The forest clearing in Tintagel after the summoning ritual had ended.
The air hung heavy with razor-edged tension and the stifling heat of surging mana.
The newly joined Servants, especially Oda Nobunaga and Penthesilea, had their sharp gazes fixed on Arthur.
"Hahahaha! You've summoned this many mighty heroes, and now you say you'll crush this age of chaos and become king. I'd like to see for myself just how capable the one called the Knight King, my Master, really is. What do you say?"
Nobunaga provoked him with her trademark arrogant laugh. Arthur answered with an easy smile and stepped into the center of the clearing.
"Sounds fine to me. I'll prove, with a light spar, whether I have the right to become the king who unifies Britain. So then, who wants to face me first?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Penthesilea strode forward, pouring out a beastlike fighting spirit.
She hurled her massive iron ball to the ground, silently declaring her intent to test pure physical strength with her bare hands alone.
Nobunaga folded her arms and watched the two with interest, while Stheno observed the coming battle with a captivating smile.
"Tch, I was going to go first."
Caenis, who was just as eager to fight, could only feel disappointed that Penthesilea had beaten her to it.
The air in the clearing tightened like a drawn bowstring.
KWA-BOOOOM!
The ground beneath Penthesilea's feet exploded like a crater.
Before the dust could even rise, her body had already surged right up to Arthur.
Her right fist, loaded with monstrous destructive force and the full weight of her body, shot toward Arthur's face like a cannonball.
The shriek of torn air battered the eardrums, but Arthur did not so much as blink.
Just before the fist landed, he minutely twisted the angle of his ankle and leaned his upper body back.
The punch packed with explosive killing intent barely grazed past Arthur's face. The violent pressure from the blow alone shook the ancient trees behind him and sent leaves pouring down like rain.
In that split second, Arthur turned the tremendous force Penthesilea had unleashed entirely against her.
Lowering his body, he slipped beneath her outstretched arm like a snake and used the ground as an axis, spinning his body like a top.
Ferocious centrifugal force ran up his spine, through his waist, and into his right leg as if it might burst.
PUUUUNCH!!
With a sickening, heavy thud, Arthur's kick drove into Penthesilea's solar plexus.
Even for the Queen of the Amazons, who boasted absurd durability, it was a crushing blow that stole her breath.
Her heavy body lifted into the air, then slid back two full steps, gouging deep tracks into the ground.
"W-What?! How did that little brat just do that? She's clearly stronger than him in raw power, isn't she?!"
Nobunaga's red eyes widened in shock.
Watching the scene, Artoria gave a small shrug and explained.
"My brother didn't just train his strength. Thanks to Merlin's clairvoyance, he learned all kinds of martial arts from all over the world."
From pankration, the martial art of ancient Greece, to kalaripayattu, an ancient defensive martial art from the distant Middle East.
Through clairvoyance, Arthur had engraved countless fighting arts into his mind, then completed his own unique combat system through more than ten years of real battle.
It was the ultimate martial principle: to strip away an opponent's strength and twist the path of their attack when facing overwhelming force.
Stheno added with a charming smile in her eyes.
"The warriors of the Amazons are certainly strong. But the reason they cannot surpass the heroes of Greece lies right there. Their combat is a straightforward style built on overwhelming strength and instinct. No matter how adaptable she may be, Penthesilea is still a textbook fighter type."
Stheno's analysis was correct.
Compared to her predecessor Hippolyta, Penthesilea was a typical Amazon warrior.
And perhaps because she was a Berserker, she preferred an even more strength-centered style of combat.
As the battle continued, the flow of the fight increasingly turned into Arthur overwhelming Penthesilea one-sidedly.
"Ghk...!"
Driven back, Penthesilea growled like a beast and kicked off the earth once more.
Bang! Kwang! Thud!
Her fierce assault poured down like a squall.
Every time her fists and kicks tore through the air, massive shockwaves burst out and ripped apart the atmosphere of the forest.
It was catastrophic destruction, enough to shatter rocks and overturn the earth. Yet Arthur danced gracefully within the eye of that storm.
Tat!
At Arthur's feet, the Tengu footwork unfolded.
Leaving countless afterimages with irregular steps, he vanished from Penthesilea's sight and let her furious barrage slide past him as lightly as falling leaves.
Whenever Penthesilea swung a great hook, Arthur applied ancient Greek pankration and slipped inside the arc of her attack.
He struck past her elbow joint to break her balance, then drove his knee into her ribs.
When she charged in with her weight behind her, stomping forward in fury, he deployed the defensive techniques of kalaripayattu.
He gently twisted the point of impact of the incoming fist with the back of his hand, then immediately drove a counter into her jaw and the joint of her neck.
Meticulous technique that fully turned the opponent's strength against them, and speed that crossed the sound barrier.
For Penthesilea, who relied on nothing but overwhelming physical strength and battle instinct, it was the worst possible matchup.
Her savage fighting spirit repeatedly tore through empty air, and the explosive force she unleashed came back doubled into her own vital points.
This infuriating fighting style, ravaging her blind spots with overwhelming speed and trampling a warrior's pride.
Inevitably, it dragged up the horrific nightmare sealed deep in her mind.
The lingering image of the hero who had humiliated her, Achilles.
"Ghk... u-uaaAAAAAAAH!!"
Staggering from the repeated counters, Penthesilea's head twisted at a grotesque angle.
Then the fighting spirit rising from her whole body darkened into an ominous blackish red, and her blood-red eyes of madness activated.
"Achil... leus...! ACHILLES!!!"
The Queen of the Amazons, having completely lost her reason, let out a beastly roar.
The earth shook as if an earthquake had struck, and a storm of red mana tore the clearing to pieces.
Having cast away the reason of a proud warrior and been wholly swallowed by madness, she was no longer a sparring partner.
She had become the incarnation of pure killing intent, determined to crush the enemy before her and turn him into a shield of flesh.
At that savage bloodlust, Barghest gripped her sword hilt as if she might leap in at any moment.
"This is dangerous. We need to calm her down first..."
"Stay where you are, Barghest. Let's watch a little longer and see how our king finishes this."
Merlin reached out and stopped Barghest.
"I'll kill youuuu!!"
The earth shattered as Penthesilea charged at Arthur.
A rush that had completely abandoned defense and pushed only killing power to its absolute limit.
A fist so fast and heavy that even evasion seemed impossible came flying in to crush Arthur's head completely. A thunderous roar rang out as the air was pressed down and torn apart.
In that suffocating instant, instead of dodging, Arthur drew in a deep breath.
His dragon heart throbbed to its limit, and in his right fist the vast mana and physical might of Pendragon began to gather explosively.
Hwoooooong!!
Blades of wind whirled violently around his right arm in layer after layer.
The Magecraft and blessing Merlin had granted him, [Invisible Air], wrapped around his fist.
Just before Penthesilea's enormous fist, filled with killing intent, touched Arthur's face.
Arthur did not retreat. Instead, he tucked in his chin and took her blow head-on with his face.
PPEEEOK!!
With a horrifying tearing impact, Arthur's cheek split open and red blood sprayed into the air.
Pain fierce enough to make his vision flash white.
But Arthur let the shock of the hit flow away to its limit through the violent rotational force of his spine and pelvis, converting her brutish destructive power entirely into his own kinetic energy.
And then he stepped one stride deeper into her guard, fatally close.
He cast aside his own defense completely and bet everything on one single strike of ultimate offense.
The muscles of Arthur's back writhed like a beast, and his arm drew back taut as a bowstring before snapping forward.
A killing counter that devoured mass, rotational force, compressed mana, and even the opponent's destructive power.
"[Strike Impact]([Wind King Iron Fist])!"
KWAAAAAAAAANG!!!!
The instant Arthur's right fist drove squarely into Penthesilea's temple, the condensed storm of [Invisible Air] and his Mana Burst exploded all at once like a massive bomb striking its detonator.
With a colossal blast, the atmosphere itself screamed.
The destructive shockwave sweeping through the clearing snapped the thick old trees around them like matchsticks, and the earth caved in and rose in a great circle.
Penthesilea's massive body flew dozens of meters through the air like a cannonball fired from a gun barrel.
Only after her body smashed through and shattered the giant trunks of the forest one after another did it finally crash miserably into the ground far away.
Kugugugugung!!
In the clearing, where thick dust fell like rain, only the shriek of tearing wind remained as a heavy silence descended.
Struck in the temple, the shock reaching all the way into her brain and causing a concussion, the Queen of the Amazons lay buried in the dirt pit without so much as a twitch.
"Haa... haa..."
Ragged breaths mixed with blood burst from Arthur's mouth. Having wrung out all his mana and strength, the muscles in his legs screamed and threatened to buckle.
A king does not kneel.
He bit down on his bleeding lips and forcibly locked the joints in his legs. Unable to hold back the knees trying to fold forward, he let his stiffened body collapse backward as if falling over.
"Brother!"
Artoria shot forward like an arrow and caught his broad back in her arms.
Supported by Artoria, Arthur steadied his rough breathing, then clicked his tongue at Penthesilea, who was embedded far away among shattered old trees.
"Even after putting everything I had into that... it only ended with her passing out. She's one disgustingly monstrous freak too."
Arthur stepped away from Artoria's support and stood on his own two legs.
Wiping the blood from his cheek roughly with the back of his hand, he looked down coldly and arrogantly at the fallen Queen of the Amazons and spoke.
"Now then, who is the king?"
No answer could return from the unconscious woman, but that blood-soaked declaration carved itself into the minds of everyone gathered in the clearing like an unforgettable brand.
Nobunaga, who had watched the end of that overwhelming clash, broke the silence with a hearty laugh.
"Hahahahaha! Splendid! Absolutely madly splendid! To swallow even defense and drive in a counter while risking death!"
In Nobunaga's red eyes, fierce exhilaration and delight toward Arthur blazed brightly.
"You certainly have more than enough of the makings of an overlord who'll devour this wretched age of chaos! I like you a great deal, little king!"
She laughed as she slapped Arthur on the back, then acknowledged him.
"I'll be in your care from here on, Master."
"Yeah. But, Nobbu."
"Hm? Nobbu? Hmm, that's actually a rather fine nickname! What is it?"
Arthur stared at her for a long moment, then tossed out a single question.
"Are you a virgin?"
"I am."
"Good."
With that, Arthur said he was tired and walked past her. Nobunaga tilted her head in confusion, and then Artoria smacked Arthur's back with her palm.
"Ow. But virginity is important."
That was right.
Virginity was important.
Of course, Arthur did not particularly mind if they were not virgins, but if they were, he thought that made them all the more enjoyable to conquer.
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