I am the protagonist

"The real problem is your Noble Phantasm."

"That magic book is the key to your strength."

"..."

"Hmph, so what?"

Caster's face still showed that hint of ferocity and coldness.

"Even if a magician like you knows the principles of my magic, do you really think you can fight me, a Heroic Spirit, based on your abilities alone?"

As they were talking, the tentacle monster, which had been blown to pieces, revived.

Or rather, he was summoned once again.

"Judging from your magic trick just now, it was a rune magic trick you prepared while you were talking."

“Runic magic consumes relatively little magic power and does not require chanting spells, but it still requires preparation time, but I do not need that preparation time.”

"No matter how little magic power is consumed, rune magic still requires a certain amount of magic power."

"and then?"

"Hmph, that's why you can't always use rune magic."

The tentacle monsters rushed over from Shirou.

"laugh!"

Countless spikes pierced through the charging tentacle monster.

"That's true. I know that destroying your tentacle monster in a purely theoretical way wouldn't make much sense, but you're in the same situation as me right now."

"I can still defeat you with limited magic power."

Shirou's gaze was fixed on the magic book, the source of the tentacle monsters. As long as the magic book was damaged, the ongoing magic to summon the tentacle monsters would stop.

Caster's gaze was cold, but he was helpless about it.

The bug on the other side is indeed skilled in rune magic. As a magician, he wouldn't even have the ability to fight if he didn't use these summons. However, the abilities of these summons themselves are not particularly strong.

While he might have a significant advantage in terms of numbers, if given enough time, his situation would be overwhelmingly disadvantageous once he summoned the Holy Maiden.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Today is really not a lucky day for Caster.

Yesterday, his magic workshop was completely destroyed by someone unknown. He spent the whole night dealing with the matter, only to wake up this morning to find the Holy Maiden seemingly defiled. Now, he's been driven to the brink of despair by the scoundrel who defiled the Holy Maiden.

Although I really want to play along with him, it's best not to let this kind of hypocritical battle drag on for too long.

"Caster, actually I don't have that much time to play with you."

"Although it's a bit early, let's get rid of you quickly."

Blue magic filled his body. He crouched down and placed his hands on the ground. Eighteen runes appeared on the ground, and a large number of plants grew violently around him.

These plants quickly combined and gradually formed a tree-man that was tens of meters tall.

The tree-man clenched his fist and threw a punch at Caster.

"Damn it!"

Caster quickly gathered his summoned creatures in front of him.

"Oh!"

The moment the treant's fist touched the tentacle monsters, the summoned monsters instantly turned into a bloody mist.

Seeing only a patch of blood mist, Shirou stopped channeling his magic, causing the tree spirit to gradually disappear.

"Escaped?"

"We really need to explore other uses for rune magic, otherwise it's too conspicuous to always use such a killer move."

"Let's go back and check on Saber and her adoptive father."

Chapter 159 The Death of the Lancer Group

Concealing his presence, Shirou quickly arrived at the area where Saber and Lancer were fighting.

It's already started.

[As expected, Saber held a certain advantage in the battle. Lancer's advantage mainly lay in the initial period when Saber was unaware of Lancer's Noble Phantasm.]

Both sides are evenly matched in terms of skill, and Lancer is even slightly better in some areas, but their Noble Phantasm abilities are vastly different.

Regardless, Saber's Excalibur is always an anti-city Noble Phantasm, and once it is unleashed, it is simply not something that Lancer's anti-magic spear can withstand.

Without removing his armor, the curse of the golden dagger was ineffective; Lancer's Noble Phantasm was truly a hindrance to him.

In a battle between weapons, if both sides have sufficient magical energy, Saber is superior to Lancer in every aspect.

Even if this battle lasted long enough, Lancer wouldn't gain the slightest hope.

As expected, Lancer's initial burst of speed was exceptional, his only advantage lying in speed and technique. However, as time passed, Saber began to adapt to this advantage.

The Saber below is also different from the one-sided defense in the previous battle. She has begun to transform defense into offense, relying not on her own strength, but on appropriate strength and appropriate skills.

Most of the attention was focused on the short guns. While the long guns posed a certain threat, the short guns were clearly a greater threat.

Therefore, Saber's slashes were mostly aimed at Lancer's hand holding the short spear.

The pressure from the short guns made it difficult for Lancer to counterattack, greatly limiting the pace of the battle.

"laugh!"

A sword cleaved Lancer's chest, leaving a large bloody gash.

Saber's fighting style is definitely not about creating distance.

Lancer deliberately created some distance, and Saber did not choose to pursue, but instead raised her sword above her head with both hands.

Upon witnessing this, Lancer no longer intended to keep his distance and instead moved closer to prevent Saber from unleashing her Noble Phantasm.

[Once I create distance, I'll be facing Saber's Noble Phantasm.]

[Saber's Noble Phantasm must absolutely not be used!]

Regardless, Saber's Noble Phantasm is extremely dangerous. All Heroic Spirits know what the King of Knights' sword is, but it is precisely because they know that they understand how terrifying Saber's Noble Phantasm is.

This is troublesome.

[I can't counterattack if I don't create distance, but once I do, Saber will use her Noble Phantasm to force me to stay away from her.]

With the image of his lord heading to the castle in mind, Lancer had made his decision.

Since things have come to this point, we can't worry about anything else; we have no choice but to fight our way out.

With a determined heart, he swept the long spear in his left hand towards Saber, while simultaneously thrusting the short spear in his right hand directly at Saber's head without any defense.

Saber withstood the sweeping spear, snorted, and without blinking, raised her sword to slash at Lancer's short spear.

A trail of blood streaked across the sky as Lancer's pistol, along with his hand, was severed and fell to the ground.

Despite the pain of his severed hand, Lancer thrust his spear toward Saber's unsuspecting neck.

Is this your answer, Lancer?

Saber knew it was too late to defend herself, so she immediately stepped forward, acting before the spear pierced her neck.

Focus all your attention on this moment.

In an instant, his eyes saw the moment his neck was stabbed.

"drink!"

All the magic in his body was released at this moment, accelerating his movement.

I dodged that thrust with all my might!

Just as the spear tip was about to pierce Saber's throat, Saber forcibly twisted her body, almost grazing it.

"laugh!"

A bloody gash appeared on Saber's neck, and a large amount of blood gushed out from the wound.

But Saber ignored the wound on her neck and raised her hand to strike Lancer's neck from bottom to top with her sword.

"Well!"

Lancer, whose body was unbalanced due to the severed hand, was unable to dodge the sword and could only watch helplessly as it sliced ​​across his neck.

My gaze began to dart around.

Ah, I still can't defeat you, Saber.

However, this time my wish has finally come true; I was able to fight to the very last moment for my lord's wish.

That's...wonderful...

The severed head gradually emitted a golden light, and then disappeared along with the body.

"what……"

Saber quickly covered her bleeding neck with her hand.

[A fatal wound. If the bleeding isn't stopped quickly, even I will have to leave the stage.]

"Do not move."

【Shirou? 】

A gentle magic appeared on my neck, quickly healing the cut.

"Shirou, has Caster's situation been resolved?"

"Well, we just had a brief exchange. Once I learned Caster's fighting style, I made him leave the field in one go."

"killed?"

"No, that guy was pretty good at escaping; he used magic to get away just as I was about to kill him."

"Well, this phenomenon is not hard to imagine."

Cater's ability to escape is definitely the strongest after Assassin, and it could even be said that his ability to escape is stronger than Assassin's.

Caster's departure was the outcome he had hoped for.

Caster still has some use. We still need to use Caster to deal some damage to other Servants, at least to weaken them once.

Caster is the best consumable item.

"What about Kiritsugu?"

"I don't think there will be any major problems over there."

"Lord El-Melloi should already know about Lancer's death. In any case, Lancer's death will definitely have a certain impact on Lord El-Melloi, and this impact should be the best opportunity for my adoptive father."

"Let's go there too."

"There are quite a few things to deal with after the battle."

"Yes."

Shirou brought Saber back inside the castle.

The castle, which was once brightly lit, is now very dark. There are signs of battle in the front hall, but that's not the point.

Shirou went up to the second floor and saw Lord El-Melloi lying in a pool of blood near the corridor, and Kiritsugu Emiya leaning against the wall, panting.

Shirou quickly walked over and used magic to heal his body.

"You've overused the Time Control spell. Try not to use it again, as that magic will speed up your time."

"It's just a means of fighting."

"Since it's a tactic, why not use the ring I gave you?"

"That's a special consumable; we don't need to use it right now."

It is precisely because it is special that it needs to be used.

But Shirou shook his head helplessly; this person probably wouldn't listen to these words.

Chapter 160 The Holy Grail Also Yearns for Its Descent

"His magic circuits and magic crests were completely burned out, and his abilities as a magician were completely destroyed. He is almost beyond saving."