The various fictional worlds, characters and elements that are written about in this fanfiction belong to their various creators, who I'm too lazy to list. This is purely a fan work and not intended to generate any sort of profit. I know that if it does a fair number of bloodthirsty lawyers are likely to make my life miserable. As always constructive criticism is welcome and flames will be ignored.
Well, first off I would like to thank everyone that took the time to make some suggestions as to possible Avatars for Alex to use in the future. There were several interesting ideas, but now all five slots have been filled and several plot points have been planned around them. That said I haven't set anything in stone, until I actually write them into the story I still have some wiggle room, so if anyone has any suggestions that they'd like to share feel free to send them to me.
Now in regards to this chapter. Originally I planned to get everything in one chapter, but once again it kept on growing on me so I made the choice to split it into two. If everything goes well the next chapter should be following fairly soon.
SPOILERS.
Now this chapter focuses mainly on getting the adventure with Fouquet out of the way and moving onto my own additions to the story.
This chapter also showcases some of the new additions to the story, namely my pseudo Chaos Champions. I'm trying to aim for something that is close to the real thing, but misses it slightly. In the Warhammer universe, fantasy or futuristic, Chaos Champions are always marvellously done to the point where they seem to lose some of their humanity and become almost elemental incarnations of the type of god they Champion. What I'm aiming for here are individuals that are trying to be that way yet can't quite let go of their humanity to such a degree.
In addition at the end is my reveal of the first of Alex's other Avatars, further details will follow in the next chapter, but until then feel free to engage in whatever speculation strikes your fancy.
I'd once again like to offer my most sincere thanks to my Beta, without whose help my work would be nowhere near as polished as it is.
Why Me? Chapter 10: Calamity
Alex watched with a certain amount of amusement as the staff of the Tristain Academy bickered back and forth about who would take the blame for burglary that had stripped the vault of nearly half its contents. Louise, Kirche and Tabitha had all been called to the headmaster's office in order to give a report on what they had seen and to confirm what information the staff had gathered.
He'd been having some fun watching their antics, especially since this was something that for some reason hadn't made it into the anime. However despite the entertainment value of watching Mrs. Chevreuse gratefully declaring that she'd always looked at Old Osmond as a father for overlooking her being asleep when she should have been watching the vault, he only paid it half a mind.
The real focus of his attention was on waiting for the one that, in his mind at least, was the most important person at this meeting. The so called Miss Longueville still hadn't shown up, and that was starting to worry him. He continued to listen with half an ear as Headmaster Osmond started asking the girls about what they'd seen, but his main attention was centred on the door to the office. It was all he could do to keep in a sigh of relief when the door opened and the attractive form of the green haired secretary came in.
"Miss Longueville! Where have you been? Something terrible has happened!" said Mr. Colbert anxiously.
Miss Longueville spoke to Old Osmond in a very cool and calm manner. "I'm extremely sorry to be late. I was doing some investigations. So…"
"Investigations?"
"Yes. When I woke up this morning there was already a lot of commotion-"
Ah, it would seem that the undercover thief was going to go with the same plan as she had in the original story. At first Alex had been worried that given her larger haul she would simply take off and not bother coming back to the academy at all. However it would seem that she was still intent upon learning how the so called 'Staff of Destruction' worked, and for that she needed him.
Well, he could work with that. He couldn't quite remember, but he was pretty sure that there'd been something in either the anime or the light novels about Fouquet stealing for a good reason. Was it for some orphans or a church? Blast it all, he couldn't remember, not for the first time the dimensionally displaced young man wished that he'd paid more attention to the later seasons of the show. The only one that he could remember with any certainty was the first one, after that it was only a vague series of plot points that he had some trouble keeping in the correct order.
The fact that the anime and the light novels disagreed on the exact order of events wasn't too much of a help either. For example he had no idea if the whole mess where Louise drank a love potion took place before or after the mission to Albion.
Whatever the case might be, it was something to worry about later, right now he had to keep his mind focused on what was happening at the moment rather than getting distracted.
"We must report this to the Imperial Court right away! We must seek reinforcements from the imperial army! So much has been stolen, so many treasures and artefacts that were in our keeping, we must inform the crown!" Mr Colbert was shouting yet again.
Old Osmond shook his head and stared at Colbert with surprising force for a man of his apparent age.
"You fool! By the time we report this to the imperial court, Fouquet would have gotten away Scott free! More than that, if we can't even handle this before it becomes widespread knowledge the reputation of this academy will be torn to shreds! Since those treasures and artefacts were entrusted to us and stolen from the academy, then it's the academy's responsibility to get them back ourselves, that is the only way we can recoup this fiasco!"
Though he had been doing his best to control himself Alex's gaze had flicked to Miss Longueville as he heard that and had noticed how she'd smiled at that.
Turning to face the other teacher the Headmaster had coughed into his hand and then made something of a show of putting on a dignified air.
"Now, we're going to organize a search team to find Fouquet. Those willing to join, please raise up your wands."
All of the nobles looked at each other awkwardly, not one was raising their wand. The pseudo Servant could see the tumultuous mix of emotions on their faces, shame, fear, frustration; all were written plainly across their features. Or perhaps not so plainly, he was pretty sure that before he'd been summoned he wouldn't have been able to read them so well. Idly he wondered just which stat the skill originated from; Charisma or Military Tactics.
"No one?" There was no mistaking the disappointment in the old mage's voice at the lack of volunteers, "That's peculiar. No one wants to be known as the hero who caught Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt?"
Alex had been watching for it, so he was the first to see as Louise lifted her head and raised up her wand.
"Miss Vallière!" Mrs. Chevreuse exclaimed in surprise. "You mustn't do this! You're still a student! Please leave this to the teachers!"
"But none of you are willing to help . . ." Louise muttered, her face set into a mask of stubborn resolve.
Wordlessly the red haired Gandálfr stepped up behind her and laid a hand gently on her shoulder. The pink haired Vallière froze under his grip for an instant, relaxed as she glanced at him and saw his wordless nod of encouragement.
By the looks of it Kirche was unwilling to allow her rival to outdo her, because only a second or two later the fire mage's wand was also raised.
"Miss Zerbst! Aren't you a student too?" Mr. Colbert's surprise was easy to read in his exclamation.
Kirche's reply was both playful and nonchalant.
"Well, I simply can't lose to a Vallière, not in front of my darling."
Irritation was clear on Louise's face at the thought of having to work with Kirche, but that faded quickly as she noticed the taller girl looking at something past her. Turning Alex's Summoner saw that Tabitha was raising her own staff to stand with the wands of her fellow students.
"Tabitha! You need not do this! This is between us you know." Kirche said.
"I'm worried."
The touched gratitude on the young Zerbst's face at Tabitha's response could have been read by even the more inexpert of witnesses.
For her part Louise simply blushed slightly as she muttered, "Thank you."
Seeing the three of them, Old Osmond laughed and said, "Well then, it's all up to you three now."
It took all of Alex's restraint not to voice his thoughts on that particular decision. Sure, that was a brilliant idea, send three students after a hardened criminal that had spent the last few years breaking into the homes of the nobility and getting away with it. There was no way anything could go wrong with that after all. Not to mention that he'd been harping on a few minutes ago about how this was a disaster for the academy, why was he now so eager to-
Ah, he'd forgotten that at this point in the story, regardless of whether it was the anime or the light novels, Colbert and Osmond had begun to suspect that Saito had been the Gandálfr and that Louise might be a Void mage. Most likely they had similar suspicions in regard to himself, and if that was the case then they might be using this opportunity to test him.
Obviously he was dealing with sensible and responsible educators here.
. . . Huh, it really was possible to heap sarcasm onto a mental dialogue, who knew?
"Sir! Headmaster Osmond! I strongly object! We must not put the life of a student in danger!"
"Well, would you then go in their stead, Mrs. Chevreuse?"
"Ah... Erm… Well… I'm not feeling very well recently, so…"
And the apparent sole voice of reason lost out to self preservation, this was almost painful to watch.
"They have seen Fouquet before plus, even though Miss Tabitha here is very young, I have heard that she has already been conferred the title of chevalier, am I right?"
Tabitha did not answer and just stood quietly.
All the teachers looked at Tabitha in astonishment while Alex allowed himself a small smile. After surviving and succeeding in all the suicide missions her uncle had sent her on it was hardly a surprise that the diminutive wind mage was at that rank at the very least. He supposed that between him and her they could probably cover all the angles in this mess, especially given that he knew how to take down Fouquet's giant golem.
Of course that was working on the assumption that everything went as it should do, given how things had been catching him by surprise lately there was a good chance something else unexpected might turn up.
"Is that true, Tabitha?" asked Kirche in similar astonishment.
The small wind mage simply nodded wordlessly. As she did so Alex found himself trying to remember the name for the girl-type in anime that were very quiet but had gentle hearts . . . cluedere? Something like that.
"And of course Miss Zerbst from Germania comes from a family of distinguished war heroes, and she herself has a very strong background in fire magic."
Kirche basked in the acknowledgement of her abilities with the utter confidence of one that knew how good they were. He also noticed that she quite deliberately flexed her shoulders slightly to do . . . interesting things to her chest.
Louise, thinking that it was time for her to be praised too, stood to attention with a slightly smug smile of her own.
"And then . . ." Clearing his throat, Osmond avoided looking directly at Louise, "There's Miss Vallière who comes from the prestigious Vallière Family, a family renowned for their mages. And . . . well . . . She's got a promising future . . . and as for her famili-"
Alex had been expecting this, and as the headmaster had been speaking he'd reached under his long mantle grabbed the three lengths of wood that he'd tucked into his belt. Just as Osmond began to bring him up the red headed Gandálfr tossed all three into the air and barked out a single command.
"TARGETS!"
He and Louise had spent literal hours in practice at things like this. Him throwing targets up and her casting her spells as fast as she could to blast them out of the air. It had worked too, Louise had become very good at using single word incantations to generate small explosions, derived from earth or water spells, perfectly suited to blasting such small targets into powder or sawdust.
Case in point being shown right here. His small Summoner already had her wand out and at his barked word her training took over as she acted upon the reflexes that had been drilled into her by all that training.
"Sen! Got! Dis!"
The three single word incantations were out of her mouth and her wand gesturing at the thrown lengths of wood before her mind even had time to catch onto what was happening. However that seemed to have no particular effect upon her hard earned skills as all three targets exploded into fine sawdust as her explosions tore them apart.
In the silence that followed Alex took a step forward and laid a hand on the pink haired girl's shoulder.
"Indeed, my Summoner has a very bright future ahead of her, wouldn't you agree?"
"What . . . was that?!"
The demand came from Professor Colbert as he almost glared at the pseudo Servant, his hands gripping his staff in a white knuckled grip.
"Louise has been practicing to get some more control over her explosions." Alex replied, his tone easy.
"Don't give me that!" there was a definite note of anger in the teacher's voice now as he openly glared at the larger man. "That was military level speed and response, how can you be teaching that to one of my students?!"
"It was what she needed." The pseudo Servant stated simply, his voice as calm and measured as he could make it.
"Such a young child has no need to be learning such dangerous things!" Colbert declared, his face flushed with emotion.
"What she needed was control," By contrast Alex's voice was growing colder as he stared at the professor, "In case you haven't noticed my Summoner's magic is geared towards the creation of explosive detonations. Given that none of the teachers at this academy have seen fit to aid her with them I've been forced to train her the only way that I could. You did notice that she can control them to the point of them being useful, correct? That was the result of her efforts and training, and I shall not have you simply dismissing it!"
"We have given her all the training that every student at this academy receives," it was some teacher that Alex didn't recognize, his voice affronted, "Her inability to make any spell work is hardly our fault."
"True," the tall red head agreed, "Your teaching methods are clearly unsuited for my Summoner; however that simply means that you should have tried a different method with her, not simply repeated the same methods over and over in the hopes that the next time would be different."
He held up a hand, palm out as though to defend against some invisible retaliation.
"I'm aware that you have plenty of students to deal with, so I can hardly fault you for being unable to devote your entire attention to a single individual. It took some experimentation to find a suitable training regime, but I think the results speak for themselves."
"Well, I suppose that is one way to help Miss Vallière overcome her problems." The headmaster agreed, drawing a handkerchief to wipe a dusting of sawdust from his face.
"Sir, you can't be serious!" Professor Colbert was starting to irritate Alex now. He knew the man was something of a pacifist due to his own past, but his desire to shield his students from anything similar was proving to be more of a hindrance than a help. "A student as young as Miss Vallière has no place learning such dangerous magic."
"Professor!" This time the Gandálfr made no attempt to soften his tone but instead almost cracked the words like a whip, "In case you haven't noticed Louise causes violent explosions with ever spell, has this somehow escaped your attention?"
"O-Of course not."
"Then you understand that whatever else she may learn the first thing that my Summoner will need to learn is control over those same explosions?"
"W-Well that's certainly-"
"So then what is your problem with Louise learning to wield the power that she has? Would you prefer for her to truly be a 'zero'?"
Under his fingers he felt her tense slightly as he uttered her unwanted nickname and gave her what he hoped she interpreted as a reassuring squeeze.
"I . . . I simply meant-"
The outrage from earlier had disappeared from the balding fire mage's face and been replaced by uncertainty. In a way Alex felt a bit bad about being so confrontational in his response. He knew that the older man wasn't a cruel or bad sort; he simply desperately wanted to ensure his student never had to go through an experience like his. It was a naïve impractical hope, that of an idealist the world would eventually break. Even so, backing him into a corner like that wasn't something the pseudo Servant was proud of.
"I think . . ." Old Osmond's voice broke into their exchange and drew all eyes back to him, "That this is a discussion for another time. For now it would seem that Miss Vallière is more than capable of defending herself if the need arises."
His gaze moved from her to the tall red haired man standing behind her.
"And of course she has her most excellent familiar-"
"Summon." The interruption came almost reflexively from Alex, and was then summarily ignored by everyone else. It would seem that his attempts to correct people's form of addressing him had grown routine to the point of going unnoticed.
". . . who, even though he's a commoner, has defeated General Gramont's son, Guiche de Gramont in battle and claimed joint first prize in the Familiar Evaluation fair with his remarkable swordsmanship."
Alex glanced at Professor Colbert as the headmaster finished speaking. In both the anime and the light novels he almost said something about Saito being the Gandálfr at this point, only stopping himself at the last instant. Here, though, he remained quiet and simply gazed back at the red haired young man as though studying him.
Another change, a small one to be sure, but a change none the less.
Then Headmaster Osmond in a solemn tone spoke, his words having an oddly formal note to them.
"If anyone thinks that they're more capable than the mentioned three, please step forward."
No one stepped forward.
Turning to the trio of female students the white haired old mage and nodded, his posture still formal.
"The academy awaits the capture of Fouquet then!"
Louise, Kirche and Tabitha stood to attention, their wands held out in the air, and said, "We swear upon our wands to capture Fouquet!"
At a nod from the headmaster they lowered their wands. The moment over Osmond ambled back to his desk before glancing back up at the girls.
"Well then, I'll send someone to ready the carriage so you can set off right away. You must conserve your energy before you reach your destination after all."
"Headmaster Osmond, I shall accompany them as a guide as well," Miss Longueville interjected, "It was my intention to go anyway, so this shouldn't be a problem."
Things moved quite quickly after that. In just a few minutes the horse and cart were ready and the headmaster's secretary was sitting on the driver's seat with the reins in her hands. Well, the vehicle could hardly be called a carriage, in actual fact it was more like a cart with wooden planks attached to serve as seats. Still, it had a little padding and so was more comfortable than a common cart would have been. Also its simplicity lent it to being easily abandoned. If they were attacked then they could easily jump out of the vehicle and scatter without any difficulty.
Alex gave the cart a once over before nodding his approval, however there was one thing he insisted upon.
"Darling, why don't you ride with us?"
If he had been the one to drive the cart Alex was sure that he'd have been able to get a better speed out of it than this. Unfortunately their guide had been quite insistent about being the one to hold the reins, as to riding in the back with the girls . . .
"I think it might be a bit cramped."
Had he been a smaller guy like Saito then he could have ridden in there with them without too much trouble, as things stood he'd end up crowding the girls rather thoroughly. That was why he was riding on a horse next to the carriage.
"But darling, I don't mind if you crowd me. I'm sure there's something we can do to . . . get comfortable."
Honestly, the girl didn't let a single chance get by her. If all truth were to be told Alex would have found it to be somewhat endearing, if it didn't also unnerve him at the same time. The simple fact was that he wasn't used to being pursued romantically in such an overt manner. Both of his previous romances had started as friendships that had become something more after the intervention of well meaning friends. They had been shy cautious relationships that had grown as time had gone by.
For him to be actually pursued, and in such an aggressive way, was unsettling, not bad, just not something he really knew how to deal with. To make matters even more complicated was the adversarial state of affairs between her and his Summoner as well as his own undefined relationship with Siesta. Ye gods, he really was in a harem adventure and he had no idea how to handle it.
Shaking his head slightly he tried to focus his thoughts in another direction.
The list of conditions that had been revealed by the events yesterday, that was something that bore thinking about. Clearly several of them were based on conflict, such as needing to defeat mages of each element and of each rank, but others seemed almost random. Songs sung, stories told, these seemed more like trivialities rather than serious undertakings.
Of course he didn't know what conditions would unlock which items. Hell, he had some trouble remembering exactly what it was that he had bought. Some things stuck out in his memory, like the trio of Final Fantasy swords or the Lances of Fate/Zero, but other things were a blur, like the costumes he'd picked up for his friends. Then there were all the impulse buys that he'd made, such as the notebook and the Godzilla toy. Towards the end of the convention he'd been jumping from stall to stall seeing what bargains would come up and spending a bit more recklessly than he should have.
How would those purchases translate? If a notebook could become an advanced calculator with sensors beyond what he knew to be technologically possible back home then what would happen to some Naruto or Psyren manga? And what other conditions could there be? As far as he could see he hadn't managed to make visible even an eighth of the conditions, never mind unlocking them. What other things might he have to do to reveal even half of them?
As he continued his musing he noticed that the bickering between Louise and Kirche had now settled into a somewhat uneasy silence.
Alright, time to see if he could put his plan into some sort of action.
"How long until we reach this abandoned house?" Alex asked as he brought his horse a bit closer to the cart.
"About another hour or so." The disguised Fouquet answered, not even a hint of her true intent visible on her face.
"Right, in that case I think we should take some time to set up just how we're going to go about this."
"What do you mean Iskander?" Louise asked, her head turning to glare at her Summon, though there wasn't too much heat to it.
"If this was a case of simply retrieving a single item then we might be able to pull of a grab and dash job, however on this occasion Fouquet made off with dozens of artefacts. If we want to retrieve them all then we're going to have to bring her down or take her out. Personally I recommend that we try to take her alive, it might be more difficult but it means we can interrogate her as to how she got past the vault's defences and where any missing artefacts might be."
"Good idea." The two soft words from Tabitha seemed to carry a weight to them, an authority that the other two girls recognized and intuitively deferred to. Well, that made sense, though Kirche and her blue haired friend might both be of the Triangle class Tabitha was unquestionably the more experienced and specialized in combat.
"So what would you suggest darling?" the young Zerbst enquired as she leaned forwards in a motion that only served to emphasize her generous figure. What struck Alex about it though was the way that it seemed to be a completely unconscious movement rather than a premeditated one.
"Well . . . firstly there's the problem of her golem. While I don't profess to be any sort of authority on the creation of such things I'm fairly sure that making and moving something of the size that we saw is pretty high level work, correct?"
His summation was met with nods as the girls waited for what he'd say. He noted that Miss Longueville was also paying attention, despite her eyes being fixed on the road. Right, he knew that she was the enemy he'd need to face so he had to cook up a plausible plan while making sure not to reveal all his cards to her.
"Since Tabitha has Sylphid it might be best if Louise and Kirche were to ride her while Tabitha and I search the house. Up there you can keep watch for any signs of Fouquet and be ready to attack with fire spells and explosions should she bring out her golem once more."
"Moh, but I want to go in at your side darling. If I'm up on Tabitha's dragon with Vallière then how am I going to get to watch you being magnificent?"
"Imagine it," Alex replied, his tone slightly dry, "I'm sure you'll be able to do me justice."
"What should we do if Fouquet is in the house?" the so called Miss Longueville asked, her voice trying, and succeeding for the most part, to be helpfully interested.
"Go for a knock out in the first hit if we can, go for the kill if that fails." It took a lot of effort to say that without letting his emotions show. Even though he'd been in combat twice so far since coming to this world the act of killing was still something he emotionally recoiled from on a gut level.
Of course, I don't imagine it will be anywhere near that easy," he continued, letting a wry smile touch his lips, "Fouquet hasn't lasted this long by being foolish or careless, something is going to go wrong, I can practically guarantee it."
"That's pretty gloomy, Iskander." Louise commented as she turned slightly in her seat to look at him.
"I'm a firm believer in Murphy's Law, that way all my surprises are happy ones."
"Whose law?"
"Ah, sorry. Murphy's Law is more like a philosophical view of life than anything else. It basically can be summed up as; what can go wrong will go wrong."
"Pessimistic." Tabitha opined.
"True, but like I said, as long as I'm expecting things to go wrong then whenever things go right I'm pleasantly surprised."
The rest of the trip was largely unnoteworthy; mostly it was the students discussing the concept of Murphy's Law as an intellectual curiosity.
Their chatter soon died down as the cart finally reached a clearing in the forest. It was quite large; roughly the size of the Vestri Court and in the middle of it stood a clearly abandoned house. The building was made from wood, had most of the glass in its windows broken and looked more like a small warehouse than it did somewhere where people might once have lived.
The group had stopped the cart and approached by stealth before they had come close enough that anyone who might have been in the old building could have seen them. Alex had to admit that despite their uniforms being rather unsuited for sneaking about the girls were surprisingly stealthy. Not that he had much room to sling stones though, in his mantle and armour he was probably the most visible person present.
From their place among the bushes Miss Longueville pointed to the house.
"From the information I've gathered, that should be the place."
"It doesn't look like anyone is inside. Do you think Fouquet is really hiding there?"
"I don't know about you, but this smells like a trap to me," Alex whispered, his hand tightening on the grip of the short sword that had once been a part of his costume. "An obvious objective and an apparently empty house where the loot might be stashed, it looks too much like a setup to me."
"But why?" Louise tilted her head slightly as her features showed her puzzlement.
The pseudo Servant bit his lip as his thoughts raced. He knew why Fouquet was doing this; it was her way of trying to learn how to make the so called 'Staff of Destruction' work. Since she knew he was the Gandálfr her reasoning was that she'd learn by watching him using it against her golem. The thing was that he didn't want to tip her off to his knowledge. His own plan was to get hold of the 'Staff' and use it immediately to destroy her construct before it could threaten any of the party, then take the thief down quickly once she showed her true colours while trying to use the spent weapon.
"Well, Fouquet is a thief, and a successful thief at that. Perhaps she set it up so that she would only be difficult to find rather than making a clean getaway. That way she'll know where her pursuers will find her so she can deal with them before making her final break for freedom."
"So it could be a trap, or it might be our best chance to catch her. What should we do?"
Rather than sounding frustrated Kirche sounded as though she were enjoying herself more than anything else.
"Spring it."
"That . . . does make some sense, but it's a bit on the risky side." Alex murmured, keeping a surreptitious eye on Miss Longueville.
"Alright . . ." Louise's face was pinched in concentration as she glared down at the simple drawing of the house that she'd scratched into the dirt with a stick. "This might be a trap, but we might just be lucky, she might simply be asleep or something. What we need to do is scout out the house, inside there can't be enough loose earth for her to create a golem, not in a house made of wood. If worst comes to worst the scout can draw her out and then we can all attack with magic before she has the chance to create a golem."
As he listened to his small Summoner's plan Alex couldn't help but feel a tiny surge of pride. It was easy to forget that she was the child of two military commanders, her plan might be simplistic, but there were hints of the lessons that she must have learnt from her parents.
"Okay, I shall take the role of the scout."
"Uhh, darling, while I appreciate the thought don't you think that you're a bit on the large size to do any sneaking?"
The question caught him completely by surprise. He'd simply taken it as read that they would allow him to take the dangerous task for himself, though now that he thought about it he had to admit that when it came to the task of stealth and sneaking he was almost totally wrong for any sort of attempt. Still, he did have a counter argument.
"Maybe, but I think I can take a hit better than any of you ladies can. No offence, but if anything goes wrong I think I'm the best to handle it with a chance of survival."
Tabitha nodded in grave agreement.
"Also best reflexes."
Louise and Kirche glanced at each other and then turned back to the crimson clad Summon.
"Alright, but be careful Iskander, I don't want my Summon getting hurt."
"For once I agree with a Vallière," Kirche commented as she leaned against Alex, coincidently pressing the bare upper portion of her breasts against the bare skin of his arm. "What if something were to happen to you? Then I'd never be able to reward you for your bravery on the battlefield."
"Zerbst . . ." For her part Louise looked as though she was almost ready to forget the mission and simply blow up her rival and have done with it.
Seeing only more trouble on its way the red headed Gandálfr stood up and with surprising stealth made his way towards the side of the house. In all truth his efforts were more acting than any real attempt to conceal himself, since he was well aware that there was nobody within the house to see him if he did slip up. Moving closer to the house he made a point of peering in through the window. There seemed to be only one room in the whole place, with a table and a reclining chair, both of which were covered in dust. There was also a wine bottle the table and in one corner of the room there was firewood.
All in all the dishevelled building gave the impression of having been abandoned some time ago and not having been lived in since.
There was no one inside and there did not seem to be any place to hide inside the house either.
Right, time to move things along. Standing up from his furtive crouch Alex turned to where the others were concealing themselves and waved to them to come join him.
"Looks like there's no one inside," He declared pointing through the window at the dusty interior. "That might be a trap though."
Tabitha waved her staff towards the door leaving a trail of blue sparks as she did so. There was a brief pause, then she turned to face the others.
"There's no trap."
As soon as she'd declared this the small wind mage reached out and pushed the door open. A look of concern on her face Kirche quickly followed her with Alex bringing up the rear.
"I'll keep watch here!"
Louise told the rest as she turned away from the group to watch the nearby forest. Alex paused in the doorway to the small house and shot her an encouraging grin.
"Thanks, if Fouquet shows up hit her with your best shot, that should alert us as well."
It was heartening; the way that Louise nodded to him with a fierce expression on her face was something that would never have happened a few weeks ago. Back then the explosions had only been a sign of her failure, a stigma upon her every effort. Now though, now they were something different. They were her power, something that she could use, something that she could control. The summoned pseudo Servant was aware that his Summoner wasn't entirely happy with the situation. She still wanted to become a first class mage and bring honour to her family, but for now being able to do at least something well was enough, at least for the time being.
Just as Miss Longueville moved off, saying that she would investigate the area around the forest, Alex turned back to the house and followed the other two girls in.
The first thing that caught his attention was the dust; there was a thick layer of the stuff covering everything. The table, the bed, the floors all of them were sheathed in it. For a moment he considered looking for the tracks that Fouquet must have made when she dropped off the 'Staff' here, however Tabitha's own investigation of the room had already stirred the dust on the floor up enough that such an approach was impractical.
As it turned out there wasn't much need for any sort of detective work, in short order Tabitha found a box in the corner of the large room. She quickly flicked it open and withdrew from it . . .
"The Staff of Destruction." Tabitha calmly said while holding it up.
Huh, that was different than the anime. Rather than being in a long elegantly decorated box he just saw the dull green exterior of the M-72 LAW rocket launcher that was known as the Staff of Destruction. Wordlessly he held out his hand to Tabitha who, after only a slight hesitation, handed it over.
As soon as his fingers touched it he could feel the brand upon his left hand reacting to it. Immediately he knew how to use the weapon he held, how to aim it and how to trigger it. Alright, now he had the weapon he needed to win, maybe he'd let Louise blow a few chunks out of the golem first so she could build up her confidence a bit, but with this in hand he had the means to end any attack from Fouquet in pretty short order.
"Isn't this too easy?" Kirche exclaimed.
"Agreed." Tabitha gave her own agreement as she gripped her staff in both hands and continued to scan the room.
"Perhaps-"
Whatever Alex might have said was cut off, because just then, with a screech of metal and the crash of breaking timber, the entire roof of the small building was ripped away by a single huge motion. For a moment sunlight shone down into the formerly shadowy room, then the light was eclipsed as the huge bulk of Fouquet's giant golem blocked out the sun.
Tabitha was the first to react. Undaunted by the massive figure of the earth servitor she began waving her staff as she chanted her magical incantation. All it took was three words and a whirlwind appeared out of her stave, the funnel of wind whipping around so fast that it was visible to the naked eye as it reached out and struck the golem with all the accuracy of a masterfully shot arrow.
However after the whirlwind dissipated, the golem stood unscathed, as though it had been struck by a gentle shower rather than a tearing wind.
Following her friend's example Kirche drew her wand from its spot hidden in her cleavage and started her own chant. Her own incantation was five words long, but in response to her will a torrent of fire wide enough to engulf a cart, horses, riders and all, shot out of her wand and washed over the golem. For a moment the whole golem was on fire, and it took a shuddering step back, then it regained its balance and seemed to shake off any effect by the fire.
"It's too tough for the few of us!" Kirche shouted.
"HEX! VEN! IGNIS!" Louise's voice rang out clear as a bell as she cast her spell and pointed her wand at the menacing bulk of the huge golem.
"LOUISE! WH-"
Whatever Kirche might have been about to ask his small Summoner was lost as, with a roar that shook leaves from the nearby trees, the golems right shoulder exploded as though struck by a meteorite. The huge construct was sent staggering to the side several paces and a cloud of dust rose to obscure the site of the attack. A single gust of wind conjured up by Tabitha blew it away to reveal a sight that made Kirche gasp in surprise.
More than half the shoulder was simply gone, replaced by a ragged hole large enough to drive a cart through.
"HAH!" Alex crowned in triumph as he watched the staggering construct try to regain its balance. "I dare anyone to tell that explosions are useless now!"
He turned to grin at Louise, to show her how proud he was of her achievement, and felt his face freeze at what he saw.
His pink haired Summoner was slumped down to her knees, her arms hanging by her side and her hand barely holding onto her wand. Oh. Oh, damn it. She'd gone with a fire spell. Fire spells always produced the most potent explosions, if she could get the implosion/explosion balanced just right, but one thing that they'd learnt during experimentation was that they were also very costly in mana, or willpower as the locals called it. She must have sunk every bit of power that she had into that one spell, no wonder she was exhausted.
Wait, was that right? Wasn't an exhaustion of willpower only meant to leave you unable you cast?
Aaagghh, who cared? Right now the important thing was to protect her, he could figure out the details later.
The golem had recovered its balance, the huge hole inflicted upon it healing as loose dirt and stone were drawn up into it to replace what had been blasted away. By the looks of things it had also worked out who was the greatest threat to it, because it was now turning to face the slumped Louise. Alright, no more games, no more trying to be clever, time to get things over and done with. After all his Louise didn't need some unnecessarily drawn out emotional episode to shore up her fragile ego. Blasting a hole straight through the golem that had taken the best Tabitha and Kirche could throw at it and then shaken it off should be more than enough.
With the M-72 LAW held in one hand there was no need for him to draw a sword to activate the runes on his hand. The symbols shone with internal light and the pseudo Servant felt the power pulse through him. He could probably have managed it without the aid of the Mark of the Gandálfr, since even without it his speed and agility remained far above those of a normal human, but he was also saw no point to holding back. Not when a multi ton earth monster was bearing down on a friend.
There were no words to describe the rush that came from using the powers that he'd been granted, even now weeks after his arrival it remained as thrilling as ever. The world about him slowed and he could feel the additional strength flowing through him like a tide of warm power. It was but the work of an instant for Alex to rush between the slow moving legs of the golem and reach his Summoner, standing between her and the construct.
"Iskander?"
Her voice was tired, as though she had run a marathon, but it wasn't weak. The sound of it banished his worries and drew a smile to his face.
"That was a good blast Louise, now let me finish it off for you."
Okay, that sounded far too much like a line for the Saturday morning cartoons he used to watch when he was little. On the other hand, who cared?
"A-Are you going to use your Noble Phantoming?" Louise asked, causing Alex to wince as she once more mangled the correct name of his trump card.
"It's a Noble Phantasm Louise, and no I'm not going to use it. Let's see what this can do."
With sure movements as natural as if he had practiced them every day for years he took out the arming handle, opened the rear cover then pulled out and extended the inner tube, all with the crisp almost mechanical of a trained soldier. Taking a step to the side the red haired young man raised it onto his shoulder and aimed it at the oncoming golem. As he did so a sudden surge of excitement ran through him and he couldn't resist calling out a taunt as he triggered the weapon.
"Magic, meet the twentieth century!"
Immediately, a loud roar came from the staff and a projectile with wings flew towards the golem. Alex had barely enough time to catch a glimpse of it before the projectile met with the golem detonating a terrific explosion.
Instinctively the pseudo Servant cast the spent and useless weapon to the side and crouched down beside Louise and shielded her with his mantle even as he closed his eyes in anticipation of what was to come.
A clap of deafening thunder echoed though the clearing as the entire upper body of the golem pulverized and flew out in all directions, causing a rain of dirt and pebbles. As the last of the debris pattered to the ground Alex slowly opened his eyes and surveyed the fruits of his work.
As the smoke from the explosion cleared, only the lower body of the golem was left standing. The disembodied legs took one shuddering step forward, as though responding to the last command they received, then fell to their knees before crumbling back into the loose earth and stone that had compromised them.
"Wh-What was that?" Behind him Louise once more got to her feet, turning to face her Alex saw the look of awed astonishment on her face, "How did you use the Staff of Destruction? Was that a Noble Phantom? Why didn't you tell me you could use magic?"
The questions spilled out of her one after another, each apparently utterly uncaring of the previous questions as she simply asked whatever came to mind. Alex opened his mouth to try to get an answer in edgeways, but was cut off by a sudden cry from above him.
"DAAAARRRLINGGG!"
At the sound of Kirche's exuberant voice the red headed Gandálfr looked up just in time to see the plummeting from of the Zerbst heir falling straight at him. He barely had enough time to realize that she'd jumped off Tabitha's dragon before she impacted upon him. Her fall must have been slowed by some sort of spell, because rather than hurting herself by slamming into him the sensual fire mage struck with no more impact than if she had thrown herself at him normally. That was all noted by a small and rational part of his mind, the vast majority of his thoughts were taken up by the fact that Kirche had used the advantage of coming down from above to wrap her arms around his neck and hug him close.
'Coincidently' this resulted in his face being pressed into her bountiful chest.
"Oh, who would have thought that you'd be able to use the power of the Staff so well? It was such a magnificent sight, to see you standing so fearlessly between the golem and Louise. I can feel my heart beating faster just at the thought of it, and the way that you blew it away even when my spell wouldn't do anything . . . oh darling, this is why I love you."
Okay, this really wasn't fair. Though he tried to be a gentleman there really were limits to even his restraint, and having the tanned red head literally shove his face into her assets while declaring how impressed she was with him . . . well, it was hitting all the primitive buttons in his brain.
"ZEBST! GET OFF MY SUMMON!"
A moment later his head was released from its warm and soft prison and Kirche's arms unwrapped from about his neck. Alex blinked a few times as he tried to get his thoughts off their previous track and back onto something that didn't resemble the thought process of a caveman. By the looks of it Louise had recovered her lost strength, because she had seized the end of her rival's cape and was using it as a tool to drag her off of him.
"Really Louise, this is just like you cold hearted Vallières, always getting in the way of true love."
"Is that what you call it? Because to me it looked more like-"
"Fouquet, where?"
Tabitha's soft and calm voice broke into the increasingly absurd argument and brought their attention back to the matter at hand. The golem had been defeated, but the mage that created it remained a threat.
It was just then that Miss Longueville came out from the forest.
"Miss Longueville! Did you find out where Fouquet was controlling the golem from?" Kirche asked.
In response the secretary shook her head.
He had to keep playing the part of the duped sucker; he couldn't risk her realizing he was on to her. With that in mind Alex drew his short sword once more and made a point of scanning the nearby forest for any signs of the earth mage that had attacked them. Of course he didn't expect to spot anything but-
A flash of something caught his eyes, something metallic reflecting the light of the sun, there for a moment then gone. Was that his imagination? He was sure he'd seen something moving over there, something large, or at least that was what it had looked like. It had only been a glimpse, there and then gone.
A movement out of the corner of his eye brought his attention back to the disguised thief and he turned to face her just in time to see her pick up the discarded rocket launcher.
Widening the distance between her and the group Miss Longueville reached up to take her glasses off before smiling beatifically at the small group as she lifted the weapon to her shoulder and aimed it at them.
"Great job, people!"
"Miss Longueville!" Kirche shouted. "What's the meaning of this?"
Louise stared at Miss Longueville, too shocked to say anything.
"I must confess that I wasn't expecting for you to be able to defeat my golem so easily, but I guess it worked out well for me in the end."
"What? That means… You're…"
Miss Longueville reached up behind her head and undid the bun that her hair had previously been in; her once gentle expression had changed to that of a cat that had found a crippled mouse.
"Yes, I am Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt. The Staff of Destruction is really powerful; it actually managed to defeat my golem in just one hit! All of you don't move! I have the Staff of Destruction pointed right at you. Drop your wands-"
Whatever else the revealed thief might have been about to say was cut off as Alex suddenly surged forwards. Reflexively Fouquet triggered the weapon she held just as she'd seen him do earlier, but rather than the roar from before there was simply a dull click and nothing else.
She barely had time for her eyes to widen in shocked surprise before Alex moved. His left fist drove into the base of her ribcage forcing the air out of her lungs and doubling her over. As she gasped for breath he seized both her wrists and twisted her arms behind her back even as he pushed her down so she was lying on the ground with her cheek pressed into the dirt. A quick search revealed her wand hidden in her sleeve and he handed the magical focus to Tabitha who was standing next to him with her staff ready.
"W-Why didn't it . . ."
Fouquet's voice came out muffled and distorted as she struggled to regain her breath even as her face was pressed into the soil.
"Why didn't it fire?" Alex asked as he fastened her arms securely with a cord that the small wind mage handed him. "The Staff of Destruction isn't a magic tool; it's a weapon, one with only one shot. After I used it it became as powerful as a bow with no arrows."
"So . . . it was useless?" the look upon her face was one of confusion, "But-but she knew about it. Why didn't she tell me? What . . . what does she have-"
That didn't sound right. As far as he could recall Fouquet shouldn't have had any contact with Sheffield or anyone like that yet, so who was she talking ab-
The impact slammed into him before he could complete the thought.
-()-
She'd been played like a harp.
The thought ran through Matilda's head again and again as she felt herself being pressed against the ground by the Vallière girl's familiar. That strange woman that she'd met had known something about the Staff, enough to know that it couldn't be operated easily. If she had known that then she must have also known that it could only be used once.
But she hadn't mentioned it, hadn't let her know.
Why? The thought went round and round in her mind as she tried to work out why she was in her current predicament. Was it some sort of plan to get the rest of the hoard? Set her up to be captured while she made off with the rest of the loot, it made a certain level of sense. But she'd stashed the gains from her theft deep in the earth, it would take another earth mage of comparable talent to find it, and she could honestly say that there weren't too many of those about.
Founder damn it, she would not be the sucker or the pawn, not when there were others depending upon her! There had to be some way out of this. He'd taken her wand, but he hadn't found the spare one she kept in her boot, not yet at least. If she could work out some way to buy some time then maybe she could get hold of it. Then if she was fast and smart then maybe she'd be able to get away, a tunnelling spell could do it, if she was fast enough. That would make it harder for them to track her.
When she first felt the earth tremble slightly beneath her she thought it was just her imagination, but then she felt it again. Granted it wasn't a strong vibration, nothing on par with an earthquake or other disaster of the like, but as an earth mage she was well aware of just how much force was required to create an impact that she could feel in this manner.
She just had time to wonder what could possibly be the cause when something struck the man holding her and sent him literally flying.
Matilda couldn't see what it was, not with her face still pressed into the earth, but in a single movement she squirmed over . . .
Just in time to see an armoured boot with spikes coming out of its soles crash down where her head had been just an instant before. There was an audible cracking of stone and then the foot was gone, its owner charging onwards. For a moment the famous thief found it impossible to do anything but stare at the footprint that had been left behind. No, perhaps footprint wasn't the correct word. That was a small crater, something that should have been produced by a warhammer being swung full force at the ground by a powerful warrior.
And if she hadn't moved it would have come right down on her skull.
A chill ran down Matilda's spine as she realized just how close to death she had come, had she been even a fraction of a second slower . . .
Had it been deliberate? Had those two, Sodom and Gomorrah she thought their names were, had orders to kill her if she was captured?
The situation was only becoming worse for her as time went on. Had she been captured by the children and the Gandálfr then at worst she'd have been turned over to the palace to face the royal family's justice. If it had come to that she was pretty sure she could have swung some sort of deal, since she was in possession of some dirt on a number of nobles.
Her 'allies' though . . . they seemed ready to put her in the ground in a most permanent way.
Seeing that her captors were all distracted by the sight of the armoured hulk battling the Vallière's familiar the earth mage slowly and carefully reached for the wand in her boot. She wouldn't die here, not like this. She refused to allow it.
For now she'd stay still, not give her captors any reason to pay her attention, but she knew there was another of the huge armoured warriors about, the disturbingly handsome one with a cruel smile. She would wait until he was also engaged, then make her break for it.
Struggling to keep her breathing even the former noble turned thief waited for her chance.
-()-
Alex felt as though he'd been hit by a truck, stars actually danced before his eyes for a moment before a crashing impact on his back shook the cobwebs from his head and brought him back to the present.
His attacker was huge; there was no other way to describe him. Alex wasn't used to looking up at people, but the armoured colossus before him was at least a foot taller than he was. Clad in impossibly thick armour decorated with carved skulls the bald and disfigured face of the giant glared down at him, rage and bloodlust clear in his eyes. Both his hands were now wrapped around a thing that looked like an axe in form only. In practice the monstrosity was far too huge, and warped and twisted to really be called an axe, it was more like a slab of metal that had had its edge sharpened and then been attached to a length of thick metal.
Any further observations became impossible because said metallic monstrosity was being swung at his head. The pseudo Servant barely had enough time to dive to the side before the huge axe ripped through the space his head had been occupying just a second before.
What had impacted against his back to stop his flight before had been a tree, one of the ones that had made up the edge of the clearing. It was a fair sized tree, one large enough that even someone of his size wouldn't completely wrap their arms about it.
The trunk exploded into flying splinters as the weapon tore through it as though it had been a hollow tube of cheap plasterboard.
The sheer display of violent power was intimidating. Alex knew intellectually that in his state as a Servant he was capable of a similar feat, even superior ones if he employed the boost provided by the Mark of the Gandálfr, but to have such force directed against him . . .
"Oi, partner, snap out of it! Or do you plan to die before you even draw me?"
Derflinger's sharp comments drew him out of the shocked daze that he'd allowed himself to fall into. Without any thought being needed his left hand dropped to his waist and in an instant the talking sword was coming up and slashing at his foe. Sparks exploded into the air in a bright shower as the millennia old blade met the armour of the axe wielding giant.
Alex had put much of his strength behind that blow, granted it had been from his off hand and it had been from an angle that didn't have the ideal leverage to put the most force into the blow but even so the sword swing had the kind of strength to it that could sheer through stone walls.
All it succeeded in doing against his foe was to send him stumbling back a couple of paces.
This time the pseudo Servant didn't hesitate, rather than being shocked into paralysis by the impossibility before him Alex instead changed straight at his enemy. The spatha in his right hand lashed out in a fierce blow that was blocked by the steel handle of the axe. The edge of his weapon bit into the thick handle, but despite penetrating it wasn't able to sink in deeply. Whether it was through superior metallurgy or having been enhanced with magic the weapon was far stronger than it had any right to be. Derflinger followed swiftly enough that the very air shrieked with the speed of its passage, but the strike was met by the thick vambrace of his gauntlets. More sparks exploded from the intercepted blows as the ancient sword tore a deep gash into the thick armour, but the bright flashes failed to make the giant as much as blink.
Even as he pressed his attack Alex's mind was working frantically. This was the first time since arriving on this world that he'd encountered a foe that came close to being able to match him in purely physical abilities, and to tell the truth he hadn't been expecting to run into any serious competition in that department until Sheffield brought out a Jormungandr golem. If the canon storyline was anything to go by Saito had rarely encountered threats of a purely physical nature that could match him when using the power of the Gandálfr. Foes such as Wardes or the elves that he'd faced had used magic to give themselves the advantage; very few of them ever matched him in strength and speed.
He'd certainly never faced any seven and a half foot tall mountains of muscle armoured well enough to make battleships envious.
"HHHHWWWUUUUUGGGHHHH!"
The battle cry was a wordless bellow of rage and aggression, but it was the only warning the Gandálfr received before the armoured giant surged forwards, breaking through his onslaught and sending Alex tumbling back. The red clad Summon was barely able to bring his swords up into a guard before the long handle of the axe came whipping at him like the length of a staff.
The blow was powerful; it didn't have the same strength behind it as the young Gandálfr possessed, but that disparity was made up for by the sheer mass behind the swing. As the attack met his guard it was stopped, but even though it wasn't strong enough to break through his defences it had another result.
To his astonishment Alex found himself lifted off his feet and his whole body was picked up by the force of the blow and sent skidding back in a barely controlled tumble. As he struggled to regain his footing the pseudo Servant tried to get a grip on what had happened.
It was the difference in their weight, he realized. Even though Alex was the stronger of them that advantage was being offset by the sheer mass of his foe. When two objects collided it was the lighter that usually gave, a lump of steel might be stronger than a piece of wood, but it could still be brushed aside if the latter outweighed the former. Alex was used to being the largest and heaviest person in almost any given situation, so he hadn't adjusted his stance to brace himself. That was a mistake he was now paying for.
As he tried to recover his broken balance he felt his thoughts groping for some sort of explanation. How could his foe be so strong? As a pseudo Servant his own physical abilities were far beyond what could be regarded as mortal limits, and he knew of no way that the people of this world could be enhanced to come so close to matching it. So how . . . ?
He regained his feet in time to sidestep a downwards chop of the huge axe that could well have spilt his entire torso in two. The momentum of the strike dragged the armoured giant along behind despite his great size and strength and brought him in close to Alex. It was a brief opening, one that would only last a split second, but with the power of the runes on his left hand empowering him the red headed Summon was fast enough.
There wasn't enough time to bring his swords into play; both his arms were down at his side meaning that he'd only be able to get weakened strokes in. He already knew that the armour was strong enough to defend against such strikes, so he didn't even bother to try. Instead Alex drove his shoulder into the giants exposed side as though he were trying to ram his way through a door. He put every ounce of strength and force into it that he could without a running start and the results were satisfyingly evident.
He felt the armour buckle somewhat as he impacted upon it, thick it might be and magically enhanced, but he had his own speed, strength and endurance and all were coming together for this attack. The impact was tremendous, pain exploding from his shoulder and upper arm, but even through the pain he could feel the metal crumpling beneath his assault. For a brief moment they pressed against each other, two warriors contending for advantage, then the force of impact separated them. As the giant was sent sprawling Alex could see the smashed indentation in his armour the size and shape of his shoulder where he'd struck him.
Okay, now he had a moment to actually think, the young Gandálfr could almost see the world around him slow down as his thoughts raced. His huge attacker was some fifteen feet away and lying on his side where he'd fallen, though he wouldn't be lying there for very long, he was already moving to rise, but it would take him at least a second or two.
Now that Alex had a chance to actually look at him Louise's Summon noted a few things that clicked together in his mind. The giant's skin was flushed to an almost unhealthy level as though he was feverish, also the veins in his temples and neck stood out as though under internal pressure. Indeed that last fact seemed to be true of almost all of his exposed skin, in the few places where his flesh was visible it was all the same, bulging muscles and protruding veins.
And there had also been the armour, even though he'd only been in contact with it for a brief instant Alex had noted one thing about it. The plates, though thick, were hot. Not just warm but actually uncomfortably hot.
It all came to one near complete picture in his head; even if he was sure that he didn't have all the pieces. Whatever process had been used to grant this colossus his physical powers was somehow at least partly rooted in pure biology. Alex's own power, as far as he could tell, had literally made him superhuman and granted him a body able to handle the stresses of that power. For him operating at levels far beyond the human norm was standard for him, at least as a pseudo Servant it was.
This attacker wasn't his equal, of that Alex was sure. He was strong and fast, inhumanly so, but he was not the match of a Servant. What made up for that was the sheer size and ferocity of his attacks combined with the Gandálfr's initial uncertainty. It didn't matter if Alex was the stronger, not if his footing and balance were unset and his enemy strong enough to literally blow him off his feet.
However while the red haired Summon was the more physically powerful his foe had means of reaching a similar level of power, but was doing it by a much more dangerous method. It was just a guess, but Alex was pretty sure that what he was looking at was a case of someone being enhanced to an inhuman level and then having all his natural limiters removed.
The premise was simple enough; all humans had the capacity for brief bursts of enormous strength after all. It was basically the urban legend of the mother picking up a car to save her child. In times of great enough stress and at the cost of damaging itself the human body could perform feats vastly outside its normal parameters. In some pop culture this was referred to as 'breaking the limiters' and was often used as a plot point.
What was happening here was that somehow this giant had had his base abilities increased. More muscle mass, reinforced bones, enhanced ligaments, or at least so he guessed. All such advancements would certainly increase someone's abilities, but there was a limit to how much someone could be enhanced in such a way, or at least so he guessed.
So how did you get around that? Simple, anyone that could enhance a body in such a way could also remove the natural limiters upon it. If you assumed that whatever upgrades the attacker had received included enhanced healing then it made perfect sense, a relatively easy way to boost an already enhanced person to even greater heights.
He had no way of confirming it, but it seemed to fit what little information he had well enough. And if that was the case then it meant that he had a very important advantage, stamina. Removing his limits might allow this goliath to match him in physical ability, but there was no way he could keep it up, even if he was enhanced. If his guesses were on the mark then operating at this level was slowly breaking him down, tearing his muscles, cracking his bones. An enhanced pain threshold or a simple inability to feel pain could let him work through that, but there came a point where willpower and determination simply couldn't overcome the physical realities of a failing body structure.
If all his deductions were right then all he needed to do was stall and- WOAH!
Alex's line of thought was cut off as he threw himself to the side and only just avoided the foot long dagger that shot like an arrow through the space his head had occupied an instant before.
Alright, it seemed that simply waiting for him to exhaust himself might not be the best strategy available. It was a good fall back plan, but right now he needed something a bit more proactive, he needed to use his advantages. Now, what were they? There was his stamina, but that was a long term advantage rather than an immediately applicable one. There was his strength and other physical powers, measure for measure he was the superior, however that was offset by the sheer aggressive abandon of his foe. The was his Noble Phantasm, that was a pretty much guaranteed win if he used it, but he was reluctant to display his hidden trump card without more cause. The situation was serious, but it hadn't advanced to that state of urgency yet.
So that left . . .
His enemy was on his feet again and coming at him, but that was alright. The brief moment of respite had given him the time he needed to collect his thoughts and now he had a plan.
As the armoured hulk bore down on him Alex thrust his swords back into their sheaths and stepped forward to meet the charge bare handed. The sudden act seemed to surprise his enemy because for just one fraction of a second he hesitated.
That was all the time Alex needed.
He didn't try to ram or strike his enemy. Instead both his hands went out and seized the metal shaft of the axe that he held. As soon as he did so the Mark of the Gandálfr lit up once more and his body moved instinctually to use the weapon he held. After all, the Shield of God was the master of all arms, even those that belonged to someone else, as long as he could grasp them then he could use them.
The giant held onto the huge weapon with a death grip, but that wasn't a problem. As though the moves had been learnt over a lifetime the pseudo Servant twisted the weapon just so, and then lashed out with a kick to his foe's belly. Already off balance by the sudden twist the unexpected blow came at just the right time to break the grip on the axe. His enemy might be inhumanly strong, but for that instant Alex had balance, leverage and surprise all on his side to send the larger warrior tumbling into the dirt once more.
The red clad Gandálfr didn't give his foe time to recover this time though. Even as the armoured giant rolled over to get up Alex was already striking down. The two half moon blades of the double head of the battle axe came together in an indent that was quite deep. Deep enough that Alex could drive the blades spear like into the ground and use the indent to trap the giant's throat like curved rivet. Had he wished the warrior could have pulled himself free, the axe was only buried in loose soil after all, but if he were to try he'd impale himself upon the short spike that decorated the eye of the axe head.
It was almost shocking how the tableau of violence went to dead stillness in barely the space of two seconds. The young Gandálfr stood, his hands grasping the shaft of the axe to hold it in place and his right foot stamping down on the left arm of his enemy to hold it down. For his part the giant in armour froze in place, his right arm half raised having gone still as stone.
"Now . . . I've got some questions that need answering."
Alex was somewhat taken aback at how hoarse and rasping his own voice sounded, but he put it from his mind. That wasn't important right now, what was important was learning who this warrior was, why he was here and where he had come from. The pseudo Servant had no idea what he could have done to have caused such a change in the events he'd thought he was familiar with. What he needed now was some information so he could at least start to put some sort of solution together.
His only answer was a gob of bloody spittle and a mad grin from his foe. Alex pushed the spear forwards some more, until the spike on its head pricked the skin of the warrior's throat and drew a trickle of blood.
"Who are you? Tell me!"
In response the giant drew in a deep breath and glared up at his captor, Alex's eyes narrowed as he glared back down at him, certain this would be more defian-
Where was his tongue?
WHERE WAS HIS TONGUE?!
The armoured warrior's jaws gaped open in an almost grotesque way as he roared wordlessly at the young Gandálfr. Yet despite the volume of the bellow Alex paid it no attention, instead his attention was fixed on the contents of his foe's mouth. The sun was high in the sky, and by good fortune the angle was just right so that its rays were shining down between the jaws and giving him a fine view of what was there.
His teeth had been filed to needle points and gums were unnaturally red, as though too much blood were flowing through them. However where his tongue should have been there was . . . something else. It was as though his lower jaw ran back into his mouth with further rows of pointed teeth, but even as he watched those ranks of fangs flexed and moved as though each were attached to an individual muscle.
The sight was utterly inhuman, so much so that for a moment Alex wondered if that was the truth, that he wasn't fighting humans but rather monsters in human form. The rows of teeth were rippling now, acting in some grotesque parody of how a tongue would be used to shape words.
There, in that split second of horrified fascination the new Gandálfr made a mistake. Focused on the twisted parody within the mouth of his enemy he wasn't paying enough attention to the half raised right arm. With an ear shattering roar and in a move so fast that it would have beggared a striking snake, the giant's free hand came whipping across his chest and drove the axe head away from his neck in a single savage movement. The act drew a red line of blood across his throat, but even as Alex stumbled to the side from the force of having the weapon yanked from his hands he could see that the wound wasn't deep enough to be dangerous.
Damn it, he needed to take this more seriously. He should have beaten the giant unconscious as soon as he had him on the ground, not tried to interrogate him, this wasn't an anime and he didn't have plot armour. He needed to be more careful.
His swords were in his hands again as he and his foe once more faced each other. Again he saw the colossus draw in a deep breath, his chest swelling almost grotesquely as the air was drawn in. He was going to roar once more, probably just as he attacked, well this time Alex was ready. He wouldn't allow the meaningless noise to distract him, not again. This time he was taking that axe and using it to put this guy dow-
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
Alex just couldn't help it, the words had been warped and mangled almost to the point of incomprehension by those teeth performing the task of a tongue, but in the end he'd understood them. In that instant just what he was seeing finally came crashing down on him with all the force of a collapsing mountain. All of it, the armour, the scarring, the huge weapon and the carved skulls that decorated the amour at every point, even the twisted nature of his foe.
A primitive Chaos Marine? Some sort of Chaos Champion?
But . . . but how? The thought repeated again and again in his head as he found himself rooted to the spot. Were the Chaos Gods somehow active in this world? Was that what he was going to have to face? Was that why he was here? Visions of devastation and destruction on a scale almost beyond imagination flashed through his mind in an endless loop of horrors as he remembered some of the stories in that series. Even the fantasy based one had been rife with nightmares and monstrosities that could turn Halkeginia into a charnel house. His treacherous imagination supplied images of his friends in the merciless clutches of Slaaneshi demonettes, the academy in ruins as Khorne berserkers stalked its corridors with bloody weapons in hand, the Tristain capital a ghost town as Nurgle's plagues swept through it, war spreading everywhere as Tzeentch's agents wove plots everywhere. That wasn't something he could stand against, not him, not even with all that he had.
But he had to somehow; he had to find the source. But how-
"ISKANDER!"
Louise's scream jolted him out of his stunned state . . . Just in time to turn and see a second giant ram a scythe blade into his chest and through his heart.
The world froze about him as he experienced the event with a crystal clarity that surpassed anything he'd ever gone through before. He could see the dust hanging in the air from where it had been kicked up by the second giant's charge. It ran all the way over to the other side of the clearing, yet all along its length the dust hung in the air, meaning that his attacker must have covered the entire distance in such a brief moment. Fast, faster than anything that big had a right to be. But it wasn't fast enough; it wouldn't have been if he hadn't . . .
He could see over to the side where the girls were watching, he could see the blood draining from their faces as they realized what was happening. They all had their wands out, but clearly they hadn't been fast enough to cast against the one that had caught him by surprise, no doubt they had been caught unawares as well. Fouquet was still down, her wand in Tabitha's hand, and seemed every bit as shocked at what had happened as his companions were. Strange, had she known about these giants, or were they a surprise to her as well?
Alex was now drifting through the air, the force of the blow that had effectively killed him having lifted him off his feet with its force. Still in his strangely detached state of mind he took note of the appearance of his apparent killer.
Slaanesh, that was definitely the god that this one worshiped. The design of his armour, the slim hooks and spikes upon it, the decorations, all of them left no room for doubt as to the decadent and hedonistic nature of the god that he served. Unlike the other one this huge armoured warrior was free of scars and disfigurements upon his face, a face that was now contorted into an expression of unholy bliss.
He was actually getting off on killing him. The realization hit the young Gandálfr even as the giant arrested the motion of his weapon and let Alex's momentum drag him off the serrated blade, inflicting further harm upon himself as he did so. The other one might have gained some sort of wild pleasure from the battle, but this one was actually deriving an almost sexual high from the act of killing him.
Damn it all, this was just so stupid! He'd frozen up, he'd been trying to act like a fighter, like a warrior, but as soon as something surprised him he'd frozen like a deer in the headlights. Damn it, DAMN IT!
He knew he had the strength and skills to take them both on if he had to, he knew this as surely as he did his own name. Had it been the real Rider in his place these guys would have been broken with ease. But then . . . he wasn't the real Rider, was he? He was the weak link in this, he had the power and the skills he needed, but he lacked the mindset, the experience, to use the power he had properly.
It was surreal; the way that he drifted into the tree was almost dream-like. He could feel the impact running through him, but still there was no pain. As he slid down to the ground he saw a jet of heart's blood erupt from the wound and out into the air in an almost graceful arc. Was it strange that he found the sight of his own blood glittering in the air to be strangely beautiful?
He should be scared, he should be frantic. He was about to die and then those warriors would turn on Louise and the others. Could they win with magic? If those were real Chaos Champions then they'd have the blessings of the Chaos Gods, the kind of blessings that let berserkers fight on with half their limbs missing or granted mind warping charms and glamour. Damn it all, he'd been too stupid, far too stupid. It was too late now, he could feel the darkness closing in, feel the cold run through his limbs as the blood soaked down through his armour and into the ground. There was still no pain, not even as the light began to fade. In the distance he could hear shouts, hear . . . something, but it was all fading away
Unseen the light of the marks upon his right hand flared into life, not white, blue or red, but rather a burning gold. Had anyone been watching they would have seen the book appear, floating in midair as its pages turned themselves. For a brief instant they fluttered like the wings of a humming bird, then they settled on a new pair of pages.
AVATAR UNLOCKED: NEMESIS BETA