11 Third Rate Magus

Fuyuki, Japan,

Miyama Town,

Roman POV,

"Grrr."

Clad in pitch black armour, dark miasma rolled off the Berserker that had just arrived. He held no weapon but by now it was obvious that he wouldn't need one, strangely enough, there were metallic tendrils extending from it's back as well and the opening in it's helmet glowed a bright red. Even in the day, it looked far more intimidating than what one would expect.

"Deal with them." Kariya Matou ordered in a low, pained voice, gripping at his sides with his teeth clenched. The flimsy dark hoodie and jeans he wore only seemed to add to his overall gloomy appearance. He stood at the mansion's doors, using them as support to hold himself up.

"Master, I thin-"

"Before you say I didn't think this through. I did." Roman cut off Tamamo, a smile plastered on his face. Clearly, the situation didn't seem to bother him much, "Halte ihn zurück. I'll trust you on this." He lightly gripped the servant's hand before nodding seriously.

"Of course, Master." Tamamo no Mae smiled at the one eyed magus, pleased and happy about his words. It seemed that his words weren't just empty placations.

"GRAHHHH!!!" Roaring once more and cracking the ground under him, Berserker shot at Tamamo no Mae, smashing her into the concrete walls surrounding the compound before throwing her to the sky and then blasting off behind her with a howl.

"Jesus Christ.." Roman looked at the damage with a slightly 'awed' expression on his face, though, getting attacked did slightly work to further some of his other 'plans' so he wasn't that displeased.

"You, chill the fuck out." The Trambelio turned to Kariya and spoke pointedly, "Taking your frustrations out on others is real manly of you. No wonder you got cucked." A small mocking grin, even if he was the one at a disadvantage, he wasn't going to let that slip.

"You, what do you know?!" Kariya shouted in mild anger, he'd be damned if he was going to let some stuck up shit from the Clock Tower look down on his aspirations and goals. What did they do? Sit around and look good all day all the while ignoring the atrocities of older nobles!

"I know you think this is the only choice you have if you want to save the girl.." Roman pushed himself up, sitting up straight against a fountain nearby. He disliked the Matou too and would much rather remove them entirely so Kariya was someone he could get along with.

"Mind you, this is all your own fault. You ran away like a bitch cause you couldn't 'handle' it." Roman continued and Kariya's eyes filled up with rage at his words, despite his weak constitution, the white haired Matou rushed at his opponent, grabbing him by the collars and pushing him down, "Even right now, you look pathetic."

"Shut up!" Kariya tightened his grip, shaking Roman whose smile only seemed to widen at the growing frustration of his 'companion', "What do you even know?! All these people do, it's not, it's not normal! Was I so wrong for rejecting it?!"

"....You bi-*ehem* You kinda were." Roman shrugged as he shook under the Matou's hands, completely unbothered by what was happening to him at the moment. Then, the magus motioned to his own leg and eye, "Sieh mich an. You think I got treated like a prized horse? I'm still here aren't I?"

"You had a choice!"

"What choice? You're the one who got off lucky with being able to run away." Roman deadpanned, flicking away the man over him, "And you're getting too close. I don't swing that way."

Kariya was flung back by an invisible force and crashed into the grass some few metres away, rolling around as he groaned, "You.... You don't know anything!"

"Boohoohoo, my family's horrible. Magus are all cruel cunts. You had a chance to be something and you wasted it. Stop acting like a maiden." Roman fixed his coat, sneering at Kariya. From a magus standpoint, he was a completely useless individual. From Roman's own, Kariya was someone he could respect, even if he himself partially caused all his own problems.

"Now, as for why I'm here...." Roman's gaze trailed off to the thunder cracking in the distance, "Call off Berserker so we can talk." He'd already obtained a significant part of what he wanted from this encounter. A 'show of trust', a 'sign of acceptance'.... Yeah, he couldn't exactly call himself a good person could he?

"I'll do your job for you. Save the girl and remove what I find annoying." The Trambelio stood to his feet, using the fountain behind him as support. He was going to get some payback for his cane, "And you owe me for my cane."

"You mean, you can...." Kariya looked up at Roman from the ground, his despairing eyes held a slight bit of hope. To someone as desperate as him, so long as his desire was a possibility, he was willing to give anything.

"This third rate magus can do nothing." Disembodied words, words that let Kariya know that 'he' was watching and what 'he' thought of the offer.

"There you are, you old fuck." Roman smiled pleased, he'd been wondering where the big man was, "Question, do the bugs form up your brain too?"

"....." Black insects coalesced near Roman, swarming at one point before slowly taking a human form covered by a layer of darkness. This layer peeled away to reveal a frail old man that looked like he'd fall to the wind, "No, they do not."

"I can handle this." Kariya tried to stand up, wincing in pain, just how hard had he been hit?

"You possess no talent for magecraft." Zouken Matou looked at the smiling Roman with a smile of his own, he wasn't interested but he did still keep an eye on the goings of the world after all.

"Good point." Roman nodded with a hand on his chin, "But counterpoint...." He raised a hand and snapped his fingers,

"Boom, you're dead."

Under the shocked gazes of those there, Zouken's arm exploded into bits of nothing, there was no dirty flesh lying around here and there. The arm seemed to have disappeared in the explosion, "How?" The old Matou looked at Roman, more cautiously this time, he could easily repair the arm but the fact that it had exploded out of nowhere still made Roman a threat. Especially because there was no spell.

Roman pointed at his own hand, "Magic Circuits, or rather prana." For him who could freely make prana do whatever he wanted, something like making it 'go boom' was an easy task and for Zouken, whose entire body was composed of bugs that was a very real danger, "Those bugs have prana in them no?"

"Such a thing is impossible!" Zouken backed away slightly, raising a hand as swarms of insects flew out from the mansion they stood outside.

"Kariya, I think this is enough proof. Call back, Berserker." Roman, no longer seemed to be paying attention to the head of the Matou Family.

"Something like this isn't normal..." This matter needed to be reported to the Clock Tower, Zouken looked around before laughing, "But I guess you can do that any time you want." There was no way he'd be this lax otherwise. It also meant that he was in no danger here.

"Well, since you're such a genius. Let's take this a step further, say you do report it..." Roman turned to Zouken with a close eyed smile, "Who do you think is going to believe it?"

"My name would all-"

"Your name would not allow shit." Roman once again motioned to himself, "You think I behave like this cause I'm this way? Nein, a cripple can not do such a thing! T'is impossible." He laughed again, dramatically placing a hand over his chest before sighing, "I joke, of course."

"....I apologise. You're no third rate magus." Zouken chuckled at his words, it appeared that the hubris of the 'noble' magi was going to bite them back, again, "Then let us talk, as opponents. Formally." He opened his arms, not looking afraid or intimidated in the slightest bit but instead, looking as if he was receiving an old acquaintance as a guest, "Kariya, you fool, call back that rabid servant." That would allow some degree of leverage.

"...Y-Yes..." Kariya nodded dumbly, his condition not allowing him to process what was happening. Weren't all other Masters enemies?

"You know, one of the Yggdmillennia told me you'd die from a precision missile." Roman remarked off-handedly, calmly following (*ehem* limping) behind Zouken.

"They jest like the fools they are."

"I'm sure they do.."

-x-X-x-

"You knave!"

"RRAH!"

Certain parts of Miyama Town lay in ruins, the luxurious residences erected by the more wealthy members of society had been reduced to nothing but hole riddled and down trodden builds, yards ripped up, trees thrown here and there and most importantly, vehicles toppled over and bent unnaturally.

"Master trusted Tamamo to hold you back." The pink haired Caster had returned to her original blue attire only.... It couldn't exactly be called proper anymore seeing as it was torn in several places, burnt in others not to mention the injuries her body seemed to have, "I'll not let him down!" The servant was still however, more than determined to keep going.

Throwing tags that seemed to appear out of thin air at her opponent the Caster closed her eyes, she'd apologise later but,

"Curse: Chaos Heaven!"

With the shout, a tornado erupted from her feet, roaring and crashing as it threw up chunks of the ground and drew in lamps from the side and then, with a flick of her hand, this tornado went for the howling Berserker that had lunged at her just then.

Pulling out more ofuda, Tamamo threw them at the tornado which seemed to have held back Berserker for a bit,

"Curse: Fiery Heaven!" Streams of flames spewed out of the Ofuda, adding to the tornado and what was only wind now turned to a burning twister, with her opponent at the epicentre.

Of course these curses couldn't exactly be spammed but she didn't quite have the liberty to be pulling her punches. Throwing even more tags at the raging storm of fire, she clapped her hands together,

"Curse: Frigid Heaven!"

This time, the twister instantly turned into a pillar of ice with waves of cold visibly rolling off it. The smell of wet soil wafted through the area, possibly due to the rapid condensation. "Fuah.." Tamamo wiped her forehead, "I'll be needing some reward for this."... She was going to ask her Master to spoil her a bit for this.

Still however, her relaxation was short lived as the ice started cracking, "Tamamo will need a serious reward for this..." Her smile turned into a strained one, "Go down already! What's up with you?!" She shouted in frustration, stomping her foot on the road.

"GRRRAHHH!!"

Accompanied by an explosion of ice, Berserker grabbed Tamamo by the throat before smashing her into the ground which, unable to handle the force exerted, dilated and cracked under her body. Nowhere near done however, the Berserker then proceeded to drag her across the ground, injuring her face and then threw her to the air.

Once in the air, he appeared directly above her and raising his hands as he locked them together, he smashed them into her stomach making her crash into the ground like a meteor, kicking up dust and smoke when she did in fact crash as well as causing a localised sonic boom which sent everything in the area flying away.

"You...ugh.." The Caster had the wind knocked out of her lungs, these berserkers were way too strong! Still, she had a duty to do and with a wave of her hand, her mirror crashed into Berserker, throwing him off as she tried to recollect herself. "Ah, you..." She tried to reach for hurting back, rolling around in slight pain... Still though, being a servant, the sensation soon disappeared.

Tamamo no Mae wasn't angry at her Master for sending her into such a battle. If anything, she was happy he trusted her enough to do so and happy that she got a chance to prove herself.

Strangely enough however, Berserker stopped moving right after, pointed a finger at the downed Tamamo and vanished into particles of light.

"Ugh...." Tamamo no Mae crawled to her feet, this made it more than clear to her just where she stood... Still though, she refused to believe what she fought was a standard berserker. It had to be a high class one!

Before she could move much further, her body started glowing. The Caster instantly recognised what was happening and her eyes opened in astute shock, "Master, there's no ne-"

"Blödsinn, I have to do this much and, for what it's worth, I apologise."

Hearing her master's voice in her head, a confused smile formed on Tamamo no Mae's face, what was wrong with this man?

Quickly recollecting her thoughts, she closed her eyes and spread her senses. Tamamo would join him once she made sure that there were no witnesses. Those that did see would be forgetting the ordeal.

.

..

...

"Wait!" The Caster jumped to her feet, completely healed courtesy of her Master 'wasting' a command seal, and ran off towards Roman. Wasn't Berserker headed back there?!

===

Share thoughts mfs.

For those who are the absolute pinnacle of all man's intelligence, yes this could have been avoided entirely. Don't get your knickers in a twist over a bloody servant getting hurt in a grail war.

Still, for those that understand why it was deemed necessary by Roman, kudos. (A more mental play.)

And, educate the stupid fucks please.