Chapter 9 - Morbidity
It rained, and it rained, and it rained.
Mostly, what it rained was arrows.
There was a convention, in a lot of books Ryuunosuke had read, to describe a lot of arrows being fired as a 'rain', or a 'shower'. As far as descriptions went, it was fine. It got the point across of there being a lot of things falling from the sky. There were a hundred arrows, or maybe even a thousand, and calling it a rain made you picture that.
But, really?
Go out and stand in the rain sometime. Look at how the air is filled with dropping water, how you can barely pick out the individual drops and it's useless to try anyway because what matters more is the
area affected. Now just try and imagine every single one of those raindrops as an arrow. It quickly becomes clear that 'it rained arrows' is taking just a bit of artistic licence. It's a wonderful metaphor, but a rain of arrows isn't anything like actual rain.
Archer's Noble Phantasm was like actual rain.
"Oh, bother," said Ryuunosuke softly, watching the sky fall from behind his Servant's eyes.
---
Ibaraki screamed as her flesh was punished. Arrows tore chunks out of her arms, her legs, her shoulders – only the fact that she had her bone blade held protectively over her heart and head prevented any of them from scoring a lethal blow.
She could barely hear herself think. All around her, arrows drilled into the bridge, each impact carrying the sound of a sledgehammer hitting stone – but with such frequency that all Ibaraki could make out was a neverending roar.
It was all she could do to keep her sword braced. She was dimly aware of Saber somewhere next to her, but could not have said what the other Servant was doing to stay alive.
There had been almost no warning.
A second for Ibaraki and Saber to notice the figure on the roof of a building, four kilometres away. Negligible, the time for both of them to recognise it as Servant Archer.
Maybe a quarter-second to realise that she had
already fired, two specks of green making their way high, high into the cloudy sky.
Another quarter second for that sky to fill with arrows, multiplying over and over until even Ibaraki felt a leaden dread in her stomach as she realised that dodging would be impossible.
Half a second after that to turn Ibaraki's world into shit.
Two seconds, in total, from realising there was an intruder to being hit with their Noble Phantasm – because there was no way anything like this could be anything else.
A green streak opened a cut on Ibaraki's cheek. She gritted her teeth and ducked her head, feeling bones rattle. Her fingers, long ago broken where they held onto the bone blade's hilt, continued to clutch on, grimly.
There was no point in dodging this. All around, there was nothing but shattering concrete – there was nowhere to dodge
to, and trying would mean releasing her guard. No. Ibaraki would weather this as she'd weathered every other attempt at her life.
At the thought, her hide thickened and toughened even beyond its usual iron-hard state, the red tattoos on her forearms, head and legs expanding to cover her entire body. Arms that had been thin and flimsy developed quickly – not growing huge, but growing
dense, layers of muscle defining themselves even as arrows stripped them away.
Like this, Ibaraki looked even more like the oni of legend, and the thought made her smile a savage smile even as impact after impact jarred her body. To her disappointment, Ibaraki had finished growing long before she'd wanted to, and was left looking like a fragile human child – but she could change her form somewhat, and made use of the ability as often as necessary. A true oni would withstand the weight of a mountain falling on them, and so would Ibaraki.
Goddamn it, though, would this blasted Noble Phantasm ever
stop?
The one consolation was that Saber was surely having just as miserable a time as she was. With a smirk – more a grimace, really – Ibaraki looked to the side, looking through the blinding storm of green to see how the other Servant was handling
goddamn it what the shit.
Saber was unharmed. Not a scratch had been marked into their beautiful face, their clothes weren't ripped and torn like Ibaraki's kimono, and they didn't seem to even be breathing hard. That was… impossible. Impossible! No matter how canny Saber was, there was no way they could have dodged
this.
And indeed they weren't. Their sword held at the ready, Saber stood perfectly still and looked into the arrow storm, apparently just as confused as Ibaraki. Although probably less annoyed about it. The arrows just… didn't hit them. All around Saber, the concrete was being pounded to powder under Archer's onslaught – but Saber stood in a zone of perfect calm.
Ibaraki saw Saber glance over at her. Ibaraki saw Saber's considering look. Ibaraki read it on Saber's face when the obvious idea dawned.
Slowly, carefully, Saber took a single step towards Ibaraki. The area of unmarred bridge stretching behind Saber like a shadow shattered like the rest, and Saber stood unharmed in her new position.
Saber smiled a bright, bright smile.
Oh, bother, thought Ibaraki.
She frantically swept her blade round to meet Saber's lightning-quick thrust, ignoring the arrows that tore at her. A blast of fire made Saber back off, but even that somehow failed to put them in the path of any of Archer's arrows – and then Saber attacked in earnest.
Ibaraki twitched aside as Saber's sword flashed – right into their follow-up, which severed important-feeling things in her shoulder like a surgeon's scalpel.
Basically ignoring that, Ibaraki blurred her sword through the area Saber's head should have been. It hit only air, as she'd expected – and her follow-up was stopped dead in its tracks, which was not. Saber's mercury-coated glove held Ibaraki's wrist in a vice-like grip. They drew back their rapier for a strike, but Ibaraki was a little quicker this time and lashed out with a kick, ducking her head against her shoulder to protect it from arrow fire.
Saber slithered aside, and did something complicated to Ibaraki's wrist that dragged her forward – directly into an arrow which embedded itself into her wounded shoulder.
Ibaraki screamed, and reached deep into her rapidly dwindling well of power. In a moment, she was surrounded by flame – and then she
exploded. A sphere of force and fire briefly expanded around her, blasting even Archer's arrows off-target and forcing Saber to retreat once more. With a feral snarl of effort, Ibaraki kept it up, shining like a hellish sun.
If she let this up, she would die. Either by Archer's arrows, or by Saber taking advantage of her immunity to score a fatal blow. So it was simple. All she had to do was win, just that. Last a little longer, fight a little harder. Archer surely,
surely could not have the prana to keep this up for long.
If all else failed, Ibaraki would have to escape – to flee, to
run, to
admit defeat. She could do that, quite easily. She could go back to the start, reset the conditions, and leave to take on Saber or Archer when they weren't supporting each other. She could even instruct Ryuunosuke to use a Command Spell.
But
fuck that.
Ibaraki wasn't going to run, not from some effete flower knight and not from a coward attacking from miles away either. She was the leader of the Mt Ooe oni, and she was more than equal to this task.
… or, so she hoped, as she felt prana flow out of her like sake from a smashed gourd.
Eventually, mercifully, the rain slowed, and stopped.
Ibaraki still stood. Panting, bleeding from a thousand punctures and cuts, her kimono in tatters and her body so bruised and broken she had to lean on her sword for support, but Ibaraki still stood.
The bridge hadn't fared quite so well. The entire surface of the road was a ruin, more pothole than asphalt, scored down to the concrete in so many places it looked only half-built. The red steel that made up the structure was twisted and torn where arrows had punctured straight through. Around Ibaraki in particular, asphalt had melted, concrete had scorched, and even some of the metal was still glowing cherry-red. Even for a magus, the bridge was damn near beyond repair.
And, of course, there was Saber – who had weathered the entire thing, Archer's trump card and Ibaraki's prana burst too, without a scratch.
"Damn you," growled Ibaraki, forcing the words out through battered lungs. "So you're working together with Archer? Don't tell me you avoided that all on your own. No-one's that lucky."
Saber gave a flourish with their sword. "Alas, I must correct you! I am no ally of Archer's."
Ibaraki snorted, rather than dignifying that with a reply. Saber had the gall to look wounded.
"Oh, you cruel woman!" they said, sheathing their rapier and turning to Ibaraki with a hurt expression, one hand on their breast. "Beat me and break me if you must, but my honour is a fragile thing, and your doubt cuts me deeper than swords. I am no circus charlatan attempting to deceive you and triumph by trickery – I am not, I am not!"
Ibaraki huffed, and frowned haughtily. "Protesting that their word is their bond is often the first refuge of liars."
Saber clasped their hands in front of them, looking faintly desperate. "Then, if you will not believe my word, how about this? I shall reveal the name of our mutual foe, to show you we clearly cannot be in league! Archer's true identity is the huntress of Greece raised by bears, she who fired the first shot into the Caledonian Boar…" Saber turned with a flourish, and gestured at the distant building as though a showman introducing his act. "Atalante, the Argonaut!"
Oh? How illustrious. It seemed there were some celebrities taking part in the War, indeed. While Ibaraki had never met Atalante – being from different times and places as they were – the Grail supplied all Servants with a general knowledge of the other Servants' legends. A highborn lady raised by animals, who never truly left the forest behind and kept her heart wild to the end… yes, Ibaraki liked Archer already.
"Hmm?" she said. "How interesting. I find it laughable that Archer should miss so many times."
"Just so. And yet, she persists!" Without warning, Saber's rapier flashed out faster than thought. A single arrow smashed into the ground by Saber's feet, deflected before Ibaraki had even seen it fired.
"I suspect she is just as confused as I am…" Saber continued. "Certainly, she can hit me with the arrows she fires herself. Do you have any insight, perhaps, Berserker?"
Ibaraki glared. Saber's draw had been
extremely quick. "Not a clue."
"Hmm…" Saber idly batted aside a few more potshots from Archer. As always, the knight hardly seemed to be trying, and the missiles – hardly visible in the night, moving fast as lightning and striking with twice the force – never made it past their guard. "What a mystery! Can it truly be that her Noble Phantasm refuses to strike me down? Is it then peculiar to the Noble Phantasm itself? Curious, curious…"
Ibaraki shook herself, stretching out her bruised and bloodied body. If Saber wanted to talk, let them – Ibaraki was recovering by the second. He knuckles whitened on her bone blade. She wasn't going to take on Saber, not like this… but she still had a few tricks left up her sleeve. Literally up her sleeve, in fact. It would take some time to gather the necessary prana, however. Her Prana Burst was not kind on her reserves.
As for Saber's question… armed with a name, the Grail helpfully supplied the information into Ibaraki's mind. With that form, that Noble Phantasm would have been…
Archer's Noble Phantasm, Phoebus Catastrophe. It was two letters of complaint, each tied to an arrow and sent to the gods themselves… who in turn made clear their displeasure at the one who angered their servant so. According to legend, Artemis and Apollo both had a hand in the divine punishment – with the arrows of Artemis striking only men and the arrows of Apollo striking only women.
It looked like even the gods were confused as to what gender Saber was.
And by the look of dawning realisation on Saber's face, they had apparently reached the same conclusion.
"Oh? Oh ho? Ah, now this is interesting indeed!" they said, clapping their hands. "Archer, can it be I am immune to your Noble Phantasm? How lucky for me! It must be formidable indeed, to leave Berserker so tattered."
Saber twirled aside, letting four arrows whistle through the space they had been. "Ah, no, Archer, I'm afraid it will take more than you have to defeat me now. Perhaps you should team up with Berserker, hm? Together, you may triumph! Ah, but the mighty Servant of Madness has already shown she can survive your best… however will you prevail without my distracting her? And should you fail to defeat her, however will you gain the promised Command Spell? Such a princely bounty… it would be a shame indeed if some gorgeous knight of flowers slew the beast and gained the prize while you merely peppered her with little thorns from above."
The promised
what? Ibaraki growled, literally smouldering with a dull, sullen fury. There was a bounty on her head already? Damn her Master for egging her on, and damn her for falling for it. When she got out of this, she was going to have
words with him. With every Servant against them from the very start, Ibaraki would need to play this just right and not get carried away again.
On the other hand, Ibaraki still didn't plan on
losing.
There was a flicker of green in the sky, and Ibaraki just had time to notice another shot from Archer. Her bone blade rose, slower than Saber's lightning-flash swordplay but with a power as unstoppable as thunder.
Forget shielding herself. That wasn't an oni's way, and it wasn't a Berserker's way either. Archer's volley closed in – and Ibaraki attacked it back in turn.
One blast of green bounced off the blade, and nearly knocked it out of her hands. For the next two, Ibaraki corrected her grip for the power of the shots, and the sword was steady as a rock as it swept through them in a single strike.
Left, right, the shots just kept coming. For each blow Ibaraki smashed aside, another two were in the air, and her bone blade, already impossible to lift for most humans, felt heavier and heavier in her hands. Her well of power wouldn't last forever – and if anything Archer was only gaining momentum.
This wasn't Archer's Noble Phantasm, which filled the sky with arrows and left no place to hide. This was just one of the finest hunters in history, firing a lot of shots as fast as she could. From Archer's position, there was a stream of arrows, visible as green pinpricks of light against the grey clouds, curving up and up – to fall with all the power of an artillery strike and all the precision of a sniper.
Ibaraki lifted her sword once more to bat away an arrow aimed for her head – and missed the one behind it, which plunged into her stomach. Flinching back, Ibaraki gave ground, straight into the paths of another three which Archer had fired in anticipation.
They hit, each with a force Ibaraki had been hit by only a handful of times in her life. She went sprawling, and looked up to see the final shot in the volley aimed right between her eyes…
And Saber was there, batting the arrow aside with a merry laugh. "Whoops! Not today, Archer. My Master has decreed that I be the one to slay Berserker, and so I shall, even if means saving her first. Today, I am the knight protecting the fair maiden from the savage beast that threatens her…" they trailed off, looking disturbed by something. Maybe it was the hissing growl Ibaraki was making. "… ah, in any case. Shame on you for attacking such a helpless creature!"
"
Helpless, am I?"
Ibaraki lunged, sword-first. Saber caught her wrist again and twirled her, batting away another volley of shots from Archer. When Ibaraki lashed out with her claws and teeth, looking more like a crazed hellcat than the oni princess she was, Saber laughed and flickered backwards, somehow managing to keep between Ibaraki and Archer.
Archer's bombardment was in full force, shots split between Saber and Ibaraki. While Saber's back was turned, the other Servant engaged in dealing with the arrows, Ibaraki saw her chance. She howled and swung her sword, a wave of force exploding forth to swallow up Saber – but at the last moment Saber dodged, allowing an arrow to strike Ibaraki's wrist and send the strike off-course.
Literally spitting fire, Ibaraki surged forwards, only to come up short as that mercury shield expanded into a flat disc at a gesture from Saber, blocking her view. She raised her sword – and was too slow to stop the spikes which sprouted from it to pierce her through. They bent and broke on her skin, and with a savage laugh Ibaraki bulled ahead.
Foolish knight. Foolish magus. That Mystic Code was impressive, for certain, but it acted best as armour for Saber. It had nowhere near the power to break an oni. If Saber thought this shield would protect them, they were sadly mistaken.
Another set of spikes appeared, plunging towards her, and these Ibaraki just ignored. Charging, she hefted her sword yet again, safe in the knowledge that nothing this Mystic Code could do could hurt her…
… and ran straight onto a spike which pierced her throat.
There was an instant, just one, where Ibaraki had time to process that she'd made a terrible, terrible mistake.
Then the pain hit.
Ibaraki's teeth gritted in agony, and her shriek of fury and pain was muffled, vocal cords severed by the colossal blow. Tears came to her eyes, only to be boiled away by the insane heat she was generating.
Her bone blade hung limply from fingers which had lost all strength, and she stumbled back, only staying on her feet by a miracle.
Ahead of her, Saber stepped
through the mercury disc, revealing the spike still lodged in Ibaraki's throat to be her rapier, thrust through with perfect timing to blend in with the other spikes. As Ibaraki retreated, Saber advanced, step by slow, careful step, mercury reforming around her clothes once again. Their eyes were bright and triumphant.
A flurry of arrows came in, no doubt a last-ditch attempt by Archer to finish Ibaraki off before Saber could. Behind Saber, the tails of their mercury-coated cape rose up and thrashed, knocking them off-course. Saber kept their eyes on Ibaraki, and kept their sword in Ibaraki's throat.
Ibaraki thought she'd have had more time than this.
I was going to bring back the oni… we were going to live on Mt Ooe again, and everything would be like it used to be… was I wrong? Shuten…
"A valiant fight," said Saber softly. "But it is time for you to go, Berserker. I do not know who you were, but I will remember you nevertheless."
"…ghhg…" said Ibaraki. If ever there was a time to disengage, now was it. But, dammit. To run with her tail between her legs in the very first battle of the War? Never.
Never.
"Hm?" said Saber. "Ah. Yes. I suppose I can hear your last words. Hold on, please…" With a flourish, they tore their sword free and shook it clean in one clear motion.
"…nxt…" Ibaraki's fingers tightened on her sword. A last ditch attack… yes, she maybe had the strength for one more blow at full force. Even Saber would feel
that, if Ibaraki could just connect.
"I'm sorry? I'm afraid you will have to speak up."
"…gah…" Ibaraki spat blood, and glared at Saber, who looked back with a cool, professional air. No, Ibaraki was not going to hit Saber. Not when she was at her best, and certainly not now. But she couldn't just die without giving it one last shot to survive.
"I said…" Ibaraki raised her sword in one trembling claw.
"Yes?" Saber leaned in, mercury armour shifting and their grip on their rapier. Their eyes missed nothing, prepared for any attack from their defeated foe. Ibaraki smiled a toothy, tusky smile.
"I said… we'll continue this next time, Saber!"
And Ibaraki swung with all her strength.
At the bridge below her feet.
As the concrete
crumbled under the titanic blow, as the metal groaned and shrieked as the battered structure finally gave way, as Ibaraki fell down into the water below, she had just enough time to savour the look on Saber's face.
Chew on that, you stupid knight. Next time, I'll crush you with my Noble Phantasm straight off.
Then Ibaraki hit the Mion River, and for a time, her flame was quenched.
