Warning: This fanfic dealt with probably controversial themes and you may find it not suitable for you. If you still decide to read, then stay strong and brace yourself for what you are about to read. This story here happens in Arc 2 and thus may contain some spoilers.
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Chapter 9: Witches of the Night
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Words of God: For this part, play Evangelion - Thanatos
After the divine light of Excalibur has finally disappeared from this earth, the blazing horizon has died down. The only thing that remains was rain and wind and the sounds of thunders occasionally. The power behind the Excalibur arrow was beyond any fathomability as it destroyed the Pavlov's House in a single shot and its power can be felt from a radius of a few kilometers. Within those kilometers were only ruins as far as one can see.
Shirou rose up from the rubbles, being the least injured so far. He looked at all of the surroundings to see if that Pavlov's House is still there in any form. His suspicion was answered by the deafening silence barring the rain and wind.
Realized what he needed to do next, he quickly digs up the rubbles he was in to see if there is anyone buried underneath. Not even in a few seconds, he finally found the important someone of him, his sister.
Her eye closed dimly as if there is only emptiness in her eyes. He checked her pulse and her breathing and sighed in relief to know that she is only unconscious from over-exhaustion. Even with a Command Seal boosted, using Excalibur to maximum efficiency without having its original wielder's mana capacity is just asking for death.
Soon, there are more of his allies rose up from the rubbles, they seemed to be fine enough.
"Are all of you okay?" Shirou asked them.
"Never would I do this again, no matter which time I was summoned." The Finnish said as he was having the fright of all of his life.
"Sorry, but we don't have any better choice left. At least it ended with no casualties on our side." Arnold said.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It just that we probably will be facing more threats from now on. The Nazis won't sit still with this level of destruction." Alfin said.
"Me too, but I'm concern about my Master too, we just literally left him off," Richard said
They looked at each other silently, things will only go harder from here on out. They have to found Chaldea's Master and everyone else as soon as they can so that they could plan their next step.
"Well, let's move on, our Master can't search for us by himself with this situation like this," Shirou said as he climbed out while carrying his sister.
"Yeah" The rest gets out of the rubbles and soon follows Shirou. They can't do anything by standing still.
And so they headed out again. But they aren't out of peril yet.
Somewhere in a far distance
"So they are more powerful than how they let themselves," Reznov said as he analyzed how the entire thing unfolded.
"A lot more destruction than how we wanted, I would laugh my pant off if the Nazis still decided to do nothing about this," Dimitri said to his friend.
"We have returned, Masters" The trio of Heroes of Soviet Union has finally returned, even if tired, they didn't seem to appear with any grievous injury.
"Oh! My dear sister has returned safely! I thought I have lost you in that wildfire-" Dimitrii said in happiness as he saw a person that he decided that he was the closest to.
"For the last time, never have I said that I was your sister and the similarity in our names is just coincidence. Do you wish to have a bullet go squarely through your head?" The trench coat girl said as she was irritated by hearing it. But deep inside, she would be far more irritated if she doesn't hear it after every tough battle.
"We didn't manage to kill anybody at all, no casualties on our side either. All of this for almost no progress done." The man with ashen face said.
"And to think that our synchronized shot failed because our guns got jammed simultaneously when we aimed at the medic. I don't know how he did it but that is not normal and the rest is how you envisioned." The man with white gears and coat said.
"So those 9 Servants, does any of you know who they are after observing them?" Reznov asked the Servants.
The two male Servants don't even know one of the 9 Servants that they encounter. All they really know is fight and take down their enemies. The woman in the trench coat, however, knew that there is something familiar about those she fought.
"Oh!? Do you perhaps know something about them?" Reznov asked the female Servant.
"I can tell a few considering that I am a historian after all." The woman answered back.
"First off, is the 'heretic'. That man, there is just something extremely unusual about him. He definitely belongs to this era but something about his arsenal and himself just doesn't fly with me." The woman gives her analyzing.
"Considering that you go head-to-head with him, I expect you to have the most information regarding him," Reznov said his assumption.
"First off, even when I shoot him, he doesn't bleed, nothing. Just nothing, he only looked at me like I am the lowest of all scums." The woman said back to her Master.
"I wonder what that means..." Reznov thinking for a while as he said.
It was a brief silence but one that is irritating at that. It is like a puzzle that you know the answer is really close but can't exactly put what that is.
"Maybe that he hates communism so much that he bled clear blood?" Dimitrii gave his wild guess which for some twist of fate that was actually a correct answer.
"Hmm, perhaps that is the missing answer after all. Servants don't exactly follow the rules of humans so that symbolism may actually also a part of them. Good answer, Dimitrii!" Reznov celebrates his friend for able to give him a perfect clue while Dimitrii was just surprised that it actually worked.
"Also, his arsenals, I think it might actually not belong to this time. He brought out a vehicle that can fly like a plane yet can move in a tightly packed area without crashing into anything." The woman said.
Everyone else is now thinking in silence, trying to find even the faintest idea of what she meant. A picture meant a thousand words and that strike true even now.
"I know that I'm giving too little information for all of you to work on but trust me, you only know what I would mean when you see it for yourself. All I can say is that it does not belong to this time. The 'heretic' is definitely but what he brought out is obviously not." The woman said again.
"That is okay, good to know that you are fine despite you almost got hit by those bombs, definitely not the usual bombs that used to drop. I don't know if there is anything can cause such an inferno at all. Do you know anything else?" Reznov asked her for more.
"About the other, that medic who we tried to kill and got our guns jammed? Throughout my further observation, that man may have accompanied along with the others but something tells me that there is a lot more to see about him. The most important thing about him is that he has no weapons at all, I confirmed that he is a Servant yet he has no weapons or means to attack at all. If anything, he can't fight at all." The girl said about further information.
"A medic who fought with no weapons at all. I don't know how he managed to do so but he has the real mettle to survive such a heated battlefield while having no means of retaliation. I got to respect him about it at least. Almost like divine intervention." Reznov commented about the man she described.
"The next is what I found to be the most fascinating to me. I don't know what that Master managed to do but he somehow tiptoed the restriction and brought in the legends of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, assuming that is actually them basing from their weapons." The trench coat girl said.
"Ah yes, those crimson archers, the battle makes me forgot about the fact that the legends of olds are impossible to be summoned because of a secret German weapon managed to eliminate the moment they came into existence. Tell me more about it since you are a historian and thus you could explain it in better detail." Reznov got interested in what she said.
"This will be a long one, it all begins in old China where there is a blacksmith couple. The king of Wu who reigned at that time demanded a blade that would befit him and thus the said blacksmith couple has to make one. The result was a twin sword Gan Jiang and Mo Ye or also called Kanshou and Bakuya in Japanese. But the story of said blades was not the happy one. Gan Jiang didn't know what to do and become desperate for an answer. Seeing the situation, Mo Ye decided to gamble her life and sacrificed herself. In back then, it was believed that anything forged with a human sacrifice will reach the realm of God. She threw herself into the furnace in front of her husband and thus helped the Essence of Five Mountains and Metal of Six Heroes meld. Gan Jiang forged the two swords in grief, and upon completion did he kept the Yang sword while only handing over the Yin sword. The king soon noticed said deception and soon furiously had Gan Jiang killed." The woman in the trench coat said.
"Next? Or does it ends there?" Dimitrii asked.
"Not quite, the blacksmith couple does have a son who ran away with the Yang sword after knowing what is going to happen to him and his father. The king wanted both of the twin swords and thus hired an assassin to find it. It took a while but the assassin finally caught the son but instead of killing him, he wanted to know the whole story. The son explained the story from his side and that he will train just to kill the king for making his family collapsed over his demand. The assassin told the son that he will do the job in his stead if the son decided to kill himself to prove it. The son did so without any hesitation and the assassin was moved by his decision and decided to keep his words. Later, the king has the head of the son boiled just to satisfy himself in the thought that he crushed all those who oppose him but the head remained the same throughout months and months despite being boiled constantly and the king started to grow anxious that he might be haunted from the son's spirit, the same assassin from before telling him that he has a way to resolve and telling the king to look at the inside of the boiling cauldron. When the king did so, the assassin beheaded him and also done the same to himself in order to make sure nobody would be able to tell the difference between them. When people found out what is going on, the only things in the cauldron are the three skulls and since they have no way to identify, they decided to build the tomb for the three of them and thus the conclude the legends of 'Tomb of Three Kings'." The woman in the trench coat said.
"So what does all of this means?" Reznov said.
"This is only a hypothesis but assassin in red cloaks is most likely the assassin in the story but what makes me felt wrong is that he used weaponry that doesn't exist for that time." The trench coat woman said.
"I guess he just uses anything that would help him, I guess?" Dimitrii said.
"A fair enough point, I guess? The hardest to distinguish though would be the little girl and that crimson shrouded archer/swordsman, both of them has significant proficiency with the swords which make it hard to understand which would be the king or the son and I didn't even account for the different gender according to known history!" The woman said.
"That would be best left to a better time, anyone else?" Reznov decided to switch the topic a bit since he felt that they might be treading into unknown areas.
"The next it would be best to say would be the one German uniformed soldier and the blond girl, the German guy run with a speed that seems to be unrealistic for modern Servants, the clothes he donned in seems to belong to WW1 era so I guess that he might be a runner, the blond girl is a complete mystery though for as far as I could observe." The woman said.
"I kinda expect a lot more than that but considering the heat of the battle, that is justified," The ashen-faced man said.
"And most importantly, the old man with cowboy hat and clothes that belong to the 19th century or specifically Wild West era, and that machine gun with 6 barrels definitely point him to only one person. Richard Jordan Gatling, the man who invented the first machine gun and laid out the groundwork that changed the entire face of warfare, he has also foreseen the possibilities of his invention and realized the bloody end when tactic and technology don't match with each other and the result was ultimately WW1 itself. That man is a threat to be reckoned with and not underestimated." The girl said
"It seems that we are done talking about our enemies, we shall now proceed to the next step, we shall mount another offensive to take them down once and for all, they are most likely at their last legs and this last blow shall cripple them for once and for all." Reznov decided to proceed when he had heard enough from her.
"You think that we also don't reach our limit yet, don't you? That Pavlov's house that I built cost a ton and took a lot of time to just build and you think that I can just build one right out of thin air?" The ashen-faced man said.
"Oh, Pavlov... I'm not talking about you, neither are Lyudmila or Zaitsev. I'm talking about someone different, someone who is a menace of the night and you should be glad that person is in our team.
All of them remained silent, they don't know what does Reznov is hinting at but they sure as hell glad that they are not at the receiving end.
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Brief Respite
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Somewhere a fair bit distance from the ruins
Not even after half an hour later did they finally managed to find their Master and others who were separated in the conflict. But at last, they managed to reunite and started to move to somewhere safer. At least, not being completely destroyed by the Excalibur. After they reached the nearest building that was still in contact, Emiya built a campfire and Gudao requests supply from Shadow Border's side. Kuro, Kiritsugu and Iri are now resting, Kuro simply lying against the wall, Iri doing the same while Kiritsugu rests on her thigh, the remainders who are still fighting condition will stay vigilance of whatever to come. They doubt that the Nazis can turn a blind eye to this any longer.
"So, what do we do now?" Arnold asked anyone if they know anything that he doesn't.
"Wait until tomorrow, nighttime is one of the worst time to have a fight against anything, Servants may don't care about it at all and maybe Gudao can be in it too but Pierce just simply a guy who knows how to command a Servant and don't have any specialty at all. Hell, he might also a real big target since his death is also equal to Richard's death" The Finnish gives his analysis of the situation.
They can't argue with that since Gudao can't deploy any Servants that aren't higher than 1900 in this Singularity, and those who fit in that bill were only a handful at most. Any manpower is important and they can't afford themselves to lose anybody at all.
"I have to agree with him with this one, once we get a much better grasp on our situation, we will proceed to continue our mission," Gudao commented.
"Master, I have done cooking up the stew, you need to get as much rest as you can. No army can function on an empty stomach." Shirou said to his Master.
"Yeah, I know. Just give me a bowl, I just hope that our situation can only go up from here." Gudao said to Shirou.
Alfin soon comes down from the roof after she checked for anything suspicious and entering through the window, the smell of nicely cooked stew struck her senses as she was captivated by it.
"It smells nice. What are you guys cooking?" Alfin asked curiously.
"Just some meat and seasonings to make stew. But even with having limited ingredients, I would say that I did my job satisfactorily." Shirou said to the enthusiastic girl.
Alfin quickly sits down and get her a serving, she quickly has a spoonful of it and the next moment, she stuck in that pose, motionlessly while the spoon is still in her mouth.
"Alfin, are you alright? Don't tell me that you got-" Arnold quickly checked up on her to see if there is anything wrong.
A single tear rolls on her pink-tinted cheek. Soon, she answered.
"Oh, there is nothing wrong. It just... I felt that nostalgia washed over me. Like reexperience a beautiful fragment of memory that you didn't know when it has bygone. It just struck me so much in my feelings." She said as if overflowing with emotions.
He swore that he saw her eyes got a bit livelier when she eats that stew but it is still full of sorrow in it. What has just exactly torn her apart that left her like this even as a Servant?
"Heh, I got called 'the mother of Chaldea' just because of my sheer cooking skill alone, it even makes many mother figures caught in some serious competition in Chaldea. Dear if I say that if I don't attend the kitchen duty in Chaldea, chaos would ensue because of my absence alone." Shirou said it jokingly
Everyone got a slight chuckle from it. If one were to wager, Shirou's household skills would create some serious competition against other well-known mother figures.
"Anyway, I'll go doing my watch guard duty. My Hawkeyes can see things in almost complete details even in the dark so all of you can take a rest if you wanted to." Shirou said before he goes outside and leaped to the top of the buildings.
"Russians, those damn morons just don't even know when to stop." The Finnish said irritatingly.
"Well, I could actually feel with you about that, only those barbaric Japanese soldiers in the war I was deployed in could probably surpassing them in savagery," Desmond said to his friend.
Arnold listens to the chatter in silence. In the war he was in, to having things felt serene are the most next to impossible in the bloodiest mess called WW1. Because of it that he savors every second of it because nobody would know when would be the last time they would hear the voices of their close allies.
Meanwhile, Shirou is observing the surrounding, the cold rain and gales don't make his job any easier but it is his duty and he will fulfill it to his best.
"Damn, if this is just the second ring then I would fear for my Master if we have to proceed in any further." Shirou thought as he keeps his lookout.
The soaring thunders light up the sky for a brief momentary and in that brief moment, Emiya saw a squadron of planes is moving somewhere. It was only a brief moment so that he can't quite tell where it is heading or what kind of plane exactly. He puts up his guard in case they were hostile planes that are aiming to take them down. After that mess they created, a single squadron seems to be underwhelming for a squad that is sent to infiltrate in the first place.
"I could probably just destroy all of them with my arrows but I would prefer to not draw too much attention that would harm my Master." Emiya as he mumbles his single line of thoughts.
Suddenly, Shirou picks up something with his Hawkeyes.
"Wait?! Those same planes from before and they heading here? Are my eyes playing tricks on me since I don't even detect or hear anything!?" Emiya thought as the oncoming threat is closing in.
He decided to at least warning his Master and allies. At least, they would be far more combat prepared for whatever to come. Emiya quickly jumps down from the top of the building and quickly enters it.
"Everyone! Something is coming! Desmond, bring the injured to somewhere safe. Master, take cover whenever necessary. The rest, prepare for-" Emiya said before he was interrupted by the threat.
A large explosion blew off the roof of the building they are in. Desmond quickly reacts and picks up the injured as he tries to find a way to safety. Arnold was taken by surprise and he didn't know what is happening in front of him. The Finnish, however, looks as if he understands the oncoming enemy.
Rho Aias!
Emiya quickly traced the same shield that blocked Pavlov's house's attack and used it to cover their heads. Has he done so any later, it would have been their deaths within the next instance. Those elusive fighters are bombing over their heads right at their locations. Completely silence and unseen. The shields basically blocking any of those bombs landing on them and potentially crippling them out.
Desmond keeps looking around, the shield of Aias is indeed powerful but it won't be covering their heads for long. Rushing out is simply death wish, especially with the patients he has to carry on his back. That was until the Finnish caught his attention as he discovered something. A wine cellar and it seems to go pretty deep, they probably didn't notice it since they were tired and only wanted to rest.
"You take the injured inside. We will fend them off." The Finnish told his friend.
Desmond carries the injured with him into the cellar, he can't fight anyway so he will put his faith in his friend and allies.
"We need to break this deadlock soon, Emiya won't keep that shield up for any longer. Anyone?!" Gudao said to his allies.
"Don't worry, I know what to do about this. But all of you here will need to cover your ears and eyes because this will going to be extremely disorienting. Emiya, pick the perfect moment to dispel that shield so that this step will work to its full efficiency." The Finnish said to everyone else.
Everyone quickly closed their eyes and ears except for Emiya who has to keep his shield up and keep his eye upward to know when to dispel it. Because of that, if he is going to be affected by whatever is going to happen, it will be a while before he could get back into the fight.
The Finnish materialized a large cluster of grenades of some kinds, he quickly pulls out the trigger pins of all of it before a second passed and threw it into the sky as high as he could. Emiya dispels the shield and quickly grabbing his Master so that he could get out of the potential disaster. All of this before another second fully passed.
A blinding flash of light and an extremely disorienting and loud noise burst from the cluster of grenade that the Finnish thrown. Even if it is just a brief moment, everyone quickly moves out as soon as possible. Even if it is brief, they have allowed all of them to break through the situation unscathed, for now.
"Master, stay and don't draw too much of their attention. I'll go out and try to assert the situation myself. If possible, I will try to reunite with everyone else if I could." Emiya told his Master as he put him down in another half-ruined building, Gudao will be fine as long as he stays there.
Emiya soon heads out by himself, the moment he peeked out, the sky started to flash by a large thunder revealed the entire sky itself. At that moment, he realized in horror what he is going up against. It is not just a squadron of fighter or any bomber. It was an entire corp filling up the sky, that moment burned into Emiya's memory as he didn't expect the enemy to be this large.
Emiya gathers back his composure and deciding the best course of action.
"This is bad, with this much amount of enemy, there won't be much time to deploy my Noble Phantasm, Hrunting is a maybe but anything else is not feasible, all of them consume too much time and I'll be a sitting duck during it." Shirou thought as he tried to find a good way to counterattack.
Chaldea has all of the good Archers at their disposal but in this situation, he is the only powerful Archer available in this fight. He would be far more confident if he has more of his allies and even if the enemies were flying Phantasmal Beasts.
Suddenly, a salvo of flares flew up in the air. Emiya saw them and they illuminated the hazy rain that clouded the atmosphere, revealing the 'witches' that nearby its parameter. Shirou saw it as both good and bad things, it may help him return fire without straining his eyes to observe in pure darkness but whoever is firing it is painting a target on themselves now.
"Damn it... I have to go out and save them from the danger they about to bring upon themselves." Shirou thought as he moves as quickly and silently as possible for he fears that something horrible is going to happen
Back to Arnold and Alfin's position
Her small figure dashing through the illuminating light, holding in her two hands are two flare guns that she fires them straight into the air. The moment the flare gun did its duty, she disposes of it and another one materializes in her hand in the place of the disposed of. Her face looks serene and peaceful but her surroundings are a complete far cry of her serenity. Bombs and shells hailing upon her, wanting her to become nothing but a bloody mess. Arnold is running alongside her, evading the hail of destruction that he doesn't even know where they are coming from, the deafening sounds of explosion remind him of something, unconsciously he whispered.
Relieving all of what I been through
With the last communion of my soul
Rusting bullets with my own tears
Relieving all of the sorrow of my own years
The moment he has done his whisper, his vision clears up. Seeing everything almost clearly, like a beacon in the abyss. He doesn't even know why he has such ability in the first place nor why it suddenly came to use at this moment. But his line of thoughts got interrupted as he saw that dark plane is about to drop a bomb that would land right at her. All of his thought overdrive to the only thing in his mind. Saves her.
His legs push themselves to limit as they move with a speed that would make him equal matches with one of the most athletic Servants recorded. No movements or actions were wasted, he pushes himself towards Alfin with all of his strength behinds.
"Alfin!" Arnold's scream managed to broke through even the most disorienting blast.
Alfin didn't know anything better as she saw him running towards her, he embraced her and held her as tight as he could. The next moment, the bomb detonated and pushed both of them into the group of buildings. Arnold braced most of those impacts just to save her and both of them crash into the buildings.
Soon, there are no more of those explosions. It seems that the fighters have lost track of them or simply no longer care.
Alfin gathers her consciousness back. She was a little bit dazed by the previous attack but other than that, she is mostly fine. The same can't be said for Arnold though.
"Arnold!" Alfin said in horror as she sees Arnold's bleeding profusely as she broke off from his embrace.
His hearing is just ringing from being so close to the initial blast, his vision is blurring. An agonizing sense of pain courses through his body as if it wanted to rip his own being apart. He felt that he can't even keep his consciousness anymore. He heard Alfin's voice but it felt so distant that he can't even felt it through this deafening ringing that keeps going on in his ears. Soon he fell into darkness and all of his senses were cut off to the outside world.
He felt that he was too weak, he has too few means to fight back and especially against an enemy that can hardly be seen or heard. Perhaps, somewhere in his fragmented memories, there might be a way for him to fight back. Just maybe, that is the only thing he could do.
And so he drifted, into a hazy distant memory that he left in the furthest depth of his mind.
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A Glimpse To One's Past
Road of Torment
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He opened his eyes and hearing the sounds of drizzles falling. In his hands, is an envelope. It has the words "To my brother" written on it, the handwriting on the envelope makes him reminisce of something, something that was really close but felt distant. Considering that no one is bothering him, he assumes that it might only belong to him. He opened the envelope and checked the content inside.
"Dear Brother
I hope that you are still doing well out there, although that is asking a lot considering where you are and the situation. I heard that so many people have died until this point and that the chance of you returning is very slim. But please, don't value your own life below military worths and statuses that you discard yours away. There are many soldiers in this world but you are my only brother.
-Your beloved sister"
After reading it, he closed the envelope again and put it into his side bag. There are many more letters inside, cluttered with mails and important documents that have to be sent from the frontline to headquarter and back. He sighed in the fact that he forgot even those who were really close to him. He stands up and walks out of the tunnel that was dug as holdout in case of artillery barrages.
Suddenly, he was kicked from his back into the muddy ground. He pulls himself up and looks at where the perpetrator most likely is. Needless to say, it didn't take much time to figure out why for the reason came out of the horse's mouth instantly.
"Heh, look at this filthy privileged bitch here. This moron not only getting better meals than us but also getting to ride with the captured motorcycle." A soldier who said to him in complete disdain and there are also a few more who are giving him the same treatment.
"Yeah! Not only that, he doesn't need to go into the frontline and die like us! We should give him a beating of his life!" Another soldier beside that man said.
Arnold was completely out of loops, he doesn't understand what is going on at all. Motorcycle? Better meals? He understands nothing about whatever they said at all. As far as his memory can concern, there is nothing that backing them up.
They pick him up by the shirt and Arnold can feel their killing intents, he felt that he has to do something or else things may turn for the worse. But, he doesn't need to do anything for the situation was defused by an officer who noticed what is going on.
A loud gunshot was heard and all of the sudden, things came to a stop. Arnold and the instigators both look at the officer who has fired his revolver into the air. One can tell that he isn't in a pleasant mood.
"First off, if all of you thinking what this man's duty is an easy job. You are dead wrong, even more than those frontline soldiers, his chance of dying is far higher than all of you combined and folded. Second, none of you can even know how to use the motorcycle at all. The only reason this runner here got it because he managed to pick it up on how to ride it without failure and if any of you tried to do the same, all of you will be 6 feet under with that motorcycle. Don't act like all of you are superior to anyone else when all of you are just infantry like one and the same. Do you want me to bring this matter to the martial court or not?" The officer rants in front of all of them.
The instigators lost their interest when the officer presented, their disdain is targeted to the officer but they know better to not creating a mutiny against higher-ranked personnel. All of them frustratingly moves away and seem to grumble about something but that doesn't matter anymore.
Arnold pulls himself up from the ground while the officer approaching him. The officer is, fortunately, friendlier than how anyone expected as he approaches Arnold and talks to him.
"Hey, are you alright?" The officer asked.
"I'm fine, thanks," Arnold said back to the officer.
*sigh* "This is started to become a much more common scene. War does have a massive toll on anybody's spirit and I can hardly blame them. Not to mention those staggering casualties that will only rise the more time goes on. It is going to a bleak future here." The officer said in a sad tone.
"Yeah, bleak indeed," Arnold said back.
"Oh, but anyway, here is something for you. I originally wanted you to give this to the officer that you received the bloodied document from but I guess I was too late huh?" The officer said as he handing out what looks like a stock or a holster or whatever it is to Arnold.
"Oh, that officer. But what is this?" Arnold asked as he remembered what happened in the previous frontline trench which is now taken by the Brittish.
"It is stock and holster combined, it is an essential part of the Artillery Luger. It is to store and preserve your gun from going clog with the dirt and mud from trenches and when you use it as a stock, it helps increase your firing stability." The officer explained to Arnold about what he has just given him.
"Oh, thanks. I guess?" Arnold said as he doesn't know how to respond in this situation.
"Just consider it a gift of mine. Plus, I have no use for this thing considering that I'm using a revolver anyway." The officer said to him.
"By the way, where do you know where my motorcycle is?" Arnold askes the officer. Although this is supposed to be his memory, his idea of what is going on is completely disconnected in the bigger picture.
"Don't tell me that you forgot about it already?! Fine, it is at the entrance to the supply convoy route. By the way, I need you to deliver this document to the headquarter." The officer answered and also gives him an assignment.
"Okay, I'll do my job." Arnold accepts his new assignment, should he reaches the end of this fragment of memory, he might attain the necessary power to fending off what is going on in reality.
He heads out to the entrance gate and saw the motorcycle parked in front of it, some soldiers are looking at it like seeing something entirely new themselves. Guess that this is a captured motorcycle so of course that it would attract such attention in the first place.
The motorcycle has its own carrying bags on each side, he checked all of the bags and see that one has mails and documents in it, the other one has a handful amount of stick grenades, the other has ammunition consists of rifle bullets and handgun bullets. When he decided to check the other bag and suddenly all hell broke loose.
"Shit! You there, get out of here as fast as you can!" The entrance guard said as loud as possible to get past the loud alarm.
Arnold realized that he doesn't have much time left and he most likely going to get pursued. He gets on the motorcycle and quickly speeds up and drive through the entrance and follow the convoy route.
He slowly controls his breath while his heart is beating rapidly from the sudden turn of event. He thought that at least this will be an easy journey and-
Before Arnold even finish his line of thought, his hope for an easy journey was crushed when two motorcycle riders begin to pursue him.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Arnold groaned when he looked at his back and saw his enemy chasing from behind.
When he suddenly gets caught into an unwanted chase, the two riders behind him begin to aim their revolver at him, trying to gun him down. Arnold realized it and when he saw a curve ahead, he makes a sharp swerve and managed to avoid getting shot by the two riders behind. He knew that he has to retaliate or they will shoot him to death. Realized that he still has the Artillery Luger and now having its stock, he quickly attaches the stock into the A. Luger of his. His stress keeps rising high for the fear that they might land a clear shot on him. Within that fear, he quickly tried to get over it. He holds his breath and stays calm and soon he looks back and fires the Artillery Luger back at the rider behind, with enhanced stability and accuracy, the bullet burst through a rider's throat as that man fell out of his motorcycle and crashed onto the ground.
Arnold attempted to do the same for the other rider but the other managed to fire another shot before him. His body moves on its own and managed to avoid a clear shot although he was grazed slightly by it. How he managed to do it on a motorcycle? No one could probably answer. He quickly fired his customized handgun and thus another one fall and out of the picture.
Arnold sighed, this is not something he would ever get used to. Now that he is in safety, he can-
More riders burst through from the less-traveled roads, it seems that they are intending to actually kill him. There are 5 of them and some of those motorcycle riders actually have sidecars and its passengers are aiming their rifles at him. This is a much more dangerous situation for they have all of the luxuries to fire their weapons stably at him.
"Oh god no! I can't possibly deal with this much of them simultaneously!" Arnold said as he quickly goes into full throttle in order to get away from them as soon as possible or if even possible in the first place.
At that moment, he realized that he still has other weapons with him, grenades. He quickly tried to grab one from one of his motorcycle's side bags. If it weren't for the twist and turns road which gives him room to swerve quickly, he would have been riddled with bullets long ago.
"Got it!" He managed to grab one and quickly pull the fuse out and time it carefully, he got only 4 seconds and miscalculation will be an end to him. He picked the time he believed to be right and threw it on the ground.
Whether by his actual skill or dumb luck, he received what he wanted in the end. The grenade exploded and took out the sidecar riders, the other remaining rider got disoriented by the blast and are on the verge of falling off. He decided to give the remainders a slight push and that slight push means a handgun bullet into the riders. They fell and crashed onto the ground and they are out of Arnold's sight soon afterward.
Arnold breathes shallowly. In truth, he didn't get out of the firefight unscathed, the reason he can ignore the pain in the first place is due to his body keep pumping itself with adrenaline just to keep itself alive.
"Maybe I am safe-" Before Arnold has done saying to himself, he now has more pursuer on his back. This time, 6 riders are chasing after him and they have sidecars with them. To make the matter worse, the sidecars now having machine guns. He knows the horror of just getting pointed by those things alone, let alone getting shot by them. He has to act now or he'll be swiss cheese before he knows it.
Trying to grab another grenade but whenever he tried to do so, he can't swerve the motorcycle in order to avoid getting fired by them. He cursed himself, having his solution literally blocked because of those damn morons behind his back. Fortunately for him, his brain got another answer for him and he doesn't need to grab the grenade to combat.
He opens the bag that he didn't get the chance to do so before in the beginning. He grabbed whatever is in the bag and that very thing surprised him. A sawn-off double-barrel shotgun, that wasn't exactly what he expected considering what is going on right now.
The barrage of bullets are still hellbent on hunting him down, he realized that he has to act now or else. He aims the sawn-off at the enemy and pulls the trigger, and the wall of pellets came to approach the rider. When one considers how gruesome does getting shot by a pistol then a shotgun that Arnold uses would be ten-fold. Hell, he doesn't even need to shoot at the head, just the body shot alone would cause near-fatal injuries, not to mention what would happen afterward when you lost the control of your own vehicle.
And just like how Arnold expected, just getting hit by pellets alone make them lost control from the pain and they eventually came crash into other riders, Arnold fired another shot and the rest of the riders were soon out of the picture. If there is one disadvantage that Arnold can tell about them is that are pursuing him and thus receive more pain from his attack.
After got pursued for the third time, Arnold at this point don't even know where he is going, he just goes wherever this endless road is taking him. He is exhausted mentally and wanted to just fall off the road but he knew better than doing that right now. He decided to just abandon the hope of getting away from them for the rest of this journey.
The road seems to be expanded here right now, it can be a double-edged sword for all he knew, he may have more room to evade but it can be potentially more room for enemies. He decided that he will be going to deal with that should it happened. And he hit dead right on the head when he expected more enemies when he heard of loud vehicle noises.
"Why am I not even surprised?" Arnold said sarcastically when he looks back to see what he will be facing next.
And apparently, his assessment of this battleground where he will be fighting is also correct, for larger road means larger enemy. And the enemy he will be fighting now is a jeep with a machine gun mounted on it. This is actually even far worse than fighting a battalion of motorcycle riders considering that you only need to make them lose their balance or hit the critical part in the motorcycle to take them out of the fight, a jeep is a different story, you may attempt to shoot the jeep as many time as you want but you most likely going to get fed with hundreds of bullets before you manage to destroy a jeep mounted with the machine gun.
The jeep speeds up and quickly get to Arnold's side, Arnold's motorcycle can't speed up anymore and thus he can't overtake the jeep at all. The machine gunner quickly aims his machine gun and begins to fire a relentless stream of bullets at him. Arnold quickly decreases his motorcycle's speed to avoid getting shot by them and he quickly deploys his double-barrel shotgun and fires it as fast as he could with one hand, ignoring the potential damage to his wrist. At this point, broking his wrist is a preferable alternative to getting shot to death by the machine gun.
The wall of pellets created from Arnold's shotgun approach the machine gunner and soon a cloud of red mist formed from its victim's body. The man soon falls out of the jeep and soon gone from Arnold's sight. The driver noticed what happened and quickly tried to ram the man who killed his teammate. Arnold managed to evade that potentially lethal attack but his aggressor won't give up at all. The driver is constantly attempting to run over Arnold with his jeep although none of the attempts were successful.
The driver started to have enough of whatever he is going through and started to put his satchel on the gas and then start to reach the machine gun with all he had. Arnold realized what is going to happen and thus begin to speed up as fast as he could. In his sight, he realized that there is a hard curve ahead of him and going any slower would most likely getting him shot by the machine gun and going fast won't give him enough time to swerve his motorcycle. Arnold realized that he got stuck between a rock and a hard place and has little way to make it through this situation.
Arnold took a deep breath and put all of his faith into his timing. The driver has reached towards the machine gun and too furious to realize the hard curve in front of him. Arnold has already reached his maximum speed and thus this is will be an 'all or nothing', he let his own body to act accordingly to the situation. One wouldn't guess what excessive adrenaline could do to one's mind and body.
When the curve is getting even nearer, he leaned his body to the direction he needs to turn, the motorcycle is doing the same thing with him. He then holds the clutch and keeps the throttle on while leaning the direction he is going. The jeep driver at his back got control of the machine gun and aim it squarely on where Arnold's head would be.
His mind shouted a single word "NOW!" as he proceeds to break his back tire's traction and thus he and the entire motorbike of his drifted across the curve while still leaning. Such a sharp curve like that broke the jeep driver's fury for he was dumbfounded to see such an impossible move being executed in front of him. Arnold soon went out of the jeep driver's sight and the driver realized that he is rushing ahead into the trees.
The driver quickly jumps towards the steering wheel and turn it as quickly as he could. But unfortunately for the driver, it is too late for him either way. The jeep having its direction changed too abruptly decided that instead of turning into that direction, it decided to flip over and landed on top of its driver, killing him immediately with its sheer weight.
Arnold breathes in relief after he managed to escape for 3rd time, maybe 4th. He doesn't care anymore, he just simply lost count of all of them. He just wanted this hell to simply end right now. Anything just for this living hell to end. He is now simply driving on a straight road to who knows where while thinking his situation can't go any worse. He was proven wrong, for this time once again.
"Huh?" He said to himself when he heard the sound of the engine, but he looked around to see nothing at all. Well, until he started to look up at the sky and that moment did he realized just how desperate the enemy was just to kill him.
"They send a fighter plane after me?!" Arnold cursed himself when he is about to face up against his worst possible match up. Ground to air combat. A biplane is still far faster than his motorbike and not only to mention that they can fire their machine gun all they wanted at them. And the worst possible thing is that there is no known way to fight them back at all. The only way to take down a plane is with another plane, anything else just doesn't measure up against them.
He decided that his only hope of surviving is to get to the nearest possible outpost that he could reach. Otherwise, there won't be much chance of him surviving this charade, especially if the fight drags on to the point of unacceptability for him.
His only good course of action is to go full throttle as long as he could, the more time he spends on this godforsaken road, the more likely his chance of dying. And of course, the biplane will just leave him alone at all. The aircraft gunner begins to fire his machine gun at Arnold as Arnold quickly reduce his speed to avoid getting fired by the strafing fire from the plane. Arnold realized that there won't be much chance to take them down with his heavily limited arsenal like this. How exactly on earth would he retaliate against a biplane with grenades, shotgun, and pistol?! A rifle might be feasible but he doesn't have any right now-
"Wait!? Weren't all soldiers supposed to issue one at all?" Arnold realized something just doesn't fly with him, he can't possibly decline a weapon that would fulfill a critical niche at the right moment. Plus, he DID find rifle bullets in one of the side bags and he can't possibly have brought ammunition for a weapon he doesn't use.
Arnold quickly rechecks his entire bike while under heavy fire. There has to be something that might help him, he just knew it. Before then, Arnold felt something envelop his entire body. No, it wasn't a feeling of dread or fear of death or anything remotely close. It was a mist! Both he and the biplane entered the mist and thus both of them can't see each other at all. Considering how bad the weather can be on this battlefield, this event is possible to be encountered. This mist has saved his life. Now, he just needs to find the necessary weapon to fight back against the biplane.
"Yup! I can't believe that I completely overlook this thing that I literally hung by my side." He said as he takes out the rifle with one hand. Just in the next second, the mist cleared up and the same biplane from before begins to attack him. He at least has a way to fight back, even if it is not gonna be any effective, at least it would be far better than anything else he has.
He positions himself carefully for if the aircraft gunner manages to land a clear shot at him. It won't be just a bullet, it will be a barrage and all of that is right at him. Plus, firing a bolt-action rifle one-handed won't be simple and fun at all for his wrist.
He aims the rifle with only one hand at the pilot, he heard that many have tried to shoot down planes with only shotguns and machine guns and they all failed and his chance of making that same mistake won't be any lower than them. At least taking down the crew will be far easier than taking down the biplane itself. With adrenaline started to pump up through his blood, feeling every sensation to a magnified degree. He felt that his own perception of time is slowing down to a point that he swore he saw bullets flying themselves. With the rifle's iron sight at the head of the pilot, Arnold's mind took the decisive chance and quickly act. Arnold's hand reacted accordingly and a bullet came out of the rifle he fired.
In a matter of seconds, it seems that Arnold managed to land a shot right at the pilot by looking at how the biplane started to nosedive into the ground, but he forgot about one important fact, it is about to fall towards him!
When Arnold realized that fact, he quickly positioned himself to avoid getting crushed by the falling plane. It is needless to say that the crash didn't go out without a bang. Arnold who looked back at the burning piles of rubbles that is soon leaving from his sight, he felt so surprised that he managed to keep up against all of the crap that was thrown at him. He just hopes that he didn't reach his limit right now and that it will finally be the end from here on out.
"Yes! Finally! I'm going to make it!" Arnold said as he finally saw an outpost, a quite heavily guarded one at that. He could tell that it is on his side, that is what he can believe.
He throttles the motorbike so that he can finally reach closer to his victory, but it seems that this is his final stretch and it will be the one to decide whether or not he will make it through the day.
Arnold felt something is extremely wrong, the kind of wrong that makes one go from completely fine into great anxiety. He looked back and it started to dawn on him that he is now on the hit list. An entire corp is after him, motorcycles, jeeps, planes. They decided to go all out just to kill him after seeing him put up such a show like that.
"Oh hell no!" Arnold said as the entire army behinds he is chasing him down as if thirsting for his blood. Hell, he has a better chance of survival by shooting himself in the head with a well-maintained semi-auto pistol at point-blank range than fighting all of them head-on.
Arnold knows that his only hope of survival is the outpost and thus he has to push his motorbike to his limit. If he dies here, there won't be any hope left. He quickly goes full throttle as his life is on the line, ignoring the hailing bullets and bombs that wanted to erase him from the face of this earth. The final stretch to the outpost is simply just in a hundred meters but Arnold felt like he has to make his final round around the world just to make it there.
Ahead of him is an extremely sharp curve, even more than the previous one that he faced. At this point, it might as well be a U-turn. He knew he managed to drift from the last curve successfully, it is just the same principle being applied here. He just needs to put more effort into this one. Under the hail of bullets he went, he applied the same technique from before. Holding the clutch while still going full throttle. From outsider's look, it might look like a suicidal attempt but Arnold knows better of this entire situation. Leaning himself and his bike into the direction he wanted, he quickly breaks his back tire's traction again and drifted across the extremely curved U-turn. One wouldn't be left surprised by the technique he did as he narrowly avoided his death, both of the corp and the crash.
Needless to say, the entire corp that was after him can't pull the same trick like him and thus just came crash onto the trees and each other and Arnold is definitely not one of them.
With the final batch of meters ahead and the outpost ahead of him, the guard quickly opened the gate but not fast enough for Arnold to keep driving. At this point, he might come crash into the bar itself. But Arnold decided to make one final show of this entire charade and he quickly skids his bike and leans himself low enough to avoid hitting himself against the bar on the head. His performance impressed everyone there and left all of them in awe.
With a final stop, Arnold managed to made it through the hell that he went through, he simply parks the motorbike right at where he stopped and head straight for the communication quarter, which was connected by a tunnel that was dug for the purpose of protection against artillery barrage. He has a much better chance of surviving there than staying out in the open.
"Woah!" Arnold said as he almost got hit by a barrage of bullets from a biplane while he is running, almost everyone else quickly getting themselves armed to fight back against the invading enemies. Arnold realized that he needs to act faster now or else.
He enters the tunnel and thus safe from outsider's attack, for a while of course. He sees everyone else frantically getting their weapons and getting outside to fight the oncoming invaders while he just simply trying to not get in their way. At long last, he sees it, the communication quarter. He quickly turned the doorknob and soon a bright light engulfed him and his consciousness fell into the emptiness as he finally managed to get into the end of this journey. This journey...
He soon returns back to reality. With newfound power he has, he might finally have the mean it takes to turn the tide.
"._.""._.""._."
Dogfight
"._.""._.""._."
Arnold finally wakes up, all of the pain and agonies from before is gone, his vision clears up and the first thing he saw was Alfin.
"Alfin?" Arnold said as he felt unusually revitalized. The last time, he felt both the agonies from the injury both from reality and his memory. This time, all of them are gone.
He looked around and saw a familiar face. He now realized that it is no wonder why he actually is in a better form than before. That legendary medic that survived that madhouse of this time has come to save him.
"Hey, you're finally awake. Thank god that I got here in time, you were pretty much on the verge of dying right there. Thankfully, the white hawk that Alfin sent helped me find this location." Desmond said to Arnold.
"Scree! Scree!" The white hawk sitting on Alfin's shoulder said to Desmond but no one but Alfin understands what it said.
"Wait! What about the other patients?" Arnold asked Desmond.
"They are safe, I can assure that at least. Anyway, I need to find the Finnish so does any of you know where he is?" Desmond answered and then asks the others.
"We don't know but I'll send Silbern out! Silbern, move out!" Alfin said as she quickly commands the hawk to fly out. Thankfully it is still pitch black outside so it wasn't detected for now.
"So how are we going to fight back now? We can't even see or hear them at all. Trying to illuminate the sky is too much of a risky move." Desmond said as he looked at the outside and seeing the bombing going on in the distance.
Arnold thinks in silence, he just unveiled another fragment of his power and wondering if using it right now is a good idea.
"Alfin. I am going to draw all of their attention. You will take Desmond to the Finnish." Arnold said to Alfin.
"What! You almost got yourself killed there! How could I trust that you wouldn't do that same mistake?!" Alfin scolds Arnold as loud as she could, ignoring the potential danger that all of them might get spotted.
And it seems that Alfin let her emotions get the best of her for the enemies seem to have used Alfin's loud voice to find where she is. In the next moment, they quickly bomb the building they are in.
"Well, nice job! I am going to make a run for it! Good luck on your own guys!" Desmond said as he rushes out amid the massive bombing outside.
Arnold realized that he doesn't have any time left to sit still and thus he tried to find any way to summon his motorbike, this is an entirely new thing for him so he wasn't sure what to do. He tried to reach for the sealed armory within his mind and see if anything has changed. Time slowed down, and soon he found himself there.
Arnold looked around to see if anything has changed since his new memory, the same sawn-off double-barrel shotgun from before lying on the desk, the Artillery Luger now added a stock into it. He checked the journal on the table and see that there is more in it than the last time he checked it. He didn't read the detail but that has proven that something did change.
The biggest change there has to be the motorcycle now parked there in the middle of the armory, he could swear that it wasn't there before. He held the handlebar of the motorcycle, feeling as if he has reached something that he didn't know forgotten from his mind. He sits on the seat and turns the handlebar around just so he could refamiliarize with it once again.
Knowing what he needed, he moves the motorcycle towards the exit and prepares for what to come. The blinding light shower upon him as he opened the gate and then moved towards it. He didn't know when did he found this normal but he knows that he has to if he wanted to reach towards the truth of him and what happened in this world. He moves through it with his motorcycle, believing that he has what it takes to turn the tide.
Back in reality, the building they are hiding in is crumbling, rubbles are falling from on top. Alfin looks in worry but she started to notice that something is flying in the air, she realized that it is burning cinder that is flowing around her. She quickly looked at Arnold and saw that he is holding his right hand on his chest as if praying for something. Something is materializing in front of her as it taking shape. She looks at it intently, forgetting the impending doom that is about to land on her. Before she realized it, the motorcycle materialized and quickly did Arnold get on it as soon as he can.
"Get on here, now!" Arnold told Alfin as clear as he could through the loud explosions.
The roof finally gives in and exposed two of them for the enemies to bomb them into oblivion, Alfin gets on to the back seat of the motorcycle and Arnold quickly throttle the motorcycle and moves as quickly as he could. In the next moment, they burst through the wall of the building while the explosions were still going on from behind. Now, this will be their counterattack
Words of God: For this part, play Initial D - Dogfight
As both of them now riding on the motorcycle, Arnold's motorcycle moves with an ungodly speed that he didn't expect it to be. With his enhanced senses and Servant's modifier, Arnold drives his motorcycle through the ruined landscape with a speed that can hardly be matched. He drifts his motorcycle throughout the turning skillfully to the point there is no point in him slowing down.
With the attention he is creating, it is only in time that the enemies would have their attention caught by him. Arnold continuously drives and drifts through the hard curves like driving on a straight road. There are many times that he could have easily crashed into something but that has never happened at all.
His vision flared up, like a burning fire through the moonless night. He could see everything with an almost clear vision. He sees there are many planes flying above him and prepare to drop their bombs on him. Not that he will give them the chance to do so at all. Even if what he sees is just outlines of them, that is more than enough.
Arnold looked around and saw a half-collapsed building that was leaning on the side, he could easily use it as a ramp to leap towards greater height than where he is. Taking his chance, he throttles his bike and moves towards the building. With the speed he is driving, it will definitely going to take him to the greater height. His eye staring intently, not letting anything else to cloud his thought as he drives toward the 'ramp' and he with his motorcycle move toward the sky.
For once in his life, this was his first time to actually be in the sky. The feeling of having nothing in his way was actually satisfying in a way but that didn't make him forget his objective in the slightest. His vision is clear, even in the pure darkness. He heard eerie sounds surrounding him like listening to an orchestra consists of only extremely silent harps. He knew what exactly there is, the planes of the night that can hardly be heard or seen, that is what he is about to go against.
With a bolt of lightning in the distant horizon illuminated the sky for a brief moment, he saw all of them, despite that flash of light, they still remain the silhouettes of pitch black. Materializing his sawn-off shotgun, he fired at the closest plane and the next thing happened is that the plane exploded into smithereens. He observes the surroundings as much as he could before the light went out. Before everything turns to darkness. Within his last second, he redirects his motorcycle to land right on top of the closest plane and pushes it towards the ground.
An explosion followed and Arnold still continues to drive. Although it was a rough landing, both Arnold and Alfin are still in fine condition and the same goes for the motorcycle. After such a performance, it is clear that the enemies can't ignore them anymore and thus all of their focus is on Arnold and Alfin. Everything is now going according to Arnold's plan, to direct all of the enemies' attention in order to give others the time to go for a full counterattack. His plan is now going on motion and no one will notice it until it is too late for them.
Now, it is just up to others...
"._.""._.""._."
Brothers in Arms
"._.""._.""._."
Back to Desmond's position
The medic is now simply running towards nowhere, he just runs in the hope that he might at least able to get away from the unseeable enemies. Whatever it is, his next task is to find his friend, the Finnish. He might have an answer for whatever they are up against. But running in the darkness wasn't the best course of action he should take but he doesn't have many options left.
Desmond is hardly able to see anything, other than the bombing that running off in the distance. There is hardly any way for him to locate where anyone is. He is able to see himself but anywhere more than 5 meters away from him would be undiscernable.
"Dear God, please give me a sign to find my friend." Desmond prey so that he might be able to come across something.
"Scree! Scree!"
Desmond heard something and he quickly came to a stop, the white hawk from before is now flying right above his head is trying to tell him something.
"Wait! Do you know where my friend is?" Desmond tried to talk to the white hawk, he doesn't expect a clear response though.
"Scree! Scree!" The white hawk tried to tell him something and then it flies away towards a direction.
Desmond doesn't have any much choice left, he decided to follow the hawk and sees where it is taking him. He jumped from towards the top of the buildings and from there he leaped one to another in the direction that the hawk flew. It is just a blind guess but it is far better than to stumble in the dark.
Desmond leaped again and he came to crash into someone as both of them fell into the ground. Desmond was dazed by the sudden stop but he looked at the person he crashed onto, it was the Finnish!
"You! I finally managed to find you!" Desmond said in happiness as he held his friend tight to the point the Finnish felt suffocated.
"I know that you are happy to see me but for god's sake, don't kill your own friend with your bear hug! You can accidentally kill someone with it!" The Finnish yells at his friend to stop.
Desmond stopped immediately and dropping the Finnish at the ground. He has many questions to ask right now and the Finnish is easily the best person suited to answer them.
"First off. Did the white hawk guides you toward me?" Desmond asked because of the chance of two people collide with each other in the pitch-black night is ungodly slim.
"Yeah, I was searching for you too. Until that hawk guides me in the direction that I can find you. I don't know if this is its cruel joke because this was all too crafty that I don't think this was unintentional in the slightest." The Finnish said.
"Ok, can you tell me the identity of what we are up against? I know that is asking a lot out of you and-" Before Desmond completely said, the Finnish answered in a heartbeat
"Night Witches, that is who they are." The Finnish said with confidence as if he already knew who they are just from the first sight.
"Night Witches?" Desmond wasn't particularly clear, which is forgivable that his call of duty is in the Pacific Theater, not Eastern Front.
"Unexpected, undetected. That is the main point of what they are. Completely meld into the night, there is almost no way to detect them once they set their sight on you." The Finnish said as if he knew who they are personally.
"How can we fight them off?" Desmond asked, in hope that the Finnish may have the solution. However, contrary to his expectation, the Finnish said with resignation.
"You can't. There was a guy I know who managed to shot down like 4 of them in one night and he was nicknamed 'Hexenjäger' and was highly awarded for his feat. Unfortunately, he didn't live through the war and most likely will be a Phantom Spirit. The NP is there but will most likely never usable in the first place." The Finnish said.
"Dear God... How can we fight them off?!" Desmond started to go into a panic, listening to how they are up against such a threat.
"There is a way though, that is to make it through the night. Knowing the witches, they will most likely bomb the whole place down to smithereens before daybreak. What Arnold did was to stall for more time and practically not feasible for an extended period." The Finnish gives his analyzation.
"So what are we going to do? Stand still and do nothing!?" Desmond grabbed his friend by the collar and shaking him, denying that there is no way that his friend would be stumped like this.
"And that is precisely why I'm not going to be a sitting duck, even if our effort is not going to amount to anything, it is still far better than do nothing. Even if it is going to boost our chance of success and survival by little, it is still a gamble worth taking." The Finnish said back to his friend with determination despite showing the words of resignation, it is surprising to see that he would change his stance by a lot within such a short time.
"Scree! Scree!" The white hawk from before flying above their heads is trying to tell them something and then flew towards a direction.
Both of them now proceeds to move out in the direction of the hawk. Believing that there might be a way for them to fight back, even if is little.
"._.""._.""._."
A Legend's Reborn
"._.""._.""._."
Back in the cellar that Desmond dropped the Emiya's family
"Ugh, my body still feels aching. Why is everything so dark in here?" Kiritsugu said tiredly just as he woke up.
"Kerry? Where are we?" Irisviel asked her husband for the answer but he is as just as clueless as her.
"Even with a Command Seal, it is still so exhausting trying to trace that Excalibur and uses it beyond its capability limit. Never again..." Kuro said just as she awoke from her slumber.
All of their injuries are healed but their stamina is still greatly sapped from the previous encounter. But they knew that something is wrong because they knew everyone else won't drop them off somewhere like this without a good reason. Kiritsugu tried to communicate with Shadow Border and almost in an instant they were shaken by an explosion.
"What just happened!" Kuro said.
"I don't know but they are definitely nothing good at all." Kiritsugu assesses the situation from what happened so far.
"That must also mean that our Master in trouble too!" Irisviel said.
"We need to help him, now!" Kuro said as she understood the emergence of the situation.
All three of them rushes out to see the situation for themselves and what greets them first is the sight of Shirou's dodging the bombing. It seems that his attempt to track those who got lost ended up netting him into the target of the witches. Shirou's maneuvers were fast enough to avoid getting bombed while still leaving him enough time for counterattacks.
Shirou traced a Hrunting and aims it at where he suspected to be the most likely place of his enemy. He chanted the weapon's name as it turns into arrow's form and soon he let it loose towards the enemy. His Hawkeye let him sees in complete darkness with complete details and that includes those elusive witches.
Soon an explosion came and Shirou came to a stop, he breathes shallowly from exhaustion. It seems that this wasn't the only witch he has fought.
"Shirou! Are you alright?!" Kuro tried to catch her brother's attention but the next instant, he grabs all three of them and moves with blinding speed. In the next instance, the place where they stood was bombed while the three including Shirou crash into a nearby building.
"All of you stay here, don't go outside at all without my permission," Shirou told all three of them as he let them go from his embrace.
"Shirou! What is going on right now!?" Kiritsugu asked his son why he was suddenly being enforced.
"Those unseen enemies are out there are willing to blow us to pieces. All three of you are not in combat condition and will be at risk if done so." Shirou told his other family members.
"Wait, like what those bombers are?!" Kuro asked her brother.
"Yeah, I supposed to find the others but we got so stray afar from each other that it might as well be a lost cause," Shirou said.
"Wait? Where is our Master!?" Irisviel asked her son.
"Don't worry. He is in a safe location, he knew better to not drawing his enemies' attention towards himself." Shirou reassures his mother.
"Good to know but what can we do?" Kiritsugu asked his son.
"I suggest that all three of you would stay here and not making your enemies bomb your location. If you felt revitalized enough, go for the hit and run tactics. Always on the move, if you feel something is wrong or something approaching, act now and preserving your life is a must." Shirou told all three of his other family members.
"Well, that is understandable. But you should catch your own breath or the thing that will get you will be fatigue and not an enemy." Kiritsugu advises his son.
"Understood," Shirou said reluctantly but he knows better in the slightest.
Shirou looks at the outside to check if those witches are still hunting him. But he notices something wrong, something that stands out completely among those witches. Those witches use biplane for complete elusiveness but standing out among all of them he notices is a WW2 fighter. Why is something like that is there he wonders?
And soon he realized why that plane was there, it was fighting the witches. Its flight path, maneuvers, attacking moments, they were all planned carefully with intents and purposes. Soon, three and four of those planes ended up in flame and soon exploded. There is only one thing for sure and that fighter's pilot is a Servant, but who? That they might never know. At least, their goals align with each other for now. Whether they will be enemy or ally can only be left to fate.
Meanwhile, back at Desmond and the Finnish
Both two of them are still running in the direction that the hawk guided them. Surprisingly, they didn't get bombed at all during their running. Both of them take good use of the chance that Arnold has given them and moving as fast they could.
"You know, I kinda wish that we had the said 'Hexenjager' or whatever in our side. It would have saved a lot of pain that I had to endure." Desmond said.
"Just suck it up, you survive even worse stuff and now complain about this?" The Finnish said to his friend.
Both got a slight chuckle but they admit it is true, they honestly need more manpower if they want to reach anywhere near the heart of Reich, Berlin. Even if it is just one more Servant, it would tip the scale greatly in their side.
While the Finnish is running, a piece of paper drops in front of him. He simply grabbed the paper and reads the content inside it but in the next moment, his face turned into an expression that felt like something has just dawned upon him. He quickly materialized his rifle equipped with a highly sophisticated scope and battery and light attached to it. He aims the rifle at the sky and then looks at the scope. His expression keeps turning into something worse as he mutters.
"No... How?! How on earth did he!? Just how!?" The Finnish said in pure denial as if something that was in the realm of impossible just happened in front of him.
"Uhm? What happened?" Desmond asks in curiosity because there aren't many things would net him such reaction from the Finnish.
"Nothing... You go ahead, I'll catch up with you soon." The Finnish said while quickly rips the piece of paper to shred.
The Finnish stood there while Desmond keeps moving, he looks up towards the sky with a look of disdain.
"How you managed to reach the realm of heroes, that I don't know. But I knew damn sure that you aren't here just because of the Night Witches" The Finnish said while having an angry look on his face, he knew there is a lot more to this shitshow that is happening right now.
"._.""._.""._."
Witch Hunt
"._.""._.""._."
Back at Arnold and Alfin
With the wind still soaring behind them, a rain of ceaseless bombs still wanting to decimate them at all cost. Both Arnold and Alfin soon got used to this high-speed clash and managed to work well with each other. To the point that it is actually frightening.
Arnold has his skill with a motorcycle so great that even the straight-up U-turn at the speed of sound, he could make a perfect drift without breaking a sweat. Evading the rain of bombshells is the same thing but somehow far easier. Alfin in charge of retaliation against the witches by using her machine gun. Being a Servant, her machine gun became a bullet hose of pure unadulterated destruction. Arnold who is driving knows that being Servant obviously enhances everything including their equipment but it felt ridiculous to him because he felt that what she firing isn't bullet but sawblade.
They don't even know how much time has passed, it felt like time only moves when it wanted to.
The only moment when they could counterattack effectively is when the sky soars up with thunder. That moment is the only time when the witches can be seen. Most of the time, all Arnold could do is to change gears and shift as much as he could in order to evade the endless hail of explosives.
Another lightning flashes within the dark night. Alfin takes the initiative and fires her machine gun at the witches above her. The planes above getting hit with a barrage of bullets soon lose the ability to fly and crash into the ground, as they met their end with a bang.
"How long do we have to keep this up!?" Alfin asked Arnold. Although both of them already know the answer.
Arnold found another wreckage that can still be used as a ramp, he throttles the motorcycle as the whirlwind from his exhaust turned into a boost as it pushes both of them forward. With his motorcycle keep charging, moving like an elusive mirage towards the 'ramp'. Both of them lift off on the bike into the sky. As fate decided to pity them this one time, the sky flashes with lightning once more, revealed everything for all of them to see.
Acting separately, yet harmonious together to such an unreal degree. Like dancers within a ball court, two of them covered each others' flank and thus managed to easily take down many of the witches around them. Soon, both landed squarely on the wheels while the burning 'witches' that are taken down behind them are falling helplessly to their demise.
"We just have to keep this up, it doesn't matter how long, we just need to fight together," Arnold said while focuses on steering his motorcycle away from being bombed.
Both of them drive for a while before they realized there is only ruin surroundings them, did they run back into the area that was destroyed by Excalibur? They don't even know but the only they knew for sure is to keep their guard up.
"Arnold, there is something near us." Alfin nudges Arnold slightly.
"Huh?" Arnold looks around and saw a fighter plane flying in near ground level. He almost went into a panic by such a sight like that.
"Hey! You two are doing extremely fine right now! To think that there is someone here could fight back against the 'witches' like me. Let me tell you though, you are about to be in for an extremely rough ride here and not only the witches but the road here will hellbent on killing you. Our goals are aligned for now but how our next meeting will be is going to be left up to fate." The pilot in the fighter told Arnold before he flew up to the sky.
Arnold doesn't quite get what he means but when Arnold looks ahead, he instantly understands what the pilot is trying to say.
"Of course, asphalt does have an expiration date. Especially under the weather like this. How could I even forget." Arnold said as if he gets what is going to happen.
The road ahead of them has broken down in such a way that the only explanation to this would be a massive earthquake. Of course, both of them have already gone too far in to turn back and so the only way for them is to go ahead. This will be an ultimate test for Arnold to see if his skill can handle the mettle.
Words of God: For this part, play Initial D - The Top
Riding into the death zone ahead of him, the witches above him are still trying to hunt him down. The path ahead of him will be unforgiving that it will take a miracle to make it out unscathed.
There is no road left but he has to improvise his own path if wanted to make through. He quickly drifts his way through the most stable ground he could detect, the most that his motorcycle could shine on. Even if it is going to be extremely rough, he has to do this if he wants to make it to the new day.
Even the land itself has broken apart to many parts into parts and chunks and thus he has to watch it to not crash into any of them, especially right now. Chasing the trace of asphalt to make sure that he isn't driving in a circle.
His memory's vision started to overlap with his vision, hearing all those belittles, disdains. His expression furrows as if he wanted to determine that he is better than them, better than what others consider badly of him even if they are no longer present in this world. He started to throttle even if the road is getting far rougher and keeping that speed even in the direst moment
One more turn, as his speed screams to the depth of the night. Even when there are obstacles and rubbles in front of him, he somehow pulled his bike forward and leaped through all of them.
"Arnold! There's a chasm in front of you!" Alfin warned Arnold of where is heading.
"Arnold only looked at it and not having another thought. He keeps going faster as if he decided to gaze at death in the eye without having a second thought.
With a speed that makes dust flew off everywhere, he came charge at the chasm at a breakneck speed. When his bike reaches toward the edge, it came falling with terminal velocity before a second passed.
"Arnold!" Alfin screams in genuine fears which takes a lot to make her feel that.
Both of them gazes into the abyss, don't even know how deep it is. Arnold only has a stern look as if he knew well what he is going to do.
Alfin shuts her eye as she was completely overwhelmed by fear. However, she felt something, both of them doesn't even free falling anymore. She reopens her eyes and sees that he is driving on a strand of steel cable that was held on from both sides. Even with such speed and how the cable is swaying, he still assures on his balance.
Before she realized, he wheelies his motorcycle and landed on the cliffside with both wheels on. Right in the next instance, he throttles his motorcycle as it climbs against the cliffside. The sheer speed that he moves ended up launching him straight into the sky. In the next moment, he quickly draws out his sawn-off and firing it repeatedly without reloading at his surroundings with an unreal speed like a master martial artist using his nunchuck.
The sky roars up with explosions as Arnold lands his bike on the ground squarely again. Flying like an eagle, strike like a hawk. He has changed so much in such a sudden amount of time that even Alfin got surprised by it. He used to be so reserved and passive but now he is aggressively taking down the witches even without Alfin's help. He felt like a completely different person.
"Arnold..." Alfin whispers as if she fears that he might be going to change too much in a short amount of time.
"Don't worry, Alfin. It is just that I am not going to let myself chained down by my own past." Arnold said reassuringly to Alfin.
She doesn't understand what Arnold means but she felt a bit more relieved knowing that Arnold won't turn into a completely different person by the end of this. Both of them keep riding into the unknown land that they didn't trek on or familiar with but that won't stop both of them from fighting for their tomorrow.
"One more turn and I'll settle the score," Arnold whispers silently for himself.
He looked at the sky and saw a battle unfolded over there, that fighter he met from before is probably doing his role right now. He felt that he managed to relive a weight of burden from his should knowing that both he and Alfin are not alone here.
Bombshells mixed entirely with rain, he has earned the full wrath of the witches and they definitely won't stop their pursuits anytime soon. Arnold looks at the surrounding so that he could find away so that he could launch his bike into the sky for another retaliation. Alfin could shoot them down during a thunder flash but that is relying on chance and he knew damn well that luck isn't something to be played with.
He started to notice something ahead of him. Mist, perhaps there might be a way for him to take it into his advantage.
"Alfin, when we are going to enter the mist, fire your flare at once," Arnold said to the passenger with him.
She simply nodded, both of them are at a complete mutual understanding that they can read each other's idea even if they didn't say much. Alfin simply takes out a flare gun then aims it at the sky and wait for Arnold's command
"Now!" Arnold said as both of them enter the mist.
The moment the flare was fired, both of them have already entered deep inside the mist. The illumination flare flew towards the sky then illuminated the darkness like dawn at the end of the night. It flew high towards the sky thus it covered a lot of ground.
It seems that the witches attempted to destroy the flare since it poses the threat of exposing them as they quickly rush towards it only to be shot down by a familiar face.
"Forget about me did ya? I, Hexenjäger shall not allow anyone to harm the couple that you chase." The pilot can only say for himself and not expecting Arnold and Alfin below there to hear. But he felt that he should do it anyway.
Arnold and Alfin who are down there didn't hear what the Hexenjäger said but they focus their thoughts on trying to survive till daybreak. That is their true objective. Anything else is secondary.
Arnold turns off the headlight of his motorcycle. Even within the mist, the flare did a good job of illuminating that he could still see properly in this low visibility ground like this.
Boom!
He heard another explosion, he looks back and saw that Alfin's machine gun is still smoking. He noticed that the flare itself make the witches cast their shadows which also revealed their locations. He didn't even notice how the situation has changed into their favor. The mist has equalized the entire board and the flare has given them the chance to counterattack without relying on the thunder flash.
"How ironic. Before, we are running for our lives. But now, we run to hunt them down." Arnold said poetically.
The pattern of bombings that the witches are doing started to become much more of an incomprehensible mess that they are grasping at straws to see where exactly both Arnold and Alfin are. Not to mention the 'Hexenjager' are going at them from their back.
So their fight still goes on. At least they won't be facing too much danger in due time.
"._.""._.""._."
Last Stretch Towards Dawn
"._.""._.""._."
Back at Emiya's position
"Just another hour! All of you are getting closes!" Da Vinci said the time in the singularity through the comm to Gudao.
"Good to know, Da Vinci. We don't know how others are faring right now but I hope they will be alright." Gudao said through the comm as he looks toward the sky that is slowing lighting up.
Meanwhile, Kiritsugu and Iri who are running from each rooftop of the buildings and leaped on towards the next. Kiritsugu simply firing his Stinger anti-air launcher towards the planes while running with a speed that only leaves dust behind. Iri held onto him from behind, protecting him from whatever may befall on them.
It is about 4 o'clock in singularity time. About really closes to daybreak considering the current month. The witches are now fighting on the losing ground as their only advantage is about to be lost. If the fight takes too long, they will be forced to withdraw from the battlefield unless they decided to go all out in desperation. The sky has lightened up a little which allows the Servants to detect them by their outline alone.
"Not so fast!" The Finnish rocket jumped with his M1 Bazooka and the explosions push him towards the sky when it supposed to blow his leg off. He quickly directed himself towards the pitch black by plane and materialized a machete in his hand and pull an overhead slash at the wing of the plane. The plane had lost its wing and can only plummet towards the ground. The Finnish meanwhile landed on top of another building.
"Dude, why don't you just use the rocket launcher to take them down instead of pulling such a stunt like that?!" Desmond who was nearby where the Finnish landed said to him.
"First, the only most effective way to take them down is to get as close as possible to them or having a homing attack. Do you see that I have anything like that?" The Finnish said while jumping from the top of buildings to buildings.
Desmond's words fall to the deaf ears. He simply couldn't understand the concept of the rules of cool over practicality. But once again, knowing that there is nothing normal about Servants in the first place, he decided to just go with the flow.
"Onee-chan! Prepare to give me a lift!" Kuro said to her brother as she dashes toward him.
Shirou heard her and quickly get into his stance and position. When she getting closer, she leaped into his hand which he crossed in front of him. When her feet landed on his hand. He pushes all of his might into it and pushes her into the sky with a height higher than the witches can reach.
When she stopped flying any higher, she quickly said.
"Trace on!" As she quickly traces as many swords as she could possibly can. The sky above soon quickly clouded by massive arrays of swords that were prepared to rain down on those who she deemed to be exterminated. All of those blades floating in the sky were of all kinds. Legendary, mystic, unique or even mundane. All of them are tasked with one single objective, to be the wind of a destructive hurricane she about to send down.
"Begone!" She said as loud as she humanely could before letting it all raining down.
The moment her words cease to be heard, the rain of swords soon falling down with the speed of terminal velocity. The blades pierced through the witches mercilessly as if it won't allow anything to stop it on its path.
The Chaldean Servants below knew what Kuro is doing from the first sight of what she is doing above. Shirou quickly responds by tracing the same shield that has helped him endured the entire journey to this point.
Rho Aias!
The Seven Ring of Fiery Heaven quickly materialized and everyone quickly got under it as fast as they can. The blades soon came crash into the buildings beneath them and brought all of them down effortlessly. The shields however easily repelled them almost effortlessly. The only thing around them was just ruins and the building they standing on is the only one that is still standing.
Shirou soon dematerialized the shield and catches Kuro who is falling down in bridal carry style. He put his sister down and felt finally at peace that this entire onslaught has come into an end.
"So how did I do? Onee-chan?" Kuro asked her brother proudly.
"Other than extremely collateral, I would say you did pretty well to bring this situation to a swift end," Shirou said to his sister with a smile.
Kuro then smiles mischievously, even if she is physically more capable than her brother. Her brother is far more adaptive and can easily turn the table around to his favor.
"So, what about the others? Pierce, Richard..." Desmond said when he realized that they were missing something.
"SHI-" Before Gudao let out the word out of his mouth, he heard a voice saying from below them at the ground level.
"Hey! We are underneath all of you there. Other than almost having a scare of a lifetime. We are fine." Pierce said from the ground level, right directly underneath them all.
"We spent most of the time hiding and when we saw how the sky was filled with endless blades, that is when we quickly rush here. Please, consider others before doing something like this." Richard said.
"Sorry to scare you two like that," Gudao said to others.
"Wait. Where are the other two? Arnold and Alfin..." Iri said as she noticed something amiss.
Shirou suddenly became dumbfounded. He can only mutter one word before he remembered what he was supposed to do before at the night before.
"Crap... I was too hung up on the witches to remember about them." Shirou mutters.
"If you are asking about those two. I see two of them running off in a motorcycle while fending off against the witches. It is really hard to not notice that. Plus, that probably also explains why there are also only a few witches were here and the probabilities that the majority of remaining witches are pursuing them and not us." The Finnish said.
"And you only saying this now?!" Kiritsugu yelled at the Finnish for not letting them know about this earlier.
"Dear god! That means they are in great danger right now!" Iri said.
"Then we better hurry up now. Where did the two of them heading!?" Kiri quickly asks the Finnish.
"The same direction we would take to head to Berlin. It is just that the two of them are further ahead of us right now." The Finnish said as he moves out towards the same direction he said.
And so the group quickly get on their feet and rushes out as quickly as they could.
Dawn is coming soon and whether the duo will make it or not will be placed entirely on them.
"._.""._.""._."
Reaching For The Top
"._.""._.""._."
Back to Arnold and Alfin' position
Words of God: For this part, play Initial D - The Top
After a few hours of bitter fighting. Moving constantly from patches of mist and counterattack when it is the most decisive. Both of them managed to whittle down the enemies to a mere handful. Their spirits are now on the edge of breaking down and any more fight would most likely bury them six feet deep. Even then, they knew they can't give up now that they have made it this far and thus they muster up anything possible to keep their mind on focus.
"Guess that I shouldn't rely too much on the mist to do the fighting, did I? But whatever it is, I just glad that we actually encounter it or else we would have been in a much more dangerous situation." Arnold said as the mist started to dissipate to the point it barely matters anymore.
The motorcycle keeps running and soon it reaches the cliff edge and leaped from there. They fly in the air for a few seconds before landing on the even ground. This time, there are two cliffsides acting as walls and slightly tilted. Other is a straight road ahead of him. The day is getting closer and there is almost nothing left standing on his way.
Arnold, however, felt this is too silence, he doesn't believe that someone who has chased him to this point can actually give up right here and right now. If anything, it makes him more cautious.
Arnold's intuition completely gets the right answer as he quickly swerves the motorbike out of harm's way as an explosion occurred in front of him.
"Knew it..." Arnold thought as he started to see the two biplanes' outlines in front of his vision.
Arnold drew his sawn-off and quickly fires it at the witches in front of him. However, almost as if they what he was going to do. They quickly flew higher while still dropping a ceaseless amount of bombs on the track in front of him. Arnold quickly counteracts by swerving and turning at every moment notice. He knew that if things keep up like this, they would get hit by one eventually.
"Arnold! What am I supposed to do?!" Alfin who is holding to him from behind.
"How high is your Strength parameter?" Arnold said resolutely, almost like he already figured out what to do.
She just looks at him and suddenly she understood what he is trying to do. She decided to give a single nod for she doesn't need to ask any more questions.
Riding through the blazing path ahead of him with shrapnel flying everywhere. His wounds getting more aggravated but there is only a single decision in his mind. He will put an end to this fight, right here and now.
He throttles the bike to the maximum controllable speed, his suppressed emotions to this point started to breakthrough and overflow. Arnold decided that if he is going to end it now, he might as well make it a one that will forever strike in the heart of those who still present.
"Are you ready now to die?" Arnold screamed to the top of his lung at the witches, it was so loud that even bombshells fall short against it.
He keeps throttle, raising dust everywhere he goes. The witches quickly realized the threat beckoning them and quickly steer their plane up to make sure their target has no way of fighting back
"I came up from the bottom and into the top. For the first time, I feel alive! I can fly like an eagle and strike like a hawk. Do you think you can survive... the top?" Arnold's emotion and judgment completely meld with each other harmoniously like yin and yang. The chorus he sang was completely made within his mind in the heat of moments just to express his feeling right now.
Dystopia to the witches' ear, utopian for Arnold and Alfin's. The witches ahead of them are getting more desperate by the act of increasing their payload as much as they possibly could. The path ahead is now completely filled with bombshells and going that way is asking for death but of course, Arnold has his own way.
"What were you thinking, telling me to follow your rules? This entire life of mine isn't gonna go anywhere, it can't! You want to see me following this whole charrade. This whole thing? Do you think you want to see that I have fallen by you? No, I AM the rules!" Arnold said as he steers the bike into the cliffside.
Alfin closed her eyes briefly but she didn't see her own fiery end at all. She quickly opened her eyes again and she saw that he is driving against the cliffside itself and skip through the entire barrage dropping in front of them. Alfin looks at Arnold and saw a glint of cold steel in his eyes. It was emptiness, concentrated of pure determination. Looking beyond his own doubts and his shortcomings, his own determination will put an end to this fight!
"Before I knew where this was going, I would've been fallen by you. Right now, I distance myself from what you are trying to do! I made this to be way bigger than how you're pathetic life ever gonna be. I have made it this far and I will take this to the top!" Arnold said as his bike began to move faster than the witches themselves. With nothing stop him in his way, it wasn't even within a few seconds that he has overtaken the witches.
The witches noticed them and quickly tried to fly higher but unfortunately for them that, it is too late for them either way. Arnold quickly pulled his bike from the cliffside leaped towards the witches. A completely unexpected and bold move on his side.
Arnold whips out his pickaxe and swung it against the biplane while he and the bike are spinning uncontrollably. Alfin materialized her own pickaxe and do the same thing as Arnold on another adjacent biplane. Both of the witches having completely bind into the bike itself begin to spin uncontrollably with the bike with a speed that no human eye can perceive. When they have reached terminal spinning velocity, Arnold and Alfin thrown each of the planes into each cliffside where they begin to roll on it with a speed no less than Arnold's motorbike. Soon, the rebounding force pushed the tattered plane from each of the cliffsides into each other where they will meet their final fiery end. One that befits them as to how they lived their lives.
Arnold quickly grasps the control of his bike back and stop it from spinning, riding through the explosion that happened next and land on the ground safely. And just at that moment, the new day has finally arrived for them as the gentle light of daybreak shining on. Both of them keep riding towards it, like an angel reaching the heavens with its wings soaring toward it,
Servants Profile
The Messenger
Class: Archer
True Name: "Arnold?"
Parameter:
Str: C+| Agi: B++ (A++)| End: B| Mana: D| Luck: E| NP: Unk
-Wise up!-
Passive Skills:
-Independent Action C++: It is possible for a Servant to stay in the world for one day without a Master's connection. In Arnold's case, as long as he has a duty to carry out, he won't disappear until after his duty is fulfilled and after two days
-Magic Resistance E: Due to being a Modern Servant, he basically can't resist magical based attacks without fatally crippled if what hit him isn't a Master's attack.
-Riding B: Allow the user to operate most vehicles and animals can be handled with above average skill, even vehicles that did not exist in the time period one was alive in, for they are no exception. However, he cannot ride the likes of Phantasmal Species such as Monstrous Beasts.
Personal Skills:
-Valor C+: A valiant surviving soldier of what would be called one of the deadliest conflicts in human history should speak some volume of his bravery. Considering that he is a Servant which mean he is a famous soldier in modern times. Raises Strength slightly and grants minor resistance to mental interference if up against adversary.
-Ironsight Reflex A: Due to the nature of his job back when he was human, it is obvious that such an extremely dangerous job with a very high fatality rate beyond eve foot soldiers would demand excessive skills in both reflexes, marksmanship and decision making. This skill also allows its user to evade extremely fast projectiles or blows repeatedly without putting great strains on his mind. It also allows the user to attain greater accuracy during the using of firearms even in precarious situations. Also, double as Intuition. (Wise up!)
Noble Phantasm
|Rider of Torment| Wise up!
The Messenger's Deliverance
Rank B | Classification: Vehicle, Anti-Unit
One of the invention borns during the era where horses are considered outdated due to the advancement of ballistic technology. This motorcycle has seen the same suffering that its rider also has. Upon being summoned and used by its beholder. It will raise its rider's Agility parameter by another full rank with modifier remains unchanged by this NP.
The Saint of Distant Wartime.
Class: Ruler
True Name: Desmond Doss
Parameter:
Str: - | Agi: B+ | End: A+ | Mana: E | Luck: B| NP: B+
+Passive Skills:
-Magic Resistance B: Having a Ruler class container, Desmond has a high magic resistance innately. Due to being a Modern Servant, his magic resistance was limited to B
-True Name Discernment C: If summoned as a Ruler, during a direct encounter, a Servant's true name and entire status information will be automatically revealed. In regards to Servants with concealment abilities, a Luck Check is required to bypass those abilities.
-God's Resolution A: A Class Skill of the Ruler class and is the privilege of the Ruler presiding over the Holy Grail War; the right to use Command Spells against Servants, only given to Rulers. Each Ruler is normally granted two Command Spells for each Servant that participates in the Holy Grail War. In the situation Desmond was in right now, this skill is useless.
+Personal Skills:
-Backline Extractor A: A skill that allows Desmond to extract someone from danger successfully even if enemy Servants are pursuing him and his patients.
-Protection of Faith B: A skill possessed only by those who have made sacrifices for a religious view. Despite being a form of divine protection, it is not a blessing from a higher existence. It is the absoluteness of one's body and mind that was born from their beliefs.
-Undying Will A+: A skill that is similar to Battle Continuation, except that this skill is unique to him for it boosts his Endurance to EX temporarily for when he is saving someone or under attack from a hostile enemy or received grievous injuries.
Noble Phantasm
|Hacksaw Ridge|
Where All Reach Breaking Point.
Rank B+| Classification: Anti-Pursuit
A Noble Phantasm that allows Desmond to alter the land through the power of reminiscence to where his name is made. The battle of Okinawa where the most bloody battle in the Pacific Theater taken place. The barren land of Okinawa boosts all of Desmond's parameters except Strength and hindering the enemy should they aim for heavily injured allies or him by an artillery strike that has the power of B+ NP that was aimed at them. This Noble Phantasm actually not kept by Desmond's mana but by the power of God at his side as ridiculous as it sounds. It is made for one purpose and that is to extract everyone out of danger alive should they all failed somehow.
|Healing Hand|
Curing What Is Thought Impossible
Rank C| Classification: Anti-Fatality.
A Noble Phantasm that allows Desmond to treat and surgery on his patients with a speed that is even beyond the eyes of Servants. It is thought that those of the descendants of Asclepius are capable of doing this and this power also brings the ability to cure even incurable disease, curse, and even near-fatal wounds.
|Divine Intervention| Wise up!
God's Salvation
Rank A++| Classification: Anti-'NP Activation'
A Noble Phantasm born from Desmond's feat at one of the bloodiest battles in WW2, Okinawa. There were many moments that could have killed Doss but he has managed to survive all of them and thus his story is nothing less of divine intervention. This Noble Phantasm prevents the activation of other Servants' offensive Noble Phantasm that is targeted on him or his allies. Any NP with rank below A will fail to activate instantly, A+ will make a Luck check on the other opposing Servants, A++ will make both Desmond and his opponents has to make Luck check. Any higher and this Noble Phantasm will fail to counteract against.
The Mysterious Girl
Class:?
True Name: "Alfin?"
Parameter:
Str: B| Agi: B | End: B | Mana: A+| Luck: D| NP: Unk
Wise up!
Passive Skills:
"Unknown"
Personal Skills:
-Animal Communication D: Born from her own love with animals and close affinity with them at a young age and even until now. She could understand what the animals are trying to say to her even if no one else could understand
-Soul-burst Forge A+: The ability to turn pre-existing scrap metals or mana into the user's predetermined shape and structures and inner working mechanism. This includes firearms, melee, tools and everything of all sorts consists of metal components. Other components can be created with the user's mana with increased cost. (Wise up!)
Noble Phantasm
"Unknown"
Thanks for reading this far, my reader. School definitely hasn't been nice to me at all and it can only go worse from here on out. I hope that I can still pump more of this out before I have to do my exam. Plus, the first chapters are definitely what you call mediocre or just bad. I would definitely fix those earlier chapters once I have completed the storyline.