The streetlights of Tokyo flickered in the haze of the midnight air. Neon signs and the distant hum of the city slowly faded into an eerie quietness, as if the entire world had held its breath, clearly someone had already set a bounded field to keep people away. Hector, with his hands casually grasping the hilt of his sword, took a deep breath and his eyes scanned the alley ahead.
The first one to break the silence was Yvette. "Thanks, Saber. You saved me there."
Hector nodded in response."It's no problem Master. Keep your guard up, his Master must be around here."
Keeping his eyes on the man, no Lancer, Hector tightened his grip on his sword, his body low and ready.
Lancer's shield gleamed under the dim lighting, a subtle crack in the middle of it from their earlier clash. Still, he seemed unfazed, taking his time as he studied Hector.
"I see, I guess for now this should be enough to at least presume your class. You've got some moves, Saber." Lancer said, his voice smooth but with an edge. "But you'll need more than that to beat me." He shifted his stance, eyes narrowing with anticipation.
"Well, what can I say? I might be an old man but I still know a few moves." Hector muttered, his eyes glued to Lancer.
"Ahahah, well said Saber." Lancer replied with a grin. He slammed the butt of his spear onto the ground, cracking the pavement beneath him. "Now let's see if these moves of yours can live up to all the good rumors of your class."
WHOOSH
Lancer sprinted forward, the spear shot forward like a streak of lightning, its tip gleaming in the dim light as it whistled through the air. Hector reacted immediately, stepping sideways to avoid the thrust but Lancer quickly corrected his thrust into a swipe and Hector responded by swinging his sword.
CLANG
Their weapons met, and the shock of the impact reverberated in the air. Lancer pressed forward with relentless speed. The attacks came fast, blindingly fast. A barrage of thrusts, each one aimed to kill.
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG
Hector parried, sidestepped and countered every attack thrown his way but Lancer was responding in kind, shifting his posture, anticipating his attacks and adjusting to his tempo.
'This guy's good.' Hector had fought spear users before, he was one himself too, but this guy was very peculiar in his own right. It's not that he was exceptionally skilled but his reaction time was incredible even from Hector's perspective.
'I feel like our speed should be around the same but his reaction time… it's just monstrous.' In fact had it not been for Hector's years of experience fighting a guy called the fastest hero ever he might have been in a much worse situation now.
SWISH–CLANG
A feint. Lancer's spear flickered left before whipping around in a vicious arc. Hector caught it at the last second, locking the cross guard of his sword with the spear shaft.
"You're good. It's really hard to keep up with you, can you slow down a bit? I'm way too old for this." Hector muttered under his breath, before breaking contact and stepping back.
Lancer pressed on following with his spear. Hector narrowly sidestepped a deadly thrust that would have impaled him through the heart.
CLANG
He twisted his body, using the momentum to slam the side of his sword into Lancer's spear shaft, knocking it off its course.
But Lancer was relentless. With a swift movement, he pulled back, only to thrust again, forcing Hector to parry once more. Sparks flew as metal scraped against metal, the force behind each blow increasing with intensity. Hector felt the weight of Lancer's strikes but remained unaffected as for now it seemed he held the upper hand in physical strength.
CLANG
Seemingly releasing this as well, Lancer leaped backward after one last blow. "Thanks for the compliment, but it looks like I can't break through your defenses in a battle of skills." Tightening his grip on his spear Lancer looked straight to his opponent's eyes and the air around him started growing more serious than before.
"Hey hey there, don't give me that look, I'm already struggling enough as is fighting you, don't just take out some trump card out of nowhere." Saber looked at his enemy with signs of worry on his face, clearly unhappy by the implication of Lancer's words.
"Don't worry then, cause this is no trump card. It's just me starting to fight while giving it much more efforts than before." Smiled Lancer, before lowering his posture and the air around him thickened. The light of the streetlamps fractured and shimmered unnaturally, like heat mirages forming in the cold night.
The haze of the alley shimmered with an unnatural azure glow surrounding Lancer before settling on his spear. He took one step forward–
CRACK
–and charged to his enemy.
WHOOSH
CLANG
Hector blocked another thrust, but the instant steel met steel, a streak of blue light flowed from Lancer's body through the spear, surging outward in a spiral burst.
BOOM
The shockwave sent Hector skidding back, boots grinding against concrete. He grunted, sword raised to absorb the brunt of the blow, but his footing held. His coat fluttered from the blast, smoke curling around his form.
Before he could fully recover–
SWOOSH
–another thrust came covered in dark blue light.
CLANG BOOM
The explosion forced Hector back again, his boots dragged across the pavement as the blue impact lit up the alley for a second like a camera flash.
Lancer didn't let up as he gave pursuit.
Their silhouettes darted across the alley, framed by flashes of blue light. Every strike of Lancer's spear traced a line through the darkness, its tip gleaming like a falling star.
CLANG CLANG CLANG
Hector's sword moved with practiced grace, deflecting each strike to avoid facing their force head on. However it was clear that he was at a disadvantage during their clashes as he continued to retreat.
CLANG
Another barely parried attack. Hector grunted, his arm vibrating from the force of the impact. Lancer had completely shifted tempo, his blows were now overpowering, aiming for Hector's vitals every time. The glow on his spear flared again.
SWIPE—CLANG
Hector felt it before he saw it. An upward swipe. It had just enough pressure and angle, that's the blow he was waiting for, his grip on the sword loosened for the briefest moment.
FWOOOP
His sword was sent flying into the air, spinning like a tossed coin.
Lancer's eyes gleamed. "It's over."
***
[1st person POV: Yvette]
'That was close. I didn't even see it coming.' I turned to give one look at our enemy. 'Lancer? For real? Are there actually two Lancers or is this one also pretending?'
Not bothering to ponder on it any further I turned to "my" Lancer. "Thanks, Saber. You saved me there."
Hector nodded in response."It's no problem Master. Keep your guard up, his Master must be around here."
'He's right. The mana in the air just got denser. They must've set up a bounded field.'
Reaching for my eyepatch I removed it showing a dark purple gem eye. It's an artificial mystic eye made from iolite. The mystic eye made from this mineral allows me to detect and see magical energy with greater precision.
Looking around I see that the entire area is surrounded by a bounded field, it extends for at least a diameter of 100 meters. 'Fortunately it seems to have been placed hastily and all it does is direct the civilians away. The enemy must have just set it up after spotting us.'
CLANG
As I was looking around my eyes fell back to the two servants battling it out and to say I was surprised was an understatement. "Is this how Servants fight among each other? I mean I did meet one before but I didn't see her fight. This is just way too overwhelming."
'Lancer, no wait, should I call him Saber? It gets confusing when his enemy also claims to be Lancer… anyway Hector seems to be holding the upper hand even while just using the sword so I guess that's good for me. Now back on my search.'
Bringing up my index and middle finger horizontally I brought them down in front of my right eye and it changed color from purple to green. It was an artificial mystic eye made from malachite, it can function as a mystic eye of emotion sight, allowing me to see the current emotion and feeling of someone within my line of sight.
'I couldn't detect her through my iolite mystic eye. There are a few points where prana is a bit more dense but they're obviously decoys.'
'I guess my only choice now is to try and see if I can catch any emotional fluctuation.' As I looked around I scattered around a few gems to act as a makeshift shield for any sneak attack. Unfortunately my search was once again useless.
'Ugh. No responses again. I guess I'll have to stay put and focus on the battle. If my Saber ends up needing help I wouldn't be able to find out if I try moving around.'
Looking at the two monsters on the alley I realize they just stopped for a moment. Then after a blue light gathered around Lancer and they resumed fighting but this time after the blue light settled on his spear the tides of the battles seemed to have shifted.
'What is that light? Is it a Noble Phantasm? He didn't use any True Name to activate it so it's either a passive type Noble Phantasm like Hector's armor or maybe it's a personal skill of this Lancer guy.'
Taking Lancer figure in my sight and concentrating on him I activate Master's Perspective to try fish out a few more information.
Master: ???
Class: ???
True Name: ???
Gender: Male
Height/Weight: 182cm, 78kg
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Parameter
Strength: C
Endurance: C
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: A++
NP: B++
Class Skills
Magic Resistance: B
Nullifies Magecraft Spells that were invoked with a chant of three verses or less.
Indipen-ᙛ𓌍𓌏𓌙: ᬓᬕ丘𓀏𓀐ՒՉՓ⃤: ?
Saint Graᬈᗡᗎكقف: A
Personal Skills
⃤㇖ಅ읕❋: A
〰[ᢽԴ: ???
փੳ⇇: 𓁱𓁨𓁕
'What the hell is this? Why is everything so twisted here? Is it normal that so much of his information is hidden like that? I can't even see all his class skills?'
'Still other than their similar Agility Hector holds the upper hand physically and Lancer in Luck and Mana quantity.'
As I pondered, their clashing intensified. 'It doesn't exactly feel like mana but that light must be alimented on it. Maybe it's something akin to a transmutation of some kind? Is this Lancer geared for explosive Anti-Fortress type attacks?'
As I tried to analyze the enemy I was suddenly brought back to reality from my reflections.
CLANG
'Not good Hector is getting pushed back and a lot at that.'
The situation wasn't looking to be the best so I started to pull on the link formed thanks to the contract that binds us. [Lancer are you ok? Don't worry about concealing your class, just use your spear if you need to. I can try and distract him using my mystic-]
[Ah, don't worry about it, I'm good. Just need to wait a bit more, don't worry Master, I got it covered. I might be old and in need of a nap but that doesn't make me defenseless.] Saber interrupted me before I could even finish my sentence and started spewing bullcraps.
Gritting my teeth a bit, I got somewhat irritated. After all I didn't want to die on the first day, I mean that would be just WAY too lame. Especially counting my Professor was one of the final masters when he participated in a Grail War himself.
Then I saw something that appalled me.
SWIPE—CLANG
I mean who wouldn't.
FWOOOP
Hector just got disarmed and is right in front of his enemy without his weapon.
[Damn it Lancer! Here I'll use a command spell to-] I hurriedly tried to communicate with Lancer.
[Shush, hurting my feelings there, don't you trust me? Here it goes, young lady. Now take a good look at this. This is more of an Achilles tactic but I can do it just as good.] But the bastard interrupted me again and the next thing I know-
"Oh shit. For real?"
***
[3rd person POV]
"It's over." said Lancer as he launched another attack.
But Hector didn't flinch.
Instead, he stepped in. They were now in extremely short range of each other, uncomfortably close for a spearman, something Hector knew best, he was a spearman himself, too after all. Lancer's thrust hit nothing but air as Hector slipped inside the range of the spear.
And then–
THWACK
–A full-force headbutt, the skull of his forehead meeting his nose with brutal precision as he delivered the hit.
Lancer staggered, the blue light flickering for a moment. Hector didn't give him time to recover.
WHAM
A sharp, brutal kick landed square in Lancer's liver, folding him sideways with a choked gasp. The spear wobbled in his hands from the blow, but he managed to stay standing.
And from above them.
FWOSH FWOSH FWOSH
Hector's sword after finally reaching the peak of its arc and started to fall to the ground.
CLACK
Without missing a beat, Hector turned and caught it mid-air, the familiar weight returning to his hand like a missing limb.
He didn't waste a second.
He surged forward.
Lancer barely had time to raise his shield.
WHAM
But Hector didn't strike with the sword.
He swept Lancer's legs clean out from under him.
'You might have insane reaction time.' Hector thought, eyes sharp with deadly focus, his laziness seemingly disappearing. 'But if you're covering your sight, then it's useless.'
Lancer was mid-fall, completely exposed.
SLASH
A clean horizontal arc of steel tore through the air, aiming for his center.
CLANG—CRACK
The strike collided with Lancer's shield just in time, but it wasn't a clean block. Sparks burst from the impact, and a deep gash tore through the center of the shield, deep enough to crack through its core, the same spot Hector had cracked earlier.
Lancer hit the ground hard. He quickly spun around with his boots skidding as he righted himself, but his expression had changed, no more easy grin, just a flicker of tension behind the eyes.
Hector stood tall again, sword pointed at his enemy, he did not press on the attack but waited for the enemy's next move.
"So? Not bad for an old man, right? I get a few lucky shots like this from time to time." Hector said as he gave a wink to Lancer.
Lancer stared at the gash across his shield for a second. Then the shield dematerialized in a shimmer of azure light, its form breaking apart into fragments before vanishing entirely.
A chuckle escaped his lips. "Haa. You really caught me lacking there, Saber. I have no excuse for that." He gave a small grin. "If I'd been just a second slower, I might've lost more than the damn shield."
"Just a trick." Hector replied with a lazy shrug. "My sore back is already struggling to keep up with all this fighting. So I can't really say that I have the upper hand."
Lancer dusted himself off with one hand, his brows furrowed slightly. The earlier tension had thinned as the two started exchanging words, the two dropped their stances taking looser bearings.
Hector rolled his shoulder with a wince, cracking his neck as he let out a tired sigh. "You know, I was really hoping this night would end with a bath and not a brawl, but I suppose we both signed up for this nonsense."
Lancer gave a short laugh. "If I'm being honest, that headbutt caught me off-guard. For a second I got scared thinking you wanted to kiss me."
Hector started shivering after hearing Lancer's words. "Did you really have to say that? It's disgusting man."
Lancer's laughter echoed faintly off the alley walls. "Hahaha. You say that as if I wasn't the one that got frightened by my opponent's possible tastes. I nearly considered committing suicide there."
Lancer took a step forward, his spear shifting back into his hand in a flash of blue light. "Alright then, Saber. Time to pay you back for the scare."
"Oi, seriously?" Hector groaned as he raised his sword again. "You're really petty, huh?"
Just as Hector also adjusted his stance again, ready for another clash, both their eyes narrowed. Lancer shifted the grip on his spear.
"I was wondering how long it would take for them to act." Lancer muttered.
Without further warning, he stepped back, then lifted the spear above his shoulder. The blue glow returned, stronger this time, swallowing the weapon in a harsh light.
But Lancer wasn't aiming at Hector.
Instead, he turned slightly and hurled the spear into the darkness behind one of the nearby rooftops.
FWOOOOOSH
The air screamed as the projectile cut through it like a comet, before exploding in a violent burst of blue light midair.
BOOM
The force cracked tiles and shook dust loose from nearby windows. A shrill metallic screech followed, and a body…no, something that looked like one, tumbled out from the shadows above.
It crashed on the floor in a broken mess, dull wood and a twisted form that looked like a human frame. A lifeless puppet, splintered down the middle.
Yvette's eyes widened. "A puppet!? I didn't even sense it!"
Hector clicked his tongue and slowly lowered his sword. "Alright, time out. Guess it's time for a ceasefire, don't you think?"
Lancer gave him a curious look.
"I mean, no sense beating each other bloody while some third party takes notes. At this rate, we'll both be easy pickings if this keeps up."
Lancer stayed quiet for a second, then gave a small nod. "I don't mind taking a break... if you don't use it to stab me in the back."
"I prefer wine and a warm meal to betrayal, thank you very much. We can just continue this duel next time." Hector gave a tired smile and tapped his chest.
He stepped back, arms raised in a peaceful gesture. "What do you say? Temporary truce?"
Lancer tilted his head, considering. Then his grin returned. "Alright, Saber. You've got a deal."
From the sideline, Yvette blinked, then shook her head as she muttered under her breath.
'He actually convinced him… is that his Proof of Friendship (C)? What kind of weird skill is that to just make people chill out mid-fight?' She looked at Hector's relaxed posture and Lancer's loosened stance and sighed internally. '...Honestly, it's annoying how effective it is.'
"You better not die before we go all out for real. See you around." Lancer said with a grin. Then, with a faint shimmer, his body vanished into Spirit Form, the blue glow trailing like fog in his wake.
Yvette approached her Servant slowly, still eyeing the destroyed puppet suspiciously. "So… this is what counts as a 'first encounter' in this holy grail war, right?"
Hector gave a lazy shrug. "Honestly? I've had worse introductions."
Hector stretched his back with an audible crack and let out a groan. "Well, that was enough cardio for a week."
Yvette gave him a look. "That's how you define cardio?"
"Hey, if I break a sweat, it counts," Hector said with a grin. "Besides, I'm not young like that guy."
Yvette turned back to the wrecked puppet. "We should probably figure out who sent that thing."
"Yeah," Hector muttered, his expression turning a bit more serious. "Someone's poking around early... and I don't like being watched."
She glanced up at him. "So what now?"
He ran a hand through his hair, sighing. "Now? We go home, have some tea, and hope nobody throws a spear through the window tonight."
Yvette just smiled at that. "Not exactly the strategy I expected."
She shook her head with a quiet laugh. 'Maybe this old man isn't so bad after all.'