"Is she dead, or is she faking it?" Gobta asked as they looked at Misha's still body on the floor. She had a pool of blood surrounding her, but they were a little skeptical. From their intel, she is supposed to be a spy. And a spy would probably be able to fake a few things, even their death.
"She looks dead to me." Suhpia said.
"But it felt a little. I know she's supposed to be the weakest, but still." Masayuki said.
"That's cause you get lucky all the time. Like when you beat Nero in the coliseum, and just now. You always seemed to have something go right." Gobta said. He had to admit that he was a bit jealous of Masayuki's luck. If only he could have something like that.
"I can't help it." Masayuki said, defending himself.
They were going to keep bickering, but they were interrupted. "I thought I said not to do anything like this." Artoria's voice sounded behind them, taking them all by surprise. They didn't even feel when she arrived. "And if you're not sure if someone is dead-" Artoria summoned Excalibur and got closer to Misha's supposedly dead body. "-just hit them again. It's called double-tapping."
Artoria pulled her arm back to stab Misha through the heart, but just as she was about to, Misha moved, fully focused on running away. "You'd treat a dead body like that?"
Misha didn't get far as Artoria appeared in front of her in a flash and grabbed her neck. 'Well, you weren't dead, and it's fight to the death. You have to make sure your opponent is dead. I think it's quite fair. Although some would call it a 'war crime', last I checked, nothing like that exists in this world."
Without wasting any more time, Artoria slammed her to the floor before doing a semi-activation of Excalibur. She would make sure she would stay dead by destroying her physical, spiritual, and astral body. Excalibur glowed an intense yellow before she plunged Excalibur straight through Misha's heart, killing her almost instantly.
Yellow particles dispersed from Misha's body, which looked beautiful, but her dead body made a weird contrast to it. Artoria pulled the sword back, but despite stabbing Misha, it came out clean with not a single drop of blood on it.
Gobta, Suphia, and Masayuki stood there in silence as they saw the scene. They were taken aback by how fast and ruthless Artoria was. It all happened so quickly. Suphia was the first to snap out of it. She's seen things like this before.
"Now that she's dead, I'll go take care of the other two. You three can go out. Meet Dun Stallion and wait for the rest of us. And don't worry about Yuuki, he won't worm his way out of this." Artoria said before disappearing again in a flash.
"Does she fight like that all the time?" Masayuki asked as they started leaving. Suphia was also curious. They both looked toward Gobta, since he'd be the one to know this.
"Huh? Uh, well, I've seen her fight, but not in a close-quarters setting. All the times I've seen her fight, it was like one big event or something like that. There was that time she killed Charybdis with a big sword beam thing, and then she beat Milim in a duel of sorts. It was weird. But that's what I remember." Gobta said as he tried his best to recall all the times he's seen Artoria fight.
"She seems really unfair to fight." Masayuki said.
/\\//\\//\
"This isn't good," Grigori said as he was fighting. No matter what they seemed to do, nothing could affect Vega. Those rings he created seemed to have a mind of their own. Any attack they threw at him had virtually no effect. He could stand still and nothing would happen to him, which is what he was doing. He was preparing something, and no matter what they did, they couldn't stop it.
They suddenly felt an oppressive force emerge. An evil-looking beast emerged. Black scales covered its body, black wings behind it, red, glowing eyes, and a rift on its belly. They could feel how powerful it was. (A/N: Is this right? On the wiki, it says these are his former skills before Azi Dahaka. I'm checking to see so I don't have him use skills he shouldn't have at this point, and I also had a hard time remembering the exact details from the sotry I've read.)
"I can't believe y'all let it get this far." A cold voice interrupted the scene. It was Artoria, but before anyone could do anything. Faster than anyone could see, she appeared in front of the Dracobeast, Excalibur in hand, glowing an intense yellow that radiated an extreme and extraordinary holy aura. "This will be easy. It has evil in the name."
With a graceful swing, Excalibur easily sliced the Dracobeast, killing it almost instantly. But she didn't stop after that. It was only a mere distraction. She focused on attacking Vega.
"You're strong." Vega held up his hand to block the sword, trusting in his Invincible Art to protect him. But to his surprise, they were defenseless in front of Excalibur.
"There are levels to this." Artoria spoke in a cold voice as the rings were easily destroyed by a swing of Excalibur.
Vega quickly backed up and considered whether he should retreat. Normally, he'd always go in for a fight, but this was different. Something inside of him was telling him not to seek this fight.
"Don't think you can retreat. Whether you want it or not, you're getting this fight." Artoria said as she appeared in front of him again, mid-swing with Excalibur.
Vega backed up as fast as he could. He left web-like cracks on the floor from how strong he jumped back, but he couldn't escape all the damage. A large and brutal gash appeared on his arm. It was a gruesome sight. It almost looked like his arm was split in half sideways.
Artoria didn't let up, and she dashed toward Vega. But to everyone's expectations, she flipped and twirled over Vega, dodging an Aura Bullet that Vega launched in an anticipatory manner.
Artoria twirled in the air with Excalibur in hand and swung Excalibur with eerie and perfect precision. She landed close behind Vega and immediately burst towards him. Faster than he could react, Artoria impaled him through his chest, Excalibur keeping the same intense glow and holy aura.
Vega stood there for a second, not moving, before his arms fell off his torso from when Artoria twirled over him. Artoria stood behind him before taking out Excalibur, and letting his body fall to the floor.
"Don't worry, his soul won't be entering the reincarnation cycle. One more to go. Meet with Dun Stallion and wait for the rest of us." Once again, Artoria left before anyone could say anything.
No one knew what to say about what they had just witnessed, and they went to the meeting location
/\\//\\//\
Hinata was the only one who had anything left in her. Everyone else had exhausted what they had or were purely on the defensive, and no offence. At this point, it wasn't a fight to kill him, but to stop him from escaping. Hinata had thwarted every attempt he made at escaping.
"You'd be a good addition to the Eastern Empire, Hinata. Think about it." Damrada said.
This was a good sign to Hinata, it could mean he was getting a bit desperate or trying out all his other options.
"Now, why would she do that? She has someone to go home to, you know?" Artoria burst in and immediately attacked Damrada.
Hinata, on the side, couldn't believe the audacity of Artoria to say something like that. She simply closed her eyes and shook her head. Her memories of that night would rather be something she'd want to forget, but she had to admit, Luminous made it very hard to do so. Right now, though, she was just happy she could get a little breather and let Artoria fight Damrada.
Damrada was frustrated. He had those saints close to defeat, but Hinata was a stubborn one. And now he was in close combat with Artoria, but it wasn't going well. No matter how he attacked, or how fast, she always dodged or counter-attacked perfectly.
Through a flurry of punches and kicks, Artoria dodged or blocked it all. She was looking for a moment, no matter how small.
'She's moving before I even throw my next attack. It's not even dodging, she's looking into very short moments in the future.' Damrada thought to himself as he came to the realization very fast. 'If I can make her give up the sword.'
Damrada sped up. Artoria unsummoned Excalibur and started using both hands to engage in a defensive close combat fight. The sword was a burden to carry all the time in such close quarters. But it's not like she couldn't use it at all. Once again, she just needed to find the perfect opportunity while stalling.
Amidst Damrada's assault, Artoria blocked an overhead kick with her left arm, followed by blocking a kick with her right arm. She leaned back a little to block another axe kick. Damrada landed quickly and threw a simple punch with his right hand.
This is what she was looking for. It was very small, but it was enough. She grabbed his hand and gripped as strongly as she could, keeping him in place. With her right hand, she seemed to be going for a punch. Damrada held up a hand to block, but something was very quickly off.
Her hand wasn't in a fist. It seemed like she was pretending to hold something. As if in slow motion, Excalibur was summoned in a flash of yellow mid-thrust. It was timed perfectly. The tip of Excalibur practically pierced Damrada through the chest. And to make sure Damrada couldn't weasel out of this one, Artoria used Torrent of Light to empower Excalibur further.
It was an instant moment.
"Your soul protection won't save you, Damrada." Artoria said before pulling Excalibur back. Damrada stumbled back before falling on the floor. Artoria went to his body and cut his head off for good measure. "Always double-tap." Artoria said before she turned back to Hinata. "How you holding up?"
Hinata looked at herself and then around at the others. "We're alive."
"Good. That's all that matters. Rest up a little bit. We have to get back to Tempest, and fast. I'll give you 5 minutes, and only 5 minutes." Artoria said before leaving.
/\\//\\//\
Once everyone was assembled, Artoria knelt down to look at Yuuki, who was tied up.
"Here's how it's going to go, Yuuki. This can either be a relatively pleasant ride for you or an immensely painful one. It's your choice."
"You know what kind of repercussions there would be if I went missing? People will try to find me." Yuuki said with a glare at Artoria, a hateful look on his face.
"I'm counting on people coming to find you. Especially some clowns and a former demon lord. And as for you going missing? Don't worry, people will be glad you're missing and not in charge of the Free Guild once news spreads about things you've done and what you've been involved with."
Yuuki tried to spit at Artoria, but she simply moved her head out of the way. Gobta's eyes widened at this. He remembered when a poor soul tried doing that in training. It did not go well for him.
"I see you've made your choice." Artoria stood up and untied Yuuki from the back of Dun Stallion. His entire body was still tied up, but this time, he was on the ground and only connected to the saddle instead of lying on top of it.
"Alright, sun's close to coming up, we have to at least get to the Tempest border before it gets too bright." Artoria said to everyone as she got on Dun Stallion. "Let's move."
Artoria grabbed the reins and commanded Dun Stallion to move. Everyone followed suit, leaving Yuuki behind. Yuuki looked around and then at the rope, which was unraveling. "No, wait-" Yuuki couldn't say anything before he was violently yanked and dragged along the ground through the dirt. He would have to endure until they got back to Tempest.
(A/N: I just realized after writing this that it turned out more brutal than I was expecting.)