Chapter 40: Nero Issues a Challenge
"I will not allow you to point a sword at my Master."
Medea, who had been maintaining her spirit form, materialized and raised her right hand toward the charging Nero. Her mouth moved rapidly, chanting the incantation for her magecraft at a speed unrecognizable to ordinary people.
One of Medea's innate skills is "High-Speed Divine Words," which has reached Rank A. This is the ability that allows Medea to activate magecraft without using incantations or connecting Magic Circuits. It is a form of High-Speed Incantation (Ten-Count) that can activate Great Magecraft in the time of a Single Action, a skill that assists in spellcasting. Normally, the larger the scale of the magecraft, the longer the incantation required, but through this skill, incantations can be significantly shortened, making it extremely effective for direct offensive magecraft.
A blue light surged, and silver threads invisible to the naked eye suddenly extended, weaving a dense web in front of Nero.
"This is—magecraft!?"
It was undoubtedly Age of Gods magecraft, a more advanced application distinct from ordinary modern magecraft. Those silver threads were incredibly tough; although the greatsword in Nero's hand could cut through them with ease, there were too many for her to destroy all of them in an instant.
Left with no choice, she halted her forward charge. Even so, the silver threads grazing past her inevitably left a wound on Nero's slender neck, and a small amount of bright red blood seeped out.
"Do you really think this kind of magecraft can trap Me?"
The fundamental reason why the Caster class cannot face other Servant classes in direct combat is that their basic parameters are too weak.
Class: Caster
Master: Shirou Orihara
True Name: Medea
Height: 163cm
Weight: 51kg
Strength: B / Endurance: B / Agility: A / Mana: A+ / Luck: B / Noble Phantasm: C
Class Skills:
Territory Creation: A
Item Construction: A
Innate Skills:
High-Speed Divine Words: A Golden Fleece: EX Circe's Instruction: A
Noble Phantasm:
Rule Breaker: C
Even though Medea's stats had increased significantly because her Master had changed to Shirou, her specialization remained in magecraft rather than martial arts. Even if her strength and speed reached the levels of other Servants, she would only be able to hold out for a bit longer; thus, she sought to avoid direct confrontation whenever possible.
"Tch! How naive. Did you think I wouldn't prepare in advance?" A mocking smile curled at the corner of Medea's mouth visible beneath her hood.
Simultaneously, a dark light like a deep pond formed on the ground. From within the constantly squirming black mire, black gas suddenly rose like a fountain. The black gas rapidly transformed into tall humanoids, finally manifesting as skeleton soldiers nearly two meters tall, wielding bone greatswords.
"Dragon Tooth Warriors"—magecraft that creates Golems using a dragon's tooth as a medium. This was one of Medea's signature spells, originally taught by the King of Colchis.
The combat power of a single Dragon Tooth Warrior is naturally no match for a Servant; even a talented magus could deal with one. However, if their numbers reached a plural state, they would pose a threat. These Dragon Tooth Warriors were nearly the same size as humans and their attacks were purely physical; not all individuals were identical, as there were slight variations in the weapons they used.
"Skeleton soldiers similar to human skeletons?" Nero raised her eyes with some disdain toward the skeleton soldiers appearing one by one.
Gripping her deep-red greatsword slightly tighter, Nero was confident she could easily shatter these skeleton soldiers. However, as more and more Dragon Tooth Warriors appeared, eventually reaching more than twenty, they crowded the rooftop until it was almost full.
Fortunately, the rooftop door had been locked in advance; otherwise, any students coming here to eat—or to be eaten—would have been scared half to death by this scene.
"No matter how many there are, they are nothing more than fodder!"
Nero raised her deep-red greatsword. As her spirits rose, flames ignited upon the blade. As she swung the greatsword, the skeleton soldiers meeting her head-on were as fragile as if they
were made of paper. The flames on her sword seemed to have a natural countering effect against these Dragon Tooth Warriors, causing them to retreat in total defeat, unable to resist at all.
"Tsk..." Seeing this, Medea let out a cold snort of annoyance. Without setting up a Territory (Workshop) beforehand, fighting a Rider-class Servant head-on like this was naturally a disadvantage for her.
Shirou stood up, patted her shoulder, and spoke with a smile.
"As a Caster, being able to do this much in a direct fight against a Rider is already quite good. Leave the rest to me."
Hearing Shirou's words, Medea could only nod helplessly. "I wanted to repay you a bit for saving my life, but it seems I can't do it now. I really am still too weak."
"There are many ways to repay someone; it doesn't have to be this way," Shirou said to her.
Shirou actually didn't have any ulterior meaning, but Medea, hearing this, thought of something else. Her cheeks flushed slightly as her beautiful eyes shot him a glare, and she let out a cold huff.
"I'm leaving!"
With that, she immediately entered spirit form and vanished from Shirou's side.
"Don't you dare run away!" Nero shouted, quite annoyed at the sudden disappearance of the Caster who had caused her so much trouble.
"I should be the one saying that," Shirou said, looking at the girl in the red dress who was swinging her deep-red greatsword through the crowd of Dragon Tooth Warriors as if dancing a waltz.
Then, he raised his right hand toward her.
"Enkidu!"
Blue ripples shimmered in mid-air, and golden wedges with silver chains shot out rapidly. In the instant before Nero could react, they coiled around her wrists and ankles.
"What... is this thing!?"
Nero struggled with all her might, only to find the chains were wrapped incredibly tight. While breaking free wasn't impossible, it was definitely not something that could be done in a short amount of time. Even though Nero had no Divinity, "Enkidu" was not something that could be easily broken; it could certainly restrain her for tens of minutes.
"How is it? Do you still want to keep shouting at me?"
Shirou walked up to Nero. Looking at the red-dressed girl's teeth-gritting expression, he became quite spirited.
"You... bastard! Once I break these chains, I will definitely make you taste how burning my sword is!"
"Until then, just stay here for a while."
Shirou was completely unconcerned by her current verbal abuse. Having been scolded by countless women—including goddesses and banshees—he had long since developed an immunity to it.
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