The beast and Artoria charged at eachother, one fueled by a primal rage and hunger, the other calm and collected.
Magically enhanced flesh clashed with the Sword of Promised Victory, even when wielded single handedly, strong enough to cut apart the monster in it's path.
Artoria leapt to the side as the gigantic wolf lashed out with it's mouth, snarling with teeth that yearned for blood.
She firmly grasped Excalibur with her right hand and pushed off the wall with tremendous speed, slashing at her enemy's sides. The reinforced strike threw the beast through the room, rolling as it went.
Artoria could feel a nagging sensation working it's way through her, most likely poison from the explosive she had protected Kiritsugu from. Her natural resistance would hold out long enough for her to deal with this foe, but she wasn't a fool. She knew they would have to do something about it or else it would become impossible to ignore.
A sickening crunch snapped her attention back to the beast and she was visibly horrified at the sight of the wolf, forcibly removing the broken ribs from inside it's body as it howled in pain. Whatever the Einzberns did to the poor animal was simply wrong.
It didn't help that the hands that were attached to it's bloodied body reached out to arm themselves with the shattered bones, using them as makeshift swords and pointing them at her menacingly.
"Killing you will be a mercy. Come then."
With those words, the beast jumped at the once and future King with renewed vigor, the makeshift bone swords that it's hands were swinging dangerously close to cutting her to pieces.
With it's strong legs, sharp teeth and weapons, Artoria was forced to defend and dodge, the windows of opportunity that revealed themselves to her disappearing as quickly as they came. It's attack pattern was too wild, too erratic for Artoria to recognise an opening in time for a counter.
"If only I could use my Noble Phantasm…" she quickly dismissed the thought. She needed both arms to utilize the full might of her Holy Sword and she would also need to keep her distance to allow for her to charge it. With the speed of her foe and the size of the dungeon they were in, even that would be impossible.
It appeared as if the only way to triumph over an unrelenting opponent when handicapped, would be to take a gamble with your life on it. So the moment the opportunity presented itself and the giant wolf poised it's arms to strike her once and for all, she got into position.
Dispelling her magically woven armor, she used her newfound speed to roll to the side just in time to avoid the killing blow. Even if the strike grazed her, her counterattack would not be stopped or evaded in time.
"Strike Air!"
With her sword now in a reverse grip completely foreign to her, she managed to use the momentum her attack generated to propel her slice at multiple times the speed, and with this angle, she managed to disarm all of the hands that aimed to skewer her.
With the appendages now gone, it was only a matter of perseverance. And Artoria had a lot of endurance.
With her armor now re-equipped, she charged at the wolf, aiming for the giant beast's eyes. If she could blind her foe, the fight would be decided in an instant.
She didn't expect for the monster to immediately meet her charge headfirst. And while she did manage to blind the wolf, it's fangs bore down on her as they sinked into her left shoulder.
She held back an anguished scream and tried to focus through the pain, but it was no use. She would not be getting free unless she killed it.
With her right arm still intact she desperately struck out at the Einzberns' creation until her blade finally managed to hit it's mark, the sword piercing the neck of the beast.
It squirmed for a few moments, still holding on to it's miserable existance until with one final twist of Excalibur, the beast was silenced and it fell to the ground with a resounding thud.
Artoria released herself from it's fangs and rolled to the side, panting heavily as she applied pressure to her shoulder.
"That… quite frankly… sucked…"
She collected herself and moved to retrieve Excalibur from the beast's corpse, removing it as a fountain of blood erupted from the wound.
With a heavy sigh she dematerialsed her now bloodstained armor and used her jacket to cover up her shoulder wound until they could patch it up.
"Now that that's taken care of…"
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Kiritsugu and Kairi stared eachother down for a moment before the Necromancer released a disappointed sigh.
"Y'know, this is the reason why I hate standoffs. Here we both are, ready to kill eachother for whatever reason and yet we just stand there, stupidly staring into eachother's eyes like a bunch of lovestruck school kids. Let's get this over with…"
Without further warning, Kairi fired a shot from his Sawed-off Shotgun and Kiritsugu easily moved to avoid them, the distance between them once again proving enough to do so. He raised his Calico to shoot an array of bullets at the enemy Mage in standard fashion of his tried and true strategy of testing their defenses.
He was surprised to see that Kairi, although exposed and unable to reload in time, was smirking.
His natural instincts screamed at him to move and he trusted them enough to comply.
"Time Alter: Double Accel!"
Rolling to the left this time he barely managed to avoid the same shot of fingers that he had previously dealt with as they tracked him from behind.
"Like my new tricks? These shots may not look like much and have crappy range, but they are full of surprises." Sisigou bragged momentarily before once again moving behind cover, out of view of the Magus Killer.
"And just like you, they're brash yet impressive… Good thing I managed to avoid it or else I can't imagine what kind of state I'd be in."
"Oh you wouldn't be able to tell anyway. Seeing how you'll be rotting on the ground soon."
The voice echoed once more and Kiritsugu's eyes widened in realisation. Kairi had fired twice yet only one shot had tracked.
Using Double Accel again, he very nearly got hit by the second wave of tracking projectiles that ambushed his side. It really was impressive how he could delay the activation of their traits when he had already fired. Or did he plan each shot before they left the Shotgun.
Kiritsugu theorised and planned his next move, making sure that everything was loaded and ready. With a resolute scowl he emerged from cover and went after the Necromancer.
"Gotta say, I'm surprised you're this unprepared. I honestly expected you'd drop the whole building on me by now. You're the type to do so anyway."
The man was teasing him, Kiritsugu thought. It wasn't working, but he couldn't use it to find his opponent either so it was merely an annoyance.
Turning a corner as he moved through the halls, the Magus Killer was getting restless. He had never seen Kairi fight using his new tricks so he didn't know what to expect. The fact that he had played two of his cards so far with not much success…
"Could only mean that the downtime is him planning the next."
"You're too smart for your own good, you know that?"
Alarmed at the voice that came from behind him, he was surprised to see a corpse of one of the many Homonculi that had attacked simply standing there.
He smirked at the opportunity and raised his Thompson Contender to fire at the Homonculus when another sound was heard from behind him again.
"Tsk, cornered from all sides…"
The two corpses raised their hands, Halberds in hand and slowly approached Kiritsugu as he considered his options.
"Their speed can't be enough to be used as a reliable asset. This is a trick."
Would an Origin Bullet shot affect Sisigou at this point even when shot at what could pass as his familiars? He couldn't take that chance, and Necromancy was tricky to get around when you didn't know the purpose of it's use.
It was only when yet another shot of Gandr infused fingers were shot at him from seemingly nowhere that he figured it out.
He was using the Homonculus to keep him in position for the Necromancer to observe from somewhere else for a more accurate shot. The animal eyeball that rolled close to his feet confirmed his theory and he focused hard on his next move.
"Time Alter: Triple Accel!"
The sudden displacement of time and it's strain on his decaying body were incredibly painful, but he pushed through and barely dodged the homing shots as he leapt over the Homonculus in front of him, using it as a shield.
"Damn, you look like crap. If simply dodging my shots is enough to get you looking like this, I can just wait for you to drop dead on your own…"
The voice teased him again but Kiritsugu couldn't pay any attention to it. His muscles ached and pulsed and his heart was beating rapidly. He had guessed he wouldn't be capable of using advanced Time Alter in his state but he didn't expect the after effects to be so serious…
Wiping a bit of blood from his mouth, he focused as hard as he could on finding a way to end this quickly.
Kairi was bound to be running low. After that many shots and using up his Necromancy and Mystic Codes, he had to be running out of tricks. Kiritsugu however wasn't as prepared as he would like. It was true that if he had been here for a different reason, he most likely would have blown up the entire castle by now. But this was for Illya.
He could also wait for Artoria to come back but time was short. He still had to make sure Illya was okay. But where would she even be? He also couldn't go looking for her with Kairi on his tail.
"I guess a gamble is the best I can do now…" Kiritsugu mumbled to himself and quickly shot the other Homonculus that was still approaching him slowly.
"Running out of tricks Sisigou? What's taking so long? You know where I am so come and kill me." he called out and waited for a response.
"Do you think I'm stupid enough to fight against the Magus Killer face to face? I have no problems with staying where I am, thank you very much."
"You aren't scared are you? You said it yourself, I'm practically a dead man walking. I reckon up close and personal would be right up your alley all things considered."
"Dead is dead. I don't like doing useless things."
Kiritsugu slowly moved through the halls, observing every nook and cranny for anything that might give him an edge when his eyes landed on a peculiar spot on the wall opposite of him.
"Don't worry, I don't either…"
Kairi heard the click of a gun a moment too slow and he leapt from his spot on the other side of the wall, but not before some of the bullets fired from the Calico nailed him in the stomach and he fell to the ground, clutching his wounds.
"H-How did you…" he struggled to speak and looked up to find Kiritsugu Emiya standing over him, Thomson Contender aimed straight at his face.
"The guided shots coming from around the corner I could understand. You had your eyes on me after all. But the eyeball gave you away. You couldn't have possibly thrown that from anywhere. You were close by. I just looked for where it may have come from and noticed the hole in the wall that led to this room. I lived here for 9 years you know."
"Damn. I guess the territory advantage was yours from the start, even with my preparations."
"It's not your fault. You couldn't have accounted for it with the information you were given. You're also lucky I'm not here to kill everyone. Most importantly, I would prefer not to kill you." Kiritsugu stated calmly and yet he never lowered his weapon, the threat of imminent death more than enough for Kairi to consider his options.
"Y'know they promised to grant my wish. If I helped them with the next Holy Grail War that is. I figured that was reason enough to work with them. But I can't exactly get my wish if I'm dead, right?" Kairi laughed through the pain and Kiritsugu lowered the gun as he knelt down next to the Necromancer.
"I don't see what help you would be to them in sixty years but, I guess you already thought about that too."
Kairi looked puzzled by this and Kiritsugu was confused. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Well yeah… the Old Man is certain that with the way things turned out, the next Grail War is gonna happen in about ten years…"
Kiritsugu's world shattered with those words and almost everything he had planned out for the future of his family came crashing down. Cold sweat rolled down his face and he turned to look at Kairi with an anguished expression.
"T-Ten years? You're absolutely sure?!"
Kairi shrugged and reached for a pack of cigarettes before tending to his wounds slowly.
"Well I'm sure that the Old Man is sure and he knows more about that kind of thing than me. What with being one of the Founding Families of the Grail War and all…"
"I… see…"
This changed everything. He didn't have time to dismantle the Grail even through the most extreme means available, which would be destroying the Fuyuki leylines. This almost guaranteed that should Shirou and Illya remain there, they would most likely be dragged into that mess even if they didn't become Masters. But where else could they go?
"So, now that we're calm and cool, well mostly seeing how you're shaking in your boots for some reason, why don't you tell me why you came here in the first place?" Kairi asked and Kiritsugu turned to him, putting aside his thoughts on the future for the meantime.
"Oh well I uh… I'm here to get my daughter back."
Kairi's cigarette fell out of his mouth as he stared at the man next to him like he had grown a second head.
"Ugh… I'm a fucking idiot…"
"Sisigou?" Kiritsugu inquired about the man's words but the Necromancer simply got up as carefully as possible so as to not aggravate his wounds while they healed.
"C'mon man, get up. We gotta go find your daughter. Don't just stand there."
"But your wounds-
"I'll be fine. Trust me, a little pain is nothing compared to how I'd feel If I had managed to keep a father away from his child."
Kiritsugu couldn't find any words to respond to that. So he simply nodded and stood up to join Kairi.
The two men moved to start looking around for Illya when Artoria finally returned, looking completely exhausted and yet elegant, despite all the blood on her.
It was an even bigger surprise for her when her former Master informed her of the situation and she turned to stare at the Necromancer partly responsible for her sorry state.
"Artoria what happened to you by the way?" Kiritsugu asked and Artoria's eyes were hidden behind her bangs in a manner that betrayed her underlying anger.
"I would prefer not to mention it, if that is okay with you."
Kiritsugu relented instantly and Kairi sweatdropped at the pair's antics before moving ahead of them. They had a lot of ground to cover after all.
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Surprise Bonus Chapter! I couldn't fit the two fights into the last one without making it seem bloated so I split them in two.
You can still expect the next Chapter by next Saturday though.
Review Corner Time:
SoftItalics: Perhaps the Gilgamesh that most are familiar with in Fate/Stay night would never do anything like this. This Gilgamesh firstly has no use for Merodach, a Sword that he usually reserves for testing the worth of someone before using Ea. He already has his focus on Shirou and he is convinced that for the most part, no other is worth in this world besides Artoria and we already know how he is about her. Secondly, Gilgamesh in Fate/Zero always seemed more reserved and negotiable than the one that spent 10 years in constant dissappointment with humans and the world. Not quite the wise King of Uruk that returned from his trip for Immortality, and yet not the Homocidal maniac that F/SN portrayed. I hope you can accept my version of Gil as well :)
Efrm202: Illya is a small pure bundle of joy that should be protected. I too really hope nothing happens to her.
Wait, I'm the one writing this.
Well.
Bye 3