65 Saber vs Lancer

"Did my ideals hurt you that much Mordred?" She asked with a twinge of pain crossing her face.

"I . . . I . . ." Mordred was left without words and suddenly the two Sabers sensed another enemy on the docks nearby.

"We'll put this off for another time." Artoria suddenly said.

"Fine . . ." Mordred replied in a low voice.

"Hmph! Shall we greet this uncouth interloper?" Jun asked Irisviel while holding out his hand.

Without even thinking about, it, just driven by his charm and charisma, she took it and replied with a question of her own.

"As allies?"

"If you so wish." Jun replied.

"Then let us go." Irisviel replied and Saber followed along.

"First though. Return ahead Mor, I'm not planning on revealing you yet. I'll bring Caster with me instead." Jun said.

"Got it master. I'll wait for you at home." Mordred replied and wandered off before Morgan appeared out of nowhere alarming Irisviel and Artoria.

"This is Caster." Jun introduced.

He had fused the Veil of Death's Secrets into Morgan's own veil to better hide her identity so Artoria could not even feel anything strange about her actually, she could feel nothing at all.

'This Servant, I can't sense anything about her, even my Instinct can only tell she's a threat and not much else which means she's hiding her power with a Noble Phantasm of a Skill maybe.' Artoria theorized.

'Whatever the case, their allies for now so let us meet our foe.' She decided.

"Caster, you can hide yourself until you're called but if you feel like showing yourself, I won't stop either." Jun said.

"As you wish master." Morgan vanished with the power of the Veil of Death's Secrets.

"Well then, I guess I'll play Irisviel's bodyguard while Saber fights the opponent, is that okay with you two?" Jun suggested.

Saber turned to Irisviel and she nodded.

"The I shall leave Irisviel's protection to you Jun." Artoria said.

"Worry not Saber. While I drawn breath, you have my word no harm shall befall her." Jun swore and they were both surprised but Artoria felt she could trust his words.

Meanwhile, Jun thought.

'Unless Gil fires his Ea at me, I can tank every other Servant in this Holy Grail War anyway.'

That was only if utterly necessary, Jun was planning on being very careful about revealing his own power in this world since he didn't want another ultra powerful existence catching wind of him and decided to put him down just to be sure.

'Man DxD, no matter how crazy it is, it's still safer if I don't mess with the wrong people.' Jun thought.

Soon enough, the three arrived at the dock with Morgan hidden somewhere thereabouts. As soon as they approached the position of the Servan wilfully revealing his presence, they all heard a voice.

"Welcome. I have spent the entire day searching this city yet, everyone simply hides away in their little holes." The Servant said as he revealed himself, an extremely handsome man carrying two spears, a red long and a yellow short one but they were wrapped in some sort of cloth.

"You, brave one, are the only one who responded to my invitation. Tha pristine valor . . . You are Saber I presume?" The Servant continued.

"Indeed." Artoria replied.

"And you must be Lancer." She added.

"I regret we cannot exchange names, even though we shall be fighting to the death. It is the fault of those unfortunate rules." Lancer continued.

"In that case shall I reveal you name so you can fight honorably Lancer?" Jun interjected.

"Hoh? You claim to know my identity mage?" Lancer inquired as Artoria and Irisviel both looked at Jun.

"Indeed. These eyes of mine see right through you but, since I know knights like yourselves desire fair fights, I shall leave the decision of whether names are revealed to Saber." Jun said.

Hearing this, Saber turned to Irisviel.

"Saber?" Irisviel asked but then realized.

'This might harm Kiritsugu's plans a bit but . . . If what that person said is the truth, it doesn't even matter, besides, this will help me make sure he speaks the truth.' Thinking this, Irisviel nodded.

Seeing the nod, Saber smiled with thanks and then turned to Lancer.

"Lancer! You face Britain's King of Knights, Artoria Pendragon." Artoria named herself.

"Oh?" Lancer smiled.

"If that's the case, a Knight's honor demands that I reveal my name as well. I'm-" Lancer was interrupted.

"Stop Lancer, this is a ploy, do not reveal your True Name." Kayneth said from his hiding spot, making his voice resound throughout the docks.

Hearing this, Lancer gritted his teeth with a bit of resentment.

"He is Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, of the Knights of Fianna." Jun revealed Lancer's identity which made Kayneth "tch" but Lancer himself looked at Jun with gratitude.

"Now that we can fight honourably as knights, let us begin!" Diarmuid declared, since his name was revealed, he saw no point in concealing his noble phantasm and Artoria did the same, revealing her Golden Sword, Excalibur.

Saber charged in first, Lancer thrust with his long spear but Saber skillfully deflected it and moved in. Alas, Lancer saw it coming and thrust at her with his short spear, forcing her to dodge backwards

Since there was no tactical probing from each side to try and figure each other out, the battle was progressing much faster as both sides clashed at blinding speeds.

They fiercely exchanged blow after blow but unlike the anime, with both of them fighting seriously from the start with knowledge of each others' abilities, Saber had the advantage.

Skilfully deflecting Lancers cursed short spear, Gae Buidhe which inflicted wounds that never healed until either the spear's destruction or Lancer's death, of her armor while knocking aside with her sword Lancer's long spear that could go through her armor with its magic cutting ability.

'As expected.' Jun thought.

'With both of them fighting seriously from the get go and with full knowledge of the others' noble phantasms, Saber is much better, Diarmuid is just surviving. The only reason he got her so good in the anime was his little ploy with his noble phantasm.' He evaluated the battle.

Kiritsugu was already on site and went to set himself up in an advantageous position from where he could observe the battlefield. He noticed Jun and wondered who he was but since he seemed to be on their side, Kiritsugu dismissed him for the moment.

There was a tall crane but he felt it was too obvious so he picked another elevated spot from where he could watch the battle and the crane in case someone used it to snoop in on the fight happening below.

Once Kiritsugu set up, he spotted Kayneth but just as he was about to shoot him down with his rifle, the wind blew and his instincts, refined on many battlefields bade him to look up, spotting one of Assassin's bodies on the crane.

'Assassin!? Looks like there is more to the first battle than meets the eye . . .' He though.

Meanwhile, Kirei watched the occurring battle through Assassin's eyes describing it to his master Tokiomi along with informing him of the revealed identities and Servant's parameters, as well as Irisviel and Jun's presence.

There was somebody else too, the Rider Servant, Iskandar was watching from afar, on top of a bridge with his master while thinking.

"Hmm . . . It's bad, very bad.

This battle is progressing to quickly! At this rate, one of them will definitely fall here." He said out loud.

"Isn't that a good thing!?" His master waver questioned.

"Fool!" Rider stomped on the bridge's scaffolding, scaring his master.

"What are you talking about? I wanted to keep watching until a few more masters showed up but Lancer might suddenly go down the way things are going. Then it will be too late." He continued.

"T-To late?" Waver asked.

"Wasn't the plan to attack after they knocked each other out?" He added.

"It's true that I was hoping other Servants to answer Lancer's challenge. Isn't it obvious? It would be faster to fight them all at once than finding them one by one." Rider responded.

"All at once?" Waver asked.

"Of course!" Rider exclaimed.

"Rarely does on have the chance to exchanged blows with heroes from other ages and if six gathered in one place, I would get to fight all of them!" He explained.

"Look at Saber and Lancer." Rider continued.

"Both are valiant warriors I would love to duel with. It'd be a pity to let either of them die." He revealed his thinking.

"But isn't that the point!? You're supposed to kill each other in the Holy Grail War!" Waver shouted at his Servant, only to be rewarded with a powerful forehead flick that knocked him down.

"To win but not destroy. To conquer but not humiliate. That's what true conquest is!" Rider declared.

"The watching ends here! We will also participate from now on boy!" He shouted as he summoned his chariot noble phantasm, Gordius Wheel.

"You idiot! What you're doing is insane." Waver complained.

"You can stay here and watch if you don't approve." Rider suggested.

"I'll go. Take me, you idiot!" Waver shouted in response to his Servant's suggestion.

"Good! Now that's my master." Rider was pleased as he roared with laughter.

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