IBHJ Chapter 849

Shirou turned his head, locking eyes with the mud figure floating in the sky.

He glanced down at the figure's feet, his eyebrows raising slightly at the sight of a pair of winged sandals.

"There are two of them?" he raised an eyebrow.

The mud Servant roared, fixing its gaze on Shirou before charging at him.

"Think I'm an easy target?" Shirou raised an eyebrow.

[Hint: You have encountered an attack and attempt to summon your Noble Phantasm. Your roll is 17. Your attempt to summon Rhongomyniad failed...]

Shirou disregarded the TRPG rule. With a thought, the massive mud arm behind him extended, sweeping towards the oncoming Servant.

The mud Servant couldn't dodge in time and could only watch as Shirou's mud arm descended on him. He summoned a bronze shield, holding it up in defense.

The mud arm smashed into the shield, a thunderous boom echoing through the air as the Servant was thrown back several steps.

"Hm? Divinity?" Shirou focused on the bronze shield the mud Servant held, sensing the divine power within.

No, not just the shield. The Servant itself radiated divinity. It was nowhere near as potent as Skadi, but it was still a significant amount.

"This guy's a demigod!" he concluded.

"Raaaargh!" The Servant roared from the sky, then extended a hand. A dark light flashed beneath his waist, and a jet-black unicorn materialized. He mounted the creature and charged towards Shirou, intent on killing him.

"My king! Look out!" Artoria shouted. From the charging black form, she sensed a massive magical energy, a sure sign of a powerful Noble Phantasm.

Her moment of distraction allowed Heracles, who had been on the defensive, to roar and leap up, swinging his massive stone axe at her, forcing her focus back onto defense.

As she parried Heracles' blows, she glanced at Shirou with worry. But when her eyes met his, she froze.

He was smiling!

Her king, with his Noble Phantasms sealed and luck at an all-time low, was smiling in the face of a deadly attack...

Why?

She couldn't understand.

Shirou tilted his head back, his eyes fixed on the Servant bearing down on him like a meteor, radiating a terrifying aura.

He thinks I'm an easy target...

Foolish!

A smirk played on Shirou's lips as another massive mud arm erupted from his back.

Two mud arms lashed out, swatting at the charging Servant like a fly. With a resounding clap, the palms came together, trapping the Servant between them.

Seeing this, Artoria breathed a sigh of relief, her worry easing. Of course, she shouldn't have been concerned. Even without his fancy Noble Phantasms, her king was still invincible. She had witnessed the power of his mud manipulation firsthand in the Fourth Holy Grail War.

Remembering that dreamlike experience, she couldn't help but smile as she swung her holy sword at Heracles. However, with the protection of God Hand, Heracles was invincible. Artoria, as a Saber-class Servant, didn't possess Avalon. Her earlier distraction with Shirou had given Heracles an opening, and he sent her flying with a blow from his stone axe.

"Oof--"

The force of the axe sent her rolling across the ground, a trickle of blood escaping the corner of her mouth.

Seeing Artoria knocked down, the corner of Shirou's eye twitched. He turned his head, his gaze now burning with fury as it locked onto Heracles.

The mud connected to his soul seemed to sense his rage, surging into a frenzy. With a boom, two more muscular, rock-solid arms erupted from his back.

These new arms, as if infused with his anger, glowed with a fiery red heat.

Vampiric Evil!

Their fists clenched, crackling with power. Then, they swung towards Heracles with devastating force.

Heracles roared, charging to meet the two giant arms head-on. He raised his stone axe and brought it down on the crimson limbs.

Shirou, having absorbed the Black Grail and Origin Wheel in Northern Europe, now possessed a vast reserve of mana, even greater than during the Fourth Holy Grail War.

Heracles, a demigod from Greek mythology, possessed superhuman strength. His power rivaled that of Surtr, both boasting a top A+ rank in strength.

The two clashed mid-air like colossal titans.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion sent shockwaves rippling through the surrounding earth, throwing dirt and debris dozens of yards into the air.

Unfortunately, Shirou wasn't using his main body to control the mud. The power was weakened by Eternal King's Saint Graph. Even with the boost from his massive mana, the black mud was still more effective when used by his main body.

Heracles, relying on his slightly superior strength, repelled the mud arms, but their force also knocked him off balance.

Shirou seized the opportunity. As Heracles stumbled, one of the mud arms swung down with a mighty blow.

The timing was perfect. Even Surtr would have been struck by this attack. But as the mud arm connected, Heracles' body shimmered with a strange energy, and the attack inexplicably missed.

Shirou's eyes narrowed. God Hand!

This was God Hand at work, making it impossible for Heracles to lose.

But not losing didn't mean he couldn't die!

Shirou's eyes gleamed. With a wave of his hand, the black mud that had been creeping underground erupted into sharp stakes.

The earth cracked and groaned as the stakes burst forth, each aimed at Heracles. He dodged left and right, but soon found himself surrounded.

Shirou watched, then slowly raised his hand, clenching it into a fist.

Boom! The stakes bristled with sharp needles. With a sickening sound, Heracles was pierced through and through, like he'd fallen into a bed of nails.

"Roar—!" His eyes glowed red with fury. Ignoring the needles in his flesh, he simply ripped his way out of the stakes, blood streaming down his body.

Now that was the kind of crazy you expected from a Berserker!

Heracles glared at him with mad, brutal eyes, glowing with a terrifying red light. His muscles tensed, radiating a fearsome, savage aura.

But Shirou wasn't scared. He'd faced down plenty of terrifying foes before; Heracles' gaze was nothing new.

He remained calm, already planning his next deadly move.

But then—

The ground rumbled and hummed beneath them.

Shirou's brows furrowed. He quickly encased Artoria in mud, his senses on high alert. Sudden shake-ups like this were becoming a bit of a trend for him. He'd learned to expect the unexpected.

"Raaaargh!"

Earth-shattering roars echoed from the distant Tokyo Tower. Heracles, as if answering a summons, turned his head towards the tower and roared back at the sky. With a powerful leap, he shot off like a black bullet, racing towards the tower at incredible speed.

Shirou frowned. "Something called him over?"

"It must be Archer," Artoria said, getting up and looking at him apologetically. "The other Servant said the one with the Black Grail is there. I'm sorry, my king, I've slowed you down."

"It's fine," he shook his head.

Just then, the Servant he had trapped broke free. The winged sandals on his feet flapped, and he took off after Heracles, soaring towards Tokyo Tower.

"Trying to escape?" Shirou raised an eyebrow. A small black hand shot out from one of the giant mud arms, snatching the Servant's ankle and yanking him down.

The Servant, like an angel pulled back from the gates of heaven by a devil, was dragged down hard.

Shirou used the giant arms to grab the Servant's both arms, suspending him in the air. Then he reached out, shaping some black mud into a black spear, and hurled it at the struggling figure.

Crack—!

The spear pierced the Servant's heart. His struggles ceased, and his body began to dissolve into a shower of golden particles.

When half of the Servant's body had dissolved, Shirou turned to Artoria, looking at her arm. "Your hand...."

"Don't worry, it's just a scratch," she replied, patting her chest. But the movement tugged at the wound, and her forced smile twitched with pain.