You Should Have Aimed for the Head

"Are you really sure you want this?" Illya asked on the unsteady legs of her new adult body.

Like a baby deer. Fucking adorable.

Sacrificing her combat focused maid in a ritual I managed to both craft her a flawless body and shunt her connection to the Grail onto the fanciest cup we could find in the mansion. You know, like the ritual initially intended until someone fucked up one of the early Grail Wars by destroying the cup.

The Einzberns started using Homunculi as the Lesser Grail so that the vital piece of the ritual could defend itself, but then they made the Lesser Grail a master… meaning that people would be gunning for her on principle rather than out of spite. Really fucking shows the mental degradation going on in that family over time.

I'd kept the Justeaze/Irisviel features on the girl, but the body had taken more inspiration from Miranda Lawson. Just more athletic with wider hips and bigger tiddies. Poor Miranda was a little too spindly for my taste, but taking her cheeks had been a glorious victory for Krogankind spoken of in myth and song. Breaking in Illya's even more perfect ass would be a similar accomplishment for Devilkind. I am a benevolent god bestowing a luminous lore for the people.

Nodding to the white haired homunculi, I took up my place in the woods outside the Einzbern Mansion in front of Big Herc and materialized Gae Bolg in my left hand and Excalibur in my right. I clearly held the edge in weapon quality over his massive stone machete, but it wasn't like I'd break it by strikes. That beat stick was here to stay unless I disarmed him.

A feat I didn't think possible considering that despite breaking the limits on the Stat Cap imposed by the Grail, Heracles was pulling off fifty units of eight in a half feet tall five hundred pounds shredded like a julienne salad per unit power to my six and a half feet tall two hundred and seventy pound build per unit. The extra nine units I had over the guy wouldn't cover the gap in base unit quality and we both had +'s next to our strength rank.

I didn't have much of a speed advantage either as Heracles was bonkers fast and dexterous. Something that would pick up even further when Illya commands him to fight with all possible skill.

Oh yes. This would be glorious.

Lighting up red with glowing Command Seals all over her body Illya shouted, "Berserker, by the power of my Command Seals, fight with all possible power and skill!"

The giant man spasmed for a moment and then his hazy eyes unclouded.

"You are going to regret this." He stated calmly.

"This is what I have been waiting for!" I smiled and charged him.

Jabbing several times with Gae Bolg, Heracles used his precognitive danger sense to its fullest to deflect them using the knuckle guard of his machete before stepping it and swinging his sword which I met with mine. The strength of the Blood Rage and the metaphysical power of Excalibur allowed me to meet this strike evenly while I choked up on my spear and jabbed it into his thigh all in the same motion.

Dual wielding pro style.

Essentially the only advantage of dual wielding weapons is the ability to lethally attack with one while the other defends. With the danger existing equally in either hand, the enemy is in terribly threatened by counter attacks. Dual wielding is not so that both weapons can attack at the same time or so that you can alternate which weapon is swinging in sequence. Those are both stupid. Very stupid. The first means that neither attack has the full body behind it and the second means you have abandoned the advantage of performing two actions at once.

While Herc gamely ignored the terrible injury to his leg, it meant that for this incarnation of our battle the giant wouldn't be able to maneuver as swiftly as I can. It wasn't a huge debuff as the man's muscles held together through sheer mass, but he was already fighting someone just a bit faster than him, meaning that I now determined the pace of the engagement.

We continued making exchanges, and I occasionally held off on punishing his attempts at feints and counters to keep him from realizing the situation too fast, as both tactics were worthless against me because of Instincts: A and Knowledge of the Sowa: B. I claimed his first life when he fainted and I thrust Gae Bolg into his throat, and the next came when he fainted an overhead strike and tried to slide in a cheeky kick only to have the leg lopped off by Excalibur. His conceptual armor Noble Phantasm: God Hand requires attacks to be of A rank to harm him, a status I easily achieve physically, and a good thing too as each life sundered increases his resistance to that specific method of death.

God Hand does not provide instant immunity, but instead allows him to gain enhanced regeneration against attacks he has died to previously, meaning he now wolverined his way through unenhanced spear thrusts from Gae Bolg and unenhanced slashing attacks from Excalibur. I managed one final easy kill with a retreating slash from my spear opening his neck before Heracles caught on to the more mysterious aspects of fighting me and focused solely on offense.

He advance in a controlled manner, not the useless flailing he would send out against Salter in Heaven's feel - however cinematic it have been for him to chuck her across the map for a grand total of fuck all damage. No, instead Heracles used his immense strength, speed, and endurance to open up a striking clinic until I stopped it by spinning off one of his kicks and chucking Excalibur into his head, yanking it back Mjolnir style using my Throwing/Retrieval: A.

Four lives down, and all it cost me was my best physical attacks. That puts me well ahead of the enemies that faced him in the various routes. Hell, Salter only killed him once without dipping into her infinite Excalibur power. Unfortunately I don't have the hax of Dark Sakura pumping infinite Grail energy into me.

However; I only need to activate a full power Excalibur blast at this point with my sword in him to end the fight.

His Mind's Eye (Fake) skill was available to him when fighting with Illya's command seals fueling his intelligence, meaning that Heracles rarely fell for my traps, only my counters - attacking after he has committed to an attack rather than faking a weakness to get him to commit to a certain course of action.

It meant that he instinctively dodged any attempt by me to mix in my Noble Phantasms, the first coming in the form of Gae Bolg glowing with a new set of Runes I added to get the Phantasm up to A- Rank, allowing me to shave off more of his lives since the powerful attack now qualified to harm him.

We struggled against each other, me able to walk off his kicks and punches with ease and him able to phase through my normal attacks and dodge my big hits. Rarely had combat ever proved so thrilling as we both sought that edge to land that big hit we both craved.

An edge I had thanks to Medusa, Monstrous Strength: B.

In an instant I added ten more units of strength to my to my total allowing me to smack aside Heracles's huge blade with Excalibur, forcing him off balance and making him unable to easily evade the glowing red Gae Bolg. He tried to twist out of the Attack, but A rank: Aim for the win made keeping the spear on center beyond easy. My spear entered his chest and unleashed its anti-army Noble Phantasm attack, instantly vanishing a handful of his lives and leaving the giant gasping even after he recuperated from the damage bursting him apart.

God Hand didn't work as 12 separate spawns, but instead twelve full health bars with each gaining resistance to the method that overcame the previous bars. As such attacks that are powerful enough can maintain their power through multiple health bars.

"You have fought well." Heracles complimented me, and though we had definitely destroyed less shit than his fight against Salter, this fight was what a top tier battle should be. A match of high stakes problem solving with dire physical consequences between two people of incredible skill, but it was time to reveal the big guns.

"You have definitely given me what I was looking for." I laughed, "It's a shame I have to kill you."

"It'd be a shame to die." He grinned, "But I will not. NINE LIVES!"

Hmm… which attack was this.

The next instant I was on the ground, my bones pulverized, my organs pulped. Only my Instinct ability getting me to raise my hands up so my weapons could shield my head while he shouted allowed me to live.

That's right. Nine Lives is the Noble Phantasm where Heracles can attack up to 100 times in a single instant.

And people thought Gilgamesh was OP.

Normally, Berserker Heracles can't use Nine Lives, but giving him all of Illya's command seals to fight with everything he has sure will let him ignore that handicap.

Did I regret anything as I stared up at the sky, my body a bag of fucked only held together by my God Hand's lesser cousin Thick Skin: C ability? Not at all. That attack was fucking sick. I probably should have used Avalon to nope it so I wouldn't be subjected to the shrieks of 'Archer!' coming from Rin and Sakura.

Poor things didn't know that I was following in the footsteps of the great Brewster the Rooster.

Heracles waltzed up with his sword over his shoulder.

"You survived." he commented, "I cannot allow the Fleece to revive you, but will allow you your last words."

With a grin I said, "You should have aimed for the head."

With only the Golden Fleece providing healing, he would have been perfectly safe being a gentleman, but add in Avalon and the Blood Rage and I could fully rez almost as fast as he can, and my sword had far less distance to travel to his groin than his did to my head. Had a head start too.

In my weakened condition, most of Excalibur's limiters were removed, allowing me to call upon its True Name and it's anti fortress capabilities, which I kept a tight hold on to prevent the sword from destroying Hercules's chest.

Everything below his ribs was destroyed with enough umph to wreck his remaining health bars leaving me to catch his very shocked top third.

Wrenching out his heart I took a bite and moaned in delight at the influx of power, my body and armor regenerating instantly.

A nearby set of hands clapped slowly.

"An excellent show, for a pair of mongrels."

Servant: Dio (Archer)

Parameters

Strength: A+(59—>65 Surpassed Grail War Imposed Cap)

Endurance: A++++ (67 —>72 Surpassed Grail War Imposed Cap)

Agility: A(53 —>58 Surpassed Grail War Imposed Cap)

Mana: C(32 —>37)

Luck: A(62 —>66 Surpassed Grail War Imposed Cap)

Noble Phantasm: EX

Skills

Divinity: B —>A

Magic Resistance: A

Independent Action: A

Aim: A

Battle Continuation: EX

Charisma: A

Monstrous Strength: B

Mana Burst: A

Instinct: A

High Speed Divine Words: A

Presence Concealment: A+

Protection From Wind: A

Throwing/Retrieval: A

Self Modification: C

>Mind's Eye (Fake): B<

>Valor: A+<

Thick Skin: C (Nullifies Strike and Projectile Damage C rank and Below)

Blood Rage: A (Upon Entering Battle can temporarily +Strength and ++Endurance, becoming incapable of feeling pain and regenerating rapidly at the cost of massively increased prana consumption)

Noble Phantasms

Cannibal King: EX (Servants do not dematerialize upon death, allowing Dio to consume them to pilfer 10% of their true stats and possibly take Skills and Noble Phantasms. Upon Master kill, the servant quickly loses energy until left as a normal human performance wise)

The Atronach: A (50% of incoming magic attacks are converted to usable energy)

Dragon Piercing Shot: A (Anti Fortress, launch one Energy Beam style attack)

Proto Excalibur: C-EX

Avalon:EX

Golden Fleece: EX (Vitakinesis to the point of full resurrection, immunity to divine level poisons, and a chlorokinesis aura that makes nearby plants grow healthy and bountiful)

Runic Gae Bolg Soaring: A- (The one that explodes, not the one that auto stabs hearts)

>Nine Lives: A+<