NOVEL WEB Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Battle
Gunfire and the high-pitched sound characteristic of metal striking metal echoed throughout the vast cavern. The source of the sound was Saber effortlessly striking down every bullet fired from Nozomi's rapid-firing MP5.
"You can't hurt me with that peashooter."
Saber sneered mockingly, laughing through her nose. Yet, Nozomi paid no attention to the provocation, continuing to fire at Saber without hesitation. Growing irritated, Saber used a burst of magical energy to swiftly close the distance to Nozomi.
"Hah!"
Saber's holy sword swung with a force easily capable of cleaving Nozomi in two. However, it sliced through empty air, deftly evaded by Nozomi's signature Displacement spell.
By using the Displacement spell, Nozomi now appeared directly beside Saber. Taking advantage of the opening created when Saber swung her sword, Nozomi pressed the muzzle of a gun against Saber temple and pulled the trigger. The sound of gunpowder exploding echoed, accompanied by the sharp smell of gun smoke filling the air.
Saber, with the muzzle pressed against her temple, seemingly took the bullet to the head—except it did not. Before Nozomi could pull the trigger, Saber shifted her head away from the muzzle with speed that surpassed the attack, avoiding the shot.
Without losing momentum, Saber swung her holy sword to cleave through Nozomi's torso. However, Nozomi dodged the attack by twisting his upper body. As much as he wanted to counterattack immediately, this was where the gap in physical ability between a Heroic Spirit and a human became starkly apparent.
Before Nozomi could properly aim and fire his gun again, Saber exploited his unbalanced posture from dodging and swept her legs out from under him.
As Nozomi tumbled to the ground, Saber intended to finish the fight quickly, bringing down her holy sword in one decisive strike to grant a swift death. But as if Nozomi had anticipated this exact move, he leaned forward and then jumped backwards, almost as if he had known what would happen and leapt away, seemingly in defiance of gravity, evading the killing blow.
"What!?"
Saber's sweeping kick ended in vain. However, before Saber could take advantage of the opening caused by the opponent falling backward to the ground and exposing his back, a gun muzzle was already pointed at her.
For a brief moment, Saber was dumbfounded by this fact. Even without looking directly at her, and while in an almost collapsing airborne posture, the opponent had aimed precisely at her forehead.
"Ugh...!"
Saber narrowly managed to deflect the fired bullet in the nick of time. The attack had been stopped. Now all that remained was to strike down the opponent, who had collapsed to the ground and left themselves wide open. That was what Saber thought, but when she looked up, she saw the opponent, already some distance away, reloading his weapon. Saber couldn't help but click her tongue in frustration.
"He's incredible! Can he really read the attacks of King Arthur!?"
Romani let out a voice of astonishment. Saber silently cursed him in her heart, calling him a clueless fool.
Reading my moves? Don't be ridiculous.
That wasn't something you could simply read.
Even when the distance had been closed earlier, that fool had clearly lost sight of me. And yet, he reacted to my attack. The only possible explanation is that he *knew* what I was going to do. To further support this, without even looking at me, he continued to avoid my sweeping kick as though it were natural.
What this implies is—
"How many times have you repeated this? Surely 100 or 200 times is nowhere near enough anymore."
"..."
"Silent again? You truly are a colossal fool!"
A seething anger boiled from the depths of her being. It was directed not only at Nozomi but also at herself.
Fueled by that rage, Saber swung her blade at Nozomi. However, just like the first time, he vanished from her sight in an instant, leaving her strike to miss entirely.
"…I see. I've finally figured out the trick to your evasions. You're switching places with the bullets I knocked away, aren't you?"
Saber turned to see Nozomi, who had somehow appeared behind her, and deduced the nature of the magic he was using.
She picked up one of the bullets that had been lying on the ground and carefully examined the markings carved into it.
"But how long can you keep this up? Your magical energy is finite, as are the bullets marked with this spell."
It was true, as Saber had said, that magical energy was finite. The marks necessary for Displacement were also limited. That was precisely why Nozomi should have been fighting alongside Mash, the Demi-Servant. However, Mash remained unable to move. It wasn't because she was paralyzed by fear or anything of the sort. Rather, it was because of what Nozomi had told her just before the battle with Saber began:
"Protect Ritsuka and the Director."
Of course, both Mash, the Director, and Ritsuka had vehemently opposed this. Fighting alone was absurd; there was no way he could win. After all, he wasn't even a Servant. But Nozomi had responded to their protests with a single statement:
"Not being able to win and losing are two different things."
No one could understand what he meant by those words. Did he have some plan to defeat that Saber? Thinking so, they followed his instructions and focused on protecting Ritsuka and the Director.
However, from what they could see, his attacks weren't landing, and he seemed to be struggling just to evade Saber's strikes.
Perhaps it was time to join the fight—
The moment Mash thought that, a chilling sensation, as if an icicle had been driven into her back, ran through her. The source of the dread was Saber, who was about to drive her holy sword, surging with immense magical energy, into the ground.
"But waiting for your magical energy to run out is tedious. If I erase all the bullets scattered around this area at once, you won't be able to perform your Displacement, will you?"
"...!"
Realizing what Saber intended to do, Nozomi fired a bullet upward. At the same time, Saber plunged her holy sword into the ground.
Then came a tempest of destruction.
"Kyaaaaaa!"
"Ugh… guh!"
From the point where Saber drove her holy sword into the ground, cracks spread across the entire surface of the cavern, radiating outward. From these fissures erupted searing magical energy. Everything within the radius of Saber's attack was blown away, obliterated by the sheer force.
Had Mash not protected them, it was easy to imagine that both Ritsuka and Olga Marie would have been wiped out of existence by the devastating assault.
"Now there's no escape, is there?"
The bullets scattered across the ground had all been shattered by the previous strike. As Saber stated, Nozomi, who had leapt into the air to avoid the attack, now had nowhere to run.
Before Nozomi could ready his gun to fire, Saber had already completed the preparation for her Noble Phantasm and now pointed her holy sword at him.
"…Perish, you fool."
With a swirl of magical energy surrounding her, Saber raised her holy sword to unleash its power—
"Could you please kindly stop bullying my master~?"
A powerful attack that came from the side blasted her away, fast enough to draw a parallel line with the ground. She was then slammed into a rocky wall at that same speed, leaving a large crack in the rock.
"Ugh... You…!"
"This is troublesome, you know. Doing such a thing to my Master."
Surrounding her limbs were cosmic-like patterns and blue flames. From above, she looked down at Saber with a confident smirk. This was one of the Servants contracted to Nozomi—
"Useless god, huh?"
"Who are you calling useless!?"
Unable to hold back, Kama retorted at Saber's harsh words. Another Servant appeared with a sigh, gently catching Nozomi as he fell and lowering him carefully to the ground.
"Sigh... could you please stop doing such foolish things? And besides, you're not the only one with a master, are you?"
With those words, Kiara Sesshouin appeared from behind Karma. Upon seeing her, Saber couldn't help but clutch his head in frustration.
"What kind of idiot has he summoned now...!"
"Fufu, that's a pretty harsh thing to say, isn't it?"
"Looking at you two, I can't help but say that. Now then, where is the other one?"
"Oh, so you noticed, did you?"
Upon hearing this, Saber snorted.
"Of course. Even if it was just for a moment, I felt an absurd amount of magic. Enough to surpass even this Holy Grail. If that's the case, that idiot must have attracted yet another troublesome person right? So, where did they go?"
"She's gone off to do some preparation work."
"Preparation... Ah, I see. So that's what it is."
Saber furrowed her brow at Kiara's mention of preparation, but after thinking for a moment, she seemed to understand, nodding as if she had come to a realization.
"So then? What will you do now Black King~?"
"Hmph, I don't think I could win against both of you two. I'll retreat gracefully."
Kama spoke provocatively, and Saber coldly and calmly stated the facts with a sharp gaze. After recalling the past events, Saber gave a self-deprecating smile.
"Ha, it seems I, too, had loosened my grip unknowingly. Because I hesitated back then, it's come to this. I, too, must have been quite obsessed with that idiot. In the end, no matter how fate changes, it seems the same conclusion would have come about if I were alone."
After saying that, Saber let out a deep sigh and gazed at Nozomi with eyes full of tenderness, as if looking at something precious.
"Well, it can't be helped now that things have come to this. I guess I'll go over there too. This time I'll put an end to this great fool of a Master's journey."
With those words, Saber dismissed the armor and holy sword she had been wearing and transformed into a dark blue dress. Then, approaching Nozomi, she handed her part of the decorative items from the clothes she was wearing.
"Make sure to call for me, understand?"
As Saber said this, her body turned into golden particles. Then, just before she disappeared, she smiled mischievously, like a child about to play a prank, and grabbed Nozomi by the collar and pulled him towards her.
"──"
"Wh-what!?"
"Oh my... "
"Eh!? What are you suddenly doing...?"
Amid the astonished voices of Karma, Kiara, and Ritsuka, Saber smiles fearlessly at the three, as if to say she's done them a disservice.
"It's just a little marking, you know. Well then."
Having said what she wanted, Saber vanished from this singularity. This signified the end of the chaotic Holy Grail War that had been unfolding in this singularity F.