FujiwaraPhoenix

Fate/Transcendent Paradigm—Take 3 (Closed)

Kumozaki Keisuke

Once Elizabeth had engaged in battle with the hooded Valkyrie, Keisuke was finally allowed to stand on his own two feet, which in turn let him figure out what exactly the situation had become by now. The two Lancers dueling were the furthest from his mind in terms of worries, though, as the giant light show that had started (mainly due to the intervention of the two Casters) caused him to shield his eyes. The sound of thunderous explosions echoed through the theater, and it took the Enforcer a moment to stop the ringing in his ears that came about as a result.

Most the Valkyries that the two Casters had struck were now lying prone on the ground, and more than a few of them were disappearing into golden particles. That number began to increase as a few more bombardments occurred, leaving the group at less than a quarter of what it had been initially.

By now, the group as a whole had been dragged out of Nero's Reality Marble, leaving them in the middle of the cold Nordic night. The sudden shift back to cold air caused Keisuke to shiver, and he involuntarily rubbed his arms to warm himself up before turning to survey the rest of the battlefield.

"What the heck happened while we were gone...?" he muttered to himself, glancing at the giant pieces of ice lodged in the ground and the massive shimmering wall in the distance.

---

Once the Reality Marble had dissolved away, the Valkyrie who had been dueling Elizabeth faltered for a moment. The sudden shift back to the night caused her to flinch, and that mistake proved to be her undoing. In a few successive strikes, her opponent had quickly forced her on the defensive, and every so often she would slip up once more and cause another gash to appear on her body. Even so, if she could just keep her opponent here a while—

"Ortlinde! Put that on hold for a second and get over here! Thrud needs help!"

The familiar voice of her sister pulled her attention away from the fight at once, and with one final parry the Valkyrie quickly retreated from the battlefield and moved towards where her sister (and her opponent, oddly enough) were crouching over Thrud's battered body. She wasn't gone, if that meant anything, but she was certainly not in any state to fight.

"Hildr... What...?" she asked, half out of breath from the fight prior.

Tomoe Gozen

Once she had arrived at Saber's side, Tomoe took a deep breath and knelt down to examine Thrud's prone body. She wasn't dead, of course; if she was, then it was long past time for her body to be disappearing. Despite that fact, though, the Valkyrie seemed to be more than just 'unconscious'. It wouldn't be surprising if it took a few days for all of the damage she had sustained to heal—time that they didn't have to waste right now.

As she rose to her feet, the faint sight of someone—likely the one who had pushed their enemy into a corner while they were occupied—caught Tomoe's eye, and she immediately leaped over to go see the cause. It was as she had expected... Somewhat. To see a Servant dressed in such attire in the middle of an environment like this, even if they were more than superhuman...

Could they really have been anything other than a Berserker?

"Mmm... I thank you for keeping our opponent at bay," the Archer said, quickly nocking an arrow of flame and firing it to shatter the ice holding the Servant in place. "But that's not what I'm here to ask about. If you have enough of your senses about you, answer me thus: what was it that attacked us just now? And more importantly: are you willing to aid us in defeating it anyhow? There must have been a reason for you to keep attacking that Lancer for so long, after all..."

The Archer's weapon was lowered, of course, but it was clear that she was wary about questioning a Berserker in the first place.

Their Master, on the other hand, had by now run up to the two Sabers from the other side of the battlefield. The increasing amounts of ice scattered about coupled with the massive blockade in the distance caused him to pause for a moment, glancing behind him as the two Casters and Lancer followed close behind.

"Can I get some answers, please?" Keisuke asked, motioning towards all of the anomalies around him before Siegfried spoke up.

"Master, it is a relief that you are safe. I can summarize the situation in short: the two Valkyries are huddling over the body of the one who challenged the King of Knights here to a duel and failed to obtain victory in turn; the ice was thrown by the giant wolf Fenrir, who retrieved the enemy Lancer and created the wall that you see over there. It is unlikely that we will be able to pursue with the current wounded, as I believe that it would be too dangerous to leave them be and—"

"Hey, what are you talking about over there, not-Sigurd?" chimed in the pink-haired valkyrie as she walked out of the crater and stared at Siegfried. "Just because I'm all bruised up right now from fighting your friend doesn't mean I've gone mad, you know. Even I can tell after seeing that creature that something was far stranger than what we thought was mind manipulation. Oh, right, introductions..."

With that, the Valkyrie took a deep breath and put of a half-smile, half-wince as she looked at the rest of the group.

"Lancer, Hildr. The one over there looking after our fallen sister, Thrud, is Ortlinde, and we're all technically summoned as a single 'Servant' despite being different existences physically. For the trouble we have caused, erm... We're really sorry," she finally said, bowing her head low before turning to glance towards the wall once more. "But to think that it would appear... Without the gods present, I'm not even sure if all of us could defeaa..."

As the Servant spoke, her voice began to trail off as she spotted Skuld walking over. The glow of her spear began to strengthen ever so slightly as she adopted a stance in opposition to the Caster, despite the situation.

"...I was going to request that we form a temporary truce and figure out a plan to at least contain that beast, as the second-in-command following my sister, but knowing that she is still alive is making me have second thoughts..."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@KoL

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Seeing that Tyaethe had decided to scale the golem rather than figure out an alternative method to deal with the golem, Tiral took a step back and, after a moment of pause, lowered his weapon. It wasn't as necessary for him to press the attack when their biggest problem solver was already on the job, and it would do them all a disservice if his own spells were to misfire during this situation.

With the fact that their enemy was now occupied with a knight shimmying up to (probably) take their head, however, the mage-knight took a moment to reflect on what the drider had said. After all, simultaneously declaring that the one who had attacked the Captain was free of guilt but also declaring that the orcs dying was nothing that mattered...

The two statements seemed contradictory in the strangest of ways, and it seemed everyone else was too wrapped up in the fighting to think about the situation for the moment. While he wasn't going to simply wave off the situation and believe their enemy without a second thought, something like this did warrant some attention.

"Captain, have you noticed the contradiction in that girl's words and what has happened thus far?" he asked, taking a step back as he examined the situation a bit more. "While I wouldn't doubt a dislike for those creatures we slaughtered earlier, it does seem odd that such an action wouldn't throw a wrench in our enemy's plans. You'd think that they would be more aggravated that things hadn't gone according to plan, correct?"

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

Steven Fan

With a nod, Steven glanced down at the pile of documents once more to deal with the questions he had just been posed. It seemed as if none of the others wanted to sift through the paperwork, which meant it was left to him to dictate and dispose of them after the information was out on the field.

"Mmm... Give me a moment," he said, flipping through the papers for a moment before sighing. "Guards numbering fifty minimum, with three Contractors minimum among their number. Slated to be about 200 attendees otherwise, at least half of whom are expected to be noncombatants. They're really not going to be making this easy for us..."

With a bit of a dead gaze at Donovan, Steven turned towards Mao before shrugging.

"I think HQ has someone contracted with Mnemosyne somewhere, so worst comes to worst we just nab them and make them 'forget' what they saw. Honestly, I'm against that if at all possible because the idea of tampering with someone's memories bugs me to no end, so let's try to keep it as quiet as possible. That being said, though..."

The brewing argument between Abigail and Fremont was starting to worry the lawyer; the ego of a small child compared to the 'give no fucks' attitude that Fremont seemed to be touting would inevitably end up with more clashes in the future. While that would probably be fine given the fact that they would inevitably have to work together anyhow, the 12 or so hours leading up to the raid was likely not enough time to make this relationship "stable" in any meaningful way.

"Okay, Abigail: let's stop right there," he remarked pointedly, staring calmly at the girl as she began to flaunt her abilities. "Neither your ego nor your pride will help us in this situation. If you're going to be representing the Fianna, I would hope that you had the rationale to realize that not everyone is going to acknowledge you simply based on words alone. If you believe yourself to be in the right, then show us as much, and if you believe Fremont to have wronged you, then have the dignity to act in a manner befitting of your position. Are we clear?"

Despite the fact that she was a representative and that he was no more than a bit of fresh blood to the world of law, he was still technically her superior and supervisor (well, really, that was Donovan's job, but that wasn't important at the moment). That being said, though, it wasn't like he could simply brush off Fremont's comments. He could probably sit the man down and figure out a solution later, but it probably wasn't the best idea to aggravate the starving beast right now.

"If you're ordering food, I'll take some black pepper ribs with rice," he remarked, handing over a menu to Lundgren from some cranny off to the side. "But in any case, I'm in agreement; we can worry about this after we deal with the problem tonight. All clear?"

---

The rest of the day had gone by fairly uneventfully for Steven, given that he spent most of it brushing up on the possible enemies that the group might have to deal with and studying on his own. He had a feeling that Abigail was wont to prove him wrong for the last half a day, but it was now to see if she would actually follow up on those feelings.

Their dropoff location was a few blocks away from the docks, and under the cover of night it was fairly doable to slip through the crack that had been made by the ones setting up the job for them. That didn't mean that everything afterwards would go swimmingly, of course, but getting into the area undetected was as a good a start as any.

"Okay, our destination is down this way," Steven said, walking forward with his hands in his pockets. "Ideally, combat begins at the entrance to their market, but their guards' patrol patterns seem to be somewhat random. Stay on your guard."

His fear—at least, in his opinion—was wholly warranted; this was the first time he would be involved in actual combat in his life, and not only did it involve possibly having to kill people, but it was against a ground of people who probably outclassed him. But at this point, going back was most definitely not an option.

"Mao, let us know if anyone that looks aggressive is en route; Donovan, keep us cloaked as long as you can. Let's move."

@Tominas@TheFake@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR

Fate/bizarro alternative

Emiya Shirou

The summoning of his Servant had gone without a hitch, or so it had seemed; the arrival of a man clad in blue tights and wielding a crimson spear showed as much. Shirou himself wasn't quite sure what to make of his Servant, though; he had only heard passing remarks about who the Lancer actually was, and even the name failed to ring any bells. The rest of his family seemed to be quite pleased with the turn of events regardless, though, which meant that the red-haired boy probably had no reason to really argue about the outcome.

The family's next destination, it seemed, was the Tohsaka manor. Lancer, it seemed, had opted to patrol the city instead of meeting with everyone else. The choice of action seemed reasonable to Shirou, at least, but there was still a part of him that wanted to make sure that Illya had another layer of protection from attacks.

Just in case.

The other Masters and Servants present at the locale gave the young man mixed feelings even so, though; while the boisterous bearded man was about par for what he had expected from a man who had conquered a great deal of land in the past, the little girl hiding next to a nun was about the farthest thing he had expected to see for anything dubbed a "Heroic Spirit".

"...Hey, mom, dad, sis..." he began to say, eyes flicking back and forth between his family and the girl. "Are you sure that the little girl over there is someone able to match... Well, that?"

'That', of course, was the man who was taking up half the room with sheer presence alone. It wasn't like they would fight one another, of course, but it was hard to imagine that a petite child who was shying away from everyone else present was in the same category as every other Servant he had seen thus far.

Caster of Black

There was a bit of an awkward silence as Caster followed behind her Master, unsure of how to respond. She could tell, at the very least, that Othianne was trying to calm her mind; it wasn't exactly working perfectly, mind you, but the fact that they were both under similar circumstances came across fine as it was.

Once they entered the room, the Duchess simply curtsied towards the young lady who was present and waiting before taking a seat next to her Master. This was the sort of person she tended to stay away from the most, or at least one of them; haughty, conceited, and egotistical. The other, though...

"...Ugh."

The verbal intonation of disgust slipped past her lips as she watched the group's Assassin, the thuggish man that he was, walk into the room and challenge Saber to a match. No, the head of the household here was a thousand—no, ten thousand times better than this murderer. Viy seemed to act accordingly with Anastasia's emotions, growing in size and casting a shadow over the Caster as it wrapped over her, almost as if in a hug from behind.

"Master, if there is anything that I must have known right now, it is that the vagrant in front of us is someone who I will wholly object to ever cooperating with in any way, shape, or form. He is the sort of man who I could never tolerate even being near, much less work with," she said quietly, glaring daggers at Izou as he spoke. She wouldn't attack, of course, as that would likely bring ruin upon themselves just as well, but even so...

Winds of Change: A Re:Creators-Inspired Multiverse RP

Hinanawi Tenshi

Just as Tenshi was about to go follow in Mordred's footsteps (that is, to say, smashing the machine for what it had "rightfully" cheated her out of), Evangeline's sudden interference threw the Celestial off balance. Before she had a chance to react in turn, though, the blue-haired girl was dragged out of the arcade along with her equally-tempered peer. There were a few moments of pause after the girl had been dragged off before she came to her senses, though, but by then it was already pretty clear that Evangeline probably wouldn't be letting them get back.

Tenshi contemplated the idea of fighting the vampire dragging them off for a chance to give the machines back at that arcade a taste of their own medicine, but decided that the possibility of getting beaten into the ground probably wasn't worth the effort. For now.

With a bit of struggling, the young woman twisted around before getting back to her feet and following behind Evangeline. The grip that she was caught in right now wasn't something she could break easily (if at all), but at the very least she could walk on her own two feet rather than be dragged along like some sort of luggage.

"Hey, you can let go of us now, you know," she complained, waving her arm around as they continued along. "Besides, where are you even bringing us now? I wasn't done with that place yet!"

---

The chef paused for a moment, staring at what was being presented to him in mild shock before laughing. It was undeniable that sci-fi technology like this had no way of existing on Earth as it was (at least, as far as he knew), so something like Raising Heart was enough to just wave all of his questions away. It wasn't like Sakajima had thrown all of them to the wind, of course, but there were only so many things he could get away with before Minami came over and stopped that line of questioning by force.

Nanoha's comment about the food that he had cooked for the group didn't go wholly unnoticed, though, and despite it feeling like a somewhat backhanded compliment, Sakajima still felt some joy in having the food be acknowledged. He had only really known snippets about the girl in front of him thanks to the Private's own rambling and occasional trivia bits before this whole incident started, but...

Well, that joy didn't mean that it didn't still sting a little inside.

"Ahaha... Yeah, I guess nothing can beat the taste of the food made by someone dear to your heart, huh? Yeah, I get that feeling," he said, an awkward smile on his face as he nodded his head. "Oh, right, a picture! You mind if I—"

"In any case..." Minami began, snapping the storeowner out of his little "moment", "You said Endo was screaming about the 'Noise', right? Mind giving us directions to his home?"

"Oh, uh... I mean, I don't really know EXACTLY where he lives, but just go down the road that way and take a left four blocks down. Cross the street and you're... In the area, I think?" Sakajima replied, arms crossed as Minami ate her own meal. "'s about the best I can do. It is pretty early and the city's probably in some state of pseudo-lockdown, I assume, but since people still need to eat I thought I may as well open the place up for business. Not like I'll get much, all things considered, but it's the thought that counts. Right?"

With a soft chuckle, Sakajima pulled out his phone and began to quietly flip through a few screens, glancing over at the multiple notices about the chaos in Tokyo... And, well, New York and elsewhere, it seemed.

"You two aren't the only ones handling all this, I assume? Hope you can keep the people in check; there's just enough law and order to keep the peace for now, but I'm worried about people deciding that looting might become an option if the city shuts down for too long..." he trailed off, taking note of the fact that other cities and countries were probably in a much worse state at the moment. "I don't know if there's a plan to go full 'global police' mode, but I'm kinda worried about how things are going to pan out at the rate things are going now."

Shokuhou Misaki

The two girls watched as the whole exchange occurred on top of the building, and despite the growing number of people present it didn't seem like a fight was going to break out any time soon. Luckily enough for them, though, the fire escape that led to the roof of the building was still available, and the pair steadily scaled the building in an attempt to at least overhear where the conversation was headed.

It didn't really register, though, that two of the main people that they wanted information from couldn't actually talk, but it wasn't like they could have known that to begin with. Not like it mattered much, of course, given that all they needed to hear was the suggestion that the rest of them move to the center of the region.

Miku visibly tensed up at hearing that, and Misaki simply frowned as she looked at the black-haired girl who was clutching her hands in front of her chest. It was obvious that there was something there, probably that Miku had seen and wasn't apt to speak about, but now was probably one of the worst times to ask.

The biker paused for a moment at the suggestion of further pursuit, and the wolf's hesitation before nodding in agreement caused her to only become even more puzzled. It had run away from her last night and had acted mostly belligerently when she had tried to get it to stop for all of last night, but here it was agreeing to the plans of a bunch of odd strangers.

It wasn't like she could do much to argue against that suggestion, though; there was power in numbers, and she had been meaning to check that out once the whole wolf situation was handled, anyhow.

"Fine, I guess that's the plan. I'll be following along, if you don't mind," she typed out on her phone before showing it to the rest of the group. "You can call me... Celty. That'll do for now."

Leonardo Watch

The young man paused for a moment in confusion as the whole world around them seemed to shift to greyscale, fiddling with his eyes for a bit to see if they could adjust things back to the way that they were before. Once that failed, though, Leo sighed and stared at the people in the restaurant who were stuck it place.

"...Odd..." he said, poking at them a few times before heading back out towards the exit. The fighting was still going strong, and the aliens were being eviscerated left and right at a frightening pace—at least, as far as he could see. This same scene was probably playing out over and over again all across the city, minus themselves of course, but this whole time-stop oddity still left more questions than it did answers. Was it the aliens or something that had done this?

Though he wasn't in range to hear any actual dialogue, the arrival of another person who seemed to be helping in busting through the alien army was a bit more revitalizing. If they could match Klaus in firepower, then all the better.

Before he could move up and get to the group to provide some backup now that most of the initial danger had passed, though, Leo found himself being hit on the back of the head all of a sudden and stabbed through the side of his body. The blow didn't knock him out, at least, but the appearance of a few mechanical tentacles poking through his body that seemed to disappear into thin air caused him to at least gain focus for long enough to send a quick transmission from his eyes towards everyone near him. That was about all he could manage, though, as once whatever had attacked him disappeared into thin air, it began to fly off.

Which meant, of course, that it was taking Leo with it to somewhere else in the city.

@KoL@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR@TheFake@Crusader Lord

Fate/Transcendent Paradigm—Take 3 (Closed)

Kumozaki Keisuke

Being dragged around by Elizabeth as she followed up on Nero's attacks wasn't the most pleasant of experiences for Keisuke, and the sudden explosion of fire and rose petals behind him wasn't making the situation any better. Granted, it wasn't as if he could do much other than monitor the battle anyhow, and the safest place in all of this chaos was probably right in the Lancer's grasp.

However much that was worth, at least.

The Valkyries who had thus been placing their attention towards Skuld seemed to divert their attention away from her once Nero's technique had landed, which had thus sent their companions flying into the air before they landed (rather unceremoniously) on the ground. At the very least, the ones who had been hit by the attack or its aftereffects seemed to remain on the ground, unconscious... Which itself was fairly impressive, considering that every one of them was a Heroic Spirit.

Elizabeth's foray towards the front led her straight to one of the Valkyries who seemed to be attempting to direct the action—though she wore a hood, her black hair seemed to be barely visible from under it as she stared back at her opponent.

"I was only given the order to stall for time, so I shall try to do as much," she said, pointing her spear at Elizabeth before charging forth. Unlike the other Valkyries (who were content to focus on Nero for the moment), the one attacking Elizabeth seemed to be a bit more nuanced in her attacks. The jab that Elizabeth had put out was quickly parried, and the Valkyries who had thus been keeping her somewhat occupied all moved towards Nero once more.

The lack of threat from the other Caster, who was cowering off to the side behind a barrier in their eyes, warranted less attention from them at the moment despite their knowledge of who she was.

Or maybe that was in spite of it?

Tomoe Gozen

Despite the furious clashing of weapons and the various wayward arrows and spears that were now scattered in front of the walls, neither Tomoe nor the Valkyrie that she was matching in combat seemed to be giving up any ground. Both seemed to be getting worn down ever so steadily, however, and the pauses in action seemed to get more frequent as time passed.

"N-not bad..." the Valkyrie said, shaking out her hands as Tomoe seemed to pause for a moment in front of her. "If you weren't already dead, I'd probably invite you to Valhalla. Great warriors are always welcome there."

"I appreciate the gesture," Tomoe responded, throwing aside the naginata that she had pulled out for the last few rounds of combat before the sound of a large explosion caused both warriors to turn their heads towards the source—the location of the combat between the Sabers and the only other Valkyrie present.

---

Thrud was caught wholly off guard by the suddenness of Arturia's attack, as the Valkyrie herself had not expected to be attacked out of the sky so easily. She had expected her opponent to prepare to counterattack directly, not launch herself as a projectile towards her.

The impact of Excalibur was deflected by the Valkyrie's weapon, but only barely. The resulting impact promptly launched Thrud into the ground, causing a large impact that left a crater in the ground she had just been flying over, leaving her somewhat dazed and injured from the outcome. One of her wings seemed to be cracked from the impact, but Thrud simply gritted her teeth and climbed back onto her feet, however unsteadily.

"That was... My mistake," she said, struggling to maintain her composure as she attempted to move out of the crater with her wings; when that failed, the Valkyrie glared at Arturia as she descended from the sky and attempted to jump out physically, as a being without wings might. "I can already tell that I will not win here, but even so..."

With that, Thrud held her spear aloft before adopting an aggressive stance and attempting to strike at Arturia.

"I cannot afford to fail here; not with Elder Sister occupied as she is now."

Siegfried simply stared at the exchange and sighed, deciding against directly intervening in the fight any further. Given that dealing with Brynhildr was still to come, the Saber knew that his ability to endure would only last so long if he decided to participate in battle now.

---

Brynhildr seemed to struggle for a moment as the Berserker spoke, but that moment of pause lasted for naught but a moment as she began to stoke the blue flames around herself. Despite the lack of an arm, the numbers present on the enemy's side coupled with the nearing exhaustion of the sudden "reinforcements" and loss of an arm had finally registered in the Lancer's brain. There was only so much more she could do here, but she was heavily outmatched without having full use of both of her arms.

As the Lancer prepared to strike out against the Berserker with her spear, though, the sudden howling from over the horizon couple with the sound of thundering movement as something arrived from over the horizon.

A giant wolf, fifty times the size of the ones that had been executed in droves by the Servants defending the town until now, cast a looming shadow over the land with the moonlight at its back. Almost as if on cue, the beast howled as it arrived, causing the air around it to freeze in place and large crystals to form in the air to deflect the blow of the Berserker before it landed. With another cry, the wolf caused those same crystals to turn and fire—rather indiscriminately—at both her and the groups fighting in the distance.

Seeing the wolf in front of her now, Brynhildr lowered her weapon and seemed to become almost slack as a few other wolves that had been trailing behind this one came to pick her up and carry her off to who-knew-where. Once the Lancer seemed to be far enough away, though, the beast would retreat in turn, causing a large wall of ice to crash down in an attempt to stall any further pursuit.

Tomoe and the Valkyrie next to her had ample time to dodge the ice crystals as they were fired, and at this point it became clear to the Servant opposite Tomoe that something was more than wrong.

The Valkyrie in front of Arturia, however, only registered the ice as 'something to dodge' and continued her strike towards the Saber even then. Whether it was out of pride or something else, though, was a question all its own.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@KoL

Winds of Change: A Re:Creators-Inspired Multiverse RP

@KoL: Accepted. As we discussed, Meteora can be sidelined as backup for the sake of story as a semi-exclusive NPC.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Once the charge had began in full force, Tiral shifted his focus towards keeping the Captain safe—at least until they could rendezvous with the other half of the force. The battle itself was rather swift, and considering how easy it was for their side to simply cut through the enemies the ogres themselves were clearly not used to tactics like these.

Granted, the battlefields they took part in usually didn't involve the landscape suddenly shifting anyhow, so it wasn't as if their faltering ability to fight wasn't justified. Not like he cared much for their plight, after all; enemies, regardless of who they were, would have to be cut down one way or another.

Most of Tiral's attacks during the initial onslaught this time were focused on debilitating any of the orcs that managed to steady themselves to any degree, if only to allow him to both conserve his power and to let people who were more apt in cleaving through flesh do the job in his stead. In other words, most of his energy was focused towards attacking the eyes and reshaping the ground ever so slightly to cause the enemies to slip and fall again.

Once the larger brutes had been eliminated and both teams met up once more, the mage-knight let out a sigh of relief. The assault had gone off without a hitch, but now that the group was attempting to strike at the heart of their enemy's base, well...

The fight would only get more troublesome from here on out.

The arrival of a giant golem and a drider caused Tiral to pause for a moment and scratch his head in confusion, unsure of what direction to give in dealing with either of the threats in their way. Luckily enough, though, it seemed that Tyaethe already had a solution in mind... The usual 'attack with brute force and hope for the best', it seemed.

"Captain, leave this one to us," he stated simply, sending out another ice slick to target the leg of the golem that Tyaethe hadn't gone for as he backed out of his enemy's effective range. In the end, a golem could be treated similarly to any other large enemy.

In other words, topple them to the ground like trees and end them while they were down. Simple.

Fate/bizarro alternative

Emiya Shirou

As the smoke from the summoning cleared, the red-headed young man let out a cough and blinked his eyes a few times. Despite the amount of time he had spent in the Emiya family, Shirou himself had still not grown wholly used to the more large-scale rituals that they executed. His foster father had focused on the study of smaller-scale magecraft for his sake, anyhow; the discovery of his ability to project swords had led to some divergence from the original plan, but in the end something like this still felt kind of surreal.

The naming of the Servant that they had summoned as King Arthur was expected, given what his parents had said, but to think that she would be a woman...

That seemed to shock everyone present.

"E-erm... It's my turn now, right?" Shirou finally asked as the introductions and summary of the situation to the Saber in front of them concluded. The small stone with a strange character of some sort was grasped tightly in his hand, and to be honest it was a bit odd to know that, compared to what had been used to summon the Servant in front of them, this was a bit...

Well, 'normal', for lack of a better term.

"Yes, Shirou. We'll be here to make sure things don't go wrong," his mother, Irisviel, stated simply, clasping his hands in her own with a smile on her face. "Don't worry."

The young man glanced at his mother, then towards his father, before his glance finally fell on his sister and her new Servant.

Right. This was to protect his family, so there was no reason to falter here.

With a confident nod, the young man walked over to the summoning circle and placed the stone down before following in the steps of Illya and beginning the incantation thus.

Hopefully, he'd summon someone who could work well enough with the Saber that was present with them now.

Caster of Black

To say that the last few days since the Caster had been summoned were 'ordinary' was about as far from the truth as one could get. Like her Master, though, Anastasia's thoughts were about as far away from the way as possible. After all, here she was now, met with someone else who could actually see Viy. To be quite honest, that was more of a shock than either being summoned as a Heroic Spirit or taking part in this odd Grail War in the first place.

Maybe her priorities were a little skewed.

Just a little.

That being said, though, the Caster was currently lost in her thoughts, half-mindlessly wandering around as she followed her Master around their current (temporary) home. The amorphous, blob-like fairy that was Viy followed along in silence, at least until its master's Master prompted a response from them. The creature turned to look at Anastasia, who simply nodded in turn.

"Yes, Master. Viy and I are not traditional Casters, so it is not as if we need to create a workshop or anything of that nature," she said simply. To be quite frank, the Caster would have preferred to not be involved in this conflict whatsoever, but so long as her Master was caught in this conflict, she would follow.

"If only this had been under different circumstances..." she mused to herself as the group continued along. "I would like to know what kind of person my Master is to have the ability to see Viy..."

Fate/Transcendent Paradigm—Take 3 (Closed)

Kumozaki Keisuke

Though he had called out for Elizabeth to have them both regroup with the Casters, Keisuke did not expect to be grabbed by her tail and be dragged around like a ragdoll--not in the least. If anything, though, being thrown around to and fro as he was didn't coincide with getting skewered like a pig on a spit. Either by sheer luck or actual skill (he assumed it to be the former), not a single spear had so much as nicked him.

Before he could make any further commentary or give any more orders, though, as the sudden light engulfed his vision and dropped those present into an entirely new realm. It took a few moments for Keisuke himself to process the scene, but once the rose petals began to fall the fact that this place was Nero's Noble Phantasm seemed to click.

"But will that really he--Whoa!" he shouted as the Lancer made a beeline for the Caster, who was now notably wearing a different outfit... And wielding a sword.

The loss of flight did, however, catch the Valkyries off guard, and many were now grounded on the area (if not hovering slightly above it). There was a distinct period of time where the group seemed to be disoriented by the sudden change of scenery, but the few Valkyries who adapted to the situation faster than the others immediately began to rally the otgers before charging at the pair of girls in front of them, spears at the ready.

"Okay, I think we can stop with the hugging for the moment. The enemy's about to skewer us," Keisuke quipped, noticing that the Skuld had also been dragged inside the theatre.

Unfotunately, it seemed like a few of the Valkyries were diverging from the main squadron attacking Nero and Elizabeth and going after her instead.

---

The sudden disappearance of her sisters did not seem to bother the Valkyrie in front of Arturia and Siegfried, but she was now showing some degree of irritation on her face.

"You... Do you realize what you are saying?" she asked, pointing her spear at Arturia in anger. "Elder Sister... After what happened with Sigurd, there is no doubt in my mind that she has changed. But after seeing that man now, I feel like I might understand why she pursues his life. But even so, to say something as debased as that... Knight! I will have you pay for that insult!"

Siegfried glanced to the side, muttering a soft apology under his breath to Arturia as the Valkyrie dove at the both of them. It was a fast strike, and in mere moments the Valkyrie had returned back to the skies, ready for another strike.

"I shall defeat you both in her name--no, in the name of Odin himself! I, Thrud, declare it to be so!"

Tomoe Gozen

The disappearance of the other Valkyries and Servants didn't seem to faze the two who were locked in combat on top of the wall, given that a single slip in either of their concentration would result in a deciding blow no matter what. The Valkyrie's spear clashed with Tomoe's weapons, be they naginata, katana, bow, or arrow, and the battle seemed to be at something of a standstill. The two pulled back for a moment, still glaring at one another, before the Valkyrie facing Tomoe spoke up.

"Hm... You are an Archer, correct? What's with all of those weapons? Isn't it kind of strange to have so many of them?"

"A true warrior masters all manner of weapons for whatever situation they may find themselves in," Tomoe replied in turn before she took a deep breath. In an instant, Tomoe had leaped off of the bridge and into the air, drawing her bow back as she aimed at the Valkyrie before firing. A few of the arrows were parried, but the flames on a few of them burnt away at the clothing she wore. Not wasting another moment after, the Valkyrie took to the skies and gave chase.

Their battle could continue elsewhere on the battlefield; there was more than enough room to do so now, after all.

---

Without hesitation, Brynhildr spun her spear and cut the wolf that had been launched at her clean in half as she moved in pursuit. She had, of course, attempted to execute a follow-up attack under the assumption that her enemy had been hiding behind the wolf, but that decision proved to be a mistake.

The subsequent attack on part of the Berserker managed to catch Brynhildr from her blind spot, and it was only a miracle that she had been able to turn and attempt to deflect the blow with her arm.

The armor had managed to dissipate the damage, if only a little, but that arm was now thoroughly broken and hanging limply at the Lancer's side. She didn't seemed to mind as much, though, and acted as if the pain fron such a blow did not exist. Without another utterance, she swung back to counterattack, hoping to catch her enemy and return a blow of her own.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@KoL