Chapter 253: The Battle on the Bridge
"Are you the one the Master is looking for?"
A gigantic three-tailed fox stood before Matou Zouken, and following behind the three-tailed fox were several miniature foxes that looked similar to her, but were much smaller in size.
The foxes, led by the three-tailed fox in the center, surrounded the swarm of insects hiding Matou Zouken.
"What are these guys?"
Looking at the foxes blocking his path, Matou Zouken clearly felt that they were the natural predator of him, or rather, the insects he controlled.
However, the pursuers were right behind. Despite his apprehension towards the identity of these foxes, Matou Zouken could only brace himself and continue to break through the encirclement.
"Hmph, seeking death!"
Seeing that Matou Zouken still dared to resist, a fierce light flashed in the eyes of the white three-tailed fox, and immediately she spat white flames from her mouth towards the swarm of insects.
The flames spat out seemed to be alive, and the moment they touched the Crest Worms, they began to cover the inside of the swarm.
In just a few seconds, the flames, which were originally only on the periphery of the swarm, had already spread to the inside of the swarm and continued to spread towards the core protected by the swarm.
"Um, Lord Number Two..."
Just as the white fox was satisfied with the power of the flames she had created, one of the foxes suddenly spoke up to remind her: "Lord Hikigaya said he wanted him alive......"
"Alive?!"
Hearing her subordinate's words, the three-tailed fox's ears instantly stood up.
She quickly looked again at the swarm of insects in the flames, but as she turned her head, a smell of scorched corpses immediately assaulted her.
"I'm done for! I messed up!"
The three-tailed fox looked at the charred insect corpses on the ground and wanted to cry.
And in this instant of her distraction, suddenly, from within the insect corpses, several small-sized bugs 'swished' through their encirclement and continued to flee towards the depths of the forest.
"Lord, the target escaped!"
"Of course I saw it, hurry up and chase after it!"
The three-tailed fox glared at the subordinate who had spoken up, and then, somewhat exasperatedly, chased in the direction the bugs had fled.
A few minutes later, in the pile of scorched insects that had become completely silent, an all-black Crest Worm slowly wriggled out from the very bottom of the corpses.
"Were they completely fooled by a parlor trick?"
Looking around, there were no traces of the foxes nearby anymore.
Realizing that he had successfully fooled those foxes, a feeling of smugness and disdain arose in Matou Zouken's heart.
However, before he could be happy for too long, another scorching aura rapidly approached him from a distance.
"Discovered? That shouldn't be right?"
Sensing a huge amount of magical energy approaching him, Matou Zouken was startled and quickly controlled the Crest Worm to flee in another direction.
However, before the Crest Worm could flee for a few hundred meters, Matou Zouken 'surprisingly' found that yet another three-tailed fox, leading a few small foxes, was searching for his trace right in front of him.
After a slight hesitation, Matou Zouken turned around again and ran in the last remaining direction.
This time, he didn't even run a hundred meters before a golden fox stepped over from behind the Crest Worm and blocked his path.
"You fellow hiding inside the bugs, you can't escape!"
The Chief Miko looked at Matou Zouken, the person Hikigaya Hachiman specifically wanted to find, and her eyes were filled with contempt.
Although her power had not fully recovered, dealing with an enemy of Matou Zouken's level was completely sufficient!
"Damn it..."
Sensing the massive magical energy within the golden fox, Matou Zouken instantly judged that he was no match for her.
He once again manipulated the bugs filling the forest, intending to make them create chaos to facilitate his escape.
However, Matou Zouken was immediately surprised to find that, within a three-kilometer radius of the forest, all the other bugs had disappeared, except for the few extremely fast beetles that had lured the white three-tailed fox!
"What kind of joke is this? They were all eliminated?!"
Matou Zouken, who controlled them, didn't actually know how many Crest Worms were hidden in the forest.
After all, for so many years, he had allowed the Crest Worms in the rest of Fuyuki City, outside the Matou family, to develop freely, only controlling them when needed.
However, Matou Zouken roughly estimated that this forest should contain at least tens of thousands of Crest Worms.
It had only been less than an hour since he was attacked, how could they all be gone?!
"Simply noisy!"
Sensing the violent fluctuation of Matou Zouken's soul, the Chief Miko raised her front right paw and stepped towards him.
"I won't be caught by you like this!"
Seeing the Crest Worm he was in about to be caught by the golden fox in front of him, a fierce light flashed in Matou Zouken's eyes, and he then directly self-destructed the soul fragment remaining in the Crest Worm.
"Ah!"
The moment the Crest Worm exploded, a scream suddenly came from another shadow several kilometers away from the forest.
Then, several Crest Worms drilled out from the shadow and continued to flee towards the Fuyuki City area.
However, just as the Crest Worms ran out of the shadow, a golden longsword pierced the Crest Worm running at the very front, and immediately afterward, a dark green tachi also plunged into the body of the Crest Worm running at the very back...
"As I expected, you would self-detonate when you couldn't escape?"
Hikigaya Hachiman watched the most inconspicuous of the several Crest Worms with interest.
One of Matou Zouken's split souls had already exploded. This time, he wanted to see how this old fellow planned to run!
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Fuyuki City, 7 p.m., Ryūdō Temple.
"Will doing this really be enough?"
Supported by Artoria, Irisviel curiously inspected the drawing on the ground, which was so simple that it couldn't even be called a magic circle.
Although she knew not to judge things merely by their appearance, the thought that this drawing would soon determine whether she would turn into the Lesser Holy Grail still made Irisviel feel uneasy.
"No problem!"
Following the local custom, Hikigaya Hachiman finished the last stroke of the transfer array with mercury, clapped his hands, stood up, and looked at the 'scribble' under his feet, nodding in satisfaction.
The System had confirmed that this magic array could be used. The only thing left was to place Irisviel and the Crest Worm containing Matou Zouken's soul in the correct positions.
"So, the next step is to eliminate Rider....."
All the preparatory work had been completed. To confirm whether the transfer array would take effect, it had to be actually run.
And the prerequisite for the array to run was for the soul of one more Heroic Spirit to enter Irisviel's body.
"It's almost eight o'clock. Saber, let's go."
Leaving Karna to guard the gate of Ryūdō Temple, Hikigaya Hachiman summoned Artoria to go to the bridge for the appointment.
"Aren't you taking Lancer?"
Irisviel was somewhat curious why Hikigaya Hachiman chose to take Saber.
It should be known that Iskandar was also a powerful Heroic Spirit, and if Karna were to fight, Hikigaya Hachiman would clearly have a greater chance of winning.
"Just in case."
Although the possibility of Archer attacking Ryūdō Temple while he and Iskandar were fighting was very low, if it really happened, Irisviel would clearly be safer with Karna guarding the gate.
Moreover, this time he was leaving Sakura inside the temple.
Bidding farewell to the people staying behind at Ryūdō Temple, Hikigaya Hachiman led Artoria down the mountain.
"Master, please get in."
Artoria straddled the motorcycle parked at the foot of the mountain and then naturally motioned for Hikigaya Hachiman to sit behind her.
"No, this time we'll take a different way to travel..."
Recalling the afternoon's ride, Hikigaya Hachiman's mouth twitched, and he immediately summoned the Chief Miko, who was attached to his arm......
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The time came to 7:50 p.m.
With the help of the gigantic fox that the Chief Miko had transformed into, Hikigaya Hachiman and Artoria successfully arrived at the center of the bridge agreed upon with Iskandar.
"Oh, you've arrived already?"
The moment the golden fox stopped, Iskandar's hearty laugh came from above.
Hikigaya Hachiman looked up, and a bull-drawn chariot slowly descended onto the bridge surface not far away.
"Although there's still a little time until eight o'clock, since you're already here, starting early is not a problem... But speaking of which, where did Lancer go?"
Iskandar was speaking while curiously looking around, trying to find Karna's figure.
"He has other duties. Your opponent today is Saber, Rider..."
Briefly describing Karna's situation, Hikigaya Hachiman then recalled the Chief Miko and retreated towards the back of the bridge, leaving the battlefield to Artoria and Iskandar.
"It seems I'm being underestimated... but Saber is also a rare opponent, so I have nothing to complain about."
Noticing that Hikigaya Hachiman was retreating, Iskandar also controlled his chariot to move Waver to a safe distance.
"Rider, you must win!"
Waver looked at the muscular man in front of him, his face filled with worry.
"Hahaha, that's a certainty, isn't it?"
Seeing Waver so concerned about him, Iskandar couldn't help but laugh heartily. He placed his hand on Waver's head, messily ruffling his hair, and then said solemnly:
"Don't worry, I absolutely will not fall until the conquest is complete!"
"If that's the case... Rider, I command you with a Command Spell, seize victory in tonight's battle!"
Hearing Iskandar's heroic ambition, Waver's heart did not feel at ease; instead, a sense of annoyance arose in his chest.
To relieve the pressure in his heart, he raised his right hand and consumed one Command Spell to add a guaranteed victory blessing to Iskandar.
"Boy, thank you!"
A surge of abundant magical energy instantly appeared in his body. At the same time, Iskandar felt that both his strength and speed had increased significantly.
Patting Waver's shoulder, Iskandar was about to say something, but then, recalling what he had just said to Waver, he dismissed the idea of speaking.
Although Saber across from him was strong, since it wasn't Lancer who showed up, today he would make the opposing Master taste defeat!
The bull-drawn chariot slowly moved forward. Iskandar gripped his sword in his right hand and stared at Artoria for a moment.
After realizing that the distance between them was sufficient, he abruptly flicked the reins. The two bulls instantly roared, charging towards Artoria with lightning speed.
"The King of Conquerors is indeed very powerful....."
Artoria remained standing where she was, watching the chariot crash towards her with a great momentum.
She only moved when the chariot was about to slam into her.
Her body quickly shifted to the right, dodging the chariot's crash and Iskandar's attack from the vehicle. Then, her empty left hand grabbed the railing on the chariot's frame during its high-speed movement, and she swung herself up, jumping into the chariot.
"Oh?"
Iskandar hadn't expected Artoria to choose to do this, but he was quite confident in fighting on a vehicle!
Controlling the chariot to rise into the air, Iskandar turned and engaged in close-quarters combat with Artoria in the cramped space.
In the narrow space, a short sword was obviously much more flexible than a long sword.
Although Artoria was no less inferior to Iskandar in strength, agility, or combat skill, she was still suppressed by Iskandar after they started fighting.
Soon, taking advantage of a moment when Artoria's defense had a gap, Iskandar successfully used the short sword in his hand to leave a bloodstain on her face.
"Choosing to fight on the chariot was a mistake, Saber!"
Having succeeded with one strike, Iskandar relentlessly continued his fierce attack.
The short sword constantly clashed with the golden sword. Slowly, Artoria was completely pinned in one corner of the chariot, on the verge of being knocked down by Iskandar.
Just then, Artoria suddenly noticed the two bulls at the front of the chariot.
Without the slightest hesitation, the Wind Barrier wrapped around the golden sword was instantly dispelled, and a powerful air blast was fired towards Iskandar!
Facing the attack that was right in front of him, Iskandar did not choose to take it head-on. Instead, he sidestepped to dodge the air blast.
However, seeing the bulls by following the trajectory of the air blast, he instantly understood Artoria's intention.
He quickly swung his sword, trying to intercept the air blast, but it was already too late.......
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