Atalanta was taking a moment to adjust to her wounds she had accumulated. It would take a bit to fully heal, her speed was lowered now and her opponent had turned into that...monstrosity.
She looked around briefly, Achilles was no where to be seen. She cursed him under her breath, he most likely got caught up in a fight and forgot about her again.
She sighed as she sent a mental link towards someone else. "Lancer, I'm in a bad spot over here can you provide assistance?"
She didn't want to ask for his help. Frankly, she did not care for him that much. He seemed to not care about the war itself. When she asked him what his wish was, he blew it off as only wanting to fight in the war against strong opponents. She really couldn't trust someone like that to keep their head in the game.
Not to mention they were trying to hold him reserve as their trump card. He could easily match Achilles in combat, but his way of battle was much more destructive. They also knew of his noble phantasms, suffice to say, not even Achilles would want to be in the area when that thing went off.
As the hulking monstrosity turned to face Archer he roared and charged again.
As he got a bit closer, the area suddenly got much warmer as a voice echoed out.
"O Agni"
An eruption of flames consumed the surroundings, the Berserker suddenly was engulfed by the fire.
The Golden-clad Lancer walked to stand next to Archer.
"OPPRESSOR" The Berserker roared, even while being burned alive.
"Astounding, even the flames of the sun will not stop your charge. Come Berserker, while we may have been summoned to the same side, I will not hold back." Lancer declared.
The creature began to mutate even more as its grotesque form created more legs and arms.
Lancer swung his weapon, miniature explosions going off all around the enemy servant, yet his continued through even after losing chunks of his being.
The speed of the berserker had increased to absurd levels as he was before the golden servant.
Atalanta had retreated some distance away to watch the fight, saw as the berserker had swung its massive arm down.
Lancer thrust his weapon up, the tip connecting and obliterating the mutated growth into ash. He continued to swing, each time rending a large portion of flesh.
As he was about to deal the finishing blow, he noticed something from the corner of his eye. He did a back flip as he dodge dozen of stakes flying past him.
"So we meet at last, Lancer of Red."
Lancer of Red, Rather Karna, Looked over at the servant that had just appeared.
"Lancer of Black." Karna stated.
"As the King of this country, I welcome you, O Hero of Charity. A hero of your level deserves my undivided attention."
"High praise indeed." Karna replied.
Karna looked over to the foe he had just previously been fighting. Its mound of flesh was still regenerating, but it was noticeably slower. He began to focus entirely on his new opponent.
The two lancers disappeared from their previous locations and met in the middle, both weapons clinging.
They continued to swing their spears. Though it seemed that Lancer of Black was on the winning end of each exchange. His skill, demonic defender of the state, was raising his parameters to an absurd level. His strength was above Karna by a wide margin, through his agility was only a bit higher.
The hero of charity had figured this out early on. His martial expertise was almost unmatched, he could make up for the difference in strength and speed with almost pure skill.
While the Impaler was a warrior too, it was in a different context. He would lead his troops in battle, but he was never trained in singular combat like his opponent. He never took his martial prowess to its peak like many other servants. This left him at a distinct disadvantage, though his stats were making up for the majority of that.
"ENOUGH" He yelled after another dozen moves.
His hand pulsed with prana as he gripped something invisible. At his movement, hundreds of spikes shot out of the ground.
Karna expertly dodged as he got out of range.
"I see, those stakes are your attack, defense, power and fear. They are how you ruled in life and thus became your noble phantasm. They represent you as a ruler of a country. But I am a Heroic Spirit, I do not fear facing a country."
A visible twitch on the Kings face, his emotion clear to all those who could see. "Is that so? Then allow me to show you the strength of this 'country'."
He gripped the air again as the prana pulsated, to Karna's surprise, he did not see any stakes streak out towards him. Instead, he felt something odd as his eyes widened. Dozens of steak pierced out from inside of him.
"You were under the assumption that the stakes were my noble phantasm, that is not entirely correct. My Noble phantasm is the concept of being pierced by stakes. As long as you remain inside my territory, you cannot escape my stakes."
Lancer realized what had occurred. His armor prevents 90% of damage dealt to him, but the stakes originate from inside of him and thus get around the damage prevention.
His body was stiff as the stakes were holding him in place, he looked up to see his opponent summoning thousands of stakes into the air. A river of them began to twist and turn as they finally pointed down on him and shot forth.
"This is the end" Lancer of Black declared.
As the stakes were about to connect, Karna finally spoke.
"O Agni"
Similar to the previous time, he erupted into a torrent of flames, the ground beneath him had even become lava at the sheer heat. It was his version of mana burst, it caused his prana to become the flames of the sun briefly.
***
Atalanta sighed. "Damn boys."
She was left alone again as her supposed teammates went to fight other opponents.
Berserker was obviously not dead, yet Lancer had the opportunity to finish it off. But instead he went to go fight the other Lancer.
Atleast the abomination was still trying recover from the previous attack, though there was no doubt it would return stronger than before. If they didn't want to help her, she would drag it right into their fight.
She felt a small tug on her lips as she pictured the face of Lancer suddenly being beset by this mound of flesh.
"Grrrrr"
The Archer's thoughts were broken as her other opponent made themselves known.
"Well, come little bride" Atalanta goaded. While she wasn't in 100% condition, she felt good enough to deal with this berserker. She realized early on that her base stats were relatively low, and that was even with mad enhancement.
The female berserker swung her large mace and electricity erupted again. Though Atalanta had jumped back and let loose a few arrows. Most of which were intercepted, but one landed in the shoulder of her enemy, who just ignored it completely.
The Berserker was decently Fast, and combined with Atalanta's own diminished speed, she was able to get into range but the servant's martial ability was severely lacking. She had absolutely no skill to speak of.
Atalanta deflected each blow with her bow, following up with a strike of her own. She, an Archer, was matching a berserker in close combat. It would be absurd for any other combination of servants.
She once again went for the berserker's legs, she was rather flat footed and was easy to knock over. Before the berserk servant could get back up, Atalanta vaulted over, letting loose several arrows into the servant's back.
A growl of pain was heard as the Mace wielder hurriedly returned to her feat.
Atalanta was not unaware of her surroundings, she could see in the corner of her eye that the other Berserker had finally 'stood' up.
His form was massive, but utterly disgusting. He was but a round mount of flesh at this point. His extra arms and legs barely keeping him stable. But the absurd thing was the incredible amount of prana that was rolling off his body.
Everyone on the battlefield could feel it, he was going to activate his noble phantasm.
Berserker of Black noticed the same thing and Atalanta felt a surge of prana on her as well as it appeared that her master retrieved her with a command seal and she disappeared.
"SIS" A voice called out.
Achilles was flying to her, though Atalanta noticed a distinct lack of a middle horse on his chariot.
The monstrosity began to laugh as the prana started to pulsate. The entire battlefield went silent as it seemed that everyone was watching this play out.
It was Spartacus's noble phantasm, Crying Warmonger. The ability that increases his power with the more damage he receives. Combined with his own ability, the honor of the battered which heals him at an extreme rate, he had accumulated an absurd amount of power within his body.
"IT'S TIME FOR MY GREATEST REBELLION" His laugh echoed across the battlefield.
Achillies tried to approach, but as he got close, dozens of arrows barraged him from the distance. To his surprise, many of them had pierced into his flesh indicating that his opponent possessed divinity.
"DAMMIT" He yelled as he pulled his chariot up to avoid any fatal shots. His control a bit awkward as he was missing his middle horse.
The berserker opened his mouth and the prana in his body gathered. His body blistering at the sheer power that radiation.
"NO, SIS" Achilles roared as he ignored the arrows, many began to land, piercing into his body. "DAMMIT, DAMMIT DAMMIT,"
Atalanta was running at an angle, trying to get out of the way but it was clear the Berserker was targeting her.
A massive torrent of Prana was finally fired off in a beam of purple light towards the Chaste Huntress. There was no where to dodge to, no where to take cover. The size of the attack was large enough to negate any of that.
"SIS, CATCH"
Atalanta had no time to consider what he meant by that as she caught an object purely on instinct.
A shield in her hands, she braced herself.
The purple beam of prana colliding with the divine construct.
Something that was usually not possible, the lending of a noble phantasm. The gate of Babylon being one of the few exceptions and Achilles being another. He was known in his legend as giving away or lending out his own noble phantasms.
She was bracing herself as best as she could, but it was a strong attack. An anti-fortress attack that could have completely obliterated the castle Yggdamillennia if it was hit.
Achilles saw it and knew she had no choice.
"[Akhilleus Kosmos}"
The miniature world enclosed by the azure sky. The shield of Achilles said to contain an entire world within it. It was a shield of the highest quality, it could even be used for an attack and was said to go against it was to make an enemy of the world.
At the activation, the surroundings began to change. Buildings of Greek origin sprung up and the attack by Berserker was blocked. It was almost like a reality marble as the fake world absorbed the attack without a problem and finally began to dissipate.
Atalanta slumped to the ground as the shield was now gone. The gigantic crater infront of her leading back to the berserker who launched the attack.
His laughing never stopped even as his form began to disappear and he returned to the throne of heroes.
Achilles jumped off his chariot and quickly made his way to his companion.
"Sis, you okay?" He called out.
"I'm alive." She replied dryly.
The reunion was cut short as the silent battlefield was disturbed at a serious of explosions happening in the distance at the Yggdamillennia castle.
Everyone looked over to see a large fortress-like construct floating above the castle.
Well, i'm back. I had to leave the state abruptly last weekend. There was a hospital scare for one of my family members, everything turned out fine but with the suddenness of it, there was bad coordination so i stayed behind to watch my nephew for a few days. I just got back earlier today and i did write some things up on my phone, as awkward as that was. So, here are the three chapters i owe for the past week.