CH 25: Achilles!!!

Domina showed Ruler to his room before saying, "Dinner will be brought to you around 6. Training starts around noon tomorrow for you. I'll send someone to pick you up," and leaving him alone for the day. She knew he needed time to unsettle and relax. He had just left his home and could at least be given a chance to come to terms with it.

Ruler sat on his bed and began looking through his room. It was pretty basic which is how he liked it. He had a bed, a closet filled with training clothes and shoes, and a bookshelf filled with older and modern books. Besides those, the bathroom door, and the window which had a view of the beach outside, the room had nothing else within in. It seemed especially empty since the room was 10 x 10 meters.

Ruler decided to not worry about the size of the room before standing in the center of the room and swinging his odachi around. His movements were smooth and seemed as if they had been practiced for years.

'Just like I thought. I don't just gain a mystic code and the noble phantasms but also their skills. The only thing I don't get from them is their parameters. Guess I need to find a way to improve those on my own.'

Ruler continued to practice his sword moves for another hour. While he was able to subconsciously use them, all of the responses were merely muscle memory. Against amateurs, he would be able to easily overwhelm them with his skill. But with more advanced enemies, they could see through the basic movements. Ruler's goal was to get used to the moves to the point where he could add variety to them.

Ruler tried to summon Alter Ego so he could practice with the woman who was an expert in the fighting style but when he crushed the card, he exited his Alter Ego form and the Servant appeared before him.

'And I also can't use the card install and the summon at the same time. Good thing I learned this before a real battle.'

Ruler thought about his various cards and wanted another sword user. He was stuck between Saber and Rider but chose Rider after a moment of hesitation. He did not know whether he would get the male or female twin's weapon. Rider was simply the safer bet.

Once Ruler installed the Rider card, he gained a spathe and bronze-colored, leather body armor. Ruler swung the sword a few times to get used to Rider's sword style and he found out, the man lacked it. He was the type who fought by instinct and feeling rather than learning a style.

Ruler actually preferred this. If he learned how to battle like Rider without the install, his style would be much better and could be used in conjunction with Ruler's new appendages. Ruler raised his blade in a defensive position before looking toward Alter Ego.

"I need a sparring partner. Come at me!"

Alter Ego did not hesitate to charge toward Ruler and swing her blade at him. Ruler was barely able to respond and still ended up with a long but shallow cut across his torso.

Alter Ego specialized in fast strikes while using an exceptionally sharp sword. By using both together, it made up for her lack of strength compared to other Servants. But compared to normal humans, she was overwhelmingly more powerful than them.

Ruler did not hesitate to charge forward and try to take advantage of the Servant's pause.

'She is hesitating. Now!'

But he was mistaken. The Servant had never let her guard down or relaxed. She had just determined Ruler's skill level with how be tried to dodge and block her last blow. She planned to use the bare minimum amount of skill and ability to suppress Ruler without completely overwhelming him.

Ruler forced himself to continue battling Alter Ego for hours until he was truly exhausted. After he could no longer swing his blade, Ruler collapsed on the ground. He knew he could not stay in that position though. He went to the closet to get some clothes before heading to the bathroom to take a shower and bath.

By the time Ruler made it to the bath, he was so tired that he fell asleep in the tub. When Alter Ego saw him asleep, she pulled him out of the tub before drying his body off and putting the training clothes on his body. She then carried him to the bed and placed him under the blankets before laying in the bed with him while holding onto her blade.

When Ruler awoke the next morning, he was greeted with the pearl colored eyes of Alter Ego. Ruler blinked a few times before pinching the Servants cheek to make sure he was not dreaming.

"Good morning, Okita."

"Good morning, Master."

Ruler got off of the bed and looked at his watch. He saw the time was close to 10:00 AM. He then pulled out all of his cards to confirm his thoughts. Once he saw all except for Alter Ego were gold, he knew it was time to put in some effort.

"Thanks for watching over me, Okita. I need to use 3 of the other Servants so I will have to send you back to your card for a bit."

"It is fine, Master. When we are in the cards, time pauses for us. The time between when you desummon us and summon us seems like nothing more than a second to us."

Ruler never thought about what happened in between summons. He decided to ask Alter Ego about anything else that happens to them.

"We also gain updated knowledge when to summon us. Like we will know about someone attacking you and recognize who they are but we would not actually see the memory of it happening. Just gain the knowledge. You can limit what we get when you summon us if you focus on it."

Ruler thanked Alter Ego for the new information before having her return to her card. She was slowly becoming his favorite. While it seemed she did not have much personality, Ruler just saw it as her being quiet and loyal to him.

All his other Servants were disobedient compared to her. Ruler knew that they were individuals with their own personalities and it was his lack of strength that were the causes of their disobedience but it still frustrated him.

' I definitely need to get strong and respectable enough to the point where they do not obey because of the command seals but because of their loyalty to me. I have a lot of work to do.'

Ruler pulled out his Saber and Shielder cards before crushing them. The twins and green-haired hero appeared before Ruler in a moment.

" I have all of you here for one reason. You are 3 of my 4 greek Servants. My 4th hates one of you. So I'm going to let her deal with her issues. By my command seals: Achilles, you are to use Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē against Penthesilea while battling her to your fullest of abilities. The agreement of the duel shall be that neither of you may use noble phantasms and it shall be a hand to hand battle to the death."

One of the magic marks from Ruler's command seal tattoo disappeared as they had done whenever he used a command. Achilles immediately pulled out his spear and began preparing to use his duel field.

"You wish to force me to fight against her. How dare you?!"

Shielder had fury written all over his face but Ruler did not care. He needed both of his Servants to get over their traumas of the past so that he could use them to their fullest potential and without having to worry about infighting.

Ruler crushed the Lancer card and the white-haired little girl soon appeared in the center of the room. She was about to greet Ruler when she noticed the armored man with green hair in the corner of her eye. She turned to face him and her eyes began to glow red with rage.

"A...CHI..LLES!!!!!"