Chapter 110
Craters appeared on the ground with each step, the black greaves breaking the concrete easily as the sound echoed off the walls. The light's mounted on the ceiling flickered as she passed, the vibrations from her running so violent they shook the housings and made the lights flicker. The sequence of lights flickering on and off made it even harder to catch a glimpse of Avenger, the black armor easily blending in with the shadows. The air moving out of her way became a slipstream of wind behind her, the howl of the wind reaching all the way to the Servant fleeing her.
Rider couldn't spare a glance behind her even with the crashing footsteps, roars and constant howling behind her, focused solely on staying one step ahead of the monstrous being chasing her. She was already using water to coat the ground behind her and make the floor slippery, shooting randomly without looking behind her, but they barely did anything to slow down Avenger. The Servant of hate already knew what tricks she had up her sleeve, and she easily bulldozed through them, not even serving as a distraction in the slightest. Doing anything more would distract Rider and slow her down, which wasn't something she could afford.
The question of why Avenger had suddenly shown up hovered in the back of her mind, but she could only focus on running and ignored everything else. The high heeled shoes weren't suited for running in the first place, but with Rider's strength and agility, she was somehow able to make it look easy, the maid shoes that were part of her costume not hindering her in the slightest. Pumping her arms like mad, she had dematerialized her broom owing to its length, which could easily smack into the floor and walls while she moved, and was only holding her handgun. The dark jacket she wore flapped in the wind as she moved, her speed similarly producing wind as she ran with all her might. Her hair, her white skirt, the fluffy white frills on her head, they all plastered against her body as the wind pressed down on them, the tapping of her shoes with each step making them bounce in time with it.
If one looked at their parameters, they were equally agile, with little to differentiate them. However, while Avenger was clad in heavy plate armor in contrast to Rider's light-weight, minimalistic swimsuit maid outfit, Avenger also had the advantage of using Mana Burst, with an unlimited supply of energy to back it up.
The concrete deteriorated further with each step as Avenger activated the skill, red energy blasting out of her feet like rocket flames as the floor simply disappeared, Avenger shooting forward with more than double of her previous speed. No attempts to curb the amount of energy spent was made, excessive amounts of mana pumped into her legs in a horribly inefficient manner, but it was more than enough to let her quickly shrink the distance between her and Rider.
In response, Rider's back suddenly became a vortex of water from Avenger's point of view. The broom manifested again in her hands, and she pointed the brush towards the back, and water spat out of it.
*SHOOM*
Faster than a car, the broom propelled her at great speeds, the walls speeding past in a grey blur as the wind threatened to tear off the white brim on her head and strip off her jacket. Tucking her body smaller and shrinking the surface area to reduce air resistance, she jumped onto the broom and used it like a water jet engine, riding on the red shaft like the witches from fairy tales, except it was a modern broom that shot out water to fly.
The water expelled from the back crashed in great quantities against Avenger, hitting the black armor with far greater power than an anti-riot water cannon could ever make. It was almost on the same level as her sniper rifle shot, though the water was less concentrated than the beam, and instead more like an expanding cone. Nevertheless, it was still able to slow down Avenger, even with the Mana Burst applied to her dashing. The water rang on metal, Avenger's ears drowning with the flood that rang inside the hollow sections of her armor. Yet she continued straight on, challenging the flood as it resisted her movements, thrusting her chest forward as she dug into the floor with even more power, rage-filled eyes refusing to lose sight of the source of their hatred in front of them.
Increasing the output of the jet of water, it became a massive swirl behind the broom that completely blocked the corridor, a shooting waterfall of liquid that drowned everything behind the broom. Avenger lost sight of everything ahead of her, the water blocking everything in sight as the liquid seeped in through the small cracks and gaps in the armor, filling everything up with water as she lost her footing with the water surging all around her, wrapping her entire body in a massive flood. The Mana Burst did little to help her, instead actively hindering her movements as she slammed straight into the ceiling while having it fully active, the water floating her and changing her direction to face upwards.
Yet that failed to dissuade Avenger even by a little, the maddened Servant slamming two hands into the ceiling, digging the fingers wrapped in metal and stabbed holes into the ceiling to reorient herself, before blasting off once more with Mana Burst acting like some type of underwater propeller, a red streak in the shadowy water. It barely took the Servant seconds to recover from the sudden flood, easily adapting and overcoming it.
It was to Avenger's surprise when she almost immediately broke out of the flood of water, almost crashing into the ground when Mana Burst came out in the air , electricity crackling in the water as she skimmed on the surface after bursting out into the air. Water evaporated into steam wherever the red energy touched it, creating a white trail behind Avenger. With an expert spin and dragging her fingers on the closest wall, she slowed herself down and landed safely. Her sabatons dug into the concrete, raising a cloud of dust as she braked hard with the water coating her entire body, before she finally came to a stop. Behind her, the water quickly dropped, becoming a wide expanse of liquid that was barely ankle deep, the level dropping fast as well as the water spread further.
Ahead of her, Avenger saw the last remnants of the watery vortex that was a mighty flood earlier, the clear liquid splashing onto the ground as a mere puddle. Rider was nowhere to be seen, and as Avenger watched the now unpowered broom fell to the ground and promptly dematerialized, returning to its owner. All that was left was the water, dripping from cracks and pouring out in small streams from Avenger's armor, joining that water on the ground that was by now barely a centimeters thick surface on the floor.
Rider was unable to lose Avenger earlier due to the fact that the corridor outside the room where Ayaka had hidden was a straight one, with no T-sections, stairs or anything else connecting it. It was simply one way left, and one way right. Hence, Avenger was able to escape the mud trap in seconds and immediately rush out the corridor to spot Rider and chase after her. Afterwards, it was different story when Rider got further ahead, and by blocking Avenger's view of her with the water while picking up speed, she had jumped off the broom into one of the side passages, leaving the broom to go on to fool Avenger into thinking that she was still riding it while dashing off in a completely different direction. After that several twists and turns, she had dematerialized, further reducing her presence and making it harder for her to be detected, with the broom disappearing as well, the jet of water going with it.
Just like that Rider shook off Avenger's pursuit, the entire clash and chase to escape from start to finish lasting no more than 5 minutes. Rider was significantly more tired though, expending a large chunk of energy in fighting her and firing all those water beams and flood, with Sakura currently resting on the couch in the living room due to the mana draining affecting her condition. Avenger on the other hand, barely suffered any injuries besides a dent in her helm, and had plenty of energy to spare.
"rrrRRRRrrr…"
A low growl emitted from the mindless Servant's throat, Avenger standing there as the water fell from her armor, gliding down her slick black armor in lines. Shaking her head like a dog, water sprayed on the walls and floor, and she swung her sword with power as well, scattering the water on it like raindrops until it was dry once more.
Tilting its head, it considered the passages it could go down, looking at them one by one. Even though Rider had escaped for now, Avenger could still feel that she was close by, even with her spiritual body and not in the material realm. That was just how strongly Mordred felt about her, easily sensing her presence close by no matter how well-hidden an Artoria could be.
Randomly picking a path, the Servant stalked the passageways once more, searching for her prey.