Pioneers of the Stars

Chapter 2

Yuto sighed inwardly. That day was becoming tiring and repetitive.

Everything began with the last battle of the Sixth Holy Grail War where he took on the King of Heroes in a fight to the death. During the battle he had not spared himself but, because many of his energies were sent to his Servant, he had a handicap that almost led him to death.

In the end, only by gaining the advantage of the arrogance of the King of Heroes, had he managed to defeat him thanks to Saber's help.

Only when the Gate of Babylon was emptied, or rather Gilgamesh had exhausted his magic energy, that he took the pleasure of sticking an arrow in his head and killing him.

With six defeated servants, the Holy Grail, the ultimate prize for one who had survived the ritual, manifested itself before their eyes and, knowing that it could not fulfil their wishes, they agreed to destroy it, but for some reason, that choice had led him to other problems that he would have preferred to avoid.

A vortex had opened and sucked him in, but instead of dying as expected, he found himself in that place facing men capable of transforming into animals.

He was a fundamentally inhuman being and therefore had abilities that exceeded human abilities. Defeating them was rather simple although their growing number was a real hassle because, when the boss arrived or at least a big cheese, he was quickly defeated. If he was alive, it was only because he survived the man's flames.

Because of his demi-servant's nature, he wasn't immune, but he certainly could resist better than other humans. And perhaps it was precisely for this reason that they had decided to spare him and forcibly recruit him into the Beast pirates.

He had chosen to exploit this decision. Using shrewdness, he had planned to run away as soon as he had been far enough.

At least that's what he planned.

Yuto jumped back and observed monohoshizao. The blade showed ripples due to numerous and repeated clashes. A little more and it would break.

Maybe confronting a morning star with a katana wasn't the best choice. He could have resorted to something stronger, but the majority of the weapons he possessed were very showy weapons and he did not intend to be faced again by dozens of pirates.

Of course, he could use the secret Tsubame Gaeshi technique, but he didn't want to kill her. Contrary to the intense desire for the battle that she emanated, he did not perceive any killing intent, a bit like he had not perceived it from the one who defeated him.

"Tch." Yuto snapped his tongue while avoiding Yamato's morning star. "You're strong," Yuto gasped as he passed his hand over his chin to dry his sweat.

"You too," Yamato said as she tightened her grip on her weapon. "Hardly anyone survives King's flames."

She had seen him fight against a Tobiroppo and even before that against all those pirates and had not managed to stop them. In the end, the hustle and bustle had only been calmed after King entered the battlefield, who could be considered the diamond tip of the All-Stars. And yet he still managed to survive.

She wanted to intervene in the fight, but he also had some sort of code of honour, and she would only do so when he would be in decent shape.

Yuto made a frowning face. After all that fighting, he couldn't feel his fingers anymore and his magic energy was almost running out.

He had planned to wait until he recovered and then look for a way to escape; however, at this rate, he would never go anywhere.

Yuto closed his eyes and took a deep breath, coming to a single conclusion.