Just before the dagger reached my heart, I adjusted my stance slightly. That blade missed its mark by a fraction.
Rrrrrip.
It tore into my sternum, passing beside my heart to erupt from my back.
Blood. My blood. Splattered across Medea's face.
Her eyes constricted as she looked up.
"MASTER!!!"
My magic circuits awoke like a slumbering grid jolted to life. Blue sigils of [Beast Will] erupted up my arms.
Yet...
Every circuit that fired up was severed. Those severed circuits bound themselves to my nerves—reconnecting at random, chaotic and wrong.
Pain drowned my world as my magic circuits collapsed.
Blue sigils of [Beast Will] fractured and reconnected in similar fashion, making my spell collapse instantly.
I looked up as the figure who had pierced me slowly became visible. A man, his face covered by bandages and a red hood drawn over his head. Black armour encased him from head to toe, matched with a flowing red cape.
Medea's magic circles had already rotated to life above us. Each fully charged. Locked onto him with murderous intent.
He, however, had not stopped after piercing me. His other hand attempted to bypass me toward Medea, again.
I did not let him.
Before his hand could reach her, my fist was already buried in his armoured chest.
BOOOM!
He was pushed back.
Magic circle upon magic circle bombarded him from above.
He dodged with staggering agility, weaving through the barrage like a spectre.
The boundary field across my body had already dissolved halfway.
"Master!" Medea stood beside me now. She brought her trembling hand to my chest. Tears pricking at the corners of her eyes at my injury.
"Instead of fretting over this, contact Artoria. Tell her to fetch [Avalon] from Sakura."
"B-but, Master... You're hurt." Her voice came out muffled.
"This won't kill me."
I spoke while starting to walk toward that Servant—certainly an Assassin.
At my first step, every muscle across my body aligned and tensed. Not perfectly—the wound in my chest made certain fibres misfire, but close enough.
At my second step, I spiked my adrenaline to dangerous levels, followed by my cortisol climbing higher.
For several seconds, I forcefully removed every limiter over my body.
Another step.
Muscles tore. Bones creaked. Blood burned.
BOOOM!
Everything unfocused, then snapped back.
I already stood before the Assassin. Air displacing in my wake.
My posture shifted without thought, weight dropping into my hips, shoulders angling, lead foot sliding half an inch forward.
Pivoting on my back foot, I slammed my leg into a speeding magic beam. Its trajectory diverted instantly—speeding exactly where he would be in a moment.
His eyes constricted. He brought his dagger up, severing that beam in a shower of sparks, but the recoil pushed him back regardless.
My hand tore from within that beam of magic. Fingers wrapped around his neck just as he tried to dodge.
I dragged him away, my heels digging across the floor.
He tried to stab my arm. My other hand caught his wrist.
I jerked my hold.
Crack.
His wrist broke. The dagger slipped from his grip.
He did not flinch. His other fist drove toward my face.
[Ultimate Illusionist] stirred. Phantoms uncannily similar to my own materialised at my sides.
His fist hesitated for a fraction.
It was all I needed.
My leg kicked his falling dagger, launching it straight at his fist.
He reacted instantly, jerking his hand back. I tightened my hold on his neck and pulled in response.
His arm entered the dagger's trajectory. He did not pause—he dislocated his elbow, making the dagger screech against his arm guard.
I released his wrist and punched at his face from right. He brought his arm up to block.
BOOOM!
His face deformed as a punch connected from left.
The right punch had been an illusion.
He flew back like a kite with severed strings. A voice resounded from him mid-motion.
"Chronos Rose."
The boundary field around him inverted. His personal time slowed to a crawl. His biorhythms stagnated to a near stop.
He vanished from before me like a ghost.
I dug my heel in, forcing myself to stop while sliding into a stance. My eyes closed.
Sight was unneeded. I could feel the displacement of air behind me. The faint shift in pressure against my wounded back. The metallic scent of his blade cutting through blood-saturated air.
A dagger plunged toward me from behind. It was an inch away from my pierced back when I moved.
I pivoted on one leg, kicking backward at his broken hand. He adjusted his thrust's angle—his dagger now aimed at my foot.
Before he could react, a purple magic circle rotated to life beneath him, bringing his movements to a temporary halt.
I adjusted my kick, passing beside his frozen dagger to land straight against his face.
BAAM!
The magic circle beneath him dissolved a moment later.
Yet I was already upon him.
He lay on the ground. I straddled him and pulled my hand back.
Then I punched his face.
BOOM!
Earth split beneath him.
BOOM!
His bandages tore. A tanned jaw underneath.
BOOM!
Something cracked. His cheekbone, or my hand. Irrelevant.
BOOM!
Blood pooled beneath his head. Mine or his.
BOOM!
My knuckles split. Bone showed white beneath the skin.
BOOM—Why won't I stop?
His hand jerked up and collided with my head.
I forcefully jolted my broken magic circuits to life. Cracked lines of emerald tried to climb over my body as pain tore across my mind.
Forcing my magic circuits to function, an unstable stake-chain materialised within my grip.
I drove it through his hand and buried it into the ground.
His other arm tried to twitch. I pierced it with another stake-chain.
Broken, disjointed sigils and shattered emerald lines forcefully emerging across my form.
Not enough.
[Ultimate Despair] awoke with a savage roar. The sky above cried blood. The earth beneath became a barren wasteland.
Between them stood I.
Every despair imagined—manifest in human form.
I finally pulled my fist all the way back. My expression remained flat. Eyes blank.
"Master!"
Medea had materialised beside me at some point. Her arms wrapped around my tensed arm.
"Calm down, Master!" Her eyes were red.
I glanced sideways at her—my face blank, a smear of blood across my cheek.
Then I glanced back at the bloodied Assassin beneath me.
Medea pulled me up from him. Wrapping her arms around me as healing magic circles revolved to life around us, trying to stabilise my injuries.
I looked down. Assassin was dragging himself away.
More magic circles rotated to life, bombarding him without mercy.
Yet... when the smoke and dust was swept aside, he was nowhere to be seen.
He had escaped.
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Phantasm Punishment: Mystery Bisection]: An Origin that has the double attribute of "Severing and Binding", its power put into a knife and sublimated as a Noble Phantasm of the Counter Guardian EMIYA. It is the same knife he uses for his usual time manipulation attacks, his Origin made form and the knife being the embodiment of it. It inflicts fatal damage towards enemies that possesses magic circuits and magic crests or anything similar inside their bodies.
[Authors Thoughts]
Another day. Another chapter.
Have a good day everyone!