A/n: Welcome back readers! PsychoJack here with the next chapter of Holy Nail War. Our suave hero Honda has begun the war with the masters of the Holy Grail War on his own terms, going so far as to initiate the first move in a grand display befitting of an entertainer. Let's hope he is able to keep up the performance as the street magician begins his first ever fight against actual magi. Will his showmanship be enough to take on actual practitioners of the magical arts. Please note thay some use of other languages with rough translation will be used. Please correct me if I am wrong. Let us begin!
--SLO MO (BULLET TIME) BEGINS--
The magi and their respective attendants focused their eyes above them to witness the shadow that dropped down towards them. The hulking monstrosity that was a spectral golem looming over its intended victims with an indigo glow highlighting the darkness of the intersection.
CRACK
The floor cracked, debris began lifting as an impact was made from below. One second the Magi were standing upright, the next and they felt their balance being completely toppled by another being enclosed head to toe in heavy steel armor. Like a devil from hell itself, this being bore horns on its crown, wielding a large blade, practically a slab of metal compared to the batons the homunculi guards wielded.
Whatever the steel plated being was, it contrasted with the obscure figure above them, and yet it worked in tangent with the strange being.
A dance of two, and the magi here were caught right in the middle.
Deacon's focus was on the blizzard coated eyes of the Warlock. His mind razzled as to the appearance of this strange mage. Even Deacon, with his renowned skill in reinforcement, was caught toppled off balance by the sheer strength of the servant that broke through the floor beneath him. It was impeccably timed. The master and servant duo knew when and where to attack, whilst coordinating a flanking maneuver.
Mara Malga's lava colored eyes fumed towards her golem. Her creation, one that required a great deal of time, patience and knowledge now was being used against her, by a magus that for all intents and purposes, lacked her skillset. At least that was what she thought originally. The way the golem was practically enmeshed to its current master would suggest something of a symbiotic relationship between the two. The simple fact that it could do that in the first place amazed her. She wanted to use Honda for the war, but didn't think anyone would have that much control over the golem, least of all enough skill to sneak around with such a being out in the open.
Elias on the other hand held the expression of limp submission. His eyes simply stared beyond the ceiling, contemplating his choices and actions leading to where he was currently, practically free falling to his death. His death, whether by blade, golem, or by sheer gravity, was not something he had truly contemplated until now. Compared to his first engagement with Honda, this was worse by a longshot. His fight in the park was in favor of Honda by fortune alone. Now, however, Honda had taken full control of this fight and literally held their fates in his hands. Like puppets, they all were gathered here for the Warlocks' game.
Idores gazed at Honda with something akin to childlike wonder. She had never seen him in his warlock garb to be honest, as that was a task assigned to Stria. Seeing the once struggling street mage come full force with the flair, power and confidence befitting of the most powerful in magus society was something that shook her to her core. Witnessing as the central pawn to her grand plan now seeming like royalty in comparison to her helpless frame as she fell, brought a great deal of shame to her consciousness from her oversight. Her 'puppet' acted on his own, in a manner completely the opposite of her original intentions.
Stria, unlike the other magical experts in the room, gazed upon her hero with a small and yet serene smile. Seeing her warlock brought an internal fire of joy within her, smoldering within her breast. Her heart soared at his valiant entrance, a reflection of his first show she had seen him perform. The sound of his voice was a melody to her ears.
"Honda!" Stria said with clear vibrance towards her savior, as well as her fellow house servant.
--SLO MO (BULLET TIME) ENDS--
Honda's frost eyes beneath the mask noticed her and immediately flicked his right wrist in her and Idores' direction.
A glint entered the peripherals of the albino duo. Idores looked to the source before she felt her body shift. She was practically stopped midair, literally floating above the other falling magi and the rest of the maids. Stria looked down, seeing Honda dive into combat, the metal encased knight being pulled upwards by Honda's golem to its back.
Stria noticed this. "Is that…a servant?"
Idores was desperately trying not to fall to the ground beneath her. Out of her own curiosity she looked more intensely at what was holding her as it was hard to see with the naked eye. Upon closer inspection, she noticed a thin string-like substance that subtly glowed a smoke like aqua color, flowing with magical energy.
Idores blinked. "Phantom wire…but that's just a throwaway alchemical base. Why would he…?"
Idores looked to where Honda fell. Her pupils fidgeted as she looked on in a mixture of bewilderment and fear "For a second I forgot…that he's not a mage…"
Stria untied herself from the phantom wire, diving headfirst towards Honda. Whatever battle was to be fought, she would not let him fight alone. Though crazy in itself, the homunculus would not be swayed in this matter.
Idores reached out to Stria. "No! Stria!" She let out to her chaffeur as she fell into battle.
The magi and the homunculi fell, now in freefall under the mercy of the encroaching powerhouse that was Honda the Warlock.
Ursus, was quick to act. In a burst or reddish prana energy, the attendant immediately swooped towards Elias. Elias remained limp in midair, surrounded by Deacon's homunculi. Due to their inability to directly navigate themselves whilst midair, along with the fact that they lacked the means to remain afloat, they all proceeded to simply scream in unified monotone to their supposed deaths. They sounded bored as they all fell.
Deacon covered his ears at the combined monotone of his homunculi security force, broken free from his shock, however he was convinced that his servants were all defective from their immediate cowardly and yet lifeless response to falling.
"Shut up!" Deacon roared out, his voice bouncing against the walls as he did so. The homunculi were immediately silent. Deacon immediately pointed his arms towards the floor. His reinforcement runes dissipated as emerald colored runes focused on his forearms, specifically his palms as he readied his move.
"Matter Deviation: Solid!"
Deacon released a fast, expanding burst of green energy. It struck akin to lightning towards the ground beneath him. He landed on the ground. Where one would think he would land on a solid ground that would result in his death, instead he landed on a gelatine like flooring, soft enough for him and the others to land without injury.
Deacon had changed the atomic structure of the floor into that of something akin to an architectural cushion.
He gasped for breath, sweat coating his forehead from having to think on his feet with such a large amount of surface area to convert.
His homunculi landed on the now cushioned floor. One homunculi maid landed in Deacon's arms. She smiled with a pink tinge on her cheeks towards her master, who proceeded to cringe and dropped her onto the cushion, looking upwards to notice Mara.
Mara grinned as she knew that she would land safely as the others did. She shifted her body so she would land away from Deacon and gain distance for her own escape. She laughed all the while as she moved to safet-
SPLAT
SQUELCH
Deacon flinched as he witnessed Mara Malga, one of his competitors for the Holy Grail War, reduced to a mere gorey mess in the span of a millisecond. Black tar like blood exploded off her person. Some of it had gotten on Deacon's person.
It turns out that the area she landed on was the only bit of flooring Deacon had neglected to convert to a softer landing area.
Ursus had practically wall jumped his way down, carrying Elias in his arms. Elias looked at Ursus.
"I thought that would be the end, Ursus. Thank you." Elias said as he raised himself upright, recollecting himself from the panic that he had suffered earlier from Honda.
He looked upwards, his eyes opened wide.
"Ursus!" He squealed as Ursus immediately leaped away from the incoming ebony titan, it's master, his knight, and Stria now on its back.
Stria immediately pulled out her M16 with grenade attachment to unleash a barrage of bullets onto Elias' position, knowing that because of his traitorous ways, Idores' life was nearly put into danger.
Homunculi servants sprung into action, a group of male baton security guards attempting to swarm the eighth master.
Honda stood on his golems' back. Arms folded in front of him as he watched the fight from atop the ebony coated back of the stone-like entity.
"Do take care to go easy on them." Honda commanded his golem. He jumped off the hulking creature as he then flicked his right wrist, revealing a reddish flame like string that fumed with an inferno as it went, spewing flame with each movement as Honda sliced the guards' hands. The guards dropped their batons as they nursed their burning hands.
Mordred looked at the result. "Hey genius! You do know we're supposed to kill right? We're in the middle of a war!"
"It is not the homunculi who are at fault for the misdeeds of their masters. However I will leave them with quite the means of staying out of this fight. Use the side of your sword for now Mordred." Honda spoke with refinement, Mordred shaking her head but whatever, at least she still gets to fight.
"Fine! But if things go south, I'm not holding back!" Morded warned Honda as no plan was ever perfect.
FLICK
The spectral golem began finger flicking the homunculi guards, sending them flying one after the other, like small insects. They landed on the ground with resounding 'thuds' and nursing the aches in their bodies.
Mordred grabbed a maid that climbed from behind the golem and smacked her upside the head with her big sword, the maid looking disoriented before falling off the golem and rolling on the floor.
Deacon used reinforcement to prevent himself from being damaged by the finger flicking monstrosity, though he did still cover his body from what he thought would be more devastating and fatal blows.
'What kind of game are you playing Katashi Honda! Are you attempting to toy with me further! So be it!" Deacon thought to himself as he tore the sleeves of his aqua-colored suit. His forearms were covered by silver arm bracelets that both possessed glowing aqua orbs on the center, indicating the power of the bracelets came from them.
"Matter Deviation: Deconstruction!" Deacon bellowed as he took two swings towards the ebony golems' outstretched left hand. The blow from Deacons' fist caused the golems' hand to blow up in shards of jet black.
The golem, being made of many shards of ebony, simply reformed its hands and continued the assault.
--With Stria--
Stria ran out of bullets as Ursus continued running with Elias, prompting the hooded attendant to reveal his ruby encrusted dagger letting out several nekró kýma (greek for Dead Wave).
The red arcs of energy rushed towards Stria, causing her to deftly jump off the golem to avoid being hit by it. The blast seemed to be simply sucked by the golem as opposed to making an explosive impact. Stria shot a grenade from the launcher attached to the M16, striking Ursus with the large shockwave of the grenade, shrapnel sticking on his right shoulder. Ursus crashed against a nearby wall despite the red runes emanating on his chest, indicating his prana infused protective garb was in effect. Ursus got back up, along with Elias as he was ready for combat with Stria.
--With Honda--
"Golem! Handle the homunculi, I will face Deacon!" Honda said with dramatic delivery as the golem followed orders, simply continuing to finger flick the homunculi servants in front of him, while grabbing the maids that climbed its back before throwing them aside without a care.
Deacon stood ready, prominent muscles flexed as Honda glided towards him, standing tall with his shoulder cape flowing. Each step Honda made echoed against Deacon's ears. Perspiration appeared on the magus' face as the eighth master approached.
Deacon gulped with a notable increase in his breathing when Honda stopped in front of him.
"I see you're holding up quite a fight." The Warlock said, his eloquent voice resonating in their arena.
"If I didnt I wouldn't be a proper Deacon. My family has always been notorious for bearing warrior-magi for generations. We're a rarity in our craft. A tad old fashioned, sure, but far from obsolete." Deacon said as the orbs of his arm bracelets glowed, whilst the runes of reinforcement glowed in use.
"You yourself are a mystery Honda. You must be of a rare breed, bearing the title of Warlock. It's a strange title to have in among magi. In Old English it means an oathbreaker, an outcast. My question to you is…what oath did you break to obtain the power you possess?" Deacon asked, curious as to the being in front of him.
Honda seemed inquisitive.
"The oath of existing as anything other than what I truly am." Honda affirmed with conviction as it was technically true. The Warlock is who Honda is, it is his identity, his name, and his purpose. Living life before he wore the mask was the oath society would force upon him, faux normalcy was not enough of an existence to thrive on.
"To be a Warlock like myself, one must understand, the art of magic is to believe. The source of my strength, well…let us decide that through this fight." Honda said before flicking his shoulder cape to the side, revealing the phantom wire on his left hand as he unleashed it towards Deacon.
The wire had slashed against Deacon's chest, carving a big bloodied 'H' on Deacon's torso.
'He is using Phantom Wire to bypass my reinforcement! It's known to not be considered a solid, liquid or a gas, it's borderline nonphysical in its composition, meaning my spells cannot deconstruct it! Honda, you are clearly more than a mere novice!' Deacon thought to himself as he looked to Honda with respect and fear as he stood in a battle ready stance.
Honda thought to himself. 'Holy shit! That wound looks so realistic! This phantom wire stuff is real good special effects. I wonder how it's made, cuz it's sure as hell convincing!'
Nearby the duo, one could see that a certain pile of disoriented limbs was slowly realigning itself.
--With Stria–
Stria was cautious as she was fighting in a two on one battle. Honda was currently busy with Deacon. She couldn't expect help at the moment.
Elias charged from his hand a Sternenkugel! (A/n: Star Bullet in German)
From her right thigh, Stria whipped out a modified gatling gun in response, firing at Elias. This prompted Ursus to immediately hurdle himself in front of Elias, directly taking each shot, relying on his protective garb to nullify the damage. The size and power of the bullets of the gatling gun, however, tore up Ursus' robes, rendering the assistant a torn mess.
"Thank you Ursus! Now!" Elias commanded.
Stria put away her gatling gun back in its proper seal.
Ursus swooped towards Stria, clashing his blood red dagger on his right hand against the side of the albinos' M16.
They had their staredown. The albino unflinching against the enigmatic ward that was Ursus. His form towered her own on close up, yet his hood still concealed his face. Ursus immediately pulled from his left arm a claw-like weapon in an attempt to tear open Stria's abdomen.
Stria immediately used a containment seal on her chest, revealing the barrel of a combat shotgun.
BANG
The resounding impact caused Ursus to immediately fly backwards a few feet landing in front of Elias, who during the staredown was charging another spell. Ursus was unresponsive however.
"Himmelskanone" (A/n: Means Sky Cannon in German)
A resounding flash of white light shot from Elias' right hand, releasing a volley of magical bolts. Stria ducked, narrowly avoiding the blasts.
The problem was, the bolts turned around and headed straight for her. Stria's eyes widened as she was surely done for.
KABOOM
The bolts made impact, dust filled the area from the point of contact. Elias smirked as the albino couldn't escape his spell. It was a high cost, high reward spell to track and land a guaranteed hit on an opponent.
His facial expression of self-pride deformed into that of shock. The smoke cleared, revealing Honda's metal clad servant in full view, her blade serving as a perfect defense against Elias' magecraft.
"That was a nice shot! Too bad you're hitting the wrong target." Mordred mocked as Stria sweatdropped from her close contact with death.
--Elsewhere--
Within the smoke of battle a black puddle of tore up limbs began reconstructing itself, first it was the tar like blood, then the bones, followed by veins, tendons, muscles and finally skin. The reformed body began lifting itself upwards, staggering as it did so. After cracking a few joints, two fire coated eyes opened smirking as they focused on the golem, preoccupied with the remaining homunculi guards. Most scattered the floor, unconscious and covered in dust or debris from the hectic fight.
Mara began sneaking her way towards the golem, charging an unknown black rune on her right hand. The rune seemed to release the sound of a heartbeat.
As she reached within touching distance of the golem, two projectiles landed in front of her.
Specifically, they were two ice shards that exploded in a large snow-crusted explosion. Mara's rune coated hand was frozen from the slightest touch of the frosty mist emanating from the shards.
Mara looked at the source of the interruption.
"Well, well. I was wondering when you would join in on the fun. I finally get to see if you have enough bite to go along with that frosty attitude of yours."
The revealed figure was none other than Idores, who had used magical ice molded as a torrent to slow her fall. Currently Idores' eyes possessed black sclera, a testament to her power being used.
"Idores, mindflayer and cryomancer. Quite the skillset for a lowly homunculus" Mara mocked before steam seemed to emanate from her exposed skin. At the same time Mara's subsurface black veins on her face began thickening, bulging on her face as her smirk grew.
CHAPTER END