Familiars generally refer to magical creatures controlled by magicians through contracts or magecraft formulas.
From ordinary flowers, birds, fish, and insects, to heroic Servants, and even things similar to digital life forms.
Basically, any creature that can be commanded through magecraft can be called a familiar.
This is a field of study with a low floor and an extremely high ceiling.
Servants are also familiars.
Prior to this, Surtr had also learned some related knowledge with Medea, so doing it wasn’t very difficult.
Before long, a small black bird of unknown breed flew out from Ryuudou Temple.
If she just wanted to reconnoiter, she didn’t need any overly complicated operations; she could just grab any bird from the woods.
Meanwhile, inside the workshop.
Medea, who was preparing avalon, raised her head and looked in the direction of the small bird through the familiar.
Such an unbearable-to-watch magecraft formula could only be performed by her own Master in Ryuudou Temple.
“I should have time to teach her how to use magecraft.”
Medea thought this.
On the other side, Surtr didn’t know that her future free time had already been arranged by Medea.
At this moment, she was clumsily controlling Huginn as it flew toward the direction of Fuyuki City.
By the way, Huginn was the name she gave to the little bird.
Since it was her first familiar, naturally she had to give it a memorable name.
It didn’t mean much, she just purely found it interesting.
Because it was only a lowest-level familiar, Surtr could only give the other some simple and clear commands.
But this still gave her a quite wondrous experience.
Connecting to the other’s line of sight, Surtr gained a quite novel perspective, feeling just like playing a VR game.
Except that because it was just an ordinary little bird, Surtr’s perception was restricted quite severely, just like wearing a helmet that only exposed her eyes.
This made her a bit uncomfortable.
Moreover, a Servant’s battle doesn’t necessarily make a lot of noise, so she might not discover anything this way.
But right from the start, she just held a playful mindset anyway, so it wouldn’t matter if there were no gains.
Surtr found an excuse for herself and began wandering around above the urban area of Fuyuki City.
She had intended to go to the previous battlefield to see how the Holy Church was handling things, but before that, she spotted a few familiar figures first.
Fuyuki City, Miyama Town.
Not far from the battlefield where Surtr and the two Servants fought, inside a quiet, chilly park.
Red and blue figures crossed paths within the park.
A spear and twin daggers clashed in the air at speeds invisible to normal humans, sending sparks flying.
Every attack carried an amount of magical energy that would make an ordinary magus’s jaw drop.
The wind pressure from every clash was equal to a spell with a five-verse chant.
These movements were completely impossible for ordinary eyes to follow.
But even a normal person could clearly see one fact: the red figure was at a distinct disadvantage.
“What’s wrong? Haven’t you eaten?”
Lancer taunted with a brazen smile, wielding his spear to launch a tempestuous barrage of attacks at the white-haired archer before him.
Small talk during battle was a luxury reserved for those who had the upper hand.
But Archer did not have that luxury right now.
Just fending off the opponent’s assault took everything he had; sweat covered his tanned face, veins bulged on his temples, and his teeth were tightly clenched.
The twin swords in his hands were shattered, then projected anew, shattered again, and projected once more.
He had lost count of how many times this cycle had repeated.
Despite doing his utmost to defend, the enemy’s spear had still left several wounds on his body.
Perhaps engaging in close-quarters combat with him from the start had been a mistake.
Archer regretted it in his heart.
He had fallen into the trap of relying too much on past experience.
As someone who had already experienced the Fifth Holy Grail War, even if the Master had changed, he thought he still had a decent grasp of the Servant’s strength.
Plus, since he preferred close combat anyway, he had charged right in.
And then came the regret.
The Lancer before him was far stronger than expected—he was simply no match in melee!
A Master’s compatibility with a Servant should only affect the Servant’s attitude; unless there was some miraculous mid-battle boost, changing a Master shouldn’t cause such a drastic difference in power.
Why?
Archer was baffled.
The only thing he noticed was that the opponent’s outfit was slightly different—the color was darker, and even the patterns differed from his memories.
Could that be the reason?
What a joke!
Since when did Servants get a power boost just by changing outfits?
Archer had a hundred complaints he wanted to voice, but now was clearly not the time.
He had to change his combat strategy, or he would definitely be impaled.
While Lancer and Archer were locked in fierce combat, an intense chase was also taking place in the woods beside the park.
Tohsaka Rin sprinted through the trees, sweat dripping from her forehead as she panted heavily.
Behind her, a woman wearing a dark reddish-brown suit pursued her like a demon, moving at an incredibly fast speed.
After a brief clash, Rin knew this wasn’t an opponent she could defeat; the magecraft she currently possessed had no effect on her at all.
She could only rely on Reinforcement to barely flee for her life.
But at this speed, it wouldn’t be long before she was caught.
Thinking this, Rin tightly gripped a luminous yellow gem, a momentary pained expression crossing her face.
Turning her head, she waited until the distance between them closed to a certain point, timed it right, and hurled it backward with force.
The glow of the gem flickered in Bazett’s eyes as the terrifying magical energy contained within was released in midair, triggering a massive explosion behind her.
The shockwave caused Rin’s footing to stumble slightly, but its power was undoubtedly impressive.
How did it go?
With that thought, she turned her head to look back.
Then she saw the woman charge out from the other side of the smoke and dust, her hands crossed in front of her, emerald-green light flowing across her gloves, looking entirely unharmed.
Damage dealt: slight dirt on her hem.
Three consecutive shocks hit her.
The gem she had just used was one of only ten accumulated over seventeen years, each equivalent to a Rank-A grand spell, with enough power to level a house.
At that distance, even if she avoided a direct hit, how could she take zero damage?!
Why was this Holy Grail War filled with monsters like this?!
The shocking reality before her left Rin’s mind in a blur, but she didn’t forget that she was currently in a dire crisis.
With the woman right in front of her, she instinctively assumed a Bajiquan stance.
Unlike ordinary magi, she had never neglected physical training; even if she couldn’t match a Servant, with magecraft reinforcement, she possessed considerable combat capability.
Besides, with Kirei Kotomine as her instructor, she had plenty of insights into close combat.
With that in mind, she swung her fists and lunged at Bazett.
However, the outcome was obvious.
As the Clock Tower’s strongest Enforcer of Sealing Designation, Bazett’s combat skills and experience were far beyond what current Rin could match.
Swatting away Rin’s mid-air fist with her left hand, Bazett immediately thrust forward her right fist.
Intense pain shot through Rin’s abdomen, and a muffled groan escaped her lips despite herself.
A gem placed at her abdomen in advance shattered with a bang, sending her flying backward like a kite with a broken string.
“That looks really painful.”
At Ryuudou Temple, Surtr, who was watching all this through Huginn’s vision, felt pity for Rin.
Running into Bazett was just bad luck; Bazett was simply not an opponent a magus at Rin’s current stage could beat.
“So it really is Bazett, huh.”
Having prepared for it beforehand, Surtr wasn’t all that surprised.
Berserker’s attack had forced Surtr to abandon her plan to go to the church; looking at things now, Kirei Kotomine had probably been counter-killed by Bazett.
Just thinking about her Noble Phantasm gave Surtr a headache.
The only solution she could think of was having Medea lure Bazett away, leaving Bazett to duel Lancer one-on-one.
Speaking of Lancer, his performance today was also quite surprising to her.
Red Archer didn’t even have the strength to fight back in melee.
His combat strength was night and day compared to what she had seen before.
Excluding the possibility that he held back that day, along with that new outfit of his, Surtr could only think of one possibility.
Ascension.
This wasn’t just a leveling system from a game.
In reality, Ascension was a technique that allowed a Servant to draw closer to their state in life.
Age of Gods warriors like Lancer and Berserker were generally weakened when summoned as Servants, so the boost from Ascension was quite significant.
Given Lancer’s level of magecraft, combined with the Command Spells obtained from killing Mapo, it might actually be feasible.
Troublesome guys have gotten even more troublesome.
Surtr felt helpless; as expected, the real world was always full of surprises.
Unless something unexpected happens, Rin will be eliminated tonight.
Unless something unexpected happens…