Just as Asuna Yuuki and the others formed an alliance and conspired, the other two battlefields saw different developments.
Over with Megumin's team and Kenneth's team, the situation was intense. Due to the speed and maneuverability of Diarmuid's Lancer class—which was second only to the Rider class—Arash and Megumin were forced to retreat steadily under the continuous, rapid attacks. Kenneth took advantage of the distance and broke away, running independently without further obstruction.
However, what was even more unfortunate than Megumin and Kenneth landing face-to-face was that, in addition to their two groups in the construction area, there was another group of "campers."
The killer duo, Master Kiritsugu Emiya and Servant Assassin, had also chosen this place as their initial location. Kiritsugu chose this spot not only because he wanted to keep an eye on Asuna's group, but also because of the terrain. For modern mercenaries and killers like them, there was no battlefield more favorable than an urban environment surrounded by buildings. They had noticed the commotion as soon as Megumin and Kenneth started fighting.
There wasn't much to say about what happened next. Kiritsugu didn't even check who was fighting; he went straight to setting up the stage. He worked closely with Assassin to set a large number of traps near the battlefield, lurking in different directions in preparation for an ambush. With their rich combat experience, the traps they set were incredibly tricky, forming a dragnet across all transfer routes.
Unaware of this, Kenneth thought he was getting rid of Megumin's entanglement, but unexpectedly, he stepped right into another pit—quite literally, a pit on the physical level.
As soon as Kenneth reached an intersection, the road suddenly collapsed over a large area. Because the sinkhole was so massive and the incident happened so suddenly, it was too late to grab the edge with his Volumen Hydrargyrum. Kenneth had to wrap himself in the mercury sphere and fell into the sewer, instantly buried by rubble.
But Kenneth didn't sit still. He quickly used a Command Spell to summon Diarmuid, who was fighting Megumin's group in the distance to cut off their pursuit. He prepared for a counterattack. Judging from the style of the trap, he concluded it must be Kiritsugu's doing, so he planned to capture Kiritsugu in one fell swoop and seize his twenty-four points.
However, seeing that the trap didn't cause much trouble for Kenneth, Kiritsugu didn't reveal himself and chose to continue lurking.
Kenneth felt embarrassed falling into such a primitive trap. Lured by the temptation of points and seeing that Kiritsugu wouldn't come out, he launched a search. But he obviously forgot about the existence of Megumin's group.
Megumin and Arash naturally noticed the huge commotion caused by the road collapse. With Diarmuid suddenly summoned away, they concluded that Kenneth had encountered another group. They chased after him, preparing to take advantage of the chaos to rob him.
As soon as Kenneth made a move, Arash's arrows and Megumin's magic attacks struck again. In desperation, Kenneth had no choice but to continue dealing with Megumin's team.
At this time, Kiritsugu's team finally saw their opportunity and took action. Assassin sneaked up behind Kenneth and, with lightning speed, snatched four point flags from Kenneth's strap. Then he turned invisible again and ran away. The speed was so fast that Kenneth couldn't even react before both the person and the flags were gone.
"Damn bastard!"
Kenneth snapped on the spot. He felt he was being played by Kiritsugu, and his rage boiled over. Regardless of the restrictions on lethal force, the tentacle whips of the Volumen Hydrargyrum transformed into sharp blades, swinging rapidly and attacking the surroundings. He initiated a wave of demolition-style destruction on all nearby buildings.
Of course, Kenneth had not lost his mind completely. He only attacked the ceilings and roofs of the first floors, aiming to destroy cover and expose Kiritsugu lurking inside. If Kiritsugu's traps could demolish the road, Kenneth saw no problem with demolishing the houses. Sure enough, the referee Artoria did not stop Kenneth's behavior.
As the buildings around Kenneth began to collapse, Kiritsugu and Assassin could no longer hide and rushed out of their cover. Their whereabouts were officially exposed to both Kenneth's and Megumin's groups.
Megumin and Arash immediately shifted their focus to Kiritsugu. After all, who held the most points? It was the big, juicy target second only to Asuna Yuuki. However, after taking a closer look, they skipped over Master Kiritsugu. The point strap was not on him but was carried by Assassin, who could turn invisible.
It was a wise decision. With Assassin's ability, he could hide with the points until the end of the game, which was much safer than Kiritsugu carrying them himself.
Just when everyone was eyeing Assassin, Kiritsugu acted decisively. He used a Command Spell.
"By my Command Spell, Assassin, teleport to the agreed-upon location."
Under the gaze of the four pursuers, Assassin turned into a spirit of light and disappeared, taking the strap and points with him.
"..."
Damn it! You really don't even give us a chance!
The four members of Kenneth's and Megumin's groups were speechless, secretly cursing Kiritsugu for his shameless behavior. So, you can take our share, but we can't take yours? Do you take us for monkeys?!
For a moment, both groups stopped fighting each other and looked at Kiritsugu together. Kenneth was angry at the shameless sneak attack, while Megumin was angry at the "kill-stealing" behavior.
When Kiritsugu saw this hostile attention, he decisively turned around and ran.
"Beat him! Beat this old man to death!"
The four of them cornered Kiritsugu and began punching and kicking him to vent their anger. Then they tied up Kiritsugu, who was unable to resist, and began to discuss how to deal with him.
"It's too cheap to let him go like this. We can use him to force Assassin to bring the points back. What do you think?" Kenneth suggested to Megumin.
Megumin thought for a while, feeling moved by the idea, and nodded. "Okay, but how will the loot be divided after it's done?"
"We split it half and half, including the points I just lost. But after this, our grudges are wiped out. You can no longer target us; we have nothing to do with each other and go our separate ways." Kenneth proposed a compromise. Compared to giving up some points, getting rid of Megumin's entanglement was more beneficial for the rest of the game.
"Okay, it's a deal." Megumin felt it would take too much effort to completely defeat Kenneth. Since he had conceded first, she agreed.
Then, ignoring Kiritsugu's protests and attempts to report to the referee, Kenneth used magic to control him, recreating a classic scene.
"With this Command Spell, Assassin, teleport to me."
"With this Command Spell, Assassin, stand still and do not resist."
Kiritsugu was forced to use his last two Command Spells consecutively. Assassin appeared again and stood stunned on the spot while Diarmuid snatched the entire strap of points away.
This scene was ironically similar to the events in the original Fate/Zero, where Kiritsugu threatened Kenneth with Sola-Ui's life to force Diarmuid to commit suicide. It was almost exactly the same, just with the positions swapped.
Kiritsugu stared at Kenneth with eyes splitting with rage. He didn't expect Kenneth to be so ruthless and use such underhanded methods. The most important thing was that the referee actually allowed this behavior! This was obviously a foul! A shady deal! Complete corruption!
Diarmuid, looking at Kiritsugu's expression, felt incredibly relieved. One could guess how Kenneth came up with such a shameless tactic.
As for the referee, Artoria wanted to stop it, but was held back by Takumi. The reason Takumi gave was that "if it is not prohibited by the rules, it is allowed." But in fact, someone just thought it was funny and biased the ruling in favor of Kenneth. Looking at Kiritsugu's impotent fury, Takumi just wanted to say: You have today, too!
In the middle of the field, Kenneth exacted revenge for his counterpart in the parallel world. He divided the spoils with Megumin as promised. The two groups each obtained fourteen points, ignored the life and death of Kiritsugu's group, and went their separate ways.
On the other side, the battle between Flora's group and Waver's group had entered a fierce stage. But it was not so much a battle between four people as it was the two vampires, Flora and Vlad III, dueling with Iskandar.
As for Waver... he was just dead weight. He stayed in Iskandar's chariot the whole time, unable to provide support. His meager strength wasn't enough to even scratch Flora or Vlad III. The most he could do was consume Command Spells to buff Iskandar.
Iskandar had activated his Reality Marble, Ionioi Hetairoi, commanding his army to fight Flora and Vlad III. However, the vampires withstood the pressure of the army, fighting back and forth among the thousands of troops.
Firstly, the King's Army was not protected by the rules of the game against lethal force, so the vampires could attack with full strength. Secondly, Flora's magical power was overwhelming. As a True Ancestor, her mana reserves far exceeded those of magi in the Moonlit World. Coupled with recovery potions and Vlad's blood-sucking ability, they had enough energy to squander at will.
The more people there were, the more the two vampires fought, and the stronger they became. Iskandar was almost numb. It wasn't just that they were tricky, but that while they weren't restricted from attacking the army, he couldn't let the army kill them!
After all, the army was considered one of his moves. But Flora and Vlad didn't have such scruples; their attacks on the soldiers were just dismantling constructs and didn't count as attacking Iskandar himself.
Therefore, Iskandar was paralyzed. The military might he was so proud of was severely restrained under the rules. Fortunately, his goal was not to kill them, but to capture the flags.
As soon as the army swarmed forward, no matter how strong Flora and Vlad were, two fists couldn't defeat four hands—let alone thousands. Iskandar eventually found an opening. After a chaotic clash, he used the army to grab all the point flags placed on Vlad III.
Then, Iskandar fled immediately.
"Don't try to escape!"
Iskandar wanted to use the chariot's aerial maneuverability to get away. But Flora was already incensed. How could she let him go? She teleported directly to the top of the chariot and violently killed the divine bulls pulling it.
The chariot instantly lost power and began to free-fall from mid-air.
"Ahhhhh~! Rider!" Waver was thrown out of the chariot's basket, shouting in horror with his eyes closed.
Seeing this, Iskandar had no choice but to protect Waver first. He quickly jumped out, hugged Waver, turned over in mid-air, and used himself as a cushion.
Bang~!
The two fell heavily to the ground.
"Ah? Am I okay?" Waver, who thought he was dead, opened his eyes in confusion.
"Since you're fine, get off me! Ugh!" Before Waver could recover, he was pushed aside by a large hand.
"Um? Rider! How are you? Are you okay?" Waver looked back and found Iskandar collapsed in a crater, blood oozing from his mouth, breathing shallowly. Startled, he rushed forward.
Iskandar gave a slightly cunning smile. "I'm not dead yet, so don't touch me. Let me take my time."
When Waver saw this, he thought Iskandar was just comforting him. Guilt washed over him, and he blamed himself with tears in his eyes. "It's all my fault! Blame me for being so useless and holding you back, otherwise you wouldn't..."
He thought of his time with Iskandar over the past few days, the bickering and the teachings. He shouted reluctantly, "Rider! You can't die!"
Iskandar: "..."
Footsteps approached. Waver, immersed in sadness, raised his head and saw Vlad III walking slowly toward them. He didn't know where he got the courage, but he stood up and blocked Vlad's path.
"Asshole! If you want to attack Rider, you'll have to step over my corpse first!"
Vlad III: "..."
Iskandar: "..."
The scene fell into an inexplicable silence until...
"Ahem!"
A soft cough came from the side. Waver turned around and saw Artoria riding her white horse, Dun Stallion, looking at him speechlessly. Behind Artoria, sitting with a well-behaved expression, was Flora—like a child caught making a mistake.
"Contestant Flora has been eliminated from the competition because she violated the rules by committing an attack that was indirectly fatal. Her Servant, Vlad III, is also eliminated," Artoria announced, glancing at Vlad.
Vlad III took out a bottle of potion and handed it to Waver. "I'm sorry, my Master was too rash just now. This is her apology to both of you."
In the situation just now, if it weren't for Iskandar's protection, Waver would have died from the fall. Therefore, there was no room for Flora to argue against this violation. Takumi had sent Artoria to uphold justice. Flora understood she had broken the rules and accepted the punishment obediently. Hence the current scene.
"Ah, this..."
Waver was stunned. The battle in the Reality Marble had been so brutal, with flesh and blood flying everywhere, that he had almost forgotten this was just a game. So... wasn't his dramatic stand just now completely unnecessary?!
Awkward! He was so embarrassed he could practically dig a castle with his toes!
"Hurry up and get the medicine! Really, why are you crying when I'm not dead yet?" Iskandar cursed, feigning anger.
"Oh, oh." Waver took the potion and hurriedly fed it to Iskandar.
Iskandar took a sip and instantly stood up as if nothing had happened. He wasn't seriously injured in the first place—a Heroic Spirit wouldn't die from a fall of that height. He had just been a little winded. Plus, he saw Artoria coming to punish Flora and knew the battle was over, so he hadn't rushed to get up. Now, with the elixir, he was back to full health.
Seeing that both were fine, Artoria left with Flora, and Vlad III left the arena independently.
With two major battles concluded and Flora eliminated, the situation gradually became clear. Currently, the leader was Waver's team with 29 points, followed by Kenneth with 22 points. Asuna Yuuki and Megumin were tied for third place with 20 points each. Alice Nakiri ranked fifth with her original score, and Kiritsugu Emiya was still hanging on at the bottom with zero.