Chapter 7: First Battle of the 4th Holy Grail War

"Night cannot come soon enough," grumbled Jaune as he felt tired from the day of being dragged around by Medb, with Irisviel and Arturia close by. Seriously, it wasn't easy dealing with Medb's lewdness, Irisviel's naivety, and Arturia's…, Arturia was actually the only one that Jaune could handle. She wasn't getting herself drawn into anything totally crazy, and by default getting him into something crazy.

They were on the beach as Irisviel was enjoying wading into the ocean. Jaune frowned; as her innocent reaction was like his sisters' reaction the first time they went to the ocean as a family. Carefree and enjoying themselves. He sighed; he hadn't thought much about his family in the last four years, but whenever he did, he wondered if they were alright and if they would notice his absence. It was selfish to think that he thought, but really, with how much his father looked down on him for 'his actions' and how his sisters used him as the fall guy, he couldn't help think that they wouldn't even give a damn.

"Everything alright Jaune?" Medb asked, startling Jaune from his thoughts.

"Wh-oh, yes, I'm fine," Jaune said quietly. "Just thinking about family was all."

"Oh, how so?" she asked, while keeping an eye on Irisviel and Arturia, who was sitting on the shore looking up at the stars.

"To be frank, I was wondering if they cared about my absence," Jaune said. "I left four years ago to train under my teacher, mentor-from-hell more like, and haven't seen nor heard from them in that time. Granted it wouldn't have been possible, but still…" His trail of thought ended as he felt a flare up of power coming from a distance. He recognized it as the power of a servant, and if Arturia's and Irisviel's reactions were anything to go off by, they noticed it too.

"Hmm, a servant projecting its presence, either they are confident in their ability, or its some sort of trap," Jaune mused. "Medb, you ready?"

"Ah yes I am," Medb said confidently. "While I'm not suited for frontline combat, I'm certain that I can turn the tide to our favor. Now, shall we see who is announcing themselves?"

"Aye, time to get this war started," Jaune said as he saw Irisviel and Ar-Saber run off. Jaune sighed; he needed to not see Saber as a person but as an enemy, as it could cause problems in the long run if he empathized too much with his enemy.

Medb, ignorant of his mental thought, had cut her index finger and began summoning some troops to join them. As the pool of blood formed to create her soldiers, Medb ordered them to stay out of sight, and only intervene on her command.

She and Jaune began to move to the location the Servant was projecting its presence from, which turned out to be a dock. As they closed, Jaune spoke to Medb.

"When we arrive, I want your soldiers to secure the area; I don't want any non-mages to interfere, and if they find any masters to report their locations," Jaune stated. The first had to do with mages having to cover up their activity, which most insisted meant killing any eyewitnesses. The second was because he didn't want to force a master to summon their servant and cutting down the soldiers Medb summon.

"I understand, but you owe me tonight~" Medb said, sending a chill down Jaune's spine. Seriously, was her mind occupied with sex? However, he wondered where Waver was- the young student probably was okay though.

"C'mon Rider, let's get down from here, right now," Waver whined, lying on top of horizontal beam of the Fuyuuki River Bridge. "Take me down!"

Seriously, he thought Iskander wouldn't be a pain in the ass like Medb was, but no, he had to summon someone totally unaffected by heights and capable of ignoring his orders. Oh, and he had a bit of a drinking obsession, as was the case with Iskander taking a long drink from a beer bottle.

"But why? This is a nearly perfect place to survey the land." Iskander asked.

"I'm leaving," Waver said, although to be honest he had no clue how he was going to get down, as he was quite high up… "No wait, take me back down, I can't handle this!"

"Oh calm yourself," Iskander said. "Waiting is a large part of war."

"I want to go, I want to go back to England," Waver whined, as he began to seriously think about the folly of his decision. Even with an alliance with Jaune-one bound by a Geis Contract none the less- Waver began to realize that his opposition were more than willing to kill him than face his servant.

"I told you not to be in such a damn hurry," Iskander said. "You see, things have finally begun to unfold out there." He then began laughing, his face adopting a slightly mad look. "HAHAHA, this is going to be a lot of fun!"

Waver wondered if things were going okay for his comrade; surely, he wasn't faring badly.

"Welcome, I have spent the entire day searching the city for a worthy foe, and everyone slinks away," a male voice called out. Jaune sighed; this ruled out Assassin, as he wouldn't announce himself, and Berserker would presumably be roaring his wrath and note making sense. Then the servant appeared; wearing a form-fitting green outfit, the tall black hair male carried two spears. But most noticeably Jaune noted the mole under the servant's right eye, causing Jaune to groan; this would complicate things.

"Hiding away in their little holes, you alone-" Diarmuid Ua Duibhne said before pausing. Instead of one pair of master and servant, it was two. The first, an albino wearing all white and the blonde servant wearing a black suit, weren't cause for concern, and the master of the second pair was a blonde hair blue eyed young man didn't bother him, even if he had a sword and a pair of gauntlet, but the pink haired woman in front of him.

"AH FUCK NO!" Diarmuid shouted, recognizing the Queen of Connacht. "Medb, how the hell did you ascend to the Throne of Heroes?!"

"Why if it isn't Diarmuid," Medb said coolly. "How nice to meet you. Oh, as to your question, why wouldn't I be among those of the Throne of Heroes?"

"Oh I don't know, how about the fact you went to war over a single prize bull, let countless numbers of your men die at the hands of Cu Chulainn, and twisted men to suit your purpose?!" Diarmuid counter in uncharacteristic anger.

"How dare you; those men were blessed by my presence and-" Medb was cut off by Jaune interrupting.

"Can we save this discussion for another time?" Jaune curtly asked "After all, I'm certain your master and Saber's are not going to wait for you two to finish this debate."

"Fine," Diarmuid said. "However, since I'm certain I could defeat Medb with nary a scratch, do you object to me fighting Saber?" Jaune shook his head.

"Of course not, to whom am I to interfere in a fight between two knights?" Jaune said, getting a slight smirk from Lancer.

"Very well, Saber, since you know my name, may I know yours?"

"Alas, my master has forbidden me from sharing my name so as to not be at a handicap," Saber said. She then began to glow, before her suit was replaced by a battledress armor of silver and blue. "And I won't disobey my master so easily."

"A shame, but-"

"Her name is Arturia Pendragon, FYI!" Medb shouted, cutting off Diarmuid, smiling as Arturia rounded in anger. "What, you're supposed to be the King of Knights, and therefore chivalry, yet you were going to go into battle without announcing yourself? How rude."

"Enough," came the voice of Diarmuid's master. "Lancer, eliminate Saber and I presume Rider."

"Of course master," Diarmuid said. However, before Diarmuid was finished, Arturia blitzed in, swinging her blade. Diarmuid parried the blow with his red spear, and the fight began in earnest.

Jaune could only watch on in amazement as the two knights dueled. Not only were their blows precise and their counters effective, but the sheer force…the ground wasn't strong enough to withstand the pressure from each blow. Jaune faintly reminisced, thinking this is how the Hunters of Remnant must've fought, before he squashed it down. Now was not the time to be nostalgic of his old home, now was the time for witnessing, fighting, and surviving the Holy Grail War.

As Saber and Lancer fought, Jaune mentally talked to Medb, hoping to secure an advantage.

"Medb, have any of the soldiers you created found any masters?"

"They sense the presence of three humans, all of them taking high ground, but they can't ID them," Medb said. "That said, one of my soldiers has contacted Iskander and Waver, and they are watching Diarmuid's and Arturia's fight from the Fuyuki Bridge."

"I see, then-" Jaune stopped as he felt a forbidding presence briefly pass by. Taking advantage of the fight, Jaune gazed up and saw a cloaked figure standing on top of one of the loading cranes. "Damn it, it seems that Assassin is here. Can your soldiers deal with him?"

"They are equipped with spears and swords, nothing with the range needed to take him out- Oh, Jaune, what are these?"

Jaune saw what one of Medb's soldiers were looking at, and he smirk.

"Medb, tell you soldiers to arm themselves with those weapons," Jaune said, quickly informing Medb his plan. "And be readying on my signal, I just need to have Iskander crash the party."

"Oh, do tell me, after tonight, we are going to party, yes?" Jaune groaned; seriously, can she not think of sex for one minute?

From the loading crane, one of the many Assassins was gazing at the battle, taking in the fight. At this point, Saber had abandoned her armor due to Lancer's long spear being able to negate the magical properties of her armor, and had went in for a killing blow.

However, this was merely a ploy by Lancer, as he recovered his short spear and delivered a blow to Saber's hand, one that seemed to not be healing. With this information, Assassin knew (and relayed to his master) the identity of Lancer, Diarmuid of the Lovespot.

Assassin was informed that Rider was on the move…wait, what?! Assassin listened to the other Assassin relaying information to him. A Tall man with red hair was steering a chariot pulled by a pair of oxes from the Fuyuki Bridge to the docks, yet this conflicted with what he knew of Medb.

Medb could've only been summoned as Rider, at least as far as he knew. So how could there be two Riders?! Assassin looked down at Medb and her blonde master, who happened to be-wait, why was the blonde smirking?

RA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!

Assassin felt a flurry of hot metal pass through him, causing him to glare at the dozen or so men in antique armor wielding machine guns. Oh for fuck sakes, did he get mowed down by Medb's summoned soldiers using modern guns? He would never get to live this down.

Jaune smirked as the sound of gunfire caught everyone at the docks off guard; phase 1 of his plan had worked. Through Medb soldiers, he had gunned down Assassin, allowing him to be able to get away should he need to. In addition, it caused Arturia and Diarmuid to be distracted, which would distract Archibald Kayneth and Kiritisugu Emiya in turn.

Jaune watched as Iskander and Waver arrive atop of a massive chariot, lighting heralding their presence.

"Both of you warriors, sheath your blades, for I am a King!" Iskander announced, which caused Jaune to wonder the sanity of Waver's servant. "I am Iskander, King of Conquers! In this battle for the Holy Grail, I am of the Rider Class of Servants!"

Waver looked like he was about to shit bricks, both Arturia and Diarmuid looked both in awe of and incredulously at Iskander, and Jaune could feel Irisiviel staring at him. However, before Jaune could order Medb to initiate phase 2, a very arrogant voice called out.

"Oh, what's this, two Riders in the same war, and one dares to call himself a king?" Jaune turned and saw a man in gold armor staring imperiously at those assembled. "Learn your damn place Mongrel."

Author's Note: Fuck it, I tried to make this longer, but no, my brain refused, and I refuse to let this story go any longer un-updated. I also refuse to practically write the transcript for the entire fight scene between Lancer and Saber cause for me that would require a metric shit ton of pausing and unpausing just to get the dialogue as it was in the show. I will do it for important snippets, but for fight scenes, hell no, especially not when I plan on altering future fight scenes. But yeah I wanted to get this out since it's been so fucking long in the making.

I won't respond to reviews this time as its been a long time, but next time I will. Also, I want to see your guy's reaction to this chapter. So until next, please read, review, follow, and favorite, and I'll catch you guys next time.