CH 26: True Servant Battle

"I challenge you to a duel. We shall compete in skills without divine intervention, luck, or our noble phantasms interfering. Do you accept?"

Achilles was happy that Penthesilea was currently being affected by Mad Enhancement and would have been unable to accept the duel and the terms. But his hopes were soon dashed by Ruler.

"Lancer, using the power of my command seals: accept the duel and kill Achilles."

Achilles immediately activated threw his spear down and activated. It created a bright light that covered the entire room before continuing to expand. The room that was only slightly lit up before now seemed as if it was bathed directly under the light of the sun. Ruler and the twins had disappeared leaving only Achilles and Penthesilea left standing in the room.

Achilles summoned another spear and his shield just in time to block Penthesilea's first strike. The blow knocked Achilles back and through the wall. He landed on the beach outside of the base. Penthesilea rushed out the base as well with her spear in hand and swung it at Achilles like a madwoman.

Each clash of their weapons created shockwaves and caused the sand around them to be blown away. Achilles began to get into his pace and fight semi-evenly with Penthesilea. He was still reluctant to fight her since she was one of the 3 people he never wished to battle again but was forced to go all out thanks to Ruler's command.

While the Amazon was more powerful than Achilles with her Mad Enhancement skill, she became less of a skilled warrior and more of a rapid beast. Achilles used his superior skill at the moment to match the Amazon.

'This is not going to work in my favor if I stay here. I think I've been depending on my noble phantasms a little too much. I need to try something else.'

Achilles met another blow of Penthesilea before using the chance to back off and try to use his superior agility to beat her. Even without his noble phantasm, Achilles was not known as the fastest hero in greek mythology for no reason.

Achilles seemed to instantly appear behind the mad Amazon and tried to stab her with his spear but was blocked by her gauntlet. In his shock, Achilles let his guard down and was given a small cut on his cheek when Penthesilea stabbed toward his face with her spear.

Achilles instantly retreated once again before deciding to throw various items in the environment at Penthesilea in an attempt to tire her out but each rock and tree thrown were instantly cut through as the mad Amazon charged toward him.

Achilles lost focus for a moment seeing that but the Amazon took that chance to swing her spear at Achilles. The hero managed to block it but was sent flying into the base and crashed through many walls.

The Amazon followed into the base where the pair continued to battle. As they were no longer outside, Achilles was forced to engage in a head-on battle since running away would have been more difficult with all of the objects and structures blocking him.

The duo caused a large amount of destruction when swapping blows that ended up destroying over half the base within 5 minutes. The large amount of rubble and dust ended up blocking both of their visions but that did not slow down their battle.

"Achilles!"

Penthesilea was blinded by rage, her master's command, and the only wish she had for the holy grail. Her only goal at the moment was to kill Achilles and regain her honor.

The battle between the pair continued for hours. They had left the Neo base in rubbles and destroyed the entire island that they were located on. The only left after the two had moved on to a different area to battle was destruction. But the battle had reached its climax. Achilles and Penthesilea were standing and facing each other covered in wounds and blood.

Achilles was missing his left arm while his right hand was only gripping the top half of his spear as it seemed to be broken in half. None of his golden armor remained on his body and his chest was covered in several deep wounds as well a sword's blade sticking out from within it. He also seemed to have received a cut to the face which blinded his right eye.

Penthesilea was not faring much better. Her body was also covered in wounds while most of her weapons had been lost. Her spear was broken, both her gauntlets were crushed, and only one of her swords remained. Even the anger in her eyes seemed to have vanished for the most part as there was only mild anger but the rest of the emotions in her eyes conveyed her joy at being able to battle the man who killed her once again.

Penthesilea charged at Achilles once more but when he tried to block her blow, he was instantly overwhelmed. The sword broke the remains of the spear before cutting into Achilles's body. Penthesilea pulled the sword out before stabbing into his heart once. Then a second time. Then a third. She continued to stab until Achilles body burst into shards of light.

Soon, the area dimmed and Penthesilea was standing in Ruler's room again. The room did not look damaged in the slightest as Ruler and the twins looked slightly shocked at her. And they should have been.

To them, the pair of Servants disappeared for only a second before Penthesilea reappeared looking injured and almost dead. Ruler did not know that Shielder's noble phantasm brought them into a pocket dimension where time flowed differently and that he could not enter or view the fight from.

Ruler got over his shock in a few seconds after seeing the state of Lancer and feeling Shielder re-enter his card space. Lancer had a beautiful smile on her. That smile soon disappeared.

Lancer shattered into light before turning into her card again within Ruler's hand. but it was not black as it should have been. The card changed. It was still golden like it would have been if Lancer had not been summoned but there were now also red highlights along the edges of the card.

Ruler looked over the card and was shocked at the changes. his curiosity got the best of him and he crushed the card once again. After the burst of light, Lancer appeared before him once again. But she was different.

She no longer looked like the young girl but was instead a young woman in her early 20s. She had grown taller and more muscular, and looked like what most would assume an Amazon looked like. Her curves had filled in perfectly. But it was her face that was the true surprise.

Even in her child form, anyone would say she was beautiful. But as an adult, Penthesilea looked like a true goddess had descended on earth. Ruler could understand why Achilles last words were about her beauty and not her skills when he saw her. He decided to look at her stats to spot any differences.

Lancer: Penthesilea

Strength: A+

Endurance: B+ -> A

Agility: B+ -> A

Mana: A

Luck: C -> B

NP: A

Skills: Magic Resistance C, Divinity B, Charisma B, Golden Rule (Beauty) A, Roar of the God of War A+, (Lost: Mad Enhancement EX), (New: Amazon Queen EX, Mana Burst A)

Noble Phantasm: Outrage Amazon Anti-Unit B->A, Trojan Reinforce Anti-Army B->A