The Fake Player

Chapter 4 - Nines Own Goal vs Berserker Part II

"▅▅▇▇▅▃▇!" Berserker roared, dashing forward towards Momonga, who was still on his way to regroup with the others.

"[Reinforcement]!" Quickly charging forward, Shirou intercepted Berserker, a kick lashing out and hitting him squarely on the face. All the good that did as it felt as if the magus had struck an unbreakable stone wall. But it performed its duty of turning its attention away from the retreated magic caster.

"Go Momonga-san!"

The Servant's vitriolic gaze refocused on Shirou, a shiver running down his spine at the look of madness it held within its burning eyes.

Kicking off its face, Shirou backflipped as Berserker lashed out with its weapon in an attempt to bisect him.

Kanshou and Bakuya danced in his hands as Shirou attacked and defended with them against Berserker's rage. However, the magus severely underestimated just how much more powerful the servant became. Each strike attacking with terrifying force, enough to make his bone rattle. Unable to take the punishment Kanshou and Bakuya cracked and broke under the assault.

"Damn!" He was ready to trace another copy until something appeared, stopping the servant from going any further.

"[Thousand Tomb Prison]!" A barrier spell courtesy of Tabula erected itself around the servant, cutting off any escape route and trapping the boss there for the time being. A continuous use spell that gradually drains the player's MP for every second used depending on the time and quality.

"Hurry up Emiya-san! I can't hold it down forever!" Tabula forewarned, struggling to hold his hand in place.

Regrouping with what remained of the party a rather startling question came to him. "Was this Berserker's true strength?"

During the Holy Grail War, Servants relied on their masters to provide the needed prana and essence in order to keep them chained to the world. A rather daunting task as two factors seeks to impede this. The first being the master itself and how much prana they could provide, limiting them. The second was Gaia, the literal embodiment of the Earth's will, who would constantly be trying to erase them from the world. Hence why it wasn't uncommon for magus and others to seek out methods of collecting more prana to boost their servant's strength.

The servants summoned from the Throne of Heroes were not whole per se. It was more accurate to say that the summoning ritual pulled a copy of the servant into the physical world. As such there were sometimes inconsistencies when forcing the copy into the class containers, causing Servants to be weakened or lacking in some areas compared to their original selves.

An obvious example was Saber and her incomplete summoning and circumstances that prevented her from taking an astral form.

This wasn't the case with Berserker in front of them. The Servant of Madness wasn't pulled from the Throne of Heroes as far as Shirou was concerned. Nor, was Gaia exerting her force onto it to try and remove the anomaly. It was its own entity that was operating at peak condition and performance, powered by the world's system as boss. No restrictions or limitations.

Berseker snarled at the slightest thing, snapping its jaws dangerously. The warrior-like persona and instinct it showed previously were gone, replaced with full-on madness. Shirou wagered that unlike his sister's black giant from the war, this Berserker was no different from a beast loose from its cage.

"To think the boss's second form would be this powerful…" Momonga muttered.

"It is an End Boss, even with all of our abilities combined it doesn't surprise me that we're failing. We would've needed a Legion at best to defeat this one." Said Tabula, sounding awfully resigned.