William POV
"But that's not possible!" Tohsaka denied with a shout "the Matou used to be a family that could rival the Einzbern and Tohsaka but their line has since gotten worse to the point that any successor of this generation cannot even use their circuits," she explained after calming herself.
"I want you to think about it Tohsaka, Shinji's been disappearing on and off for a while now, reports of people vanishing left and right since the start of the week, then Ayako who was last seen with him suddenly disappears later," I said giving her all the clues she needed to piece everything together.
A sudden red spark in the air takes our attention I could feel something dangerous in the air the taste of ozone flooded my tongue someone was using some sort of magecraft.
The sound of someone screaming echoed catching our attention "a scream, right?" Shirou asked with a cautious look.
My eyes narrowed "come on let's try to find out who," I said sprinting out of the hallways heading to where we heard the scream come from "oi don't go running off on your own Emiya! William!" Tohsaka shouted after.
I ran until I saw the body of a girl lying down on the ground looking like she was dead I place my fingers on her neck checking her pulse a sigh of relief escapes from my mouth "she's not dead for the most part merely just unconscious," I said.
"She's not just unconscious she's been drained dry of her mana or rather her life force instead at this rate she may very well die from blood loss," Tohsaka said inspecting the knocked-out girl.
Shirou's fists clenched at that "please tell me you're kidding Tohsaka," he asked she reached down to her pocket "no I am not but luckily I have a stone that should be able to stabilize her for now," she replied.
While Tohsaka and Shirou looked over the girl my attention turned toward the woods I don't why, but I had a very bad uneasy feeling rising out from my gut and trust me when I say that my gut is almost never wrong when it reacts to a threat.
My body moves instinctively jumping in front of both Shirou and Tohsaka a sickle had pierced right through my wrist. I grit my teeth holding the hiss of pain that threatened to escape my mouth my sole priority right now was to make sure Shirou and Tohsaka remain safe my brother more so.
"Wh-what is that?!" Tohsaka stuttered out seeing the sickle while Shirou stared at my arm in horror "b-brother are you alright?" he asked.
I grunted "I am fine the both of you need to stay on guard I have a very strong feeling that we've been attacked by a servant I don't know which but all I know is that they're fast," I said in the most serious tone I could muster.
The sickle disappears from my arm I was quick to draw out my knife right after "Trigger: Alter Start," I chanted altering the blade into a long golden spear.
"It came from the woods over there," I informed getting into the spear stance of Cu Chulainn "but your bleeding-" I cut off whatever Tohsaka was about to say, "listen I am fine it's not the first time I've been wounded like this and it certainly won't be the last for now I need you and Shirou to focus on the girl while I deal with whatever that was."
"Wait-" Shirou didn't get to finish what he was going to say as I charged head into the woods my eyes search in all possible directions trying to detect where the enemy was.
A blur dashes forward I can see it from the corner of my eye my arm moves while my body reinforces itself to handle the speed that I was replicating from Cu Chulainn.
My muscles burned when I did so, but I was slowly getting used to that after doing copying the movement for so long.
I finally take the moment to observe my opponent it was a pink haired woman wearing a blindfold and to what I can only summarize as stripper clothes.
She placed more pressure with her feet hoping to shatter the spear, but it did not work so she resorted to moving her foot so that it would smack me at the side of my face.
I was able to barely dodge by bending my body and head over letting her foot hit the air.
I backflipped away getting some distance between the two of us the servant swung her chains around while I spun the spear around getting ready for round two.
She leaped in the air attacking with consecutive sickle strikes each of which I quickly blocked aside with my spear before shifting into an offensive stance.
This time I shot the blade forward swinging it around to decapitate her head off but once again she was able to not only dodge but disarm me as well by kicking the spear out of my grasps with her unnatural strength.
"Reinforce: Steel," I chanted if I was disarmed then I would use my fists only I used reinforcement to make it so that the bones in my arms were both tough and strong as steel.
"I am quite surprised I was sure that you would call upon your servant with a command spell not engage me in combat yourself.
That in itself is surprising to me as well since I've never seen a human keep up with a servant," she said breaking the silence.
"Yeah, well I rather not waste them unnecessarily not to mention that I would rather fight my own battles then let someone else fight for me," I admitted making the servant nod "I see I can respect that, to an extent you are much better than my own cowardly master," she said with hidden contempt.
I raise a brow at that "your master wouldn't happen to be Shinji Matou would it?" I questioned the woman goes silent at that "I can neither confirm or deny that," she finally replied.
"I'll take it that as a confirmation and since your here then that must mean that he's nearby no doubt hiding like the cowardly bug that he is," I said with a bit of anger.
"Double Accel!" I chanted increasing my speed and perception of time I aim a careful palm strike at the woman's heart only for her kick my hand away and strike me with her own palm strike right at man chest launching me back into a tree.
I clench my teeth together and rushed back with an explosive amount of speed I pull my right arm back ready to launch a strong punch to her throat only for her to kick me away once again I can already feel the strain of Lancer's copied speed getting worse on my leg muscles.
I barely had time to react when the servant jumped up wrapping her legs around my neck before slamming us both down to the ground, but I was quick to pry myself out from her grapple and used/copied her own technique against her.
With a mighty slam she crashed right into the ground, but she soon stood back up with barely a scratch on her face which I guess was to be expected from a servant.
I pant a bit slowly releasing the time alter technique until I was adjusted back to the normal flow of time.
"You copied my technique boy how?" the woman demanded.
"Well I guess you could say I am something of a copycat," I replied back.
-end of chapter twenty-two-
stay tuned next Sunday for twenty-three till then.
Also I should mention that his Calico gun, Grapple gun, is still back at his house along with his remaining enhanced elemental rune bombs.