Fumble Order Redux 1
"And you're sure this will work?"
I looked over my shoulder at the young lady standing behind me, and couldn't help but quail internally at the sight of her biting her lip. "It should work, although this is the first time that we've had to work under such… circumstances, Master."
I looked about and caught sight of the burning city out of one of the windows. With a sigh I replied, "Fair."
I focused on the ritual as I looked down at the shield on the cracked and dirty floor, sitting in the middle of a rather intricate circle drawn on said floor. I tried to pull at the energy I'd felt when I'd been Leyshifted into the Singularity. There was something missing… I breathed deeply, and the image formed in my mind…
The thumb is braced against the spark wheel, and then the wheel is ripped, spark met gas… the flame ignited.
It felt like there was thirteen canals of fire burning through me, but it was enough. Blue light rippled out from the shield and across the circle, bluebell sprites lifting from the surface and swirling through the air. The light built to a blinding pitch and I had to avert my eyes, even though the three Command Seals on my hand burnt.
There was a cracking sound, and the light died away, I lowered my arm as the summoned Servant spoke.
"Did you call for me?" Though the lower half of her face was veiled, I could see fear in her eyes as she spoke in silken tones. She was clad in a skirt of made of sheer white fabric, lapis blue pauldrons and bustier, all of it leaving very little to the imagination.
Looking at her and taking her all in, I couldn't help but feel ambivalent.
She was stunning in so many different ways. Her features lovely from her almost glowing green eyes to her pillowy lips, and even her movements were elegant and bewitching. But, I also knew that this Caster, Scheherazade, would do everything she could to get out of fighting. All of that on top of her being a powerful Caster who would have an edge against many of the foes we might face in the future, despite her desire to avoid combat.
Her eyes darted to the Command Seals on the back of my hand, and she continued to speak, "I am the Caster class Servant, Scheherazade. Should you abide by my simple request, then I will follow you as if you were my king forevermore."
"I don't know what your request is, but if it's within reason and my power, then I'll do my best to fulfill it," I replied, my heart beating in my throat at the thought. What could it be? Not ordering her death? Removing her from the combat team?
She gave a slight curtsy, "Then, let our partnership formally begin."
"Excuse me, Caster. I'm also one of Master's Servants, Mash Kyrielight," Mash introduced herself with a smile, causing Scheherazade to look at her curiously. "I'm of the Shielder class. I look forward to working with you."
The Caster blinked at the young lady but gave her an uneasy smile as she replied, "Of course, and might I ask as to what the situation is for us?"
"Everything's on fire, and the tyrant version of King Arthur has parked herself atop Mount Enzo with a rather terrifying Archer backing her up," I explained, not looking forward to her reaction.
The dusky woman blinked at me, took a few moments to process that and then murmured, "Oh."
Seeing that she had no real input for that, I nodded. "Yeah, we'd hoped that you'd have a way to help us out with that. But, I think we can work something out. How many of the things you summon count as Nature Spirits?" I asked, clasping my hands and looking her in the eye.
"As many as those that would count in their original tales?" Scheherazade answered questioningly, her features taut with confusion.
The smile that grew on my face was probably a bit more predatory than I intended as I chuckled, "Excellent."
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We ended moving back to the small room that we decided to use as a temporary base, Cu leaning against a wall and Olga resting on a chair we'd salvaged. Olga jolted upright as we entered while Cu simply cracked an eye open to regard us.
I nodded to both of them and waved at Scheherazade. "This is Scheherazade, she's a Caster as well." My gaze swiveled to the druid, "Has there been any movement outside?"
As he shook his head, the Director piped up, "Well? You said that we'd need at least another Servant before you could come up with a plan to take the Grail and correct the Singularity. What can we do with these Servants?"
"I hate to be a downer, but the Director's right. We've got too few Servants to compete with the enemy Servants in terms of numbers," Doctor Roman advised, his voice crackling slightly over the connection. "That's not even factoring in the wandering dead."
"About that…" I trailed off before looking to the freshly summoned Caster. "Scheherazade, if your summoned creatures were to devour the spirit cores in the wandering dead or the Blackened Servants, what would happen?"
"It would extend the amount of time they would be able to remain active, but that's about it," The storyteller answered, her lips pursed.
While I'd hoped that the mana would pass back to her if there was any remainder, I was sure we could work with that. Pausing to think on it for a moment, I looked around at the others.
Olga was looking contemplative, but she was worrying her thumbnail with her teeth. Clearly trying to puzzle out a way to resolve the Singularity.
Cu was leaning against a wall near a window, idly looking out it. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but I assumed that he was working on his own plan.
Mash was standing near the door, shield in hand and waiting for us to be ready to move.
And Scheherazade was almost unreadable. Her expression looked placid but I could see the slightest hint of tension in her posture, whether she was worried about me deciding to kill her off or the situation was up in the air.
"Then, I believe the best course of action would be to have Scheherazade release as many of her characters as she can reliably maintain and have them hunt the wandering dead." Everybody's eyes turned to me at that moment, and I grimaced at the attention. "The best plan would be to gather spirit cores to feed to Scheherazade and Cu so they can better handle the Blackened Servants."
I took a deep breath and looked between them as I asked, "Do you two think you'd be willing to consume the spirit cores of the Blackened Servants if we get any?"
"If that is your order, Master," The storyteller answered, bowing her head subserviently.
Cu thought on it for a moment, but eventually shrugged, not saying anything. Maybe he just didn't want to risk any side effects.
The director sighed after a few moments, "If that is the only viable course of action beyond simply assaulting the mountain, then I'll have to give this operation my backing. Romani?"
There was a blitz of static, causing the lot of us to wince before the doctor's voice came through, "-es, Director? Sorry, the connection fritzed out for a moment."
"Have you managed to sort out the operations room? We're in need of the servant detecting equipment," The director asked, her brow furrowed in thought.
The doctor hummed, his answer hesitant, "Well, it'll take some time to get it all properly functioning and calibrated. The explosion did a number on both the staff and the equipment, so it's basically just me right now."
Olga brought her thumb to her mouth and began worrying at the nail, after a moment she grunted, "Fine then, do what you can to get things up and running, I'll expect a report when you get everything functioning again."
The doctor laughed tiredly.
"Of course, director."
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As it turned out, Scheherazade's Forty Thieves were quite useful for searching out the remaining Servants as well as for droves of undead.
While the small men weren't strong enough to take on any of them on their own, together they could at least handle the undead by swarming them. And that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came Caster's Noble Phantasm, given the bodyguard she'd summoned to act as a support to Mash.
The summon was a dark skinned woman with silver white hair, wearing brief white clothes and some jewelry, all while carrying an oddly curved sword. Scheherazade had introduced this new person as Jalis, but she seemed to only act when commanded or during combat which was an entirely different story.
To say that Jalis danced through combat was an understatement.
Where Mash was a bulwark, an anvil that foes crashed into and broke against, Jalis was a razor wind. She weaved into clusters of the undead and struck with poise and elegance that bordered on inhuman, each attack carried out with a deadliness akin to a cobra.
Watching all of them fight the undead was… humbling, in a way.
I'd been in fights before, but never had they been like these frantic clashes, where a single slip up could mean the loss of life or limb.
Dodging back from a swipe sent my way by a stealthy skeleton, a pink and red flash spun past my face. The skeleton fell back and collapsed, its skull crushed under the heel of the young lady who had attacked it.
Her skin was as dusky as Jalis's, but her hair was bubblegum pink, matching her puffy pantaloon-esque shorts. She eyed me for a moment before jumping after another undead, leading with her heel in another spinning kick.
Blinking after her for a few moments, I looked to Scheherazade and asked, "Who, uh, who was that?"
"Morgiana, the wise slave girl of Ali Baba. She didn't kick like that before…" Caster trailed off, watching her summon flip into a crowd of shambling corpses.
Before I could say anything, Cu Chulainn barked, "Well, who cares if she does? She's got some real fire in her!" As he declared that, runes erupted from his staff, turning into gouts of flame as they slammed into the living dead.
As a zombie charged me, I slid out of its path and stuck out a leg, sending it to the ground. I swallowed a lump in my throat even as I lifted up a foot and stomped down on its head, trying to ignore the fact that it used to be human. Coughing around the bile rising in my gullet as the thing's skull let out a sick crack, I cast my gaze around at the group.
They were all handling themselves better than I was.
Grunting, I shifted my focus from wallowing in my limited usefulness and instead grabbed a crowbar that was laying on the ground. Hefting it and testing its weight, I readied myself before returning to the fray.
I could at least do that much.
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Trying to center myself, I took a few deep breaths and tried to forget the crowbar that I'd acquired as we made the best of the situation we were stuck in. It was resting against the seat I'd all but collapsed into, with new fresh stains from the corpses I'd bludgeoned.
After clearing out a few groups of the wandering dead outside, we'd moved into a small department store and liberated it of any undead. The pair of proper magi had set up some bounded fields as defences, but they'd not been able to guarantee that they'd do anything against Saber Alter and her Blackened Servants.
Honestly, I'd have been astounded if they could have guaranteed such a thing.
We'd occupied the tables of a cafe, Olga, Cu Chulainn and I sipping at pilfered drinks while we discussed what had been achieved so far. Scheherazade had declined anything while Mash was considering her own drink nervously.
"So, we took out the Blackened Lancer just after we arrived, and you said that you already took care of the Rider?" I clarified as I studied the Caster.
The druid nodded and crushed his apparently emptied can, "Mhm, he was some native fellow with a bunch of weapons and a pair of horns on his head. Couldn't tell you his name though."
"I'm fairly sure that would be Benkei, or someone who was famous for impersonating him, based on the description," Or at least, that was who I remember being the identity of the Rider in the OVA, there was no guarantee that I was right in this case though. I wasn't going to admit that, not at the moment at least.
The blue haired man shrugged, "Couldn't tell you, he wasn't much for conversation by the time I got to him."
"I'd imagine as much," Olga interjected, leaning back in her chair as she looked between Cu and I. She was clearly on edge, and our current pace probably wasn't doing much to help either.
I snorted at the image of Cu sitting down to chat with any of the Blackened Servants, and asked, "Then the ones left would be Saber, Archer, Assassin, and Berserker?"
"Yup, and good luck trying to get any of them on our side," The Hound of Chulainn laughed, clearly relishing the idea of fighting them.
I sighed, considering the idea but discarding it, "Ideally, we'll only have to fight Archer and Saber, as Berserker's just off rampaging on his own. Assassin's the only one unaccounted for, but hopefully they'll content themselves with just skulking around."
"Well…" My stomach sank as Cu Chulainn drew out that word, his grin twisting savagely. "He's working his way through the bounded fields now, so I guess it's just Berserker we'll be avoiding."
I'd have sighed, had I anywhere near the level of composure to manage it. Looking to Scheherazade, I ordered, "Release the Forty Thieves and have them split up throughout the store! Cu, is there anything you can do to handle Assassin?"
The student of Scathach smiled even as my summoned Caster demurely went about fulfilling my order, "I got a few things that I can set up in a few minutes."
"Then get to it!" I nearly yelled, feeling more than a little sick. I looked to Olga, who had given the same command in time with me, and was clearly trying to keep her own cool.
Cu laughed, "Ha, keep that spunk in you and we'll make proper Masters of you two yet!"
