The arena was in an uproar.
The thing is I didn't know if people were excited or pissed off. I think it was about split down the middle.
I could imagine that a lot of people who placed bets on the match were not in a good mood right about now.
But for me, I couldn't be happier.
Serafall was grabbing her pigtails, pulling on them while she cried out. "Rias, why did you do this to me, Rias!? Do you hate me this much, Rias!?"
Of course, Rias on the screen had the most smug look I've ever seen.
It was a large contrast to Riser screaming, stomping, and making a scene. Right up until he literally got dragged away because of quite a few words he said.
But Rias just ignored him.
Which….I'm pretty sure just made him even more pissed.
Well done.
People are going to say she didn't earn it, but I knew the truth. I knew where her skill level was at right now. While I thought Riser was a dumbass, he wasn't weak by their generational standards.
He was on a level above Rias.
Not only that, but his sister was probably stronger than Rias now too.
His Queen, at a minimum, was on par with Akeno, if not stronger too.
I would say that his pawns were…lacking, and Rias beat out his peerage in quality otherwise. But he also had quantity on his side.
Now, that isn't to say that Rias couldn't beat Riser in a fight. 'Weaker' people could beat 'stronger' people; there was no inviolable measurement of strength in the world. Many factors came into play in a fight.
Rias had a great many things stacked in her favor that might have let her win in the traditional way.
She had closed the gap over the past months rather impressively as well.
But she didn't take him in a direct fight at all, which was, in hindsight, rather smart. If she started throwing around her strength, Riser may have started taking things serious.
As it stands, from start to finish, Riser looked down on her and her peerage even as they eliminated the majority of his peerage beforehand.
Confidence that is intertwined with arrogance.
Blind confidence.
Rias's first attempt to drown him was, well, I wouldn't call it inspired. I pulled that same shit with Akeno, but kudos to her for trying to apply it.
It's not like I don't copy other people all the time.
That was the first nail in the coffin.
If it worked, great; if it didn't, that was part of the plan.
It made Riser think that Rias couldn't find him for real. That she was much weaker than she actually was.
He let his guard down, ironically enough, despite nearly getting drowned.
It was a stupid trick.
That or some iteration of it was probably what he told himself.
Even the next time she 'engaged' him, she just tackled him blindly while shouting.
It must have been ridiculous to Riser, who had fought other opponents in rating games who could actually challenge him.
And Riser was completely unconcerned about help because his strong sister and strong queen were taking care of his other peerage members.
In his mind, they were taking care of business, but in actuality, Rias's peerage was doing their best to keep them busy and out of the way.
That led to Rias being able to pull her little stunt.
It was planned.
Maybe it wasn't the plan, probably one of several plans. If the potion thing failed, I have no doubt that Rias would have started fighting for real.
But she most certainly earned it in my book.
A win is a win, and a loss is a loss.
The burns across her body proved her victory.
Venelana grabbed my arm. "Come on, let's go see my daughter. "\
"I'll go handle things with the Phenex family; go congratulate Rias on her victory." Zeo told her.
"Thank you, Zeo."
Venelana was, without a doubt, beaming with joy. I don't know if it came from the fact that her daughter won or the fact that she could gloat in front of her friend.
Either way, Venelana was happy, so I was happy.
She didn't bother to bring along her peerage or drag them along. She didn't need to drag them along for every little thing, and this was her going to see her daughter.
Mozart gave a polite wave of goodbye.
"No, take me with you, Momma Gremory; I want to have words with Rias." Serafall's very fake smile twitched.
Venelana didn't seem to mind.
I looked at my birth father.
He was happy.
He wasn't shouting about it, nor was he overly concerned. He seemed more thrilled at the outcome of the match rather than the specifics.
I kept my opinions quietly to myself. If not for Venelana, I felt like I owed it to Rias. This was her moment; regardless of the steps taken, she should be able to enjoy her victory.
She grabbed my arm, hooking hers around me as we moved towards another part of the arena. Locker rooms, were that what they were? Where the participants hung out before the rating game started.
I honestly didn't know the name as we entered.
"Mom!" Rias's voice called out as she ran up and hugged her mother.
The only time Venelana let go of me was to hug. "I'm so proud of you."
I looked around the room; it was more like a hotel room if I were being honest.
But devils are ostentatious by existence, so I wasn't surprised.
I looked at a certain kitty, and she met my gaze.
I raised my thumb up.
She raised hers up in response in a very proud way.
Well done, kitty.
You did well.
I promised myself to secretly send her more guns in the future. Stronger guns, bigger guns.
"Rias!" Serafall collapsed to the girl's legs. "Whyyyyyy, do you have any idea how much whining I'm going to have to deal with now?"
Rias, to her credit, simply struck a pose, I think the one from Sailor Moon. "Not my problem!"
"Waaah!" Serafall fell to the ground.
"Big Brother!" Rias threw herself into her brother's arms. "I won."
"Yes, I saw." He deadpanned. "I'm not going to say I'm not happy, but we're going to have a difficult time getting people calmed down after this." He let out a sigh. "I'm going to get accused of nepotism again."
What, Nepotism!?
In Devil Society?
I never!
Be nice for Venelana's sake.
Venelana looked my way; I think she could feel it. I gave her a polite smile, and I saw her giggle silently before squeezing my arm warmly.
"That was certainly a unique plan, Rias." Venelana spoke.
Rias flung her hair back hastily. "Well, it was one plan of a few. I'm just glad we didn't get to Plan D."
"What's plan D?" I couldn't help but ask.
I think Rias realized I was there for the first time, like genuinely surprised I was there, as she then looked at her brother, like she couldn't believe we were in the same room together.
Fair, I guess.
"I was going to pull Riser's pants down." She admitted without a hint of shame.
There was a moment of silence from the others.
I raised my thumb up.
She returned it as well with a grin.
"Ewwww, why would you want to see his dick?"
I didn't miss the reason it was called Plan D.
"His sister was right there." Rias pointed out.
Serafall paused. "Huh."
"It would have distracted her, probably, maybe. If she were trying not to look at Riser's tiny dick flopping around, then I think Issei and Kiba could have beaten her." Rias explained.
"That's certainly a strategy." Venelana responded.
I don't know if she was proud or embarrassed by Rias's plan. But hey, I think it was a good plan!
"I'm curious, how did you even think to…use the strategy that you did?" Venelana changed the subject, presumably not wanting to talk about Riser's dick anymore.
"Oh, well, I was reading the actual rulebook after I got all those potions because I wanted to make sure I wasn't breaking a rule, you know? I never actually read them before," Rias admitted. "And I was reading over the healing items, and it actually specifies the benefit of a healing item? I think it was because some teams carry multiple Phoenix Tears on them, but only one can be used."
Serafall was done playing and was nodding along. "Right, I remember that. Ajuka wrote it because only one healing item was what was decided on to be used. But we didn't want to limit how many could be carried by a peerage. If a rook were the type to get beat up and they were on the other side of the field, but the king was carrying the Phoenix Tear, then that would make it kind of redundant."
The Leviathan Stan let out a long sigh. "It was meant to add a level of battlefield awareness for the peerage to coordinate on. Multiple people have a Phoenix Tear, but only one can be used by a Peerage per game. So you had to decide if you were 'hurt enough' or if you being healed would contribute the most to the battle if you weren't near your king to receive a specific order."
"And I abused the shit out of it." Rias nodded.
"Raaah!" Serafall tried to jump at her, but Rias's brother grabbed her by the collar.
"If only one were allowed to be carried into a match, then it would obviously only ever be carried by the King, as the King is the most important 'piece' considering the match is over if they lose." Satan Lucifer weighed in. "That was the thought, and we wanted more dynamic decision-making. That, and there was an incident years ago where someone dropped their Phoenix Tear, and it shattered on the ground. Then someone else in the peerage took one, and the other team tried to argue that this counted. So we had to make sure that it clarified that someone had to be the recipient of the healing effects to count."
It painted a rather specific picture that left it open to be exploitable.
"Yup, and it didn't clarify that the one benefitting from it had to be the one who willingly took it!" Rias beamed. "Only that taking two would result in a disqualification!"
Sirzechs Lucifer let out a sigh just as Serafall did.
"Pheonix Tears are extremely expensive. No one thought to use one like that before. And before now, Serafall looked at me. "We didn't have healing items normalized like this."
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
"Ajuka was the one who wrote the rulebook." Sirzechs pointed out.
"And now he gets to rewrite it." Serafall's smile twitched. "Because now we're going to have to ban a lot of things. Like other potions and guns—maybe. And of course, clarify new rules that healing potions on opponents don't count."
"Don't care, I won." Rias said smugly.
Serafall looked like she wanted to strangle her.
Her peerage looked just as proud, though.
She looked at me. "Thanks, Wilhelm. For all the help. I honestly don't know if we would have won without you."
God dammit.
I'm not good at getting thanked by people who I don't have good relationships with.
I flicked my wrist and held out a card. "Here, take this. As a congratulations for winning. I already cleared it with Odin; if you want, you can head over to Asgard and get several months of training. They'll let you join in with the Valkyries to learn magic or go through the same training that the Einherjar do. And they have a bunch of gods willing to tutor."
Truthfully, I was going to give it to her either way.
If she lost and fell into despair, I wouldn't have been able to handle Venelana being sad. So I prepared this just in case that Rias was going to get depressed after a loss.
Rather than saying something, she just threw her arms around me in a hug.
She isn't that bad.
[Line Break]
I quickly stepped out of a portal back home.
"Wilhelm?" Yasaka was lazing on the couch. "You're back already. Where's Venelana?"
"Wilhelm is back?" Artoria called out from the kitchen as she peeked her head around the corner.
"Everyone else busy?" I looked around.
"They're all elsewhere. We thought you would be gone longer. Probably spending the night at Venelana's." Yasaka said that in a joking way, albeit probably true.
"I ran away. She threatened to break my hips," I admitted.
Yasaka opened her mouth and did a double take. "And that's a problem. Why?"
I grabbed my favorite tail of hers before giving Artoria a kiss on the cheek. "Oh, it wasn't. I just didn't want to get in between her and time with her family. They were celebrating and all happy and…I felt out of place."
"You know she wouldn't have been upset with you there." Artoria gave me a look.
"I know she would have happily told me to stay." I acknowledged it. But it wasn't just me; it was the person I also didn't have a good relationship with being awkward that I was there. And Venelana didn't deserve to have her son being awkward around her and her daughter while they're celebrating.
"That and Runeas appeared, and things got rather chaotic." That was part of it as well. "I thought it was best to escape while I had the chance."
"We were watching the match as well." Artoria spoke up. "It was…interesting."
Yasaka started laughing. "I was reading all the comments online; it's a hoot."
"How many people are pissed?" I asked.
"Less than you think. You know Devils have a history of abusing rules and fine print. So seeing someone do so in such a blatant way actually earned a lot of respect from many people."
You know, I can see it.
"You're not working?" I sat down with Yasaka, grabbing multiple tails before rubbing them. As much as they were a 'sensitive' part of her—not necessarily because of touch, but more emotionally—she loved it when I played with her tails.
"I'm taking a short break. I came over to lay my head down. My little refuge in a world of constant working." She let out a small whine, and I felt bad.
I hope Shield can do what I asked sooner rather than later.
Yasaka abruptly grabbed Artoria's skirt and pulled it over, causing her to fall between us.
She let out a little yelp before settling down, presumably accepting her new seat.
"You have that look," Yasaka accused, pointing at me.
"What look?"
"Like you're going to go wander off."
"I don't have a look like that," I defended.
"You do." Artoria backed her up. "You have the wanderlust mindset. I recognize it as well. You do not like sitting still unless you have a reason to do so."
"...admittedly, I was thinking about heading over to the world where I obtained my Divine Authority." That had been at the back of my mind. "Maybe ask for some pointers on managing my sword."
Artoria raised a finger and poked my cheek. "No."
Simple, cute, and left no room for argument.
"You're still resting. Or at least, what that amounts to for someone like you. No intentionally go looking for trouble."
"I –"
"Going to a world where gods descend to cause chaos is intentionally looking for trouble. "Yasaka clarified.
"That's unfair. "I found myself pouting.
"I'll tell you what. You can go there, or Artoria here will unbutton your shirt. You can make the choice."
"Why me?" Artoria flushed.
"Because I like seeing them too." Yasaka said without a hint of shame.
Artoria let out one of her cute huffs. "I do not mind. I have already given you permission to request my breasts whenever you are in the mood."
I know Yasaka was just playing around, teasing Artoria for the fun of it, but the way she just said that, well, I really couldn't even bring myself to reject the 'offer' even if it was just a joke.
I threw my hands up. "Fine, resting. I won't intentionally go looking for trouble. But I do hate sitting still. How about we go back to that world from before? I would like to see if there are other good fruits like the apple.
Artoria's bashful look immediately shifted. "Food? Like the apple from before?"
"A relaxing trip, and I can continue with my 'training.'" I pat the sword at my hip.
It wasn't like I was ignoring it this whole time.
I was consciously keeping my authority contained while it was at my hip.
Yasaka, however, let out another whine. "I can't~" she said sadly. "I have work I need to finish up. But I don't want to stop you both from going. How about you both get a head start? I'll join up later once I can find a good place to justify taking a few days off."
"Are you sure? I don't mind waiting."
She reached over and pulled at my cheek. "Don't worry about me, dear. Go, satisfy your need to move around. I'll be more than happy just to spend time together doing some adventuring."
She really didn't seem to mind.
I suppose she didn't have the same sense of adventure that I did.
She was the type to seek out, explore, and be content enough that she was satisfied for a while after that.
I looked at Artoria. "Actually, when was the last time we went out exploring together?"
I couldn't remember off the top of my head.
Skyrim?
"It has been long." Artoria nodded. "I would be thrilled to go on an adventure with you, Wilhelm."
"Would Rin or Mordred want to come?" I knew how important they both were to her, and I wanted to make sure they were included.
"Rin has secluded herself in her workshop for the time being. She said not to disturb her for a couple weeks. I believe she mentioned she was practicing her magic. And Mordred went out with her master to visit back to his home. He said that he wished to retrieve some personal items and she was going along to make sure he wasn't harmed."
Ah.
Well then.
I shot to my feet. "No time like the present?"
Artoria got up and took my head.
Off to a new world to explore.
[Line Break]
Non-Canon Omake: The Little Dragons, Part 5
It was odd for several of them.
Despite this suppose to being an all out war between different Masters and Servants, they were all watching two 'Servants' fight while waiting patiently at the side.
If anyone cared to take measures, it very well could have ranked among the most peaceful and polite Grail Wars ever to happen so far.
Two knights were fighting beneath the night sky, under the gazes of many other historical figures.
Gwydre was doing his best as he deflected a consecutive spear, but he couldn't get close to his opponent.
Contrary to his struggle, his opponent was genuinely surprised.
"Is it your class that has your abilities limited, or was this just a consequence of your life?" Lancer spoke as he thrust his spear, hitting the flat of Gwydre's blade, pushing him back. "For a fellow servant, your strength and speed are lacking."
"Apologies, it would be the latter." Gwydre answered without any shame.
Lancer frowned, because he was intentionally trying to rile up his opponent. "Honorable" didn't mean that you didn't invoke tactics during fights.
If a few rightly placed words caused your opponent to leave an opening due to anger, then that was a failing on their part.
However, what made Lancer frown even more was that despite the fact that he was clearly superior to his opponent in both strength and speed, he was able to keep up.
It was like his opponent was exceedingly experienced with dealing with spearmen. Which, while not impossible, was odd because the vast majority of knights did not use a spear as their main weapon like he did.
It contradicted his instincts right now. As someone as experienced as him, he felt something was very off.
For some reason, his opponent felt…young. Skilled, but young. Yet he should be a servant, and even if a servant were summoned in their youth, their skills imparted over years wouldn't have disappeared.
But at the same time, he seemed extremely capable against him specifically.
He couldn't recall a knight—specifically one that could be summoned as a Caster of all things—that was so trained to counter spearmen.
There were two inviolable facts that all spearmen must adhere to.
Swiftness and precision.
A Spearman who was flat on their feet was dead.
And a Spearman who lacked precision was even worse.
A spear was longer, heavier, and more unwieldy than a sword. It required a different set of principles and understanding. Every time you thrust out, it was an opening that your opponent could take advantage of.
Therefore, every thrust had to be absolutely precise. Be it aiming for a killing blow or doing your best to create an opening. Whatever the reason for your thrust, if it failed, it meant you were a breath away from dying.
Likewise, if you lacked the swiftness in any action to be able to utilize your spear properly.
So it made him furrow his brow how, every time he went for a killing blow, his opponent almost instinctively knew how to defend himself.
A thrust to the heart? It was like his opponent was reading his mind. His neck? His eyes? His Lungs? His legs?
He was starting to think his opponent had either some kind of battle awareness that transcended martial prowess or… he had spent years training against a skilled spearman that constantly tried to take his life.
Lancer had changed his tactic rather quickly. He wouldn't get thrown off his own momentum and tempo just because his opponent was more fickle than he realized.
Instead, he just leveraged his superior physical ability and slowly began to grind away at his opponent's stamina.
The clashing of steel continued to ring out, but gradually small wounds began to appear on Gwydre. Small cuts on his arms, his legs, and his chest grew as time passed.
Each one was infantile, but together, they started to take their toll in gradual increments.
Up above, Gyneth clicked her tongue.
"Hmm, your Servant is going to lose." Rider spoke up.
"What? How do you know? The fight is still going!?" Waver blurted out in confusion.
"Don't speak nonsense; even the girl realized it. You're still too green." Rider grabbed Waver's head, giving it a little shake. "The fact that as a Caster Servant he was able to keep up with a Lancer this long is impressive." Rider rubbed his chin and then looked over at Gyneth. "Unless he isn't a Caster at all?"
"What do you mean by that?" Waver blinked. "Her servant isn't a caster? Then what servant is he?"
"Who knows." Rider's lips curled up.
He had some guesses at what was going on, but he kept them to himself. He found the situation more than amusing enough to watch silently.
Gyneth wasn't one to take a loss. Technically it would be her brother losing, but her brother was acting as her servant; therefore, it would count as her loss, and that was unacceptable.
She took a big breath before shouting. "Lancer, where's your master? Is he too much of a coward to come out here? I bet he has a small dick! Small dick master!"
Waver let out a noise of startlement while Rider just laughed boisterously.
She learned this from her Aunt Rias. It was easy to piss up the 'noble types' like this.
It even caused Lancer to pause in his fight as everyone, even Saber and her master, looked at Gyneth blinking in surprise.
"H-how dare you insult my master!" Lancer pointed his spear up at Gyneth. "I'll have you know, that my Master isn't –"
"Isn't small dicked? Did you check, huh? That's pretty weird." Gyneth grinned.
Lancer's eye twitched.
Rider just laughed even harder as Gyneth jumped off the chariot, landing on the ground.
"Wanna have a dick measuring contest, huh? I'm giving him a handicap already by being a woman, but frankly, I still think he's going to lose." She continued to mock.
Lancer gaped at the shameless taunts while Gwydre sighed under his helmet.
"....how uncouth…" Saber whispered next to her own master.
Lancer's face twitched before he turned his head.
"Who dares insult the Lord of the Archibald Family!?" Some came all but stomping out of the nearby buildings. Slicked-back blonde hair, a blue trench coat, and a posture and expression that all but scream that he felt like he was above everyone present.
"Sup." Gyneth threw up a peace sign. "Smalldicksayswhat."
"What!?" The man questioned in confusion.
It took him a moment and Gyneth snickering before he realized.
His face turned red. "You petulant brat! Name yourself, and I will know which arrogant child I trash before demanding that your family head come and beg me for your life!"
"Oh wow, no wonder Waver fucked off from your classes. Talk about small dick energy." Gyneth was unperturbed.
His eye twitched, and he looked like he was going to erupt again, but he swallowed down his anger as his gaze turned towards Waver.
Waver, up above, swallowed himself as that intense gaze landed on him;
"My former student." The venom was clear in his voice. "Prancing around with the servant you stole from me."
"Oho? Was I supposed to be your servant?" Rider rubbed his chin. "Seems like I got the better end of the deal here."
The Lord of the Archibald Family's jaw clenched. "It is beneath me to argue with a mere familiar."
"Haaah." Rider let out a long sigh, his expression changing. "Lancer, you should warn your master about running his mouth."
"Master, please let me handle this; I will defend your honor." Lancer all but pleaded.
"I am Lord Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald; I do not need you to defend my honor." He scoffed in response. "Come, girl, you wished to insult me, so I will teach you the difference between our noble bloodlines."
Gyneth had to hold back her own snort and laugh.
"Alright, Caster, keep playing with Lancer. I'll deal with this boomer and send him back to his old folk's home." Gyneth casually waved towards her brother.
The Archibald Lord harumphed. "The only praise is that you did not run away. At least you have some smidgen of noble virtue in your dirty blood."
"Tweet tweet, mother fucker." Gyneth snapped her fingers, and a bird flew down from the sky.
It, ever so briefly hovered infront of Kayneth before exploding.
Saber instinctively stood infront of Irisiviel at the side while Lancer's eyes widened, almost trying to run towards his Master before Gwydre intercepted him.
"Is that all?" A sharp, condescending voice cut through the smoke before a hand did.
Wrapped around Kayneth was a metal-like material substance acting as a shield.
"Scalp."
The metal around him was actually mercury, as it deformed and reshaped into a tentacle-like appendage, lashing out towards Gyneth.
Gyneth let out a scoff of her own; she slammed the butt of her staff onto the ground, and the concrete under her feet alighted with a purple grid-like pattern. "Ἀσπίς, ὦ σῶσόν με."
A purple shimmering shield surrounded her as the whip of mercury, strong enough to slash through steel, collided with it, only making it vibrate intensely.
Kyneth raised an eyebrow. "So…you have some skill."
Gyneth twirled her spear and gestured at him with a 'come at me' motion.
"Fervor, Mei Sanguis. Scalp! Scalp!"
Several more appendages slashed at her like knives. Gyneth was already prepared as she slid one leg across the ground, ducking under the first, and in her free hand, a spell circle appeared. "Ice Storm."
The next appendages that came at her were enveloped in a sweeping cloud of frozen air that burst outward from her hand.
It froze almost completely, coming to a stop before it could hit her. But that didn't stop the third or fourth.
Despite this, Gyneth didn't look at all flustered. She rasped her hand against the ice, using it as a basis for her next spell. "Conjure – Frost Atronach."
The ice twisted to answer her summons, taking shape into two large frozen golems.
The Mercury tendrils collided with the newly summoned missions. The first golem was pierced right through but warded off the attack. The second had fended off the tendril but got cleaved in half for its effort.
Her staff waved through the air, and there was a faint sound of bells that followed it. An ethereal chime transformed into a hazy image around her staff, as if it took on a completely different appearance. "Order," Gyneth whispered, but loud enough that everyone heard it. She slammed her staff onto the ground, forming a pentagram. "Heaven and Earth, be purified. Yin and Yang return to One. Purge the impurity. By decree."
With a wave of light, the outstretched tendrils were enveloped.
For the first time, Lord Achibald's eyes widened in horror as he recalled them immediately.
His eyes were now transfixed, even as the extended tendrils returned to his person—the Mystic Code he created.
It was because there were now puddles of mercury on the ground that were once pieces of his mystic code.
It wasn't simply severed. If that were so, he could reclaim the pieces easily, as his Mystic Code, Volumen Hydrargyrum, was made of liquid, of mercury. He could easily reintegrate discarded pieces.
However, that was in the assumption that they were still parts of his Mystic Code.
No, the pieces now discarded had been utterly removed, severed on a conceptual level.
They lost all mystery within them, and it was just now a puddle of mundane mercury.
While Onmyodo wasn't Gyneth's favorite branch of spellcasting, it wasn't that she was unfamiliar with it or unpracticed. She had some talents in it, even if it wasn't something she focused on.
And just like her father, she took bits and pieces of it and used them in her normal repertoire when needed.
"How…" Lord Archibald forced out. "Did you sever the connection to my Supreme Mystic Code!?"
"Is that really the question you should be asking? I think you have other concerns." Gyneth pointed at the Mystic Code of his, and his eyes traveled to the spot she was noting.
There was a piece of paper that had been attached to one of his tendrils that he didn't notice when it was recalled.
Gyneth snapped her finger, and the corner of the paper sizzled, then ignited before it erupted in another explosion.
The dust cleared again, and Kayneth was breathing a tad heavier; his clothes were singed and ruffled, his face slightly pale and a bit rough, but beyond wiping some blood from his mouth, he still stood tall.
"Did you think that would work a second time!?" He yelled arrogantly.
It had almost worked, to his anger, but he quickly found his pride again, only to see some strange orange sparks in the air take the form of some magic circle he didn't deduce immediately.
In the blink of an eye it had shapeshifted into the form of a whip, or perhaps a sling; it had grabbed a piece of concrete off the ground and flung it at him.
Archibald was slightly out of breath as it came at him; that and he was utterly taken aback. It made it so his reaction was slower than normal, and before he could utter any word, the rock smacked him in the head.
"Boom, headshot."
Archibalt stumbled backwards a step or two, but he didn't fall over. His head had snapped back, but it slowly returned to its normal position.
His expression was one of serenity, perhaps emotionlessness. The anger had boiled over completely as blood flowed down from his forhead.
"By the power of this command seal, Lancer, kill this woman with your full strength." He held his hand up as the Command Seal glowed beneath his glove.
Lancer hadn't been standing around; he had been fighting with Gwydre this entire time, doing his best to try and keep an eye on things, which made the fight carry on much longer than he would have liked.
However, as soon as the command was issued, his body was forced to react.
"Don't you dare!" Gwydre yelled out, but Lancer moved far quicker than the younger boy anticipated.
Boosted by the power of a Command Seal, his spear came flying over towards Gyneth.
"Lancer, are you going to kill a master so shamelessly?" Saber found the action utterly honorless.
Yes, it was a command seal, but he didn't even try to resist it.
Rider hesitated for a moment before he was about to intervene as well.
He had been enjoying the little fight between the two Masters. It had been much more enjoyable than he had thought. Usually, fights between Magi were boring to the ancient king, but for some reason, it had grabbed his attention.
Rider paused, though, surprising him.
Even Saber looked bewildered.
Gyneth's whole body tilted backwards as the spear narrowly missed her head; a few stray strands of blond hair drifted off into the wind after being severed, and her hood was now shredded from the top.
But she was unharmed from Lancer's proper attack.
A Master had just dodged the attack of a Servant, a young Master. Perhaps if it had been someone more experienced, older, and trained in the ways of martial arts, it wouldn't have struck them so startlingly.
But she was, to their eyes, a proper Magus.
Gwyneth's whole body fell backwards in that same action, her legs flipping over her head as she cartwheeled backwards to avoid the blow.
Her leg twisted around the shaft of his extended spear; using her momentum, Lancer realized what she was doing and snapped out of his shock. He had to abandon a follow-up attack because she was about to rip his spear from his grasp and fling it away.
Lancer had to adjust his grip, using both hands to hold it firmly, which gave her the opportunity to escape his range.
"You dodged my–" Lancer was about to voice his own disbelief until Gyneth interrupted him.
"Man, you guys really should pay more attention to where I put my hands."
Lancer looked down.
Right at the spot where she used her hands to press against the ground to cartwheel away, there was now a Talisman left in that spot.
Another explosion erupted with Lancer at the focal point.
From the dust cloud, everyone could see the Servant skid across the ground as he used his spear to keep himself upright.
He wasn't really harmed, just a bit scuffed, as his magic resistance was more than enough to stop any real damage. But sometimes, damage to pride was more significant.
"Don't touch my sister!"
Before Lancer could recover, he saw a wave of red and black fill his vision as Gwydre slashed out with a wave of destruction.
Lancer was forced to summon his second spear, using both to block the attack and being pushed back once more.
"Sister?" Rider voiced curiously.
But most didn't linger on that specifically, because Gyneth's ripped hood blew back, revealing her face completely.
There were continued looks of surprise and confusion as they looked at her, and then they looked at Saber.
"W-Why do you look like me!?" Saber shouted.
Because from where everyone was standing, she looked like a nearly perfect twin for Saber.
"Ah shit." Gyneth awkwardly scratched her cheek. "Um…would you believe me if I said it's an illusion?"
They did not in fact believe her.
[Line Break]
A/N
The next world is coming right up. Figured I may as well jump right into it.
Actually, I was thinking about doing a small pho segment about the Rating Game since I haven't done one in awhile. I thought it would be better than just writing several scenes from the characters instead.
If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone
I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name