The moment the summoning command went out, the heavy sound of machinery turning came from above the harbor.
Everyone looked up.
The enormous spherical structure that had remained hidden in the night finally revealed part of itself.
It did not appear in full. Only its underside began to open.
Black metal plates separated one by one and folded inward, while a golden framework extended from within, as though the entire sphere were reassembling itself.
A few seconds later, the lower half of the sphere had taken on a different shape.
Four thick metal limbs descended from its underside and planted themselves on the ground.
Its torso elongated, and a lion's head protruded from the front.
Purplish-red eyes lit up on the beast's face assembled from metal plates.
Lion Form.
One of the Thunder Sanctuary's four combat support forms.
When it landed, its four metal claws cracked the concrete beneath them.
It was roughly the size of a small bus, black all over, with golden seams across its surface and purplish-red sensor eyes glowing in various places.
The metal tail behind it swayed slowly, reddish-gold arcs dancing at its tip.
Mayuri raised her hand and pointed down.
Attack.
The Thunder Sanctuary in Lion Form let out a low metallic roar.
The next second, it lowered its body and charged at the knight shrouded in black mist with speed that hardly matched its size.
Mayuri rose at the same time.
Twenty meters.
Thirty meters.
Forty meters.
This height made her feel a little more at ease.
That streetlight just now had made the problem perfectly clear.
An aerial advantage was only an advantage when her opponent could not reach her.
But the Berserker below could casually pull up a streetlight and hurl it at her like a javelin.
Forty meters. This will do for now.
From above, she watched Lion Form slam toward the black knight.
Its first strike was a head-on charge.
The metal lion hurtled forward at full speed, its right foreclaw sweeping outward as it closed in, reddish-gold energy blades trailing from its claw tips.
If that blow struck ordinary armor, it would have been enough to tear open a heavy tank from the side.
Berserker did not retreat.
He met it head-on.
His right fist slammed into Lion Form's armor plating from within the black mist.
The point of contact began to turn black, and red patterns crept across it.
He wanted to bring part of the Thunder Sanctuary under Knight of Owner's control as well.
But the Thunder Sanctuary was no streetlight.
It was an EX-rank existence, bound deep within Mayuri's Spirit Origin. Its conceptual rank spoke for itself.
The black corruption spread less than three centimeters before the internal circulation of magical energy forcibly pushed it back.
Still, the punch itself had landed.
Lion Form's charge stalled for half a beat, and its course veered slightly.
A full-power blow backed by A-rank Strength could not possibly have no effect at all.
But that was as far as it went.
Lion Form quickly adjusted its stance.
Its hind legs pushed off the ground, turning its entire body sideways as its metal tail swept across with reddish-gold arcs.
At the same time, the ball of energy gathering in its mouth fired at close range.
The tail caught Berserker across the waist, sending him flying sideways into a stack of shipping containers.
A human-shaped dent caved into a container wall, and all the surrounding sheet metal crumpled inward.
But even as he crashed into it, he had already grabbed something else.
It was a metal reinforcing crossbeam from a shipping container, about a meter and a half long, made of industrial steel.
Once it fell into his hands, its surface quickly blackened, and red patterns shone through from within.
The black mist dispersed.
Berserker charged out of the collapsed containers, wielding the steel beam like a greatsword as he brought it down on the pouncing Lion Form.
The sound of metal striking metal rang across the docks.
Sparks and electric arcs burst out together.
The battle no longer looked like a normal clash between Servants. It looked more like two giant machines tearing each other apart in the harbor.
It was far too different from Saber and Lancer's earlier duel.
With Artoria and Diarmuid, every sword stroke and spear thrust had been tightly controlled. Both had calculated distance, angles, and their next move. The area of destruction had also been kept very small.
The battle before them was far more brutal.
Lion Form had its sheer size, and Berserker had his brute strength.
In less than a dozen seconds, the eastern side of the docks had been smashed beyond recognition.
Shipping containers were knocked flying, deep gouges scored the gantry crane's support pillars, and broad cracks split the concrete, scattering rubble everywhere.
Berserker actually fought with ease in this kind of exchange.
More troublesome still, he looked utterly mad, yet his movements were not the least bit disordered.
Every dodge slipped into the opening left when Lion Form's attacks missed, and every counterattack hammered at a structural weak point.
Whenever the makeshift weapon in his hands shattered, he simply grabbed another.
Rebar, anchor chains, shipping container doors.
Anything he got his hands on would be elevated into a makeshift Noble Phantasm by Knight of Owner.
This man had lost his reason, but his martial skill remained.
Mayuri stood forty meters in the air, her lips pressed tight.
Lion Form had firepower and the advantage of size, but its opponent was too skilled a fighter. Every round of attacks could suppress Berserker, yet actually bringing him down was difficult.
When a hit landed, he got back up and charged again.
When he was pinned down, he could wriggle free at some awkward angle and counterattack.
Just how high were this Berserker's base parameters?
Mayuri tried to check his stat panel through the Holy Grail System.
What came back was solid black.
There was nothing.
His class skills and base parameters were all concealed.
None of the other Servants or Masters showed any intention of intervening.
Artoria stood in front of Irisviel with her sword in hand, her eyes fixed on the battlefield.
Diarmuid withdrew farther away, his two spears crossed before him, watching without moving.
Iskandar stood on his chariot with his arms folded, watching with great interest.
The young Gilgamesh shifted his position atop the streetlight, drawing up his other leg to sit cross-legged on the lampshade, his crimson eyes half-lidded.
The Tohsaka Residence.
The study.
Tokiomi Tohsaka sat in the high-backed chair behind his desk, his eyes closed.
Through the Master-Servant contract, his consciousness connected to Mayuri's shared sensory link.
He could receive the images Mayuri saw in real time, though not as clearly.
A brass-colored gramophone was running on the right side of the desk.
At that moment, Kirei Kotomine's voice came through its horn.
"Master. Berserker attacked Caster directly. Caster's Noble Phantasm is currently fighting him in Lion Form."
"From Assassin's vantage point, Berserker's hand-to-hand combat skills are exceptionally refined, completely at odds with his state of Mad Enhancement."
Tokiomi Tohsaka opened his eyes.
His fingers tapped lightly on the desk twice.
He organized the information coming through the contract link in his mind.
Lion Form had Berserker suppressed for the moment, but it could not finish him in one go.
Even without his reason, his combat efficiency remained frighteningly high.
That meant this Heroic Spirit had honed his martial skills in life to the point that they were engraved into his Spirit Origin.
His ability to elevate any object he grabbed into a Noble Phantasm had already been exposed.
But the ability concealing his true name and parameters was more troublesome.
Without access to his panel, there was no way to judge his upper limits through conventional means.
Worse still, the battle was continuing.
The Thunder Sanctuary's ability to change forms, Lion Form's methods of attack, and Mayuri's own command habits were all being watched by everyone present.
The first battle of the first night.
Tokiomi Tohsaka had originally only sent Mayuri to be a quiet observer.
Now, Mayuri had become the one everyone was observing.
Tokiomi Tohsaka's fingers stopped.
"Kirei."
"Yes."
The voice from the gramophone remained flat.
"Besides Berserker, how many Servants at the scene are observing Caster's battle?"
"All of them. Saber, Lancer, Rider, and the unidentified Servant sitting atop the streetlight. Four Servants and at least three Masters are observing simultaneously."
Tokiomi Tohsaka fell silent for two seconds.
This could not drag on any longer.
If the fight continued, the Thunder Sanctuary's remaining forms, Mayuri's decision-making patterns, and even Lion Form's specific weaknesses would gradually be discerned.
He did not want to show his hand on the very first night.
On the docks, another sweep of Lion Form's tail sent Berserker flying.
The figure within the black mist smashed through two stacked shipping containers, then rolled back to his feet amid the wreckage.
At some point, a steel cable had appeared in his hand.
The metal cable blackened in his palm, red patterns lighting up section by section.
The next instant, Berserker swung the steel cable, smashing it toward the Thunder Sanctuary like a flail.