The four of them walk towards the large caldera, however, Olga has noticed that Mash has been looking downcast ever since the briefing. She elbowed Ritsuka who seemed to not notice it.
"Hey, Ritsuka?" She whispered.
"Yeah?"
"Don't you think Mash is looking a bit depressed?"
Ritsuka looked over at Mash. "She is?"
Olga huffed. "Ritsuka, you can't be that dense. Talk to her. Go on."
"Uh, sure."
"I swear, you can't be like that. You need to be sensitive to these things. She's your partner at least for this mission." She explained.
Ritsuka nodded and ran over to Mash. "Hey, Mash. Is something wrong?"
Mash looked surprised. "Oh, no, nothing's wrong, Master. It's just…"
"So there is something wrong. Do you want to talk about it?"
She sighed. "Senpai… under your command, I have gained much experience, but…"
"But what?"
"I'm still unable to use my Noble Phantasm." She sighed. "I don't even know how to use my Noble Phantasm, and it's quite frustrating."
"But you're already doing a-"
Olga elbowed him again. "True, I think we need to work on that." She turned to Ritsuka and whispered, "Like we need to work on your social skills, Ritsuka Fujimaru."
"Sorry." Ritsuka mouthed, even though he di=oesn't fully understand what it is he did that was so wrong.
"Oh, Mash, you have such a strong sense of responsibility." Dr. Romani popped in behind Mash. "But you shouldn't be so down about it. It's a Noble Phantasm. It's not something you can master in such a short amount of time."
Mash nodded. "I understand but… it just feels like I'm a defective Servant."
Dr. Roman spoke in a soft tone. "It must feel that way but think of it this way, if Noble Phantasms are easy to master then Servants wouldn't feel so special anymore."
"I-I see…"
Caster intervened. "Of course we can. Well, not to say we master the weapon but think of Servants and Noble Phantasms as one and the same. A Servant is their Noble Phantasm, and vice versa. Meaning that if this young lady can fight as a Servant, then she can use her Noble Phantasm."
"Caster-" Ritsuka was about to reprimand him but Olga stopped him from saying anything. "Director?"
"This isn't our place to say anything, Ritsuka." She explained. "This is between two Servants."
Caster analyzed Mash's current state. 'And yet she can't. Now why is that?"
"I-I don't know…"
"Maybe enthusiasm? No, I think you're far too reserved, young lady." Caster gave Mash a once-over. "Yeah, that might be it. Maybe you should try shouting whenever you attack. Just get that energy flowing around your body, loosen the muscles, that kind of stuff."
"Really?" Mash's eyes became filled with excitement. "R-E-A-L-L-Y?! I CAN RELEASE MY NOBLE PHANTASM LIKE THIS?!"
"Ow!" Olga covered her ears. "Don't shout so suddenly and so loudly!"
"Oh, sorry Director, but Caster told me I should shout."
Caster scratched his head. "Well, it was more in a metaphorical way but I can see now that enthusiasm is not the problem. Hmm. Now what?"
"Come on, don't tease Mash like that, Caster." Ritsuka spoke.
"Who's teasing here? Hmm, I think I know just the thing. Mind if we take a detour?"
"Detour?" Olga raised her eyebrow.
"Yep. To that open field over there for no reason." Caster started walking towards it.
"Shouldn't we be trying to solve Singularity as soon as possible?"
"I think this is worth the detour, Director." Ritsuka followed suit. "If it will make Mash stronger, it will be better for us, right?"
"You have a point."
The clearing was small, surrounded by rubble and smoke. Caster, Mash, Ritsuka, and Olga placed themselves at the center of the clearing.
"Well, we're here." Olga sighed. "What do we do now?"
Caster approached her and started fiddling with her clothes.
"H-hey!"
"Calm down. You said you can take care of yourself right?"
"Y-yeah? Why are you putting runes on my clothes- Hey!"
Caster stepped back and jumped to a tall lookout point on top of one of the buildings. "I inscribed some misfortune runes on you. They'll attract ill fate towards you. You can handle yourself, right?"
"YOU DID WHAT?!"
Just as Olga screamed her disbelief, a massive amount of skeletons appeared and surrounded them. The glow of the runes seemed to attract them and made them more aggressive.
"Gigigigigigigigigigi!" The skeleton skulls clattered as they rose from the ground and gathered around the three, weapons raised.
"There's so many!" Ritsuka exclaimed as he tried to look around for some semblance of a weapon.
"Isn't this a little too much?!" Olga readied her magecraft.
"E-Everyone, please stay behind me! I'll protect you!" Mash raised her shield against the foes.
The mass of skeletons lunged towards the three of them. Mash did her best to hold off as many as possible. Since this was her first mass battle, she was losing ground very quickly. Olga and Ritsuka worked together to deal with the enemies that passed through Mash, but they were quickly overwhelmed.
"This is… getting really… bad!" Ritsuka squeaked out as he slammed a rusty pipe into the head of one of the skeletons.
"It's worse when you think about who has these runes attached!" Olga fired another volley of magic bullets towards the growing crowd of enemies.
"Senpai, please give me magical energy. I'll try to blow them away in one shot!"
Ritsuka nodded. "Mash! Break through!"
Mash burned a big amount of energy to fuel her strength. She used her shield as a ram and knocked down all the skeletons in the way of her shield. Then her, Ritsuka, and Olga stamped out the heads of the Skeletons, making sure they wouldn't rise again. The runes were still active, so enemies continued to come at them but after that one burst, they were now in more manageable numbers. Even so, the whole ordeal lasted no less than 15 minutes. By the time the trio was done, they were all tired and drained of energy.
Mash let out a heavy sigh. "I can't… move anymore! I'm sorry… Caster…" She dropped to one knee.
"Mash!" Ritsuka caught her before she fell completely. "I don't think this is working, Caster."
"Maybe… I would like to learn more… with some theories…" Mash ,managed to squeak out.
Caster leapt from the outlook he was sitting on across the three. "Hmm, maybe I made a mistake?"
"You think?" Ritsuka rolled his eyes.
"No, I think I got it right." Caster took a combat stance.
"You think?!" Ritsuka could sense what was coming.
"Yeah. Alright. Your next opponent is me."
"What?" Olga took a deep breath. "This has to be some kind of-"
"Joke? Hardly. I plan to kill that young man over there." He pointed his staff at Ritsuka, who gulped.
"S-senpai?!"
"You understand, don't you? Your will creates her sword, and her sword shapes your fate." The mage laughed. "When one of you goes, the other one will follow. When that girl's knee touches the ground, it's game over for you too."
Mash used her shield to prop herself up. "Senpai, Director, please stand… behind me!"
She could feel his bloodlust from where she was standing. He was serious, he was going to kill them. Dr. Roman always did say she had good intuition, but now her intuition was telling her that if she can't do anything, they were all going to die.
"Are you ready?" Caster smirked. "Here I go."
He launched multiple fire runes at them, which Mash intercepted quickly. Her knees were shaking hard.
Caster ran towards her and slammed his staff cloaked in flames down on her. Mash parried it and picked herself off the ground, but his onslaught of attacks didn't cease.
"Pick up the slack, young lady," he smirked, "or you'll die and those people behind you will die."
She was losing ground quickly. Ritsuka grunted but he was far too exhausted to even stand. All he can do is provide Mash with magical energy, and he was running out of that as well.
"Caster!" Mash tried to lunge at him, but her movement was so sloppy that he sidestepped her easily and managed to trip her, sending her tumbling. "Gah!"
"Is that it? From both of you? I'm surprised you managed to defeat the Assassin." Caster kicked her into one of the buildings.
"Mash!" Ritsuka screamed. "Damn you, Caster!"
Mash stood up and attacked again. Each one of her strikes was easily dodged and exploited. Caster kicked her back in front of the other two Chaldeans.
"Heh, you're already tired. There's no reason for me to drag this even longer." He jumped back and slammed his staff on to the ground. "Burn to the ground with your Master!"
Mash felt her blood run cold. A massive amount of magical energy was coming from Caster, far more than anything she had experienced thus far. She gulped. He was going to release his Noble Phantasm. Now she understood. She was going to die right here, and Ritsuka and the Director will die with her, unless she does something. She had to do something.
'If I don't do something, Senpai and Director will die!' Her mind was racing a million miles in the few seconds it took Caster to channel the magical energy. 'Please… Please! Whoever you are! Give me the power to protect them!'
'You are not a true Servant. There is no way for you to grasp this power within you fully.' A voice in her head rang out in opposition.
Mash closed her eyes. 'Even if it's fake, even if it's just now… I don't care. Give me the power to protect them! Please!'
Magical energy gathered around her. She could feel it around her. The shield in her hands glowed with power, its light blinding. "The power to protect." The words escaped her lips before she could process it. She looked across the battlefield and at the gigantic energy signature appearing behind Caster. She took a deep breath.
'I don't know your name. I don't know your legend. I don't know this power. But if it allows me to protect those behind me, then I will use it.'
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Mash unleashed the magical energy in the shield.
"My spell is the coffin of flames, a giant of verdant thorn.
Retribution, the forest that will purify human misery—
Befall the Wicker Man!
And behold, as both good and evil bite the dust—!"
A large monster made of burning straw arose from behind Caster, slowly making its way to them. Ritsuka watched in horror as he stared the inevitable death lumber towards them, but then he turned to see Mash surrounded by light. "Mash…" His words were caught in his throat. He couldn't explain it, but even as tired as he was, he knew he needed to be near her.
"Ritsuka…" Olga heaved a heavy sigh.
"Director. I need to get closer to Mash." He tried to walk but his knees gave out. "Can you push me?"
"Right. You need to get closer to make the mana transfer between you more efficient." She aimed a magic bullet without a curse at the ground beneath him. "This might hurt a bit."
She fired it, causing Ritsuka to tumble right behind Mash. The Demi-Servant felt her magical energy grow stronger. In her mind, there was a threshold of magical energy she needed to activate the power she was lent, and it was just crossed. With the giant's burning straw foot crashed down on them.
"Now!" She planted her shield on the ground. As she did, an ethereal shield appeared and covered Mash and her allies from the giant's foot, all flame and impact being absorbed by her shield.
Caster, behind the giant, flashed a giant grin that none of the other three could see. "Heh, it worked." After a few seconds, he dispelled his Noble Phantasm.
Mash fell to her knees as the shield dissipated as well.
He walked over to her as he clapped. "Well, well, well, that was definitely interesting."
The Demi-Servant heaved a sigh, it was like she just woke from a trance. "I… Did I… Use my Noble Phantasm?"
"That you did." Caster offered her a hand, which she took in order to stand up. "I expected you to survive but I didn't expect you all to come out unscathed."
"I did it?" She repeated, as if unable to believe it.
"Ritsuka Fujimaru, be proud. This young lady, your Servant, is a first-rate heroic spirit."
"Senpai! Just now,,, I-"
Ritsuka did his best to stand up and smiled at Mash. "Yeah, I saw. You were amazing, Mash."
Mash smiled a bright smile. Dr. Roman at Chaldea smiled as well. He has never seen Mash smile such a pure smile of happiness on her face. He appeared as a hologram next to them. "That's great, Mash. I never would have expected she would be able to release her Noble Phantasm so soon."
"That's because we got it all wrong." Caster tapped her shield. "She wasn't a Heroic Spirit of the sword, she was never meant to fight. You don't teach a fish to fly or a bird to swim. She is a Heroic Spirit of the Shield."
"Thank you, Caster!" Mash beamed a wide smile.
"Although… She didn't get to know its True Name, so she still can't access its full power."
Olga walked over to them. "That's alright. She managed to release her Noble Phantasm, that's an achievement all on its own. Her wish to protect us was what triggered its activation."
The Demi-Servant nodded. "I just thought that I don't want Senpai and the Director to disappear."
"And you didn't have the slightest wish to learn its true name. Nor did you wish to become a Heroic Spirit." Olga placed her hand on Mash's shoulder. "That's why your Noble Phantasm responded. Sounds like something that would happen in a fairy tale."
Mash blushes.
"I'm just teasing. You did good, Mash Kyrielight. But it's a problem if you don't have a name to tie to your Noble Phantasm, isn't it?" The Director thought about it. "Since it's a Pseudo-Deployment of a nameless shield-type Noble Phantasm, then how about 'Lord Chaldeas'?"
"Lord Chaldeas…" She repeated.
"Chaldea is something that has meaning for you as well, right? Then in order to switch on your magic circuits and activate your Noble Phantasm, Lord Chaldeas should help."
Mash nodded. "Yes! Thank you, Director!"
Dr. Roman smiled. "Yeah, that sounds like a perfect Noble Phantasm for you, Mash."
"Thank you, Doctor."
Caster walked back to his previous place. "Of course, the only thing to do once you unlock a new power is to test it until you're satisfied, right?"
Mash and Ritsuka stood side by side.
"Young lady, Ritsuka Fujimaru, are you ready?" Caster smirked. Their training was far from over.
Sorry for the late upload : (
-BlankSlate2356