“This method is too simple, Master. It’s no fun.”

“…”

“Just waiting here and hoping we detect someone… It’s so boring.”

“…”

“Master? Heeey, do you hear me?”

He turns to his master. She has a frown on her face and is just staring at her cup absently.

Be quiet for a second. There is a magical energy source on the bridge. I’m trying to figure out whether it is a master or a servant.

Lancer grins. A wave of excitement goes through him as he thinks of the coming of a battle.

“Already? I love you master.”

“Wha-!?”

Lancer leaves Bazett behind and dashes off toward the bridge. He is really lucky. Which other master could find him a second enemy after merely half a day? And she did that by just keeping watch on a few key locations.

His master is a professional among professionals. The Mages Association in London, she had called them the authority on magic in the modern world, chose her as their best combat magus. As an official magus, she prefers fighting at night, but still won’t shy away from challenging others during the day.

Lancer rushes past unsuspecting people like a wind.

Bazett had been sitting at a café near the bridge since the morning. She kept watch over several locations in the city using familiars. The plan was to follow any detected enemies to figure out their base of operations. How lucky Lancer is that the first enemy she detected was this close by.

Lancer reaches the middle of the bridge in no time. From here he can easily sense a servant.

It is a servant, master.

Understood. I’m heading to the park.

Lancer makes himself known by letting his presence out. Then he makes his way toward the park. The park is just next to the bridge and is one of the few locations in all the city that is suitable for fighting even during the day. Bazett already has a field around it to keep any civilians out. Just activating it is enough to have a private location.

Just attacking an enemy and trying to drive them there would be a big no-no during the day. But challenging them and inviting them to that location is acceptable.

That’s what his master decided, and if Lancer gets to fight even during the day, who is he to argue?

Another excited grin appears on Lancer’s face as he feels the other servant following him. Not a coward, it seems. Good, heroes are supposed to be brave.

It seems the servant is in no rush. Lancer feels it approaching at normal walking speed. Maybe it is together with its master.

Bazett arrives before the enemy. It takes her only a second to activate the field.

Bazett, as a first class magus, has the necessary skill to set up inactive bounded fields and keep them from being detected until she activates them. This way, she has set up inactive fields, which will keep civilians away when activated, in several locations throughout the city.

A man approaches their location. The field is already active, so obviously he is no mere civilian.

Both Lancer and Bazett quietly watch as the man in modern garments, a green tracksuit with white lines at the sides to be exact, comes closer. He bows his head slightly and starts stripping. He strips until he only has a dark blue underwear with star pictures on it. He then neatly folds his tracksuit, and gently puts it under a nearby bench. He calmly walks over to where he stripped, and once again, turns to face Lancer and Bazett. As he swings his arm, parts of a set of antique bronze armour appears on his body. His gauntlets, greaves, breastplate and helmet, they all have golden decorations on them.

He is slightly taller than Bazett and clearly shorter than Lancer. He has dark hair, and as they clearly just saw, a perfectly built body.

“A greek.” Lancer says as he looks at the man’s helmet. It covers most of his face.

“Indeed.” answers Bazett.

“I’m starting, then.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Lancer leans his spear on his shoulder and takes some steps forward.

“Hey.”

The man answers by making his equipment appear. A two-meter-long spear and a large, round shield at his hands, along with a straight, short sword at his hip. He points his spear at Lancer.

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“We fight, worthy adversary!” He declares with a powerful voice.

“Heh. I didn’t expect such seriousness from you after that stripping session.”

He puts up his guard.

“I quite like that garment.”

With that sentence, he charges. One, two, three steps, and a thrust.

“Slow.” Lancer murmurs to himself as he parries. He keeps parrying his attacks but doesn’t go on the offensive. The enemy has both a spear and a sword; he must be a rider. Yet he is not riding anything. Meaning, he is not fighting at his full strength. If Lancer wants a good fight, he had better slowly pressure him into going all out.

Meanwhile, Bazett opens her slender cylindrical bag. She is not a support type magus. Her healing and enhancing skills are subpar at best. She is a combat magus. She specializes in not supporting, but killing.

Also, she is one of the few modern humans with a mystic code that can rival servants’ noble phantasms.

It also specializes in killing.

It looks like a small, orange-sized metal ball. When it is out of the bag it is carried in-

Bazett takes something like a ball out of her bag.

-and is locked on a particular target-

Bazett gently pushes it upward and looks at the enemy servant. It stats floating and buzzing.

-and of course, only if it is used by a descendant of the McRemitz family from Ireland-

Bazett Fraga McRemitz touches her earring, which she brought from her ancestral home in Ireland.

-only then, it becomes the ultimate counter attacker. This mystic code called Fragarach waits for its target to use their strongest move, is activated by McRemitz, goes back a little in time, and strikes their heart just before they make their move.

Basically, if someone wants to fight Bazett, that someone had better keep from using their strongest move.

And strongest moves of servants are their noble phantasms. Which means, when Bazett is around, enemy servants, in this case the warrior from Greece Lancer is facing, cannot use their noble phantasms.

Of course, the enemy servant doesn’t know this. Even if he did, he would have two logical ways to win. One: winning without using his noble phantasm. The thing is, Lancer is a very strong combatant, and he has no restrictions on using his noble phantasm. Then, the first way is not preferable.

The second way is not being alone. The servant could keep Lancer busy, while his ally attacks and disables Bazett. This way too presents some problems. By the nature of the grail war, no alliances between two servants would be long winded. Normally, the only ally a servant has would be their master. And a master winning a one-on-one fight against the association’s specifically chosen master, the best of the best combat magus Bazett, would be a long shot.

In short, Bazett is sure of their victory and has every right to be so. That is why she and Lancer boldly challenge enemies they meet.

Meanwhile Lancer keeps building up the pressure. His opponent is not weak. He is confident and very skilled. He is simply facing the wrong opponent. For Lancer is not a run of the mill servant. He is Cu Chulain. The Son of Light from Ireland. A master of spears that has few equals and even fewer superiors throughout history. And he has a first class magus like Bazett as his master.

Lancer puts the end of his spear on the ground and jumps like an olympic athlete. He makes a whole spin and with that speed, swings down his spear. As his opponent blocks the swing with his shield, the ground beneath his feet cracks and shatters. If Lancer gets more and more serious, it is obvious who will win.

The man takes a leap back and puts some distance between them. Lancer doesn’t follow. He has his guard on and watches.

The enemy servant spins his spear in his hand and stabs the ground with it. He then leaves it there and draws his sword. As he points his sword toward Lancer and Bazett the same way he did with the spear before their fight started, the spear he stabbed the ground with vanishes.

“Listen, worthy adversary! The king now declares his next quest. This time, the goal of The King’s Journey is that woman. No obstacle shall remain in my way.”

He takes fighting position.

“Now, we fight!”