Force meets Force
Shirou was barely able to think the past few days. His true mind was locked in a fog that even pain couldn't pierce. Each night he would regain a little strength but he knew that it should be saved. He would need it for one great push. His mistress beat and cut him with her whip. It didn't matter to him though as that couldn't truely hurt him. The only thing she could do to cause him pain was to waste essence on charms designed for that purpose. He hadn't turned off his senses, they worked fine, so he was aware of his surroundings even as he ignored the pain. He could also still use his essence to enhance his senses further. Only a little though, he didn't want to waste essence when it too might be needed.
So when he heard a bow string being pulled with his enhanced senses, he was given a 'choice'. For his mistress had given him no orders for what to do if he heard such a thing. It could be the begining of an attack which she had asked him to listen for but Shirou was sure that it wasn't. After all, Sakura wouldn't attack him.
The arrow flew and caught his mistress in the shoulder. She cursed suddenly and turned to look at the source of the shot. Shirou was curious why she hadn't heard them approach. They normally had better senses. Either way he watched as the group appeared from the surroundings. Nearest him was Sakura along with that muscular demon Rin had summoned in the south and another one he didn't recognise that looked like a deer made of silver strands. A bit further away Rin stood with two more demons, her giant wasp and another demon that looked like a strangely coloured spider, Rin and her group looked like they were preparing to fight the Abyssal hag. Last was a pair he didn't recognise. A pair of women, each wearing uniforms of Roseblack's Legion. No, he did recognise them, they were the pair that had seized the port with him. He didn't understand why they were here but if they were helping Rin and Sakura, all the better.
"Servant, to me!" Shirou heard his mistress call for aid. She was preparing to fight the two soldiers. His mistress likely understood that if he was forced to fight Rin or Sakura directly he would have a perfect opportunity to break her hold over him. Sakura saw this and changed her focus onto the mummy-wrapped Abyssal and drew a spear from her shadow.
His rescuers charged and battle began.
Rin chanted her sorcery as her demons charged in. They needed to not give the Hag a chance to cast. Rin's own offensive magic was still limitted to only one spell "Sting of the Ice Hornet" which was what she was casting now.
"Ice forms crystals, crystals fall and strike-"
Rin was interrupted as she chanted by two simple words her target spoke, slashing her hand down as if cutting through something invisible.
"Onyx Countermagic"
Black tendrils shot forth from her hand and shot towards Rin. She cringed but instead of hitting her the countermagic struck behind her and destroyed Rin's half-formed sorcery.
Rin's demons took the chance to strike but the Old-looking Abyssal dodged nimbly out of the way as if she was made of shadow. As the woman danced she completed her own spell.
"Oh dark abyss, bring down your wrath, let no life be spared or essence uneaten! [The Void Devours You]!"
A darkness with violet eyes rose behind the woman, it's form like a giant towering over her. The demon reached towards Rin whose eyes opened wide.
Colour Inverted. Rin's body went cold and she felt like a deep pit was pulling at her soul.
After a moment passed Rin felt weak. Her body felt badly hurt and pain shot through her. She glanced around, Rubinrot still fought for her but the demon spider was nowhere to be seen.
Sakura realised she hated face to face fights. She disliked most fighting really but her magic was not suited for it.
The Ebon Dragon's charms were designed for Assassination, Kimbery's were designed for punishing a loved one. Neither would help her here. She had her spear and the basics of the martial arts she had been taught but she was fighting an Exalted specialised for combat.
Rin's two demons fought by her side. They would attack with her. When her spear shot forwards, the ape demon would come from the side while the deer demon would wait behind. It was going well so far but as she glanced over to check on Rin and Shirou she panicked as she saw the Whip wielding Abyssal forcing Shirou to block attacks for her with his body.
Her lapse in focus gave the scythe wielding abyssal an opening and he struck forwards to cut her. Sakura barely sidestepped an attack that would have claimed her arm before being hit by the Scythe's pole and knocked to her knees.
She saw the scythe raised high to take her head before closing her eyes for a moment.
Shirou was forced to close an eye to avoid a splatter of blood that one of the two women flicked off a sword towards his face. He jumped back to clear the eye but the other woman jumped in when she saw his moment of weakness and stuck twice with her fists. He was able to parry both cuts with a hastily created twin blades but that still left him with a blind spot.
While the strangely familiar soldier held his attention, the other one was fighting his mistress sword against whip. It looked like she was holding up better than he had though.
He couldn't let himself be distracted as he tried to cut towards the soldier he fought. His chest still hurt from the attack he had been forced to block for his mistress earlier so he wasn't moving as quickly as he wished.
This sort of battle felt familiar to him though. It wasn't just the fact that he was sure he had fought this opponent before, he felt like he had fought "This battle" before. His twin swords vs someone whose twin fists hit as hard as bullets. It was a fleeting memory but some part of him caught it and remembered the battle against Caster and Kuzuki, the true part of him held onto that memory as he fought on.
Rin took a breath but pain filled her. Whatever that spell had done had greatly weakened her. Not only the pain but she felt her Essence reserves were smaller. It was her secondary essence that was pulled from but it still felt like she had just changed form quickly a few times.
The pain was a greater problem though. It wasn't debilitating but it was distracting.
Her enemy smiled and began to cast again. Rin knew that if that spell hit her again, she would die. On instinct she charged forwards, her arms glowing with power. Her Anima burst into dark blue light, edged with silver. She went into a martial arts stance and struck forwards as hard as she could with enhanced strength and dexterity. Her enemy dodged away again as if a shadow and continued to cast.
It was clear though that she wasn't the only one feeling a drain. Her enemy's Anima was burning in purple and grey. While Rin's head shone with a silver circle that showed the new moon, her enemy's head bled in a semicircle that looked like a rising sun.
Rin struck again and again but each time her enemy dodge, her spell nearly complete.
"Oh dark abyss, bring down your wrath, let no life be-"
Suddenly she let out a cry of pain, her chant interrupted. Rin looked down and saw that her Anuhle had bitten the Abyssal's leg and a silver-blue venom had been injected into the wound. How had it managed to get so close to peform such a sneak attack?
She watched as the spider faded away until it vanished. It could turn invisible until the time came to strike. She had summoned an assassin Anuhle.
The wound bled darkness into the world and Rin realised her enemy's Anima banner was fading even as it grew. Her Anuhle's vecom was bleeding the woman dry of essence!
Rin sprinted forwards and landed a punch on the Abyssal even as she tried to dodge out of the way. Rubinrot flew behind the Abyssal and tore into her.
Rin watched her demons tear the mage appart before turning to the other fights.
Shirou's opponent let out a gasp as he finally cut past her guard. His swords bit into her and he knew his mistress's will.
"Kill them."
He filled his blades with power. His opponent realised what was happening and jumped away but even as she tore the blades out they were ready to detonate. The magical metals that created those blades were the only thing that prevented the breaking artifact from killing her instantly. Instead, the force turned the blade into fragments that shot right through her body. If she were any normal person then that would have killed them. This woman though was still alive. She lay on the floor bleeding but she still lived.
Shirou traced another pair of blades an approached only to be stopped by the other soldier, the one he had assumed to be a dragonblood. Her Anima barrier was clear however that she was no dragonblood. Violet light shone from her to light up the area in her colour.
"You shall not harm her." She told Shirou.
Behind Shirou his mistress approached and spoke "If he doesn't, I will. You two viziers die today."
Shirou and his mistress struck together.
It was quick, As he distracted the woman with sword play, Shirou's master drew a short sword and stabbed it through the soldier's back.
"Not today."
Sakura looked up as she heard the voice speak in Old-realm. The ape demon had caught the scythe as it swung down towards her. Sakura reacted quickly, she stumbled to her feet as the deer charged at the Abyssal.
The ape pulled at the scythe to prevent him from being able to parry or dodge but the Abyssal did something else instead. Just before he was stabbed, the Abyssal let go of his weapon to catch the demon. The demon turned into tentacles that tried to wrap around the abyssal only for him to rip them away. The deer demon called out in pain and Sakura took the chance to resume her attack. Her spear in a deadly flurry caught the Abyssal in the side and the shoulder.
As the Abyssal ripped the deer apart the ape picked up his scythe. It was clearly too heavy for it but still he swung the scythe towards the Abyssal. It cut into the Abyssal's side but the abyssal grabbed it and pulled it out of the wound before turning and cutting the ape demon in across the belly causing it to topple over.
Sakura had reached her limit, her anger boiled over and her shadow lost cohesion and became a mass of shadowy waves. Waves become peaks and peaks became tentacles. They shot forwards in a massive number, each one that reached their target sunk through the wrappings to the armour underneath then slipped round that too.
Sakura closed her fist, her newly-gained power surged to show it's true power and shadowy spikes erupted from within her foe. He crumpled to the ground and Sakura looked again to the abyssal who in turn looked towards her.
Shirou looked down at the hurt women, they both still lived but they wouldn't for long if his master had anything to say about it.
"Shirou."
He and his master turned to look as Rin approached, her demons in tow.
His master looked between him and Rin as if thinking before giving her order.
"Kill the fallen as I hold off this one."
She wanted him to stand by as she killed Rin?
"No."
Her hold over him shattered, his will was strong enough to break her seal to pieces. While it still hurt him it no longer burned.
The whip-wielding Abyssal cursed as Shirou struck towards her with his swords. She dodged out the way so she could face both of them at the same time.
Suddenly there was a scream as Sakura joined them, thrown bodily by the other Abyssal. Rin helped Sakura to her feet as they all looked at the remaining Abyssals.
Then they charged.
End of chapter
I actually had planned to put the last section of the fight into this chapter but I got tired of writing at this point so you'll have to wait for next week for the end of the last major fight before the break.
