III.
As the knife plunged deep through Gabriel's neck Louise found herself completely dumbstruck. Of all the things she had calculated, she had not counted on Rosa simply ignoring her, the actual threat, in favor of the escaping civilian.
"There. Deserve worse. Monster." Rosa spat on the corpse of the innocent clubber as she retrieved both weapons from the body. "But gotta kill you fast. Other people, other monsters to kill." With this declaration Rosa turned back towards Louise, the faltering mage still looking at her with a mixture of confusion and fear. Swirling black energy poured into the pick in her right hand, and with a flick of her wrist the magical projectile was hurled towards Louise.
Louise's mind raced, she was still coming to grips with Gabriel's death, with her failure, with Rosa's madness, but now there was imminent danger. Her frantic mind reacted too slowly, she brought her hands up to form a barrier, the purple magic swirled into form, but it was too late, the paper-thin shield she crafted was only enough to slow the deadly projectile, and at least stop its impact from being lethal.
For a moment, all Louise saw was blackness. A piercing, burning pain radiated through her whole body, her right eye nothing more than a jumbled collection of different forms of pain.
"EeeeuuuAAAAUUGGGHHH!" Louise let out an anguished scream as all the different feelings of pain rolled into one and her body fully registered what had happened. The pick stood for a moment on its own, lodged as it was in Louise's eye-socket, before it finally dropped to the ground in front of her.
Rosa paid no heed to Louise's distress and, brandishing her knife, made to charge forward and end the young mage completely. She found her forward movement arrested however. Blue, glowing magic sigils raced all around her from the mouth of the alleyway, lines of blue energy zipping along and covering every surface, even forming a sort of net in the sky above the enclosed road. Some of these blue lines formed tendrils that wrapped themselves around Rosa's legs, holding her in place.
Both Servants, thinking the other distracted, resumed their attack; Rider in firing his pistols, Berserker in charging forward to stomp him into the ground. Before either attack could connect though, there was the sound like the lashing of a whip, and a white beam of light snapped both bullets out of the air, and another flash of light sliced the air in front of Berserker, halting their advance. The snapping sound happened again and Lord Wilmore was standing between the two battling Servants. His deep blue cape was gone, and the solemn green suit jacket was also abandoned. He wore a vest that still matched the mossy green of the suit, but unlike the austere outerwear, it featured swirling golden patterns across it. The shirt beneath was a simple white silken affair, a light glow permeated from the smooth material despite the low-lighting. In his grip he held a long thin dueling sword, whose intricate, swirling hand guard had an array of precious stones inlaid across its sweeping length. The blade was straight, and though it featured only a subtle sharpness along its length, the piercing capability of its tip was extraordinary. With one hand behind his back, and the other holding the blade close to his chest and erect in front of him, the Lord cast judgmental glances on both the combatants before him.
"A pity, I was somewhat hoping to kill you both at once and save myself some trouble later on." Lord Wilmore's words carried the same condescension as his look.
"Now now, Lord we didn't come here for that sort of thing, we're here to help." Ali stepped into the alleyway as he spoke, the last bits of the magic barrier sealing the entrance behind him.
"A... Ali?" Louise stammered out the young man's name as he appeared. Her state was equally dazed and bewildered by his appearance as it was by the tremendous amount of pain she was in.
"Louise." Ali's face was a mixture of affection and pity as he addressed the injured mage. "I apologize for interrupting, but I have been meaning to speak with you, and though my original intention was to do so alone," at this point Ali gestured in Lord Wilmore's direction, the swordsman still keeping a close eye on the confused, but aggressive Berserker, "when I saw how things were progressing for you I felt inclined to intervene and insisted on bringing my associate along-"
"Oh enough of this farce!" Rider suddenly called out, hundreds of things swirling in his mind at once, most of them sources of rage, "We know he's a Servant!"
Ali stumbled for a moment, his concentration broken from how he was attempting to orchestrate the situation. "Ahem, yes I suppose it has gone far enough. Lord Wilmore is my Servant, and I his Master. I apologize for keeping this from you, Louise." Ali offered his hand to Louise by way of apology.
"Ali. This is hardly the time!" Louise mustered her strength through the injury to yell a warning to Ali as she saw Rosa cutting the magical bindings from her legs. Beyond the immediate danger, Louise had too many other forms of agitation on her mind to feel like entertaining Ali's attempts at chivalry.
Along with using her knife, Rosa was assisted in removing the magical bindings by what appeared to be black flower petals flowing out of her body, their thin forms effortlessly severing the strands of magic binding her in place.
"I must thank both of you for your time." Berserker spared the effort to bow to both Rider and Wilmore as they spoke. "But it appears my Master requires my aide. I bid you both au revoire." As suddenly as every other movement they made, Berserker was by Rosa's side, helping, despite their wounded hands, to tear at the magic binding their Master.
"No, I don't think I want escape to be that easy." Ali, with a wave of his hand, sent a whole host of new threads firing out from the barrier's surface towards Rosa and Berserker. Berserker, not wanting their Master to be ensnared again, threw themselves into the path of the arresting threads, every single one ensnaring them, and twisting their limbs askew. "Lord Wilmore. The Servant." With another wave of his hand, Ali issued the command as if it were the most trivial of matters.
Lord Wilmore gave Rider one last patronizing glance before charging toward the target specified by Ali. Wilmore, wasting no effort, drove the deadly saber straight at Berserker's heart. However he found himself intercepted by Rosa who, using the time bought by Berserker blocking the barrier, had finished freeing herself. "BASTARD!" She roared as she began dueling the Servant.
Lord Wilmore offered attack after attack, but his skillful strikes were all parried by Rosa's knife, now more black magical energy than material blade, its size and energy growing with her rage. The ethereal petals that had been her liberators had not ceased dancing around her and, as the duel went on, had gathered into a giant tulip shaped mass behind her. "Die, Monster!" With a maddened shout that acted as the command word, black bursts of destructive energy lanced out of the flower behind her, and became a deadly rain of projectiles that rained down on the opposing Servant. Lord Wilmore tried his best to dodge or parry the onslaught, but the attacks were too numerous, and more and more were piercing and burning at his form.
Rider, though conflicted on if it was the right thing to do, raised his pistols and fired on Rosa, coming to the aid of Lord Wilmore. A fusillade of bullets all screamed into Rosa, however instead of bloody wounds and bullet-holes, the only effect seemed to be that the projectiles were swallowed by the black energy that was quickly enveloping her whole form. Though not damaging, the opposing hail of projectiles was enough to distract Rosa, and she ceased her assault on Wilmore to inspect what was audacious enough to attack her.
Rider capitalized on Rosa's perplexed state, rushing as fast as he could to his wounded Master's side to protect her, his own damaged leg making it a painful action. Rosa, her eyes empty and lacking their usual shine of sadness, locked on to the impertinent Servant and, carried on wings of burning black magic, sailed across the alleyway towards him. The cavalier raised his sword to block the incoming attack and protect his Master, but Rosa's blazing, magic-clad form overshadowed his current weakened state, and the collision sent him ricocheting around the magical barrier.
"Rider!" Louise called out to her Servant as he was batted away from her. Turning to the creature that was beginning to look less and less human by the moment, Louise, unsure of what else to do, raised her hand, attempting to force her mana blade into shape. "Stop this, please." She was too weak, and instead of her usual blade, was barely able to manage a sort of mitten of magical energy wrapping itself around her hand. Rosa brought her own hand down, black petals pouring from her open palm. Louise tried to intercept what she could only assume was an attack, but her own purple magic was shattered and her hand was engulfed in Rosa's burning energy.
There was a moment, where Louise felt the surprisingly soft touch of Rosa's hand as they made contact. The moment passed and Louise found herself, her mind, her consciousness, something, pulled from her body, sucked into the mind of Rosa, joined by the churning uncontrollable magic she was exuding. Louise, through the momentary connection, could feel Rosa's screaming, searing magic circuits, or more accurately, the magic circuits inside her, pulsing and stinging their vessel. The mental connection lasted only a moment before all of Louise's senses were engulfed by the caustic, scorching pain her hand was enveloped in, her flesh peeling and popping from the extreme heat of Rosa's unchecked magic.
"Dammit Wilmore, Stop her!" Ali cried out to his Servant.
Wilmore, with a sigh, charged the radiant form of Rosa. The unexpected mental contact with Louise was all it took for her guard to drop, and an attack finally hit home as the Servant drove his saber through her stomach.
"Hah? Eugh!" There was a moment of confusion as Rosa's fractured mind processed that she has been wounded, before she cried out in pain. The wound, pouring blood and black ooze equally, sent Rosa reeling back from her attacker, and she released Louise's left hand, now burnt and scarred.
"MASTER!" Berserker, still entangled in Ali's barrier, called out to their deranged partner. "I know you can hear me, I know you're in there! That's enough. You're pushing the Tulip too far! We have to leave! Do you understand me? Come back to me, my Master, my friend!"
Deep as she was in the abyss of her own magic, Berserker's words were enough to bring Rosa to the surface. Taking a moment to send a blast of magic at Wilmore, she flew over to where her Servant was ensnared and using her knife and the swirling petals, made quick work of the binds holding them. Now that her consciousness was returning though, her power was waning, and she almost immediately collapsed into Berserker's arms. With one last effort she sent a final wave of petals crashing into the barrier's ceiling, and shattered the protective magic.
"No! Lord Wilmore, stop them!" Ali's command was too late, and Berserker was gone, having vanished through the breach in the barrier. "...Curses," he muttered. Not wanting to focus on the disappointment of the escaped enemy, Ali turned his attention to the injured Louise, collapsed on the pavement, barely holding on to consciousness. He slowly approached her, a look of concern in his eyes. As he knelt down to help her up, his hand inches from her, the report of a pistol going off rang throughout the alleyway.
Rider, in a stance somewhere between crouching and standing, held his smoking pistol in one hand, aimed toward the sky where he had fired the warning shot, his other hand clutching his sword, attempting to hold it up in a threatening manner. "Do not... lay... a finger on... my Master." He was weak and injured, and the mana coming from Louise was barely enough to sustain him. He would not admit it out loud, but he had no way to actually come to Louise's aid if Ali did plan on hurting her.
"You cretin." Lord Wilmore, slicing his sword menacingly in the air a few times, brought it up in a threatening manner aimed at Rider. "You are hardly in any position to be giving orders."
"That's enough out of both of you." Ali, though usually docile in his Servant's presence, was in this moment quick to take command. "Lord Wilmore, your sword." The proud familiar kept his blade up despite Ali's protestation. "I said put it down, Servant!" With more force, and more aplomb than he had exuded before, Ali issued the command a second time. Lord Wilmore, taken aback by this sudden resolution, lowered his blade.
"Rider, you have my utmost assurance that I am not going to hurt her. If I wanted her dead I would have let that creature finish its work."
"Ah, then you aim to put us in your debt eh?" Rider did not yet lower his weapons, despite his failing strength. "Make us dance to your tune?"
Ali opened his mouth to argue, but before he could speak he was cut off by an unexpected source. "...Rider... it's alright." Louise, her one good eye barely open, reached toward her Servant with her wounded hand. "Let Ali... help..." The last thing Louise heard as she lapsed fully into unconsciousness was Rider and Ali both calling out to her.
"Following the self-styled playboy was a fantastic idea, Master." It was impossible for Assassin to ever fully disguise the sadistic notes that leaked into her speech like so much venom. "So what now? Do we swoop in and finish the job? I would love to finish the little girl myself. Though we'll have to heal her up a bit, some play time beforehand would make it all the better."
Mordaunt had gotten a decent view of the melee from the vantage point of the roof-top overlooking the alleyway. The Immeuble Hennebique building was taller than most of the surrounding structures, and this, coupled with the terraced garden on its rooftop, allowed the mercenary to overlook the entire alleyway, and adjoining street, without being easily spotted by the combatants below.
"You're sure your presence concealment is strong enough? Don't want that unknown Servant detecting us. Troublesome." Mordaunt's reply to Assassin was to ignore her comment completely.
"There is no need to be so worried Master. No one will ever know I'm there until I want them too."
"Good." Mordaunt began packing up the scoped rifle and observation equipment he had set up. "We hold off for now."
"Pardon, Master?"
"Two Servants and what appears to be a capable enough Master. Even with the Rider injured, too many unknowns. No need to pick a fight that we have no guarantee on winning." Mordaunt zipped closed his weapons case and stood to leave. "We got what we came here for, information. We follow the Master back to his hideout, and continue probing it for weaknesses."
Assassin watched the back of her departing Master as she clicked her tongue in disappointment. "Methodical. Perhaps not my preferred style of methodical, but effective, I'm sure. I enjoy a nice drawn out despair, but this just feels like it lacks the proper glamour compared to slaughtering them now. But so be it."