What? Why aren’t any more arrows coming?
Just now, when Ritsuka accidentally slipped out of the blind spot for an instant and I hurriedly reached out to make him duck, no arrow came. At the very least, one should have come late. Judging by the arrow’s speed and angle, it had been fired from at least two kilometers away.
Considering the precision of the earlier snipe, it shouldn’t have been difficult to target our current position, which wasn’t that far away. That had clearly been a good chance.
Then there were a few possibilities. First, there was a limit to the number of times they could snipe. But that was unlikely. Archer-class Servants, by nature, had some way of reproducing their projectiles.
They might simply have an absurd stockpile of projectiles to begin with, or they might be able to recover them afterward, but neither would hinder the number of shots they could fire. The latter might affect things a little, but that earlier arrow definitely hadn’t been recovered.
Or they were in a situation where sniping was impossible for some reason. Since this was a Servant, maybe they were already engaged with another Servant, or had already been taken out. The former was unlikely, since there had been no sound of combat. The latter made even less sense.
Being able to snipe from that distance meant they possessed [Clairvoyance]. It would be hard to ambush them at all. Unless it was an Assassin ambush, no— even if they were ambushed, Archer was the kind of class that could still act because of Independent Action. After Lancer, Archer was the toughest to kill.
If they were ambushed, they would choose either retreat or counterattack, even if badly wounded. Considering Archer-class tenacity, they would have found some way to respond. Retreat or counterattack, either way, there should have been battle sounds.
Unless it was an attack so overwhelming that they couldn’t respond in one hit, like a Noble Phantasm. But an attack with that much power would make a huge noise on its own. In other words, the idea that they couldn’t snipe was nonsense.
Then it wasn’t that they couldn’t do it. It was that they weren’t doing it. What were they after? Sitting there would gain them nothing, would it? At best, if they had sniped just now and hit, great; if they missed, they could still force us to stay on guard and drain our focus. No, wait...
"Damn it! They’re buying time!"
[Buying time? Oh no!]
"Mash!"
"Y-yes?"
"I’ll explain later, so take care of Ritsuka! Carry him however you want! We’re running straight to the church! Forget cover and concealment! Da Vinci, guide us to the church!"
[This way!]
Without a word, Da Vinci guided us. This was why it was convenient to have a smart person on our side.
"Mash, you go in front! I’ll block anything coming from behind! Mash! Carry Ritsuka with a one-person fireman’s carry! Put your shield on your back!"
"Yes!"
"A one-person fireman’s carry?"
"Mash!"
"Yes!"
"Wah?! No, wait!"
Mash lifted Ritsuka in a one-person fireman’s carry, the kind of thing subculture usually calls a princess carry. In truth, it wasn’t very efficient because it took a lot out of the carrier, but that changed if the carrier was a Servant, a superhuman. It would actually be more effective to throw him over a shoulder, but the shield got in the way. Ritsuka looked stunned, but I ignored it.
"We’re moving now! Mash, stop worrying about the surroundings and run at full speed!"
"Yes!"
I wrapped wave energy around my body to strengthen my legs and shot forward.
"Ugh, it feels like something important to me as a man is being cut off..."
"It’s better than getting your head cut off! Da Vinci, shorten the scan interval to one second! Lower the precision if you have to! It’s enough if you can confirm Servants!"
[Understood!]
"Tell me if a Servant shows up in the scan!"
++++
As I ran at full speed, I thought. What they were aiming for with this stalling tactic was probably the use of a force they couldn’t control. If I had to guess, it was a Berserker. They couldn’t give direct orders or anything, but if it was a Berserker, they might still be able to lure its behavior in a certain direction.
That was the Berserker trait: uncontrollable, but overwhelmingly powerful in combat. Then the enemy’s response to us quickly moving after realizing they were stalling would be...
[Servant reaction!]
"They’re sending a Servant to stall us!"
[The spiritual pattern is Rider!]
"Thanks for the warning! Can we shake them?"
[Impossible by speed! Agility is at least B+, maybe A! Contact in ten seconds!]
"Tch!"
I sharpened my senses and tried to pinpoint the position. Roughly 100 meters...
"Gah?!"
Thud! Damn, my body! What the hell, why did my left leg suddenly lock up...?
"Petrification?! Damn it! A petrifying Mystic Eye!"
[What? Even so, it’s affecting you this much without even making eye contact? Just how high-ranking is that Mystic Eye!]
"I picked it up through sensing, but for petrification to happen this much from just that, it has to be at least Jewel-rank! It’s Noble Phantasm level!"
Olga Marie’s voice came through the comms.
"A petrifying Mystic Eye, and one that high-ranking as a Noble Phantasm? Then the True Name is obvious! Medusa! Da Vinci, what was the sign?"
[Harpe. She was killed when her head was cut off by Harpe.]
"...Damn it!"
I couldn’t possibly get Harpe here... The only thing I could maybe exploit was the fact that she was killed by having her head cut off, but...
"Getting your head cut off kills you anyway, so that’s not even a weakness!"
Damn it! My legs were petrified too, and I was supposed to fight Medusa like this? Her fame boost should be pretty strong too, shouldn’t it?
"Mash! Put Ritsuka down! We’re taking the Rider out here!"
"Yes!"
I forced wave energy into my legs to an excessive degree, and the petrification began to loosen little by little. Hm, so if I pour in enough Mana, I can counter it.
■■■■─!
Huh? What was that, some Berserker-like cry... what is that?
"Pegasus? Damn it! That came from the blood after her head was cut off! That’s a Noble Phantasm too!"
At that speed, blocking it was impossible. My legs were still only partially freed, so dodging was impossible too. Then...
I drew my sword while driving wave energy higher. At the same time, I put force into my right leg, the one that hadn’t been petrified, and launched my body forward.
With my sword in front, I charged the flying divine horse, using Mana Burst as propulsion.
Bellerophon
“Horses of Bellerophon”
Frey style anti-fortress charge technique
Meteor Strike
Boom!!
++++
"Ghk!"
Ow, that hurts. Because I’d used the technique while my leg’s petrification was still only partly undone, its power had weakened, and in the clash between Meteor Strike and the divine horse’s charge, Meteor Strike lost out. Well, even if my leg had been fine, it still would have lost.
Even so, the remaining force after I’d neutralized as much as I could was enough to blow my DC Coat completely apart, and my body was still being knocked backward just to defend against what was left. I needed to regain my posture... no choice.
I activated the magic circuits in my body, or more precisely, the magic circuits I had personally modified and altered. Rather than magic circuits, they were closer to altered biological organs that devoured Mana to function. The altered circuits, having swallowed Mana, sent a black liquid—gravity particles—through my veins.
I partially activated the gravity particles inside my body to recover my posture and land. Then I turned my gaze toward where Rider had been.
Though Meteor Strike had lost in power, the divine horse’s charge had also been neutralized, so the divine horse had stopped.
No, more precisely, it was lying there in a bloodied heap. Well, either way, that Noble Phantasm couldn’t be used anymore. I could see Rider standing beside the divine horse. Hm? Her eyes were covered by a blindfold? Must be heavy Mana consumption.
Still, that made things a lot easier. If she were simply fighting with her eyes closed, then all I’d have to do was read her presence to detect her, which was pretty annoying. But if the Mystic Eye activated just from reading presence, then there’d really be no answer.
Of course, not being able to use sight was already a huge hit to combat ability in itself. In any case, sealing the Mystic Eye was a big win.
While we faced off, wave energy wrapped around the sword in my hand, and Rider suddenly hurled herself at me with a pair of chain-linked awls in both hands.
Frey style
Charging Sword: Scattered Ends
I set the trajectory with my left hand, then pulled with my left arm and thrust my right-hand sword to knock the awl aside. Immediately after, I hooked my left leg around Rider’s right leg as it came at me and pulled her off balance, opening her guard. Then I struck with a heavy blow from my right hand infused with ki, followed by a flurry of left-hand strikes.
Frey style
Eight Trigrams Ki Strike x Three-Thousand Forest-Piercing Serpent
As the shock briefly dazed Rider, I used the left leg hooked around hers to launch myself, smashed her head with my right foot, then followed with another blow to the head from my left heel, which had been charged with ki.
I threw myself after Rider as she was blasted backward by the impact, closing the distance. I brought my left elbow down, and Rider, just barely regaining her senses, blocked it with her left hand.
But that was a feint. I knocked aside the right arm Rider had thrust out with the awl using my left fist, using the force to twist it open and break her guard, then drove both hands in with ki and rushed into her space, striking Rider’s right arm with my left fist and the area around her solar plexus with my right fist at the same time.
Frey style Star-Shattering Crushing Fist
"Gahk!!"
With the force of the punch, reinforced by ki to strike inside the body, Rider spat blood and was sent flying, crashing through the outer wall of a building. A moment later, the building collapsed.
"Ow, my hand. Hm? Why are you staring at me like that?"
When I tossed out a line to Ritsuka and Mash, who were staring blankly this way...
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