“Move to support Truvietianne, her Lancer can fight from the front while you suppress the copies with ranged attacks.” You decide to play it a bit safe for now. Each of these copies looks pretty tough in terms of physical power and speed, so it’d probably be best to make sure the Servants suppress them quickly and effectively. If one of them slipped through, you didn’t want to think about the mangled mess they’d reduce you to in record time.

“Heh, that should be easy enough. It’s about time I show you what I can do, Master!” Avenger said as she hopped into the air, using her wings to hover about twice your height above the ground. One of Kuro no Lancer’s clones rushed toward the newcomer Lancer and Caster, another toward Truvietianne and her Lancer, and a third toward Avenger and you.

Avenger quickly muttered some kind of spell, and the doppelganger’s charge was immediately halted as it froze in place. Seeing the opportunity she gave you to reposition yourself, you hurry to Truvietianne’s side, greeting her by lightly commenting, “Giving our Servants a single position to guard should simplify things a bit. Think you can endure my company a little longer?”

Her Servant having engaged another of the copies, she answered with a subtle smirk, “Very well Einzbern, you can be my new last line of defense and we’ll call it even.”

“I doubt it’ll come to that, but if things get that bad I’ll make sure to be dismembered a few seconds before you.” You reply in jest, before letting your mouth fall idly open as your eyes track back to Avenger. Having immobilized the copy that charged your initial position, it seems she decided to attack the one fighting Truvietianne’s Lancer in the meantime. And it looks like this attack is going to pack a wallop. She seems to have created over twenty glowing magical circles hovering around her and you can tell is about to open fire through them (which does strike you as a bit odd that you seem to know all of that from intuition rather than from memorizing a pattern, but it’s probably just common sense).

“Edelfelt, pull your Lancer back a bit.” You say in a hurry.

“Lancer, disengage!” She quickly ordered, spotting the incoming attack and wasting no time.

Forcing the clone onto the back-foot with a few thrusts of his spear, Lancer of Black quickly hopped back and got some distance from his opponent. On cue, Avenger immediately started hosing that clone with energy beams, lightning bolts, fireballs, and arrow-like ice shards. The volley continued as dust started getting blasted into the air and she started boring a crater into the road where the clone had been standing.

Reflexively shifting your attention elsewhere, you noticed Kuro no Lancer’s real body must have fled the scene a fair bit ago, as he was nowhere in sight and the female Lancer (who you assume is probably under Yumigawa’s command) was handily chipping away at the third doppelganger. Having a few seconds to observe their fight, you also notice that these doppelgangers seem to automatically regenerate injuries, though not at a rate where the one Avenger bombarded will be back to “full health” anytime soon. For his part, the Caster just seemed to be standing guard in front of the two boys, maybe on the lookout for other third-party attacks.

“I’ll put you out of your misery.” Lancer of Black said to his wounded foe in a surprisingly sympathetic tone, before rushing forward and bringing his spear to bear. Though the copy took a proper stance and defensively raised a fist, a one-handed and unarmed defense against a polearm is basically never a winning hand. Lancer of Black wasted no time sweeping his blade into the inside of his enemy’s intact forearm before quickly twirling his spear and cleaving through its neck. The body of the copy immediately disintegrated into nothing except a single strand of hair that quickly blew away in the wind.

“Einzbern, are you feeling alright? Your Servant’s power output is rather high.” Truvietianne asked, and you noticed Avenger hadn’t let up on her attacks, though she had driven her opponent fairly far down the street. You may have underestimated her attack power to some extent.

“I can feel a bit of a drain, but I think I could manage this intensity for a pretty long time.” Maybe she’s really efficient in her energy usage or something. You can tell for sure this isn’t a 1:1 power exchange from you to her, you wondered if perhaps the coin was helping more than expected or something else was going on.

“I… see. Well, that Lancer and Caster seem to have things under control there, so why don’t we link back up with your Avenger and finish her opponent off first?” She suggested, seemingly a bit impressed at your stamina.

“Agreed, let’s go.” You answered, breaking into a brisk jog toward your Servant’s position, only to notice she probably didn’t need much help after all. A spiraling, flaming sphere could be seen on the street, with Avenger hovering in the air above it readying another massive volley of attacks.

“Let’s see if there’s anything left of you after this!” You heard her shout as she started firing an extended hail of energy beams and lightning bolts straight into the sphere. She kept the pressure up for about 30 seconds before dispelling the sphere of flames, revealing the rapidly-disintegrating form of the doppelganger. Satisfied, she gracefully fluttered to the ground.

“That made for a good warm-up.” She announced with no small amount of pride.

“Indeed, well done Avenger!” You answer, honestly impressed by her performance. She was even a fair bit stronger than you’d assumed she’d be from her earlier displays of power.

“Master, now that you’ve started to see my power perhaps you’ll be less hesitant in ordering me to destroy our enemies. Speaking of...” She answered, noting that Yumigawa and Matsuda had begun to come toward your group with their Servants. It seems the Lancer defeated her opponent while you were looking away.

The first to speak up, Yumigawa quickly interjects, “Please hold off attacking, we aren’t coming to start a fight. We wanted to request we share information to get a better picture of our shared situation. With no fewer than three Lancers active, it’s become clear this ‘Holy Grail War’ isn’t going according to plan.”

“Yo, big guy! Maybe once the magic guys are done figuring out the magic shit we can do a round of sparring!” Matsuda suggested to you, clearly thinking on a different wavelength from his companion. You suspect Yumigawa is doing everything in his power to not reflexively facepalm.

> “I’m not interested. We won’t attack for now, but my Servant and I have other matters to attend to.” (Self-Determination) (Writing in what you want to do can help if you pick this one)
> “A simple discussion couldn’t hurt, let’s head back into the café.” (Cooperation)
> “A simple discussion couldn’t hurt, but let’s look for a new location. We already ate in that café and I’d like to try something new.” (Cooperation, Curiosity)
> “We can talk after my Servant defeats yours, right here and right now.” (Self-determination, Pride)
> Something else (write-in)

Agree to spar?
>Yes
>No
Providing a reason for your decision could be helpful for characterization purposes

Oh hell, I skipped a paragraph when copy-pasting the text.

Between the second and third posts, it should read the following (bookended by what's already there):

Forcing the clone onto the back-foot with a few thrusts of his spear, Lancer of Black quickly hopped back and got some distance from his opponent. On cue, Avenger immediately started hosing that clone with energy beams, lightning bolts, fireballs, and arrow-like ice shards. The volley continued as dust started getting blasted into the air and she started boring a crater into the road where the clone had been standing.

After about 15 seconds of continuous bombardment, she increased her altitude and released the clone she’d frozen in place as she opened fire on it in a similar manner. Though it attempted evasion with more success than the first (who’d just been blindsided by the attacks), it was firmly placed on the defensive and you could tell Avenger was herding it away from your position with her attack patterns.

As the dust settled from the first doppelganger, you were naturally interested in seeing the damage. It was pretty critically wounded, as more than half of its skin was melted off, several ice-shards impaled its torso, and one of its arms was hanging on with a bit of flesh and sinew. The sight of this gory display visibly unsettled Truvietianne, and you couldn’t help but be a bit shocked yourself. Is this the kind of brutality you’ll need to execute to win? Is this the true face of war?

Reflexively shifting your attention elsewhere, you noticed Kuro no Lancer’s real body must have fled the scene a fair bit ago, as he was nowhere in sight and the female Lancer (who you assume is probably under Yumigawa’s command) was handily chipping away at the third doppelganger. Having a few seconds to observe their fight, you also notice that these doppelgangers seem to automatically regenerate injuries, though not at a rate where the one Avenger bombarded will be back to “full health” anytime soon. For his part, the Caster just seemed to be standing guard in front of the two boys, maybe on the lookout for other third-party attacks.

>>5373326
> “A simple discussion couldn’t hurt, but let’s look for a new location. We already ate in that café and I’d like to try something new.” (Cooperation, Curiosity)
Agree to spar?
>Yes

>Providing a reason for your decision could be helpful for characterization purposes
Nothing wrong with sparring match and War already looks weirder than expected so trying to figure it out is a smart thing to do.

>>5373326
>“A simple discussion couldn’t hurt, but let’s look for a new location. We already ate in that café and I’d like to try something new.” (Cooperation, Curiosity)

>Yes

>>5373326
>“A simple discussion couldn’t hurt, but let’s look for a new location. We already ate in that café and I’d like to try something new.” (Cooperation, Curiosity)

Agree to spar?
>Yes
Better learn how to fight so the other Masters can't get the jump on us. And maybe going through the motions will awaken some memories.

We seem to have a consensus, so I'll start working on the next update soon.

I got a kidney stone so the update might be delayed another day or two, but I haven't forgotten. Hard to think straight though.

>New QM just took over
>Already got cursed

The Tedious but kind of Necessary Exposition Update

Answering Yumigawa’s question first, you respond, “A simple discussion couldn’t hurt, but let’s look for a new location. We already ate in that café and I’d like to try something new.” Turning to Matsuda, you continue, “And for the question of sparring… yes, I think I’ll take you up on that… Matsuda, right? We can’t expect our Servants to do all the work, and I’d rather learn where to improve during training than in the middle of a battle.”

“Einzbern, I take it you’re already acquainted with these young men?” Truvietianne pointed out with a hint of annoyance. Maybe she felt left out?

“That’s right. We met in the burning city before summoning our Servants, though I should let them introduce themselves.” You calmly answer, gesturing to them to do so.

The more socially-assertive one speaking first, he introduced himself saying, “Of course, pardon my manners. My name is Yumigawa Rushorou.”

“And I’m Matsuda Ryuuta.” The taller one said, before adding as a sudden afterthought, “Oh, since you’re a foreigner, you should know Matsuda’s my family name but you can call me by it. Same with Yumigawa there.” The topic of names having come up, you started wondering again what kind of name you had. If you really were an Einzbern, would you have a European-style name then?

“I am aware of Japanese naming conventions, thank you very much. My name is Truvietianne Edelfelt, of the prestigious Edelfelt family.” She didn’t sound particularly moved by Matsuda’s consideration.

“Nice ta meetcha.” Turning his attention to you, the delinquent then asked you, “So, didja remember your name was ‘Eisenberg’, big guy?”

With a light chuckle, you answer, “Not exactly, Einzbern is more of a placeholder Miss Edelfelt gave me. Apparently I look like a type of homunculus that family is known to make, or something like that.”

“A homunculus… I suppose that could explain your extraordinary strength.” Yumigawa muttered in a somewhat detached tone. You could tell he had a lot on his mind.

Moving things along, Caster of Black commented, “I’m glad to see our Masters are getting along so well. Why don’t you all get better acquainted while we explore the city? Perhaps we’ll find something of interest as we go.”

“Yes, let’s be off.” Avenger answered as she started walking down the street, before sardonically adding after the rest of the group started following, “I’m sure we’ll all have a nice little tea party soon enough.”

Raising an eyebrow, the Caster responded, “Oho? You’re not pleased with your Master’s decision?”

“The likes of you need not concern yourself with such matters. Don’t think your affected friendliness is going to buy you an instant of hesitation if you try to cross me, Caster.” Avenger spat with quite a bit of venom in her tone.

Hoping to deflate the rising tension, you step between the two and try to divert the conversation, saying, “Look, no one’s crossing anyone. Why don’t we try to piece together what’s wrong with this Holy Grail War? For instance, did anyone else notice a change in our intuitive perception of Servants that took place sometime in the past hour or so, where initially we could just notice their class but now there’s some kind of color-based classification?”

With a sigh of relief, Yumigawa was the first to respond, “So my memory wasn’t faulty after all. Indeed, I noticed that change occur about an hour after I arrived in this city with my Servant. So far I’ve observed Servants having a Black, Red, and Kuro designation. If the pattern holds there’s probably at least going to be an Akai designation as well.”

Each of the Servants reacted in surprise to varying degrees upon hearing this.

The Caster was the first to speak, noting, “That’s most peculiar, if I’m not mistaken that intuition is unique to the Masters, as I haven’t noticed anything of that nature.”

“Agreed, though what purpose could it serve?” Truvietianne’s Lancer mused.

“Maybe they’re teams to make up for havin’ too many Servants runnin’ around?” Matsuda speculated, “You’re on a team with Servants of the same color kind of a deal.”

“I suppose that’s possible,” Yumigawa commented, before further noting, “though unless there’s some kind of penalty for attacking your teammates it seems more like a suggestion than a hard and fast rule, and so far we haven’t seen Servants of the same color fight each other so I can’t really say.”

Quick to try the simplest approach, Matsuda suggested, “Why don’t we let my Caster punch her Lancer’s shoulder and see if anything happens? They’re both on Black team.”

Somewhat irked by the idea, Truvietianne pushed back, “You want my Servant to give yours a free strike? Not likely.”

“It doesn’t hafta be hard, just enough to see if some kinda rule pops up telling us not to attack teammates.” Matsuda responded, hoping to mollify her.

Reassuring his Master, Lancer of Black said, “Don’t worry Master, I can handle a punch from a Caster.”

“Good man!” The Caster praised, before throwing a quick jab at the Lancer’s shoulder.

“See anything?” Lancer of Black asked his Master, unbothered by the force of the punch. You estimate you probably wouldn’t have been too hurt by it either if were you the target.

After furrowing her brows and concentrating for a moment, Truvietianne shook her head as she answered, “Doesn’t look like it. It’s likely they are mere suggestions then, though I’m not sure why such a system would be implemented in the first place. Disregarding the fact that a Holy Grail War should be impossible to enact in the first place, I don’t see the benefit of orchestrating more than seven Servants being summoned.”

Sensing an important detail just got brought up, you quickly interject, “You mentioned that earlier, and I’ve been meaning to ask for clarification. Why do you think a Holy Grail War should be impossible in the first place?”

“A fair question, but for the answer to make sense I should share some context with you, as I doubt even the Servants would have comprehensive knowledge on the recent affairs of the World of Mystery at this time.” She answered, and you could tell the information she had would be worth your attention.

“I take it you’re both a European aristocrat and some sort of magic-wielder yourself, then?” Yumigawa asked, fairly quick on the uptake.

Nodding, the young lady confirmed, “Correct. My family’s ancestral manor is in Finland, and we’ve been practitioners of our magecraft for many generations. Getting back to the main point of interest, the origin of the Holy Grail War was laid out in the city of Fuyuki, Japan in the early 1800’s by three families of magi, one of which was the Einzbern.”

Immediately realizing the implication, you note, “That must be why you thought I would be able to explain things. Sorry to disappoint.”

Staying on topic, she continued, “Pay it no mind. Anyhow, the Holy Grail War’s purpose was to use the accumulated energy of seven defeated Servants to open a path to what we magi generally call ‘the Root’. The Record of Akasha, the Cosmic Dao, and the Superpersonal God are other terms used to describe the concept that those among the common masses may have heard rumor of. However, excessive infighting between the mages of the three founding families as well as the outsiders who were invited to fill the ranks of the Masters resulted in the ritual failing to achieve its goal. Though the three families could attempt it again once every fifty to sixty years, the first, second, third, and fourth Holy Grail Wars all failed for various reasons. The fifth and final Holy Grail War took place in 2004, and by its conclusion the remnants of two of the three founding families decided to discontinue the ritual in its entirety, and ten years later did just that with the blessing of an influential faction of the Mage’s Association.”

“This information sounds rather privileged, was your family involved in these Holy Grail Wars?” You ask, somewhat surprised at the amount of detail she could provide about what sounded like an extremely sensitive series of events.

Betraying a bit of unease, she replied, “It’s… something of a sore topic. The Edelfelt family participated in the third Grail War that occurred concurrently with the Second World War, but we were not pleased with the result and swore off further involvement.” The unease shifting into a beaming pride, she continued, “That is, until my elder sister joined the operation to decommission and remove the Holy Grail’s remaining apparatus from the city of Fuyuki alongside the heiress of the Tohsaka, one of the founding families in favor of ending the Grail Wars. The operation was successful, though the Einzberns and a handful of mages sympathetic to their interests staged a rather stiff resistance. That faction eventually backed down before hostilities flared up to direct violence, though given our current circumstances I’m starting to suspect they may have not given up on reactivating their Holy Grail or some kind of facsimile.”

Having lost interest in the discussion a while ago, Matsuda perked up as your group reached an intersection and pointed out, “Oi look! A couple restaurants are down the street! Why don’t we try to find somethin’ to eat before you finish all that magic talk? I kinda wanna hit the pub.” Sure enough, there appeared to be a “Craft Pub Maou” as well as a sushi bar not far down that street.

A bit apprehensive, Yumigawa said, “Matsuda, we’re not supposed to drink -”

Having none of it, Matsuda immediately interrupted him, “C’mon Kaichou, live a little! The city’s fuckin’ abandoned, no one’s gonna care about dumbass alcohol laws.”

Rather easily convinced, Yumigawa conceded, “Fair point. I suppose I could try some, for the sake of curiosity-”

“Be quiet for a minute. Do you hear that?” Avenger harshly interjected, and after everyone fell silent for a few moments, you could faintly hear some booming sounds you vaguely recognized as explosions.

“Sounds like explosives. It’s pretty far off though.” You mutter, considering how to respond. Would it be worth the trouble to gather information on other possible enemies, or is trying to figure out the overall context of your situation a better use of your time?

“We could investigate quickly with minimal effort, Master.” Avenger asserted in a fairly encouraging tone.

The Caster advised action to the contrary, saying, “I imagine you could, but there’s no need to rush into every battle that breaks out. I recommend we deliberate further on the information Lady Edelfelt so kindly provided. The information we Servants were provided with upon our summoning seems to have some clear deficiencies that it would behoove us to remedy, if we may.”

“My Master and I can handle whatever lies out there ourselves, so if you wish to chit-chat over a beer or whatever else I won’t drag any of you along.” Avenger responded, a bit more diplomatic than last time.

Interested in investigating it himself, Yumigawa offered, “If you decide to go, my Lancer and I should be able to accompany you. I think arranging a temporary alliance between the four of us Masters and splitting our forces could be a rather efficient approach. Matsuda and Truvietianne could wait here with their Servants discussing matters while the two of us take our Servants and investigate the commotion.”

“There’s no need for you to go to the trouble, boy. Stay here with the rest so you don’t slow us down.” Avenger answered, clearly uninterested in cooperating with the other Masters and Servants any more than absolutely necessary.

How will you respond?

> “It shouldn’t be a trouble for Yumigawa to follow along with us, Avenger. If he wants to come I won’t discourage it.” (Cooperation)
> “Avenger’s right, you should stay here. You can help more by figuring out what’s going on with the war. Avenger and I will investigate alone.” (Self-Determination)
> “Let’s not overextend ourselves. For now we should keep trying to figure out what’s going on with this Grail War.” (Self-Preservation)
>Something else (write-in)

If you decide to leave, for Matsuda’s spar:
> “But before I go, why don’t we have our sparring round for a minute, Matsuda? I should to warm myself up.”
> “I haven’t forgot I owe you a sparring round, Matsuda. We’ll get to it once I get back.”

That was a big update.
>>5377870
>How will you respond?
> “Avenger, can you fire a long range artillery barrage at the location of the fight from here? Preferably with thermobaric type of spell, focus on wider coverage of explosions. I would like for you to make a grand entrence with it and potentially squash that Assassin who attacked us before. If Caster or somebody else have means to provide additional spotting, I would also appreciate it.” (Self-Determination, Curiosity)

The thread is back, and QM needs to drink more water so he doesn't piss crystals anymore.

>>5377870
supporting
>>5378011

Long range ordinance chads ww@

Assuming the Caster is actually Odin he has access to his crow familiars to scout ahead, or Avenger/Caster might have a more direct magical means of scrying. Assuming Avenger is actually "Circe", scrying shouldn't be hard for her either.

Also, if Lancer was still Perseus he also has Hermes' jordans and Hades' cap to scout as well, so he could make himself useful here in scouting out the opponent before they get glassed (and we might gleam some info about our temporary allies in the process). Gives him a chance to redeem himself after jobbing before too.

>>5378011

Supporting this, let's smear whatever it is making a ruckus. Better to have a conversation while dealing with potential trouble

>>5377870
>“It shouldn’t be a trouble for Yumigawa to follow along with us, Avenger. If he wants to come I won’t discourage it.” (Cooperation)
It's a more strategically sound option than literally blowing our load this early.

A Grail War is not an ideal situation to employ shock and awe tactics, where there can only be one victor. If we choose to go down this route, we will have to end it as soon as possible before the OTHER THREE FACTIONS choose to cease fire on each other and gank us.

There is no long-term benefit to exposing our power level this early without knowing at least half of the others.

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>>5378310
It's not even an NP true name release. It's just applying modern physics concepts to fire magic and using our huge mana pool.

Also, it's a smart way of abusing the way Avenger class' passive skills work almost all simultaneously.

Self Replenishment (Mana) is free mana regen,
Oblivion Correction acts as essentially a critical hit booster, fitting well with surprise attacks. The Avenger passive skill itself also turns the hatred of others projected onto oneself in exchange for additional mana regeneration. This method also essentially just escalates the violence Circe asked for, which also bounces off Avenger's disposition to flex her strength, thus boosting our relationship with her.

Showing and testing our strength and limits is important, baiting out ally scouting skills is important. There's also potentially 28~servants wandering about, so clearing out a free shitters early on will help the flow of story. Circe specified this was within a ritual, we've seen no civvies to worry about in terms of collateral damage, and even if the target servants survive their masters likely won't if jobseus is anything to go by in terms of servant/master protection ability. Enemy servants left masterless are either free kills or forced to tether themselves to our fat mana reserves as possible disposable pawns for later suicide missions.

Being a softcock is not how you play an Avenger. You get free mana by antagonising and surprising targets and having them seethe and cope against you. It also helps us assume a more leadership orientated position amongst our temporary allies and show them it's in their best interests to follow/support us.

>>5378310
>>5378345
I would like to add that:
1. We had a talk with Avenger about committing to decisive course of actions, being willing to kill, she agreed to follow orders properly because of that and she briefly mentioned her dislike towards pussyfooting around.
2. Avenger herself is clearly eager to fight, show off her powers and clearly not a fan of teamwork, so placating her with such suggestion and making her cooperate with others is a good way to introduce initial team building.
3. It is a solid tactic to pop someone's defense or force a NP to protect oneself or Master (like Man with No Name's steel plate from original Akeldama) and an easy way to get rid of Assassin. You don't want Assassin around now that they can ally with other Servants easily, let them agro enemy Servants and go for exposed Masters.

>>5378345
>Self Replenishment (Mana) is free mana regen,
>Oblivion Correction acts as essentially a critical hit booster, fitting well with surprise attacks. The Avenger passive skill itself also turns the hatred of others projected onto oneself in exchange for additional mana regeneration. This method also essentially just escalates the violence Circe asked for, which also bounces off Avenger's disposition to flex her strength, thus boosting our relationship with her.
When you put it that way ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8iDgXkDGmw

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Looks like thermobaric artillery barrage is the plan; an interesting approach to be sure.

>>5378011
>That was a big update.
I'll aim to generally make shorter ones going forward, both to improve the output rate and to allow more player-input to events as they arise.

>>5378052
>QM needs to drink more water so he doesn't piss crystals anymore
Yeah...

Any lolis?

I've been thinking, since an artillery barrage is a bit of an imprecise attack method I'll have you roll 1d100 Bo3. It probably won't make or break the attack, but it will account for some variables like the time it takes to acquire the targets.

>>5379330
Not yet

Rolled 83 (1d100)

>>5379848
inb4 tactical nuke

Rolled 75 (1d100)

>>5379848

Wanna do the third roll, QM?

Rolled 40 (1d100)

>>5379848

Thinking over the best approach to take, an idea comes to mind. Why risk getting overextended if you can just attack from here? As long as you can get a general idea of where the enemy’s position is, Avenger should be able to launch attacks with enough range to reach them and enough firepower to cause some real damage, to nearby Masters if nothing else. If the attacks can be fired without requiring line of sight, that’s even better.

“Avenger, can you fire a long-range artillery barrage at the location of the fight from here? Preferably with a thermobaric type of spell, focus on wider coverage of explosions. I would like for you to make a grand entrance with it and potentially squash that Assassin who attacked us before.” You request, before turning to the rest of the group and adding, “If Caster or somebody else has means to provide additional spotting, I would also appreciate it.”

Both pleased and intrigued, Avenger answered, “An artillery barrage? Ha, now we’re talking! Hmm, give me about half a minute to set things up Master; I should be ready to crush whatever enemies are out there soon enough.” Fluttering down the street about a dozen meters, she started incanting spells in the strange language she used before, quickly creating 16 red, glowing magic circles in a 4X4 pattern, where two rows were placed along the street in front of her angled slightly off the ground, while the other two were arrayed at her sides (a four circle square group on each), facing an angle much closer to the horizontal.

Stroking his beard, Caster commented with a slight smile, “You’re a fairly clever fellow, Master of Avenger. Launching an indirect attack like that is certainly creative, but what’s most interesting is our proximity to you will implicate the rest of us in the event of a counterattack, despite a formal alliance between yourself and my Master never being agreed upon, to my recollection at least.”

You were more than a little surprised at his two-edged compliment. From what you could tell you and his Master had a pretty good rapport, so why would he be uncooperative now?

“Oi Caster, don’t be such a wet blanket. If you got summin’ that can help them hit the enemies, go ahead an’ help.” Matsuda said, clearly unbothered by your chosen course of action. But when you glanced at Yumigawa, Truvietianne, and their Servants, you noticed their expressions were a bit more difficult to read. Did they think you were taking advantage of them?

With a gentle shrug, the Caster replied, “As you wish, Master. I simply found it improper to start entering into agreements without your approval. I can have a familiar I released earlier investigate the area soon enough.”

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“We’ll see about that.” Avenger spat as she hopped into the air and began hovering above the line of the buildings. You weren’t in the city-center right now, so the buildings themselves generally weren’t more than two stories tall. Facing the direction of the sounds of battle, she twirled her staff a few times before thrusting it forward and sending what appeared to be a small, spiraling drill of air pressure propelling though the air. After a few seconds of concentration, she reported back, “It looks like we have a bigger catch than expected! There’s a river leading to a harbor to the south-east, about 1.5 kilometers off, where a fleet of triremes are having a naval battle with some kind of… what’s it called again… come here Master, I’ll show you.”

Quickly walking toward her and carefully stepping around her magic circles as she landed, you saw she offered one of her hands palm-up toward you. Gently laying one of your hands over hers, a still image flashes into your mind. You can see over a dozen triremes waiting in the harbor, seemingly on stand-by, while two more were crashed into a ship you vaguely recognize as a pirate ship, which appears to have tried to flee into the river, probably hoping to choke off the triremes’ numerical advantage. In addition, boarding parties from each of the two crashed triremes seemed to be fighting a crew of pirates, not having fought their way onto the ship’s deck yet.

Quickly thinking the situation over, you advise, “When you’re ready to fire, concentrate your attacks at the fleet on stand-by at first so it can’t effectively retreat, then split about a quarter of your fire off toward the ships crashed together. The ones in that melee shouldn’t be able to withdraw quickly. If at all possible I’d like us to destroy both factions at once.”

Hopping back above the buildings, Avenger answered, “My thoughts exactly. I’ll probe that location once more to confirm the fleet’s position and see if they’re moving.” Shooting off another one of those air-pressure drill things (you plan to ask her how those work sometime later), she hovered above the buildings once more for a few seconds before settling down at your side again. With a nod, she confirmed she was ready to fire.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Wz4HVn2l8

“Fire at will.” You ordered.

“I’ll send the whole lot of them to a watery grave.” She answered with an eager grin.

The eight magic circles on the ground started firing first. The fireball-like projectiles sailed high over the city, their parabolic flight moving at a speed such that when a second volley was fired to follow them about 3 seconds later, the first volley had just reached the peak of their trajectory. After the first two volleys from the eight circles on the ground, Avenger began firing volleys from the eight at her side about halfway between each volley from the eight on the ground. The projectiles from the circles above the ground had a much lower flight path and reached their targets much more quickly (though you couldn’t see them connect yourself, as the buildings still obstructed your view). From the sheer amount of shining flame filling the sky, you could tell it would be a wonder to behold the full scope of the bombardment.

After about two minutes of continuous volleys, Caster of Black called out, “You should divert some of your fire to the east, the trireme flagship is trying to escape that way!”

Nodding, you confirm, “Divert your fire as he said, Avenger.”

“As you command.” She answered in a neutral tone.

The bombardment continued, with Caster giving one more pointer around the third minute mark to say the pirate ship had suddenly started breaking out and providing information on the direction of its attempted escape. You were a bit surprised at how it could have done so, but Avenger suggested the use of a Command Spell could have given it the boost it needed, and it was also likely the trireme flagship was able to break formation and attempt to withdraw via the same means.

At the five-minute mark you began to feel drained, sweating and breathing more heavily. You could keep going on for a while longer, but five minutes of continuous high-energy output seemed to be the point where you start to feel serious exertion. Noticing your stamina deplete, Avenger reluctantly called out, “Caster. What’s their status?”

“You seem to have got them.” He answered nonchalantly.

“Great.” You mutter as you exhale. What a detailed analysis, Caster. You wonder if he held off on saying anything so he could watch you sweat. You then order, “Avenger, cease fire for a moment and confirm.”

Nodding, she ceased fire, flew up, and launched another probe in the direction of the fleet. With a look of satisfaction, she landed and offered you her hand again, saying, “Take a look for yourself, Master. It’s quite the lovely sight.”

Touching her hand, another still image appeared in your mind. This time, all you saw in the harbor were tattered sails and splintered wood floating in scattered ruin, with some kind of glittering golden light streaming off the remains.

“That light coming off the debris, what is it?” You ask your Servant.

“That’s what happens when a Servant is defeated. Anything they may have materialized during their summoning will vanish from the world in short order.” She answered, then added in a whisper, “It seems this artificial world follows the same rule as the real one in that regard.”

“Got it. And that was some good work Avenger, we probably eliminated two Servants just now.” You reply with a smile.

“Most likely, yes. You made the right call on how to attack, well done.” She answered, rather pleased with the outcome of the assault.

Turning and walking back to the others, you overhear Lancer commenting, “Anyone planning to rely on static defenses or attacks that require a lot of visible preparation is going to be rethinking their strategy after seeing that.”

Leaning on his staff, Caster added, “Indeed, and such a display of overwhelming power should also incentivize many Masters to immediately seek out others to confederate with.” Eyeing you and Avenger, he added, “Quite possibly with the express purpose of neutralizing the two of you.”

“Pah, they’re welcome to try. Five ants are hardly more threatening than one.” Avenger scoffed, “If anything, you lot should be thanking me for intimidating the competition into limiting their options.”

Opening the door to the pub, Yumigawa interjected, “Be that as it may, your Master clearly could use a bit of rest and refreshment. Let’s continue discussing matters in here.”

“I like that plan.” You answer a bit absentmindedly.

“Yosh! Once we’re in, it’s drinks all around!” Matsuda cheered, quickly stepping inside to start looking for the beer.

Taking a seat at a table, you start thinking about what topic to bring to the attention of the group, if any.

> “You know what, let’s have our spar right now Matsuda. I should learn how it feels to fight through fatigue sooner than later.”
> “Does anyone think they can identify Kuro no Lancer? I feel like it’s on the tip of my tongue but can’t quite place it.”
> “Truvietianne, is there anything else you think we should know about the Holy Grail Wars?”
> “Avenger, how does that air-pressure probe ability work? And do you think you can explain a bit more about your abilities? (I’m assuming you’ll seek privacy here)”
> Just relax and listen in. They’ll probably have something interesting to talk about.
> Something else (Write-in)

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Cute warcrime birdwife.

QM, do we know we can mentally communicate privately with our servant yet? If so:

>Just relax and listen in. They’ll probably have something interesting to talk about.
>While listening, telepathically ask birb if she could use her Item Construction to augment whatever drink we choose to drink while listening and eating something with the main group. Ideally into some kind of restorative potion. (Compliment the effort regardless)
>If that works and we feel refreshed, offer a spar with Matsuda after people have said their piece.

>>5380280
>woman bring me beer
based
odds of her mixing in love potion and date rape us Bill Cosby style?

https://youtu.be/0DvANC-mCUk
Pretty solid.
>>5380211
>>5380280
Support.

>Item Construction
Caster Circe has
>The medical arts directly transmitted by the goddess who rules over life and death, Hecate, bring surprising mutations to the user.[10]
And Avenger has
>Item Construction (Potions): A+
And Medea's description outright tells
>Her rank makes her capable of creating healing potions that grant limited immortality
With Circe being superior to Medea in magecraft, I think it would be worthwhile to include asking her to make some permanent or temporal combat drugs

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>>5380319
It's Circe, that's her thing. It's not rape if you cum

>>5380634
Time for homunculus anon to get addicted to Circe's boomer juice.

>>5380280
>QM, do we know we can mentally communicate privately with our servant yet?
I'm pretty sure that detail hasn't been brought up "in-game" yet. The closest indication was Kuro no Lancer talking to his Master remotely, but Anon wouldn't be sure that it was the Command Seal contract doing it or if they had a different arrangement unique to that Servant. And even if so, Kuro no Lancer was still talking out loud when he did so.
If you quietly asked Avenger how it works she would quickly explain it, but there's a non-zero chance someone else would overhear and possibly get suspicious.
Also if you do decide to have a telepathic conversation while also listening in on what everyone else is discussing you'll probably miss a few details here and there.
If you guys confirm your approval of the write-in given those conditions please roll Bo3 2d100.

Rolled 80, 43 = 123 (2d100)

>>5381045
Sure, if caught and people get uppity we can default to a cover story of us simply asking for Avenger's advice on options for refilling our magical energy. This isn't overly suspicious in these circumstances, seeing as she's clearly a magic orientated servant (and therefore likely a good person to ask) and Caster was a bit standoffish with us before, it's not much of a stretch to try and conceal temporary "weakness" like being exhausted after what just transpired.

Defaulting to other conversation options means we'd miss details on other events regardless, it is what it is.

Dice might decide we're super autistic as we spill spaghetti everywhere though.

What's the consensus on who avenger is so far?

>>5381081
Heavy odds it's Circe (angery). But there's valid cause for it to be one of the Furies/Erinyes, a Harpie or even Nemesis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erinyes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis

A lot of shared traits between them and very close origins too.

Rolled 40, 51 = 91 (2d100)

>>5381045
Time to test her bartender skills.
>>5381081
I am convicted it is Circe.

Rolled 79, 16 = 95 (2d100)

>>5381045

I guess it's the best so far, say QM is there a reason that we have lost our memory which pertains to why this place was set up? Given we got Avenger here I'm having some thought towards where we're going and the hijinks we may have ourselves

Hello, Avenger, I'm going into battle and I need your strongest potions.

80, 51, not bad.

>>5381262
>QM is there a reason that we have lost our memory which pertains to why this place was set up? Given we got Avenger here I'm having some thought towards where we're going and the hijinks we may have ourselves
I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I do have reasons for why the setting is the way it is, but I don't want to spoil or over-foreshadow things.

>Second QM died before lolis showed up

>>5383385
This is actually the fourth qm.

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>>5383385
Not dead, just having trouble translating my outline into a satisfactory final version.

Avenger comes to your side, asking, “Is there anything specific you’d like me to prepare with your meal Master? I’m in a good mood now so I’ll treat you.” Noticing everyone else was looking for the food stores behind the bar or in the storeroom, you decided now was as good a time as any to bring up something that had been on your mind. Kuro no Lancer seemed able to communicate with his Master telepathically, but it would be good to learn if that was a general ability or one specific to him and his Master.

“I’ll leave the food selection to your discretion, but there was something I’ve been wondering about.” You answer, now speaking a bit more quietly, “Are all Masters able to contact their Servants remotely to issue commands, or was that just something Kuro no Lancer worked out with his Master?”

Leaning toward you and speaking in a whisper, Avenger answered, “It’s not a unique ability to the quarterstaff-using Lancer, anyone with Command Seals and an active contract with a Servant can do that. In fact, you can even communicate without audibly speaking. Imagine you’re sending the thoughts you want to convey to me through the Command Seals on your hand.”

Without speaking, you look at the red, tattoo-like pattern and try to focus your thoughts through them, “Avenger, can you hear me? Am I coming through?”

Hearing without your ears, Avenger’s voice answers directly to your mind, “Yes, I can hear you. If your curiosity is sated for the time being, I’ll be getting your dinner now.”

“There’s one other thing. Can you alter the drink you bring me with your potion creation skill? It might help to be something restores my energy more quickly.” You add, again visualizing your request being sent through your Command Seals.

With a hint of hesitation, Avenger answers, “I can, though you’ll want to take a neutralizing agent I’ll prepare a few hours later. Explaining the finer details and the variety of potions I can create would take a while, so I hope you’re ready for a fairly lengthy lecture.”

Opting to rest at the table while the others pick through what to have for a meal with their Servants, you start considering what other kinds of potions would be beneficial to ask Avenger to brew. Maybe something that permanently strengthens you, or improves your magical energy capacity. Not that what you had was anything to sneeze at, but there’s always room for improvement. Perhaps she could make something that would improve your ability to survive the odd potshot from an enemy that might slip through.

While you were waiting for the meal to cook, Avenger explained more about the potion she was going to make. The restoration potion you requested would replenish your stamina and perk you up, but you’d have trouble sleeping tonight if she didn’t give you another potion to neutralize the stimulants and help you rest the natural way. She also mentioned it was possible to hop you up on potions to make you able to keep going full-throttle significantly longer than you normally could, but doing so could put your health at risk. In her own words, “I appreciate that you’re willing to put everything on the line to win, but it’s far too early for you to risk burning your body out. I can’t be losing you for some inane reason, after all.” Looks like you can only cheat biology so far; at least for now.

As the food finished cooking, you noticed a most pleasant aroma had gradually filled the pub. You couldn’t quite figure out what it was until you saw Avenger bring your dish and a beer mug to you. Mmm, steak! Some vegetables and rice too, but they were filler as far as you cared. “Thanks Avenger, it looks really good!” You found yourself saying.

“I made it, of course it’s good. And here’s your beer, you’ll perk up in no time.” She answered as she set the beer mug down next to your plate before sitting down opposite you at the table. It was a table for two, and as that was the most plentiful setup in the pub each Master-Servant pair came to the unspoken agreement that allowing some space between each other would be for the best. However, the tables were still close enough to each other that talking between them was quite easy.

While listening in on what everyone else was discussing, you also telepathically asked Avenger about some of the other potions she could make. From her, you learned she could make strengthening potions of varying strength and duration, as well as a variety of poisons and transmutation potions.

Regarding the strengthening potions, she said that she could make some that were permanent, but the dosage had to be small enough to let your body acclimate to the changes, so the effect was correspondingly modest. More potent strengthening potions would have a limited duration (the shorter the duration the stronger the boost as a general rule) due to having built-in antidotes that would gradually take effect to neutralize the potions before they caused more harm than good. She also brought to your attention the fact that she could directly reinforce your body with her magecraft, and doing so had far fewer potential drawbacks compared to using a powerful, temporary strengthening potion; though in a pinch you could potentially stack the effects of her reinforcement magecraft with the potion’s. You also took note when she said, “If you decide to have me make you some of the more potent potions, only use them in the case of an emergency. Don’t start picking fights with enemy Servants just because a little power gets to your head.”

Meanwhile, you’d overheard from the others that Caster had sent a familiar to scout out the city, and had noticed a few interesting details. One was that when it went further than about an eight-mile radius from the city’s center, the gravity started to intensify and change direction to divert it back inside. That brought everyone to confirm the conclusion Avenger had made quite early on regarding this city being in some sort of artificial world. Yumigawa also identified some of the landmarks Caster described, but said they were out of place and speculated the world was thrown together as a slapdash archetypal template of sorts.

At the same time, Avenger also explained the poisons she could make worked best when ingested, but she was also able to make some that would do some damage upon contact with skin. The quantity and speed at which she could make them wasn’t suitable for hosing down enemies though, so utilizing them required some amount of finesse. When you speculated on the use of poison gas, she was reluctant to entertain the possibility, as she advised an unexpected change in the wind could cause it to lethally backfire, and her other offensive options would be more effective under most circumstances.

When the conversation between the other Masters and Servants shifted toward identifying Kuro no Lancer’s true name, your attention turned back to that, and speaking up for the first time in a while you say, “I feel like his true name is on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t quite remember it. Quarterstaff, rides clouds, can clone himself, for some reason I’m sure I’ve almost got it.”

Nodding, Yumigawa answered, “Yeah I’m pretty sure he’s Sun-”

“Wukong.” You both say in unison. If only you could have figured out your own name this conveniently. Come to think of it, how DID you recollect that guy’s name anyway? Sure Yumigawa helped you, but it seemed like you already knew the answer and just needed some help pulling it out of your mind. Perhaps that’s something to consider later…

“Oh, good eye Kaichou! I was thinkin’ the same.” Matsuda cheered, pumping his fist.

Displaying a sudden renewed interest, Truvietianne asked, “I myself am not particularly knowledgeable on his legend, could one of you summarize his abilities and weaknesses?”

“Oh man, where to start.” Matsuda answered, seeming eager to say his piece, “He was crazy strong, he could transform and clone himself, and he made himself immortal like three times or something. I never got the point of becoming double or triple immortal, but he wanted to do it so he did. Enda the day he fought the rest of the gods ALONE, and gave the whole lot of ‘em a bloody nose before they eventually dogpiled him. But when they tried to execute him nothing fucking worked, so they called in the Buddha to kick his ass and seal him in a mountain. After that a monk named -”

“Thank you Matsuda, I think I understand the situation.” Truvietianne interrupted, clearly satisfied with the information he’d already given and not interested in hearing him summarize the entire legend in his own words.

“Ah, cool.” He answered with a bit of surprise. Was his face turning a little red? Maybe it was just your imagination. Or the beer.

Finding yourself feeling quite refreshed (Avenger’s potion must have done the trick), you decide to break the silence by asking, “So Matsuda, do you want to step outside and go for a round? I’m feeling a bit better now.”

“Yeah, sure! We just ate though so let’s go easy on the gut-shots.” He answered, quickly jumping out of his chair and getting ready to step outside.

Reaching into his cloak, Caster advised, “I’ll have means of healing you ready if things get hairy, but do be careful regardless Master. Your opponent appears quite tough.”

“Likewise, though I doubt my Master will need it.” Avenger said with a hint of scorn.

“It’s just a friendly spar, right? I at least wasn’t planning on seriously injuring you.” You ask for confirmation as you step outside, a bit concerned by the precautions the Servants were taking.

Shrugging, Mastuda answered, “Yeah, but a bare-knuckle fight can get ugly even if you don’t want it to.” Grinning in excitement, he added, “But sometimes you gotta spend some sweat and blood to really learn somethin’.”

Squaring off a couple meters apart, you consider how to kick things off:

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> Just step in and try to push through his guard. You won’t go all-out right away, instead slowly increase the force of your punches based on what he can take, then go a little past that to finish things.
> Let him make the first move, and try to grapple him as he strikes.
> Let him make the first move, and try to counterpunch as he opens up for a strike.
> You have a bit of a reach advantage, start by keeping at a comfortable punching range and throwing some jabs to keep him defending; if he tries to close the gap, just burst backward a bit to maintain distance.
> Rush forward and go for a grapple. You can shrug off a couple of punches on the way.
> Something else (write-in)

I'm tired of typing out Kuro no Lancer so I gave you the True Name as a freebie. Stat sheet updates are next on the agenda.

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>>5385068

There's every chance Caster has buffed Matsuda, as Avenger just explained to us this was a possibility with magic so it would be safe for us to assume has happened.

>Telepathically tell Avenger to only reinforce you with enough magical energy to even the playing field, if she senses Caster has interfered at all. Seeing as we're default stronger than a human + we just juiced, and you'd like to remain a good sport and keep Caster restrained by befriending his master by engaging in the spar.

>Open by rushing Matsuda with a quick tester strike, to test how a lower stat but trained fighter might respond to a physically stronger opponent. Then, go on the defensive and keep distance, aiming to try and observe everything we can from his fighting style as he's clearly a violence enthusiast and unless we have some instinctual fighting ability, we have a lot to learn from him.

>Ultimately, try to clinch a win after drawing it out using our strength and possibly something we learned through the fight itself.

If he catches us unawares and we happen to lose he is more skilled, and having the dynamic of him being brawn and us "brains"/magic firepower isn't actually a problem, it helps create a good team dynamic. If we win it helps establish respect/leadership. Both outcomes have merit, and Odin is something to be wary of so we should try and have a good time to butter up Matsuda some more.

>>5385068
>>5385133
+1
Sounds fine even though I don't think Caster would cheat here but Avenger seems to like it when we take things seriously and think of consequences. And since we remembered Wukong's name, actually being engaged in a prolonged fight and observing Matsuda could awake some more memories.

Also, LSAD QM, since you did interlude previously, any plans to show POV of guys we bombarded out of the war? They are gone and I am interested in who they were.

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>>5385240
>any plans to show POV of guys we bombarded out of the war? They are gone and I am interested in who they were.
Ehh, I hadn't really planned on it. But if inspiration strikes sometime I might whip something up.

>>5385709
kekbeard offscreen'd

But who was Trireme?

>>5385058
>Circe feeds anon an energy drink
Foreshadowing...

Please don't die

>>5388255
I hope QM at least tell us if he is going to drop the quest due to low player count or loosing interest

>>5388271
I forgot about a bunch of my bookmarked threads bc kuroba dev shit the bed.

>>5388255
If he dies, I'm tagging in

>>5388255
Not dead, and the update is more than halfway finished. Got too late for me to finish last night. Probably will be ready later today.

>>5388323
Woot

>>5388255
Nothing to worry about, it's just autistic write-ins slowly killing qm's will to live.

I've seen this somewhere before. All we're missing is the haremfaggotry.

>>5388360
What about batman?

>>5388360
>>5388363
Need Manaka first and I do one big solid write in for her myself

>>5388360
Write-ins are rather tame so far.

And we are actually missing grooming our rape victim sister into having incestuous sex after injecting fertile Mother Goddess into her with result of pregnancy with unspecified number of kids, could have been eleven. And all related meltdowns about her.
That being said, since we are dealing with City Akeldama if LSAD QM adds elements from Awakening Mirror we have a solid chance of running into Sakura here as well.

A few thoughts linger in your mind as you get ready. One was that you should throw the first strike to test his reaction, then draw the fight out to observe your opponent’s attack patterns, as he seemed to be quite experienced in hand-to-hand fighting; it might also help to potentially befriend the guy. The other was, having heard from Avenger that it was possible to augment a normal person’s body with magecraft, there was a possibility Caster could reinforce his Master to catch you off-guard. Something about that Servant strikes you as quietly menacing, and it’s made you concerned he may try something underhanded.

Telepathically messaging Avenger, you quickly say, “If you sense Caster using magecraft to reinforce his Master the way you said you could, please reinforce me to a comparable level-!”

Cutting you off, Matsuda slipped forward and threw a front-kick toward your lead thigh. Surprised, you shifted your weight back and retracted your leg to minimize the impact, but your opponent kept pressing the attack, throwing a quick flurry of straight punches aimed at your head, then landed a solid round-kick on your inner thigh with his lead leg as your raised guard obscured his lower body. The impact from that strike stung a fair bit, but it wouldn’t slow you down much by itself.

Letting you gain a bit of distance, Matsuda sounded a bit annoyed as he asked, “What’s wrong big guy? You spacin’ out, or were you waiting for someone to ring a bell? There ain’t gonna be no bells in the fights coming up, ya know.”

Deciding to conceal the fact that you were talking to your Servant, you respond, “I was over-thinking how to approach things, sorry. How’s this?” Trying to get the range right, you send a right punch straight at his guard around half-strength to test his reaction.

Not meeting the overwhelming force of the strike, Matsuda instead surged diagonally-forward toward your right flank, dealing with your punch by deflecting it to your left with his own left hand while his right fist landed a solid hook on your bicep, then flowed upward as a back-fist intended to smash into your nose. Stopping it with your left palm, he hastily retracted it as he threw his left as a hook below your ribs, but you quickly lowered your right arm to bring your elbow down to cushion the blow, then instinctively shot your forearm out nearly at full-force, sending Matsuda staggering backward, barely able to keep his footing. Interestingly, he managed to flow with the force of your strike well enough that it didn’t impact his torso; had it done so, you suspect he could very well have been incapacitated then and there.

“Caster hasn’t attempted treachery by casting reinforcement magecraft, but his Master appears a bit stronger than a human of his size should be.” Avenger messaged you, sensing a lull in the fight. From the earlier exchange of blows you could tell you were still far stronger than the boy, but you could also tell several more solid hits from him would start wearing you down. Well, you’ll just be a little more careful about maintaining distance while analyzing how he fights.

“Hahh, that’s more like it.” Matsuda exhaled, grinning, “Thanks for the rest; I’ll make ya regret it though.”

In the next couple of exchanges, he consistently targeted your right arm and leg, either keeping distance himself or moving off-angle toward your right like before. It seemed he wasn’t trying to go for a quick knockout; perhaps your conservative method of attack and advantage in reach were discouraging it. And while you were able to minimize the damage he dealt better than the first couple times, the movements of his head and body were difficult for you to follow, so your only counterattacks consisted of the occasional shove or glancing blow; though you had planned on taking things slow anyway. The strategy he seemed to be going with was to damage your right limbs for a while before attacking your body, and you found yourself quickly getting better at reading his attack patterns.

That is, until the sixth exchange, where instead of trying to counter-strike your jab, he took advantage of its momentum and dragged your arm through when he deflected it and shot his foot forward in front of your own, stopping you from regaining your balance and darting behind you as you stumbled forward. Landing on your outstretched hands as you fell, you felt his knee smash into your ribs, and responded by instinctively swinging your right hand back as a hammer-fist. Though that was what he was banking on, as he leaned back a bit before catching your elbow, twisting your arm, and pinning it behind your back.

Hammering your ribs again with his knee, you’re initially at a loss on how to respond, as both of your legs and your left arm are occupied keeping your body above the ground. Deciding to just burst up between his knee-strikes, you kick off the ground full-force straight into him. Knocking the wind out of him, you feel him desperately redirecting your body over his own so you don’t crush him as you fall. Both of you roll across the asphalt, each a bit worse for wear. As the two of you get back on your feet, you freeze as you hear a sudden CRASH .

Looking back toward the entrance of the pub, it appears Yumigawa’s Lancer of Red had jumped into the air and fired a lightning bolt at the roof of one of the nearby buildings for some reason.

“What was that diversion for, Caster?” Avenger inquired, “I can tell she did that on your order.”

He calmly answered, “I noticed an unidentified familiar had been spying on us, so I gave her its position. I’d expected third parties would want to reconnoiter this area sometime soon as a result of your flashy attack, and it seems to have been the case. Perhaps if you’d been watching the surroundings as intently as you’ve been watching me, you would have seen it too.” Hmm, maybe asking Avenger to watch him specifically was a misstep. Then again, he could have just made the whole thing up to make the two of you lose face. What a difficult fellow. Avenger just rolled her eyes, declining to engage his taunt.

“We might have company soon, so let’s call it here.” Matsuda said as he dusted himself off, adding, “Ya gave me some things to think about, thanks.”

“Yeah, same here. Maybe we can go another round some other time.” You answer. With a fairly sore right bicep, right thigh, ribs, and a scattering of cuts from skidding along the road, you had plenty of souvenirs to remember the fight by. You also felt as though your muscles were relearning something they’d forgotten, though for all you know that might just be how learning from scratch works.

“So, how should we proceed from here? It doesn’t seem likely to me that anyone would be in a hurry to openly attack a group of four Servants, but I do think we should relocate regardless.” Yumigawa advised.

Truvietianne suggested, “It may behoove us to find a location with a favorable convergence of ley-lines to rest at later. Though it appears to only be early afternoon, I’d like to scout out a few spots for future use. Other Masters may be doing likewise, so we could also get some more Servants off the board.”

“That sounds like as good an idea as any.” Yumigawa replied, further suggesting, “Though a bit risky, we would cover more ground if we split up. Matsuda and I can take our Servants to patrol up north, perhaps the two of you can go south? We could pick a landmark to meet at this evening and share our findings.”

From what you could tell, your current position was a couple miles southwest of the city’s center, and there was a canal not too far to the east. What do you want to do now?

> “You guys can go; Avenger and I will stay here. I’m curious as to who wants to pick a fight with us, and they’ll probably reveal themselves here once the rest of you disperse to look around the city.”
> “Although it’d be slower, I think we should stick together while we search north toward the city-center. I have a hunch we’ll find what we’re looking for up there.”
> “Alright, Miss Edelfelt and I can take our Servants south.”
> “Avenger and I can survey the (west or east) ourselves. Let’s cover the most ground.”
> Something else (write-in)

[I’m going on a road trip for the next couple days, please don’t start immediately doomposting]
[Also forgot the trip in the first couple of posts, woops]

> “Alright, Miss Edelfelt and I can take our Servants south.”

>>5389018
> “Alright, Miss Edelfelt and I can take our Servants south.”

>>5389018
> “Alright, Miss Edelfelt and I can take our Servants south.”

>>5389018
oh neat, it's another QM gets eaten by a bear episode preview

>>5389319
Bear in question >>5388302

>>5389018
> “Although it’d be slower, I think we should stick together while we search north toward the city-center. I have a hunch we’ll find what we’re looking for up there.”

Relocation complete.
I'll start working on the update and will also eventually draw a map of the city marking locations of interest (for easier reference than overly-wordy descriptions). The plan is to progressively fill it out the more you explore.

>>5390991
Good on you for not letting Paddington maul you in the forest, QM.

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>>5390991
He lives to write another day

>>5390991
Get out while you still can! They're gonna break you like they broke everyone else!

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>>5391475
Hush.

“Alright, Miss Edelfelt and I can take our Servants south. Where do you want to meet later?” You answer, deciding that going along with Yumigawa’s suggestion was a sufficiently reasonable course of action. Even if you don’t run into any enemies, accompanying the girl who knew what those leyline things were and how to find them couldn’t hurt. Though you figure Avenger probably would know too.

The well-dressed lad indicated direction with a pointed finger, “To the northeast there’s an imitation of a landmark called the ‘Tokyo Tower’. If you know what the Eiffel Tower looks like, it has a similar aesthetic. Let’s aim to meet again there this evening.”

“Fair enough; perhaps we could each draw a map indicating the convergence points and share our notes when we reunite.” Truvietianne suggested.

“I can be of assistance to you regarding that.” Caster interjected, reaching into his cloak and revealing a couple sheets of paper and pens, “I’ve found cartography an enjoyable hobby of late, and my familiar was able to give me an idea of the city’s layout. I’ve reproduced the general details on these sheets; feel free to take one.”

Stepping toward him, the girl eagerly asked, “Thank you Caster, could you point out our current position?”

“Certainly,” he answered, taking one sheet and holding it up for her and you to view, tracing along it with his finger. “We’re right here, and the Tower to the northeast there; you’d cover quite a bit of the bottom-left quadrant by surveying southwest for a mile or so, then turn south, then east, then back north toward the Tower.” Turning to his Master, he added, “For our part, if we went northwest, then east, then southeast along the edge of the city’s center we should make it back to Tower having covered another large section of this quadrant.”

“Is there any particular reason your familiar couldn’t give us the positions of the leyline convergence points when it was able to survey the city?” Avenger asked.

“I ordered him to fly high to minimize the risk of detection and see as much as he could. Due to that he wasn’t able to analyze the leylines, though I did have him light on that aforementioned observation tower to help you adjust your aim earlier.” Caster answered gruffly.

Shrugging, Avenger dismissively commented, “Whatever. It sounds like we’ll be doing some leg-work, Master. At least we’ll likely run into more enemies before the day is done.”

Going with Avenger, Truvietianne, and her Lancer, you proceed southwest for about 2 miles, finding one minor convergence point a little off the path in a shop about a mile and a half in but nothing else of note. Filling you in telepathically, Avenger informed you that leylines were like blood-vessels for the Earth’s mana, from which it naturally emanates, and that in this world that mana was tinged with the type seen in the Age of Gods.

Turning south, you proceed another mile, reaching a narrow street before you noticed something in the corner of your eye seem to dart into an alley. Pointing it out, you ask in a subdued voice, “Did anyone else see movement over there?”

Lancer of Black answered, “It wasn’t a Servant, that’s for sure. If I had to guess, someone wandering about unaccompanied noticed us coming and tried to hide before losing his nerve and bolting.”

“Whether it’s a Master without a Servant nearby or a noncombatant, we should apprehend him to gather information. I take it you can quickly catch him, Lancer?” Truvietianne suggested.

Readying himself to sprint off, he answered, “That’s right.”

What is your input:

> “We’ll be on standby back here if you need us.”
> “Rather than waiting here and having Lancer bring whoever it is back, let’s follow along as best we can so we don’t get too stretched out.”
> “Let’s follow Lancer, but have Avenger fly above to get a better view of things.”
> “You should delay your order Miss Edelfelt, this could be a trap to split us up. Avenger, check around for enemy familiars first. If there’s something there we can destroy it and stay together, otherwise we’ll (do one of the above options).”
> Something else (write-in)

City map is almost ready, I'll post the first version when it is.

Potentially second run in with Assassin?

>>5393410
> “You should delay your order Miss Edelfelt, this could be a trap to split us up. Avenger, check around for enemy familiars first. If there’s something there we can destroy it and stay together, otherwise we’ll (do one of the above options).”
>we’ll (do one of the above options).”
> “We’ll be on standby back here if you need us.”
Either Avenger spots something fishy or she fails and Lancer has a chance to eat a magical claymore mine or something.

>>5393410
>>5393497
Lancer is a really good ally to keep around in that he runs headfirst into danger constantly, so a very easy to get rid of pawn if the time ever comes. Also great to test things we don't want to stick your hands into due this likely inflated sense of adventure.

However, it would be a waste to let him potentially get bapped again so soon due to jobbing to no sense of danger right away. Gotta do some form of damage control in case it's bait.

>>5393410
> “You should delay your order Miss Edelfelt, this could be a trap to split us up. Avenger, check around for enemy familiars first. If there’s something there we can destroy it and stay together, otherwise we’ll (do one of the above options).”
and
> “Rather than waiting here and having Lancer bring whoever it is back, let’s follow along as best we can so we don’t get too stretched out.”
If we die, we die

>>5394196
People die if they are killed

Rolled 52 (1d100)

>>5393497
>>5393627
This seems to win.
The roll is for someone else's check

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And here's the first edition of the city map, hopefully it didn't lose too much detail in translating to a digital format; as I'm not experienced in digital art it's hand-drawn.

>>5395248
https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator
You can try city generators like this one. It is quite handy.

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“You should delay your order Miss Edelfelt, this could be a trap to split us up.” You decide to argue against immediately sending her Lancer to chase down that person; you figure there’s a good chance that whoever sent the familiar Lancer of Red blew up might not have given up on surveilling you. Someone else could have done likewise too.

“Delay until what development, Einzbern?” She asked in response, using the name she assigned you.

“Let Avenger check around for enemy familiars first. If there’s something there we can destroy it and stay together, otherwise we’ll be on standby back here if your Lancer needs us.” You reply. Your Servant nodded and started gesturing around with her staff. Must be how she searched.

“Hmm.” Truvieitianne muttered as she briefly deliberated, before ordering, “Alright Lancer, hold position for a few moments.”

“I could have caught him in less than ten seconds just now.” Lancer grumbled, “The more we delay, the less viable going after him becomes.”

“Thought you could sneak that by me did you? Nice try, modern mage.” Avenger thought out loud.

“What did you find?” You ask.

With a smug grin, she answered, “I didn’t detect a familiar, but there’s a pocket of residual mana a few blocks behind us that would match quite well with what would remain of a familiar that was ordered to self-destruct a few moments ago. A fair attempt at stealth, for an amateur.”

“So we are still being watched. Maybe we should just ignore it and continue south as planned.” Edelfelt suggested, “Whoever it was may lose patience because we didn’t take the bait and either pick a different target or attack at a disadvantage.”

“We don’t know if they were trying to split us up, lure all of us onto different terrain, or if the runner and the familiar’s user were even coordinating their actions. For now I say we move on since we’ve lost initiative, but going forward we shouldn’t second-guess or overthink everything we do.” Lancer said, “There’s a difference between prudence and paralyzing-caution.”

“There’s also a difference between taking initiative and being reckless,” You retort a bit sourly, then add:

> “But I do agree we should continue our leyline survey as before and see if whoever’s watching us decides to take further action as we go.”
> “With that said, I still think we should move together and track down where that person ran off too.” (You can add details on how to go about it if you wish)
> Something different (write-in)

>>5396525
> “But I do agree we should continue our leyline survey as before and see if whoever’s watching us decides to take further action as we go.”
>Suggest to appear more carefree for onlookers and that Avenger and Lancer prepare in advance a trick or two for would-be ambushers
Not so sure how effective that would be but let's see if somebody can be anglerfished like that.

>>5396525
With that said, I still think we should move together and track down where that person ran off too.”
Maybe it's not too late

>>5396525
>>5397571
Support.

>>5396525
supporting this >>5397571
but also adding on:
>Mentally communicate with Avenger and ask if she was able to conjure up a stealthy observational familiar to follow up on the person that ran off
>followed up with some praise/encouragement regarding showing the amateur how it's really done

Sounds reasonable, we'll see how things go.
I'm on the road again tomorrow, so it may be a couple days.

Testing...
Sorry the update's taken so long, I had a lot planned and started procrastinating, then realized a relevant decision pops up early on that should probably have player input.

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“But I do agree we should continue our leyline survey as before and see if whoever’s watching us decides to take further action as we go.” You say, “Maybe we can play at being carefree in the view of any onlookers while discreetly preparing some kind of countermeasure against an ambush?”

Starting to continue south, Truvietianne answers, “No use dawdling here then, if we are to ‘play it cool’ as I believe the saying goes.” Putting her hand in front of her face, she forced a cheerful-sounding laugh, “O-ho-ho-ho!” as she continued down the street.

“You may be ‘hamming it up’ a bit harder than you need to, Master.” Her Servant advised with a gentle laugh as he walked at her side.

“What are you talking about, Lancer? I’ve always been this lively! If anything, the start of this war just shocked me into being temporarily taciturn!” She playfully answered, sounding rather chipper. Though it was clear she was over-acting, you suppose it’s possible that she may also have a more cheerful disposition than you’d first guessed.

Having a measure of privacy for a moment as Truvietianne and her Servant moved ahead, you praise your Servant’s earlier observation, saying, “Well done spotting that other mage’s hasty attempt to cover his tracks, Avenger. You’re really showing these amateurs how things are done!”

“It’s hardly the most praiseworthy achievement, but I appreciate your gratitude nonetheless. You’ll bear witness to far greater acts than these soon enough.” She answered with a calm smile.

A thought coming to your mind, as you start slowly following the others you ask her, “Are you able to conjure a familiar to stealthily follow and observe that person who ran away, by any chance?”

“Before I answer that, I should describe the forms of the familiars that I can summon at will.” She started explaining, opting to use telepathy “They can appear as large hounds, lions, boars, and cocks, sharing those creatures’ basic attributes.”

“Did I hear that last one right?” You ask in a bit of confusion, as it struck you as sounding out of place.

“Roosters, Master; ranging from their normal size to taller than a man. There’s a reason for all that, but it would take longer to explain than I’d care to go into right now. More to the point, the reason I haven’t been summoning them into battle or for purposes of utility is that as I am now, they’ll be significantly stronger than they would be if I were summoned in the Caster class, but they would also be inclined to rampage without regard to friend or foe. It’s a similar phenomenon to the Madness Enhancement that the Berserker class has.” She said.

“How much control can you exert over them? Is there a way to neutralize their feral tendencies?” You ask. It would be a shame if part of your Servant’s repertoire was rendered ineffective due to a high probability of it backfiring.

“That depends on how many targets we want to make exempt from their attention, and how many familiars are active at once. They absolutely won’t attack me and are generally averse to attacking each other, but if I were to summon a pack of them here and now, I’d need to put substantial effort into keeping all of them from lunging at you, the girl, or her Lancer. It could be done, but it would be a waste of energy and attention. If there are enemies nearby it would be easier to redirect the familiars’ wrath rather than suppress it altogether, but if I shift my concentration to other tasks there’s a chance their attention could be turned away from the initial target. It’s a small chance, but more than I’d like to risk unless we’re either working alone or terminating our alliances. Though if it’s just you standing near me, I would be able to shield you from their frenzy with minimal effort.” She continued. It seems this part of her skillset can suppress a large number of enemies at close range, but it loses viability if you bring allies with you.

“If it’s just one familiar, how directly can you control it? And can you access its senses remotely? I was thinking we could we send a hound to follow the scent of the runaway and gather information.” You ask.

“Left to its own devices, a hound-type would quickly chase down whatever it was directed to track by scent and maul the target on sight. I could access its senses and suppress its aggression to an extent, but I can’t guarantee that it would stalk the target stealthily for an extended period of time.” She answered.

Will you:
>Ask Avenger to summon a hound to chase down the person and observe as best she can
>Continue on without having her summon anything

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>>5402536
>They can appear as large hounds, lions, boars, and cocks, sharing those creatures’ basic attributes.

>>5402541
So yeah let's summon a giant Cock.

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Hey QM, bit of a segue but are there any wild animals around? It's likely we would have seen something by now, be it pigeons, crows or similar urban generic animals. Anything at all?

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>>5402728
Terror Bird perhaps?

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>>5402728
Assuming it's Circe it might be this flavour of chicken with complimentary mystic eyes of petrification. But that's a collateral hazard right now with ohohoho and jobcer still around.

In our next fight actual fight, the option to summon a few Seethe: EX hounds to track down and rip & tear enemy masters in hiding while the Giant Cock and Avenger face off against the servant seems pretty decent.

So do you guys want to send an angry doggo after the runner or no?

>>5402728
I'm going to reach a crossroads of whether or not I'm going to backpedal or embrace the cringe I instigated. I really shouldn't give the jannies a legitimate excuse to ban me. Blue board, blue board.
>>5402729
A fair question, so far Anon hasn't seen any wildlife, be it birds, rodents, or even insects.
>>5402735
The one on the left has adorably stubby wings.

>>5403428
I meant a giant rooster.

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>>5403428
>>I'm going to reach a crossroads of whether or not I'm going to backpedal or embrace the cringe I instigated. I really shouldn't give the jannies a legitimate excuse to ban me. Blue board, blue board.
>"S-s-sumon the cock, Master!"
Felt like a pretty desperate pick-up line on her part.

But is hound the only tracking option, LSAD QM? Boars should be just as good at it. Lions and roosters does not sound like good trackers but the latter one allows doing funny innuendo with Avenger if we tell her to summon it.
And since it is 90% that Avenger is Circe, summoning hog would just feel right.

>>5403428

I suppose that throws out the Animal Communication potion idea I had brewing.

>>5403883
Conferring with anon, pigs have equal or better sense of smell and tracking potential than a dog. They do also have social skills/team work abilities within their family groups and they're pretty smart. Although wolves/dogs would be better as a group, if we're sending just one animal a pig might be best.

With the Seethe: EX Avenger holdover trait it might resemble something close to the demonic pigs that pop up as basic fgo mobs or even Calydonian boar if enough buffs are applied. Get piggy juiced on Avenger's Item con buffed Monster: Zero Ultra in future maybe?

Pigs are also very hard to take down, so I'm imagining something close to low rank battle continuation. This is of course on top of being quite strong and dangerous it'll also offer a neat distraction as it runs around rampaging after the target. Against a non knight-class servant and with enough pre-buffs it might get a chance to waste an enemy servant's np to actually put it down or even catch an enemy master off guard.

There's not really any collateral damage to be had in this war, this whole space is void of all life that isn't already part of the ritual and all surrounding masters will ultimately end up enemies if not allied.

Even famous mythic figures have jobbed to pigs, take Diarmuid for example. Quite a few Greeks too, Hyleus and Ankaios died to the Calydonian piggy and Adonis was gored to death by one off the top of my head.

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Alright, lets hog it.
Summoning rooster next combat encounter too.
>>5402541
>Ask Avenger to summon a boar to chase down the person and observe as best she can
>>5403951
Going Kamen Rider Atalanta is certainly a way to solve the kykeon question.
Not the worst power up though. We can probably take it.

>>5402541
guess I'll chuck a vote for BPC >>5403962

>>5403962
>>5403990
Ok it can be an angry porker instead

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“If a stealthy approach is difficult anyway, why don’t you summon a boar instead? They’re pretty tough and have a good sense of smell too, right?” You decide. The idea of large hunting parties being formed to hunt down a single boar popped into your head and gave you the impression that such a creature would probably be pretty strong.

“Hmm, I suppose that could work. The boars are the most ill-tempered and prone to indiscriminate destruction, but they’re also the strongest as singular units.” Avenger says, then waves her staff to create a summoning circle on the ground near where you saw that person dart away, which you’d since passed by as you were walking. “Come forth, and follow the scent there to its source!” She instructed, and a fearsome-looking boar appeared in the circle. Though it growled at you when you caught its eye, it quickly rushed into an alleyway and out of your sight.

“Can you tell me more about the differences between the types of creatures you can summon?” You ask as you get back to your route, to which your Servant nods and begins explaining as you go. You also feel a small amount of energy being transferred from you, no doubt to supply the familiar.

She reiterates that the boars are generally the strongest on an individual level, but also the most ferocious and likely to attack allies. The lions and hounds are similar in that they are good at coordinating attacks with others of their species, and differ in that the lions are the next strongest after the boars, whereas the hounds are weaker, but a bit faster and better at tracking. The roosters are generally the weakest, but also the most mentally stable. They also have a peculiar feature in that they are only able to materialize during the daytime or right before the dawn, and if they are summoned in time to announce the rising of the sun, their strength will temporarily skyrocket past even what the boars are capable of, though Avenger said for that effect to work she’d need to activate one of her Noble Phantasms.

“Noble Phantasm? Have we talked about what that is yet?” You ask.

Scratching her chin, Avenger muses, “Maybe we haven’t. For a quick refresher, Noble Phantasms (or Hougu for short) are generally a Servant’s most distinctive and powerful abilities, and activating them usually requires the Servant to call out their names. That requirement makes it a bit of a strategic liability to use them early on unless you kill whoever witnessed its use, since uncovering a Servant’s True Name is much easier if you know what their Noble Phantasms are called, and a Servant’s True Name would allow someone to work out what their conceptual weaknesses are based on their legend.”

Lowering your voice to a whisper, you ask, “So when her Lancer shouted Harpe and injured Wukong, that was a Hougu activation?”

“Correct. With some research you could figure out her Servant’s identity before too long, I’m sure.” She slyly answered, then added, “I may remind you it’s also why I haven’t gone and told you my True Name yet.”

“I see. By the way, how’s the boar doing? Did it find anyone yet?” You ask.

“Hmm, no but it’s getting close.” She answers with a furrowed brow, then a couple seconds later she exclaims with startlingly sadistic excitement, “Ah, there he is. Go on, maul the bastard!”

“You get him?” You ask after a few moments. You didn’t feel much in the way of apprehension about the fact that you’d ordered someone’s death again. The other Masters agreed to fight, they should know the consequences.

Gritting her teeth, Avenger fumed, “Tch! Shoddy luck.”

“What happened?” You ask.

“There was a Servant nearby, an Archer by the look of it. From what I could tell before the familiar died, the Servant was tall and lean, clad in hide-armor, wore a helmet with a mask covering the face, and used a bow with lethal precision. If I had to guess, he also was no stranger to hunting, as the boar was shot with pinpoint accuracy to hamper its ability to move before it was finished with an arrow through its eye and several more to its torso.” She explained.

Shrugging, you reply, “Well, you can’t win every little skirmish. At least we know there’s an enemy Archer wandering around near here.”

“Did the two of you see something? I think I just found another leyline convergence point near where we’d want to turn to the east.” Truvietianne called back. She’d been talking with her Servant up ahead while surveying the area.

“Yes, in a manner of speaking. It seems there’s an Archer-class Servant not too far from here. Which direction would you guess they were, Avenger?” You answer, seeing no issue with keeping your ally informed.

“Northwest, more or less.” She answered.

“How’d you learn that?” Lancer of Black asked.

“I had Avenger summon a familiar to follow the scent trail that runner left a little while ago. An Archer killed it before it got to the target though.” You answer.

“Not a bad idea, at least we’re forewarned now.” He replied, then looked to the west with a start as he commented, “A Servant is announcing their presence, over that way. Maybe half a mile or so.”

“I sense it as well.” Avenger concurred.

How do you respond:

> “They want a fight, I imagine. Let’s go over there and give them one.”
> “They’re probably trying to lure us onto their preferred terrain. We lose nothing by ignoring this challenge and proceeding according to our planned route.”
> “It worked before: Avenger, let’s rain fire on them. We’ll see how they handle that.”
> “Let’s start heading that way, but send some of Avenger’s familiars to scout ahead.”
> Something else (write-in)

This will be the last update in the thread unless I decide to drop an end-of-thread interlude again. I'll try to post it in sup/tg/'s archive before too long.
Anon who wanted to know what was up with the triremes may get his wish.

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pige :(

Tossing up between sending a scout and continuing on towards the leyline over east if the recon report isn't that pressing to remove/an easy kill, or just scout west then bombardment.

Bombardment left anon a bit drained last time though, so probably best to see what the target is first regardless. Maybe get to the convergence point first and see if Avenger can tap into it first before glassing another city block?

>>5406288
POV: You get a second chance at life and a wish with your raiding frens and get meme'd by a nameless autist and his angry birb on the first day

>>5406426
We could just send bunch of summons in the direction of challenger and have them scout and observe. If it is a trap they die and no it is not a big deal or if a third party engage that Servant in a fight they might have a chance to chomp some unlucky Master who would be nearby or call a guided artillery barrage on their position. Anyone half-decent won't job to his but it could at least force a command spell.
We still need to do scouting mission and find some nice place to set up base.

>>5406284
>Suggest that enemy Servant might be baiting people into attacking him either by already having a trap/ambush set up and waiting for somebody to walk into it or by having Noble Phantasm that requires for it's target to accept the challenge or attack the owner. Otherwise it would be pretty dumb for somebody to just announce their presense for everyone after recent bombardment without any sort of precaution.
>Ask Avenger to send in her most sneaky summon to monitor the unfolding situation
>Continue on your leyline survey
>Have a chat with Truvi about how she's faring with the war so far, her opinion on our other allies and have some small talk afterwards
I think I just vote to play it cautiously and start working on those social links with Truvi.

So is it like demons with learning their true name?

>>5406284

>>5406538
This covers what's important actually. Don't really want to get too off topic from the leyline objective or fire off a load without seeing what we're shooting at first.

Lancer can be placated and kept in line through his master too. Having a more melee focused ally around long-term is pretty important, and harpe can put down things that otherwise can't be killed.

Shattered Walls

“Rider, how much longer will we be on standby back here? I’d like to sail to that island in the southeast soon.” A teenage girl in her school’s uniform asked her Servant, leaning on the mast of the trireme to help maintain her balance and impatiently tapping a glove-clad finger on her arm.

“Not too long, those pirate scum will be wiped out soon. Once they are we shouldn’t need to worry about anyone else following us for a while.” Kuro no Rider replied, not averting his eyes from the battle where several of his ships were breaking through and boarding the pirate ship further north.

“Don’t go tossing phrases like ‘wiping out’ around so casually; I told you I wanted the Master taken alive.” She reminded.

“I’ll be sure to comply with your request, but it will take some time yet- Stay behind me, Master!” He shouted, his attention shifting from the battle as he quickly moved between the girl and a barrage of mortar-like fireballs coming from the west.

“Wh-what is that?!” The girl shrieked as the first volley started crashing into the formation of the triremes, causing her to stumble and barely maintain her footing by hugging the mast.

“Damn it, I hadn’t expected a third party to interfere this quickly. Master, brace yourself: I’m deploying a defensive Noble Phantasm.” Kuro no Rider said as the ships in the stand-by formation began to emit a glowing golden light, “Bulwark of prophecy, rise once more: SKIA TIS AIGIDAS!”

A hemisphere-shaped golden barrier quickly rose around the formation and began dispersing the energy mortars as they fell upon it. The girl felt a far more substantial amount of magical energy being transferred from her to keep the shield powered up to withstand the barrage than she expected, in addition to the amount she was providing to maintain the fleet. Unbeknownst to her, the silver coin in her pocket had offset a large fraction of the strain before her Servant activated his Noble Phantasm, so stacking the use of the Noble Phantasm onto that began sapping her naturally-low energy reserves, especially as the bombardment showed no signs of slowing.

Feeling enervated from the strain after a minute and a half of continuous bombardment, she found herself falling to her knees. Looking up at her Servant, she asked, “Can you dismiss... some of the fleet, Rider? I can’t keep this up… much longer.”

Frustrated, her Servant replied, “Alright Master, we’re going to have to bail and regroup. You should use one of your Command Seals to help me get our ship out of here. I’m sorry things have gone sideways so quickly, but if the choice is between spending one or dying, you have to spend it.”

“It can’t be helped. By my Command Spell… get us out of here, Rider.” The girl ordered in a voice barely distinguishable from a series of exhausted sighs, and one of the seals on her wrist being expended to give her Servant and the flagship a boost in power.

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With barrier falling, several of the ships started getting hit with the energy mortars that were still streaming through the sky in a massive concentration without any signs of the intensity slowing down. Splinters of wood shot through the air, but the flagship and its passengers were able to break off and flee to the east. Unfortunately for them, their respite didn’t last long as the targeted area of the bombardment quickly followed them and enveloped their escape route.

“All hands, to the deck! Defend the Master to your dying breath!” Kuro no Rider shouted, before kneeling and meeting his Master’s eye level, as she herself hadn’t the strength to get up. The ship’s crew and oarsmen quickly came armed to the deck and desperately rallied to hold back the fireballs that came closest to the ship, be it with arrows, thrown spears, or their own flesh.

Sitting up, the girl took a deep breath before asking with a tone of resignation, “Rider, what are you doing? They can’t move the ship any further like this.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Master: my hopes for winning the war are sunk. This is as far as I go.” He stoically answered, then added, “It seems that whoever’s trying to kill us has a power similar to that of the gods who told me how to protect my city, so my defenses were ill-equipped to hold it off.”

Trembling in fear and her voice stopping in her throat, the girl barely whispered, “W-what are you -?”

Picking her up, the Servant answered, “What I’m saying is you’ll have to go on without me, Kokutou Mizuri. I won’t stand for letting you die like this; keep a low profile once you get ashore. I stored a bit of the power of your earlier Command Spell using a Skill I have; I’ll use it to get you out of here and cushion you against the inertia.”

“Rider? Wait, I’m not a shot-put BAAAAAAAALLLLL!” She yelled as he hurled her off the ship, passing between the paths of the energy-mortars and toward the eastern shore. Streaking through the air, she found a small amount of the energy from the Command Spell had returned to her, reinforcing her body and slightly revitalizing her. Had it not, she would no doubt have immediately lost consciousness from a concussion and a critically-damaged spine due to the sudden acceleration. Reaching toward the water as she fell, her gloves skimmed across its surface and began slowing her descent. Gliding along, she eventually came to a stop near what appeared to be a largely-empty dock for private boats bordering a canal leading north. Treading water in spite of her fatigue with the help of her gloves, which happened to be a Mystic Code crafted from a kelpie’s hide, she caught one of the rods supporting the walkways and turned around to see what had become of her Servant.

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Well, the girl didn’t need to see it to know that her contract had been ended and Kuro no Rider returned to the Throne of Heroes, but she felt a sense of obligation to not flee without looking back. Though her Servant had been defeated and the fleet’s flagship blasted asunder, the bombardment showed no signs of slowing, and in the distance she could vaguely make out that the pirates didn’t end up faring any better than her group did. Despite a last-minute attempt to break out, their ship was shattered and sunk all the same.

“I’m sorry Themistocles, I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t been so weak, I know your shield would have held out.” Mizuri muttered to herself, her throat drying out and her shoulders shaking as she held back sobs. “Mom… Dad… Sensei… I’m sorry. I should just hide somewhere and sit the rest of this out.” After slowly swimming for a few moments, she scaled the first couple rungs of a ladder that would lead up to one of the walkways, but suddenly froze as she saw a figure at the top of the ladder staring down at her.

“Foooound you ~.” The figure announced in a singsong voice. Mizuri was able to perceive that this person was a girl with white hair, glowing yellow eyes, and dragon-horns on her head.

“Another Servant already? No no no! It can’t be! I can’t let it end here after all that!” Mizuri thought in desperation, pointing her finger at the girl above and stammering a shaky bluff, “S-s-stay back! J-just pretend you didn’t see me and I-I’ll let you off easy!”

“Try not to panic, girl. My Master told me to say that he just wanted to ask you a few questions.” The new Servant replied, and Mizuri was able to discern her designation as “Berserker of Black”.

“He ‘told you to say’ that? D-don’t screw with- !” The girl began to respond, but the Berserker suddenly slithered down the ladder headfirst at an unbelievable speed, stopping right in front of Mizuri’s face and pressing a folded fan against her forehead. In fact, instead of legs the Servant seemed to have a snake’s body past her waist coiled around one of the rungs; but that didn’t make much sense, as Mizuri was sure she’d caught sight of normal legs just before.

In a calm voice unmistakably tinged with ruthlessness, Berserker of Black interrupted, “He also told me not to be rough on you since you looked like you needed some help, but if you’re going to be difficult you can only blame yourself for what happens next. So,” she said as she tucked her fan back into her dress and extended a hand to the girl, “would you like me to help you get up to the walkway?”

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Speechless, Mizuri’s mouth limply fell open as she tried to think of a way out of her predicament, but couldn’t come up with anything other than capitulating to the Berserker’s demand. Having just seen firsthand how brutal a Holy Grail War can get, she hated the fact that she was powerless and at some stranger’s mercy, but at the same time she knew that trying to resist right now would be futile, and quite possibly suicidal. Biting her lip and trying to salvage a modicum of her pride, she bitterly answered, “I can climb the ladder myself, just take me to your Master so we can get this over with.”

“Then follow me.” The Berserker replied, slithering back up the ladder and transforming her snake-half back into humanoid legs once she reached the top. Leading the tired and thoroughly-soaked girl along the walkway, the Servant visibly perked up when she saw her Master rummaging through the interior of one of the boats.

“Maaaaster! I brought the girl you wanted to interrogate!” She chirped, causing the boy to rush out and nervously declare, “Ah, Berserker can you bring her aboard? I think I saw some towels she can use to dry off, or something.”

A bit relieved, Mizuri thought to herself, “This guy, he looks about my age. Doesn’t seem like a proper mage-type either. Maybe he’s the nice-guy/black-sheep of his family like Dad was?”

After the two got on board, the boy invited them to the boat’s interior and handed Mizuri a bath-towel while uncomfortably looking away, commenting, “Your, uh, uniform is pretty wet, you should keep this to cover up with after you dry off. And don’t slap me for noticing your bra through your shirt, we’ve all seen that skit a hundred times already.”

Both tired and upset from recent events, Mizuri sourly responded, “Your Servant brought me prisoner here and is watching me like a hawk, why do you think I’d try to slap you over something minor like that?”

“Oh right. Uhh, you know, I’ve just seen that cliché play out a few too many times. Heh.” He answered with a nervous chuckle, turning to face her once she’d draped the towel over her chest.

“Master, don’t you think it’s time you started asking the questions?” The Berserker said, sitting down in a rounded booth behind a gaming table and patting the spot next to her for him to be seated in.

“Yes, right, good idea Ki- er, Berserker.” The boy stammered as he sat next to his Servant, “So, uh, what’s your name?”

“Kokutou Mizuri. My family isn’t very prominent in terms of our magecraft so I doubt you’ve heard of us.” The girl replied as she sat down across from the two of them.

“That’s cool! I’m Ogawara Yatsuhide, but you can call me by my internet nickname ‘Yatsuka’ if you want. So, you’re a real-deal magic-user?” He answered, sounding much more focused now.

“Well, yes. Are you not?” She asked, getting more confused. How could he have a Servant at his command if he was just a regular civilian?

“Uh, no? I was just a, well, high-school student, I guess? But then I got dropped into that city with the spooky skeletons and signed up for what that shady priest guy called the Great Holy Grail War.” He answered.

“Wait, what shady priest guy? And are you sure he called it a ‘Great’ Holy Grail War?” Mizuri asked. That definitely didn’t sound right to her, although Themistocles did mention he found it odd to encounter a pirate-type servant when he was already in the Rider-class. Did the ritual get modified in some way?

“I mean, I haven’t seen him since, but he said his name was… something weird. Triscus Adajio I think, he called himself the overseer. I don’t know what the difference between a Great and a normal Holy Grail War is. Do you? You know some magic stuff, right?” Ogawara responded.

“The only times I heard about the Holy Grail War before coming here was a few comments my part-time tutor mentioned periodically: that it was a scam run in Fuyuki that took advantage of desperate mages who were down on their luck for some kind of longshot ritual. She’s one of the greatest mages in the world, so I’m inclined to believe her.” Mizura explained, then added with some reservation, “But this isn’t Fuyuki, so maybe the ‘Great’ version is a little different?”

“If you thought it was a scam why did you decide to take command of a Servant? Don’t you want something from the Grail?” The Berserker asked with narrowed eyes.

“I didn’t really want anything from it, but to get out of that city with the undead monsters I was sure I needed to pick a coin out of that cup. I kept my Servant because… I thought in exchange for protecting me, it would be fair to let him have his wish, whatever it may have been.” The girl replied, looking down at her hands and falling silent.

Reaching out and gently touching one of the girl’s hands, Berserker of Black smiled and kindly said, “I appreciate your honesty. She’s telling the truth, Master.”

“Got it. So do you know anything about the people who shot those fireball things at you? Oh, sorry if the question made you uncomfortable.” The boy said, realizing that he may have just thrown salt on a fresh wound.

“Those people…” Mizuri muttered, “Those people… I don’t know the first thing about them. They never tried to contact us. They didn’t issue an ultimatum, which even the pirates did before they tried to attack me and my Servant. It was just… all at once a hail of fire started raining down at me, launched from more than a mile to the west from somewhere inland. My Servant activated a barrier to protect us, but I… wasn’t strong enough to keep it up against the firestorm.” Her unstable emotions spilling out, the girl started raising her voice as she continued, “So, we tried to escape with a Command Seal boosting my Servant, but ‘those people’ must have had a spotter to tell them where to fire, because their attacks followed us as we tried to flee. My Servant, he put everything he had in the way of their rain of death to help me escape! His ships, his men, everything! And those monsters are still out there, no worse for wear, looking for their next slaughter! I just… don’t know what to do. I don’t want to die, I know I can’t fight something like that, but even though I don’t have a Servant, who’s to say they won’t kill me just for a laugh!?”

“Oh my gosh. I’m sorry.” Ogawara said, more as a reflex than anything. He really had no idea what to say here; despite hoping he could quote some badass line from an anime protagonist who went through a similar situation, the raw emotion the girl cried out with stalled his ability to think rationally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EscSCRP3FA

Scooting from her Master toward the girl, Berserker of Black took both of her hands and said, “Take a few deep breaths Mizuri-chan. Your Servant did well to save you. And since you’ve been so honest with us, I’ve found myself getting something of a soft spot for you as well. I’d be willing to help protect you in your late Servant’s stead, at least until you can find someplace secure to wait out the war, or a new Servant who happens to find our goals agreeable, assuming my Master doesn’t object.”

“O-of course, if you don’t mind coming with us for a while!” Ogawara hastily confirmed.

Uncertain, the girl asked, “You two are still going to fight? In face of that horror? What are you fighting for, anyway?”

“Well, I’d like to create a world without lies, but I don’t think even a Holy Grail can make that happen. Too bad.” Berserker of Black said with a wink, then looked at her Master, “So instead I decided to wish for a new chance at life that I can live with someone I love, who won’t lie to or run away from me.”

“And I’m on board, 1000%.” He concurred with what could only be described as utmost sincerity.

Mizuri gently laughed, “You want to win with the power of love? You’re crazy. This isn’t some sappy anime.”

“I thought magic was only real in sappy anime until today, you know.” Ogawara quipped back. “Who says the power of love isn’t real either? A future with Berserker is something I’m ready to put my life on the line for.”

“Master…” Berserker said dreamily.

“You guys… alright, I’ll stick around for a while. You’re going to need input from someone level-headed every now and again, you know.” Kokutou Mizuri decided, “And compared to the atrocities a Holy Grail can supposedly unleash if it falls into the wrong hands, a world where the two of you get your wish… sounds pretty nice.”
And with that, the thread is concluded... or IS IT??? Maniacal laughter echoes in the background

>>5408568
>Triscus Adajio
New Judas just dropped

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>>5408573
>“Those people…” Mizuri muttered, “Those people… I don’t know the first thing about them. They never tried to contact us. They didn’t issue an ultimatum, which even the pirates did before they tried to attack me and my Servant. It was just… all at once a hail of fire started raining down at me, launched from more than a mile to the west from somewhere inland. My Servant activated a barrier to protect us, but I… wasn’t strong enough to keep it up against the firestorm.” Her unstable emotions spilling out, the girl started raising her voice as she continued, “So, we tried to escape with a Command Seal boosting my Servant, but ‘those people’ must have had a spotter to tell them where to fire, because their attacks followed us as we tried to flee. My Servant, he put everything he had in the way of their rain of death to help me escape! His ships, his men, everything! And those monsters are still out there, no worse for wear, looking for their next slaughter! I just… don’t know what to do. I don’t want to die, I know I can’t fight something like that, but even though I don’t have a Servant, who’s to say they won’t kill me just for a laugh!?”
Not sorry and we'll do it again.

The weak should fear the strong.

And fuck gr**koid (((((politicians)))))

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>Treading water in spite of her fatigue with the help of her gloves, which happened to be a Mystic Code crafted from a kelpie’s hide
>“Kokutou Mizuri. My family isn’t very prominent in terms of our magecraft so I doubt you’ve heard of us.” The girl replied as she sat down across from the two of them.
>“The only times I heard about the Holy Grail War before coming here was a few comments my part-time tutor mentioned periodically: that it was a scam run in Fuyuki that took advantage of desperate mages who were down on their luck for some kind of longshot ritual. She’s one of the greatest mages in the world, so I’m inclined to believe her.” Mizura explained, then added with some reservation, “But this isn’t Fuyuki, so maybe the ‘Great’ version is a little different?”
This is quite curious.
>“Those people…” Mizuri muttered, “Those people… I don’t know the first thing about them. They never tried to contact us. They didn’t issue an ultimatum, which even the pirates did before they tried to attack me and my Servant. It was just… all at once a hail of fire started raining down at me, launched from more than a mile to the west from somewhere inland. My Servant activated a barrier to protect us, but I… wasn’t strong enough to keep it up against the firestorm.” Her unstable emotions spilling out, the girl started raising her voice as she continued, “So, we tried to escape with a Command Seal boosting my Servant, but ‘those people’ must have had a spotter to tell them where to fire, because their attacks followed us as we tried to flee. My Servant, he put everything he had in the way of their rain of death to help me escape! His ships, his men, everything! And those monsters are still out there, no worse for wear, looking for their next slaughter! I just… don’t know what to do. I don’t want to die, I know I can’t fight something like that, but even though I don’t have a Servant, who’s to say they won’t kill me just for a laugh!?”
Let's start an inferno.

Cool interlude, LSAD QM. We got rid of major Servants AND left a solid impression on a young girl. That's an all round win.
Interesting to see Ogawara living his newfound anime protagonist life too. Looks like he is also having a blast.

>>5406846
Sort of, but it's more that if you can research the Servant's legend you learn what kinds of attacks would be "Super Effective" against them.

>>5408595
I get that the characterization probably isn't the most "historically accurate", but the story is based on Fate so I think I get a pass for one or two inconsistencies.

>>5408608
I never got around to playing C&C, but I had a lot of fun with its "brother" series BFME. In spite of their later reputation, EA made a fair number of real gems.

I'm also enjoying writing Ogawara more than I thought I would. In Sweet's version I think he never really had any motivation to be the best version of himself and ended up as a reluctant lackey, so my version is more of the scenario where he gets MOTIVATED right away.

>>5409181
While you're around I just wanted to say I really like how much you're getting into the story QM. You picked some interesting niche characters and the interlude seemed like you really enjoyed writing it. Appreciate the work fren, I'm certainly enjoying it.

Also, characterisation wise I don't see anything wrong with how you presented Themistocles. Look at Chen Gong in canon for example. It's assumed in Fate that people of note in times of old were at least mages or knew of magecraft, had divine interactions etc. His NP seemed somewhat thematic too, being a protector of Athens, Athena's namesake granted him something like a scuffed Aegis defensive NP that judging by the name was something like "In the shadow of (I don't speak greek)". Also, as servants people are granted abilities that conceptualise their life and legend, even if they didn't have such traits in life.

Liking Kiyo using her Shapeshift properly and it's very clear you have fun writing Ogawara as a much more normie human tier secondary protagonist. It's enjoyable to read too. I wonder if you gave Kiyo some nice kit like her bell and naginata as otherwise Ogawara will have to play her as a lie detecting assassin with Stalking (which also seems to act a bit like Presence Concealment when combined with Shapeshift) as apart from her likely 1-2 use dragonmode NP which will be limited to coin mana costs, Kiyo's canon base stats as Berserker are atrocious.

>>5409205
>Athena's namesake granted him something like a scuffed Aegis defensive NP that judging by the name was something like "In the shadow of (I don't speak greek)"

Yeah for that I took the easy way out and plugged "Shadow of Aegis" into an internet translator, the rationale for him having it being more or less what you intuited.

Kiyohime is a weird case because there's also a remarkable disparity between her FGO Berserker stat-line and her summer Lancer stat-line. I'll need to put on my thinking-cap to make sense of it.

>>5409269
Lancer class container has bare minimum stat requirements.

The B AGI, D STR & END and the token D Mag Res are all just freebies from the lancer class container.

>The qualifying conditions to be placed within the class are second only to the Saber class, requiring overall excellent attributes and a high agility attribute. Their only particular class ability is Magic Resistance, and although they "tend to be less flashy than the other classes", they display great reliability.[1][2]

Kiyo summer has implied Scathatch buffs to force qualify her considering the summer meme story origins of the saint graph.

Other excuses for your own sake so she doesn't bend over to a slight breeze include master compatibility, japan local fame buff and a stronger coin for Ogawara to compensate for his lack of magical or physical capabilities I guess?

You're in charge, if you want to hand wave stat issues then go ahead.

Bonus Interlude: Loose Change

“Well, isn’t that a sorry sight?” A hooded and cloaked girl under the shade of a tree smugly commented while observing the last bits of scattered wreckage disintegrate in the harbor, having just finished carving a small magic circle into the ground at her feet.

“Oi Master, can you hurry and whip out that divination spell? We shouldn’t linger here much longer.” A Servant leaning against the tree’s trunk asked.

Flipping a silver coin into the air, the girl answered, “I’m going as quickly as I can; I don’t like to be under the sun any longer than necessary, believe me.” As the coin landed in the circle, it started rapidly spinning before eventually holding steady balanced on its edge in an unstable equilibrium.

“Hmm, it seems there’s only one nearby. Well, it’s that way.” She declared, pointing in the direction along the edge of the coin into the harbor.

“So you want me to switch to spirit-form, find the other coin down in the water, then rematerialize and bring it back up, correct?” The Servant asked.

“Correct. Just head down the line I’m pointing along and you should find it on the sea-floor. Oh, and if you find the body of the Master is mostly intact, bring it up as well.” She answered.

“As you command.” He confirmed as he dematerialized. Less than a minute later, his materialized body burst out of the water and landed near his Master again, coin in hand.

“Much obliged, my Servant.” She said as he handed it off to her, “Though I assume its previous owner was in far more pieces than you could bring in one trip?”

With a bit of a grimace, he answered, “More or less. Whoever lit them up went for overkill from what I could tell.”

Quickly walking back toward the city, the girl laughed, “Maybe I should give them my thanks for saving me the trouble of revealing my power, and leaving the loot for me, when we find them. Ahh, I have a feeling this Grail War is going to be just the vacation I needed to blow away my stress and finally get some closure.”

“Closure? For what?” Her Servant inquired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pckrHxt9ks0

Adjusting a Schutzstaffel badge under her cloak as she stowed away the coin, the Master answered, “Did I forget to mention? This isn’t my first Holy Grail War.”

>>5409362
>Adjusting a Schutzstaffel badge under her cloak as she stowed away the coin, the Master answered, “Did I forget to mention? This isn’t my first Holy Grail War.”

Only guess is https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Major_Reiter_(Fate/type_Redline) unless its pure OC.

Implied vampire from the aversion to sun I'd assume?

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>>5409181
>EA made a fair number of real gems
It is hilarious that despite their history and treatment of game companies they ended up releasing C&C Remaster which might as well be called gold standard of remasters. If they ever do the same to Red Alert 2/Tiberian Sun or even Dune it would be hard to dislike them to the previous degree.
>I think he never really had any motivation to be the best version of himself and ended up as a reluctant lackey, so my version is more of the scenario where he gets MOTIVATED right away
Instead of becoming waifu he now has to work for his own waifu.
>>5409205
>>5409269
>>5409278
Looking at Themistocles, I think he was completely fine.
Shield NP as his feat of protecting Athens from Persians, fleet NP as part of his Rider's kit and history of naval warfare, the mentioned island could have been turned into fortress given his history of rebuilding and strengthened Athens and unnamed Skill that allowed him to store and give mana looks like part of his fondness for bribes that got him eventually exiled. So a solid scaling enemy that got taken care of rather fast while he was still handicapped by low output Master.

And I think Kiyo is also okay. Fame buff and being highly motivated with her Mad Enhancement finally finding her love is enough to justify stronger than normal kit (Naginata and Bell included potentially). At least in my eyes. But it is question for how long can Ogawara supply her with mana with coins since her NP should be pretty costly given it is dragon related after all (if Bell NP is in, should probably cost less logically speaking).
>>5409362
>>5409524
Since we are in Heaven's Feel timeline, I am assuming it is one of the Darnic's chums from Third War taking another shot at it after getting WORMED by Zouken in FSN's Third.

>>5409580
Bell + Lie detector/torture tendancies could end up like an immolation style Phantom Maiden type NP of sorts. She also has the summer bell + naginata pincushion np to work with.

There also this, which implies some form of weaker dragon core/pseudo dragon themed mana burst or sorts?

>Pursuer of Love: A
>Enhanced Stalking. The summer heat powers up Kiyohime, a.k.a. Kiyohii's internal engine. Howling entrails, accelerated lungs, and a sigh which leaves the scent of nitro in the air. No matter where her target might be, she'll pursue them at super-high speed.

A sort of passive fortification technique formed from yandere heavy breathing + passive dragon form?

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>>5409608
>Mizuri was able to perceive that this person was a girl with white hair, glowing yellow eyes, and dragon-horns on her head.
That's looking like her Stage 3 form as shown in FGO since normal form has different hair color.
And most of her skills already imply she spams fire everywhere if she wants to.
Her ascension lines for Stage 2 and Stage 3 are
>Looks like I'm one step closer to a dragon.
>I seem to have ended up looking like a dragon.
So there is more draconofication involved.
https://fategrandorder.fandom.com/wiki/A_Verse_of_Burning_Love_Story
And FGO also calls her yaksha. And since her NP has Samadhi in its name, that's probably not a thrown away line.
>The naginata is a common practice of maidens... something like the Green Dragon Crescent Blade would be good, wouldn't it?
And that's from her lancer version. She namedrops Guan Yu's weapon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsh%C5%8D
And her Lancer NP names the bell. Which is part of her legend too. And it also carries plenty of symbolic meanings in Buddhism.
There is also a question if she supposed to be able to manifest big white snake familiar or not.

On the question of Class Container granting stats.
That's a normal Berserker container: Str C, End D, Agi D, Mana E, Luck E.
And Kiyo's normal stats are: Str E, End E, Agi C, Mana E, Luck E.
And Kiyo's lancer stats are: Str D, End D, Agi B, Mana E, Luck A+.

That's a lot of details for a character that does not look or shown too impressive in the actual game.

>>5409580
I wasn't referring to Themistocles' powerset potentially being off so much as his personality. Like if someone's a history buff they might throw a red flag from how noble and self-sacrificing I made him act when IRL he may have been more conniving and self-serving. I haven't done a deep dive on that part of ancient history in a while.

Next update is ready, I'm going to try to figure out how to archive this thread before I post the new one though. Stay tuned!

>>5413572
suptg should work

>>5413572
QM 2 Bear 0