Lancer stalked the residential half of Fuyuki as he tried to locate the other masters in the war, though unlike his master, he had no intention of killing the masters themselves… they were what was supporting the other Servants after all and he wanted a good fight.

Though that damned fake priest wouldn't let him.

He would've beaten Berserker if that ass hadn't called him off so early.

Well, maybe not… but that wasn't the point!

He really needed something to quench his anger at that fake priest, even if it meant mindlessly spilling a little blood, then it wouldn't matter.

So he was jumping over the rooftops, his goal… to find something to take his anger out on.

And then he saw it.

A young redheaded boy was walking through the street, clearly just wandering around like some sort of idiot.

And so, he decided to say hello.

"Yo…" he called out as soon as he touched the ground, his blood red spear in hand, "it's your unlucky day kid, you just so happen to be in the right place for me to take my frustration out on you."

And with that he charged at the boy who would soon be dea-HOLY CRAP THAT'S A LOT OF PRANA!

He didn't even know what hit him as he was sent flying through the air after smelling the boy suddenly emit… he would say the quantity would probably be about EX rank… no, it was definitely EX rank in quantity.

Was that a wall? Ow… yes it was.

He idly looked at the boy and noted that he had just been smack to the other end of the street.

Seriously? He had been expecting a weak little human with nothing to protect themselves with and instead he got someone with enough prana to put a Caster to shame?

Maybe this wouldn't be so boring after all.

"Rule Breaker," he noted the voice that came from beside him just as something pricked at his arm.

And then he felt the connection between him and his master shatter and a new one form.

One with the boy on the other end of the street.

"What the fuck?" it was all he could say at that as he looked to his side to see what was clearly a Caster with a jaggy little knife.

"Well… that makes four now master," wait? Master? Four?

"So how many are left Caster?" the boy at the other end of the street asked.

"Just three, Rider, Archer and Berserker," wait, did that mean they had already taken out two other servants?

"Wait, so I have over half the servants in the war already?" over half… OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTIN ME!

"That is correct, with Lancer now your servant, we have easily the greatest force in this war," the grin on the Caster was easily one of the smuggest he had ever seen.

"Really? So you're sayin you think ya can beat Heracles?" the shrug he got in response made him gawk in shock, "you really do think you can beat Heracles in the Berserker class?!"

"Why would we try and beat him?" Caster seemed far too smug, "all we have to do is steal his connection to his master and make him one of our forces and everything will be fine."

Lancer just stared.

This Caster could break the bond between Master and Servant… and that guy could gather ungodly amounts of Prana in an instant…

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me," I was the only thing he could say, "dammit! And to think, all I wanted was a damn fight."

"You want to fight?" the red headed master asked with a couple of blinks.

"Yeah, that's the whole reason I'm even here, I just want a good fight," he admitted, it wasn't like he wanted anything the Grail could give him after all.

"Well… if you follow a few rules then I guess I could give you a good fight," now that caught Lancer's interest.

XXX XXX XXX

Kotomine Kirei would've growled if he ever did anything as unseemly as that… but he was a man of God and growling was beneath him.

"Lancer lost," he stated calmly as he sat in his office sipping a cup of Tabasco.

Most people would find that weird but he didn't care, he had long since grown desensitized to spice.

"So what?" the voice that answered was arrogant, so much so that the owner clearly didn't think much of the subject, "a rabid dog like that is worthless in the grand scheme of things."

"The master defended against him," his statement was just that, a statement.

"So what? If the mangy mutt couldn't even defeat a master then he was worthless," he almost had to sigh, trust Gilgamesh to look down on everyone without reservation.

"Perhaps, but he was a useful pawn and I failed to learn anything of value from the short confrontation," and boy had it been short.

"Pawn's are easily replaced," and with that, the Golden King left the room.

And Kirei simply continued to drink his hot-sauce.

XXX XXX XXX

Lancer had to admit, he loved his new master.

"Is that everything you have Lancer?" the question was clearly little more than baiting him but he was more than happy to oblige.

After all, getting the go ahead to spar with Saber indefinitely was just too good a thing to pass up.

Every strike he sent at her was parried and countered with masterful precision and if he was any less skilled with Gae Bolg, he would've died long ago.

But he was just as masterful with his spear as Saber was with her sword.

Even when she tried to grab hold of his weapon, he had the skill, speed and reflexes to ensure she never got a grip on it.

It was one of the basic tenets of using a polearm of any kind, never let your enemy grab your spear.

The encounter was long, hard and exhausting, with him constantly trying to stick his spear in her and her trying to outmanoeuvre him and deal a debilitating blow.

Though, he was silently thankful that they had a near infinite supply of prana so the exhaustion was almost entirely mental from fighting at such a high level for so long.

But he would be damned if he didn't manage to put his spear in the girl before him!

XXX XXX XXX

Shirou watched on as Lancer and Saber continued their sparring, noting that Assassin was watching closely while twitching every so often, and idly wondered if he would be watching this scene often in the foreseeable future.

It was clear that Assassin wanted to kill the new heretic but was refraining from doing so for some reason, while Lancer was definitely enjoying it and Saber herself seemed to be grateful for the honourable opponent.

Well… as honourable as old warriors could be anyway.

He still used dirty tactics every now and then but given how common that was in history, he wasn't exactly surprised.

"Hey, Caster?" he called out, causing the woman to appear beside him, "is Fuji-nee going to be alright?"

He really didn't like the fact that he had ended up hypnotising the woman to make her forget everything about Saber, Caster and Assassin but it was the easiest option and when dealing with the Tiger… you never wanted to use a harder option, it would only cause more chaos.

"You took her home after erasing her memories," Caster stated bluntly, "she is currently asleep in her room and when she wakes up, she won't remember meeting me, Saber and Assassin, only having dinner with you."

"Yeah… about that…" he muttered quietly, causing her to look at him suspiciously.

"What is it master?" she sounded almost annoyed, "are you trying to say that you didn't do that?"

"No," he quickly responded, "it's just that… well… Taiga didn't eat."

"So?" she clearly didn't understand but that wasn't really a surprise.

"Well, she's absolute hell when she's hungry," he admitted with a nervous grin, "tomorrow morning is going to be even worse, that is for sure."

"Worse?" Caster almost sounded uncertain.

"Yeah, so we're going to have to hide everyone," he admitted before looking towards the back yard and grimacing, "and fixing the yard before she gets here."

He was certain he could fix the yard quite easily…

The problem was getting the two battle nuts to stop their foreplay.