The Creatures of Grimm.
Spirits of tortured animals? Mutants? Aliens from beyond? A curse taken form of abominations? Nobody knew what these monsters were, other than agents of destruction to kill the living and their creations. For those who meet them, they only see their potential demise, with no hints of what they are or where they even came from.
...Yet two beings knew what they were, their origins, and their purpose.
"It can't be." With Ozpin shocked as he saw the God of Darkness's own creations with Caster, as they snarled and growled at the group that wished to face Caster. Genuine surprise filled him as he couldn't believe what he was even seeing.
"..." Only Archer seemed to see Ozpin's unusual reaction, and narrowed his eyes.
"Tch." As for Rin, she clicked her tongue at the sight of these creatures. All of them that looked more than ready to attack them. Still, this wasn't going to stop Rin at all considering that they needed to fulfill their objective. "Archer."
"Yes Master?" Archer replied as his blades materialized.
"Deal with Caster while the rest of us deal with the Grimm." She responded.
"Huh?" Shirou looks at her in surprise. "B-but what about the Masters?"
"Emiya, these things are more important." Rin says as she readies to use her crystals. "We can't find the Masters if we're forced to face these things."
"I agree." Ozpin finally snapped out of his daze, and glared at the Grimm. The beasts themselves getting closer as they sensed his negativity. His anger and animosity towards them. "We should take down these things first before we try anything else."
"Well...if you say so." Shirou relents as he strengthens his blade. These things didn't look tough, but considering the last few ones he saw last time withstood against a Servant, better to be safe than sorry.
"Oh. Still going against me." Well, Caster supposed this was going to happen either way. Still, at the very least she finally managed to get these pests under control.
"Grr-Gra!" Or at the very least, is capable of influencing them enough to not attack her and those affiliated with her. These things had no ego of sorts, and quite honestly they didn't have any form of sapience at all. At most, developed intelligence for just baiting and what-not, nothing more than that. While difficult, Caster managed to use her powers to subdue their raw instinct to kill on sight and influence them for her favor.
She may not have a clue where these things came from, but she may as well put them to use.
"Now then," Caster grins. The newly made magical circles glowing brother until they reached their peak. "Let's start this charade." Magical beams then burst from her magical circles with Archer jumping up and using his blades to block the attack. As for her new pets, they screeched and rushed at the intruders along with her more controllable Dragon Tooth Warriors. All wishing to kill them for their mistress.
"Alright then, let's g-" before Rin could even say anything, Ozpin was already on the move.
He left in a green blur, and to Shirou's eyes moved way faster than usual. Where with aggressive yet precise attacks that used little movement, he began using his cane to attack the Grimm. Aiming at joints or using blunt attacks against them. Against a tall werewolf, Ozpin slammed the end of his cane against its chest many times before he moved closer and threw an uppercut so hard, the head of the werewolf actually was ripped off.
"...er, okay." Shirou then runs to the nearest Grimm. "Better help him out." He then went to battle a big boar leaving Rin a bit surprised at how Ozpin moved. No, there was more to it than just that. It felt as if he knew how to deal with these things. That was preposterous though...Right?
"Fight first, questions later." Rin then told herself as she twisted around and shot a Gandr at the incoming claw of a werewolf, blasting it away with the creature howling. She then threw a cheap but still useful gem at it which blew up and disintegrated the monster. She then turned toward what appeared to be an alligator tooth warrior and went to deal with it. Looks like it was them against these familiars with Archer against Caster.
'I wonder how Saber's doing though?' Rin thought as she jumped up and crushed the alligator tooth warrior's head with a foot stomp while blasting away a skeleton's leg at a distance. Well, no time to worry about Saber. Besides, she was probably doing fine.
A blade to the head was diverted.
Cling!
An attack that would have cut her muscle tendons was avoided and only nicked the surface of her skin.
Swoosh!
A jab that would have pierced her chest and exit the back was deflected with a sword strike.
Clang!
An over-head swing is blocked with two swords.
"Well, well, well." Kojiro mused as he swung his blade at speeds faster than a bullet. Each strike that caused Musashi to feel her bones quiver whenever they made contact with her weapons. The vibrations of the blow being sent to her as she blocked his attacks. "You truly are skilled my fair lady."
"Hehe." Musashi smiles as she accepts the compliment. Jumping over Kojiro once she made room for herself, landed, and then tried to stab him in the back only for Kojiro to turn around and parry her blow. "I can say the same to you."
Kojiro then vanished and reappeared behind her and swung his sword down toward her ankles. Musahsi rolled forward avoided what would have undoubtedly crippled her footwork before positioning herself properly and launching her body at Kojiro while infusing her blade with the energy in her. When she swung both blades at Kojiro from the far left and right, Kojiro just bent himself down as her blades missed.
"Guh!" Where Kojiro, while still bending, quickly had kicked at her and sent her in the air. Though he was quick to follow and suddenly he was above her, ready to strike her down while she was in mid-air. She made an x defense and stopped the attack but it sent her down to the ground pretty hard and into a tree where the branches certainly didn't stop her fall.
"Impressive." Kojiro lands elegantly before going at her, intending to kill her while she was down. "You still persist."
"I'm not one to give up properly." Musashi then gets back on her feet despite how sore she felt and swung her left blade at Kojiro who had to block it. She then had her right blade come at his side. Kojiro forced to step back to not let his hips suffer the attack, though part of his outfit certainly ended up ruined as he couldn't escape the blade entirely as it cut through his fabric.
A shame for that, however Kojiro didn't have time to lament as Musashi ran at him and swung her attacks at what at first glance, appeared to be in a wild manner. However as Kojiro used his blade to expertly divert the path of the sword strikes, he realized she was doing this so that he couldn't block them all properly. Her sword ki also powering her blades and made him on the defensive.
Yes. A worthy opponent indeed.
Kojiro grinned as he then took a small risk and takes a step forward to Musashi's surprise. There, Kojiro faced the onslaught of blades and used his skill to divert as many of the attacks he could to ensure he wouldn't be fatally cut down. Of course, this lessened his ability to take no damage and cuts were seen appearing all over him from his outfit to his skin which began bleeding.
This allowed him though to get closer to Musashi, who suddenly couldn't attack due to Kojiro being to close to her personal space. Allowing the man to then try and bring his blade forward to pierce through her chest.
Musashi gritted her teeth as she had no choice but to do a back-flip and escape the attack. Not that she could escape it entirely as once she landed, she looked down and saw some of her outfit had a long cut from the top to a bit below her chest now revealing some of her beasts.
"Hey!" Musashi yells at Kojiro. "How could you ruin this! It costed a lot to get this!" The man who made it for her had her do work for a month before he gave it to her.
"Consider it fairness, as you to slashed apart my outfit." Kojiro says as he shows his own cut-up outfit. "Besides," He was suddenly in front of her and swung his blade at her left side and ready to try and vertically slice her body in two. "This is a duel."
Musashi positioned her left blade and tried to block the attack with her sword. However all she managed to do was hurt her wrist as when the attack collided with her blade, the force of it alongside poor positioning made her grit her teeth as she felt her wrist actually cracking loudly. Not wanting it to break, she swung her right blade above Kojiro's head who simply moved backward and avoided it.
The female swordsman, knowing she didn't have much time, then looked at her left wrist and saw it was already looking a bit swollen. She could still hold her weapon, but it seems that she won't be able to duel wield as properly as before. Not that it would stop her as she quickly then blocked another attack from Kojiro who had attempted to strike while she had taken just a single second to glance at her wrist.
Kojiro thrusted his blade three times and Musashi was forced to use just one blade to parry them away. She then stomped forward and while it did hurt a bit, swung her left blade at him. Instead of blocking or running, Kojiro looked at the weapon, analyzed it's path, and then tilted his head and moved his body a bit with the weapon missing him entirely. With his foot skill, Kojiro then spun and swung his blade sideways only for it to be blocked.
"Seems even with a slightly injured wrist, you can still fight. However," Kojiro then grinded his blade against Musashi's to try and damage her fingers making her push him away while trying to then dice him. A small pang of pain though from her wrist gave a slight lag though and Kojiro blocked the attack. "It seems a bit of your skill is now ruined."
"Oh yeah, no denying that." Musashi agrees with him. She's a duel wielder mainly, and while she can fight with one sword, it wasn't really her preferred method. Still, even as her wrist told her not to make it worse, she still raised her two blades at him. "Not that it'll stop me. Disappointed."
"Never even considered it." A true warrior can fight even with wounds. Sure they might die from them, even fail depending on how severe the injury is and cause them to lose in battle. But if they can keep on fighting, then they were warriors indeed.
So continuing on, the two kept on fighting as their blades sparked light and the ground around them cracked while dust and leaves could not even touch them. The noise of their weapons caused all birds and small critters to run as this duo kept on assaulting one another with small blobs of blood spilling here and there from cuts across their skin and flesh. Two powerful swordsman's making their blades cross with one another, with the sound of such clashing being heard by nobody except one.
'This is crazy!' Shinji thought as he saw Kojiro nearly behead Musashi before she then ducked and tried to run him through. 'Insane!' Musashi then sent some kind of energy arc of sorts from her own sword which Kojiro dodged and blasted a few trees apart. Of this world!' The two then forced their weapons to meet and a ringing sound echoes across their area.
"And this phone can't even record properly!" Shinji moaned as the two Servants then vanished and appeared here, there, over there, and so on and so forth. His phone's camera unable to actually catch their record breaking speeds and how it appeared their swords skipped movement and just got to the result.
"Uh." Shinji sighed. "Guess I'm going to need to edit this when I'm done here."
Suddenly a blast of concentrated wind from the battle cut through the tree Shinji was hiding behind...which promptly fell and exposed himself.
"Ehhhhhhh!" Where he then squealed and ducked behind a bush in fear. Uh. Damn those hungry battle Servants! He couldn't believe they put him in harms way. Even worse, they didn't even seem to notice as they just kept on attacking where the few times he saw them pause, they were grinning like mad men. Damn it all!
"Well," Shinji then looks upward, as he sees flashes of light above the temple. "At least I'm not dealing with that."
Shinji made the smart move of not dealing with Caster and whatever forces she had with her. At the very least, he bet Emiya and the others were having a decent time handling Caster since they're super weak in a physical confrontation.
"Yeah." Shinji says as he then records the battle between two swordsmen. "I bet Emiya is doing great."
"Gah!" Shirou yells as he's being chased by a spinning boar. Sure it wasn't as big as the last one, but he didn't want his legs to be pulverized. So Shirou turned around and swung his wooden blade down. Empowering it with his Reinforcement magic and even aura as well, as apparently the two combined well together.
In one swing he actually managed to pulverize it into a boney mess. Seeing this, Shirou felt satisfaction and turned to face his mentor Ozpin to show him what he did before the corpse vanished.
"And this oughta do it." Only to see Ozpin easily kill three big bears in three simple moves. Creatures that were bigger than the boar and clearly more fearsome. Shirou then looked down at the dissipating boar, then at the dissipating bears.
'I have a lot to learn.' Shirou thought while a small fire in him became determined to catch up as he swung his blade and cut off the jaw of a werewolf before turning around and beating it to death.
As for the others, Rin was doing rather exceptional. While wary of any strong ones, she found that these creatures weren't too tough overall. Gandr seemed enough for them if she got a right shot, and Ozpin himself was killing more of these things than Rin and Shirou combined. However, it wasn't the mooks that got her worried. Instead, it was Caster.
"Come now Archer." Who is more than capable of handling Archer as the two fought. As the two fought with Archer shooting arrows that Caster easily dodged before sending what can only be described as death beams at Archer. Destroying the roof of the temple Archer is on who avoided the blast. "Is this truly all you have?"
"As if." Archer jumps in the air as he dematerializes his blades, and replaces them with a bow instead. Where as he pulled back the string, an interesting arrow appeared which he then shot. One that immediately multiplied towards Caster.
"Child's play." Not that it made her fear as she instead created a simple barrier that redirected the arrows away from her and instead landed on the ground. Of course Archer knew Caster would do this, and used this chance to strike by jumping at her. Caster immediately sent a beam at him, but with his respawn blades that held potent magic resistance, the beam did nothing and Caster's eyes widened as she saw Archer come down on her.
Quickly she vanished away with magecraft, leaving Archer to only slash at air. As he landed, he huffed as he missed a killing blow. One of her dark creatures, a bear, then tried to kill Archer by attacking him from behind.
Shing!
He just discarded one of his blades by throwing it behind without looking, and killing it instantly as the blow landed between the eyes and through the mask. Easy kill. 'Something Caster is not.' That woman was good at avoiding deadly attacks. Undoubtedly because Caster knew in a physical match, she'd lose against him even with his poor stats.
So Archer knew that he had to finish her fast or she'll try to escape.
Eyes glanced at the others. Everyone, even that fool Shirou, were doing quite well. It seems these creatures Caster is using against them weren't as strong as the first two he met back when they arrived in the temple.
But enough about such things. Right now Archer had a job to do, kill Caster. Using his eyes and other sensory abilities, Archer patiently searched for Caster. Then, a fluctuation of mana was sensed. Thirty degrees to the right and behind the temple door. Archer moved instantly, ready to end this.
He burst through the temple walls, his weapons ready to cut down Caster.
"She was right. You did fall for it." Only to see a certain teacher who ominously glew a purplish pink color for just a moment around his fists. One of them aimed at exactly Archer's head. Well this was going to suck.
Archer obviously won't die. But if we recall, in UBW he killed Kuzuki because the dude had no protection from Caster. Here, he does.
And I hope you enjoyed the fight with Musashi and Kojiro. Won't lie, I suck at action scenes and I'm just praying I got it right, otherwise, oh well. At least we know Shirou, Shinji, Ozpin and Rin are doing alright. But with Caster's Master joining the game, things might change the tide.