Fight and Encounter

Friedrich's POV:

After I sent Martha crashing into the ground, I looked at Atalanta and Tarrasque before drawing my bow and firing three arrows at them.

Tarrasque once again tanked all of them, and Atalanta returned fire, this time aiming at my feet, resulting in an explosion creating a thick dust cloud around me.

'This is useless,' I chuckled internally , amused at her actions. 'My eyes are not the sharpest of my senses,' I thought before expanding my Reishi perception to locate them.

'She's extremely fast, as expected of one of Artemis's Huntresses,' I praised her before firing arrows to hit her, trying to stop her hit-and-run tactic.

Again, like in the fight at Lyon, she dodged every single arrow without breaking a sweat before firing more arrows at me.

'Well, I feel like I'm cheating,' I thought. 'She can't hit me thanks to my Schrift,' I added before drawing one of the blades a soldier of the Quincy's army always has. Then, I accelerated, leaving the dust cloud, searching to stab the Huntress with my blade.

But before I could arrive near her, I saw the turtle trying to ram into me, each of his attempts being twisted by my Schrift. Then, from behind it, I saw Martha, bleeding from her nose with a clear fist mark on her beautiful face. Her eyes were devoid of emotions, but I could see the veins clearly on her arm that was holding her staff.

"Scary," I muttered. 'Perhaps I shouldn't have done that,' I thought before seeing her bolt for me, staff raised to strike me on the head. The strike was deflected by my Schrift.

'The energy consumption is crazy,' I thought, sweating. 'The energy that I'm using to keep my Schrift active all the time is starting to drain me of my Reishi.'

'If I was in Soul Society, I wouldn't have any problem keeping it up all the time,' I noted before formulating a plan in my mind.

'Taking out Martha first will, without a doubt, be the most difficult. The slippery Huntress is far easier to kill if I can hit her before she dodges,' I thought before using Hirenkyaku to appear behind Atalanta.

With what I suppose is precognition, she started to dash before I appeared behind her, creating distance between us before drawing her bow, aiming for me, a bestial smile on her face. I lunged to strike her with my short-sword, the arrows that she fired were deflected by my Schrift, hitting Tarrasque that was behind me, slowing his charge.

I slashed at her, trying to cut her arm that was holding her bow. She barely dodged that slash, but what she didn't expect was that I threw daggers made of Reishi between my fingers. I threw them the moment that she dodged, using her blind spot. All the daggers reached their marks, covering her body with them.

"Ughh," she groaned in pain before trying to disengage while her eyes were glued to me, correcting her mistake of losing sight of me.

I threw more daggers at her, and then in the split of a second where she dodged them, I used Hirenkyaku to accelerate and impale her with my short-sword.

"Argh, you!" she exclaimed enraged, but before she could continue, I made my short-sword explode in an explosion of Reishi, definitely killing her.

All of this happened in the span of a second; the turtle and Martha were not fast enough to match either of us.

'My energy level is so low, using Hirenkyaku two times in a row, using my Shrift to deflect all the upcoming attacks and generating so much Reishi-powered attack and weapon took a toll on me,' I said, my breathing battered. 'I must deactivate my Schrift for the rest of the battle. Martha and Tarrasque are not that much of a menace compared to the Huntress,' I added, facing the saint that still looked extremely enraged by my past actions, it seems.

"You," she said in a monotonous tone that sent shivers down my spine. "Two times you've done that to me," she added, leveling her gaze to meet mine before smiling a beautiful smile that still sent shivers despite its beauty. "You're dead," she whispered before bolting toward me, cracking the ground from the force of the dash while arming her fist to hit me.

Seeing this, I raised my own fist to match her own, coating mine in a thin Blut due to the energy shortage that I was facing.

Our fists met, creating a shockwave that brushed my hairs and made the ground shake for an instant. After the failed attempt, Martha opted for a leg strike, raising her leg toward my head to deliver a blow.

I dodged by moving back my head, letting her leg pass in front of my eyes. But when her leg returned to the ground, she used it to rotate herself, using her momentum. She used her other leg like a spear, trying to impale me in the stomach.

I crossed my arms, taking the form of an X, reinforcing them and my body with Blut. The devastating hit came.

"URGH," I groaned, sensing my arms crack under the power of her kick, my body flying in the air before I created a platform of Reishi using my last reserves. I took support on it, looking down at the woman.

'I don't sense my arms anymore,' I thought, looking at my trembling arms. 'I must finish this in one hit,' I noted, sensing my Reishi reserves being empty, the last reserve that I could tap into right now was my Volständig glove.

"Tarrasque," called Martha, "Come here; I'll finish this fight," she added before her dragon came in front of her. After looking at Tarrasque for a brief moment, she looked at me before letting out a long sigh.

"I don't want to kill you, even with your two affronts. I'm still a loving and caring saint after all," she said with a little laugh. "So try to please me and dodge this." At this, an enormous amount of energy emerged from her body.

"A miracle!" she started. "O', Tragic Drake Who Knew Naught of Love." The energy peaked in her staff, and she jumped behind Tarrasque. I used every single part of Reishi that I could muster to create a barrier. "Like a star! Tarrasque!" finished the saint before hitting the dragon with her staff, sending it hurtling like a turtle's shell toward me.

The attack hit my shield like a meteor, cracking it the first second of contact.

"Argh!!!" I cried out trying to absorb more Reishi, my glove depleted of all it contained. I was forced to absorb the atmospheric Reishi at a far too fast rate for my body to handle, my eyes and nose starting to bleed, and some veins in my body starting to pop.

'I must absorb more,' I urged myself before trying to deplete everything near me.

'Sklaverei,' I intoned in my head, forcing the nearby Reishi to enter my shield, disintegrating every living thing around me.

"I'm sorry, Human from this age, I would have liked to not kill you," she said, sighing. "But the Witch doesn't listen to our wish, so by her order, I was ordered to slaughter you," she continued before rushing to get around my shield that was protecting me from the dragon.

"I can't," I noted grimly. "I can't continue to maintain the shield," I gritted my teeth desperately, not seeing a means to end the fight. So in desperation, I decided to take back all the energy of the shield.

In less than a second, all the Reishi contained in the shield was absorbed right back into my body and into the glove. I used Hirenkyaku to dodge the incoming turtle of annihilation to appear near Martha.

She looked at me, surprised at my appearance, but in a split of a second, I saw a fist coming right for my face. I caught her fist with my right hand; the impact broke my arm, but I still kept her fist in my hand.

"Tarrasque! Come and finish him!" called the saint, but before she tried to use her staff on me, I used my Schrift to twist her arm and pull it.

"ARGH!!!" The saint screamed in pain as I removed her arm from her body and with the last reserve of Reishi from my shield, I created a sword made of Reishi that I impaled the saint with.

I heard Tarrasque cry out of pain as his master was killed, I turned and saw the beast starting to dissipate in particles of light. I turned back and saw Martha dissipating too

"T-thank you" she whispered "the mad enhancement is wearing of" she explained while looking at me , "O', my Lord I hope that will pardon this one's madness " she prayed before disappearing completely.

At this, I collapsed on the ground exhausted by the fight, all my body sore and my eyes, nose and body still bleeding a lot.

'If I lose consciousness now, I'm going to bleed out and die,' I said before crawling to join the village. 'I can't stand-up, fuck'. I exclaimed inwardly as I tried to stand ,unsuccessful

I heard a strange sound coming from the forest, after a while, I saw three skeletons coming out of the edge of the forest, walking to me

'No ! I cannot die like this.' I screamed inside of my head 'I didn't finish what His Majesty asked of me !' I thought before trying to create a bow of reishi, failing as my reishi was too little to create a construct like that.

"Mozart, help this fine gentleman please" said a woman voice from behind me, surprising me as I couldn't detect them to my problems

"Okay ! " replied a man's voice, clearly playful, then a music appeared behind me and at this divine sound, the skeletons started to shudder and exploded in a myriad of bones

'Mozart ? as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ? the musician ?' I thought excitedly, he was a musician that had quite the reputation even in Silbern, where a lot of quincy listened to him to pass time during the training or for some playful occasion, these were extremely rare if my memory doesn't fail me.

I heard movements behind me, so I rotated my body with much effort to face my saviors

"We arrived just in time it seems, Wolfgang ! " cried out the woman in joy before looking at me and performing a bow "My name is Marie Antoinette !" the petite woman exclaimed "Glad to make your acquaintance, one of the defender of France" she said before looking at the man next to her

"My name is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ! " said the man in a jovial tone "Glad to be here with my dear Marie !" declared the strangely dressed man

"Thank you for saving me," I replied. "I need to get to La Charite to assist the rest of my group against the Dragon Witch. If you want to help us, I could use a hand to stand up – a lot of my bones are broken," I asked, taking my chances with them as they didn't strike me as enemies.

"Lending a hand is natural," started Marie. "I'm the Queen of France, so it's natural that I help my subjects and Mozart is a great friend of mine, so he is obligated to lend a hand to me !"she declared proudly

"And as the Queen of France, I'll reward you for protecting it ! " She declared joyfully before pointing her hands at me. After a brief moment, a light escaped her hands and entered my body, spreading an incredible sensation of warmth. After thirty seconds of being bathed in the light, I felt my arms again.

"That'll be enough I think, " informed Mozart to the Queen "Don't use too much of your Mana for healing, we have an incoming fight Marie" added the musician.

"Thank you,your Highness" I thanked Marie while standing up ,nodding at her and Mozart

"My name is Friedrich Braun, a knight of the Star Cross, dispatched in France to stop these massacres" I presented myself before starting to stretch myself, hearing the cracking sound from my arms, I soon stopped.

"That's nothing, you defeated two of the greatest enemies of France in this war !" she exclaimed "That was normal for me to give an appropriate gift " she declared before turning to her companion.

"I think these two that I fought were not prone to fight, the Witch did something to them that sapped their free will and compassion " I informed the group, not quite sure about what the Witch could have done to them, perhaps a curse or some kind of magic from this timeline.

"All of these servants summoned by the Witch, they possess a skill named "Madness Enhancement", that skill augments their overall performance in combat but like you said, it sap their emotions" Marie explained while we were making our way back to the village, I started to hear sounds of combat.

"The greater the grade of the skill, the stronger the boost and the stronger the loss of reason" she informed me while assuming a defensive stance behind me and Mozart

The village was a mess, an enormous fire raged, ravaging the houses that were here before, the Heroic Spirits, in their fight, caused enormous destruction, uprooted trees lodged inside houses.

I saw Jeanne confronting the witch, locked in a sword fight, Fafnir was still locked with Siegfried and Napoleon was still fighting the old man with a spear.

Ritsuka and Mash were dealing with the white haired woman, Mash a bit damaged with cut all over her exposed skin

'Well I already said that her armor was badly designed' I noted grimly, 'I will talk with the one who designed it, this is more of a erotic outfit than an armor' I added before talking to my companions

"I'll help Jeanne," I informed them before departing promptly toward the twins

'My reserves are still not at maximum capacity' I noted arriving behind the Witch that was turning her back on us. I created a sword of reishi and in a heavy movement, slashed her back, but to my surprise, my sword didn't penetrate her armor but still made damage due to the momentum

"Argh! " groaned the Witch before looking back ,seeing me, she tried to deliver a punch to my head but dashed away from her.

"You bastard, why are you here ? " she questioned with venom in her voice "Where are Berserker Archer and Berserker Rider ? "" she continued to question while parrying a hit from my sword with her flag, cracking my sword in the process and parrying a strike from Jeanne' sword with her's.

"I killed them" I informed the Witch before delivering her a punch in the stomach

"Ah ! What a bunch of weaklings ! " she exclaimed, catching my punch with her armored hand, surprising me in the process." You don't look that though, these trash were just useless ,a waste of mana from the Grail!" she screamed before lifting me from my catched hands and throwing me toward Jeanne

"Jeanne, dodge !" I screamed at the saint but instead of dodging my body and benefiting from the distraction, she caught me, my momentum throwing her back with me.

"Why did you catch me ? " I questioned the saint puzzled by this action "You could've delivered a blow to her ! " I exclaimed to the saint that was looking at me with a puzzled expression

"Why ?" She started " Because it's what comrades do in a fight, helping each other, not letting one of them fall so that the others could profit from it " she explained, looking at me and smiling.

"Now is not the time to express our opinions on the matter" I said, creating two daggers to fight the Witch "We have this false to kill"

"False ?!" yelled Jalter in outrage "You're the one that's fighting with the false fucker !" she yelled "I'm the true one, all the inhabitants of France deserve what's happening to them, all of them let me burn on the stake" she continued "If God no longer speaks with me, it means that all of them must BURN !" she yelled before dashing at blazing speed toward us

'What speed !' I thought shocked, Atalanta and her are on a totally different level

"Let me meet her first ! " said Jeanne before dashing at her turn, the swords of two saints collided in a deafening sound.

'Well let's finish this Singularity' I thought before dashing toward Jeanne to help her