Author's Note: Quick clarification from my note last chapter. When I said the fic probably won't hit 20 I was not including the intermission chapter and that count isn't guaranteed. Just a probably thing. Plus just because this Grail War is ending soonish, it doesn't mean the story is done. There's actually going to be a follow-up fic set in the Fifth Grail War and maybe some in-between content. Even after that one ends I'm planning a Grand Order follow-up to that one and am considering a slightly more tongue-in-cheek spin-off where someone from this timeline gets pulled into the main timeline's fifth war. The Fourth Grail War is ending in around 20 total chapters, the story will barely be halfway done. Not even halfway if I wasn't considering the Grand Order sequel as sort of a spin-off of the main story of this. Trust me. If you like this fic's timeline and characters you will have plenty more of it.

Chapter Eleven: Among the Ruins

Sakura screamed in terror as the skin of the father she had rejected was tossed aside. Thankfully, her brain didn't process the sight of the rest of him as it was cast away as well and her eyes could not see the details of the hundreds of skin familiars rushing down the walls of the building they had once called home.

Days before, as Kayneth had been reeling from his loss, he'd struck a deal with the devil. Viviane had sworn he would get a servant if he simply allowed them to function within the building he had fortified. He had no idea what he was agreeing to, the things that had been done to the families in there over that time. And when the plan had him fleeing from Berserker and running through the parking lot in the basement, he still didn't know what he'd dealt with when he met Viviane there once again, with a monstrous chimeric servant beside her.

"What is that thing?" Sola had asked, revulsion evident.

Viviane, cloaked in shadows and her face behind a veil, smiled, "An Avenger class servant, the strongest servant in the war. His master died at the hands of Saber."

Kayneth scoffed, "What use have I for a servant that can't protect his master?"

"His master's death was the plan. He wasn't even a mage, so he summoned an incomplete servant. With a true magus, Avenger can become whole and dominate the war. You are a true magus, and in need of a servant. Enemies knock at your gates do they not?"

"Kayneth, I don't like this."

"Quiet, Sola. If it's as strong as you claim I'll contract with it. Servants can't harm their masters when the seal is in effect, so its fine."

Viviane grinned, though it could not be seen, "Actually I was not asking for your permission."

"What?"

Avenger raised its two remaining command seals, burning both, "Destroy everything of Artoria Pendragon. Destroy Artoria Pendragon!"

"Why does it have command seals?"

In the present, Avenger in the body of Kayneth, reinforced with four entire command seals, reached down for the screaming Sakura. The screams flowed into the ears of Marrok, as the swords from Archer's Noble Phantasm were finally called back to the servant. Those screams filled him with anger and duty and despite all of the blood pouring from his wounds he stood, calling upon his lycanthropy to heal what wounds they could. Forcing himself into a hybrid form of wolf and man, he pulled Sakura out of Avenger's reach and swung a beastly claw at his foe as he howled in pain from fighting at the many things pulling his origin many directions.

Avenger's head did not move a centimeter. The claws found no purchase.

Thinking fast, Marrok pushed further, struggling to get into human form. In beast form he had only brute power. No noble phantasms to attack with. However, thanks to the relic the Matou family had used to summon him, the sheer brute force Avenger had called upon would be easy to counter if he could get into human form to draw it. And draw it he did. The second he wrenched his human form enough into existence for it to appear where he'd sheathed it.

"Secace, Sword of-"

Square in the chest was where Avenger planted his arm blade, impaling the wolf one more time, driving him to the ground with the overwhelming power Avenger had given himself. Secace clattered to the ground and skittered away.

Avenger gloated as dozens of familiars started dropping down, "Hehehe, did you mean to say Sword of Burning Victory? I'm not about to let you activate that Noble Phantasm again."

As his foe stabbed him again, Marrok couldn't hold on to his human form, but howled, "Go get Saber!"

Sakura understood the noise the came out of the wolf's mouth. It didn't register or even matter to her that she could understand wolf for some reason. It also didn't matter what he'd said. Sakura had no intention of running as one more stab came down. Instead, she ran for Secace.

Avenger started towards her, "NO!"

Marrok threw himself at the thing's legs, trying to at least trip the monster. He did, but even simply a toe slamming into him from such an empowered creature broke one of Marrok's ribs. It slowed Avenger down at least.

Sakura didn't know how it worked, but Marrok had tried to say its name and Avenger had stopped him. It had to work like Sailor Moon right? Sakura grabbed the blade and lifted it, "Stop hurting him! I won't let any of you monsters hurt him!"

Avenger stumbled closer.

"Secace! Sword of Burning Victory! GO!"

The mana of the sword flared up and surrounded Sakura in blue flame. As hundreds of familiars joined in the attack, Sakura swung her finishing strike. It would be a fair fight. One magical girl versus one servant empowered by four command seals and exactly 469 lesser demons.

The entire city was woken up by the sound of the sonic boom. Some even caught a glimpse of a skyscraper being lifted into the air and then reduced to almost nothing but powder from the force of the swing blasting it into the upper atmosphere. Tiny bits of five star hotel and skin familiar would be raining down on the city for hours. After that single swing from a small child protecting her adopted father from an army of demons, there was seemingly nothing left but the two of them. Marrok briefly worried for Kariya, but somehow did not feel the loss of his master even though he'd been in there.

Sakura was dumbstruck for a second.

Marrok winced, "Fair fight indeed."

The girl ran over to the wolf trying to stand, "No, stay still, let me heal you."

"Sakura, good work there. You should know though that sword's power only makes the fight fair physically. So when you challenged that army you became as strong as all of them combined to make it 'fair'. It's kind of cheating. That's not a fair fight at all. The army of lesser individuals stands no chance. The more of them the less they can win."

"That doesn't matter anymore." Sakura poured healing magic into her papa wolf.

"I'm telling you this because you can't beat just that monster with that sword."

"I just did."

Avenger, its recent skin blasted away, stood from the wreckage, "YOU GOD DAMNED WHELP! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Sakura couldn't believe it.

Marrok explained, "It's a skinwalker. You basically killed a form of it, not it."

Avenger stomped forward slowly.

"What do I do?" the girl clutched the sword.

"Sakura. You can't run, the sword shuts off it you aren't fighting. You can't fight because its bigger and better at fighting than you. Being as strong and as fast as it is won't help you win. I can't help you fight it because that tips the balance. Because we'd outnumber him, it'd split his level of power between us."

"We can't win? We're going to die?"

Marrok started shifting into human form, somehow it wasn't nearly as hard. Maybe it was the healing? Maybe it was the fact his origin demanded this act above all else? Whatever it was, Marrok held to the hybrid form, the best form he had in his arsenal. The one most attributed to the werewolf legend and a blend of madness and reason. He glowed blue intensely as he tried to heal as much as he could. Given how much damage he'd taken, none of the healing he'd managed to get was enough yet.

He stood, a smile in his voice, "Go find Saber. I'll keep it busy."

Sakura offered Secace to him.

"No. Give it to Arthur. This thing used magic to boost it's stats. I'm not able to kill it in this condition and Saber won't stand a chance without Secace if it is this boosted."

"You'll die!"

Avenger punctuated that point by batting Marrok aside like a pillow, "Give me that sword!"

Sakura stood defiant, "No!"

Avenger lunged, but Sakura (just as fast as it) dove between its legs and stabbed it in the ankle.

She then started spitting out the bad language she'd picked up from that one brief exposure many nights ago, "Fuck you! You bitch!"

Two more lunges where met with the same response, Sakura briefly thinking she might be able to win. However her next try at using her size was met with a stomp to the back and her getting lifted by her sword arm.

Sakura would soon be exposed to more bad language.

"GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

A palm strike to the temple from someone made at least half its strength was still enough to make Avenger drop Sakura and that's what Marrok did as he ran up behind the creature.

"Sakura, RUN!"

Before Avenger recovered from being stunned, Marrok used his size manipulation ability to grow to about ten feet tall. Driving claws as deep as he could into Avenger's back, he lifted it over his head. Holding it by the area just over the small of the back with one hand and a now very long arm, Marrok had tapped into an old memory of the wildcat. Avenger thrashed left and right wriggled, but none of its limbs could reach Marrok's arm, and Marrok was correcting for every shift in balance. If Sakura ran and Secace switched off, Marrok could probably just hold Avenger there for at least long enough to give Sakura time to run.

"NOW!"

Sakura bolted, heading back the direction she thought the mansion was in with tears in her eyes and worry for Marrok in her heart. It didn't take her long to make two blocks at the speed of running for one's life. It was there that she realized she had no idea where she was.

"Fuck!" she yelled out, wiping tears from her eyes and sniffling with a runny nose.

On one such big sniffle, she realized she could smell things far more intensely. Even the stuffy nose from crying left her with far more of a sense of smell than she had had before. A moment passed and the chaos of the last few moments cleared from her mind, letting her make sense of it and remember. She had drank some of Marrok's blood. Sakura was a werewolf now. It stood to reason that she would have a wolf-like sense of smell.

So the smart little girl went to work clearing her nose of snot so she could use it. She could remember the flowery scent of Irisviel and Saber was always with her. If she could find that smell she could find Saber. This sound logic would not be rewarded though. As the girl was sniffing around for Irisviel, she came upon Saber by chance, who had of course seen the explosion of the building.

"SABER!" the girl didn't care that her idea hadn't really paid off. The job was done.

"Sakura!" the servant ran across the street to the girl, "Why do you have that sword? Where's Marrok?"

"Fighting some monster he called Avenger! I tried to help but I only got its first form and the army!"

Saber was briefly taken aback at that, but swiftly remembered the sword the girl had, "Good job. I'll handle it from here. Stay in this bus shelter and don't let anyone see you. I'll go save Marrok."

"Take the sword. Marrok said something about spells making Avenger too strong!"

Saber knew immediately what she meant and took the offered blade, not even taking note the girl hadn't been affected by the curse of the blade at all, "Right. In that case thank you for the assistance. I'll use this to great effect. They are still where that explosion happened, correct?"

The girl nodded, so Saber made sure Sakura hid in the shelter of the bus stop before running off to her original destination. She regretted her master's decision to find Avenger rather than support another servant that would eventually be an enemy. Despite her protests that helping Marrok would free him up to track Avenger for them, the man's judgment was clouded by Maiya apparently being infected with Marrok's lycanthropy. Maiya agreeing with Saber about helping Marrok didn't lessen the man's concerns that her loyalty might be affected by the curse in some way.

Part of her was looking forward to Maiya turning despite the risks from the Mage's Association. Marrok had confided to the Round Table that he did not fit in with normal wolves and would prefer life among humans. Even after that though, being a wolf among humans had been a struggle at first for the knight. Even after years he seemed lonely. Having someone that was a shapechanger like him, that he might... Saber clutched her loyal knight's sword tightly at the thought of her long time friend running off and them never speaking again. Not that they'd spoken much since they'd reunited. Saber clutched the sword harder.

It wasn't the time for those kinds of thoughts though, Saber made the two blocks of distance in moments, and cried out a battle cry of, "Secace! Sword of Burning Victory!"

Avenger whipped around, having escaped Marrok's trick and stabbed him once in the few minutes Sakura had been gone. The wolf promptly threw his weight into the back of Avenger's knee to throw it off balance, to hamstring the prey into the jaws of his king. Then he disengaged from the fight, running for Artoria as much as his wounded body would take him.

Artoria shouted as she shot past Marrok, "11th and Main Street, bus shelter."

"Arf!" and he bolted to find Sakura, healing as much as he could along the way.

Both of them understood how the Noble Phantasm worked. One on one was the only way to tip back in their favor the boost the command seals had given Avenger.

"Come, Avenger! This sword makes any one on one fight a test of skill and abilities. Not raw power. Can a demon, an unworthy knight, and a seductress match the skill of the King of Knights?"

Avenger rushed her, answering the challenge, Saber threw Secace point first into the ground. It didn't need to be held once the duel was on. So she went back to using Excalibur in two hands and rushed to meet Avenger. An epic test of skill. A showdown between the most famous knight in history and an abomination unlike the world had seen in centuries.

Their blades clashed, but Avenger was startled when Arthur's parry buckled immediately, using the momentum of the strike it had met to deflect the blade and bring the point of Excalibur's pommel level with Avenger's face. It was a move her loyal knight had used on her days ago, and not an uncommon one in the arsenal of skilled swordsman. Back then, it had been clear if either of them had been any lesser in skill the exchange would have ended the fight for one side or the other. So when Saber followed up by stepping around and bringing the sword straight down as a fluid part of the deflection, Avenger lost both of its arms.

It stumbled back, "No! Not fair! NOT FAIR!"

Artoria stepped back and thrust her sword straight into Avenger's heart, picking it up by the blade and lifting it overhead as she replied, "Quite the ironic Noble Phantasm is it not? Forcing a fair fight of pure skill is inherently very easy to make into an unfair fight."

Mana surged through Saber and then into her blade as she aimed for the sky.

"Ex...CALIBUR!"

Next Chapter: It's Not Unusual

Author's Note: Shorter chapter than normal, but as I was working on this I felt it better to end it here. Originally I was going to include some stuff happening back in the damaged castle (ala, still among ruins, just a different set) but that section will probably make this chapter too large. Anyway, there's pretty much all the details of Secace, a sword ability that I mentioned I've had in my head for a while and decided to make a Noble Phanstasm. Pretty neat right? An ability that makes both fighters even in all physical attributes, so the fight is technically fair. At its most base level an ability to make any fight fair. However, the ability naturally tilts the fight to the more skilled one or the one with more abilities. Additionally, the 'fair fight' stat increase against many enemies makes the disadvantaged one in numbers physically a match for the entire other side. Conceptually fair, but each individual on the more abundant side is weaker than the outnumbered guy, making the fight more unfair the greater the gap in numbers is. So effectively, it's an ability to make a fight fair, that cheats. While at the same time being totally useless or outright detrimental if the user fights a foe that is weaker, better at fighting, or has more special attacks. I thought it was a very neat concept.

That aside, next chapter we deal with the aftermath of all this action, build on that brief hint of jealousy from Saber (which is mostly platonic right now), meet back up with Kariya, and (since some things from the original anime still happen) Rider stops by for a sit down now that only 5 servants remain (Saber, Berserker, Rider, Archer, and Assassin), with Archer now without a Master. Next update will be within three days.