Fate/Fallen Order

Saber's response to the bullets is to look completely disinterested at the oncoming projectiles. He raised his blade to block the spikes but he needn't have bothered. As soon as the spikes got within swinging range of Saber's blade, they disappeared.  

That sentence bore repeating, the tungsten spikes, fired from the Noble Phantasm of an Archer class servant disappeared in front of everyone. And no one had a clue what happened. That sentence was true for anyone on the Red Faction. As for the servants of Ash, their reactions were mixed. Archer's face contorted into one of complete disgust. Saber's reaction on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He lowered his blade and glanced to the space next to him "Good of you to join us, Assassin."

The air shimmered next to Saber, and Assassin of Ash stepped out for all to see. He was of average height with a black fedora hat and matching black tux. His tie was crimson red, perfectly mirroring the crimson tint of his eyes. His features were, familiar. Takeshi glanced between Archer and Assassin. It was kind of strange, put them next to one another, you could say they were related how much they looked alike.

Assassin gave Saber of Ash a kind bow "A honor to be here my dear Saber. I was just in the area, watching Lancer's and Berserker of Red's battle of course when I sensed a very interesting development."

He glanced at Takeshi, Archer and Caster. He took a step forward, and he disappeared again. Takeshi felt a weight pressing against his shoulder. He turned his head slightly to see Assassin of Ash casually leaning up against him without a care in the world.

"And would you look at what I found." Assassin said glancing at Takeshi "Three servants, and this interesting man."

He takes a step back and with a flurish of his hand, bows to Takeshi "Good sir, might I have the honor of knowing your name? If it pleases you, I will give mine in return."

"My name is Takeshi Zarado, magus enforcer and this village's protector for the time being. Now, what might your name be?"

Assassin took off his Fedora and bowed again "Please to meet you Takeshi Zarado, I am Edmond Dantès, The Count of Monte Cristo."

Tamamo looked utterly nonplussed, both by Assassin's identity reveal and the fact that he was being so genial.

Troy, for his part, materialized his spear the instant Assassin appeared near his Master, then pinched the bridge of his nose upon learning the enemy Servant's identity.

Assassin glanced at Troy "Does my identity displease you, Archer of Red?"

"Don't take it personally. Everything displeases me."

A moment went by.

"Except wine."

Assassin raised an eyebrow "Oh? I see I am dealing with a man of taste."

He disappeared again only to suddenly appear next to Troy holding one of his spikes "But I must say, you could have chosen better ammunition."

Troy reviewed the situation. Assassin was near Takeshi. Assassin was a class designed to kill Masters. Killing Takeshi would by extension kill Troy, Tamamo and Achilles as well, not to mention directly leading to the end of the world as we know it.

It stood to reason, therefore, that getting Takeshi the hell away from Assassin topped Troy's list of priorities.

In one quick, well-practiced motion, Troy slipped several sticks of chalk from his bandolier. He tossed three of them to the ground, spaced around half a dozen meters apart each. As the sticks left his hands they seemed to accelerate incredibly rapidly, almost turning into lines extending from their point of origin to the target in their incredible speed. On impact they disintegrated into glowing dust that rapidly coalesced into three identical magic circles lined with arcane symbols. Takeshi recognized these instantly as Formalcraft constructs.

The circles glowed and then the symbols rose up off the ground, hovering in midair before training on Assassin, rotating like gyroscopes before firing bolts of energy at the enemy Servant. Troy didn't stick around to run the risk of friendly fire. Another stick of chalk fairly teleported out of his hand as he pitched it several hundred meters behind the group and therefore away from Assassin and Saber before he threw another one down beneath Takeshi. The circle barely formed before Takeshi felt like something had just grabbed his spine and given a go at pulling it off the rest of his body...and now he was standing in a different circle several hundred meters away, the one Troy had just laid down.

<Zarado, Caster, move!>

"Wait, what the hel- how did I get here?" Takeshi asks, a rather dumbfounded look on his face.

Tamamo was in the process of catching up to Takeshi when all of a sudden Takeshi was thrown back from the circle, sprawling on the ground as Troy bounced off of him, landing a short distance behind. He swore loudly in something that wasn't English. "I said move, dammit!"

Assassin, Saber, and Archer of Ash watched as the the Red Faction made their get away. The attempt at mimicking true magic caused Assassin to chuckle slightly "I can't say I'm not impressed."

Saber looked completely neutral at the whole thing. He simply sheathed his blade and walked away "Archer, we're leaving."

The french emperor raised an eyebrow at him "And why are we leaving? The enemy is weak now, so the time to attack is also now."

Saber shakes his head "Our Master has ordered our return.Assassin, you and Lancer as to return as soon as you are done disposing of the Red Faction master."

Assassin bows his head "As our glorious saint wishes."

With that, Asssassin seemed to wink out of existence leaving Saber and Archer alone.

Back with Takeshi, he noticed that something was coming towards him. He rolled out of the way just in time for Berserker to crash in the space where he once was. The mad warrior casually dusted himself off and glanced around him "So how have you three been?"

"Just probing the enemy's weaknesses. What did you learn?" Troy assumed Achilles had a good reason for not being there. The guy would have been front-and-center for a fight with the enemy Saber and Archer but wasn't. That meant he was otherwise occupied with something vaguely important.

Tamamo maintained a fairly surly silence, ears flattened angrily. She wasn't a terribly big fan of being completely useless in a fight.

"Lancer is quite the enemy. If I were a lesser man, I would have called her a mighty warrior."

Berserker holds up his right hand, where another feminine hand had been severed from its owner "But I am not a lesser man."

"Any ideas as to who she is?" Troy had priorities and feeding Achilles' ego wasn't one of them.

Berserker's grin vanished instantly "I haven't a clue. She fought with the skill of a god but had the magic of an angel. Once more, she did this."

Berserker holds up his right arm and on his forearm, a small gash was visible.

"I think our first move should be to deal with that fancy schmuck assassin, Buddah knows what he could do to take us out." Takeshi says, remembering what almost happened to Cater.

"Well, metallic weapons are out. Won't work on him. Which means resort to magic-"

"Sounds like a job for me!" Tamamo, enthusiastic as ever, held up a hand wreathed in flames.

"...or just have Berserker punch him in the neck about a dozen times, but yeah, nuking him is a good Plan A."

Berserker smirks and cracks his fingers "How do you like your assassins? Well beaten or scrambled?"

"I like my assassins well done actually, Tomamo, can you be our new chef?"

Berserker looks slightly annoyed, but he too wanted to see what fried Assassin looked like. Unfortunately, no one would get the chance as Assassin of Ash literally appeared next to Tomamo. He tipped his hat to everyone present before wrapping an arm around Tomamo's waist "Marche avec moi madame?"

An instant later, the two of them were gone.

Two miles away, Tomamo found herself being dropped off in the middle of a burned out field. Standing next to what appeared to be a rotting wood post, was The Count. He bows slightly "Enjoy the trip madame?"

Tamamo, initially surprised, recovered from that quickly enough. "Not as much as I'm gonna enjoy this!" The statement came with twin blasts of flame from both hands at no extra charge (plus shipping and handling)

The fire washed over Assassin and burned the ground he stood on to a crisp. A second later Caster saw him standing atop another rotting post. He waved his finger in a tisk-tisk motion "That was just rude, besides shouldn't you be thinking of your master? After all, he's two miles away and last I checked, you don't travel very fast."

He blinked out of existence and a few seconds later was a few meters away from Takeshi and company "Your lady has excellent curves good sir."

Troy glanced at Achilles significantly, hoping to subtly communicate the need for Assassin to be beaten into turkey paste in the not-so-distant future.

Tamamo, meanwhile, had come to the conclusion that the most efficient way to return to the rest of the group was to drop into Spirit Form and return that way.

Berserker cracked his knuckles "So, Assassin, what's wrong with you?"

Assassin of Ash blinks "I don't follow."

Berserker stretches out his hand and a black spear materializes into the air "Because you're fighting a Berserker, on fair terms." Achilles let out a cheeky grin "You're going to be wishing that Caster had burned you."

Assassin blinks before letting out a slight chuckle and simply points to the sky off in the distance. Despite himself, Berserker glanced at where Assassin was pointing. He notices something in the distance and his cocky smirk instantly drops from his face "Master," he says to Takeshi "Dragon."

Takeshi looked over where Berserker was indicating and this is the sight he saw.



Assassin bowed "My master has a wondrous relation with Drakes. Interesting no?"