Fate Within A Clover

Chapter 4: Hero Bested?

(Asta's p.o.v.)

I was about to fight the man in red while Captain Yami fought the blonde swordswoman. The man held two swords in his hands, one with a black blade and one with a white blade. Me, I had the Demon Dweller ready, but seeing that he was going to use two weapons, I decided to bring out the Demon Destroyer as well. Just seconds after I pulled out my third sword, the man disappeared leaving the ground shattered. I quickly got my guard up and as soon as I did, I sensed his Ki from behind and swiftly turned around to defend against an incoming attack. I blocked it with Demon Dweller and quickly countered by striking upwards with the Demon Destroyer. The man in red jumped back to avoid the slash, that's when I advanced toward him. We exchanged blows at speeds I never did before in my normal state, aside from that, I'd never seen someone so skilled with a sword before, it was just unreal. But still, during that fight, there was one thing that couldn't figure out, 'Why would they bother testing us this way at all? It's obvious that they don't trust us, so why didn't they just walk away and ignore us, or simply fight us all and get away so we wouldn't chase them?' That's what I was wondering at the time.

(Archer's p.o.v.)

Me and the boy named Asta had been exchanging lightning fast strikes, for the past 2 minutes, and he was able to keep up quite well. I would have been lying if I said I wasn't impressed. Then, I decided to change my approach. "Asta, was it? I must say I'm impressed that you're able to keep up with my swordplay, but now I will use my class's primal methods." After I said that, I dematerialized my sword, and brought out my bow. In my right hand, I materialized a sword, which became an arrow as I drew back the bowstring. I fired the shot at Asta, and put his swords in a cross guard. As soon as the arrow made contact, a large explosion erupted. I waited for the smoke to clear to see if my opponent was still standing, and to my surprise he was, but his appearance had changed a bit. Asta's right side became covered in black markings, half of his hair turned black, his right eye changed from green to a red slit one. He had sprouted two horns, on the side and on the top. Finally, he had what appeared to be a single bat-like wing coming out of his right shoulder blade. 'What happened? It looks like he is becoming a demon?' I thought. Asta then flew at with his swords in hand I quickly moved out of the way and fired another shot at him, but this time he slashed the arrow in two. This shocked me as he looped around and made another charge at me. With that I was forced to use my strongest defense. I raised my right arm in front of me and muttered:

"I am the bone of my sword "

And a shield appeared before me, and that shield's name was,

Rho Aias.

A moment after the shield was deployed, Asta brought both of his swords in front of him as he came flying at me and he called out,

Bull Thrust!

He easily broke through the Aias and land next to me. But before I could react, Asta had his sword's tip pointed at my throat. With no other option, I raised my hands and surrendered. He lowered his weapon. 'It's completely ludicrous, a Heroic Spirit being defeated by a human? I never heard of something like that before.' I thought.

He chose not to strike me instead he wanted to make me surrender, not exactly bad image the citizens have about the Magic Knights I asked the boy, "Why didn't you finish me off? You obviously could've done that already, so why didn't you finish me?" He answered bluntly, "Are you crazy? We're not here to kill anyone, we're here to get answers." We had apparently came across an honorable warrior. I chuckled and replied, "That's the answer I wanted to hear. You pass, Asta."

As the boy was cheering for his victory, Rin walked over to me, and said, "I'm honestly shocked to see you lose to a human, Archer." I answered, "I'm just as shocked, Rin. From what I've seen, this boy is rivals a Servant in physical abilities." She was intrigued by my statement of Asta.

After everything died down, Yami said, "Alright, now that's settled, why don't we all go to see the Wizard King, so we can all have a chat. Finral, open a portal!" The man with orangish-brown haired named Finral said, "You got it." After he said that, he turned around, put his hand out and opened a portal, just like Yami asked of him. "We'll arrive outside the Wizard King's castle, from there his assistant will lead us to his office. But I gotta warn you, the Wizard King is a complete nerd when it comes to magic." He actually called his superior a nerd, Yami sure is bold, I thought.

We all walked through the portal and found ourselves outside, what seemed to be, the front door of the castle. Then, a man with blueish silver hair opened the door and said, "Come right this way, everyone." Yami replied, "Thanks the welcome, Mushroom head." The silver haired man didn't like being called that. I turn to Rin and saw that she and Shirou were giggling at what Yami said. That aside, we all went inside and eventually found ourselves at the doors to the Wizard King's office. When they opened, we all saw a blonde haired boy sitting at the desk. I was surprised by what I saw and I was positive that Saber, Shirou, and RIn were all thinking the same thing, 'Where's the Wizard King? All I see is his son?'