Please do check out the new story on my page. It's something different, and definitely something I never thought I'd write.
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For a long while, the night grew quieter and quieter. Dark clouds gathered overhead, and the moon became a distant thought in a sky that had suddenly grown starless. The roads and streets of Miyama Town lost even the few stragglers as the lights in the mansions dotting the landscape slowly turned off.
This was no cause for alarm. I knew. The darkness was not my enemy, nor was the quiet.
Still, when no witch came stepping out of the night, I grew doubtful. Perhaps I had misread Medea's intentions, forgotten some critical facet of our situation, or even severely underestimated the Witch of Colchis.
I was this close to calling it quits and apologising to Rin for wasting her time when the air grew weighty. Below, the shadows shifted unnaturally and the walls and homes seemed to stretch, not enough to be certain, but enough to make me cautious.
"Bounded field." Rin looked back at me. Admittedly, my gaze was immediately drawn to her derriere when she moved all of a sudden, "Someone just set up a bounded field. We're cut off from Emiya's home."
"Medea."
She nodded shortly, "I doubt we have anything capable of getting through if she really wants to keep us out."
We could be the most skilled magi in the modern world and most likely, we'd still fail to measure up against someone of her calibre with magecraft alone. However, there was one aspect someone rational like Rin had yet to consider.
I turned to the silent Archer.
He understood my words before I even said them, raising his hands as if to grip at the air. A great bow fashioned of black steel took shape within his hands. When he drew back on the thick string, what took shape then was not an arrow but instead a thin spiralling blade.
I couldn't help but feel that it was familiar.
"No, now's not the time."
Pushing away the idle musings, I took a deep breath.
I was the attacker here. I needed to take the initiative.
To accomplish victory, something had to be put on the line. For victory in a battle that meant life or death, there was nothing too little. Of course, I could still run away.
But what kind of isekai protagonist would do that?
Exhaling, I forced a grin and stepped over right to the edge.
"So, Enji, what are we going to do-"
"I'm going to gamble." I declared, bringing my hands together to mimic a toad.
"Have you lost your mind-"
I simply stepped off. Toad emerged from the darkness under Nue's great wings. Its tongue lashed out at me and ripped me through the air as it fell. Then, with a mighty spin, the shikigami launched me at the Emiya Residence.
My heart thumped in my chest. Shivers spread across my entire body. I forced my grin. I was afraid. I had to push through it. I was willing to push through it.
Moments before I collided with the bounded field stretching the world apart, I heard something else tear through the air. The very next instant, a shining comet shot past me. Archer, I realised. The sword hit the bounded field and exploded in a swirl of magic energy that began spinning faster and faster. The grinding noise was near deafening.
I could not help the awe and wonder that grew within my heart. The desire to produce something like that. Indeed, witnessing such a spectacle alone was worth all the risk, infinitely better than hiding away from fear.
Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass cut through all the noise. Even I could tell that the bounded field had collapsed. It would also probably take Medea only a second to re-construct it, but that time was enough. I got through, and if I did, that meant Shuwen had followed as well.
The Emiya Residence below was far more livelier than I expected it to be. No, that wasn't accurate. It was just a lot more noisy.
The entire backyard was filled to the brim with fearsome skeletons brandishing rusted swords, lances and axes. They had no heads, only draconic jaws lined with rows upon rows of sharp fangs, even their ribs had blossomed outwards, jutting out like spikes.
I was truly awed now that I had forced my existential dread to take a backseat.
Moments before I collided with the ground at Mach Jesus, I summoned Toad to pull me away and break my momentum, leaving me to hang several metres above the ground from the side of Shirou's roof.
The skeleton warriors noticed me immediately. Their jaws clattered and clicked as they swarmed out into the yard. I pressed my hands together once more. A great mass slithered from the watery darkness and crashed against the creatures with its massive form. The Great Serpent's jaw snapped around two skeletons as its tail whipped the earth, kicking up chunks and dirt. What skeletons were unfortunate enough to be caught in its path were ground into a fine bone dust.
Behind me, I heard the sound of another fight going on. I dropped down and gestured for the Great Serpent to hold them off as I pushed open the paper-thin doors often found in older Japanese homes.
A table had been tipped over inside, cooking utensils were scattered all across the floor and there were scars and tears on the walls. Shirou himself was standing with his back to a wall, a reinforced metal pipe in his hand that he somehow intended to beat off Medea with. They both noticed me at the same time.
I quickly scanned the room for Kuzuki.
He wasn't here.
Good.
"You again-" Medea hissed. Her purple lips twisted in anger.
That was a mistake.
The air screeched. A fist to the face tossed her through the room. One moment, the space next to her had been empty. Now, Shuwen stood there with a fist raised. There was blood on his fingers, possibly from the bleeding cheek Medea was gripping when she propped herself up against the wall.
Shirou watched the fantastic ordeal in quiet awe. He never even noticed his shadow distort, nor the black wolf that leapt out of that shadow until it had bitten off his left hand. The same left hand that had red marks forming on its back.
His breath hitched.
As quick as it came, the wolf dipped back into the darkness, hand still in its mouth.
I pursed my lips.
...I had just maimed someone towards my own end... and felt nothing at all for it.
To Shirou, it must have seemed like a black blur destroyed his arm. I felt a bit bad for him even, but I came first. I definitely did not feel bad enough to give up a clear advantage, the same advantage Medea was here to acquire. It also let me avoid having to deal with the exceptionally strong servant he'd summon. I'd even give him the hand back once I tamed Round Deer. That shikigami could probably regenerate it as good as new... Well, at least that was what I told myself.
My thoughts were broken when Shirou suddenly cried, gripping his stump of an arm as he fell to his knees. I never even paid attention to him. No, I couldn't. If I looked at him, my resolve would certainly waver and crumble apart. All my efforts into deluding myself would be for naught if I looked at the boy bleeding on the floor.
Shuwen stared at me with a raised brow, but chose to focus on Medea instead.
"You-... You took them. You took his command seals."
I smiled. "Yeah, thanks dumbass."
She'd probably started monologuing on him, assured of her complete victory.
The world trembled, and I quickly threw myself to the side just in time to avoid a beam of pure concentrated mana that tore through the wall, out into the yard. She fired another one. I had Toad snatch me away and toss me outside.
The Witch of Colchis flew after me but Shuwen was already there to cut her off. In her anger and annoyance, she momentarily missed him again, until he was blowing through her heart with his bare hands.
This time, there was no tossing or launching being done, Shuwen's arm simply tore through her flesh instead. Her heart outright exploded under the power of his strike. The old assassin retrieved his fist, then kicked her to the ground, right at my feet.
I narrowed my eyes. "She's going to regenerate."
She had before.
The answer came in the form of a rain of shimmering stairs from the dark skies above. Archer, again. The swords messily tore through her flesh, dug into her back and her heart and her lungs and her neck.
Foolishly, I told myself she was done.
Then she started cackling madly.
"You believe I wouldn't be prepared for someone to interrupt me?"
She laughed louder.
"That's some crazy confidence for someone who just got destroyed."
She was an incredibly weak physical combatant... up against two purely phyiscal combatants at close range.
The Medea lying at my feet faded into nothing. The skeletons my Great Serpent had not yet destroyed lost their form, and detached bones fell to the earth all around us. Suddenly, I was left standing in Shirou's backyard by myself, with Shuwen behind me and the Great Serpent hissing in front of me.
"That's right. Run away."
The wind that had grown still in her presence began flowing once more. I, sadly, did not have the skill or understanding needed to give chase.
I looked up at the sky where Nue was circling overhead.
Archer was definitely capable of that though.
The only question was, would he?
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Hope you enjoyed.
Please, do comment so I know how I did. I won't bore you with details, but I've lost a lot of confidence in myself these last two months.
The precedent for him taking the arm is in how Kirei acquires Lancer and how Medea acquired an Assassin servant in the original VN. Also, Archer can definitely slime Medea rn.
You can find 10 chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap
7 rn, but I'm writing two a day, so shouldn't be long. 5 yesterday.