Another Servant Down
TYPE-MOON Universe, Earth, Japan, Fuyuki city.
"Master, I understand that there are some concerning elements for you in this Holy Grail War." Archer said while watching Rin workout after a session of refining her close quarters combat skills. "But we really should not just be sitting here like this. How do you expect to win the Grail if you don't even try to fight."
"What do you mean by concerning elements, Archer?" Rin asked as one of her eyebrows rose in irritation. "Are you suggesting that the reason I have not been going out to fight is because I, Tohsaka Rin, the current head of the Tohsaka Family, am scared?"
"I would never." Archer replied, faux-sincerity in his tone. "But our last two run-ins with that woman from the Clock Tower and the little girl from the Einzberns has not gone as smoothly as expected, have they?"
Hearing that so blatantly spelled out for her, Rin could only grit her teeth in anger. As Archer said, those two fights did not go as smoothly as she would have liked. And the reason for that was distance.
As an Archer-Class Servant, Archer fought best at long range. However, neither the fight with Lancer, nor the most recent fight with Berserker allowed him to get the distance he desired.
That's not to say that Archer was not dangerous at close range. However, the point still stands… Archer is the most dangerous when he's far enough to use his bow.
"It's not that I'm scared, Archer." Rin said after taking a deep breath to calm her irritation. "It's just things have not been the luckiest for us recently. I mean, the last few fights have happened up close. And well, you're an Archer."
Finally gaining a bit more understanding into Rin's thought process, although he still held the belief that Rin was a bit traumatized by how easily she was defeated by Bazett, Archer nodded his head.
"And that's all the more reason for us to get out there more." Archer said. "Because unless we go on the prowl, there's no way I'll be able to put my [Clairvoyance] to use to get a jump on Masters and their Servants."
Hearing that, Rin's eyes widened as she took in Archer's words.
'Wait… Don't tell me she forgot.' Archer thought to himself while narrowing his eyes at his Master. 'I told her about that the day after she summoned me when we went out to get a lay of the city.'
Meanwhile, Rin, after seeing the expression on Archer's face, only turned her head away as she could feel her cheeks heating up in embarrassment. However, before she could stammer out an excuse, both hers and Archer's heads snapped in the direction of strong mana fluctuations she could feel coming from somewhere in Miyama Town.
"Archer, let's go." Rin said as she dashed out of her gym. "Even if we don't engage, we need to see who's fighting and get some information about them."
"Understood." Archer replied as he turned to run after Rin.
It did not take long after that for the two to leave the Tohsaka Residence. And when they did, Archer scooped Rin into his arms before jumping to the roof of a nearby house and carrying her through the sky as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop.
At the same time, Tatsuo and Saber, who just stepped out of a supermarket with enough food to feed a small army, also felt the fluctuations in mana. And while Saber had no idea who was causing these fluctuations, Tatsuo knew exactly who it was.
'Looks like Sakura and Illya ran into each other.' Tatsuo thought to himself. He then looked down at the grocery bags in his hands with a bit of discontentment. 'I wanna go over there and help Rider finish off that big bastard. But what am I supposed to do with all the food? Oh, wait! I still have my [Inventory]. Honestly, it's been a while since I've used it. Not since I got here, anyway.'
"Assassin, what should we do?" Saber asked after staring off in the direction of the fight. "Do we get involved?"
"Damn right, we do." Tatsuo replied. "Come on, let's find somewhere without cameras so I can put this stuff away. Then, we'll rush over there."
"You actually have the ability to store objects?" Saber asked, sounding quite impressed.
"Something like that." Tatsuo replied with a shrug. "Anyway, let's go."
Nodding quickly, Tatsuo and Saber quickly moved to an alley where they could no longer feel they were being watched by surveillance cameras. Then, Tatsuo used his [Noble Phantasm], [Exacuere Vade Inanis], to cut a tear in space. After that, the pushed the bags he was holding into the spatial rift, placing them into his [Inventory] before the turbulent space could destroy them.
Then, after repeating the process with the bags Saber was holding, both Servants changed into their battle attire before they sped off towards the battlefield where the confrontation between Sakura and Illyasviel was taking place. Along the way, they also let Elicia know what was going on and why they would be late.
On a side note, Bazett and Lancer could also feel the clash between Rider and Berserker. However, as they were currently in the suite at the Grand Hyatt, they knew they would most-likely not make it there before the confrontation came to an end.
Meanwhile, in a park not too far away from the former Matou Residence…
*Boom!* *Bang!* *Clang!* *Crash!* *Rumble!*
… Rider and Berserker were engaged in high-paced melee combat. However, it was clear to anyone watching that Berserker was at a clear advantage, his strength outclassing Rider's by an entire tier.
At the same time, Sakura, though she was paying attention to the fight between the two Servants, was watching Illyasviel raging angrily while holding her head between her hands.
"No, you're lying!" Illyasviel shouted, her unstable emotions making Berserker that more unstable, as well. "You're lying! You're lying! You're lying! You're lying!"
And the reason for Illyasviel's apparent breakdown? In an attempt to buy herself and Rider some time to set up the battle field the way they wanted, Sakura engaged Illyasviel in conversation. And during that conversation, she told the older girl, who looked younger than her, the truth about Kiritsugu, Irisviel, and the Einzbern Family she had heard from Elicia a few nights ago.
And while Sakura expected Illyasviel not to take her words at face value and even be suspicious of how she could have gotten her hands on such information, she would have used the extended conversation to her advantage, had that been the case.
But none of those things happened.
Instead, Illyasviel immediately flew into a rage when she heard what Sakura had to say. And when that happened, Berserker raged, as well. He then rushed forward, attempting to cut Sakura in half with is giant axe-sword.
Luckily, Rider was on alert ever since she and Sakura ran into Illyasviel and Berserker. So, although she was vastly overshadowed in terms of strength, she was able to get between Sakura and Berserker to deflect his attack.
And that was the course of events that led to the current situation.
Though, Sakura was still confused about why Illyasviel flew into such a rage at the news.
In actuality, the reason for Illyasviel's rage was simple. She had always suspected that her grandfather was lying to her. However, it was easier for her to cope with the loss of her parents if she had someone to blame. So, she had been doing just that, blaming Shirou for the loss of her parents. And over the years, she had almost completely convinced herself that her grandfather's lies were true.
Until Sakura started mentioning the truth, that is. And with someone else telling her the truth that she had always suspected, Illyasviel's mental state quickly deteriorated. As a result, her control over Berserker's [Mad Enhancement] slipped, letting Berserker loose on a rampage.
Meanwhile, Sakura, after seeing how easily Rider was being overwhelmed, hardened her expression. She knew that there was no way Rider would be able to face Berserker head-to-head. So, she decided to make an opening for their plan to begin.
"You've left me no choice, Einzbern-San." Sakura said in a low tone.
At the same time, the shadow Sakura cast because of the light pole in the park began to expand. Noticing the change in atmosphere immediately, Berserker stopped his onslaught and turned to face Sakura. And when he saw the shadows stretching towards Illyasviel, his anger spiked to even higher levels.
*Roar~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*
Before dashing towards Sakura, Berserker threw his head back and unleashed a roar that shook the trees closest to the battlefield. However, that gave Rider the chance to do what she had been wanting to do ever since the battle started.
Dispelling the nail and chain in her right hand, Rider reached up with her now free hand and pulled at her blindfold, one of her [Noble Phantasms], [Braker Gorgon], and pulled it off, revealing her glowing, lavender-colored [Mystic Eyes of Petrification].
Now, to clarify, [Braker Gorgon] was not an offensive type of [Noble Phantasm]. Instead, its purpose was to seal Rider's excessively powerful [Mystic Eyes], which had the ability to petrify everything in her line of sight below a certain amount of mana.
And fortunately, Sakura, thanks to everything her adopted Grandfather had done to her, had more than enough mana to resist their effects. Unfortunately, so did Berserker. As for Illyasviel, Rider figured she had enough mana to resist, as well. But she could not be sure. And since she did not want to kill the girl, mostly because Sakura felt sorry for her after hearing her story from Elicia, Rider did not look in her direction.
Meanwhile, Berserker, as soon as Rider took off her blindfold and everything in her line of sight turned to stone, felt the strain, immediately. From what he could tell, in its entirety, his strength was lowered by an entire tier. And that made his anger rise even higher.
*Roar~~~~~~!*
And although he wanted to cut down Rider, who was the reason for his loss of strength, protecting his Master was his top priority at the moment. So, he dashed towards Sakura with his axe-sword raised and ready to strike.
*Thunk!* *Thunk!* *Thunk!*
However, just as he got in range to strike, a trio of arrows, which all had strangely shaped arrowheads, sank into his body, one in his forehead, one in his heart, and the last in his liver. Naturally, this caused Berserker to falter for a moment, as each of Archer's arrows managed to take one of his lives. And that was just enough for Rider to catch up and overtake Berserker before getting Sakura away from him.
However, it should be noted that Archer was more than capable of taking more of Berserker's lives with a single arrow, as he had done previously during the battle in the cemetery. However, had he fired such a powerful arrow, Sakura would have also been caught up in the explosion. And considering Archer's real identity and the fact that Sakura was Rin's sister, he held back considerably.
Meanwhile, as she whisked Sakura away from Berserker's vicinity, Rider shot two of her nails from her hair, both aimed at Berserker's eyes. However, before they could strike, Berserker closed his eyes. As a result…
*Clang!* *Clang!*
The two weapons, not surpassing the threshold needed to damage Berserker, simply bounced harmlessly off of his eyelids.
At the same time, Berserker managed to recover. And with Illyasviel still going through her mental trauma, he roared once again before rushing forward to cut down Sakura.
Yet, Berserker, in his rage, had forgotten about Sakura's Magecraft. As a result, he was wrapped up by the shadows that sprung up from the ground during his pursuit. And unlike the last time the two faced each other, breaking them was much more difficult thanks to the debuff from Rider's [Mystic Eyes], leaving him open to the attacks from both Archer and Rider.
Unfortunately for the two sister's Servants, neither of them was strong enough to damage Berserker again. Because as previously mentioned, Rider was not strong enough to harm Berserker. And while Archer was, thanks to [God's Hand], Berserker was immune to attacks that had once taken his life. At least until he was removed from battle and the [Noble Phantasm] was reset.
Luckily, the group did have a means of finishing off Berserker. And that was Sakura's [Cursed Boundary Layer]. Because if Berserker were to be pulled into the shadows, there was no way for him to escape. Especially if she combined her innate Magecraft, [Imaginary Numbers].
With the two combined, Sakura would be able to trap Berserker, or any other Servant, in a space composed completely of shadows where she would be able to skewer them repeatedly with said shadows until they were no more.
Though, it should be noted that [Imaginary Numbers] is only effective on those with spiritual bodies. Those with physical bodies would be mostly unaffected.
However, the real issue was actually dragging Berserker into that space. Because despite being weakened by Rider's [Mystic Eyes], his strength was proving to be more than what Sakura expected. Even so, Sakura was managing to slowly, but surely, pull her target into the shadows.
But that was when Illyasviel finally got herself back together. And when she saw the danger that Berserker, the one who had been protecting her for quite some time, was in, she acted to save him immediately.
"Let go of Berserker!" Illyasviel shouted as she reached up and grabbed a handful of her hair with her right hand.
Tearing off the handful of hair from her flowing locks, Illyasviel used her alchemy to reconstruct the hair into a flock of birds, both flying and flightless. Then, she ordered them to attack Sakura in an attempt to free her Servant.
Unfortunately, despite Illyasviel's power as a Magus, her alchemical constructs were no match for a pair of Servants. A fact that she was forced to accept as most of them were immediately turned to stone by Rider's gaze. As for those Illyasviel pumped more mana into, they were shot down by Archer from the distance.
And when she saw that, Illyasviel was on the verge of breaking down mentally once again.
"No, please don't take Berserker from me!" Illyasviel cried, her heart-wrenching tone almost making her opponents hesitate. "He's all I have left."
"If Sella and Leysritt heard that, they'd probably both cry."
Hearing the unfamiliar male voice that came from directly behind her, Illyasviel was shocked. However, before she could turn around, she felt a hand land on the top of her head. At the same time, she felt as though she was unable to m ove her body while a [Bounded Field] engulfed her.
*Flash!*
Meanwhile, a blue and silver blur rushed onto the battlefield. Then, just as it flashed past Berserker, its invisible weapon slashed the giant Servant's throat, spilling copious amounts of blood and causing his struggles to stop for a short time while he regenerated the injury.
And the time it took Berserker to regenerate was more than enough for Sakura to pull the Servant, who had ceased his struggling, into her shadow, bringing the battle to an end… For now.