Crossover Anime: Picking up Medea at the Start

30. Divine Might

Aozaki Touko's judgment was particularly accurate.

Because there was actually a similar example in the original development—that is, Emiya Shirou.

It only took him a few days to go from not knowing how to use magic circuits and having only a rudimentary understanding of magic to being able to fight Gilgamesh head-on.

To be able to use a Reality Marble from a novice in just a few days... that's even more astonishing than the 27 magic circuits of the first magician.

While there are many factors that contribute to his ability to do this, generally, those who can do this have their own opportunities and advantages.

Therefore, after Aozaki Touko learned that Roland had already reached this level after only a few days of learning magic, her evaluation of Roland immediately rose to this level—and she, who could not have read the original work and did not know the future of Shirou Emiya, who was still a novice at the time, made an incredibly accurate prediction.

Roland himself felt that with Shadow Wolf and Shadow Puppet, he should be able to fight against Servants by using his shadow manipulation skills in combination with Six Eyes and Imaginary Number Magic, which is why he challenged Artoria to a duel.

After all, this relates to whether his subsequent plans should be more aggressive or more conservative.

If he already has a certain ability to protect himself, and can handle Artoria with ease, and if all the tests of his skills have yielded positive results—then he feels he can now risk stealing Gilgamesh.

He never doubted Gilgamesh's ability to join the gods, because Gilgamesh was certainly qualified.

However, he also had no doubt about whether Gilgamesh would join his group of gods, because he was certain that Gilgamesh would not.

Therefore, Gilgamesh is not someone we can win over; he will have to be sent away sooner or later. So, if the opportunity arises, Roland will make a move against him.

Taking advantage of Gilgamesh's lack of seriousness, they paired Iskandar and Bazett together and activated their Reality Marble.

It's highly likely that Gilgamesh will use Ea against the King's Army, and then have Bazett unleash the Reverse Light Sword.

Then, when Iskandar activated the Reality Marble, he also pulled his Shadow Wolf inside. Taking advantage of the Shadow Wolf's lack of magical fluctuations, he planned to use Shadow Movement to bring Cú Chulainn into the Reality Marble while Gilgamesh dealt with the Reverse Light Sword, and then have Cú Chulainn shoot Gilgamesh at close range!

Even if Gilgamesh reacts, I can use Shadow Binding to restrain him if I'm there.

In that situation, a single instant is enough.

Even if Gilgamesh could break free in an instant, he would most likely be forced to retreat when facing both the Reverse Light Sword and Cú Chulainn's Demon Spear at the same time.

Since he won't take things seriously, this method of getting him to leave the stage has a high success rate.

But there are risks as well.

You need to have a certain level of self-protection ability, and to complete this plan, you need to test the effectiveness of many of your skills on a sufficiently strong target.

If it works, then this plan can be put on the agenda.

If not

Then we'll have to play more conservatively.

Roland invited Artoria with this in mind.

At that moment, Artoria stood opposite him, holding a wooden sword, looking serious.

"Although it's a competition, I won't hold back."

Perhaps it was Artoria's intuition that made her vaguely realize that Roland wanted to test whether she was qualified to take the risk, or perhaps it was Artoria's strong competitive spirit in similar matters that arose, but in any case, she was very serious.

Roland nodded to her.

Then the competition began.

boom!

At the very moment it began, accompanied by a loud bang, Artoria appeared right in front of Roland.

Even though Roland was being very careful, he was still taken aback when he actually encountered it.

The speed that Artoria had described in the copy—the ability to break the sound barrier from the start—was truly experienced by Roland at that moment.

Fortunately, he was prepared.

So the moment Artoria appeared before him, Roland vanished from the spot.

Ok?

Artoria was puzzled when her sword missed, but soon, more than a dozen shadows roamed the venue and suddenly darted out as they approached her—they were black wolves that attacked Artoria from all directions!

Seeing this, Artoria immediately swung her sword.

Each of her sword strikes accurately hit the most vulnerable spot of a Shadow Wolf. Even the two Shadow Wolves that Roland had secretly hidden, intending to take advantage of the Shadow Wolves' lack of magical fluctuations to launch a sneak attack and bite Artoria's legs, were detected by her intuition and struck twice.

However, pure physical attacks are useless against these shadow wolves.

Even if these shadow wolves are hit, they will not retreat, but instead bite directly.

Although Artoria hadn't expected this, she still managed to salvage the situation at top speed, swinging her sword horizontally and using the terrifying force to create wind pressure that blew several Shadow Wolves away.

However, the two at the bottom, which were closest to her, still managed to bite her legs.

At that very moment, Artoria found herself unable to move.

Then, in an instant, all the other shadow wolves bit her as well.

Shadow Binding was activated.

However, Artoria immediately unleashed her magic at that moment. The terrifying magic burned on her body, and wave after wave of energy, like the raging waves of the earth, spread outwards from her as the core.

The shadow wolves that had been biting her were all blown away, and at that moment Roland finally discovered the way to break free from the Shadow Binding.

If Shadow Wolf is used to trigger Shadow Binding, then blowing the Shadow Wolf away is one solution—however, Artoria had actually broken free of Shadow Binding before that.

She broke free of the shadow bondage using her own physical strength and magic.

It's not just one type, but both.

That is why Kirei Kotomine, whose magical power is not outstanding, was completely unable to break free, while Touko Aozaki, whose physical abilities are inferior to Roland, who has received divine blessings, was unable to break free.

But Artoria is different.

Even with the blessing of a level 2 divine group, Roland's physical attributes were still far inferior to Artoria's when she activated her magic release.

In terms of magic power, his magic power was even slightly greater than that of Artoria, who possessed monstrous magical power. However, compared to Artoria, who could even wield the Holy Sword and unleash high-level magic power, his magic power was not that much greater. Therefore, he was hampered by his physical attributes, allowing him to break free from Shadow Binding.

However, because Roland possessed a great deal of magic, even when binding Artoria, it would take her a moment to break free; otherwise, she would never have been bitten by so many shadow wolves.

Even so, there are no visible injuries on Artoria's body.

She was already wearing armor, and she also had a high level of magic power... Under these circumstances, the Shadow Wolf's lack of attack power still became apparent.

At the start of the battle, Artoria used Shadow Movement to hide herself off the field and then used Six Eyes to lock onto Roland in the arena, while Artoria continued to attack the Shadow Wolf pack.

After confirming that physical attacks were ineffective against Shadow Wolf, Artoria, empowered by magic release, quickly had golden flames ignite on her sword—an application of magic release to enhance the weapon.

When wielding the Holy Sword, this kind of enhancement is not so necessary, so Artoria usually focuses on using magic power to strengthen her body.

But now that I'm holding the wooden sword, the magic that enhances the weapon is coming into play.

Roland deliberately sent out a shadow wolf, which died after taking a few hits.

At this moment, Roland looked at the Gods page of the [Gods System].

"Well, it's good news that my God is one less after Shadow Wolf dies, and the advancement ladder buff on me won't be refreshed after Shadow Wolf revives in three hours."

Having confirmed this, the experiments regarding Shadow Wolf and Shadow Bind were complete.

Then, inside the venue, all the Shadow Wolves disappeared into the shadows, while Roland's Shadow Puppet appeared inside the venue.

Upon seeing this, Aozaki Touko, who was watching, clearly raised an eyebrow.

"This one is different from the wolves we just saw..."

When not using magic, the Shadow Puppet has no magical fluctuations at all. However, since the Shadow Puppet possesses all of Roland's attributes and skills, after Roland manipulated it to open the magic circuit, the same magical fluctuations as Roland's appeared on its body.

That's why Aozaki Touko said this one is different from the wolves before.

Medea was also somewhat puzzled.

"This feeling...is this what Roland looks like when he becomes a shadow?"

She was puzzled that Artoria hadn't launched an attack immediately.

"Roland, is this your true form?"

"Do not."

Roland manipulated the Shadow Puppet to make a sound.

“This is a special familiar, just like the Shadow Wolf from before. I call it the Shadow Puppet. Your intuition should have already detected it—so don’t worry. This kind of familiar can be resurrected after a certain amount of time once it dies, and there are no aftereffects. Just go ahead and do your thing.”

"I see."

Artoria let out a long breath, and then her magic reignited.

She had already learned from the Shadow Wolf that this special familiar could not be killed by physical attacks, so this time she directly wrapped her sword with golden magical flames!

but...

Although Roland's shadow puppet stood still, it seemed as if it hadn't reacted at all, and didn't even dodge. But the sword that Artoria had just easily killed the Shadow Wolf returned a completely different feel this time!

Her sword seemed to have missed nothing, passing directly through the body of the Shadow Puppet!

Moreover, for a moment after Artoria's attack ended, the magical flames wrapped around her sword were extinguished!

Only Artoria herself could feel that not only had she gained nothing from the attack just now, but she had also lost a considerable amount of magic power when she attacked the other party!

What's happening here?