Chapter 2: Loop 6-2
"Take cover!" Grabbing the person next to him and pulling him behind the wall, Shirou brought his ragged breathing under control as he clamped down on the irrational terror bubbling forth. "Stay clear of openings!"
The man, the bartender Shirou belatedly realized, nodded numbly at him with wide unbelieving eyes. As soon as the feeling of being looked upon—not to dissimilar to being covered in a hundred slimy fingers, groping at him everywhere, trying to find purchase on his being—passed, Shirou got up and dragged the body of the person who had been launched into the bar behind a table and flipped it for some concealment.
Just in case it looked back again.
Describing it seemed to make it appear even less real in his mind, as he tried to shake the image from his consciousness. A large upright octopus with tentacles strong enough to support itself and claws enough for an entire pack of wolves, all the size of swords and twice as sharp.
No natural creature like that walked the Earth today.
It was big enough to break a building with ease but not quite so large as to accidently destroy one in passing, so staying inside should be better than standing out in the open. At that size, running wouldn't work, but the car might be a decent get-away plan. Its massive form was visible over the top of the building on the other side of the street, its almost serpentine limbs could still be seen writhing as it began to move away at an unhurried pace.
For a moment, there was utter stillness. It lasted until someone realized that there was a monster outside, and that it wasn't in the immediate vicinity anymore, but that it could still come back at any moment.
And then there was mass panic.
Swearing and making eye contact with Rin, Shirou clamped down on the urge to run after the panicking people who ran out into the street. People from other buildings all around them were joining in, jumping into cars and running down the street. They were at least running away, hopefully to safety, he told himself. The monster didn't seem interested in anyone else, as it left as soon as nothing had caught its sight.
"What was out there?" Lord El-Melloi began as he jogged up to the window before blinking, as he laid eyes on the massive monster's receeding form in the distace. "A horror! Why would...? No, it's smaller than that one..."
He recognizes it, Shirou realized. Then he realized that his client was being an idiot.
Jumping out, Shirou dragged him back behind cover. Just in case. Looking for eye contact with Rin and Luvia, he asked silently if they had any idea what was going on, but neither seemed inclined to share their thoughts; both were too busy staring at the half-seen monster outside. At least they had the common sense to not stand out in the open.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Shirou looked down to the member of the clergy that he was still dragging by the back of the robes. He eyed the body up and down; noting the combat boots and kevlar-lined clothing; the golden cross around the neck; the numerous Black Keys and the half burned book of scriptures sticking out of a pouch on the belt.
An Executor, most likely, as he had already surmised from the robes. But why would there be executors of the Church's will in Britain of all places? They had almost no authority here. Besides, monsters weren't exactly their usual prey as far as he knew. Magi and heretics, vampires and the occasional demon maybe. But actual monstrous beasts?
He wished he could ask this person what the hell she had been doing here as he patted through her gear, looking for clues. And thus he almost jumped out of his own skin as the arm suddenly twitched at his touch. Eyes that had been closed for what should have been the eternal rest of the dead, shot open and he could suddenly feel her gaze upon him.
"You're alive...?" He gasped, unable to believe it. "Rin! Get your ass over here! She needs healing!"
Rin, almost absent-mindedly turned to look at him, before looking down at the woman in his arms. She blinked, uncomprehending until she realized that the woman was still alive. With a jolt, she ran up to him and almost pushed him aside as she looked over the woman, unable to believe her eyes.
"I've got a first aid kit with me. Do you need—" He began, but she ignored him and as he followed her eyes he realized why. The wounds were knitting shut before his eyes, as if time was being rewound, the injuries were closing up by themselves. Still, with the degree of damage that had been inflicted on her, it would take a good while until she was on her two feet again.
Beside him, Rin swallowed in a nervous habit before she spoke out to the woman. "Bow, I presume. I am Tohsaka Rin, currently attending the Clock Tower and a member of the Department of Mineralogy."
The blue eyes locked onto Rin's aquamarine ones and at once a silent conversation seemed to begin between the two.
"We, the Tohsaka have long had an outstanding relationship with the Church." She began and the almost-but-not-quite-corpse-anymore seemed to snort. In effect, a recently shut wound re-opened and a squirt of blood dripped onto the floor. Rin ignored that and didn't miss a beat as she continued. "So I propose a trade. You will require still quite some time for your Curse of Restoration to fix you. If I were to heal your throat and lungs and you were willing to share with us what you know, I will also heal your legs. On the whole, you would be saving quite a bit of time, which I am sure is most valuable."
The nun stared a Rin, the moment dragging on for a seeming eternity, before she nodded.
"Do you need anything?" Shirou asked her and she shooed him away. He took that to mean that she would handle it and he got up to leave. He walked over to Luvia and Waver, who were peering out through the window at the sudden sounds of battle that had picked up again in the direction the monster had taken, away from them.
"She's from the Church, still alive too. Rin is healing her for info; looks like an Executor to me. Where's the Enforcer?" He looked around but didn't see the man anywhere.
"He was in a sudden hurry, you see this monster showed up..." Waver began sarcastically but stopped at Luvia's glare. "Why is the Church here?"
The Lord seemed to be asking no one in particular, but Shirou shrugged anyhow and looked around the street. Apparently people all over had begun noticing something was off and had begun to flock to the streets from their homes. Based on the sounds, the whole town was in an uproar but many were still merely curious rather than afraid. Biting back a curse, Shirou looked to Lord El-Melloi.
"Go help Rin; cover her while she's healing. I'm gonna go take a look up top." Shirou said, brokering no argument from the Lord, who didn't actually seem to be too perturbed at being ordered around. "Luvia, see if you can get the people to evacuate the town. If the Church is here then a Dead Apostle hanging around isn't out of the question. The last thing we want right now is for a whole host of fresh Dead on top of everything else. The Enforcers can handle the memory wipes later."
She nodded, seeing the logic even if she didn't quite agree with being the one forced to do it. With the people living here scattered about, it would mean more work for those who would be hiding the event after the fact. The Church and Clock Tower would probably prefer it if the whole town simply died, but they weren't in the habit of wholesale slaughter in towns as big as this.
They would fabricate some disaster and gather everyone up and then mass hypnotize everyone. Something would be made up to cover up the events and life would go on as if nothing had happened.
But Shirou did not particularly care about that as long as the people survived. Not hearing any objections or arguments, Shirou got up and exited the ruined bar. Scanning the street, he didn't spot anything out of the ordinary, so he turned around and looked over the buildings around them. The bar was a two storey building; the first floor looked to be apartments based on the homely curtains and potted plants he could see. Presumably it was the ground floor establishment's owners' home.
The building next to it was a three storey office of some kind and looked to be fit for his needs. He entered through the front door and made his way to the stairs. It was the tallest building in the immediate vicinity and would have to do.
Making his way to the second floor, he had to kick down a balcony door to gain access outside, but within a minute of entering the building he had made it to the roof and could look relatively well over the rest of Leiston.
"That's not good."
His sharp eyes spotted several fighting figures, dotted around the town. By his count there were at least four of the great monsters, all being engaged by various groups that were clad in the dark garbs of the Church, and at least a dozen smaller ones that were being handled with more success by other robed figures. To the west at the outskirts of the town, he could see a group of people that looked like they could be from the Clock Tower, but they were studiously not taking part in the conflict even as they seemed to be observing it.
The civilians it seemed were making good progress on getting the hell out of dodge, avoiding the conflict zones as well as they could. Though for the most part, people were still only just now peering out of their houses and workplaces to find out what all the racket was about.
Making his way down again, he exited onto the street again. It was unlikely that the police would show up to harass them, given the metaphorically bigger fish to fry around at the moment, so the bar functioned well enough as their base of operations for the moment.
Running by the car, he picked up the rifle and the ammo and made his way back to the bar. Noticing that the Church woman was finally in good enough shape to sit up, Shirou made his way there and looked over the rifle.
He had been worried about the lock and some of the smaller parts, but it seemed everything had been assembled properly by Luvia and Waver. The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, also known as the "Inch-pattern FAL" had something of a reputation among gun users around the world. It had been adopted as the main arm by many militaries around the world for the past five decades, so acquiring several hadn't been particularly difficult for his agent. It's general design had lead to its use around the world in all kinds of conflicts and climates, even managing to acquire such fame as being called the "right arm of the free world". While the British variant had only a single-fire mode, the reinforced stock and a variety of other small modifications made it a fairly reliable rifle to use.
To make up for the lack of automatic fire, his trigger finger was more than fast enough to empty a magazine into a target.
The 7.62 ammunition was generally considered to be somewhat overpowered against human beings, designating the rifle to the general support role of a battle rifle by most standards. But in the moonlit world you generally wanted to err on the side of overkill. It still wouldn't do a thing to one of the giant monsters outside, regardless of the relative over-performance of the round.
The long barrel and rugged design made it reliable up to an 800 meter effective range and an average firing velocity of 823 meters per second; it was a tool he could comfortably work with. Of course, its length and dimensions made it rather cumbersome to hide, thus dissassembly and assembly were a must during travel.
As he set down the box next to the counter, where Rin and Luvia were sitting, he eyed the now almost healthy looking woman in rags with some awe. Her healing abilities were top class, even without Rin's assistance. It almost reminded him of himself, back when he had first been thrust into the battles in the moonlit world.
That artifact was long gone, however, and pining for the past was useless.
"There's four of those big things; I don't understand how we missed them earlier. There's several more similar but smaller creatures as well. There's more Church people fighting them and there are other players outside of town, standing by and just observing for now." He reported, looking from Rin to Luvia to Waver—who had poured himself a drink and was smoking a cigar, almost casually lounging about while in deep thought—in turn.
"Yeah, that fits with what Bow said so far." Rin said, glancing at the woman who sat quietly and recovered her strength. Bow? Where had he heard that name before? It didn't matter.
"Could the outside party be the target's? This sudden appearance of monstrous beasts in a populated zone cannot be unrelated." Luvia spoke up. "Though I do not see how someone managed to get one, much less four of them, to act in such a manner. Such things should have receded from the world of man a long time ago."
Lord El-Melloi acted more withdrawn, deeper in his thoughts than usual, seeming to have some idea of what was going on but not offering his thoughts to the rest of them. Shirou shrugged, zipped shut his jacket and opened a box of ammunition, as he flipped the switch in his mind.
"—trace on,"
Rin gave him a queer look, but the others didn't notice his use of an aria. He recalled the image of the item, something he had gone out of his way to learn after finding a model that was to his specified liking, fitting his needs and his form perfectly.
With a flash of softly shimmering light, the chest rig appeared on him as if by magic. Snug at all the right places—but not limiting his range of motion and movements, having room for five extra magazines and a waterbottle by the side—it offered most of what he really needed, with a few more useful pockets here and there.
A second later with another series of flashes, a heap of magazines and a simple two point sling appeared in the box, and without further delay he began opening the ammunition boxes and filling the magazines with bullets with expert precision. Apparently this had not gone unnoticed.
"That has to be the most unusual use of Gradation Air that I have seen to date." El-Melloi spoke, without a hint of the usual reproach or disdain Shirou would expect from a magus at seeing such common use of a mystery. Shirou looked up and shrugged non-committally and continued to load ammunition into his empty magazine and add them to his person. "You haven't seen much, yet."
That piqued the Lord's interest, but Shirou ignored it as he continued with his gear.
"Nevermind that. Bow, why are you here? Why would the Church be here, now?" Rin, ignoring the byplay as she looked over the worst of the wounds that she had now healed, spoke with a voice that brokered no other discussion to be had in the room.
The blue haired nun looked over the group around her, before sighing. Shirou got the impression that if the Tohsaka magus hadn't made a deal to heal her, she would not have been particularly willing to talk with any of them.
"One of my superiors ordered myself and a platoon of Executors to travel to Britain, to investigate something that had drawn his interest. We were ambushed as we arrived," she spoke with a soft voice that possessed a gravitas that belied her slight frame, as she glanced at the clock on the wall that had managed to survive her explosive entry into the establishment. "To free myself of one such creature's clutches, I was forced to detonate myself along with several of my keys... Well, you know the rest of it from there."
Shirou frowned at that. The nun obviously was not going to elaborate further, which struck him as a bit unhelpful. Regardless of the bad blood between the Church and the Clock Tower, he had expected her to a bit more cooperative. Hadn't Tohsaka mentioned her own, long-standing relationship with them? Kotomine had been one thing, but...
"Of course. Are you in need of any further assistance? We, I am sure, would certainly be willing and able to assist you." Rin spoke with a smile, giving Waver and Luvia a pointed look to emphasize that they should keep their mouths shut while she negotiated, as they looked like they wanted to butt in.
But, the nun shook her head.
"No. You know who I am, so you understand that your healing was not exactly necessary. Convenient perhaps, but not something I could not have survived without. This is the extent of its worth to me. I am leaving." And with that curt dismissal, the woman rose and with somewhat wobbly steps left the bar.
They all stared silently at her leaving, before turning to one another again.
"So, who is she? Should we follow her?" Shirou asked, not quite sure what to make of all this. All three magi proper gave him a pointed look. Rin sighed and gave him a queer look, as if to say 'what am I to do with you'.
"She's not just your average Executor, Shirou. She's Bow of the Burial Agency." Rin began, acquiring her usual lecture position. Shirou held a slight feeling that she had been waiting just for such an occassion; to be able to lecture at him once more.
"Number 7, I believe." El-Melloi interjected, making her scowl at him for interrupting her before she could get started.
"Yes. While the Executors are the military arm of the Church, the Burial Agency is something like their special operations. You could almost say that they are what Enforcers are to common magi, but that would honestly be understating their capabilities. The wetworks to what wetworks usually is. Each and every single one of them is a force that we cannot afford to tangle with. More importantly, anything that can take one of them out—or near enough as it was with her—is something we should not be dealing with directly." She continued, finishing with a meaningful look at the Lord, who merely scowled back.
"But," Luvia interjected, having been in completative silence for a long while now. "If they are already here, then they must have been dispatched by the Church already much earlier. Could they really have made it all the way here overnight, if they were chasing the same lead as we were?"
Waver and Rin turned thoughtful at that. Shirou vaguely mused that given the Lord's appearance and the suddenness of his hiring, that whatever had spurred them into action must have occurred in the early hours of the morning or even the previous night. Assuming the Executors and this "Bow" had been at the Vatican, or even somewhere on the continent where the Church's powerbase was at its strongest, could they have been organized and dispatched so quickly by the same event as his companions had been?
"Seems unlikely." He mused.
It was possible, but generally he had observed that the larger an organization, the slower it would be to react. Fanatics or no, it should be difficult to organize the arrival of an entire platoon into Britain at such short notice.
"No." El-Melloi spoke, looking up as he held one hand to his chin. "If they're lead by who I think they are—this 'superior' of Bow's—then it is entirely possible they would have had early notice and been able to depart much earlier than we were."
"How long did you wait for my arrival? Did picking me up slow you down?" Shirou asked, trying to get a feel of the timeline of events. El-Melloi gave him a look and then shook his head.
"No. I needed a bodyguard, someone who is not a part of another faculty or acting on their own agenda." El-Melloi said with a pointed look at the two female magi. "But finding you was just a phone call and a car ride. Hardly half an hour.
"No, the Church likely had forewarning. We are moving out. Miss Tohsaka, Miss Edelfelt. Do you think yourselves able to take out one of the Horrors if the need arises?" The Lord acquired an aura of authority as he stood up, his long hair curtaining his furrowing brows as he chewed on his cigar.
Rin and Luvia both smirking, mirroring one another more than they realized before looking at one another, as if challenging the other into seeing who could take out one first.
"It will cost a jewel or two, but I do not see why I could not. That does not mean I intend to charge one just right now, those zealot churls have it well in hand, do they not?" Luvia spoke with more than a hint of pride before giving Rin a sly look. "And I would not want to bankrupt my fellow student by forcing her to keep up with me, now would I?"
Rin growled at that, her hand shooting into her pocket and pulling out four radiant gems held between her fingers, as if to show that she most certainly would not lose when it came to firepower.
"Good. Let's move out." The Lord spoke with an air of finality, ending any argument before it even begin as he strode out of the bar with his dark longcoat fluttering behind him.
Shirou sighed as he jogged to take point. It wouldn't do for his employer to die because of a flair for dramatics.
"Sir, I'll take point. Rin you walk with the Lord as center, Luvia you take the rear. Cover our backs and don't blow me up if anything shows up, alright?"
The two women gave him a queer look at being ordered, but seeing Waver play along they held their tongues and did as told with sullen faces. Shirou had to wonder, were they always this childish? They hadn't changed one bit since he had last seen them, in that regard.
The short walk to the car was uneventful, despite the sounds of battle in the distance keeping the situation tense.
Taking the wheel again and driving much slower than earlier despite the empty streets, Shirou kept an eye open for anything. They were almost jumped by a smaller monster, a Horror as El-Melloi identified it, but Shirou pushed pedal to the metal before either Rin or Luvia could try to blow it up and drove right over it.
Shirou thought about ramming the car into it, perhaps saving one or two people from running into such a monster, but he was contracted to do as the Lord El-Melloi wished. And that meant not wasting time with "small fries" when they were looking for the source itself. Besides, cutting the flow at the stem was more important than attacking a straggler, he reasoned.
Finally, after a stop by a small kiosk by the roadside where they pilfered a map of the town, Shirou was guided to start driving towards the location where Waver believed that the fight had originated at. By comparing the locations of all the Great Horrors, he reasoned that in the rough middle point something must have happened.
Pulling to a sudden stop, Shirou frowned as he looked at the roadside some blocks ahead of them.
"What is it?" Luvia asked, clearly annoyed at his rough stop and looking around the empty streets.
"There are two people ahead... But they're not moving." Shirou spoke, eyeing the two figures on the empty sidewalk before scanning the streets and roofs for anything unusual. "I mean, not just standing still, but completely petrified, not moving at all."
There was about 50 meters to the pair, standing by the sidewalk and if it weren't for both figures standing facing away from them, Shirou could have easily enough seen their faces with his sharp eyesight.
"Drive closer, slowly." The Lord peered at the two figures, squinting his eyes and making the crease between his eyebrows even deeper than usual.
Shirou nodded and stepped on the pedal, with eyes scanning the alleys and roads between buildings, roving over the rooftops and poring over the empty windows of the buildings, they slowly rolled forward.
As they neared, the sense of wrongness that Shirou experienced mounted until he couldn't stand it anymore. At 10 meters from the petrified pair, he stopped the car.
"I don't think we should get any closer." Shirou said simply, though unable to put a finger on why.
"Keep going until I tell you to stop. That is what I am paying you for." Waver ground out, overriding his complaints.
"I can't sense anything wrong with them. There aren't any bounded fields or curses..." Rin spoke up next to him, holding a glittering red ruby in her hands and using it for some form of dousing as far as he could tell.
Grinding his teeth, Shirou kept going until suddenly, as if he had driven into a wall. The car stopped with a jolt, the engine complaining as the wheels spun in place for a moment before he lifted his foot off the gas. The stench of burned rubber from the tyres spinning in place reached their noses, as the smoke rose in the air. Staring in confusion at the road before him, Shirou rolled down the front side-window and leaned out to look at the road. He couldn't see anything, yet even as he slowly pushed the pedal down the car did not advance.
The grinding sound of metal being compressed snapped him out of his silent incomprehension as he hastily lifted his foot off the pedal. He could see something odd, something about the smoke from the tyres was confusing him but he couldn't explain it. It was forming some sort of bubble, as if stuck on the surface of a balloon or something.
"What is it?" Luvia asked, not able to see whatever was stopping them, from the backseat.
Shirou did not answer, but looked around the car for anything loose to grab. Not finding anything usable in the rather sterile new car, he scowled and reached to a rifle magazine in his chest rig and removed a single bullet.
"What are you doing? What's going on?" Rin asked as well, not understanding why they had been jolted and stopped.
Shirou ignored her as well as he leaned out of the window and with one hand flicked the bullet forward. Expecting it to land ahead of them, Shirou blinked as it froze in mid-air and mid-spin roughly where the car had stopped as well. Almost like someone had caught it, it hung in the air, un-moving.
"There's some kind of... sticky barrier here...?" Shirou hesitated, looking back at the others. The magi were all staring at the mid-air bullet with confusion, awe and apprehension.
"Bu-but there shouldn't be anything there! There's no reaction from my magical energy!" Rin spluttered.
"Whatever it is, do not touch it directly." Waver said with grave seriousness and Shirou agreed with a silent nod.
"I'm going to try and back out of it." Shifting the car into reverse and turning to look behind him, he eased the pedal down. The engine came to life and began to make noise, but the car did not budge. Shirou furrowed his brows and floored the pedal and suddenly with another jolt and a screech the car went into reverse and almost slammed into a lightpost as Shirou almost lost control of the car.
He blinked as he got the car under control, at the front of the car that had been wrenched apart and the bumper and some of the paint that was hanging in mid-air, just like the bullet.
"It... got stuck and was torn loose?" Shirou mumbled, almost unable to believe it.
"Alright. Everyone out, this... We need to figure this out." El-Melloi spoke, getting out of the car without further ado. Shirou started, hastily setting the car in neutral and putting the handbrake on before he jumped out and readied his rifle. Scanning the streets once more, he settled next to the car well away from whatever it was before them.
The Lord had re-lit his cigar, that he had started in the bar and was inhaling great big breaths of the smoke, obviously fighting back the urge to cough. You weren't supposed to inhale cigar smoke, Shirou knew, and he thought there might be some sort of magical reagents in the tobacco as it itched his nose something fierce whenever he smelt it.
With his lungful of smoke, the Lord slowly neared the boundary that the car had been stopped at, exhaling a long plume of smoke before him and only following as it did not freeze in place. Shirou shook his head and turned around to scan the area again; his job wasn't to gawk at the magus Lord, but to secure his back.
"Don't touch it directly." He gave one last remark to Rin and Luvia, who looked at him as if he was being silly for even suggesting they would do something that stupid, and then turned around to begin a scan of their surroundings.
He hadn't particularly taken note of where they were before, as he had been busy looking for anything unusual, but now that they had stopped and might have to stand their ground here he took the time to analyze his surroundings.
Another regular English street; a two-way road with a sidewalk on both sides, two storey buildings on either side, with mixed apartments and stores of various kinds doting their sides. The windows were empty and the lights were for the most part out. Aside from the quiet rumble of the stationary car and the fighting in the distance, it was deathly quiet.
Turning to give a glance to his companions, Shirou noted that El-Melloi had blown smoke in a pattern, mapping out the extent of the barrier with the airborne smoke particles. It seemed to encompass a bubble around the two petrified statues who were standing on the sidewalk, explaining why they were simply standing there. The bubble barely covered the side of the road they had been driving on, it seemed.
Curious, both about the two people standing there and if there was anything on the other side, Shirou carefully walked around the bubble. Making sure to check his front with his rifle, so as not to get caught himself incase the barrier suddenly extended over the road, he made his way around.
Once there, he observed the streets, windows and the rooftops, but finding nothing he turned to look at the pair. His eyebrows rose in surprise.
One was a thin elderly priest, garbed in a dark cassock and with a patterned brown stole of the clergy hanging on his shoulders. With white hair, round glasses and a warm smile, the man looked the very image of the kind, elderly priest an entire community could turn to for advice, help and support.
What surprised Shirou was the priest's companion. Blonde hair and red eyes. The happy smile, as if a young girl out on an outing, unbalanced Shirou for a moment and he wondered if this woman could somehow Charm him despite being obviously stuck, but he shook his head.
She was beautiful, for sure. But this was hardly the time for admiration.
Red eyes, take heed. He had only seen a few beings with red eyes before. Most notably, Gilgamesh. More commonly, The Dead. Vampires and the Church generally did not get along, so this smiling and friendly pair struck him as very odd.
"Unless... The White Princess?" He mused, remembering vaguely the existence of a few bloodsuckers who had something resembling a non-hostile relationship with the Church. The fact that she was outside during daylight hours seemed to support that theory. Unless she had been frozen in this state before the sun rose. But would a vampire survive the sunlight, even inside a bounded field of stasis? He was vaguely sure that the True Ancestors should survive direct sunlight, but it seemed somehow improper to find one simply standing around in a little British town in the middle of nowhere.
"Hmm...?" Rin came walking up around the bubble, just as cautious as he had been, until she noticed the pair's features and froze in place. "Wha—!"
Rin's shout caught the attention of El-Melloi and Luvia, who had been discussing the field and were now staring at him curiously.
"If I'm not mistaken, we're looking at a True Ancestor." Shirou said simply. This caught the two's attentions, and they hurried to walk around for a look as well, freezing in place next to Rin as they saw the faces.
The three all began to say something, turned to one another with wide eyes and quickly devolved into an argument. Shirou, not really understanding what the fuss was about, turned to look around instead as he resumed his perimeter watch.
Looking back the way they had come, he quickly noticed movement.
He wasn't sure whether to groan that the horror had decided to follow them and had decided to bring friends along for the ride, or to be happy that he would be able to kill it before it hurt any innocents.
"Contact." Shirou said, in a cool tone of voice as he loosened the quick adjustment strap on the two point sling, making the rifle fall down to hang by his thigh from where it had been snugly against his back. The three gave him curious looks, not understanding what he'd just said but noticing his actions.
His right hand found the rifles grip and with a smooth motion he drew forward the L1A1 and in the same motion he flicked the switch from S to R, bringing his left hand to the forestock he had already the closest of the three monsters in his sights.
Three gentle but rapid pulls caused three loud reports of gunfire in rapid staccato-like succession, Shirou slightly rocked back at the recoil of each shot but his shoulder absorbed most of the force and dispersed it through his lowered stance as he leaned into the rifle. All three rounds hit, but the horror barely even slowed down despite the three obvious geysers of bodily fluid exploding out of its center mass after impact.
"Wha-What?" He heard Rin ask, but ignored it.
They advanced; like a boneless hand with too many fingers, jumping and crawling in a manner that was as disgusting as it was rapid.
Highly mobile with extreme endurance and prodigious self-regeneration to top it all of. He noted with calm indifference as the bullet holes sealed shut without issues as the three monsters picked up their speed. Roughly the size of an adult man, the horrors obviously possessed strength far beyond that as they closed in for more rapidly than any normal man could move.
"Rin, Luvia. Can you handle one each?" Shirou looked back, the two women had finally realized what was going on and responded with nods. Turning to look at his client, Shirou could feel the sudden thrum of magical energy in his bones from the two women. El-Melloi could obviously feel it just as well, going by his scowling expression as he noted the two. "Sir, might I suggest you get to cover?"
The Lord scowled at him in turn, but did as told. As long as there weren't more of them in hiding, it should be fine.
Turning back to the horrors, now at 200 meters and closing, Shirou took aim once more. They were advancing without formation or tactics, but were still far enough apart that the two magi wouldn't be able to take them out with one jewel. At least, based on his memories of their performances in the past. And the horrors were fast enough that a throw had a good chance of missing at longer ranges.
If they came in all at once it could be troublesome, so he would need to scatter them somehow. He had shot at center mass, going by the human logic of assuming that most of the vital organs would be located there. But with creatures such as these, that logic was of little use.
"Therefore..." He took a slow, steadying breath as his pupils dilated, mirroring his sharpening focus as they absorbed all the light they could. The world turned to a black and white blur around him as he aimed, the features and movements of the monsters becoming clearer in his sight.
Click, Bang—Click, Bang—Click, Bang—Click, Bang—Click, Bang—Click, Bang—Click, Bang...
He emptied his magazine in one exhale, shifting aim with every shot as he targeted the two rear horrors. Emptying the 27 rounds into the tentacles as they moved, the two rear horrors stumbled and fell behind as the lead one continued to advance with abandon.
His shoulder ached a slight bit from the rapid firing, but he ignored that as he raised his rifle and replaced the now empty magazine with a fresh one, casting aside the empty magazine somewhere he could pick it up later if he survived. Five times thirty rounds left. Correction, minus the one round he threw at the weird bubble.
Chambering another round, he kicked off towards the advancing lone horror. Thirty, twenty, ten meters, the distance between them shrunk in an instant. Given his armament he should have preferred to stay at a distance rather than to run right into the thick of it—but given that the rifle had proven itself quite ineffective and having the need to disperse the three horrors—Shirou opted to get close enough to get the lead one's attention, so it would focus solely on him.
At eight meters, it pounced. All of its tentacles split wide open, like a hand reaching out to grab him as the round mouth full of finger-long teeth extended out to pierce into him and kill him in one wet crunch. Shirou leaned back and let himself fall on his back, transferring the energy from his sprint into a slide as he raised the rifle and gave the horror a point-blank range five burst of rifle fire as he slid underneath it.
The thing made a sound of pained displeasure, or enraged excitement, Shirou couldn't really tell as it hit the ground again with a wet squelch and writhed in place for a second with tentacles flailing all about. Getting to his feet without stopping, he spotted the two incoming horrors and took aim again. This time on his knee and at much closer range, he didn't need to concentrate as much as before as he almost casually gave the rear-most horror another ten rounds of 7.62, making it stumble and fall again and giving the second one a slight head start.
The first horror, having gotten up again turned its attention onto Shirou, locked onto him like only an enraged predator can as it screeched loudly.
Shirou got up from his half-kneeling position and dumped the rest of his magazine into the monster as he began running in a zig-zag pattern to break off its superior sprinting speed as he lead it down a turn away from the street they had been on. Every five steps, the horror would come leaping and Shirou had to dodge to the side to keep from being taken down.
He had managed to distance all three horrors and draw off one of them completely; he would have to leave the other two to Rin and Luvia. With another deft motion of hands, the empty magazine was discarded and a fresh one was inserted into the rifle.
"This isn't doing much, huh..." Shirou spat bitterly, dodging yet another pounce with a leaping roll that ended with him behind a car as the horror wrapped itself around a roadside tree. Gandering a look at the other two horrors, Shirou ignored the snapping and crunching of wood behind him as the horror made clicking noises with its numerous teeth that tore apart wood as if it were paper mache. "Well, at least it's making you angry."
He gave a snort of laughter and got up again. Shooting it was obviously just an exercise in futility, so he should focus on immobilizing it so that he could bring in something that could take it down.
"Hmm..." Shirou made a thoughtful sound as he took another side-step followed by a roll to avoid the lashing, clawed tentacle of the horror as it charged him again. If he hadn't Reinforced his body and eyes, he would probably already be long dead. "There's an idea."
Lifting the rifle with a smirk, he shot it twice again before he set the gun on S and turned to run. Zig-zagging and dodging at just the right moments, he was able to make it all the way around the block back to where the car and the others were.
Only this time, he was coming in from the opposite side.
"The timing might be... Ah, I should make you jump now once..." He muttered to himself, to keep himself focused as he stopped and wheeled on his heels, avoiding the reaching limbs by the barest of an inch. Then going into a full spurt he ran right at the car, ignoring the whistling and clicking angry noises behind him.
Right about... now! He dropped down to the ground, ignoring the asphalt as it scuffed his elbows painfully despite his coat as the horror came leaping above him and missing once again as it soared over him. Only this time instead of hitting the ground and recovering to leap again at its fallen prey, it came to a sudden stop in mid-air.
Giving the horror a measuring look, Shirou hastily crawled back half a meter just in case it tried to reach out to him despite being stuck already before he got up.
"Guess strange barriers are good for something, after all." His sarcastic comments were cut short as he realized the horror was slowly tearing itself loose, ripping its own claws and skin off where it was stuck. "Oh no, you don't.
"—trace on,"
A simple wooden pole appeared in his hand. Three meters long and uniformly as thick as his wrist, it was a quintessential big stick. A cheap projection, just something handy when you needed a bit of extra reach.
Taking a wide stance, he pulled back the pole in his hands. Aimed, and then let loose a mighty swing that struck the horror with a whoomp and smack as it plastered the entirety of the horror onto the bubble where it was well and truly stuck now.
Turning to look at the car, he noticed the Lord El-Melloi giving him a queer look. Shirou gave him a grin as he spun the pole around, as if it were a spear and he were an Irish hero of old.
"Persistent fellow." Shirou noted, giving the horror another good whack—or three—as he thrust out the pole like a spear and made sure the whole of the horror's body was touching the barrier.
"You weren't kidding about the Gradation Air, I see." Waver noted drily.
"You never know when you might need a good stick. Or something pointy." Shirou shrugged. "Any idea what this thing is...? It's pretty tough, I'll say that."
"...It's something that should not be here." The Lord said with deliberate consideration. Shirou didn't know what to say to that given the obvious nature of that matter, so he turned to look at how the other two were faring. Judging by the blast marks—one, two, three of which he could spot—they were struggling just as he had been.
Oh, they could put the hurt on the horrors with relative ease, alright. One explosive jewel was enough to splatter it all over the pavement. But soon enough it would seemingly be reborn out of its own corpse and continue harassing the magi. Shirou could see that the gems they used were not of the strongest kind they possessed; not even a shadow of what he had seen Rin use during the Holy Grail War.
Doubtless the two did not want to waste too much firepower on a familiar, thus they had started on their low end of the spectrum.
"I believe physical damage will not be able to put these things down. A strong fire, or a sufficiently powerful banishing ritual might do the trick." El-Melloi spoke, chomping on his cigar and observing the fights as if they were none of his business.
"Hmm, I guess I should give a hand, then." Shirou mused, checking his rifle. He walked to the car, opened the trunk and took out the box with the rest of his ammo. With the already activated magical circuits and the design fresh in his mind, the projection of another magazine was but an effort of will.
He took a box of ammunition he hadn't touched yet and began to fill the magazine with practiced motions. The sounds of Gandrs' gattling and of cracking pavement and building alike, Shirou figured that Rin and Luvia were striking down the creatures yet not really doing them any permanent harm. Occasionally glancing at the two magi who were dominating the horrors, yet unable to put them down for good, Shirou quickly enough had the 20 round magazine filled.
Exchanging it for the magazine in the rifle, Shirou placed it in his chest rig again in the spot designated mentally as his last magazine.
"Right. Let's see if this does anything." He took aim, flipped the switch on the rifle back to R and fired four rounds. The first was the normal 7.62 round that had been in the chamber, hitting the center mass of the leaping horror again as Rin fired another burst of Gandr at it. Neither the bullet nor the Scandinavian curse seemed to do much.
But the next three rounds drew angry red lines in the air, as clearly visible beams of light despite their incredible velocity and as they hit the horror it stumbled. Almost as if it had been surprised, it tripped and began to make pained whistling noises and clicking its teeth in rage as it writhed on the ground.
"Hey, Rin! Try using fire!" Shirou, having confirmed that tracer rounds at least hurt the monsters, proceeded to give one of its tentacles a two round burst before he gave Luvia's horror a five bullet greeting as well.
Both magi, top-of-their-class once-in-a-hundred-years-geniuses, realized nigh instantly that fire did not seem to heal as easily as the pure explosive force their jewels had inflicted and began to chant something as they jumped back. With both horrors on the ground, wriggling in pain and making their tkli-tklii clicking sounds, the female magi had plenty of time to finish their spells.
"Set!"
"Sign!"
Twin fire-whirls erupted as a pair of gems were thrown, followed by the screech of the two horrors as they died in the middle of massive conflagrations. Everyone present waited with baited breath to see whether the monsters would recover from that as the fire died away. Ten second passed, twenty, thirty. Finally, as the charred piles remained motionless did the two magi let out relieved breaths.
"Khh... I wasted a topaz for nothing." Rin ground her teeth as she drove her heel angrily into the ground and kicked at the pile of disintegrating ash.
Shirou wanted to huff in amusement, but knew better.
Judging by the blast marks around him, either one had first thrown a jewel thus the other felt that it was acceptable to do so as well. This would probably be followed by some posturing until they realized the horrors would regenerate and then Luvia would throw another, thinking it a fluke while Rin would grind her teeth while worrying about her finances.
"Oooohohohohooh—! What is this, Miss Tohsaka? Are we suffering from financial troubles? Oh my. Oh, my!" Luvia leaned back, placing her hand before he mouth as if she were a noble lady who did not wish to show her open mouth as she demurely laughed. Of course, given Luvia's personality, she took this opportunity to loudly and deliberately laugh, completely contradicting the original meaning of the gesture. "I am not without pity. No, as a true noble I am most charitable and kind. Indeed, miss Rin, you need only ask and I will happily take you in my employ as a maid! Oooohohohohohooh—!"
"In you dreams, drillwig!"
"D-drillwig?! How dare you—"
Shirou tuned out the pair and turned to El-Melloi who was observing the last remaining horror from a few meters away, still writhing and stuck.
"I definitely did not come prepared for this." Shirou said with a scowl at the creature, as it was desperately trying to tear itself free to no avail. Waver gave him a look that said 'it looked like you did pretty well, to me', but Shirou shook his head. "I'm down to half a box of tracers—ten bullets—and regular 7.62 barely slows them down. Blew almost half of my entire munitions in one fight... Should have brought a crate of grenades or at least a shotgun with incendiary shells with me."
"Will this be a problem?" The Lord asked, giving Shirou a curious look. Shirou frowned and looked around before shrugging.
"I think I have an idea on how to deal with more of them. I'll have to make a round trip, if possible, to get some more supplies. What about the last one? Should I put it out of its misery or do your want to take a closer look...?"
Waver seemed thoughtful at that.
"These horrors are something that should not be here. I had the great displeasure of running into them once before. But they are an existence that should not be here. Not now, at least." Waver seemed to be lost in his thoughts as he looked at the writhing and whistling monster, yet not really perceiving it. "It does pose a good opportunity for some study. Perhaps I will be able to discern something of our mystery magus as well."
Shirou was not sure what to think of what the Lord had meant, so he ignored it as he looked around. The two jewel users had finally stopped their pointless quarreling and were now walking up to them.
"You two, think you can handle the Lord's safety for a while if I go for a quick patrol around the block?" Shirou spoke up, already thinking back to the corner-store they had driven past, not too far away. The two magi looked at and smirked at him, as if asking 'who the hell do you think you're talking to?' with their eyes.
"Right. Stay out of trouble and try not to kill each other." He smirked and left as they huffed.
Scanning the streets as he jogged with long, easy loping steps, he continued to ponder the things he had seen and how to deal with them. Urban environments were pretty much the worst place to be in, in a fight. In the forest you could listen for approaching enemies, in the plains or desert you could see someone far away, but in the twisted mazes of modern cities you could neither easily hear nor see someone.
It wasn't unusual to only realize someone's presence when they were right on top of you. Sometimes literally.
Fire worked well, El-Melloi had said. But Shirou did not possess such abilities as to conjure up flames, nor had he brought any equipment to cover up for that weakness. Generally speaking, he did not like to use fire. It was too volatile and would spread easily in various environments. And it wasn't exactly a clean way to kill someone; if he had to end someone's life he preferred it to be as quick and painless as possible for them.
But that did not mean that he did not know how to make use of it, if need be. Amusingly enough, this particular trick he had learned when he was still back in highschool, before he had befriended even Tohsaka Rin. He had worked as a part-time employee at a liquor shop and pub, despite being underage at the time and that had lead to some interesting conversations.
It wasn't something he had learned in chemistry, but rather something his English and Homeroom teacher had at one time decided to play around with when the matter of flambé cooking came up. Specifically speaking, it was Molotov Cocktails. He shuddered at that memory, wondering how he had actually survived growing up alongside that crazy woman he had called Fuji-nee. There was also some humor to be had in the fact that he would be using traditional Finnish firebombs alongside the proud Finnish magus; perhaps they could toast this fact later?
Finding the grocery store he had spotted earlier, he walked through the open doors. Finding the entire establishment quite eerie in its silence, he hesitated for a moment. Completely abandoned, yet all the lights and machines still working as if the workers had simply stepped out for a moment. Hearing the battles in the distance and seeing no bloodstains, he hoped that the people had simply run away.
He found the liquor corner after a quick jaunt, noting the cameras and wondering whether he should have covered his face before entering. It probably wouldn't matter. England was somewhat famous for its high amount of closed circuit cameras per capita, to the point where despite their origins as luddites the various magi who worked with covering up the moonlit world after the fact, had become fairly erudite in matters dealing with electronical sabotage. Someone would have to wipe out all the cameras anyhow, he doubted they would check the contents one by one instead of simply mass wiping everything somehow.
It took him another minute of perusal to find something strong enough to actually burn properly. Alcoholic beverages needed to be at least 75 per cent ethanol to burn reliably, but the flame would not be very hot. He was worried for a moment when the strongest he found was locally produced absinthe, which was not quite up to par, until he spotted some import vodka. Proudly boasting triple distillation and 176 proof alcohol content, the Cyrillic letters drew a chuckle from him as he emptied the whole shelf into his basket.
On the way out, he grabbed some baking soda, detergent, triple-A batteries and a handful of plain white t-shirts, he walked out of the store in plain view of the cameras, ignoring the alarms of his basket as he walked out. He thought about leaving a stack of pound bills, but he didn't have enough to cover all that he took and he figured that a big chain store would have insurance of some sort anyhow.
Hurray for petty robbery?
The way back took a while longer with all the stuff he was carrying, but by the time he'd made it back he estimated he had been gone for perhaps only 30 minutes. Luckily, nothing seemed to have happened, aside from the one horror having been dissected and silenced.
"Hmph. Took you long enough." Rin gave him a calculating look, her eyes roaming over his "purchases" with curiosity. El-Melloi seemed as curious until a hint of realization entered his eyes and the man ignored him again.
"Sherou, really? Do you think that a polttopullo will truly help you against one of those monsters?" Luvia seemed to have guess his intentions instantly, recognizing the stuff he had acquired quite easily. The odd Finnish word sounded strange, but he presumed it's use was on purpose by her. Especially since Rin seemed even more curious and determined to not show it once she realized Luvia knew what Shirou was planning.
He rolled his eyes at the two and sat down.
"So what did you find out?" He asked the Lord as he began to set the various ingredients around himself.
"Hmmh." The Lord opened his coat, looking for his cigars but thought better of it as he realized he was down to a mere four. "It is as I suspected. The horrors are not familiars or even contracted monstrous beasts. Rather, they have simply been brought out and let loose. To distract and buy time, I suppose.
"It coincides with what has been done to the vampire and the priest, as well. Were it simply a paralyzing or petrifying trap, the White Princess could no doubt smash her way through any number of them."
"I still find it hard to believe that someone like her could be so... easily contained." Rin interjected, looking at the two figures with unreadable eyes.
"No, the White Princess is hardly contained. Not in the true sense of the word. Rather she has not yet even realized that she has been afflicted with any kind of hindrance. So, delayed would perhaps be the right word." El-Melloi looked almost admiringly at the two frozen people, no doubt thinking about the function of the barrier rather than the persons inside. "The sealing designation vault contained the crest of a magus who had been studying bounded fields that could control the flow of time, I managed to figure out despite stubborn silence the Department of Policies gave me when I asked. Additionally, some of the materials remaining of the magus we are chasing refers to work on the nature of time as well. I believe that our monsters here are something that was once brought forth in this location through the original means of their summoning, a long time ago, and through the use of this unknown time mystery were brought out again. Plucked, from their original time, so to speak."
"Wait a minute. How does that make sense? How do you even know these monsters if they are so rare?" Luvia asked as she crossed her arms, her finger tapping the crook of her arm.
The Lord sighed and seemed the deflate with that as he sat down on the hood of the car.
"Some decades ago... I participated in the Holy Grail War of Fuyuki." El-Melloi began, causing Shirou too look up and eye him critically. The Lord waved his look off with an irritated look of his own. "I was fortunate enough to survive, having been foolish enough to thrust myself into the battles of beings far beyond myself.
"One of these beings was the long deceased legendary figure Gilles de Rais. History is unclear of the truth of the matter regarding the man's supposed evils, but in the war as he appeared he was the true embodiment of evil. He possessed a book which allowed him to summon and control monstrous beasts. The very same horrors we have met here, once ran rampant on the streets of Fuyuki City."
Beside Shirou, Rin stiffened up and seemed to be lost for a moment, before she ground her teeth and pretended she hadn't reacted at all. Only Shirou noticed, but he said nothing as he continued to listen while working.
"Originally these horrors were called forth by a man named Prelati, who dived into the depths of depravities and evils that would have beeen best left alone, for everyone. Through some unknown means he actually managed to create an artefact that could summon forth beings from another world. This artefact, a grimoire wrapped in human skin, was then passed on and has since been lost to time. Some of the leads I followed suggest that he merely translated an existing text, but none of the previous records showed such effects. I found references as old as four thousand years, but none mentioned the existence of the horrors themselves alongside such texts." Waver continued, taking out a cigar and cutting the tip off as he spoke.
Luvia startled at that, giving Rin a conspiratorial look. The two women had a silent discussion with their eyes and Shirou wondered for a moment whether they had formed some form of mental link. There was no reason for two accomplished magi of the Department of Mineralogy to have joined the head of the Modern Magecraft Theories department in this outing unless they had their own interests in the matter.
"Anyhow. I believe that once, in this very village, Prelati summoned forth his creatures. There is usually basis for fictional stories—fiction imitates life, or the other way around as some would insist—and some of the details in one particular author's works are too close for comfort to be mere coincidence."
"Clairvoyance?" Luvia seemed to know what El-Melloi was talking about and seemed as much fascinated by the subject as she was horrified.
"Mm, the man did write more than one book telling that dreams are but a way of entering other worlds, did he not? Perhaps he really did dream of times past and put experience to paper." Waver shrugged, lighting the cigar. Shirou wondered whether he should tell his employer that smoking so many cigars a day could be within the contracts protection clauses and using that as an excuse to tell the man to stop smoking all the time. Well, no doubt the Lord knew of the dangers but simply did not care.
"If I am correct, it will take at least a few days before she realizes that something is off and she shatters this bounded field as if it were made out of paper. But, that will undoubtedly be already far too late."
As Shirou listened to them he had poured out roughly a third of each bottle, and had added some of the baking soda and detergent to the strong alcohol. He had checked the contents of the products and figured they should work as thickening agents and was pleasantly surprised to see that he hadn't been wrong. Closing the bottles, he would shake the contents until it had thickened enough for his liking.
Opening the battery packages, he carefully added two or three into each bottle, ensuring that they would break on impact as the hard objects inside would shatter the glass even if the outside impact didn't. Then he tore strips of long white cloth from the shirts and dipped them into the bottle, leaving a small bit around the opening as he closed the twist corks.
Testing with one doused strip, he managed to confirm that the mixture worked as he nearly burned his fingers with the lighter. Now armed with 32 bottles, he looked at the improvised weapons critically. He would have to open the cork, pull out the soaked cloth and light it and then close the cork again so that it could safely lit. Then after lighting the cloth, he would be able to toss the firebomb at his target and hope it worked. Without the cloth, the liquid would not ignite. Without the cork, the liquid would spill everywhere as he threw it.
Hardly the simplest, quickest or easiest of maneuvers in the middle of a fight, especially given how agile the horrors had demonstrated themselves to be.
Looking up to the three magi, deep in discussion about the barrier, Shirou looked at the sky. Judging by the height of the sun—when he could see it, hiding behind the thick gray clouds—he guessed that it was around lunch time. It had already been over an hour since the emergence of the great horrors, yet no one had arrived to deal with it.
"I'm going to go take another look up top." He said, but none of them paid him any heed.
Finding a two-storey building, but noticing that the door was locked, Shirou instead simply climbed up top after finding a ladder to the roof on the side of the building and took note of the surroundings. Finding the four great horrors still doing battle with the already familiar Executor figures, Shirou felt a great sense of respect for the abilities of the Church's combat specialists at that moment.
Their tenacity and toughness was first rate, at the very least.
Scanning the surroundings of the town, he spotted something resembling a camp to the west, where he had seen figures standing before. It looked like the escaping townspeople had been rounded up. Presumably through the use of wide bounded fields around the roads to catch and herd people for handling. Choking down the urge to go check on them, he reasoned that those were the Clock Tower's people, who had simply collected all of the mundane population and would keep them safe.
He also noted that despite his earlier estimation, there did not seem to be overly many of the lesser horrors about. Had they all been slain by the Executors or had they simply drawn into hiding?
Returning back to ground level, he noticed that his companions seemed to have reached some sort of conclusion in their discussion, as Rin and Luvia set off to walk around the time barrier again.
"What's the plan?" Shirou asked as he walked up El-Melloi.
Giving him a cursory look before returning to observing the pair of magi, the Lord did not speak for a while.
"The Enforcer we met earlier did not have any leads for us to follow up on. While he could have lied to throw us off, given that I have the Department of Policies behind me on this matter, it does seem likely that we have effectively run out of leads." El-Melloi spoke, as Rin and Luvia began to draw a chalk outline around the bubble, as close to a perfect circle as possible. Given the dangerous nature of the field, they took obvious care and the work was slow. "Therefore at this moment, our only effective lead is the fact that these two were targeted. The horrors were simply let loose and will not provide any clues, I fear.
"Given that our target went out of his way—using an obviously excessive method were it anyone else—to immobilize the White Princess, I am lead to believe that he felt threatened by her presence."
"So by... what? Freeing her, you hope she will lead us to him?"
Waver shrugged, aware that the True Ancestor might not see it quite that way and that they had no way of ensuring their own safety once she was freed. The two stood in silence as they watched the two women work, drawing a more and more complicated and ever-expanding magical circle around the inner circle that surrounded the bubble of hyper-stagnated time. Placing jewels at key locations, the two would often stop and begin discussing some minor detail or facet of their work, descending into heated bickering for a few seconds before reaching some sort of consensus and re-doing the section entirely with renewed gusto.
"You realize that as soon as we begin we'll be sitting ducks out here, right?" Shirou asked, pointedly turning away from the circle in progress as he scanned the surroundings. He could almost hear Waver's scowl as the other acknowledged his point.
"They won't be able to move once they begin and it cannot be done from afar. What do you suggest?" Waver queried.
Shirou looked around and furrowed his brows. The street was too wide for any kind of effective barricading, the buildings on the side were too far away from the circle and there was very little effective cover to be had.
Aside from the obvious, of course.
"Get in the car. Reinforce the chassis and windows, park it next to the circle. That should give us enough protection against horrors, I think. Though it still leaves those two completely vulnerable once the barrier is gone." Shirou finally spoke, mentally cataloguing the various buildings, streets and passages, with their respective properties as he turned to face the Lord.
Waver considered it and chuckled.
"It seems like a good enough plan. I wouldn't worry about those two," He looked at the frozen woman with the blonde hair. "She is much too tough for us to worry about."
"Preparations have been completed." Luvia interrupted the two, looking quite proud of herself. "Fufufu, this field is quite something, but before my talent it will not stand for even a single instant!"
Rin walked up to them as well, scowling at the laughing blonde.
"Shut it, drillwig. Without me, you couldn't even dream of managing this. What talent? What single instant? Really, the only reason this is possible is because I remembered the prismatic resonance theorem, unlike someone else who shall remain unnamed and unremembered." The blonde stopped her preening and turned to face the raven-haired magus, fire burning in her eyes as she took an aggressive step towards Rin.
"Alright, alright. Let's save the gloating for after you manage to free those two. Just to be clear, I will mock you both mercilessly if this whole thing falls flat on its face." Shirou butted in, cutting the argument in the bud.
The two looked at him with narrowed eyes, not quite willing to let the matter drop.
"Oh hoo—You certainly seem confident. What are you willing to bet, then?" Rin smirked at him, walking right up to him and shoving a finger into his chest.
"Indeed. Strong words for someone who could not even defeat a single horror by himself, hmm?" Luvia joined in, an imperious air about her as she sniffed disdainfully at him. "Shall we have him kowtow before us, proclaiming his own lowly worthlessness before my overwhelming talent and genius?"
"Your talent and genius?" Rin ground out, turning to look away from Shirou again.
"Alright, it's a bet. And if you two fail, you'll have to do the same in return!" Shirou shot in, his mouth running before he could register the twinkle in the duo's eyes.
"Fufufu, it is settled then." Luvia smirked and turned to look at Rin. "Excellent work, Miss Tohsaka."
"You too." The raven-haired magus smirked back, before looking at Shirou with a malevolent and teasing grin on her face. "You're just too easy, Shirou."
Shirou blinked, realizing he had been utterly played, before sighing and raising his arms in mock surrender.
"Sure, sure."
"Alright, enough playing around. Tohsaka, Edelfelt. With Emiya we have settled on our course of action. The two of you will Reinforce the car—which Emiya shall drive into place before we begin," Waver gave him a look and Shirou nodded. As Shirou walked off and jumped into the car, he continued speaking. "Once inside the protection of the car, you two will begin your spellbreaking."
"Are we expecting trouble?" Rin asked, raising an eyebrow. The Lord shrugged and looked at Shirou, indicating it hadn't been his suggestion, which seemed enough for the woman.
"Reinforcement? Why not simply cast a bounded field? Reinforcing a car is not a simple thing; too many different parts and materials for a quick enhancement." Luvia opined but El-Melloi shook his head.
"A quick and dirty bounded field will be a beacon for anyone with magical talent, and we might want to simply drive off if the situation looks bad. A bounded field would either prevent that or collapse as we left, leaving us vulnerable in either case. Better to simply use Material Transmutation, as simplistic and crude it may be."
The two thought about it for a few seconds, before agreeing with a nod.
"Alright, then. Let's get to it."
Re-edited and re-uploaded on 9.3.2018