Chapter 65

"Veröffentlichung!"

The multicolored gems scattered into the skies, five rainbows of light cutting through the darkness of the night as the gems cracked and released the magical energy stored in them, solid shapes refracting the light expanding until a dome of cracked opaque stone surrounded Rider, starting out at the size of a van, before quickly expanding once, twice and thrice in short bursts until it was the size of a double decker bus. In moments, she was sealed away, unable to fire the shot to end Archer's life.

Gritting his teeth, Archer traced his bow and quickly traced the arrow that he favoured for pure destruction, the spiralling arrow in his hand even as he placed the black bow parallel on the ground.

"I am the bone of my sword."

Cracks spiralled across the shining surface of the sword/arrow as it was nocked onto the bow string, then his steel toed boots planted themselves firmly on the center of the black bow, right on the grip. Lying with his back on the ground, his left arm bleeding profusely and dangling limply next to him, he curled forward and opened his mouth to bite the string with his teeth and gritted hard as his face contorted into a grim scowl, lines appearing on his face as he pulled with as much strength as he could muster. His hunched back slowly straightened as he used his entire spine and core muscles to pupil the string while bracing his legs against the bow, his bent knees moving to help pull the bow string as well. While this method was wildly inaccurate when compared to using both hands to aim, it allowed him to pull the bow string incredibly far backwards by fully extending his body and legs straight, the bow string able to be extended that far due to the materials it was constructed with.

Considering that Rider was trapped under the jewels released by Rin, he didn't have to make it accurate, just fast enough so that it could penetrate and release the blast directly under the dome.

Then the dome shattered.

The sparkling remnants of the prison scattered around Rider as her amber eyes locked onto Rin's shocked face, barely twenty meters away from where she was standing.

"How could she-?"

Disbelief flashed across Rin's mind, unable to accept the fact that the five jewels packing energy she had saved over ten years had been broken in moments. In the other timelines, she had even been able to use five of them to take one of Heracles' lives. But here, Rider had a Magic Resistance of B rank. As such, the jewels were only able to bound her for a short amount of time, before she broke free once more.

*DOOM*

Archer instantly released the arrow as soon as he saw the cracks spiralling across the dome the millisecond before it shattered, aiming in such a way that even with his awkward method of shooting that he rarely ever performed unless one or both of his arms were crippled, it still wouldn't miss.

The arrow dug through the earth like an actual drill, the spatial distortion digging straight through the brown dirt until it impacted with the concrete used to form the base of the school's foundations, a measure used to flatten the land and give it even ground to construct the buildings. All the pent up energy exploded when it met the hard material, Caladblog living up to its legend of being a sword that cut off hilltops with one swing. Rider sensed the ground rumbling under her feet, and jumped.

The ground exploded beneath her, clods of dirt flying high into the sky as grey bits of concrete and a concussive wave of air rose to meet her. The blast also blew Rin backwards, even with her distance from it and the fact that it was detonated underground. That was just how powerful the broken Phantasm was. However, distance was created between Rider and Rin, and Rin was able to reinforce her body just in time to make a rough, but safe landing as she tumbled into a roll and came to a stop.

Archer dematerialized his bow and tucked his body into a ball, positioning his feet on the dusty ground, then exploded into motion as his legs fully straightened, pushing him forwards like a rocket as he got between Rider and Rin. One leg reached out and slammed into the dirt , digging deeply until he was more than ankle deep into the ground, but he managed to stop his momentum, his mostly uninjured right arm projecting Bakuya while the left hung next to his sides, the hole slowly knitting together under the influence of the mana flowing from Rin.

Rider landed on far away from the giant crater in the school grounds, her maid skirt now torn and ripped, her black jacket missing most of the bottom half as one of the sleeves tore loose and slipped to her wrist. However, she had only sustained several small bruises and cuts from the debris, the blast mostly leaving her unharmed as she had managed to dodge just in time before the kinetic force reached her.

"Having a Master who supports you directly like this is quite commendable."

Rider's voice cut through the haze left by Caladbolgs explosion to reach them.

"And what about yours? It seems that whoever it may be, they're too much of a coward to stand on the battlefield and show themselves."

Archer smirked and taunted her, hoping to get a reaction, a weakness that he could exploit. Things were starting to look bad with his left arm out of commission. Even if it healed on the surface, his ability was still lowered. Also, her ripped outfit was quite easy on the eyes. Several more pictures were added to his mental library.

"Unfortunately, my Master is too weak to support me in any way. Rest assured though, I am currently training him so that he may reach the point where he will at least be able to stand behind me in battle."

Rin's eyebrows furrowed. She was training him to fight? Did that mean that her Master wasn't a magus in the first place?

"Let our swords speak for us now. Wasting time is not a trait a maid should have."

She leaned forward and prepared to charge forward, her grip around Secace and Morgan tightening.

"Good evening, onee-chan~"

Rin flipped her gaze to the left as she looked up at the roof of the building, the moon silhouetting the young girl curtsying towards the three on the ground. Besides her, a girl in a dark cloak stood there, amber eyes just like Rider's gazing down at them.

"My name is Illya von Einzbern, nice to meet you."