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“Rushorou, you should still go to back up Truvietianne. Avenger and I will take care of the Archer.” You say, recommending he stick to his original plan of action.

“Sounds good. I’ll grab some of the gems we found before I go; I recall Edelfelt-san said that she could use them for her spells.” He replied, then glanced at Avenger for a moment before asking you, “Could she teleport us back? Her spell is less flashy than riding in on a lightning-bolt the way Lancer does, and in this case subtlety may be preferable.”

With a nod, you give Avenger the go-ahead. She quickly generated a magic circle wide enough for two people on the floor, then instructed them, “This should take you to the building’s entrance. The spell will activate in 30 seconds, so do step inside quickly.”

“Remember, Kaichou, keepin’ everyone safe is the goal. Not just beatin’ the enemies.” Ryuuta advised his contemporary as the latter finished quickly stuffing about half of the gems from the walk-in freezer into his pockets and moved into the magic circle with his Servant.

“I know the order of priorities, Matsuda.” Rushorou replied aloofly, “And that they’re not mutually exclusive.”

The two then vanished, no doubt sent back to your base to the north. You could see that the remaining young man looked uneasy, so you decide to ask him, “Is something bothering you, Ryuuta?”

“I guess I’m worried Rushorou’s gonna start something he doesn’t need to, because he feels shitty after he got beat up last night.” Matsuda replies apprehensively, “He didn’t want to talk about it much, but it sounded like the Dead Apostle girl and her minions toyed with him and Edelfelt-san when they fought them.”

“I see; that’s probably why he was training all morning.” You reply. You can’t fault him for wanting to shore up his weaknesses after getting outmatched by the enemy, though it seems to have also put him into a less stable emotional state.

“Yeah, pretty much. I kinda get how he feels: no man wants to look weak in front of pretty girls.” Ryuuta replies before accidentally revealing a self-conscious grimace as he notices an amused smirk from Avenger and swiftly changes the subject, “So, you want me and Caster to help fight the Archer?”

You try to find an acceptable compromise between Avenger’s wishes and erring on the side of caution, “Let me and my Servant go on ahead, we’ll fight more effectively alone. You two can follow behind to watch our backs and step in if things get hairy.”

“Alright, but don’t think you can keep all the fun to yourself forever.” Ryuuta quipped playfully as he fastened the crescent spear that he’d picked out onto a bandolier that he’d been wearing across his torso so that he could carry it around on his back and keep both of his hands free.

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“Ready to get a move on, Master? I have a good idea of the Archer’s position now.” Avenger tells you as she flares her wings out. Looking back at the weapon-racks in the walk-in freezer, you see a rather wide selection of larger swords, polearms, and other weapons like maces and warhammers. Earlier you’d picked up a broad-bladed sword that was a bit longer than a dagger; you think it might be called a ‘gladius’, or was at least something similar. It looked suitable for stabbing, hacking, and slashing alike, so you figured it would serve well as a sidearm. Should you pick up something else before you go, or just get a move on? No way of knowing exactly what you’ll need in the battle ahead, but you could always come back later.

> “Just a second, I’ll pick up a bigger weapon before we go.” (What kind of weapon? My description of the selection was intentionally vague so if there’s a melee weapon that you think is cool it’s probably there)
> “Ready to roll.” (You have a sidearm already, you can come back and get something bigger later)

>>5575758
> “Just a second, I’ll pick up a bigger weapon before we go.” (What kind of weapon? My description of the selection was intentionally vague so if there’s a melee weapon that you think is cool it’s probably there)
>Giant hammer/club/mace/kanabo.
Sturdy weapon to take advantage of our strength, endurance and have a tool against possible armored summons.

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>>5575841
Alright, something like this should work.
I'll say it's about 4.5 feet in total length, and has a ring at the bottom of the handle so it can hook into a bandolier and you can carry it around with your hands free in a similar manner to how Matsuda wears his spear.

>>5575758

> “Just a second, I’ll pick up a bigger weapon before we go.” (What kind of weapon? My description of the selection was intentionally vague so if there’s a melee weapon that you think is cool it’s probably there)
>Grab another gladius and a Bardiche axe

Welcome back LSAD

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>>5577960
Glad to be back, though work has kept me unfortunately busy the past couple days.
You see an axe like pic related, but for the sake of brevity I'm going to go with a first-come/first-served weapon choice unless other anons like the axe better. Though when you get back from this outing there's nothing stopping you from trying the axe or something different next time.
Could you also give your reasoning for wanting an extra gladius? I assumed two weapons would be sufficient since Anon only has two hands to wield them with. Is it an extra precaution in case one of the weapons gets sundered or you want to throw one?

>>5578727

Well if it sticks to the Hammer option I'm fine with it I thought I'd see what exactly Is in the weapons rack.

Figured that given our strength and over all enhanced nature I figure the ideal sort of weapon set up would be a two handed weapon alongside two one handed one handed weapons has two different ways to deal with fighting. The big axe/hammer for crowds and the gladiuses for one on one and speeding through

Having another gladius is something of a back up like you're thinking of, but I also figure we're more capable of dual-wielding and wanna get some practice with that in.

>>5579046
It may behoove you to know that Anon is strong enough to use the mace with one hand and wield a gladius in the other if he really wants to. The mace would just be a bit slower and weaker compared to when he uses both hands to swing it around.

Though now that I think about it, taking a third weapon is hardly an issue. As long as you don't do anything ridiculous like try to wield one of the swords in your mouth there shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, I need to actually get writing. Been so damn busy the past couple days.

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>>5579540
>As long as you don't do anything ridiculous like try to wield one of the swords in your mouth there shouldn't be a problem.
Einzbern Third Style: Three Feels of Heavenly Cups

“Just a second, I’ll pick up a bigger weapon before we go.” You answer, assuming that there’s a decent chance you might run into a few of Rider’s warriors or something similar when you’re out. Looking back at the weapons, a couple of them stick out to you. There are some are polearm-type axes that look promising, as well as some longer swords. Though one of the ‘swords’ looks less like a sword and more like a roughly-hewn block of iron with a handle at the end; you estimate that it would be so heavy that you’d have a rather difficult time controlling it, especially since it would throw your center of mass completely off from where your feet could maintain balance, regardless of what kind of stance you took. In the end, you settle for a large, flanged mace about four and a half feet in total length, with a ring near the handle that you could use to hook onto a sash or bandolier to carry it around when you’re not using it in battle.

Intrigued by your choice, Ryuuta remarks, “That’s a pretty gnarly-lookin’ mace, big guy. You able to swing it around no problem?”

Swiping it through the empty air a few times, you answer, “Yeah: it’s heavy, but not impractical. The 7-foot meat-cleaver on the other hand would have been tough even for me to use.”

“Yeah, maybe that one was left as a joke or something.” He mused.

As you’re about to leave the freezer, a second short sword catches your eye, and you decide to pick it up and fasten its scabbard to your belt, commenting, “Suppose it couldn’t hurt to take another one.”

“To wield with your third hand?” Caster chuckled in light mockery, meriting an unamused frown from you. More seriously, he then said, “As you ought to make haste, I’m afraid I won’t have time to put the kind of permanent enchantments in place that you mentioned you’d wanted from me earlier this afternoon; however, I could quickly fortify them so that they would affect damage against immaterial opponents for the next half hour or so if you’d like.”

Your frown softening as the wizened Servant offered to be genuinely supportive, you reply, “That sounds most helpful, thank you Caster.”

Waving his staff over you, you see several green letters (or perhaps runes?) that you don’t recognize flash into existence, spinning around your weapons in rings before collapsing onto them. Wiping his forehead, Caster announced, “There we are: as it is now, getting cracked on the head with that mace would prove rather uncomfortable for yours truly or Miss Avenger.”

“What a silly hypothetical.” Your Servant muttered while rolling her eyes, before tapping your shoulder and telling you, “I’ll recast the spell to reduce the effects of gravity on you, Master. It’ll save us some time in repositioning, so just follow me out the window. The Archer’s riding in from the west, so we’ll head that way while concealing our approach with the buildings.”

It seems she wants to get ahead of Caster and Matsuda; well, you expected as much. Wishing the two of them good luck as you go, Avenger and you hop out of the restaurant and back through the urban canyons. Following your Servant’s lead as you head in a westerly direction for a while, she eventually stops and informs you, “Taking Caster’s wards into account, we’ll soon be close enough to detect each other’s presence normally; let’s settle on a plan to dispose of that Archer before we engage.”

“Good thinking, where do you want to start?” You ask.

Avenger takes a deep breath as a prelude to her lecture before telling you, “First, you may recall that Archer is one of the classes that has Magic Resistance. While that skill can protect them from my direct attacks, it’s not absolute. The most obvious counter is to simply blast through it with my more powerful spells, which should work so long as their Resistance is ranked lower than A. If it’s A-ranked, then it’ll probably be more efficient to work around it: focusing on attacking indirectly by augmenting the abilities of my familiars. If they’re particularly stubborn we could disengage temporarily and use my Baleful Pharmakeia to amplify the familiars’ strength further. If that’s not working, we can activate my sun-related Hougu to disorient them and unseal my divinity to help pierce through the resistance. And in the worst case, we can just kill the Master and wait for the Servant to burn away their magical energy.”

Interesting, this is the first you’re hearing about Avenger sealing her divinity away, though that’s hardly the most pressing issue. You reply, “Barring exceptional circumstances, those tactics should be sound. Though if we decide to attack the Archer in close quarters to throw them off their game, how would we close the distance?”

“As long as I know where the Archer is, and they’ve been so kind as to move along the rooftops, I could teleport right next to them if I so deigned.” She answers you smugly, before preemptively answering an obvious question, “And before you ask how I know his position, I can temporarily detach my senses from my body to view things remotely. If the phrase ‘witches flying on broomsticks’ rings a bell to you, this ability was the spiritual origin of it.”

“Is that dangerous?” You ask, recalling that Servants have etheric bodies. The finer rules of all this is somewhat hard to keep track of, but you’d expect splitting her soul or whatever she’s doing could leave her at risk of taking heavy damage if the enemy has countermeasures.

“Only if you don’t know what you’re doing and your opponent does, which in my case is a moot concern. Now then, how to best enter battle…” Avenger answers to assuage your worry, before planting her staff in front of her and leaning on it as she thinks.

You have a lot of options to kick things off, what sounds like a good idea to you?

> Probe the Magic Resistance by seeing how it holds up against a barrage of indirect fire, like what you did against the ships yesterday.
> Teleport some familiars in close to cover your approach, and focus on overrunning the Archer by enhancing the beasts’ abilities with magic.
> Send some beasts toward the Archer as a diversion before teleporting Avenger and yourself near him for a pincer attack.
> Ask Avenger if she can rig up capsules that would explode after teleporting, then fill them with pressurized poison gas before sending them at the target. Since the target is still fairly far away, you shouldn’t be at risk of it backfiring.
> Something different (write-in)

>>5580741

> Ask Avenger if she can rig up capsules that would explode after teleporting, then fill them with pressurized poison gas before sending them at the target. Since the target is still fairly far away, you shouldn’t be at risk of it backfiring.
>Something different (write-in): See if you can guide Archer into a tight area and box him in via bringing buildings down via bombardment, if he is with his Master it's prudent to trap them in somewhere before putting them down or forcing a surrender via terrifying the Master into giving up

If Archer survives the bombardments we send and the falling rubble the gas is bound to get him. And if that doesn't work the gas will be a threat for the master within a confined space full of magic toxic gas.

>>5580741
Supporting >>5581082. War crimes are the key to winning a grail war.

>>5580741
>>5581082
+1
Avenger will have fun with this one

>>5581082
Ok I think the process will be
> Make the gas capsules ahead of time
> Start attacking with magic artillery to try to force the Archer into a tight area
> Teleport the poison gas once the Archer is immobilized
Or did you want to teleport the gas and fire the mortars simultaneously?

>>5581548

Sounds like you got it right LSAD

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“Could you create potion-vials that are rigged to explode after being teleported?” You suggest as you formulate a plan.

“I suppose so, why do you ask?” Avenger says as she straightens her back and looks up at you.

“Then do that, and fill them with pressurized poison gas.” You say, arguing, “If we teleport them far enough away, there’s no chance of it backfiring on us.”

“Where are you going with this, Master?” She asks.

“Use the same type of bombardment attack as yesterday to bring the buildings down and force the Archer into an enclosed space, then once he’s bogged down teleport the poison gas around him to finish him off.” You answer, “We may end up eliminating the Master or forcing their surrender if he’s present.”

“That won’t happen: though there are small groups of Rider’s scouts scattered about the area, the Archer is riding alone.” Your Servant replies as she begins creating several sealed vials filled with a purple gas, before continuing in a tone that you could mistake for talking down to you, “To be expected, since the Archer’s Master could just hide away with Aka no Rider and his Master while taking advantage of his Archer’s ‘Independent Action’ skill. It lets them operate at a distance from their Master with no disadvantage.”

“Well, the plan doesn’t need to change.” You respond, keeping an even tone. You didn’t recall anyone telling you about an ‘Independent Action’ skill before now, but whatever. “Just blow up the rooftops that the Archer’s running across and finish him with the poison gas once his mount loses its footing.”

Creating over a dozen magic circles that you recognize from yesterday with a wave of her staff, Avenger smiles as she replies, “This should be interesting! I may need to briefly pause to ascertain his position here and there, but that shouldn’t give much of a reprieve.”

The magic circles spun and hummed for a few seconds, before repeatedly launching the light blue energy attacks visually reminiscent to comets into parabolic trajectories in a staggered rhythm, such that each one would have its already short cooldown time covered by several others. Though you couldn’t see the target area (you’d opted for indirect fire to maintain concealment), you could hear a cascade of explosions breaking out in the direction the mortars. After about thirty seconds, Avenger paused momentarily to reevaluate the enemy’s position, betraying a hint of irritation before firing for another stretch of thirty seconds again, this time with even greater intensity. At the end of that volley, she ceased fire again to check the Archer’s status, and her reaction to what she saw got you a little worried.

“How? How is he still coming?!” Avenger spat in consternation, creating several more magic circles and opening fire again with redoubled fervor.

Hazarding a look yourself, you use the lingering effect from your Servant’s gravity-reduction spell to hop high enough into the air to peer over the nearest building and view the path of the mortars. Surprising you is the fact that several of them appear to be prematurely detonating mid-air, prompting you to think aloud, “Is he destroying some of the mortars before they land by intercepting them with arrows?”

“I’m using some of the gas early to buy time and make the route he’s taking toward us impassable.” Avenger informs you as she begins teleporting a few of the potion capsules away. You faintly hear explosions in the direction of the Archer and see purple gas clouds begin to spread out about half a mile away from you.

Avenger resumed her bombardment after a brief pause, presumably to confirm the Archer’s position and direction of travel again. Suddenly a roar began echoing through the city centered on what you suspected was the Archer’s position. Shocking both of you, it was as though both a man and a woman were screaming a cry of bloodlust together; then again, you wouldn’t exactly consider the masculine component a man’s, as that would be underselling the gravity of its menace. You wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in the city had been able to hear it loud and clear.

With noticeably less volume, you then heard the feminine component alone cry out over the sounds of the exploding mortars, “Charge forth, warriors of Aethiopia! Fear not death, for the hour of your doom has long since passed!” That order was followed by a few invigorated cheers and war cries from the Archer’s general area.

“It seems ‘he’ was actually a ‘she’; one of Ares’ daughters at that.” Avenger grumbles as she teleports a couple more gas capsules away, “It would explain the level of horsemanship she’s maintaining in these circumstances.”

Relieved that your Servant is able to recognize your opponent, you ask, “What do you know about the daughters of Ares?”

“The explanation can wait.” She tersely replied, irked at her opponents tenacity, “She keeps evading or destroying the mortars and circling around the areas I gas. At this rate it won’t be long before we’re in her line of sight, though we do have time to teleport further away if we want to reposition. She’s not totally unscathed, so I think her Magic Resistance is low enough that we could win by attrition at this rate.”

The idea of defeating a horse-archer with hit and run tactics strikes you as having some poetic irony; though part of you feels as though resorting to running away from the same woman twice might leave a bad taste in your mouth. Avenger has options if you decide to stand your ground, but she seemed to favor relocating.

How do you want to proceed:

> Tell Avenger to teleport the two of you some distance away (specify which direction and how far, between one and two miles would probably be good for distance but it’s up to you), then once you’ve relocated have her make some more gas capsules before you open fire again to grind down your enemy.
> Stay on the street and hold your ground; tell Avenger to focus on direct attacks against the Archer. You can deal with any scouts that follow her in.
> Tell Avenger to summon some of her beasts, enhance their combat power with her spells, and then meet the enemy head-on. You’ll make this Archer regret rushing into close quarters.
> Something different (write-in)

Amazons, huh? Sounds like a war-bride to me.
>>5583136
> Tell Avenger to teleport the two of you some distance away (south, one mile).
> Tell Avenger to summon some of her beasts, enhance their combat power with her spells, and send them meet the enemy head-on and teleport few of them to attack enemy from behind as well.
> Tell Avenger to teleport the two of you some distance away (south, one mile again), then once you’ve relocated have her fire another round off bombardment attack but this time make effect more like shrapnel to hit bogged down enemies.
It this plausible, LSAD QM? Slow and bog down our enemies and hit them anti-infantry/cavalry type of spell to thin their numbers and potentially dismount them.

And I picked south and two teleports because of
>between one and two miles would probably be good for distance but it’s up to you
and map in >>5575753
Going further south should give her thrill of the hunt about chasing us all while going further in our territory and suffering attrition from our attacks and potentially loosing mobility within range of our attacks making it harder to avoid them or retreat.

>>5583191
I don't think Avenger would be able to sustain the buffs to her familiars from a distance and fire a new kind of energy mortar simultaneously, but other than that she could probably manage it. Although at first she'd be experimenting on the best method of crafting an attack that's up to your specification, since it wouldn't occur to her to make something like that before you suggest it.
Also worth considering is her supply of minions, while large, is still finite, and they took some casualties when you fought the other day. If you could give a general estimate on how many you'd want to deploy that would be helpful (you may recall there are four different types: boar, lion, hound, and cock rooster). If your memory is fuzzy on their relative abilities Avenger described them toward the end of thread 2.

>>5583216
Have it be lions to make Rider's troops and Archer show them respect and consider them a worthy fight.
If she needs a bit more time and not to overextend herself: first teleport is not required.
Buffed beasts bog down our enemies and give her time to consider how to approach that kind of spell. And after supporting beats is no longer needed, we just teleport away and unleash that bombardment and now more exhausted enemy.

>>5583136
>Tell Avenger to summon some of her beasts, enhance their combat power with her spells, and send them to meet the enemy head-on.
>Tell Avenger to teleport the two of you some distance away (west, two miles), then once you’ve relocated have her open fire again to grind down your enemy.
Summon some familiars and wait till Archer's unit thins out the herd, then flank the enemy and start bombarding. Archer will have to leave a few minions behind to deal with whatever's left there, and she'll waste precious moments turning around while Avenger lays into them.
>>5583216
Is that viable?

>>5583227
If you want the buffed lions to do some damage and buy time for Avenger to work out the new spell, then toggle off the buffs when you reposition and open fire, that should be doable though now that I committed to this level of detail it's on me to nail down baseline stats for each type of minion in a way that's consistent with their performance in battle so far, and give you concrete population numbers to work with by the time Anon gets around to asking Avenger how many she has.
>>5583233
I think your plan is very similar to his >>5583227 revised plan if my interpretation above is correct, aside from where you decide to teleport to. It would be viable.

If I get a direction for when you teleport I could probably start writing. Seems to be a tossup between two miles west and one mile south.
I'll do a 1d2 roll later tonight if there's no clear preference.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

1: 1 mile south
2: 2 miles west
Alea iacta est

“Can you modify the composition of the projectiles you’re firing to have them explode with shrapnel?” You ask, hoping to improve the lethality of Avenger’s attacks.

“Hmm…” She mumbled as she thought for a few seconds, then answered, “It would take me a minute or so to work out how best to alter the spell, but I could do it.”

“Alright, summon some of your lions and enhance their abilities with your magic to buy time and wear out the enemy forces.” You order, “When you have the new spell worked out we’ll teleport two miles west before opening fire again.”

“Will do.” She replies with a nod, then muses, “We’ll end up fairly close to the park where we fought Aka no Rider yesterday, funny that.”

While still firing her energy mortars, Avenger summoned twelve lions and cast spells before sending them toward the Archer. You wipe a few beads of sweat from your forehead and remind yourself that it’s just your body heating up from its magic circuits being active for a while, nothing to worry about. You understand how to use your power today better than you did yesterday, so you won’t be burning yourself out anytime soon. Though you do find yourself wishing you’d thought to bring a bottle of cold water.

“Can you teleport about half of the lions behind them so they have to defend from multiple fronts?” You ask, remembering the Archer was able to quickly dispatch the boar you sent yesterday.

Summoning twelve more lions, Avenger replied as she enhanced their physical abilities, “I’ll do that with this next wave.”

“Excellent, thank you.” You affirm as she teleports that set of twelve out and dials back the volume of fire from her bombardment by about a factor of two, you suppose to save energy and reduce the chance of killing her own familiars.

After summoning a third wave of twelve lions and sending them straight in, Avenger points to a nearby shop with one of her wings and tells you, “Let’s step inside there, Master. The lions are thinning out Rider’s scouts well enough, but the Amazon is still eviscerating them despite the way I amplified their physical abilities. I would prefer she didn’t break through and start attacking you directly before I finish working out the new spell.”

Going inside, you wait with her there for about half a minute before she creates a teleportation circle on the floor and informs you, “The new spell’s ready: time to move, Master.”

Stepping into the circle, you immediately find yourself standing on a road next to your Servant, slightly disoriented by the instantaneous transition. It may take some getting used to. Glancing behind, the park with the leylines you visited yesterday is visible in the distance, though there’s no sign of Aka no Rider from what you can tell. As Avenger sets up her grid of magic circles, you notice that the circles themselves look a little different from the ones she’d created to fire her spells, signifying their altered nature. When she opened fire this was confirmed, as the projectiles, though superficially similar to the earlier comet-like ones, appeared to have a core of ice-like crystals. You reason that to the conclusion Avenger came to was to make the projectiles hold a material that was set to violently shatter, rather than just being directed energy primed to explode on contact. It was beautiful in a way, as the new mortars had tiny, glittering shards of snowy dust trail behind them as they soared into the sky.

This new attack was maintained for about two minutes, after which Avenger briefly halted her attack to confirm her opponent’s status, noting, “She opted to dismount, eh? Fool.”

“The Archer’s making closing the distance to us harder on herself; would it be to keep her horse in good shape for future battles?” You hypothesize.

“Probably, but that’s going to be why she loses. Someone half-assing it to save resources for later is never going to defeat me.” Avenger proudly announces, before smiling at you and paraphrasing her earlier declaration, “Defeat us.”

“I think you’re right.” You contentedly say, pleased with your Servant at how things are progressing. You almost feel sorry for the other Masters, as the vast majority of them won’t both have a near-inexhaustible supply of magical energy by default and a Servant as versatile as yours, who can lay waste to a massive area while slowly chipping away at the enemy. Almost. “Is she starting run out of steam?”

“Yes: she started using the buildings to take cover against my shrapnel-filled attacks, since they don’t have as much explosive power. Buuuuuut, switching about half of them back to the original version will turn her shelter into a coffin.” Avenger answers with a smug grin, “Before long I’ll send the rest of the poison gas in, when she’ll be too off-balanced to avoid exposure. At that point it will be a simple matter to-!”

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

ZIP

It happened faster than your mind could keep up. A Servant’s presence appeared on the roof of a building about a kilometer to the north. Avenger turned to face the sudden appearance. Something zipped through the air. Avenger clutched her right side with her free hand. You hear the sound of rifle-fire ring out. Avenger flies into you, pushing you to the ground as several more bullets zip through the air. You hear something that sounds like a cannon firing from the roof of the building to the north. A Servant bursts toward you, explosively landing on the road about ten yards from you and Avenger, cratering it a few inches as she makes contact. You see your Servant’s blood begin to stain your clothes as she grimaces in pain from the leaking bullet-wounds in her right side and shoulder. She leans on her staff as she rises to her feet and faces the new arrival.

“Greetings, you two.” You hear a short, blonde girl in a red dress with white and black frills chirp as the dust begins to settle. You recognize her as Kuro no Berserker, and see that she’s aiming a machine-pistol from the hip at you. Eyeing Avenger, she warns, “No sudden moves or parlor tricks, if you value your Master’s well-being. Let’s talk for a short while, I’ve become curious about the person who’s acted like an artillery officer the past couple days.”

“Gunfire is a rather ill-mannered greeting. And as much as we’d love to humor your curiosity, we were in the middle of something here.” You gruffly reply as you slowly rise to your feet, your eyes darting from the barrel of the firearm trained on you to the bleeding wound in Avenger’s side that she’s gripping uncomfortably. Your Servant had also deactivated the magic circles that she’d been using to fire on the Archer, presumably to make the Berserker less likely to shoot you out of the blue (and since they’d be dangerous to use at point-blank range anyway). You shift your stance a little bit and prepare to use your reinforcement spell, in case you need to dive away from the path of bullets.

“That is of little consequence.” Kuro no Berserker said dismissively, before raising her voice and loudly announcing, “The Archer will no doubt push forward after catching her breath, rather than slink away like a faint-hearted wench!”

“I can stabilize my wounds without her noticing; let’s stall briefly.” You hear Avenger tell you through telepathy, before saying aloud, “Well then, what do you want us to talk about, little girl?”

Narrowing her eyes, the Berserker replied, “I don’t understand why, yet for some reason I can’t shake a feeling of déjà vu when I see you, witch.”

“I’m afraid that’s really outside my control.” Avenger replied sardonically, “As is the feeling of weary distaste I get from looking at you.” Something about the way she was talking gave you the impression that your Servant knew more than she was letting on, however. Something’s going on, and you’re not in the loop. Though when you think of it like that, you remember that’s to be expected in your situation.

“Classy.” The Berserker flatly remarked, displeased at Avenger’s insult but refraining from escalating. Directing her next query to you, she asks, “I can tell there’s something unusual about you, would you happen to be the brains behind this operation?”

“I wouldn’t put it like that, but the indirect fire tactic was my idea if that’s what you’re asking.” You reply, irritated at her for interrupting your battle, wounding Avenger, and threatening you at gunpoint this whole time, “What do you care?”

“Don’t think too hard about it, t’was but a sentimental indulgence.” She replied condescendingly, “Circumstances have made us foes, but we may have enjoyed each other’s company had things been different. A pity.”

“Well if you want to go and finish off the Archer you won’t hear any complaints from me.” You say, half in jest.

“Haha!” Kuro no Berserker chuckled before immediately shifting into a completely serious tone, “Do you really think I’ll let one of the more powerful Servants in the war off the hook when I have a clear advantage?”

Startling all three of you, the Archer’s Roar of the War God begins echoing through the city again. Taking advantage of the distraction, Avenger simultaneously creates an ice-wall between you and Kuro no Berserker and conjures a foggy cloud, before grabbing your hand and pulling you through an alleyway over the sounds of the girl’s machine-pistol firing behind you.

“Get back here, you cowards!” You hear the Berserker shout in irritation, and you can hear the buildings behind you begin to shatter from her seemingly random attacks as she tries to chase you down. Yeah, you weren’t keen on fighting something like that in close quarters. Reinforcing yourself, you find that you can easily keep pace with Avenger, though this would imply that she’s been slowed down a fair bit from her normal state.

As you exit the alleyway and move into another open street, you ask your Servant, “How are your wounds?”

“I can muddle through for now, and heal them when we’re in the clear for half a minute.” She answers hurriedly. Looking at her wounds, the bleeding hasn’t completely subsided, but you suppose that’s largely because she suddenly started running with you.

Unfortunately, it seems that both Kuro no Berserker and the ‘Amazon’ Archer as Avenger called her were keen on chasing you down now. You have a bit of a lead and the Archer has been slowed down, but if the Berserker propels herself around like an artillery shell again it won’t be long before she catches up with you.

How will you deal with this:
> Kuro no Berserker only got the upper hand because of a sneak attack; now that you have a little distance and know she’s coming there’s nothing to be afraid of. Avenger should be able to crush her before the Archer even arrives.
> Same as above, but unshoulder your mace and help Avenger fight.
> Take cover somewhere and teleport to a new position (indicate distance and direction from current position), let Avenger heal herself before raining down vengeance on your pursuers. It may be a little one-note, but as long as you keep an eye out for external interference you should be alright.
> Just bail and teleport back to the territory Caster had established to the east. You can regroup and work out a new plan once things simmer down.
> Something different (write-in)

Bratty kraut
She is just asking for a Trench Sweeper in her face
>Narrowing her eyes, the Berserker replied, “I don’t understand why, yet for some reason I can’t shake a feeling of déjà vu when I see you, witch.”
So we are in actual time loop with City Akeldama/Awakening Mirror?
>>5588345
>Tell Avenger you would prefer to turn it into 2 vs 2 by getting Caster involved and taking advantage of his temporal buff and using Archer's thrill of the hunt of and Berserker's nature against them
>You would want her to heal herself as fast as possible while making potshots at both of them as you and her retreat towards Caster, making your pursuers think they have you cornered and rush in blindly
>Exact method is up to her be it few teleports in-between to get window to heal and shoot, smoke screens to drive attention, sreening with few beasts etc
>Tell her after reuniting with Caster you plan for them to strike as a team to deal a decisive blow against your surprised pursuers using their confusion and her full power
A combination of 3 and 4 default options but with a bit of flavor of "appear weak when you are strong", mongol's style of feigned retreat, defense in depth and deep battle.
With Archer consumed by chase and this being close to the historical weakness of Berserker (who is further weakened by Berserker being a high maintenance Servant) this method should bear results.

>>5588345
I'll support >>5588388. And that brat needs immediate d-day correction.
Did Judas summon himself in Akeldama, causing a double Akeldama recursion? Will we have to fight all the Servants we skip in this level of reality?

>>5588388
>>Narrowing her eyes, the Berserker replied, “I don’t understand why, yet for some reason I can’t shake a feeling of déjà vu when I see you, witch.”
>So we are in actual time loop with City Akeldama/Awakening Mirror?
The most I will confirm is that there's more to that line than a cheeky reference.
>>5588502
>Did Judas summon himself in Akeldama, causing a double Akeldama recursion?
He would have needed to cheese FGO's Friend Support mechanic to have two copies of himself at once. I wonder how the Animuspheres are doing...

You seem to have a plan already so I can start working on the update.

My update rate is going to be unfortunately slow for a while, due to IRL obligations.
I don't plan on dropping the project.
You are now notified.

>>5591933
its fine

You know seeing this back does make me wanna try my own hand at a Fate quest. But it's something I can never really figure out a proper jump off point for the ol Grail War proper and also worry how to balance the damn thing

But that aside I did have a thought of something from the last threads. Given that we do have the doubled up Ether attributes what's the likelihood that Gaia itself had a little hand in this? Since Ether is rare enough and TRUE Ether is just bullshit if you tell a Mage that you have it. So my bets are on Gaian influence in us

>>5596204
>You know seeing this back does make me wanna try my own hand at a Fate quest.
I think if you really want to run a Fate quest you should go for it.
>But it's something I can never really figure out a proper jump off point for the ol Grail War proper
As long as you establish whom players play at and why he is taking part in Grail War it should be fine.
>how to balance the damn thing
Having all Servant-Master pairs be are around equal strength and have them react to player's action like forming alliances of their own could balance out player's action quite well.
>So my bets are on Gaian influence in us
Could be the case going by wiki
>A perfect homunculus is essentially a man-made artificial extension of nature that, external factors aside, will not die for as long as the planet is healthy and has mana left

As you run from the diminutive Berserker, you tell Avenger, “First priority is to get you healed, and then we’ll lure them back into Caster’s territory where he can keep one of them at bay so we don’t get overrun. How we get there is up to you.”

Your Servant hastily replied as she ran, “Good enough for a plan, I just need to concentrate for-”

Interrupting her, Kuro no Berserker loudly burst through a building and onto the road behind you. As the two of you glanced back in surprise, you saw the small girl punch one of the abandoned cars that were littering the street, causing the vehicle to explode into a cloud of shrapnel headed toward you. Hastily reinforcing your body and covering most of your face and neck with your arms, you manage to shrug off the bits of metal and glass that hit you, with only a few pieces cutting into you as they flew by or stuck into your back. You decide now’s as good a time as any to unshoulder your mace.

Lifting a van overhead, Kuro no Berserker shouts, “I’ll grind you into dust!” before hurling it directly at you. Avenger shoots a beam of light at it that shaves half of the vehicle off and reduces its momentum, but since the part containing the engine-block is still hurtling at you, you slam your mace onto it in an overhead strike to stop it from crushing you. As the mace makes contact with the van, the sheer difference in mass causes you to be pushed back, but you’re able to maintain your balance. Your arms can feel reverberations down to the bones, but you’re otherwise unharmed.

“Master?!” You hear Avenger shout in concern.

“I’m alright! I can handle some rubble.” You answer as you begin running again, prompting her to follow, “Just focus on healing yourself.”

“Can’t do that if she’s not giving us any room to breathe!” Your Servant replies as she blasts asunder another car with several beams of light as she goes, this time keeping pace a little behind you to be better ready to respond to incoming attacks.

Having gained on you, the Berserker took aim with her machine-pistol and laughed, “Still running, eh? Guess I’ll have to mangle your legs!”

“Enough!” Avenger shouted, slamming her staff into the ground and causing the earth to rise as a barrier, blocking the incoming bullets. She then created over a dozen magic circles hovering above the barrier and started shooting light-beams and fireballs blindly over it to suppress her opponent’s advance. Pausing for a moment to look for a route that would offer enough concealment to buy time for Avenger to teleport the two of you to relative safety, you spot a set of stairs that lead to the entrance to a basement-level night-club. Seems as good a place as any.

Informing your Servant telepathically of your find, you say, “If you could make another obscuring mist, I can lead us to a spot where you can teleport us to safety.”

After a couple seconds, you see a new fog cloud begin to rise around the area, and this time Avenger infused her presence all throughout it to make her movements harder to track, irking the Berserker again. At this point you’re beginning to feel a little fatigued from all of your Servant’s spellcasting, but you wordlessly grab her hand and lead her down the steps. Finding the door to the nightclub locked, you grit your teeth at the unexpected obstacle before swiftly kicking it in and leading Avenger inside, where she begins forming the teleportation circle.

Stepping into the circle, you hear Kuro no Berserker rush into the room while firing her machine-pistol wildly to try to kill you before you can escape. As you sprawl onto the floor, one of the bullets skims across your scalp before the teleportation commences. Finding yourself on an unfamiliar street, you pat your head where the bullet shot past you and notice that you’re bleeding as you stand up.

“Master, take this.” Avenger says as she hands you a potion and makes one for herself, “That was a little close for comfort; I’ve moved us about halfway back to Caster’s territory.”

“I see, good thinking. We should try to bait them into a reckless pursuit with a few probing attacks to get them into Caster’s territory. They both seemed pretty keen on chasing us down anyway.” You say before drinking the potion. Feeling the lingering pain from the injuries on your head, arms, and back subside, you remark, “Wow, this works quickly!”

“It should, your wounds weren’t very deep.” Your Servant says, commending you, “Good work reinforcing yourself to mitigate the damage.”

“Thank you, and again for preparing the healing potion so quickly.” You reply gratefully.

“It’s my job, but I appreciate your gratitude.” She replies modestly, then inquires, “How are you feeling?”

“We can keep fighting for a while yet, though I think we should reposition into Caster’s territory once they start coming after us.” You say, then take a deep breath to calm your body down; its temperature had gone up some from the earlier action. After doing so you remembered that you could probably absorb some mana from the air if you found the time, which should let you further bolster your stamina.

“That may not be strictly necessary: those two clearly weren’t allied prior to this, so I doubt they’ll join forces as seamlessly as you seem to imagine they-….” Avenger begins to respond, then displays a surprised expression and concedes, “Well I’ll be.”

“What happened?” You ask, before trying to sense out their positions since you had a general idea of where to look. Getting a feeling of it, you estimate, “They appear pretty close to each other now; maybe they’re getting acquainted.”

“I supposed their personalities would have violently clashed had they done so, but for some reason they haven’t.” Your Servant replied, a bit puzzled, “Most curious.”

“A little encouragement should be enough to get them moving.” You suggest.

Generating her magic circles again, Avenger answered, “Way ahead of you.” before firing several salvos of mortars, using both the original type and the ice-filled shrapnel version. After about 20 seconds, she creates a teleportation circle and steps into it. Halting her fire, she invites you to step inside as well, which you promptly do.

Appearing in a more familiar area, you note, “No one seems to be here.”

“Caster’s probably not far from here, but his wards dampen our ability to detect nearby Servants.” Avenger said, before grumbling, “Hmph, it seems he only made an exception for himself so far.”

“Can you find him?” You ask, “I’d like to link up with them before we resume our battle.”

“Yes yes, just a sec-,” She replies, before blurting out in consternation, “Oh what the hell?”

“Something happened?” You say.

“Talk about anti-climactic, those two went into spirit form and ran off!” Avenger informed you.

“What? That doesn’t make sense; both of them clearly wanted us dead.” You say, speculating, “Maybe one of their Masters talked them down, can you look over there?”

“Hmm, there don’t seem to be any traces.” Avenger replies after a few seconds, “We should go back and have some hounds sniff about, I can have the remaining lions from earlier go there too; they ought to have finished wiping out the rank and file trash. Oh.”

“Oh?” You ask, concerned at (based on her tone) the apparent oversight your Servant was now noticing.

“Remember how Caster and his Master planned on following behind us?” She reminds you, her wings drooping as you begin to get a sinking feeling in your gut, “It appears they lost track of where went after we teleported the first time and accidentally ran into a couple of the lions.”

“When did THAT happen?” You snap reflexively, not that you wanted to berate Avenger but the risk of damaging your partnership with the other Masters if you don’t patch this up right away made you talk more quickly than you could think.

“A minute or two ago. If you recall we’ve been rather busy recently; I can’t micromanage the actions of a dozen familiars over a mile away while fighting in close quarters!” Avenger snapped back, before pouting, “The two of them are alright, it’s not like there was any real harm done.”

“I’d like to hear that from them.” You say, before taking a deep breath to cool your head and asking, “You called the rest of the beasts off?”

“The other ten are patrolling the area elsewhere. I can give them a stand-down order and dismiss them if you’re worried about it.” She replied. Suddenly, you begin hear quite a racket from the north. Buildings being damaged or destroyed, gunfire faintly ringing out. Could very well be the battle Rushorou went back to base for, though if it’s escalating like this they might appreciate some extra assistance.

“We may want to deal with that.” Avenger suggests.

> “Dismiss the lions: we’re going to check on Ryuuta and Caster to quickly clear things up before we move on.”
> “Send the lions to the last known location of Kuro no Berserker and the Archer; we’ll go there too and try to track one of them down.”
> “Our base could be under attack, we’ll go there right away. Dismiss the lions so they don’t attack Ryuuta and Caster in the meantime.”
> Something else (write-in)

Finally managed to get this out, so damn busy this past week.

>>5599384
How odd.
> “Dismiss the lions: we’re going to check on Ryuuta and Caster to quickly clear things up before we move on.”

>>5599384
>“Dismiss the lions: we’re going to check on Ryuuta and Caster to quickly clear things up before we move on.”

>>5599870
>>5600786
Patching up a potential misunderstanding it is

So I kind of split my writing-time three ways between the next update and two interludes (because they all happen almost simultaneously). In other words, I'll be putting SOMETHING on the board tonight or tomorrow.

>>5596204
I neglected to say anything to this earlier, but your theorizing is on a good track.

You don’t want people to start getting the wrong idea about you: you obviously aren’t going to betray the people you’ve decided to partner with out of the blue. However, the way your Servant’s beasts fight could have given Matsuda and his Servant the wrong impression. Addressing Avenger, you say, “Dismiss the lions: we’re going to check on Ryuuta and Caster to quickly clear things up before we move on.”

Waving her staff in the air and generating a magic circle on the ground, she replies, “Alright, it’s done. I’ll take us there now.”

“Hmm?” Caster of Black hummed as he noticed the two of you teleport onto the street near him, then stepped between you and his Master, who was fighting one of the soldiers from Aka no Rider’s army. Although, just as you arrived Ryuuta broke through his opponent’s guard and ran him through the heart with his crescent spear.

You were able to hear the impaled warrior gasp out while not dropping his own spear, “I return to my brothers, this time without shame… farewell ….”

“Farewell, Phineas.” Ryuuta sighed as his enemy fell lifelessly onto the ground. Stooping down, the young man took a few moments to honor the fallen warrior’s body, placing his shield over his chest and leaving his spear in his hand.

“I see you’ve returned; surprised to see us in piece?” Caster asked amiably, though that was in evident contrast to the insinuation in his question.

“Hardly.” Avenger answered, crossing her arms and rebutting the implication, “I know that you could have easily avoided those lions had you elected to do so, Caster.”

“Avenger this isn’t really the time…” You reply, initially to rebuke her for making such an accusation, but your tone softens as you recall that there’s actually no reason Caster should have been taken off guard when he’s apparently had aerial surveillance this whole time. Addressing Caster and Ryuuta, you explain, “We didn’t mean for her beasts to attack you, they just don’t distinguish friend from foe very well. Are you two alright?”

“We fended for ourselves well enough, though I don’t quite remember you warning us against getting close to them.” Caster said while eyeing you with suspicion. In a shift to a gentler mood, he then shrugged and added rhetorically, “Perhaps my memory’s gotten a little spotty with age?”

“Who do you think you’re fooling?” Avenger mumbled, though not loudly vocalizing her objection. She added telepathically to you, “I find it extremely unlikely that he ran into those lions by bad luck or careless negligence. I have a couple theories as to why he did what he did; we can talk more about it later.”

“I think they mentioned it earlier, but those lions’ bloodlust still surprised me.” Ryuuta said as he sat down onto a curb and watched as the blood on his spear began to dematerialize. “Got a bit hairy for a minute.”

Unsure if he was intentionally making a pun of some sort, you reassure him, “We’ll be careful about when we use those beasts going forward; it sounded like there might be trouble at our base even after-”

Cutting you off, it suddenly feels as though the air suddenly thickened and gravity increased slightly. Looking to the north, the four of you see a large pillar begin to rise toward the skyline, before being swung through some buildings.

“That must be Sun Wukong’s staff, Ruyi Jingu Bang!” Ryuuta shouts in excitement, but then soberly adds, “Never envied anyone on the business end of it.”

“You seem to admire him, Master.” Caster remarked with interest.

“Well yeah, a lot of people do.” Ryuuta responded, “Basically everyone in Japan’s heard of his legend in Journey to the West, though I liked him before he met Sanzang too.” Adding a bit of gravity to his tone, he continued, “He didn’t take shit from anyone, and no one could push him around before the entire heavenly realm ganged up on him.”

You recall the delinquent was actually fairly knowledgeable on that legend, and briefly consider asking him how Wukong was defeated, but remember that there’s a good chance Wukong could reduce your base and the entire surrounding area to rubble in no time.

What do you want to do:

> Teleport back to your base to the north and focus on securing the area.
> Teleport back to your base to the north and focus on evacuating Koko, Suzaku, and Jen to the area Caster established as his territory.
> Either of the above, but ask Ryuuta how Wukong was defeated before you go to think of something here.
> Call Truvietianne with the crystal ahead of time to learn more about the situation before proceeding.
> Something different (write-in)

Interlude: On the pride of a Kshatriya

Adachi Ward, north of the river

“Your trickery kept you in the fight longer than expected, Archer of Red. However, victory is mine.” Rider of Red said as he relaxed his bow.

Looking down at the arrows piercing his chest, Archer of Red sighed as he responded, “… I never cared for ‘fighting fair’… but with the state of my Spirit Core and how you shrug off my arrows and poison like drops of rain, I’m not gonna bother with a last-ditch sneak attack.”

“Most considerate of you.” A bespectacled, brown-haired man in robes said as he revealed himself from the inside of Rider’s canopied chariot.

Addressing his victorious enemy, the Archer said, “You seem to follow something similar to chivalry, Rider of Red. Would you humor my last request?”

“Speak, and I’ll consider it.” The Rider replied.

“If my cheap tricks got on your nerves, take it out on me while I’m still here and leave my Master out of it.” The Archer requested, “He’s not a magus chasing after the grail, he’s just a kid who wants to go home.”

“I shall not harm a child. I’ll swear to that on my pride as a Kshatriya!” Rider of Red declared vociferously.

“How like you, to choose your pride to swear on.” The Master coolly remarked, before interjecting, “I too see no issue in letting the boy be; however, I would appreciate a demonstration of his intention to withdraw from the contest.”

“Meaning?” The Archer asked warily.

“Tell him that if he relinquishes the silver coin he acquired at the beginning of the war to us, he will be free to wait out the conflict north of the river.” The Master answered, “We’ve cleansed that area of the undead, and no Grail War participants have come here recently besides us. It should be comparatively safe.”

After a few moments, the Archer replied, “He says he’d like to trust you, but will settle for staying out of your way for now.” Coughing up blood, he hung his head and muttered, “Sorry, but it looks like I’m spent, Master...”

After his opponent faded, Rider of Red asked, “I take it we consider this matter settled, Master?”

“Why would you say that?” His Master replied unemotionally, “I’ll consider it settled when we’ve confiscated the boy’s coin and relocated him north of the river. Drive your chariot according to my directions and I’ll take us to him.”

Surprised, the Rider bluntly asked, “What?” as his Master returned to his seat in the chariot.

“I have no intention of harming him: he’ll simply see reason once I make it clear that I can track his movements.” The Master said, “Wouldn’t you consider this a reasonable step to improve your chances of victory?”

Stepping into his chariot, the Rider growled, “If you do harm him, I’ll inflict the same upon you tenfold.”

“I know better than to tarnish your pride, Rider.” The Master said, then paused as the echoes of a fierce roar reached them from some location far to the south. After the echoes faded, he continued, “After all, what you plan to do with your victory in this war will be interesting to behold.”

“You don’t want to investigate that?” The Rider asked, referring the sounds of distant battle as his chariot took to the air.

“At least not until we’ve concluded our business here.” The Master known as Abraxas proposed as he adjusted his glasses.

>>5608393
> Teleport back to your base to the north and focus on securing the area.

>>5608393

> Teleport back to your base to the north and focus on evacuating Koko, Suzaku, and Jen to the area Caster established as his territory.
> Either of the above, but ask Ryuuta how Wukong was defeated before you go to think of something here.
>Write-In: Call up the telepathy crystal left to Truvietianne to assess the situation and send Jen to scout out for Wukong's Master

Well fuck Us I guess. We better hussle to get the civilians outta there or properly try to take him on. So I trust Jen's vampiric senses and Ether aligned quality will be able to pinpoint where the Master is and have her turn him into a Bloody Prana smoothie.

>>5606775

I'm leaning to the Theory that we're not a proper Einzbern Homoculus but that we were formed by Gaia itself. An Enkidu for the modern age so to speak, would explain the weird affinities.

Now the Origin(in both senses) for ourselves is gonna be a real revealer I can imagine. The Big Mystery

Rolled 15 (1d100)

This month's been packed for me IRL, but I think it'll start calming down in a week or two. The next sidestory update is in progress, so I think I'll let you mull over how to approach the coming encounter for a little while.

If you want to ask any questions about context or something similar to help inform your decision feel free :)

If you decide to fight the first boss, there's no guarantee you're getting through it without casualties.

>>5610501

Well the dice will either be Bad for Us or Bad for the Enemy and my ass will devekop hemaroids clenching through the wait.

From what I under stand of Wukong's Staff in Fate/Lore it has some "Texture"(aka Reality) fucking capabilities so is that in play?

>>5611073

Also man I'm kinda glad that this thread kept fairly low pace because I've ID-swapped enough times I feel like the Hassan of a Multiple Personality Disorder.

Which speaking of it's appropriate and worrisome we haven't yet encountered Assassin from ANY of the involved "Teams".

>>5611076
On the topic of Assassins, you saw one on day 1 and Rushorou encountered another one when he split from your group. There are two others that you haven’t encountered yet, true.

>>5608512
Switching from >>5608576
to >>5609523
>>5611115
I hope they are more unique and strong ones, Phantom of the Opera and Hassan do not seem that impressive so far.
Shame they are underperforming in a situation where they could get a good drop on confused and careless opponents.

>>5611115

Hmmm yeah I guess mine's a more specific "I dunno the identities so I'm running on the idea it's all the Old Man of the Mountain" sort of instinct I'm taking to. But right now we got the Monke, do we know anything at all regarding who their Master is? My idea is Caster'll send out Huginn and/or Munnin alongside Jen while in order to hunt down the Master to hostage while Wukong is distracted with a 3v1(somewhat more fair for us) and give him an offer: They relinquish control of Wukong's command seals, tell us everything they know from how they had managed to launch this attack on our base and who they coordinated with to what's the extent to They know shit is wack with this Grail War

Failure to comply will result in having our Pennsylvania Vampire carve a hole into his skull while the lifeforce is DIRECTLY fed upon. A Magus can and WILL kill civilians because "well they're normies my friend"

>>5611134
>Shame they are underperforming in a situation where they could get a good drop on confused and careless opponents.
A couple suboptimal skirmishes won't discourage them.

>>5611151
Earlier Anne reported to you that there were four Servants fighting nearby, so it may not end up being as clear-cut as everyone ganging up on one guy.

It also amuses me that you assumed Jen could move about in the middle of the day, due to the fact that she actually did come up with countermeasures against sunlight in case of emergency.

>>5611484

>Spoiler

In all honesty I just assumed that because we're in basically a Reality Marble the Sun isn't THAT much of an issue...until it is anyway.

But you're right. Wukong is trouble enough but with THREE more Servamts being near by we'll have to go about this carefully, are there any identifiers as to who those other Three are?

>>5611524
>are there any identifiers as to who those other Three are?
Currently your most recent information is that two Servants were fighting two others, but Anne will be able to give you updated information when you call her.
I'm also going to put serious thought into giving you enough decision points that you don't feel like you're being railroaded. To some extent circumstances are going to nudge you in a certain direction, but I don't want to write you into a corner. In essence I need to stop myself from writing too many events between player input checks.

>>5611610

Well I appreciate a fighting chance QM. It's something I will have to test myself with my own Fate quest idea since I wanna have it be one that's got some Exceptionally wacky bullshit occuring both among Servants AND the Masters. I've set up One in the Avenger pool that if rolled is gonna be a rollercoaster ride, if I knew how to spoiler on mobile I'd give a hint

Damn, this interlude is getting long. And poor Yatsu-kun is spending most of it trying to not bleed out :(

>>5611733
Take your time getting things ready, I'll look forward to dropping by as a player. Your quest will probably have a smoother start than mine!

“T-try not to panic, Yatsu-kun! We planned for something like this!” Kokutou Mizuri exclaimed as she shook off her backpack and opened it. Hastily retrieving a first-aid kit that they’d picked up the day before, she set it down on the ground while noting the location of Ogawara Yatsuhide’s injury. A good chance his right kidney was pierced, from the looks of it.

Clasping one of her hands around a cut in her thigh, Nijou Kaguya nervously told the other girl, “I… was hit too…”

Handing her some gauze, Mizuri replied, “Yours isn’t as bad, put pressure on it with this for a while.”

“H-hey! I’m seriously bleeding here! What if it hit a vital artery?!” Kaguya complained as she did as the other girl asked. The mere fact that her bleeding was more than a sluggish trickle profoundly unsettled her. Seeing her hands covered in her own blood and the gauze she held against the cut slowly getting stained red, a fear overshadowing any that she could remember experiencing in the past began to flare up in earnest: the fear of imminent death.

“The femoral artery isn’t there; your bleeding would be a lot worse if it was, Nijou-san.” Mizuri said hastily, “I’ll get to you, now let me concentrate for a minute!”

“You’re not even a real doctor…” Kaguya quietly grumbled, but thought better of antagonizing the only person in their party who had experience in first-aid. While they were talking the evening before and the topic came up, Mizuri mentioned that she’d learned a basic healing spell to stealthily speed up the recovery of one of her friends who’d gotten a sports injury (though she told her tutor of a different motivation at the time), with a large part of her instruction involving the general principles of anatomy and first aid.

“Yatsu-kun, I’m going to pull the blade out. It’s going to hurt, but I’ll use magic to heal the worst of the damage before bandaging it. Be tough for me!” She said, hoping to encourage the ailing lad. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the intended effect.

“But I’m not tough! I don’t have magical powers or cheat-abilities, I’m not a hotshot athlete, I don’t even have a social life! I do the bare minimum to stay in my parents’ good graces and spend the rest of my time on the internet!” He confessed desperately, before coming to a realization and continuing in a more somber tone, “And I’m about to die to a scrap of metal because my luck decided to run out…”

“Fine, don’t be tough!” She snapped, becoming irritated that he was giving up. What happened to all the bluster about the power of love fixing everything? “Just hold still, ‘cause it’s coming out anyway!”

As the girl knelt down and cut part of his shirt away with medical scissors, Ogawara pleaded, “W-wait, you’re supposed to leave the blade in until you get to the hospital!”

“We both know no one’s running the hospitals here!” She shouted back. While she sympathized with his reluctance to face greater pain, the fact of the matter was he had to either endure the pain or die with that blade lodged inside him.

Weakly trying to push her away with one of his hands, the boy whimpered, “No, don’t, pleEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGGGGHHHH!!!”

“Stop struggling, I’m helping you!” She shouted as she straddled his side, pinching his chest between her knees to stop him from rolling around or otherwise hindering her efforts. Her spell involved locally stimulating the patient’s metabolism to increase the speed of natural healing, augmented with some of the local mana; in addition, she could direct its activity toward critical areas to mend the more vital blood-vessels and tissues first. Raising her spirits, the process of stabilizing his internal injuries began quite well. Leaning over his wound to continue the spell, she reassured herself, “Just a little-!”

BZZT

“AAAGGGHH!” Ogawara screamed as an electrical discharge spontaneously surged through his wound. Losing the will to even complain on account of the pain, he weakly moaned, “For a second… I thought it was actually working.…”

“That shouldn’t have happened, I didn’t make any mistakes!” Mizuri replied nervously. As far as she could tell, the mana in the air that her spell used randomly went haywire. Could she have been sloppy in the execution because she was a little out of practice and under a lot of pressure? While she could have speculated further on how it happened, she instead asked herself why. Why was it that the first time she has a chance to really help someone, the world itself decided to step in and screw it all up? No, this doesn’t change what she had to do. Ogawara wasn’t fully stabilized, but he’s decidedly better off than he was before. It won’t be a seamless recovery, but she could save him.

Or so she thought as she tried casting her spell again, but this time it was stopped prematurely on account of her concentration lapsing. The sound of a familiar fusillade led her to double-take in mounting dread and look into the distance to the southwest. It was several miles away, but she knew what was happening. Just like yesterday…

“S-sorry, Yatsu-kun…” She mumbled as she shuffled off him; her throat involuntarily contracting, she began retching while hunched over the pavement. A few hours of relative normalcy had given her the impression that she could overcome the ever-encroaching despair. Her will faltering, malignant thoughts began echoing in her mind. Nothing she did would matter, there’s no point in trying, inescapable doom awaits.

“Look over there Saber: it’s the same as yesterday’s.” Kaguya said, pointing to the southwest, “What do you think now that you’ve seen it again?”

>>5611073
Fate has run with the the idea that all extremely prominent lance/spear type weapons are "texture pins" that basically hold down the foundation of their own myth upon Gaia's own reality.

E.g. Gungnir/Rhongobongo/Magna Voluisse Magnum.

Safe to assume Wukong's bonker does similar for the Chinese myth texture

After a brief pause, Aka no Saber answered her Master, “That method of attack would pose little threat to me, though I cannot say the same of you.”

Spotting Kuro no Saber approaching them while carrying his Master, Aka no Saber stepped forward defensively. As neither of her contemporaries were in any condition to act, Kaguya turned and stood with her weight on her good leg before asking, “What do you want… other Saber?”

“My Master is a good man, please do what you can to help him; you may have my head as recompense if it pleases you.” Kuro no Saber pleaded as he knelt down, laying his critically-injured Master at their feet.

“That… is an enticing offer.” Kaguya replied, relieved that one of the other Sabers was on his way out one way or the other. It was supposedly the strongest class, so ensuring one of her own Servant’s rivals was eliminated here and now should save her some headache later on. While his behavior was erratic, Kaguya recognized him as the ‘honorable knight’ type, which should make his actions generally predictable. With the bleeding in her leg subsiding, she sat down again to keep from agitating it and said, “Kokutou-san, give it a shot. You might save that old guy’s life, and get this war toward its end sooner.”

“Y-you can’t be serious….” Mizuri mumbled absentmindedly, before spitting the last bits of acidic bile in her mouth onto the road. Turning to face Kuro no Saber’s Master, she looked at the bearded, middle-aged man and saw that the shard of a knife was embedded in his chest under his heart, similar to how Yatsuhide had his kidney pierced. “I can’t believe this…”

Assuming she doubted his sincerity in offering up his life, Kuro no Saber replied, “I am a mere phantom; my fleeting existence carries far less weight than that of a father fighting to save his child.”

“That’s not what I meant.” The girl responded, before abruptly shouting at him, “How could you expect me to help you?! I can’t even heal Yatsu-kun’s injury, and your Master’s is way worse!” Now out of breath, she continued wearily, “How can you put someone’s life in my hands? I didn’t ask for this, I never wanted to fight over a stupid holy grail, I don’t even know why I’m here, I’m not cut out for-!”

A firm slap hitting her back, Mizuri turned around to spot Kaguya bringing her lips against her ear and coldly whisper, “If you don’t at least make a show of helping him, you’ll regret it.” Hoping to decisively discourage Kuro no Saber from mounting any last-ditch assault, she then delicately patted the other girl’s shoulder as she cheerfully said aloud, “It looks like Yatsu-kun’s self-pity was just a little contagious! Don’t worry, we believe in you Mizuri-chan! Do your best!”

[For some reason the third text block isn't coming in, but when I tried to repost it it said I needed to wait X minutes to make a duplicate post. Most peculiar. Sorry if a dupe gets registered here later]

After a brief pause, Aka no Saber answered her Master, “That method of attack would pose little threat to me, though I cannot say the same of you.”

Spotting Kuro no Saber approaching them while carrying his Master, Aka no Saber stepped forward defensively. As neither of her contemporaries were in any condition to act, Kaguya turned and stood with her weight on her good leg before asking, “What do you want… other Saber?”

“My Master is a good man, please do what you can to help him; you may have my head as recompense if it pleases you.” Kuro no Saber pleaded as he knelt down, laying his critically-injured Master at their feet.

“That… is an enticing offer.” Kaguya replied, relieved that one of the other Sabers was on his way out one way or the other. It was supposedly the strongest class, so ensuring one of her own Servant’s rivals was eliminated here and now should save her some headache later on. While his behavior was erratic, Kaguya recognized him as the ‘honorable knight’ type, which should make his actions generally predictable. With the bleeding in her leg subsiding, she sat down again to keep from agitating it and said, “Kokutou-san, give it a shot. You might save that old guy’s life, and get this war toward its end sooner.”

“Y-you can’t be serious….” Mizuri mumbled absentmindedly, before spitting the last bits of acidic bile in her mouth onto the road. Turning to face Kuro no Saber’s Master, she looked at the bearded, middle-aged man and saw that the shard of a knife was embedded in his chest under his heart, similar to how Yatsuhide had his kidney pierced. “I can’t believe this…”

Assuming she doubted his sincerity in offering up his life, Kuro no Saber replied, “I am a mere phantom; my fleeting existence carries far less weight than that of a father fighting to save his child.”

“That’s not what I meant.” The girl responded, before abruptly shouting at him, “How could you expect me to help you?! I can’t even heal Yatsu-kun’s injury, and your Master’s is way worse!” Now out of breath, she continued wearily, “How can you put someone’s life in my hands? I didn’t ask for this, I never wanted to fight over a stupid holy grail, I don’t even know why I’m here, I’m not cut out for-!”

A firm slap hitting her back, Mizuri turned around to spot Kaguya bringing her lips against her ear and coldly whisper, “If you don’t at least make a show of helping him, you’ll regret it.” Hoping to decisively discourage Kuro no Saber from mounting any last-ditch assault, she then delicately patted the other girl’s shoulder as she cheerfully said aloud, “It looks like Yatsu-kun’s self-pity was just a little contagious! Don’t worry, we believe in you Mizuri-chan! Do your best!”

Pushed into action by the other girl’s veiled threat, Mizuri shuddered, “I’ll… try….” And for the next several minutes she really did. In spite of the echoing roars that Aka no Saber identified as belonging to Mars and the occasionally renewed bombardments in the distance, the Servantless Master did everything in her power to stabilize the man’s wound; and had the ambient mana been stable, she may have succeeded. However, the uncontrollably random failures in her spell had an even stronger impact on her efforts to heal Kuro no Saber’s Master than they did when she tried to heal Ogawara, as the increased severity of the wound allowed minor mishaps to repeatedly drag her two steps back after she made one painstaking step forward.

Driving herself to the brink of exhaustion with tears welling up in her eyes, she stopped as the dying man gently caught her hand in a surprising final gesture. Speaking to someone no one else saw, the man breathed his last, “Elise… I see you…. It’s been ….”

After an uncomfortable silence, Kuro no Saber hung his head and told the sobbing girl as his body began to fade, “The responsibility for this lies on my shoulders, as I failed in my duty to guard him. Do not blame yourself.”

“Before you go, I’m curious: did your Master order you to kill all of us, or just our Servants?” Kaguya asked the fading Saber.

“Though he earnestly wished to win the grail, he had no desire to see any of you three youths slain.” He replied candidly, adding, “He had a son roughly your age.”

“I see.” Kaguya hummed, “Well it’s been a pleasure, but our time together seems to have ended.”

“Indeed it has.” The Saber replied, crestfallen.

“Yeah, that’s right, fall on your sword.” Mizuri said, in an uncharacteristically cynical tone as she staggered to her feet, “But leave some room for me while you’re at it.”

“What?” Both Kuro no Saber and Kaguya asked in unison, unsettled by her mood-shift.

“Isn’t that how is goes? You make a big enough mistake that the only thing that makes it right is your death?” She spat in hysterical derision, “In that case I’m due for an appointment with the Shinigami! Why bother running from it? Let’s get it over with now, so I can stop being a useless jinx!”

File: Kuro no Saber - Roland.png (601 KB, 502x704)

601 KB PNG

“Mizuri…” Kaguya whispered, realizing that she pushed the girl past her emotional limits and was unsure of how to rein things in. Threats wouldn’t work at this point, and positive reinforcement would probably come across as insincere given the circumstances. There must be a way to turn this around….

“It seems I’ve forgotten something essential, in my shame.” The knight said as he unfastened his scabbard from his belt and knelt while holding Durendal’s hilt up before the distressed girl’s face, “I would not be able to face my king if a fair maiden was led astray on my account.”

“Oi, what are you doing?” Kaguya asked, worried because she hadn’t accounted for the Saber’s reaction to such an unforeseeable situation.

Addressing Mizuri, Kuro no Saber said, “My True Name is Roland, Paladin of Charlemagne. I earnestly beg your pardon for setting a poor example. Now my eyes are open, and my mind is clear.”

“I can’t understand…” the girl sighed, but her eyes were drawn to the holy sword, its form that of a golden cross decorated with gems that captured and reflected the light of the sun. The dark thoughts that had tormented her fell silent as she felt warmth well up in her chest.

“Please tell me your name, my lady.” The paladin said as he looked into her eyes. “I shall be your sword, if you’ll have me.”

Her two Command Seals pulsing, the girl slowly raised her hand and laid it on the pommel of his sword before answering hesitantly but also almost instinctively, “My name… is Kokutou Mizuri. I shall be your Master… if you’ll have me.”

Shaking off her shock at this unexpected situation, Kaguya blurted out all too late, “Wait, don’t go deciding that all-”

The Command Seals on the back of Mizuri’s hand flared brightly as the contract was sealed. The other girl clicked her tongue in frustration but quietly told her own Saber to leave things be. Stepping toward the body of Roland’s former Master, Kaguya held her breath before reaching toward one of his pockets.

“What are you doing, Nijou-san? Show some respect!” Mizuri said, scolding her for so quickly looting the man’s body.

“I’m looking for his wallet so I can get his ID.” The young heiress explained, “Once the war’s over I’ll take it to an embassy from his home-country so we can let his family know what happened to him. Didn’t you say he had a child that he wanted to use the Holy Grail to save, Roland?”

“Allow me to handle this.” The paladin replied, stepping in to tend to the body himself, “His name was Nicholas Moore, from the state of Georgia in America. He was a widower with a son and daughter, the latter of whom has a rare disease that he wished to heal by the power of the Holy Grail.”

“They’re orphans now.…” Mizuri sighed. Clenching her fist, she told her new Servant, “Roland, I’ve decided: I’m going to make that wish in his place. I’ll be counting on your full support!”

File: Aka no Saber - Altera.png (597 KB, 807x550)

597 KB PNG

“And you shall have it, Master!” He answered eagerly, then addressed his counterpart who’d been silently observing these events as they unfolded, “I look forward to fighting by your side, beautiful warrior.”

“Hmm.” Aka no Saber hummed affirmatively and emotionlessly.

“Guys? I’m kinda dying here…” Ogawara groaned, grabbing everyone’s attention. As they were bandaging his wound after it was sutured, the world itself began to tremble as a massive pillar began to rise into the heavens to the east of their position. His eyes widening, Ogawara’s Command Seals flared as he shouted, “Kiyohime! Get back, quickly!”

Teleporting to his side, the dragon-girl immediately fell onto her back right beside her Master. Rather than an attempt at physical intimacy, her fall was due to the damage she’d sustained after she tried to chase down the Assassin. Scattered cuts covered her body, but her most prominent injury was the profuse bleeding from her ears.

“Master… you should’ve seen… the other guy….” She said weakly before passing out.

“Kiyo…” Ogawara whispered affectionately. Trying to get up and help move her into a more comfortable position, a shooting pain in his side caused him to collapse on top of her instead. His concern for her well-being outweighing any trepidation he may have otherwise experienced, the young man carefully reoriented his body so that his Servant wouldn’t feel any discomfort.

“As much as I hate to interrupt you lovebirds, we can’t lie about in an open street.” Kaguya pointed out.

“She’s right Yatsu-kun. We’ll help you get somewhere you can rest properly.” Mizuri added.

“Alright. Thanks, you guys.” Ogawara assented.

“By the way, would you mind letting us know your Saber’s name, Nijou-san?” Mizuri asked.

After considering it for a moment, the heiress responded, “Sure, it’s not like you’ll recognize the name anyway. She goes by ‘Altera’.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjc1fdO7ilI

“Yep, I’ve got no idea who that is!” Mizuri laughed.

>>5614098

Thanks for the encouragement LSAD, I may never have ran a Fate quest but I know enough of the series I can utilize a proper mix of the recognizable and some makes of my own. [Spoiler]A Grand 'ol time will be had[Spoiler]

>>5614209

I'm gonna make a guess and assume that the staff is capable of some ludicrous size changes and striking speed when it's unleashed it'll be wrecking through the whole city.

>>5614224

>Kuro and Aka Saber now fight under two masters Ogawara is in the hands of after splitting from us
>"Ah I'm sure he'll be fiiiine"
>Altera and Roland
>"He's gonna be fiiiine"

At least Kiyo is injured enough they can both enjoy unconcious company. So far seems like we have some stiff competition among the Servants for heaviest hitter. Given her talk of some "other guy" that could be someone we'll run into ourselves sooner rather than later. The bleeding from the ears could mean some sound based method of attack

>>5614298

Goddamnit I forgot how to spoiler correctly. Oh well, got a new ID to The Hassan of 100 IP Addresses

>>5614209
>>5614299
It's stated in Case Files that Ruyi Jingu Bang is the Chinese texture's pillar. It was used to trap an enemy by freezing the space around them.

>>5614322

>Spoiler

Appropriately busted understood. In that case before the thread is archived and dies off we should get an idea for the strategy coming into this since there's Wukong and a few other Servants near as well

>>5614224
>“Yep, I’ve got no idea who that is!” Mizuri laughed.
Can't believe she never watched any of Ancient Aliens documentaries. For shame, for shame.
>>5614298
Good luck in running yours, anon.
>The bleeding from the ears could mean some sound based method of attack
LIZ LOVE
>>5614323
Wukong is likely very hard to kill, if he can even be properly put down with his immortality.
Could require Harpe or similar effect to finish him off, or alternatively it could be easy to have a prolonged fight with goal to exhaust and/or kill his Master. Wukong should be a high maintenance Servant.

>>5614395

Thanks for the ecouragement anon.

And yeah Wukong has layers to him that make the bastard about as unkillable as Herakles is. My idea is we go for having him expend energy with Jen being sent to hunt down said Master, we will make the demands simple ones.

The Command Seals and control over Lancer. Or their life and the precious magecraft knowledge inside their brain, should be able to terrorize them. If we manage to pull something like this off we'll have managed to gain an extremely potent Servant, and given our vast reserves and elemental qualities I believe we can utilize both him and Circe at about full strength, it'll be an effective force multiplier against even multiple Master-Servant teams