Ark was sitting on the bed thinking, Gray was right beside him currently playing with Kit who was happily playing with the young Master. It been a week since he started his pranking spree against the two Master and Priest.
He was tempted to troll Rider and her Master, but decided against it, even with all his abilities, Ark had no way to counter Rider's Mystic eyes.
Meanwhile Jean and Zack were watching TV, while Aether was off to the side currently doing nothing at the moment. A few days have passed and Ark has yet to do anything, usually it was the Master that came up with all the planning, however Gray wasn't exactly one to plain nor did she care about the wish.
The Mage was fine with this, plus he remembered how shit this war was. So many legendary Heroes and half of them Ark has no clue how to beat, especially Hercules, that servants was pure cheat mode.
Then there was Gilgamash... ya, Ark has a few ways to deal with the arrogant asshole, but the Apprentice wasn't sure if they will work... maybe if he teams up with- NO! Ark rather stab himself with Clarent before he ever decided to work with her, if anything that will be his last resort... and Ark has plenty of options.
Standing up Ark walked towards the door, but heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Gray right behind him with Kit on her shoulders. Looking towards his others summons they were absorbed into the TV. The Mage shrugged, he didn't mind his summons enjoying themselves, they were living being just like him and Gray.
"You three stay here and hold down the fort... if house keeping comes In then take care of them." The Summons nodded still focused on the TV which mostly involved some type of Japanese Game show... "Alright, later guys." Ark walks out with Gray close behind.
"So where are we going Ark?" Gray asked grabbing Kit and holding him in her arms. The Mage chuckled at the sight and turned to the little girl fully.
"I'm going to train, if you want to watch me train then come along, if not the room is right there." Gray shook her head making Ark grunt slightly before leaving the hotel with the duo close behind. "Alright, I'm going to train in the forest, and seeing as how it's almost night time, we might be attacked by an enemy Servant, are you ready."
Gray once again nodded without hesitation, Kit just growled as he hanged off the girl's shoulder, it showed that Kit is ready to defend the girl with everything he has.
And so duo walked into the forest they looked around for a good training spot. This also made Gray ask a few questions.
"Why do you want to train, I thought you were already a Master at your spells?" The Mage blinked and turned to the little girl, guess it was time to slap Gray with a bit of wisdom like a gentle summer breeze.
"Gray, there is always room for improvement, even the greatest Master of any trade can find different ways to improve their craft." Ark said not liking how many words he put into that sentence, but it was true.
"Really?" Gray asked a bit skeptically. Ark nodded and summoned a ball of fire into his hand. The girl girl stared at it before her eyes locked onto Ark's other hand which cracked with electricity.
"Yes, now let's leave it at that, I'm saying to much wisdom for my taste." Ark added before lowering his arms and stopping the flow of Magicka. Gray was even more curious on what Ark was going to do. "Besides I'm not going to train in my spells, I want to train my sword skills." Ark said holding his hand out and Gray watch as a beautiful looking sword appeared In the Mage's hand.
The sword was nearly bigger then Gray and had a red design going over it, the metal looked pristine as if it was freshly made from the forge itself. However Gray can also feel the sword practically radiate with power.
The Pommel was shaped into an arrow head with a red circle In the middle. The grip of the sword was tightly wrapped in some red cloth. The guard looked to be made of steel with a red line going through it. On the hilt was the blade itself it was. At the bottom of the blade is mostly red with a few white lines going through it. The sword looked extremely sharp with a few designs on the flat part of the sword.
Advance: Eh, mediocre description of Clarent, but at least I tried...
"Gray, meet Clarent, the very sword that struck down King Arthur." Gray looked at in awe not believing her eyes. This was the very sword that dealt the killing blow on the King of Britain.
"Wait, but how do you have it?" Ark flinched and looked down at the ground. Gray watched as the Mage's usual self slowly shifted into someone that was very tired and hurting on the inside.
"My brother gave me it with his last few breaths..." Ark said slowly he remembered Mordred's eyes as she stared at him with hope, hope that Ark will spread the word about the Pendragon Siblings and show the world their strength...
The Mage's grip around the sword tightened and his eyes narrowed slightly. "I made a promise to him, a Promise that I won't break." Gray looked at the Servant with a bit of worry. She started to feel guilty about asking Ark that question.
A hand landed on her head making Gray look up to see Ark smiling at her. He let out a small chuckle and messed with her hair for a few seconds which was a habit he did when Mordred was angry or annoyed with him, he do that and his big sister would get flustered ending in two ways.
Getting punched in the gut or Mordred trying to break his hand. Usually it was the first one.
"It's alright Gray, now need to get all sad, I'm here to train, and that's what I'm going to do." Ark twirled the sword around his hand and started walking once more unknown to them that a certain red eyed girl was watching them.
"Hhmm a Master and a Servant... are you ready to crush them Berserker?" A growl was heard from behind the girl making her smile. "Good... but that male is a Caster... and apparently King Arthur's younger son... that doesn't make sense."
The girl had to really think on how a possible Knight can be turned into a Caster, not only that, but a Younger Brother of Mordred Pendragon? Hhmmm this is one interesting Servant... but what is his name and title?
Ark found a clearing and stood in the middle of the field. He held Clarent at his side and took a deep breath after a few seconds he exhaled. The Mage opened his eyes and summoned a Dremora Lord which was wearing some very intimidating armor.
The weird creature look around before looking at their Summoner. Ark got into a his Warden stance which made the Dremora grin and prepare the very large daedric sword hanging off their back.
Both sides stood there for a moment then suddenly dashed forward. Ark already dropped his illusion around his armor and casted EbonyFlesh for the extra protection. Ark executed a quick overhead slash with the Dremora blocked easily.
The Mage however didn't stop there for he continued his swing into a full spin using all his momentum and body weight into the next attack, but the Dremora saw it coming and blocked that attack as well.
Ark ducked under a punch and returned in kind by punching the armored chest then tripping them with his leg. The Apprentice jumped and aimed his sword down want impale his target.
The Dremora rolled away before the Mage could do so and dragged its sword into an upward scrapping the dirt across the grass, catching Ark off guard and sending him stumbling back. Luckily his armor kept him safe, since it wasn't some magical armor unlike Artoria's armor.
Ark grunts slightly and quickly caught his footing. The Dremora didn't giving him a lot of breath room and rushed forward. The Mage quickly raised his sword and blocked the attack, he winced at the power behind it, just barely knocking the sword back.
Ark was staring to remember why he prefers being a Caster over everything else now, being Caster was so much easier, he rarely had to get close to his opponents. Plus he had to use his brain which he was fine with, even now Ark wasn't much of physical person.
"Ark, look out!" He heard Gray shout making both the Dremora and Mage pause.
The Mage felt his dangers sense go off making him jump back along with the Dremora as some very large slammed right where they once stood. Ark made Clarent disappear and got his spells ready.
The Dremora got into a more relaxed stance that looked much more Advance then what it was using Against Ark, showing that the Dremora was going easy on its Summoner.
What the Summon saw was a very large man carrying am equally large weapon. Ark felt himself sigh at the sight quickly figuring out who this Servant is.
The large man stood up straight and the Dremora rushed forward. It brought its sword on down towards the large man, and Ark flinched at how fast this Berserker moved it was kind of scary to watch.
This man was Hercules, a Demi God, sadly it wasn't the Hercules that you see in the Cartoon Movie. This is a much more dangerous version that will you a rip a new one, literally. Added to the fact that this man was also a Berserker, he might as well rip you in half with how much Strength this man had.
Ark watch passively as Hercules slapped his Summon around without even trying. The Mage didn't understand how it was possible with how fast this Servant move. He understood the insane strength, but the insane speed and flexibility... WHAT THE FUCK!
Ark cringed when Hercules grabbed the Dremora by the neck and effortlessly ripped their head off their body along with their spine.
The Mage stood there in mild shock at witnessing what could only be described as a Fatality from Mortal Combat... that alone shouldn't be possible.
"Welp, training is over." Ark screaming slightly as he rushed over to a shock Gray who saw what happened. Kit was growling wildly as he stared at Hercules. The Mage effortlessly scooped up the young Master and took off with Hercules roaring making the Caster sweat slightly.
It's no surprise that Ark is running away cause fighting Hercules is suicide, even with all his spells at his disposal, and the fact that this Servant had nine lives was complete bullshit In his eyes. The only thing that Ark can think of was using his Nobel Phantasm...
That idea quickly left as it came, he need to save his Ace, if he showed his hand now, it will only spell disaster and leave Ark with no surprises for his enemies.
"Shit!" Ark shouted as he ducked under a attack which narrowly missed him. The Berserker was quick to reach his position with his bullshit speed. "Mother fucker, I'M THE ONE WITH BULLSHIT ABILITIES!" Ark shouted and looked at Kit who was sitting on his Summoner's shoulder. "You know what to do." Kit nodded and jumped off Ark's shoulder and ran forward.
Ark effortlessly threw Gray towards Kit who glowed for a second and started growing in size. In only a matter of a few seconds Kit was even bigger then he was before.
Kit was now as big as Ark. Nine tails swayed behind the fox instead of one and His fur was much more darker. The Ninetails effortlessly caught Gray and threw her into a portal that Ark opened. The portal closed and the Mage instantly spun around summoning his prize sword, Excalibur Oblivion.
Ark blocked the first thing he saw which was a very large mistake. The Mage was sent flying into a tree while Kit rushed forward. He opened his mouth a sent out a large fireball towards Hercules who blocked the spell easily with his sword.
The Fox however took this chance to lunge forward, narrowly avoid the swipe from the large Berserker and bit down on the man's shoulder. Ark appeared from behind the Greek God and tried to stab him through the spine.
Key word: Tried.
Hercules spun around and nearly decapitated the Mage who leaned back just enough for the weapon to lightly cut the skin across his neck. Ark held he throat still glad that he could breath, but that didn't stop him. He lunged forward one more time and sent out a very large spike into the man's chest.
It pierced the man's chest and stuck out his back. Ark barely avoided a downward slash and quickly casted another EbonyFlesh since the old one wore off, but even Ark knew that it was pointless to cast especially with Hercules weapon and strength.
The Berserker knocked Kit away making Ark grit his teeth. He threw down his arm and summoned Clarent In his left hand, making him dual wield both his sword and his Sister's sword, which was very difficult, but not impossible...
Ark casted another spell. Both of Caster's swords suddenly burst into flames. He glared at Hercules who roared and dashed forward, Ark jumped back only for the Berserker to keep following him.
"Remember, if there is an opponent who is stronger then you and giving you no room to work with, find a way to catch them off guard and strike when you can, remember, you're not a Knight bound by Honor or Chivalry, you're my Apprentice bound only by your creativity." Merlin's words bounced around in Ark's head as he threw down a Ice Rune and slid under Hercules's weapon.
The Rune exploded freezing the Berserker in place only for a second, but that's all Ark needed.
Channeling everything his has into these three spells, the strongest spells that he knows in Skyrim. All three elements started to dance around his body as he slowly started to cast his spells. Hercules was already out of his frozen prison and lunging at the Mage.
"FIRESTORM!" Ark voice was probably heard from across the forest as he finally casted his spell causing a very powerful Shockwave made of fire causing even the mighty Hercules to be knocked back and be set to blaze. The Mage can smell the burning flesh, but it didn't bother him in the slightest.
He watched as Hercules slowly stood up, his body regenerating at a very fast rate. Ark scoffed and when the Berserker was finally finished healing the Apprentice casted his next spell.
"BLIZZARD!" The air around the area turned cold and dropped to the negative temperature. The trees and grass slowly started to freeze in place as a strong gust of cold wind blew by. Ark was unaffected by all this except for Hercules who could barely move as his body slowly started to freeze in place.
Narrowing his eyes Ark lunged for summoning his Bound Battle-axe and bringing it down on Hercules's head slicing the man down the middle with completely ease despite the Berserker's body being half frozen.
Ark suddenly spun around and looked right Berserker's Master who was shocked by what she was seeing and quickly realized Caster was focused on her. The Mage's body cracked with lightning as he stared at the girl Casting his next spell.
Illyasviel panicked when she saw Caster about to Caster another spell and this one looked much more dangerous. The Master had to be quick, she raised her hand showing the Command seals.
"Berserker, protect me!" Illyasviel shouted and suddenly Hercules appeared in front of her fully healed with his weapon in a guard position.
"Lightning Storm!" Ark shouted as he shot both of his arms forward and large beam of lightning shot towards them. The lightning smacked against Hercules's weapon making the giant growl as he tried his best to block the Magic. The Lightning went through the sword and through the Servant's body shocking the Demi God completely and turning his inside into a crisp.
Caster was already breathing heavily after his first spell, these were never easy to cast and casting three of his most powerful spells was shocking enough. He almost out of Magicka, but what he did gave him time to escape since Hercules was in the process of healing himself.
He didn't intend to attack Illyasviel like that, it was the only way for him to get a good shot of Berserker since he knew that the girl would use a Command Seal Seal save herself... beside, Illyasviel isn't a little girl, she may look like a little girl, but she isn't.
Ark stumbled back, fatigue washing over his body. At the current moment he simply was to lay down and sleep this all away. He wasn't training with his swords again, maybe when he get summoned during the Grand Order, the Master will have a Saber who is a expert with a long sword... God he hope it wasn't one of the Knight of the Round table.
Hercules was able to fully regenerate and Ark quickly opened a portal behind him. He fell through it just before he heard the Berserker roar which was practically defining. Ark full went through the portal and felt his back hit something a good through it completely.
There was a couple sounds around him making Ark groaned since he may have screwed up the portal, but it didn't matter, he was simply trying to get away from Berserker and that's what he did. Ark pushed aside the broken table he landed and rolled on his stomach. Pushing himself off the floor he looked up only to see two pairs of Orange eyes and Green eyes.
Both Shirou and Artoria were looking at him in surprise. Ark groaned as he stumbled back slightly, his head pounding from over using all his Magicka. Never again will he do that, those spells just took too much out of him and this is where if will lead him.
Ark summoned Clarent making Artoria's eyes widen at the blade in his hands. She was also quick to notice that the Mage's armor looked to be dent in a few areas along with a couple of gashes on them. Saber tried to get close only for the tip of Clarent to be held up to her neck by Ark whose arm was shaking slightly.
"Not a step closer." Ark gasped as he can slowly feel his Magicka reserves regenerate, but he was still tried from facing Berserker, plus add to the fact that he was training with the Dremora Lord too, didn't help. "I don't need your pity or your help." Ark pointed the sword at Shirou next. "And don't say a fucking word, I know your type." Ark said as he stumbled around them.
Artoria knew she can easily knock the sword out of Ark's hand since he wasn't experienced with using a sword especially a real one, except for his bound weapons as he calls them, cause for some reason whenever he holds them, the Mage suddenly becomes and expert with them.
Artoria's eyes hardened slightly when she saw Ark wince and stumble slightly noticing that there was a large gash on his side that was currently bleeding, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
"My son, lower your sword, you're hurt, let me he-" A deep gash appeared on Artoria's hand making her bring retract hand and look at her bleeding hand. She looked to see Ark looking at her with murder in his eyes.
"I don't want your help, I don't need it." Ark said with a growl. "Would you say the same thing to Mordred?" Artoria went silent making the Mage scoff as he lowered Clarent slightly. "I have one thing to say though..." Artoria looked to the disappointment In Ark's eyes. "Actually, I have nothing to say to you..." The older male spun around and started limping towards the door.
"I'm sorry." Artoria said out loud making Ark stop. "I know those words will never make you forgive me, but I just want you to know that-" She was cut off by a Bound Dagger flying past her head.
"It's not me you should be apologize too, it's Mordred, You fucking pushed her away, not even the witch of who I called mother cared about her." Ark growled as Artoria listened.
"Me, I was the only person to ever care about my Sister, I was the one that pushed her forward, I was the one that took care of her, I was the one that looked out for her, and I was the one that gave her all my love showing her that she had someone that cared about her and her well being." Ark looked down at Clarent with a longing look before his eyes hardened.
"Have you ever wonder what my wish was?" Ark said out loud making Artoria perk up since the duo completely forgot about Shirou was listening the conversation. "My wish was for us to be a family, just you, me, and, Mordred." Ark turned back towards the door and slid it open. "That is something I wanted, not just for me, but for Mordred as well... where you cared about us and treated us like a loving mother should, not some emotionless so called King Of Britain..."
Artoria could actually picture it inside her head. Mordred on the table impatiently waiting for Ark to make some food for her while Artoria was in the kitchen trying to be taught on how to cook by the Mage.
The King didn't know what to say as she watched Ark leave the house... she wanted to stop him, she wanted to say something, anything... but the great King of Britain couldn't find any words to form in her mouth.
"For what its worth... that time Merlin brought you over to our house, it felt like we were an actual family... except Merlin of course..." and with that Ark closed the door. The Mage sighed as his mask slowly slipped off his face.
What he said to Artoria was mostly the truth, be he sprinkled In a few lies here and there to make his speech more emotional, and it looked to be working In his favor... good.
Ark winced as he casted a healing spell over him, but it was a pretty weak one since his Magicka was still pretty drained so he could making the Restoration Spell any stronger at the moment. The Mage didn't feel like opening a portal, he just feels like walking back to the hotel.
So with a bit of difficulty, Ark started his walk towards the hotel which was a couple of miles away so it might take him an hour to get there, that's just enough time for him to regenerate his Magicka and fix his wounds.
Ark looked up and paused when he saw Rin staring back at him. They both had a stare down for a moment, then the Mage continued moving since Rin wasn't much of a threat to him anyways, she could send Archer to attack him right now, but she wasn't doing it... hhmmm
Ark walked passed Rin without so much as a glance. The Mage was still tired and wanted to sleep the night away. He knows that servants can't get tired, it was more mentally tired, Casting powerful Spells did that to him.
"Caster!" Ark sighed and continued walking, he didn't want to be bothered right now, he was just much... to... tired. Ark felt his eye lids become heavy and can feel all his weight shifting forward... oh crap.
Thump
Rin jumped when Caster suddenly faceplanted against the floor. She cautiously walked up the the Servant and saw that he was unconscious.
"Rin, I recommend we kill Caster here and now, he is already enough trouble as it is." Archer said in Rin's head, she agreed about what Archer said Caster knows too much... wait if he has a lot of information, maybe she can team up with Caster's mas- no wait, Caster knows that she will try to kill his Master and that will end very badly for Rin.
"No, He and his Master could prove useful to us." She heard Archer sigh In annoyance.
"Fine, but don't blame me if he suddenly cooks you from the inside out, I know he can do it too." Archer said with clear annoyance in his voice. "You can watch him, I rather not be near Caster." Rin groaned and looked down at the heavy looking male, she had to drag him back towards Shirou's place which was obviously pretty close, but it still felt far to reach the door. "Good luck with that Master." Archer added with an obvious smirk.
"Stupid Archer." Rin grumbled as she reached down and hooked her arms under Ark who didn't flinch or twitch. The Master groaned as she slowly lifted Ark and struggled to drag the Mage back towards the house he came from. "Why the hell does he have to be so heavy!" Rin huffed while Archer watched from spirit form.
Advance: Another one bites the dust. *Moonwalk away* I BEAT NNN BITCHES, TIME FOR DDD. *Looks down at his crotch* I'm story little one.
Lust: I'm not. *Looks down at her crotch* You and me are going to have a really Good time.
Advance: you're not even a guy.
Lust: Hey! Even though I'm a girl, doesn't me I can't participate!
Advance: Fair enough...