Author's Note: Just starting off with this note for anyone that read the last chapter when it was first put up. I'm sorry for the monstrous amount of typos in that. I rushed too much to release that as I was headed to work. I went back and fixed it once I noticed the typos were way beyond what I deem tolerable. Eventually I will polish all the chapters, but for now I'm just writing this very casually and fast. I will make sure not to skip proofreading again though.

Chapter Four: A Mongrel Put Down

A teenage boy suddenly popped up from the back of the chariot, pulling at Iskandar's cape, "What are you thinking announcing yourself like that, you idiot! And why did we keep coming over when those two have clearly joined forces! We're screwed!"

Iskandar flicked the boy on the head with one finger, sending him flying. He then continued, "Fate has brought us together this night to do battle for the possession of the Holy Grail, but first I wish to make a proposition. An offer: What think you of yielding the holy grail to me and joining my glorious and invincible army! You would be treated as honored allies, friends, and brothers in arms! Together we shall share in the glory of battle and the joy of world conquest!"

There was a pause as all present looked at the burly man as if he were an idiot. Marrok twitched a little and took a deep breath, turning to his king and refusing to speak first.

Artoria in turn, spoke, "Rider, did you come all this way and rudely interrupt a reunion between a king and his retainer just to table that ridiculous offer? You insult me."

Marrok gritted his teeth, noting the madness enhancement tugging at him. It was nowhere near as bad as when his liege had been injured, but as the offense was triggering his origin slightly it was still incredibly unpleasant, "You heard my liege, Rider. I bid you retreat and regroup for a more even situation."

Rider rubbed his fingers together, "I would be willing to discuss compensation."

"Enough." Arthur nearly growled, "I am the king of Britain! Not any lord or knight of the realm. I could never lower myself to the position of mere retainer. Even to a mighty king."

Irisviel, trying to blend into the background, glanced to see if 'mere retainer' had offended Marrok. Of course it hadn't, but you had to be careful with berserkers usually.

Rider meanwhile was impressed with this new information, "Oh. You are the king of Britain? That is quite a surprise. I would hardly have expected the King of Knights to be a little girl."

Arthur was furious. Which meant Marrok was growing livid. It was her that spoke first though, "Then would you like a taste of this little girl's blade?"

Rider sighed, "I suppose negotiations have failed. What a waste. What a terrible shame."

Marrok stepped very heavily forward as Rider's master recovered and started to complain. When the teen caught a glance of the approaching knight's wild expression, he almost yelped, "Rider, what have you gotten us into?!"

"Ha! Ha! Ha! It really was you?" A familiar, magically projected voice echoed through the area. It was Lancers master, "I couldn't fathom the reason you would have stolen my artifact, but to participate in the Holy Grail War yourself? Madness, Waver Velvet."

The teen, Waver, clutched onto Rider, who placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Mage who is speaking now, am I to assume that you claim that you were to be my master instead of this boy I am sworn to serve?"

"Indeed. Now, you realize that that boy is incompetent at magic right? I am the head of a prestigious mage family and a teacher of magic. You know that you can cut your ties with that master and join a real mage. Come to my side and you have a chance of getting out of this situation."

Iskandar laughed, "That is laughable. A mage that would hide in the shadows rather than the one that has ridden into battle at my side? You are nowhere near worthy enough to be my master. Even if you were brave enough to attempt to slink in the shadows and steal another servant in the chaos. I would much rather serve a boy with ambition than a thief!"

Marrok manifested his sword once again, "A thief I promised to hunt down and kill for being an enemy of my master."

The voice did not speak up again, probably cutting its losses and fleeing for the moment.

"Tsk! I can't leave my king here with three enemy servants or I would pursue."

Saber sharpened her senses, noting along with Irisviel that only one enemy was visible, "Three? Tell me where, Sir Marrok."

"One on a high position overlooking the battle. Must be Assassin if it didn't bother going into spiritual form to hide. Not a very good assassin if it was willing to even risk one of the summoned heroes having incredible senses. If it had done its job properly it would have been completely undetectable to anyone short of Clairvoyance."

"Assassin is supposed to be dead."

The cunning hunter proved why he was his king's favored hunting companion: senses and sense, "And assassins are tricksters. The other servant is not relying on stealth abilities and every other role is accounted for but Caster, which can view from further away than either are at." Marrok pointed to a light pole, "Archer is right there in spirit form. He smells of booze and low effort carousing."

A very offended man in golden armor materialized, "I do not smell, Mongrel, and my carousing is most certainly not 'low effort'. All of my actions are as glorious as befitting the king of the world."

Iskandar was delighted, "Oh! Another king!"

"The only king. The rest of you are but mongrels that dare name yourselves kings even in my presence."

"I see no problem, for a am indeed Iskandar, the King of Conquerors known throughout the world. If you are so insistent on your claim why not name yourself? No true king should be troubled by something as simple as giving his name to those he wishes to challenge."

"So you would dare question me, Mongrel?" the man stomped on the light pole he was on in anger, breaking the light, "Me, the one true king? If you cannot discern my identity in the presence of my magnificent glory, then your ignorant blindness will serve to seal your doom!"

On that note two golden portals opened up around the golden man, a sword and a spear slowly peeking from within them. All viewing it noted that such a thing must be his Noble Phantasm. Saber quickly shielded Irisviel with her body, which was somewhat annoyingly shielded by Marrok's immediately after. Archer braced to fire the weapons at Iskandar, but it was then that Marrok heard a voice in his ear via magic. It was Kariya.

"If that is Archer it is Tokiomi's servant! Kill him and find the bastard!"

Marrok walked forward and to the side so that if were fired on he would not be putting his king in the line of fire, "Booze hound!'

Saber glanced at her advancing ally, "Marrok?"

The golden warrior snapped his attention to the king's hound, "You dare call me that, you filthy dog?"

"You did respond to it."

"Tsk!"

"You insult my king and my master has bid me to kill you. By my honor I challenge you to a duel."

Saber called out, "Marrok. Be careful. If you need assistance..."

"I will not involve you in this, my king. This is my duty."

Archer aimed his weapons at Marrok, "You dare think yourself worthy enough to challenge me to a battle? This is not worthy of the name duel or even fight. This is simply your death!"

The two weapons fired and Marrok just dodged to he side. The number doubled, wider this time, so Marrok dodged forward. Archer was livid.

Marrok was smug, "If all you have is a straight line attack from one direction, maybe you should fire at a speed that can actually hit a servant?"

Archer sneered at his foe, "One direction? Very well. You are at least competent enough to make a valid point."

Marrok only avoided the sword launched from behind him because he was quick-thinking and heard the firing. If he hadn't thought ahead that it might be possible as Archer was talking, he would be suffering worse than a deep cut across the arm. There were four more swords that came from the front to where he dodged to. They were too fast now that Archer was annoyed. One hit him in the knee, another in the shoulder. Marrok barely dodged the other two.

He stumbled, falling back onto his other knee. There was no cry of pain however. Only frustration. The wolf knight simply tore the lance from his leg and sword from his shoulder and stood up again as if he were fine. Fine other than breathing heavily.

Archer scoffed, "How many more of my weapons will I have to waste by sullying them on you? Oh well, I didn't care much for those anyway. And these are not really my color."

From the left and diagonally forward almost a the same time, another from front left. That was the one that hit, and it was stronger than the others, blowing the knight back into a storage container. When the dust cleared, Marrok was standing. Hunched over and breathing very coarsely... and his breastplate mostly blown off. Beneath as a silver-haired but still human chest. Far too much hair to be human though.

"AGGGGH!" Marrok howled, the madness creeping up. He still had his reasoning, and knew he could not simply keep taking shots.

He charged, dodging two more attacks from the left and right, then leaping... then going down hard from a powerful sword to the back that would have pinned him to the ground if it had not left a crater. The next two swords made up for that though, plunging into his now armor-less back and keeping Marrok down... for a second.

Marrok stood, forcing the swords from the ground and tore his helmet from his head. Not in the sense that he pulled it off quickly. In the sense that his hands dug into the metal and ripped the thing into pieces, revealing a face caught somewhere between a man and a wolf.

Archer was disgusted, "Normally I do not mean it so literally when I call you peons Mongrels, but an actual one stands before me. I overestimated you. You are further beneath me than I thought!"

"ARRCHHHEEER!" Marrok seethed.

Then he happened to catch sight of Artoria in the corner of his eye and glanced that way. He saw her face, aghast at the sight of him.

He lost all control. The knights bellows of rage were ungodly and incomprehensible beyond some smatterings of swearing to stew his bones in urine and burn them in the feces of something unintelligible. Gone was the knight, gone even was the beast. Madness had taken him. If there had been no hope of victory for Marrok before, the mad rush straight for his foe was not exactly going to help.

The madness made no effort to dodge the swords as they flew straight at him. The madness could only see the Archer and nothing else. The madness wanted nothing more or less than the heart of the Archer. The madness... noticed an armored girl dash in front of him to deflect the attacks with her own sword. The knight wrapped the king in his arms from behind and pulled her behind him, shielding his king with his back to the Archer and her locked in his embrace. The knight could only see the king and nothing else. When the swords would not stop their path through his bestial form he let her go and pulled himself away. Pulled himself to his feet.

Saber was horrified at the sight of him. Not the bestial form anymore, the sheer number of blades in her knight. The way he looked at her, debatably sane again and refused to fall over. Instead turning around and staring straight at Archer in defiance. He did not break that line of sight as he pulled each weapon from his body one at a time.

"Kill you... for master... kill... for Arthur... kill... kill. Not lose...", he made just one step forward, starting to glow, gathering mana for something, "AGGGGGGGHHHHH!"

Iskandar was wide-eyed, "Gods! What savage loyalty! Whatever he is trying to do, Archer may have to reduce him to cinders to stop him!"

Archer summoned a wall of swords, enough to replace every inch of Marrok with swords, "You detestable, mad dog! Begone from my-"

The golden king paused and looked to the sky.

"Tokiomi, you dare pull me from the battle! I have won! Damn you!" He waved off the portals casually,and rolled his eyes, shifting his mood suddenly, "Oh well. This was beginning to bore me anyway."

The man vanished into spirit form, a discharge of mana going off that any with sharp enough senses was some sort of magic finally taking hold and teleporting the servant away. It had to have been a command seal. Marrok was livid, roaring at the crescent moon and beating the ground. The swords vanished soon after the Archer had left, and blood began to pour from the raging beast man.

Saber called out, unbeknownst to her Kariya cried out at the same time, "MARROK STOP!"

Berserker immediately fell face first to the ground.

Irisviel didn't even need to be asked what Saber wanted her to do, but hesitated to think if her husband would want her two. Assuming this display proved the knight's loyalty, she moved to heal him just as Saber implored her two. It was then she noticed it was already underway. A mix of servant natural healing and magic.

"Saber, his master is healing him. He's close."

"I know, but please help him!"

Irisviel gathered her mana and set to healing. Meanwhile, Saber stood and moved between Marrok and Rider, "Iskandar, if you have any sense of honor please leave this instant. If you attack I-"

Iskandar raised his hands, "I am no bloodthirsty tyrant. If battle must happen it must be as glorious as it can be. Once you have put your knight back together again give him my regards. Truly a tenacious warrior. You have them as well King of Knights, for not all kings are compelled to fight beside their men as you just so desperately sought to."

"I appreciate your words and your understanding, King of Conquerors. You have my respect now as well. I misjudged you at first."

"And I you. Now, I will leave you to it. Hiyah!" with a whip of his reins, Rider took to the air again and was gone in a matter of moments.

Saber turned back to Marrok as he started to stand again, "Pace yourself, Sir Marrok. Regain yourself and let the healing do its work."

Marrok was the first by a long margin to see his master Kariya risking the climb out of a nearby swear entrance. The knight motioned with a hand and dispelled his armored form completely, calling out the casual clothing his master had bought him. With that his beast form was sealed. His wounds were gone, or so it seemed. However, Kariya immediately fell over.

The thud drew Saber's attention and she leveled her sword, "Who's there?"

Kariya winced from the sheer weight he had been taking onto his mana in the past few moments, the replenishing of Marrok's human form by donning a different set of clothes was the last straw in his ability to go on. He was dead if they didn't hold to their apparently alliance.

"I'm Marrok's master, Kariya Matou."

"You did this to him?" Saber, furious, started to close the distance, but her knight weakly stopped her with a grab of the arm.

"Please. It was not his fault. I will explain later, but I'm afraid my berserker state may have drained him. Perhaps my assuming human form from that much damage as well?"

Kariya tried to sit up, "After all that draw on me that change felt like a stack of bricks."

Marrok hurried over to his master, "I apologize. I did not think that through. It is a magical construct. I thought using a complete clothing set rather than restoring my armor would help, but it seems that much damage is still very grave to repair."

"Better in the long run. It shut off the other drain. Sorry, Marrok. I'm not one hundred percent obviously and I sent you into that blindly."

"It is fine."

"Are you okay now?"

Marrok shook his head, "No, I should make sure not to turn into beast form for a day or so. This bod is not wounded, but that one is. I cannot risk it being unleashed until your mana has fully recovered from the extraction."

"Can you recover like that?"

"Yes. No problem. My real body is essentially is spirit form right now within this body."

Saber walked over and glared at the master, "I recommend you take greater care in the future, Mr. Matou. You have the life of one of my retainers at your disposal and I will not forgive you carelessly leading him to his death."

Kariya sighed, "Of all the rotten luck. No offense, King Arthur; but we were taking not a half hour ago about how it would be the worst luck if you were summoned. Next you'll tell me that Iskandar guy's Noble Phantasm is that army he mentioned. I can't win the war now. Your retainer won't betray you."

"I would never exploit such a thing to gain the grail. I must speak with my master beforehand, but I would very much like to ally with Sir Marrok once again and claim the war. In the end, we shall settle it as knights."

Kariya nodded, "It's not like I have a choice. Marrok can't fight you, and he just barely lived through that Archer."

Marrok sulked a little, but put on a brave face, "Master, I apologize. For the loss and for trying to turn it around in my crazed state. Once we hunt down that assassin lurking around, we can go somewhere to regroup and... what is a good modern term for it? Unpack everything that's happened."

"Yes. I concur." Saber offered Kariya a hand.

Kariya took it, "Sounds good."

Next Chapter: Berserker vs Saber

Author Note: Okay, that was a bit tricky, writing a guy getting the crap beat out of him to show he isn't powerful enough, while still making him seem tough, without making him seem overpowered in toughness. Next chapter will downplay the number of wounds he took. It seemed like more looking at it in the moment. I mean Saber sees tons of swords in a guy and that's it. He actually still had some of his armor on his arms and lower torso and legs taking some of those. It has been explained before his human form is kinda like a video game shield. You have to crack it open to hurt the real body.

Yes, I have way overthought the mechanics of this guy. I have a lot of time to think while working my job lol.

Anyway, except a longer delay between releases this time. Next chapter will cover A LOT of stuff so it may take a few days. Time for that slightly overdue 'has a dream of the servant's background' scene! Woo!