waves of energy to clear the smoke and try to hit us. I stood way back as I prepared a weapon in mind, this time letting one sword have its way and come out of my Reality Marble.
"Have a taste of the sun!" I stabbed the Grail Sword and Red-Hilted Blade into the ground before grabbing Excalibur Galantine with both hands and swung hard, the bright radiance of the Prana lighting up the entire area instantly and blasting out a good portion of the gymnasium and taking out the waves of tainted Holy Energy away from me. I then shoved the blade into the ground to create fissures filled with light that extended all the way to Creed, ensuring he remained blinded by the light while giving him some burns.
"Damn it! Stop with the light show!" Creed was about to say more only to get interrupted by Lyle who came at him from the side and swung Arondight, forcing him to block it with Excalbur and resulting in the sword getting broken again. "Damn you, Lyle!"
Lyle ignored him and kept on pushing him back, continuously hacking away at the mockery of a sword. In my eyes, I could see a vision of a dark knight occasionally overlapping over Lyle's body, taking up the same position and stance, seemingly channeling whatever energy and rage to the exorcist for the purpose of destroying the shards.
And it was showing results.
The first shard to be removed was perhaps the most ideal for us, Excalibur [Nightmare], thus eliminating his advantage of using illusions to confuse us. [Rapidly] followed shortly after, causing him to drop his speed significantly.
"DAMN YOU!" Creed snarled as he plunged the sword into the ground, creating spikes that erupted from the floor and spread in a wide radius towards us. Lyle threw a line to the ceiling and hoisted himself upwards while I leapt high into the air and landed on some steel frames that came off the damaged walls.
'Thank you for giving me some conductors to work with.' I recreated [Thunder Custom] and threw it at the field of spikes, sending out arcs of electricity to make them conductive and send them back at Creed.
"Oh shit!" Creed was too late to pull back as the electricity reached him, shocking his entire body with near deadly amounts of electricity and forcing his body to lock up.
"My turn." Lyle removed his line and fell straight down at Creed, Arondight aimed right for his head. But Creed forced himself to move at the last second, narrowly avoiding the strike to his head.
"STAB!"
"Got you this time, asshole!" Creed snarled as blood flowed from Lyle's wound and down the edge of Excalibur. "Now this proves I am the better of the two!"
'CHIK CHAK!' Creed paused before looking at the desert eagle that was aimed for his arm, before looking back at Lyle who had a smirk on his face.
"Bang." Lyle pulled the trigger lightly…
"BBBOOM!"
"GARRHH!" Creed let out a pained scream as the smoldering remains of his sword arm dropped to the floor and disintegrated upon impact, at the same time releasing his hold on Excalibur that dropped to the ground. Without stopping to check on his wound, Lyle raised Arondight and plunged the sword straight through his leg and a piece of steel bar, immobilizing him in place.
"GARGH! Darn you!" Creed used his remaining arm to punch Lyle in his wound, causing him to gasp in pain. "So you took my arm, big deal! What are you going to do next huh?!"
"Oh not me." Lyle gave Creed a shit-eating grin that looked out of place with the blood trailing his mouth. "Have you forgotten about our mutual dance partner?"
I dared say that it was in that moment, Creed knew that he had screwed up big time, as he turned around to find me at the far end of the gymnasium.
Right on time with another sword that wanted to make its opinion clear about the Excalibur Shards.
"Get ready for a major tanning, asshole!" I gripped Clarent tighter and poured my Prana into it, making it roar in a somewhat primal manner while the blade started to warp and distort irregularly as it prepared to take down the Excalibur Shards. The form changed from a beautiful blade to something befitting a weapon meant for a demon hell-bent on destroying everything in its path.
And right now I was sharing its desire to destroy this mockery in front of me.
"NO!" Creed struggled to get away as he continuously hammered Lyle with whatever he had on him, but Lyle merely gritted his teeth and pushed the blade further into his leg, making Creed yell out in pain and ceasing his attacks.
"Shirou Emiya, do it now!"
"CLARENT!" The Noble Phantasm responded to my call by releasing red lighting that burst forth from the blade and struck the ground, creating huge cracks in the ground as the sword strained to contain the energy.
"BLOOD!" The area around me seemed to reflect the bloodthirstiness of the sword as the cracks on the ground became stained with veins of dark crimson blood, extending in all directions as the sword let out a howl befitting a blood hound from hell.
"ARTHUR!" With a yell, I brought down the sword, releasing its pent-up Prana in the form of a blood-red burst of light that seemed to issue from the depths of hell. At the last moment, Lyle slammed his fist into the butt of Arondight, embedding the tip of it into the ground and locking Creed in his place. With a last punch to the face, Lyle kicked himself out of the way, leaving Creed to his doom.
"GGGAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Creed let out a final yell as the Prana burst reached him, completely engulfing his body in a bright light and reducing him to nothing within seconds. With nothing to stop it, the Prana burst continued on to demolish the wall and everything else behind it, finally letting up after a while and leaving behind a scorching mess.
… Okay, Clarent was a lot more pissed than anticipated. But with that, it seemed that their desire to trash the Excalbur Shards have been sated, as the Noble Phantasms of the Knights finally heeded to my call and vanished into a cloud of gold dust.
A light thump drew my attention to Lyle, who seemed to have succumbed to the injuries now that Arondight had fulfilled its purpose for the fight.
"Hey there, need a hand?" Lyle snorted at my query but grabbed my hand and let himself be pulled up, wincing lightly at the pain. "Anything I need to know?"
"Beside broken ribs, torn muscles, a hole in my stomach and possibly a blown ear? I'm peachy." Lyle replied while shaking his head lightly to rid himself of the dizziness. He turned his head slowly to look at Galilei who was staring at the broken pieces of Excalibur with a stunned expression. "Man, I wish I have a camera right now to document that face."
"Would a phone do?" I raised an eyebrow as I took out my phone. Inwardly I marveled at the durability of the item in my hands; considering the amount of fighting it just went through, it was still working properly.
"I haven't seen that model in such a long time." Lyle noted the phone as he took it and quickly took a picture with a brief moment of glee on his face.
"Nokia at its best." I replied as I took it back. "So you think you can continue fighting?"
"Maybe, if I have time to rest and that tonic to drink, but I think this injury is going to limit my time." Lyle spat out some blood. "We would need a plan to deal with Kokabiel."
"You would need a good one then."
Before either of us could register that voice, a light spear hit the ground next to us and exploded spectacularly, sending us hurtling to the ground outside of the building. It took me a few seconds to shake off the pain and a few more to get myself off the ground. Wincing from the headaches, I turned to find Lyle on the ground next to me, bleeding and breathing lightly, but still very much alive and now unconscious.
"So boy, you are still alive~" I raised my head to find Kokabiel back with his sinister smile. "That is good, you should not have too much problems with Creed. He may be a capable fighter, but I know that you have a few tricks up your sleeve." He motioned with his hand at the destruction left by Clarent. "That much is clear."
I ignored most of his speech as I looked around the area trying to get my bearings. It seemed I was now at the edge of the courtyard, rendered unrecognizable due to the amount of damage the buildings had sustained. But one thought was persistent for some time and it only got reinforced seeing the bodies on the ground.
'What happened to the others?'
...
A/N : The Story Needs More Power Stones ;)
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