Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Emiya fired three arrows at the Taotie's eyes and forehead.
"Roar!"
The Taotie's massive mouth opened nearly as wide as its entire face, swallowing all three arrows whole.
"So that's how it is. That giant mouth is both your all-devouring attack and your strongest defense, isn't it?"
Emiya realized he had lost his connection to the arrows he had just fired, making it impossible to activate Broken Phantasm.
The Taotie bit down where Emiya had just been standing.
Emiya leapt into the air just in time, successfully dodging the attack. The Taotie only ended up swallowing a huge chunk of earth and rock.
"You won't be able to eat this."
Still airborne, Emiya fired another volley of arrows at the Taotie.
This time, the arrows struck directly at its eyes.
The Taotie only had time to shut its eyes.
But eyelids are only good for blocking wind and sand, not high-powered attacks.
"Broken Phantasm."
"Roar!"
The Taotie let out a painful roar.
A large surge of Cursed Energy gathered in its mouth. Now blinded, the Taotie began launching indiscriminate attacks in all directions.
Its first target was the spot where Emiya had previously been, based on its memory.
"Trace on."
Unable to fly, Emiya used projected weapons as stepping stones for aerial movement.
The Taotie's attack missed entirely.
Emiya began weaving through the forest, dodging while continuously firing arrows.
"Are normal arrows not enough? As expected, I'll need to use a Noble Phantasm to take it down."
He nocked a pure white arrow onto his bow.
This one had demon-slaying properties.
Just as Emiya had predicted, the demon-slaying arrow inflicted significant damage on the Taotie.
But before he could follow up, the Taotie took a new action.
With its eyes now healed, it stopped targeting Emiya directly.
Instead, it smashed itself into the ground.
Boom.
The earth cracked open, a thick cloud of dust billowing into the air.
Rumble.
With half its mouth buried underground, the Taotie swallowed a massive amount of earth, rock, and trees.
Like a living bulldozer, it began charging wildly toward Emiya.
"Trying to block my vision with dust, huh? How troublesome."
He fired another volley of arrows, but the moment they entered the dust cloud, Emiya lost connection to them.
Though he could still sense the Taotie's general location, he could no longer guide the arrows precisely to avoid its giant maw.
Emiya drew his bow again and fired.
The arrow stirred up a gust of wind as it flew, clearing a large section of dust.
But once again, the Taotie swallowed the arrow and stirred up even more dust.
"Is it stalling for time, or..."
The persistent dust clouds were certainly annoying, but they only blocked Emiya's sight. They couldn't harm him.
After all, Emiya wasn't a stationary archer. By constantly moving, he could avoid being caught in the worst of it.
And for the Taotie to attack him, it would need to leave the cover of the dust cloud.
If it used a Cursed Energy cannon, Emiya would easily detect it, and the cannon blast would blow the dust away as well.
The next moment, the Taotie suddenly inhaled the surrounding dust and spewed it directly at Emiya.
"Cough, cough... I see. So this is your trick."
The sudden burst of dust forced Emiya to raise his hands to protect his eyes, and he accidentally inhaled some of it.
"Looks like I'll have to fight you up close. Unfortunately for you, I'm not bad at close combat either."
In the Type-Moon world, Archers might not always excel at archery, but their close-quarters skills were never lacking.
Emiya had no reason to fear a melee fight.
His longbow vanished. In its place, the black and white blades, Kanshou and Bakuya, appeared in his hands.
Closing his eyes, Emiya began to sense and predict the Taotie's movements.
As a Heroic Spirit, Emiya possessed Mind's Eye (True). Even in dire situations, it gave him a slim chance to reverse the battle.
But this situation wasn't even desperate.
It was important to remember that Emiya's Mind's Eye wasn't a blessing from the heavens, like those of legendary heroes.
His was built on accumulated knowledge and instinct, a danger-sensing ability forged through countless battlefields.
This was a mortal's Mind's Eye, gained through endless life-or-death struggles.
'From the Taotie's last position, the time it took to spew dust, and how far it could move in that time... the most likely spot it would attack from is...'
'Behind me.'
Emiya turned and threw both blades behind him.
A towering figure lunged out from the shadows.
"Crane Wings, Incomplete."
Kanshou and Bakuya sliced twin arcs through the air.
Two deep wounds opened across the Taotie's body.
Emiya projected the blades again, coordinating with the pair flying back from behind to launch a synchronized attack.
The first Bakuya returned, striking the Taotie.
Emiya followed up by slashing the second Kanshou at the beast's side.
As the first Kanshou flew back, Emiya brought down the second Bakuya in his hand.
All four attacks hit the Taotie.
The creature let out a furious roar and opened its jaws wide, trying to swallow the tiny insect that had dared wound it.
Emiya projected Kanshou and Bakuya for a third time, slashing at the Taotie once more.
"Two Heroes, Shared Fate."
Before the Taotie's jaws could close in, Emiya struck again, slashing left and right simultaneously.
This attack cut a wound so deep into the Taotie's body that it nearly split in two.
"Broken Phantasm."
Boom boom boom boom.
The four projected blades still embedded in the Taotie's flesh exploded violently.
Its nearly halved body was blown apart by the Broken Phantasm.
"Still one breath left. Do you want it?"
Emiya turned around.
Suguru had just arrived behind him.
Having fought alongside him for so long, Emiya knew all about Suguru's Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
That was why he had only detonated four projected blades, leaving the two in his hands untouched.
The result was that the Taotie, despite being blown apart, still had one breath left.
Cursed Spirits were notoriously resilient.
Even Jogo, with just a head remaining, hadn't died and could be kicked around like a ball. His body had recovered quickly afterward.
"Yes. Thank you."
Suguru didn't stand on ceremony, immediately using Cursed Spirit Manipulation to convert the Taotie into a Cursed Spirit Orb and absorb it.
Emiya, meanwhile, moved to a new vantage point and began observing the battlefield where Eichi was fighting.
(To be continued.)