Chapter 28: I Knew It

The aura emanating from the giant was like a suffocating storm; his body size was immense beyond compare, muscles bulging like coiling dragons.

Even more astonishing was that this colossal thing's speed was also swift as a gale, not in the least clumsy.

He was like a giant beast driven by frenzied rage, charging with thunderous momentum, closing in on Shirou Emiya in an instant, as if the earth split and mountains collapsed; that huge shadow, like dark clouds veiling the bright moon, completely swallowed the tiny human figure in a moment.

"……!!"

Shirou Emiya simply had no time to react; his thoughts were still immersed in those baffling words from the white-haired, red-eyed little girl opposite, unconsciously pondering their deeper meaning in his inner heart.

However, in the very next split second, his pupils reflected that terrifying figure, and the rapidly enlarging crude weapon in his vision — better called a boulder than an axe —

This massive weapon, defying common sense, wielded with supernatural strength and speed, brought destruction that was no small matter.

Needless to say the result of taking its power head-on; even at the edges, if merely grazed by those remnant waves like gang wind, a fragile human body would be cleanly split in two!

In an instant, the petite golden-haired girl acted decisively, grabbing his collar and yanking him backward hard, while simultaneously swinging an invisible sword, stepping forward at the critical moment; that wind-wrapped invisible blade clashed violently with the huge crude axe.

Although from an intuitive body size perspective the gap between the two seemed worlds apart, the actual result of the exchange was evenly matched; the girl, like a miracle, resiliently blocked that vast mighty power!

Shirou Emiya, falling backward, instantly felt that fierce savage wind pressure rushing at his face, so intense it almost made one instinctively want to close their eyes. The gale scraped across his cheeks like sharp blades, even his skin feeling stinging pain.

Only at this moment did his brain nerve cells belatedly trigger instinctive fear and shock emotions, making him clearly realize just how close to death he had just been.

Frankly speaking, Shirou Emiya's grasp of the Holy Grail War concept was like viewing flowers in fog; he had neither deep understanding nor due realization.

He was completely in a muddled, ignorant state, with zero psychological preparation, when the day before yesterday he unintentionally summoned a Servant, and only then, through the Servant's furrowed-brow explanation, touched the fringe of this mysterious realm for the first time.

However, relying solely on theoretical explanation failed to let him truly touch the core of this war's cruel essence.

That is, this morning when he went to school, he sensed an unusual oppressive atmosphere pervading the air, revealed by the Servant to be a trap set by other Servants within the school grounds, absorbing living humans' life force in exchange for magical energy……

This filled him with indignation; the brief skirmish that followed also gave him a slightly deeper understanding……

Immediately after, that outwardly pure innocent white-haired red-eyed loli suddenly visited; with the sweetest harmless smile she revealed lethal killing intent…… undoubtedly giving him another profound lesson.

His mind was a mess.

But Shirou Emiya still quickly stood up from the ground, opened his mouth, yet didn't know what to say.

Because he couldn't even see their ultra-high-speed movements clearly, only able to feel the remnant waves when they fought.

Facing such a scene, he immediately understood he was powerless to provide substantive aid, and lacked the insight to direct a Servant's battle; making random noise would only distract the other party; the only thing he could do right now was not add unnecessary trouble and burden for her.

However, even so——

The situation still changed quickly.

The lithe golden-haired girl, at first still able to trade blows spectacularly with the berserker giant, back and forth; from afar the originally quiet street seemed to instantly become a battlefield with artillery fire everywhere, continuous explosion sounds rising and falling, breaking the surrounding silence.

This was also a naturally expected result.

Feet stepping on the ground shattered the earth.

The airflow from swinging weapons sliced street lamps clean off.

Super-sonic high-speed slashes instantly pierced the air barrier, carrying heart-stopping bursting sounds, releasing an unstoppable shockwave sweeping all around.

That overwhelming huge axe swung down at thunder speed; every trajectory it carved stirred up rings of air waves clearly visible to the naked eye; even rock-solid concrete pavement was instantly torn and pulverized.

Clearly just cold weapons clashing, yet the erupting magical energy and torrents of heat would absolutely astonish any ordinary person.

The two constantly shifted positions in confrontation; where they passed remained craters like meteorite impacts, and countless cracks spreading across the road, slicing large swathes of ground into fragmentation.

Like a frenzied storm rampaging on a deserted street, destroying and trampling everything.

Only, this evenly matched battle situation could not last too long.

The girl soon stopped clashing head-on, swiftly switching to tactical maneuvering, her small face tightening, becoming more serious.

Because quantified by Servant parameter stats, her Strength only reached B rank; although already quite good, the berserker giant opposite was absolutely A rank, possibly even top-tier A+.

The reason she could trade head-on blows with the monster-like opponent was entirely due to reinforcing her weapon and body through Mana Burst.

But the problem is——her power needs Mana Burst to explosively reach A-rank height, while the opponent is a muscle monster permanently residing at that height, not a value obtained from brief burst.

In such a situation, once it turns into a war of attrition, how could she possibly come out well.

Perceiving this too, the girl decisively changed tactics, but that raging giant warrior had no intention of giving her breathing room, continuing to emit those baffling roars, swinging and fiercely smashing down that huge axe-sword.

No matter how exquisite the tactics, they depend on the opponent. If this berserker giant merely had outstanding strength but lacked agility, perhaps she could still find room to maneuver; regrettably, the giant's agility actually also reached A-rank standard.

If the girl, relying on the equally A-rank "Mana Burst" skill, greatly enhancing physical ability, could still exchange brute force with such a monster……

Then when she instinctively avoided hard clashes, trying to maneuver with agility, she would discover she no longer possessed any advantage in blade-to-blade combat with the opponent……

The next moment——

Danger changed in an instant; she weaved and dodged through flashing blades and axes in an incredibly narrow escape, the scene like a whack-a-mole game…… only reality was more cruel; she played the "mole" desperately needing to avoid attacks.

Prolonged battle means inevitable loss; continuing like this, an accident would happen sooner or later.

"Aaaaaaaah——!!"

But the raging giant suddenly stopped; he abruptly turned his head back, his right pupil suddenly erupting terrifying crimson light, like a rampaging Unit One, disengaging without hesitation and launching a charge!

"Eh?"

The girl was struggling to hold on, racking her brain for an escape, yet never expected the opponent to suddenly retreat, so decisively that she couldn't even react in time.

She even subconsciously hopped side to side in place several times before realizing no storm-like attacks continued to fall.

The white-haired red-eyed loli in the rear had been watching the fight with a smiling grin, that playful smile like leisurely watching a cat-and-mouse show, yet unexpectedly her own Servant suddenly went mad and charged toward her direction.

She froze for a moment, but immediately reacted, retreating at fastest speed while deploying magecraft protection around her body.

Simultaneously shouting loudly: "Berserker——!!"

The loli's summons was like injecting chicken blood into the giant; the already raging giant roared, speed suddenly rising another level, with terrifying momentum flinging up the ground ahead, almost instantly closing in on the Master's side.

"Tch, what lolicon……"

A figure seemingly suddenly appeared in the air, tsked, and like a ghost dodged that strike capable of splitting mountains and cracking stone.

The huge axe cleaved down viciously, nearly severing the entire road!!

…………

Xia Zhi had actually been watching from the side for a while; after all, although one couldn't say he harbored ill intent, his purpose was indeed impure.

Although he had initially come to deliver a letter to Shirou Emiya with the mindset of "better safe than sorry," the moment he saw his target in trouble, he unhesitatingly adjusted his strategy.

Unfortunately, the situation did not develop in the expected direction.

He had originally thought Shirou Emiya would be the first to encounter misfortune and fail midway, but he never expected that the girl who looked exactly like "Vivian," making one wonder if she was an Extraterrestrial Same-Time Isomorph, would be the first to fall into danger.

Xia Zhi sighed softly and still decided to take action.

It didn't need to be troublesome; he just needed to pretend to attack that loli.

He didn't really expect to successfully assassinate her, after all, that loli's situation was equally troublesome; in his vision, the magical reaction emanating from that tender body was extremely terrifying, as if it had undergone countless magecraft treatments.

The body's structure was replaced by components not human...

As if every inch of skin was engraved with Command Seals, emitting an astonishing aura of magical power...

Just like that Miss Sakura, her body was connected by multiple Holy Grail System Mana Circuits, a "Terminal" that was like a human form...

Facing a situation he completely couldn't understand, Xia Zhi did not want to recklessly approach the other party.

Although he used the alias "Li Feiyu," in this situation, he was actually more willing to learn from "Han Old Devil"... if it weren't for the "Vivian" issue, he wouldn't even want to cause unnecessary trouble at all.

——Frowning, he discovered things were not simple, and retreated behind Shirou Emiya...

——That was the correct approach.

The plan was implemented very smoothly.

By intentionally leaking his aura to attract the rampaging giant back, Xia Zhi decisively prepared to withdraw, while also dividing a considerable amount of attention, placing it on that loli who didn't know if she was disguising herself.

"A mere Assassin, daring to meddle, kill him! Berserker!"

The white-haired loli also clearly saw the enemy who wanted to attack her, and immediately became both angry and anxious, shouting loudly.

Damn it, just a little bit more, and his Servant would have torn the enemy on the opposite side to pieces, and then killed that hateful man's adopted son!

It's all because of this reckless Assassin! Since he wants to die, then send him on his way first! This sewer-class Servant, why doesn't he quickly hide far away, and still dares to actively interfere in a battle between first-rate Servants?!

"Ahhhhhhhhhh—!!"

The Berserker giant roared, unhesitatingly venting his violent battle intent and killing intent, picking up a crude weapon and launching a fierce attack at the enemy.

I knew it...

Xia Zhi's eyelids twitched a few times; while rapidly calculating countermeasures in the blink of an eye, he almost instinctively dodged the enemy's violent, tide-like attacks.

As if driven by instinct, he constantly wandered outside that storm-like consecutive offensive, precisely judging every trajectory of the giant axe blade, avoiding the impact by a hair's breadth, and finding vitality in the gap of that life-and-death instant.

However, the situation was equally nerve-wracking, and he was almost split in two several times by a fierce blade...

Facing such a situation, Xia Zhi couldn't help but feel pressured; while maintaining high mental focus and doing his best to dodge the giant's pursuit, he couldn't help but subconsciously complain in his heart.

Indeed! He knew it, true Servants were monsters like these heroes, simply not something he could oppose...

Look at such a monster; although it was the Berserker class, Mad Enhanced to the point of having no rationality, it probably couldn't even display true combat skills, yet it had forced him into such a sorry state...

What does this show!

It shows that his insignificant experience and skills indeed could not reach the true level of Heroic Spirits!

This inexplicable Holy Grail War must have some bug, to throw a Black Iron like him into such a King-level match...

Thinking of this, Xia Zhi sighed long and hard, and also understood that with the opponent's terrifying power and speed, he absolutely could not continue to entangle; hitting the opponent a hundred times would be useless, but the opponent hitting him once would mean performing a Health Bar Disappearance Technique.

Cast magic!

Failed!

Cast magic!

Failed!

He tried hard to seize the gap and cast the strongest magic he mastered, but naturally they all failed; the Stone Boiling Technique didn't look like it could directly cook the enemy at all, and had no effect.

Continue casting magic, magical power rapidly spread across the ground.

Cement, steel bars, asphalt fragments...

Strictly speaking, Five Metals and Eight Stones was just a general term; if one really wanted to cook, these things naturally also fell within the scope of things that could be cooked, unfortunately they were of no use.

Xia Zhi could only plunder the metal and stone Qi among them as much as possible, but did not convert it into Qi Dan, instead constantly gathering them until reaching a relatively suitable degree, then using spell conversion—

He performed a side roll, once again dodging the terrifying Splitting Huashan blow, and took advantage of the momentum to pick up the broken street lamp pole beside him.

He erupted powerful magical power, enhancing his own strength; he seemed to naturally know how to use magical power to achieve such a goal, and simultaneously decisively poured all the converted metal and stone Qi into this temporary weapon.

The next instant...

As if premeditated, he swung this simply processed iron pillar with all his might...

Drawing an exaggerated huge arc, like playing golf, he fiercely whipped it at the Berserker giant who hadn't had time to retract his weapon...

Sending him flying dozens of meters away.

Immediately, he let go and ran, without the slightest hesitation greeting the two stunned people behind him—

"The wind is tight, run!"

(Chapter End)