The situation wasn't the best, there was clearly a difference between them. While everyone was trying to harm the Demigod without success, Romulus showed no difficulty in fighting multiple servants at once, which was concerning. It wasn't a fight that DaVinci thought they would win, but something was amiss.
There was a significant power gap, but the question that DaVinci couldn't shake from his mind was, "Why doesn't he end the fight already?" It didn't make sense. If Romulus had the power to finish them all off, then why hadn't he done so? Either he couldn't or he didn't want to...
DaVinci pondered, Elizabeth was thrown over the man's head onto the body of the Mona Lisa.
"Kyaaaa," Elizabeth rolled on the ground until her head hit a stone.
"Ouch..." Elizabeth slowly got up, rubbing her sore head. The dragon girl saw DaVinci on his knees, chin in hand, and went to talk to the man.
"So... are you going to help or plan to just stay there all night?" Elizabeth knelt beside the man, but DaVinci didn't reply.
"Don't you find it strange?" DaVinci asked Elizabeth, who turned her head in confusion to the man.
"What do you mean? The only thing I find strange is that we're getting beaten up," Elizabeth shrank a bit at her own words, but DaVinci continued to watch the battle, lost in thought.
"The battle should've ended by now, but it seems Romulus isn't fighting seriously. It's as if he doesn't want to win. It's very strange... I wonder why?" DaVinci mused, and Elizabeth looked at the man and then back at the battlefield.
"Now that you mention it, I noticed he's holding back his attacks from him... as if he's not focused on the battle," DaVinci merely nodded, agreeing with the dragon girl.
While the two servants conversed, the sound of the servants' weapons colliding echoed throughout the area.
"It's like he wants to lose," DaVinci whispered. The dragon girl looked at the man and then at the Demigod with a thoughtful expression.
"Let's hope you're right," Elizabeth stood up and summoned her weapon, "Because I'm way too cute to die."
"DaVinci smiled at the girl's words.
"Me too, Liz-chan... me too..."
Grand Order
-14-
The woman's chest rise and fell as she maintained a defensive pose, holding her spear firmly.
Scathach had noticed for some time that something was off. Right from the beginning of the fight, something had been amiss. It didn't make sense for the man to be so strong. The goddess had no doubt that in terms of power and skill, she was superior, but something was wrong... very wrong.
The frenzied warrior Spartacus attacked without control, while the Demigod merely blocked without difficulty.
There was something wrong; the man's power wasn't natural.
"Grrr, Oppressor..." Scathach shifted her body lazily to the side to dodge Spartacus' body as it was thrown by Romulus's horizontal strike. The freedom fighter hit the coliseum wall.
The Demigod's attention turned straight to Scathach. The goddess twirled her spear in a position similar to that of Cuchulainn, but more elegant.
However, before anything further could happen, both of them heard the sound of something loud, very loud...
Romulus was forced to use his spear to block, and then the Demigod leaped to get out of the projectile's range.
Scathach looked towards the source of the noise and noticed that the unnamed archer was holding some sort of metallic device in his hand – an object that bore no resemblance to anything Scathach had seen in her lifetime.
"Tsk, what an annoying guy..." muttered the unnamed archer, walking slowly horizontally to get a better angle. Romulus merely narrowed his eyes at the object in the archer's hand.
"I can't believe you're resorting to this, archer... out of all weapons, you're using a pistol..." Artoria gazed at the man with disappointment. For some reason, the King of Knights disapproved, a sense of unease crawled up her spine.
The pistol? Is this some kind of modern weapon? Scathach wondered, observing the tool the man was holding.
The archer was using a standard 9mm pistol, but the man had applied Reinforcement to the bullets.
"I've always heard that a 9mm doesn't just kill the body, but the soul as well," Artoria did n't like the man's response from her, and it seemed that Nero agreed with her.
"This thing is loud..." the employer remarked, holding his sword to his ears.
"What matters is getting the job done," the archer said as he used his Magecraft to enhance the weapon, making it more potent.
Romulus observed the man closely.
"You have a very peculiar tool, my adversary," Romulus took a battle stance.
"You haven't seen anything yet," the man replied with a sarcastic smile as he moved horizontally, putting himself at disadvantageous angles for defense. Scathach noticed this and decided to do the same. In the blink of an eye, the goddess was positioned opposite the archer, irritating Romulus with a difficult angle to block attacks.
Artoria and Nero chose to stand in front of the Demigod as they slowly advanced towards the man.
No one moved; everyone was focused. The only thing left was silence as the servants stared down their enemy.
One of the rose petals from Nero's Noble Phantasm fell to the ground, signaling the battle to begin anew.
The archer wasted no time and pulled the trigger of his gun. Romulus leaped to dodge the projectiles.
Scathach jumped and delivered a vertical strike, forcing Romulus to block and throwing him to the ground. The Demigod spun his body and landed on his feet, causing the ground to crack.
Artoria was already behind Romulus, swinging a horizontal strike. The Demigod turned and used her spear to block the blow, pushing her back. Boudica was on his left side of him, and Nero on the right.
Romulus used his free hand to block Boudica's strike and his spear from him to block Nero's.
"Such determination," Nero smiled at the man's comment, while Boudica simply glared at him.
"Enough talk!" Boudica released her sword and simply immobilized Romulus' arm by using her entire body, the woman seemed like a snake coiled around the Demigod's arm. The difference in physical strength between Boudica and Romulus was like night and day, but the Queen of Britain didn't rely on her strength ,she used Romulus' own weight against him.
?!
The man blinked in surprise as he felt his body being thrown into the air, Nero smiled while twirling her sword and firing fireballs like a machine gun. Romulus could only widen his eyes as he got hit, causing a massive explosion.
Artoria wasted no time and charged her sword with energy, delivering a vertical strike that caused a tremendous explosion of dark energy that extended all the way to the sky.
"What do you think of our grandiose attack?" Nero said, smiling as she looked at the curtain of smoke, but...
Romulus simply charged forward, tearing through the smoke curtain and starting Nero. But he was met with two shots, one in the shoulder and another in his trapezius, catching him off guard and causing him to fall to the ground. Nero leaped to avoid being hit by Romulus' rolling body of his.
"Easy there, aren't you going a bit too fast?" the archer grinned as he held his pistol.
Romulus looked up and saw the man without one of his arms, wearing a cynical smile. What fascinated the Demigod was that blades were sprouting from the stump, forming a strange sight.
"Peculiar indeed..." Romulus whispered as he got back on his feet.
The archer raised an eyebrow as he saw bullets emerge from the man's body.
"Give up, this battle isn't something you'll win," the man said as his wounds began to heal.
"Hm, no! I have a mission, and that's to save my beloved Rome. Not even you, a divine founder, can stop me!" Nero pouted, cheeks puffing up in frustration.
Boudica merely narrowed her eyes at the short girl, which made her nervous. Boudica knew that the chaos was partly her girl's fault, but she decided not to comment.
Romulus smiled, "Well then, defeat me, daughter of Rome. The fate of the future rests in your hands," the man said with a grin.
While Nero and the enemy conversed, the nameless man looked to the side and spotted Scathach. The goddess must have used the distraction of the enemy's conversation to approach the archer.
"There's something off," the woman next to the archer said.
"You noticed it too, huh," the archer replied, looking at Romulus. "This fight should have ended by now..."
Scathach glanced at the archer and then at the enemy. "He's holding back, it seems like he wants us to defeat him. But why?"
"I don't care, it just makes our job easier," the archer said as he swapped out the cartridge in his gun. When the gun clicked, the man smiled. Scathach observed the man fiddling with that strange tool.
"I think it's about time we seize the opportunity, don't you think?" The archer looked at the black saber who nodded in agreement. Scathach glanced at the man from the corner of her eye.
The archer took a few silent steps forward, but he seemed more like an assassin than an archer. Scathach noticed particles of light forming behind the man. The archer turned his head to look at it as a weapon materialized behind him.
The archer began to move, letting the spear drop from his hand. The goddess was quick to catch the spear; it was a copy of Gae Bolg.
She looked at the weapon and then at the man's back, a smile forming on her face.
"Well then, if that's how it's going to be, I won't stay behind!" Scathach said, grinning.
...
"I'm glad you recognize my greatness..." Nero was interrupted when Artoria suddenly attacked her from behind in the blink of an eye. The Demigod swiftly turned to block the strike, but Artoria was n't attacking with her sword. She moved beneath him and 'embraced' him from behind, then threw him.
?!
This caught everyone off guard. Romulus turned his head and saw that the archer was now behind him. He noticed the tool the man was changing shape, but Romulus had no idea what it was.
The archer's pistol transformed into a Thompson Contender.
A predatory grin spread across the archer's face, while Romulus' instincts screamed DANGER.
…
Bang!
A single bullet shot out from the gun. Romulus twisted his body in mid-air to try and defend himself, but the bullet was too fast.
"Grrr?!" He was struck in the shoulder opposite to the one he held his lance. A considerable amount of blood sprayed from his shoulder on it, and the force of the projectile was so intense that it halted him in mid-air for a second.
But it didn't end with that attack alone. Romulus blinked in surprise, his red eyes locking onto the red eyes of Scathach before him. She moved so swiftly it was as if she had been in front of Romulus the whole time.
"Gae ..." Romulus wore a worried expression as he sensed the absurd amount of mana in the woman's spear dela. Swiftly using his good arm, he employed his own lance as a shield.
"Bolg..." he muttered as he flung the lance, tossing Romulus through the air like a ragdoll.
"Grrrrrrr…." The man gritted his teeth, but the assault wasn't over yet.
Zig-zagging red lines traversed the entire sky, moving so quickly that blinking would mean missing what was happening.
In mid-air behind Romulus, Scathach held another lance, attacking him with voracity as he struggled to defend against his own lance attacking him.
"ALTERNATIVE!"
The goddess launched another lance, resembling a red missile in the air. It hit Romulus' back from him, resulting in a massive crimson explosion.
In the air, Scathach merely smiled as her hair fluttered in the chilly night wind. She listened to the screams of pain from her enemy as the explosion grew larger.
"GrrrrhaaaaaHAAAAAAAAAAA!"
-A-
Author,
Hello again, I'm back. Here's the chapter as I promised. I apologize for the delay; I didn't expect that a data analyst position would consume so much of my time (even though I hardly do anything except listen to the senior... but that's unrelated to the story!
Well, I was thinking about concluding the battle in this chapter, but upon reviewing the outline I wrote for the Rome Singularity, I realized that this battle will be important for Nero. So, I need to give it more significance...
Even though I believe my fight scenes are quite bad... it's better to write something subpar than nothing at all...
I've been contemplating the story I want to tell. Usually, on , the stories I read are mostly... well, adult content... let's not pretend otherwise... where a character ends up with all the girls and the rest is secondary. I find that somewhat meh. Sometimes, I find the concept interesting in terms of story (strangely enough), but the focus in those stories is often on the sexual aspect. I don't mind reading such things as long as there's a purpose for it. So, I've been thinking about this...
If you need any further assistance or advice, feel free to ask.
I intend to put elements that I see are consistent with the real world, some parts I will not be able to change, even if they are very 'anime' since the characters and the work are created for a Japanese audience and if they change they will be completely different characters.
So, thinking deeply about this, don't be surprised if Character X does something that doesn't align with their stats or class. In Fate, I've always found this to be the case, but there's also the suggestion of a rule (cough cough, like Emiya using swords as an archer, cough cough).
I believe the audience already expects what's going to happen in terms of relationships (+18 content), but I want to provide a motive or reason for it. I don't want it to be like... you exist, so... sex. I find that similar to the doujinshi I see out there. Nowadays, I just end up looking blankly at it rather than feeling anything (cough cough, Ritsuka, cough cough, Gudako).
I see the character as a charismatic man who has the ability to make people like him, even though he can be utterly irritating. He's become the opposite of Emiya Shirou, a complete anti-social individual who does n't like people or care about them due to his time as a guardian. He's just stopped caring. I see that in the anime and light novel, it's a bit... I don't like people, but it's not that simple. I'd like to make what I wrote earlier, something more realistic. And even though the man is a complete mess, broken and cynical, he still manages to make people like him. After all, the archer is still Emiya Shirou, even if he doesn't remember who he is anymore.
Well, this is getting long already. I hope you all enjoy it. See you in the next one.
-B-
Bonus
"So, are you two going to stand there, or will you help them?" Da Vinci and Elizabeth shouted in fear.
"Gyaaaa!" Elizabeth and Da Vinci screamed in fear, hearing a sound of 'crack crack.'
It was Ritsuka holding a bag of 'nutrients' while holding a 'chip' in the other hand