Steel Eyed Faker

Chapter 13: Save the Ally

Beta read by Shigiya and Paragon of Awesomeness

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-The Capital-

(Two years ago)

A few days had passed since his little hunting trip with Esdeath, which had culminated with them bathing in a natural spring together in which she’d unexpectedly given him a surprisingly intimate kiss, just to find out whether or not she was attracted to him. 

Emiya could not understand what was going on through that woman's head, much less make sense of it all. But he preferred not to dwell on it too much; trying to understand a person like her would only cause him headaches, so he decided to take her at her word about him ‘not meeting the requirements’. 

A blessing in disguise if he had to say.

He pitied the fool who would end up trapped in her grasp because she’d decided they did meet her five requirements. A joyous occasion for him as it meant her having someone else to irritate every day. 

Woosh! 

But for now, he was still stuck with alleviating Esdeath’s boredom, which she’d currently seen fit to achieve by shooting a barrage of ice blocks at him with lethal precision. 

“Stay still!” 

Clad in simple combat attire and leather padding, Emiya danced across the field. Ice blocks, each as big as his skull, whizzed past him with deadly accuracy. He bobbed and weaved, narrowly avoiding the frozen missiles that Esdeath hurled his way. Each near-miss ended with a thunderous crash, the ice shattering against the ground with a force that rivaled cannonfire. Emiya couldn't help but wonder if this was her twisted idea of a workout or just another sadistic game.

“No.” 

Did she want him to die? Perhaps. 

“Tch!” The blue-haired woman on the other side of the field, seeing that her attacks were ineffective against him, was forced to change her tactics. Esdeath forewent the ice barrage and instead advanced on him with great speed, her rapier held firmly in hand. 

“Hah!” 

Her weapon was thrust forward aiming for his chest, only to be deflected by an identical rapier Emiya was using. 

Both of them had the exact same gear, but one side commanded a Teigu, yet the battle still fell in favor of the one who did not possess an Imperial Arm.

“Ha!” His body twisted around, creating momentum until his leg came sweeping at her face, catching her by surprise and kicking her body away. “Hm?” 

Upon impact, Emiya felt a strange sensation and stared at her to find that just around her face a small layer of ice had sprouted, which managed to absorb most of the power behind his kick even as it broke apart. “That's new.”

An interesting way to use her powers, that thing was very versatile. Much more than he anticipated. 

“Not good enough,” she said, wiping a bit of blood from her nose. “It still takes longer to form the armor than I’d like, for how simple it should be. Had I been a second slower then my jaw would have been dislocated.” 

“Nothing you haven’t been able to heal from in the past.” 

Brutal was one way to describe their regular duels, in which the better part of a liter’s worth of blood spilling was a regular occurrence, with occasional dislocation and broken bones not being absent during and after their fights either. Esdeath had been on the receiving end for most of it, but her injuries kept getting less severe with each battle, serving as further proof of how she kept improving at a monstrous pace.