The exploding lightning magic sword released a destructive shockwave, accompanied by lightning and thunder storms that instantly dazzled everyone's eyes. The heavenly lightning illuminated the entire night sky—
Boom!!!
Rin, using the loosening effect caused by the explosion of the projected Spiral Sword, and with the ultimate burst of Mana Burst, the chains that bound gods ultimately could not suppress Rin's power, and she broke free one by one.
At this moment, a pitch-black iron arm wrapped around Rin's slender waist from behind, pulling her up and retreating rapidly. Behind their footsteps, countless shining noble phantasms rained down like bullets, smashing into the ground, kicking up asphalt and concrete debris and smoke, making the vision cloudy and unclear.
Saber used her body to shield Irisviel from the high-speed splashing asphalt and concrete debris, which flew like bullets. After everything quieted down, looking at the sky full of dust and smoke, Saber couldn't help but frown and powerfully swung the Holy Sword in her hand, using the strong wind released by the Wind King Barrier to blow away all the dust obscuring her vision—
"Uh! Rin, you..."
Saber looked at the scene before her with some embarrassment.
As the smoke and dust cleared, the two warring parties were a hundred meters apart. Gilgamesh still stood with his arms crossed, completely unharmed. A layer of colorless, transparent, wave-like fluctuations rippled around him, clearly another defensive barrier noble phantasm that had blocked the Spiral Sword's Phantasm Collapse attack.
No, he wasn't completely unharmed. On the right side of Gilgamesh's face, there was a shallow cut, clearly scratched by fragments from the Spiral Sword explosion before the noble phantasm fully deployed.
Relatively speaking, Rin's appearance at this time looked much worse, but she was completely unharmed and not bleeding, just a bit disheveled.
Rin's clothes were, after all, just ordinary attire. If it were under a simple Mana Burst state with magical energy circulating, they could basically remain intact during battle. But under an explosion of an A+-rank noble phantasm projection at such close range... it could be described as tattered or even revealing. Basically, Rin's clothes at this time were almost completely ruined. The crimson overcoat she wore was completely torn apart by the explosion's impact. Her close-fitting inner shirt, arms, and lower abdomen were exposed. The area around her chest still had a bit left, but it was also half-torn, revealing the innermost chest binding. Her lower body was still relatively okay; the black thigh-high stockings were reduced to a few silk threads on Rin's legs, and the original black knee-length skirt was torn up to her thighs, faintly revealing a bit of black hollow lace...
"Remember, you didn't see anything!"
Feeling the strange gazes around her, Rin looked down at herself and immediately realized her clothing was too avant-garde. She instantly mobilized her magic, condensing it into a black trench coat she used to wear often, and tidied her messy black hair. However, Rin was not an ordinary pure and innocent girl, so she wouldn't blush, feel shy, or embarrassed at this moment.
Compared to the fleeting glimpse of spring Rin had just exposed, what caught the attention of those around her more was the look on Rin's face at this moment—
A piece was missing from Rin's profile!
Just like an egg with its shell peeled away revealing the egg white inside, the thin, missing piece still showed smooth, white skin underneath, or rather, that was Rin's skin.
Rider seemed to discover something at this point. He raised his large, rough, fan-like hand and snatched something from the air. Some glittering dust in the air was caught in his hand. After careful observation, he looked enlightened.
"So that's it. No wonder my beloved sword couldn't cut through that little girl Rin's skin."
Waver curiously leaned in to look at the faintly sparkling fine dust in Rider's palm. If one focused carefully, they would find that these were actually transparent, rhomboid flakes, but their flat size was less than half a grain of millet, so they looked like dust.
"What is this?" Waver asked Rider, confused, understanding from him that these almost invisible flakes were what prevented Rider's blade from harming that unbelievably strong girl.
"They are scales, dragon scales!" Saber, who had also obtained one of these flakes, instantly recognized their true identity. Her beautiful and dignified face showed surprise as she exclaimed. She would never mistake this familiar aura.
The missing part of Rin's profile regenerated at a visible, extremely fast rate, returning to normal in an instant. Rin couldn't help but touch the spot that had just been grazed by the flying noble phantasm, a faint bitter smile on her face.
"I didn't expect it to be exposed."
That's right, those were Rin's scales. They awakened with her dragon power and were Rin's dragon scales. Extremely tiny, rhomboid, transparent scales densely covered every inch of Rin's skin surface. From the outside, they were completely undetectable, just like Rin's original skin. Unless Rin deliberately controlled them to hide beneath her skin, they would float on her body surface, constantly protecting her safety.
Don't underestimate these almost invisible scales. No matter how small, they are still dragon scales. The defense that even Rider's noble phantasm couldn't cut through is proof enough. Attacks below B-rank cannot break through this layer of invisible scales.
It was only with this invisible defense that Rin dared to detonate a projected noble phantasm at point-blank range with Gilgamesh. Otherwise, just looking at the nearly fifty-meter diameter crater in front of Gilgamesh would tell you that the outcome would definitely be dire.
Gilgamesh without the brain-dead halo is indeed incredibly tricky. From the looks of it, he is currently using Achilles' Shield: Small World Enveloping the Heavens. Who knows what other noble phantasms he hasn't used yet? A sane Gilgamesh is indeed unsolvable.
Gilgamesh wiped away the blood from the cut on his face with his thumb. Under the Servant's powerful regenerative ability, the cut healed easily, but the disdain in his eyes disappeared. While not the caution of facing a formidable enemy, he did show a measure of seriousness.
"Compared to those gods who only dare to cower in the heavens and engage in despicable acts, while unpleasant, these impudent individuals who dare to use this King as a stepping stone are more worthy as opponents. Since you have shown the power to harm this King, then this King shall grant you the honor of being this King's opponent."
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