[X] "Oh? Fighting the mighty Heracles again? Its my pleasure Lady Ilyasviel!"
[X] Try to defeat Berserker and enter the castle before the time limit. Prioritize getting inside and winning the challenge over defeating Berserker. You proposed the challenge, so it would be unbecoming to lose sight of it.
- [X] If unsuccessful accept the Heroe's win gracefully, thank them and fly away while turning invisible, too fast for them to force you to fight.
- [X] If successful point out the battle if continuing will turn their castle into pile of rubble. Not that you disapprove - its not your house anyway ...
Berserker springs forward with a roar and slams his weapon down, but you're already in the air above him and drift back, laughing. "Oh? I get to fight the mighty Heracles once again!" Laevateinn appears in your hand as your grin widens. Sometimes a bit of bravado is good to start "It is my pleasure, Lady Illyasviel!" You stop paying attention to her as Berserker leaps straight at you, rock-slab arcing toward you. You dodge left, thrusting with your gift to deflect the Servant's attack as you pass under it. Fighting in the air like this is so advantageous … but you need to descend to really fight. You could bring out Loki, but the Barrier Jacket will only matter if he lands a heavy hit, and if he does that, he'll probably collapse it again, and whether your Jacket is up or not you'll probably be down for long enough that he'll be able to finish you. Maybe you should go after him before you go snooping around, if you do something like this again.
"What do you think you're doing? The door's right there! Hell, there are windows you can fit through!" You cluck your tongue as Berserker lands and turns to meet your diving charge; his counter misses you, fortunately, but his off-hand deflects your own attack, so you only tear a jagged line across his arm as pass him.
"I'm fighting the Einzbern champion for the right to enter the castle, of course. Oh, don't worry - if I don't think I can beat him before the time limit, I'll simply enter the castle. But I must make a serious attempt, Headless. It's a matter of principle." You spin around and slam to a halt, then charge as he leaps at you again. Your thrust knocks his attack out of line before he can fully commit and you spin around, flying backward, to watch him recover. His strengths are your strengths magnified, but he isn't without weaknesses. He's quick on his feet and enormously agile for his size, but he needs the ground to change direction, so he's slower to move around. You make two more inconclusive passes, then turn and watch him for a moment. He doesn't plan - he finds out where you are and makes a direct attack on you. Not much of a help out here in the open, but if you ever fight in an enclosed area where you can break line of sight easily, it should be easy to beat him. He charges again, running instead of leaping, and you hurtle forward to meet him. He abandons his charge with perfect timing and swings the slab of a weapon down; you meet it with Laevateinn held at both ends. The edge of his weapon chips as it slams into your gift, and your left hand burns with pain as the force of the impact drives Laevateinn into your palm, but his attack is stopped. You hold him for a moment, then slip to your left and let go of your gift with your right hand, and as his weapon crashes to the ground you slip around it and claw at the side of his face as you zoom past.
Your fingers sting as you retreat higher into the sky and you suck on them for a moment as Berserker slowly turns to look at you. Your claws certainly penetrated his skin, but you didn't draw any blood, and you actually left two of your nails behind! You circle around to keep the humans in your view, but they seem content to simply watch, at least for now. You focus back on Berserker and consider your bag of tricks. Your clones would let you attack him easily, since he wouldn't be able to fight all four of you with the same attack. Danmaku might help, but it would probably be more use as a distraction … if it even served as that, seeing as he didn't react when you clawed at his face. Hm … if he only reacts to threats … you could probably have your clones carry him away if you really needed to, since he's not too heavy to lift. Less than four minutes. You hold Laevateinn two-handed and swoop down at Berserker, spiraling around him and making quick thrusting attacks. You can't attack his front, as you're too busy parrying his attacks, and you can't get solid hits anywhere else, merely driving the tip of your gift against his flesh and tearing open shallow surface wounds as you whirl about in a bloody dance. Laevateinn whips up to deflect an attack and you fly straight into his open hand as he slaps at you with his free hand. You slide along his fingers and skim just over the ground, then hurl yourself into the air as he follows through with his attack. He reaches the apex of his second leap well below you, and you cough up the blood that welled up in your throat during your escape. You draw ragged breaths as your heart recovers enough to start beating again and your ribs begin knitting themselves together. Your clothes will need mending - an easy enough thing to accomplish, thanks to your sister's gift - but that's the price you pay for not using Loki. On the other hand, if you'd been using Loki, you probably would have taken an even heavier hit … you wouldn't have tried to escape and would have taken a heavy hit during your recovery. You shake your head and derisively flick Laevateinn to the side, intercepting and shattering the crystalline blade that flashes toward you.
The problem isn't so much that he's more capable than you - he's a little quicker, maybe, and he's certainly stronger with his attacks - but that he's more massive and he has much better reach than you. You can't get close to make an effective attack without letting him make attacks of his own … at least, not at a speed you can really fight at. If you charged him, you could probably get a hit in, especially if you're invisible and he doesn't know precisely where you are. But he seemed to know where you were when you attacked him invisibly the first time, even if he was too slow to respond effectively to your charge. If you try to fight him close-in, he can probably respond more effectively, and if you charge, you might be able to cripple or kill him … but he's Heracles. Normal heroes have an annoying tendency to not die when they're supposed to; if you actually make a lethal hit against him, you're probably going to be stuck long enough for him to get at least one good hit in. If Deis were around, or Berserker were alone, it might be worth it. But alone, when his Master and her servants are watching? No, it's too risky, and your attacks so far have only resulted in superficial injuries to him. That means you have to go with plan B.
The humans are on the stairs, away from the door, and you slip to the side and plummet toward the landing. Berserker roars and charges after you, but he's not fast enough to catch you. You skid against the stone floor in front of the double door and yank one open; the halberdier - Leysritt? - is starting to follow you, but the other two haven't even managed to finish turning by the time you slip through and into the opulent entry hall. You float above the stairs and wait for them to follow you inside. Almost long enough for you to poke your head out the door to see if something happened, the halberdier enters, followed by the mage, and with the doors flung wide, Illyasviel Einzbern walks in, followed by her growling, glowering Servant.
"I made it inside in less than six minutes," you say as they watch you silently, "and if we keep fighting here, there won't be much left of the castle when we're done." You wouldn't even mind … much … since it isn't your home, but you keep that to yourself - what you spoke is self-evident, but adding that would make it a threat.
"Hmph! You couldn't even kill Berserker." You raise an eyebrow, but she's not watching you. Instead, she's staring at Laevateinn, almost glaring at it, and after a few moments you put it away, startling her. She shakes her head and looks at you. "I don't mind if you stay for a bit, but you have to come down from there. Hmm, and we'll have to do something about your clothes, too …."
"Lady Illyasviel!" You descend to the ground and smile. You have more dresses you can wear, of course, but it might be rude to say you don't need her help. Illyasviel gasps and claps her hands.
"That's right! Sella, some tea, please. Leysritt, go make sure the sitting room is comfortable." Her servants frown disapprovingly, and the mage - Sella - glares at you before sweeping off to prepare something to drink. Berserker disappears in much the same way Archer did, and Illyasviel sighs happily before smiling at you. "I am Illyasviel von Einzbern," she says with a curtsy. You respond in kind and she skips up toward you, staring into your eyes. You realize that she is actually tired, but she's hiding it well - almost as well as you're hiding your own tiredness. "Flandre Scarlet, was it? Are you from England?" You sniff disdainfully and shake your head.
"I most certainly am not. I am Hessian." Her eyes narrow as she frowns and tilts her head.
"Hessian … then you're with the Prague Association? Or another part of the Sea?" You grin and she starts to giggle, then tugs at you to follow her up the stairs. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
What do you do?
[ ] Ask about the Grail War.
[ ] Write-in
DM Note: I … I got nothin. For some reason, I'm blanking on questions or topics of conversation to discuss with Ilya. :shrug:
and stupid, Tohsaka ought to know better, and Caster is mysterious.
