[Confrontation]
The fight between Lancer and the enemy Servant, Rider, started in the empty classroom Lancer had kicked the woman into. The two humans and Saber had just left, going after Shinji, Rider's Master. Rin's Servant, Archer, was in another classroom, guarding Lancer's Master, Akiko, from the snake familiars that still roamed the third floor hallway.
The fighting between Lancer and Rider took them to the other end of the classroom. The two were fixated on the other. Lancer's back was facing the second closed set of sliding doors.
Rider materialized a dagger in her right hand. It was looped at the end of the handle. The loop held a long chain that snaked over the ground behind the woman. She then threw the dagger, point-first, at Lancer's head. The man leaned his head to his right to dodge the attack. As soon as the knife hit the other door behind Lancer, the man-made barrier flew off the track it was on and went straight back to smack the window on the back of the hall, smashing the pane and making chips of broken glass rain down on the campus grounds.
Lancer had looked back for only a split-second to see what became of the door, but it was all the time Rider needed. In an instant, she tugged on the ring she was holding on the end of the chain and the dagger came back. She grabbed the weapon and sprang at the spearman, all in one motion. She was aiming to plunge the point of the knife into Lancer's heart.
The man only had enough time to grab her arm, making the weapon go into his left shoulder instead.
"Gh!" He exclaimed in shock at the sudden pain. He then tried to break the woman's skull with the shaft of his spear, but Rider backflipped and took the dagger with her, unplugging the wound and making blood drip down. She landed on the small ledge at the bottom of one window of the hall, managing to balance on it easily. She was crouching on the ledge with her hands planted on it in between her legs. The dagger she just used against Lancer was still in her right hand. It was sideways on the ledge, her right palm holding it there. Blood coated about half the blade.
Lancer grinned as he wiped the blood with one hand. However, more blood oozed out to replace it. "Heh, ya sure are quick on yer feet."
"My agility is A, so of course I'm fast," Rider said simply, like stating a fact.
Lancer's grin became wider. "Only A? Then that means that ya don't have an edge over me when it comes to speed! After all, both of us are equal in that respect."
Rider raised her fisted right hand in front of her face, holding her dagger in a reverse grip. She was still balancing easily on the ledge, not even wobbling as she made the motion. "Right now..."
Lancer knew what she meant, that she would use an outside force to increase her speed. But this was why Lancer was confused. If this woman was really a "rider" as her class name suggests, then shouldn't she be riding a chariot or some kind of mount? But she wasn't using anything of the sort. Was there a secret to what she "rides"?
Lancer came at Rider and roundhouse kicked at the side of her chest when he was right in front of her. Trying to stop him, she stabbed him with her dagger just as he began the kick. In the right side of his abdomen. The dagger tore into the healing wound, going straight through the stitches on the front.
"Agh!" he screamed. Rider instantly knew she had hit a tender spot. She moved it slightly, getting more groans of pain from the man. The blade caught on the muscle, and the stitches held the skin together. This made him be pulled with her. As the two crashed through the smashed window, falling to the ground, Rider ripped the dagger out all the way to the man's right hip, easily breaking the stitches and opening the wound anew.
"You bitch!" he snarled. When the two hit the ground, He punched at her face with his left fist. Rider jumped back, avoiding it easily. There were now several meters in between the two. Lancer pressed his left hand to the reopened wound. His blood was coating it effortlessly.
The light outside didn't change color. It was just as red as the inside of the school was right now. Blood was dripping off the end of the blade with a soft "plip". Rider grinned like a wolf and brought the blade of the dagger to her lips. Her mouth opened and her tongue came out. It ran delicately over the blade's surface, lapping up the blood coating the metal.
"Ah, the sweet taste of another's pain," she purred. "Let's see if we can make it taste even sweeter." She opened up her left hand and another dagger materialized in it. It was just like the one the woman was licking with glee. "But I'll make sure to cut you up nice and slow. This kind of pleasure is best savored."
Lancer chuckled. "Sorry to say, but I won't let ya have that pleasure with me."
Rider brought down the dagger she was lapping at from her lips, bringing down to her side as she got ready to spring. "I love it when I have resistance while doing it. But I'll still have that joy either way."
"I swear, ya can imagine yer talkin' 'bout sex."
"Except with this 'sex', you'll die."
Lancer twirled his spear with his right hand. The other was still over his wound. "Just try it!"
[End OST]
[Sonic Barrage]
Then the two seemed to vanish, both cracking the earth where they were. Less than a second later, they reappeared. They were in the center of the distance that had been between the two. Lancer had swung his spear down at the top of Rider's head. Rider had blocked it by stopping and holding the tip of the crimson spear over her head with both daggers crossed in an X.
Lancer pulled his spear back and, at the same time, threw a kick at Rider's head. The woman leaned back far enough to where the kick stopped millimeters from her nose. She used the momentum from her leaning back to backflip. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she dashed at Lancer. Rider was swinging both daggers down at the man's head. Lancer held Gae Bolg in both of his hands now. He lifted the lance up horizontally, in front of his face. This made the incoming blades meet the crimson shaft, sparks flying as the twin daggers ground into it, trying to break through by snapping the spear. While still making Lancer block the daggers with his spear, she threw a roundhouse kick at the man's right hip, where his gash is with her left leg. Lancer bent and lifted his right leg, holding it close to his right hip. His shin took the impact of the kick. Even though her kick was blocked, she kept her leg there. This made Lancer continue to hold his leg up.
Lancer grit his teeth. Now he wouldn't be able to attack or defend for now. But neither could Rider. Or, at least, that's what he thought at first. But then her hair shivered. Then it tilted, the end pointing at Lancer's face.
"Oh crap!" he exclaimed. The hair turned into chains, but with an end that looked like a spike. They shot out at the Servant in blue. Thinking fast, he tilted is spear down to his right, making the held daggers slide down it a centimeter. In the same moment, he used his left foot, which was still on the ground, to push his body to his left. Still holding up his spear, he prevented the daggers from hitting him as he moved. But as he did, the spiked chain on the edge on his left skimmed the edge of his face, slicing his right cheek. Blood trickled down from the cut. But the flow was light. The cut wasn't that deep.
"Oh, you seem to react quickly," Rider said, but emotionless. She lowered her arms and turned her head, "looking" at her enemy. her hair still looked like chains. "Let's see you dance."
The chains buried themselves in the ground. Lancer glanced down at his feet, knowing where they would appear again. Sure enough, one came up out of the ground under the man. He shifted back just in time, but then he had to jump to his right as soon as his feet hit the ground. Another chain had burst up from the ground where he landed.
"These things are drivin' me nuts!" Lancer spat. He was now having to jump and slide himself all over the place to avoid the chains that kept coming out of the ground right under his feet. 'I need to get up high, where I don't need to keep lookin' at my feet.'
When his feet hit the ground again, he ran straight for the school building. The chains retracted to their original length and turned back into hair. Rider smirked at the Servant fleeing her.
"Running away?"
"Like hell!" Lancer shouted over his shoulder at her. Once he was right in front of the building, he jumped up. His feet hit the wall and stayed there, like he was sticking to it. Then he ran up it like he would if on the ground. He ran up to the second floor, the third floor, and then the fourth floor all in a matter of seconds. Rider crouched down, going onto her hands and feet like a four-legged animal. The daggers were still grasped in each of her hands. She grinned, knowing what Lancer was up to.
"So he wants to take this fight to the roof? Probably to get out of range of my hair. So be it. No matter what battlefield you pick, I will still kill you." She then pounced like a cat onto the outside wall of the school building, landing on her hands and feet. Like with Lancer, she seemed to stick to the wall. She then stood up fully, only her feet on the wall now. She then sprinted up the wall to the roof. Lancer was already up there. He had disappeared over the top of the fence, out of Rider's line of sight.
However, as soon as her feet hit the chain links of the fence, what looked like a red beam of energy shot at her. She was able to jump off and leap over the fence with ease, doing a front flip over the top of it. The beam hit the fence and blasted a giant hole in it. About 70% of the fencing facing the front of the campus was gone. The edges of the hole had the metal curled out and looking burnt.
Lancer was standing in the middle of the roof, facing what was left of the fence. Gae Bolg was thrust out like he was stabbing something. He tsked and retracted his arm holding the spear, lowering the hand by his side with the tip of the lance facing down at the ground.
"Almost had ya."
Rider chuckled and held her daggers up in front of her chest, both in reverse grips. "Not fast enough, I'm afraid." Then she sprang at the other Servant, stabbing both daggers forward. Lancer leaped up just as Rider was right in front of him. In that same instant, she twisted her body to her right, throwing the dagger in her right hand up at Lancer. He used the flat of the tip of Gae Bolg to block. Rider smirked and grabbed the loop on the end of its chain. She twisted it n different directions. This made the dagger wrap around Gae Bolg, the chain tight near the tip where it had wrapped. Then she tugged the loop, pulling the spear out of the warrior's hands.
Then she twisted her body the other way and threw her left dagger at Lancer's head. Being unable to deflect it, he settled for crossing his arms in an X in front of his body. The dagger hit his left arm, which was on the outside, and dug through it all the way up to the weapon's handle.
"Gh!" he grunted. But Rider wasn't done with her attack yet. The chain connecting the dagger wound around where the dagger hit, seemingly on its own. Now the chain was tightly wrapped around his left forearm, holding in the weapon. Rider chuckled and tugged that chain's loop. This yanked Lancer down, to the woman. She unwrapped her other dagger from the spear and turned to face Lancer as he descended closer and closer to her. She held the dagger up, its tip going to run the spearman through the heart.
Right before he was going to be fatally wounded, he held out his right hand. Gae Bolg moved on its own into the outstretched hand. Then he cut the chain holding his left arm with ease. Once he was free, he turned his body so his feet were coming at Rider's face. He kicked her so hard that her body flew back into the fence covering another side. It gained a large dent in it. Lancer unwound the remainder of the chain on him and pulled out thee dagger, blood coming out of the wound like syrup.
[End OST]
Rider groaned as she got back to her feet. Blood was running down her face from her hairline and her visor had a crack over the top of the right eye.
"Damn...you..." she said. "Killing you will be hard if you are able to move your body." She put her right hand to her visor, fingers splayed out. "I'll need to fix that."
[Wandering Shadow]
Her hand pulled the visor off and the air seemed to change. It felt like the space around Lancer suddenly got heavy and it was like time had been slowed to a crawl. It was as if everything got heavy in sight of Rider's naked eyes. They didn't look normal. The cells forming them looked to be comprised of clay. The iris was pink-grey while the pupil was just a black rectangle resting in the middle.
Then she charged at Lancer, her only dagger in both hands now, primed to stab its target, Lancer's throat. Lancer was going to sidestep to doge, but his legs felt too heavy to move. What's going on all of a sudden?
Not enough time to try dodging now, and he wouldn't be able to move up Gae Bolg fast enough to block the incoming strike. However, his left hand was close to his chest from getting the dagger out. So he used it to try defending himself.
His palm was in front of his chest, palm facing out, when Rider struck. The man grunted as the blade went through his left hand, all the way up to Rider's. He was knocked to the floor onto his back, Rider straddling him as she tried to force her dagger in deeper. Lancer's hand was now pinned to his neck. He managed to make the dagger go off-course slightly. It was buried in his neck, but the edge of the blade bit into just the right edge of it, in the jugular. His blood hit the woman's face. She grinned and licked the splatters of it around her lips.
The pressure of the blood flowing in it widened the cut, causing much more bleeding. Humans would die from this, as it would cause the person to bleed out, but not Servants. Since Lancer's spiritual core wasn't damaged, this is like any of his other wounds.
Now he wondered why he was moving slowly, why his arms and legs felt as if boulders weighed them down. And speaking of boulders, Lancer got another good look at Rider's eyes. He could tell mana was infused in them. Just like...Akiko's!
He grunted as Rider tried pushing the dagger further in and he tried pushing it out. "Yer eyes...they must be mystic eyes! An' of pertrification, which is why I feel so sluggish! So yer true name is Medusa, isn't it?!"
Medusa grinned. "So you figured it out."
[End OST]
[Breach]
Lancer grunted as he used all of his strength to push the dagger out of his neck, getting the snake off him. Medusa continued to grin as she back flipped as she was pushed off Lancer. She landed gracefully, no flailing to catch her balance again. The dagger she was missing materialized back in her hand, full length of chain and all. Lancer got up, but it was slow. Well, he was going to fix the weight he was feeling on his body. Still using his left hand, he traced symbols all over his body. They looked like ancient letters, just like the one that looked like an F for Ansuz. Medusa blinked at the man in confusion. "What are you up to?"
Lancer smirked as he finished tracing the final symbol on his body. "These runes will make yer mystic eyes lose their effect on my body."
Medusa growled, baring her teeth at Lancer like a dog about to attack with a frenzy of bites. "Damn you!"
It would be thought that Lancer is skilled only with a spear, as his class name suggests. However, he is also skilled in magic, as shown during the fight against Berserker. He received the 18 original runes from his mentor, Scathach. The runes he uses can do a number of things, such as attacking or aiding him in defense. The ones he just used make him resistant to the effect of mystic eyes.
He dashed at the enemy before him with blinding speeds, stabbing his spear viciously at the woman. He aimed for various targets on her: her thighs to slow her down, her throat, her head, and her chest. Medusa tried blocking the flurry of attacks the best she could with her daggers. However, the lance got past her defense several times; it shallowly cut the right side of her neck, pierced her chest with the sharp tip going into her sternum, it indeed impaling her left thigh, as she leaned back while it went for her head it punctured the skin over her forehead shallowly, and she received various other cuts. She hopped back, out of range of Lancer's melee strikes.
She snarled at the demigod. "I originally planned to kill you slowly, but it seems I may have been having too much fun." The blood coming out of her glowed like a fire. "It looks like I must hurry it up. No more taking it easy."
[End OST]
She was right. Except for using her mystic eyes on Lancer, she had been taking it easy on him. And that was because she hadn't used an attacking Noble Phantasm on the man yet. But he was also going easy, not having used Gae Bolg's power on Medusa yet.
And why was this proof of that? They had been trying to kill each other, targeting areas that could prove fatal. However, a serious battle between Servants is a battle using Noble Phantasms. And Rider was about to use one that would be strong enough to kill the other Servant and put an end to this fight.
Her glowing blood seemed to lift off Medusa's body, forming a large magic circle in front of the snake. In the center was an eye. Then the entire magic circle glowed white, blinding Lancer and forcing him to use his right arm to shield his eyes. After a moment, the light faded and Lancer lowered his arm from his eyes. But something was different now. Medusa was no longer in front of him. In fact, she seemed to have completely disappeared from his line of sight.
A neigh from above made the man look up. Ah, there's Medusa. She was now in the sky meters above where she was on the ground. But she was on the back of something. The creature she was on looked like a full-grown, glowing white horse. It had a pair of feathered wings like a bird that were stretched out wide. It was the winged horse, Pegasus.
Lancer smirked. "Pegasus, huh? So that's why yer a Rider, isn't it?"
Medusa leaned over to the neck of Pegasus, stroking the soft, luminous fur. "That's right. And he will help me make sure that I am the last Servant in this War."
Lancer changed his smirk to a feral grin, raising his spear up with his right hand over his shoulder, the tip pointing right at Medusa. Red energy was swirling around the length of Gae Bolg, like during his fight against Saber. "We'll see 'bout that, lady!"
[Sword of Promised Victory]
Medusa then leaned back into the sitting position she was in originally, but her hands seemed to be holding something that was either invisible, or didn't exist. But an instant later, gold light was what she seemed to be holding. On closer inspection, the light was actually glowing reins. They were around Pegasus' mouth. "Time to die, Lancer!"
"You first!" he shot back. Medusa snapped the reins down.
"Bellerophon!"
"Gae Bolg!"
As soon as Medusa snapped down the reins, Pegasus neighed again. Then he came down head first at Lancer. White energy covered him. He looked like a comet coming down. Or a meteor to kill, in this case.
Once Lancer hurled the spear, more red energy seemed to explode from the tip as it shot out at the meteor like a bullet, a red thorn of destruction. Some of the energy swathed the spear like a miasma.
"DIE!" Medusa's voice shouted out from the falling meteor.
"Not gonna happen," Lancer said back. The two attacks, the thorn and the comet, met in the middle. Waves of energy shot out as the two lights competed for supremacy, to snuff out the other forever. Neither seemed to give in. Right now. "...This isn't lookin' good..." Lancer whispered. Then he muttered something under his breath.
In the next instant, a bright flash of light erupted from in between the two Noble Phantasms, like fireworks going off. Gae Bolg instantly vanished. Was it destroyed? Was it forced to go into spirit form? Did the impossible happen, and the attack itself was halted? Medusa didn't care right at that moment. All she did care was that now nothing was getting in the way of Pegasus smashing into Lancer.
The comet of light was quickly getting close to Lancer. In fact, it was so close now that he could feel the harsh winds of magical power coming from the attack. He jumped out of the way just as Pegasus smashed into the roof. The roof now had a massive, gaping sunroof in it.
Debris thrown up by the smash pelted the spearman. He shielded his face against the onslaught of concrete. Several new gashes appeared on the limbs. He hit the ground on his back hard enough to knock the wind out of him and possibly open a gash on the back of it.
[End OST]
By the time Lancer recovered, he saw Medusa standing over him. One of her daggers was raised, ready to end the battle once and for all.
"Any last words, Lancer?" she asked.
Lancer grinned up at her. "Just that ya might wanna look out behind ya."
Medusa was just about to ask the man what he was talking about when she felt a sharp pain enter through her back and go out her chest. She was speechless for a moment, then coughed up blood and fell to her knees.
"Wha..?" she whispered as she looked down to see what it was that had just impaled her. Then her eyes widened at seeing Lancer's crimson spear there. It's tip was poking out of her chest a tad to the left of her sternum. The weapon had just pierced her heart, her spiritual core. "How...did you..?" This shouldn't have happened! She knows Pegasus made Gae Bolg disappear!
Lancer chuckled, still on his back. "Ya must be thinkin' that Pegasus destroyed Gae Bolg, right? Well, yer wrong."
Medusa glared at the Servant, baring her teeth. "What?!"
"Ya see, I can make Gae Bolg vanish durin' an attack usin' its power fer a set amount of time, about 15 seconds. I don't use it often 'cause it makes me defenseless an' makin' it stop blockin' an attack like yer Noble Phantasm can mean death fer me. But I decided to risk it. Anyway, when it reappears, it continues its attack. [1]"
Medusa grunted as Gae Bolg dematerialized. She covered her wound with both hands, feeling her warm blood seep out from in between her fingers. She felt her body fading, even before the specks of blue mana floated up into the air from it. "I hate to admit it, but it seems that you have gotten best of me." Then she let a small smile grace her lips. "At least...you made...this fun..."
Her body vanished completely. All that was left was a dust cloud of blue mana, but even those lights slowly went out. The mana-draining field around the school vanished. The sky was orange now.
[Whirlpool of Fate 2]
Lancer felt tired. That fight against Rider coupled with the bounded field drained him of almost all of his mana. He was close to running on fumes now. Well, he figured he should head inside of the building to make sure Akiko was fine even while being in the bounded field.
At least, he tried getting to the stairs. But as he rolled over on his belly to get up, he found that his arms were too weak to push his body weight up. And his legs were no better. He tried moving them, but it felt like stones weighed them down. Was Medusa's mystic eyes affecting him again? No. Even though the runes to resist them were almost totally faded away now, with Medusa gone, he shouldn't be feeling the effects of her eyes on his body now.
Lancer tried pushing up his body with all the strength he could muster, which wasn't very much now, but the same thing happened. All he could do was lift his body a couple centimeters off the concrete before his arms gave out and his chest hit the roof.
'Move...Move...dammit...' he tried telling his body. But it wouldn't obey his commands. He was feeling tired now that he thought about it. A quick nap wouldn't hurt...
[End OST]
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
[Midnight Interval]
When Akiko slowly opened her eyes, she could see she was in a classroom. But it looked like she was seeing it through a red filter. Everything had a crimson glow to it. She turned her head to the doorway where she heard the sound of metal slicing into flesh. Archer was there, both swords materialized. In front of him was what looked like a purple snake with its head cut off. It collapsed into a purple pile of dust on the ground a moment later, but even the pile vanished.
"Ar...cher..." Akiko groaned. The man with the red mantle looked over his shoulder at her.
"Good. You're awake," was all he said.
"What...happened..?"
"The Servant Rider was sucking your blood for mana. But Rin replenished it. However, this bounded field probably drained most of it again."
Akiko was confused on why Rin would help her, who was technically still her enemy, but she had another concern on her mind right now. "Where's...Lancer..?"
"He's fighting Rider right now. Saber, Shirou, and Rin are looking for Shinji to make him have Rider take down the bounded field. But what really surprised me was his anger towards Rider for her harming you. You're lucky to have someone who cares about you that much."
"Lancer..." she murmured. Akiko tried to sense his condition right now. If she could feel his mana flaring, that means he's still fighting Rider. Since she's awake now, she and Archer could back him up.
[End OST]
Suddenly, the red light filling the room went away. And so did the snakes Archer was fighting back. The man looked around in bewilderment. "What happened?! Did Lancer beat Rider?! Or did the other three succeed in getting Shinji to force her to take it down?!"
If it was the former, then what happened to Lancer in his fight?! Since it was against a Servant, he's most likely wounded. But how badly? And if it was the latter, are the two Servants still fighting, did Rider kill Lancer?
No. He must still be alive. If he was dead, Akiko would have sensed the absence of the pact that bound the two of them together. Since that must be the case, what's his condition? Is he still fighting or is he idle?
Akiko tried to sense his condition. His mana was faint. There was something wrong with Lancer. 'Are you okay?'
[Nightmare]
'I...fucked...up...'
'What do you mean?!'
'...'
'Lancer?! LANCER?!'
Archer looked at Akiko. "Is something wrong?"
"Lancer stopped responding!"
[End OST]
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Lancer was on his right side, a puddle of red forming around him. He smiled. Good. Akiko was awake. He didn't have to worry for her anymore. That's...good... Since that's no longer weighing on his mind, maybe he can rest now. Just for a few minutes...
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Interlude
[Tender Scenery]
The red light went away. The four, Saber, Shirou, Rin, and Shinji, looked around.
"Lancer must have killed her," Saber said. But Shinji wasn't happy about this. He got up and kicked a chair onto its side in anger.
"Damn that Rider! She's useless! Even with all that power, she still went down!"
Saber turned her head and glared at him. "Do not insult your own Servant for falling in battle!"
"She's my Servant! I'll say what I want about her!"
Rin walked over to Saber, stopping the knight before she ran Shinji through. "Shut up and get lost, you cockroach! I don't even want to see you anymore! And if anyone at the school died because of you and your Servant, simply put, never stop looking over your shoulder!"
"Grr! Don't think this is the last you'll hear from me!" And with that, Shinji scurried out of the room, tripping over himself the whole way.
"...You let him go for me, didn't you, Tohsaka? I said that I wouldn't kill any Master, and the same goes for me witnessing any be killed," Shirou said.
Rin blushed. "O-Of course not! A-Anyway, we should check to see how the students are doing now that the bounded field is down!"
[End OST]
Interlude out
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Akiko ran out of the classroom and into the hallway, followed by Archer, when she saw Rin, Shirou, and Saber come down it.
"You're awake!" Rin exclaimed as soon as she saw Akiko. "Where are you off to?"
"To find Lancer!" she replied. "I'm tracking him right now! Archer said he's probably above us, since he heard a loud crash come from there!"
"Lancer? Won't he just come down here to the third floor?"
Akiko shook her head. "I don't think so. I felt something wrong with his mana."
"Probably from being in this field. Emiya, Saber, and I are going to check up on the students here."
"You'd better be okay, Sakura!" Shirou yelled as he ran into room 3-B.
"Shirou! Wait for me!" Saber shouted after her Master.
Rin sighed then glanced at her own Servant. "Archer, I'm going to need you to come with me into the classrooms we check."
"Why me? I don't know any healing spells."
"More than likely, we'll need to carry the students and teachers out of the classroom."
"So you're having me do heavy lifting? I think you may be taking the term "Servant" a bit literally..."
"Oh shut up and just help out."
Archer sighed. "Very well..."
Rin looked at Akiko. "I take it you'll look for Lancer on your own?"
"Of course I am. Do you have a problem with it?"
Rin shook her head. "No, I don't. Good luck."
"Thanks."
While Rin and Archer went into the classroom Shirou and Saber disappeared into, Akiko ran for the stairs to the fourth floor. She could feel that Lancer was above her. But even on the fourth floor, she still felt him above her. Was he on the roof then?
She felt a breeze and looked up. There was a gaping hole over her head. She could see the orange sky up above. It was evening now. The final bell would soon be going off. Well, the destruction confirmed it. The Servants fought up there.
[Footsteps of Destruction]
She went up the stairway to the roof and threw the door to it open. The first thing she saw was Lancer laying almost face-down in a puddle of blood.
"Cu Chulainn!" she screamed as she ran over to his still body. His eyes were closed. She went down on her knees. He was facing her. She shook his shoulder roughly, needing to see his eyes open. "Cu Chulainn?! Can you hear me?! Open your eyes!"
After a couple of seconds, though it felt like a couple of hours to Akiko, Lancer groaned and slightly opened his eyes. "I'm tired...I need to rest..."
Akiko instantly went into panic mode. Unless it was almost out of mana, a Servant doesn't feel tired! She instantly wrapped one of his arms around the back of her neck. She supported him on the side of her body while wrapping one of her arms around his waist, making sure not to irritate the gash that used to be stitched up. It probably wouldn't need new stitches now, the wound was mostly closed except for a new clean cut.
[End OST]
[Time Together]
And for a spirit, Lancer sure was HEAVY since he wasn't supporting some of his weight. Akiko was lifting all of it. "God, what are your pockets full of, bricks? No, that'd not possible since you don't have pockets!"
"Geez, first I'm injured an' now yer bashin' my weight?"
"I wouldn't be bashing it if you would support some of your own weight!" When she gets to the third floor, hopefully she can get Shirou to help her, since he was barely shorter than her. Hell, she'd even be willing to ask Archer for help, if only to relieve some of this burden on her!
[End OST]
[1]: Not at all in cannon, but I just thought to add it.