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"Queen of the Shadow Land."
King Hassan's voice was measured. Not alarmed — just assessing. "What do you intend to do?"
The wooden staff had become a greatsword in the same motion that the black robe had fallen away to reveal the full weight of the armored knight beneath it. The Netherworld Fire burned at his frame, pale and cold, and his gaze behind the skull mask was steady.
Scáthach had the Vermillion Spear out before he'd finished speaking.
She was also smiling. It wasn't a polite smile. It was the kind of smile that didn't usually appear on faces that were in control of themselves.
King Hassan, who had simply wanted to take a walk during a quiet stretch of the evening and had instead encountered this, assessed the situation with the resignation of a very old being who had long since stopped being surprised by the world's inconveniences.
He sent her flying with a backhand shockwave from his blade.
[Chat]:
[THEY'RE_FIGHTING]: they're just — they started fighting
[Why]: why did they start fighting
[What_Are_You_Looking_At]: "what are you looking at?"
[What's_It_To_You]: "what's it to you?"
[Stop_The_Skit]: stop acting out dialogue in the chat
[Back_To_Point]: King Hassan just sent Scáthach flying with one hit
Flying backward through the air, Scáthach's fingers were already moving.
Rune symbols, traced in the air with the precision of someone who had done this so many times it had stopped being a conscious action — they ignited immediately, shapes becoming flames that took on the form of hunting hounds, each one carrying the specific heat of a B-rank Noble Phantasm, launched toward King Hassan in a coordinated arc.
King Hassan swung the greatsword.
The Netherworld's cold wind swept through the space where the flame hounds were.
They vanished.
Not dispersed, not absorbed — simply gone, the death-attribute of the Netherworld voiding the fire attribute entirely, the way a drain removes water without leaving any visible process. The contrast was immediate and stark. B-rank Noble Phantasm-level flames, erased.
[Chat]:
[WHAT_JUST_HAPPENED]: he just cancelled a Noble Phantasm attack by waving his sword
[Netherworld_Attribute]: death overcomes fire. it's an attribute matchup. King Hassan's domain includes that.
[Watching]: okay but Scáthach is still in the air—
A distorted red light crossed the sky.
Scáthach had already closed the distance. The Vermillion Spear drove directly into King Hassan's neck with the specific precision of a strike aimed at ending the engagement immediately.
The throat was pierced.
[Chat]:
[ONE_SHOT]: ONE SHOT
[IS_IT_OVER]: IS IT OVER
[KING_HASSAN_DOWN]: she actually—
[Wait]: wait
[Blue_Flame]: what is that blue flame
[Max_Is_Explaining]:
A fatal wound on King Hassan was a different category of event than a fatal wound on most beings.
Abyss of Death. His Battle Continuation skill, EX rank — the highest tier of that ability in the entire Fate cosmology, and the most absolute in its function. Not "survive lethal damage for a short time" or "continue fighting until the blood loss takes effect." Actual near-immortality. King Hassan's existence was simultaneously alive and dead, neither born nor ceasing — a state that conventional lethality couldn't cleanly resolve.
Even Anti-Genesis Noble Phantasms, which could erase things from the fabric of causality, couldn't erase him. He predated the concept of erasure in the relevant way.
So: if he chose to let the attack land, it landed. If he chose not to die from it, he didn't die.
He'd chosen to let it land. To see what it felt like.
What it felt like, apparently, was the Netherworld Fire igniting at the wound site — the flames of death, his domain, burning along the spear from point of contact. The Vermillion Spear, B-rank Noble Phantasm, made by Scáthach in her spare time and used by her extensively in the same way one might use a tool one had become fond of—
Snapped in two.
King Hassan pulled the broken spear from his own neck. The wound closed under the Netherworld Fire before it had fully formed.
The greatsword came around in a full arc.
[Chat]:
[SHE_BROKE_HER_OWN_SPEAR]: the spear broke on contact with the Netherworld Fire
[King_Hassan_Status]: fatal wound. not dead. pulled out the broken spear. swinging the greatsword.
[Scáthach_Status]: already moving
The greatsword caught Scáthach's hair as she turned.
By a margin.
She landed in front of The Marble — who had stayed where she was told to stay and was watching this exchange with the expression of someone who had already accepted that tonight was simply going to be like this — and the landing itself was worth watching regardless of context. Her form was exactly what it was, and the chat noticed immediately.
She had two weapons. The Gáe Bolg Alternative was hers — made by her own hands, in the Shadow Land, during centuries of having nothing in particular to occupy her time. Cú Chulainn's Gáe Bolg was also technically hers, by the same logic. She'd built both. One had properties she'd given to her disciple; the other retained its Anti-Army function in her hands, which meant what it meant.
She wasn't going to use the broke spear. The Vermillion Spear was gone.
She still had everything else.
Her right knee forward, left leg extended back, weight fully committed to the launch position — the stance compressed and released in a single motion, and Scáthach was airborne again, the Gáe Bolg Alternative rising in her grip.
She threw it.
From one spear, a storm.
The Anti-Army function activated mid-throw, the single projectile branching and multiplying in flight — not copies, not illusions, actual projectile manifestations diverging from the original trajectory like a tree of spears, each one carrying the full weight of the Noble Phantasm's intent, converging on King Hassan from angles that couldn't all be blocked simultaneously.
The sound was continuous. The steam from each impact rose. Crimson lightning followed the trajectory lines.
[Chat]:
[THAT'S_HOW_TOP_TIERS_FIGHT]: so this is what a fight between legends actually looks like
[Declaring_It]: Scáthach is the woman who can be my mother
[Age_Correction]: shouldn't that be grandmother
[DO_NOT]: DO NOT
[Wada_Reference]: Wada-sensei is still going strong
[Outfit_Discussion]: okay the outfit is functional for combat. I will grant that. but the leotard versus the bunny Spiritron Dress—
[Counter]: fishnets versus a leotard? the original is more authoritative. there's no comparison.
[Calves]: those calves. those muscles. I would give up immortality.
[Response]: "heard it, next"
[Honest]: I'm not going to pretend I'm watching purely for the combat mechanics
[Agreement]: nobody is watching purely for the combat mechanics
[Redirecting]: weren't we supposed to be analyzing the fight?
[Response]: we were. then the lunging stretch happened.
[Max]: Max has also not said anything for the last thirty seconds
[Observation]: even Max
King Hassan moved through the storm of spears the way water moves around a stone — not blocking each one, but existing in the spaces between them, the Netherworld Fire burning away the ones that connected, his armored frame absorbing the ones that burned through.
He was taking damage.
Measurably. Actually taking it.
His gaze through the skull mask tracked Scáthach's position continuously.
The Netherworld Fire at his frame flared brighter.
[Chat]:
[KING_HASSAN_TAKING_DAMAGE]: she's actually doing damage to King Hassan
[For_Context]: King Hassan has survived everything tonight without a scratch. Scáthach is actually landing hits.
[What_Does_He_Do]: what does the Grand Assassin do when someone makes him work?
[Watching]: the Netherworld Fire got brighter
[That's_Not_Good]: that's not good for anyone standing near it
[The_Marble]: The Marble has taken several significant steps backward
[Smart_Girl]: extremely smart girl
[End of Chapter 179]
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