An Archer's Promise

Chapter 2: Knights

Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi
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-Eostia, Ken-

"Nngh..."

Archer opened his eyes, seeing the familiar clear blue sky. Turning his head, the bowman surveyed his surroundings, making sure that there weren't enemies nearby, ready to attack him.

It wasn't uncommon for him to be teleported in the middle of a heated battlefield or even that one time he woke up inside a burning plane, which was dropping down at high speeds; If it wasn’t for the fact that Ayala was an emotionless entity, he would of thought that she had a sense of humor.

Thank god she was more merciful this time around. 

Checking his gear, the black armor was made from a special carbon alloy from a parallel future, while looking aged from constant use, was still serviceable. It was able to resist anti-tank rounds and all kinds of armor-piercing munitions. Though against noble phantasms? Weapons capable of rivaling nuclear warheads? Might as well go naked for all the good it’ll do. But he liked the armor, got him through a lot of tough scrapes and it did provide him with better protection than regular Kevlar or steel armor, while being far more flexible, giving him ease of movement.

The shroud of Martin, a cloth he managed to turn into two sleeves, provided some level of defense against corruption and negative curse effects, thanks to its holy attribute.

Unlike the Shirou Emiya from one of his many realities, who was given the shroud by Kotomine, to help seal away his grafted arm; Archer couldn't remember how he had come across his own shroud. 

A memory lost from the countless years he spent as a Counter Guardian. Heck, before being summoned in the Grail War, he could barely even remember Issei, Taiga, or even Illya's faces. They all became blurry and distorted with time.

'Yet I still remember that man's face…' Still able to remember a tired, battered, but overjoyed old man, smiling with tears streaming down his face as he saved the little boy from the raging fire. A memory so strongly engraved into the being known as Shirou Emiya, that it was the catalyst that created his whole personality and existence.

Not wanting to dwell on the past, Archer focused on the present, more so on his mission of eliminating this Vault person. 

"Quite the gruff-looking guy… reminds me of Fergus Mac Róich in a way." Though Vault looked more like a bandit than like the wielder of Caladbolg, they still had some levels of facial similarities.

Being the envoy and one of the main garbage disposers of the Counter Force, EMIYA didn't need to gather information on who his target was and what they looked like. Everything was in a way, downloaded inside his brain to save time and eliminate the problem as quickly as possible. Depending on which point in time they were sent to, sometimes the Counter Guardians only had hours to kill their targets or destroy the entire city they lived in to get the job done.

"So a mercenary leader no less… I wonder if he'll rebel against this land's current ruler and cause a bloody war or something. For Alaya to deem a ragtag mercenary leader as a big enough threat to send me must mean that there is more to this than I may think." A quite common scenario he dealt with a lot during his career.

These kinds of people only wanted to rule over the world for their selfish desires. 

Not that Archer cared to begin with. He long since stopped asking why, and instead just got the job done, not caring for the reason behind it no more.

"I'll just kill him and get this over with." 

A vacation she said, return whenever he felt like it, she said. Humph, like he'd ever believe that!  He highly doubted that she knows what a day off is, let alone a vacation. She’s a bigger slave-driver than Rin, and that’s a high bar, to begin with, and she’s just as greedy. Alaya NEVER lets go of her assets, especially the Counter Guardians. Freeing a single one would need the intervention of a True Magic-user or a freaking miracle itself. And knowing about his E-rank luck, Archer definitely knew that he wouldn't get what he wanted so easily.