Chapter 119
The blood spilt on the floor turned to gold, shimmering like a mirage before it drifted up in the air, the stains fading away like they were never there in the first place. Assassin stared at where Rider had stood a moment ago, her shoulders still tense, her blade held out in front of her, before she relaxed slightly, her shoulders sagging. Picking up the baseball cap on the ground, she dusted it off, before returning it to its rightful place on her head. Pulling the scarf off the limp body of Avenger, she wrapped it around her neck, pushing one end under her ponytail, before flipping both ends behind her back, the long blue silky cloth trailing on her back.
Walking back to her Master, she gave her a nod of thanks.
"Nice assist, Gray."
"It was the least I could do."
Gray remained modest in the face of her achievement, though she didn't duck her head in embarrassment, simply tugging on the hoodie slightly, a habit left over when she used to hide her blushing face with the fabric.
Assassin looked back at Avenger, the black armor cracked and shattered in various places, her arms and legs splayed in a spread-eagled position on the ground.
"Are we going to kill her? What do you think, Gray?"
They could kill Avenger right now when she was defenseless, but it was also beneficial to keep her alive to find out how she had manifested, and who had summoned her. The problem was that when she woke up, they would have a hard time of restraining her, if that was even possible in the first place.
"Assassin, is your scarf able to bind her securely?"
MHX shook her head, the ahoge waving from side to side.
"I know what you're thinking Master, but just now when I was fighting her was a different story. She wasn't able to get a good grip to rip the scarf away from her neck, whereas if it was used to tie her up, her arms would be able to apply enough strength to tear it in two."
Gray nodded, furrowing her eyebrows as she sank in thought.
"We could try maiming her though. As a Servant, it shouldn't kill her, and it'll be a surefire way to keep her behaved. The only problem will be if she has a special ability that will activate from that, such as instantly restoring her lost limbs, but I doubt she has such an ability from her overwhelmingly offensive combat style. Still, it never hurts to be careful."
Gray looked shocked for a moment at MHX suggestion, the thought of harming her opponents why they were down never crossing her mind, let alone cutting their limbs off. But what she said made sense, and it was probably the best course of action if they wanted to preserve Avenger for research purposes as well to find out the cause of the problems in the Holy Grail. El-Melloi was quite sure the rogue Servant was related to the corrupted knife they had been given, and the armor itself seemed similar in some respects.
"I suppose...if that's the only way, we'll do it."
Assassin nodded, then withdrew her sword again, the golden blade extending from the hilt. Walking over to Avenger's fallen body, she took aim at the exposed points in the armor on the backs of the knees and the elbows. With Avenger still unmoving, it was an easy task to strike these weaknesses in the armour structure.
*swish*
The golden blade flashed, slicing and dipping at four points quickly. Out of thoughtfulness for her Master, she didn't completely cut off the limbs, instead targeting the muscles and nerves connecting the arms and legs, severing them just enough that Avenger would be severely hampered if she tried to move them, essentially rendering her disabled, instead of outright becoming an amputee.
Small spurts of blood shot up, then fell back down. Avenger's body twitched at the stimulation, Avenger's eyes fluttering briefly, but a firm stomp on the back of her helm, the open space between her helm and gorget that showed the dark undersuit, with Assassin's boot quickly put her back to sleep as soon as the Servant sensed her awakening.
Gray nodded, then gestured down the hallway.
"Carry her, then let's go meet up with the others."
Assassin slung Avenger over her shoulders, Avenger's torso directly above her neck, while her arms dropped on the right side, and the legs were secured with her left arm to prevent them from flopping around. Hunched over slightly to let Avenger rest on her upper back, she caught up to her Master, walking besides her as she chatted with her the rest of the way.
Flat carried Ayaka on her back, considering her body's condition that slowed her down if they let her walk. Instead, they entered the sewers with Flat still carrying her, Waver going ahead to set up their escape vehicles in advance. Setting Ayaka down against the sewer wall, Flat stretched, rolling his arms in his shoulder sockets as he ironed out a few kinks in his muscles from shouldering her weight for so long.
As he was massaging his own shoulders, he abruptly sensed the use of magecraft nearby, his eyes whipping to the opposite end of the tunnel they were in, beyond where Waver was setting up the quad bikes, dispelling the warding spells placed on them.
"Mentor, watch out!"
Waver stepped back from the quad bikes, using them as cover for his body as he half hid his body behind their bulky frames, his head peeking out over them as he crouched, keeping most of his profile behind the vehicles. Riffling in his overcoat pockets, he palmed a couple of crystals into his hand, his Circuits revving up in preparation.
A cobalt bird outlined in glowing wire appeared around the corner, the blue giving way to white as it gently flapped its wings, though it didn't need to do so in order to hover.
"Greetings, magi of the Clock Tower. My name is Illya von Einzbern of the Einzbern family. How do you do?"