Chapter 140: Compatibility Issue
Cu spun the staff in his hands, batting aside the first aimed at his face before he thrust the catalyst down into the ground and let the pillar of ice surge forwards. The attack slammed into the gut of Akal, the woman making not even a sound as she was thrown backwards by the force of the attack.
She twisted in the air, raising her arm and blocking the attack from Brynhildr as the Valkyrie rushed in from the side and swung her spear downwards. The weapon collided with her forearm, doing little more than clanging off her skin as the woman parried it aside and retaliated with a kick upwards, swinging her entire body behind the counter.
Her body jolted to a halt, branches wrapped around her waist and held up in place and stopped the kick just shy of reaching the Lancer, before she could even attempt to break free of them, Brynhildr retaliated and swung her own leg down in a sharp axe kick directly into the back of the Servant. The branches shattered into splinters as the woman was rocketed downwards from the back, crashing into the snow.
She wasn't there long, already rolling to her feet even as Brynhildr was descending down upon her. Akal's eyes flickered to Cu and her face shifted into a more serious expression, it at least confirmed that she was taking it seriously this time.
Cu responded with a mocking smirk of his own, sweeping his arm out in front of him and pulling forth a collection of runes. The symbols crackled in the air before hurtling forth multiple bolts of lightning on the woman.
She frowned, her hands exploding with bright red fire before sweeping them upwards and unleashing a haze of flames upon the Caster. The druid stepped back and slammed his palm into the ground, spreading out a dome of ice in front of him that encircled just his body, the fire washing just over him while engulfing the lightning.
As Akal stepped back, she turned and caught Brynhildr's heel to the cheek, staggering with the blow and retaliating with a straight jab towards the woman. The Valkyrie ducked down while sweeping out into Akal's inner leg, the woman twisted as the butt of the spear struck true. Then the weapon was swung upwards into her chin, snapping her head backwards with the continued strike.
Twisting her body, Brynhildr brought her leg up and kicked towards Akal's gut, the Caster lashed out and grabbed the foot just behind the heel with her left hand. Brynhildr widened her eyes as Akal spun the woman over, falling head over heel, then swung her leg upwards into the spinning Lancer and caught her directly in the back with a savage kick.
The end result was Brynhildr being punted into the air by the Caster, though even as the woman made to follow after the flying Lancer, she quickly flashed her arm to the side once again as a barrage of lightning bolts flew towards her. Akal fired off another burst of flames to act as a shield, her expression unchanging as the resulting explosion washed over her.
Then Cu came bursting through the cloud of smoke, swinging his staff like a club directly towards her head. Akal widened her eyes slightly, raising her forearm to block the attack, it was only when she noticed the Caster smirk at her that she realised the problem.
That and the spirit wolf biting her shins also gave the impression there was something wrong, the white lupine yanked her forward and pulled her leg up. Even as she pulled the leg backwards and freed it from the clutches of the jaws, that didn't change the fact that for a brief second, she had been distracted.
The base of the staff slammed into her shoulder.
A second later a scream ripped its way from her throat as the staff sent bolts of electricity into her. Shooting her hand up like a snake, she grabbed ahold of the staff - ignoring the fact her skin on her palm was now subject to a rather nasty dose of point blank lightning - and held on tight. Swinging her right knee upwards, she aimed to catch the Caster in the gut.
"Ansuz!" Then her vision was consumed in fire and she found herself staggering away from the point blank explosion, her skin slightly seared from both the lightning and the fire and a thick cloud of black smoke obscuring her vision.
Sweeping her hand upwards, she called forth the dragon limb. The giant stone arm swept aside the cloud with a single swing and unveiled the land before her. She quickly caught sight of the Caster hopping backwards, his blood red eyes focused upon her.
"I was getting a little worried that you wouldn't get hurt." He called out to her, "That would really damage my pride."
"I'm glad I could accommodate." Akal shot back, rolling her shoulders until she heard a popping sound "Now where is that other-" she raised her right arm, the spear of Brynhildr struck the skin on her forearm and halted in its tracks, Akal braced herself to avoid being knocked down by the charging Lancer, her feet digging into the snow. "Nevermind." She finished with a twitch of her lip.
Brynhildr's gaze remained razor focused, twisting the spear and knocking the arm aside before bringing the back of the weapon around. Akal thrust out with her hand, aiming for the Lancer's face, the Valkyrie countered by grabbing the wrist midway through the swing and holding the woman's arm in place.
Akal's palm flew upon, a flash of light was all the incentive Brynhildr needed to duck down and avoid taking an explosion to the face, her hair wildly flapping about from the force of the explosion taking place barely an inch above her head. The Lancer stepped in closer and swung her head back up, crashing it into Akal's chin and snapping her head backwards.
The staff of Cu then crashed into her face, swung like a club directly into the bridge of her nose and staggering her backwards, the act itself not earning so much as a grunt of pain from the woman even as blood now started to dribble down her lips. As she reorientated herself, her head lowered down and she swung her arm out, slapping the staff from Cu's hand and then throwing her other fist forwards in an uppercut.
The punch made itself a home in the blue haired man's cheek, a grunt of pain working its way free from the druid and knocking him backwards, as she made to follow through, Akal found herself stopped by the tip of Brynhildr's spear piercing her side just below her ribs, the weapon getting about an inch into flesh before it was halted by Akal grabbing ahold of the blade.
"Hmph." Akal raised her hand and then pointed the palm straight down, her hand flashed for a split second before all three of them were engulfed in a titanic explosion of fire.
"Hahahahaha!" Ledo cackled madly as he charged directly into the fray, swinging his hammer around without an ounce of consideration for anyone who might have been around him at the time. The weapon - which weighed more than three men - all but glided through the air as if it was the lump of metal that it was in actuality, and more in line with the most perfectly forged of swords.
Either way, the result was the exact same to any wyvern that found itself unfortunate to catch the eye of the rampaging Berserker. The green scaled beast in front of him had barely a moment to realise what was going on before it was crushed underneath the weight of the hammer, blood and cracked skin splattered along the ground before the hammer was pulled up. Thoroughly uncaring for the bits of wyvern still stuck to his weapon, Ledo resumed swinging it around like a madman.
"Umu…" Nero remarked oddly as she watched him work "Now I truly do believe he is a Berserker." she muttered to herself before shaking her head, pointing the burning sword in her hand forwards "Come, brave warriors! Let us drive these foul beasts back into the abyss they crawled from!"
While battling the Servants with their numbers advantage would have been ideal, it went without saying that even if the wyverns were weaker than the regular dragons that did not make them fodder for anything other than Servants. It would still take at least three good men to slay one wyvern.
The chaos of the spell from Olga - Nero was exceedingly impressed by it - was meant to have given them the opening they needed to break up the enemy ranks and move their plans into motion.
Instead what happened was effectively a free for all within seconds of contact, they might have been able to split up some of the Servants but is was a coincidence at best, Torin had charged straight for Kalameet and thrown any notion of a controlled plan out of the window the moment he spawned that tree in the centre of the battlefield. Without support there was likely a good chance that he would end up dead.
The occasional flash of yellow fire bursting through the branches left little to the imagination.
Shaking her head, she dismissed that notion for now.
"Brynjar!" She called out at the top of her lungs, dodging the snapping jaws of a wyvern and swinging Aestus down in response, cleaving through the neck of the animal in a single swing. "Find the archers and assemble them as best you can!" She ordered the man without turning around to face him, her eyes already seeking out new opponents as the wyverns started to regroup. "We need to keep the swarm from getting too large."
"I don't know if we need to worry about that!" The man called out in shock, Nero turned her head to look at him and promptly did a double take.
One of the larger shadow cats came bounding into the thick of things, sweeping its head back and letting out a roar. As it did so, magical energy started to calcify around its body, stretching itself out into sharp points and then rocketing upwards into the sky, the pale blue projectiles locked onto whatever wyvern happened to be closest, shooting them from the sky in a show of blood.
"U-umu!" Nero quickly regained her focus "Stay close to the cat!" she turned to the man and hastily ordered "Tell everyone not to stray too far from the main group, we need to keep together or we shall be made for easy pickings!"
Brynjar nodded his head once, sword and shield in his hand as he called out at the top of his lungs "Stay close to the great beast of Lady Hel!"
Nero couldn't help but wonder whether or not Alsanna would appreciate that comment, the answer was that she probably wouldn't.
"Hahahaha!" The sharp laughter of Ledo was soon followed by another bone crunching thud "Havel would be having a great time with this!" the man called out with glee, pulling his hammer from the ground and then spinning around with it as though he was a rotor, the knight somehow managing to move forwards as he did that as well.
He stumbled when a ball of fire struck his side but that was all, shaking his head he turned and looked upwards to see the wyvern that had attacked him.
"Hahaha! Brave of you!" He praised, then reached down and grabbed the tail of one of his earlier kills - the front half little more than a disgusting paste smeared into the snow - and swung it upwards into the sky, releasing it at the arc of his swing and hurling the corpse towards its brethren. "But not enough! Hahahaha!" The knight paused in his cackling "...I wonder if I sometimes get too excited about things?"
Before Nero could comment about that, a blur rushed past her in the familiar shape of Erik.
"Graaaaaaahahahahaha!" The man swung his axe around wildly and sliced up anything that came close to him whether it was already alive or dead, if Ledo had considered himself excited then this man was overreacting, his eyes ferocious and his axe burning bright red.
Nero blinked once at the man, then shook her head as she refocused "With me!" she called out, gesturing after the charging Servants "Stay close and try to keep-"
Gordin crashed into the ground just in front of her, the knight thrusting his hand into the ground to stop himself from bouncing. Swiftly rising back to his feet while using his greatsword as a crutch to prop himself up with, his helmet snapped into the direction he had just flown in before he took notice that Nero was directly next to him. "Ah, it's you." he commented dumbly before shaking his head. "Keep the humans away from the dragon."
He pointed to the direction in front of himself, Nero followed his finger to see the brown skinned dragon snapping out towards the second of the shadow cats, its jaws falling just short and catching another boulder of ice to the face, courtesy of Alsanna, and staggering backwards.
"We'll take care of it." Gordin informed her "Stay close to Zallen, try and direct Ledo back towards us. There is only so much that myself and Alsanna can do against-" a roar cut him off, the knight shook his head and broke into a run "Nevermind! Just keep doing whatever it is you are doing!"
Gordin didn't wait to listen to a response from Nero, his eyes were set firmly upon the dragon he was charging towards. The greatsword in his left hand sparkled with golden light as he channelled magical energy into it. Drawing closer and closer to his target.
He swung the sword upwards, cleaving through a wyvern that attempted to rush him and not even granting it a second look as he continued on his way, then proceeded to shoulder check another beast into the ground, stopping briefly to stamp down on it's skull to make sure that it was dead, then proceeded onwards as if nothing had happened at all to delay him.
The dragon snapped it's jaws once again, another lump of ice struck the side of its head followed by a blizzard consuming its front limbs. The dragon flexed it's muscles, shattering the attempt at entrapment with frightening ease before raising up its front right leg into the air, the claws spread wide and was then swung down like a hammer.
The earth shook with the impact, briefly staggering Gordin on his run.
Alsanna and Lud, by virtue of being closer, were more greatly affected with the cat actually taking a step backwards from the impact. It was more than enough time for the dragon to act, its armoured skull swung down and crashed into the shoulder of the Cat, the beast let out a yelp as it was bodily thrown with the movement, twisting to ensure it stayed on its feet.
Not that the dragon seemed to care, throwing itself forwards and opening its jaws wide once again, looking to clamp down around the left leg of the larger shadow tiger.
Gordin flexed his magical energy, kicking himself off the ground like a rocket and aiming straight for the dragon's head. When he saw the golden eye of the beast suddenly snap upon his flying body, he realised that if he ever had the element of surprise it had long since been lost. Well, if he figured that both Cu Chulainn and Sigurd could do it, then he could as well.
Twisting the greatsword in his left hand, he narrowed his eyes and intoned with his right hand "Tiwaz!" the rune appeared before him, he grabbed the greatsword with both hands and then hurled it forwards, the sword spinning through the air as it passed through the rune with the magical energy of the word clinging to the weapon itself.
The glowing sword spun through the air as if guided by a higher power, in this case it was, as it rocketed towards the dragon. Even as the beast turned its head towards Gordin, the back of its throat glowing with brilliant orange light, the sword homed in on the beast and went for the point that Gordin willed it to strike.
The glowing greatsword buried itself halfway through the right eye of the dragon, the beast snapped its head to the side jerkily and cut off the torrent of fire before it could even escape its throat, the agonised roar - or perhaps the howl of fury - echoed out around them, the very air seemingly shook with the dragons cries as it spread its wings wide.
Gordin hit the ground in a roll, sliding to a halt and crouching down on all fours not too far from where Alsanna was. The knight opened up his left hand, willing the sword back to him. The dragon's head twisted with the direction the sword was being pulled towards, the weapon was wrenched from the wound and splattered dark blood upon the snow, the cries of the dragon only intensified as the wound was exposed to the freezing air of their surroundings. Its eyelid clenched shut in an effort to stem the flow of blood already pouring down its cheek.
The hateful gaze of the beast fell upon him as the sword returned to his waiting hand, the knight clenched his fingers around the handle and assumed a ready stance, already waiting for whatever move the dragon was going to make.
With its wings still spread as far as they could, the beast flexed its muscles.
The very air shifted in that moment, Gordin could feel the pressure exuded by the dragon suddenly shifting into a pulling sensation. If he had been paying attention, he would have noticed that the green flames that littered the battlefield were also starting to flicker as though blown by the wind, all aiming towards the singular point that was the dragon in front of him.
Gordin took a half step backwards, magical energy rushed towards the dragon as if a damn had been broken. The beast rose up and a rumbling noise tore its way free of the phantasmal, it took Gordin a moment to realise that it was simply the dragon taking in a breath.
The powerful wings that would have carried the dragon into the air, twisted and turned themselves so they were facing Gordin flat on as if in some manner of threat claws of the great beast curled inwards, forcing themselves into the earth to act as an anchor.
For a single second, the world fell silent as the muscles of the dragon tensed themselves.
The wings snapped forwards, the dragon's body lurched backwards from the recoil of the wing beat.
If it had propelled the wings down, there was little doubt that the dragon would have launched itself airborne with that single beat of its mighty wings, however they were not aimed at taking flight. They were aimed at the Saber in front of him.
The air screamed, there was a crack like thunder and then came the shockwave. Wind force that exceeded even the strongest of hurricanes raced towards Gordin in less than a second, the attack striking with an almighty crash. It was not just the Saber who had been on the receiving end of the attack, everything that had been in front of the dragon - friend and foe alike - was caught in the air cannon.
The earth was ripped asunder, the top layer of the snow had been reduced to nothing and was scattered about like a blizzard, the ground beneath it was torn apart, chunks of debris went soaring into the sky or shooting off like a buckshot in whatever direction there had been. In that single attack, a stretch of land well over fifty metres long and nearly as wide was turned upside down.
The sonic boom swept over the battlefield, drowning out all other noise for that split second.
Gordin himself had no chance of thinking to protect himself or counter in any way, left with little more than the barest hint of what the dragon was planning he could never have guessed that it was going to use its core in such a manner, funnelling massive amounts of magical energy into its wings and then snapping them forwards like a whip.
It wasn't that the attack had been specifically aimed at him, it was simply that Gordin and then the entire blast area had received an equal dose of the dragon's wrath.
One moment, Gordin had been preparing himself for battle.
In the next, he found himself hurtling through the air without any clue what had happened, his sword no longer in his grasp and somewhere else, not that he could have known he had been disarmed with just the windforce alone. His body was numb, unwilling to obey any command to right himself nor would his head turn of his own accord.
He was left trapped in his ragdolling body, helplessly watching as the landscape flashed past him repeatedly as a blur, catching scarce glimpses of the environment as he twisted and turned.
Then he struck the ground, and he struck the ground hard.
His body cratered in an instant, tearing apart frozen soil and scattering it across the battlefield, worse was the fact it had only been a glancing blow as he skipped out from that point and cartwheeled further along, a flash of green caught his eye and then he struck the ground again, flying through one of the impact sites of Olga's spell and snuffing the flames with the mere speed at which he was moving.
Once again, Gordin crashed into the ground and swept up another impact crater before fleeing his landing site and his momentum carrying him away to make another one. He didn't have to wait long before striking the ground once more, the process repeating itself of him crashing down to earth only to bounce up and resume his journey.
He could feel himself losing momentum, only because the glimpses at which he was seeing the battlefield were getting longer and longer than any true feeling in his body, by which there was none. Gordin was no fool, that was likely a terrible sign and he wouldn't be surprised if that dragon had shredded every bone in his body with that last attack.
Twisting in the air one final time, Gordin turned until he was facing the snow and watched as it raced nearer and nearer to him before he dropped onto it, even then his momentum would not let up, the knight sliding across the frozen tundra and his body carving out a long drag mark through the snow before eventually sliding to a halt.
Gordin lay face down in the snow, incapable of movement and feeling the creeping sensation of pain slowly start to flood back into his body. In spite of that, he still found it impossible to move and he only just realised that all the air had been knocked from him entirely. Despite being a Servant and not truly needing to breathe, that didn't change the fact that his entire body had been struck hard enough to knock every ounce of will from his entire being.
Something grabbed ahold of him, flipping him over and letting him face the sky once more. For a brief moment, Gordin considered the idea that he had been caught by a wyvern.
Then he found himself staring up at the red hair of a woman, one of the norse, with a surprised look on her face. "You still with us, Emissary?"
"Emi…" Gordin breathed out, then released a shuddering cough "Not dead yet…" he grumbled. The woman looked around for a few moments, then nodded once and set down the axe she was carrying to grab Gordin with both hands, pulling him up into a seated position.
"Watch my back, Hemming!"
"Fucking shit-!" An older man called out, then there was a trunching of snow before the grizzled face of an elder looking blonde loomed over him as well. The man grimaced, "He even still alive?"
"Yes." Gordin croaked, briefly startling the spear wielder before he looked briefly shocked. "You Emissaries are just made differently or something…" the man spoke in a hushed tone before shaking his head, turning his eyes skywards and snarling "Tch! We got more serpents incoming! Bjarne!"
"On it!" Gordin turned to the third voice, a younger brown haired man jogged forwards with a bow in his hands. Pulling back the arrow, the man took aim towards something in the sky before loosening the projectile into the air.
Gordin looked around, assuming he had been blown into the middle of a gathering only to see it was just these three people. He kept his grimace to himself "Why are-" he coughed again, spitting out flakes of blood as the pain crept into his entire body at this point. Weakly raising his right hand, he traced out runes over his chest in an effort to try and get some manner of healing done to him. At least so he could actually move.
"Why are you all…?"
"That tree!" Hemming spat out, pointing towards the spirit tree that Torin had spawned "Cut right through the middle of our lines, some managed to get around to regroup with the others but others got cut off." he snorted "Jorunn couldn't leave well enough along and I'll be sitting in Helheim before I face Brynjar with the news she died on me."
Gordin managed a weak chuckle than sent another lance of pain through his body "Help me up…if you would…" he managed to get out weakly, forcing power into his muscles as the red head - he presumed to be Jorunn - ducked her under right arm and slung it over her shoulder, pushing herself up off the ground and lifting him up as well, supporting his weight.
Gordin turned his head skywards, blinking several times to try and clear his vision as best he could. "How far…?"
"At least a hundred ell's that way!" Hemming pointed past Gordin "We saw you fly in and came over." he explained easily enough with a shake of the head "But we weren't sure you were-"
"Here comes another!" Bjarne cried out, already drawing back the bow and taking aim, as he loosened an arrow the dark scaled wyvern that as diving towards them twisted it's body, letting the projectile fly right on by it while focusing on the group. Bjarne widened his eyes and tossed himself to the side as the beast swooped in low, extending its claws towards him in an effort to grab the man.
Hemming thrust his spear in from the side, catching the beast just under its left wing as it flew past, the man gasped out and retracted his arm just as quickly with a grimace. Hardly surprising as the wyvern had crashed to earth with the front half of his spear still buried in its side. The beast rolled around for a few moments as it struggled to right itself, as it climbed upright once more, it raised its left wing and leaned down to clasp the spear with its mouth.
Pulling the weapon from its side, the wyvern turned and glared at the procession in front of it before clenching its jaw, snapping the remainder of the spear in two and letting both halves drop to the ground. A guttural hiss broke its way free of the beast's mouth as it stalked forwards, eyes focusing on each and everyone one of those standing before it.
Then its eyes snapped onto Gordin and narrowed, recognising him as both the strongest individual there.
And also the weakest.
Gordin saw it as well, with a grunt he shoved himself out of Jorunn's grasp and staggered forwards, lowering himself into a tackle and charging forwards. His movements were slow and jerked. His body still a ruin from being punted by the dragon, the wyvern jumped upwards. Using its wings to get leverage above the Saber and shooting its legs out towards him.
Talons clamped down around Gordin's side as it forced him down, the head shot towards the knight with its jaw wide open. Throwing up his right arm, Gordin growled behind his teeth as the wyvern bit down hard on his blocking forearm, his left hand moving to brace the limb as the wyvern shook its head from side to side in an effort to mangle the limb further.
"Not my patient, you scaly fuck!" Came the roar of Jorunn, the woman hurled herself forwards as the wyvern ripped its head away from Gordin and focused on her. It's jaw opened up and the back of it's throat glowed with bright orange light, a tell tale sign of flames already building up.
A bolt of fire tore it's way from the throat of the beast, shooting towards the woman.
Or it would have, if she hadn't dropped down first and let the attack shoot over her head, she rose back up whilst swinging her axe towards the head. Slamming the blade of the weapon into the jawline of the lizard, at the socket where the lower and upper jaw were connected. The wyvern widened its eyes and attempted to free itself from the attack, only to find Gordin's left hand now clamped firmly around its throat.
With the wyvern unable to close its jaw, it settled for trying to wriggle itself free of the grip of its two attackers. Gordin threw out his injured right hand, snagging a hold of the wyvern limb currently gripping his side and holding it down, trapping the beast between himself and Jorunn.
"Open wide, bastard!" Hemming cried out, dropping down and grabbing the broken fragment of spear from off the floor, throwing himself up and swinging the impromptu weapon directly into the open maw of the wyvern, slamming it all the back into the back of it's throat with the tip of the spear eventually finding resistance in the form of the scales that made up the outer skin of the lizard, Hemming pulled his arm back while leaving the broken spear remnant still buried in the throat of the wyvern.
The wyvern gurgled for a few moments, trying to scuttle away but finding little room to accomplish this act. Even if it did, there was little use in it. Gordin held firm, preventing any sort of escape from occurring, all the while Jorunn fought against the jaw of the wyvern trying to pop her weapon out of its face, she instead snarled at it and forced the axe head in deeper and twisted it downwards, there was a brief silence before the wyvern's jaw popped out at an angle, the lower jaw now not fully in line with the upper jaw.
The struggle went on for longer than Gordin would have assumed, however the tell tale signs of resistance started to dwindle, the light going out of the wyverns eye as it slowed its struggling to nothing. The flapping of its wings became slower and less powerful before finally sagging down at its side.
The body slumped forwards, now only being held up by Gordin's grip around its neck.
With a grunt, the Saber pushed the body off himself and exhaled "...Damn things…" he growled under his breath, turning himself onto his front and using his hands to push his body up into a kneeling position, he turned his head to stare down at the corpse of the wyvern before he let out another sigh.
"...We killed it?" Bjarne asked, looking up from his sitting position on the ground.
The comment brought a derisive snort from Hemming "Who is this 'we?'" the man asked, sending the younger man an irritated look "I don't see your milk drinking hide up here with their weapon lodged in the neck of a serpent." he coughed out, breathing in and out as he shook his right hand repeatedly.
Jorunn merely looked down at her bloodied axe before she shrugged once "That was…" she whistled "Hmph."
"Very impressive…" Gordin complimented as best he could, forcing himself back to his feet and stumbling slightly as he tried to right himself. "Very impressive indeed…For the meantime…" he raised his left hand, his palm out wide.
There was a moment when the others stared at him in silence, not a single one of them moving as they watched him with his hand outstretched. Then there was a faint whistling sound just above the sounds of battle, Gordin staggered backwards as his greatsword returned to his hand, the knight very nearly being bowled over by the force of the return weapon.
Runes were remarkably useful when it came to reclaiming lost weaponry.
Swinging the sword back around, Gordin planted it into the ground and leaned heavily on the weapon. "...Now then." He spoke after a moment of silence "Let us return to our allies…" he groaned as he raised his leg and took a single step forwards while shooting a glance skywards.
Another burst of yellow flames rippled through the tree of Torin.
He knew not what the Caster had been thinking, but he was certain the man was paying for it now.
The resounding clash of steel echoed through the canopy of the tree, Torin darting backwards as each ferocious swing of Kalameet's sword landed against his guard. The dragon was barely even an amateur with the sword, swinging it as little more than a child would swing a stick.
Despite that, he had more than enough speed and power to supplant his mediocre level of skill. If Torin had been of sound mind, he would have used that to his advantage. As it stood, he merely focused on matching the dragon at every turn. A swing was blocked and countered with a similarly brutish swing.
It was not a battle of skill, or was it one of beauty.
It was a brawl, plain and simple.
Torin jumped backwards as Kalameet swung his sword downwards, the weapon smashed into the branch the two were fighting atop of and shattered the bark within an instant, the surface reduced to little more than sawdust as the tree limb already started to fall away as a result.
Kalameet stumbled slightly as his end started to lean back towards the ground, Torin roared and charged forwards. The eye atop the dragon flashed a brilliant gold and stopped the druid dead in his tracks. However, Kalameet did not immediately leap to take advantage of his hold over the Caster, instead staring at him for a few seconds in silence.
"I would ask you listen-"
"No!" Torin snapped back, his own magical energy flared as a result and shattered the hold over his body and he jumped forwards. Though he was still weakened from the mystic eye. While Kalameet might have been hesitant to strike the druid, that did not make him unable to do so. As Torin jumped, Kalameet swung his sword in an arc.
Torin twisted his body, raising the pole of his axe to block the swing as best he could. Though in midair, he ended up getting launched through the skies for a brief second before his back crashed into another branch. Kalameet leaping from his perch was the final act which destroyed what remained of their original battlefield, the pale coloured limb of the tree being thrown in the opposite direction to the leaping dragon and sent plummeting towards the ground.
Rolling his body to the side, Torin slammed his axe head into the new branch to secure his hold on the perch. Clawing himself up as quickly as possible and barely even considering checking his balance. Not that he needed to do so in the first place, each branch was more than wide enough to secure his footing atop it within minimal effort.
Kalameet landed further along the branch than he did, the growth shook with the force of his landing. The black dragon held his arms out to the side to compose himself slightly, his swings spreading as far as they could in case he fell off.
He turned on Torin, only to find that the knight was already racing towards him and swinging his axe up. Kalameet took a single step forwards, the larger Servant brought his own sword down to meet the attack head on. The two weapons crashed into each other with another thunderous ringing of steel, soon pushing against the opposite strength.
"I didn't mean to kill your people like that-" Kalameet attempted to explain once more, only to feel the murderous aura being directed at him virtually triple in its intensity. Torin's eyes held an inferno behind them as he shoved the dragon back, sweeping his right leg out and catching the dragon in the side of the leg with a rough kick.
The jostling combined with his poor balance had Kalameet stumble slightly with the movement, letting out a small gasp. Torin twisted his axe and knocked the sword from Kalameet's hand, the weapon falling from his grip and tumbling to the ground below, then stepped into his guard and slammed his shoulder into the dragon.
Kalameet's hand snapped out, grabbing Torin by the back of his head and pulling him away. With a mighty roar, the dragon spun on his heels and pulled Torin from his footing and into the air, swinging the druid around as though he weighed nothing, Kalameet then hurled him with all his might towards the trunk of the tree.
Torin sailed through the air like a rock, smashing into the bark and burying nearly an inch into the tree face. His eyes remained locked onto Kalameet, even as the dragon broke into a run towards him, coiling his right arm back as he approached with the most over telegraphed movement the druid had ever laid eyes upon.
It actually infuriated him more with how clumsy a fighter this dragon was.
"My people died…to you!?" Torin snarled, ducking down as Kalameet threw his fist forwards and buried it in the trunk. Thrusting the top of the axe up, Torin slammed the weapon into Kalameet's chin and snapped his head back. Then stepped to the side, his left hand shot out and slapped against the trunk of his Noble Phantasm. With a pulse of magical energy, he forced more branches to grow out from the growth and snake around Kalameet's limbs.
Holding the dragon in place as he brought his axe up above his head, then swung it forwards with as much might as he could put into his swing. The end result was the axehead bing implanted in the chest of Kalameet, the dragon let out a sharp gasp of pain before his fist - still buried in the trunk - exploded with brilliant mustard coloured flames. The fire washed over Torin and forced him to raise his hand to cover his face as he was knocked backwards.
Slipping from the branch, he fell for a few metres before swinging the axe up and slamming it into the tree face to hold himself in position. His movements came to an abrupt halt as he glared up at the dragon, watching as his enemy ripped their way free of the encircling branches and tossing their charred remains aside.
Kalameet turned his head down, staring at the Caster for a few moments in silence "...You will not hear my words then?"
"Your words are as worthless as ash!" Torin snarled back at him, placing his legs against the tree in preparation to throw himself upwards. "What noble ideal could my people have been butchered for!?"
He didn't so much as wait for a reply before he hurled himself upwards, running up the side of the tree before twisting himself and charging the dragon. Kalameet narrowed his eyes before he thrust his arms out, catching the axe in between Torin's grip and swinging the Caster around, slamming his back against the trunk and pushing with enough force to trap the druid behind his own weapon.
"They didn't." Kalameet responded blankly "I killed your people out of jealousy…For that, I can only offer my deepest regrets that I did not understand why I disliked-"
"Jealous!?" Torin's voice was a furious roar, the Caster swung his legs up and placed the souls of his boots against Kalameet's chest before he kicked the dragon back, freeing himself the grip. "I don't want to hear anymore!" Torin roared, stabbing a finger at Kalameet "I don't want to hear of your reasons, or your excuses! Or your dreams!" he spat the word out with venom "It does not change what happened, what you did to us!"
"...No, it does not." Kalameet muttered back in response, the hooked black sword flashed into his hands once again. "And if you will not care for my words, I shall not waste them further." His grip on his weapon tightened as he hurled himself forwards.
Tarkus staggered backwards as the Lancer crashed against his guard once more, the almost lazy swipe from the Servant forced him to retreat several steps against his opponent.
"To fight me once more after being bested." The cold feminine voice radiated out from the Servant, long since having discarded her mount in favour of fighting Tarkus on foot. Not that the loss of her steed changed anything about the engagement in the least. "You are perhaps a fool, or willing to sacrifice yourself for others."
She took another step forwards, thrusting the spear forwards and slamming the tip of the weapon into Tarkus shield, there was a brief pause before the lance detonated with brilliant red light and Saber was knocked backwards, hunching himself down and gritting his teeth behind his helmet as he struggled to keep himself on his feet.
The woman barely even paid attention to Marie galloping in behind her, the best she extended to her was a brief glance over the shoulder as if to acknowledge that she existed before flexing the magical energy around her body. A dark wave flooded out from her, washing over the ground in a menacing aura accompanied by crackles of red lightning.
With a half turn, she swept the lance upwards and directed the mana towards the Rider, the river of crimson light rushed towards the Servant as they widened their eyes and clicked their heels against the glass horse. The mount leapt up into the sky, bouncing repeatedly on plates of pure mana as it did so to give the illusion of flight. The light rushed past beneath her, scorching the ground where she had been riding.
Without even looking, Lancer raised her spear and blocked Tarkus' sword dead in its tracks. The woman didn't so much as flinch from the force of the strike, merely balancing her own strength against the Saber's and winning fairly handily, even as Tarkus pushed down ever further against her to the point where his armour started to groan at the pressure he was exuding against it.
Lancer slowly turned their head to face the Saber once more "If your purpose is to serve as mere fodder, then perhaps I can excuse your abilities." they mused, sweeping the lance to the side and sending Tarkus skating along the ground with it, the knight letting out a surprised gasp as he was bodily pushed by someone quite a bit smaller than him and looking far less muscular.
"Your strength might afford you some advantage over the weak, though I am no mere foot soldier." The woman coldly remarked as she stalked towards the Saber, bringing her spear up once more and pulling it back in preparation for a thrust.
Tarkus took a half step backwards, raising his shield for a brief moment before he sighed and shoulder it on his back. He didn't know what face the Lancer was making, but the lack of movement from them after his actions at least confirmed that she wasn't expecting him to do that. Moving his now free hand to his greatsword, he took ahold of the weapon with both hands and moved into a high guard.
Taking a step forwards, Tarkus swung the sword down with all of his might. Lancer raised the spear up and blocked the attack before it reached them, this time their arm bent slightly with the strike, with a dismissive grunt she pressed her other hand against the spear, pushing the Servant backwards and forcing his own legs to bend as he tried to keep his balance.
Twisting her arm, she forced the sword around and roughly pushed it into the ground, stepping forwards Lancer then shoulder barged Tarkus. The knight staggered backwards with the shove, the spear was swiftly pulled from the top of the greatsword and swung upwards in an arc. Tarkus stepped backwards, widening his eyes behind his helmet and biting back a cry of alarm as he watched the darkened lance slice through the front of his breastplate, narrowly missing the front of his chest.
Because of the design of the lance, the attack looked less like the clean swipe of a powerful weapon and more in line with the scratches of a wild animal. A slashed and jagged mark marred the front of his armour, the knight thrust his greatsword forwards in response to try and counter. Lancer raised up her right arm at a slight angle, her bracer caught the tip of the greatsword and redirected it upwards.
The thrust barely glanced against the top of her helmet with a sharp clang as she was already moving to counter. Stepping forwards and flexing her magical energy, mana swirled around her at high speeds before it exploded outwards in a flash of brilliant neon red light. Tarkus was blown off his feet from the attack, rolling through the air before roughly landing upon his shoulder and then flipping onto his back with a grunt.
Even as Lancer took a step forwards, she paused and turned again. Sweeping the spear out in front of her and unleashing another dark cloud of mana towards the charging Marie. The woman once again shot skywards to avoid the attack, only for Lancer to twist her spear and point in towards the Rider. The tip of her weapon glowed for barely a second before it unleashed a beam of pure magical energy.
The condensed mana cleared the distance between Lancer and Marie in a heartbeat, before the Rider herself could even react, and struck the side of the glass horse like a rocket. The construct shattered instantly, Marie letting out a sharp gasp as she suddenly found herself in a free fall while propelled forwards by the momentum of her mount's explosion.
Lancer surged forwards, propelled by a sudden burst of mana and rushed the Rider as she fell to the ground. Her free hand threw itself forwards and clamped down around the throat of the Rider, stopping her flight dead in its tracks and holding her above the ground, her feet dangling uselessly as she grasped at the metal gauntlet now firmly entrenched around her neck.
"The knight I can excuse." Lancer's voice came out cold and judgemental "Even a brute has their place on a battlefield. You?" she scoffed loudly, holding the Rider further up into the air. Marie gasped as the grip tightened around her throat "Who has no experience in tactics nor battle? I know not your true name and I have no interest in learning it. I can tell with but a glance you are nothing more than a decoration."
Marie's ring flashed, she held her hand outstretched towards Lancer and unleashed a burst of fluorescent pink magical energy directly into the face of the Servant. The smoke kicked up and the attack briefly obscured them from vision before it started to settle. Marie watched as the unmarred body of the dark Servant stared back at her, not even having been moved by the attack in the least.
"A Servant should play to their strengths." The darkened spear was raised upwards, the tip pointing directly towards Marie's heart. The Servant gave no heed to the struggling of the Rider as they fruitlessly tried to pry themselves free. "And yours was clearly warming a bed."
Marie's eyes widened as Lancer thrust forwards, the clear aim of gutting the Servant then and there.
The head of the Lancer snapped the side a moment later, whirling Marie around as though she weighed nothing. The Rider let out a gasp as she was tossed from the Servants grip.
"Wha-!" She barely caught sight of Tarkus already mid swing with his sword above his head. The knight instantly dropped the weapon, it came to her almost dumbly that the Lancer had actually thrown her towards the Saber to stop him attacking. Her eyes widened as she watched Tarkus spread his arms ready to catch her, she slammed into his chest a moment later.
The stalwart knight remained unmoved as he caught her "Miss Ma-" he then cut himself off, she once again found herself being tossed through the air. Only this time she was flung while still facing her thrower. As such, she was granted a front row seat to watch the black lance of the darkened Servant gore straight through Tarkus' chest. The jagged crystal spokes on the lance ripped open his armour and snagged with them his skin and bones as the tip of the spear burst through his back.
That time, Tarkus did stagger while releasing a bloodied cough.
Her back hit the ground with an almost gentle thud, the snow softly crunching beneath her weight.
"...Huh?" Marie made a small noise, somewhat unable to comprehend that the exact same thing had happened to her twice. Then Tarkus did something that she hadn't been expecting, he grabbed ahold of the spear with both hands and pulled it forwards, moving along the length of the weapon and swinging his left hand out clamped down around the Lancer's neck.
"...You were very rude just now." Tarkus gurgled as he swung his right hand forwards and smashed his fist directly into the face of the Servant, the Lancer staggered backwards from the strike and released her grip on the spear. Tarkus was quick to advance on them, spinning them with their left hand as he turned on his heels. He pulled back his right arm and swung upwards, directly into the gut of the Lancer and very nearly folded them over with the force of the punch.
Tarkus maintained his grip on the Servant, showing no indication he was affected by the spear in his gut, nor the devastating damage he had suffered as he continued to rain powerful blows onto the Lancer again and again.
On perhaps the twelfth punch, the Lancer snapped her hand out and caught Tarkus fist. Her other hand reached up and grabbed the wrist of his left hand. Twisting it in her grasp and slowly prying it from her throat as she stepped backwards. The pair of them now pushing against the strength of the opposite. The ground beneath their feet started to crack.
Tarkus swung his head down like a hammer, striking Lancer dead in the face and knocking them backwards a step. Lancer raised her head once more, Tarkus got the impression that she was glaring at him through her helmet. Then she swung her own head upwards and smashed it into his chin. Ripping her hand away from his fist and thrusting it towards the handle of the lance in his gut. With a jerked motion, she ripped the spear from his body and splattered the ground with dark red blood.
Releasing a sharp gasp, Tarkus stumbled away from the Lancer as the gaping hole in his chest turned into a waterfall of blood. His hands flying over the wound in some meagre effort to stem the tide. As an undead, he could still fight regardless of the wound but it would still hamper his abilities. Especially if his organs fell out and he started slipping on them.
Twisting his body, Tarkus brought out his tower shield and raised it up. Stumbling as Lancer swung her spear down directly into his guard, the shockwave of the attack jostled his entire body, the top layer of snow blasted away from him in a circle.
As Lancer made to swing her spear back around, Tarkus inhaled and then exhaled.
The woman paused, turning and raising her shoulder up as Marie hurled another crystal horse at the woman. This time bereft of its rider, the construct lasted long enough to shove the Lancer away from the Saber, her feet dragging through the snow as she made to stop herself.
"Stay close, Mrs!" Tarkus shouted out, ignoring the way in which blood spilled down his chin and out the bottom of his helmet. Already moving towards where Marie had her arm outstretched "This is going to be loud!" he slammed the base of his shield into the ground, his eyes briefly darted to the spirit tree directly towards their left before lowering slightly. "Sorry, Miss Animusphere…" he muttered under his breath.
"Warriors far and wide, climb the mountain of the Divine, Brave the passage to the Heavens and test yourself against the trial of the Gods!" Mana swirled around Tarkus as he spoke, the intoning of his Noble Phantasm was clear enough, something Lancer clearly noticed by the way she turned towards them and pointed the lance at the pair of them. "Come forth, my achievement! Sen's Fortress!"
The earth shook, bricks burst from the ground and rushed upwards. Assembling themselves at blinding speed as the citadel of the ancient fortress started to construct itself around the trio. Not that the effects of the sudden Noble Phantasm were limited to just them, however. The spiritual tree of Torin was shunted to the side as the wall of the fortress crashed into it, shattering the branches in its path and upturning the roots of the great plant.
If one had looked close enough, they would have noticed Kalameet being thrown from one of the branches and stabbing his sword into the trunk in order to stop himself from falling to the ground. Torin had a much easier time of holding on, it was all too obvious as he was the one who commanded the tree.
For all others, it became a frantic sprint in the opposite direction as the boundary of the fortress expanded further and further outwards. Great stone towers reached towards the heavens, over shadowing even the spirit tree of Torin with their scale, though still coming up short when compared with the titanic archtree. The front of the citadel ground to a halt, three barred gates hung down to bar any entry. Falling down with a deafening crash which sent a wave of snow and dirt sweeping over anyone who happened to be close enough at the time.
As her vision cleared, Lancer lowered her arm and looked around. Soon finding herself standing in the centre of a chasm atop a single bridge without railings on either side. She looked down, giving the dirt red cobblestone a cursory examination before looking over her shoulder at the clattering noise of armour.
What she wasn't expecting was a humanoid man with green scales and the head of a snake to be swinging a curved sword directly towards her head. The surprise was short lived, however.
As was the serpent man.
She spun on her heel, swinging her lance with blinding speeds and cleaving through both the sword of her attacker as well as their body itself. The form vanished into a ghostly whisper of purple smoke before the blood stains even dropped down into the ground. A whistling caught her ear, she instinctively took a single step backwards just in time to avoid an axe head swinging past her face.
Turning her head upwards, she stared at the sharpened pendulum that swung back and forth across the chasm. She looked over her shoulder once more, spotting another of the pendulum blades around a metre behind her and there was a third located just beyond the one swinging just in front of her. Each of the blades was moving at an irregular pattern, where one might be at the climax of its swing the other would be halfway through and the final would already be upon you.
"This is the Fortress that was impossible to navigate for decades!" The voice of Tarkus echoed out around her. "Even many of the Berenike knights couldn't do it. I did but…well…I think I just got lucky."
"So this is your grand ploy?" Lancer bluntly remarked, casting a withering glare over the decrepit local and glancing over the edge. The groaning of metal from below her soon revealed itself to be some manner of crippled looking behemoth, bereft of its head and one of its legs. A twin pointed staff was in its right hand as it hobbled around the floor, dragging a cracked metal tail behind it.
"...This ruin full of failed experiments and invalid beasts?"
There was a pause before Tarkus responded "Yes." with some confidence "It might not be enough to beat you, but you will be walking around here for a while trying to find the exit."
"Heh." A faint laugh came from behind the black helmet of the Lancer, the woman raised her spear up and slowly pulled it backwards. "You are correct in one aspect. It shall not be enough to beat me. Why would I consider wandering such a ruin when I can just as simply tear it down."
"...Wha-?"
The spear in her hands suddenly started to rotate, the handle remaining stationary while the cone shaped blade spun around at an increasing pace. The red crystals along the outer lining of the spear began to glow and crackle, lightning danced between each of them at a hastening pace to match the rising speed of the spear.
Dark clouds of mana swirled around the weapon, a vortex soon forming around the spear with such vigour that the body of the weapon was soon obscured behind a menacing black cloud, all that could be seen was the occasional crackle of red lightning illuminating part of the outline for a brief second. Despite standing right next to the vortex, Lancer looked thoroughly unconcerned about the power of the weapon.
She had no need to be.
She would not be so easily slain by her own spear.
"O' Holy Spear, removing anchor…" Lancer intoned, with just those simple words the speed of the lance's rotation increased exponentially. The torrent of wind now swirling around the lance was - at this point - tearing apart the very structure around her.
The flow of mana towards the Lancer continued to such a point that Tarkus could feel his throat run dry.
"That spear…" Tarkus muttered out, his eyes glancing towards Marie by his side and then back to it from his ledge just above her. Though she couldn't see them it would not matter. There was very little that would survive that spear when it's full power was activated. Tarkus might not have been the smartest man around.
He would be the first to admit it.
But he wasn't stupid enough to not understand that the spear would rip his Noble Phantasm apart. That spear almost certainly had to be an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm. With him being in such a weak condition already, he was unsure if he was going to survive.
Marie most certainly wouldn't.
"Sorry about this…Mrs Marie." Tarkus spoke in a gentle tone of voice as he crouched down and wrapped his arms around the woman, eliciting a surprised gasp from her. "My armour is a bit cold, so you might be a little chilly."
"Wha-what are you…?" Marie struggled to look up at the knight as he embraced her body, then she understood a split second later what his intention was. "Wait-wait! Don't-!" the rest of her words were drowned out by the cacophony occurring below the pair of them. The crashing of rock and roar of the spear was overwhelming every other possible noise the pair of them could have made, even at such a close distance to one another.
Despite that, a single voice could be heard above the chaos.
"Thrust and feast, crush and shatter, split the skies, rend the earth and command the storms!" Lancer called out, her voice still as clear and crisp as though she was speaking from beside them. "Thirteen Fangs, clamp down around the throat of my foe!"
Drawing back the lance one final time, even the pendulum axes were being pulled towards the woman with their support struts groaning in protest from the unnatural movement to their construction.
For a split second, there was nothing but silence.
A single word echoed through every hall of the fortress, sweeping through all the corridors with the force of a storm.
"Rhongomyniad!"
Then the world exploded.
