Ninja vs. Warrior

Facing Leonidas's iron-clamp-like brute strength, Assassin pulled with all his might, yet he still could not wrench his arm free! What terrifying strength!

True, Assassin's B-ranked Strength was rare among Assassins, and combined with his A-ranked Agility, it could unleash a truly terrifying offensive. But in the Holy Grail War as a whole, his abilities could only be considered above average, nothing extraordinary.

Realizing this, Assassin decided not to compete with him in strength. His waist and ribs twisted sharply, and almost instantly, the force from his core traveled to the tips of his toes. He spun and kicked Leonidas square in the face.

Leonidas neither dodged nor evaded. He simply took the kick head-on!

Thud!

The sound of a helmet being struck.

He did not budge.

There was neither the expected collapse of a nasal bridge nor a muffled groan of pain.

True, Assassin's speed exceeded Leonidas's reaction time.

But... so what?

The unmoving giant used his bold figure to embody a single term: helplessness.

Yes. Helplessness.

The spinning kick delivered with Assassin's B-ranked Strength did not hurt him in the slightest!

"! Could it be... his Endurance is EX rank (unmeasurable)..."

Since the battle began, Assassin spoke for the first time, letting out an incredulous growl.

Endurance referred to the sheer vitality of a Heroic Spirit. It mainly described how resilient the body was and how much damage it could withstand.

For example, Assassin's Endurance was C. It was nothing impressive. An outstanding Magus, or a Muay Thai fighter who had undergone multiple enhancements, could threaten his life. In other words, Assassin Hattori Hanzo was a sharp dagger specialized for attack. While he was more lethal than ordinary weapons, he was also easier to break.

The Lancer before him, however, was a true warrior in every sense. Strength, Agility, Endurance—without exception, all were excellent ranks. If he had to be compared to a weapon, he was a heavy-backed cleaver. From the moment it was designed, it was meant to cut down enemies head-on upon the battlefield. Rather than sharpness, its selling point was the crushing force brought about by its massive weight.

A-rank Endurance was already an exceptionally powerful rank, yet even so, it should not have been able to completely ignore his B-ranked spinning kick... The only possibility was that it had reached EX rank... It was simply unimaginable.

Leonidas's Endurance had long been fully proven in the bloody battle of Thermopylae. On top of that, Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta had suddenly been rereleased across China, raising his fame. The film itself used exaggerated methods, forcibly turning the perilous Battle of Thermopylae into a grand tale of three hundred men standing against hundreds of thousands. Spartan warriors became synonymous with powerful fighters in countless people's minds, while Leonidas himself once became synonymous with a tough man.

In that regard, Leonidas and Hattori Hanzo were very similar. Both had been deified and misrepresented by later generations, gaining amplified strength through fame.

When one strike failed, Assassin's thoughts flashed like lightning. The man hailed as the God of Ninja was certainly no fool. He did not believe an invincible enemy could exist. Since he could not win through strength, then...

The foot he had kicked into Leonidas's face dropped sharply. His knee bent, hammering like a chisel into Leonidas's broad upper-arm muscles. Following the force, his calf coiled around Leonidas's thick, powerful wrist like a snake! Immediately afterward, Assassin's other leg lashed upward, planting itself beneath Leonidas's ribs. His feet clamped around Leonidas's arm like scissors, then both arms wrapped around it as well, forcefully clinging to it! This further revealed Leonidas's terror. An adult man hung from his arm; ordinarily, the entire arm would surely droop to the ground. Yet Leonidas held it straight out, keeping Assassin suspended in midair!

Assassin knew how powerful he was, so he did not entertain any clever ideas like making his arm droop. Instead, he twisted Leonidas's wrist to the side—

Crack!

The crisp sound of a joint breaking.

A joint lock!

The most classic method of defeating the strong with the weak! An enemy's limb was twisted unnaturally against its joints, causing immense pain and using that agony to strip away the opponent's will and ability to fight. It was a combat method highly suited to the weak.

Most Heroic Spirits had been elevated from humans, so naturally, their body structures were human as well. So long as one was human, a broken elbow joint would inevitably make it impossible to exert strength.

And yet...

"Heh. Is that all?"

The King of Sparta mocked him with disdain.

That rock-like face seemed like a sculpture, its expression forever fixed in a stiff sneer. It was clearly the agonizing pain of a broken arm, yet Lancer looked as though nothing had happened. Not even his eyebrows moved.

For some reason, Assassin vaguely felt that Lancer's combat ability... had risen?!

Leonidas swung his dislocated arm just like that, his body swaying slightly backward. Using that small motion, he slammed a fist into the floor with a thunderous boom. The move frightened Assassin into immediately jumping off his arm. He shot toward the ceiling, his arms touching the ice wall first, followed by his feet. He hung upside down from it like a bat.

Before he could steady himself, Leonidas's fist had already torn free from the icy floor! The elbow with its broken joint had clearly been further torn apart by the immense force, and small streams of blood kept spraying out.

.

Large chunks of shattered ice shot into the air on the powerful momentum of his rising fist. Lancer kicked his spear with the tip of his foot, and the steel murder weapon spun through the air like a disk! Lancer caught the spear one-handed, wielded it like a baseball bat, and swept it sideways, batting the airborne ice shards like baseballs toward Assassin's body!

But! His elbow joint had clearly been broken!

Even a Servant could not ignore such an injury, especially damage involving a ruined limb. Though it could be healed with magecraft, that took time! Yet Abner was still sleeping quietly, with no intention of supporting his Servant. He had not even been awakened by the thunderous noise!

No one was healing Lancer. He, he was now! His right arm should have been broken!

Yet it was that broken right arm that forcibly seized the spear and even batted shattered ice armor like baseballs. The tremendous force produced a cannonball-like roar as it sped toward Assassin!

How could Assassin dare remain where he was? Midair was the terrain least suited for human combat. There was nowhere to brace oneself in the air, and except for special Heroic Spirits, aerial combat was a weakness for all of them. Facing the howling ice cannonballs, Assassin quickly leaped in one direction. With the recoil transmitted from his toes, his body plunged like a javelin toward a point below.

At the same time, Leonidas had long calculated his landing point! He hurled his shield toward where Assassin would land! The golden Great Shield spun like a saw wheel that claimed lives! Leonidas's massive figure charged forward with a spear in one hand like a heavy war chariot!

The pain of his broken arm had not affected him at all?! The joint in the giant's right arm was clearly covered in purplish-red bruising from that reckless movement, standing out sharply against his wheat-colored skin.

This was the power of Leonidas's Personal Skill, Unyielding Will.

As the name implied, this was an ability gained from fighting bloody battles against enemies several times, dozens of times, even hundreds of times greater than his own during the Battle of Thermopylae. Over those three days, he experienced countless savage battles. In terms of sheer experience, perhaps no other Heroic Spirit in the world possessed so much experience in fighting to the death.

Therefore, so long as it was a fight to the death, he would grow stronger.

Whether he was "surrounded by enemies," "being jointly hunted down," or even... "injured, with the situation looking grim," all of it would trigger this ability and send Lancer Leonidas's combat power soaring!

If he were besieged by several Heroic Spirits at once, the already terrifying Lancer could even reach twice his normal ability in every parameter. In other words...

If he were being ganged up on by enemies while seriously wounded and facing death, Leonidas would become a terrifying weapon with EX rank in every attribute except Mana and Luck!

Furthermore, the unyielding will of a Spartan allowed him to ignore the pain of his body. No amount of suffering could strip this Spartan of his will to fight. Only death could make him stop his blade of conquest!

The sole drawback was... this skill would not heal his wounds. In other words, the damage Leonidas suffered was real damage. He merely forced himself to ignore his wounds through willpower rather than healing them. Thus, while he grew stronger the more injured he became, he also became easier to kill the more injured he was.

Assassin had just broken his arm, yet Lancer did not care. At the instant his arm broke, he could clearly feel his strength continuously surging! As for pain? At Thermopylae, how many attacks more powerful than this had he endured?

Xerxes claimed that his rain of arrows could blot out the sky.

Compared to that elite Persian army, Assassin was not worth mentioning.

Lancer... no, this was simply Berserker! A mad smile appeared at the corner of Leonidas's mouth.

That Abner was clearly no ordinary Master.

Though Abner embodied two of Leonidas's taboos—slave master and Magus—as Leonidas had declared: Abner provided Mana, and he repaid him with spear and shield.

Now was the time to repay his Master's trust. That man was willing to lie here peacefully without any protection. That was the greatest trust he could place in him.

Spartans were savage and violent, but they would never betray their word. Even when surrounded by Xerxes's army, the Spartans still upheld their agreement and defended Thermopylae to the death.

Compared to a scene of fighting with one's life on the line, the current situation was truly far too mild. He merely had to protect one person from an Assassin. Heh heh.

Repaying trust... heh heh, the best way was to take the enemy's head, wasn't it?

The spear spun in Lancer's hand. Though it was a rigid weapon forged entirely from steel, it danced in Lancer's grip in grayish-yellow arcs, like a dazzling yet deadly streak of color. Sharp gusts were constantly carved out by the spear blade, racing in all directions on centrifugal force as Lancer thrust his spear toward Assassin in midair!

A shield blocked his path ahead, while a spear cut him off from behind!

Assassin was in grave danger!

Lancer was utterly certain that the next strike would pierce that black shadow's body! No matter how fast he was!

He had to... kill this bastard who only knew how to stab people in the back!

Just like at Thermopylae... If not for that petty man who had secretly betrayed the Greek allied forces...

Leonidas's eyes filled with bloodlust, making him look even more like a Berserker!