I looked at the Servant curiously.
How was a Servant summoned? I wouldn't say it's an impossibility without the Grail, but it's very hard.
Truthfully, I could probably manage it with some effort, but I have utterly ridiculous amounts of Magical Energy to throw at the problem.
Even if a Magus tapped into a Leyline, it's not a simple matter. It's like...having the batteries available, but lacking a remote and still trying to change the channel on a TV. There was a lot that went into the ritual to summon a Servant that most had no concept for.
There was a reason that the whole Holy Grail Ritual existed, because it took substantial and meticulous efforts to go into summoning them properly.
Oh well, I'm sure I can beat the answer out of them.
That being said, I pat Gray on the head again, giving her a smile. "You were smart, a few seconds and you would have properly flushed out the outside Magical Energy from your Circuits and regained control."
I didn't need to interfere there, Gray would have been able to free herself before she harmed Waver.
She's quite talented despite not being a Magus.
I only gave her a little push to help out.
Despite the situation, she seemed to preen at the praise.
A huge difference than when I first met her and she seemed to recoil at even a glance from me.
As shitty as it sounds, she's probably very talented since she was…..chosen to presumably be a vessel for Artoria's 'resurrection'. I'll ask her later if she has any desire to further herself in these kinds of things.
I think that maybe Scáthach would enjoy teaching her a bit. Ironically, her teachings would help Gray quite a bit. It wasn't only martial and magical prowess that she beat into her students. She helped them develop into their own [person].
The woman stared at me silently, clutching her weapon.
"So, Waver. What have you got for me, hmm?" I said rather casually, despite the harsh winds whipping about up on top of the train. "You said she didn't like you for some reason?"
"She emphasized my relationship with the Servant I fought along side during the Grail War. There seemed to be a negative perception from this towards me." Waver responded.
"Ah." I nodded. "So she's related to Iskander in some way. "Which is surprising."
"Why so?" Waver asked.
"Because Artoria spoke well of Iskander. I'm surprised that such trash is related to him."
That got a twitch and growing scowl from her.
I gently pulled Gray's hood, forcing her back several feet as the air infront of me distorted from pressure.
The Servant attacked, her weapon stabbing right at my perceived opening.
Sparks flew as her blade slid against my Mirage. Her eyes widened at my blocking her attack. The surprised turned to shock when I twisted my hand and flicked my sword up, causing her arm to fling backwards.
I gathered Aura on my opposite hand and slammed my palm against her chest. Her body bent forward, her feet raised off the ground and she went flying back, bouncing against the top of the train several times before coming to a stop.
Truthfully, I was now a bit more pissed off.
She climbed to her feat easily, spitting out a mouthful of blood, but not looking worse for wear.
"Arrogant trash." I snorted in disdain.
She didn't even put in her full effort there.
Her attack was half-hearted at best.
Did she look down on my because she was a Servant and I was a 'living person'?
"Did you attack me with that kind of resolve when I said I had killed Servants before? Do you think I was just spouting nonsense when I said that?" I scowled. "Try your best, bring out all your tricks, because I want you to understand how thoroughly you've fucked up when I finally lop your head off."
Was it my Dragon or Devil side rearing its head right now?
Frankly, I didn't know, but I didn't really much care.
I was pissed off and I finally had a good target to focus it on.
I took a better look at her, her outfit, her weapon, her stance. The fact that Waver said she probably has relation to Iskander in some way, I could believe it. The stance she took even had some faint resemblance to Pankration that I'm somewhat familiar with.
I could see her getting angry, but credit where it was due, she didn't just go into a blind fury and charge at me again.
I would have lost even more respect for this Servant if she did that.
My posture relaxed as I stabbed my sword into the top of the train, learning on it. "Alright, I'll give you a chance to make me care about who you are and what your goals are."
I was being very generous here.
I did genuinely have quite a few questions.
Her stance shifted slightly, and she seemed less on guard at first glance, adopting something more natural, but no less ready to fight. "Oh, there still seem to be some people in this era worth acknowledging."
"There are plenty of worthwhile people in this era still. They just don't walk in the same circles as trash like you or whoever your Master is." I casually responded.
Ah, she didn't like that.
I saw her eye twitch a little.
"Hmph." She pretended not to take my insults to heart, but I could see she was annoyed. "I'm Hephaestion."
I raised an eyebrow because I didn't think she would name herself so easily.
"No, you're not." Waver immediately interjected. "I've seen Hephaestion, you are not him."
"Oh, how riveting." I chuckled. "Care to try again?" I looked at her, waiting for her next response.
Her brow furrowed, clearly caught off guard at being called out. Eventually, she just clicked her tongue. "Annoying."
Without another word, she stabbed her sword into the top of the train. "Νηρηΐδες."
Water exploded out from the tip, covering several train cars before pulling up into a dozen mirror-like constructions, all reflecting the Servant. Then, they all stepped out, looking exactly like her in every way.
Honestly, at first glance, I couldn't even tell them apart. They seemed to even exude the same aura as the Servant.
"Such a large spell with a single line incantation?" Waver was stunned.
The Servants – rather all of them – laughed at Waver. "Little mage from this era, you have no idea what –"
"High Speed Divine Words." I interrupted her. "My Ancient Greek is rusty, but that was 'Nereides' if I'm not mistaken? Yes, invoking the Authority of Divine Spirits through single action words. So, you are in fact a Greek Servant."
Her laughing stopped and she seemed to clench her jaw with another look of anger. "Don't pretend to understand my magic. It's something far beyond your modern spellcasting."
"I'm friends with Medea."
"....."
"But I digress, you want to compare ancient branches of Magecraft? Very well." I swiped my finger through the air as her clones charged at us. I wrote Runes at quick speeds until I formed the spell I wanted. "Freezing Winds of Jotunheim."
I made sure that Gray and Waver weren't caught up in it as the intense cold winds erupted outwards, freezing her water spell everywhere it passed by.
Conceptually, despite her spell being derived from the Authority of a Divine Spirit as High Speed Divine Words are, it has a severe weakness against my spell that doesn't lose out in Mystery of origin.
Almost all of her clones were frozen immediately by my cold spell before she could respond.
"Αἴελλω." All her clones chanted at the same time. And multiple forceful punches of air shot out from their hands, piercing through my Jotunheim spell, dispersing the cold air.
The remain handful of clones shot at me once my spell was dispelled.
One of them swung at my neck from above. Another came from the other side, swinging up under my arm. The last one came from behind trying to stab me through the back.
I didn't move as their blades entered my body. But where blood should have flowed, a few sparks of lightning danced down their metal blades.
I heard Gray gasp, but very quickly, they all seemed to realize that something wasn't quite right.
My semblance activated, making their attacks pass through me harmlessly as those parts of my body had turned to lightning.
I grabbed the one immediately infront of me and threw it off the side of the train. I pulled my sword out of the ground and slashed through the one on my right.
The one behind me tried to attack again, but my finger was alright infront of her face as she tried to stab forward.
"Hado #4, Byakurai." A bolt of pale lightning erupted from my finger, destroying the last clone.
"Ἥφαιστος!" I heard shouted behind me, spinning around to block a blade swung down at me.
Presumably the real one this time, because there was a lot more weight behind her blow.
Her sword was glowing an orange, almost flame-like, in appearance, and it carried with it a noticeable increase of weight. Using Servant vernacular, it's like her Strength parameter had been increased by one rank.
"What kind of monster are you?" She grit her teeth. "Even in my era, you wouldn't be a nobody."
I forced my blade up, deflecting hers back, forcing her to retreat several steps. "I'm Wilhelm –"
A bolt of red lightning shot down from the sky before taking the form of a chariot pulled by some skeletal creatures.
And it was fast.
As in, Achilles would praise it.
That is to say, it slammed right into me.
I hit the ground some distance later, the skeletal creatures roaring as they continued to plow me into the ground before shooting up off into the sky.
"Ow."
I stood up from the hole I had been plowed into, dusting myself off. The Train was pretty far away at this point, moving rather quickly in the opposite direction of me.
That was clearly her Noble Phantasm, she didn't call its True Name, so it must have already been summoned.
Didn't Iskander have something similar? I vaguely recall Artoria's description of his Noble Phantasm.
And she's clearly a Rider Servant of some variety, yet she was using High Speed Divine Words.
Curious.
But this is why any Servant can technically be dangerous. Her parameters were…..found wanting. Probably one of the weakest Servants I've crossed blades with. Even stranger considering she was trying to fight in close combat.
But when even a Servant like Shakespeare has such a dangerous Noble Phantasm, well, there needs to be a certain respect towards all unknown Servants.
Was I being flippant towards her? Perhaps, but there was a difference between being arrogant and full of myself and letting my guard down completely.
I had been prepared for some bullshit like some kind of instant-kill Noble Phantasm at the very least.
Regardless.
Lightning jolted across the ground as it gathered around my feet and I pushed into the dirt and shot off with a burst of Shunpo.
It only took me a moment to catch up, and the Servant hadn't even run away. In fact, Gray looked ready to step up and fight in my place.
How cute.
The Servant noticed me a moment too late as my hand grabbed the side of her face and I pushed her off the train and into the ground with quite a bit of strength.
Based on the crater her face made, it must have hurt, yet she swung her leg at me and I noticed a hidden blade protruding from her shoe.
I grabbed her leg before it could hit me and I swung her entire body, throwing her again as she hit the train, bouncing off of it a fair distance ahead.
The Chariot from before came back down at me, but now I knew what I was working with and I could make it easily.
My own Lightning surged, and I side stepped it, still admiring how fast it was. However, unfortunately for her, it had to turn to do another full pass, it couldn't maneuver as easily as I could.
That, and I had fought Achilles and his stupid Chariot that honestly put this one to shame.
I felt something pass by my head, and I saw the outline of her sword. Did she throw it at me? No, I saw a string connected to it as she pulled it back.
I deflected another swing of it with Mirage, and she was now trying to keep me at a distance.
"You sure have a lot of tricks." I stomped on the ground, kicked up a small pillar as her blade shot at me, it impaled itself into the stone and I shot forward at her before she could pull her blade back.
She made the immediate decision to abandon it, not something I would have expected from a genuine swordsman – swordswoman.
She took a more traditional Pankration stance and threw her elbow at my eye.
I caught her elbow, throwing it back and threw my own punch at her face. She grabbed it, immediately decided she couldn't block it and threw her entire body on it to grapple me.
She tried to twist my arm, but I used my Semblance to turn it completely into lightning and shocked her.
She let out a scream as I grabbed her and slammed her back into the ground again.
"Ἄτλας." She chanted and an invisible weight descended on me, startling me for a moment, but I recognized this spell from Medea as well.
It was a moment needed as her Chariot came flying right at me, I jerked to the side to avoid it, but she took that chance to grab onto it and try to get distance.
Ah, she's trying to run away now.
I held my hand out and summoned a bolt of Lightning down from the sky, shaping it into a spear.
"Crafting for the gods -- Nidavellir." I called forth one of my Nine Realms Spells.
The Ethereal blacksmith appeared, the anvil placed in front of me as I put the lightning spear onto it, and the image of the Blacksmith swinging his hammer down.
The Spear solidified, took shape and substance, became fuller.
I wasted no time grabbed it again and taking aim before I threw it.
It traveled with a thunderous boom, lightning dancing with each meter it traveled until it founds its target.
With my Reinforced Eyes, I could see the Servant notice it right as it was too late, and it hit her Chariot with another loud thunderous explosion. The lightning erupted into a large ball of blinding light before subsiding and I could see several silhouettes fall from the sky.
I quickly made my way over there before she could get back on her proverbial feet. Her chariot wasn't utterly destroyed, more like, I did the equivalent of sniping it out of the sky once. It was a Noble Phantasm after all, it would take more than that to destroy that kind of thing.
But she didn't look to be in good shape.
I saw her slowly climbing back up, beaten and bloodied, haggard.
"You know." I approached her again and she took an awkward stance, ready to fight again despite her condition. "I'm not usually disrespectful towards my opponents. I've fought many I hated, but still respected them as my opponents, you know? Kronos is one example – the Titan King, you should recgonize the name. But that's just me gloating a little bit."
I smacked her weak punch away. While it was still enough to punch through solid steel, she was….well, frankly, she wasn't on my level. Even at her best, it seemed like she was a rather weak Servant.
She had some nifty tricks, probably enough to punch above her proverbial weight class, but I had even more tricks.
"I'm just saying this so you know. I'm intentionally being disrespectful, and I think it's an important distinction to note. You see, you or your Master, or whoever is involved, they made a little girl cry, someone I cherish quite a bit. And because of that, I've lost all respect for you and whoever is related to you, so this is what you get from me."
She tried to hit me a few more times, but her moves were wide and full of openings from her haggard state. However, she did reveal a hidden blade under her left sleeve and tried to stab me with it.
It was poisoned, and based on the smell, it wasn't a weak poison either.
I grabbed that arm of hers and swung my sword at it, severing it completely.
Fun fact, Servants quite thoroughly feel pain just as normal humans do.
You can't fake those kinds of screams she let out.
Honestly, I feel like a bully right now.
Maybe if someone saw this from an outside perspective, I would look like the bad guy.
But they're the ones who started this shit and dragged me into it by assocation.
I looked back and saw the Train now catching up to us as we had moved quite a bit ahead of it.
"Up we go." I grabbed her by the back of the head as she tried to kick me, but failed to do much. And I casually walked her towards the tracks. "Oh, by the way, my name is Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg, because you asked."
I pushed her head forward as the train began to pass.
From the force, her head bounced off rather quickly, and painfully, but I continued to exert my strength and pushed her back at the train. Every groove, every Train Car and every protruding piece of metal hit her as the Train moved at well over a hundred miles an hour.
"Waver is a good person. Gray seems like a sweet girl. You may not have suffered so much from them. But you shouldn't have gotten Olga involved, because I am not a good person." I said amidst the continuous and loud 'thumpings' of each posing moment as I continued to push her head into the moving train.
Eventually, the Train passed us completely, and the Servant was limp in my hand, I just tossed her to the side.
I was about to say something else, but I noticed something strange.
Why did the Train suddenly make a left turn?
I let out a breath and it was cold, the temperature was dropping quickly.
Not far away, I narrowed my eyes, and I could see things springing from the ground.
Trees of some kind?
I looked down at the ground beneath me because strange roots shot up and tried to grab me.
"What the devil?" I easily avoided them, but there were a lot that suddenly came at me.
A few of them burst from the ground and stabbed through the Servant. Judging by the way they impaled her, wrapped around and sort of pulled her underground, I was pretty sure it wasn't some ally coming to her aid.
It was like a forest had suddenly sprung up out of nowhere and I felt space and time distorting.
A large tear in space hung over the newfound forest as I tilted my head, staring at it. The Train was also heading right into the heart of it.
"Well, that can't be good."
[Line Break]
A/N
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