If Lancelot's previous attacks were like continuous ocean waves crashing against a reef, then what the group from Chaldea was facing now was an endless storm.
Every strike was heavy and powerful, every strike was enough to whip up raging winds and waves. The pitch-black magical energy entwined around that Holy Sword made every seemingly ordinary slash cause Mash, who was blocking, to feel her internal organs trembling.
Although Sasaki Kojiro attempted to strike King Arthur with the longsword in his hand, unfortunately, the magical storm formed by the surging magical energy was constantly sweeping around, making it difficult for him to move.
Even if he used the longsword in his hand to cut through the wind and waves and step forward, once he got close, the Holy Sword in the hand of that dark king would use a pure release of magical energy to knock him back once again.
"Is that all the determination you have to save human order? The techniques Sir Lancelot taught you while fighting you just now, have you not learned a single thing? What about counterattacking? Where is your counterattack! By letting your own battle be dragged into someone else's rhythm, besides taking hits, are you incapable of anything else!"
King Arthur shouted as if instructing an incompetent knight, but the Holy Sword in her hand did not hold back in the slightest. Pitch-black light suddenly bloomed, and without chanting any Noble Phantasm release incantation, she directly released her Noble Phantasm.
The pitch-black torrent of magical energy slammed heavily into the great shield in front, directly knocking Mash back dozens of meters and leaving a deep trench in the ground.
"Mash!"
Fujimaru shouted anxiously, then immediately activated the Mystic Code on their body, using an emergency recovery spell to slightly stabilize Mash's physical condition.
And Mash, whose body had just recovered slightly, endured the pitch-black magical light cannon once again.
This violent impact, although it did not knock Mash back again, left her unable to stand up, and she could only kneel on the ground, barely supporting the shield in front of her.
Cú Chulainn, who had been watching the show, seized the opening while King Arthur was releasing her Noble Phantasm and used the Noble Phantasm he had not yet used.
"Wicker Man!"
A giant humanoid figure woven from wicker rose from the ground, grabbed King Arthur, who was preparing to release her Noble Phantasm again, stuffed her into its body, and then the whole body began to burn fiercely.
However, the fiercely burning wicker man did not bind King Arthur for long. The pitch-black magical storm tore everything apart, and King Arthur stood in place, completely unharmed, without even a single hair damaged.
"The boost brought by the Holy Grail is truly too great. Under these circumstances, I am afraid it is very difficult to win."
Cú Chulainn said in a deep voice, while Olga Marie on the side looked even more anxious.
"Even your Noble Phantasm did not cause significant damage! This is too unfair, how are we supposed to win against this kind of enemy!"
Unless...
Cú Chulainn thought to himself, then turned his gaze toward Caelus, who had been watching the show from outside the field. His eye twitched slightly, this Foreigner had used his strange ability to make his own presence and that of the pink animal floating beside him, whose nature was unknown, extremely faint, making them very hard to notice.
King Arthur, having torn her way out of the wicker man, did not launch another attack. Instead, she looked at Sasaki Kojiro, who was standing guardedly in front of her, and at Mash, who was kneeling on the ground and panting continuously.
"Is this all there is? Chaldea? Based on your strength, it is impossible to defeat me, unless you can get Assassin to join the battle."
"Assassin?"
Everyone present was stunned. Could it be that there was another Assassin hiding in this city, and that this Assassin could threaten King Arthur?
"King Arthur, it seems you have been brooding over that Holy Grail War all this time."
Caelus removed the void concealment and walked into the battlefield. He looked at King Arthur, who was staring directly at him, and said, "Even if you had won that Holy Grail War, that Holy Grail could not have fulfilled your wish. You should know this, after all, the reason this city became like this is because you used all the world's evils, right?"
"One thing at a time. You used assassination methods to make me withdraw directly from that war, and you devoured the existence of Sir Lancelot. Therefore, I want to fight you. You have always said that you are just an Assassin who excels at assassination, but I believe your frontal combat ability is definitely not weak."
"What's going on?"
Olga Marie looked at King Arthur and Caelus with a face full of question marks.
"I understand. If I do not defeat you, Chaldea's story will indeed end here. I still want to see more of their story, so we have become enemies once again."
The Mystic Code on Caelus's body dissipated, replaced by that eternal black trench coat.
At the same time, pitch-black sludge writhed out from the shadows. It gathered together, forming a longsword that landed in Caelus's palm.
"Are you not going to take out your weapon?"
"There is no need."
Caelus spoke the truth, that spiral of contradiction was not yet ready to be unsheathed. It was a weapon that could only be drawn when facing an enemy that truly threatened his life.
"It seems I am being underestimated."
As the words fell, a torrent of pitch-black magical energy surged forth once again, King Arthur had launched an attack with zero frames of startup.
The surging torrent of magical energy washed over Caelus, but it was as if it had encountered the most stubborn reef in the world, the raging energy could not shake him in the slightest.
Caelus walked forward in silence, while the pitch-black torrent of magical energy washed over him again and again, just like giant waves rising on the sea.
Yet, these giant waves could not shatter this rock that appeared small but was incredibly solid.
"That's just cheating. The effect of energy-based attacks on this guy is ridiculously minimal!"
Cú Chulainn saw the problem at a glance, his mouth twitching as he spoke.
After unleashing her Noble Phantasm more than a dozen times and determining that it had no effect on Caelus, King Arthur gave up on rapid-fire Noble Phantasm attacks. Instead, she chose to charge forward, bringing her pitch-black holy sword down with ruthless force.
The longsword made of pitch-black sludge collided with that black holy sword. Their attack speed and the strength of their strikes were nearly identical. The storm generated by the clash of swords was enough to send ordinary people flying from the aftermath of the battle.
Olga Marie stood in the distance, dumbfounded as she watched Caelus, who appeared weak and slender, fighting head-on against that dark monarch. Judging by the state of the battle, the two were evenly matched!
Why is this Master the one who can fight the best?!
"Mem!"
Mem was floating in the distance. She picked up her quill and book, happily recording her Partner's handsome combat scenes.
Originally, she had wanted to help her Partner fight, but her Partner told her that he wanted to face King Arthur alone, as a way to express his apology for assassinating her Master during the previous Holy Grail War.
Although she was skeptical of the apology her Partner spoke of, Mem did not intervene and instead took charge of recording.
Do not forget that in the world of the Holy Grail War, Caelus had strengthened his own swordsmanship through the system and had also devoured the Saint Graphs of those Heroic Spirit Servants within the Holy Grail.
Coupled with the improvement in swordsmanship brought about by devouring Lancelot's existence, Caelus's current level of swordsmanship was now on par with the King Arthur before him.
Do not think that the King Arthur before him is weak, this King Arthur was a dark monarch strengthened by the triple blessings of humanity, the Holy Grail, and all the world's evils. She was a warrior who did not mind using any underhanded tactics in battle and perfectly integrated her swordsmanship with her instinct.
Their exchange was like wind and lightning, the trade of blows between them was already dazzling to watch.
Rather than saying they were fighting to the death, it felt more like two highly skilled swordsmen relying on their physical strength to continuously communicate through swordsmanship.
"So, are all Masters supposed to be at this level?"
Fujimaru, supporting Mash, looked at the terrifying scene of the battle and for a moment felt some doubt. Could it be that he did not understand because he was an ordinary person? Was a so-called Master supposed to be an existence that was just as capable of fighting as a Servant, or even more so?
(To be continued.)