Disclaimer: REFER TO MOST PREVIOUS POSTINGS FOR STANDARD DISCLAIMER.
AN: Well...
"How about I tell you a little story kid?" The giant of a man grappled with the smaller Servant and Saber found she was unable to make any meaningful strike against the powerful Berserker. The entire clash was his to command despite her best efforts to make such a thing false. He had rebuffed her at every turn.
"What madness will you speak now?" Saber at last managed to free her blade from the grip of the large glasses wearing man and withdrew. He only smirked at her as he adjusted the glasses on his face.
"I...HAVE A DREAM!" He brought his fist together with his palm, black traveling up his arms, before drawing them apart and out to his side. "A dream I'll use the Grail to finally make a reality! The same dream everyone will have the moment I finish you off!"
"The Grail only provides anarchy and death. What dream can anyone have to pursue it?" Her own dream wasn't worth it any longer. Nothing was worth losing this new life, the new understanding she now had thanks to her once Master. "What can drive you to this madness!"
"It started off small you know." Berserker didn't seem to want to listen to her, his eyes instead looked out over the world they fought above. The world they fought each other to either to upheave it entirely or maintain it for better and worse. "I wanted one nation to see the world as it should be seen, to see the world the same way I see it. I wanted the people of that nation to be truly free, able to do whatever they want as long as they had the drive! I wanted them to realize how to break their shackles! How to fight with a will the nation needed! How to grow a pair of balls and hold onto the knowledge that as long as they had the will to do it nothing would be out of their reach! I had a dream to make a nation ruled by the strong! The weak would at last be trampled underfoot and forced to rise up to take what they needed, to fight, to kill for anything they wanted!" He charged her as he spoke words of lunacy, his massive arms coming around to crush her in a bear hug she could not avoid.
Magical steel plate, even empowered to great heights by her massive reserves, cracked under the pressure and shattered off of her as if jettisoned. She did not allow the pain to strike her mind or even begin to impede her thoughts. She did not allow pain to prevent her from using such an opportunity. A blue burst of energy flowed forth from her body and she used it as a source of propulsion to add even more power that her own physical strength could not provide.
She headbutted Berserker and recoiled when her skull met his now blackened head.
"I had a dream that one day no one would ever have to deal with some chickenshit bureaucrat or limp dick lawyer telling them what was right and what was wrong ever again!" His grip tightened to crushing levels as she uselessly launched blow after blow with the pommel of her invisible blade. Nothing could free her of his brutal grip or allow her to plug her ears from his insane ramblings. "But now? Now it's become something even better and it's all thanks to the cup beneath us! Now I've got a new dream better than that old piece of shit! One bigger and better than before and let me tell you what it is little girl!"
He threw her away as he fell backward and released his hold around her waist. He tossed her across their battlefield and sent her crashing into the ground without remorse. His skin blackened across his back as he landed on it and he rose swiftly rolled over and rose to his feet.
"I don't want just one nation like it anymore but the world to understand what it means to be free! I want each and every person to know the type of will they've got inside of them and how to bring it out! No more laws or charity or fighting for something they can't even understand! I want a world with no more pointless bullshit! Every man, woman, and child will be able to fight their own battles, wage their own wars, and savor their own absolute freedom! It would be a land of only the strong, a place where weakness is crushed and everyone has no choice but to be strong if they want to survive." His heavy steps alerted her dazed mind that he was approaching and she forced herself to rise.
She had made a vow that her beaten body would not make her fail. She could not be defeated here. She could not fall to his madness. She would defeat him. She would send him back to wherever mad plane he had come from and allow the world to prosper. She had sworn to herself, to everyone, not to fail.
She rose and was met with a black fist to her chest. The force behind it was great and threw her back as a shout involuntarily left her throat. Her sword was ripped free from her once solid grip and now was lost to the battlefield as it was sent tumbling away. She released a gasp once she slammed into one of the stone pillars surrounding the two combatants.
"I want a world where the only thing in it, the only thing that is the indisputable right of everything living and dead, old and young, stupid and smart is freedom!" Berserker charged her, one massive shoulder making her body fold over his back and she wanted to scream when her ruined armor offered no protection from his brutal strike. She wanted to do nothing but give up but she could not. She could not allow this man to claim the Grail. She could allow no one to claim such a tool of destruction. She had to stop him. She had to stop the Grail from ever being unleashed on the world.
"I-I won't let you." Her armored hands tried to grip at his suit but failed as her strength had left her. He pulled her free of the stone and released his grip on her, chuckling all the while. She nearly crumbled to her knees if not for her will, her desire to save lives when he would destroy so many. Only it allowed her to remain standing after the damage she had taken.
"I like that." He began to swing his arm around, winding it up for a blow as his skin darkened. His grin never left his face as he saw her stand, saw her overcome her agony. "You're exactly the kind of girl I wouldn't mind having around!" He threw his fist forward and pain engulfed her once again. The stone once again turned to dust beneath her form as she was powered back into it once again.
"You could be one of the strongest ones you know. You could be someone who can do whatever they want in my world if you would just grow a pair!" His fists met the ground and an eruption of pure energy ripped apart the ground and headed towards her.
She had to act. She had to strike back or be destroyed by such a thing. She knew it and her foe knew it as well.
She unleashed a war cry as she ripped herself free of her stone prison and towards her foe. A blue comet streaked across the land and his arms moved up. Their hands locked in a test of strength as they clashed against one another, a shockwave of blue energy and transformed electrical power erupting from the two as they battled each other. Their strength was tested just as much as their dreams.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you girl?" He was grinning but it had grown strained. He was growing tired of this constant battle it seemed. He was growing tired of seeing that there was no limit to her drive to fulfill her promise, to keep her word. "So, enlighten me on why you don't just give up already?" Berserker and Saber clashed and his voice was hardly that different from a wolf's growl. He wanted nothing more than to crush her but it seemed she was stronger than he thought. She refused to even stagger. She held as much strength as him despite the battle's pace so far.
"In the same way you want to unleash this monstrosity with all your power, as much as your wickedness commands you..." Saber's grip suddenly changed. The dynamic of their interlocked hands became something else. She crushed his grip with her own as Berserker gritted his teeth. His large fingers attempted to crush her but she merely tightened her own grip more. One foot came before another moved past it and the cycle repeated itself until Berserker found it was his form that was forced into retreat. "I WANT TO STOP YOU!"
This time her headbutt made her mad foe falter and take steps back. Saber capitalized and with a roar like the mythical beast the Pendragon name came from she pushed Berserker back. He couldn't dig his feet in, his black skin failed to help him, and the rampant pulses of energy each forced step back unleashed failed to stop her. She would not stop.
"I think I've finally discovered who you really are Berserker. I'm sure of it." Saber's strength suddenly had no end as she pushed the mad Servant back without issue. "You're nothing but a power hungry sociopath." His back turned black as he was driven back into one of the stone pillars around them. "You're nothing without your power." She pulled back. "You're don't have anything of value to say!" The diminutive Servant, when compared to Berserker's sheer size, slammed her shoulder into his solar plexus and left him gasping for air. "You're nothing besides one who talks big." She struck him again and this time it was a powerful kick powered by her Prana Burst that took out his leg. "You don't have anything besides bulk to hide behind." He was forced to a knee as Saber drove a Prana Burst enhanced knee into his nose. She drove his black head into the stone with the blow. "You've got no finesse beyond punching things until they die." Another knee struck his face and further buried him into the stone. "You're nothing but a raging beast!"
She drew her fist back and it was engulfed in the blue aura that was her power. Her mouth was set in a thin line as she observed Berserker past his boisterous exterior and found him lacking in so many regards.
"Your drive is weak." Her fist flew forward, his chest blackened but it was weak. It returned to the normal tan flesh before she had even drew her fist back.
"Your dream is vile." Her fist was drawn back before it once again shot forward like a blue comet.
"You're nothing but a mad man!" Her fist flew forward and the clash unleashed a shockwave.
"You're right." Her blow was stopped by an energy clad hand. His glasses had been knocked off in her sudden rally and were most likely crushed somewhere. It did not change the fact that his palm had stopped her blow cold. His skin was no longer simply black around where her fist made contact but now not an inch was another color. His veins were now a protruded throbbing network across his body and an angry red as electricity danced across his flesh.
"You can call me anything you want." He rose with her fist now trapped within his own. Her own power erupted from it to attempt to strike him down but failed to even budge his blow. "The weak will forever decry the powerful as corrupt, as evil, as self-serving, as insane, anything you can think of. It's in your nature to hate the strong."
She managed to rip her fist free and distanced herself from her transformed foe. Prana Burst was her sole ally in this battle with Excalibur gone from her sight. She shook feeling back into her once trapped hand and after a moment to consider it her armor reappeared. It was changed only slightly, the outward appearance more bulky and suffered from a less streamlined design. It was a costly process to improve her defense but it could be a deciding factor in the war she waged against Berserker. He was strong, too strong from how his power washed over her now. One of his earlier blows could have killed her if she suffered too many and now simply one would assuredly cripple her. His strength had increased many folds and it continued to engulf him now. Power he could not control erupted forth as a storm of electricity with him as the focus point. The bolts themselves could handicap her but they could be dodged with her high Instinct, with skill bred from the battlefield that had plagued her rule. Her body blazed as she unleashed a shout and changed forward. Berserker did not move from where he stood and only smirked at her. He rose one large hand, all but one finger curled back into a fist, and gave her a challenge.
"You are arrogant Berserker." It was all she said as she shot forward, Prana Burst empowering her and adding a greater force to her blow as she drew her arm back. "Allow me to be your undoing because of it!"
Her fist slammed into his face and he was unmoved.
"All I've done to you may seem wrong but to me they're all right because of one thing." Berserker grabbed hold of her with two massive hands around her waist. He lifted her into the air, high above his head as her armored feet uselessly struck out at him. Her feet struck his shoulder, steel plate cracked against his nose, she even tried to daze him by striking at his temple, try to stun him by disrupting the balance system in his inner ear. She failed to make him release his grip even when she began hammering into his fingers with Prana Burst enhanced blows from her fist. "AND ITS RAW POWER!"
She screamed as she was powered into the ground by his overwhelming strength. Dust engulfed them, stone pulverized by her impact and the wave of power released by Berseker upon her impact. She groaned from where she laid. Above all else now, her body broken and her energy depleted, she wanted to give up. She at last realized that she could not triumph. He was too strong. She was too powerful for her to face. He stood above her now. His fist were raised, energy crackled off of them and gathered. The blows he unleased would be the end of her and she knew it. He was going to destroy her if she did nothing but she could no longer move. The gap between their strength was too great. The mad Servant was too durable. Without Excalibur or even with the Noble Phantasm...she could not stand against him.
"Time to die!"
"SABER!" Her once Master's voice reached her ears just as a red bullet ripped through the air.
"What the fuck!?" Berserker was thrown off his feet by the might of the airborne Hrunting. Saber spied her once Master standing with a blade in hand, a gleaming silver and gold blade that she knew so well. His bow was notched with the blade that retained its form as his powerful tanned arms drew his great bow taut once more.
He allowed the blade to fly forth and Saber rose an arm to shield herself from the spray of dirt the impact on the ground released.
"Shirou, I thought I told you to stay away?" She somehow rose to her feet and he offered her a weak smile as a new weapon appeared in his hands, one without peer and without flaw across its golden blade. "What are you doing here?"
"You needed help, Saber." He was one who refused to consider himself in the end. She knew it as his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. He had come to what could be his death without a question of if he should. He would have been going against himself if he remained behind for her to fight alone. "I couldn't get a shot here with the Bounded Field these stones make either." His steel eyes sharpened as a growl reached both of their ears from the cloud of smoke. "You need to rest. Let me keep him busy for a moment or two."
He did not allow her to refuse his offer or argue a different strategy. His grip on the spear he held in his hands was shifted to grab hold of the shaft at a more secure place as red light became a second skin for only a moment before the spear was changed. He knew it was cheating to use a weapon that held no identity, a limbo between a spear and a sword, but it was necessary against Berserker.
"This should do." He notched the golden arrow. "It won't have the same power as the spear but…" The bow was once again drawn taut as he took aim. Power shined in his eyes just the same as knowledge that was foreign yet natural took hold of his body. "Target confirmed. Angle set."
"You little bastard!" Berserker's body was racked by tremors of rage but the world trembled in fear of his power as the Servant threw himself forward at a mad dash. "I'll squash you like a bug!"
"Hmpf. He had such arrogance." Shirou was very similar to another at that moment as the transfigured arrow shined with power. "FLY, DURINDANA!"
He released it and a golden streak ripped through the air towards Berserker. His eyes were aglow with power as his hands intercepted the projectile but could not stop it in full. He could not bring an instant end to its power as the golden arrow, the transformed spear and blade of Hector of Troy, continued forward. The nature of the Noble Phantasm made it impossible to simply stop with one's bare hands. The weakened strength of such a property was seen as Berserker was not pierced by the legendary weapon. He let out a shout of fury just before he was engulfed in a titanic blast.
Wordlessly, a new blade appeared in Shirou's hands. It was drawn back as it shifted into something more suited for firing. The weapon became more aerodynamic as his, in comparison to many, meager pools of power grew less and less. He knew Berserker would reemerge from his latest attack and he was not wrong. The man was no closer to being defeated than he had been earlier. He remained capable of battling his foes, capable of continuing on his quest for the Holy Grail that would bring forth only chaos. Shirou's attack had only shredded the man's upper clothing and revealed the twisted scar tissue that covered his chest to the two he now faced.
Caladbolg II, the blade of legend modified to become a more effective projectile, was unleashed next and Berserker let a snarl rip forth from him as he mindlessly charged the shining projectile. His dark form was sent skidding and tumbling across the ground that was their battlefield the moment contact was made. A second red bullet fired forward as he was downed and attempted to rip through the skull of Berserker to fail. His darkened hands came up with speed she did not know he possessed and snatched the Broken Phantasm from the air.
It still detonated and the explosion was great if not contained. He worried for her. He did not push the weapon to its absolute limit before unleashing its fury on Berserker.
"I'll kill you boy!" Berserker unleashed his roar as the ground was ripped apart underneath each of his steps. He charged forward like a mad bull just as her once Master's bow seemed to dissolve in his hands. He crossed his arms over his chest, his palms facing upwards in the air and bowed his head as if in pray.
"I am the bone of my sword." The words he spoke held power in them, power Saber had seen blossom into what it was now. Red light filled his hands and from it came a pair of black and white swords. They were a married pair of Chinese blades, two weapons linked forever and always. One could not be secreted away from the other as one could not resist the pull of the other.
"Steel is my body and fire is my blood!" His voice was quiet as blue lines raced across his form. The power engulfed the weapons and they grew and became something more. They entered what he had instinctively known were the Overedge Forms upon first achieving it. He crouched before rocketing forward, his body reinforced beyond human limits as he held the weapons up at his chest.
"Die!" An energy clad fist was rose to meet him, the volatile power shaped around it into a roughly hewed blade to destroy her once Master. Berserker was set to destroy a man who had come to her aid when he knew he stood no chance against the Servant of Madness.
"Shirou!" She moved but she stumbled. She had yet to begin to recover her depleted reserves and the pain that was the price of this battle had engulfed her mind in her brief respite from clashing with Berserker.
The two clashed, Shirou's finely crafted blades shattered against Berserker's blackened skin and Berserker's rough blade ripped through his flesh. The mad Servant chuckled as the once Master fell to his knees, blood already surrounding his collapsed form. He spared no more time with him and instead kicked him away, sending something he deemed an irritation away. Despite the blow, Shirou's lips were turned up in a smile. Despite his wounds, despite his fate, he did not doubt the true outcome.
"Saber…" His words, what he would have spoken, did not come as his eyes closed.
"You were more useful than that robo-mutt kid." Berserker's passing comment did not draw confusion from her. It only helped to fuel her rage as emerald eyes moved to the sword that laid so close to her. "Now," Her foe turned to face her, his blackened fist striking his blackened palm. Raw power released itself as a great wave through the air and across the ground from such an impact. "I think we're just about done here girl. I'm going to finish beating you to death and get that cup from downstairs."
"No." Saber's hands wrapped around the hilt of the weapon her Master had made sure to give her before his fall. "You will do evil no longer, Berserker." She was not drawing a blade from the ground, she drew forth victory itself as a golden light took hold of her. Power filled her form and she relished in what it meant as she bowed her head in thanks.
The Sword of Promised Victory had at last been reclaimed by her hands. Excalibur was at last returned to her.
"I don't think you get it girl." He banged a fist to his chest in rapid succession and power crackled forth from his being with each blow. "You. Can't. Hurt. Me." He spoke the truth. She had not yet succeeded in leaving any wounds on his flesh. No one had ever accomplished such in this bastardized war they had all taken part in. "You're sword isn't going to change anything."
"You are an ignorant fool I will educate." Saber rose the sword before her, the blade that would be the fulfillment of her promise above all else. "This is the blade known as the Sword of Promised Victory, the blade wielded only by the rightful King of Britain, the blade given only to one who would uphold the vows of chivalry at all times!" Her head rose and her emerald eyes shined with fury. "This is the blade known as Excalibur and I, the King of Knights, swear it will be your undoing Berserker!"
"Call your knife whatever name you want." Berserker began to walk forward. "I've got a world to change so let's finish this already!"
"I at last agree with you Berserker!" She swipe the blade out to her side in a two handed grip as she matched his pace. "It is time we finish this once and for all!"
The change to a complete charge was instantaneous between the two. Power erupted forth from both and neither had any desire to hold it back any longer. Golden light erupted forth and consumed them both as Saber rose the weapon up to her side.
"EX-" The blade was gone from the world. It was replaced by a shining golden beacon, the manifestation of her promise of victory against all in this brutal contest.
"Show me which one of us is right, Saber!" His fist was drawn back, all the power he had remaining focused to the single point.
"-CALIBUR!"
She swung and the world was bathed in gold. He threw his fist forward and the world was bathed in crimson.
Only one left that battlefield.
AN: Well...
AND I have nothing to say still.
Peace.