FATE: Target of Grand Master

"Enemy attack! Get up! Enemy attack!"

The barracks in the city immediately descended into chaos.

"Don't panic, everyone. Pick up your weapons and defend the city gate with me."

Joan of Arc, still clad in white armor, stood atop the city gate, holding a banner.

The crowd immediately picked up their weapons and followed Joan of Arc.

Only then did they see clearly the invading monsters, a group of blurry figures mixed with black mist.

"What are these?" someone asked in fear.

"No matter what, we will fight to the end!" Joan of Arc encouraged the troops as always.

"The Holy Maiden is right! Everyone, listen to my command: fire the arrows!"

At the sergeant's command, the soldiers fired volleys of arrows.

To the soldiers' surprise, the black mist monsters fell down one after another after being hit by arrows.

The impression of being outwardly strong but inwardly weak was immediately imprinted in the soldiers' minds, and it also helped them regain their confidence.

Just when the soldiers thought they could win easily, a huge black mist monster, no less than the size of a wyvern, appeared in their field of vision.

"Master, you're making me do this?"

In the distant forest, Morgan spoke to Xia Yan with some dissatisfaction.

Without a doubt, the monsters that appeared at night were all low-level monsters summoned by Morgan. In order to conserve magic power and to make it easier for human soldiers to kill them, Morgan had put in a lot of effort to create these pretty but useless things.

Xia Yan quickly put on a smile and reassured her, "Don't say that. It's all for the sake of clearing the level. Joan of Arc is the key figure in this singularity. We have to bring her out no matter what it takes."

"Is that really the only reason?"

Morgan was implying something.

"Yeah, what else?"

Xia Yan was a little confused by the question.

Seeing that Xia Yan truly had no other intentions, Morgan stopped worrying and prepared to move on to the next step of his plan.

Upon seeing the giant black mist monster appear, Joan of Arc knew the time had come. She shouted to the captain of the soldiers, "I'm going to deal with that big guy," and ran down the city wall without looking back.

"Protect the saintess!"

The sergeant immediately gave orders to his soldiers.

Thanks to the fact that these monsters were weak enough, Jeanne arrived in front of the giant black mist monster without breaking a sweat.

After a few symbolic exchanges with the giant black mist monster, Joan of Arc revealed an opening, allowing the monster to bite her.

To make it more realistic, Xia Yan even smeared the giant black mist monster's mouth with tomato sauce made by Morgan using props.

"what!"

Joan of Arc's cry was clearly heard on the city wall, making the soldiers tense.

"We have to go save the saintess!"

"A soldier said."

"no."

The captain stopped him, saying, "If even the Holy Maiden couldn't defeat this monster, we'd just be throwing our lives away."

"But..."

Just as the two were arguing, Joan of Arc launched an exaggerated counterattack against the giant black mist monster. The monster let out a miserable scream and then fled with Joan of Arc.

The people on the city wall were thrown into chaos when they saw Joan of Arc had disappeared.

"Don't panic!"

The soldier shouted, "The Holy Maiden has driven away our most powerful enemy; the rest are nothing to fear. Everyone, follow me and charge out of the city!"

Perhaps spurred on by the captain's imposing manner, or perhaps prepared to give up entirely, the soldiers, instead of being in high spirits, wiped out the monsters outside the city.

"See, I told you so."

At this moment, Joan of Arc had arrived beside Xia Yan. Xia Yan pointed to the city gate in the distance and said, "They are not without fighting power; they have just been protected too well by you."

"But it's a hoax after all. If they encounter real monsters, they won't last long."

Joan of Arc was both pleased and worried upon seeing this scene.

"Then we must deal with the 'Dragon Witch' as ​​soon as possible. Once the culprit behind the world's distortion is eliminated, all of France will be saved."

Xia Yan's words made Jeanne no longer hesitate, and the four of them set off for Orleans, which was said to be the place where the "Dragon Witch" was located.

This is the place where Joan of Arc knows the fiercest fighting in the current war.

Because Xia Yan was unwilling to reveal too much about Morgan, the two groups of master and servants, along with Joan of Arc, had to travel on foot, which would take several days.

Xia Yan will spend his first night in the forest after arriving at the first singularity.

Xia Yan, Hu Qiu, and Zhen De sat around the campfire, warming themselves. Zhen De had brought some milk and bread with her when she left, which came in handy now.

After filling their stomachs, the three discussed their plans for the future.

"I haven't had a chance to mention it before, but my class is Ruler, though my performance has declined significantly, and I've lost my True Name and Command Seals. In my opinion, this war wasn't started for the sake of the Holy Grail. Judging from the magical power that can summon a large number of magical beasts, the enemy probably already possesses the Holy Grail."

Joan of Arc shared her situation and her views on the current singularity with Xia Yan and the other person.

"Ruler? What's that? Shouldn't there only be seven Servant classes?"

Hu Qiu felt like he was at the bottom of the class, constantly asking questions ever since he arrived at this singularity.

Jeanne patiently explained, "In the traditional Holy Grail War, only seven classes are summoned: the upper three (Saber, Lancer, Archer) and the lower four (Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker). However, in addition to these classes, there are also special classes that only manifest under special circumstances, such as me right now, who is the Ruler."

Since the conversation had already started, Xia Yan decided to be a good person and help Hu Qiu fill in the gaps in his knowledge.

"Besides Ruler, the special classes include Avenger, Alterego, MoonCancer, Foreigner, Pretender, Shielder, and Beast."

"Huh? There are so many special classes? There are even Servants who summoned the Beast class?"

This was clearly a blind spot in Joan of Arc's knowledge.

Xia Yan spread his hands, indicating that this was indeed the case.

If you have any questions, you can ask a guy named Fujimaru Ritsuka next time.

胡丘掰着手指头数了好几遍后说道：「1、2、3、4、5、6、7、8。这特殊职阶的数量怎幺比常规七职阶的数量还多？到底哪边才是特殊职阶？」

Xia Yan silently gave Hu Qiu's sarcastic remark a thumbs up in his heart, but on the surface he still replied calmly: "This is basic information that a Master needs to know. I have no reason to lie to you. If you don't believe me, you can verify it yourself when you get back."

Hu Qiu quickly waved his hand and explained, "I didn't mean to disbelieve you, Brother Xia Yan, I was just curious. Are these special-class Servants stronger than the regular seven-class Servants?"

"My personal opinion is that they each have their advantages and disadvantages, and it's impossible to say that one is necessarily stronger than the other. Moreover, the Servant's ability also depends on the Master's strength; the better the Master's magical aptitude, the stronger the Servant's ability will be."

"I see."

Hu Qiu seemed lost in thought, the flames of the campfire reflecting in his eyes, which seemed to ignite some thoughts in his mind as well.

For the sake of his wife and daughter, he had to survive.