[EMIYA SHIROU]
[THE GAMER]
[LV 28 - 12500/27000]
[HP: 2800][MP: 35][MC: 27][ST: 920][SP: 12]
[STR: 45][DEX: 47][INT: 50][WIS: 33][CHR: 102]
The second layer of the Reverse Side had an eerie atmosphere, its silence broken only by the wail of the cursed souls that haunted it, and more recently by the sound of clashing steel and dripping blood.
The soundtrack of a battle.
[DIE HARD MODE ACTIVATED]
Even and especially because of his over reinforced state, Shirou's HPs had plummeted to zero, forcing him into Die Hard Mode.
Now, it was his stamina that was quickly depleting. He no longer suffered damage, even if he was hit, but the stamina counter was quickly ticking dowards. He already had less than half left, and he was still far from his destination.
Fortunately for him, his inventory was stocked with food. He had been making it non-stop as he attempted to max out his Cooking skill, a task from which he had been distracted short of reaching it due to all the things that had happened, stopping at level ninety-eight.
At least he wasn't in any danger of running out of things to eat for the time being. If it wasn't for that, he wouldn't have any hope of making it as far as he had, much less going as far as getting Saeko back home.
As he advanced through the streets of Mirror Fuyuki, he realized how utterly unprepared he was. Even with the power of his Gamer Eyes and his sword-affinity he was still at a disadvantage.
He never coveted power for himself, but now he realized that without it, he couldn't accomplish anything. He would have to rethink his long term strategy once this matter was settled. He would make use of his Die Hard ability to take down powerful mobs and level up quickly.
Since he would literally not die until there was no breath left in him, he might as well take advantage of that.
But that was for the future. His present task was getting to the school, capture Mikado Ryouko and have her cough out the method to leave this layer of the Reverse Side with Saeko. He had to make it fast too, otherwise Saeko would succumb to Mana Poisoning.
Right now, time was his greatest concern.
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 60) defeated]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 61) defeated]
[You have gained a level]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 59) defeated]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 60) defeated]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 62) defeated]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 62) defeated]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 58) defeated]
[You have gained a level]
Slowly but steadily, he advanced. Although all the wounds he suffered didn't really impair him, he still looked like death warmed over.
He was cut everywhere. His shirt had been reduced to shreds and his torso was a criss-cross of bleeding wounds. He looked as bad as the Wraiths he fought, but that didn't help him pass as one of them. They probably didn't rely on sight to track their environment and Shirou couldn't hide his presence to save his life.
This trip was fated to be a battlefield till the very end.
[br]
"Incredible," Ryouko muttered, looking through the eyes of each Wraith that Shirou fought. "This doesn't look like high-speed regeneration but straight up immortality."
Unbeknownst to him, every enemy he fought until now was directed by Ryouko. She didn't possess the ability to control more than a couple at the same time, but she could direct them in turns, steering them away from an area or towards another, and then leave them to their instinct.
Her plan was to tire Emiya Shirou out and then capture him, but he was exceeding her calculations.
He didn't seem to suffer any loss in combat ability, or to be running out of breath. magecraft didn't explain it, unless he lied about his memory loss and he was the child of a line of magi who inherited their Crest.
That was one possible explanation and one she didn't like. magecraft would not help her, unless it was to the levels of the Age of Gods.
Her hope was that his secret was a supernatural bloodline with properties that she could isolate, extract and replicate. If she was mistaken, then all of her efforts to bring him here would have been for naught.
But, that was something to worry about later. Right now, she needed to find a way to subdue and capture him. She thought that putting him in a situation where he had limited resources and even less time to come up with a plan would stump him, but that clearly wasn't the case.
She had hoped that the threat to Busujima Saeko's life would similarly paralyze him, but that hadn't been the case either. She supposed that the time it took for him to get out of his remarkably powerful Boundary Field was spent taking countermeasures against Mana poisoning.
The efficacy of those countermeasures wasn't probably that great, because there was a clear undercurrent of urgency in the way he fought. So, at the very least, he was still pressed for time.
Therefore, she would make his advance even more difficult than it already was, which would also serve to test the true extent of his ability. If it all came down to nothing, she would at least have his corpse to experiment with.
There would be some worth in that as well.
[br]
"Khhh!" Shirou groaned.
He had been making decent progress, considering the circumstances, but then he suddenly found himself facing three Samurai Wraiths at the same time.
Even if he didn't suffer additional damage in Die Hard Mode, it still made the fight several times more difficult.
He couldn't execute moves properly and he couldn't dodge as well as he liked. The fight degenerated into in a veritable slug-fest, and the monsters had a higher hit rate by virtue of a higher number of limbs involved.
Still, Shirou would not die no matter how much punishment he took, so eventually he managed killed one enemy, which in turn gave him more breathing room to kill the second, and then the third.
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 60) defeated]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 62) defeated]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 62) defeated]
[You have gained a level]
"Ahhh!" he exhaled, falling this his knees. His stamina was dangerously close to zero. He took out several onigiri and stuffed his mouth with them.
[ST restored by 100]
[ST restored by 100]
[ST restored by 100]
[ST restored by 100]
He kept eating until it was back to full and only then he allowed himself a sigh of relief. Seriously, just because he wouldn't die until he run out of stamina didn't mean he was unkillable. If he couldn't restore it, he would just drop dead, and eating in the middle of a difficult fight wasn't really a simple matter.
In short, he couldn't just rely blindly on his Die Hard Mode or he would eventually be outlasted. He truly needed a different way to fight and he needed it now.
As much as he would have like to just rushed to his destination, a detour was in order. Otherwise, his chances of winning were slim to none.
Furthermore, he was starting to think that his run ins with clusters of enemies were Mikado's doing. In fact, her plan wouldn't make sense otherwise. She had to have the ability to direct these monsters if not outright control them.
Until now, he made a beeline for the primary school because he was pressed for time. Mikado expected it and if she truly had control or influence on the wraiths, she would put them in his way to wear him down.
Indeed, against what simple logic would suggest, the shortest route wasn't necessarily the fastest... or the safest for that matter.
[br]
"Where has he gone?" Mikado asked herself, switching from the perception of one Wraith to another. She didn't have eyes all over the city, unfortunately.
Over time she had conscripted several Wraiths to her cause, and she had deployed them in key areas, but they were nowhere near enough to monitor the entirety of city.
She was counting on him coming directly to her location, because that was the most logical thing to do. There was no guarantee that taking a roundabout route would result in fewer enemies unless he had figured that she was putting them in his way.
"Clever brat," she cursed.
She spread out her wraiths, trying to catch a glimpse of him, but she didn't find him on any of the alternative routes he could have taken to reach the school. In fact, it seemed he had given up on reaching her at all.
'Is he looking for something? Did he find a way out on his own? Where is he?'
As a magus, Ryouko was trained from childhood to keep calm under all circumstances, but she was starting to feel anxious. Nothing was going as predicted. Not a single thing. She had miscalculated Emiya's fighting prowess, his durability, the extent of his magecraft and apparently also his ability to see through her schemes.
Now she felt that he was closing in on her through methods she couldn't see through and that didn't help her think calmly.
She was at her strongest here, with the bulk of her army waiting for him. She wasn't the one pressed for time.
Yet as the minutes ticked away and he failed to show up, she was feeling more and more tense.
Just where the hell had he gone?
[br]
"Score!" Shirou exclaimed upon finding what he came looking for. He had to go in a completely different direction from his school to get there, but it had paid out.
Homurahara Gakuen. Fuyuki's biggest high school, where Taiga recently transferred to and where Saeko studied. It would also become his own school at the end of the semester, if he survived until then.
He didn't come here to sightsee, though. He came because he knew without that he would found what he was looking for in this building. More specifically, in the archery club.
Rows upon rows of bows and arrows.
[As result of a special action, a new skill has been created]
[Beginner Japanese Archery Lv. 1]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 2]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 3]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 4]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 5]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 6]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 7]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 8]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 9]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 10]
[...][...][...]
[...][...][...]
[...][...][...]
[...][...][...]
[...][...][...]
[Beginner Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 100]
[Beginner Archery Lv. 100 has changed into Intermediate Archery Lv. 1]
[Intermediate Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 2]
[Intermediate Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 3]
[...][...][...]
[...][...][...]
[...][...][...]
[Intermediate Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 77]
"Mwahahaha!" Shirou laughed almost hysterically, feeling a bit of relief. It had been a bet coming over here and he was afraid it wouldn't pay out, but his sword-hax had come through once again.
The cumulative experience within these bows wasn't too great, so they couldn't take the skill all the way to mastership, but it was fine all the same. Also, they were linked to the concept of Sword only tangentially, so his rate of acquisition was suitably inferior.
It didn't matter, though. He would iron out the kinks later. The important thing was that he now possessed an alternative way to fight that didn't involve getting close and personal to any Wraith.
He also leveled up four times since this mess had begun, reaching level 32 and granting him four additional stats point on top of the twelve he still had, for a total of sixteen points to allocate freely. There was no better time that this to make good use of them.
His Strength was at 45 and his Dexterity at 47. He didn't know when it was the last time he gained a point through grinding or Quest rewards, but for the moment he didn't care. However, he recalled that both his Intelligence and Charisma had granted him a new title with related bonuses when they hit 50, so the wisest thing would be to take both Strength and Dexterity up to that point before investing them elsewhere.
He did so immediately and confirmed his choice.
[Title Achieved: Iron Body (I)]
[Description: Your high Strength (50) has made your body harder to wound by physical means. All physical damages are reduced by 15%]
[Title Achieved: Swift Body (I)]
[Description: Your high Dexterity (50) has granted you excellent control of your balance, making you able to absorb and return 15% of the damage you receive on your next attack (physical attacks only).]
[Title Achieved: Balanced Body (I)]
[Description: Because you have trained all aspects of your physique you have become more proficient in using your body, reducing the amount of Stamina consumed by all actions by 15%]
"Alright!" Shirou exclaimed clenching his fist. This was exactly what he needed. In fact, it would have been much better if he used his points sooner considering the payout, but that there was nothing he could to about it now.
Sadly he only had eight points left to allocate, otherwise he would have put them all in his Wisdom to get whatever title he could out of it. He assumed the combination with 50 points of Intelligence would unlock a title similar to Balance of the Body for the mind department. A reduction in Mana consumption, maybe? That would have been sweet, but it would have to wait for another time.
He didn't use his remaining points just yet. He didn't know what waited for him further ahead and he'd rather keep the additional boost for an even tighter spot.
Now… now it was time to turn the tables on Mikado Ryouko.
[br]
Time tickled by and there was still no trace of Emiya Shirou to be found. Ryouko was really starting to fear that he truly had found the way out of the second layer and decided to cut his losses, leaving behind Busujima to her fate.
She knew he hadn't gone back to retrieve her, because she had sent a number of Wraiths to keep the area locked down.
She switched her attention from one Wraith to another, but none of them where currently engaged in battle with him. She could only actively share and manipulate the senses of the few Wraiths she was currently devoting her attention to. If she stretched herself to control more she would not be able to make sense of what she was seeing through their eyes.
Whenever she wasn't actively possessing them, they were no different from the wild Wraiths they were when she had fist captured them, shuffling around until the presence of a living person drew their attention.
Therefore her ability to search for Shirou was limited to a few key areas, which were his home, the Ryuudo mountain where the exit to the upper layer was located and lastly the grade school that her base of operations.
She switched from one location to another in a cycle that lasted no longer than a few minutes to complete.
He couldn't have left this level of the Reverse side without running into her Wraiths at the base of the mountain, and if he had destroyed them she would of course not be able to connect with them any more and thus figure out his location. However that platoon of Wraiths was completely unperturbed.
With chilling dread, she realized it was the platoon around the school that had a few Wraiths who had gone missing all of a sudden.
"Where?"
She cycled through the wraiths around the school perimeter but could not find him, yet more and more Wraiths were being destroyed at a rate of about one a minute.
"Where? Where is he attacking from?"
[br]
Standing on top of the tallest building in the area, Shirou nocked another arrow to his bow and released it.
The projectile sailed through the air, travelling hundreds of meters and stabbing the targeted Wraith through the chest.
"Gyeeh!" the creature shrieked, searching for its assailant but failing to find it. Two more arrows followed, pinning it through the chest once more. Even with its limited intelligence it now understood where the attack was coming from and rushed in that direction.
However, even though it wasn't completely devoid of intelligence, it was creature born of resentment and hatred with no sense of pain and self preservation.
He broke into a mad sprint in Shirou's direction without bothering to parry or dodge the arrows being shot at him. It eventually received too much damage to sustain its form and simply collapsed to the ground with a hate-filled groan, disappearing into a thin mist.
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 65) defeated]
[6500 Experience Points acquired]
[Intermediate Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 83]
[You have gained a level!]
Shirou ignored the prompts and immediately took out another arrow from his Inventory and shot it towards another Wraith. He had completely ransacked the Archery Club's storage, so he had dozens of bows and hundreds of arrows available.
Arrows were consumable by nature, but the bows normally weren't. They became such when he Reinforced them to shoot Reinforced arrows with his Reinforced body.
It was the only method for ordinary projectiles to harm (and do any decent damage) to purely spiritual entities like these wraiths. Shirou could get only a few dozen shots from a single bow before it broke down which was just enough to kill a couple of Wraiths, yet more than enough to make a difference.
He had thinned their ranks considerably already and in the process he had learned a few things.
First, wraiths didn't react to each other, only to a direct stimulus or to a human presence. He could pull them one by one and defeat them easily, if with an heavy toll to his Mana pool. Killing a single wraith with this method cost him all of his MPs, but he had enough Mana Cores to go by for a long while. They also dropped a Mana Core when they were defeated, which meant that his supply wasn't about to run dry anytime soon.
Second, Mikado Ryouko's control over them was severely limited. She didn't seem to be aware of him killing her wraiths, however that was would change sooner than later. She might not be aware of them individually, but when a sizable number started to disappear she was bound to take notice.
As he thought that, a wraith that should have been quite too distant to detect him started running in his direction, followed shortly after by another one.
"Looks like the gig is up," he said. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to make it easy for you."
Rather than holding his position, Shirou jumped away to another rooftop, shooting several arrows while in mid-air and thus keeping a steady distance from his angry pursuer.
[br]
"A bow?" Ryouko wondered. "Is that what he went looking for? Since when does he know how to... Pure Eyes. Damn it. Can he learn how to use a weapon just by looking at it? A variant of Pure Eyes specifically for weaponry? If so..."
If so, then Emiya Shirou's fighting potential was immeasurable. If that was the case, then she could really be well in over her head with him.
"The more enemies I send his way, the stronger he gets... All this time... All this time I was making him more powerful rather than weakening him."
Emiya Shirou would soak up battle experience like a sponge. It explained why he mastered the Busujima style at a young age. It explained why he was so strong to confidently walk in the Reverse Side on his own.
It wasn't power. It was insane growth potential.
If that was the case than maybe he could...
'No. If he can't get past my wraiths there is no way he could get there. Still... Emiya Shirou... show me what you truly can do. One way or another, you are my only hope. So please... please...'
"Awaken! All of you!"
The crystals inside the room shattered and the creatures held in suspended animation inside of them were finally free from their cages.
[br]
[Samurai Wraith (lv. 62) defeated]
[6200 Experience Points acquired]
[Intermediate Japanese Archery has reached Lv. 88]
The last wraith finally fell to the ground and disappeared and just in time too. Shirou had finally run out of arrows. He could Project more, but their durability would have been inferior and his Mana expenditure greater.
Therefore, he was fortunate to have cleared the way before that happened, although he had gained four more levels in the process.
Granted, Mikado could still have more in reserve inside the school building, but currently nothing was triggering his-
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
[Unnatural Presence detected]
"ROOOOOAR!"
A inhuman roar tore through the air and made the ground under Shirou's feet tremble, even though he still was a few hundred meters away from the school.
"Of course," he deadpanned. "I brought this upon myself, haven't I?" He immediately projected another bow, and pulled out an arrow from his Inventory. Whatever it was that was coming was big.
Big, mean and angry.
One side of the school wall exploded, and through the resulting hole a dozen figures came barging out.
[Superior Samurai Wraith]
[Lv. 85]
They were huge. There was no other way to describe them. A regular Samurai Wraith was easily over twice as tall as Shirou. These were four times as much.
A team of armored undead giants. Colossi of hatred and resentment with a single target already in their sights.
"Fuck!" the target swore seeing their levels and their size on top of their numbers. He had to go through them. There was no other way. He couldn't retreat and think of a plan. He already spent too much time getting here. If he left now and Mikado regrouped her forces then it would be impossible to get to her.
Here and now, he had to fight. He had to win. Saeko's life depended on it.
He didn't have to wait. They came at him like a gargantuan wave of violence and malice. The bow proved to be ineffective right away. It did too little damage to make hit and run tactics worthwhile. He would run out of arrows and time before he could make a difference.
He dropped the bow and Projected another copy of Shisui instead. Using Saeko's sword to save Saeko's life was only fitting. However he had no experience with dual wielding blades, but if his battle against the regular Samurai Wraith taught him anything it was that he wouldn't be making a difference with finesse.
This would be a test of endurance and one that Shirou didn't see himself winning, if experience and cold numbers taught him anything. Yet it was also not a battle he could afford to lose.
A miracle. It would take nothing less for him to prevail.
'Might as well get started on it.'
He clutched his swords tighter and dashed toward the incoming monster horde.
"TAAAAH!" he shouted. 'Hold on Saeko. I'll definitely save you.'
[br]
Through the eyes of her creations, Ryouko watched the battle as it unfolded.
Her Superior Samurai Wraiths were born from fusing together several ordinary Samurai Wraiths, but the power of each and every one of them was vastly superior to the sum of the wraiths used in making them.
They were a completely separate existence under all aspects.
Ordinary arrows, even reinforced through magecraft wouldn't so much as scratch them. Ryouko knew this and apparently so did Emiya Shirou who immediately discarded the now useless weapon and pulled out another sword, identical to the first.
'Projection? Even if it's high-end, for him to use such a basic spell... It doesn't make any sense.'
Emiya Shirou didn't make any sense, but the fact that he used such spells only reinforced her hypothesis that his regeneration ability was a separate thing from his magecraft.
She needed to have experiment on him, eve just on his corpse. Although killing a kid would leave her with a bitter taste in her mouth, there was nothing she wouldn't do to save the woman she loved.
With a mental command, she urged her creations forward.
[br]
Shirou's body hit the asphalt and bounced like a rag doll dropped from a vehicle running at high speed before slamming into the wall of building, that cracked from the impact.
"Cough!"
He spat out a mouthful of blood, but he had little time to worry about his condition. The Wraith that had tossed him was already rushing after him, with its pals in tow.
Shirou didn't even have the time to restore his Stamina, and in fact he had barely managed to dislodge himself from the wall that they were already upon him.
For each blow he struck, they pummeled him to the ground several times. He was lucky that they did not have weapons, or they would have already turned into mincemeat.
It was a small saving grace though. He was hopelessly outmatched. He didn't have the necessary skills or power. He was in way over his head. He wasn't dead yet just by virtue of a temporary immortality and even that was about to run out.
'I can't win.'
It was beyond impossible. He could, somewhat, surpass the gap of levels and fight an enemy stronger than his current self either by outlasting or outsmarting them, but it was too much.
'I can't win.'
There was a limit to what a single person could do, regardless of how many cheat abilities they might have. In truth Shirou had no business lasting as much as he did.
His heart had given up beating and there was probably more of his own blood coating his skin than there was left in his veins. His mind was muddled as well, as he suffered from a [Concussed] status from all the beatings he had received.
Both his arms were broken, horribly twisted out of shape and unable to wield anything anymore.
'I can't win.'
He could not go back and he could not stand still. The only way was forward but that path too was blocked.
He had managed to land a few hits, nicking away at their health but he was pummeled back into oblivion right away. He had lost count of how many walls he had been thrown against or through.
Without Reinforcement, he would have already turned into meat paste.
He wasn't strong enough, plain and simple. Even the Gamer Body couldn't take that kind of punishment. He was out of options, and in no state of mind to come up with new ones.
'I can't win. This is my limit.'
He toppled forward, all strength seemingly having left his body.
In a second he would have hit the ground face first, but the image of Saeko, exhaling her last breath in the cold loneliness of the tool shed flashed through his mind. At the last moment, he put a foot forward and halted his fall.
'Saeko... I am...'
Words that he wasn't familiar with but knew perfectly all the same, rolled out of his mouth with ease, and with them came the knowledge that pain always had new depths to be found.
"I am the bone of my sword."
And somewhere, a world apart and yet immensely close, gargantuan gears finally started turning upon a sky frozen in perpetual sunrise.
XXX