Chapter 141: Heading off to a peaceful nap.
Stahl tightened their grip around Olga without causing her pain, their large axe swinging into the tree and crushing the bark beneath the blade to secure their hold. The Berserker leaned forwards, covering Olga with their body and protecting her from the falling debris as the tree was violently shunted at an angle.
Branches snapped, wood was rendered and splinters flew from the sudden appearance of the fortress. Even now, it was still rising higher and higher into the sky without any sign of stopping any time soon. That had been the plan though, try and delay King Arthur for as long as possible so they could clear away the fodder and attack her with a numbers advantage.
At least Tarkus had played to his side of the plan. Marie being there…was something she hadn't expected but Olga didn't really know where to put the Rider in the first place.
That aside, she would only have wished that Tarkus could have gotten some more distance before triggering his Noble Phantasm.
"Romani!" Olga snapped out above the chaos around her "Report!"
"Readings from Sigurd are looking good!" The man informed her, only using the audio to avoid distracting the woman. "He should be done with his dragon soon, Gordin's readings were crippled with that blast earlier. The dragon struck him with a mana burst and at this point, I think a lucky wyvern might be able to damage his spirit core. The readings are fluctuating so he's probably using some spells…erm…Cu and Brynhildr are consistent against Akal and Tarkus Noble Phantasm has completely enshrouded himself, Marie and the presumed King Arthur."
Olga grit her teeth, it was good enough news but it could have been better. "And Torin?"
"...Not great."
"Of course it isn't!" She growled, whether it was to herself or Romani, she couldn't tell but she didn't care all that much right now. "That stupid halfwit!" she shook her head "Alright, fine. As long as Tarkus keeps King Arthur busy for the time being, then we can hopefully-"
"W-what the-!?" Romani exclaimed, his voice shifting into full blown panic a second later "Mana readings skyrocketing! Director, it's a Noble Phantasm coming from inside Tarkus fortress!"
Olga widened her eyes "What?" she exclaimed "But King Arthur is a Lancer, they shouldn't have access to Excalibur in that form!" she paled a second later. Rhongomyniad, the spear of King Arthur. She'd overlooked it, why had she not thought of the implications?
A Divine Construct that was said to rival Excalibur.
Meaning that it was also classed as Anti-Fortress.
Her eyes snapped onto the citadel next to them, her heart probably stopped as she realised the full weight of the implications.
She'd trapped them inside a fortress, with a Servant whose Noble Phantasm would be Anti-Fortress…
The outer wall of the fortress was ripped apart in a split second, an explosion of crimson light tore its way free of the structure and rushed towards them. The blood red flames charged from the inner sanctum, flooding through every opening and crevice of the Noble Phantasm and tearing it asunder as it did so. The shockwave struck them a second later. The central trunk of the tree was pulled apart in the blast, splinter chunks taller than a man were flung across the battlefield in seconds as the black mushroom cloud soared high into the sky.
As for Olga herself, she barely managed to let out a scream before both her and Stahl were ripped from their spot on the tree and sent spiralling through the air. The Berserker dissipated the axe and brought forth its circular shield. Pulling the Director in close - as per her orders - the Servant held out the shield in front of themselves to take the brunt of the impact.
In spite of the explosion directly next to them and their battlefield falling out beneath their feet, neither Torin nor Kalameet gave much notice to the fact the tree was rapidly falling over. The pair of them still engaged in their own duel as the black dragon raced towards the druid, leaping across the branches as he pursued him.
Kalameet swept his sword up, Torin leaned back to avoid the strike as the shockwave produced by the swing shattered the branches just above the pair of them. The howl of the explosion and the brightness of the flames illuminated the both of them against the dark backdrop of the knight sky. Their fierce expressions revealed to one another in full.
Torin kicked off the branch, throwing himself backwards and into the fall alongside the tree itself. Kalameet threw himself after the druid with reckless abandon, raising his sword above his head as he did so in preparation for landing a strike against the man.
Then the man thrust his arms forward, even as the tree burned and died it would still answer the call of its master. The branches snaked forwards and wrapped around Kalameet's right angle, securing him in its grasp and temporarily halting the dragon's momentum in the fall. Twisting his body, Kalameet made to swing back at his trapper, though before he had the chance to, the branch whipped him through the air and cracked him downwards.
The force proved too much for the wooden limb as it ripped itself open with the sudden movement, though it fulfilled its aim. Kalameet rocketed towards the ground at speeds which exceeded Torin's, smashing into the snow in a cloud of ice and mud.
Kalameet growled, then looked up and widened his eyes as he watched the top half of the falling tree racing towards him, its shadow casting itself over him. The dragon snarled and threw up his hands in a blocking motion in front of himself as the tree landed atop him. The tree crashed into him, crushing him under its body and blasting away the surrounding land.
Torin landed in a roll, the Servant twisting around as he slid to a halt and whirled in the direction where Kalameet should have been lying beneath the tree.
A pillar of yellow flames ripped through the wood, spinning around high into the sky like a tornado as it shattered the remaining branches and lifted their burning remains into the air along with the force of the jet engine. Kalameet's body came racing out of the inferno a second later, honing in on Torin and closing the gap on him with a single powerful jump.
A flash of yellow appeared in his hands as he brought out another sword, sweeping it forwards and throwing up a wave of snow directly into the face of the druid. Torin snarled at the trick, already ducking down and watching as the blade itself swept through the air above his head. He stepped forwards and swung up, cleaving through the icy cloud.
And nothing else.
The knight's eyes widened as he came to realise that the sword which had swept through the air above his head had not been swung, rather it had been thrown by the dragon who was no nowhere to be seen.
His body froze solid as the alien sensation assaulted him again. He caught a flash of movement in the corner of his eye and then felt his entire body cave to the side. Kalameet's armoured knuckle's buried themselves into his ribs and shattered them instantly. A wet cough ripped its way past Torin's teeth as he was hurled into the air with the punch.
As the druid flew skywards, Kalameet beat his wings a single time in an effort to catch up with him, also succeeding in the outcome as he appeared above the druid. His mystic eye flashed once more and Torin felt his body overwhelmed by the sense of fatigue once again. Kalameet brought his arms above his head, his fingers interlocked with one another into a single fist.
Then he engulfed it in bright yellow flames before he swung his arms down like a hammer aimed directly towards the chest of the Caster.
Torin twisted his body, even as the eye was fixed upon him, in order to bring up the head of his axe at the last possible second. The joint fists of Kalameet struck the flat side of the weapon and forced it into his chest, rocketing him towards the ground with a sudden acceleration. Torin released a pained grunt as he was rather violently reacquainted with the ground.
"Haaaaa!"
He threw himself to the side, Kalameet smashed into the floor where he had been moments prior. His fist punched through the ground up to his elbow. The dragon whirled on the druid, his eye flashed for a brief moment and held the man in place once more. Kalameet pulled his arm up in a sweeping motion, unleashing a burst of flames from his palm as he did so and throwing up a cloud of fire, accompanied by charred and burning lumps of rock, directly into the face of Torin.
The force of the explosion threw Torin away, his body rolling across the snow before sliding to a halt. Flaming debris still rained down around him as Kalameet picked himself up from his crouched position and stared down at the druid from the distance between the two of them. "...What I do not understand is why you fight me alone?" The dragon could not help but ask "If you fought me with your allies, it would have been an even fight."
The clear confusion was present in the dragon's tone of voice "So…why are they not…?" he trailed off, his confusion fading away and his posture soon tightening with understanding. "Surely you did not abandon them for the sake of revenge?" there was a slight edge in the voice of the dragon "Did the bonds of your allies mean nothing to-"
"Shut…up…" Torin growled out, raising his head up and glaring at the Berserker "What do you know of bonds?" he croaked out, already on his hands and knees and ignoring the hideous burn across the front of his armour that had melted all the way to his skin. "A beast who destroys for the thrill of it…"
"Don't talk as though you know me." Kalameet snapped "You have never spoken with me before this moment and when last I saw your people, I was a lesser being. The me who burnt down the grove and the me who stands before you now are now - quite literally - worlds apart." he stabbed a finger at the druid "Judge me by my acts now!"
"You're still a monster who burns down homes…" Torin spat back "You just now cloak yourself in the belief it is for a higher cause-"
"It is for a cause." Kalameet growled out, thumping a fist against his chest "The cause of my people and for them, for the future they will one day see, I shall do whatever I can to ensure its survival! Even if it means sacrificing mankind, then I shall do just that for them!" red eyes narrowed. "...And they stand by me. If my goal is so shallow…then where are those who stand by you?"
Torin snarled at the dragon, scrambling back to his feet and rushing forwards, grabbing his axe off the floor as he did so and rushing the dragon. Kalameet stood firm, raising his own sword up and swinging it down towards the druid.
Alsanna rose her hand up once more, spiked pillars of ice rose up from the ground in a line that snaked directly towards the one eyed dragon.
The mountainous beast snorted, dark smoke puffing out from its nostrils before opening up its maw and unleashing a torrent of flames from the back of its throat. The burning river flooded the ground, melting away Alsanna's attack with ease and blanketing the land in fire, already closing in on both herself and Lud. The woman widened her eyes slightly before sweeping her hands upwards.
A flat topped wall of ice pulled itself from the ground directly in front of her, the flames crashed into it and swept around, the wall hissed and steamed as the extreme temperatures combated against one another for dominance.
Slowly but surely, the dragon was proving the clear victor in that struggle. The face of the wall that Alsanna was audience too started to bubble away, bright orange rays of light puncturing through her defences as the flames gored through the ice. The woman's face started to become taut with strain as she worked to hasten her summoning of the barrier.
The situation was made all the harder as the dragon started to take powerful steps forwards, each movement shook the earth with the tremendous weight of the beast. The rumbling drew louder and louder, each methodical step sent another tremble through Alsanna's bones.
She might do the role well enough as defender, but she was no warrior and that much should have been obvious to anyone whom she ever spoke with. It had never been expected of her to fight in the first place, therefore she relied on her support to do that. With a mental call, she alerted Zallen to her predicament.
While she was certain her companion was protecting the humans as best as he could, it didn't change the fact that they would disappear if she vanished. It was a moot point, either way the humans would lose one of their defenders. Besides, in the chaos of the explosion moments earlier, she was sure the wyverns would be in a similar state of chaos.
There was a deafening crunch a moment later, the flames were cut out and Alsanna's wall shattered from the force of whatever blast front struck it. The woman threw her hands up to cover her face as Lud ducked their head down to similarly avoid being struck by the chunks of ice now racing past them.
Time slowed for Alsanna, through the now exposed view of the dragon, she saw the brown scaled beasts head recoiling to the side, teeth flying from its maw as a rippling impact washed over the side of its face, cracks ran over the surface of its scales. Directly next to its head - and its blind spot - was a very familiar looking hammer.
The giant lump of titanite steel bounced away from the skull of the dragon, its owner laughing madly as he sprinted towards the danger without a care in the world. With a grunt, Ledo kicked off the ground and into the air with his hands outstretched to grasp his weapon once. His palms struck the pole of the hammer with an audible clang of metal before his fingers wrapped around it.
Still laughing as loud as he could, Ledo started to himself in a corkscrew circle, using the hammer to add speed to his rotation until he became little more than a cackling blur. The Silver Knight paused at the climax of his swing as he closed in on the dragon, turning his body and pivoting himself to be upright and with his hammer held aloft as if he was ready to put in a final nail.
The dragon turned their head to the sound of laughter, the single yellow orb widening in alarm as it watched the knight accelerate downwards towards its face with the weapon. The neck of the dragon was already turning to avoid the knight, the snake-like muscle in the motion of twisting to avoid the knight.
As if Alsanna would allow such a thing.
Ice rushed up from the ground at incredible speeds, it didn't need to be strong but it just needed to stop the dragon's movements for a split second. Long enough for Ledo to land his hit upon it. The frozen tendrils warped themselves into the shape of roots and split apart, pulling more and more moisture from the air - and thanks to all the explosions and fires melting the snow, there was plenty of it - to hasten their growth.
The tendrils wrapped around the neck of the dragon in an instant, the eye of the beast widened as it felt its movements grow stiff for a split second. The ice itself creaked and groaned barely a second after it snagged itself around the throat of the dragon before it shattered.
To the outside eye, it would have seemed as though the ice shattered the second it touched the throat of the lizard. To Ledo? He saw it as his opportunity.
"Haaaaaaaaaa!" With a mighty roar, the Silver Knight brought his hammer down with all his strength. The face of the weapon collided with the forehead of the dragon with an air splitting crunch. The air around the head of the dragon rushed outwards in a sphere, the blast rushing over Alsanna and having her wince at the volume of it.
Scales exploded, shattering into miniscule shards as the dragon's head was rather violently shoved backwards with the force of the hit, the dragon stumbled away from the diminutive figure of the knight, Ledo already falling back down to earth in a straight line. Having struck the dragon hard enough to almost jerk to a halt in the air and kill off any momentum from his leap in the process.
"That would never have worked with an everlasting dragon!" Ledo gleefully exclaimed as he twirled the gammer around in his hands, his body crashing into the snow with his knee's bending to absorb the impact. "This is much easier!" He was already charging forwards, catching a glimpse of Alsanna from the corner of his eye "Gordin said to tell Nero that you needed help!"
The man didn't wait for a response, already rushing towards the dragon as it shook its head from side to side, pulling free chitinous chards which had buried themselves in its own flesh. The mangled remains out its outer skin flaked off its body, its snout curling into a savage snarl as a guttural roar broke free from its throat.
Ledo kicked off the ground in a short jump, leaping towards the dragon with his hammer pulled back once more. This time the jump was not as high as the last, he wasn't aiming for its head but rather its feet. After all, a dragon with broken toes wouldn't be nearly as effective at moving around. At the very least, that was the thought process of the Berserker, not that Alsanna was privy to such tactics at the time.
The air around the dragon swirled and roared, the vortex surrounded the beast before rapidly expanding outwards in a rush of power. Ledo was knocked off course, being blasted back the way he had come from the sudden output of magical energy accompanied by a roar from the dragon. Ledo made a small noise of surprise as he crashed back into the ground, rolling for a few metres before twisting around onto his feet.
"Alright." The knight commented with a shake of his head, "That's a new one."
His grip on his hammer tightened "Not that I mind though!" he called out at the top of his lungs, positioning himself with the hammer resting upon the ground. "Try your best, dragon! I'll show you that we Silver Knights slew your race!"
As if responding to the knight's challenge, the dragon let out another snarl as it lowered itself as if getting ready to pounce. Its single eye darting between the Berserker and Caster.
Akal staggered as the golem slammed its fist into her guard, the woman then let out a grunt as she parried the blow to the side. Stepping forwards, she swung her opposite arm upwards in a punch, her fist reducing the golem back to it's base elements in a shower of dirt.
Drawing her hand back, she narrowed her eyes onto Cu Chulainn.
The blue haired man already working his magical energy and crafting another symbol along the ground. The magecraft to remould the earth as one deemed fit, the power of primordial runes giving life to the very ground they trod upon. Made all the more easier to access the raw materials necessary as their battle had upturned the frozen mud all around them, barely a spec of snow to be seen amongst the impact craters or blast points.
Her eyes flashed to the side, the Caster was ignored and both her hands came up for a block. The blade of Brynhildr's spear cracked against her guard a moment later. The pair of them then swung out their legs in response, both looking to catch their opposing fighter with a counter.
The end result was a thunderous crack as their knees collided with one another, freezing for a moment before they both stepped backwards. Brynhildr looked less like the maiden she had done when the fighting started, her hair was matted and frayed, parts of her armour blasted off around her legs and sections of her dress burned away around her shoulders.
Her pristine skin was now covered in mud and bruises.
Akal looked no better, cuts littered her body accompanied by sections along her hands where the skin had been flayed from her knuckles. Not that she seemed to care in the least for the streams of blood running down her arms and fingers. The woman rolled her shoulder slightly "That was a powerful explosion earlier, how do you think your allies are faring at this moment?"
Neither fighter responded, prompting a slightly disappointed frown from Akal.
"Is fight banter not something humans of this world practice?" She questioned, stalking around Brynhildr while her eyes remained on a swivel between both the Lancer and the Caster. Neither one opted to respond to the woman for a moment before Cu exhaled.
"I mean…what the heck do you want to even banter about?"
That brought a pause to Akal "I'm not sure." she admitted with a shrug "It's just that my King was trying new things, so I didn't want to be left behind. Then again, I'm just content with watching him." she cracked a smile "It's always something special to oversee the growth of someone, isn't it?"
Her words struck something within Brynhildr, the woman narrowed her eyes slightly "You are not invested in the goal of your Master?"
"I'm invested in his growth as an individual." Akal corrected "And of the story he will weave, I am invested in watching it's birth right up to the point of its end." With a sharp twist of her heel, she spun on the Servant and launched herself forwards like a rocket, swinging her fist down and into the flat side of the Lancer's spear as she brought it up in a block. "That still makes me invested in his goal, just as a member of the audience!"
Brynhildr twisted around, knocking the fist to the side and sweeping her leg up in a kick, her shin cracked against the side of the Caster before they swung out in a counter, catching her in the chest with a quick jab and knocking her back. Even with the brief stumble, the Lancer was quick to compose herself for combat as Akal rushed forwards with a series of body shots.
The spear twisted and turned, either catching the knuckles along the surface of the handle or being used to knock the fists to the side and cause them to miss their targets.
"Isn't it something wonderful?" Akal spoke casually, even as she continued to throw punch after punch "If he wins, that will birth so many new stories and I'll get to see each and every one of them. I might even get the chance to partake in a few."
"That just sounds like you're bored!" The woman slid to a halt, kicking back to avoid the burst of flames from the Caster. The man having darted away from his last position and moving to another one, keeping his focus on the dragon woman even as he ran around the outside of the battle. "Can't you do anything better for kicks?"
"I've been alive for longer than the human history of this world." Akal dryly responded as her back crashed into something. The woman blinked and glanced over her shoulder, the fierce scowl of the golem glared back at her before the sculpted arm was raised up and sent crashing down into the side of her head.
Despite that, Akal didn't break her concentration. "Most of that time I spent guiding whatever human happened to find me along the path to grant them clarity beyond the flow of time. Separating themselves from the woes of life." she thrust her leg out and dropped down, spinning on her heel and sweeping the shins out from underneath the golem.
As it fell forwards, she surged upwards and rammed her shoulder into the construct, the being crumbled back into dirt and washed over her body into a mound on the floor. "I think that in this new life, I'm entitled to-" she was cut off by Brynhildr slicing into her face with the spear.
The weapon swung upwards and catching the Caster by surprise, she staggered backwards with the force of the blow as Brynhildr halted the upwards movement and then reversed it back down. Akal grunted slightly, more with being forced down as the spear buried itself nearly an inch into her right shoulder.
With a sigh, the dragon woman thrust her hand out and clamped it down around the pole of the spear. "I think I'm entitled to a chance where I can actually see what it was that the humans were using me to escape from." She remarked, then thrust her leg out in a kick. Brynhildr's right hand released the spear and shot forwards, catching the shin before it could strike her.
"Wouldn't you be curious about it? I've spent so long seeing the end of all these stories, so I just asked myself 'what would it be like to be in one?' and now I have my answer." The hand around the spear glowed, the tell-tale sign of the Caster preparing another explosion of flames.
Akal's shin froze solid before that could even happen, the woman widened her eyes as she took notice of the faint glowing symbols around the Lancer's hand. "You-"
Brynhildr threw her spear upwards, Akal's hand - still attached to it - was swung upwards as well with the woman giving a brief grunt of surprise. The moment the Lancer released her hold on the leg, it dropped like a rock back to the ground and sent the Caster off balance somewhat. More than enough for the Valkyrie to take advantage.
Stepping into her guard, Brynhildr swung her right left hand forwards like a spear directly into the throat of the Caster. Akal widened her eyes and stumbled back from the involuntary reaction, despite not feeling pain that didn't mean that her body suddenly didn't need basic functions. A sweeping kick to her inner knee, sent the Caster dropping down onto one leg, then falling backwards as the other leg swung upwards and smashed an armoured shin directly into her nose.
Akal fell backwards, coughing in and out as she made to stand back up. Twisting on her feel, Brynhildr lowered her body and thrust her right leg upwards as she span, the back of her heel cracked against Akal's cheek as she performed a roundhouse kick with enough force to send the Caster skating across the ground and freeing her spear from the grasp of the Servant.
Brynhildr kicked off the ground, leaping up and grabbing a hold of her weapon before twisting it and aiming the tip downwards directly onto the Caster as she bounced from her violent punch. A shunt of magical energy was all that was needed to propel the Lancer down like a rocket, the tip of her spear burst to life with violet flames as she drove it directly into the chest of the Servant and obscured the pair of them in a pillar of fire.
A moment later, Akal was sent flying from the attack, once more skipping along the surface of the ground but this time with a horrible burn along her abdomen for her troubles.
Brynhildr swept her spear through the cloud, dissipating it and unveiling herself once more. Her eyes narrowing as she watched Akal stick out her hand and thrust it into the ground to stop her momentum, the Caster was jerked to a halt and fell face down into the snow. For a second she remained there, then raised up her free hand and pushed it against the ground, rising up and twisting her head upwards to fix her sights on the Lancer.
"...Alright then." She grunted out, pushing herself back onto her feet and staggering for a moment as she tried to put weight on her frozen leg, she looked down at it and frowned before raising the flat of her palm towards the limb and unleashing a torrent of concentrated fire upon the limb. Melting the ice entirely while giving no indication that she was affected by charring the top layer of skin and incinerating the boots she wore.
"That was a good-"
"Here we go, grand scale!" Cu cut her off, calling out at the top of his lungs and slamming his palm into the ground. Akal briefly looked at him in surprise, then her eyes snapped upwards as she saw a series of pale blue magical symbols emerge in the air at least three metres above them, a split second later the same symbols appeared at her feet, spreading across the land and the sky all around them in a circle.
With a laugh, the Caster twirled his staff and shouldered it "I don't mind you talking, makes it much easier to pull off something like this." the staff burst into flames, "Besides, now I can actually get around to fighting like I want to fight."
"What do-?" Akal made to speak then blinked and stumbled as she felt a pressure build up around her, she stared down at her arms in surprise as a sense of tension coiled through her body. If she was to describe it in one word, it would have been fatigue. She was being drained, her magical energy weakened even with the support of Kalameet as her Master and his link with the Holy Grail.
A laugh pulled its way from her throat. "I suppose I should have listened to Artoria and not spoken too long." she mused to herself with a shake of her head, then looked back to the duo and assumed a combat stance.
"Quite so." A curt voice called out, Akal darted her eyes to the left and watched as a third figure approached them.
Sigurd pushed up the rim of his glasses as he gazed at the dragon woman dispassionately, Akal thinning her lips as her eyes darted to the bloodied sword in his grasp.
"...I take it that she's dead then?" Akal muttered out, her voice oddly emotionless as she spoke, inhaling and then exhaling. "Well, if you are here then there is no other explanation. I'm feeling a little irritated now."
Sigurd didn't respond with words, instead he raised up his sword and pointed it towards the Caster.
"Well…Nothing I can do about that now." Raising her hands, she slapped them together once, then whistled out as loudly as she could.
Their heads snapped up, Hamra grunted as she stared towards the sky. The faint whistling on the wind alerted them all to the call of mother. Spreading her wings wide, the Dracon launched herself forwards with a beat of her wings, opening up her maw and unleashing a cry.
The call was soon responded to by dozens of her siblings, each one of them of differing colours or bulks, all with a variety of replies.
The Dracons shot out from the Archtree, rising into the air and flying towards the battlefield, the dark clouds of smoke and roaring flames would have been visible for miles around, even in the night that now engulfed them all. The chaos of the battle silhouetted from the infernos.
Each of the Dracons looked down, focusing on one particular aspect as they broke away from each other into differing groups. Some moved towards the call of mother, others went had heeded the subconscious request from their parent to help their lesser siblings and kill the humans.
Hamra was one such, the red scaled lizard rushed towards the point where the fighting was thickest, in admits the chaos of her smaller siblings already in battle with what remained of the human forces tightly woven into a semi-circle. A large shadow beast at the forefront, shooting out blades of pale blue light towards any who strayed to close.
Hamra's eyes narrowed.
She raised the spear - absconded from the dead humans - and pointed it down towards the earth, her fellow Dracons growled in affirmation to the suggestion as they each dived downwards. They could feel the approaching call of another of their parents. The dark one who looked human and rode atop the horse of shadow.
Nero grunted as she parried away the jaws of the attacking wyvern. Her muscles flexed as she danced forwards and swung down, cleaving through the chest of the beast and dropping it to the ground.
"Stand fast!" The Emperor called out, if only to give the impression she was actually doing something to control this mess. The moment the fortress had erupted from the ground, they had been put on the backfoot to avoid being caught in it.
The moment it exploded, it was all they could do to avoid being crushed by falling lumps of debris. At the very least some of the smaller pieces had dissipated in the air, meaning the citadel had been a projection or illusion of a sort.
"Brynjar!" Nero called out, green eyes darting around to try and catch sight of the man. She'd lost sight of him when the cloud of dust swept over them, while she was certain they'd been able to regroup to an extent, she was certain that there were pockets who had been cut off and left to fend for themselves.
Despite shouting as loud as she could, Nero was doubtful even her illustrious voice could pierce the fierce sounds of battle. Which meant the man was either dead or out of her reach.
A shame, but not something she could worry about now.
"Erik!" She called out to the red haired warrior, the man snarling like an animal as he smashed his axe into the shoulder of a wyvern. His free hand thrust forwards into the open wound and gripped it tight. With a savage roar, the man flexed his muscles and pulled in opposing directions. Ripping the wyvern apart.
"Erik, did Ledo find Alsanna?" She asked again, ignoring the bloody display of brutality.
"Grrrraaaahhhh!"
"That is not a literate answer for me!" Nero complained, then turned to the side and held up the flat of her crimson sword. The bolt of flames washed over her sword. She lowered the weapon and watched as the attacker swooped overhead and back into the sky.
"Archers!" Nero called out, pointing at it with her left hand before she returned her focus onto the battle ahead of her. "Let them get close, then shoot them down for-"
A dozen arrows were sent skywards behind her, climbing into the sky in the vague direction of the attacking beasts. The norse by her side armed with their bows stepped backwards as the nocked arrows once more, those armed with spears and shields stepped upwards and assumed a defensive position.
Was there some sort of ramification for teaching vikings testudo formations? The Easter Roman Empire still existed at this point and it was hardly as though the tales of her people had not come this far north. So the answer was most likely a no.
Zallen bounded over their front lines with a single powerful leap, the tiger roaring as it did so with the howls forging new magical spells around its body. The spear-like shards rocketed into the sky, tracking down more wyverns to take out. As it stood, Nero was confident that they could whittle down the numbers to such an extent that they could resume their advance.
A crimson burst of light streaking through the sky and striking Zallen in the side of the head dissuaded her of this notion rather swiftly. The shadow cat let out an ear piercing scream as it was knocked onto its side, half its face burnt down to the skin with smouldering patches of flesh still hissing away loud enough that the Emperor could still hear them.
The sudden attack provided a lull in the combat, all eyes focused on Zallen as another beam of blood red light rocketed across the battlefield and struck the cat in the gut this time, the beast being further knocked back and down, this time the beam did not diminish after a split second and continued the assault for several more moments. All the while the shadow cat was crying out in agony before it collapsed to the ground with a crunch.
Nero whirled in the direction the light had come from.
From out of the shadows, as if it was forged by the very darkness itself, the armoured figure of the black knight stepped forwards. Spear still gleaming in their right hand with a menacing crackle of lightning shooting out from the weapon every so often and striking whatever happened to be close enough at the time.
The clanking of armoured footsteps echoed out as a herald of things to come, the Servant did not falter nor did they show any sign of hesitance as they marched towards the group. Nor did they have true reason to, Nero gulped lightly to herself. If the rumours were true, then this was King Arthur armed with the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad.
Nero might not have understood the information the Grail provided for the most part, many of it were magical terms that she had little understanding of, but she could infer enough to understand the danger the spear represented. Especially considering a mere burst of light had felled their support in a mere two hits.
Having fought King Arthur during the event in Rome, Nero was under no illusions about the strength of this Servant. That had been for the amusement of the masses and the King had still been handily controlling the duel from start to finish, this was a life or death struggle.
However, Rome would not be so easily cowed.
Narrowing her eyes, Nero straightened her posture and tightened her grip on Aestus Estus. The sword flickering with brilliant orange flames. "Maintain positions." Nero commanded as she bent her knees pulling her sword back and grasping it with both hands. At this distance, Arthur would most certainly be able to wipe out a good portion of those behind the Saber with a mere swing of her lance.
Nero would be able to defend against it, whereas the regular humans would be granted no such reprieve.
"Keep the dragons from breaking your centre line!" Nero commanded, not even waiting for response before she rocketed forwards. Her diminutive form sliding along the battlefield with great bounding leaps, her dress billowing in the wind to give the appearance of a rose petal in the wind. In this instance, it was a rose that would brave the storm.
Mana swirled around Artoria as they took a step forwards, her lance thrummed with magical energy as they awaited the approach of the blonde woman. She was a Saber by all accounts and her face was something noteworthy. Artoria could barely recall such a time where that same face rested upon her.
It was a novelty that was quickly dismissed, however.
Sweeping her spear forwards, Artoria swung across at the Servant in a wide arc, mana ejected from the spear in bursts of red lightning. The woman let out a sharp gasp as stray bolts caught her body, sending shudders through her from an involuntary reaction. She did not let that stop her, the burning red weapon gliding towards the Lancer with a powerful swing of the Saber.
Artoria stepped backwards, the blow flashing through the air just in front of her. Bringing her left hand up, she clenched her fingers into a tight fist before throwing the arm forwards in a lazy jab. The blonde woman pulled her sword back, bringing up the flat of the blade and blocking the punch with the base of the weapon. The Lancer was briefly left stumped when she watched the knee's of the Servant bend and their entire body lean back as the strike landed.
"This weak?" Artoria could not help but comment aloud. This had to be some manner of feint, surely. Or perhaps a diversionary tactic. She examined the face - her face - with a scrutinous gaze. The strained expression, the tightness of her lips and the tensed muscles in the smaller woman's neck were all genuine.
"Pitiful." Artoria scoffed aloud, pushing her entire body in the punch and transitioning it into a shove. The blonde Saber stumbled back with the attack, Artoria brought her lance up above her head and swung down in a powerful motion to get as much momentum behind the swing as possible.
The bright green eyes of her opponent widened in alarm as they sidestepped the attack with a good degree of swiftness. The spear hit the ground with a mighty crunch, cracks had barely started to form before the spear was pulled from the dirt and already in motion once more.
Pedalling backwards, it was all the blonde woman could do to dodge the swings of the lance. Not even making the attempt to block them or - when she did - being pushed back with the force of each strike.
"Haaa!" Artoria looked to the side with an almost bored motion, watching the bare chested man charging her down while swinging the large axe with both hands. The metal of the axe itself looked jagged and rough, akin to a moulded lump of steel that someone had taken the courtesy of sharpening. The weapon itself had what looked like red vines growing along its surface.
The savage snarl of the Servant was noted for a brief second.
A Berserker then and seemingly a more traditional one than her Master was.
Raising her spear up sideways, she blocked the swing of the axe and grunted as she repositioned herself. Bending her leg slightly to brace her body from the force of the blow. The Servant was certainly benefiting from the aid of the Madness Enhancement. With a dismissive grunt, Artoria shoved the man backwards and pulled the spear back for a thrust.
The man held up the flat of his ace as the spear was thrown forwards, cracking against the surface of the chiselled lump of steel with a grinding noise.
She paused, raising the flat of her left arm to her side and grunting as the sword of the blonde woman struck it.
"Tch." Mana coursed through her body, with a deafening roar akin to a dragon, it flooded her being and rushed into her arm. With a swing of the limb she violently parried the blonde woman to the side with enough force to sweep her feet out from underneath her and flip her into a cartwheel.
Twisting the spear to the side, he knocked the Berserker away while stepping in closer to the Saber, bringing her arm back around herself and turning her body. She jerked her body forwards in a sudden motion and smashed her shoulder into the chest of the blonde Saber. Mana swirled around her before it was violently ejected from her body like an explosion, the Saber being on the receiving end of it.
The burst looked more like a tornado of darkened air, the woman letting out a cry of alarm as she was punted away from the Lancer in a single motion and spinning away into the distance. Twisting on her heel, Artoria brought herself to bear on the Berserker and rushed towards him. Thrusting her spear forwards-
"Not my husband, harlot."
Pale wisps of rust coloured light rushed towards her from the Berserker, the venomous nature of the female voice was noted for barely a moment before Artoria saw the light rush into the grooves between her armour and felt them lay atop her skin like a burning acid. She hissed quietly and stopped her movements for a brief moment.
"A curse?" She scoffed disdainfully, before raising her head and looking at the Berserker. "Your talents in the art are pitiful compared to the Witch I know." she flexed her dragon core, ripping apart the ground at her feet and banishing the curse from her body before it could take hold of her. The Berserker raised his left hand to cover his face as debris was blown into him from the mere activation of the magic core.
There was a whistling sound behind her, she spun around and swung upwards. Her lance clanged against a flying black greatsword which sent the weapon spiralling into the air before it halted in its motion and rocketed back down into the waiting grip of its wielder. The Servant adorned in steel armour, blue fabric and a full covering helmet tensed himself as best he could for combat.
All the while, Artoria noticed three individuals behind the man scampering away as fast as they could towards the direction of their allies. The blue Saber, charged forwards with his sword glowing a brilliant gold for a split second before impact.
The two weapons collided against one another, Artoria noted the slight stumble in the man's charge as he had done so. Which meant he was most likely injured and arriving from a recent battle. His scuffed armour being more so the proof she needed to come to that assessment.
A call split the air, the knight in front of her looked up for a brief moment in surprise. More so the fool for him as she shoved his greatsword to the side and then kicked him in the gut in swift motion, the man being staggered away from her by the motion and into a crouch as he grunted in pain.
The Berserker to her left looked skywards, then snarled as he brought up his axe moments before one of those new dragons - or Dracons, as Kalameet called them - was upon the man. Tackling him to the ground with its arms around his waist why another dropped down and stamped on his weapon to stop it moving. The pair of them raised a wooden club and axe respectively and then started to rain down clumsy blows upon the Berserker.
"What in the-oof!" The knight gasped in surprise before he was similarly assaulted by a Dracon with deep red scales wielding a spear in its hand. The beast thrust the lance forwards and buried it into the shoulder of the knight. The man grunted for a moment then swung his sword upwards, cleaving through the polearm and bringing the sword back down.
The Dracon snaked forwards, grabbing his falling arm with both hands and thrusting its head forwards with its maw opened wide. Clamping down its upper and lower jaws against the shoulder of the knight and eliciting a pained grunt from the man. His right hand grabbed the beast and shoved it away from him, staggering backwards as the teeth came away from him with a squelching pop.
The Saber rolled his left arm as he tried to get movement back into it, the Dracon with bloodied lips merely snarled at the man as it spread its claws wide and glared at him.
"Rrrrraaaaa!" The Berserker to her side roared once more, tossing the Dracons from his body with a savage grunt and sending a green one skywards while the brown one jumped back to avoid being caught in the swing of an axe.
"Haaa!" A red blur crashed into her side while she was preoccupied with whatever was happening, the form of the smaller Saber attempting to shove her over while burying her sword into the side of her armour. Artoria grunted at the movement, driving her facing elbow down into the flat of the blade and knocking it away from her body, leaving behind a slash in the side of her breastplate.
Artoria spun on her heel, swinging the lance at the same time and very nearly catching the Saber in the head with the spiked section of the spear, had the woman not ducked down to avoid it at the last moment. Artoria glanced upwards, watching as the woman spun through the air before swinging her sword down towards her.
She darted backwards, allowing the sword to strike the ground with a thunderous crash.
Nero's feet touched the ground for less than a second before she was already moving, upon Artoria within a single breath and already swinging towards her once more. The Lancer stepped forwards and met the blow halfway with a swing of her spear, noticing the faint red glow surrounding the red Saber.
"Ho?" Artoria gave a single noise of mild intrigue before she dismissed it and parried the blow. Nero followed the movement, spinning on her heel and bringing the sword around in an arc from the opposite side, sword met spear once more in a thunderous crash of weapons. A cloud of debris kicked up by the force, soon blown aside as the weapons met once more with another burst of force.
Nero advanced on the Lancer, ducking and weaving after each strike and never allowing herself a moment to think. Her arms would have been a blur to the ordinary man, a flash of burning crimson steel falling against the blackened armour of her opponent again and again, each strike being met by the powerful swings of the Lancer, neither woman giving an inch of ground as they continued their battle.
A groan left Marie's lips as consciousness returned to her, the woman raised her hand to touch against her head. The moment she touched her forehead, she hissed as a flash of pain stabbed lanced through her skull. Her hand came away, feeling slick with something running down her fingers and onto her palm.
Her right eye cracked open ever so slightly, for whatever reason she wasn't able to move her left. There was a faint shudder beneath her as the ground shook, accompanied by a muffled roar and a crash of steel.
The single eye blinked repeatedly to try and clear the red haze from her vision, her right arm came back down and rubbed along the front of her eye. The pupil widened as she managed to glimpse the arm come away, now smeared with crimson splashes of blood.
Last thing she remembered was-
A gurgling cough came past her lips, spraying out flakes of blood along with the croaking word of "T-Tarkus?"
"I'm here, Mrs Marie." She almost felt her jubilation at the fact she could still hear his voice, for a moment she had thought that someone had died for her sake once again. "You got hurt. Sorry about that." The knight gave a weak chuckle "I tried to cover you as best I could but some of the light still hit you."
A pause before the knight spoke again "Don't worry though, I'm sure that Miss Animusphere will be able to do something about…" the knight trailed off for some reason, then coughed once in a noise that sounded as though he was trying to eject his lungs. "Sorry about that...That probably didn't sound very nice." he continued to speak in a light tone.
However, Marie couldn't quite get away from that sinking feeling building up.
Forcing her body to turn as best she could, she twisted her neck in the direction she could hear the knight's voice coming from.
Her sapphire blue eye widened the moment it fell upon the man, leaning back against the corpse of a wyvern.
His entire left side was missing, his arm, his collar and most of his neck as well. The gruesome sight would have turned anyone's stomach were it not for the fact that he had such a peaceful expression upon his face despite the obvious agony he should have been in. No, he should have been dead long before then.
Those sorts of wounds were fatal for any Servant.
"T-Tarkus…" Marie croaked out, raising her right arm and pointing a finger towards him almost dumbly "Y-your body…"
"Hm?" The man blinked, then cast a glance over his left side and put on a guilty expression. "You shouldn't be looking at this, Mrs Marie…Can you just…look away, please?" the man asked almost innocently "I don't think someone like you should have to see something like this. It's not very nice and I'd feel bad if you got sick over it."
Marie didn't so much as move an inch, her eyes still locked onto the dark haired man's face.
"...Can you not move all that much either, Mrs Marie?" Tarkus asked after a moment, sounding quite worried. "I wanted to check on you but I don't know all that much about healing and…" he cast a glance around them "...Well, all these little dragons showed up so I had to try and fight them off…" he made a small noise "It's very hard to do that sort of thing with only one arm, you know?"
Marie sniffled a noise, then uttered a single word "W-why?"
Tarkus blinked at her "...Because otherwise they would get you." he stated as though it was a silly thing for her to say. "I think the Lancer went somewhere else, I would have tried to look but I didn't want to leave you alone and I can't carry you…" he glanced down at his missing leg "...The wyvern behind me ate my leg."
Marie laughed a bit at the words, then broke down into another sniffle "Why did you protect me?"
"That's what a knight is supposed to do." Tarkus once again put on the odd tone of voice "It makes sense, doesn't it? A knight protects a queen. That's what mother always said." he closed his eyes and leaned back, his head thudding against the corpse of the wyvern. "I'm quite sleepy right now…"
"D-don't go to sleep!" Marie hastily pleaded, hissing as she twisted her body over and gasped to herself as another flash of pain assaulted her whole body. In spite of it, she still forced herself onto her hands, dragging her body towards the knight as if she was a child "Don't you dare go to sleep!"
"I can't help that, Mrs Marie." Tarkus spoke in an almost guilty tone as he visibly struggled to keep his eyes open. "But I can stay awake a little longer, if you want. You should probably think about finding the others though…" he let out a shuddering breath, a bubble of blood popped in the back of his throat and sprayed the dark liquid over his lips. "That's a shame though, I really thought that fortress would work." his lip quivered "I guess it wasn't impossible."
"Nevermind the Fortress." Marie stated as she crawled closer to the knight, pushing herself up on her knees and moving around to his injured side. She fought back the taste of bile in her throat from the exposed injuries. She had no idea what she was supposed to do here at all.
"I don't know why Miss Da Vinci made such a big deal out of it." Tarkus muttered, his voice growing quieter as his eyelids started to drop.
"No, no, no!" Marie all but begged, reaching out and cupping his cheeks while turning his face towards her. "Look into my eyes, alright? Just look into my eyes while I…erm…I…" the woman trailed off, darting her head around to see if there was anyone nearby she could call out to.
Even if there was, there was nothing to be done.
She looked back down and croaked as she saw Tarkus' eyes closed.
"Tarkus!?"
"S-sorry!" The knight hastily apologised "I just…I still can't look pretty women in the face…" he remarked.
"Stop doing that!" She exclaimed, pinching his cheeks slightly "Just open your eyes and look at me, alright? You can do that." she jostled his head slightly "Please, just…please."
The eyelids gradually rose upwards, the hazel coloured orbs stared up at the Rider with a hint of sadness. "Sorry, Mrs Marie…I don't want to make you sad or anything…" he slurred out slightly, the orbs already starting to dull.
"Just…" Marie sniffled, reaching up and wiping her cheek with her left hand "Just don't do that just yet. Yo-you can still look away from me when you're all healed up."
Tarkus' lip rose into a knowing smile "...I'm not that dumb, Mrs Marie." he responded "I didn't think I was going to survive the attack. But I remembered Miss Da Vinci's words about the impossible and I just figured…At least saving you would be something I could do, right?" his smile dropped "...I'm sorry I didn't do a better job of it-"
"I'm fine!" Marie flashed him a smile, ignoring how much it actually hurt. "See? I'm fine! Just make sure you get yourself healed up, right? You said you can do the impossible so just make sure that you live!"
Tarkus released a shuddering breath as his eyelids dropped "I don't think I can do…that sort of…impossible thing…" he muttered out under his breath, his head starting to drop forwards.
"Wait, wait, wait! Just hang on for someone to-"
"Mrs Marie…" Tarkus whispered out "Can I ask something…?"
"You can ask me later when we're all in Chaldea." She hastily cut him off, forcing his head up with her hands "You'll love it there, by the way. So many different sorts of people, I can introduce you to everyone. I'm sure you and d'Eon will get along great!" she paused, looking for more things to say "We even started making a little building, I'm sure you'd be a great help with that so just ask me later-"
"I…I don't think I can." Tarkus replied in a weak voice, golden flakes of light already peeling away from his body. "Because I can only do it now."
Marie was glaring at the golden motes as they started to pull away, then looked back to the knight "What is it?"
"...I'm afraid to die alone." He whispered back "Mother used to hold me when I went to sleep." he sniffled "Would it be…embarrassing…if I asked for you to-?"
Marie forced his head into the crook of her shoulder before he even finished, wrapping her arms around the back of his head in a tight embrace. "N-no." She sniffled "Not at all."
"...Okay." Tarkus' quiet voice reached her ears, not even sounding flustered at this point. That stung her worse. "...I'm a little sleepy now." His voice was more muffled at this point, weak and slurred "...Is it alright if I go to sleep?"
"..." Marie whimpered and nodded her head up and down.
"Mrs Marie…" Tarkus spoke in a gentle tone "I need to know…it's alright…I don't want you to be sad."
"...It's fine. Y-you can go to sleep, if you want. I'll be right here when you wake up. Okay?"
"Okay…" Tarkus' voice turned warm for a moment. "...I look forward to…waking…" his voice fell silent.
Marie tightened her hold on the cold body, not even caring for the jagged pieces of armour poking through her dress and into her skin. She simply sat there, rocking the body of the Saber back and forth while sniffling to herself.
She held him until her hands slipped through empty space and around her body.
Then she fell silent.
Yes.
I am a monster.