Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 39: Win

The purge of the Meluastea continued in the Department of Archaeology. It had started early at nine o'clock in the morning and continued strongly until now, which was one o'clock in the afternoon. Three out of the four halls had already been seized, and the underground complex had been reduced to a smouldering heap of ashes.

Only one hall remained, that being the Eastern hall, coincidentally also the one where the Meluastea-family had hidden themselves, and the morale of the attackers was at an all-time high.

A mission that should have taken weeks to complete now promised to be over in under a day. The haul of loot, research, and prisoners was greater than any of them could have anticipated. Hundreds of people, Magi and mundane, had been saved from the claws of the Meluastea.

Most importantly, there had been no deaths among the attacking forces yet, and whatever wounds were received were mild and sometimes even inconsequential.

Assaulting the lair of a ruling family had turned out to be a much simpler affair than anyone could have imagined.

Some might say it was ridiculous that attacking a well-defended base was so easy, that something had to be wrong, and that a trap was perhaps being laid, but those people would be overlooking one crucial fact.

The Department of Archaeology depended too much on Bounded Fields, and that lack of variation in their defences was what ultimately became their downfall.

The entire defence-strategy of the Meluastea, and with them, most other Magi, was based almost solely upon Bounded Fields. The moment those lost their value, because of someone like Shirou coming along for instance, the strategy and their defences completely collapsed.

Whether it was in the Southern hall of the Department of Archaeology, the Western hall, or even the underground complex, the moment Shirou broke the Bounded Fields, it changed from a potentially challenging fight to a matter of mopping up the frightened Magi who seemed to have no plan B in case their Bounded Fields failed, or at least no plan B they could engage in a sufficiently short time.

It was to be expected though. There was normally very little reason to spend time and energy on creating secondary plans when you had Bounded Fields. After all, Bounded Fields were objectively amazing.

They were the staple of point-defences in the Moonlit World. Unlike Runes, Gem-Craft, or many other Fields of Magecraft, Bounded Fields could be made and used by almost anyone. Mastering the art was of course still beholden to only a few but becoming reasonably skilled with Bounded Fields was easier than becoming so with Runes.

True, Bounded Fields needed a lot of effort to create, but it wasn't necessarily very difficult or complicated. With enough effort and concentration, it was doable for anybody, and the rewards were more than worth the cost.

If a Bounded Field was constructed correctly and no rookie-mistakes had been made, such as leaving a focal point of the Spell outside the Field itself, neglecting a part of the stabilisation-process, or rushing through the last part of construction, leaving frayed edges that could be exploited, then breaking through said Bounded Field was extremely difficult.

Bounded Fields could serve as a direct wall, or rather, a type of force-field, that could keep attackers out, but they could also hold many different defences, such as walls of fire, storms of razor-sharp icicles, stakes that rose from the ground whenever someone stepped somewhere they shouldn't, and more.

Worse, Bounded Fields could also have traps built into them. In such a case, it would seem like the Bounded Field broke down, but the moment a careless attacker entered the premises, the Bounded Field would reactivate and kill the attacker, or drain them of energy, or paralyse them, or do some other horrible thing.