Orginal Archive of Our Own Posting Date: September 1, 2020
"Nice night for a stroll in the woods, don't you think?" I asked the female Servant, who tilted her head slightly at me. Next to me, I can feel the three women and single man staring at me in their own confusion. I was trying to banter with the intruder to buy time for the others to join us properly, as well as try to develop a plan.
While a lot of problems this singularity have been solved by simply throwing Mordred and the other Servants at the problem, I don't want to risk one of them getting injured, nor do I want to lose the chance to reduce the enemy's ranks.
The Servant nodded with a serene smile tinged with sadness. "It is, but also a lonely night," she sighed. Jeanne kept her flagpole leveled at her, eyes hardened and ready for combat.
"Who are you?" She asked, causing a puzzled expression on our foe.
"Who?" She echoed. "Let's see, I wonder who I am. I forced myself to be a righteous saint, but in this world I'm a slave to a broken one."
"DO you mean the Dragon Witch?" I asked, being given a nod as a response.
"Yes. Thanks to her, my reason has left, replaced with madness," she replied, lowering her head apologetically. "I am doing everything I can to hold myself back. What a mess this is," she sighed.
"So, there's no chance for you to join us and stop the Dragon Witch, then?" Jeanne asked.
"While I appreciate the offer, and your hopes, I regretfully cannot do so. After all, you don't want a Servant who'll stab you from behind at the first opportunity, do you?" I sense Mordred stiffen, perhaps feeling insulted. Whether our foe meant to or not, I cannot tell. I nudge her gently with my elbow, and she slips back into her fighting stance.
"Then why did you come here?" Jeanne asked, having not noticed my little exchange with the Saber.
"My task was to observe you, but my waning reason whispers that I should test you." Test us? Is she being serious about how she is viewing the inevitable fight we are simply prolonging at this point?! "You face the Dragon Witch. Disaster Incarnate, riding on the 'ultimate' dragon'. If you cannot surpass me, you will never defeat her or her minions." By this point the female Servant was tightly gripping her weapon, gritting her teeth as traces of bloodlust start to show.
"Defeat me. Plunge your blade into my heart without hesitation or pity! My True Name is Martha, a member of the Rider-class! Now come to me, Iron Dragon Tarasque!" A bright light fills the forest, forcing me to raise a hand over my eyes as I closed them. I feel someone pushing me backwards.
"Martha…Saint Martha? Oh no…" Doctor Roman said, concern leaking out of his voice as the light behind her began to fade. "Watch out everyone! Saint Martha once defeated a dragon with nothing but prayers! If she really is a Servant who is about to fight you, that means she's a dragon rider!" The words of both the Servant and Doctor Roman connected as one of the many tales of dragons that my mom had read to me before bedtime.
Opening my eyes, I see that Sasaki, Mordred, and Jeanne were forming a line. Standing next to me was Marie, a grim expression on her face as a roar filled the clearing. Standing behind the Berserker Rider was a monstrosity.
The full moon that shone its light allowed me to see its full features. It stood on six short, bear-like legs that supported an oxen-like body. A scaly tale swished aggressively through the air behind it, the appendage ending with a barbed sting like one would find on a scorpion. Protecting its back was a domed-shape shell that looked similar to one that you would find protecting a turtle, though the spikes jutting out was new.
The most horrifying aspect to me, though, was its face. It was shaped vaguely like a human, but with the features of a lion. It snarled at us, faint clouds of smoke billowing from its flared nostrils, hinting at the possibility of it being a fire-breather. It's smoldering black eyes were narrowed as it roared again, forcing me to cover my ears.
Reborn once more was the Tarasque. A true dragon, unlike the horde of wyverns that we had encountered. A flicker of terror was ignited at the sight of it. "Hey, Jeanne," I said, licking suddenly dry lips, "Is there any chance you could say a prayer or something to tame that dragon?" I asked, a bit hysterical. In my defense, though, it's a dragon! Jeanne didn't respond, undoubtedly recognizing that I was trying to make a joke and not succumb to fear.
"Jacob Senpai!" I turned around to see Mash, Ritsuka, and the rest of the Servants coming towards us. Upon seeing the dragon, Mash and her Master briefly fumbled upon seeing the dragon, before Chulainn nudged them from behind. Chulainn and Mash joined the line, while Medea and Amadeus followed Ritsuka as he stood beside me.
"Hell of a way to wake up," I muttered to a nervous Ritsuka, who grunted in agreement.
"Got a plan?" I hesitated for a brief second before nodding.
"Yeah. Have Mash and Chulainn focus on either distracting or better yet, defeating her dragon. I'll have Sasaki help you out. Jeanne and Mordred will engage the Servant. You ok with that?" I said quietly.
"Good luck," Ritsuka said, and I nodded in response. "Mash! Chulainn! Focus on the dragon!"
"Orders understood, Senpai!"
"You got it!"
I turned to my three Servants before me. "Sasaki, support Mash and Chulainn." The Assassin neither spoke nor looked back, bowing his head slightly as a sign of acknowledgement before shifting his posture towards the now-advancing Tarasque. "Mordred, Jeanne. Work together and take down that Rider!"
"You got it!" Mordred said a bit savagely, raising Clarent over her head in preparation for her first attack.
"Understood," Jeanne said in a calmer tone, though no less ready to fight.
A nod from Martha was the last thing I saw before everyone sprang into action in the blink of an eye. The Tarasque howled as it charged forward, as did Mordred. Mash slammed her shield into the ground, glyphs glowing in the air before it as the dragon bore down on her. Flashes of blue, red, purple, and metal as Sasaki, Chulainn, and Jeanne began their own attacks. Medea flung out her arm and a purple shield of energy was raised just in time to divert a stream of burning fire that had been aimed at Ritsuka and I.
Overwhelmed by the various sights in the first few seconds of combat, I shook my head as I silently reprimand myself. 'Focus, Jacob. Ritsuka has the dragon, you have the suped-up Servant to focus on,' I thought.
Looking back at the fight between Servants, I wince as I see the butt of Martha's staff connect solidly to Mordred's midriff, sending her sprawling backwards. The Knight of Rebellion recovered quickly, however, getting back to her feet, no doubt growling in frustration. Martha flicked her staff, deflecting Mordred's swing of Clarent before jumping back slightly, avoiding being impaled by Jeanne's flagstaff.
The Ruler's eyes widened when the Berserker Rider grabbed the shaft of the flagpole and yanked on it, throwing Jeanne off-balance. She released a low grunt as Martha dragged her into an extended elbow, causing her to bend over, winded from the impact. Before Martha could deliver another blow, however, Mordred threw herself back into the fray, slamming an armored gauntlet into her mouth.
Martha's head snapped to the side, a light spray of blood flying out as she stumbled backward. However, she waved her staff a bit wildly, preventing Mordred from delivering a successful follow-up attack.
I bit my lip nervously while watching. The way the battle was going, at least on my end, was completely different from La Charité. At the time, I had dismissed Jeanne Alter's words to Vlad about holding back as merely venting over an unexpected defeat. Now I was reconsidering those words as I watched Mordred and Jeanne struggling against Martha.
A lucky shot from Martha saw her staff slam into the side of Mordred's torso, disrupting the Saber's guard. Before she could recover, the Berserker Rider struck out again, taking full advantage of the gap. I winced at the dull clang of Martha's silvery cross slamming into Mordred's helmet. The Saber stumbled backwards, disoriented from the concussive force of the blow no doubt, and didn't notice the round house kick that sent her sprawling onto the floor, Clarent slipping out of her grasp.
"Mordred!" Jeanne and I both shouted, as the former rushed in to give her fellow blonde a chance to recover, delivering a rapid set of jabs and thrusts that didn't cause her to over-extend her guard or give her opponent another chance to grab the weapon after a missed strike. Eventually, one manages to get through, ripping the sleeve open on the right side and delivering what looked like a long, shallow cut to Martha's right arm.
I opened my mouth to cheer when the Berserker Rider merely snarled and headbutted a surprise Jeanne once, twice, three times in rapid succession. I wince at hearing the sound of bone breaking, the cause being Jeanne's nose. The now-injured Ruler gasped in pain and shock, before Martha slapped her in the face with the flat of the cross, dazing my temporary Servant as blood leaked down her right cheek from the blow as well as from her broken nose.
Martha raised her weapon over her head like a club, madness dancing cruelly in eyes that only minutes ago had been peaceful. "Jeanne!" I cried, starting to move forward before one of the Casters or Marie, I did not know who, grabbed my shoulder. I fight to break free, unwilling to let another comrade die before my eyes, unwilling to let another Director Animusphere down, when an armored hand grabs the cross from behind.
Mordred's helmet was retracted, her green eyes burning in fury. "That's enough you bitch," I heard her snarl, lips curled back in anger.
Still in the grips of madness, the Berserker Rider tried to yank her weapon out Mordred's hand. Too close to swing or even thrust properly with her sword, Mordred instead slams the pommel of Clarent into Martha's gut, bending the saint over for once. A follow-up knee strike sent her flying through the air, minus her weapon.
Flipping through the air, Martha landed on her feet as Mordred tossed the staff she held over her back. "You managed to get in some good blows, I'll admit that," Mordred growled dangerously, eyes locked onto the enemy Servant. "But I'm finishing this here and now. I've come too far to be beaten this early!" As she shouted those words, red lightning crackled off of her body.
"MANA BURST!" The Knight of Rebellion said as she activated the ability, increasing her speed and strength before launching herself forward once more. A cruel grin unbefitting of a saint was all Martha replied with before darting forward, becoming a blur of motion.
Then, there is a sickening sound, and the two reappeared. Mordred's shoulders moved up and down as she looked into the eyes of Saint Martha, whom she had just impaled with Clarent. The Berserker Rider tried to move forward, but it did no good. Then I noticed the mad glint in her eyes being replaced with calm and pain.
Mordred did it. She had defeated the first of the Berserker Servants we would face. Unlike the other times that she had won the fight, though, there was no clear expression of victory on her features, but one of grudging respect.
At that moment, a howl filled with anger and pain caused me to look away. The large form of Martha's dragon began to fade away in the golden dust that the Berserker Rider herself began to. A battered Chulainn pulls his cursed spear out of the breast of the monster, red eyes warily watching the dying creature.
"…I see," Martha coughed up blood, some of it drippling down the corner of her mouth. "That's enough," she said with great effort. Jeanne looks at her fellow saint with a pained expression.
"Martha," the Ruler began to speak, her voice nasally from the broken nose that thankfully had stopped bleeding. "Did you-"
"Hold back?" Martha laughed, grimacing as she finished the Ruler's question. "Of course not. This is fine." You call getting impaled by a sword fine?! "It's better this way, that I didn't kill any of you. Trust me, don't make a saint massacre you!" No one laughed at the weak joke. By this point, the lower half of the dying Servant had faded out of existence. She didn't have much time left, and she knew it. "Listen, let me tell you a thing or two." She said, a serious expression once more present.
"Is it about that 'ultimate dragon' you mentioned earlier?" I asked, receiving a nod. Ritsuka and Mash were now standing by us.
"Yes. As you stand now, none of you will be able to defeat the dragon controlled by the Dragon Witch. Fortunately, there is a way to surpass that type of dragon. Lyon…go to the city once known as Lyon. There, you will find a dragon slayer capable of killing it." I nodded my head in thanks, but the purple-haired Servant was no longer looking at us, her gaze instead focused on her companion. The creature was only a shrinking head looking at its master with a sorrowful expression. "Tarasque, forgive me," she whispered as the dragon finished dissolving, herself also almost completely gone. "Next time…I hope I'll be summoned…properly…"
Her voice faded away with her body, leaving behind a wrecked clearing in a moonlight forest. For a long moment no one said anything, exhausted from either the strain and stress (in the case of Ritsuka and I) or injuries. Finally, Jeanne d'Arc broke the silence.
"Even Saint Martha can't resist her," she said, sounding in pain. I had a feeling the pain wasn't from a broken nose or any other injury she may have sustained during the fight. Before I could try to say something comforting, however, Mash beats me to it.
"She'd undergone Madness Enhancement, in addition to being summoned," she reminded the forlorn-looking saint. "Perhaps it can't be helped. Normally, it should have been impossible to even talk to her. The only reason we managed to do so was because of her incredible self-control."
"Oui. She was a peaceful, yet fierce, person in life," Marie chimed in, walking over and resting a delicate hand comfortingly on Jeanne's right shoulder. "She is the Iron Saint. She is a woman like adamantine, who solved problems with her fists to the end." The words seemed to comfort her fellow countrywoman. It seems that the two of them had grown rather close as friends while I was asleep.
"They say she defeated the Tarasque with a sermon, but I bet she just beat it up," Amadeus mused absentmindedly. I tried laughing but only managed to make an awkward chuffing sound. I shake my head and clear my throat.
"Well, we have our next destination then. Question is, do we wait for daybreak to break camp or head out now?" The composer was the first to respond, rather enthusiastically as well.
"Thanks to the actions of Saint Martha, we know where we're going. I say we should hurry and get to Lyon before we miss the chance to meet our dragon slayer!"
Behind me, I could hear Mash whispering quietly to Marie, sounding both surprised and confused by the jovial expression on Amadeus's face. "I'm surprised. Amadeus seemed like, um, the type of person who'd hate to travel on foot," she confessed, causing the Rider to giggle slightly before answering.
"Oh no, Amadeus loves traveling," Marie replied. "He's travelled to many places ever since he was a child." Before we could be further distracted, however, I cleared my throat, gaining everyone's attention.
"Amadeus, while I am delighted to see your enthusiasm, I wish to remind you that this battle was not without injuries. Ritsuka, can you check on the injuries sustained by your Servants as well as Sasaki, while I do the same with mine?" As soon as I heard his confirmation of agreement, I walked briskly over to Jeanne and Mordred.
"How bad is you nose, Jeanne?" I asked hurriedly to the injured Ruler. Jeanne winced slightly as she gingerly touched it. I know that Servants have better endurance than humans, but that doesn't mean they can't feel pain from injuries of any kind.
"It's broken, but it seems that the blood has clotted. I think a short rest would allow for it to heal properly, though I can still fight if we decide to not wait. I nodded, chewing on the inside of my right cheek softly before shifting my gaze towards the shorter of the two blondes.
"What about you, Mordred?" The knight grimaced at my question, before turning to the side and spitting out a glob of blood.
"I think that saint broke a few ribs. It hurts like a bitch, but I should be fine in a few hours," she grunts. I try not wince at those words as the image of my Servant and friend being surrounded and beaten by a cluster of skeletons came unwanted to my memory. Nearby, I could hear Ritsuka asking similar questions.
In addition to the injuries sustained by Jeanne and Mordred, Mash had been burned slightly on her right side, Chulainn had a fracture wrist from a mistimed spear thrust that bounced off of the shell of the Tarasque, and Sasaki a sprained ankle from a hidden tree root. While no one had been critically injured, it would still take a few hours for the minor injuries to heal if we wanted our main hitting force to operate at maximum efficiency. Considering the fight we just endured, and that there were at least four other enhanced Servants still on the prowl, it seemed like a stupid risk. On the other hand, though, there was still the fact that Amadeus had pointed out of the risk of this mysterious dragon slayer either moving to a different area of France, or worse, cut down by Jeanne Alter and her cronies.
"Well, I think it is a good thing then that I have an idea to fix everyone up," Marie said cheerfully, causing everyone, even Amadeus, to look at her with questioning looks. "While my Noble Phantasm is mainly an Anti-Army type, it does have a very useful side effect. If I allow it, it heals any number of my allies, restoring mana and removing any burns, curses, or toxins."
"Well, that is a relief. If you think it is a good idea, Marie, then go for it," Ritsuka said with a clearly relieved smile. I nodded in agreement. After all, this would remove the only argument that I had to support the idea of waiting a few hours before moving, even though Ritsuka and I would get little if any more sleep.
"Wishing to blossom, visibly in the open! Dancing, to blossom in full glory! Passing through, Guillotine breaker!" A bright light surrounded us, and I felt a soft, warm, tingling sensation in my body. I felt re-energized.
When it fades away, I blink my eyes several times to re-adjust to the darkness of the night. Once I had done so, my jaw drops slightly. While dried blood still clung to Jeanne's nose and upper lip, her nose had been restored to its proper shape. The cut that had accompanied the injury had healed, leaving not even a scar.
I turned to Mordred, out of her armor once more, who was gingerly pressing a hand to her bare side, an eyebrow raised before she looked at the Rider with an impressed expression. I released a soft chuckle, shaking my head in relief as I saw that Marie's plan had worked out.
"Wow, that was amazing Marie!" Ritsuka said excitedly, drawing a pleased expression from the French queen.
"I might not be the best front-line fighter of the group, but I can still help in both taking down enemies and healing. Just try to not require me to use it after every battle. Guillotine Breaker can be a bit of a mana drain for me." Ritsuka and I nodded in understanding before looking at one another with determined expressions on our faces.
With our party back in top fighting condition, and the advice of a defeated adversary to guide our next move, we were one large step closer to storming Orléans, defeating the Dragon Witch, and securing the Holy Grail.
"Well, let's pack up our camp and start to move. If I am judging the position of the moon correctly, dawn is only a few hours away. Let's get as much distance from here as possible before more enemies arrive." Receiving signs of agreement, I adopted a confidant expression, resting my hands on my hips. "Next stop, Lyon!"
Orginal notes: And done! In this fight scene, my train of thought was that it would be harder for our heroes because unlike with Berserker Lancer and Berserker Assassin, Martha declared her intention to go all out. I also kinda imagined her fighting style to be a combination of both her Rider and Ruler forms. Also, I thought that to balance things out, that she would summon her mount, the Tarasque, and have it fight, even though that isn't quite the case in-game. Thoughts on the idea? Also, let me know what you thought of what you think of this fight. Another thing of note: I actually have another story that I am planning out based on a dream that I had. Unlike the Will to Fight, it will be an AU crime/mystery/drama in a college setting with Master Candidates and Servants. I might end up not putting it out, and even when/if I do, it won't take over priority for this story. I'll probably talk mroe about it in another A/N in a future chapter, but I wanted to test the waters with the basic ideas. Now, for the fun part of every chapter ending, the questions! Question number one: Of the Berserker Servants in the First Singularity (Berserker Lancer, Berserker Saber...ectara), which one(s) were your favorite? Question 2: This is more because I like to know, but what drew you into this story? Anyways, hope you all enjoyed, and see you next chapter!