...
The colossus let out an earth-shaking roar.
The battle had begun.
Strangely enough, or perhaps not, it was Aaron who came to his senses first.
"Rider, what are you waiting for!?"
"Aye!"
Rider leaped up onto the rail to run around his Master, seeming for a moment to be running horizontally, and, reaching the bow, leaped into the air as a comet of light, disappearing into the heavy clouds above.
Berserker made a ready stance. He knew who his opponent was.
Above, mist, ice and static clung to Rider's armor as he sailed up, the gathered lightning skipping across his metal exterior to gather in his outstretched hand. Reaching the open sky, he cast the same hand towards the moon, the energy floating upwards, growing in size as wind began to swirl around it.
"O Hound o' Howling Thunder! Wolf o' Whirling Winds! 'Tis truly a wild hunt! Let no prey escape! Hither! To me! Failinis!"
...
Those below saw only flashes of lightning through the clouds. But these streaks, some white, others blue, soon turned purple.
...
A violet light pierced the clouds- large as a meteor and faster than a bullet. Before anyone could begin to register what it was, it was already pressing down on Berserker's axe as he swatted it away, scattering it into fizzling sparks. But there was Rider, having hidden in the comet's tail, still abuzz with violet static, below him. He launched forward with a light imbued punch to the colossus's midsection, causing just the slightest flinch from the beast, and kicked back in the nick of time as Berserker's axe came down to cut at where he had been a second ago. The behemoth went to rush forward, to not give Rider even a moment to rest, but in his half-step was blindsided by a strike to the face from the same purple light.
He swatted again. The light scattered again. Rider came in with a kick to the collarbone, dodging in the air to get behind him. Berserker turned- but the orb of light struck him behind the knee on his pivot foot, knocking him off balance. Rider launched a kick to his shoulder, spinning him in the air- but Berserker turned into the spin, landing on all fours like a cat before pouncing back towards his opponent with a roar. He brought down his axe with a fury, but the violet orb intercepted it, blocking the attack, once more causing Berserker to stumble. Wasting no time, Rider went fully aglow with golden light and released a flurry of punches so fast they were invisible to the naked eye, all the while Failinis smacked Berserker in the face over and over again. Combined, they pushed the massive monster back, never giving him a moment of peace, and not a single opportunity to counterattack.
Aaron pumped his fist, "Whoo! Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"
He had never imagined things could go this well. Failinis was another one of Lugh's Noble Phantasms, and it was the last one in his arsenal; the only one Aaron had yet to see for himself. During the day, it was a powerful hound, but at night, it transformed into an invincible ball of energy that would pursue its target without err or hesitation. It would- literally- chase its prey to the end of the earth, provided the sun didn't rise first. The plan to double-team Berserker was the best they had, and he had anticipated something going terribly wrong, but no, to his own surprise the only thing that wasn't going to plan was the fact that everything was going accordingly.
His excitement was only tamed by the fact that they didn't seem to be doing any visible damage so far. But even that was expected, though they had hoped otherwise.
Blue lightning gathered inside the monster before bursting outwards from the chinks in his armor-like skin, sending a wave of thunder that knocked both Rider and Failinis back about thirty feet, but this, even this, was well with him. Without missing a beat, the beings of gold and violet light ran circles around the colossus, seeming to disorient him. He didn't know what they were doing or why- or where he should attack regardless. The same didn't apply to those overhead.
Archer, standing on the front of his own ship, drew his bow, letting three arrows of shadow manifest from his fingers, "What are you waiting for, an invitation? Fire!"
He let loose. At the same time, the cannons on his ship burst out from the hull. Caster and Saber's ships followed suit; only Aaron's couldn't since no one with divinity was aboard.
The three arrows hit true, and it seemed that some of the energy on his skin was absorbed into the black light. He raised an arm reflexively and, a moment later, a barrage of golden energy cannons opened on him, sending a cloud of dust into the air. It continued until a surge in the thunder rolling outward from Berserker and a blue light from within the cloud led them to cease fire. As it cleared, Berserker held his mouth agape as energy built within, charging a blast.
Aaron was first again, "I can't block that! Scatter!"
The ships began to drift apart, but Rider was already dealing with the issue at hand. From behind the colossus, an attack from Failinis knocked his head downwards, and underneath was Rider, who had snuck in during the ceasefire, launching an upward knee into Berserker's jaw, jamming it shut as the beam inside burst outwards from his mouth, scattering in all directions and shooting Rider back- with a notable singe on his thigh.
There was a brief moment of stillness as Berserker straightened himself, the thunder around him sharpening into a growl. Failinis continued, like a boomerang, to jump back and into the colossus over and over again, but he remained firm, bracing himself against the attacks such that they didn't even make him budge. In this way, he raised his head towards Rider to the sound of grating stone.
Rider prepared himself to dodge.
Berserker pounced, axe overhead, bringing it down onto Rider- who then strafed right. He made a wide swing and Rider dodged back. Failinis attacked, but Berserker didn't budge. Forward and overhead swing and another right strafe. Another futile attack from Lugh's hound. This chain continued, and with each step in their dance they became faster until only a blur of blue, white, gold, silver and purple could be seen through the rain of fresh gravel.
...
Athena looked on in shock and horror. She had always been tempted to wave away Chrysaor's claim to being a weak Servant, but here and now, for the first time, she understood exactly what he had meant. Whatever the case may have been for the other Servants present, Berserker and Rider were in a class of their own.
-No, that wasn't quite right. Berserker was in a class of his own. Rider was also in a class of his own, but a different one. They were so far beyond her that, to the naked eye, they would appear to be evenly matched, but the truth was that Rider had yet to deal any damage. He was only stalling, and he was running low on energy fast.
She gulped. A part of her began to think back on her sister's offer, but once more she banished the thought and steeled her resolve.
...
Another strike; another dodge. Another strike; another dodge. Rider was beginning to feel he had a handle on the situation. True enough, he didn't know how much longer he could last, but with his speed, endurance and skills, he could at least keep Berserker busy. He was keeping himself braced against Failinis, after all. That slowed him down just enough to give Lugh the comfortable edge he was hoping for. It seemed that the colossus was stuck: if he went reckless, then he and his hound could keep him off-balanced, but if he was defensive, then he was too slow to do any real damage.
In fact, the silver-armored champion was almost bored when alarms went off in his mind's eye. The next attack was coming... from all directions? Nine simultaneous strikes, an attack as strong as a Noble Phantasm, and impossible to dodge. The only future he saw was of getting cleaved into pieces.
He reached into the deepest core of his being, all the power, divinity and authority he possessed, and ripped it out in a fury. For just a moment, he appeared himself to be nothing more than light, as he shot back just a meter and returned to normal- the nine strikes cleaving through air and earth, leaving nine cuts in the ground itself.
...
Aaron puked blood and a sudden wave of vertigo forced him to his knees, coughing and sputtering.
Saber and his Master exchanged looks. Without any words, or even so much as a nod, an agreement was reached.
Saber jumped onto the rail in a crouch, "I'll be right back! Look after Athena!"
He pushed off, leaping high into the air, crossing the thousand-foot chasm between the ships and landing nimbly onto Aaron's. In a moment, his hand was pressed against the Master's back as a golden mist flowed around and into his weary body.
Aaron wiped blood from his lip and stood up on shaky legs, "You didn't have to do that. Look after yourselves."
"Save your self-destruction for someone else. If Rider goes down, we all do."
"Whatever. See to your Master, Saber."
"No. Someone else needs me more at the moment."
The two exchanged stubborn glares.
"Fine."
A thundering roar echoed up from down below, and, a second later seemed to reflect back onto them from the clouds overhead. Berserker's presence, his pressure, his aura, seemed to glare down at them from on high, even though he was still below them.
Chrysaor lowered himself and walked backwards away from Aaron, "There's also that."
"Right,"
He couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face, confidence and glee, foreign feelings, bubbled up from his core as, for the first time in his life, his labors bore fruit.
"Everybody get down! It's my time to shine!"
Archer sneered, "Don't flatter yourself!"
"Whatever you say, birdbrain!"
He reached both his arms to the sky and began to release mana at a low level, slowly altering the electromagnetic field around him, creating a path for lightning to travel across. As his consciousness spread through his mana flow, he confirmed his suspicions. Heracles was making use of his father's Authority to channel lightning to smite them from overhead. Normally, something like this would be suicide, but it was the only way to make sure everyone else was safe, and, after his first encounter with Berserker, he had faith that whatever change had occurred then would save him now.
And, if it didn't, there was a medic on standby. Despite his earlier words, as anticipation hammered his heart, he was thankful to have Saber behind him.
Light flashed above him, and all was still for a moment. Then, one after another, lightning rained down from overhead. Some went after Archer, or Caster, or the Master of Saber, but each one seemed to curve in the air and bend towards Aaron, jolting into his outspread arms and causing his body to shake and convulse.
The storm closed as quickly as it came. Aaron's clothes were singed, and he was taking deep breaths, but seemed fine.
Chrysaor eked out of the corner he had sheltered in, hand out and ready to heal, "Are you alright?"
His arms fell to his side, not limply, but tense and shaking. He began to laugh.
"Ha...haha...haha..." he put his palms out, and static began to dance across his arms and fingers, "haha... Hahaha!"
Electricity began to crackle around him, tracing the outline of the ship.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! It worked! It worked!" He cast one arm into the air. The lightning had singed off one of his jacket sleeves, revealing a sign like an arrowhead with eagle's wings, "Rider! By the power of my Command Seal, take this power and defeat Berserker!"
...
Back on the ground, Rider had looked back to his Master, feeling the sudden weakness, but steadied as he felt his Master's condition do the same. As Berserker focused his energy on launching the lightning hail, a defensive stance protected him from any attacks, but none came. Failinis, impossible to tire, continued to bounce off his ivory hide, but made no obvious damage. Rider took the chance to rest, and to wrap his head around the situation.
They were going as expected, but not as they had hoped. No damage had been done. He was in a rough state, and his Master, whose mana reserves were tapped by his emergency maneuver, wasn't much better. Something had to change, and quickly.
Thunder rolled overhead. Rider lowered himself, ready to dash, or dodge, or whatever he needed to. The moment the attack was launched, it was back to their dance.
-BOOM! CRACK! KAPOW!-
Both the Servants leaped forward, two streaks of gold and white over the ground. Berserker went up with his axe swinging down, and Rider slid under his legs, dodging the strike with a turn and firing off behind the colossus.
"Rider! By the power of my Command Seal-"
Failinis smacked Berserker across the face, stunning him for a moment as he went to make another strike that Rider easily dodged. He primed an attack-
"-Take this power and defeat Berserker!"
With no one able to see what had happened, a sudden burst of violet light exploded from Berserker's chest with the sound of a sonic boom. The colossus didn't merely budge, he tumbled- rolling backwards across the valley like a marble boulder before he righted himself. There, in the place he had stood, was Rider, his golden light mixing with violet electricity that skittered across his armor and the ground around him, static swaying his hair and causing his ponytail to unravel.
"Ha Ha! Verily, Master! As thou command!"
...
Aaron's rush of energy was taken from him as quickly as it came, and weakness forced him to take a knee.
Chrysaor approached with trepidation, ready to revive him.
He threw a hand out and pulled himself up with the other, "Back the fuck up, Saber." A mean smile pried his lips wide open, "I've never felt better."
...
Rider's pose mimicked the one his Master had taken a moment before, not because he had seen it, but because it was the same wonder and excitement that filled a man marveling at his own strength.
With another thunderous roar, Berserker rushed forward with such feral intensity that it was almost on all fours, his fists and feet leaving potholes in the earth as he ran, a blue streak approaching the gold and violet nucleus. In such a rage, he seemed to forget that he even had a weapon, and reached out as if to claw or crush Rider with his bare hands. But, fast as he was, barely below the speed of sound and hampered only by his size and weight, Rider was faster- far faster. The moment before he would've come down on top of the Champion of Light like the force of nature he was, Lugh dashed forward with impossible speed, somersaulting underneath the colossus, channeling all his power, new and old, into his legs, kicking up into Heracles's abdomen with a burst of golden thunder and violet lightning and sending the massive statue of a man many feet into the air with Failinis in pursuit
Somewhere in the empty eyes of the colossus, overflowing with power and madness, one could make out the semblance of confusion and befuddlement through his ever-snarling façade, slowing his reactions which should've moved at the same speed as the thunderbolts he commanded. Not so below him. With another imperceivable shuffle, Rider darted back the way he came, waved his arms with an arc of electricity, and cast them down. Failinis surged in size and speed, and shot down into Berserker's back. In a blink, he was slammed into the ground, the hands and feet he had cast out to catch himself buried in rock as the faerie hound continued to press him deeper, and blue and violet lightning battled for supremacy on his back.
With a twang, metal wrappings, black and luminescent red, burst from the earth and wrapped themselves around the colossus, pulling him from below while Failinis pushed from above.
Rider took the cue, "Now! Master! This is our chance!"
Aaron heard loud and clear, "All of you open fire!"
All the ships let loose, even Aaron's with Chrysaor aboard to control them, and Archer bombarded the colossus with his own arrows.
Aaron wasn't sure this was the right play, but that was what they had agreed to: the keyphrase that showed Rider thought he could actually win the battle, and all he needed was his True Name.
"Rider!" He threw his hand up again, "By the power of my Command Seal! You are the Lugh the giant slayer, who killed Balor of the Evil Eye! Now end this battle like you did back then!"
Rider held his pose, channeling all his power into his hound, but not merely to keep Berserker pressed. A beacon of light shot up from the orb of light and into the clouds above. There, beyond where any could see, the light arced into the clouds around it, forming into six separate thunderbolts that themselves continued to layer, harden and define with energy sapped from the hound of howling wind, until six spears of lightning hovered amongst the storm.
Failinis was shrinking, and Rider could feel the colossus slowly rising out of its hold, but his preparations were complete.
"My Gae Assail, my yew of the wood, my fiery spear, there is yet another monster for thee to slay! Another war for thee to win! Ibar!"
Six thunderbolts fell from the heavens and into the cloud where Berserker lay. He felt the resistance falter before rising with the thunder. He cast his hand to cease fire and, as the dust cleared, Berserker ripped the metal wrappings from the earth, each of them falling limply to decorate the ground around him.
But that wasn't where everyone's eyes were drawn.
Lugh's spears, made multiple using the power of his Master's power and Command Seal, had all hit their mark. Three in his torso, one in his shoulder, and, more pertinently, one in his heart, and another directly through the back of his skull. The sound of grinding stone, and the presence that Berserker constantly emanated, both began to fade, with the colossus seeming to sway like a marble reed in the wind and the blue light of madness flickered weakly in his eyes.
But he was standing.
Among the spectators overhead and afar, whispers began to spread. "Did we win?" "Is it over?" "Could it really be that easy?" Caster and Archer watched with intrigue. Athena watched with awe. Aaron and Rider, both exhausted physically and magically, were breathing heavily, hoping for the best but not ready to accept that the end they sought had been reached.
But Berserker's sway became a teeter.
Everyone held their breath, waiting, hoping for the colossus to fall like the statue he resembled. Nobody even thought to attack, lest their thoughtlessness somehow, in some way, gave that monster the energy he needed to survive. Nobody except Caster, who exchanged a glance with Archer and began to lift off from the ship while nobody was watching, moving his hands to cast a spell.
Berserker fell forward-
And planted one foot ahead of him.
Rider lurched forward, ready to resume his attack even without Failinis, but he didn't get the chance to take a step. A wave with the sound and force of a tsunami washed out from the colossus, knocking back not just Rider, who tumbled to the ground, but even pushing back the ships so many hundreds of meters away. And while the force faded, the sound didn't; the light only got brighter, the presence only got stronger.
Archer braced himself, his loose hair fluttering against the pressure, "Dammit! Of course that monster would have a battle continuation!"
Caster was in the same state, whatever machination he had set into motion dashed against the force of nature before him, "No, that wasn't a battle continuation! That was a full revival! It must be a Noble Phantasm!" He couldn't hide his anger, "That bastard never could have enough!"
Though Aaron's expectations had always been low as a conscious choice, the hope he couldn't help but have left a hole in his chest, and tears built behind his eyes.
"Shit! Fuck! How many times do we have to kill this thing!"
"Well," Caster had to shout over the tremors, "If it happens to be based off of his Twelve Labors-"
"You're kidding me! Fuck!"
He was shaking with despair and anger; that was two Command Seals gone. He and his Servant both were on their last legs. They had tried to turn the marathon into a sprint, and now it wasn't obvious they could reach the finish line at all.
While Aaron fought his tears, they flowed freely in Athena, who was shaking and cowering in the face of nature's raw power. Chrysaor, even against the pressure, managed to leap onto the ship as it drifted, and rushed to comfort his Master, though only with his presence. Words could do nothing in the face of oblivion.
The energy that surrounded Berserker like a veil dissolved the spears that had pierced him, and it was clear that whatever life he had lost had returned in full- and with a vengeance. Rider rose to his feet. At the same time, Heracles changed his stance, standing up straight, putting his other foot forward and raising his axe like an ace batter.
In the next moment, another wave of energy shot out from him, but stopped in front of Rider, forming a circle of rippling force like a sea of stars. The same energy, like a moving, living cosmos, burst forth from his eyes and from the blade of his axe. With this change, the quality of the air, through the mass of his energy, also shifted, and a new oppression washed over each of them in turn:
Death.
Every one of them knew, in their wholeness of their being, that the attack being prepared would kill all of them and, with the bounded field set, there was nothing any of them could do about it.
Caster's unflappable facade broke in its entirety. His face was locked in snarl rivaling the same monster he faced, his teeth grinding into powder, veins bulging from his cheeks and forehead, and eyes seeming to push out of his skull. Archer watched with wide eyes, clinging tightly to his bow and shaking, though his Master seemed unfazed. Aaron and Lancer were both pale, breath shuddered and a cold sweat breaking out. Chrysaor was in a similar state, but his attempt at stoicism was quickly shattered by his Master, who clung onto him and cried into his shoulder, punished for her dare to dream. He couldn't help but cling to her; crying silently so that she wouldn't sense his weakness.
Rider, alone on the ground, straightened his back. He never went into battle without the preparedness to die. He had no compunctions about looking death in the face. His only regret is that his Master would die with him.
All were coming to terms in their own way, some more peacefully than others. Aaron alone refused. He knew there was a chance, slim as it was, and he clung to it. Hard. If he was going to die, he was going to die in denial because he refused to despair as he had, as he used to.
And he was rewarded.
The energy, without any warning, began to wade. The sea of stars calmed, stilled, and then faded entirely. Each of their expressions turned from whatever they had been into confusion and scared hope, but the light in Berserker's eyes had truly started to fade and his body was seeming to take on the stiffness of death.
Only Aaron was immune to the shock, and he shot his fists in the air with a triumphal grin, "Hell yeah! We did it! Woo-"
A column of white light exploded into the sky from where the colossus stood.
....