Dance of Swords

I never would have thought that my love of helping crafting interesting stories would get me into trouble. Then again, I didn't really think that ROB's were a thing. Now I'm stuck in a world that could best be described as on life support with powers I have no idea how to use. Oh well, at least I'm not alone.

So yeah, another of these that probably won't be continued. This is actually the first of two versions of this idea I'm writing. The other one has a similar concept, but with Altera instead of Jeanne and with the MC arriving somewhere else. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Urrrrg, so bored," I moaned, leaning back in my chair.

It was one of those mind numbing days when nothing seems to keep you interested, not helped in the least that my days off from work had fallen in such a way I ended up with a full week off. The house was empty, I'd already read all of the recently updated stories on my list, there was nothing new that looked interesting and my muse had decided to take a vacation somewhere nice. Normally, I'd fire up my Playstation, but since it was currently updating, that was right out.

PING!

I sighed and sat up, bringing up my Gmail tab and found that it was a PM on Space Battles. Considering I was a recent addition and generally didn't comment that much, I hadn't received much in the way of PMs. I idly clicked on it and found it was from someone called 'Robert Oswald Bordeaux'. Interesting name.

Hey Dis, big fan of your work!

Why thank you! A bit of ego stroking is never unwelcome.

Listen, I've been working on an idea of my own, but I'm having trouble coming up with exactly how to do it. Mind helping?

I raised an eyebrow, but sent back a quick message that I'd be willing, assuming I knew the story they were working with.

Thanks man. OK, so the basic gist of the idea is for someone to get dropped into Worm (yes its one of those) with the power of a character from fiction and a Servant as a tagalong. Any ideas for what powers and who I should use?

I snorted. This sort of story was right up my alley considering how much I enjoyed doing them myself. I thought for a moment and then started typing.

My first instinct for the first part is to say to give the MC something either OP as hell or utterly humiliating while still being useful. Whatever is given should be either easily mastered or come with at least the basics since wasting time training is something that breaks the flow, although instant mastery isn't needed. A good bases would be to pick a character and basically give the MC their powers and skillset at some point along their journey, either when they are first introduced or after they come into their own, but before things really get good for them.

As for the Servant, again, I'm tempted to just say Artoria and leave it at that, but that would be dull. Whoever you decide to use though, it would be best to either choose someone without a wish or with one thats easy to grant or say that whoever, or whatever, is responsible for the two being there has promised to grant said wish, otherwise it wouldn't make a lick of sense as to why they'd do anything other than take of the Masters head so they can have another chance later.

As for who I'd use? Well, for some reason I'd kinda like to see a story with the MC having the powers and skills of Xenovia when she first arrives, plus EX-Durandal and for the Servant, I'd say Altera, just for the shits and giggles of someone for whom destruction is everything being given the job of saving the world, or Jeanne because shes pretty cool. That help?

I hit send and, after a moments thought, pulled up a word processor of my own. The idea wasn't a bad one and I could think of a few ways I could use it without stepping on Roberts toes. I didn't have long to plan though before I received a message back.

It does actually. Thanks for the help mate and I'm sorry in advance.

I frowned. Sorry for what? Before I could send a message back asking what the hell he was on about, my computer screen went black. I had just enough time to register a flash of blue and white, before an arm reached out of the screen, grabbed me by the collar and yanked me through it.

"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK!?" I screamed as I fell through a seemingly endless tunnel of swirling rainbows.

A few seconds later, I was spat out of the tunnel onto a dusty mattress with a loud thump and a cloud of dust. I pushed myself up and sneezed violently.

"Alright, what the hells going on?" I growled as I rubbed my nose.

As I did, I noticed something odd. I wasn't the largest guy around, in fact, I'd always been one of the shorter people in my class, and while I was skinny, I wasn't in good shape. As such, when I noticed that my arm had visible muscle tone, I was rather surprised. Then I look down and found that I actually had abs. I wasn't built like a bodybuilder, instead it was more like a swimmer or runner, muscles that were meant to be used not shown off. They were also quite obvious because I was still only wearing my PJ bottoms and dressing gown.

I was suddenly pulled from my thoughts by a very loud crash from outside. Without thinking, I jumped to my feet and ran to the window, only to skid to a stop as some instinct screamed at me to do so, right before it exploded and a small, goblin-like creature with large claws and a deep gash in its chest flew through it and slammed into the wall with a loud crack. I stared at the dead thing for a moment, before carefully approaching the window and looking out.

Just one glance made me realize that I might be in trouble. The town I was in was a complete wreck, with not a single house intact, although plenty of them seemed to have been patched up with wood and colourful bits of cloth and were inhabited by all manner of bizarre creatures that looked like something straight out of a fairy tale for little kids. Some of the creatures were huge, others were very small, but all of them were converging on the person who had apparently thrown the goblin through the window before and doing a very poor job of actually doing anything but inconveniencing her.

I watched in no small amount of awe as the girl, who didn't look much older than me, turned on her heel and used the spear she was wielding to sweep the legs out from under one of the trolls and crack the skull of a smaller one with the same movement. As the troll hit the ground, she jumped and drove the tip of her spear into its head, killing it instantly, before using her spear as a pivot to kick another three small ones that jumped at her through a wall.

As she did, I caught a glimpse of her face and outfit and felt my stomach drop. She was gorgeous, with long blonde hair pulled into a braid, dark blue eyes that were nearly purple and flawless skin. She was wearing a dark blue dress with an armoured corset, boots and gloves and wore what appeared to be a diadem of some kind. She had a rapier sheathed at her side, but apparently didn't need it as she slaughtered her opponents with a god damn flag.

I stared for a moment longer, before ducking down below the window and pressing my back against the wall, my eyes wide.

"Oh...oh shit," I muttered, "How did…"

Then, I remembered the username of the person I'd been conversing with and had to bite my fist to keep from yelling.

"Sonofabitch!" I snarled into my hand, "The bastard played me!"

As I did, a strand of hair fell in front of my eyes and I growled as I saw that it had gone from dark brown to blue. I suppose I should just be glad he didn't turn me into a girl, although that wasn't exactly much of a comfort. After all, if what the ROB had been talking about was anything to go by, not only was I stuck on Earth Bet, but I was also knee deep in Ellisburg with nothing but a magic sword I didn't know how to summon or use to keep me from being killed.

A loud explosion from outside made me glance up and rethink that. A magic sword and a Servant. That...might not actually be to bad. Hmm, I wonder if I could get some money for taking down Nilbog?

A loud crash from outside made me glance over the window ledge, just in time to see Jeanne slump down as one of the trolls loomed over her. This one was a lot bigger than most of them and had apparently managed to sneak up on her. The fact it had been able to smack a Servant around was rather surprising, but I quickly pushed aside the surprise as the troll reached out to grab the blonde.

"Oh fuck this," I growled as I stood, "Shes the only lead I have, no way I'm letting her die! Come on Durandal, I know your there!"

I jumped out of the window, a part of my mind noting that I jumped a lot further than should have been possible, and grabbed the hilt of the huge sword that appeared out of thin air, bringing it down on the trolls tree-trunk sized arm with a yell. The Troll roared in agony as it stumbled back, greenish blood spraying from the stump of its arm and all over me. I landed lightly and turned on my heel, bringing Durandal up in a slash that opened the troll from groin to throat, spilling gray guts all over the floor.

The sudden attack and messy death of their massive champion sent the remaining Goblins fleeing for cover. I let out a shaky breath as I tried to keep my dinner down and looked down at the sword in my hands. It was definitely Ex-Durandal, a huge, strangely shaped broadsword with a semicircular guard on the left side of the handle that extends to the bottom just above the pommel that was longer than I was tall and surrounded by a sheath composed of the Excalibur Fragments. I could feel the Holy Aura of all eight swords, each one slightly different from the others and mostly eclipsed by that of Durandal. I could feel the sword practically vibrating in my grip and could understand why Xenovia and Kiba had so much trouble controlling it. Even restrained as it was by the sheath, it still felt like it wanted to rage out of control and obliterate everything in its path. I could see this being a pain in the arse to use.

Examination of my weapon done, I turned to Jeanne, who was now getting to her feet, although she was leaning on her flag and holding her stomach. I frowned slightly. Either that Troll was a lot tougher than I thought or she wasn't as powerful as she should be.

"Thank you for the assistance," she said.

"Um, your welcome," I said, "I'm surprised you needed it thought."

Jeanne smiled a little thinly.

"I am not a Servant," she said, "Although I am based on a Heroic Spirit and was created with her as a base, I am not as powerful as a true Servant. While I am generally superior to a Human, I wouldn't stand a chance against an actual Servant."

I blinked.

"OK, I guess I can see why whatever ROB sent me here would do that," I said, "Wouldn't do to let my ally steamroll everyone after all."

I glanced at the sword in my hand and thought back to the fight between the ORC and Hero Faction in Hero.

"Well, mostly," I amended.

I bet it would even inconvenience an Endbringer, even if the Hero Faction did shrug it off. They were cheating cheaters after all.

I glanced around and frowned as I saw another large band of goblins charging down the street towards us.

"I really hope your ready for another fight," I said as I slipped into a ready stance and pulled Rapidly from the sheath, inwardly noting that I knew exactly how to use all eight of the swords I had access to.

Jeanne straightened and spun her flag as she stepped up beside me.

"I shall be fine," she said, "What do you intend to do?"

I smirked.

"Well, since we're here, how about we make a splash by taking down Nilbog?"

Jeanne matched my smirk with a smile of her own.

"Very well, lets go," she said.

I crouched slightly and pushed off. Instantly, the world slowed down as I felt Excalibur Rapidly warm in my hands and I carved a bloody path through the amassed army of abominations at an absurd acceleration. At one point, one of the goblins managed to avoid instant death and took a swipe at me with inch long talons, managing to catch my robe as it did. I responded by shrugging off the heavy robe and gutting him before moving on.

Jeanne was slower than I was, but no less effective. While I was basically a mulcher set on high, she was a lot more economic with her attacks, using her flag to great effect to bludgeon and stab multiple goblins with each swing.

I couldn't focus on her though since, although I was acting basically on instinct, I couldn't exactly stop concentrating on the fight unless I fancied getting gutted. Instead, I threw Rapidly at a troll with a flick of my wrist, spearing it through the throat and killing it, as I pulled another sword from Durandals sheath. This one was much larger and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to wield both it and Durandal at the same time under normal circumstances, but considering that I'd managed to kick one of the trolls a good way down the street, I'm pretty sure that my strength had been boosted. I smirked as I gripped Durandal and Destruction and lifted them above my head.

"JEANNE, JUMP!" I shouted and brought them down at the same time.

There was a flash of light and an almighty boom as the ground shook from the sheer power unleashed by two swords that were basically destruction incarnate. The goblins that were surrounding me were vaporized in the blast, leaving nothing to indicate they had been there and those who were out of range were knocked off their feet by the shockwaves. A moment later, the dust cloud thrown up by the attack rippled and dispersed as I jumped and spun, launching the remaining Excalibur blades like projectiles and nailing the last few trolls to the nearest flat surface.

"Huh, that worked better than I thought it would," I said as I rested Durandal on my shoulder and looked around.

"That was reckless," said Jeanne as she landed lightly from where she'd been stood on top of one of the few remaining telephone poles.

"True, but it worked," I said, "Now lets see if I can…"

I focused for a moment, then grinned as the Excalibur fragments vanished in a flash of light and returned to the sheath.

"Neat."

"NO NO NO, THATS NOT HOW ITS SUPPOSED TO GO!" screamed a high pitched voice from further down the road.

We both turned to see a bloated, Human sized creature with a pot belly and dressed in a rather horrific outfit that looked like it had been stitched together by someone with only a passing familiarity with a needle and thread having a tantrum on the back of a particularly large monstrosity with an organic throne growing out of its back.

"Thats a fake," I said.

"Correct," said Jeanne.

I sighed as I shifted my grip on Durandal and swung the blade down, cutting off the Nilbog puppets rant as it and its mount were sliced in half by a blast of golden light that also tore up the ground and crushed the front of a building.

"I need to work on that," I muttered, then raised my voice, "Alright Rinke, come on out or I'll see just how much damage I can do with this thing!"

In response, there was a loud bang and a horde of small critters came pouring out of a nearby building.

"How many times is he going to try that before we go through them all?" I growled as I released a horizontal wave of energy that bisected the entire crowd.

Then I blinked as both halves rapidly regenerated until there were two of each critter.

"Well, thats interesting," I said.

"Not a bad idea," said Jeanne, "I suppose hes more intelligent than people give him credit for."

I muttered something rude under my breath as shifted my grip on Durandal and lifted it above my head. There was a faint click as the sheath retracted and I felt Durandal's fearsome aura erupt, covering the blue blade with a visible golden aura that flickered like fire and quickly became more intense as I fed more power into it and loosened what little control I had.

"That seems a little excessive," said Jeanne, eyeing the blazing sword.

"I'm making a point," I said, "I'm getting sick of this and I really don't feel like taking to much longer with this fight! Now rampage Durandal, destroy everything!"

The aura erupted, becoming a solid beam of golden light that shot high above the wall and almost certainly attracted a fair bit of attention as it ripped through the low cloud cover and let the sun shine through. Then, I brought the sword down and cleaved the entire town in half.

The man once known as Jamie Rinke was many things. Delusional madman, S class threat, a King of Monsters and perfectly content. Oh sure, sometimes it became necessary to send his children out so he could restock on biomass to keep them from dying permanently and food was occasionally an issue, but generally he was perfectly happy to remain behind the walls in his little kingdom. Fortunately, it seemed that the peasants outside had learnt to keep away from his lands and his darling children. Occasionally there was an attack, but they were always dealt with and added to his reserves of Biomass and the retaliation served as a reminder that Nilbog suffered the Outside World because it was beneath his notice.

Unfortunately for the Would Be King, his little delusion was about to come crashing down.

The first indication was when one of his children was abruptly and very messily destroyed, prompting him to send a battalion to find the intruder. It had not taken them long, but despite the fact that there was only one and she was a young woman at that, the intruder had made short work of his children, forcing him to send more and more. Then a second intruder had arrived, this one armed with a sword that burnt his children like it was red hot and didn't seem to slow down, not even when he'd bisected one of Nilbogs trolls, creations designed specifically to battle Brutes.

It quickly reached the point that Nilbog started to run out of minions to send after the intruders, mainly because they'd arrived at a time when the mad Biokinetic was busy restoring his creations as they reached the end of their lifespan, forcing Nilbog to use more of his precious biomass to create more cannon fodder minions and send them out before the intruders managed to hunt him down. He'd even given them the ability to regenerate and multiply when injured. He was so sure that this lot would have managed to overwhelm the intruders, but before they could even get close, the swordsman had done...something that had released an enormous blast of light that had completely vaporized his minions, preventing them from regenerating since there wasn't anything left to regenerate with, and a good chunk of the city.

Then it exploded, taking almost half of Ellisburg with it.

Nilbog shreaked as his underground hideout shook violently and scrambled into his biological mech suit, just in time to avoid being crushed as the tunnel system began to collapse around him. The suit was tough enough to survive being buried alive and strong enough to dig its way to the surface which wasn't that far.

It didn't take long for the would-be king to pop out of the ground, gasping for breath and feeling more than a little roughed up. After all, it had been a very long time since he'd done more than walk from his bed to his throne room and had lived a decedent life during that time, rendering him very much out of shape.

Before he could recover from his brush with death, his biosuit let out a low groan as a spear stabbed through its head, severing its spine and destroying its brain. While it was little more than a mindless suit for him to control, that was more than enough to kill it, rendering it so much dead weight that nearly crushed Nilbog before he managed to crawl out from under it. He didn't get very far before a large slab of blue metal slammed into the ground in front of him. He slowly looked up and let out a whimper as he saw the blood covered wielder of said sword grinning down at him.

Honestly, he wasn't that intimidating, other than the aforementioned blood and massive sword. He looked about 20, with short, dark blue hair that looked somehow natural, brown eyes and an impressive muscle tone. He was wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants and was barefoot.

"You are quite the pain in the neck Rinke," said the swordsman, "I wonder how much people will pay for your head on a pike?"

Nilbog gulped, then surged forwards. If he could just touch the bastard, he could salvage the situation…

There was a flash of light and Nilbog froze as he stared at the stumps where his hands used to be. He screamed and flopped as blood spurted, before the shaft of a flag slammed into the back of his head and conosuness vanished in a burst of light.

"Was that really necessary?" asked Jeanne as she neatly bound the stumps of Nilbogs arms with strips of fabric torn from his costume.

"Probably not," I said, rubbing my forehead, "Actually, I'm not sure why I did it…"

It was really odd actually. I didn't exactly have any experience in combat and yet I was perfectly fine, despite being covered in blood. True, the Goblins weren't even close to being Human and I wasn't squeamish, but I'm pretty sure I should still have the shakes. Plus, that didn't explain why I decided to taunt Rinke and then take his hands off without a second thought. THAT should have got a reaction, but instead all I felt was satisfaction.

"I think...I think that I've received Xenovia's subconscious experience of battle, in addition to her skills," I said slowly.

"That...makes a certain amount of sense," said Jeanne, "The being that dropped us here wouldn't like it if we died too soon after all."

She wrinkled her nose slightly.

"Speaking of which, why are you here?" I asked, "I mean, I'm pretty sure you don't have any wishes you want granted, so why did you agree to come?"

Jeanne sighed and lent back on her heels.

"I'm not...entirely sure myself," she said, "All I know is that...something appeared and told me that my strength was needed to help save a world. I agreed and the next thing I knew, I was here. You arrived not long afterwards."

She frowned.

"I do know that whatever the being was that brought us here likely doesn't have our best interests at heart and we are basically entertainment for it however."

"That sounds about right," I said, "Fucking ROBs…"

Jeanne made a noise of agreement.

"So, if your not a Servant, what are you?" I asked, "I mean, how strong are you, do you still have your Noble Phantasms and am I your 'Master' for want of a better word?"

"My Noble Phantasms are present and are as strong as they would be if I was a true Servant," said Jeanne, "However, my strength is much lower. While I would definitely qualify as a high level Brute by the PRT's standards, I am not capable of anything like what a true Servant would be. As for you being a Master, your not. I'm an independent existence."

"Fair enough," I said.

I glanced down at Nilbog and frowned.

"So, what do we do with this idiot?" I asked.

"Hes helpless now," said Jeanne, "The collapse of his base destroyed his biomass supplies and I doubt he'll be recovering from losing his hands anytime soon."

She shot a glare at me that I shrugged off. Then felt guilty over the fact I didn't give a shit about basically crippling someone, even if it was someone as downright twisted as Nilbog. I really needed to sort this out soon or it was going to get confusing.

"Guess we're handing him over to them then," I said, indicating to the three figures floating in the air who had arrived a short time after I'd released Durandal's seals.

"That would be best," said Jeanne.

I sighed and muttered a few choice insults under my breath. I really didn't want to deal with the Triumvirate this early but I guess it was inevitable. On the up side, if things did get nasty, I was pretty sure that Durandal could cut through whatever bullshit made Alexandria invulnerable and I had Excalibur Ruler if that failed. That thing was just pure bullshit.

I turned as the three most powerful Capes on the planet (Zion didn't count since, you know, space whale) and stabbed Durandal into the ground in front of me. Alexandria, Eidolon and Legend slowly came to a stop a few meters away, clearly taking us in and analyzing us while I did the same. Honestly, they were rather impressive to look at, from Legends bright bodysuit and domino mask, Alexandria's helmet, heavy cloak and dark costume and Eidolons green robes and glowing mask. It was a little odd honestly, seeing three people who until a few hours ago were just fictional characters and to know that, regardless of their reputations, one of them would kill me without blinking if she thought it was needed and a second was indirectly the biggest mass murderer in the history of Earth Bet.

As I examined the three, I noticed a slight lifting of Legends eyebrow as he glanced between the two of us. I suppose that we must have made a bit of an odd sight considering that Jeanne was wearing an outfit that looked professional from this worlds standards and I was wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants and leaning on a massive sword.

"Who are you?" asked Alexandria eventually.

Jeanne and I glanced at each other. How were we supposed to answer that?

Welp, not the best ending, but what I had before made no goddamn sense. I can always rewrite it later.

To be clear, Charles' strength is equivalent to that of Xenovia when she debuted, plus Ex-Durandal. That basically means that hes got a Brute and likely Mover rating natively considering that Xenovia was able to fight with Kokabiel and not die instantly. I imagine that he was holding back rather a lot, but its still impressive.

Jeannes strength level is much the same.

I'm not sure how accurate them taking down Nilbogs goons so easily is and frankly, I don't care. Way I see it is that Nilbog, while certainly dangerous, has lost a great deal of the threat he posed when he was first locked up over the years without something to boost his biomass supplies, so his minions weren't as powerful as they could be.

Plus, this isn't really meant to be taken seriously.

Anyway, I don't really have anything else to say, so I'm gonna sign off. Don't forget to leave a review!