Chapter 15: Card Hunt

Assassin is one of the nineteen people who became leader of their order while taking on the name of Hassan-i-Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain, though clearly the one before him is neither old nor a man. It's just a traditional title. But that just means that among assassins, the woman is the best of the best. Issei will not hold back in facing her.

Even if she's a Servant, Assassin-class Servants are known to be notoriously weak in direct combat. But that doesn't make them any less dangerous. What they lack in power they make up for it with trickery. That's why Issei is keeping a close eye on the Assassin. Even if he is sure his Balance Breaker could protect him from poison, Issei is till wary.

The moment Issei charged, Assassin also made her move. Issei crashed onto the roof where Assassin was standing and the spot was instantly obliterated by the strength of the Sekiryuutei. By raw power alone, Issei is stronger than the Servant. But battle is not decided just by power.

'Ddraig!'

[She's behind you partner!]

Ddraig's warning allows Issei to get out of the way before Assassin's knives hit him. Although he's quite sure that the knives won't be able to pierce his scale mail, he doesn't want to try out that possibility since if it actually does then he's dead. It's fortunate that Ddraig keep an eye on Assassin's movement. More eyes the better as he can't afford to lose her presence or finding her again will be hard.

Although he won't underestimate Assassin, Issei is feeling lucky. This Assassin specializes in seduction and poisoning if he guesses right. Her figure clearly shows that to Issei. Issei knew he is fortunate that he met the Servant when she's in action, in the meaning of fighting directly. If she's allowed to play in her own field, Issei would've died before she could realize that the woman he's facing is an Assassin.

He is quite knowledgeable on these things. It is part of Zelretch's training package after all. You either learn or you die in a ditch somewhere. As insane as the vampire is, his training was brutal and damn effective. It allows him to achieve his scale mail two years ago.

"Blazing Edge!"

[Blade!]

Issei extend his mystic code from his left gauntlet and slashed at Assassin. The Servant jump out of the way. Issei clicked his tongue. This Assassin is agile. He had seen her movement and she's even more agile than the last one he fought. His scale mail might provide him more power and defense and overall speed but similarly, his armor makes it harder for him to catch the Assassin-class Servant. His size for one made him less flexible in movement.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't have any tricks up his sleeve.

"Ignite!"

Chanting an aria to activate his mystic code, Blazing Edge began to burn in a controlled fashion. But for good measures, Issei throw in more aria to enhance his flame. You can never be too careful with a Servant as opponent.

"I who is about to awaken

Am the one who embodies the essence of dragon in his soul."

The flame dancing around his blade turned from yellow to blue. His blade also glows due to the great heat it's exuding. Even a slight touch will be very dangerous to a Servant that doesn't have sufficient endurance or magic resistance. Issei started chasing the Assassin around while slashing with his sword.

"Haa!"

Issei try to hit Assassin. Again she dodged. This continued for several more times without Assassin attempting to fight back. All she does is dodge, not surprising as even when she's only dodging, her skin and clothes that got to close too Issei's blade gets singed. As long as Issei keeps his advantage which is in direct combat, he would eventually manage to catch Assassin. After all, Assassin was not made for direct combat.

Eventually, Issei managed to get Assassin. He managed to cut her by the shoulder. The heat emitted from his blade burn her even in the inside. Assassin winced as the pain from the flame of a dragon is too much to handle for the physically weak Servant. This made an opening for Issei to use.

Issei charge straight. But Assassin had anticipated his attack and dodged at the last second and Issei crashed into a house again. Issei quickly turn to face Assassin once again but she had disappeared.

'Ddraig.'

[She's using Presence Concealment. I cannot detect her.]

'…this is bad.'

A mistake. He took his eyes off her just once and Assassin disappeared. This is why he hates fighting assassins. Noire is more suited for this kind of battle. While Issei is looking for Assassin, Irina came up to him.

"Ise-kun, let me help you fight!"

"Irina? No, don't! This enemy is too… Irina!"

"Eh?"

Issei suddenly use his dragon wings to get behind Irina and block three knives aimed at her back. She never noticed, and neither would Issei if he had never fought an Assassin-class Servant before.

"Stay back, this opponent is not like those weak vampires you fought."

"But Ise-kun."

"No! Assassin is too dangerous and I can't protect you."

Issei had hoped that his position is switched with Noire. He's the one with more skill and agility while he has speed and power. In this fight, skill and agility matters more, not to mention Noire is more cunning due to the needs of his magecraft.

More knives came flying towards them. Issei throw Irina to the ground and parry them with his blade. Then suddenly he felt Assassin's presence. He could feel it because Assassin is right behind him and attacking. Her knives shaped like a kunai met with his armor. The scale mail cracked from the power of the Servant but fortunately, it held. Issei breathed out in relief. He was worried that he was a goner. It is only because Assassin is physically weak and her weapon is nothing special that his armor did not give out. If it were a Rider or the other Knight classes or Berserker, his armor most likely won't hold.

Assassin noticing that her knife cannot penetrate Issei's armor jump back and disappear into the darkness, erasing her presence completely.

[Partner, fighting her like this will take too long. I suggest we use wide area attack.]

'I guess we have no choice.'

Suddenly assassin appear again, but this time her target is not Issei. She appear close to Irina. Because she cannot harm Issei directly she had decided to target the more vulnerable of the two.

"Irina!"

Issei's warning allowed Irina to react on time. She drew her weapon, a standard issue light sword to block Assassin's strike. Issei went straight towards them and almost got Assassin but she disengaged and again disappear into the shadows. Ddraig is right. This will keep on going unless he goes big. Irina and Issei stood back to back with eyes peeled open, waiting for Assassin to attack once again.

Again more knives flew towards them but this time in greater number and from multiple directions. Assassin is on the move and neither knew where she is. Irina and Issei use all their skill to block the knives.

"Irina, don't let any single knife touch you."

"Yes, I know."

Assassin show herself again from their right side and charge straight at Irina. The exorcist again fend her off, trying not to receive even a glancing hit. Assassin got closer and closer. But before she could touch Irina Issei appear between them. Assassin try to escape but Issei had used his boost to move faster than normal and caught her extended hand that almost touched the exorcist.

[This girl, her body is covered entirely in poison! If you touch her even a little you will be poisoned! It's fortunate that you have the scale mail or this would've been bad.]

Issei was shocked. Irina was so close to being killed just moments earlier. Truly Assassin is a frightening Servant. Issei immediately grip the Servant's arm tightly and boost his power three times. She then hurls her towards a building and prepare his final attack the moment he let go of her arm. Using the speed provided by his scale mail's jet, he stabbed the Assassin right in the heart. He burn her from the inside out using his mystic code.

In an instant the Assassin's body turns into particle of blue light and what's left is only a single moment Assassin died, the mirror world disappear and they return to normal space. Issei deactivate his balance breaker and pick up a card. Irina rushed to his side.

"Ise-kun, are you alright?!"

She asked, worried about her childhood friend. She noticed the card Issei is holding.

"Ise-kun, what is that?"

"This? This, Irina, is a class card. This card contains the soul of a legendary hero from the past, or at least a fragment of them. That girl we fought is one of the Hassan-i-Sabbah that had existed throughout history, the one famously known as Old Man of the Mountain."

"The Old Man of the Mountain?"

"Well, one of his successors obviously. Damn, how did a class card get in here?"

"Indeed, how did it get here?"

A voice asked. Issei, without any warning, turn back and stab at the person who had appeared behind them to Irina's surprise. But he did not manage to stab the person. He instead appear right in front of a pole andhe had the unpleasant experience of getting acquainted with the pole using his face. Irina winced when he crashed.

"Ise-kun!"

The girl rushed to his side to help him while the newcomer follow behind her at a leisurely pace. When the Sekiryuutei stood up he glares at the newcomer. It is none other than Zelretch so his attempt to murder him can be understood. It's an automatic reaction when he came surprising him and Noire.

"Zelretch."

Issei speak his name bitterly.

"Is that how you greet your teacher boy? Anyway, I've come to tell you about what happen to our little friend. You do want to know what Noire is doing now, right?"

Issei nodded while praying for his friend's safety. Whatever higher power that exists knew that he will need it.

-15 months later-

More than a year had passed since that catastrophe in Romania. Issei had returned to Kuoh without Noire. Zelretch had explained what happened to him and Irina before retrieving the dhampir boy. To say that both of them are unhappy would be an understatement. Their respective partner had been abducted by the Apostle after all. Although Issei is not too worried about Noire since he had experienced Zelretch's brand of madness, Irina was at a lost on how to report Xenovia's disappearance.

Last he heard from Irina, her partner was declared MIA together and must be found. Apparently the girl is the current wielder of Durandal and the whole church is fussing about the holy sword's disappearance along with its wielder. They obviously cannot track where it is since it's in another world by now which makes them even more panicked.

Issei kept in touch with Irina through phonecalls. It's too bad that they had to go their separate ways after they just got reunited but Irina has her duties and Issei need to go home. At least now they can talk whenever they want to and if Irina need help then she can call him and he can fly to where she is using his balance breaker.

Issei's life had gone back to the usual peaceful routine of going to school, train, eat and sleep after getting back from that disastrous vacation (damn you Zelretch!). He is right now preparing to go to school. He's having breakfast when he noticed the calendar and remembered what Zelretch said.

'So Noire is going to participate in the 5th Grail War. It should start anywhere around this month.'

[It would be fun to participate in that war. It's not everyday that you get to fight a legendary hero.]

'No thanks Ddraig. I already had enough of that. Speaking of which…'

Issei also remembered what Zelretch said. It appears there are several class cards scattered in the dimensional gap. He apparently dropped them by accident (yeah right) and those cards need to be retrieved. The class cards are empty but they can be filled when a Servant was killed in the Holy Grail War from around the dimensions and are on the way back to the Throne of Heroes. How that work is beyond Issei so he won't think too much about it. But the problem is, Zelretch had set for a card that was filled to appear in this world so he can retrieve them easily… or rather Issei will retrieve them.

So far only two had been retrived. One is the Rider class card defeated by Noire's sister three months before their vacation to Romania and the other is the Assassin Issei defeated. Zelretch gave the Rider card to Irina saying that she should have it, just in case something happen. He also gave her something else but Issei doesn't know what.

So now he has to look out for the appearance of the Class Cards… all around the world. Issei sighs.

'…we're gonna face legendary heroes whether we want to or not anyway.'

[Ahh yes, the class cards. That vampire said he lost one whole deck.]

'Which left five more cards. I'm not looking forward to fight Saber and Berserker.'

[Yes, those classes did bring us trouble last time even when it's four against one.]

'And now I have to do this all alone. Damn Zelretch.'

Issei finished his breakfast. After saying goodbye to his parents he went straight to school. Meanwhile, unknown to him, an object suddenly appear in the skies of Kuoh. The object is a card. Printed on the card is the picture of a man wielding a spear.

And there's the new chapter. Damn, it's been a long time since I updated this story. Maybe I should focus on this one for a while since this is one of my older stories. I'm still thinking about changing the title though. Anyway this concludes Issei's battle with Assassin with Irina contributing a little. There will be more Issei and Irina partnership in the future since that is my default Issei pairing for any of my stories with Issei in it.

So Issei will be facing the class card incident but not all of them immediately. After all I want to save at least one or two class card battle for Noire. Anyway in this arc the fallen angels will be secondary concern with the appearance of the Lancer class card. After this though, back to the clusterfuck called the Great Fuyuki Grail War where the War will enter its final stage and finally we will see the promised Arthur vs Mordred battle along with Illya vs Chloe. Then of course Shirou Kotomine's appearance along with Semiramis and the conclusion of the rivalry between Noire vs Atalanta and Xenovia vs Beowulf. Of course, the other Servants will have enemies to fight is after all a clusterfuck Grail War.

Anyway time for the revs.

Dragon Rider 66: You hang around Zelretch for years and I bet you can tell immediately that a girl is actually a boy or the reverse. It's definitely not the strangest thing Issei saw. And Assassin as Issei's girl won't happen until her second appearance. I would've loved to do MHX but unfortunately I don't know her well enough.

Judgement of the Arbiter: Zelretch have plans for Gasper. The thing is, I don't know what it is but he sure as hell won't be Rias' piece.

Lu Bane Na: Alteration of Possibility is an idea. Although I might just forget about the 4th entirely. I'll check out your suggestions when I have no other idea though.