The Gorgon did not reply.
I let her chin go and stood up, looking on as she opened her arms to me.
My gaze fell to her injured leg before cataloging her muscle tension, micro-twitches, and overall body language. The conclusion was obvious; she was capable of standing on her own, yet she desired my assistance. There was no malice or hidden intent behind her gesture.
I wrapped my hands around her waist and hoisted her up. In turn, she looped her arms around my neck and brought her mouth close to my skin.
I observed as she parted her lips and sank her teeth into my neck. Blood welled from the puncture wound, which she drank with a slightly hurried motion.
"Why have you not vanished, given that Shinji is dead?" I asked. My arms remained secured around her waist, not flinching at her actions.
As she continued to draw my blood, I had already deduced her objective... replenishing her mana.
"Sakura is my... true Master." A trickle of blood escaped the corner of her mouth as she pulled back just enough to speak.
"I see." Her statement confirmed one of the countless hypotheses currently processing in my mind.
"I can sense... more Servants nearby." Her arms tightened around my neck, the words muffled by a mouthful of blood.
"Tremors from their battle already informed me of that." I replied, lightly tapping my heel against the floor.
She offered no response, entirely engrossed by the faintly draconic taste.
With every drop she ingested, Medusa's injury knit itself back together. By the third mouthful, her leg had fully healed.
She pulled back after having her fill and wordlessly looked toward west, wiping the residual blood from her lip with her finger and drawing it into her mouth.
"Let's go, then." I started walking in that direction. Rider fell in step behind me.
We covered the distance in mere moments, arriving just as Lancer hurled his spear upward while Archer traced a bow in his grip.
I watched them both, then spoke to Rider behind me.
"I'll take Lancer. You hold back Archer."
Both of us watched flatly as a pitch-black arrow collided with Lancer's crimson spear.
BOOOOM!
Shades of red drowned the world.
That was the moment both of us moved.
Sonic booms resounded in my wake. A single step and I was already in front of Lancer, layers of wind compressing around my arm, extending my reach toward his eyes.
Lancer's pupils constricted. He unconsciously tilted himself backward, dodging a blade of invisible wind aimed straight at his eye by millimeters.
My other hand was right behind the first, already an inch away from Lancer's abdomen. He tightened his core a fraction of a second before impact, transferring the force through his stomach and up his shoulder, then threw a punch straight at my face.
Simultaneously, a crimson spear tore toward my head from behind. He had recalled his weapon.
A fraction of a degree. That was all the margin I needed. Tilting sideways, Lancer's fist displaced the air above my nose, his spear hissing past my nape.
Meanwhile, my wind-sheathed arm immediately roared toward his jaw.
But his instincts were uncanny. Head tilting in perfect mirror to my own, he pulled back from the trajectory.
I reacted instantly. Compressed winds around my hand discharged for a moment, eerily similar to Artoria's [Strike Air].
Black and crimson flashed from the rotating magic circles beneath as I slightly adjusted the trajectory of my fist.
BOOOOM!
Lancer was hit dead on his cheek. The impact deformed his face in slow motion as he was sent tumbling away like a kite with severed strings.
His spear snapped back into his grip mid-air. He buried its shaft into the ground, dragging it and his heels across the floor to steady himself.
I looked ahead at him. He pulled his crimson spear from below and began rotating it within his grip.
"Not bad, Kid. Not bad at all. You hit way harder than that Archer." Lancer said.
"I heard that, you spandex weirdo." Archer's voice reached us from further away, even as he fought against Rider.
Lancer ignored those words and pulled his foot back, holding his spear perpendicular to his body, its tip pointed straight at me.
I bent into a stance that blended the styles of Artoria and Medusa. My posture carried the regality of a knight, yet my muscles were coiled like a beast's.
[Gradation Air] activated.
A stake-chain traced into existence within my left grip. Meanwhile, dispersed wind currents spiralled up my right arm, once again rendering it invisible.
A physical weapon in my left hand. A blade of wind in my right.
A phantom of Medusa loomed to my left—serpentine, translucent. A phantom of Artoria materialised to my right—armoured, regal.
Residual discharge from copying their techniques perfectly. Reality had briefly projected the originals.
I paid it no attention.
Lancer blinked once, and they were gone.
Shockwaves ripped through the air behind me as my surroundings blurred and snapped back into focus in an instant.
I came face to face with Lancer, the stake-chain hurling toward his chest.
My mind shifted into overdrive as everything slowed to a crawl. No... my mind was moving faster than everything else, accelerating my cognition to inhuman levels.
I watched in slow motion as a thin, layered boundary field stretched over my striking arm. Beneath it, I noted my own biology frantically trying to keep pace—cortisol flooding my system, glucose production spiking to fuel muscles that were actively tearing past their biological limits.
Yet his spear moved even faster than my accelerated thoughts, already intercepting the path of my stake-chain.
Clang.
Stake and spear collided with a deafening screech.
I did not break momentum. Lines of intersecting emerald and sapphire light traced across my rising knee. Lancer's own leg came up to meet it.
A fraction of a second before they collided, black scales materialised over my knee while his flashed with runes.
BAAM!
We were both blown backward. My heels dug into the floor as I skidded three steps back, while Lancer merely took a single step to anchor himself.
The thin boundary field that had covered my arm now stretched across my shoulders, enveloping my other, invisible hand.
Lancer and I moved in perfect sync. My invisible wind blade and his spear clashed in the space between us. I tried to overpower his spear; he tried to overpower my blade.
Sparks erupted as we struggled for dominance.
Our legs met in the middle.
Blue glyphs and runes exploded against each other as heel met heel.
Both of us were pushed back.
"Kid... You're fun." Lancer spoke, a battle-hungry smile across his face.
I walked toward him.
Blue glyphs across my body shifted endlessly, something similar to Lancer's runes flashing and dissolving rapidly across my skin.
This time... I did not call my opponent...
Boring.
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Author's Thoughts]
How was the chapter? I hope it was nice.
Have a good day everyone!