Assassin Attacks

The cross-shaped shuriken was simply too famous. Just as cheongsams and Tang suits brought China to mind, while the Statue of Liberty meant America, the moment Tsukahara Meiji saw a cross-shaped shuriken, a term leaped involuntarily into his mind...

Ninja.

As a Japanese and a manga enthusiast, Tsukahara Meiji naturally knew best about these mysterious special forces of his own country!

They came without a trace and left without a shadow, mastered countless ninja arts, specialized in espionage and assassination, and were absolutely loyal to their lord. They were an unforgettable splash of color in Japanese history. Especially now, with anime, manga, novels, and historical dramas appearing one after another, ninjas had become extremely active on people's television screens.

No matter the country, history was always a subject that never lost its appeal. In fact, China's classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms had already been adapted seven times, and an eighth adaptation was reportedly being planned.

Tsukahara Meiji hurriedly turned his gaze toward the enemy. A pitch-black figure crouched amid the branches, wearing the common garb of a night traveler. Beneath it, the silver gleam of chainmail could vaguely be seen. Under the drifting hood was a cloth mask concealing the face... an orthodox ninja outfit.

He had no intention of hiding himself. He simply crouched openly on the branch, his supple body resembling a hunting dog perched on a tree limb. Yet despite being so conspicuous, Tsukahara Meiji could not sense his presence at all...

Though I'm a very weak Magus! But not being able to sense even the slightest trace of him? That's too absurd...

There was only one possibility...

"That guy... is a Servant! Hurry, summon your Heroic Spirit! Humans can't contend with Servants!"

Carl's brows were tightly furrowed, panic creeping into every corner of her face. This was the first time Tsukahara Meiji had seen Carl look so caught off guard... At the Clock Tower, Carl had always remained calm and composed, as though she could face even the collapse of the heavens without changing expression...

However, this had truly exceeded Carl's expectations. Before this moment, she had made so many preparations precisely to prevent the other side from locating them...

Yet they had actually been found? Where exactly had things gone wrong?

(No... before that, there was an even more critical question...)

Carl's mind raced.

That was efficiency.

Command Spells were ultimately just proof of a Master's qualifications. If a Master died before summoning a Heroic Spirit, then what happened? Would the Holy Grail War simply lose a participant? No, impossible. The Grail was not that stupid, nor was it so easily deceived.

Furthermore, according to the records, the Grail would manifest after being filled with the souls of five Heroic Spirits. Only after the sixth Heroic Spirit merged into the Grail would it truly become full and grant the victor's wish.

If a Master died before summoning a Heroic Spirit, then the Grail obviously could not possibly gather seven Heroic Spirits to fight. Therefore, if such an awkward situation truly occurred, the Grail would choose another person and grant them Command Spells. If the new Master also died, it would repeat the process until all seven Servants had been assembled.

In other words, assassinating the two of them before they summoned their Heroic Spirits was inefficient. Not only would it fail to eliminate enemies in the Holy Grail War, it also carried the risk of another Master accidentally discovering Assassin's trail.

The correct approach should have been to watch the two of them complete their summoning, then follow them to find where they were staying, and only then strike. That was the logical course of action.

If the Master had not thought that far ahead, then Assassin could not possibly have just happened upon them, could he? Carl did not believe it. They had taken so many precautions; Assassin's attack was certainly premeditated. His Master could not have been some thoughtless fool...

If it was because the enemy sensed that the target Magi were too strong and wanted to eliminate them in advance, allowing the Grail to choose weaker people and indirectly weaken their opponents, then that made even less sense, because neither of them was particularly outstanding as a Magus...

She could not understand it. The more she thought about it, the more illogical Assassin's ambush seemed.

Tsukahara Meiji was even more shocked. There had been no such contingency in the original plan! In his panic, he saw Carl casually toss two objects into the air, tracing slow arcs through the sky, and hurriedly reached out to catch them...

The enemy was not an idiot either. Since he had decided to snipe the Masters, naturally, he had no intention of letting his targets live.

A pitch-black figure, concealed movements—there was no need to say more. Carl already understood that this was the Assassin-class Servant. The only question was...

"So strong..."

The furrows between Carl's tightly knit brows deepened with agitation.

Generally speaking, Assassin was widely acknowledged as a weak class in the Holy Grail War. In a standard Holy Grail War, the only ones who could be summoned as Assassins were the assassins' progenitors, the assassination clan known as the Old Man of the Mountain.

Because they possessed neither great fame nor astonishing legends, this class had almost no highlights aside from the ability Presence Concealment.

It was no exaggeration to say that, let alone Servants, even many excellent Masters could fight Assassin head-on, or even kill him in direct combat.

However... the Assassin before them was not only dressed as a ninja, completely unrelated to the term Old Man of the Mountain, but his abilities were also...

They were stats comparable to the Three Knights.

Every Master was granted Master abilities. For example, summoning

a Heroic Spirit into the world as a Servant was one such ability. Another was being able to see through the abilities of an enemy Heroic Spirit. Naturally, their True Name and Noble Phantasm could not be learned.

Assassin possessed B-rank Strength and A+-rank Agility. This indicated that this Servant was exceptionally skilled at frontal combat. Agility in particular—reaching A-rank meant completely surpassing human limits.

Japanese ninjas were renowned for their stealth and agility. Carl acknowledged that; it was barely acceptable for an Assassin to possess such agility...

But what was with B-rank Strength?!

What Carl did not know was that the outside world portrayed ninjas as an agility-focused profession. Yet in actual history, every ninja underwent extraordinarily harsh combat training. After all, they were special forces. Though their most common role was covert operations, there were many cases where ninjas clashed head-on with samurai.

Moreover, a Master's magical energy would provide bonuses to a Servant's parameters. These stats fully demonstrated that he had a rather excellent Master.

And besides...

Carl was in trouble.

Facing the Holy Relics Carl had thrown, Assassin casually waved his hand. Seven or eight streaks of silver cold light shot forth, their wavering glint like a torrential storm, pouring down upon Tsukahara Meiji!

How could Carl possibly allow that?!

With an enemy Servant sniping them, their only win rate lay in summoning their own Servants... But chanting the incantation required time, so someone had to stall.

Have Tsukahara Meiji do it?

Don't be ridiculous. How could an amateur possibly contend with a Heroic Spirit?! She could only pray that he would summon his Servant quickly, use it to buy time, and then summon her own.

Carl sidestepped, swinging her gloved left hand. Azure magical patterns appeared upon the silver-white armament like a precise circuit diagram. As Carl moved, a translucent wall of magical energy intercepted the attack before her palm.

The entire barrage of hidden weapons struck it. Magical energy collided with magical energy, kicking up shockwaves like a storm! The trees swayed, leaves scattered, and the roaring wind let out a mournful shriek.

A single strike had created such a thunderous spectacle. This was... the Holy Grail War!

However, it was not over yet!

Seeing his hidden weapons blocked, the black-clad Assassin tapped his feet against the branch and charged forward, his figure both slow and swift!

Slow referred to his movements, light and elegant as though he were a refined kabuki performer dancing at a banquet.

Swift referred to his speed.

Two words that should have had nothing to do with each other, that should even have been opposites, fit together perfectly in this one person for the first time.

In the span of a single breath, he crossed from a branch thirty meters away to Carl's side!

Worthy of A+-rank Agility! This was simply not a speed humans could perceive!

Not even an afterimage remained on her retina. Even Carl's reflexes, warped into something monstrous by magecraft, failed to catch his posture! Had Assassin not paused slightly as he prepared to attack, Carl would probably have been separated from her head before she even knew what he had done!

With a thought from Carl, the Magic Circuits in her back opened fully. Scorching magical energy coursed through every vein in her body, seeping through her like poison. At Carl's command, her body was strengthened once more. The Winsted Family's magecraft was based on reinforcement; this was not merely familiar territory for her, it was effortless.

There was no time to consider more strategies. By instinct, she sent magical energy through her body, from her wrist into her bracer, activating the magecraft engraved upon it. In an instant, layers of reinforcement magecraft surged through Carl's body.

Every strand of blood threading through her muscles was coated in scorching magical energy, transforming into a structure as tough as iron wire. It felt as though burning iron rods had been driven into her bones, making them harder and harder from the inside out. Her skin was the same, taking on a strange, callused sensation like stone.

This was the secret of Carl's Mystic Code.

It worked on the same principle as Tsukahara Meiji's playing cards... Or rather, Tsukahara Meiji's Poker Magic was simply something Carl had taught him after modifying her own magecraft.

Instantly strengthen her own body, then...

Engage enemy Magi in close combat.

Before the opponent's magecraft could activate, she would exploit the instant spent chanting, launch a fierce assault, and defeat them.

If the opponent's magecraft did activate, the anti-magecraft incantations on her bracer would provide protection and intercept it. She did not need to fully block it; she only needed to rush in before the magecraft shattered her defenses and knock the enemy Magus down with a punch.

It was a crude, graceless fighting style despised by many Magi.

Yet at this moment, that despised fighting style saved Carl's life.

Her left hand hung loosely, blocking Assassin's attack path, while her right arm shot forward in a punch. Her body, reinforced many times over with magical energy, unleashed a blow even a Servant could not ignore. The roaring fist tore through the air, and the explosive howl of wind made Assassin's heart tremble. He tapped his foot against the ground, his figure drifting backward, barely evading Carl's surprise strike!

The first battle of the Holy Grail War had officially begun!

PS: Servant Card—Assassin Info Updated