"Getting tired?" you ask Assassin.
"No, but I am worried for you, master."
"Don't be," you say. "We'll have plenty of time to worry when that thing finishes righting itself." Caster's fetters have done their job preventing
Walpurgisnacht from moving any further inland, and your hope is that when it is ready, that will be enough to keep collateral damage to a minimum. But more immediately, you also hope another pair of city blocks is nothing to be worried about.
You're quite fortunate to have Saber with you right now. Perhaps Archer could have done a similarly effective job at disrupting the incoming city blocks being thrown at you; in fact, knowing all the tricks he has up his sleeve, he probably could have. But having Saber around to do this job allows Archer to concentrate his efforts where they really shine. As Saber slashes with her sword, sending wave after crashing wave of water into the oncoming city blocks, Archer can concentrate on loosing his
"Caladbolg!" directly into
Walpurgisnacht's face.
Saber's slashes of water do their job, and Caster follows up with several volleys of swords from his golden portals. With the largest chunks of two city blocks reduced to fist-sized shards at the largest, that just leaves Mikuni Oriko to deflect the falling debris with an array of barriers. A rain of stone and steel falls down upon the team, and Mikuni Oriko intercepts it, hands raised in defiance to the falling doom, and her drones respond, knitting their buzzing golden forms together in a glowing golden lattice that spans the field of battle.
Your defender is breathing heavily as the last of the rubble crashes and breaks against her barriers; physical strain, to be sure, and not strain brought on from taxing her Soul Gem. As the rubble shifts, and Mikuni Oriko heaves the fallen buildings off of her barriers, she looks up at the battle taking place in the sky. She must see the same thing you do.
Lancer is going to burn herself out like this. "Lancer, with this Command Seal, I recant my earlier order! Do not see
Walpurgisnacht as Sigurd any longer!" A flash of red shines through the clothing on her back as the command takes effect; but Mikuni Oriko isn't done yet. "And by my next Command Seal, Lancer, calm yourself and withdraw from the aerial battle at once!"
"What the fuck are ya thinking?" Kyouko demands as she recoups the loss of her Soul Gem's clarity from another use of her massive spear. "Yer pulling Lancer out now? Why?"
"I am not 'pulling her out,' Sakura-san," Mikuni Oriko says. "I am giving her a chance to clear her head. Lancer will continue the attack with her runes."
Fire meets fire above your heads, as the flames from Lancer's
Sowilo rune meet the flames from
Walpurgisnacht's mouth. Between the two, Rider and McRemitz-san's blue Lancer continue to ride on lightning as they make with their own attacks.
"Troias Tragōidia!"
"Gáe Bolg!"
A
"Tiro Finale!" joins the fight as Tomoe-san once more fires off a blast from her cannon, before consulting her Soul Gem and deciding a cleanse is in order. Your count isn't perfect, but you're fairly confident that makes one Grief Seed expended by Tomoe-san as well. No one could fault you for not having a perfect count; your attentions have been elsewhere in this battle, and there are still familiars whose forms you rice arrows must seek.
Assassin and Berserker continue to be spinning terrors with those short swords Archer gave to them, and together they tear through the familiars in their path with complete ease. Kirika's claws corral them, while also serving to protect you and the others - the more stationary members of the team especially - from attacks on their flanks by familiars, and combined with the fire and electricity from Nagatsuki Miyuki's pistol the two work in tandem to drive the enemy familiars into the path of no escape. Clawed chains rattle, fire, ice, and electricity scorch, freeze, and crackle, and blades rip and tear.
Your arrows of ice fly, meeting up with a barrage of ice from Nagatsuki Miyuki's pistol and forming an even larger barricade, as Assassin strikes down another familiar. By your count, that makes another four familiars taken down, leaving you and the team just seven left to deal with, just one-third of the total that had once opposed you. It's short, bloodless work, just as vital to the success and survival of your team as the battle taking place in the skies above. You only wish, thanks to the familiars' annoying habit of reverting to puddles of bubbling, corrupting ichor once felled, that it were a less hazardous task.
But then, what reason do you have to expect for safety to be a consideration in a fight like this?
McRemitz-san's blade of light leaps from her arm, spearing
Walpurgisnacht to round out what feels like one more 'turn' of combat; you have no clear indicator, but you're assuming that the rotations of
Walpurgisnacht's body are as good an indicator as any as to how long the battle has been going on for. Despite how hectic everything has been so far, you would be remiss to estimate that any more than a handful of minutes has passed, if that.
This will mark the third time now that
Walpurgisnacht has thrown a pair of city blocks your way. You hope it doesn't keep escalating the way you think it will. You aren't sure Saber and Caster can move fast enough to deal with any more than that. You hope they can, and Caster's precognition and Saber's speed and reflexes willing the pair will continue to be enough.
Buildings; defense; offense; familiars; and repeat. This battle has become worryingly predictable. It's only a matter of time now before
Walpurgisnacht does something unpredictable.
It still hasn't shown you the flood of corruption Mikuni Oriko's visions promised.
[ ] Wat do?
(2)
