So, here is chapter 2 of Fate/Altered Circuits
Tohsaka Rin was not very happy.
She was a magus of the Tohsaka family, and in fact their master for the Holy Grail War. So on who knew all of this would think that this would be something to focus on, a task to channel all of those negative emotions on. However, one who also knew Tohsaka Rin would also know that the Holy Grail War would not be a welcome distraction.
That was because it was the source of her problems. For one, her Servant, was not a Saber. He was a sarcastic, home-wrecking Archer. Also, school today was complicated. That was because she felt one, maybe two Masters in the school. She knew one was likely to be either Matou Shinji or Matou Sakura, but for some reason, both had been so cautious around her. She thought it was probably Shinji, because she saw him going out of his way to avoid her.
That was two Masters confirmed, with one having to be an Einzbern master, and another being one from the school. She didn't know about the rest, nor their Servants. However, that didn't matter right now, because at the moment, two Servants were exchanging attacks in front of her.
They were in the school courtyard, the Lancer in blue using his spear, long and red and tipped with a piercing point, to attack her own Servant, the Archer in red, the spear giving off a slight glowing miasma in the moonlight air, emphasising its deadliness as it was jerked forward again and again, with each high-speed thrust deflected by one of Archer's twin blades.
Those blades were like mirrors of each other, actual shine on them notwithstanding. The colours of both sides of the ying-yang were present on them, but one of the twins emphasised white, and the other emphasising a black dark. Regardless of colour, the blades were parrying the spear thrusts endlessly, with Archer's face set deep in concentration. On the other hand, Lancer looked like he was having too much fun to care.
However, each of the seemingly tireless blows, so fast that the vast majority are simply imperceptible to the human eye, take out of the twinned blades whenever they are struck to be parried. For an instant that cannot be perceived by people with the naked human eye, one of Archer's hands is empty. There is no defence... but that is only a moment, and in the next a new blade is already being formed.
Unlimited blades are lost and gained, drawn and discarded, created and destroyed. Each one in time to parry a thrust, turning it away for an instant. Each blow parried is a few milliseconds of time bought for the Tohsaka Servant. The Lancer continuously thrusting his Noble Phantasm, again and again, until after a small break in the fighting, when Lancer tried to unleash the full power of his Noble Phantasm...
"Who's there?!"
A cry from the Lancer, loud and clear, directed towards a figure standing some distance away. Tohsaka Rin's eyes glide away from the battle and towards the person. Standard Homurahara Academy uniform, sticky build, amber eyes, red hair...
Oh dear. Thought Tohsaka Rin as the Lancer dropped, lowering his centre of gravity, before breaking off into a run, chasing the red-haired student, who, for some idiot reason, was still here at this time!
Seriously, why would he possibly be here?
"achoo"
"Hmm? Nii-san, did you catch a cold?"
Matou Shinji, watching TV until he thought it was right time to go and fight the Holy Grail War, sneezed suddenly. Hoping to placate his sister, he flashed the trademark "Matou easy smile" (which, contrary to the name, was never used by Matou Sakura, Matou Zouken, Matou Kariya, or Matou Byakuya).
"I'm fine, Sakura. If you're gonna worry about anybody, worry about Emiya."
Sakura's face brightened, then almost immediately fell slightly, her soft features twisted in a face of deep worry. "E-eh? How so, Nii-san?"
Shinji's smile became smug and joking. "I made him clean the archery range for me".
Sakura was... indignant. Well, as close as someone with negative emotions ranging from , at worst, "mildly annoyed" to "crying inelegantly" could get to the emotion that was "indignant". "That's mean, Nii-san".
"You are a horrible, horrible person." softly intoned the patriarch of the Matou family. It seemed that he had become tired of ignoring them and enjoying the company of the bugs that made up his body had.
"Hi pitch-black pot, my name is comparatively-light grey kettle. Nice to meet you." Shinji snarked at him. "And anyway, Emiya catches colds about as often as he misses a shot."
"I thought you said he missed one? Maybe your blabbering will make this his one unlucky day." said Matou Zouken as he trudged off, his cane clacking on the hardwood floors.
"And besides, Sakura? What are you going to do, have Rider hit m- That wasn't an invitation, Rider!" said Shinji as he noticed his Servant edging towards him.
Shinji sighed and leant back on the sofa. "In all seriousness, Sakura, even if something does happen, you don't have anything to worry about. He's too strong to get mugged, too agile to get run over, and too much of a blockhead to attract any zombies to eat him. You couldn't have picked a more capable guy to have a crush on."
Sakura closed her eyes and smiled softly. Then she realised that Shinji had actually said. She then proceeded to flush a pristine shade of fuchsia, and stammer oddly as she stared at the Matou/Makiri magus calling Rider as he stepped out the front door, giving her a cheeky wink and wave as he stepped out, Rider closing the door behind him.
Sakura decided to retire for the night. There was a lot she needed to do after Nii-san had said that about Senpai... alone. And it was probably best if she tried to keep herself quiet this night.
The redheaded third-rate magus stood panting in the corridor of his school.
Emiya Shirou, Homurahara Brownie, The Student Council's Repairman, and to many, the greatest archer who was still a member of his school's Archery Club, could barely fathom what was occurring to him, other than, in more crude terms, he was well and truly fucking confused.
It was Shinji's turn to clean. He thought listlessly to himself. How did he pick this day to ask me to take over for him? He said there were "family troubles" . He seemed pretty serious when he said it. I'm worried about Sakura... I only hope she's alright.
At this exact moment, Emiya Shirou was about to encounter a reason to hope that he would be alright. A savage hound in human skin, his coat a dark, brooding blue, his fang singular, long and red and lance-shaped. Chulainn's dog stood next to him, poised to end his life, and said the words that condemned him.
"Yo. You ran pretty far, kid."
Shirou turned and faced his foe. Well, his un-preferred murderer, at least. The imbalance in weaponry alone was phenomenal, let some in strength, speed or, good heavens, skill. They could not be called foes, not in the slightest. A foe is someone who you may lose or win against, someone who you can kill easily or not at all.
However, this was different. Any fights, any scenarios between this man and Emiya Shirou was so tipped on the spearman's favour that one, in the redhead's place, would surely give up all hope. But the one in Emiya Shirou's place, was, unfortunately for many, Emiya Shirou. And Emiya Shirou would save everyone in front of him.
"So, here's the thing. Mage law says you can't live. Part of my contract is to enforce mage law, and you happened to stumble backwards into a war of mages and heroic resurrected familiars, blah blah summoning rituals, look, (sigh) the details, in the grand scheme of things, aren't all that important, strangely.
What is important, though is me ending your life. So, I guess... bad luck for you? I dunno, I've never had to kill someone like you before, so I dunno what to say... oh I got it. Here it is. Die, kid." The man lackadaisically raised his spear, the red surface about to become a different shade of red, smeared with an Emiya's blood.
No. That would not happen, actually. Because Emiya Shirou wanted to be an ally of justice. A saviour for those who could not save themselves. The best kind of man, like his father was. Kiritsugu was smiling on him from... wherever he went. Emiya would be a superhero.
And heroes do not die gently.
Emiya Shirou roared inside himself, raised his fist with strength that was enhanced by split-second Reinforcement and, after knocking the spear away, charged at the man. If he got into the inside of the man's spear, he could punch him, and sprint down the hall to safety. He was confident. He was sure of himself.
He was wrong. Because, very unfortunately for Emiya Shirou, his heroics were not unfortunate to Lancer. Lancer merely raised an eyebrow in confusion as he used his Noble Phantasm (not using it, using it. Wasting a causality reversal on this chump was not a great idea), pulling it back and thrusting it forward at a speed about 20 times that of a human's.
The redhead's heart was impaled. The person whose body included that heart was jolted backwards. The momentum from being carried backwards impaled on the spear was so great, that when the spear stopped, the boy kept on going backward, slamming into the wall with a thud.
Shirou choked on blood and felt the pain in his chest go up to an extreme level. He tried to will his legs to keep making him stand, but they would not listen, and his muscles turned to falling, crumbling rocks in the process, his skin and bones being dragged down with them.
The magus collapsed on the floor in a kneeling position, managing to tilt his head up, as if a child towards a brand new toy, towards his assailant, his killer, who was staring dispassionately at him. The Servant of the Lance turned to the side opened his mouth to speak. "Man, you sure give me a lot of dirty work, huh?"
Whether the man was talking to someone outright his line of sight or merely muttering to his own self Shirou didn't know, and, at this time and situation, bleeding out with no heart to speak of, and slowly choking himself to death, gargling on his plasma, he didn't have the capacity to care.
The magus could only think about how both his dream, and Emiya Kiritsugu's dream of saving everyone in front of him was going to be forever unfulfilled and forgotten by history. He thought to himself that he would never see Sakura, or Fuji-Nee, or Shinji or Issei ever again.
They probably would never find out what happened to him. Why should they? He doubted that they would find the man... oh, but that didn't matter right now, because he was... going somewhere nice.. he knew it...
The rest was silence.
Matou Sakura sneezed again as she was washing the plates. In addition, she felt a disturbing coldness go through her.
Matou Zouken quirked... well he had no eyebrows, but he would be quirking an eyebrow if he had at the moment, and asked in a falsely reassuring voice. "I hope you have not caught a cold, Sakura."
"No, Grandfather, I... I felt a disturbance in the force."
Rider poked her head out "As if a thousand voices cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced?"
Sakura was now confused, whilst Zouken had now doubled over in wheezing laughter. "No... more like the world had changed permanently, for the worse, but only felt more uncomfortable for a single, fleeting moment."
"Oh. So you were not referencing Moon Wars."
"N-No, I... what's Moon Wars?"
She got the answer later. Apparently her grandfather's one hobby apart from being a cruel, disgusting human being, was American movies.
Nii-san would love this. Sakura thought, half-asleep, with her head on Rider's lap.
I wonder where he is?
"So, this is Lancer, huh?"
Matou Shinji spoke up after Rider had engaged the foe. The beautiful pink-haired woman was positively gliding around on the asphalt, her chain-blades soaring through the air like the sharp, metallic talons of a hawk. However, the "food" of the bird of prey was not without its own skill.
Tall, athletic, and extremely fast and strong, the foe was without a master, but from his confident smile and immense rabid bloodlust that illuminated his eyes and feral hound-like grin, no one would know it. He was also their unlikely foe, given that he was their unlikely foe.
It had all started when they had attempted to go to the school. Shinji had sensed the presence of another master there: it was probably Tohsaka, because a Tohsaka was predestined to have a spot in the Holy Grail War. A Bounded Field would a sure way to gain an advantage over him, as he had to visit the school on a regular basis.
So, because he had yet to detect one, he had tried to go to the school in the hopes of either catching her in the act, or (the most logical option, because he didn't know how good she was at mage combat) arriving afterwards and messing with her attempts at magecraft from the safety of loneliness.
However, on their way, they passed a Lancer jogging wholeheartedly towards the Northwest section of Fuyuki city, where the Emiya residence was. The Servant was sensed immediately, and all war broke loose. Shinji, not for the first time, was oddly mesmerised by the battles between these superhuman entities.
Rider's style was water, fast but fragile. Her main advantage was not her speed, however, but her range. She was also like water on that way: the waves of her chain-blades always kept the opponent away: batting them aside would merely make your back exposed to a wild chain-blade.
Lancer's preferred method for combat was different. He relied on instinct in his blows. Unlike Rider, Lancer obviously had a clear task to do, and clearly made every move he could to get around Rider. Whilst this restricted him, it also meant that he had better vision of what might happen to him: the larger a battlefield, the larger its scope.
For example, if a person had the ability to react to, see and dodge arrows, this would be easier on a plain rather than in a blocked-off hallway, because the battlefield can be different in size, but a weapon will always be the same unless modified.
This put the advantage, in a purely tactical sense, against Rider, because whilst her range was more effective in a smaller area, Lancer, who could dodge or block the swings, could to this with much more ease when he had less dimensions to think about. Their goals were also important in this fight, too.
As stated before, this fight was one of inconvenience to Lancer. However much he was enjoying this fight, it was clear that he wanted out, he wanted a chance to go and do whatever he was doing. He wanted to get past Rider, so on turn:
Rider had to keep him from getting last her. Which, given the dimensions of the street, her particular proclivity for mid-range attacks, and her immense skill and logical eye, she was at an advantage in that sense. After all:
A fight is only as deadly as the attacks in it, and those are dictated from a person's goals. It did not matter that Rider was at a tactical disadvantage, because Lancer could not make full use of his abilities due to his wishes to get to wherever he wanted to go as soon as possible. Overall, Rider was the one with the advantage, because of the limitations on her foe, Lancer.
As all of this was buzzing around in the mind of Matou Shinji, Cu Chulainn was getting quite frustrated with this turn of events. He wished to do his job as a faithful Servant would: the question of morality in the assassination of an innocent, hapless non-magus notwithstanding, he was merely following commands.
And as any good hound (not that he particularly liked being compared to one) would do, he followed his Master's commands (and mage law!) in every situation he could. Well, he would be following them, but this blue-haired roadblock and his Servant were making life somewhat tricky for him.
Credit where credit was due: she seemed to be faster than him, if only by a very little bit, and she was undoubtedly skilled in using her odd, mid-range weapons to perform her specialty of keeping opponents away from close range and out of her long pink hair.
Given that the Servant was in spirit form when the master spotted him, it meant that he was at least a second-rate magus l. Nothing special, from the looks of him, but skilled enough to like his chances in the Holy Grail War.
Of course, confidence means nothing by itself and is a not-so-distant cousin to arrogant hubris, but the boy, given form the looks he managed to perform, appeared to be watching the fight with a critical look on his face: he doubted anyone could make a lot of sense of the battle when they were moving at this speed, but the effort counted, at least.
It was getting somewhat annoying though, but he didn't want to use his trump card just yet. If he could move the fight to more open ground, where he could avoid her chain-blades easier, he could win the fight easily. But she wouldn't let him like this.
Lancer waited until he was at the perfect spot to try and jump away: he had been able to send one chain blade to the side of him, but also away and in front of him, and he had positioned himself so that the second chain-blade would take some time to reach his position. He leapt away.
The chain-blade missed, and Rider pursued the Irish warrior. She leapt forty or so meters, same as him, putting them on the same place. However, whilst she was still in the air, Lancer had dropped his centre of gravity upon impact, and began to scramble off to her left.
She acted quickly, sending forth her left chain-blade in front of him, seeming to attack his legs. He was forced to jump away slightly, interrupting his momentum that was gathered by his swift sprinting, and allowed her to dash forward in pursuit. She swung both chain-blades, the right one in a straight, darting motion, at the man's torso.
Lancer tilted his spear so that the pointed tip of his spear was able to deflect the chain-blade and alter its trajectory to go over his shoulder. The other chain-blade came swinging in, towards his side. He positioned himself to face it, and deflected it to his left. He made to run away, but was forced to dodge the right chain blade being pulled back.
He quickly began to run away, but, to his vast annoyance, one of the blades came from the sky, slicing down diagonally. He blocked it with his spear, then lifted Gae Bolg to block the other chain-blade. Rider landed in front of him. She had jumped onto the roof of a nearby house and used it as a springboard to launch herself into the next street, where the new field of battle was.
Shinji ran towards the other street, running as fast as he could towards the corner, then turned 180 degrees around it, sprinting down until he stopped about ten metres from the scene of Rider keeping Lancer from advancing along the street, using her chains to swing at him and try to make him stay on one place.
Lancer, for his part, had moving back and forth, but was unable to advance a significant amount as was endlessly and relentlessly allowed to gain ground, but almost immediately pushed back. All the while, he blocked the strikes with his red lance or let them go by him whilst moving out of the way of the blows. Lancer was waiting for a chance when Rider's speed would drop, and he would be able to perfectly slip through Rider's attacks.
Matou Shinji hung back for a second. This fight would eventually end with him on the losing side. However, he was already starting to ache a little bit from how much prana this was taking: fighting Lancer in this highly-mobile, instinct-based duel was different then the king, but simple slog against Assassin.
So, Matou Shinji decided to quickly take advantage of the fact that Lancer was only focused on Rider. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths, and slowly began to open his Magic Circuits, slowly feeling mana fill him up and concentrate itself in his palms, which were already becoming moist.
"Активировать", he chanted, the Russian water spell passed down through centuries of Makiri Magi. The Matou focused deeper, and started activating a sub-spell. Sub-spells are spells that originated from the practice of other spells. Unlike other families, every single Makiri/Matou-taught spell was a sub spell from the Water Activation Spell.
The Water Activation Spell was simple: it made the air around the user's palms more humid and wet, counting on the Matou Sorcery Trait of absorption to take all of the water back. This allowed for near-instant spellcasting, as a Makiri or Matou could focus on forming the spell whilst the absorption was collecting the materials needed.
A normal spell requires someone to form the materials, and apply a method to perform the spell to the materials. The trouble was doing both at the same time. The Water Activation Spell took care of one of those problems. It was part of the reason why Matous had such precise spells.
Matou Shinji muttered the next words, the ones which acted as the catalyst for the activation of the sub-spell from the state of Water Activation. The words were "Пузырь: Форма!". The spell was cast, and the moisture was sucked to his palm, then bounced off with the magic command.
It went towards the ever-moving leg of the Lancer in blue, and the water snapped into position quickly. The armour (Jumpsuit?) of the man was thankfully not that water resistant, and so, with a slight sting of pain that made him wince, Matou Shinji completed the spell. The Lancer was immobilised.
The rapid casting of the spell had taken the man by surprise, and he could not move as a solid bubble formed on his leg. It seeped down to the Servant's skin, and the enchanted water bound itself to it, soaking through arbor and skin, stopping at some flesh. This made it so no muscle fibres could move, and, as he had forms the bubble around the man's left knee, he had made it hard to advance.
The Lancer could, of course, jump one one leg, but the shock had been enough for him to not consider doing that before Rider had hit him with a glancing blow to the side. The chain-blade tore upwards, through his ribs, before stopping in his abdomen. Lancer gasped in surprise and pain.
Lancer acted fast, blocking the next strike and just barely deflecting it over himself with his spear. The chain-blade went away soaring, whilst Lancer hastily opted the bubble with a spear thrust with his entire force behind it. Once his leg was free, he leaped back and back again, standing about 80 metres from Rider.
The Lancer in blue thought to himself. "I can't get past these two without running past them or somehow beating them in combat. I could do it before, but this wound is going to make my movements slower. I shouldn't risk a fight."
He knew he shouldn't, but he felt completed to.
One of the tenets do his master, which he had passed down to his son and which he had followed all of his life in Ireland, was to never back down fr a fight. It he did so, what kind of warrior was he? What kind of student was he? What king of father, what kind of man?
No. He couldn't abandon his principles in the face of adversity. That may be so for others, but not Cu Chulainn. He believed it was possible to win this fight without using Gae Bolg. All he had to do was push back the pain, and focus on his spear, the one thing in the world that was important now.
Lancer took a deep breath, amd lowered his centre of gravity. He grinned, his hound-like fangs being bared in front of him as he focused his eyes, and let the vision honed fighting against hundreds of opponents gaze upon his opponent. Lancer dashed, much faster than before, and lowered his centre of gravity once again whilst he was running.
Lancer crouched down and leapt up, cutting through the air like an arrow. He flew in an arc, rising sharply and fairly steeply before mellowing out somewhat and falling down. He never gained nor lost a significant amount of speed during the time which he was ascending. He began his descent.
He was picking up speed now, and began to count down the meters. 18, 17, 16. The Servant of the Mount was readying chain-blades to intercept him, and he readied his Lance to parry them whilst still in motion in the air. 14, 13.
Shinji watched with his jaw slightly agape as the man soared through the night sky. Yes, he knew the agility and power of the Servants of the Holy Grail War was absurd, but this was something else! It was clear to Matou Shinji that the man was putting all of his strength into his attack, and he wondered how his own Servant would react to the incoming sharp impact.
Said Servant was thinking that herself, as the man advanced ever closer. Her thoughts were slower, calmer, and she managed to reel in the flying chain blade, whilst preparing another one to strike at the Irish hero. She waited. 7, 6.
With 5 meters to go, Lancer started swinging his Lance. He had enough space in the air to do it successfully, and he had the skill to do it too. Lances were primarily thrusting weapons, but, in some cases, purposes work the same way as weapons: there's no law saying that a fake cannot surpass the original.
The lance cut through the air, sending air off in every direction behind it. 3,2. At the last second, Rider... did not throw anything. Instead she jumped up and allowed the spear to hit her. She gasped in pain, but continued with her plan. She spun round whilst flying away, and grabbed the blade of her left chain-blade.
Realisation dawned on the face of Lancer as Rider pulled, the chains wrapping around his neck. She arced downwards, doing so whilst angling her body so that she could cut through the air. Long pink hair fluttering in the wind, Rider flew down to the ground like an elegant hawk, dragging her prey behind her, in the tight snare of her trap.
Said prey was fighting with all of his might to break free of the hold, but it was no use. The woman was not as strong as him, but these chains were choking him as well as dragging him, making him weaker. Servants did not need to breathe, but they had once been human. It was a natural reaction, as was the response to being grabbed by the neck.
To Matou Shinji's surprise, Rider did not choose to send Lancer flying, by angling the chains so that Lancer was swung into the ground in front of her. No, instead she put the left chain of hers underneath her foot whilst in midair. She slammed her foot down even as the rest of her landed swiftly and loudly, but also somewhat gracefully. The chain ceased moving at the bottom.
With some of the chain pinned down by Rider's weight, and more held tightly in her grasp, Lancer was choked by the sudden stop. He was then slingshotted into the ground due to the sudden elasticity-like power of the chain, and was then caught by Rider's follow up as he fell down to the ground.
Or at least, that would have happened... if Lancer had not taken advantage of the ever-so-slight delay between Rider pinning down the chain, and the chain running out of room to travel and having its momentum reverse in an elastic-like way, and shimmied loose, escaping the trap and falling down to the ground. He almost still got hit by Rider's follow up thrust with her right, but he hung on to the still-taut chain above him before he dropped, only for a moment.
When Rider snared Lancer, he was quick to notice that he could not escape it whilst it was still in motion. However, whilst watching from above, he also realised that Rider was planning to slingshot him into the ground, because she wasn't going fast enough to explain throwing him about a few dozen meters ahead of her. So, he had decided what was going to happen, took one hand off of Gae Bolg, tilting his weight in the direction that she had the chain in her grasp.
Lancer then craned his neck, pushed the chain away when it started rebounding back with all of his strength with his free hand, and kicked wildly until he managed to slip through the trap and fall down. Lancer landed with a noise, and sprung up almost the money he touched the floor, using his entire possible Agility to dash towards Rider. The chain that was used in the trap, which was still accelerating after it rebounded, was parried by him towards Rider's other chain-blade.
The two chains collided, each bouncing off each other slightly and sowing. Rider hastily pulled back, grasping her darting chain, the one not used in a trap, and used it to swing towards Lancer, who has rapidly advancing. Lancer noticed the chain blade, and lowered his head, managing to avoid being hit, except for the chain slightly grazing his shoulder. He continued on.
Rider grasped the falling chain, using it in a non-intended way as a shield. With no other options, she pulled it down from the air with both hands just on time to block the spear. She dived down, barely managing to both grasp the still-flying chain-blade, stopping it moving, and dodge Lancer's deadly follow up. She swung the right chain-blade like a pendulum, in a graceful arc towards Lancer's side and kidneys. Lancer chose not to dodge and possibly lose the chance to gain the upper hand, and instead parried it away from himself with Gae Bolg.
This opened him up to Rider's attack with the other chain-blade, which came flying in through the air towards his stomach. Lancer deflected it, but Rider managed to regain control of it, reeling in her other chain blade in time to wait for Lancer's advance. She would not wait long. Lancer was going very quickly towards her. He was almost upon her now. 4,3.
The next moment, they clashed. Tip met blade, shaft met chain, weapon clashed with weapon. It was a fast-paced flirty of attacks, imperceptible to the naked eye. They were using their Agility to attack each other at their fastest, and react to each other just as quickly. Well, almost their fastest. They did definitely did want to exhaust and tire themselves out in this lethal exchange. Even a single mistake in any part of battle could and would mean certain death, let alone getting tired in the middle of the most dangerous part so far of the duel.
The chain blades were pulled even before they were deflected. This undercut their momentum, but they still parried the Lancer's thrusts and swings. The aforementioned thrust and swings, meanwhile, where accompanied by Lancer using every ounce of his physical strength and almost every single unit prana-based power to pull his weapon back and forth, swinging it round in semi-circular arcs, stabbing with the sharp, blood-red tip and trying to also attack with the tip at the back.
The two warriors clashed for what seemed like an eternity to them. It was considerably less to Matou Shinji, however. He was also starting to hate the exchange, however oddly beautiful and simultaneously very, very volatile and potent and lethal it was, because of the stressful burns that his Command Seals were charring into his skin.
Matou Shinji was a third-rate magus. This would be absurd for a line so old and distinguished as that of the Makiri: for starters, they had quite possibly the largest area under their control, all of Siberia. When Zolgen Makiri the Second/Matou Zouken the First (his Grandfather's namesake) was alive, he decided to move permanently to Japan to help the generations of the Matou line fight with Servants to win the titular relic in the Holy Grail War.
That had been the start of their decline. Imposing exile on themselves from their land, they slowly fell into a decline, with his circuits being from a South Korean family. His father, Matou Byakuya, died hating Shinji, Zouken, Kariya and everything about magic in general until his very last breath. As such, these circuits did not work well with Shinji. His mother's family had the Sorcery Trait of "Carrier", which allowed them to birth children that shared an Origin with the mother, as well as the rough amount of magic circuits."
Unfortunately, he was not born with the Carrier Trait, but he was probably born with his mother's Origin (he hadn't awakened it yet). This meant that the Origin, which was deeply tied to his Mother's family, somewhat rejected his Matou family Trait of Absorption. This meant that the two parts of his body were inexplicably working against each other too much for him to use his Magic Circuits to his full potential.
The total sum of all of this was, even after not doing anything really special, just one quick spell, he was starting to feel his hand burning after just the few minutes or so that Rider was locked in battle. This was a problem because at this rate, he might be completely drained or prana, prana that he might need to fight against whatever Lancer would throw at them next.
Given that he did not know who Rider was, because apparently it was a really big clue and he could not risk having his mind read by anyone, lest they lose a significant advantage, he did not know Rider's Noble Phantasm. That would be a problem because Lancers were one of the Knight classes. Apart from abysmal luck, they did not have any really remarkable flaws in their skill sets.
At least, none that could be considered easy to exploit by one of the class of Rider, the Servant of the Mount, and one of the Four Cavalry Classes. So Shinji had to take matters into his own hands: although Rider appeared to be ever-so-slightly gaining ground against Lancer, that was because Lancer was always keeping one of his eyes on Shinji to ensure that he did not catch the Servant off guard with another spell.
So, Shinji had to do something else. Something that Lancer would not notice, and preferably not expect. So, he kept his head down, and chanted an aria. And so, Shinji had an instant idea. It was risky, and, if it even succeeded, it would require him to either not go out tomorrow to fight, or get Sakura to give him some prana... preferably in a non-incest way, if even possible.
He would have to cast one of the most powerful and dangerous spells in his arsenal: the Organic Current Siphoning sub-spell. This was closely related to the spell called Current Siphoning, which was still one of the more high-level spells in his arsenal. Current Siphoning was simple: it applied the Makiri Sorcery Trait of Absorption to an area that contained water.
That water would be bound together in an almost magnetic way, and be bound together, covering any surface one wanted, like a film. This made it invaluable for setting up traps and the like, because whilst operating the actual spell was taxing, maintaining it was perhaps one of the least taxing jobs a Matou magus could do. In fact, of you performed it on a floor, you need not maintain it even a small amount, only just barely putting energy into it to keep it under your control for the trap.
Organic Current Siphoning was an entirely different beast. It siphoned all of the water inside an individual's body. This alone would result in a relatively quick but painful death by dehydration, but no. It carried the body with it, blood, bone, flesh, anything that water was mixed with. And given it was mixed with 70% of the body, this resulted in some pretty horrifying stuff.
Shinji had never used Organic Current Siphoning, but with Lancer watching him like a hawk, and Rider slowly losing speed, he had to do something, quickly. So, he forced himself to ignore the ever-mourning pain in his arm, and began the eight-bar aria, with the first sentence: "Плод моих предков, прислушайся ко мне."
As with every bar, it took exactly one second, regardless of how long it took to speak it. Shinji spoke it as slowly as possible, ignoring the torture in his arm, choking it down, and continuing on, the violent clash of Servants still ringing in his ears. "Моя черта и стихия, подчиняйся". He desperately clung on to the part of him that wanted to win the war, even as the parts of his body that wanted survival screamed with protest.
Rider could feel what her master was attempting to perform. In order to not tats him too much, she thought it would be best to lay off her attack. However, the last thing she wanted was give Lancer a chance to gain the advantage against her. If Lancer was able to gain the upper hand, many things could happen, none of them good.
It would be even worse, however, if he noticed that Shinji was preparing a spell, which there was a good chance of happening because Lancer was always keeping an eye upon the Matou Master. The best thing that could happen was that Lancer would start jumping away to avoid the spell. The worst thing would be Lancer managing to get away past her and kill her Master when he was preoccupied.
She could not allow that to happen, so she drove her body to be faster, stronger, better, utilising every single ounce of power in her to continue attacking the Lancer with her chain-blades, one relentless attack after another. She would not falter, and she would not retreat. She would not die, for Sakura's sake.
Matou Shinji had spoken two more lines: "Мой ОД, вызови формирование элементалей", which utilised his of to kick start the formation of more of the element in a streamlined fashion, which allowed him to continue casting the spell. The pain was getting quite hard to bear now, but Shinji pushed on, all of his Magic Circuits rebelling against him.
"Моя прана, стань чертой Макири." This allowed his prana to become a sort of blueprint inside him, using the Matou Sorcery Trait of Absorption to become infused by it, and setting a collision course for the body of water to be absorbed into something, in this case, Shinji's palm ("wouldn't be the first time the palm of someone named Shinji was wet!", thought the Matou desperately, using crude levity to distract himself from the truth of the pain).
"Ищи, мое тело, цель." One of the shorter lines, this one confirmed the target. All the while, the Command Seals were searing him so much that tears started to sting Shinji's eyes from the pain. Focus, he told himself, abandoning humour as a reliable strategy, you need your eyes to see normally, but wipe them and that prick in blue will see. So use your sixth sense. Your memory, and locate where he is through your mind.
"Начинаю формироваться, моя душа, снаряд." He was almost done. Only two more lines. But that meant using all of his Magic Circuits and fill them all to maximum capacity. His palm was starting to feel dry, and cracked. It was already absorbing the nearby water, even in a state like this. Matou Shinji closed his eyes and opened them, took in a quick bit quiet breath, and just barely prevented himself from screaming out loud from the pain.
"Я, выполняй с железной волей." Matou Shinji was crying tears of pain now, and his voice began to crack from the sheer effort of desperately, very desperately trying to keep himself from screaming out loud. He told Jaime of that he should not, because it was far to late to go back now. Otherwise, all of this would have been nothing but a waste
Rider kept on trying to pressure Lancer, to try and distract him from Matou Shinji's increasing amount of pain. But she was getting weaker, with a lot of the man's that went into her Command Seal to keep her alive past her historical death being instead diverted to the spell which was about to erupt. She told herself to do her duty to her master, but it was for nought. Eventually, Lancer realised what was happening.
However, fortunately for Rider and Shinji and unfortunately for Lancer, it was too late. "Доказательство того, что битва принадлежит сильным!!" With those words, the pent-up energy inside Matou Shinji's palm erupted, in the form of the Organic Current Siphoning spell.
The ethereal form of it was something much like an icy phantom, thin and blue and unnerving, giving off a feeling like it was slowly stalking its prey, even when it was moving at incredibly quick speeds. Lancer caught sight of it as Rider jumped out of the way. Unable to dodge, Lancer attempted to trust his instincts, and raised an arm to block it.
He clearly did not know what it was. The spell impacted his hand, and started dragging out the water, taking off skin and flesh and blood. Surprised and in pain, Lancer attempted to escape by jumping away, but the force pulled him back after a few feet. Lancer immediately realised that the spell was powerful, but slow, and so, he luckily had a defence.
With his Lance, Cu Chulainn began engraving all of his powerful runes into the floor. Each one served as a shield against powerful magic. It would not be enough to stop the foul curse, but Lancer thought it would be enough to delay it. Enough time to carry out his plan successfully. Lancer had already written a quarter of his runes after roughly one second when Rider realised what he was doing.
The Servant of the Matous wasted no time, dropping her centre of gravity and dashing towards the Lancer in blue, accelerating over time. Even this made Shinji's hand sting. The Matou Master stumbled, but managed to raise his head and attempt to watch Rider despite the tears in his eyes blocking his view. He was shocked when Rider did not seem to slow down, despite what Lancer was doing.
He was pointing his arm, which was dissolving before his eyes due to the spell, directly at Rider, with the message obvious. If Rider advanced, the spell would also hit her due to Lancer's interference. It was obvious to Shinji that she did not know how bad at magecraft he was and that he did not expect how loyal she was. He hadn't made the spell able to differentiate between people.
"Rider!" He called out, holding up his arm. Rider immediately got the message and jumped back, trying to think of another way to get to Lancer. But she could not think of one, and so, to her sorrow and dismay, she was forced to allow Lancer to complete his entire collection of defensive tunes, slowing down the Organic Current Siphoning, which had now come to an almost dead stop just after the elbow of the Servant of the Lance.
The problem was that it was still moving, and would follow Lancer to all places, seeing as it was literally on Lancer, trying to disintegrate him endlessly. By now, some of Lancer's arm was already beginning to show in a vivisected, horrifying version of its former self on Rider's Master's palm. It looked like an ever-growing plump and bloody mound of red flesh and bone.
Lancer had three options. He could either attempt to hold Rider off until his master could do something, but that was unlikely. Not that he wasn't incredibly dangerous with only his weak hand, but it would still be better to try a safer option. The other option was trying to reschedule the fight until tomorrow. However, given his thoughts on Rider's battle strategies, this was unlikely.
Whatever he did, he could not back down from this fight. But to fight, he first had to do something about this idiotic curse. He knew that these runes would only slow the curse down, and he knew that he had to stop to moving. So Lancer had a solution that had a... simple elegance to it. He made to use Gae Bolg to cut off his own arm and stop the spread...
...but he then remembered that that would be perhaps the single greatest mistake ever made by a Servant in the Holy Grail War. Because wounds like those made by Gae Bolg would never heal unless the source of the curse was destroyed. So he could either have his arm or his weapon back. Now that would be a stupid situation to be in. So Lancer jammed his Lance into the ground, flipped up a sharp layer of the tarmac with the runes inscribed on it, and sliced down.
The piece of concrete sliced through the arm, owing to how sharp it was. However, Lancer still had the hilarious amount of durability granted to a Servant upon summoning, and so the impromptu bladed was curved away towards the advancing curse when it hit the bone. Undeterred, Lancer grabbed a hold of his own arm, and pulled it straight off the bone.
The curse would not be stopped, but it would be slowed enough that a day of rest next to the runes would stop it completely. Servants cold regenerate arms quite quickly, so by the fourth night, he would be able to fight again. Seeing the gobsmacked looks on the faces of the Master and Servant duo, Lancer began to do step two of his plan.
"So... I need to take care of you. And given that you have managed to survive for this long, I acknowledge you as a worthy opponent. But you end here. The winds of destiny are about to change, and your fate is inevitable. The Barbed Spear that Pierces with Death will be your demise!
Gae-"