Instantaneous Judgment

Thud!

The dull sound of a spear blade piercing through something.

Certainly, the sound of a blade tearing through flesh would also be dull, but this blunt feedback was simply too strange.

Crack!

Immediately after came the crisp sound of wood being chopped cleanly in two.

At some point, the black figure Leonidas's spear had pierced had already turned into a log!

The substitution technique, a ninja art said to be their specialty. A technique that exchanged the user's position with a wooden decoy, letting it take a lethal blow in their place.

Of course, such a technique only existed in manga.

Still, the legends of Heroic Spirits were probably much like this: no one could verify what had truly happened. After being freely guessed at and interpreted over countless years, Heroic Spirits had likely split into two types.

One type possessed an exceptionally powerful spiritual foundation. No matter what later legends said about them, they could always appear in their true form as Servants. The other had been altered by thick layers of legend, eventually taking on the form people imagined them to have.

The former included King Arthur. Known to the world as a man, she was in truth a young woman. When she was summoned as Saber in the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars, she still retained her female form.

The latter included Sasaki Kojiro, the Assassin of the Fifth Holy Grail War. That man was not Sasaki Kojiro at all, merely an unknown swordsman forcibly altered into Sasaki Kojiro because he had attained the legendary secret technique, Tsubame Gaeshi.

Hattori Hanzo was the same.

He had not been summoned by a Holy Relic.

Holy Relics were objects deeply connected to Heroic Spirits. His Master had instead used Mansen Shūkai, a Japanese ninja text passed down through the ages. Such a Holy Relic would inevitably summon a ninja-type Heroic Spirit, but it could not specify any particular ninja. After all, it was a book studied by every ninja, and it corresponded to far too many Heroic Spirits.

Thus, rather than a Heroic Spirit from history, Hattori Hanzo was more like a fantasy that had acquired the spiritual foundation of a Heroic Spirit through widespread retelling.

Rather than Hattori Hanzo, he was the collective embodiment of the concept of the ninja, born into the world wearing the shell of the figure known as Hattori Hanzo. In that regard, he was quite similar to Sasaki Kojiro.

Therefore, no matter how absurd a ninja art might be, as long as it was widely known and fervently believed in by countless youths, he could use it.

The substitution technique was one such widely mythologized ninja art. By placing a dummy somewhere beforehand, it could instantly shield its user whenever his life was threatened. It had only one flaw: only one substitute could be prepared. Once it was destroyed, another had to be made. And clearly, in the midst of intense battle, Assassin had no leeway to make another.

When Leonidas's spear failed to strike home, he clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and cursed, "Damn occult nonsense!"

At the same time, he clearly sensed Hattori Hanzo's presence behind him. An ordinary person might have turned around to meet the attack, but Leonidas did not.

He knew full well the difference in their agility. If he turned around, his opponent's unfathomable speed would surely injure him first.

Leonidas did not fear injury. In fact, the more injuries he suffered, the stronger he became. But that only meant he could forcibly ignore the damage; the damage itself still existed.

In a prolonged battle, casually accumulating injuries was fatal. Minor wounds would inevitably erupt into a deadly injury at a critical moment!

It would not have mattered much if he were injured himself, but if Assassin decided to flee while Leonidas turned around and launched an assault at Abner, that would be disastrous. Abner had no ability to grow stronger when attacked, and Leonidas's agility could not catch up with Assassin's.

So Leonidas chose to keep charging toward the wall, following the momentum of his advance!

Had he gone mad? There was nothing waiting in front of him but a wall!

Then! The muscles in his right calf abruptly bulged, like a boulder wrapped in green serpents, their savage contours instantly visible beneath his skin!

Boom!

With a full-force stomp, his A-rank strength directly shattered the floor. Force was mutual; such overwhelming applied force would inevitably return an equal reaction force to his body. Riding that tremendous power, Leonidas leaped high into the air like a hurdler!

What is he doing?

Assassin did not understand, but...

This is an opportunity.

He swiftly turned around, putting his back to Leonidas.

Honor?

Ninjas had no such thing.

What ninjas possessed was only the conviction and loyalty to complete their missions.

What was his mission? To kill Lancer?

No, of course not. From the very beginning, he had only one target.

The man sleeping peacefully in bed, Abner Fergus Winifred.

He grabbed shuriken again. All he needed was half a second—no, even less. With his practiced skill, a single flash of lightning would be enough to send those projectiles into that peacefully sleeping fool.

And the blade was steeped in venom. Even the slightest cut would inflict devastating damage...

Thud!

Before that could happen, however, the back of Assassin's head, wrapped in a black night-veil mask, was struck by his enemy first! The heavy yet sharp blow sent pain through him as if an axe had cleaved into his skull!

Impossible! He was charging toward the wall with his back to me... How could he?!

Assassin's heart filled with incredulous shock.

The violent impact at the back of his head transmitted force through flesh, bone, and into his brain, directly robbing Assassin of his ability to judge properly. His throwing star trembled in his hand. The slightest deviation completely changed its flight path. It grazed past Abner's nose and embedded itself in the wall. Beneath the translucent ice wall, the flowing water visibly began to take on a rotten green hue...

The attack had already landed, so Assassin hurriedly fell forward with the force, kicked off the ground with both feet, braced himself with his arms, and quickly rolled forward. Using the force of Lancer's attack to widen the distance as he rolled, he finally understood what had struck him in the instant his body turned upside down...

A shield!

As Sparta's military king, Leonidas was naturally Sparta's greatest warrior and profoundly versed in the ways of battle. Though Assassin's substitution technique had startled him, he had swiftly grasped the situation and made the fastest possible response.

He had previously thrown his shield as a projectile, and Leonidas had made perfect use of that! As his right leg launched him upward, his left leg kicked up at high speed, his toes hooking the shield's grip from the inside! Then, while switching legs at high speed in midair, he used his foot like a hand and forcibly hurled the shield behind him!

What exquisite skill!

Had he not been proficient in spear-and-shield combat, had he not been deeply versed in battle, had he not been a Greek Heroic Spirit who always wore open-toed leather sandals, he could never have executed such a precise and inconceivable counterattack!

At the same time, as he drew back his leg, Leonidas forcibly twisted his waist in midair and turned around, slamming his broad back into the wall like a wrestler crashing into the barricade in WWE!

But wrestlers crashed into barricades to borrow their spring, while Leonidas did so to lessen his own impact!

Boom!

The sound of the ice wall shattering and the golden shield striking a head merged into a thunderous roar. His broad back and stone-like muscles smashed through the wall, bringing Leonidas's charge to a halt as well.

Amid a sea of shattered ice, facing the splashing water and fragments, the muscular gold-and-crimson man fixed Assassin with a cruel yet intrigued expression, battle intent blazing in his eyes. Several strands of hair had been plastered by the water against the skin beneath his helmet. Water clung to his red cloak, its dark crimson color making his imposing presence all the more pronounced.

"Come on, black-clad bastard. Fight me!"

Holding his spear in both hands, he spun it in a dazzling flourish. The fierce wind raised by the spear tip even sliced apart the curtain of water pouring down from above! Amid the hazy shimmer of water, only Leonidas's bold expression stood out with perfect clarity.