Amakusa Shirou ran swiftly, drawing his tachi from its iron scabbard with a rasp. Lowering his stance, he drove a level thrust at the charging Frankenstein!
Though Frankenstein did everything she could to evade the attack that exploited her opening, a cut still appeared on her skin.
That made her realize how unusual this sword was. Any weapon that could wound a Servant's body was far from ordinary.
"Ugh-aaaaah!"
Frankenstein swung her war hammer in retaliation, sparks scattering amid the ringing clash of weapons.
Yet after several exchanges, the tachi in Amakusa Shirou's hand remained intact. Those heavy blows should have bent or even snapped it, but not even its edge had chipped.
Frankenstein was certainly not a Heroic Spirit famed for her martial prowess. She had become one through her ferocity, cruelty, and the circumstances of her creation.
Even so, her inherent nature was enough to put her above more than half of all Heroic Spirits.
Having almost recreated the endless cycle of a perpetual motion machine of the second kind, she could give her all under any circumstances. She never tired, never weakened, and never entered a state "resembling a human."
In other words, Frankenstein would never stop until she had defeated her opponent.
But as for her opponent-
In all fairness, Amakusa Shirou, who had died young at only twenty-one, had possessed no more than average swordsmanship in life.
Although he was fairly capable compared to ordinary soldiers, he was nowhere near the threshold of being called an expert.
What, then, had given him the ability to face Berserker head-on?
As an Executor of the Holy Church, he had undergone countless inhuman ordeals of training. Viewed that way, mastering a sword style over several decades was hardly difficult for him.
Even so, this was still too much.