Daniel

At the message from Crazy Horse, Daniel spoke telepathically, Are the Assassins all wearing masks? If so, then they are attacking us as well - This person must have a Noble Phantasm or something allowing duplication or mass projection. Try and lure the group pursuing you to our location, then use your Anti-Army Noble Phantasm on all of them once they converge - I’ll use my Planetarium Orb and some Astrology to make sure you don’t accidentally hit us or we don’t accidentally hit you! That, and I also plan to use my telepathic and sensory connection to you guys to see what you see -

As Daniel saw through Don Juan’s vision, he was distracted by the sight of the female Assassin duplicate(?)’s mask being blasted off by a flipping’ Origin Bullet. The sight of the Eldritch Horror underneath the mask was thus made less terrifying and nightmarish by the warmth and enthusiasm which flooded him as he realized who was there - Kiritsugu Emiya, the famed Magus Killer. If Daniel hadn’t been in Auto’s bag, he would have danced for joy, and maybe even gotten himself mistaken for one of the Past Masters in that Holy Grail War and worthy of death as ‘competition’.

Daniel wasn’t completely blind - He was a Magus himself and Kiritsugu was a Magus Killer. Admiration for the latter won’t stop him from killing Daniel if it was ‘for the greater good’ or if Daniel got in his way. So he messaged his Servants a new set of tactics and a strategy behind them - A method to save the maximum amount of lives from this Assassin. Saber! Support and protect the guy who was shooting at the Assassins - Signal to him that you are a friend, but keep watch for if he tries to turn against you! My own Assassin - Autocylus - Keep me hidden until we get a signal that we can trust the shooter!

Now to apprise Rider of the situation, Rider, we have a new potential ally, I’ll use my Planetarium Orb and Astrology to make sure that you don’t hit us or that guy by accident as well! Then once the army of Assassins is defeated, prepare for a fight or negotiation with the potential ally - He’s someone we can’t kill because it’d affect the integrity of the timeline!

And sure enough, Daniel began using his Planetarium Orb to calculate the most auspicious time for Rider to strike, the most auspicious moment to use his Anti-Army Noble Phantasm. Then he sent the exact coordinates and the exact second-from-now that Rider should strike to the guy.

Now, for the final orders - Note that every communication between him and the Servants was sent to all of them so that they didn’t step on each other’s feet. Now, Kiritsugu usually has an assistant with him - He isn’t a lone wolf. He also has a habit of planting explosives in the area around him. Assassin - Autocylus - While keeping me hidden, try and find any traps he has set as well as his assistant, who is a soldier as well who would gladly shoot me if I were a threat. But do it only if the threat from the enemy Assassin and their duplicates has been reduced.

A faint memory, Also, one of the remaining reports I saw about Kiritsugu was that he was a Master in the Fourth Grail War as well? If so, and I hate to say this, but Steal his Command Seals if he tries to summon a Servant. Then an afterthought. Oh! And those enchanted bullets are Origin Bullets, they can detonate Magus’ Magic Circuits upon contact! And as seen, they can affect Servants as well!

These Assassins were getting pretty creepy.

The way they moved and responded to attacks marked them as something inhuman. Even his dazzling swordplay barely seemed to phase them. Most likely they were mindless. Or perhaps they were living as if they were already dead. Saber didn’t understand that philosophy one bit. It was the opposite of his own, living each moment down to the last microsecond, before even considering death, or what comes after.

He cut his ineffective volley short, leaping again as the Assassins threw knives at him. A few slashed at his clothes, scratching at him. “Tch,” he scoffed. Hopefully, they weren’t poisoned.

Saber was already moving as the shot rang out. The Assassin’s mask slipped to the floor, revealing something deeply inhuman. It didn’t bother him as it would a normal human. Rather, he was simply looking towards the abomination, evaluating its physique, its abilities, and how they might be used.

“Heh. If they had more suckers and less spikes, I’d give it a try…” Don Juan muttered. “Better take this seriously.” He landed, several paces back from the unmasked Asssassin.

Saber! Support and protect the guy who was shooting at the Assassins - Signal to him that you are a friend, but keep watch for if he tries to turn against you!

On it. Don Juan curtly signalled back. Whoever had shot his foe… Well, enemy of my enemy and all that. And with that shot, his new mysterious ally had given away their position. He took a second to trace the path that the bullet had taken, but it was hard to be exact. To prevent any more daggers hitting, he gave another burst of movement, twirling his sword in protection as he ran towards the direction of the bullet.

“Oi, gunner!” Saber announced, voice booming. “Since I doubt these guys can understand us, why don’t you show yourself. You’ll be safer with me - we’ve got a plan.”

With that proposition made, he focussed on defence, keeping his sword ready and his enemies in view, as he waited for a response. The Assassins were a dud, so hopefully this sniper was hot.

@ColourlessKing@Scallop@Duoya - In the Riverbed

The craft's pilot was finally visible as it spun around in mid-air. The jets cutting off, and then reigniting in a moment to do a complete 180 in the air after a first failed attack. The pilot sat on top. A man in black armor, warped beyond visibility. Even looking at him was a nightmare, but it hardly seemed to matter as the vessel he was controlling was very much on the attack again.

Mu's attack struck the armored knight, and despite its power all it did was stagger the monster, nearly knocking him off his vessel. Perhaps that was the opening needed. As Diarmuid, the brave knight of Fionn leapt into the fray. The monsterous attacker's attention turned away from the master and her servant, allowing another attack from Mu to strike Berserker again. Each time he shrugged off the attack, but each time it kept him from focusing in totally upon the Saber. Allowing Diarmuid to close the gap, and burst right in.

Berserker's craft crashed into a wall of the riverbed. Smoke and dust obscuring him as he stood, finally freeing himself from the remnants of his weapon. Yet he hardly seemed phased as he leapt down from the Riverbed. His head turned, looking directly at Mu, as if silently blaming him for all this. Then...

The helmet split. A mass of tentacles bursting out of every corner of that broken helmet, knocking the two halves to the side. The face was a horrible wailing monster of tentacles and teeth. Then, it paused as if hearing a sound that none of them could hear. And so, it walked away from the wounded knight and the chaldean operatives. As if it no longer cared about them.

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@Letter Bee@SSW@Cu Chulainn - In the Middle of the City District

The sound of gunfire filled the air again, as a bullet flew well above Saber's head, only to be deflected by one of the assassins who were now paying more attention to the gunner than to Don Juan himself. Thankfully, the loss of one of their members seemed to have made them passive. Almost as if they were in silent discussion with each other.

The sniper though, was on the move, as a shadow could be seen running between broken windows. "Swordsman, where is your master!?" The voice though, was as sweet as honey to Saber's ears. The voice of a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties. She became visible as she stopped finally in front of a window, and she was indeed what Saber had hoped for. Beautiful.
"Saber, tell your master that he has to get out of the city, and across the river! He isn't safe in the city!" She shouted again. Her eyes on him.

Then, she jumped. Catching a long hanging wire, she slid down, as if full expecting this mysterious Saber servant to catch her and carry her away. She probably wasn't wrong. "I'll explain more when we're out of the way. Those things are probably deciding on which is in charge now, but it won't take them much longer."

Charlotte panted as she finished climbing the edge of the river. As she had expected, the cover was close to nonexistent - the nearest building was nothing but a charred pile of rubble, with the fire seemingly having already passed through the area.

"I will have to test the extent of this attack! I could have the means to rid us of this nuisance but I will perhaps need to activate one of my Noble Phantasms if we are to stand a chance, allow me to test the limits,"

Charlotte turned to look at Mu as a pile of scrap and metal fell around him, and strips of metal shot from the ground around the Servant. The attack slammed into something on top of the Machine, which Charlotte could make out as a man dressed in armor and radiating a black aura.

Charlotte shook herself from watching the combat. She still needed to find somewhere to hide. She nearly turned away from the conflict when she saw something jump straight at the aircraft. At first, Charlotte thought Mu was launching another attack, but that was dismissed when the Caster launched another metal spike towards the machine. As the aircraft continued to fly down the river, the mysterious attacker caused the entire machine to crash straight into the riverbed wall.

The smoke and embers that came from the crash smelled different from the rest of the smoke in the city. There was a distinct scent of Kerosene, which Charlotte had grown used to smelling around the lamps in her old home.

Shaking her head, she looked down at the scene below her. Now that he was on the ground and not moving, the armored figure was clearly visible to Charlotte. And that wasn't including the fact that there was a new arrival to the fight. Charlotte saw his face, and stared for a brief moment, before shaking her head. He was quite attractive, but Charlotte was focused on much more important matters at the moment. At the very least, this new Servant seemed to be fighting the armored knight as well.

"You got this, Caster! Now that this guy lost his fancy toy, you can take him out easy!"

Without a doubt, having the knight on the ground was a massive advantage. Now Lancer could-

Wait, where the hell was Lancer? And Archer too?!

Charlotte seemed to lose a lot of confidence when she noticed her only servant left was Mu. From what she was told, Caster's weren't exactly experts on physical combat. Charlotte lost the rest of her confidence when she saw the knight's helmet split in half, revealing a mass of writhing tentacles and teeth.

,,,Yeah. Charlotte quickly pulled her sleeve back, releasing several more Wisp Familiars. A Mage could do very little to a Servant, but at the very least she could try and distract whatever the hell this thing was. It seemed like Charlotte would not need to, however. The monster simply... walked away from the wreckage.

Charlotte had a sudden impulse to try and attack the Servant but stopped herself immediately. She wasn't suicidal, and there was very little that could be done against something like that. But why the hell would that thing just leave them alone? Perhaps it was weak without it's machine and simply didn't want to engage Mu and the new Servant in combat. Even if that was the case though, it still looked scary as hell - Charlotte really didn't feel like testing her luck. The New Servent, however, was standing nearby - he was still an issue.

Charlotte began to climb down from the river wall, making her way to Mu's side. She addressed the man carefully, not wanting to start trouble when the armored monster was still so close by.

"So... Are you with that creature?"

Unbeknownst to Charlotte, one of her Wisps was nearing the burning city, hovering directly over the now-destroyed bridge. It would not be long before she could discover the location of the other Master and his Servants.

@Reflection@Scallop@ColourlessKing

Don Juan grinned as the mysterious sniper appeared. Just what he’d been hoping for.

“Master’s safe right now,” He called up. “We were moving anyway!” He let loose a small whistle as she jumped from the window. It was an impressive move.

Saber caught her falling body, cradling her in a princess carry. He could have used the opportunity to cop a feel, but Don Juan was nothing if not a gentleman. Perhaps that was a lie, but in any case, now was not the time.

After that, it was simply a matter of making a tactical retreat - something Don Juan excelled at. Retreating from jealous lovers, from secure manors, from illicit duels - all this was second nature to the trickster of Seville. Leaving the city across the river was clearly a priority, but as for the specific direction, he’d let the lady take the lead.

“You got a safe spot we can head to?” He asked, ready to relay the information to Daniel at a second’s notice. He kept up a fast pace; not nearly as fast as he could go while shielding a woman. The buildings and fires of the city passed by him at a rapid pace.

---

There were many things about this battle that took Rider by surprise. He was familiar with fighting against men and beasts, but these enemies acted like neither. They cared not if they injured each other as long as it got them closer to their target: him. Rider wouldn't shy away from close quarters combat, but it wasn't his strongest suit. When his deadly strike against the assassin in front of him proved to be less than fatal, he pulled away a moment too late, earning himself a cut to his cheek as he abandoned his spear and took a new stance, calling his club to him.

As he beat away those that got close, he considered the second surprising thing about these enemies: what was under their mask. They had the shape of a man, besides the face of wriggling, spiny tentacles. That, coupled with the haphazard way they went about their attack, made Rider think that perhaps these opponents weren't servants after all. Just shadows of one, if even that.

Rider bashed his club into one of the puppet's heads, sending it and it's mask spiraling away from him. It was about that time that finally, his master contacted him. Unfortunately, it wasn't the with the best of news, but Daniel did seem to have a plan.

Understood.

A rush of lightning and energy swirled around Rider, pushing the swarm of assassins back. The miniature storm crackled and darkened until it enveloped Rider completely, and when it finally faded he was astride a huge, powerful, painted horse. The creature snorted, staring down every enemy in front of it, baring it's teeth as though it were a predator - until it's rider stroked a hand down it's thick neck.

"My friend, we have no time to spare with these. Let's finish here quickly then return to my master's side."

After all, Inyan - Rider's beloved partner and the crux of his noble phantasms - was much too fast to lure these assassins toward the others. They would never catch up. Herding them wouldn't be a bad idea, but Rider was a warrior, not a shepherd. Inyan stamped his hooves and then shot forward with no further warning, trampling the lot of the strange servants. Then, quick as a bird in flight or a fish in water, the horse galloped away. If some survived and gave chase, all the better. With Inyan's speed and Rider's previously trekked route, it took no time at all for Rider to return to the others.

Master, I'll be relying on your information. Take cover.



When horse and rider came down on the group of assassins, it was with all the force of nature. A crack of thunder sounded long after the bolt of lightning that was Inyan touched down, cratering the already ruined earth. Between one blink and the next they moved, zipping behind the gathered enemies - then again, a chain of electric after image caging them in as they galloped. When the assassins were corralled in by the sparking lightning, Rider moved through the cage, slashing across the center with such speed and force that any in his horse's direct path were sure to be torn asunder, if not completely obliterated. He repeated the movement over again, laying waste to all caught in his noble phantasm's range. The destruction was intense, a fierce lightning storm raging on the ground. Every step Inyan took left a smoldering footprint, and split the very air itself.

It was only over once Rider was sure every single mask was shattered, and their wearers nothing more than smears on the pavement.