Disclaimer: All I know about Samurai Remnant is the appearance and names of various Servants (not even all of them), that Raikou looked much better before she developed these disturbing body proportions and that Tamamo Aria is adorable. In other words, save for a very superficial investigation, I'm pulling the characterization and abilities of Yamato Takeru straight outta my ass.

050 - Fatal Battle (Part 1)

Mashu Kyrielight

The sudden escalation is so abrupt, in fact, that nobody seems to know how to react at first.

"Wait, really?" The demon is the first to shake it off, an incredulous expression in her face as she turns towards their leader. "As amusing as I find all this–"

"Eli, props! All the props! Make a damn forest out of the things if you can pull it off, now!" But she's cut off by Senpai's own hurried commands, her uncharacteristically serious and urgent voice snapping their entire group out of their shock. "Mashu…! Actually, no. Telepathy only from now on!"

'Take point, but play it safe. We are not actually going to fight them.' Senpai's voice inside Mashu's head has her body moving to obey even before her mind can process the words. 'You don't even have to stand your ground, fall back if you need to, I'll make sure everyone stays where you can protect them!'

'Y-Yes!'

She shoots back through the link, taking notice of how everyone else seems to be making their moves at the same time. 'Will it be fine, though? Holding multiple mental conversations at the same time…'

'Are you kidding? I don't know about the other two, but I'm not yelling my orders where Oda Fucking Nobunaga can hear them!'

Senpai replies in a vaguely hysteric tone. 'I can handle seven parallel minds just fine.'

Oda Nobunaga is here? It makes sense that Senpai would want to keep her cards close to her chest when fighting against someone with such a reputation as a shrewd tactician, but how did she even know that in the first place? Senpai is truly amazing!

'Right! I'll—' She accepts the explanation easily enough, only to hesitate when the rest of Senpai's words register.'Wait, seven parallel minds!?'

'Focus, Mashu! This isn't the time to worry about that, we're kind of screwed here!'

'R-Right!'

It's fortunate that mental conversations can take place many times faster than regular ones or things could've gone very wrong while Mashu was distracted. Instead, everyone's just started to move, the warrior and the slaughterer bringing their weapons to bear while multiple flintlock muskets materialize all around the demon.

Lancer, Saber and Archer, Mashu notes grimly. As if their raw power wasn't enough of a threat, their Classes are also top tier.

Fortunately, she's not fighting alone. All around their enemies, rakes, spears and all manner of torture implements whose intended use she can't even begin to guess are quickly rising from the ground like a macabre forest covered in rusty edges and wicked-sharp spikes.

At the same time, crystalline structures are taking shape around them, seemingly from thin air. Pillars of glass at first, from whence membrane-like surfaces gradually spread towards each other to form proper walls. She can also feel Senpai and Olga doing something, the feeling of their magic circuits firing off making the hairs on the back of her neck stand to an end.

They won't win here through the force of arms, Mashu doesn't think. Instead, they need to buy time for Senpai to execute whatever plan she has to deal with the situation. Fortunately, they're well-suited for that task. As long as they don't need to switch to the offensive, they can—

"H–How's that! I don't usually do things like this, but this Eli-chan… is an enterprising and multi-talented idol, yeah!" Elizabeth-san's attempt at boasting is somewhat ruined by her stuttering and the way she nervously licks her lips. Or the way her knuckles white around the shaft of her spear. Or the way her knees are visibly shaking. "M–My [Leg-Eating Forest] will keep you in your place, so there! Choke and flail pathetically!"

… Mashu has to admire the other girl's bravado, at the very least. Even if she's fairly sure Elizabeth-san just made up that name.

"You claim this a forest when I see naught but blades of grass." The slaughterer speaks up evenly as he raises his blade. "Know that the trappings of man's artifice will fare no better than nature's grasp. [Kusanagi - Grass Cutter]!"

The blade is swung.

The artificial forest is cleaved in twain.

The walls of spun glass shatter into a million pieces.

Mashu gasps, her knees buckling under the weight of a blow that makes her shield ring like a gong. Gritting her teeth, she firms her stance and does her best to repel the attack. Just shoving away the leftover force is a struggle all on itself, but she somehow manages in the end, leaving behind twin gouges on the ground where her boots were pushed back a good ten feet. Incredible, these people are way too incredible.

And then everything catches fire.

The demon throws back her head with an incredulous cackle.

"Ahahahahaha! You did it! You actually went and did it! Alright, I'm all fired up!" Recovering a semblance of sobriety, the devil turns all her focus on Mashu, red eyes glowing dangerously as her lips twist into a sharp smile that shows far too many teeth. "If we're doing this, then let's do it with style! [Tenka Fubu - Everything under the Heavens, through force of arms]!"

The number of muskets floating around the demon multiplies tenfold, all of them turning their aim straight at Mashu before barking out a fusillade. She braces for this new attack, determined to protect everyone behind her with her shield, only to let out a shocked gasp when the bullets impact and they somehow manage to hurt her.

A quick check on her person reveals that she's not actually harmed, but each bullet pinging against her shield still hurts in a way that's difficult to put into words. If King Arthur's sword battered her with overwhelming firepower that tried to crush her defenses, these bullets seem to instead be attacking the source of the defenses themselves, her very legend.

She's not sure whether her nature as a Demi-Servant is a good or a bad thing in these circumstances.

'Senpai?' She calls out for advice, directly sending a mental impression of her status to save time.

'Tsk, Anti-Mystery? Conceited bitch…'

Senpai answers in an uncharacteristically poisonous tone.'How are you holding up?'

'I can take it, it's only pain.'

She rapidly reassures. It's a very unpleasant experience, but she's in no real danger.'As long as I can block the bullets with my shield, there's no real— Ah!'

Much to her dismay, the warrior chooses that moment to spring past her in a burst of speed, barely sparing her a side-glance before focusing her attention past her, towards the people she's supposed to be protecting. Maybe, if she only had to worry about the demon's barrage, she could've risked injury to intercept, but… There's no way she can act recklessly while the slaughterer is still around to exploit the opening.

'Lancer just slipped past me, Senpai.' She informs Senpai in case she's too busy to notice.'I'm sorry, I failed.'

'You didn't.'

Senpai tries to reassure her. 'Focus on the other two, we'll keep this one busy.'

It's nice of Senpai to lie for her sake. She'll do her best not to fail again.

Elizabeth Bathory

Scary! These guys are way too scary!

And what's with that stupidly powerful sword! That wasn't even its true name and Elizabeth can feel the gooseflesh where the air displaced by the aftershock brushed against her arms! If she'd taken that blow head on she'd be charred newt! No, sliced charred newt! No, newt sashimi! No, Grilled Newt Sashimi!

Where does that red queen person get having suck stupidly powerful Servants as… well, as servants! It's not fair! Who wrote this shitty plot? She wants to talk with their manager!

Is there any point in her being here? Her [Leg-Eating Forest] barely stalled them long enough for them to mock it! And she was feeling proud of that name, too!

'Heads up, Eli-chan!' P-san calls out. 'Lancer incoming! I need a meatshield!'

'Rude!'

Elizabeth (whines) protests, but she rushes to intercept anyway. If there's something worse than a rude P-san, that would be a dead P-san. There's no point in complaining to the dead, after all.

She has no trouble locating the enemy Lancer, mostly because there's no way to miss a natural disaster closing in on your position while they're making no effort to be subtle. She briefly wonders if this is how a baby deer would feel while staring down an incoming locomotive. Or how the dinosaurs felt while staring up at the burning rock in the sky.

It's smiling! The natural disaster is smiling! Hiiiiiii!

Why didn't she run away!? She just survived the collapse of a whole reality around her and she's too cute to die so soon anyway! This was a terrible idea!

"N-Not so fast! This Idol can still…Ghack!" She still tries her best to put up a brave face and drop a cool one-liner, but the only thing she gets for her efforts is nearly getting beheaded while she was still talking. "At least let me finish my speech, you brute!"

"There's no army to inspire here." The brute replies without losing an ounce of her smile, spear poised for another attack. "Hence, there's no need for speeches."

"W–Well, it can *Ack!* still work as *Hieee!* as practice!" She manages to get out while dodging and weaving around a series of wickedly-fast thrust. "You should use every chance to improve yourself, right?"

"Ah, I see." The natural disaster finally pulls back a bit, her permanent smile wavering for a moment as she seemingly contemplates Elizabeth's words… for about two seconds. "I'll keep these words in mind in the future."

And immediately goes back to trying to make skewered newt out of Elizabeth. This isn't nice! This isn't nice at all!

Why does she have to face this monster? She's not a warrior! She's a noble! And an idol! Sure, she's cute and charming and modest and brave, but bravery cannot replace actual combat experience! Sure, Servants are strong, but that doesn't matter when your opponent is a Servant too!

'Do your best, Eli-chan!' P-san's mental voice echoes through her mind again.'We're all counting on you!'

Grumbling to herself, Elizabeth dodges under the brute's next thrust, taking advantage of her position to throw an upwards thrust of her own that the brute -of course- dodges by a hair's breadth through simply twisting her head. But that's fine because it was just a feint, forcing a blind spot on the brute she ruthlessly exploits by wrapping her tail around an ankle and pulling—

…

…

…

Elizabeth looks up.

The brute looks down.

Elizabeth tries pulling again.

The brute arches an eyebrow. That leg isn't moving an inch.

Until it does. It pulls back, that is. The unrelenting force behind the motion easily trips Elizabeth on her butt and drags her through the dirt, closer and closer as the brute takes a textbook-perfect kicking stance. Finally, maybe inevitably, the brute… kicks.

Next thing she knows, Elizabeth is lying on the bottom of a crater, face down and butt up, with her mouth full of dirt and a somewhat unpleasant burning sensation on her asscheeks after so rudely being dragged through the ground. She's pretty sure her panties are exposed. Worse yet, they must be looking all dirty and uncute.

Any half-decent professional knows the value of a candid panty-shot, but they are supposed to look clean and colorful, for hopefully obvious reasons. This is the absolute worst. Why did she even bother? This is what happens when a wretch like her tries to play hero.

"You're not done yet, are you?" The brute calls. "Come."

Gritting her teeth -after surreptitiously spitting the dirt in her mouth- she pulls herself back to her feet, grabs her spear and turns around to face the brute once again. Against her better judgment and every instinct in her body.

Ugh, the things she does for her fans…

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