Fate/Broken V1 C13: Preemptive Strike from the Grail (and the Struggles of Friendship)

(AN: So I got too excited for this fight, decided to forgo sleep, and get this out. And with all this adrenaline, who knows what else I might be able to do before I sleep).

==Gil's POV==

"Damnit! Where are the others?! Gates of Babylon, Open!"

As the building had begun to shake and stir from an attack, the source he could only guess was Berserker unless Sabre went crazy again for some reason, Gil had hoisted a naked Akira onto his back. Akira himself was in a feverish state, but thanks to him he had already confirmed the location of the Grail.

Although Gil had previously lamented on how silly he thought society had developed, he himself was annoyed now. He certainly did not want to engage in a fight without any armor or clothes with his pride as a warrior, but it was not like he could just stop and put them on. He had to prioritize. And to make matters worse, despite there being people around he was forced to use Gates of Babylon.

Well, there was armor and clothing in there too, but he could not just transport it onto his and Akira's bodies, and he could not take the time to stop with the building breaking down.

"Di...Di..."

Akira was muttering something, but he could not even stand on his own. But with what must have been his last ounce of strength, Akira shouted something out.

"Divine Realm!"

It was not exactly a perfect Divine Realm. It apparently copied their surroundings perfectly instead of transitioning a new one, but although most people had been excluded it appeared a number remained behind. Akira didn't have enough strength remaining, but Gil knew it was not his fault. In the first place, Gil had already noticed that it progressed faster then it should have.

"Given nothing was set off, and somehow Berserker appeared from nowhere...although unlikely, it is most likely the Grail that is responsible for all this".

At that point, Gil was talking to himself. Based on the breathing and heartbeat he heard behind him, Akira was passed out again in his feverish state. Apparently, it had detected Akira locating it, and had struck back against Akira by triggering his mind. He didn't even have the time to use the unsealing method. If it was the one he met all those years ago, then he would be able to do something in this situation.

Unfortunately, Gil ran out of places to run and hide at this point as a large claw came crashing down. And the moment Gil saw it, he frowned.

"I see, so it was Fafnir...good thing I studied up on this".

Between his own original memories, and what he researched after coming to this world, he was able to recognize Fafnir with a single look. Of course, he neglected to mention that it was for a reason so childish as thinking it would be cool to fight dragons. This let him however, from his frivolous research into the sparring partner he hoped for, to learn all of their unique cahracteristics.

If it was any other time, Gil would be jumping for joy. Even if he was a warrior and therefore it hurt his pride to fight naked, if it was against a Dragon he would be totally okay with it. Exactly because it was a dragon, and the tale would be epic no matter what. No, he considered the possibility it would be even more epic. Doing it without protection of any kind, and winning.

But, he had Akira to protect. As such, he could not feel elated in his current situation.

"Aki-chan! Gil-kun! You are both here! A bunch of others disappeared, and it was really shocking!"

"Ah...Leena-neechan, you should look away!"

"But its fine right? This is an emergency, and they are still quite youn..."

"Is now really the time to bring that...wait, what..."

"Damnit! Look out!"

As the two ran over, though they were dressed for some reason, the Dragon tried to attack them with fire. Gil was forced to put Akira down on the ground, and used his weapons and shields to skillfully protect the two of them so they could run over to where Akira was.

"Gil?! Are you okay?!"

"Well, it would be nice to wear something, preferably fire resistant, but..."

Gil was now using his weapons and shields to block all attacks. There was no way he could get dressed under this situation, a single drop of his focus elsewhere and the Dragon Berserker would crash though and kill them all.

Leena seemed to be under the impression of "Of course, that makes sense", which left his only sympathy coming from Alex. However, it was then Alex that thought of something.

"Hey, that is some form of magic right?"

"Yeah...hey hold on, why are you not surprised?"

"Well...err, I don't know? A Dragon is already breaking through...but, I guess I feel like my will is not broken yet".

"Same. I am processing the situation calmly somehow. I feel invigorated even".

How the hell are they both fine...unless, wait. Sabre too, she was calm once she was in the territory. Could it be...the Territory is designed to boost allies as well? In that case, its boosting our willpower, intelligence...of course! He must have added that when he used Dimensional Realm! Oh, you clever bastard you...you really do come through in the end, old friend...

Alex, who seemed to be quite capable and knowledgable, came up to him.

"So then, you really are Gilgamesh aren't you? I know a lot of things people consider obscure".

I think this woman was already suspicious of who I was when I first arrived...maybe she had yet to outgrow her belief in magic. Well, since its real, I suppose its justified.

"Yeah...and?"

"Well, I don't know how you feel about it, but wherever you summoned these chains and swords from, if you had armor or something, and you deposited it, I could..."

"...I see. Yes, that would be very helpful. Thank you".

Using this coordination, Gil was able to get dressed in something without deviating his focus from defense.

"By the way, you two are dressed because..."

"The four of us finished. Wait, those other two that were with you, by any chance are they some sort of mage or magic warrior too?"

"Okay, seriously?! How do you know these terms?!"

"This place...it was created right?"

"Yeah, by Aki...oh hell, don't tell me he looped in information sharing for allies telepathically too! Damnit, how much more of a genius can he be?!"

It appeared that, in order to combat any annoyances, Akira had programmed quite a bit into the spell he used last. To a point where it was just silly. Of course, normally this was an extremely bad idea to do, but it seemed that Akira had on purposefully kept these two around realizing Gil could not do this and take care of him. In truth, it was because it was an emergency situation, and because if they panicked from not being able to find him, it could result in a serious issue. By now though, it seemed that the Divine Realm had safely excluded everyone else. And because it had also removed the annoying issue of revelation that normally happened at this time, Gil was not as frustrated as he could have been.

Of course, while inside the Divine Realm, it would be impossible for the Grail to target any of them, so strategically it also served for that reason.

Although it was not much, and because he could not really move his hands, Gil was only dressed in pants and shoes. But, it was better then nothing, and given what the special abilities on them were...it was enough.

But not enough to stop the Dragon from finally breaking through his defense. But before it could launch an attack, as it pulled back, those two finally used the opening and attacked Berserker. Bray used her lance and knocked it backwards, while Jean went for the throat. Of course, it swatted them away with its oversized hands, but Jean actually managed to stab through one. They took serious injury from that, but Gil was able to launch an attack while it was distracted by them. It managed to block a good number, but it was also seriously injured.

"We cant draw out this fight. Well, it's a good thing it is us three".

A Sabre, a Lancer, and an Archer. All three of them were of the three Knight classes that made up the seven classes. In other words, they should hold some of the highest firepower. Even with their Caster taken out, they should have more then enough Firepower to fight Berserker. Of course, it was a Berserker being powered up and controlled by the Grail, but they had power on their side. The Gates of Babylon, Bray's Lance, and Jean's sword. And to make it more interesting.

"I call upon my full Heroic Power, my Noble Phantasm, Joan of Arc!"

As if Sabre got a huge powerup, she seemed to recover and get even stronger. Lancer also managed to get back up, but it seemed she had the bad luck to impact a van that was replicated using Divine Realm. Normally, damage from normal objects should not harm them, but since it was caused by an attack from a Heroic Spirit, it still did damage. It seemed like Lancer was exceptionally unlucky.

Joan charged forth, to strike down the Dragon at her full strength. It tried to block again, but this time she was able to cut into the skin better instead of being sent flying. With that force, Lancer came up from behind and hit Joan's sword with her lance to make it tear through the Dragon's limb even further. At this point, Gil sent a number of his Noble Phantasms to strike at Berserker, with some effort managed to hit him. However, the Dragon responded by using its fire breath to try and incinerate everyone. This forced Gil to pull back in order to protect Leena, Alexandria, and Akira. The two girls had taken some towels nearby, and were doing the only thing they could which was wipe the sweat off of Akira's body to help make him more comfortable.

Without him covering them, the Dragon resumed to start beating Sabre and Lancer to death using its tail, claws, and fangs. Unlike the Dragon Akira and Bray faced with Archer, this was much, much tougher. This was the true strength of a Dragon, which forced Lancer to wonder what that Dragon really was at the port. Well, she realized she could not focus on that right now and resumed only focusing on Berserker that was in front of her.

"And here is my weapon!"

She used her lance to try and push the Dragon back again, but it appeared to instinctively understand the lance's power and quickly struck her away without hitting the lance. Indeed, anything hit by the lance would get pushed away. It's original legend was that it was a magic lance that would unhorse whoever she hit with it, but that legend had taken route in her ability to use it to knock whatever she hit away with it. As such, it was her Noble Phantasm as well. And then Gil of course was using all of his Noble Phantasms to fight it.

And yet, Berserker had managed to take all of it so far. Although it was clear he was taking damage, it was also clear that he was also dealing damage to them. And further more...the Dimensional realm itself was starting to crack.

If they did not end this fight soon, the Dimensional Realm would vanish and people would get hurt in the real world.

"...Fool's Luck..."

A voice, soft but notable, cried out once more. Gil looked back, and saw that Akira was only barely conscious. He was still sweaty, and naked, and in bad shape. Yet somehow, he was able to push himself to awaken just once more. Defying all possible limits, the symbol of either a protagonist or an idiot.

Though given the Noble Phantasm he just used, it now made sense. But it always made sense, because before Akira was Akira, Gil knew just how foolish he was.

"Idiot! Just rest and sleep!" Gil shouted before looking back at the others. "Everyone, hit it now! Hit it with everything you can! I don't know how long his Noble Phantasm will hold out! Use everything!"

Gil summoned forth as many swords and weapons as he could. Joan pushed her own Noble Phantasm to it's limits. Bray infused as much of her own mana into her lance as she could, and also into her motorcycle. No, it was no normal motorcycle. It never was. It was a mutated Noble Phantasm of its own, its existence finally becoming realized. A new Noble Phantasm. The Supercharged Speeder was unfortunately the best name Bray could come up with on short notice.

Using all of these at once, all of these Noble Phantasms, they unleashed a powerful super attack combined from all these Noble Phantasms at once. Even if Berserker was being fortified and boosted from the Grail, even if it was a Dragon, with all of this and the power from Fool's Luck, it couldn't even defend. When it tried, it also slipped up. The breath it tried to get shorted out as it chocked on something. The claws that had withstood so much managed to move in just the wrong way to trigger intense pain from the injuries it received. And it left its throat wide open, at which the three heroes struck through it in their united assault.

Berserker, who had quickly showed up, was also quickly banished. But it could not be helped, because if they let the fight be drawn out, even if they still won, even if they preserved more energy and strength, innocents, and potentially Akira and the other two, would have been in danger.

"But now, we are out of time. We will have to move on the Grail now".

Gil said that as the three landed on the ground near Akira.