[3rd POV]
The enormous staff cut the sky like a ballistic missile, whistling with a sharp, menacing sound.
"Expand!"
Answering the command, the stone staff expanded laterally, multiplying its devastating reach.
Unfortunately, the target of this "ballistic missile" was none other than the most powerful hero of Greek mythology. Even in Berserker form he remained the legendary Hellenic demigod. Though not at the peak of his power, his reputation as the greatest of the Greek heroes remained unshaken.
"Rrrauuughhh!" With a savage roar, he spun through the air, braced his hand against the edge of the Ruyi Jingu, and propelled himself over the stone pillar in an impossible maneuver.
Landing on the pillar, without hesitating even for an instant, he shot forward at high speed along Ruyi Jingu's. His body became a blur, a horizontal line of pure movement racing across the stone staff.
Flashing a smile, Altair merely parted his lips: "Shrink!"
The command caused the weapon to instantly revert to its original size.
Without support beneath his feet, the warrior's body began to plummet toward the ground.
"You're just a monster."
Berserker looked up, spotting a woman with long purple hair above him, wielding a colossal katana.
"Disappear!" Raikou raised her sword, which exploded in a violent cascade of purple lightning.
"Grraauuuughhh!" Heracles brandished his axe-sword, creating an explosion of wind with the movement.
The jet of lightning collided violently against the axe-sword. Without any support in the air—no ground beneath his feet—Heracles' massive body was hurled toward the ground.
His body tore through the sky like an incandescent meteor.
In a few seconds, Heracles' giant mass collided with the ground, opening a deep crater that cracked the asphalt.
Berserker emerged from the crater with a powerful leap. "Rrrauuughhh..."
Before he could complete his roar, the tip of a staff was already aimed at his body.
Thanks to his ⟨Mind's Eye (Fake)⟩, he could quickly analyze the battlefield and understand both his situation and his opponent's situation, allowing him to react instinctively and escape lethal situations.
Reacting instinctively and lethally, he brandished his sword-axe, striking the staff and redirecting the attack to the side, completely destroying a building behind him.
"Grr!" Letting out a low roar, he turned his eyes to the attacker, only to find five clones of the monkey king, each wielding an inferior version of the Ruyi Jingu. Even as mere imitations, they could still cause considerable damage to the giant Servant.
Without waiting a single second, the first clone advanced, exploding with speed, charging with the staff.
In the blink of an eye, it covered the distance, thrusting with the staff toward the Berserker's face.
Leaning his body back, Heracles let the staff pass close to his face.
"Rrragh!" Still with his body tilted, he brandished his axe-sword.
The clone's red pupils calmly observed the chipped blade rising toward it.
It swung its staff in an arc, colliding with the sword-axe.
With the impact echoing through the city, the clone's body was thrown backward. Before its feet could touch the ground, Berserker had covered the distance between them in less than a second.
Despite his colossal size, Heracles was surprisingly agile.
That agility became evident when one of the clones felt Heracles' massive hand wrap around its head.
"Rrrauuughhh!" Letting out a deafening roar, he crushed the clone like a ripe melon, making it explode into smoke. Simultaneously, another clone jumped on him, trying to strike with the Ruyi Jingu. Berserker leaned back, dodging the blow by centimeters.
The Greek demigod planted his right palm on the ground, supported himself, and executed a fluid breakdance movement. His kick was so fast that the clone had no time to react. He only felt a devastating blow drive into its stomach, creating an almost vacuum of air. Soon after, it heard the cut of the sword-axe cleaving the air, exploding it into a cloud of smoke.
At the same time, through the smoke, the real Altair emerged and struck Berserker's torso, forcing the Servant to let out a painful roar. Landing right behind Heracles, Altair placed the staff's tip on the demigod's back. "Grow!"
Practically in an explosion of force, Heracles' body was hurled and slammed into the ground.
With a roar, he drove his sword into the ground, rising with a single trickle of blood running from his lip.
In the same second, Raikou descended like thunder, her blade stabbing into Heracles' shoulder, who let out a howl of pain and pushed Raikou aside with his fist.
Minamoto-no-Raikou's feet slid across the ground as she wiped a small drop of blood from her lips. With an icy look, she advanced toward Berserker, cracking the ground behind her.
"Those two are really strong." Altair gave a slight smile, looking at the two Berserkers.
He possessed primordial runes and runic magic, but had no confidence to use them in a battle like this... at least it would take time to draw and channel a single rune.
Letting out a sigh, he used ⟨Fiery Golden Eyes⟩ on Heracles, which allowed him to view his basic parameters.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Parameters]
▸ Strength: A+
▸ Endurance: A
▸ Agility: A
▸ Mana: A
▸ Luck: B
▸ NP: ?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
There was a slight difference between the two, but why was his NP showing a question mark?
In Altair's mental realm, a small Nahida raised her hand, placing it on her chin. [This probably means his Noble Phantasms are out of use; perhaps they were "damaged" when he was defeated by Saber.]
"So that means he's without his Noble Phantasms?"
[That's a fairly high possibility.]
Altair flashed a smile. Without ⟨God Hand⟩, which was a passive-type Noble Phantasm that granted Heracles an immortal body, things got a bit easier.
Meanwhile, after opening a huge cut in Heracles' chest with ⟨Mana Burst | Lightning⟩, Raikou was sent backward by the impact of the sword-axe.
Trying not to look at the blood flowing from Heracles' chest, Altair exploded with speed.
Before the collision, Raikou felt a hand wrap around her waist. Turning, somewhat surprised, she saw her son catch her in a bridal carry.
"..."
Raikou's mind seemed to overload seeing her son embracing her body.
*This part of my life... is called happiness.*
"My son..." Raikou murmured, rubbing her body against Altair's.
It seemed she was temporarily out of combat.
That thought crossed Altair's mind as Heracles opened his mouth, letting out a roar.
"Rrrauuughhh!"
This guy is ruining the moment. Raikou made an expression of pure rage looking at Berserker.
When her eyes fell on him, Raikou saw the last three clones surrounding the giant.
Before the giant could react, one of the clones spun the Ruyi Jingu and struck his chin forcefully. Berserker's head tilted slightly with the impact, spitting blood.
Without roaring, he turned his gaze to the three remaining clones, his eyes glowing a deep red.
"It was him." One of the clones raised his finger, pointing to the one in front, clearly backing away.
"You traitor..."
Berserker's axe blade hit the clone, destroying it. He spun, grabbed the head of another clone beside him, and, with a snarl, smashed it against the ground.
"So cruel, big guy!" The last clone flashed a smile, facing the enraged Heracles.
"I guess it's my turn." The clone pulled the Ruyi Jingu back and spun it, pushing it forward. "Grow and expand."
The Ruyi Jingu, now the size of a tree, began to grow toward Berserker. Instead of dodging, he raised his fist and, with all his strength, punched it.
The Ruyi Jingu and the punch collided, generating a shockwave so powerful that, even from afar, Raikou had to raise her arms to protect herself.
Altair, feeling the warmth of his Servant's body, unfortunately set her on the ground, making her pout at no longer having her baby's strong hands around her waist.
Crossing her arms over her breasts, she saw her son flexing his foot and jumping toward the sky, while Berserker let out a roar. At the same time, cracks appeared in the Ruyi Jingu, and blood dripped from his fist.
"Hahahaha!" The clone laughed in pure ecstasy, further irritating Berserker, who grabbed the side of the stone pillar and threw it aside with some effort.
Now that the Ruyi Jingu was out of the way, he pushed off the ground and instantly appeared before the last clone.
"It was fun..." Before the clone could finish, Heracles buried his fist in it, destroying it completely.
"Rrrauuughhh!" he roared to the sky, looking up.
But squinting his eyes, he saw a figure falling toward him.
"Son!?" Raikou exclaimed, looking at Altair falling from the sky.
"Let's end this." Altair pulled back the hand holding the Ruyi Jingu and pushed it forward. "Grow and Expand."
The sky was suddenly covered by a massive stone pillar descending rapidly toward Heracles. Its size was so immense that it cast a colossal shadow over Berserker.
There was nowhere to run. Even with his explosive speed, Berserker couldn't escape an attack that extended for several kilometers.
"Graaaaaauuuughhh!" He roared, raising his arms. The veins of his muscles swelled, and in the next instant, he held the impact of the stone pillar with all his strength.
The impact was so powerful that it created a shockwave, destroying the ground around Berserker.
Blood ran from his lips as the ground below his feet began to yield to the pressure. Instantly, blood streamed down his arms, but he still managed to support the enormous pillar, demonstrating the strength of Greece's most powerful demigod.
Altair couldn't help a certain admiration for his enemy. He was worthy of the legend of the one who once held up the sky in Atlas's stead.
"You really are a monster..." he murmured. "But I'm more." His smile widened as he gave the final command.
"Heavy!" With that command, the weight of the Ruyi Jingu began to multiply rapidly, surpassing thousands of tons.
Blood spurted from Berserker's mouth. In the next instant, not even he could support the Ruyi Jingu, and with a thunderous crash, his body was crushed under the massive pillar, creating another massive shockwave as it hit the ground.
Raikou blinked, certain that not even she would survive that blow.
But her son had spent a good amount of magical energy.
At least he was defeated without using his Noble Phantasms...
"This isn't over yet..." Raikou narrowed her eyes toward the crater, seeing the Ruyi Jingu trembling, as if someone was lifting it.
"That's impossible!" Altair widened his eyes.
But his eyes that could see the trace of magical energy confirmed his Servant's statement.
In the same second, under the Ruyi Jingu, Heracles was lifting the massive pillar. Even without his Noble Phantasm, he was still Heracles.
⟨Mad Enhancement⟩ worked at full capacity, increasing all his parameters at the cost of his reason, while ⟨Battle Continuation⟩ prevented his body from falling.
Blood flowed down his body, but he continued lifting the Ruyi Jingu higher and higher.
His eyes glowed with an intense and dangerous red.
"Truly a monster." Pushing with his hands, he threw his body backward toward Raikou.
His feet slid across the ground until stopping beside Raikou.
With those words, Berserker hurled the Ruyi Jingu aside, crushing everything nearby.
A certain Shadow Servant of the Lancer class, who was searching for his king's enemy, was crushed before anyone could even know his name.
Unfortunately, no one will ever know there was one more Servant in this singularity.
Poor lancers...
"Rrrauuughhh!" Berserker roared fiercely, his entire body bloodied.
"Shall we go to plan B?" Raikou asked, looking sullenly at the Berserker who was interrupting her mother-son moment.
"Let's go to plan B." Altair nodded, still incredulous that the demigod was still standing.
They couldn't prolong this fight. Altair needed to help his group.
He narrowed his eyes toward Heracles.
"I'll tire him out as much as possible." Altair massaged his neck.
"Good luck, my master!" Raikou gave a maternal smile, seeing her son's back, which seemed quite broad.
=====★=====★=====★=====
Don't forget to throw power stones and leave a review or drop a comment to motivate me.