48: Out of the Fire.

For a few seconds he stands there, head twitching madly every so often, with a broken scrap of wood from the carriage in each hand. Of course, each of his improvised weapons is enveloped in that same black mana that everything else he wielded had been coated in, so it goes without saying that they're lethal weapons.

He's dangerous. This Black Knight is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous things I've ever encountered. It feels like I'm staring down Heracles or Reinhard. Our one saving grace is that he only has two hands. But that being said…

"Don't we outnumber him?" I can't help but ask. And with that, the spell is broken, and everyone springs into action.

A shield bash towards his face. A sword thrust to the chest. A spear-like banner thrust into his back, towards his lower spine. A blast of pink energy at his knees. Mozart shrugs helplessly. In an instant, all four combat capable servants attack him.

And in the next, he responds. Shield blocked with right hand. Sword beaten aside with left hand. Spear sidestepped, trapped between right knee and elbow. Marie's magic blast connects, but it breaks on impact, harmlessly dispersing.

"Oh dear. I was afraid of that. It seems he has some level of Magic Resistance." Mozart sighs. "Maria's spells are little more than crudely compressed atmospheric mana, so it goes without saying that even E-rank resistance will nullify them."

The Berserker crushes the piece of wood in his left hand and throws it, assailing Mordred with a hail of wood chips that has more in common with a flak gun. Dropping the wood in his right hand, he kicks it at Mash's shield, knocking her further back. His elbow is raised up, off of Jeanne's banner, but as she pulls it back, he catches it with both hands.

"Of course, I'd love to catch him in my Noble Phantasm, but since the thing affects anyone who can hear it, I'd probably end up killing you in the process, Subaru." The composer continues.

Mordred mana bursts out of the way of Berserker's shrapnel. Mash stumbles to a recovery and makes another swing at him. Jeanne tries to twist her banner out of his grip.

The Black Knight swings Jeanne's weapon, with her still gripping it, into Mash and lets go. Both Servants go tumbling away in a tangle of limbs. He prepares to follow up, snatching up the piece of wood he had kicked at Mash earlier and sprinting towards the two, except-!

"[Azoth Blood Arthur]!" A slash of red light erupts between him and his targets, zoning him out while the two recover. The Black Knight slides to a stop, another cloud of dirt and uprooted grass filling the air.

"AAAAAAAARRRRHHHH!"

His head whips towards Mordred, clattering and shaking with renewed fury. An instant later, he pounces towards her, swinging his wood scrap with force that breaks the sound barrier. It craters into the ground with a thunderous noise, seismic shock creating a geyser of earth - but Mordred dodges the blow easily.

"Too predictable!" She roars, sword crackling with red lightning as she thrusts at his bent form, even as Jeanne approaches from the opposite side with an overhead swing of her flag.

"URRRRHHHH!"

Rolling forward onto his hands, the Black Knight executes a perfect handstand split, kicking both of his assailants' wrists to prevent their strikes. Following through, he launches himself into an aerial spin, kicking both weapons aside even as he crushes the scrap in his hand and launches a volley of empowered woodchips at Jeanne.

"Gah-!" The saint cries out, unable to dodge completely. The splinters shred her left shoulder, and her grip on the banner weakens for just a second - allowing the Berserker to grab it and kick her away, sending her bouncing across what remains of the dusty road. Howling, he uses it to block another strike from Mordred, and kicks against a shield bash from Mash.

"That's enough, sir knight!" A heart-shaped blast of pink energy hits him, bowling him over.

"I figured that might be her next choice. Now we see if he's vulnerable to charms." Amadeus notes.

"Aah… Gwuh… Gwuh…" The Berserker drops the banner and stands up straight, clutching his head and swaying back and forth.

Marie lets out a happy sigh. "So you really are the chivalrous sort, under all that. Won't you tell me about yourself, sir knight?"

"G...g...GUAAAAH!" He howls, collapsing to his knees and slamming his head against the ground. "NNNNUUUHHH!" Again, he slams his helmeted head against the ground, clawing at the dust beneath him. "VRRRH!"

"...Oh dear. That doesn't look good. Please, sir knight, there's no need to-!" Marie starts, but Mordred cuts her off.

"It's no use, queenie. Berserkers will be Berserkers, after all." The Saber says, her sword glowing red. "Sometimes, all you can do is this. [Azoth Blood-"

In an instant, the Black Knight rockets towards her, left hand catching the Azoth Longsword as his visor grows an even brighter red.

"Arrr...thuuur." He rumbles - and then he throws the sand in his right hand at her eyes.

In most combat situations, sand in the eyes is a dirty trick. It can be dangerous to the target, but I can attest that against a strong enough opponent, mere blindness is no impediment. However, in the hands of a servant who turns anything he touches into a Noble Phantasm, sand ceases to be a mere dirty trick. It's more reminiscent of the nonsense Regulus pulled when we fought him.

To her credit, Mordred dodges the bulk of the attack, jerking her head to the side - but that doesn't stop the sand from shredding the right side of her face, gouging out her eye and eviscerating her ear.

In the same moment, the Azoth Longsword finishes cleaving through the Black Knight's palm, coming down in a blast of energy as it severs most of the fingers on his left hand. But he succeeded in redirecting the blast away from himself and, heedless of the damage he had taken, as if sacrificing that hand means nothing to him, he follows through on the motion, inertia carrying what remains of his hand into a left hook, grinding exposed bone fragments against Mordred's face wound in a brutal punch that sends her flying.

In an instant, things go from bad to worse - Mordred loses her grip on her weapon. Not letting the opportunity go to waste, the Berserker snatches the blade out of the air, and it blazes with sickly-looking black and red light.

"You're joking." I mutter. It took Mordred a solid week to get that thing working.

And yet, the Black Knight lets out an invocation, in his same warbling scream as always. "[AaazOOOTH-!"

The light recedes - no, it's more accurate to say it's pulled back into the sword. What should be a blast of mana is restrained, bound up, forced to wait until the exact moment of the strike. It's an absurd technique - even from here I can see his arm shaking with effort as his bones creak and muscles tear.

But nonetheless, he launches himself after Mordred, sword raised.

"-OVERLOOOAAAAD]!"

"[Lord-!" Mash valiantly jumps in the way, but she doesn't have time to finish her invocation before he's upon her, sword driving against her shield. I activate [Emergency Reinforcement] to bolster her defenses, and then-!

"[Cor Leonis]" My heart pounds as I activate my authority of Greed. I know she won't be able to take this hit. Not on her own. My right shoulder dislocates, and the forearm is bruised. On my left hand, my pinky, ring, and middle finger snap. Seeing me grit my teeth and double over, Mash gives me a horrified look, and I feel both her guilt, and my own for breaking the promise so quickly, wash over me. It hurts even more than the injuries.

But she withstands his attack, and a moment later, the Azoth longsword falls from his grip as his arm and hand spasm from overexertion. Looking at the way his arm is hanging there, I think he might also have a few broken bones, but there's no way to tell for sure with that fog around him. The blade, on the other hand, is clearly damaged, warped and deformed from being used in such an absurd manner.

For a moment, there's a lull in the fight, and I'm able to activate the [Emergency First Aid] function of my Mystic Code to heal Mash's broken limbs - just in time for the Black Knight to renew his assault, attempting to beat down the Shielder's resistance with a series of furious kicks delivered to her weapon.

"AAARRRTHUUURRR!" He screams, kicking the Azoth Longsword into his left hand, gripping it with just his thumb and his slowly regenerating palm.

Jeanne has recovered by this point, and moves to rejoin the fight - and then she freezes, as her own voice, not coming from her mouth, cuts through the noise of the ongoing fight.

"Berserker, that's enough - by my command spell, leave this place and return to your original task." The woman I had seen at La Charité was suddenly standing here. In the space between blinks, she had arrived, with the same dark silhouette as before standing behind her.

"AAAH! AAAH! AAAARRRRRTHHHUUUUUUUURRRR!" The Black Knight shrieks with hatred and desperation as he dematerializes, spending the last of his time to use his mangled hand to attempt to throw the sword at Mordred, who easily catches it.

"Good, it was going to be impossible to focus with him here. Now then… hello there, me. How about we figure out just what the hell is going on here?" Says Dark Jeanne, smiling villainously.

A/N:

Surprise Update! Lancelot continues to be scary. Luckily, Jalter wants to monologue, so Subaru gets a chance to live.