Fate/Infinity Shuffle
Okay, so, I was somewhat cruel by introducing 15 characters in the previous chapter and expectall of you to memorize them. So, in this Chapter, I will call them by their Class and Team, like 'Saber of Red' and 'Lancer of Black'. This is to avoid confusion. Also, describing them all at once would be rather cruel as well, so I'll describe them if fully necessary when they appear. Technically, only the hair and eyes are necessary, since the cards give the clothes of the Servants, but even so. Without further ado, the chapter.
Chapter 10 – Stand at the Top:
Type of Match: All-Out Brawl, Short Version
Both teams fight each other in a large battlefield to the best of their abilities. Each Player can only use one Card. The team members should have different Classes from each other (this does not mean it has to be the 7 Standard Classes). If a team has repeated Classes, the opposing team has the right to have repeated Classes as well.
The sole difference between regular version and short version is that the regular ends when all members of one team are all defeated and uninstalled, while the short version ends the moment four members of the same team are defeated.
High Ranking Teams require a Ruler to oversee the battle.
The two Teams assumed their positions after Installing their Cards, resembling the respective Heroic Spirits. Of course, some were definitely interesting outfit wise, such as Berserker of Red, Momoka, a regular looking girl, would be adorned with little armour, most of it resembling constricting binds.
The two teams decided to opt for a 'classic' formation.
While one could make the team layout on the field however they wished, the best advised one, which both the Red Oaths and the Black Yggdrasil assumed, is as follows:
-Forward Striker – The most forward position starting off by the middle-field of the stadium. This position is usually given to Sabers, since the two will be the first to clash, and since Saber is the strongest Class, only another Saber would be able to match in power.
-Wild Card – Right behind the Forward Striker is a member that is supposed to be let loose and invade the opposite side of the field, while the Frward Strikes clash. Of course, this position is usually given to Berserkers due to the unpredictability granted by the Mad Enhancement Skill.
-Middle Fielders – far behind the Wild Cards are two Middle Fielders on each side. Usually for long range, speedy or overhead support. These positions are usually given to Lancers and Riders, due to their speed or steeds.
-Dwellers – the borders of the stadium possess structures one can hide inside. It isn't any secret, and the protection isn't the best, but it connects to the opposing field as a result. The two Classes given this position are Caster and Assassin, due to their Territory Creation and Presence Concealment Skills. Casters can develop a small territory to increase their effectiveness if necessary, and Assassins can sneak to the opposing field without anyone's notice.
-Scouter – the last position is atop the farthest structure-building at the border of the stadium, in order to oversee the entire field. Of course, this position is usually given to Archers for coverage and easy targeting, with or without Noble Phantasms. Of course, nothing binds a Player (Archer) to this specific area, so they can leave whenever they wish.
With everyone in their respective place and position, the two Sabers stood in front of each other with serious gazes.
"Good luck, Kuroko. You're going to need it."
"I wouldn't be so sure, Akane. We'll reach the EX Rank before you."
The woman in armour smirked with enthusiasm. "Fighting words?"
The serious man curled his lips as well. "You can say so, yes."
The helmet of Saber of Red mounted itself over her head, concealing her face. The two Sabers raised their swords, pointed them at each other, and the weapons touched. Three seconds after, the two put their all in their strikes. The speed and power behind each attack something that could only be seen if two Sabers fought each other, the sound of clashing metal over and over again signalling the start of the battle.
Archer of Red prepared her bow and took aim. She knew shooting at Saber of Black was useless, so she targeted Lancer of Black, shooting an arrow that travelled across the field in a flash.
"Kazikli Bey!" Lancer of Black hopped back as a set of ten stakes rose from the ground, all taller than her, blocking the arrow with success. A grin appeared on her face, but it quickly vanished the moment a sword cleaved through the stakes, making them vanish, turn into ash. The demented grin of Berserker of Red appeared. "Ksh!" She stepped back, raising her stakes in order to pierce through Berserker's flesh. "Kuroko, you let her pass?!"
"Bit busy!" The Saber of Black was far too busy dealing with Saber of Red to stop the Berserker from passing. Luckily, the same could be said to the opposition, since Berserker of Black passed the Middlefield in a sprint.
"So, you wanna take care of her?"
"Sure. Invade the enemy territory." Lancer of Red suggested, preparing his wand-like spear. Rider of Red nodded at the command, Spear in hand, and whistled, summoning his chariot pulled by a trio of horses. He hopped onto the flying vehicle as Lancer placed the tip of the spear down on the ground, and then swiped it up, releasing a feather-like burst of fire.
Berserker of Black roared, aiming her hammer at the fire. The odd weapon's orb suddenly began to spin and curled the fire around it, converting it into the Mana it originally was, and turning it into electricity that entered the devices on her temples.
"GRAAAHHHH!" With an overcharge of mana, she spun over her foot and slammed her hammer into the Lancer's body. However, he didn't flinch. One of his Noble Phantasms was the golden armour he adorned, which would reduce all damage to only 10% of its original value. And that wasn't even taking into account his Endurance.
"Is that all?" Lancer of Red wondered. He wasn't cocky despite the power of his card. He genuinely wondered if there was anything else to the attack. Since they had battled so many times before, the Black Yggdrasil was aware of his strength. Leaving him only to Berserker of Black was idiotic.
That was when Berserker of Black smirked, something that was definitely odd. She removed her hammer, revealing the shards of a purple crystal stuck to his body.
"?!" He flinched, and Berserker jumped back as earth, dirt, surrounded his body and encapsulated him in a sphere, only his head left above. One thing he didn't take into account was Berserker of Black carrying out tasks for tactics, in this case, carrying one of Caster's crystals for Golem creation. While Berserker of Red had a Mad Enhancement of Rank EX, Black's Berserker was only Rank D. Sanity wasn't completely lost, even if overall weaker.
As Berserker dashed down the field, Rider of Red flew on his vehicle, and was going to turn around and return to his side of the field, until Rider of Black intersected him with a tackle of her Hippogriff.
"What the-?!"
"Don't think we'll just let you go!"
"Grrr…! Yo, Taiyou! Think you can get out of there alone?!"
"Not likely for now."
"Huh?!"
"Their Caster must be focused on controlling the shape of this sphere. I can't reach my weapon, and he keeps reshaping this so the heat of my Mana Burst is expelled to the outside, cooling the inside so it isn't destroyed." Lancer deduced, steam emerging from holes in the orb. "But this won't last forever." He assured, as ground and dirt sunk his head in, cutting all communications with his team members.
"Damn it…!" Rider of Red turned to his opponent of the same Class, who wore a cocky grin. "That sort of smile doesn't fit a girl as pretty as you."
"Sorry to tell, but I have my heart set on someone, so don't go around trying to seduce me with sweet words."
The carriage of horses attempted to tackle the mythical beast, only for it to vanish out of sight so they'd miss the attack. The beast and its Rider reappeared shortly after, a couple meters aside from where they originally were.
"Oh? So you finally found someone?"
"Disappointed?"
"Not really. Just curious. After all!" He leapt, spear in hand, ready to strike his opponent. However, she pulled out a horn that turned into a tuba, and she blew on it, releasing a burst of sound that pushed him back to his carriage.
"La Black Luna!"
"Uff!" Rider of Red landed safely. "After all, we've been in so many battles, that at this point, we're more than just rivals and opponents."
The girl smirked. "I feel the same. But I don't think it's the appropriate time for that."
"Agreed." The two Riders clashed again.
Berserker of Red chased after Lancer of Black, who tried to slow her down with the use of stakes and spears, piercing her muscles, torso, body, anything, but she wouldn't stop moving.
"Defeat the oppressors!"
"Will you just fall down already?!"
Berserker of Black approached the farthest building of the border of the stadium, searching for Assassin and Caster of Red.
Coincidentally, the two emerged from the farthest building, the one right beneath Archer's feet, in regular walking speed.
"Ready, Caster?"
"Is there ever a moment where I'm not?"
"RrrraaaAAAHHHHH!" Berserker's eyes fixated on the two and dashed as fast as she could.
Assassin or Red smiled as magic circles appeared around her, black chains emerging from them.
Caster pulled out pages from the book he carried and they flew, wrapping around the chains.
"Chains that won't let those blinded in rage ever escape!" Upon his words being spoken, Assassin launched the chains, which quickly wrapped around Berserker's arms, legs, and neck.
"Grrr! GRAH!" She struggled, trying to free herself from the bindings, but it was impossible. Enchanted chains created specifically to bind Berserkers.
Archer of Red aimed at the roaring opponent, and launched an arrow once again. However, her arrow was destroyed before it could reach Berserker, intercepted by another, fired by Archer of Black, all the way back on the other edge of the field.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue in annoyance, and she changed her target. The two Archers began to fight between themselves, shooting arrows at one another, each projectile hitting the other and nullifying one another.
"Hey! We're here in the middle!" Rider of Red yelled in panic, as some of the arrows from both his and the opposite side almost hit him. Rider of Black panicked as well, but used the vanishing ability of her mount to evade the most dangerous ones.
The two Sabers kept clashing swords together, not moving around much, trying to overpower each other.
"I'm ending this!" Saber of Red jumped back and raised her sword. The helmet was removed, revealing her face. The sword was raised, gathering red lightning. She was about to unleash her Noble Phantasm, and she expected Saber of Black to do the same. However…
He ran past her.
"What?!" The attack was charging and couldn't be interrupted, so she couldn't turn around and chase after her opponent. But it confused her. Sure, using their Noble Phantasms so close to each other would result in a pretty massive explosion, but not replying with his own Noble Phantasm would mean launching an Anti-Army attack to his side of the field. Archer, Caster, Lancer and Assassin of Black were all in danger. "No matter… Clarent…"
"Go, go, go!" Lancer of Black yelled as someone leapt out of the buildings on the side of the field, bringing with him a cloud of fog that quickly surrounded Saber of Red. It acted like acid gas, damaging her insides, but nothing would stop her attack.
That was until the shadows within the fog approached her, knives in hand.
"Night-time. Fog. Female victim. Three out of three conditions meet. Result: death." Assassin of Black's eyes glowed within the mist. "Maria the Ripper!" Assassin jumped back and forth, slashing Saber multiple times within just a few seconds. The final strike was a slash to her neck, with a jump long enough to exit the cloud of fog. A burst of light showed that Saber of Red uninstalled.
"Graahhh… Never hated being a girl more than this…" She complained, raising her card. "Transport." She returned to the normal reality as Saber of Black swung his sword at the mountain of dirt that buried Lancer of Red.
Said Lancer managed to burst out of the prison with a burst of fire, finally overcoming Caster of Black's spell.
The two knights, Saber of Black and Lancer of Red, crossed weapons.
Akane, the leader of the Red Oaths, moved to the side of the stadium in the real world and turned on a laptop, connecting headphones with a built in microphone.
"Test, test! Guys, can you hear me?" Six red lights lit up on the screen. A smirk of confidence and enthusiasm appeared on her face. "Alright… The real battle is about to start!"
Just like said in the previous chapters, I'll answer the submitted questions. Gotta admit, for the first ones, these are pretty interesting.
Q: I want to ask how did the Class Cards come into existence? And who made the Cass Cards to begin with?
A: WAHHH! Spoiler territory! … Well, I can't be that cruel and effuse my first question like that. So, while I can't give a direct answer, I can say a couple things. To start off, the cards are, in a way, a 'naturally occurring event', so who made them? Technically no one. As to how they came into existence, again, I can't answer that because of how it conflicts with the future. But I can give a hint. Most of the time, not always, Seven Cards appear at once. Take that as you will.
Q: Why was Kishinami Hakuno chosen as a Ranker? I would like some backstory and explanation behind that.
A: Hakuno was one of the first people to obtain a card after the Original 21. Essentially, they came across each other, and after they all made sense of the situation, they came up with the Game idea. Since Hakuno already knew how to manage sites, he seemed to fit best for the job of constructing the site and looking over it, thus earning him the title of 'South Ranker'. There's another Ranker for the Northern area of the country. I could make a joke about how 'Card users subconsciously attract each other' like in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, but there's a reason behind how they came across Hakuno. However, that implies spoilers on identities. Shhh!
Q: I got to ask, how did the other Players find their Class Cards? Was it the same way as Mizuki, finding them lying on the ground?
A: For the most part, yes. Some found them stuck to windows, for example. But in all seriousness, that is more or less how they all find them. There are very rare cases where someone actively sought out the Cards without already possessing one. Strangely enough, Shinji is one of those rare exceptions.
Q: If the cards were just scattered around the city, how come adults never notice, find, or stumble on Class Cards? It's very weird if they don't!
A: For starters, there are adult Players. While they are rare, I can think of at least two Members of A-Rank Teams that are adults. But why is it almost all teenagers? That's because the Heroic Spirits within the cards, in a way, actively seek out to 'save' people, even anti-heroes and villains, though those just want to be manifested as well… Anyway, just like Shiki 'whispered' to Mizuki when she was close to the card, the heroes attract people to find their cards, and the reason why it's mostly teenagers and young adults is that they can still be saved. Being saved in the sense that they have a wish they want to fulfil, but are unable to. Children have too many wishes and can't listen to the Heroic Spirits because they are too distracted, so, you probably won't find anyone younger than 14 carrying a card around. Adults either gave up on their wish or are fulfilling it in their own way, being it their dream job or the ideal partner, so the cards don't need to reach them. Also, the 'whispering' happens only with the first card. While someone can stumble upon another by coincidence on the floor, they won't be lured by the Heroic Spirit's voice.
This was pretty fun! I can't ask to be asked more questions, but if you'd like to, I'm more than willing to! It can even be simple things about the characters, like 'What's Mizuki's favourite food?', so, don't be shy.
Until next time!