FATE/LAOCH GAN FINSCEAL

"Hero Without Legend"

Chapter 2: Meeting of the Hounds

Connla and the defeated Red Branch soldiers looked up at the hill looming over them where the new male's voice came from. There stood a man who was six feet tall with long blue hair tied back into a thin ponytail. He wore a form-fitting ultramarine bodysuit covered in runic patterns, which was very similar to Connla's mint green suit. Resting over his shoulders was a two meter long red javelin covered in jagged creases. His eyes were a bright ruby red that commanded the respect of lesser men. He certainly gave off the aura that he was like a god given flesh. That wasn't a lie either, for this man was none other than the Child of Light, son of the Sun God Lugh and the princess of Ulster Deichtine; Setanta, popularly known as Cuchulainn, or Culann's Savage Dog.

"You finally came, friend," Laeg said. "It is shameful to admit it, but we are at a loss here."

"Hoh? Well, well. Dealing with Connacht's invading forces is one thing, but if we have any intruders coming from Scotland, it'll be quite troublesome for me. Best to nip this little problem while it's still a bud."

Cuchulainn leapt high and twisted his body about in a display of finesse and flexibility. He landed hard, then stood back up and gazed upon the scene. He wasn't too impressed with seeing Conall and several of his other comrades fallen to their knees, but asked regardless, "So, who's responsible for this fracas?"

"Over there," Conall pointed over at Connla. The Ulster hero stared at the girl for a moment, then raised his eyebrow and frowned hard. He wasn't sure if his friend was pulling some kind of twisted joke on him.

Conall continued, "Lord Concobhar and I found her shooting down birds with a sling of stones. He was impressed enough to ask me to approach, believing she would be a good candidate as a soldier for our boy-troop. But when I asked for her name and lineage, she remained silent and attacked me without warning. She likewise has worn down Laeg and the others."

"She still hasn't said anything either," another man uttered. "We have no idea what to do with her."

"Interesting," Cuchulainn muttered, unable to resist smiling. He raised his hand and commanded, "All of you leave here at once. I will deal with this myself."

"But-!"

"If you don't want to be killed, then leave already, dammit!"

The men gasped at the hero's fierce bark and retreated from the immediate area without further argument. Concobhar ordered everyone to stay far away from the lakeside so the two fighters would have enough room to battle without endangering them. With the spectators out of the way, Cuchulainn could take his time 'interrogating' Connla, though he didn't anticipate it would take too long.

"All right then," he announced, "now that I have the floor, don't expect for things go your way anymore, missy."

"Who might you be?" Connla asked.

"Come on now. If you're not going to introduce yourself, why should I? It's not nice when only one party is exercising good manners."

"I suppose. If you're the only one here, then it must mean you have considerable skill to face me."

"Not gonna lie about that. Compared to dealing with that sass Medb and her army of cheating flunkies, taking on an opponent in an honest match will literally be child's play to me. Well, I might say that, but-"

Cuchulainn twirled Gae Bolg and pointed it at her. "I'm not exactly thrilled at the prospect of dueling a small girl like yourself. I will warn you beforehand; when I am in a serious battle, there is nothing that will stop me short of defeat on either of our parts."

Connla nodded lightly. "Duly noted."

"You're not going to back down?"

"I must respond to any challenge with equal force."

"That is the tone of someone with no regrets. Just what I like to hear. Then, prepare yourself!"

Both of them got into their combat stances and stared at each other with passionate intensity. However, in his heart of hearts, Cuchulainn absolutely did not want to do this. In his mind, while Connla was a talented warrior, she was still too inexperienced to be considered truly dangerous. He strongly believed that her strange behavior stemmed from something outside of her control, so he couldn't understand her devotion to maintaining her silence when conversation was expected of her. The only thing he could do was overpower her and get her to talk, hoping they could come to a peaceful resolution after throwing some blows around.

Connla got tired of waiting and declared, "What's the matter? If you won't move first, then I will."

She reared her legs to perform a lightning-fast jump towards Cuchulainn, forcing him to parry her spear swing. He was astonished by how fast she was moving. Already he could understand why his comrades were having such a hard time fighting this kid. He roared in retaliation and thrust at her multiple times. To his amazement, she saw through each of his stabs and countered all of them in rapid succession. She got in one powerful swing that sent him skidding across the ground, and he twirled on his foot to regain proper momentum. Cuchulainn dashed about side-to-side to try and confuse her, yet she remained steady. He stabbed straight at her head, but the short-statured girl easily ducked beneath it and swiped straight up at the outstretched Gae Bolg, knocking both it and his arm upward.

Now Connla had the offensive as she charged at him without hesitation, striking his spear over and over again. He was forced backwards toward the lake where he maintained a stronger defense, refusing to allow her to take the battle wherever she pleased. She delicately spun like a top, gaining the power she needed to swing her leaf-bladed polearm at his head. He blocked it with Gae Bolg, having to muster more might than he expected to resist it. He scowled at her with an angry look in his eyes as he pushed her back and leapt to give himself some distance.

"Are you some kind of monster?" Cuchulainn demanded. "Not since pushing back Connacht's forces and slaying Ferdiad have I been challenged so brutally. Furthermore…"

He narrowed his eyes.

"I don't like your expression."

During their intense battle, while Cuchulainn demonstrated the battle frenzy that he was infamous for, Connla didn't show any emotion. She was as calm as if she were taking a stroll on a sunny day through the fields of Erin. It felt like an insult to him – it told him that she either wasn't exerting herself enough and considered him weak, or she was trying to hide the pain she was feeling in her young body from tolerating forces that would break adults apart. If there were two things Cuchulainn despised, they would be dishonesty and cowardice. Connla clearly wasn't a coward, but her stoic expression made his blood boil from the dishonesty it showed him.

Obviously she wasn't in the mood to chat with him. She disappeared in a greenish wind that made the nearby grass dance. He gasped and looked over to his side where she suddenly appeared and thrust her spear at his chest. He contorted his body to duck aside, narrowly avoiding death by millimeters. He likewise took a stab at her head, and she too had to concentrate on dodging. They kept trying to pierce each other like this, but neither of them were gaining an advantage over the other. Their moves were so eerily similar that they even jabbed their polearms into the ground and vaulted their bodies over so that they kicked each other's legs at the critical moment.

What is this?

While Cuchulainn's body moved about as if it had a will of its own, his mind felt like a spectator to his own event. It was this kind of mental detachment that allowed him to analyze his opponent's moves and react accordingly. Normally his foes had skills and weapons of their own that he needed to learn on the spot. With Connla however, he felt like he was fighting a mirror of himself.

How is this possible!? She knows the exact same moves as me!

Back on the hill overlooking the battle, Emer came upon the tired spectators. She exclaimed to Concobhar, "Where is Cuchulainn!?"

"I have sent him to fight that troublesome girl," he replied.

"I'm too late! I must warn him immediately!"

"Nay, Emer! You must stay back!" Laeg implored, tightly grabbing her arm before she could run towards the battlefield.

"Let me go! I must stop Cu at once!"

"Don't be mad, woman! If you rush in there, you might wind up being killed by mistake!"

"But-!"

"That's enough," Concobhar commanded. "Laeg is right. To blindly charge into that dervish is suicide. There is nothing we can do except wait for a victor to emerge."

"Oh…" Emer clenched her shirt anxiously and watched her husband.

"What is the matter?" Conall asked, patting her back. "No one is able to overcome Ulster's greatest hero! I'm sure he would be insulted if you witnessed your lack of faith in him. He will have that stranger beaten into submission soon enough!"

"That's not…"

She couldn't bring herself to discuss her suspicions with the eager men. All she could do was swallow her words and observe helplessly. Her heart felt like it was pounding a million times a minute. While the others were most likely focused on their hero, Emer kept her eyes on the girl, fearing the consequences she would suffer for challenging her husband.

Please tell us who you are, little one. If you really are Cu and Aife's child, you must speak! Otherwise…!

Emer clasped her hands together and prayed.

From the billowing smoke of dirt, Connla leapt out and scurried along the shore to escape Cuchulainn's wrath. While her pace was fantastically quick, he could keep up with her thanks to his longer strides. They converged and struck their spears against each other in a deafening clash. Their bodies whirled and danced about fanatically amidst the flying sparks, but neither of them were gaining any real advantage. He thought he could wear her down due to her younger body, but she possessed far more stamina than he anticipated. Even so, some blood could be seen staining her face and clothing from muscular wounds that opened on their own, not from any injuries she sustained during the fight.

He clenched his teeth and thought, Not good! If we keep fighting like this, she'll destroy herself!

Connla didn't show any emotional sign of fatigue or agony however. She remained straight-faced so as not to give her opponent any indication of how she was feeling, and it infuriated Cuchulainn more and more the longer he looked at her vapid façade.

"Damn it! Will you stop resisting already!?" he screamed. "The longer you fight, the more your body will break down!"

She didn't say anything. Maybe she was scared. Or maybe she didn't know how to converse during an intense battle. No matter what, she wouldn't talk to him. She just devoted her energy to parrying or dodging his powerful strikes. She zipped about and leapt from rock to rock to confuse Cuchulainn. She knew that, coupled with his concern for her wellbeing, she could throw him off with rapid movements. Connla rushed by him one time to trip his leg, knocking him off-balance for just a split second. That was all she needed to leap onto a boulder and vault her body against his like a battering ram.

"Shit-!" he cursed, finding himself rocketing towards the lake. He skidded across the surface of the water as if he had turned into a pebble for some giant child's game of skipping stone. When his momentum ran out, he crashed beneath the water in a massive splash. Meanwhile, Connla hurried toward the lake's edge and jumped as high as she could directly over him.

As Cuchulainn resurfaced, she landed hard on his back and shoved his face underwater. He accidentally gulped some liquid down his throat, causing him to grow desperate. He summoned all of his strength to overpower the girl so he could get his head free. With a livid roar, he grabbed her shawl and hurled her over his shoulder toward the shore. With the finesse of a cat, she regained her bearings and landed on her feet, but looked up to suddenly see him making a mad dash straight for her with Gae Bolg pointing forward.

Cuchulainn's ferocious expression caught Connla off guard momentarily. His cheeks and forehead were deeply creased with anger lines and veins that looked like they would burst, and his pure red eyes glowed with demonic fire. His clenched teeth appeared sharp, and his body moved seemingly on its own accord.

This must be the effect of riastrad that Mother told me about before, she thought.

It was a term known throughout the region to mean 'battle frenzy' or 'warp spasm', a sort of temporary physical disfigurement brought upon by the ecstasy of men enjoying savage death matches. This realization made her lose momentum for just a moment, but it was all he needed to force her to wildly back flip and hop about to avoid getting impaled. Luckily she was fast and perceptive enough to read his wild moves or else she would have been hacked and slashed into pieces. Feeling the torrential wind of Gae Bolg rushing past her flesh repeatedly made her heart skip each time though, and she knew she needed to break out of this right away.

Fortunately, she had just the thing. She thrust her fingers forth to conjure a symbol similar to a capitalized F in the air between them.

"Ansuz-!?" Cuchulainn yelped, recognizing the pattern.

An explosion of raging flames detonated from the symbol, engulfing him while throwing Connla backwards from the sheer force. She planted her feet against the ground so she could skid to a stop, scraping the dirt as she passed by. The fire disappeared and left behind a puff of acrid fumes, revealing her opponent to be covered in burns and wounds. Smoke billowed off his singed bodysuit to reveal a portion of his arm and chest that was covered in red tattoos.

He was absolutely livid now. His eye twitched from the frustration of having to keep his bestial craving for battle in check. He let out a visible deep breath, then got into his combat stance again with Gae Bolg.

"I honestly don't want to do this, girl," Cuchulainn said with a clearly forlorn look in his ruby eyes despite the seething rage he was containing. "Don't make this hard on yourself – challenging the honor of Ulster just because you won't say your name."

Against a normal opponent, she wouldn't make any sort of retort. Versus this man however, she felt it was appropriate to at least give him a good explanation.

"It's not that I won't say who I am," Connla remarked, then pulled down her shawl to show her upper chest. Emblazoned upon the flesh were three red marks similar to the Japanese mitsudomoe. She whispered calmly, "It's that I can't."

His look of concern took on a new tone as he recognized the marks right away. He murmured, "I should have guessed. You possess a geas. Not just one, but three… What are the restrictions?"

"The first is that I cannot turn back from my journey. The second is that I must accept any challenge even if it means my death. The third is to never identify myself to anyone whom I meet."

"Those are quite the conditions, girl," Cuchulainn grumbled. "Clearly you wouldn't be fool enough to put those geasa upon yourself before marching into Ulster, knowing that it is the rule to introduce yourself first to my king. Who placed you under such harsh rules?"

"To say that is tantamount to revealing my name," Connla said with a stern voice. To avoid exposing her identity, she couldn't just stop at saying her name; she had to never give any hints such as her parentage or who were directly influential within her short life. After all, one's identity didn't just extend to simply their direct name and personality. It also included the teachings, morals, and beliefs of those around them that would shape them into human beings.

If this were a Holy Grail War, as Roman mentioned to Ritsuka, Connla's geas would be somewhat similar to the Presence Concealment that Assassins utilized, but radically different in that it wasn't her physical presence that was being obfuscated, but rather her True Name. Perhaps it could be called Identity Concealment or something similar. Even a Ruler-class Servant would be hard-pressed to figure it out via True Name Discernment due to how powerful the curse was.

No matter how hard one would try to force it out of her, she wouldn't give any clues to her opponent other than what her proficient class was, and she possessed so many skills that she could be summoned as practically any of the seven classes. To break this rule was to condemn her to the curse of the geas. In this great nation of Ireland, death was a kinder fate than being subject to the geas' unforgiving punishment, and she would forever have to be loyal to that oath.

Cuchulainn narrowed his eyes when he realized her situation, but he wasn't going to pity her. "Stubborn, aren't we?"

She gave him an unusual smile. "If not placed under such constraints, however, I'm certain that you would have been the first man to know who I am. Even whilst you're under the effects of riastrad, I cannot help but admire your appearance."

"Heh…"

Neither of them wanted to fight, but Cuchulainn had to defend the honor of Ulster from being shamed by a small child, while Connla was forced to uphold a harsh vow that she never asked for. Even so, it seemed like they were actually enjoying themselves. This wasn't a battle over grand motivations like king, nation, love or friendship. This was just an honest-to-goodness match between warriors; a contest to determine which of them was better.

Compared to the brutal battles and scumbag devilry Cuchulainn had fared with until now, such a simple duel was entirely welcome to him. The fact that Connla's body was deteriorating didn't hold much bearing for him anymore. The geas would give her the power she needed to face him, so long as she maintained her silence and never backed down. Suddenly, her calm visage didn't seem to irritate him anymore.

"All right then," Cuchulainn said, then jumped back and hunched into a sprinter's pose. "No more games. I'll come at you for real now."

Connla steeled herself, preparing for whatever he was about to do next.