Chapter 42 Sparring Match: Shirou Emiya vs. Richard I the Lionheart III
The exchange between God-speed and the Absolute Wall continued.
Although Shirou already understood the principle, for a while afterward, he remained in a state of passive defense. Richard's speed was so great that even the speed of his sword swings couldn't keep up with his own movement. To intercept such a blade as effortlessly as he had before the acceleration was impossible.
All Shirou could do was endure the burden of his physical capabilities running at their absolute limit while searching for a chance of victory between every clash.
To suppress such god-speed, the only real solution would be a rain of swords. An endless barrage of flying blades would seal Richard's movement trajectories, forcing that blinding flash to decay into a clear path.
But Shirou's armory was screaming: Do not use a rain of swords.
Why?
Mind's Eye didn't give Shirou an answer. All of its processing power was dedicated to resisting Richard's offensive. Shirou could no longer divert his outward instincts for abstract thought.
'Talk about dropping the ball at the finish line!'
Condition one: Using a rain of swords would only have a negative effect. Would Richard utilize the rain? Or would he do something with the "swords" within it?
The steel pressed in, clashing with the defensive blade and spraying sparks. Shirou caught a breath as he pushed the weapon away, and a certain level of realization regarding Richard's analyzed sword surfaced in his mind.
It seemed that wasn't Richard's only sword. On the contrary, Richard changed weapons frequently; his experience with this specific blade was shallow. His swordsmanship showed no preference for the left or right hand; like Shirou, he was proficient regardless of which hand he used.
That was condition two. What did that imply?
Sparks flew. Within them, Shirou saw a hazy phantom. It gave him an idea. He didn't know if it was exactly as he thought, but it was worth a try.
During an unknown number of exchanges, Richard lunged with a powerful thrust. The golden light grazed Shirou's stray hairs—Kanshou was flicked upward. As the golden light lunged downward toward his shoulder, Shirou retreated three meters before it could press down.
The blade struck air, and Richard paused briefly. He reached out with his other hand to catch the Kanshou falling from above and pointed Shirou's own weapon back at him.
"This fine sword, allow me to borrow it for a moment!"
Though the line was cool, he immediately added: "What an exquisite Noble Phantasm! A blade that concentrates a massive amount of magical energy, a constantly circulating spiritual aura, and a sublime balance like Yin and Yang. Even in the era I lived in, such treasures were rare!"
Shirou didn't know whether to laugh or cry; he simply traced a new Kanshou in his hand.
"?"
Richard's eyes widened in a daze. He looked at the sword in his hand, then at the sword in Shirou's hand, realizing: "Are you saying you have as many of these as you want?"
Immediately, amidst his repeated lunges, he let out a shout of excitement like a child:
"That is truly enviable—!!"
Richard's eyes were literally sparkling. Since it was genuine envy, he wasn't lying at all.
While a Noble Phantasm factory couldn't compare to the sacred Excalibur or the great Avalon, it was practically Richard's third most dreamed-of ability!
Shirou kept his expression neutral, maintaining his seriousness as he threw the spinning black and white dual swords. Richard dodged them easily, using the opening while Shirou's hands were empty to lunge forward.
But the speed at which new armaments appeared in Shirou's hands was faster than Richard imagined. In the time it took for Richard to begin his thrust, a new weapon had already appeared. Richard's sword was forced aside, brushing past Shirou again in a hair-raisingly close miss.
Undeterred, Richard charged once more. Shirou continued to retreat throughout this process until, at one point, the black blade also left his hand, vibrated away to Richard's rear.
"Is it over?"
Although both times a sword had been knocked away, they were fundamentally different. This was because Richard now had an extra weapon, while Shirou had one less. The longsword and short sword parried each other, but the other sword in Richard's hand was unopposed.
Richard suspected Shirou might have another solution, so he asked with anticipation.
Shirou replied: "It should be over."
In that split second.
Richard's instincts as a warrior sensed something extremely dangerous leaping at him from point-blank range. Without a moment's hesitation, Richard abandoned his attack and spun around to slash the black thing away. In his peripheral vision, he saw Shirou take up the Yin-Yang swords again, looking ready to charge.
But there was still time. With Richard's god-speed, pulling away was no difficult task.
Richard's other peripheral view caught an incoming attack. It was the three short blades that had been tossed behind him.
—A dual attack from front and back.
Richard recognized this calmly. He began to think that while it was a shame to abandon his offense for the umpteenth time, he only needed to evade to the left or right.
Just as he swatted away another sword flying from behind and began to prime his leg muscles, his entire body froze unexpectedly.
The sword in his hand exploded without hesitation, sacrificing itself for the cause. It scattered magnificently, expanding into pale blue flames.
It was exactly like a time bomb. This was a poison one must not touch. The speed at which the candy coating peeled away had been deliberately suppressed to be a bit slower when the opponent let go.
His entire left hand lost sensation instantly. Richard frowned—and in this worst-case scenario, the stiffness and impact caused by the explosion decided everything.
"Though I shouldn't be the one to say this, borrowing things from others comes with interest, Saber!"
The Faker, who was the least qualified to hold such a view, began to swing his blade, while Richard felt himself enveloped by an ambiguous sensation.
—Whoa, whoa, this situation is getting a bit dangerous!!
The time for evasion was wasted by the explosion. Richard made a split-second decision, pouring all his strength into what he believed was his only path to survival. Using the one hand still capable of movement, he drove his blade toward Shirou. If he could parry the attack again, he would use that momentum to both pin the opponent and pivot left, after which a single step would let him shift to safety.
But even Richard couldn't have predicted this.
Just as Shirou hadn't predicted Richard's acceleration at the start.
The weapon already pointed at Richard—its tip extended.
A wave of metal surged, lunging straight forward from the blade's edge like scales growing out. The speed of the instantaneous extension surpassed Richard's calculations. Richard, who had proactively lunged forward, lost the chance to pull away.
He couldn't evade.
Realizing he couldn't hit before being hit, the nameless longsword abandoned the strike and swung behind him, cleanly intercepting the two Crane Wings coming from his rear.
"...I'm glad that went so smoothly. If you had only relied on the weapon in your hand and hadn't taken my sword, this setup might have all gone to waste."
The price was that Richard truly had no room to worry about the extended "Crane Wings" in front of him.
Richard's opening was inevitable. The opening occurred because the "bad compatibility" wasn't one-sided. It wasn't just that Richard would seize this person's weapons; unlike others, this person seemed accustomed to performing special treatments on his weapons.
For some reason, he was prepared.
If Richard wanted to use this person's weapons successfully, he should instead have used a Noble Phantasm like Knight of Owner that forcibly overwrites ownership; that would have directly countered his ability, like rock-paper-scissors.
This was truly unexpected. Besides this guy, who else would perform Broken Phantasm on their precious weapons? It's not like he's a Caster.
Then, Richard recalled a memory he shouldn't have forgotten. "I'm a Magus."
Ah, he had said that, hadn't he?
The gunsmoke cleared. Richard emerged from within. The armor on his side-shoulder was damaged. Beside him, Shirou also straightened up. Near his arm, a famous sword the color of diamond lay on the ground.
The hardest sword, Durandal.
The angle at which the blade hit the ground wasn't straight; instead, it was strangely chaotic. This was because, while parrying a certain attack coming from the side, the rampaging crossguard had also suffered an angular shift due to the counterforce.
An arrow fell from the sky, thudding into the ground.
"Saber, where did that shot come from just now?" Shirou asked, somewhat puzzled.
Just as the battle was about to end, much like when he aimed a bow at someone else, Shirou suddenly felt himself being aimed at. Using that sensation as a basis, he immediately projected Durandal to block, which allowed him to avoid a direct hit from the arrow.
However, the offensive stance he had worked so hard to achieve was effectively ruined. If fighting Richard seriously, it seemed impossible to decide the outcome through melee combat alone for either of them.
To figure out where the arrow came from, Shirou silently stared at Richard as if asking for a sign. Richard, looking surprised himself, shouted into the void:
"Pierre? What are you doing?"
He responded immediately after hearing some kind of voice: "Yes, yes, I certainly appreciate it, but I really didn't need your help here. This was a duel of swords. Pulling a bow for a sneak attack from behind isn't right. What if you scare off our ally? I don't mind taking a hit or two!"
Richard sighed. No longer speaking to that ghost-like figure, he turned to Shirou and said:
"My attendant acted on his own."
The Saber brushed himself off and casually raised one hand, declaring the end of the match: "I surrender."
Shirou looked skeptical. "Didn't you block it?"
"That was my Noble Phantasm; it can summon my friends to help. That counts as cheating. Cheating means a loss."
Richard shook his head, looking genuinely apologetic.
To be honest, Shirou felt like he was the one who was more like a cheater... aside from not releasing a Noble Phantasm's True Name, Shirou had used every trick in the book.
But Richard simply sheathed his sword with satisfaction, wearing a look of total enjoyment. The space that was filled with battle intent just moments ago now only had a clear breeze flowing through, gradually blowing away their sweat.
the golden swordsman's spirit hadn't faded in the slightest. Nor was he shaken at all by the result of the battle. Whether it was honor or disgrace, it wasn't enough to make the Lionheart feel any different. In this regard, he and Shirou were perhaps very similar.
"Tell you what, I'll find two reasons you can accept. First, the god-speed you experienced isn't something I had in life, but rather a privilege of my deeds being manifested as a Servant. So the conditions weren't fair to begin with. Don't worry about it."
But the biggest difference was... one could only say he was an ultimate optimist.
"Second, I was killed in life by an arrow just like that one. So the fact that you blocked that hit means you're stronger than me!"
Richard laughed. "Heh heh, Pierre is amazing, isn't he!"
'This... counts as dark humor, or a 'joke from hell,' doesn't it?
Even if you tell that kind of 'straight-to-jail' joke, no one's going to laugh!?'
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