Chapter 98: The Arrow that Pierced the War God!
"Th-The sword... it actually broke?!" "What kind of strength is that?!" "Is she really restricted to Lv.1?!"
When they saw the sword that Shirou had obtained—shattered by Kali's kick—the spectators in the arena all displayed expressions of disbelief.
Although they had already realized Kali's astonishing combat ability when she broke through her physical limits and showed inhuman athleticism, it wasn't until the moment she destroyed Shirou's weapon with her bare body that they truly understood the terrifying might of the War God Kali.
Whether in physical strength, combat technique, or familiarity with the arena environment—Kali had the complete upper hand.
That's why she deliberately allowed the arena to randomly generate various types of weapons. Those weapons weren't prepared for both sides to use fairly.
No—these constantly appearing weapons were merely props, set up to allow the War God Kali to fully showcase her overwhelming power!
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Inside the Arena
"Bang!"
After kicking Shirou's sword to pieces, Kali didn't hesitate for a moment. She instantly closed in further and kicked directly at Shirou's body.
Just from the fact that she broke a longsword with a single kick, one could tell how terrifying her explosive power truly was.
If Shirou took that kick head-on, he'd probably cough up blood on the spot—if not lose the ability to fight altogether.
"Hahaha!!!"
Kali burst into crazed laughter.
She stared at Shirou with a bloodthirsty expression, as if eagerly anticipating how he would respond to such an absolutely desperate situation.
"So, what will you do, Emiya?"
Facing Kali's madness, Shirou could feel the enormous pressure radiating from her flying kick.
At this moment, dodging would clearly be unwise.
Knowing now that Kali's physical abilities completely outclassed his, running would only result in being caught within seconds. If he failed to fully guard against her strike, he'd be overwhelmed instantly—with no chance to fight back.
Thus, there was only one possible response:
Face her head-on!
"Haaahhhh!!!"
Shirou confronted Kali's overwhelming presence and, missing her kick by a hair's breadth, launched a counter-kick of his own.
"Hahahahaha! That's more like it! Yes, that's the spirit! Come on, let's rip each other apart!"
Kali seemed very pleased with Shirou's decision.
Although her kick had missed, she didn't show the slightest trace of panic.
Even though she was airborne and couldn't shift her stance—meaning she was theoretically defenseless against Shirou's counterattack— Kali didn't panic at all.
At the very moment she was about to be kicked, this petite goddess suddenly grabbed Shirou's leg like a monkey swinging on a branch and completely deflected his attack!
"!!!"
Then, using the momentum, she spun midair and slammed her right leg directly into the side of Shirou's face.
"Bang!"
The fierce blow sent Shirou flying, tumbling across the battlefield for quite a while before he finally stopped, like a ragdoll.
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"Shirou-nii!" "Lord Emiya!" "Emiya!"
Seeing what had just occurred in the arena, the spectators all revealed worried expressions.
Freya covered her mouth and murmured, "That kind of movement… she really is the goddess of combat."
"…Divine power is never simple," sighed Ishtar, a flash of worry in her eyes. "Even if Emiya beat Soma and Apollo before, against someone like Kali—who possesses absolute combat capability—there's no way he can win under these level- and magic-restricted conditions."
"...That might not be entirely true."
While most people had already lost hope in Shirou's chances of winning, the War God Takemikazuchi spoke quietly:
"Kali's hand-to-hand combat abilities are indeed exceptional, but the arena she created doesn't only restrict physical combat—it also provides a variety of weapons.
No matter how strong Kali's body is, she can't be a master of every weapon.
She doesn't possess that kind of divine authority. So, if there's a chance to win, it lies in making use of the weapons scattered around the arena."
"…But Lord Emiya's already been knocked unconscious by the War Goddess," said Yamato-no-Orochi with a grim expression, clearly worried. "Even if there was a way to win using weapons, it's all over now. He won't get the chance."
"No—it's not over yet."
Surprisingly, the one who responded wasn't Takemikazuchi, but Ottar, who had barely spoken a word the whole time.
He had previously shown no interest in the battle, only caring about Freya's safety—but now his eyes were shining as he stared intently at the arena, as if he had seen something that piqued his deep interest.
Everyone looked at Ottar in confusion, trying to understand what he meant.
But they soon realized why Ottar had made such a statement.
Because, on the battlefield—
The Shirou they thought had been knocked out by Kali's kick was standing up again.
And it didn't even look like he was forcing himself to his feet. Rather, it was as if he had never been injured at all.
Before they could even wonder why Shirou hadn't been hurt, they noticed something shocking:
Blood was dripping from Kali's location.
Looking closely, they saw that the leg Kali had used to kick—her right leg—now had a broken sword embedded in the ankle!
Just before she had landed her kick, Shirou had stabbed the broken blade into her ankle, causing fresh red blood to pour from the War God's foot.
That kick hadn't been a crushing blow to Shirou.
It had been Kali who suffered damage!
As the crowd stood in stunned silence, the battle in the arena began rapidly shifting in a direction no one could have predicted.
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Back in the Arena
"You hid the broken sword behind your back the moment I kicked?!" Kali's eyes widened as she looked at Shirou. "You never believed a frontal attack could hurt me, so you chose trickery instead, huh?"
"No choice," Shirou replied with a helpless expression. "Beating you in a straight-up brawl is just too hard. So I had to rely on some underhanded tactics."
"Heh… underhanded or not, it's fine. In fact, it makes things even more interesting." Kali chuckled and pulled the broken sword from her leg.
"Well then—your only weapon is now gone. What will you do next, Emiya Shirou? Try to excite me even more!"
"..."
Just as Shirou was about to question how Kali could fight him with her leg injured, in the very next second, Kali attacked him with almost the exact same movements as before, as if the injury to her leg had no effect on her at all.
Both Shirou and the spectators in the audience were visibly surprised by this phenomenon.
But they quickly realized the reason why.
Just as Kali had previously ignored the physical limits of the human body and broke through the boundaries of human potential, she could also forcibly maintain peak combat condition even while injured!
Furthermore, when the body is injured, adrenaline is activated.
This accelerates breathing, heart rate, and blood circulation, providing the body with more energy, and the result is a temporary increase in all physical capabilities and quicker reflexes.
Because of this, Kali now resembled a wounded beast—far from being slowed down by her injuries, she actually exploded with even more exaggerated strength than before, and in the blink of an eye, she was right in front of Shirou!
"Boom!"
Caught completely off guard by the unexpected speed, Shirou had almost no time to react and took a direct punch to the chest from Kali.
The next moment, his entire body was sent flying like a cannonball, slamming hard into one of the coliseum's stone pillars.
"..."
Shirou felt like he could barely breathe.
Kali's strike had caved in his chest, severely impairing the function of his respiratory system and lungs.
And without a doubt, this was a deliberate offensive maneuver from Kali, the War Goddess.
Her specialty was targeting the body's weak points, forcing already fragile humans into even more immobile states.
At the same time, Kali seized the opportunity to follow up her attack.
She didn't give Shirou any chance to recover. Her petite figure once again appeared in front of him like a storm.
"Haaah!!"
Kali launched a flying kick directly at Shirou's face!
"!!!"
Facing such a devastating attack, which would render him completely incapacitated if it landed, Shirou used all his strength to roll to the side.
"Boom!!"
Although Shirou managed to dodge Kali's attack, her strike shattered the stone pillar on the arena floor and sent debris flying toward where Shirou had landed.
Having already spent all his strength evading Kali's strike, Shirou could only watch helplessly as the massive column came crashing toward him.
Still reeling from the compressed blow to his chest, Shirou had no energy left to dodge the falling pillar.
"Bang!"
In the end, the pillar collapsed right where Shirou was lying, producing a deafening crash that shook the entire coliseum.
Seeing this, the spectators in the audience all wore alarmed expressions, some even thinking Shirou had been crushed to death beneath the column.
However, Kali didn't show a victorious expression.
Instead, she frowned and stared at the dispersing dust, sensing from the weight of the impact that something was off.
"You dodged it, didn't you, Emiya Shirou." Kali turned her head to a spot completely different from where the pillar had fallen. "Did you imitate my movement from earlier?"
"...Cough, something like that."
Shirou emerged from a distance, visibly struggling.
His breathing was still unstable, but at least he hadn't sustained further injuries.
He had avoided being crushed by the pillar by mimicking Kali's evasive move at the last second.
Just before the column hit him, he grabbed its edge and used the impact and momentum of its fall to hurl himself out of the way.
Though he was left covered in dust and dirt, he had at least avoided a fatal blow and retained the ability to keep fighting Kali.
"Heh, you really never disappoint me!"
Seeing Shirou quickly learn and mimic her technique, Kali's attitude toward him became even more intense and passionate.
But Shirou didn't think he could endure many more exchanges with her.
Their previous clash had made the difference in fundamental strength between them crystal clear.
Compared to Shirou, Kali's speed and power were both overwhelmingly beyond reason.
Their battle was like an ordinary man with a fragile body trying to stop a full-speed semi-truck head-on—it would take divine intervention just to survive.
So it was impossible for Shirou to win by continuing to imitate Kali's moves in close combat.
Because before he could learn her techniques, it was far more likely he'd simply be struck dead by her next attack.
If Shirou wanted to defeat Kali or even just contend with her, he had to open up the distance between them.
There was no chance of survival in close quarters.
But such a feat was easier said than done—at Kali's speed, she could close any distance in an instant!
Still, Shirou wasn't without hope.
While his body couldn't compare to Kali's, the battle arena was filled with various weapons that could be utilized.
For a fragile human like Shirou, only by relying on external weapons could he possibly have a chance at defeating Kali!
And throughout the fight, several new weapons had appeared across the battlefield.
While defending against Kali, Shirou kept a close eye on the appearance of these weapons.
When Kali shattered the stone pillar and sent him flying, Shirou finally saw it: in a distant corner illuminated by divine light, appeared the very thing he had been waiting for.
So he deliberately let the pillar fall toward him and used the resulting air pressure to propel himself rapidly to the weapon's location.
In other words, everything he had done up to now was part of a setup to acquire that weapon.
Now, he had finally reached it.
Without hesitation, he reached out and grabbed the item emerging from the divine glow—
A long, dark-colored bow!
This was the only way Shirou could think of to fight the War Goddess Kali: using the long-range advantage of bow and arrow to suppress her!
"Snap!"
The moment he touched the bowstring, the weapon instantly adapted into a form Shirou could use.
Even a matching set of arrows was generated by divine power.
This was undoubtedly good news. Shirou could not currently use projection magic, so this allowed him to attack without worrying about depleting his arrows.
However, the divine power-generated arrows appeared at a fixed rate—only one would be created at a time after a set interval.
This limitation meant he couldn't fire them rapidly.
But even a single arrow was enough.
For Shirou, as long as he had a bow and an arrow, even if his opponent was a god, he had full confidence in piercing them through!
"Snap!"
Shirou drew the bow, his eyes quickly locking onto Kali not far away.
Faced with Shirou's ranged tactic, Kali didn't seem surprised.
After all, anyone would realize that close-quarters combat with the War Goddess was foolish to the extreme.
But because she had anticipated this, Kali showed no panic at all. In fact, she completely disregarded Shirou's shooting posture and charged straight at him.
"!!!"
Seeing Kali so boldly inviting him to shoot, Shirou took a deep breath and accepted the challenge.
No matter what, this shot had to pierce the god before him!
"Locked on—!"
In that instant, Shirou's eyes became like an Hawk's, firmly tracking Kali's movements and predicting her path countless times. Then he loosed the arrow!
"Whoosh!"
The arrow flew like a meteor, unleashed from Shirou's fully drawn bowstring.
With absolute accuracy, it reached Kali's position with terrifying precision!
As a user of the "Hawk Eye" ability, Shirou's dynamic vision allowed him to track Kali's every move, and his archery skills—if not unmatched—were certainly unparalleled.
Even with restricted stats and no access to magic, he was still 100% confident that this arrow would hit its mark.
"HA..."
Yet, Kali seemed to have predicted this outcome. Just as the arrow was about to strike her, she suddenly stomped on the ground.
Using the inertia from her charge, she crashed into the ground like a meteor, generating a powerful gale across the arena!
"What?!"
The spectators erupted in astonishment.
Even the War God Takemikazuchi stared in disbelief, unable to imagine Kali pulling off something like this with a human-level physique.
After all, no matter how much hidden power the human body can unleash, there are still ultimate limits. Kali shouldn't be able to surpass those limits!
But before the shock could settle, something even more unbelievable happened.
Despite the gale that should have thrown off the trajectory of Shirou's arrow, disrupting or even completely missing its target—
The arrow still flew straight, as if ignoring the wind barrier entirely, and pierced Kali's shoulder!
She had twisted her joints in an impossible motion at the last moment to avoid a fatal hit, but she still couldn't completely dodge it.
"Ohhh..."
"How did that arrow still hit her?"
"Was it magic? No, isn't magic prohibited in this space?"
Seeing that Kali had actually been struck by Shirou's arrow, the audience was completely stunned.
Among them, only two people truly understood what had just occurred:
Takemikazuchi and Ottar.
Only they understood the rapid and silent duel that had just unfolded between Shirou and Kali—and how Shirou had managed to shoot an arrow capable of piercing a god!
There's only one word to describe it:
Divine Skill.
When technique reaches its absolute peak, beyond all limits, it can achieve feats that defy logic and common sense.
Only with the true craftsmanship of the gods... Can one pierce a god.