Chapter 14
"Berserker, get us out of here as fast as you can!"
But even she ordered her, her knees gave out and she crumpled to the ground, completely unable to muster the energy to stand up. The strain of supporting Berserker with her Magic Circuits while fending off the homunculi with her familiars had finally gotten to her, making her collapse. Still, if she remained immobile, the wolves would reach them soon, and there was no telling what would happen to her then.
Berserker chose to disengage and return to Illya's side, shooting intermittent bolts of lightning at the encroaching horde of homunculi while she knelt down to support her Master.
"Master, can you walk?"
"I can't, *hah*, can't walk. *Hah*"
Illya breathed heavily while her skin flushed red, sweat rolling down her skin in streams. Seeing no other choice, Berserker slung Illya's small body onto her back and secured her into position, aiming to carve a path through the homunculi and always from the wolves.
"I'll protect you Master, don't worry."
Berserker readied herself, and charged.
*VUON*
The first homunculus in her path lost his head and an arm as the plasma blade cut through them like paper, the body dropping to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Her saberstaff swung again, and the outstretched arms of two homunculi nearby trying to grab her fell to the ground, rolling off to get trampled by other homunculi. Several fists from different directions swung at her, faster than a professional boxer's, but she spun in a complete circle, swinging the saberstaff and slicing off all of the attacking limbs, while forcing back the other homunculi as well.
Two homunculi at the further away cast spells, raw and crude shots of mana, but with immense power behind them. Berserker stretched out her left hand and "caught" the shots, then redirected them to her surroundings, blasting open holes in their bodies. A large homunculi likely designed to imitate giants swung at her, it's large arm accidentally smashing some of its brethren, while behind her a homunculi with several extra pairs of arms shot several projectiles at her from three of those arms. Without a pause, she jumped into the air and dodge the projectiles, letting them pass harmlessly under her to hit the giant in front of her, then sliced off the giant arm by digging his saberstaff deep into the arm and twisting her entire body. The arm flew off and crushed the multi-armed homunculi, as well as several others, turning them into red paste on the snow, while the giant roared in pain, clutching the charred stump of its severed arm.
Even as Berserkers fired more lightning into the surroundings, the giant's torso melted from the projectiles fired earlier, and it's massive body toppled in several homunculi, crushing them as well. Seeing her chance, Berserker leapt on to the giants body and dashed through the opening his body had created by crushing the homunculi.
*WHOOSH*
Hearing something on her left, she turned to see a homunculi with modified legs flying at immense speeds towards her. It's arms had been modified into blades that were currently pointing at her with lethal intent. Berserker intercepted his blades without much difficulty, but it's attack stopped her in her tracks, and the blade arms were made of a material that was difficult for her lightsaber to cut through. Swinging her sword, she quickly slashed at his chest from the left, then spun the saberstaff to accomplish several left and right slashes at it's chest in quick succession, taking great care not to cut Illya on her back. The homunculi blocked the first slash, but was overwhelmed by the rest and was promptly dispatched, a large furrow cutting through its chest, almost separating everything below the collarbone from the top.
However, her intense concentration required to not accidentally harm her Master made her neglect her surroundings, and this lack of awareness proved deadly as the parasite snuck up on her.
"واحد إثنان ثلاثة أربعة خمسة"
Blinding white light shone behind her as a searing pain pierced her body, making her fall to one knee as her entire body trembled, Arabic letters carved into her flesh appearing one by one.
"ستة سبعة ثمانية تسعة عشرة"
The light increased in intensity, as she felt her physical body slowly start to lose cohesion. Golden motes of light drifted into the sky, pieces of her body slowly dissolving into ether.
"الحادي عشر: ثلاثة عشر-"
This was it, she had failed her Master. In the very first time where she had faced actual life-and-death combat, she had been overwhelmed and defeated, and her Master was going to die in this cold wasteland. What a joke of a servant she was.
"No, NO, IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!"
Internally, she screamed and railed against the magical bonds that bound her, struggling as hard as she could to maintain her form. Even if it was only for a second more, she would still use her remaining strength to protect her Master.
"De...gen."
A sword of white threads formed in an instant, pointed directly at the parasitized mage. In a blink of an eye, it went from being next to Berserker to the forehead of the mage, piercing through his head, and then out the other side to punch through the parasite homunculus's head as well. Blood sprayed out in a cone behind their merged bodies, reaching almost a meter in length, and the magus fell backwards onto the ground. Slowly, Berserker's body stabilized as the exorcism ritual was lifted, the numerals on her body fading away as golden dust stopped rising from her body.
"Hah, haah, Master?"
Illya gave no reply, the only sign of life being a faint heartbeat against Berserker's back.
Berserker breathed in and out deeply a few more times, then steadied herself, letting the Alter energy flow through her body in a natural cycle.
*ZZZSSH*
Two homunculi that were creeping up behind her lost their heads, and then the third that charged straight at her after seeing their deaths had it's heart pierced by the blade of light.
More and more climbed atop the giant's corpse, struggling to reach Berserker. But their sheer numbers worked against them, hindering each other as they dragged each other down while mindlessly trying to climb atop one another to reach their prey.
*ARRROOOooooooOOOOOO*
This time, the howl came from much closer. Already, Berserker could spot the homunculi further away, turning around and facing the source of the howling, ready to engage their enemy. Her vision un-impaired by her glasses also let her spot several distinct black shapes beyond the horde of homunculi, moving towards them through the blizzard with purpose.
It was time to leave, Berserker thought. Gathering her energy, she leapt from the giant's corpse onto the mass of homunculi surrounding it, landing on their heads and using it as a platform to leapt further ahead, crushing their heads into bloody pulp with each leap that she took.
Far behind her, her enhanced hearing picked up the snarls of the wolves, and the sound of flesh being rent by claws, of bodies thrown around like ragdolls. Quickening her pace, she swung her saberstaff with all her strength, utilizing the all years of skill and experience that she had honed in the Servant universe. Though the homunculi were many, with some of their physical abilities rivaling Servants, while had absurd Magic Circuits, they were uncoordinated and frequently harmed each other by accident, while Berserker was also intensely focused after almost dying along with her Master. She would not fail again.
It wasn't long before she finally saw the edge of the seemingly limitless army of homunculi, and her efforts redoubled, cutting a way through the wall of flesh and blood with her blood-red lightsaber. The smell of ozone permeated the air as her lightning flashed over and over, the ground rolling with so many different body parts that they could have supplied a hospital for a year. She finally broke through the final throng of homunculi, cutting down one with multiple fleshy tendrils into several pieces while her lightning fried a homunculi that had a giant mouth on its belly and no eyes.
She dashed out of the crowd of homunculi, her legs blurring through the snow as she kicked up an immense amount into the air to gather as much speed as she could.
All of a sudden , she broke to a halt.
Right there, where she had almost run straight into, was a sheer cliff dropping far down. She couldn't even see the bottom with her Servant vision, and she would clearly sustain injuries, even as a Servant, if she jumped down here. It now made sense to her why she hadn't spotted more homunculi here when compared to the other directions she looked at.
Alarmed, she spun around and blocked a white wolf flying at her from out of nowhere. The wolf chomped on the saberstaffs hilt, biting the one place where it wouldn't get cut. There was no sound, no warning, but even so her instincts had screamed at her, telling her to block a potentially fatal attack. The white wolf could have torn out Illya's throat if it had been successful.
Before she even had time to think about where it came from, two more burst out of the snow where they were camouflaged in and leapt at her as well, one from each side. The left one was fried by her lightning, but it's momentum kept its body flying until it hit Berserker and pushed her back, while the one on the right bit her right leg, receiving a kick that was sure to have shattered it's ribcage, yet it stubbornly clung on. She was slowly getting pushed to the edge by their combined efforts, and the strong winds blowing straight at her didn't help either. Already, one leg was hanging over the edge from the surprise attack, the only source of leverage her right leg planted firmly in the snow, with the wolf clinging on to it even half-dead.
However, she still had immense strength even for a Servant, so no matter how enhanced the wolves strength was when compared to normal wolves, they were still inferior to her levels of power. With just one leg, she was able to lock herself in place, and all it would take would be a second to swing the saberstaff and cut them all in half.
*GGARROOOOOO*
At that moment, a massive shockwave ran across the snow, blasting it two sides as the force carved a furrow into the ground. The blast was aimed squarely at Berserker, and even with her efforts to dodge it, it still clipped her and loosened her footing, vibrating her entire body to destabilize and disorient her. In addition, the sound pierced her eardrums and shook her brain, screwing up her senses and equilibrium.
Without a sound, she fell into the darkness below the cliff, the howling winds heralding her fall into the abyss.