The Weakest Ones

(Shinji POV)

I'm starting to feel like I'm the unluckiest person in the world, or maybe even that some force is out to get me because this is the SECOND time I'm up against some legendary top-class heroic spirit.

'At least this one has an obvious weakness since he was stupid enough to just yell out his name,' Even with that fact however I can't help but be a little cautious. Minori once told me that if a person tells you their life story or their weak points it usually means they are and I quote, "Probably going to flex on you." While a stupid way to word it, I think it has some very unminori like wisdom to it.

'Assassin, we're going.' I tell her while moving further into the mist, Truth be told I wanted to kill Ayaka before she could summon her servant properly, but It seems like I rushed it. Though if I had tried attacking her at her house either Minori or Manaka would have stopped me.

'Now that I think about it I just can't win can I?'

"Aniki watch out!" Assassin yells making me turn rapidly back towards where we had left Achilles and Ayaka only for a blur to shoot past my head before a sudden impact goes off behind me giving off such a strong gust of wind it blows away most of the mist currently in the area.

Looking behind me towards the impact is a crater with a spear embedded into its center.

"Oh…" I say slightly stupidly, I probably should have recognized I wouldn't just be able to get away from a top-tier servant like that. The only reason we got away from Artoria after all is that she wasn't at all trying to kill us.

Readying my revolver I take a shot at the green-haired rider and much to my luck it hits him square in the forehead… only to bounce off like it was a rubber ball rather than a lead bullet. Very obviously to mock me he shrugs his shoulders slightly and shakes his head with an arrogant smirk, however, he doesn't move from his spot.

'He's a bit more cautious than he makes himself out to be.' This isn't necessarily a stalemate, if he rushed me right now I would certainly die without ever even realizing what happened if his speed previously is anything to go off of. Ayaka is in danger as well due to Assassin's constant presence in the mist around us, no matter how fast he is he can't run over here, kill me then run back in time to save her. The reason this isn't a stalemate though is that well from the magecraft I saw her using earlier those black feathers are capable of blocking Assassins attacks if she's expecting them. Most importantly though this arrogant bastard definitely missed on purpose.

As if confirming my thoughts Achilles resummons his spear and lazily holds it in one hand with the butt of it resting on the ground.

"Sooo, how are we gonna do this? You gonna come at me? Should I come at you?" He says in a light but mocking tone,

Feeling my eyebrow twitch in irritation I point my gun yet again and fire this time at Ayaka only to miss.

"Heh," Rider chuckles slightly,

Two scalpels fly out of the mist towards Ayaka which Rider deflects with a lazy wave of his spear.

'Assassin do you have any ideas?'

'I'm not sure Aniki, I could probably escape but taking you with me would be hard…' She responds sadly,

I had already thought as much, but it's still disheartening to hear. He probably has magic resistance too so my trump card won't work at all if I try using it on him directly.

'Assassin, if I make a distraction could you pull us out of here?' I ask,

'I could Aniki!' She answers excitedly,

'Even if it's for a second?' I question skeptically,

'I told you before Aniki I'm REALLY, REALLY good at what I do!'

With that confirmation, I put my free hand into my pocket and pull out a red gem. One of the few perks that come with having a kleptomaniac for a sister is that I don't necessarily HAVE to return all of the things she tells me to give back. I don't have a whole lot of these gems and they aren't anywhere near the level of quality of Tohsaka's gems nowadays, but they can still do the job against most regular magus.

Quickly I toss the gem, just as I am beginning to retract my hand the sound of a gun firing rings through the air and blood explodes from my outstretched hand causing white hot pain to shoot up my body rapidly.

Before I can focus on what just happened the gem shatters on the ground causing an explosion and I feel myself being dragged away from Rider through the mist.

Looking back I find myself deep in the mist with Assassin holding me almost lovingly from behind.

"Aniki, three more people are here. Two are servants."

"Ughh, can you tell who they are?" I ask while trying my best not to focus on the mess that is my left hand,

"The master of Berserker is the only one I know."

"Then that means one of the servants is likely-" I start and as if the world itself were trying to mock me, Assassin suddenly looks to the side and pulls me back once again to just barely avoid a white blur slamming into where we just were.

"Narrggg." A voice grunts from the dust cloud,

Slowly the dust settles to reveal a relatively tall woman with pink hair wearing a white wedding dress and carrying a large mace that almost doesn't match her somewhat scrawny arms.

"Damn it." I mutter under my breath, I'm getting real sick of this crap, but at least against her, we should be able to easily use Assassins skill and mist to get out of here easily.

Mist covers the area obscuring Berserker from view,

"Raarrrg!" Her yell is accompanied by the sound of heavy footsteps and her charging straight towards our location. With how slow she is though it's simple enough for Assassin and I to move out of the way of her next reckless smash.

Her smash kicks up more dust and rubble which obscures our view for a moment.

'Seems like she doesn't have any plans of letting us get away.'

"Aniki, can you hang on a bit longer?"

"You think you can beat her?"

"Of course Aniki! Then I'll go after that femboy!"

"Well alright, then I already can't feel my hand anyways." I joke lightly

"That's not good Aniki…" She responds worriedly,

"Just go, I'll be fine." I sigh

With that bit of reassurance, Assassin springs into battle starting out by throwing a few scalpels that hit home embedding themselves in her body and causing her to flinch slightly as she charges again.

"Arrrgggg!" She cries putting her full weight into a horizontal swing at Assassin who dodges it nimbly by crouching to the ground. The heavy blow sends Berserker off balance giving Assassin the chance to pull out a set of daggers and cut the pink-haired girl's leg while moving behind her.

"Mmrrrrr." The almost dog like growl that comes out of her is accompanied by her turning towards me for a moment before she turns back to block another attack from Assassin.

Just as I start to catch my breath a blade comes soaring through the mist and manages to cut me across the chest before embedding itself into the road.

'A black key?' I think as I look at the blade that was in the road, I really should've seen this coming, but some part of me hoped that maybe I'd catch a break but oh silly me of course the cross-dressing trap knows how to fight too!

"You seem awfully frustrated… it honestly kinda reminds me of Minori~" A pair of footsteps in the mist accompanies the playful voice. Looking in the direction where the voice comes from, instantly as I see the blond-haired nun I point my gun and shoot. However faster than I can react a beam of light destroys the bullet and misses me by a hair's breadth.

A sudden pain in my side makes me look down to see a small slightly charred hole in my abdomen.

"W-What?" I sputter out confused, I never saw him shoot another beam and that one came from behind me.

'Can he fire those from wherever?' I question to myself while painfully dodging another beam aimed for my leg.

Yet again a beam comes from behind me but this time I'm just prepared enough to dodge once again only to feel another pain in my already bad arm.

"Tssss!" I hiss in pain,

"You know you're kinda disappointing… you really are kinda just a regular guy huh~"

"What do you mean by that?" I question while slowly inching my way away from the blade embedded into the ground.

"Well~ all the masters in this war are geniuses in their own ways… Ms.Tohsaka has all five elements, Manaka is a prodigy, and I'm sure you already know how much of a massive problem your sister is."

"What about Shirou?" I ask, finally stopping a fair distance away, enough to dodge another blast reflecting off the black key from previously.

"Shirou has a pseudo heroic spirit body. That means either he summoned an ancestor or he actually manages to become a heroic spirit in the future, that makes him pretty gifted in a way too." He says never taking his eyes off me,

'He isn't stupid so I'm sure he knows I've realized how he's been pulling off his trick by now.'

Flexing his hands slightly three red handles slide between each of his fingers. With a slight smile he pulls back his hand while extending the blades and tosses them my way forcing me to fumble out of the way just barely managing to dodge the incoming blades.

"Are all psychics as arrogant as you and Minori?" I ask while putting the handle of my gun between my teeth,

"Truthfully it's either that or being a murderous psychopath… or both I guess." He says with a shrug while I finish reloading my revolver,

Putting up a single finger with a small bright ball of light at its tip before firing another beam of light towards one of the blades embedded into the ground. Oddly though instead of reflecting towards me, it instead reflects towards another blade which then reflects it directly back at his face. The moment it hits I shoot the ground at my feet just as an even faster beam instantly shoots its way from his eye towards me only being stopped by a green barrier.

"To think that you'd steal some of Ms.Tohsaka's gems and repurpose them as bullets," Akina says saying genuinely surprised,

"I didn't steal them… I simply never gave them back after MINORI took them."

"I see… but those gems probably aren't even worth D rank noble phantasms~"

'He managed to figure that out just from me using it once?' Akina is really proving to be a much smarter fighter than the bullheaded Minori which is trouble for me,

"Assassin!" I yell and immediately three scalpels zoom out of the mist, taking Akina's attention from me for a split second to blast the only blade that was even close to hitting its mark.

Taking the moment of distraction as an opportunity I fire my revolver at him causing a small explosion.

Assassin can only help me so much in this fight despite being at an extreme advantage due to her mist and nimble nature, because berserkers are still berserkers most of her attacks can be shrugged off by them so she has to keep pressuring them continuously.

Moving my head slightly to avoid another beam of light I let out a sigh seeing the smoke dissipate revealing a mostly undamaged Akina with a small grin on his face.

'Well that's not unexpected… but what are psychics even made out of?'

"That almost hurt." He says jokingly, though from his stance it's clear he's taking things slightly more seriously. Raising his hands four more balls of light appear ready to be fired, but for just a moment he looks to the side slightly, but I don't make a move.

"That didn't work huh?" Akina asks though it's clearly not a serious inquiry,

"Well, I'm not an idiot."

"Is that so?" He coos as my vision blurs slightly,

'Oh, blood loss… that's just great.' Could it be that he's just playing with me? For once it seems my luck might be looking up, if he's really not taking me fully seriously then this next plan might just work no matter how reckless it is.

'Assassin prepare to go in for the kill.'

'OOOOkay Aniki!' She says excitedly but the slight amount of tiredness in her voice gives off the impression that her excitement may have been forced.

Akina fires off her four beams of light causing them to encircle me, cutting off all exits except one.

Rather than dodge back or to the sides I run straight forward letting the beams graze me slightly. Akina's eyes widen for a split second before he charges a large beam with both his hands.

Instead of aiming to shoot at him and likely fail to stop his attack, I shoot at the ground just in front of me twice, one causing an explosion and the other forming a barrier that barely withstands the large beam from Akina.

Erupting from the smoke I clearly catch him off guard causing him to react too slowly to my next shot which lands in his abdomen and sends him stumbling backward until he falls clutching at his stomach.

Feeling the last of my adrenaline leaving me I fall as well, my whole body aching from all the punishment I've had to endure within the last hour.

"AARRRGGGGG!!!!!" A shrill cry from berserker sends all of my thoughts flying before they can truly form, the sounds of stomping footsteps and nearly silent taps going mostly unregistered as I try to get my thoughts in order,

"Ughaaaaa!" A yell sounds followed by a heavy slam where I once was, due to a small body carrying me out of the way.

"Aniki! Aniki!" A muffled voice cries out to my fading consciousness, Another set of light but unnaturally fast footsteps accompanies me into the darkness.