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In the Fate World, the strength of Servants isn't judged solely by their attribute panels; after all, even with the same B-rank Strength, Medusa's power is simply not as strong as Saber's.
As Steve and Medusa collided, a wave of air rolled around them. The vibranium shield absorbed the kinetic energy and instantly released it, sending a kinetic shockwave in a 180° arc in front of him. Medusa, leveraging her superior Agility, spun around to get behind Steve.
Medusa's short sword, guided by its chain, thrust towards Steve's nape. Behind him, a Hydra, a construct of magic and divinity, emerged from the shadows, its maw gaping.
However, all Servants in the Holy Grail War, except Caster, possess a power called Magic Resistance. This level of magical power, against Medusa's B-rank Magic Resistance, was not a wound that absolutely required dodging.
Choosing to endure the Hydra's strike, Medusa distorted her blade, and Steve's head fell to the ground.
The chain-blade swayed in Medusa's hand, blood dripping from the sword onto the ground.
"May no one in this world harm another, and may no one be harmed! All Flaws Must Be Healed!"
Holding a staff similar to a magical girl's, Lily unleashed her Noble Phantasm. With a surge of magical power, Medusa's wounded back, along with her clothes, instantly returned to its pre-injury state.
Clutching the Noble Phantasm called All Flaws Must Be Healed, Lily leaned against Kisaragi Rin, exclaiming in surprise, "Sister Medusa is so amazing! She defeated the enemy so quickly..."
"It's not over yet."
Facing Medea Lily, who had little combat experience, Medea spoke in a reluctant tone.
"Not over?"
Lily didn't mind Medea's tone; or rather, she could discern the underlying affection despite the outward reluctance.
"Disregarding the outcome, it's logical to assume that if that Servant could be defeated so easily, the enemy player would have already fled."
Yukinoshita Yukino instructed her. Saber, meanwhile, kept a wary eye on Soichiro Kuzuki, constantly preventing him from getting close again.
In any case, Kisaragi Rin already had three Servants ready to fight Steve at any moment, so Saber, who preferred one-on-one duels, served perfectly as a bodyguard.
After all, given Medea and Lily's close-combat abilities, if Soichiro Kuzuki got close, it would be quite troublesome, making it difficult to protect the two Masters.
As Steve's head fell, Medusa did not relax her guard. While Lily's Noble Phantasm repaired her injuries, her chain-sword had already slashed again. Aside from the indestructible shield, Steve's body was completely torn into fragments.
Even so, Soichiro Kuzuki's expression remained unchanged. He calmly watched the battle, and sensing Saber's gaze, he showed no intention of rejoining the fight after his initial strike.
At this moment, Steve's fragmented flesh began to undergo a transformation. A powerful torrent of magical power repelled Medea, who was attempting to attack again.
A semi-materialized Hydra was born from the blood flowing on the ground, letting out a monstrous roar. Steve's body parts recombined, his flesh wriggled and rose, picking up the last fragment. What appeared before Kisaragi and Yukinoshita Yukino again were two brand new Steves.
There are many legends about the Hydra: Xiangliu and Jiuying in China, the Lernaean Hydra in Greek mythology, Azhi Dahaka in Persian mythology, and even Hydra legends from Africa and Cambodia.
The Hydra organization in the Marvel universe takes its name from the Lernaean Hydra of Greek mythology—a monster born to the father of monsters, the hundred-headed giant Typhon, and the half-woman, half-snake monster Echidna. It lived in swamps, possessed nine heads, was incredibly venomous, and for every head cut off, two more would immediately grow back.
"Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place."
The two new Steves clapped, shouting the widely circulated Hydra slogan to Medusa.
Each of them held a vibranium shield. Under this power, even the Noble Phantasm had been replicated.
"The effect of a Noble Phantasm?" Kisaragi Rin speculated.
Because Hydra Captain was not a native Servant of the Fate World, Kisaragi Rin couldn't know Hydra Captain's various attributes, the rank of his Class Skills, or the specific details of his Personal Skills.
Previously, in Demon Slayer, he could use information advantage to overcome everything, but now facing Hydra Captain as a Servant, Kisaragi Rin could only proceed with caution.
However, a Servant's Personal Skills and Noble Phantasm effects are formed from their legends and great deeds. Through this basic principle, even though Kisaragi didn't know which version of Hydra Captain this was, or if he was simply a corrupted Captain America, he could roughly guess the type of Personal Skills and Noble Phantasms.
The vibranium shield's Noble Phantasm effect was likely immunity to single-target physical damage and reflection of it. Judging by the effect of Medea's magical attacks, it probably also had special aggro attraction and Magic Resistance effects.
And the legends surrounding Steve Rogers in the Marvel universe are probably something like 'embodiment of national will' or 'can fight anyone to a draw'...
"Steve, kill them."
"Medea, cast reinforcement magic on me."
Kisaragi Rin's and Soichiro Kuzuki's commands rang out simultaneously, and black and purple magical energy surged.
[You have received the effect of Reinforcement Magic]
[You have gained a B-rank Strength bonus]
[You have gained a B-rank Agility bonus]
[You have gained a B-rank Endurance bonus]
The Paradise's prompt sounded. Medea's Reinforcement Magic had already been applied to Kisaragi Rin, raising all three basic attributes to B-rank.
A single magical buff transformed a Master to the level of a Servant. Although it couldn't reach A-rank, for one Reinforcement Magic to achieve this level was an extremely high accomplishment.
Unlike Lily, who specialized only in healing magic, the complete Medea had far too many things to do.
On one hand, she needed to maintain the crowd-dispersing magic to prevent ordinary people from inexplicably stumbling into the battlefield. With Rule 6 in place, Kisaragi Rin was perhaps the one least willing to violate it in this Holy Grail War.
There were two penalties: first, immediate game settlement with an E-rank evaluation if out of combat, and second, being arranged into a punishment mode for the next game.
Kisaragi Rin didn't care about the latter, but the former was critical. Kisaragi was only one game away from becoming an S-rank sequence in Paradise. If he failed this time, he would have to start over. It was important to note that Paradise's requirement for S-rank was three consecutive S-rank evaluations.
While dispersing the crowd, Medea was also using her A-rank Territory Creation to transform Honoka Academy into a special territory, thereby enabling more powerful magical effects.
Dispersing the crowd, constructing the territory, and now needing to maintain Reinforcement Magic on Kisaragi Rin.
As a Caster of the Age of Gods, these tasks were far from enough to make her feel fatigued.
The real problem lay with Kisaragi Rin. As a Master, he needed to provide the magical energy for his Servants. Even though Kisaragi Rin's Constitution and Intelligence had reached the powerful levels of 23 and 26 respectively, simultaneously supporting three Servants in combat already gave him a feeling of not being able to perfectly control them.
It was like a mobile phone, and the Servants were the applications on it. Each opened application would occupy a portion of the phone's operating memory, and when applications ran at high power, they required even more operating memory.
Kisaragi Rin also got a taste of what Emiya Shirou felt when he participated in the Holy Grail War and couldn't provide enough magical energy for Saber.
Fortunately, Lily wasn't participating in the combat, only needing to use her Noble Phantasm at critical moments.
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