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In the heat of the moment, you opt to try to position yourself so that you can swiftly retaliate if the Assassin lunges toward your Servant, who is again conjuring flames and spewing them toward the enemy.
Taking advantage of the obscured visibility caused by the smoke-grenades that went off moments earlier, you can vaguely make out the Assassin putting her agility to use, darting between the walls of the tunnel faster than Avenger can redirect her flames, and it’s not long before you lost track of your opponent’s rapidly-changing position. You tighten your grip on your mace in irritation as your attempt to outmaneuver a faster opponent fell short of its intended goal.
“Master. I’ll need to go all-out.” You hear Aka no Assassin speak for the first time, and sense a rise in her magical energy just before a thin red mist bursts out of the fog. Your senses are dulled for a moment when the mist drizzles onto your skin, revealing a new Skill of your opponent, who takes advantage of the momentary opening to dart past you, your mace-strike only denting some of the barbed wiring overlaying her robe as you swing at her.
“Begone, hussy.” Avenger deadpans as she fires several piercingly-bright beams of light at charging the Assassin.
Aka no Assassin clicks her tongue in frustration as she swerves back into the fog in the direction of the section that had caved in behind you to dodge your Servant’s attacks, and you hurry back as you chase after her.
“Would have preferred a younger mark, but your blood will suffice.” You hear the Assassin taunt from within the fog, her voice shifting to a more formal tenor, “Everything is an illusion, maidens shall enter here.”
Sensing the Assassin’s magical energy surge again, Avenger swiftly summons a powerful gust of wind centered on herself to clear away the fog and, by extension, your enemy’s concealment. Next conjuring a conflagration large enough to fill the entirety of the tunnel that your enemy had maneuvered into, you hear Aka no Assassin shriek in pain before screaming the words “PHANTOM MAIDEN!”
The object in the shape of a woman, revealed to be Aka no Assassin’s Noble Phantasm “Phantom Maiden”, suddenly emerged from the flames, opening a pair of doors in its front to reveal that it was hollow, and filled with sharp iron spikes. And its spiked maw clearly aimed to envelop your Servant in a lethal embrace.
Instantly changing course, you use every ounce of strength you can muster to rush toward your Servant, swinging your mace down with both hands onto the Phantom Maiden, knocking it off its intended flight-path. Avenger was spared the gruesome death of being turned into a pin-cushion, but the Phantom Maiden still caught one of her feet in its shutting doors as she tried to fly back.
