Unwelcome Guests (Battle)

(Sasaku)

"This will be quite the duel," had been Saber's assessment of the enemy facing him. At least they could now identify the lower Servants as miscellaneous Shinsengumi fighters thanks to their distinctive garb.

The three at the front door are clearly just more swordsmen like the one in the courtyard, but those two coming in from the rear didn't charge in like them... They had stopped some distance away from the outer walls, which currently was out in the open given Archer's special Skill or Noble Phantasm. Wait.

"Everyone, move to the front of the room," Sasaku said more calmly than she felt. "If something comes through the wall, get to the rooms on other side of the house."

"I thought you Reinforced the walls," Rin pointed out.

"I also mentioned they wouldn't stand up to Holy Swords," Caster shrugged. "Illya, we might need to reposition Medusa, so three of your six will have to relieve her." There was no immediate reply. Three of them wouldn't really hold up against three Shinsengumi, even if the latter had terrible statistics. "I have three volunteers, just tell us when."

"It would be good if those swordmen would hurry up so Medusa can thin their ranks," Sakura seemed to have caught on to the problem at hand. "They must have guessed where we were just by looking at the shape of the Realm's bubble.

"Probably," Sasaku said, just before stopping and shouting, "Move!"

A large section of the wall abruptly disappeared, swallowed by some sort of energy maelstrom or vortex that the Caster had detected when it began eating through the outer wall, about one second before it expanded into the bedroom's rear wall.

There was a flurry of movement at her back as Caster retrieved the sword Kuro had made for her and looked out at the dry lands that now stretched towards a horizon of fire, starting from the otherwise invisible boundary of the Emiya estate.

There were two figures outside, one dressed much like a priest, and the other clearly wearing the same uniform that Sakura and Rin wore to school. Really, how many Masters are all going to the same school? Weapon in hand, Sasaku charged out, aiming to take down the Master with a sudden flurry of thrown spears.

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(One minute ago)

(Tamamo)

"I'll be depending on you," Amakusa said, as he began to rise up slightly for a better angle of attack. "Recovery from this technique will take a while. Heaven's Feel, activate."

After the pair had taken some overwatch fire on the approach, the Caster with him had been all business. To be sure, once Archer's Field had spread out to enclose the enemy's fortified house, no further attacks had been forthcoming. On the other hand, said house was still there. "Don't leave me flying solo too long."

Sensing a moment of decision approach, Tamamo deliberated on the best approach to take before pulling out a parasol to complement her mirror. Ever elegant even when preparing for battle, she pointedly ignored Amakusa's surprised stare at the choice. "Get on with it before Archer runs out of energy."

The priest discarded his third set of Black Keys unused; he couldn't store them away like with his sword. After the first two had been broken blocking flying spears she could only guess that he didn't have any more reliable defensive options. She had used her mirror, of course. (Twin Arm - Big Crunch) !

Two orbs, one jet black, the other shining white, shot out, spiraling towards one another before the inevitable collision against the wall that was their target. The resulting energy ripped, Rather ironic given the name, away a large portion of not only the estate's outer wall, but also a decent portion of the house's rear wall. An immediate breech.

...

"Okita, weren't you fighting the enemy Saber?" she sent as a swordswoman came out full tilt with a large sword at the ready. "Busy. Duelling Sasaki Kojirou."

Tamamo frowned as a series of green streaks appeared, flashing towards her. Just like earlier. Their archer, then? So much for Nobunaga's guns ruling the shooting phase of battle. Wary of the potential feint, she steadied her brightly colored "lance", while sending the mirror forward to intercept the missiles. The latter, as before, was bounced around by black spears which snapped immediately once they had solidified on impact.

A knight class was not a favorable match up for single-tail her, but once Rider was able to pitch in, the two of them would easily take her out. Especially since no further foes showed themselves, making her current job simpler; buying time. Advancing with perfect form despite her rather ungainly weapon, Tamamo thrust her parasol right into the center of her charging opponent.

The sword, held high in a two-handed guard stance, dipped down, knocking the parasol to one side as its wielder transitioned to a cut. However, Tamamo was already moving in the same direction as said cut, aiming for a two-prong attack.

High and low. Her mirror flew directly into her enemy's face, blinding her as Tamamo transitioned from a dash to a low kick. Anticipating this, or perhaps just intending to close the vertical line, the sword transitioned from a downwards diagonal cut to essentially thrusting straight down. Seeing this, Tamamo switched gears, kicking off the blade into a backflip-roll to reset the engagement distance as her opponent also retreated to regain her stance and control of her weapon.

Amakusa rushed forward to cover his partner, though she actually landed solidly on her feet, crouching, with her point back in order. However, his first blow bounced disappointingly off the large sword that blocked it, and the swordswoman quickly fell back from Tamamo's opportunistic thrust, covering her retreat by throwing out more spears.

The pair immediately blocked, and Tamamo noted that the latest attack had lacked the same momentum as the earlier ones shot at them.

"I didn't expect the Church to train everyone in swordsmanship, but if you are summoned with a sword, shouldn't you know how to use it?" she quipped, trying to distract their opponent, whom she was keeping busy with a flurry of thrusts from her own weapon.

"Why don't you demonstrate the basics of close quarter combat," he returned in kind, side-stepping so that the two allies were separated by a spears-length. Enough to complicate defensive action for their target, but close enough to avoid being potentially picked off individually.

Snorting in distaste at her partner's lack of combat prowess, How did he lead a rebellion like that?, Tamamo threw a number of talismans ahead of her next attack, but they were promptly taken out by more spears, and the parasol was parried again. It seemed like both sides were bouncing off one another.

Poking away with her lance was unlikely to win the battle before their Archer's magical energy ran out. If so, they would essentially be down one member. As I'm not in a Lancer class, it does seem like using (Shapeshifting) and an unarmed style would be better. The mirror could protect her on the way in and then it could come down to a hand-to-hand.

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(Kuro)

The enemy's guns fell silent, and by the feel, or rather lack of it, Sasaku's spears had stopped as well. Or perhaps it was the other way around, as the Archer was probably shooting defensively, rather than trying to bring down the wall with arquebus balls. In any case, a shout and crashing sound from below meant that the enemies there had broken down the front door; they rushed in, so that meant it was now or never.

It was, of course, not a good idea to attempt attacking from range. On the other hand, the presumptive Oda Nobunaga was probably not eager to move any closer, since that would reduce his ability to intercept any spears that Caster might decide to throw at him, as he couldn't be sure that the lull wasn't a trick to draw him in. While a Caster tying up an Archer was a decent trade, the enemy had extra Servants which, even if low ranking, were able to occupy Medusa, so it came down to who ran out of magical energy for their Field Skills first.

Kuro resisted the urge to take a peek. Lying low as she was, the roof defended her very well not just from bullets but from being seen. Showing herself was not necessarily fatal, but would certainly give away the fact that she was still there. "Kuro, the enemy broke through the back. Caster won't be able to help any more."

And that was that. Gripping her two swords firmly, she reflected on the irony that a battle between two Archers should come down to swords. Good thing she had trained in melee combat with Saber. Well no, I do need to not get shot on the way in. Which was much easier said than done.

She had first considered projecting something large to use as a shield, but the guns facing her would likely would find anything with Mystery an easy mark, and whatever lacked it would not stand up to a Servant's weapons, even if they were "only" ones like guns. Three volleys. He had at least three rounds of shooting with (Three Line Formation), more than enough to kill any Servant without some sort of hard counter. Furthermore it would normally be physically impossible to dodge through a coordinated wall of bullets.

However, if one had a dodge with invincibility frames... she could essentially do so via precise use of her short-range teleporting. Good thing I practiced that too.

Moving back to give herself room to gain speed before the top of her head would becoming visible from the ground, Kuro took off at a sprint, flying straight off the roof directly at where her opponent had been shooting from just a while ago. Making good use of an Archer's perception, she could see the guns already waiting to greet her as she hurtled forward. Theie commander probably thought her an easy target, mid-air like a duck hunt.

Not quite.

Though keeping track of how far away the ground was to avoid appearing inside it, Kuro was mostly focused on the guns.

She saw the flash of them being discharged.

She saw the bullets making their way towards her, thankfully somewhat slower than one's fired from Father's guns.

The projectiles would quickly cover the distance she could teleport across very quickly, but not as quickly as her reaction to them crossing the move's invisible finish line.

Now!

Since he was viewing her head-on, Nobunaga must have been surprised to see his ostensibly-doomed target somehow simply go through his first round of volley fire. As soon as Kuro's vision shifted from the jump, her feet touched the ground and the shorter Archer made straight for her own target.

He seems to be reacting a bit slowly. The guns' replacements might have been slowed down by the fact their owner was distracted by drawing his sword. The guns went off, almost too late. Nobunaga got his sword out of its sheath and moved into a guard stance even as the flashes of his guns lit up Kuro charging into him. After all, even if he hit her with gunfire, it might result in a disappointing mutual kill if she was still able to run him through.

Kuro made her second teleport of the duel.

She appeared under Nobunaga's guard, still with her forward momentum, but more importantly, with the point of her sword right in front of his chest. The Demon King was run through before he had even begun to block his attacker, simply because she didn't have to close the distance between them at all.

Got you!

With her free weapon she cut at the wrist of his sword-arm, but even as she let go of the weapon lodged in Nobunaga's chest and summoned another, she felt something hot against her back. Almost instinctively, she immediately teleported forward through Nobunaga, so he was between her and the threat, turning about while doing so to keep him in her sight - and dropping to the ground after doing so.

The third volley had been shot from in front of Nobunaga, the guns pointed backwards at the two of them in order to catch Kuro at point black range. The bullets that had pierced her did so before the muzzle flash coming out behind them even touched her.

"Kuro, what happened?!" Rin sounded frantic, even over their telepathic link. Kuro took a breath as the dry, scorching hot air inside Nobunaga's Field was replaced by the cold rain-bearing wind of the storm that returned to assert its place. The Archer himself had not moved after toppling over, his spiritual core destroyed in Kuro's one, but well aimed, thrust. "I won."

"Come back, I'll heal you."

"Not yet." Although she could tell, by experience not her own, that the many bullets had dealt her multiple mortal wounds, nevertheless she had, unlike her opponent, not been instantly killed. And there was a critical target ahead, revealed now that Nobunaga's Field no longer separated her from the other who was standing in the "outside" World.

A rather plain looking girl, wearing the uniform of Shirou's school. Clearly a Master.

Forging a new Caladbolg, Kuro frowned, reflecting on how her ruined arms would not allow her to deliver the shot by bow. Guess I'll take a trick from Caster's book.

Her target had quickly ducked behind a nearby building. Kuro, without thinking too much about it, threw the sword-arrow at her last position utilizing magecraft.

Gleaming dully as it headed out, it struck the ground with an explosion that a Servant might have been able to survive, but was definitely fatal to a human, even if they had a few seconds worth of distance.

Turning away, she could clearly see the distance from the house to where she was now, quickly traversed one way, but now a more more difficult journey returning.