Ever since engaging Artoria, Aaron discovered that this swordswoman was, in a sense, far more difficult to deal with than Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh was strong, but his arrogant personality and way of acting meant that when fighting enemies he didn't quite acknowledge, the strength he displayed in the initial battle might not even be thirty percent.
It was for this reason that Aaron was able to punch through his head directly during their first battle, relying on the intelligence gap and Gilgamesh's overly careless actions.
But Artoria was different.
Even though she shouldn't have retrieved the scabbard of the holy sword yet, and hadn't even released the Golden Sword for slashing, she remained an opponent that could not be underestimated.
With swordsmanship that had reached the [Divine Realm], combined with her incredibly terrifying Instinct, Aaron found that even though his speed was only slightly slower than hers, he was being forced into a predicament by that invisible longsword.
Aaron naturally knew the sword was about 3 *shaku* long, but knowing the dimensions didn't mean he could completely ignore the cloaking effect brought by *Invisible Air*.
A certain gatekeeper could easily counter Artoria after testing the sword's length because that man was a master of swordsmanship.
But the current Aaron obviously didn't possess Sasaki Kojirou's ridiculously high swordsmanship and experience.
And this wasn't even the most troublesome thing. The most troublesome thing was...
—Artoria's current fighting style was more defensive than offensive.
Or rather, she didn't intend to determine a victor with Aaron; she was merely trying to stall him relying on her Instinct and terrifying swordsmanship.
When things are abnormal, something is amiss. With the King of Blankets' current attitude, Aaron could figure out what this group was planning even if he thought with the soles of his feet.
But the problem was that the current situation was delicate. Assassin went to ambush Mei and got counter-killed by her, but Rider charged over, so Mei was likely facing the [Army of the King].
Currently, Aaron held two Command Spells stripped from Kayneth and Kariya Matou respectively. Added together, he had a total of four transplanted Command Spells.
The problem was, if he used a Command Spell to teleport Raiden Mei to his side, she would still be facing danger.
Aaron had intended to persuade Raiden Mei to use [Dimensional Formation: Shambhala] to transfer to another location, but just as he prepared to send that message, the Artoria before him seemed to sense something and directly released the wind of magical energy wrapped around her blade.
"*Strike Air*!"
A strike blasted out. Although Aaron, who was communicating with Raiden Mei, made a response, he was still hit by the attack.
Even though he was wearing [Demon Armor: Incursio], he still felt the taste of rust well up in his mouth.
"Sir, you actually chose to be distracted while exchanging blows with me?"
"Ha, indeed. Facing the famous King Arthur, I really shouldn't be distracted. However..."
Exhaling a breath of turbid air, Aaron looked at the Golden Sword that had revealed its true form, a trace of gravity flashing through his eyes.
The Sword of Promised Victory, [Excalibur]. After releasing the binding of *Invisible Air*, the sword's destructive power had actually increased.
And even if the enemy before him didn't use the massive vulnerability of an optical blast attack, Artoria could still use the sword in her hand combined with *Mana Burst* to release part of its power, allowing her ordinarily standard slash to instantly erupt with even greater destructive power.
At the same time, as long as Aaron revealed even a slightly larger opening, Artoria could completely replicate her confrontation with Gilgamesh inside Ryuudou Temple in the game's main route, switching the optical blast attack method to a zero-distance slash, settling Aaron right then and there with one move.
Even with the [Wall] that could reduce damage to 25% and [Guts] that instantly recovered all injuries, Aaron didn't dare to take a sword strike from Artoria head-on.
This wasn't a cartoon; there wouldn't be a scene where a sword strike only flipped up the floor tiles of Ryuudou Temple.
If Aaron overestimated his defense and got bisected by the opponent, he didn't think [Guts] could instantly conjure up half a body on the spot.
As for activating *Ittou Shura* now... once *Ittou Shura* was activated, that trump card was gone. Once the trump card was gone, he couldn't guarantee he could stably kill the King of Blankets.
Besides, even if he defeated the King of Blankets, with Raiden Mei currently out of contact, Aaron could sense the magical energy converted by his skills flowing ceaselessly to the other end of the contract.
Although the magical energy amount wasn't huge, from this point, Raiden Mei should still be safe.
Iskandar had pulled her away with the [Army of the King]. If it was just Raiden Mei herself fighting...
Then she would definitely be dead by now.
The fact that she wasn't dead, or even hurt, meant she had released that power.
And since the opponent released that power, considering the Herrscher of Thunder not only had Magnetic Field Rotation but even Perfect Realm, Aaron felt he needed to pay a little attention.
Herrschers were inherently difficult enemies to deal with. Aaron won last time purely because the opponent had just awakened and most Herrschers didn't have clear heads.
As for something like Perfect Realm, described as 'the sum of a strong person's understanding and application of power usage, concentration, circulation, technique variation, conceptual mastery, and combat strategy,' practically speaking, people with Perfect Realm generally didn't have bad brains.
The Thunder Herrscher lacked a brain. Now that the external brain was online...
If not for the fact that Raiden Mei's high school physics was likely only at a high school student's level, Aaron would even consider whether to disregard everything and go for the kill directly when they met.
"It seems you truly feel that I am quite easy to deal with, Sir."
Sensing that Aaron seemed to be lost in thought again, Artoria's face immediately showed dissatisfaction even more severe than before.
Although Artoria had abandoned chivalry to a certain extent tactically, when facing an enemy, she naturally still hoped to defeat the opponent fair and square from the front.
Yet now, Aaron had actually been distracted twice while facing her. To Artoria, this was tantamount to Aaron stating, 'You simply aren't worth my seriousness.'
Kiritsugu Emiya had indicated in his recent contact with Artoria, 'Since Rider is already preparing to charge Caster, let's stall this man and cooperate with him a bit. Wait and see how the situation goes; if it's bad, retreat immediately.' But right now, Miss King of Knights, finding herself looked down upon by the opponent...
Clenched. Her fist clenched hard!
[Saber, what is the situation?]
[Kiritsugu, I apologize. I feel I can't hold back anymore—the plan has changed.]
[...What do you intend to do?]
[It is time to begin a forced assault, Kiritsugu. Wait, I might use my Noble Phantasm.]
[No, wait, if you do that—]
[The right to use Command Spells is on your side. No matter when you use a Command Spell to make a decision, I will not use Magic Resistance to resist the Command Spell's effect. So, the timing of the retreat is up to you.]
[...Forget it, then I will yield to your judgment, Saber. If the situation goes wrong, I will use a Command Spell to transport you directly to my side.]
After completing the brief exchange, Artoria's gaze sharpened. Changing her previous style, she used a *Mana Burst* to sprint, charging right to Aaron's side.
And Aaron, after briefly exchanging blows with the opponent and discovering the enemy had started to get serious, directly blocked Neuntote in front of himself, barely managing a parry against this strike.
Just a pity that after the opponent utilized the *Mana Burst* skill, the gap in strength between Aaron and the opponent was once again pulled wide apart.
Aaron, who was sent flying, looked at Artoria before him, whose body was covered in fighting spirit and whose eyes were filled with killing intent, and expressed...
—Although he didn't know what reason caused her to change her course of action, this was simply too perfect!
Aside from combat power, Servants in the Holy Grail War had another troublesome trait compared to Teigu users from *Akame ga Kill*.
These Servants descended upon Fuyuki City could be supported by 'Command Spells.'
And this support wasn't simple strengthening; even domineering tactical retreats like 'Spatial Teleportation' could be achieved.
So with the Master, Kiritsugu Emiya, squatting in who-knows-where, for Aaron to take down Artoria, he had to create a certain atmosphere during combat.
He couldn't appear too strong—after all, Kiritsugu Emiya and Artoria currently had normal intellects and no conflicts for unknown reasons. If he appeared too strong, Kiritsugu Emiya would absolutely teleport the Servant away without a word.
In that situation, if Artoria retreated normally, Aaron would have to start playing hide-and-seek with this group again.
But at the same time, Aaron couldn't appear too weak—after all, he had used multiple trump cards for Gilgamesh last time.
Although Kiritsugu Emiya and Artoria didn't know exactly what skills he used, the two who were watching from nearby last time would at least have a rough estimation of Aaron's combat power if they discussed it.
Once they found Aaron behaving too weakly, as long as Kiritsugu Emiya's brain was normal, he would make the judgment: [Caster is weaker compared to last time -> He isn't using full strength -> He might want to ambush us -> Is this person trying to almost kill Saber?], leading to heightened vigilance.
And the result of this pair of Master and Servant raising their vigilance would naturally be 'At the first sign of trouble, if Kiritsugu Emiya discovers the situation is bad, he will use a Command Spell to pull her out and run.'
Very annoying.
Just responding to the attacks of such a strong enemy was already annoying enough.
And he still had to think about how to bamboozle the opponent... Combined with Artoria having the Instinct skill, Aaron felt a headache coming on.
But headache or not, the fight had to be fought.
*Sigh, I originally didn't want to use the Meta-Morph Factor so soon, but with things like this...*
Aaron, having been knocked away, watched Saber pursuing him via *Mana Burst*. Helplessly, he disengaged the [Demon Armor: Incursio] and, using the ultimate art of [The King Of Beasts Transformation: Lionelle], [Lion Never Perishes], directly activated his Honkai Beast transformation ability.
Previously at the docks, Aaron had once used two Teigu simultaneously.
When he used two Teigu back then, he indeed felt a massive burden on his mental energy.
And now, his mental energy still needed to be used for Spirit Commands. Using two Teigu simultaneously at a time like this... such an act really couldn't be considered cost-effective in Aaron's view.
[Spirit Commands—Intuition, Focus, Wall, Activate.]
Aaron, having activated three Spirit Commands, barely dodged a sword strike from Artoria aimed at his vitals.
Upon entering the Honkai Beast transformation state, he had rapidly condensed a Honkai Beast Carapace to cover his body, but this time he didn't have time to turn it into a Noble Phantasm before Artoria's sudden sword strike slashed directly through the carapace.
*Even lowering the damage to 25% can't block the explosive slash of Caliburn?*
*Using that strike as a reference, even if I use Knight of Owner to turn Incursio into a Noble Phantasm, then use Ittou Shura to forcibly open the Honkai Beast transformation while Incursio is equipped, I still can't tank that slash.*
*Under these circumstances, a tactic of trading injury for injury will only lead to my sudden death... Sigh, it is the Sword of the Planet after all; this thing itself isn't something that can be defended against by stacking defense.*
*And now that Artoria has entered assault mode, although she has a few more openings, these openings are traps in a sense.*
*With Artoria's Instinct, she can completely sense the danger via Instinct after I launch an attack, then temporarily change moves to counter.*
*No choice then, right now... I can only use the old method.*
After dodging another of Artoria's strikes, Aaron condensed power into his right fist and threw an incredibly violent punch at the enemy before him.
"Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist!"
He didn't aim for key areas like the opponent's neck; Aaron's punch was merely aimed at Artoria's body.
Artoria, realizing she could dodge this strike, immediately tapped the ground lightly and avoided the blow with a backstep of minimal amplitude.
But in the next second, Aaron temporarily shifted the direction of the attack, smashing the punch that couldn't hit the enemy fiercely into the ground.
"...This!"
Watching the endless cold air condense into ice in the air and extend toward her, Artoria's expression instantly became even more serious.
From the start of the exchange until now, she had figured out that the opponent was far inferior to her in combat experience and move variation.
But now, she found that she really shouldn't have underestimated him.
Although this man lacked experience, his tactics and on-the-spot adaptability were too terrifying.
*If I underestimate him, I might end up like Archer, having my head directly exploded by this man after he seizes an opportunity.*