Ryuu wet her lips, suppressing a shudder as she glanced at Iris's mist door. It resembled a fog gate of writhing mist pouring down from a safe zone to what was surely a battle field on the other side.
Taking a deep breath, Ryuu tried to reaffirm her resolve, but it was difficult.
Shirou's statement was met by rising levels of ridicule and disbelief, but Rider's chuckling off to the side was not helping ease Ryuu's growing suspicions. If Rider was like that rather than worried for his friend, then it was clear that Rider was expecting a show.
That meant a certain level of Shirou's capability for Rider to have confidence in.
Was this really a good idea?
Before she could stop herself, Ryuu had already found herself lining up in front of Shirou out of sheer frustration. And no, the frustration wasn't directed at him or anyone else other than someone she thought would have trusted her unconditionally.
Her own Goddess.
Ryuu huffed.
There was no other choice.
Her Goddess Astrea just wasn't getting it, the weight behind the being known as a 'Demi-God,' and the miracles able to be performed under that title!
Ryuu was skeptical if Astrea even believed her fully yet despite a lengthy period of insistence that finally got Astrea back into Orario. If Astrea had come out of some false concern that Ryuu had gotten swept up in a large swindling scheme, then so be it!
Ryuu didn't care anymore.
She'd just have to show Astrea what a Demigod was, and Ryuu could also use the opportunity to measure herself against someone who wasn't Rider or as off putting at Archer's muscles and demeanor that screamed 'hero.'
"Ryuu-"
Ryuu cut off the chagrin of Astrea before she could even begin to persuade her that this was a waste of time.
Seeing was believing, right?
Hesitantly, Ryuu approached the fog gate with the crowd and stepped through, spurred by the momentum of her own motivations.
/-/
A wide field quickly appeared before Ryuu, Iris's magic creating a doorway that directly tied point A with point B in a way Hermes could never do.
Shielding her face from the sun, it took a moment for Ryuu's eyes to adjust before she took in those around her who were stepping through the mist gate. Several were coming.
Ryuu counted well over three dozen challengers among the variety of Familia that existed in Orario. Ishtar Familia, Freya Familia, and even Ganesh Familia trying their luck were included in the bunch, but one person instantly caught many eyes due to her reputation in Orario itself.
A blond woman with long hair and wearing plated knight armour carefully appeared through the mist, neutral expression appearing cold and distant rather just detached. An icy determination was burning in those eyes.
"You…?" Ryuu called out to none other than Ais Wallenstein.
It was strange because the Familia members Loki had openly brought were only Finn and Riveria. Ais had been nowhere in sight until now, appearing only when the challenges were announced.
She obviously snuck in if Ryuu intuition was to be trusted.
Perhaps knowing that Loki was spectating with the others through Thetis's water mirror, Ais thinned her lips and sneered in frustration. The guilt of it wasn't quite hitting her yet as adrenaline and rebellious youth energy took its place.
"Even if it's shameless, I must be here." Ais answered, realizing Ryuu was staring at her. "You must also have your own intentions too."
Ais saw Shirou as her only chance of proving herself capable of joining the subjugation team of the One-Eyed Black Dragon.
Against Rider or Archer, Ais didn't even entertain the notion of winning. Her sixth sense as a warrior screamed that she stood no chance against either of the two.
The chatter of the crowd increased as more and more appeared through the gate, but Ryuu and Ais's focus was turned more towards Shirou who stood a good distance opposite to them.
It was an open field, likely arranged to accommodate any number of challengers as there were no set boundaries.
Where the crowd stood, Shirou stood opposite a good hundred or so meters away, waiting patiently without a hint of apprehension at his odds.
Still, the group didn't outright charge him.
Although they weren't the strongest adventurers, they still had their pride. They wouldn't rush up and attack Shirou all at once because he said so. The blacksmiths of the Hephaestus Familia can be just as grouchy with their words when irritated, but it didn't mean they were suitable combatants.
They who wielded hammers had their own battlefields. Well, supposedly.
Before anyone else in the crowd could get any ideas, Ryuu watched as Ais impatiently stepped forward alone.
As if to appeal about the level of her skill, the attention Shirou brought with his statement acted as a means to give Ais a platform to shine. Coupled with her reputation as a leading member of the Loki Familia, and most other Familia members were willing to give way to her.
Ryuu let Ais do what she wished more to test the waters than anything, but nonetheless, things proceeded onward.
"I won't hold back," Ais warned as she drew her sword out of its scabbard.
She stood out from the front of the crowd and distanced herself as to not involve them. Shirou let her, the two assessing one another.
It was clear that Shirou was unarmed. He carried no weapons, or wore any specific armor other than his ordinary clothing. Cloth was not armour. Any dingy knife would be able to make a cut, but Ais intuitively sensed that Shirou could be another Tsubaki of the Hephaestus Familia.
Appearances were deceiving, Ais herself was no different. Great strength, agility, and reflexes belied her tender and sleek exterior.
"I thought I said to come all at once?" Shirou muttered, realizing this could drag on by the expressions of the entire crowd that came.
This wouldn't do, but he could recognize Ais's resolve and decided to humour her.
"Trace."
The words began, laced with a power that had one's skin crawling. None missed it as magic energy suddenly pulsed over Shirou's eyes.
"-On."
Ais tensed at the feeling of the unknown, raising her sword up into a guard while she heightened her senses for any sign of an attack. However, that wasn't what was happening as she took note of Shirou's stare.
He was staring at- her weapon?
The confusion only lasted a moment before Ais felt her throat suddenly dry.
With burst of blue magic energy, an exact replica of Ais's own sword appeared languidly in Shirou's hands. The symmetry was such that it was impossible for Ais to tell the difference between her own sword.
Ais already knew about Rider being a Demi-God with Thetis as a mother granting him certain special traits, and now she had no choice but to speculate on Shirou's own uniqueness.
"The eyes," Ais murmured in realization, the dots connecting.
A type of mystic eyes or magic eyes possessed by the Gods?
No, more than that, it enabled him to copy her weapon at a glance?
Silence stretched moments before combat as the crowd stared; the implication set in.
Orario's main street was no different for those spectating through Thetis's Authority.
"Those eyes," Hephaestus muttered with an air of certainty. "His eyes analyze weapons, and his magic creates them!"
Hephaestus leaned her head forward with interest.
She had taken herself out of her busy schedule to silence her Familia members complaining about an illicit relationship she never had but had wanted for fucking years. Yet, she'd never expected to see something like this.
"How can you be so sure?" Someone in the crowd, ah, actually, Hephaestus realized it was just Hestia asking.
How to explain it? Hephaestus knit her brows and crossed her arms beneath her chest.
As a God of Blacksmithing, Hephaestus had her own innate authorities related to metallurgy, smelting, and equipment including weapons. That is to say, certain things just come naturally to her when she wasn't limited to a restricted form in the lower world.
In fact, the best explanation came to mind.
"I have similar properties back in the upper world," Hephaestus shrugged. With just a look, her eyes could decern the nature of a weapon, armor, or forged item.
Analyzing and interpreting weapons on sight wasn't difficult for a smithing God, but what truly interested Hephaestus was the magic used to seemingly recreate them so flawlessly.
Suddenly, Hephaestus twitched her brow, glancing behind her at her own incredulous Familia.
"What? What's wrong with all of you?" She snapped, still irritated from their odd behaviour.
Her entire Familia were giving her the driest looks including Tsubaki.
Nevertheless, everyone's attention remained on Shirou and Ais.
Holding a Traced copy of Ais's sword in hand, Shirou grew contemplative as he executed a couple practice swings.
"Hmm," Shirou murmured, his thoughts and expressions unreadable as he then glanced at Ais. "...You've had it tough, haven't you?"
Shirou frowned before he put the matter aside. This was this, and that was that. Everyone had their own stories, the least of which he did not have the right to tell.
Ais's expression grew unreadable at Shirou's words, but the tightening of her grip on her sword's hilt spoke volumes.
"Come," Shirou beckoned Ais to begin.
She did so without reservation.
Hailed as a genius, Ais was a master swordswoman who'd long since adapted her own way of the sword, and yet…
Shirou was dodging?
Shirou carefully kept his expression neutral as he deftly evaded each strike with minimum movement.
Ais pursed her lips, unable to understand how Shirou could read her movements so easily. It was like he knew her tendencies, strategies, and fighting style before she even executed a technique.
She couldn't accept it. Not with what was on the line for her.
A pit welled in Ais's stomach, like bugs crawling over her chest.
Suddenly, Shirou was no longer simply dodging.
He raised his sword.
Clang!
"Is this how it's done?"
Ais's pupils dilated from the sudden symmetry of movement, an identical mirror to her own steps.
"!" Ais retaliated immediately.
Shifting stance, she pressed a heel forcibly into the ground, shifted her center of weight, lowered her waist, and chambered an arm back to thrust her sword and-
Ais stared in dumbfoundment as Shirou was in a similar stance to her own. Inconceivably, the tips of their swords met at the apex of their thrusts, not even an inch of difference.
Backpedalling, beads of sweat matted Ais's brow at the unexpected situation. She had to hurry and settle her mind, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as she engaged in a further flurry of blows.
It was like fighting her reflection. Everything she did, the her on the other side of the mirror would do too, neutralizing all attacks with equal strength to every one of Ais's blows.
If before she was doubtful, now she was certain as Ais glared uneasily at Shirou.
"Y-You stole it?"
Her years of hard work, dedications, and hardships. Just like that?
Not only could he replicate her weapon, but as a blacksmith he could also harness the skills of a weapon's wielder?
Shirou neither confirmed nor denied anything, leaving all interpretation up to others.
"Don't joke with me!" Ais could no longer stifle her frustration. This was her only chance at reuniting with her family, and she wasn't getting anywhere.
Worse, just because Shirou could mimic Ais's technique down to the finest detail, didn't mean he couldn't alter it, or resort to his own movements that Ais could not react to.
Eventually, Ais was forced to give ground.
She fell into the fallacy of expecting Shirou to move and attack using her own patterns, but was left unguarded when a kick came to her gut instead of a thrust of the weapon.
She gagged, Shirou exhibiting a strength unheard of for his body type as if he'd reinforced his physical abilities.
"Ggh!" Ais was blown backwards.
The air of the crowd suddenly changed all at once.
/-/
"It's over," Archer declared from his spot still spectating in Orario.
"How can you be so sure?" Freya posed a question.
Archer was unperturbed.
"The momentum of battle has changed."
Shirou dismissed Ais's sword into motes of blue light before quietly regarding the entire crowd before him.
The prior demonstration with Ais had done its job to change the look in their eyes. They were tense, their loose postures and easy attitude's hardening into a heightened sense of awareness and caution.
It was the intended result.
Now, there would be no excuse that anyone was caught off guard or weren't in their best state. There was a silent agreement within the crowd.
This time, they would come at him at once.
Green motes of magic light were gathering around Ryuu as she began calling upon the buffeting wind, while Ais picked herself up, regained her stance, and firmed her resolve. The adventurers were no longer able to take the notion of Shirou fighting everyone at once lightly and prepared their own weapons and means.
The inclination to mob was growing as it became steeply understood that just like Rider, Shirou had his own capabilities beyond Rider's scope.
"Careful!" Ryuu warned as she noticed Shirou's demeanor shift to something earnest.
Ryuu gritted her teeth, and subtly nodded at Ais, coming to a silent agreement of cooperation.
Once more, magic energy swelled around Shirou before congregating over his eyes, illuminating them in a light shade of blue.
"Trace On."
"Hide your weapons!" Ryuu cautioned, trying to get a basis of how Shirou's magic worked from her observation with him against Ais.
Her working theory, shared with many of the others fighting alongside her, was that Shirou needed a good look at their weapons to do what he did against Ais.
In all honesty, it wasn't a needless observation, but one that came far too late from the moment the match began.
Their weapons…he'd long since seen them all.
A pulse of energy descended outward, the hairs on the back of Ryuu's neck raising as an ill premonition assaulted her.
Once an experienced adventurer of the Astrea Familia, Ryuu's senses were fine-tuned to the order of the severity of an ordeal or outcome.
The spirits of the wind answered Ryuu's call as Ais and many melee types pre-emptively dashed forward to avoid giving Shirou anymore time.
Ryuu began to chant the lament of the winds.
"In the sky of a now distant forest. Infinite stars scattered in the endless night sky. Respond to my foolish voice, give me now divine protection of starfire."
Ryuu aimed her palms forward, desperately trying to stifle her uneasiness.
"Give the mercy of light to the one that abandoned you. Come, wandering wind…the…wande..rin..g…travele...r..."
Ryuu trailed off, disrupting her chant as her swirling magic energy grew unstable.
A voice echoed in the air, distinctly drowning her own and even the battle shouts of those charging forward.
"-I have forged over a thousand blades."
As if in declaration, that single statement, charged the area with an unseen pressure that descended down from above.
By adapting select parts of his own aria, Shirou could enforce that specific perception on the world through select deployment of aspects of his inner reality.
In the age of the Gods, the restriction was far too light.
The air rippled from around Shirou, numerous weapons identical to the ones Ais and the others were wielding emerging from nothing. From the tips of the blades, to the base of the hilt, motes of swirling blue magic energy congregated to form steel.
The soft glow of the magic illuminated Shirou's calm features as a veritable floating armory appeared behind him, waiting for him to draw upon any weapon to use- At least, that was the foolish perception running through everyone's minds, but they would be wrong.
There was more than one way to use a weapon.
Stiffly, many in the back row, the ranged and magic users, craned their necks up to the sight before them and quietly accepted the futility.
Each floating weapon glinted with an eerie premonition of what was to come.
"Barrel. Set."
The weapons instantly doubled, many slanting forward with a trajectory that made it clear what was to happen.
The blacksmith was not weak.
"Fire."
It was like time had stopped for Ryuu.
The distance between her, the crowd, and Shirou was less than a hundred meters and it was practically instantaneous.
Ryuu's mouth gradually opened, staring dumbly as a sharp object whistled past her at a speed difficult to perceive, struck the ground, and exploded with enough force to crater the earth and mottle it full of holes.
It missed.
Perhaps this was a chance as Ryuu realized Shirou had wasted his shots, but even that didn't last.
For each weapon launched, a new 'copy' took its place.
Ryuu and many others weren't fools. It was a warning to give up.
Maybe one or two dozen of those shots Ryuu could block with her magic, but it was as if they were endless. No wonder, Shirou had claimed that he could be the main supplier of weapons and armor for the subjugation.
Ryuu swallowed, lowering her palms and dismissing her magic.
Even if this was to prove a point to her Goddess, continuing further wasn't worth it. She raised her hands up in surrender, followed by many other adventurers not primed for close-ranged combat.
Of course, that still left a group of stubborn hopefuls.
"B-Break through!" Ais clenched her teeth and charged through the storm with others following her lead due to the reputation she'd garnered as a member of the Loki Familia.
She couldn't lose here!
She couldn't allow herself to!
"Areil!" A shield of wind element enchant-magic formed around Ais as she wielded her sword and deflected the oncoming weapons.
For a second, she hesitated as she coated her sword with wind, fearing fatal damage on human adversaries, but Shirou's means made it impossible to hold back.
She needed this victory.
Squinting her eyes to see through the dust kicked up by the impact of numerous flying weapons, she carefully weaved through barrage. She only deflected when there was no chance of avoiding because each strike was unbearably heavy and sent ripples of numbness through her limbs.
But Ais was a master swordswoman, her keen senses and versatility allowed her to slowly close the distance, followed by those that used her tailwind to proceed.
A one trick pony!
What Ais and many others were thinking was that they could win if they could just close the distance. Even if Shirou copied Ais's sword skills again, Ais was confident that even she could not face entire crowd of skilled adventurers alone.
It was all that she was aiming for.
Seventy meters.
She gritted her teeth, spinning on the balls of her heels as she tilted her head back, an axe flying overhead.
Fifty meters!
Ais clenched her jaw, her concentration growing stronger and stronger as she used wind spirit enchantment to bolster herself further.
"This bastard!"
The roars of those that followed behind Ais grew muted as she lost herself to a single-minded goal.
Thirty meters!
Ais prepped her sword to strike, her dirt-stained armour no longer shining with a luster under the constant bombardment.
Finally, Ais could see the end of the dust cloud in sight. Once she passed through, it was unlikely for Shirou to keep firing those weapons when he would be within range to be affected by them.
With swelling determination, Ais tightened her grip on her sword and boldly broke through the cloud of dust, narrowed eyes searching for her targ-
.
..
…
Ais's steps halted to a pitiful crawl along with the remaining dozen or so adventurers that had rushed through the bombardment of steel with her.
It was true that Shirou had stopped the bombardment, but what appeared at the end of hope was a stifling reality.
What appeared in Shirou's hand was nothing else than Rider's spear.
If Shirou exhibited Ais's own prowess with a copy of her weapon- then it meant he could do the same with Rider.
And Rider was a monster of a warrior.
"…What's wrong?" Shirou asked as if he were clueless.
No, that was Rider's influence subtly bleeding into him.
Numerous weapons fell to the ground as even the melee fighters finally raised their hands in surrender despite Ais protesting their actions.
Unfortunately, Rider's prior showing had been too impactful.
Alone, Ais could see her chances against Shirou whittle away to nothing in real time.
Ais fell to her knees, laughing bitterly at her own weakness.
She knew a disappointed Loki would be waiting for her back through the mist gate.
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