Fate/Infinity Shuffle
Chapter 267 – River – Part 2:
"Gh-!" The difficulty of the battle increased. Isemi leapt away from the black-clad Lancer. "You're a stubborn one, aren't you…?"
"Resilience is a gift. I make sure to use it." Hugo reaffirmed, spinning the red spear and striking the end of the weapon on the floor, similar to a war declaration, even though they were already brawling. "But if you want this to end, I'll make sure to help. Hound of Chullan!" Hugo's call for the Noble Phantasm made a black mist swirl around his body. Once dispersed, it showed his new state as a lycanthrope. A werewolf of blue fur, growling at the Rider. He took the spear into his hands again, ready to continue.
"Damn it… Oh well. I didn't want to spend Mana, but it seems that I-" Before he could reach for his literal sack of tricks, a loud voice was heard.
"Saint! WAR! OOOOOORDEEEEER!"
Isemi, surprised, turned around and spotted an old opponent with a raised sword and a bright light shining down upon him. The 'Followers of the Saint', a Team that the Conquerors of Deva once fought, were standing right behind him. With a wave of her staff, the Caster Mai healed Isemi of his fatigue.
The Berserker spoke up. "Go. We fight."
"Are you sure?"
"Do it or I'm smacking you!" The Lancer, Akami, barked.
"Yes ma'am." Isemi waved at the seven and ran off the other direction, as the seven Players engaged in battle with werewolf.
Isemi touched the bag of tricks and summoned the winged horse. He flew towards the red sky and looked down below, searching where to go next.
And something caught his eye.
"GRAHH!" Patricia swung around the heavy weapon like it was paper-thin. But her opponents were probably one of the worst she could face.
Shirou's ability to dodge the strikes, in addition to the Card belonging to his sister originally, he could manoeuvre around the attacks with ease and counterattack with suitable weapons. And the other, Hakuno, had seen so many Noble Phantasms at this point, that he knew precisely what to do. And to make things easier…
"The invulnerability went down one rank."
Hakuno smirked. "That means this works." He aimed his gun and hardened his eyes. "Trace on." Sparks of blue ran through his arm down to his firearm and when he pulled the trigger, the bullet flew forward and a projection occurred around. The Fake Spiral Sword's speed surpassed Patricia's.
"?!" The projectile exploded upon impact, a drill shaped hole left behind in her torso, from which smoke rose from. She fell to her knees as the sparks of Mana repaired her body as fast as they would allow.
"Should we speed this up?"
"Hmph. I never really managed it with my Archer Card as it usually is. I don't think it's any more likely with this."
Shirou couldn't help but chuckle. "Stop doubting yourself and give it a shot. You're not going anywhere otherwise."
The Ranker looked down at his guns and sighed. "Alright. But if I embarrass myself, I'm blaming you."
"I'll be sure to take the blame."
The two spoke in unison. "Ascension!"
A flash of red and one of gold. Shirou's single sleeve was replaced and got a pair. The colour was of a more vivid red, with golden trimming. The waist-cape took the new shade of red as well, splitting into two. Hakuno, on the other hand, gained a black waist-cloth with a yellow insignia. Multiple lines of gold appeared his body. Even if unnatural-looking, he didn't feel any different.
Hakuno let out a sigh. "I'm not sure if this is a good sign."
"Maybe the Heroic Spirit hates that woman just as much." Shirou joked, as he opened a hand to project another weapon.
"Guess we'll have to put that to the test." Hakuno simply smirked, aiming his gun again. Shirou loaded the golden sword of the victorious on his bow, while Hakuno was ready to project a copy of the Original Flame.
"How many left?"
"I'm guessing seven."
"After this one, three for each then."
"Deal."
A Rider in black with an unusual blindfold roamed around the streets, wondering which method would be the most effective to cause destruction. One of her Noble Phantasms was far too slow, and another would beg for the attention of others.
"Maybe… Gift of the Gorgon!" Marceline's words triggered a mutation within her body. A Noble Phantasm that tapped into the monstrous side of the gorgon Medusa. It wasn't a full convertion into the entity of the Avenger Class, but it granted her physical changes to the body. For starters, Marceline's body split into multiple sections and its ends turned into snake heads. A large reptilian tail sprouted out of her lower back. It was strong enough to lift her up. Marceline's grips on the nail daggers tightened.
"Finally using a Noble Phantasm, huh?"
Marceline turned around, recognizing the Caster with the cloak right away. "You say that as if yours is already out, Anna."
The blackened Caster smirked. "And it is."
Suddenly, bursting from the inside of a building, roaring like a beast and hissing like rattlesnake simultaneously. A dragon, serpentine in nature, with no real limbs. Its eyes were hollow red, the scales bright brown, a create over its forehead, and a set of three tongues. A dragon that coiled around Caster and didn't seem to need rest or sleep to remain this active.
Marceline's eyes narrowed underneath the blindfold. "Show off."
"He's really cute though, don't you think?"
"Am I seeing this right?" Startled, the Rider and Caster turned around and spotted two approaching teens, both bearing different swords. One was Kuroko of the Black Yggdrasil, the Dragon Blooded Warrior, and Sieg, the Top Solo Player. "Two dragons to slay?"
"I believe one of them is just a serpent."
"Oh? It fooled me for a moment." Kuroko cockily raised his sword. "I won't lie, part of me is happy. Akane aside, the job of this Heroic Spirit as a Dragon Slayer has been mostly wasted. I'll take this opportunity to fulfil his job."
"I'll lend you a hand, if you don't mind." Sieg looked just as confident. "I may fight alone, but I'm curious about teamwork." He spoke the name of his Noble Phantasm, making the sword he held turn into a long, lustrous blue sabre, with a crystalline guard around the handle of the same material.
Anna's guardian hissed at the two while the blindfold of the Rider opened up, revealing her out-of-the-ordinary eyes.
"Install!" At those words, Mary's teddy-bear turned into a giant calligraphy brush, and her dress turned into a kimono. A companion returned in the shape of a cute octopus, though its eyes remained the same as the buttons that made up those of the plush toy. "Take this! And that!" She waved her brush around, painting black lines over the ground around werewolf Shadows and made waves sprout out of the ground and strike them with a slam.
Mary landed and spun her brush around. And almost let it drop. "A-Ah! This is so hard to handle… Onee-chan, how do you make sure you don't let your spear slip?"
"Practice!" Jinako pointed out in a hurry, as she glared at an approaching wave with her right eye that turned red, launching a beam that burned through a line of corpses that would be resurrected not long after.
"Way to go!" Mary cheered, the octopus companion releasing a couple a couple squirts of black ink in agreement. "…!" Mary suddenly rushed and swung her brush like a bat, missing Jinako's back by a hair.
"Huh?! Mary, what's-?!"
"Someone tried to attack you." The octopus pointed to the side. Jinako followed the tentacles and quickly spotted the black dirk that had been once aimed to her neck.
"I… see." She admitted to herself that she was rather surprised. She was too distracted to notice the breaking of the Presence Concealment of an enemy.
"To get in front of a target…" The Blackened Assassin, Henry, landed, wearing a skull mask and hiding beneath a cloak. "That's not polite, you know?"
"I don't need to be polite to people like you! Behhhh!" Mary stuck out her tongue, alongside her familiar.
"Fine. I see how it is." Henry drew a set of dirks.
"Are you threatening her?" Jinako asked Mary to step aside with a light push of the shoulder and aimed her golden spear at the man in black. "Because in that case, you may need to get past me first."
"And is that something hard for me to do? You do realize I'm using the Card of an EX Ranker."
"How much of an idiot can you be?"
"Hm?"
"A strong Card is meaningless in someone that can't use it properly. Do you think a random person can use a sniper riffle just because they have an instruction manual?"
"This coming from someone whose Noble Phantasm keeps her heavily protected."
"Oh? You think I need this armour?" Jinako chuckled, and said chuckle grew into a cackle of sorts. It sounded like something she was trying to emulate from a villain of a shounen Manga.
"S-Scary!" And apparently it worked on the Foreigner.
"Cast off!" Jinako yelled, waving her arm hard and shattering the golden pieces of her armour. The bits of the broken metal gathered at the top of the spear, revealing Vasavi Shakti's True Form. She took a stance, raising her spear to eye level after spinning it once. "Ready?"
"Hmph. Just when I thought people couldn't get any dumber." The cloak was thrown back to act as a cape, revealing the bandaged-up stub. "I was born ready."
A sigh. "She's alive, right?"
"S-She's breathing, so…"
Mimi and Rumi had come across the limp body of Matou Sakura, simply laying on the floor, unable to move for she had no will.
"I see. Well, let her be."
"B-But she needs help!"
"No."
"B-But Rumi!"
"I said let her be."
It may not have been the first time Rumi grew angry and raised her voice, but it was always something surprising to see. "Mimi, she needs help, please! Why are you being selfish?!"
The slimmer sister almost shivered. Even to her, it was something very surprising to be in the presence of. "I know she needs help, but geez, she needs to learn to help herself!"
Rumi almost staggered back when Mimi turned around all of a sudden. "B-But-!"
"You can help her all you want, like hell I'll stop you. I know how you are. And I may not know just what happened to her, but she needs to learn how chin up and fight for herself."
"Sis, you shouldn't say that!"
"Come on, I know the kind of person she is." Mimi pointed out, crossing her arms. "She's the kind of person to hide behind others, be it in confrontation or in suffering. She's never going to do anything by herself unless people stop offering hands out to her. Shell simply sit there and feel sorry for herself. And I will never let people be like that."
"…" Rumi had a nervous look on her face She looked at Mimi, shifted to Sakura, then on the floor beside her. "But… she looks like she's in pain."
"…" Mimi lowered her head and looked down at the Ruler. The empty eyes were a giveaway to her state. "Hmph. For all I know I'm talking out of my ass. But that doesn't mean I don't mean what I said about her helping herself. The more she expects others to help her, the more she's gonna suffer. And at that point, that's her own problem." Mimi turned around. "Are you coming? It's your choice."
Rumi didn't like the decision she had to take. So, she decided to ask a question to settle it. "You think it's wrong to help people or something like that?"
"I do when it just makes them dependant on everybody else."
"…" With a pained sigh, Rumi walked around Sakura and joined her sister. The two moved forward, leaving the Ruler behind. "I think you were a bit too harsh."
"Harsh or not, I think she needed to hear that."
"What if you're wrong about her though?"
"Then I'll apologize really nicely afterwards. Now come on, we have the end of the world to stop!"
"R-Right!"
The two weren't far from their target.
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