FATE: Target of Grand Master

Xia Yan sighed. He knew it wouldn't be easy to persuade Rin in a short time, so he turned his attention to Emiya Shirou.

"Emiya-kun is usually approachable and kind at school, so he should believe me, right?"

"Teacher Xia Yan, if what you say is true, you are trying to help Sakura, then please make Caster stop what he's doing. Sakura is in a lot of pain right now."

Shirou did not rush to reject the idea, but instead proposed a more neutral solution.

"Shirou, you don't actually believe his nonsense, do you?"

Rin, standing to the side, grew anxious.

Xia Yan turned to look at Sakura, who was lying on the table behind him in slight pain, and then at Medea, who was also sweating profusely. At this moment, Medea's Noble Phantasm was getting closer and closer to Sakura, and soon it would pierce Sakura's chest.

Xia Yan sighed again and said apologetically, "No. We've reached the most crucial moment. Emiya-kun, please believe me. Sakura has been with me these past few days. Rider can testify that Sakura hasn't been harmed at all while I was with her."

"Who knows if you conspired with Rider to frame Sakura, Shirou? If we don't act now, it'll be too late!" Rin shouted.

Xia Yan then realized that he had overlooked a detail: due to his early intervention, Shirou and Rin had never fought against Shinji and Rider, and therefore had no way of knowing that Rider was actually Sakura's Servant.

"Yes, I understand. Saber!"

A golden-haired knight, Artoria, clad in gleaming silver armor and wielding a holy sword shrouded in the Wind King's barrier, leaped out from behind the gate of Ryudou Temple and charged straight at Xia Yan.

It seems the negotiations have broken down.

Xia Yan immediately gave instructions.

"Lancer, you go and hold Saber back. Rider, you go and deal with Archer. Our goal is to buy time; avoid a direct confrontation unless absolutely necessary."

After receiving their orders, Xia Yan's two Servants faced off against their respective opponents.

clang!

The crimson spear thrust straight at Artoria's face, forcing Saber to turn and defend herself.

"Yo, Saber, let's continue our battle from last time."

"Lancer, if you still have any sense of being a hero, you should understand that involving ordinary people goes against the way of a hero," Saber said to Cú Chulainn, sword in hand.

"I'm sorry, Saber, I'm not like you; I don't have any chivalrous spirit. Besides, that purple-haired girl isn't an ordinary person; she's Rider's Master, you know."

"What?"

Upon hearing this, Shirou, Rin, and Saber were all taken aback. Saber then immediately said, "Then we have even more reason to suspect that you want to harm Sakura."

Huh? Did I just make things worse by applying more makeup?

Cú Chulainn turned to look at Xia Yan, only to see Xia Yan facepalming, looking utterly exasperated.

"Haha, sorry, Master."

Seeing Cú Chulainn's sunny smile, Xia Yan thought to himself: What's with your cheerful attitude?

"Look ahead, Lancer!"

Lancer turned around and saw Saber charging towards him, so he immediately raised his gun to parry.

The two Servants immediately engaged in a high-speed offensive and defensive battle, and it was difficult to determine who was superior for a while.

Meanwhile, Medusa, taking advantage of her Rider class speed, quickly spotted the Archer atop the Ryudouji Temple building.

While dodging the rain of arrows fired by Archer, Medusa thrust the short stake in her hand into the roof of Ryudong Temple, and with a forceful pull, quickly closed the distance between herself and Archer.

Red A summoned the black and white twin swords Gan Jiang and Mo Xie, and engaged Medusa in battle.

"Tch, Rider, I never expected you to betray Sakura."

After dodging Medusa's continuous sweeping attacks, Red A seized the opportunity to pounce on her, his twin swords aimed straight at Medusa's throat.

Medusa didn't have time to retract her short armor, so she simply wrapped the chains around her arms to block.

This move surprised even Red A, who was stunned for a moment before Medusa kicked him away.

"Who said I betrayed Sakura? Even if the whole world is against Sakura, I will stand firmly behind her."

Red A's words clearly insulted Medusa greatly. She removed her blindfold and looked directly at Red A.

Petrifying Mystic Eyes, activate!

Red A had already looked away, but unfortunately, the Petrifying Eye doesn't only affect enemies looking at you; any creature within Medusa's field of vision will be affected.

In an instant, Red A felt his limbs become incredibly stiff. With only a D-level magic resistance, he was unable to defend against the effects of Medusa's Mystic Eye.

"You'd better just stand here obediently for now."

Medusa stopped attacking, having achieved her goal of buying time.

"Hmph, I really was underestimated."

Medusa suddenly sensed danger from behind and immediately dodged, but was still struck by Gan Jiang and Mo Xie, who were attracted to each other.

Crane Wing Triple Strike is one of Red A's signature moves. It involves three pairs of Gan Jiang and Mo Xie swords that attract each other and change direction when thrown, making it unpredictable.

Taking this opportunity, Red A also broke free from the control of the Mystic Eyes of Petrification, summoned the Black Bow, and continuously fired arrows at Medusa to suppress her.

Meanwhile, Red A constantly adjusted his position, making it difficult for Medusa to clearly grasp her own form.

The two Servants were also caught in a tug-of-war.

The Servants on both sides were evenly matched for the time being, and the Masters on both sides were not idle either.

"Synchro, begin!"

Shirou gripped the reinforced steel pipe and charged straight at him.

However, before he could take more than a few steps, he was swept away by Kuzuki Souichirou's kick.

"I'll help too."

"Mr. Kuzuki, please have mercy."

Xia Yan wasn't worried at all that Ge Mu would lose to Shirou now. Instead, he reminded the former assassin from the assassination organization not to habitually use lethal force.

"Um."

After agreeing, Kuzuki Souichirou rushed forward, only to feel an attack from the side.

After dodging, Kuzuki Souichirou discovered that it was Tohsaka Rin who had launched the attack.

Rin Tohsaka then adopted a posture where one arm was bent and rested on the other outstretched arm, a pose used when employing Gandr.

When used by Rin, who possesses extremely high magical abilities, Gandra can reach the level of a single strike that directly causes damage, and the magic bullets it fires are powerful enough to rival bullets.

Rin didn't stop and continued to fire magic bullets at Kuzuki. Kuzuki dodged while trying to get closer to Rin, and finally seized the opportunity when Rin fired magic bullets, and flashed in front of Rin.

"Don't even think about hurting Rin!"

At the same time, Shirou rushed in front of Rin and slammed the steel pipe in his hand down hard on Kuzuki's outstretched arm.

Ge Mu remained unfazed, raised his arm, and directly clashed head-on with the steel pipe.

To Shirou and Rin's surprise, the steel pipe, which Shirou had reinforced, was broken by Kuzuki's ordinary arm, leaving a dent.

"Why?"

Before Shirou could understand what was happening, Kuzuki's other arm attacked him.

"Shirou, watch out!"

While giving a reminder, Rin struck Ge Mu with a palm strike, a Bajiquan technique that incorporated inch-force.

Kuzuki's killer instincts made him immediately abandon his attack on Emiya Shirou, cross his arms in front of his chest, switch from offense to defense, and take Rin's palm strike.

Even Ge Mu's usually expressionless face showed a rare moment of pain, and he took several steps back before regaining his footing.

"It seems that Teacher Kuzuki is also hiding his true strength. His combat skills cannot be learned overnight."

Rin needed a moment to catch her breath after the continuous battles, and continued, "Not only that, Caster must have also enhanced you, otherwise your body could never be so strong."

Kuzuki adjusted his glasses and replied, "Tohsaka, you are excellent. Whether it's your academic performance at school or your fighting skills, you are undoubtedly an outstanding student."

"Then I'll accept Mr. Kuzuki's praise without hesitation. But have you forgotten that my primary identity is that of a magician?"

Before anyone knew it, several colorful gems appeared in Rin's hand. Before she could finish speaking, Rin threw all the gems at Kuzuki.