Saber
Tonight was the moment when Rin Toshaka would officially become the participant of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Tonight she will be summoning a Servant. And, probably like everyone, the brunette hoped to summon a Saber – statistically the strongest of all seven possible classes.
Having triple checked the runic circle she had drawn on the floor of her living room and not finding any errors in it, the Toshaka heiress stepped into its center and began the long chant necessary to power the summoning ritual up...
As the last line of the chant was said, Rin placed one of the magical jewels that she was using as the catalyst for the summoning onto the now-brightly-glowing runic circle and call for the Heroic Spirit to appear. Almost immediately there was a bright flash of red light with purplish glow trying to breach through it... As the light-show eventually died down, Rin found herself staring at the Servant she had just summoned kneeling in the center of the room.
The said Servant appeared to be a young woman in her early twenties. She had blue eyes and long dark-pink hair tied into a loose ponytail by a yellow ribbon. Her clothes were a while and purple battle dress with black fingerless gloves and silvery armor plating around her wrists, on the sides of her waist and on her feet.
"I am Servant Saber." The woman said. "I have but one question: are thou my Master?" Upon hearing that she had managed to summon the Servant of the class she had been aiming for, Rin almost lost her composure and nearly began jumping with joy. But she didn't – doing something like that was below the heiress of Toshaka family.
"Yes, I'm your Master." She replied instead.
"Very well, our contract is complete." Saber said then.
~/ *** \~
When she woke next morning, the first thing Rin noticed was the large amount prana Saber had consumed over the night. And while the brunette had no real idea how straining supporting a Servant was, she still was quite sure that it was because of Saber doing something and not just being out there. So, of course, the Toshaka heiress went downstairs to tear her Servant a new one for being greedy and thriftless.
Finding Saber in the living room, Rin marched up to her, only to stop when she saw the woman's partially-disassembled sword and what looked like a number of high-caliber flat-tipped rifle rounds scattered across the table. Saber herself was holding one of those 'rounds' between her fingers, making it glow with purplish light a little bit as she was pushing prana into it. This sight had left Rin so surprised that instead of unleashing a tirade, she could only ask:
"What is this?" It was a couple of seconds, before Saber responded.
"I am using the time we have before the official start of the War to prepare the resources I will need, Master." She said as she showed her Master the now-fully-charged 'round'. "These are cartridges, and I can use them to gain a brief power burst or to cast more powerful attacks without placing strain on my own prana reserves." A small pause later she added: "These cartridges might be quite similar to thy gems, Master, however, the methods to pull the stored prana from them is quite different."
"I see..." Rin replied. Now Saber's actions looked like very reasonable preparations. Maybe she really shouldn't chastise her Servant for this... Probably, but, still, the fact that Saber did what she had done without telling her first about it irked the Toshaka heiress. "Very well. But, next time, do inform me about this before you start."
"Understood." Saber replied, before picking her sword – a single-edged blade – and slid the part resting on the top side of the blade near the handguard that Rin previously thought to be just a strange decoration aside. The, she placed three of the cartridges into the revealed opening, before snapping her weapon to its original state and, after confirming that it was in the fine condition and ready for the battle, astralized it. "Should I be accompanying thou during thy activities today, Master?" Saber asked as she collected the rest of the cartridges she had prepared and placed them into the pockets of her battle dress.
"Yes." Rin replied. "Follow me while in astral plane." Her Servant nodded.
"Understood, I will be by thou side, Master." She said as she herself astralized, now invisible to everyone but her Master.
~/ *** \~
Even if the Grail War still haven't officially began – Archer still wasn't summoned – it took someone mere two days to order their Servant to start thinning the opponents' ranks. The said Servant, Lancer if his weapon of choice was of any indication, had revealed himself when Rin was walking through the school yard as she patrolled the area during the night.
The blue-clad master of spear had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and immediately went for the kill, his blood-red lance aimed at the Toshaka heiress's heart. However, this attack never connected with its intended target as Saber had stepped in and swatted it aside with her own sheathed blade.
"What are thy orders, my Master?" The pink-haired swordswoman asked as she finished materializing her battle dress over her more casual clothes.
"Show me what you've got!" Rin requested.
"Understood." Saber replied as she unsheathed her blade. Dismissing the sheathe back to the astral plane, she launched herself at Lancer, making him jump back out of her attack range. He was in for a surprise, though... "Schlangeform!" Saber called and her sword suddenly turned a chain-whip of great length. And it was only Lancer's incredible agility that allowed him to escape the fate of being torn into pieces by it. Thinking that now she wouldn't be able to defend herself from close-range attacks, the blue-clad Servant charged at his opponent. "Schwertform!" And almost instantly Saber's sword was back to its original state, allowing her to parry Lancer's spear. Then, using her superior strength, the pink-haired weapon mistress threw him aside.
"Guh!" Lancer breathed out as he landed rather painfully against the metal scaffolding. But as it did him no real damage, he was ready to fight again. And it was a good thing, as Saber was attacking him with her chain-whip again, though this time it was surrounded by purplish flames... And judging by the amount of damage it did to the aforementioned scaffolding, getting hit by it would be a very bad idea... Suddenly, much to the blue-clad Servant's surprise, Saber recalled her weapon and returned it to the sword form.
"Cartridge load." She announced then and Servant of spears was treated to the sight of his opponent's sword spewing out what looked like an empty casing of a rifle round. He didn't have time to think much about that, though, as Saber's sword was now surrounded by a thick coating of bright flames. "Kouga!" The pink-haired swordswoman announced before all but flash-stepping in front of Lancer, delivering an incredibly-powerful charged attack. ...Somehow, her opponent was able to block it with his spear, only to be hit with a sheathe on his stomach for that.
Suddenly, the battle stopped as both Servants and Rin herself heard a fallen tree branch crunch under the foot of some unfortunate student who had stayed at school for way too long and became a witness of the battle between Servants. The blue-clad Servant immediately abandoned his fight against Saber and ran after the escaping teen, his intent to forever silence him obvious.
"Saber, we're going after Lancer!" The Toshaka heiress announced.
"Understood." The pink-haired mistress of swords replied as she ghosted to her Master's side. Picking Rin up, she then used her magic to lift them both off the ground and fly them after disappearing blue-clad master of spear...
Saber
True identity: Signum, "General of the Raging Fire", knight unit of the "Tome of the Night Sky"
Series: "Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha"
Age: n/a; around 20 by appearance
Sex: Female
Alignment: Varying
Strength: B+
Endurance: B
Agility: C
Mana: C+ / A * - See "Laevatein" Noble Phantasm
Luck: D
Independent Action: C
Magic Resistance: C+ / A+ ** - See "Laevatein" Noble Phantasm
Eye of the Mind (false): D+
Battle Continuation: A
Guardian Knight: B-
Natural Body: C
Magic – Ancient Belkan system: C+
Noble Phantasms:
Laevatein: A, item. Also known as "Demon Blade of Flame ", Laevatein is a powerful cartridge-system Armed Device with the base form of a single-edged sword. It has alternative forms of a chain-whip and (when combined with its sheathe) a bow. Using it as a foci, Signum is capable of unleashing various fire-based attacks and deploying defensive shields **. Using in-built cartridge systems allows Signum to gain short but significant power bursts at will *.
Wolkenritter reload: C+, anti-unit (self). Being originally a guardian knight for the "Tome of the Night Sky", Signum is a living magical program and, should she be killed, she can be 'reloaded'. Due to the restrictions placed by the Grail, Signum can revive herself no more than once every three days. If she takes fatal damage while regenerating her extra life, she'll be killed for good. Also, unlike Berserker's "God hand", reloading doesn't grant any additional forms of protection.
Thunder of destruction: A+, anti-army. Once per day, Signum can request an aid in the form of a bombardment of the selected area with an incredibly-powerful lightning attack.