Speaking: Xemness The Scholar scratched his head absently, "Sorry for that, needed to share something for the Ulciscere derelictorum."
Thinking: Did I just say that out loud? he wondered. A small, fluffy floating sheep leaped into his lap. "I was told to tell you 'It is time." it said in a happy voice
Magical Spells: Xemness the Scholar paled. "Dimension Door!"
Shirou thought he was ready for whatever this Holy Grail War could throw at him. Using the increases being in the war gave him, he had managed to get almost ten thousand exp in the last month. Which, considering that he had had this power for ten years, and he was only level 30, was a great improvement. Still, even with all the extra experience and skills, Shirou did not think he could win this fight.
Well, in order to understand his current situation, one would have to go back to the beginning of the day. Today, he had woken up in his bed, for once, after a long night of fixing Mr. Fujimura's favorite motorcycle. Long ago, he had done some basic runecraft in order for it to go faster than it was physically able, and Mr. Fujimura had preferred for him to work on the bike ever since, even paying him fairly well. The bike had had some wiring and engine problems, it didn't take long at all, but he had only remembered to do it after he finished his experimenting.
The results of the experiment, were powerful, as he was now able to create a Holy Sword guardian, and a Magus Killer guardian. As well as the 'broken' 'fixed' 'broken' Tora-Shinai. He was also able to figure out how to use the history of the sword and turn it into armor, and last night's experiments had been able to stabilize it, giving the shinai a level 15 body, which was slightly stronger than Taiga's. Though it increased the prana needed to keep the sword up, and the sword still had trouble doing anything that doesn't require hitting things with a sword.
Still, the two Tora-Shinai made for a good trump card.
Also, about a week into the month, a second Tora-Shinai gained sentience. So far, he was able to alleviate their bloodlust slightly by making them fight each other before he went to bed each day. The two were evenly matched, and were making remarkable progress each day. Already, just holding the swords gave him extra skill points in Kenjutsu and Kendo. The two gave him so much bloodlust they had increased his Curse Resistance skill to 10, twice what he had gained over the last ten years of their life.
Ironically, all these series of experiments had been completed last night. Meaning that all the current preparations, were barely completed. A cliche from many games.
Still, the extra sword and the strength they gave would help him, if only a small portion.
All these things made Shirou believe he was ready for the War, it wasn't like he could have known, but he was very, very wrong.
The actual day had been fine, he had gone to class, like normal, had some nice conversation, talked to Tosaka, even did some quests during lunch.
After he had woken up early, Shirou started on his light training, making sure to use his reinforcement to speed everything up, and grind out his skills, and then started breakfast. Sakura came in, and the two worked together to make a feast worthy of a king. None of that was unusual, and made him believe that today would be like any other.
A short walk to school, a simple farewell to Sakura, and a walk to homeroom was enough to assure him that, perhaps he had been freaking out over nothing. He decided to keep his guard up for a few more days, but it did seem like this 'Holy Grail War' didn't affect him. Because of the relief, Shirou opted to do some quests today, instead of actually preparing himself for the worse. The exp he got was almost stunning, but he did it more for the unnatural calm he got when he helped somebody. Though, admittingly, archery and cleaning also gave it.
He had a good day, getting almost one hundred exp over the course of lunch, and a few hour-long quests, two of which were courtesy of Shinji. He was also helping out, but in the main building instead of... all the clubs. Actually, Shirou considered, I think I know where my mistake was.
Regardless, Shinji had finished before he had, by about half an hour, and asked if he should help with the rest. Shirou had waved him off, "A few more minutes of work never hurt anybody." he had laughed. Now, he was really regretting that decision.
After he had finished with the archery club room, the last room he had to do for the night, Shirou was examining his work. In the final stages of making sure the room was completely clean, however, he heard a loud boom, not unlike a small explosion.
Like a fool, Shirou had rushed to check, "Hey, what's going on?" he asked, before seeing their levels. "Servant Archer, 'A Nameless Archer' Level 45." "Servant Lancer, 'Servant Lancer' Level 54." Immediately, Shirou knew he couldn't stop them, or, hurt them for that matter. Since the titles 'A Nameless Archer' and 'Servant Lancer' tripled their power, which was already massive, Shirou wasn't sure he could really keep them at bay, much less keep both of them apart long enough to get them to stop fighting.
For Shirou, his next thought described his situation perfectly, This was a bad idea. Still, perhaps he could make them think he could keep them apart. Before anything could happen, a new screen came into view, "Due to ?, Tracing, Unlimited Blade Works, and Reinforcement exp gains are boosted by 10000%." Eh?
Servant Lancer interrupted any further thoughts, "Oi! Don't interrupt kid!" he yelled. Shirou, ignoring all sense of reason, refused. "I'm sorry, but I mustn't let you fight here. You could seriously destroy parts of the school!" Shirou argued.
The three were stunned, Archer, because he didn't remember this, Lancer, because he wasn't expecting this, and Rin, because she didn't think Shirou Emiya, the class president she had voted on, was insane.
After a few seconds though, Lancer smiled. "Now that you've seen us, you have to die!" he shouted, running at Shirou extremely fast, faster than he could move, even at top speed.
The distance was nearly ten feet though, so Shirou had time to activate Gate of The Emiya Household, quickly grabbing one of the two Tora-Shinia, he pulled it out as fast as he could, meeting the oncoming spear with the black blade.
Ignoring the slight anger the curse gave him, Shirou activated Reinforcement, reinforcing both himself and the sword. Himself to the multiple of six, and the sword to ten.
The two weapons met, and Shirou's blade, one that took almost a year worth of research to make, shattered against the superior blade. Still, Shirou flooded the sword with prana, remaking the blade even as he ducked under the only slightly slowed attack.
The jewel on the bottom of the hilt lit up, giving a small boost in speed and strength to Shirou, in return for making the curse the blade gives off much stronger. Luckily, Shirou's Magic Resistance and Curse Resistance managed to get nullify most of the curse leaving him only mildly affected.
Under his enemy's guard, Shirou projected Magus Killer, taking one hand away from Tora-Shinia to slash the figure in front of him. When the sword was right about to hit, however, Lancer leapt back, drastically increasing his speed to dodge the attack.
Now having distance, Shirou stabbed Magus Killer into the ground, pulling out the other Tora-Shinia out from Gate of The Emiya Household. That done, Shirou dismissed Magus Killer, instead, opting to store his enemy's weapon within Unlimited Blades Works. The spear had two special abilities.
The spear was Gae Bolg, a cursed spear capable of defying destiny, it's attack able always hit the heart, regardless of how well defended, how well one dodges. Luckily, it seemed to have a range limit, so if Shirou jumped away fast enough, he would be able to avoid the attack.
The spear itself would be a costly projection, even with his great skill with the magic, but it's ability was powerful, and, once made, would cost about 80 Mp, about the cost of projecting Magus Killer once. The spear also had an Anti-Army ability, capable of gathering prana and blowing enemies away, it was sad, but he didn't have enough Mp to use that.
Overall, the spear was far superior to Shirou's current weaponry, and he knew that. So, quickly coming up with a plan before Lancer hit the ground, Shirou came up with two possible solutions to deal with his opponent. One, would be to keep the man on the defensive by opening Unlimited Blade Works and keep Holy Swords and Magus Killers streaming out, eventually pinning him down under the mass of swords, the other option was to surprise him with his own weapon, Tracing Gae Bolg, and launching it at him while he was still in shock.
Plan one had two major flaws, one was simply the amount of speed and skill his opponent possessed. The second, was how much Mp it would cost to slowly whittle Lancer's defense away to make a disabling strike. Along with constant swords, costing 75-85 mp per blade, and another 10-15 Mp to launch each sword, he would probably run out of Prana before he actually managed to injure his opponent.
Plan two had two similar problems, one being the cursed nature of the spear, and his probable inability to stop it from controlling him. The second was, once again, the cost. The spear cost a little over 1000 Mp, not counting in the use of it, and, as it's actual owner, Cú Chulainn might be able to nullify the technique somehow.
As of right now, Shirou had 2650 prana total prana, brought down to 2548 by the strikes already done, which means he could do either plan, or both, for a short time. His Mp regeneration was about 26.5 Mp per minute, boosted to 31.8 by his buffs, so one Mp per 1.8 seconds. Roughly speaking, Reinforcing himself up to Lancer's stats would take reinforcing himself six times, but due to the more one-sided nature, would probably make him boost it to seven times, or activating Time Accel. That would take about twenty Mp per second.
That meant that, fighting with the same base stats, but with only two Tora-Shinia would allow him to fight for about two minutes. Obviously, that was inhumane, and Shirou would have to cast spells to keep up with his opponent's superior skill and weaponry. Each sword would take about five seconds off of his total time, and any refreshment spells he would need to keep up with opponent's superior stamina would take a small portion as well. He would regain about 63 over the course of the fight, but that would adjust if he took off any time or added any on.
Of course, due to his opponent's weapons being vastly superior, each time one of his swords met with his enemies spear, he would have to fix it, which could take anywhere from one hundred Mp to one Mp. That would adjust the time with each strike. Luckily, each blade had about six hundred units of prana the blades had gathered to keep them alive without their master nearby. Units they wouldn't let him use, in case he ran out.
Still, the blades would repair themselves until they only had enough to keep themselves alive. He was rather proud of teaching them how to live another day, given how berserk they were to begin with, but it wouldn't help him win this fight.
Moreover, his opponent had a great measure of skill with his spear. Equal or greater than Shirou's own, and with a style he had never seen, and only had defensive against because of his new found familiarity with the weapon, while the servant probably had probably faced Kenjutsu, or at least Kendo at some point in his life.
The chances, Shirou considered, were leaning in his opponent's favor.
Didn't Lancers have really low luck? Shirou wondered.
Finally, the Lancer landed. "You know kid, I didn't know a human could match a servant in combat. Who are you?" he asked, both a look of enjoyment and small annoyance passing through his face. Shirou smiled widely, trying to make it look like he was in control. "Ah, my name is Shirou Emiya, class president of the second years."
Suddenly, a small shout interrupted the two of them. "Emiya! What are you doing here! Why are you fighting a servant!" Tohsaka Rin shouted. Shirou looked at her inquisitively, "Because they were fighting on school property?" he tested, pointing to 'The Nameless Archer' and 'Servant Lancer'.
Suddenly, a new thought occurred to Shirou. "Tohsaka what are you doing here?" he shouted. Rin puffed out her chest, ready to explain and boast about her powerful servant, "I-" Shirou had started speaking before she could though, "You could get seriously hurt!" he boldly proclaimed.
Running over to her faster than she had ever seen him, or any other human, move, Shirou grabbed her hand and led her away. "You shouldn't put yourself in danger, Tohsaka!" he insisted. Rin, so far in shock that she didn't know how to appropriately respond, jerked her hand away. "I am a Master!" she shouted, slapping him in the face for good measure.
Archer stared at the two strangely, before shrugging and following, "It seems we'll have to finish this another time, Lancer." he said mysteriously.
As the three of them walked off, leaving a stunned Lancer behind, Shirou contemplated what would have happened had the battle continued. With all of his extra powers and abilities he figured he might have been able to win, and would definitely injure the man enough for him to think about doing it again. The fact remained, however, that the little fight had boosted Shirou's offensive power drastically, the Noble Phantasm spear he was using would allowing Shirou to have a one-hit kill on almost everything.
But it also showed Shirou how far he was behind. He had had almost no trouble in eight, almost nine years, and even more had passed since anything he faced had seriously managed to hurt him, but every attack Lancer did had had the possibility to kill him.
It made him wonder how prepared he really was.
After the three had left the school, the mysterious Archer fading away into invisibility. Rin, finally gathering her thoughts into complete sentences, shouted, "What are you doing!" she shouted, "You cost an encounter with Lancer! Now he knows some of Archer's abilities, and we don't know any of his!" she shouted, throwing her hands up in the air.
Shirou cocked his head to the side, "You also know the abilities he used on me, and I can tell you his name and Noble Phantasm. I just don't want them to fight on school ground, in case they break something." he reasoned, trying to calm the angry Tohsaka down.
Rin stopped, "What do you mean you know his Noble Phantasm!" she commanded, only phrasing it like a question. Shirou, however, did not know of how special such an ability was, so, like an idiot, Shirou answered truthfully, "I have a special ability that allows me to tell the history of anything I see, though its clearest with weapons, especially swords." he explained.
Rin was shocked, not only was her class president a magus, who could defend himself against a servant of one of the three knight classes, a feat few could accomplish, and now he had some Mystic Eyes ability to see the history of objects! Could today get any weirder? she had to ask herself.
The answer, of course, was yes, as she would find out.
Stats:
Shirou Emiya, Class President, Son of the Magus Killer.
Health: 2600
Magic: 2500
Strength: 47
Endurance: 50
Dexterity: 48
Intelligence: 45
Wisdom: 38
Magic: 50
Luck: 30
Skills Menu:
Element: Sword/Sword
Magic Resistance: (E-) 10
Curse Resistance:(E-) 10
Unlimited Blade Works: Level 6 46.98%
At this level, Unlimited Blade Works passively increases your ability to wield a sword, knife, archery, spear, or gun, with added ability to broadswords. Gives a 6% Exp increase with Sword Skills, 5% Exp increase in Archery Skills, 4% Exp increase with Knife Skills, 3% Exp increase with Spear skills, 2% Exp increase with Gun Skills, and 1% added increase with Broadsword related skills.
Gate to the Emiya Household Level 1 76.94%
Allows you to create portals to instantly take anything you own out any claimed area. Embodies what you own and the creativity of man.
Charisma: (E+) Level 21 24.32%
Increases both leadership and morale of troops slightly.
Nobel Air: Level 5 12.34%
Lets one appear slightly above one's social status while activated.
Divinity: (E) Level 1 3.95%
At this level, all stats are raised slightly, along with Mana purity.
Cooking: (E) Level 1236 56.39%
At this level, it is safe to say you are one of the best cooks in the world. This rank might be found among better five star restaurants.
Cleaning: (E) 1347 43.25%
At this level, one can clean faster than physically possible, and will always know the fastest way to clean any non-magical object.
Zen: Level 235 21.45%
The art of clearing yourself of all distractions and becoming something else. At this level, you can drastically increase the powers of whatever weapon you use.
Gaia's blessing: (E) Level 134 86.90%
Gives a passive bonus to luck on earth. Slightly decreases the cost of Magecraft.
Saber:
Innate Sword Skills: (B-) 72
You instinctively know how to wield a blade with great skill.
Kendo: (E+) Level 769
At this level, you are a true master at Kendo, able to see every benefit or disadvantage any Kendo move would do instantly.
Kenjutsu: (C-) Level 436
At this level, you are a master at the ancient art of Kenjutsu, and are able to use the skill even under extreme circumstances without thought.
Lancer:
Innate Spear Skills: (E) 12
Berserker:
Mental Pollution: (E) 7
Due to the innate difference with how you see reality, mental interference has slightly lowered effect.
Rider:
Driving: Level 15
At this level, you understand the basics of driving.
Archer:
Innate Archery Skills: (C) 30
You innately know how to wield any bow with a high measure of skill.
Innate Gun Skills:(E-) 8
You innately know how to wield a gun with a low level of skill.
Independent Action: (E-) Level 2 2.31
You can act independently, but will often find it more preferable to do what people tell you to.
Caster:
Time Alter: 794 86.48%
Allows you to multiply your perception of time by 22, with feeling the weight of the time after you stop. Allows you to one seventh the ageing process, one fourteenth the perception of time of another living things, and speed up yours by 7.94 without loss.
Reinforcement: Level 896 82.39
Let's you multiply the existence of an object by 89.6, and can safely multiply your body by 44.8. (Skill effectiveness increases the more you know about the object.)
Enchanting: (E) Level 152 23.49%
Allows you to create mystic items, and put certain abilities on items.
Jewel Magecraft: Level 246 25.94%
Allows you to enchant jewels, storing large amounts of mana into their forms.
Matou Magecraft: Level 1 00.00%
Let's you control familiars, specifically bugs.
Destruction Magic: (E-) Level 5 24.36
Basic Magecraft: 326
At this level, let's you cast most basic spells, as well as some higher level magecraft. Limited to common knowledge magecraft.
Necromancy: Level 1 01.00
At this level, you can react to the dead, but have little to no control over them.
Territory Creation: (C) 31
At this level, a workshop is possible under certain conditions.
Assassin:
Presence Concealment: (E-) Level 2 15.75
Let's you conceal yourself slightly.
Innate Knife Skills: (E+) 24
You inductively know how to wield a knife with a high level of skill.
Random Sentence!: Don't call me out on the math!
Author's note: I apologize to anyone who had to read the original version of this chapter, I hadn't checked anything to test out a Beta, but he had to leave about half-way through. Apparently, the chapter I was going to post didn't get saved correctly, so I had to go back and fix that. For your patience I give you another random sentence.
Random Sentence!: Blame everything on the Beta!
