That bellowing roar was enough for me to turn my attention away from the priest. You know, the thought occurred to me: for a group of people who want to try and keep shit hidden, they sure seem to go out of their way to wake up the neighborhood… If the battle thus far hadn't woken up the neighbors, I was certain that sound would to it.

The ground beneath my feet started shaking more and more as the thing approached. Then suddenly, a crash. Then another. And finally-

A barrel of a being exploded out of one of the portables, sending scraps of wood and metal flying! Not that it seemed to deter him, for he just kept on charging right towards us all. Somewhere behind the speeding mass, hidden within the dust and rubble, came a new voice.

"Annihilate them all, Berserker!"

Ah, Berserker… Yup, that checks out.

Berserker was a tall fellow. Not a giant, per say, but easily as tall standing as Rider was on horseback. Chunky lad too; man was clearly all muscle. He would have looked like a super roided up bodybuilder, if everything about him didn't look so bizarre.

Once again, I found myself questioning just what Heroic Spirits were exactly, because this one, if it had skin, was unlike anything I've ever seen before. He was pure black; darker than the darkest shadows black, from head to toe. It looked like a wall of night was barreling its way towards us. White lines seemed to decorate his body, though if it had any pattern to it, I couldn't discern it. Remined me of war paint, in a way.

In terms of armor, Berserker basically had none. In one hand was a big oval shield, made out of some kind of… animal hide? Certainly wasn't metal, at least… Other than that though, all Berserker was wearing was a necklace of what looked likes bones, and… well... and a loincloth of furs, basically. I would say skirt, but I don't think he would appreciate that, and I wasn't looking to get turned into paste.

"Of all the possible timings" Johnathan seemed to curse.

"Assassins, target Berserker" Rider called out.

Immediately, the four remaining assassin familiars broke away from Saber and moved to engage with Berserker.

"Saber, you too" Johnathan shouted out, running towards the portables himself.

Saber nodded in affirmation, but I noticed he was moving slower than earlier. In fact, everyone was moving slower. The fighting had clearly taken its toll by now. In contrast, Berserker was looking fresh and moving far faster than someone of his size should have been able to, if you ask me, even for a Heroic Spirit.

I also couldn't help but notice that Rider didn't have any more assassins converging on Berserker. Did he really only have the four left? That was when I took another look at Berserker, and noticed he had a couple of daggers stuck to his shield, and possibly one in his chest. Not that it looked to be causing him any issues, mind you…

Rider must have been pulling them away from our fight to take down, or at least delay, Berserker this entire time. Man, this Berserker fellow must really be a-

I ran after Johnathan; considering what I saw earlier with how he defended Sortiara, I figured my best shot was to stay as close to him as possible. However, as Berserker closed the gap to the rest of us, he tossed two spears, one right after the other.

The first one went sailing towards Saber, who immediately moved to dodge it. The second one was targeting Lancer. At first, it looked like Lancer was going to brace himself to block the spear with his shield. Apparently realizing this was a terrible idea at the last second, however, he instead hastily changed tactic, using his shield to instead swat the spear off to his left, rather than take the impact head on.

C-lang Boom!

Sadly, Lancer deflected the spear right into the wall of the school, which subsequently crumbled due to the force behind the impact.

Holy shit! That classroom is gone!

"Master! Let's take care of-" Lancer started to say, before another clash of metal rang out.

"You would turn your back on me, knight" Rider questioned, reengaging Lancer.

"Are you seriously still going after me" Lancer sounded slightly jovial, despite his obvious exhaustion.

I didn't turn around to see what Sortiara and the priest were up to, but if I had to guess, if they weren't fighting yet, they were about to have at it again as well.

Damn, this shit is crazy! I hope my camera isn't out of battery life yet!

By this point, the assassins and Berserker were engaged in combat. Considering Berserker had just tossed what looked to be his only two spears, I had no idea how he expected to deal with the assassins, let alone Saber, who was close behind. …With his fists would appear to be the answer, however.

One of the assassin familiars, in what was either an act of extreme bravery, or extreme stupidity, thought trying to tango with Berserker in melee range was a good idea. Maybe it was because he thought Berserker's size would limit his reaction speed? Well, that turned out to simply not be the case. Credit where it's due though: the assassin did manage to dodge Berserker's attempt to bash its face in with his shield. On the subsequent grab attempt, however…

Berserker let out another roar as he gripped the assassin by the head and threw him down into the dirt. One quick, powerful stomp later, and the assassin was no more. Johnathan, Saber and I just sort of sat back and… watched. Watched as Berserker pulled a shorter spear out of thin air and went to town, stabbing the last of the assassin familiars present like it was nothing. He simply moved too quickly for anyone who had previously been fighting to be able to keep pace. Then, with no one else left, Berserker focused his sight on Saber.

"Rrrrrraaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!"

Pure white hide shield… Throwing spears… Stabbing spear… Still not enough info to go off of…

"What do you think of my servant, Johnathan!"

From the rubble of the portables, the same voice from before called out. Berserker's master was walking towards us with a smile that only came with assured victory. Another kid, and considering he knew Johnathan already-

"Zachary" Johnathan confirmed my suspicions.

…Well, I suspected Zach, but Zachary was close enough.

"You don't sound happy so see me" Zachary feigned being hurt in his voice. "And who's that with you? Find another third wheel already? So much for us being allies…"

"You backed out of the alliance, Zachary; not us."

"My father's dead because of your mother" Zachary shouted back, exploding with anger. "Your mother and Sortiara's father!"

"Our parents died in that too! It was never the intent, I'm-"

"Bullshit!"

"Rrrrrraaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!"

"Damnit Zach; it doesn't have to be like this!"

"I've heard enough of your excuses before! Kill him Berserker!"

"Fuck! Saber, intercept him!"

The clash wasn't pretty. Saber was clearly in no state to contend with Berserker here. Right off the bat, I thought for sure Saber was going to get impaled, or stomped on, or get his head crushed in Berserker's meaty fists. Yet, Saber was managing to stay just out of reach. He wasn't going on the offensive at all; allowing himself to be pushed back by Berserker, towards where Lancer and Rider were still fighting.

"Go ahead and get help" Zachary laughed as Johnathan, and subsequently I, took off after Berserker and Saber. "Berserker can take on all of your servants, no problem."

"Ah, shit" Johnathan sighed, ignoring Zachary's boasting as we ran. "We need to regroup and get out of here. Saber is starting to run low; I'll have to use a command spell if this goes on much longer. Lancer and Sortiara must both be in the same boat by now too."

"Great idea" I huffed, already feeling tired myself. "Berserker and your pal back there weren't exactly being discreet; can't be long before the cops or something show up."

"…That too. Fucking hell Zach, you moron…"

By the time Johnathan and I returned to Sortiara, she and the priest were no longer in combat. In fact, neither were Lancer and Rider. It would seem that everyone was in agreement, for at least this moment: Berserker had to be the priority, or we would all die.

Lancer and Rider didn't look to bad. Completely exhausted, mind you, but not bloody messes. As the two of them joined Saber in trying to repel Berserker's assault, Sortiara staggered on over to me.

"We need to get out of here, now."

"Yeah, we know" Johnathan sighed.

Sortiara looked far worse for wear, compared to the Heroic Spirits. Her pants and legs were cut up in multiple places, though they were fairly small individually. Her arms were cut up a bit worse, but nothing that looked life threatening. Her voice wasn't as shrill as it had been when she had first taken that brutal looking punch to the gut, so there was that, at least, for an improvement. It was only after a couple of seconds passed that I realized.

"…What happened to your coat?"

"Burnt to ash" Sortiara grumbled, glaring at the priest.

"Consider yourself fortunate that the Lord has other plans for you, it seems" the priest snarled back.

"You want to keep going?"

"Don't tempt me girl. The Lord granted you a mercy once; he may not do so again."

"Doesn't that prove that you're acting in defiance of God's plan though" I mused.

The priest looked set to kill me then and there, but before either of us two could really say or do anything, Johnathan punched me in the arm. Hard.

"Shut up already, for two minutes" he half shouted, half sighed.

"Hey, that-"

Before I could voice my complaint on the friendly fire Johnathan just inflicted, a familiar voice echoed in the air, filling it with laughter.

"Oh man, and even one of the Church's lapdogs is here. This truly is my lucky day!"

"Oh, of all people…" Sortiara grumbled, turning to face Zachary. "Trust you to be dumb enough to let a Berserker run amok like this!"

"You were dumb enough to take a fight in a local neighborhood, and the Executor there was dumb enough to not put up a bounded field to keep this shit out of the public eye. Don't try to pin whatever this mess becomes solely on me."

"Executor? I thought you said he was an executioner" I asked Sortiara.

"Don't even try going there after your whole speech thing on the nature of words and shit!"

"…Touché. And hold up, you can do that, but didn't?"

This time, I directed my question to the priest.

"…Why expend the magical energy when it wouldn't have been necessary" he glared at Zachary as he spoke. "Rider wasn't screaming his head off and committing wanton destruction of public property."

"The greed play… I approve" I nodded.

"Tch! As if I require the approval of heretics…"

This entire time, I had been watching the fight between the four servants. Or rather, three servants. Rider wasn't doing much fighting; he seemed distracted. He kept glancing at the roof of the school, which I thought was odd. I couldn't see anything up there, and even the priest didn't seem to be giving the roof any mind.

"So, what, you want to fight us now" Sortiara demanded.

"That was why I showed up, but now that I see the situation... well, even with you is such a sorry looking state, the Executor here is still an unknown factor, and Johnathan is looking to be in fairly good shape, all things considered. If you're content to leave this to a fight between the servants, I'm not going to risk taking a three on one against myself" Zachary explained. "Of course, if any of you try to run, that's another story…"

"…Don't you mean four on one" I asked him, still watching the fight.

"You're no magus."

"Yeah, so everyone's been saying" I sighed, despite the slight grin on my face.

"Still, it would seem you are a master. Rider your servant, or the servant of the Executor?"

"Buddy, you think any Heroic Spirit is going to respect my ass enough to listen to orders?"

"I'm not your buddy, outsider."

"Aw, a shame… and rude. But fine, if that's how you want to be; might as well do this" I sighed.

"Ha? What could-" Zachary started to say.

As I said before, I'd been watching the fight this entire time. This clash of titans was another level of beauty compared to what I seen for such a long time, how could I possibly take my mind, or eyes, off of it? And, of course, with such focus, such a desire to take in every detail, witness all the beauty possible, one notices things. Things that appear so insignificant on the surface that nobody else would pay it much of a thought.

A few moments ago, Saber and Lancer had worked together and managed to disarm Berserker of his spear. In response, after bashing Saber away with his shield, Berserker pulled out another weapon. This time, a beautifully carved, wooden, one-handed club. While beautiful, it didn't seem to make a lasting impression on the other servants. Evidently, it was just a weapon, like Saber's two jian swords, and not a Noble Phantasm, like I still suspected Lancer's lance to be, even if I couldn't prove it yet. It made sense, then, that neither Saber, Lancer nor Rider would know just what kind of club it was; in life, I highly doubt they would have ever come across such a thing. But I had known right away, and immediately, my list of names for Berserker shrunk down to a list of, like, five possibilities; one being a near certainty.

An iwisa club!? Zulu! It has to be, right?!

That was when I noticed the opening Berserker had left. Or should I say, the feint, as Berserker reared his head backwards slightly, preparing to spit. Lancer took it all too quickly, and as I watched what should have been an unavoidable disaster for Lancer, and by extension Sortiara, I yelled out as loud as I could.

"Lancer, stop! Its poison!"

Lancer broke out of the momentum of his thrust and rolled off to the side. Just in time too, for what went sailing just over his head was a massive blob of a purplish-black, liquid substance.

A highly likely chance of being a correct guess, but now that confirms it! Hello Shaka.

Lancer and Saber both disengaged, giving Rider space to charge in, taking advantage of Berserker's… well, end lag would be the best way I could put it, if that makes sense. His spit bubbled on the tarmac, but I couldn't tell if it was just harmlessly sitting there, or if it was eating away at the tarmac, or what. Considering the spit must have been magically enhanced in some way, I had no clue if it was still working just as the stories went, or if it had gained some other effects.

"What?! How" Zachary demanded, immediately taking a few steps back.

Sortiara and Johnathan looked equally shocked. The priest, for his part, had more of a curious glare.

"Should have been more careful with what weapons you let Berserker play with" I smirked. "There aren't that many people I can think of who used that type of club, and who I'd consider to be legendary or heroic. Though, if you were going to summon any of the ones I can think of for a war, would 'he' not be the most obvious one?"

"You-…"

"Me. Her" I finished the joke, though again, I highly doubted anyone understood the reference. "Man, did everyone just love that show growing up, or what?"

"Bak'haral val-"

"Don't even try it" Johnathan sighed, talismans rapidly encircling Zachary. "As you just said, I'm still in good enough shape; my magecraft directly counters yours."

"Fuck you and your manipulation bullshit!"

"While this exchange does have me curious and all, I must say: aren't the police being rather slow in reacting to, well, any of this" I interjected.

"Is laziness not typical of Americans" the priest pointed out.

"Ha! True" I mused.

"Racist" Zachary decried.

"Trust the-" I began to say, before someone cut me off.

"So, this is what has the neighborhood all abuzz with excitement. I expected this level of crass and carelessness from spellcasters, but I expected more from you, Executor. Be grateful a proper magus is here to deal with your mess."