Haruka & The Great Holy Grail War
The sounds of battle rang through the fields that night.
Swords clanged against spears, cutting and slashing their way through ranks of homunculi, golems, Dragon Tooth Warriors, and more. Corpses littered the ground, which ran dark with blood.
Scattered throughout the field were Servants locked in combat, their fluid movements making it look more like a dance than a fight to the death.
Karna brought his spear up, pushing against Siegfried's sword and forcing the Saber back a step. Siegfried retaliated by sending a burst of prana through his sword to blast it at Karna, but it was negated with Kavacha and Kundala.
In the forest, teacher and pupil clashed. Chiron blocked Achilles's spear thrusts and sent his student crashing to the ground.
In another section of the field, arrows rained down and sliced through limbs of homunculi. Atalanta let down a relentless rain of arrows, while nimbly avoiding the enemy's attacks.
In another area, Mordred clashed with Astolfo and Frankenstein. While it was two-on-one, her swordsmanship was still superior to that of both Black Servants, and she was easily holding her own.
In a deeper section of the forest, Jack the Ripper smiled happily as she dismembered some homunculi for their hearts, occasionally turning to the side to cut down any golems that got too close.
Karna sent a silent apology to Haruka before his right eye glowed red, activating Brahmastra. A focused beam of prana shot out and burned through Siegfried's side, who barely jumped away in time. The beam went on to incinerate a few homunculi and Dragon Tooth Warriors behind them.
"Magnificent," Siegfried said steadily, grimacing at his burned side. Despite the armour of Fafnir negating most of the damage, it still hurt. He could feel Gordes healing it already, and winced at the telepathic scolding he received along with it. "You have pierced my armour again."
"It comes at great cost to my Master, but she is able to take care of herself," Karna replied. "I am curious about one thing, though."
"What is it?" Siegfried said as he took a ready stance with his sword at the ready.
"I have not seen my counterpart yet. Where is the ruler of this land, Lancer of Black?"
Siegfried fell silent. "I have not seen him in battle."
"I see." Karna raised his spear and the two resumed clashing.
Sorry to cut your fight short but Vlad's intercepting Atalanta, Karnacchi. She'll have trouble with him.
I see. I can fight both of them at the same time, but it will consume more of your mana.
Oh, I'll be fine. I'm only on my second apple and Arthur's barely taking any from me. I suggest you team up with Atalanta to take down Vlad and Siegfried both, but it's your call. Don't forget to watch out for Spartacus.
Understood. How are you doing?
I'm fine. I doubt Semiramis would try to poison me now. I may or may not have subtly threatened Amakusa with another Gandr round to keep him from trying to tell me to give up my Command Seals.
Karna cut off the connection with Haruka and leapt back to avoid a strike from Siegfried. "It appears that Lancer of Black has intercepted Archer from my master's observations."
"…"
"I foresee that we will clash again before the end of this war. I will follow my Master's orders to engage Lancer of Black in combat. I do not mind taking on both of you at the same time, but it is your choice." Karna nodded slightly and turned to leave.
"Wait!" Siegfried called.
Karna tilted his head.
"Do you know… what became of the homunculus Rider rescued?"
Karna's lips twitched up slightly. "I believe he is fine." He dematerialized swiftly, leaving Siegfried alone on the battlefield.
Siegfried sighed as he tuned out Gordes's rants about Karna's cowardice. Suddenly, he heard Astolfo's telepathic voice yell through his head.
Someone help me and Berserker with Saber of Red! We're getting pushed back!
Siegfried looked around to locate the androgynous Servant, and noted flashes of red and green lightning not far from him. I will battle Karna again, he thought to himself. And next time… I will not lose.
***
"Ah, looks like Atalanta got saved just in time," Haruka said as she watched Karna burn a wave of stakes aimed at Atalanta from the viewing screens Semiramis provided in the throne room. She casually bit into another golden apple, sighing in relief at the extra burst of mana. Karna's activation of Brahmastra earlier had almost drained her in one go as he had put most of his mana into it.
"I'm surprised you were able to tear him away from his battle with Saber of Black," Semiramis mused as she watched Mordred knock Astolfo to the ground before dodging a strike from Siegfried. "Our Saber on the other hand appears to have some trouble handling three Servants at once."
"She'll be fine," Haruka said nonchalantly. "She'll kill me for casually revealing her True Name, but I'm sure Mordred can hold her own."
"The Knight of Treachery is a girl?" Shirou asked, slightly bemused.
"So are a lot of reputed male figures like Nero Claudius, Oda Nobunaga, and Okita Souji, among others," Haruka said casually. Shirou stared at her for a few seconds, but Haruka had pulled out her phone to farm EXP and therefore ignored him. "What's up with the rogue Servant, by the way?"
"Somehow he was summoned even with the Greater Grail's restrictions and has thrown the Black Faction into a state of confusion following his capture of one of their homunculi which you also sent Lancer to acquire," Shirou answered. "Why did you want him, anyways?"
"A friend of mine from the future asked me to save him. I tried," Haruka said with a helpless shrug, looking up from her phone. "I couldn't tell who the rogue Servant is, but if he trips up the Black Faction then all the better for you, right?"
"Only if he doesn't turn his blade on us," Semiramis replied. "My Master has also figured out his identity to be Arthur Pendragon, Saber's father. She may go after him if she finds out."
"Not my problem," Haruka said. Internally, she smirked. What they don't know is that they're aware of each other's existence and that they get along perfectly fine.
Feeling a sudden drain on her prana reserves, she quickly popped another apple in her mouth and checked Karna's battle status with Vlad. The golden lancer had activated his Mana Burst of Flames to burn through the Romanian lord's stakes, which explained the prana drain. "He hasn't used Volumen Hydragyrum yet…" she muttered. "Should I switch Mystic Codes?"
"Spartacus has appeared," Shirou announced suddenly. "He's going straight for the lancers."
"Where's Ruler?" Haruka asked. "Spartacus is a massive suicide bomb if attacked too much—she's the only one with a Noble Phantasm effective enough to nullify that."
Shirou raised an eyebrow at the news but silently gestured for Semiramis to cease her aerial bombing of Jeanne's location. Semiramis complied with a slight scowl.
"Anyways—" Haruka paused as a portal opened behind her and fired a Black Key in a random direction, piercing a certain Caster's cape. Shakespeare shrieked and dematerialized. "Can we get an eye on the rogue Servant? There's no way he wouldn't have shown up to the battle."
Semiramis raised an eyebrow at Haruka's casual attack on Shakespeare. "You seem to have quite an interest in him."
"Hey, he is the legendary King Arthur. Can't blame me."
A screen showed up to see Arthur and Sieg leading a crowd of homunculi out of Yggdmillenia castle. Shirou's eyebrows rose higher. "Are they rescuing… the homunculi?"
"Don't the Masters of the Black Faction rely on the homunculi for mana batteries?" Haruka asked.
"So they were going against the Black Faction. The fact that the stray homunculus is leading around the Servant means that whoever the rogue Master is, he must be using it as a proxy Master."
"It'd be nice if I could get the homunculus back for my friend…" Haruka mumbled, then shrugged.
After all, everything was going perfectly according to her plan.