CHAPTER 44: The Night Has Come (8)
After making me ponder if he got murked my sole beta reader finally gave signs of life and read this and green lighted it. So here's the chap and sorry for the additional delay but I wanted to have and outside opinion before releasing it.
***
"Come back here bastard." Berserker shouted from the top of his lungs as he ran after the damn bastard who talked all cool just to take him by surprise and go for a sprint.
"Like hell I will, idiot." Hector shouted back, he had absolutely no intention of facing this guy.
"Coward! What was that about 'showing me directly', huh? You fucking coward, come here." Shouting even louder back once again Berserker still continued running after him, he was progressively growing angrier.
'I really pissed him off.' Hector clicked his tongue as he turned behind a corner into an alleyway. He wanted to use the narrow pathways to try and make Berserker lose his trails.
'At least he doesn't seem to have many long ranged options other than hurling his sword. It can home on the targets but if I'm out of his line of sight before the throw I'm safe and I can still manage to deflect it away when it's just being thrown like that.' From the previous throws of the weapons Hector had already somewhat figured out the extent of Berserker's weapons precision and how it worked.
It was thanks to the similarity it shared with Durindana when it came to following targets. The projectiles automatically followed the target but it wasn't without weaknesses.
For one as already mentioned the target must be visible before the weapon is shot. And secondly this kind of method was counterable as long as you used the weapon's momentum against itself even if the attack is extremely powerful.
For example when you first avoid the blow even if the weapons start correcting the trajectory it wouldn't cancel the momentum that was previously bringing it forward, so at one moment when trying to make a turn there would be an instant where the force behind the weapons is distrusted is more than one direction making it easier to strike down albeit only for a small window of time.
Of course it wasn't exactly a full proof method as both durindana and this blade, while diverging in raw power for the single throw, would cause explosions when the blade is struck making it risky for the opponent to attempt intercepting in close range, especially with Durindana. But you could go around that by striking the hilt of both as it's another similarity they share in common.
Thanks to this Hector had no problem running away from Berserker so far.
'As long as I can keep this distance from him I should be able to lose him and then reach for my Master.' Running between the alleys Hector continued trying to make his tracks as hard to follow as possible, taking irregular turns and making as little sound as possible while speeding up as much as he could.
'Yeah, I can definitely do this. I must be optimistic… Wait, why is the sun rising in the middle of the night?!'
" "NEEEEIGGRRRRRRRR" "
***
Meanwhile
'What's wrong with him now?' I looked at the man called Haldor with doubt, he had suddenly dashed forward and started sweating out of nowhere. I looked around and saw nothing that could have alarmed him so I could only tilt my head hoping he would just make things easier for me by explaining himself because I already had more than a few problems understanding most of his behaviors.
He was just too "strange".
"!"
CRACK
'What just happened?' I couldn't immediately comprehend the situation, something grabbed my neck making the world tilt sideway; then my vision started fading and I lost all my strength.
"___"
"___"
I heard voices taking in my ears but I couldn't make out any of the words they were speaking, it was like they were really distant background noises and yet I knew they were right beside me.
'Am I dying?' I couldn't help but ask myself that. I wasn't sure what dying actually felt like, I knew what attempting to die was like but not what it felt like to be dying for real so I wasn't quite sure.
I wasn't a doctor but I couldn't feel anything from below my neck with the neck also included, that and all the other things I felt didn't make the case any more promising for my survival.
My vision continued dimming at the edges, like someone was slowly closing a dark curtain over my eyes, the figure of the man I partnered with growing hazier and hazier, almost like a mirage.
It was probably not a good sign in this situation.
I wasn't "scared" but…
'If I stop seeing, then I won't know what happens next.' I didn't really have any clue what "fear" felt like but I didn't want to lose my sight, things would be much harder without it…
…
…
…
'!' Suddenly I snapped back to attention.
I didn't realize when it started or for how long it had lasted but my head had completely gone blank for a while. I had no idea what was happening around me as my sight was now reduced to nothing more than a tiny slit that was about to be completely closed.
'I guess that's it for me, in the end I couldn't do what he wanted me to do but I died while trying what he asked of me, so it shouldn't have been wrong, right?' My thoughts wandered to a blonde man I met a few days ago, he was someone I couldn't really comprehend too but I was his property according to him and I couldn't refute his logic so he must have been right. At least he shouldn't be "angry" that I died like this. I heard people get quite "angry" when others broke their things after all.
I thought these would be my last thoughts but I was interrupted by something.
ZIP
This something suddenly hit me. No actually–
ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP
–An entire flood of something hit me, on all sides. It felt like tiny needles were stabbing and moving through my body entering from outside. I could feel my body's temperature rise up quickly, it felt just like I had suddenly caught a high fever out of nowhere. Then something grabbed my neck, not like the hand holding me but like it was being held from the inside of my own flesh.
CRACK
The heat kept rising and suddenly, as this new grip expanded and grew tighter, I felt a sudden tag from the inside.
SNAP
In a single motion my neck came back to its original position, the heat assaulting me now exploding, it felt like I was being cooked alive but I felt no pain whatsoever. On the other hand I felt like something was tickling me instead.
My vision immediately returned as well, clearer than it had ever been too. Before me I saw Haldor once again whose eyes were widening astoundingly in what must have been his utter "shock". I myself had no idea what was happening right now.
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
My magic circuits were suddenly turned on but I didn't do anything to activate them.
SHIIIIIIIII
I could feel the energy in my body moving by itself without me doing a single thing at all, I could feel it all but I wasn't the one doing any of it. All thirty three of my circuits started working together seamlessly and I felt them using Reinforcement, it was at a level far beyond anything I was capable of. On top of that it wasn't being used to strengthen an object like my clothes but my own flesh.
Then my body also started moving on its own.
My hands moved towards the fingers holding my neck and using my assailor's hand as leverage I overturned my body and threw a bicycle kick to his head.
THWAAAK
CRACK
In the same movement, just when the kick landed, with the unusual strength flowing through my hands I held onto his fingers and bent them in a way they weren't meant to, getting freed from the grip. As I fell from his hand and readjusted myself vertically I finally caught a brief sight of my attacker, he was already making his own move, a gun in his hand about to be pointed at me.
TWAK
I moved immediately, shifting my center of balance midair by throwing my arms and shoulders as backward as I could, which made me flip head down just enough to throw a kick and the barrel of his weapon, my kick so powerful it disarmed him in one move.
TWHUUK
'When did I learn to do this?' I was feeling puzzled as my body continued moving by itself as it landed in a handstand before I used the position to push myself from the ground and throw a drop kick to the man's stomach.
The man was thrown back and reached for another one of his guns however—
BANG
A red streak of light passed right by my head and flew straight to the man's gun and disarmed him once again. However the man's other hand whipped out four knives as if out of his sleeve, all aimed toward me.
I wasted no second, my left hand already unsheathing the baton hanging from my belt.
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
All of my circuits immediately reinforced the baton in my hand but this time I could tell that it was actually an entirely different process from how I usually did it.
WHUSH
TANG
My arm moved with swiftness and struck down the first knife but it didn't stop there.
TANG TANG TANG
I quickly fended off the rest by fluidly connecting one movement after the other, swatting all the remaining knives with the baton in my left hand with a clearly practiced ease that was however unfamiliar to me.
'Am I really doing any of this?' I could feel every movement and action but I wasn't the one deciding any of them. I almost felt like a marionette moved by the pulling of the strings in a puppeteers' show.
FWUP
Behind me my partner didn't waste any time as well, throwing the spike weapon in his hand like a javelin.
TUNG
The man avoided and back stepped through the stairs towards the floor above as the spike got impaled on one of the steps.
I felt like this would be the optimal time to draw one of my guns but my body didn't move, it was like it refused to respond to my input. I simply stood there feeling like the opportunity before would just end up being wasted.
"He's not in danger anymore, knock that guy out Archer." Instead a familiar voice rang out in the stairwell from above our heads, probably just a flight of stairs above us.
At the same time particles of blue light gathered together forming the shape of a tanned young man with short white hair clad in blue cloaca that hung over his resplendent armor that shone like silver, he was Archer, the very same Servant I just had dinner with some time before this.
PAAA CRACK
Archer wasted no time in talking and was already on the move, he hand swung with a lazy attitude but still moved so fast it turned into a blur before meeting our enemy's jaw, clearly dislocating it.
BAAAM
He was sent flying away from the power of the blow and broke through a seemingly thin wall and rolled across the entire length of the room like a ragdoll, stopping only when he hit the wall on the other side.
"Good job, Archer." From upstairs a girl I knew came down, still dressed in a purple uniform that matched her hair with a black graduation cap and a monocle, she sized me with her gaze and spoke once again. "You are welcome."
I didn't say "Thank you" though, did I? I don't really get it.
"Sure." I still answered in agreement, oh, I just realized that apparently I had no problem speaking, which was very curious, but I was a bit puzzled about something else right now, why was she here?
"Hey demon boy, who's the other kid?" Haldor asked as he approached me and now stood right behind me.
"She's someone I know." I answered his question as I saw no reason to withhold the information.
"Yeah, you gotta be a bit more clear than that to help me understand, buddy." The man shook his head, just like Sialim earlier today, it seemed like the man now also had trouble understanding what I said.
"I only just met her today so there is not much else than that. What else am I supposed to add?" I directly asked him to quickly clear any possible misunderstanding.
"Well, for starters you could tell me whatever I should start fearing for my life because she is an enemy or not."
Oh, that was actually reasonable from his perspective. I guess I really missed that detail.
"I can't really say anything for sure about you but I have a sort of alliance with the boy there and his Servant." Sialim pointed at me with her index finger before quickly retracting it.
"So you are allied with the bloodthirsty kid here and his deadbeat Servant who wastes his time drinking away?" The man asked with a raised eyebrow and with a smile that looked different from others I had seen before. "Are you also as crazy as this one?"
Sialim didn't laugh though
Her eyes narrowed for an instant before she cast a quick glance at the windows on the staircase, she looked back at Haldor when he said his second sentence and said nothing for a while, letting the silence stretch.
After a while she coughed in her fist and spoke again, in a way that made me feel like she completely decided to ignore the words coming out of the man's mouth. "I am willing to simply concede that at least for the time being I could agree to avoid an unnecessary battle with you as we apparently have a common ally."
"…Yeah, I don't fight kids anyway so it sounds fair to me." Haldor nodded but he also cast some glances outside the window, probably trying to see what Sialim might have looked at, I couldn't see anything important out there though. Haldor squinted his eyes there a bit before tilting his head as he scratched chin, staying like that for a bit before shrugging his shoulders. It seemed like he also couldn't see anything eye catching there.
"Now, if you will excuse me for the harshness but I'm taking these back, it's not good for your long term health after all to stay like that for much longer than this." Sialim turned away from Haldor and looked at me before making a pulling gesture in the air.
TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP
The feeling of needles piercing me changed to one of needles being extracted from my body. My circuits closed and my temperature lowered incredibly at once. My vision worsened immediately, on top of that I also felt all the muscles in my body suddenly pull and push all at once before they started to feel heavy like weights pulling me down. I ended up losing all my strength in my legs and arms, which caused me to start falling to the ground but, as if prepared, Archer was already beside me and caught me, slowly making me sit on the stairs.
Now I finally felt in control of my body for real once again but I never felt this bad before, not even those strange things Gilgamesh strapped on me while making me run in that park yesterday made me feel this powerless. Almost like I had been squeezed dry of all energy.
"Is he okay?" Haldor asked from right beside me as he was already standing near me to begin with.
"He is fine, don't worry." Archer answered him but said no more.
Meanwhile a voice rang inside my head but it wasn't the one I would have expected to.
[Listen, don't try to move around excessively or possibly at all for a while or you will seriously hurt yourself unless Ruler comes to heal you, you understand?] Sialim's voice echoed in my mind just like when Gilgamesh spoke to me through our contract's link. [If you are wondering why you can hear my voice, it's due to my mystic code, the Etherlite. With a string attached to you I'm making my thoughts flow from my head to yours, I'm doing this so the content of this discussion will remain only between us, so don't even think of telling that man.]
'I see… by the way what happened just now? I didn't really understand anything.' I wasn't really interested in how she did this, I was more curious about the events that had unfolded beforehand compared to this.
[I used my Etherlite to realign your spine and reconnect your nervous connections going through the spine and used it to move your body myself as I controlled it using your nerves to save you. It's one of its principal usages.] So that was why I couldn't really control my body and I felt like I was some sort of puppet. But I'm confused about one thing though.
'Wouldn't it have been faster to just control that guy's body directly then?'
[I tried to do that at first, but it didn't work, he probably made some modifications to his body to alter his nerves. It must be a way to help whatever his magecraft must have been. By the time I realized my mistake he had already snapped your neck so I took some drastic measures] She took a pause and cast another brief glance toward the broken wall before looking right back at me and continuing with her explanation.
[Due to the urgency of the situation I also took the liberty to use my Etherlite to temporarily remove the limiter in your brain. The reason why you are feeling so tired is because unlike normally where your body, like that of every other living being, limits itself to only using thirty percent of their capabilities in order to preserve strength for survival, I directly made you use all your strength at once which enabled you to easily overpower him but in turn exhausted you, that's why you shouldn't move around. That is all.] With that she put an end to our conversation, it might have looked like a long discussion, especially with how much she talked but it only took two seconds thanks to it happening inside our heads.
"Well, nice to meet you. My name is Haldor." Haldor, probably completely unaware of our discussion, introduced himself, still looking at Sialim wearily.
"…Likewise." Sialim answered but she had a strange expression on her face that I couldn't quite place.
***
Meanwhile a few minutes earlier
TANG
Blade met blade as sparks flew in the air. Hector had nearly lost count of how many exchanges he had with this new opponent for the past two minutes. And none of them ending well for him.
BOOM
He was thrown away from the massive force behind the blow and flew across the street making the light pole on the street fall as he flew through them in a straight line. This happened every time Hector had to clash directly with Berserker's flaming red greatsword.
Whenever that sword hit something the blade released an explosion on impact and adding that to power already packed behind each blow it was like a two fold hit that felt as if a cannon had been fired at point blank distance from your body.
Hm? What happened to his tactic of running away?
Well, that was actually working pretty well before until someone intruded a minute or so back…
BAM
In that moment Hector's flying body was hit by the side of a massive chariot drawn by two monstrosities that could barely be called horses and was sent crashing toward the asphalt road.
…That was the reason why his run away tactic got busted. Rider had intruded out of nowhere, ambushed him and turned this whole mess into a three way battle.
"Take this." Rider howled as she readied a spear to throw at Hector while he was still down. However she wouldn't have the luxury to.
TANG BOOM
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The sound of ringing metal accompanied by an explosion that sent her chariot flying away as Berseker laughed like a madman. He didn't pursue her however and instead charged at the rising Hector.
"Seriously, can't you just continue attacking Rider instead of me?" Hector complained while he ducked under the swing of Berserker's mace and jumped backward when he swung his sword after that.
"ORAAAAAA." Berserker didn't answer him.
BOOM
A small explosion burst from the point the sword impacted, sending shrapnells flying around but Hector was already at a safe distance.
'This guy completely lost it… is it because of his kin tone change?' Hector mentally clicked his tongue, the blonde Berserker now completely stopped responding to speech entirely. He noticed that the tan on his skin had darkened by a great degree to which he attributed the cause for the madness that was previously strangely lacking from the servant.
On top of that with the new tan, which looked more like he got cooked charred than an actual tan, his strength also increased by a marginal deal as well, he couldn't keep up with this monster anymore to be honest, his only relief was that at least he was a little bit faster than him.
"BERSERKEEEEER!" A shout came from behind him making the blonde man turn to look at his back only to be met with the sight of two enormous monsters charging straight at him.
BOOM
Berserker didn't even have the time to react before one of the two horses smashed their head against him, the moment so powerful it sent him flying in an arc.
"Get some as well, Saber!" Not stopping there Rider continued on her charge atop her chariot going straight for Saber as well.
"Give me a break…" Not interested in being run over as well, Hector leaped to the left using a light pole that was still standing as a foothold to jump once again hoping to avoid the charge.
Rider meanwhile used her reins to whip her horses, which in turn moved in sync with each other, taking a leap at the same time. The jump was high but they didn't reach him; instead they were now passing directly below Hector who was about a few meters above them.
Then the two monsters summersaulted forward midair. Their spin made the chariot attached to them swing upward like a flail toward Hector.
TANG
Hector used his sword to try to cushion the blow but still got knocked away, landing straight on the hood of an abandoned car making it crumble inward in the shape of his buttock.
"Cough, damn that hurt. She sure rides in one hell of a strange way." Hector coughed while reeling from the impact of the attack, he really couldn't get used to Rider's extremely unorthodox method of driving her chariot.
" "NEEEEEEEEEIGGGGHHRRRR." " Meanwhile Rider's chariot repositioned itself after the spin while still in the air, the horses then started stomping in the air as if it were solid with their deformed limbs and used it as a purchase to change the direction of their moment forward and continue on their pursuit of Hector.
"Argh." Grunting Hector quickly rolled away from the car and back on his feet with a scowl on his face as he used the roll's momentum to grab the car with his free hand and throw it at the charging monsters.
BOOM
The horses charged straight through the car making it explode in a cloud of smoke that briefly covered their sight for a single instant, but when their view cleared the man was already nowhere to be found. They however had nothing to worry about.
"I can still see you dumbass!" Rider shouted and forcefully tagged at the reins making the horses take a sharp turn to the right before entering a narrow alley.
However as soon as she entered she was met with a trash bag flying in her direction, one of her horses intercepted it by biting on to it and throwing it away but behind it more trash bags came after that one.
"Are you just launching whatever now? It's totally useless." Rider asked with a bit of incredulity to his incredibly naive manoeuvre while looking at the running Saber who hurled whatever came to his hands. No matter how much he threw it was all just random garbage he found around it wouldn't even slow her down. It was literally pointless.
And, as if to prove it, the horses pulling the chariot started ignoring the trash and just let it hit their bodies as the bags exploded once they collided with their momentum but didn't manage to hinder their advance one bit. Even when an entire one meter long metal trash bin was thrown at them it just broke on impact.
"Is he actually an idiot?" Rider mumbled under her breath as she looked at Hector with an annoyed expression. This was literally serving no purpose at all.
Then another trash bag came flying, she initially paid no attention as she had found them totally unimportant by now, however just as it was approaching the horse pulling the chariot from the right, her eyes suddenly widened in realization.
Hector was weaponless but right now he should have been incapable of dematerializing himself or his weapon.
Alas it was too late now.
TWACK
SPUUURT
"NEEEIGRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" The bag had already hit the horse while she realized the problem. This time the trash brag didn't immediately explode instead it remained stuck to the horse's left front leg as if something was pinning it there.
The horse then stumbled on its steps and fell forward making the other horse trip on his body. The chariot they were pulling crashed into them and got overturned on their bodies stopping the advance dead in its tracks.
Rider managed to jump away before the chariot hit the horses but she didn't let it bother her.
'Even if you temporarily stopped my chariot now you are without your sword.' Rider gripped on two curved swords in her hands as she fell toward Hector.
However, despite being without his weapon, Hector wasn't worried right now.
'He should be pretty close by now.'
Then Hector took a deep breath.
"BERSEERKEEEERR! WHERE ARE YOU HIDING!!!!" And with all his might Hector shouted as loudly as he could.
BOOM
'Damn. That was faster than I thought to be honest.' Hector didn't even have to wait a second after he screamed that the wall on the left side of the alley from his perspective exploded.
Berserker had returned.
Chunks of concrete rained from above as the servant emerged from the dust cloud like a hungry beast.
"SAAAAAABEEEEER!" Berserker was furious. He didn't take well to being cast aside for the few seconds he had been.
Oh and one more thing. Hector had been the one running away while Rider had been the pursuer, this meant that from the point where Berserker had been left behind and had run from to try and catch up with them, now Rider who was in midair just happened to be in the way of the angry servant.
"ORAA" Berserker, seeing her in his path, roared as he swung his mace to get rid of her.
TANG
Rider crossed both curved swords before herself just in time to intercept the mace. The sound of the impact echoed through the alley like a gunshot.
"Ghk!" Due to her unfavorable position her body was blown away sideways and smashed through the nearby wall of the building beside her.
"?" Berserker had spared one glance at the warrior he just hit then he turned back to look at Saber who had just insulted him.
"..." But was baffled to see he was no longer there.
"!" Then something in the back of his mind flared an alarm bell and he smiled as he turned around with a swing of his flaming sword.
TANG BOOM
With a small burst of flames his sword met Saber's who had used the single moment of his confusion to retrieve his weapon from one of the horses laying on the ground, the injured one was now relatively unaggressive but the other tried to bite on Hector when he approached them.
Too bad for him but he wasn't fast enough to dig his teeth on his flesh.
"Krgh" Hector grunted his teeth as he felt the fire burning his hands but persevered in holding the weapons locked.
"Heh." Berserker, seemingly getting engaged in the contest of strength, did not strike with his mace and instead continued pressing with only the greatsword in his right hand.
Just as Berserker tried to take a step forward to push more of his weight on the blade Hector took a step back an instant before him. Their blades were still connected albeit now barely touching but without pressing on each other.
Keeping a two handed grip on Durindana with his right hand above the left Hector pressed on the beginning of the flat side of his sword with his right thumb and shifted the sword to point forward while still connected to Berserker's in a thrusting position then the moment Berserker took his step-
BOOOM
The elbow of Hector's right arm released a burst of mana that pushed him forward with a powerful momentum. The guard of his sword caught the flaming blade of Berserker and thanks to the power of the sudden propulsion and the right timing he pushed forward without Berserker being capable to stop that.
STAAAKKK
"Argh" The tip of Durindana pierced right through the left shoulder of the man without resistance, making blood come out and taint the white shirt under his jacked red.
Unfortunately Hector failed to deliver a lethal blow, he had aimed for the heart but Berserker had managed to shift aside at the last possible moment.
But he still succeeded at his secondary objective at least.
TSSSSSSSSSS
As Hector's blade continued pushing forward, the sword of Berserker which was getting pushed against his owner started burning shirt and chest, just a few more centimeters and the blade would cut him as well. However Hector was already running out of power.
'Damn it. I miscalculated this guy's strength, I used the perfect position at the right moment and used his battle craziness against him as well but it didn't work out. If I was still in top condition I would have disabled him or nearly so.' Lamenting his condition Hector clenched his teeth in strain. 'I have to make some distance now, clashing any further like this is use-'
BAAM
"Kgh."
"Agh."
Before he could even finish his thought he and Berserker were suddenly rammed from their sides.
It was Rider, her horses got back up on their feet, even the injured horse got up despite his eyes tearing up from the point and under her command she had driven the chariot to another charge.
"Got you both!" Rider snarled with a mocking grin.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Is this the best you can do?" Berserker laughed out loud while his ribs audibly cracked while getting pushed forward by Rider's ugly horse.
"My excuses, let me hit you harder as an apology." Rider apologized and moved her right hand out of her cloak in which she held a long bronze spear immediately preparing to thrust it toward Berserker.
"Cough– You lunatics…" On the side hector coughed a barely audible comment that was heard by both his enemies but ultimately got completely ignored.
FWOOOSH
Rider suddenly spun the spear once in her hand before hurling it with all her might.
The weapon turned into a streak of light.
"HAAAAAAAAA" Berserker instinctively tried to stop it with his mace but–
CRACK
The mace started cracking dangerously and pushed him backward now slightly away from the chariot.
BOOM
Then like she did on Hector before the spear detonated to generate an even greater power, sending Berserker flying away. He crashed through the side of a convenience store and disappeared.
'What the hell!?' Hector was also hit by the shockwave of the explosion but instead of letting himself get dragged away he used the momentum he gained to grab the horse's noseband and flip over his head, slashing his sword at the other horse, who was about to breath fire at him, scarring his face.
'Since when was she that strong?' Despite being busy his mind still thought back to the scene he witnessed a few moments before.
Rider definitely was strong but strong enough to hurl Berserker who sent an attack of his own back? Granted, he was lacking any footing but he was just so powerful that Hector would have found it more logical for him to stop the spear dead in its tracks instead.
At most from their previous clash Hector believed Rider to be roughly on his same level physically as far as strength was concerned. And yet The impact behind that spear had momentarily rivaled the force Berserker himself usually produced.
'Was she holding back up until now?'
WHOOSH
"Get down as well, crook. This is not a free ride." Meanwhile Rider readied another spear and thrusted it toward Hector who, still wary from the previous attack, avoided it without confronting it head on and instead jumped to the other horse's back.
Rider didn't let up and swiped the spear horizontally but Hector jumped over it as well and landed back on the previous horse once again.
Meanwhile his mind didn't stop replaying all the confrontation with Rider up until now.
'No, that couldn't be. She had no reason to hold back like that in our previous battle. The spear she used before also exploded with higher power than the ones she used against me; she could have saved that one for Berserker but it didn't feel or look any different from the ones she hurled at me while I was airborne.' He was starting to feel somewhat assured that she couldn't have been holding back but then what was it?
Did she have a natural advantage against Berserker? Then why didn't he notice it earlier?
'Wait a second!' Hector ducked under another thrust and swung his sword when the spear stilled to push it away as he realized something from the way she fought ever since she joined up.
'She never attacked him up until now directly. She always used her chariot to attack and only defended with her shields… but I got the feeling that they already fought once before so hiding her advantage would be pointless, then why wouldn't she do that before?'
'Wait! I got it!' Hector suddenly brightened up and confronted the spear swipe directly this time.
FLANG
And as expected the end of the shaft right before the blade was cut cleanly off the rest of the spear as Durindana severed it without almost any resistance.
'As I thought. Her weapons are still the same, she must possess some sort of conceptual advantage over Berserker but not over me and the reason why she waited to attack all this time must have been… This damned woman; she was just waiting for me to busy his sword so he would use the other weapon to block.' He realized where the problem lied in. Berserker's sword was even more powerful then Durindana, at least when it wasn't activated with its True Name but that might have also applied to that sword for all he knew.
'In substance she was more powerful against him but not enough to overpower that sword of his. Heh, now I feel kind of cheated for worrying.' Hector smirked inside his head but outwardly showed no change in his expression.
CLANG CRACK CLANG CLANG TANG
Rider's chariot continued moving forward as they exchanged blows after blow moving from left and right along the chariot by using all of it, horses included, as a foothold to continue their fight. Rider continuously changed her weapons but Hector didn't relent as he knew Rider must also have been growing tired by now and he was making sure she would have no chance to detonate her weapons without severely injuring herself as well.
CLANG TANG TANG CLANG
He parried a short sword with the flat of his blade and knocked the blade away with his right armored fist, then assumed a new stance by gripping his own sword by the middle of the blade and swung the pommel toward Rider's hand at a close distance to swat away a curved knife she thrusted toward his throat.
TWUAK TWUK
She tried to kick him away using the fact that her cloak covered feet from his point of view as an advantage but Hector predicted her move and kneed her on the shin. Surprisingly she wore no armor on her leg and instead wore a bonadage like white cloth that only covered her foreleg from right below the knee to the ankle leaving her foot bare without anything covering it.
'She's slowly getting sloppier.' Rider was certainly a powerful and experienced warrior, one such that only a few have ever appeared in every generation
But alas that was all she was.
A good warrior.
She could make up for it before but not right now, not in this situation.
'Time to see if playing pretend is finally gonna lend a good chance.' Hector grabbed his sword by the handle once again with both his hands and pointed the weapon upward preparing for a vertical slash.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue Rider didn't press on her offense and instead decided to create distance to avoid the blow by leaping backward to get out of the sword's range.
From there she would be safe after all.
Or so she believed at least.
SPUUUUURT
"Eh!?" Before she could even breathe a sigh of relief from jumping to safety she noticed that the sword was not getting any further. Instead as if it followed her in her leap the blade continued approaching and slashed her face vertically making a line from her left eye down to her chin.
"!" She jerked her body backward but the blade continued following her and cutting her from her chest down to her waist.
Luckily for her the cut wasn't too deep as she reacted quickly but it was still a very debilitating wound on top of that she lost sight from one of her eyes.
'How?' Rider couldn't understand, her remaining eye kept track of her enemy so she was sure he didn't move a single step in her direction.
But soon she realized that the problem wasn't the man but the weapon. The handle had lengthened out of nowhere increasing the range of the blade but at least a meter or maybe more, it was difficult for her to tell exactly right now without her left eye.
But at least she could definitely tell one thing, the sword had turned into a spear…
"You bastard… you weren't Saber. You are Lancer."
***
Hello there. Hope you all liked the chapter.
As for the next one… well I have no idea when it will come out, so I'm sorry to say you will have to take story as if it went on hiatus.