For just a moment, everything seemed to be going so well for your team. Assassin had just taken down two familiars with the short swords Archer gave her, and for all you've seen they actually appear to be
staying down this time. So of course, it was only a matter of time before something came along to spoil it. That malevolent chorus of
laughter rings out as once again
Walpurgisnacht emerges from the ruin of your allies' strikes unharmed, and with a sickening sound wrenches an entire city block into the air. Smaller buildings fall immediately, smashing to pieces everything in their path on the way down, leaving only the largest angling right for you.
That's a lot of buildings.
"Incoming!"
"Saber!"
"Caster!"
The defensive line springs into action immediately. Saber's blue-shining blade swings, sending torrents of water into the advancing buildings. Her jet streams connect, tearing the skyscrapers asunder in a shower of concrete, glass, and steel. Next up is Caster, who has a battery of swords at the ready from his golden portals to intercept the largest pieces as they fall, before they have a chance to fall onto anyone's head.
"Ah, shit!" Your head swivels as you hear Kyouko cry out in pain. Shards of glass dig deep into her back and shoulders, while a piece of fallen rebar has pierced her through the shoulder. The redhead struggles to stand, as both she and Kirika - who herself appears to have only just narrowly avoided the same fate - throw up a layer of protective chain lattices around her perimeter. "Hey, Big White!" she cries out. "Get this shit outta me, will ya?"
"I'll be there in just a moment, Sakura-san!" Mikuni Oriko calls back. She and Tomoe-san are preparing for another barrage against
Walpurgisnacht. "Just hold on for a few seconds longer!"
"Whatever. Don't mind me dying over here or nothing."
You know Kyouko won't die from those injuries; she'll be in pain, for sure, and you won't hear the end of it until she's been healed up, but you're confident she can last the few seconds longer Mikuni Oriko has requested. But for those few seconds, you'll need someone to take over not just Kyouko's role in combating the enemy familiars, but Nagatsuki Miyuki's role as well, as she's broken off her aggressive saber-led push into enemy territory to provide an additional layer of defense to the downed Kyouko. Fire and electricity snap at approaching familiars with the fall of her pistol's hammer, and as soon as the sword of light has retracted from its lengthy blow against
Walpurgisnacht, you ask McRemitz-san "Do you think you could use one of those short swords if Archer gave you one?" One that happens to be available as soon as the words leave your mouth.
Damn your dad is good.
"An Azoth dagger?"
A what? "Sorry; I'm better at disarming bladed opponents than I am at using a blade myself, actually," she says. The blade of light leaps from her arm, skewering through the head of a nearby familiar. "But I can take over for Sakura if she needs a moment, if that's what you're asking."
High above your head, the battle against
Walpurgisnacht continues. Your eyes can barely follow Rider as his chariot screams across the sky, weaving in and out of range of
Walpurgisnacht's flames as he and McRemitz-san's blue-clad Lancer make repeated strikes against the floating fortress of a witch, which now is listing quite heavily; it looks to have completed about half the necessary rotation to completely right its upside-down stance. The battle against
Walpurgisnacht has only ever lasted this long once before, but that time Madoka was there to strike the witch down before it could unleash whatever doom awaits you.
You hope the same will hold true this time.
"Troias Tragōidia!"
"Gáe Bolg!"
"You should cleanse yourself," you say to Kyouko. After supporting several consecutive uses of her servant's Noble Phantasm, combined with the injuries she's just suffered, you can't imagine that her Soul Gem is in any sort of good shape. With one of her arms useless until the rebar is removed and her shoulder is patched up, fighting is out of the question, so she wisely takes the moment to cleanse her Soul Gem of impurities. You turn to McRemitz-san and ask her "What about you? How are you holding up after everything your Lancer's done?"
"I'm still doing fine," McRemitz-san replies. Her fighting form is an odd mixture of graceful and bullish; she moves like a trained gymnast, but her strikes are closer in ferocity to a silverback gorilla, and the ground shatters under the force of her every blow against her chosen foes. "Actually, I haven't had a fight this good in a long time."
"And that sword of yours?"
"Takes almost nothing out of me to use."
You'll hold her to that; but there's someone else whom you
won't hold to that, someone who needs to cleanse themselves as soon as possible. "Clean yourself!" you call out to Kirika, who under the strain of the prolonged battle has grown a deathly pale, her movements sloppy and her face slick with sweat. Clawed chains spear through the form of a nearby familiar, and you loose a volley of ice arrows between the fallen familiar and your big sister. "Now!"
Kirika does as you instruct, taking the precious few moments your arrows have bought her to cleanse her Soul Gem. You know she came into this battle topped off with additional mana transferred to her by Mikuni Oriko, but you don't know how cleansing her Soul Gem will impact that additional store. You hope it remains; knowing how paltry her mana reserves are, she'll need all the help she can get to survive.
Her servant is hardly any help in that regard; Berserker is a glutton, and the more artillery Tomoe-san and Mikuni Oriko give to him, the more mana he needs to expend keeping everything operating; which in turn reflects back on the amount of mana he takes from his master.
"Tiro..."
"-fulmine!"
Another twin bursts of golden light fire off from Tomoe-san and Mikuni Oriko's combined attack, joined by their counterparts of swirling black and crimson as Berserker fires off his own captured sets of artillery. Unlike your big sister or Kyouko, distracted as they are by the thick of battle against the familiars, Tomoe-san and Mikuni Oriko have the enviable ability to take a moment's breather each time they fire, as Tomoe-san is forced to conjure a new
Tiro Finale each time the single-shot cannon has fired. In those precious few seconds, they have all the time in the world, comparatively, to check the clarity of their Soul Gems and act accordingly.
"Brynhildr Romantia!"
"Caladbolg!"
You don't have to say anything at all to remind them to cleanse themselves, and the pair are looking rather well off despite the toll the battle must be taking on them. You would envy their position, if envy were a luxury you could afford to have in this battle.
The overall tide of battle has taken a downward track with Kyouko's wounding, and despite keeping your eyes peeled when you can you've yet to see any openings to be exploited against
Walpurgisnacht. But at least that's another two familiars Assassin has managed to put down. The enemy horde has finally fallen below twenty in number; you don't feel comfortable saying you have
only nineteen familiars to deal with, but it's better than what you started with.
So of course there's no way it could last; and here comes another city block.
[ ] Wat do?
(5)
