Emiya Shirou doesn't want to work overtime

"However, I have never seen this poison before. It can instantly spread throughout the body and cause it to dissipate into the air like powder. It is truly an extremely potent poison."

Assassin made no attempt to hide his praise for the poison that tormented Archer, a poison capable of even incapacitating a Servant, which was extremely terrifying for a modern magician.

However, to her, this poison was nothing more than a worm the size of a finger.

The poison was about to spread throughout Archer's body when the Command Seal was summoned, and Archer might die in the next second, but Assassin only glanced at it and reached out to touch Archer's cat-like face.

The patterns on her body began to gradually collapse and dissipate. Compared to her, this poison was far too weak. The moment she came into contact with Archer, she had already injected the poison into her body.

The two were fighting inside Archer's body, which is why Archer looked so pained.

Fighting poison with poison is the best way to deal with this kind of poison in a short time.

"Archer will recover tomorrow, so there's no need to worry too much. After all, we can't afford to lose such an important fighting force so easily."

With Assassin's guarantee, Rider put aside her worries and looked at the white-haired priest standing beside her.

"The black Saber is the legendary King of Knights."

Rider solemnly told the priest the news.

"is it?"

"You can beat him, right?"

The priest's tone was very calm, and he seemed not to be surprised at all that the enemy's Servant was the King of Knights.

"Of course! The next time we meet will be the time he leaves!"

Rider spoke with unwavering confidence, determined to take the King of Knights' head in the next clash.

"They actually managed to repel a Servant!"

Inside the castle of the Yggdrasilia clan, all the Masters and Servants were deeply shocked by Shirou Emiya's strength.

Chapter 126 Unlocking New Uses

While Arthur and Rider were still locked in combat, the battle between Emiya and Archer was not yet over.

The ability to change form at will, [Thousand Transformations], and the ability to stack [Demon Possession] are simply too troublesome for Archer.

Unless Archer can fire an extremely powerful, penetrating arrow in one go, piercing through Shirou Emiya before he can react.

Or perhaps an arrow so fast he couldn't react in time pierced his skull before Shirou Emiya could raise his defenses.

However, the speed of an arrow and its attack power are inherently linked; when your speed reaches a certain level, the arrow's power will also be at its peak.

However, it is clear that with her current archery skills, she is not yet capable of easily piercing such a defense.

She is better at launching wide-ranging, rain-down attacks, or like waves, one after another, relentlessly attacking, rather than accumulating power to unleash a single, highly penetrating strike.

Moreover, Shirou Emiya had somehow ended up wearing a [Demon Possessed] outfit.

As for why Emiya didn't stack the [Demon's Embrace] effect on himself.

It still exerts physical pressure on the user, and if another layer is added on top of the "Possessed by Evil Spirits" effect, the pressure increases exponentially.

It seems that because they use the same weapon, they resonate with each other, greatly enhancing the sense of oppression.

Only the "Thousand Transformations" technique, which boasts both exceptional hardness and flexibility, can withstand the damage inflicted by multiple layers of "Evil Spirit Possession."

Ten layers—this is the limit that [Thousand Changes] can withstand. If another layer is added, [Thousand Changes] will probably be crushed into dust under the exponentially increasing pressure.

In other words, if Archer can break through that shield and pierce the armor worn by Shirou Emiya, he can kill him.

It looks extremely easy, doesn't it?

"It's really infuriating!"

Archer darted through the forest. While she wasn't as fast as Rider, she was certainly no less so. If she could fire at Shirou Emiya from all directions at incredible speed, perhaps the shield wouldn't be able to stop her.

However, Emiya seems to be aware of the weakness of his shield.

The shield-like structure, covered by the "Demon's Embrace," shifted its shape, completely encircling Emiya and leaving only one opening for him to fire.

"hateful!!!"

It wasn't that Archer couldn't shoot through that small opening; with her archery skills, hitting the target was as easy as drinking water.

But the key point is that, with the ever-changing shape of those threads, they can completely surround her before her shot hits, making them virtually invincible.

It would be better to let her fight Rider. At least Rider has her own weaknesses, and if she can hit them, there is still a chance for a fight.

Of course, it's just an opportunity; a direct confrontation with her would only result in being killed.

"Ding--!"

Just as she was feeling extremely frustrated, a voice around her caught her attention.

In such a quiet forest, there shouldn't be any strange noises other than the sounds of battle.

Beside her, the sword arrows that hadn't even hit her began to dissolve at an extremely fast speed.

A sense of impending doom shot through the air, making the hairs on her body stand on end.

"Come on!"

With only this one thought in her mind, she retreated backward at an incredibly fast pace.

But it's too late to back down now.

Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by countless swords with chains and seemingly ordinary samurai swords.

They all began to dissolve in an instant.

Only then did she realize why Shirou Emiya kept firing at her position despite his poor accuracy and rate of fire.

His ultimate goal was to surround her like this.

She never imagined that she would fall for a Master; she probably felt incredibly ashamed.

Not only did they fail to harm the enemy Master, they also fell into the enemy's trap.

Is this the kind of situation where you'll never know who the hunter and who the prey are until the very last moment?

"Archer, named after a Command Seal—"

By the time the familiar sensed something was wrong, the explosion had already begun.

"boom----!"

Like a bomber exploding around Archer, the entire forest was illuminated as brightly as day in an instant.

【Possessed by Evil Spirits】Because of the power it contains, it releases a violent explosion after collapsing.

As for Murasame, it does indeed possess special abilities, but Emiya cannot meet the requirements of Murasame, so I cannot utilize this power.

When all emotions are lost, the Murasame will transform into a demonic sword, causing its wielder to abandon their human identity and essence, and gain exponential speed and power boosts by exploiting the negative emotions of the souls killed by its blade.

But does the fact that Emiya cannot use it directly mean that this power does not exist?

This is obviously impossible, so the explosion of [Muramasa] is not only extremely violent, but also carries the poison of [one-hit kill].

However, because it is not an Imperial Arms primarily focused on strengthening, the explosion it produces also contains extremely dangerous poison.

If the priest had used a Command Spell to recall him a moment later, Archer might have been forced to leave the game.

Assassin didn't find an antidote immediately; all she knew was that no poison in the world could compare to the one she possessed.

Therefore, they chose to use poison to help Archer detoxify. The poison released by the Assassin inside Archer's body was like a venomous snake, devouring the "one-hit kill" poison bit by bit.

The reason why stripes kept appearing and disappearing on Archer's body was because there was more than one Murasame around her; this was a manifestation of the struggle between the two poisons.

If Archer hadn't been a Heroic Spirit, she probably would have died on the battlefield in the blink of an eye.

"Master! Are you alright?!"

After the battle ended, Arthur returned to Shirou Emiya's side almost the instant Rider left.

The existence of Command Seals allows them to sense each other's positions.

Even though Shirou Emiya defeated Archer, Arthur still didn't know whether his Master was injured or not, and he was extremely anxious.

Chapter 127 The Red Team's Combat Strength

"No injuries."

Emiya rubbed the red mark above his brow. Compared to his previous battles, this one was relatively safe.

Emiya even hoped that future battles would be just as thrilling yet uneventful, without the constant aches and pains he experienced.

"Is that so? I didn't expect that you, Master, were able to defeat Archer all by yourself. In comparison, I could only inflict minor injuries on Rider. I really failed in my duty as a Servant."

Arthur felt somewhat guilty. If his Master hadn't possessed such strength, wouldn't the Master have been killed by Archer while he was being entangled with Rider?

Arthur began to reflect deeply on himself, realizing that due to his own experiences, he would unconsciously engage in frugal behavior.

For example, in this instance, the Wind King Barrier was only used at the last moment, because the battle could not be delayed any longer, which is why the idea of ​​releasing the Noble Phantasm came about.

After all, the magical energy for the Holy Grail War is limited. Given the amount of magical energy he uses to unleash his Noble Phantasm, most Masters wouldn't be able to provide it, so they habitually try to conserve magical energy for their Masters.

Then he realized that he didn't need to conserve his magic power like that; having enough magic power was precisely so that he could start fighting sooner.

However, if you're facing Rider, using your Noble Phantasm would probably just make you a sitting duck.

Arthur's mind then started racing again; perhaps he could keep his Noble Phantasm in a constantly activated state and unleash a slashing attack.

Arthur wouldn't normally think this way, since his Noble Phantasm consumes a lot of mana, and it would be difficult for his Master to withstand such a drain.

Indeed, if the battle were fought like this, it might be possible to quickly defeat that Rider. Slashing him while in Noble Phantasm activation would likely be too much for Rider to handle; this is not magic that can be applied to a holy sword.

{ps: Similar to Saber Alter's fighting style}

This is the power of the Holy Sword itself, which can easily break through Rider's defenses.

"Master, do we still need to go to church?"

Arthur asked Shirou Emiya, "Although we repelled those two riders this time, we should know that the Red side has a total of seven riders, and Rider alone is enough to fight us to a standstill."

Moreover, for the Red team, this was merely a test, and they had no intention of starting a war here, which is why they chose to retreat.