Light and Shadows

[Jacob Archer]

[Late Morning, Day 2]

Jacob leaned back in his chair, waiting for his coffee to arrive as he watched people heading to and from the city’s cathedral. The Cattedrale di Santa Elena – one of several cathedrals and basilicas devoted to helping guide the souls of the masses...

...And the only place that could protect a defeated Master. Jacob shuddered a little, despite the warm morning sun. After last night’s battle, he was wondering how likely it was for a Master to live long enough to take the Church up on their offer. Jacob tried to clear his head as the waitress arrived with his coffee and a local paper. No matter what he thought the odds were, he had not been defeated last night and he wasn’t going to waste time on what-ifs – no matter how terrifying they might be…

Jacob started flipping through the paper as he took a sip of his coffee, and then grimaced. Obviously, the café had a different definition of ‘extra sugar’ then he did. Luckily, the table had sugar, so he starting pouring it into his coffee until he was fairly sure he couldn’t dissolve any more, then added a little more for good measure. A quick test proved the coffee now more to his liking.

He spent the next several minutes flipping through the paper, sipping at the coffee, before he turned to his Servant. Bradamante noticed the change in his attention almost immediately. “One thing has been bugging me since this started.” Jacob tapped his finger one the paper. The headline read, in Italian, ‘strange creatures spotted in Lucca – Police launch inquiry.’ “I’ve read about the last grail war – heard the occasional story. Friend of a friend of a friend sort of things sometimes. None of them ever mentioned anything like these things attacking Masters, let alone non-Masters.” Jacob paused for a moment, taking another sip of his coffee, before he continued. “Something doesn’t seem right here. That being said, we are in a grail war – the other participants aren’t going to wait while we look into a local curiosity. So – monster hunting or mage hunting?”

[Bradamante]

Caught with a spoon in her mouth and the mind focused on her strawberry ice cream, the red haired woman sitting at the same table as Jacob stopped to ponder.

She searched through her mind for something regarding those monsters. A small bit of knowledge the Grail could have given her, but she had no clue about the monsers that 'newspaper' had written on it.
Monsters killed Jacob's uncle, and she already killed a few of them as soon as she was summoned. Yet, she had no idea of what they where.

"Monster Hunting" she said "Those creatures concern me, even more than masters and servants do. We should at least discover what is their relation with in the grail war. They certainly are related. Maybe we should try to see where they're spawning. There may be some criteria."

Bradamante raised her eyes toward the roofs of the houses. No doubt those creatures were part of the grail war, but who or what could be their creator? An insanely powerful Master? An insanely powerful servant? A thing was sure: those creatures were a danger, and they were so blatantly unnatural they deserved attention.
"Maybe the church knows something about them" she said, before taking another bit of ice cream "Yet, it bugs me they didn't look so friendly last time, so I doubt they will share some information, even if they know something about them."

She moved slightly from the chair, and stared at Saint Helen's Cathedral with a bitter gaze. The Church changed a lot since her times, or maybe she was too busy fighting Saracens to notice at the time.

[Jacob Archer]

Jacob sighed, realizing his Servant was right. Despite being generally peaceable, there was little love lost between the church and the Mage Association, to say nothing of individual mages. Even then, a possible grail was at stake here, and the church surely had an interest in that. “You would think that they would be more helpful.” Jacob though out loud. Maybe they were just tired of having to clean up the messes left by mages. The ending of the last grail war had not been pretty.

His musings on the politics of shadow organizations was cut short by what sounded like almost like a massive explosion, but…confined, bottled up. The street had already began to clear out, but those that were left stopped to stare and the column of smoke that rose to the west. After a few moments, the pedestrians simply dismissed it as something that wasn’t their concern, and tried to continue on with their day.

Then a second scream tore through the town, but this one was different. Instead of the deep howl of an explosion, this was an ear piercing shriek, so loud that everyone in sight simply ducked and covered their ears – Jacob included. It was an eerie, high-pitched sound somewhere between a dying animal and tearing metal. It went on for what seemed like an eternity, but after less than a minute it tapered off, leaving a stunned crowd in a silence punctuated only by the wail of a couple of car alarms. The people around the café soon began to murmur about what it had been in low voices, as if scared that it could hear them, before cautiously deciding that it, like the explosion, was not their concern. IT was amazing what people could ignore.

Jacob had no such luxury.

He quickly tossed a few bills on the table and, not bothering to wait for his change, rose to his feet. “Time to work, Lancer.”

[Bradamante]

Bradamante stood up from the chair, watching toward the direction of that inhuman scream. What in the world could possibly emit such a sound?
"Let's go, master"
The red haired woman immediately took position at the side of the young mage, and followed him to the source of the explosion.
As they were getting closer, the woman noticed a few things that made her feel nervous.

Despite the large number of people not caring near St Helen's Cathedral, a very small number of them was moving away from where that scream came from. She easily noticed terror in their eyes, even if only one or two were running away.

What she didn't like at all, as they were approaching the source of the scream, was a large amount of people gathering at a corner of a street to see what was happening. Many were pointing those 'phones' they all had toward the sky in the same direction, toward something hidden from her eyes by a row of houses. What the hell were they doing?

As the duo reached the crowd, Bradamante's line of sight was no longer blocked, and her blue eyes could see the source of such a commotion.
She could feel her jaw dropping at the sight of that enormous creature attached to a wall like a giant lizard at the other side of the square they just entered.
"By Saint Jeorge's spear!" she said "That can't be!"

Bradamante istinctively turned toward Jacob, and pushed him close to a wall, away from the crowd.
Panic makes no one care for anyone but himself: she saw it many times on the battlefield, and it was something you could easily see coming by assessing the situation.
Now, it was far too easy to predict what that crowd of unaware persons would do as soon as that creature would target them: start a desperate run for their life, not caring if they could trample anyone in the process.

Stupid. Those people were real stupid: by standing there they where all dead. She had to do something.
"Master, stay back"
The woman wondered why that thing was still there, not moving. She could see the long neck, the scales shining in the sun. The long, sharp theets, stenched with fresh, red blood of an unfortunate victim. There was something wrong with that creature, something twisted in his color, something inherently evil in its eyes.

Bradamante could hardly believe her eyes: at the other side of the square with serpent like eyes and a large pair of sharp wings stood a dragon. A real dragon.

[Jacob Archer]

Jacob worked his way through the alleyways and narrow streets of Lucca, heading toward the source of the commotion. He was one of the few – As they drew closer, more people were actually paying attention to what had happened. Most were simply trying to film whatever had happened with their phones, oblivious to the danger by virtue of distance.

However, once they reached the source, people had stopped gawking and started running in very appropriate fear. The only people moving against the thin flow of people were a cop, trying to keep people moving and a random shop owner, who had turned around to help somebody who had fallen while the fled. Even the bravest citizens, however, had their limits. Jacob and Bradamante pressed on.

Soon, they reached the small square which was ground zero. Around the perimeter, people were frozen, staring in a mixture of shock and horror. Jacob didn’t blame them – If he hadn’t seen what he had in the last 24 hours, he would be doing the same thing. Instead, He simply stared for a moment at what they had come to fight.

It was large – larger than a horse, and almost as large as one of the small hatchbacks it seemed to have crushed. Its body was covered in Blackish-grey scales, A heavily muscled tail wrapping around massive clawed feet. Broad shoulders supported two massive, leathery wings the size of an ultralite. A short neck was craned over, the broad, triangular head busy munching on an unfortunate piece of prey.

It was a dragon. That was the only word Jacob could use to describe it. The rational part of his brain knew that was impossible – dragons were immensely powerful beings. A dragon could have destroyed the town at this point, if it wanted. That was all, for a moment, overridden by the lower, more basic part of his brain, screaming out in terror and begging him to run.

But only for a moment.

Jacob turned to Bradamante. The…Wyvern, for lack of better name, was still busy. It only had four limbs, the front wings hiding whatever it was eating, as if afraid something might steal it. “La…”

“Stay back” Bradamante put an arm out, directing him toward a wall. It seemed that she had a firm grasp of the situation.

“It’s not a real Dragon.” Jacob explained, his voice low, not wanting to attract any attention. “Even the civilians would feel the prana coming off the thing if it was.” His glance drifted over to one of the crushed cars. “That being said, It’s not exactly fragile.” He turned his gaze back to Bradamante. “Still, I don’t think you’ll lose to an overgrown lizard.”

The ‘overgrown lizard’ seemed to sense somebody was talking about it, quickly jerking its head up, and staring toward the pair. It let out another piercing shriek before it spit a fireball toward them. Lancer reacted faster than Jacob ever could, quickly pulling both of them out of its path, though Jacob could feel the waves of heat across his cheek as the it scorched a brick wall. The Wyvern let out another shriek and hunched over its meal, staring at the pair intently. It took a moment for Jacob to realize it was defending its food. And once it finishes its first taste, it’ll go looking for seconds. “You handle the lizard, I’ll get the civilians out of the way.”

[Bradamante]

"Be very careful, master" she said as an doubt passed through her mind "Don't forget that there may be other masters hidden inside that crowd."
She knew she had to face that monster to defend not only Jacob, but all the people in the area, but in doing so, her master would be more exposed to hidden dangers.

"I'll tear it apart and be back soon"
She said that with a determinated tone, but she still felt a bit of fear. She was much more stronger than she was in her old life, but she still felt the stomach contracted. Despite her rebirth as servant, that sensation was a proof that she was still human inside.


With a blink, the periwinkle armor of Bradamante materialized on her out of thin air, like dust compacting itself around her body as she started moving toward that montruosity.
Her short sword appeared directly into her left hand. A second later, her golden spear appeared into the opposite hand, kept with the tip toward the ground.

The beast roared as the servant was walking closer. The woman described an arc as she was approaching, to prevent further projectile spat by the monster head toward Jacob and the other people.
She really had to do nothing to gain the monster attention: getting closer was enough to unnerve the creature, that shoot another fire ball toward her.
Bradamante simpy dodged by stepping aside. The fireball continued its flight hit a car on the side of the square, causing it to flinch and shattering its glasses.

The small pieces of glass tingled around, partially covering the sound of her metal greaves on the ground. Bradamante kept walking toward the dragon, assessing the situation one more time.
Finally, the monster abandoned her meal and dashed forward, Jumping toward the invader in an attempt to bite her.
Bradamante dashed back, out of its grasp to immediately charge forward, aiming for a direct hit on the monster's head with her spear. She underestimated the creature's speed though: the lizard reacted fast, and shielded itself with one of its legs. Her weapon managed pierce the limb, but it was not a deep wound.
The scales were rather resistant, she realized.

A black trail of tainted blood described an arc in the air as the monster raised the wounded limb with a scream.
Before the knight could react, it suddenly turned with an enraged roar. The tail came toward her quick like a giant leash, and she was thrown through the square like a doll.

She managed to keep the grip on both her weapons as she hit the car behind her with a crashing sound.
"Nnrgh..." she could feel the taste of her blood on in her mouth.
Her neck was pulsating for the pain as she found herself inside the now destroyed car.
That was quite a hit, yet she was mostly unharmed despite the pain. Being a servant had just saved her.
"Nice" she emerged from the empty space that used to be a car door with a drop of her own blood on the right side of her mouth "I guess we're even" she said.

[Jacob Archer]

Jacob didn’t waste any time watching Bradamante launch into battle, instead immediately heading toward the nearest pair of stunned civilians. The couple looked like they had been out on a date when the Wyvern had decided to show up and were now holding onto to each other as the hid behind an expensive looking convertible that had survived most mostly unharmed so far. “Run!” he yelled at them over the din of the fight, but they just stared at him. Maybe they didn’t understand English? If that was the case, he had little choice but to try his rusty Italian. "Correte! Veloci!" That seemed to get through to them, a the pair immediately began to head down the street, away from the chaos. “Two down…”

Jacob looked over the car toward the fight just in time to watch Bradamante launch herself into a soaring arc away from him and landing on another side of the square. While this did stop the monster from aiming at his current position, the scattering of people along the edge of the square meant that, for now, somebody was always in the line of fire. Jacob decided to prioritize those in the line of fire, running around the edge of the square toward a small café, trying to ignore the scene behind him that would have seemed ridiculous a couple of days ago.

Inside the café was maybe a dozen patrons and staff, all hiding behind counters and table or simply pressed against the back wall. A couple of people in the back hallway had their phones out, taking pictures of the fight. They all turned to look at him as he entered the store, the small bell above it jingling as the door swung open and closed. "Uscite dalla porta posteriore, subito!” The monster outside roared as if to punctuate the statement and everyone quickly followed his orders and piled out the back door. Once he was sure there was nobody still here, he turned to leave, just in time to see the Wyvern rearing it head. Realizing what was about to happen, Jacob ducked behind the serving counter, disappearing behind it just as a fireball crashed through the café.

He took a moment to catch his breath, considering the situation. So far, all the civilians had remained calm. Taking a look over the edge of the counter to check on the status of the fight, he guessed it was out of shock more than anything. He watched as Bradamante charged in close at an incredible speed.

But the Wyvern was faster. Its tail lashed out, sending her across the square and into the convertible the couple had been behind earlier. He winced sympathetically – no matter how durable a Servant was, that couldn’t have been pleasant. All he could do now though was try his best to stay out of the way and get as many people out before they started panicking – and once people started panicking, people were going to start dying.

[Bradamante]

The knight passed a hand on her mouth and cleaned it from her blood.
A full frontal assault resulted in a painful crash against a car.
Bradamante assessed the situation and sheathed her sword.
She raised the tip of her spear and changed grip on the weapon, preparing to use it with both hands.

"Come On!" she shouted, dashing forward and keeping the dragon's attention on herself.
The creature roared as it shoot another fire ball in her direction, but the periwinkle knight sidestepped with ease, and changed direction with a dash on her left.

The monster pressed forward, with the clear intent of attacking with its claws. Bradamante moved backward with a jump, landing on the hood of a car. As the scaly lizard kept advancing, the woman dashed forward, to provoke the attack of that twisted creature.

It attacked, with a rapid slash aimed at her upper torso.
The knight stopped her move and lowered, turning on herself.
She could feel the claws of the monster touching her hair as she lowered down, and her heart skipped a beat.

The trick worked though, and the servant managed to gain momentum with her rotation. She sent her spear forward in a fast, ruthless pierce: The scales of the monster could not resist this time, and the weapon inflicted a deep wound in the armpit of the right frontal leg.

The dark blood of the monster sprayed out of the wound as the monster roared for the pain and elevated itself on his back limbs.

The spear was planted deeply, and Bradamante kept the grip despide the monster rearing.
She was carried along, hanging to her weapon in mid air. She let the grip of her right hand to reach for her sheated sword. As the dragon was shaking his body in pain, Bradamante was tossed around like a flag shaken by a strong wind.
"Damn you, demon!" she shouted in frustration.

[Jacob Archer]

Jacob ducked out of another small shop, now cleared of civilians, and took a look at the fight. Bradamante had sheathed her sword, staring down the oversized lizard. For the briefest of moments, calm fell upon the destroyed square.

It was shattered an instant later as Bradamante charged at the beast with a shout, responding in kind with a resonating roar and another of those scorching fireballs. The lancer dodged with ease, backing away in to another soon-to-be doomed car before charging again.

The wyvern swung at Bradamante, but she simply ducked under it. Here, Lancer was in her element, moving through the fight with a grace and speed no human could hope to match. And that speed brought the weapon to bear as it buried itself into one of the Wyverns legs. It roared, rearing backward with the Lance still buried in its leg and pulling Bradamante with it.

Bradamante continued to fight with the lizard even as it continued to thrash about the square, crashing and bouncing off facades and storefronts before thundering toward Jacob’s own position. Jacob’s eyes widened briefly before his legs caught up with his brain, pulling him out of the way before the fight in progress crashed through the space he had been in a moment earlier and through the storefront into the store.

On the bright side, the Wyvern was now out of the square. However, if it could punch through the front wall, it could punch through the back wall. “This just keeps getting better and better…”

[Bradamante]

"Yeeeaaaargh!" The woman cried out, as she finally managed to unsheat her sword.
Bradamante was still grabbing her spear as the creature kept shaking his body around in pain, and had finally managed to balance herself with a foot on the scales of the roaring monster. She was about to attack as her eyes catched a glimpse of a wall becoming horribly close.
Maybe for the simple pain and a series of random movements, maybe for the clear intention of crushing her, the giant body mass she was attached to was about to crush on a wall with her in the middle.
"Oh for the love of...!"
The Lancer was playing really bad her cards, but that was her first dragon-like-thing she ever fought. No, that probably was not an excuse.

To avoid getting crushed, she jumped away without her spear just a second before the creature collided with the wall.
Clenching her teeths, Bradamante landed safely a few meters away.
The dragon raised a giant cloud of dust and debris.
The periwinkle knight quickly gazed around the square to assess the situation. There were a lot less people in there, but Jacob was now dangerously close to where the monster dived in.

Then, another angry roar.
The servant reacted immediately, realizing what was about to happen, dashing forward in a desperate leap.
Blinded by the pain, the monster was about to attack anything in sight, and the closest target had just became her Master.
The giant lizard crawled out of the hole in the building with the mouth open, ready to crush the young mage with its teeths.

"Jacob!" she cried as she managed to reach him in time to remove him from the trajectory of the jaws of the monster. The mouth of the dragon closed, but her master was spared.

Bradamante let out a scream of pain as the sharp theets managed to break through her armor and tear away her left arm like a piece of paper.
The pain was like a million of needles piercing her shoulder. Despite her supernatural status the woman fell to her knees, losing the grip on her sword.

Was that her end already?

[Jacob Archer]

It happened fast.

Bradamante jumped clear of now destroyed storefront before a pained roar ripped through the air. The infuriated lizard pulled its self out of the collapsing structure, looking for something, anything, to rip to shreds. And Jacob had just become that something.

He had no time to react, just enough time to realize that this entire pear-shaped trip was about to come to an abrupt, painful and –hopefully - sudden end. But the sudden darkness never came. An instant before the massive jaws crushed him, he felt himself physically hurled out of the way followed shortly by a single agonized scream.

Jacob pulled himself to his feet from a hard landing and turned to where he had been a moment earlier, now a dozen feet away. The Wyvern was now occupied, staring at the bloodied form that was collapsed at his feet. Even from distance, He could see the massive wound cutting down through her left shoulder, a crimson pool forming beneath her. Her arm hung from her body and a unnatural angle, as if the bones had been disconnected at the shoulder and the limb left to flail in the wind.

It took a moment for Jacob’s mind to piece things together. Bradamante had taken the attack for him. His Servant of less than two days had sacrificed herself just so he could run. Just two days after he started, his time as a Master was over….

No.

He realized it was irrational for him, for somebody who had no real stake in the war, to even consider this. He should except his Servants sacrifice and cut his losses. He should make sure his Servant didn’t die in vain and get out of this mess alive. But he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t leave her here, not after everything that had happened. He knew that the rational decision would be to run.

To hell with rationality.

“Hey, you!” Jacob yelled at the creature as it hunched over his Servant. Behind it, half of a kitchen was visible as it fell apart from the rampage. Jacob raised one hand toward the Wyvern. “Get the hell away from her.” In his mind, gears churned as he prepared his magical circuit. He didn’t need to kill the thing, just slow it down, distract it long enough to get both of them out of there.

The monster reared up in response, giving another deafening roar as challenge. Jacob stood his ground – He’d made his decision the moment he had seen Bradamante collapsed where he had been a moment before. Under his breath, he started his incantation as the Wyvern seemed to prepare itself. “Torrwch lawr fy gelynion…”

Just like before, it spat a ball of fire in his direction, but this time he was ready. “Trowynt!” A funnel of air blasted forward, powered by every scrap of energy Jacob thought he could spare. An instant after the fireball had taken flight; the miniature cyclone had engulfed it and sent it back toward its sender. The now flaming cyclone hit the creature square in the face, and it screamed in agony and confusion, unused to being hit with its own attack. It reared back, wings flapping wildly as it tried to put out the flames engulfing its head and upper body.

Jacob had launched forward as soon as he had loosed the spell. He didn’t bother looking up at the newly enraged monster as he bolted toward Bradamante’s position. Without missing a step, he scooped up the wounded knight and continued forward toward the nearest alley.

His legs pumped, his entire body screaming at him to stop, but he did his best to ignore it. In his arms, Bradamante was limp, her breath shallow. She was surprisingly light, but it might have just been the adrenaline. Behind him, he could hear the Wyvern unleashing its frustration at losing its meal on the nearest structures. “I’m sorry,” Jacob started, to nobody in particular. “Some Master I turn out to be – two days and I get you half-killed. I know you have your own reasons to be fighting, and I’ve been useless. I should have….” Behind him, the sounds of destruction grew fainter. “I should have come up with a plan, or had us approach more carefully. Anything but just rush in blindly.” What if it hadn’t just been a monster? What if it had been a Master and Servant setting a trap? Jacob’s feet stumbled, forcing him to lean on an alley wall unless he wanted to end up landing on top of Bradamante.

The brief pause was all his body needed to drag him down as he legs turned to lead, the running finally catching up with him. He slumped against the wall, his lungs burning. This close to her, he could see just how bad her injury was. Her arm was hanging on by what looked like a few tendons, a massive wound stretching from her collarbone down her side. It was hard to imagine that anybody could survive such a wound, let alone recover from it.

Jacob leaned back against the wall, waiting for his body to start working again. “I’m sorry…”

[Bradamante]

"It's..." the knight's voice was a whisper "...all right."
It clearly wasn't. Despite the pain that was crushing her brain in an endless wave of fire coming from her shoulder, she still found the strenght to raise her head and openly lie.

She could clearly feel the magic bond she had with that kid. Invisible force, his prana was already flowing in her direction, a soft tingle on her wounds, already at work to fix her damages.

Damn, what a stupid she had been. But she managed to save Jacob. That's why she remained in that war in the first place: to save a person that had nothing to do with it and was forced to 'play' in it.
Still, he was not the only one that had to be protected. That creature had to be stopped at all cost, no matter what.
The simple idea of that thing feasting on unaware innocent people prompted her to stand up to no avail.

Prana.
She knew what had to be done thanks to the knowledge the grail gave her.
"Jacob" she said "I...need all the prana you can spare"
She took a deep breath "That thing needs to die before many innocent are killed".
Her azure eyes were burning with determination.
"I need to be able to stand up...again...to ignore this pain for just a little while..." she closed her eyes as the wound reminded her presence with a pulse of pain "We must kill it!"

[Jacob Archer]

“Its….all right”

Jacob stared at Lancer for a moment before leaning back against the wall. “Sure it is. If this is ‘all right’ I don’t want to see all wrong.” Lancer’s wounds were healing slowly, whatever prana she was getting from him only enough to keep her stable. At this rate, she might be able to heal after two or three days – two or three days where they would be completely vulnerable – three days of sitting ducks in the middle of a cut-throat mage war.

There was one solution, and it seemed his servant had thought if it at the same time he did. If the normal prana supply he was giving her wasn’t enough, he would just have to give her more. She wanted to simply stand again… “No,” He cut her off, “If all we do is dull the pain, the best case scenario is that you take that thing with you. Worst case? It kills you and keeps going. We need a plan, and the first part is to get you back in shape.” Jacob closed his eye, took a deep breath, and focused. "I can't fight that thing - but I can make sure you can." In the back of his mind, he found it – the constant pull of Lancer on his being, the trickle of Prana that sustained her being.

He turned that trickle into a torrent. He had poured as much as he thought he could into that wind spell. It paled compared to what he was trying now. Before, it had been what he thought he could use and still run. Now, it was simply how much he could give her before he passed out. He felt the connection surge, his prana pouring into her being and then, slowly, waning. After a few minutes, the connection had returned to the slight trickle of before.

His limbs felt strange – as if asleep, numb and only vague attached to his body. His head felt heavy, and his breath came in ragged breaths. He couldn’t give her any more – he had none to spare. At this point, he doubted he could light a candle. “Alright….Next step. Pull ourselves together, and then…” Jacob glanced upwards toward the rooftops. “Then we need to gain the high ground.”

[Bradamante]

Suddenly the pain ceased.
Despite the brutal injury she was suffering, the knight felt the pain no longer.
A warm tingle was all she was feeling on her exposed flesh.
Jacob was quickly pouring his prana toward her essence.

Magic really was an incredible force. Like in a miracle, Bradamante's injury was quickly recovering under her wide opened eyes
The servant was amazed.
Mages really were extraordinary beings, capable of being saviours or demons at the same time. Her mind ran back and for an instant thought about all the mages she knew back in her time friends or foes: the generous Melissa, the spirit of Merlin and the powerful Atlante.

Jacob's breath became heavy, and the red haired woman came back to reality: the kid gave all he could to heal her at the cost of all his strenght.
Her armor was still broken, but her body was in perfect shape. Her master had been nothing less than amazing.

"That was...really impressive" she said as she was standing on her feets again "Let's kill that abomination for good this time."
Carefully, the warrior lifted her tired Master, and quicly jumped toward the roofs.

She landed at the top of a five floor building, high enough to have a complete look at her surroundings.
It was very easy to spot the monster, as a powerful roar tore the air and a large column of smoke rose from a nearby alley.
Bradamante concentrated for a second, and her golden spear materialized on her hand.
A gust of wind moved her hair "I underestimated it, so I won't hold back now. " she said.
Her errors were blatant in her mind. She decided it was time to unleash her noble phantasm and wipe away that thing once and for all with a single, powerful blow.

[Jacob Archer]

“That…was really impressive…”

Jacob looked up at his somewhat surprised Servant and managed a weak grin. “It would be more impressive if I could still walk afterwards.” He grimaced as they landed, his attempt to take a short step to the side ending in him slumping against an air conditioner. “Still, I’m glad it worked.” He glanced toward the square they had evacuated from earlier. Every so often, a small plume of smoke billowed up from it. “Guess it’s time to finish our morning business.”

"Let's kill that abomination for good this time." Lancer agreed as a roar tore through the air. After a moment, a gust began to blow across the roof, seemingly centered on his Servant as something began to materialize in her hand. "I underestimated it, so I won't hold back now.”

It took Jacob a moment to process what she meant. She was going to use her trump card, her Noble Phantasm - The very weapon that defined her, as key to the myth of the Heroic Spirit as the hero herself. Part of his mind still thought she could beat it without resorting to such measures, if the right strategy was taken. It was, after all, just an overgrown lizard.

The greater part of him agreed with the idea. There was no kill like overkill.

After a few more moments the golden spear finished materializing and the gust died down. As he watched his Servant prepare to deliver a well-deserved smiting to the beast in the square, a grin grew on his face. “Put that bastard down.”

[Bradamante]

"I will" she stated with determination, taking a few steps forward, up to the border of the building.
Her eyes wandered through Lucca's roofs, in search of a sign of the creature. They didn't have to look for long though: a new roar arose from a nearby alley, and the explosion of a car were more than enough to determine the monster's position.

She leaped to the nearest roof keeping her spear behind her. From there, the servant descended on a balcony full of flowers.

The woman grabbed an empty clay pot that was sitting in the middle of many filled with plants, then kept moving forward.
It took no more than five more leaps, and the periwinkle knight could see the monster once again. She stopped on a ledge of a close building to assess the situation.

The aberration was crunching the remains of an unfortunate passerby. A victim of her errors.
She angrily threw the pot toward the other side of the road, and immediately jumped down with her spear in hand.

As soon as the pot hit the ground, the monster turned its head toward the sound, leaving its neck completely exposed for her.
A quick spin of her weapon and the golden tip was ready to pierce
"You're going to die this time, bastard!" she cried out, as the weapon teared apart the thick skin of the creature, uplifting and breaking a large number of scales.

A roar of agony raised from the monster. Black, dark blood erupted from its neck, but it looked like it was still far from being a mortal wound.
As it turned its head, the periwinkle knight balanced herself with a foot on its scales and jumped away, extracting her spear in the process.

Totally blinded by the pain, the dragon spat out a line of fire that barely managed to get close to her.
After a somersault, Bradamante put a sudden stop to her movement, and her golden spear started to shine.
"This is for the people you killed"

For a split second, she wondered about what she was about to do. She knew what a Noble Phantasm was, and she knew how to use it. The grail told her everything, but the doubt that it was a lie entered her mind like a nail.
Was she really capable of such a feat? It was too late for doubts as her body was almost moving on its own, caught in the heat of that battle.
She dashed forward and unleashed her power, channeled through her legendary weapon.
"Taste my 'Golden Spear'!"

She pierced forward. She could feel the weapon breaking the mandibles of the monster through the vibrations on her arm. She could feel it penetrating with ease flash and bones of the head of that thing. She could feel the energy surging out of her weapon in the direction she imposed with her movement. She saw it emerging from the back of the head in a yellow bolt of light and fading in the air, dragging along pieces of brains and bones.

After a single spasm that shaked its body, the monster fell lifeless under its own weight, with a huge vibration of the ground.
Amazed at herself, Bradamante was barely believing what she just did, staring at the creature with a mix of relief, disbelief and satisfaction.

"It's dead, Jacob" she said, knowing he could hear her "The bastard is no more"

[Jacob Archer]

Jacob looked over the edge of the roof down toward the slain beast. Well, what was left of the slain beast. Apparently, ‘Overkill’ was the standard setting for a Noble Phantasm against a non-servant. Most of the beast’s jaw was completely blown away, along with a large portion of the back of its head. “Good work.” Part of Jacob’s brain was still trying to work out where the creature had come from. A servant, like Caster or Rider? Perhaps it was an enemy mage – though, if it was an enemy mage, Jacob didn’t want to get anywhere near them. Anybody who could create something like that could squash him flat.

“Let’s hang around and make sure it dissolves like the others.” Jacob slumped against one of the walls, his legs still trying to recover from lending so much power to Lancer. Sure enough, the massive creature began to slowly dissolve like the other creatures had. “Well, at least we know they’re related.” Jacob sighed. He had never had any plans to get into a war, and any ideas he had had about what he was getting into when he was besieged in that locked apartment had gone out the window a long time ago.

But, he had signed up for this war, whether he liked it or not. He might have been so far in over his head that it wasn’t even funny, but he wasn’t going to back out now. Lancer had saved his life repeatedly over the last two day, so the least he could do was help her get the grail.

Tentatively, Jacob rose to his feet, pleased to find that they had decided to start working again. “We should get going, Lancer. I really don’t want to try and explain a dragon siting to some cops.”