An archer's promise Chapter 14: Conflict (Patreon)

Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi

More details and content will be added later on.

Also, I got an update from the snafu art, I'll post the news in a bit.

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-Ken-

It was a common sight for bandits and thieves on the streets to avoid the off-looking people. One could never know what they could be really capable of. They may be mages, foreign agents from different kingdoms, and even a member of the clergy. The last thing anyone wanted was to offend the Church.

But this dark elf-looking guy couldn't be any one of them. He didn't have an escorting party with him or even a horse, making it improbable for him to be a foreign ambassador. He wore not a single sigil belonging to the church or the goddess, so he couldn't be a Templar or a member of the ecclesiarchy. Which only meant that he was either a rich traveler or a rogue mercenary. His clothes reinforced the idea on the latter.

When the idiot had the audacity to sleep with the boss' girl, then he knew; that the guy would be dead in a matter of days for his disrespect.

That's what Nito thought when he tried to mug Archer, hoping to get in the good graces of the top brass of Kuroinu. He called his henchmen, making sure they didn't wear anything associating them with the Kuroinu, and tailed the man. The first instance felt quite easy; he didn't run or scream for help—though Nito would have preferred that he did. It would have made the entire thing more fun before they killed him.

When he pressed his blade against his neck, the leader was just waiting for the guy to crumble on the floor, begging for mercy while he pissed his pants. His sadistic side was yearning for such a moment. The power to hold people's lives in the palm of his hand was so… addictive.

The ability to take others' power away from them face to face with his own bare hands. To him, that was true power.

Yet things went completely south after threatening this man. Gasping in pain as he felt his bones break under immense pressure, forced to gaze at the now hoodless white-haired man before him, and let out a pained cry for his men to attack this man.

"...Idiots, don’t blame me for what happens next.."

Archer tensed himself; prana surged beneath his skin, covering every imperfection in his bones, muscles, and skin—strengthening them beyond anything humanly possible. The leader—who he still held by his wrist—shouted for his allies to come to his aid, yet they wouldn't get to him on time.

To kill or not to kill, that was a dilemma he was in. Neither was it a question of moral or ideal, but just the worry of having further charges or trouble dropped on his shoulders to bear. The chance of a random passerby witnessing his killing already was too high for his liking. Proclaim that it was in self-defense? He laughed at that notion in his mind; this wasn't the modern world where these kinds of reasons would work for him. Then again, these excuses don't even work well in the future as well.

Both too corrupted for honesty to play any part in the justice system.

'Well then, they won't press charges against me if the one who killed the thugs… were their allies themselves.' Archer smirked at that idea, finding a loop-hole in his situation. An unnecessary amount of work to kill these men without trouble, but a wise one nonetheless. Though he hesitated due to his second option of ending things quicker.

"Argh!" Pulling the man's sword-held arm forwards, Archer tilted his head sideways for the blade to go past him and piece the throat of the person behind, who was dumb enough to strike his armor where no enhancement was needed due to its material.

"Oh my, killing one of your comrades? You're not a very good leader are ya?” taunted Archer, ignoring the blood on his face or the body falling to the floor.

“Y-You bastard! You killed him!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not the one that killed him. I stood here defenseless, trying to move your hands away from my neck. Which just so happened to continue its trajectory and kill the man behind me. I didn't even know that he was even there to notice." said Archer, his voice neutral, but smiling nonetheless, unnerving the men around him.

“Besides, anyone who decides to wield a sword, should be prepared to die, no?”

He didn't even need to trace his Noble Phantasms here. It would be too much of an overkill to kill these people.

"Borl… h-he killed Borl!" It was a difficult scene to believe. The stranger merely yanked his sword arm, and managed to kill one of them so effortlessly. That brief period of shock turned to fear, before immediately evolving into rage.

"You bastard!"

"Die!"

Nito gritted his teeth in frustration as he was still held captive by the red-clothed man. Before he could utter another word, a strong force broke his stance and made him lose his footing. With a mighty pull, Archer used Nito as a throwable object and chucked him at the people behind him. A few managed to not get hit by the thrown body and proceeded to slash their swords at him. Each attack was swiftly dodged by Archer with effortless ease and minimal movement. His eyes bore on them, looking at them as if they were worth nothing, filled with contempt at their fruitless endeavor yet sharp enough to make the unease in their hearts grow by the second.

Archer mused the idea of tracing one of the many swords in his reality marble to end this quickly, starting to get bored from this ‘fight’. A Noble Phantasm like Gae Bolg, the Hound of the Red Plains; Hrunting, and probably even Durandal was way too overkill and would definitely cause a huge commotion and senseless destruction in such a narrow pathway.

Swish!

Another sword strike passed close to his face, his reflection on the sword looking back at him. He made use of the guy's momentum to his advantage and did a perfectly executed judo throw over his shoulders. A slight amount of prana ran along his leg, which he used to smash against his opponent's arm—snapping it into two pieces. The sound of bones breaking made the others back away immediately.

"Aaaaaaaahhh!!!" Screamed the man as he saw his white bones protruding from his arms along with blood gushing everywhere.

"Do you blame me for your injuries? From practicing self-defense and avoiding killing any of you, am I the bad person here? But it doesn't matter, honestly." The more they scream, the more likely someone will come running to the scene.

'There might even be someone heading here right now.'

Nito, who he had tossed before, stood back up, clutching his broken wrist with malice clear in his eyes. "Do you have ANY idea who you just messed with!?" Archer had an idea, not like it wasn't any more obvious enough.

"Hicks won't let you get away with this!" A black metallic necklace was removed from his pocket with the sigil of a black dog. "We own this kingdom! We can do anything we want! And you…, you just fucked with someone you shouldn't have!" Even while having a literal dead body at his feet and blood soaking his face, the man didn't seem the least bit afraid now that he revealed his identity to Archer.

"..."

Was he honestly expecting him to cower after finding out about his relationship with Kuroinu?

"And? You still tried to mug and kill me, would knowing you worked for Hicks change that in some ways?"

Archer began questioning this man's intelligence. Maybe he was getting delusional from the intense pain or fear.

"I was planning on breaking every bone in your body and leaving the place before anyone catches up, but now… leaving you alive will definitely endanger both me and Bianca, most likely. I don't want my informant to be put in such a dangerous position so early on in her career, after all. Thanks for letting me know that you're one of them."

A smile bloomed on his face as a sincere expression was shown to the people in front of him.

"Wh-wha…" Nito gave him a disbelieving stare, shocked at his complete dismissal of the mercenary group. "You-You… You're crazy! Get him! Go for the head, all of you kill him!"

Archer decided to forgo the option of letting them live and instead scoured his Reality Marble for a blade to handle this entire group of people in a single strike without damaging any of the infrastructures and causing a loud explosion.

A single image of a blade stood front and forward in his mind. Different from all the other weapons in his Unlimited Blades Works, not having the destructive power to destroy armies or fortresses. The blade alone—in certain cases—was not recognized as a Noble Phantasm. But rather, it is the knowledge it held from a single technique used by its wielder which gave it enough recognition to become a Noble Phantasm. An intrinsic skill honed by the wielder in legends, a skill tied to this weapon that wasn't even strong enough to get ranked.

'Yes, that'll do perfectly.'

"Trace... On."

To the eyes of his attackers, blue light flashed in his hands which coalesced into a long object. This sight drained the blood from their faces as they realized just who they were facing up against.

"A magician!"

Magus was what Archer wanted to retort with but didn't bother in the end.

This sword held no magical-related attacks; it wasn't a technique that used an ounce of prana or od from his body. Nothing but pure skills which transcended and surpassed the realm of perfection. One could say that it even surpassed Servants and their godlike abilities.

It was actually bending the laws of physics to multiply its existence.

"What the fuck is that!?" They screamed in fright as they saw the absurd lengthened sword appear from thin air.

Monohoshi-Zao, or the Laundry Drying Pole, was a blade of roughly 150 cm in length, being unnaturally long for a sword. Used by Sasaki Kojirou, the Fake Assassin summoned in the fifth Frail War by Caster herself. In the many different realities he's been in, Archer didn't remember ever fighting him once, but he had seen him use his legendary technique from afar.

A sword technique that created a "future" that not even the gods could escape from.

As he held the sword and retraced the history of its user and techniques, he realized something he suspected from the beginning.

'I can't replicate it.'

Unlike Nine Lives Blade Works or even Gae Bolg's ability which he could replicate to some level, Tsubame Gaeshi required the execution of the sword technique to be perfect and flawless—or else it wouldn't work.

But he didn't need Tsubame Gaeshi. He only wanted a fraction of Sasaki Kojirou's swordsmanship to use the blade effectively on all of them at once.

Archer wasn't a bad swordsman by any means, but he never had a single weapon to devote his entire life to perfect. Meaning that he would never reach the level of mastery as most Heroic Spirits did with their weapons, just like he could never achieve a perfect recreation of their weapons. In a way, one could see him as a jack of all trades.

He focused on everyone in front of him, his time perception changed, and everything almost slowed down to a standstill. He brought the sword to his side in a stance similar to when Assassin used his Noble Phantasm.

"Hiken… Tsubame Gaeshi!"

Swish!

The first strike came at them with overwhelming speed, a circular arc coupled with the blade's length managed to reach all of the men in front of him. Yet that was where the technique ended; there was no second strike or even a third; he had failed to execute it. That didn't matter to Archer, as before these people even realized it…

…they saw a blood-covered sword in Archer's hands.

A weapon which could hold up its own again a regular Noble Phantasm, cutting through human like it was butter.

Spurt!

"Hurgh!"

"What!?"

All at once, every single of them had a deep cut, running horizontally across their chests and nearly slicing them into two.

Their bodies fell to the ground before any of them could even lay another hand on Archer. "N-No… not… like this…," blood spurted from Nito's mouth as he gazed one last time at his killer's indifferent face.

"Don't worry. You’ll see your boss and friends soon enough."

And just like that, they had all been killed.

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"What a mess." The former Counter Guardian sighed in disappointment. He wasn't someone who prided himself on his swordsmanship or swords; he considered them as nothing more than tools to help him reach his goal.

Yet he now stood awed at the fact that a human from legends, Sasaki Kojirou, could accomplish such a technique from pure skill alone. Even with his countless years of copying the styles of other Heroic Spirits and general attunement with swords—he still failed.

"What is going on here!?"

Crap.

He looked to his right and noticed the arrival of a group of Knights at the entrance of the ally. A familiar face stood amongst them, one that he had first encountered in this world, Brynn. Though there were some changes, she now wore armor with heavier squared plates on her shoulders and a better-looking sword.

'Guess someone got promoted… and they just had to arrive right when these dogs were all dead. Why weren't they here when I was getting mugged?' The timing couldn't be any worse than this. He watched how the women gazed at the blood-dripping sword and the corpses of the group. Especially Nito, who was still holding onto the dog tag of the Kuroinu.

"Now, I know this looks bad… but I assure you that this is not what it looks like."

What a pathetic excuse, Archer immediately knew that this would lead him nowhere.

"You murderer!" She was correct on that front. Brynn burst forward with her sword drawn and came down straight at him.

Clang!

Steel met steel, and sparks flew in the air as Archer successfully blocked her attack. She wasn't as strong as Maia, but that strike held power way beyond someone her stature could produce, and that speed was unnatural as well. But she still had a long way to go before she could even put him on edge.

"I trusted you," snarled Brynn, trying her damndest to break the sword lock, but it didn’t budge, "I trusted you!"

"While I appreciate that you did so, I once again like to inform you that I was the victim here. These men were trying to kill me."

"Liar!"

Her sword moves were quick and efficient, for each of her strikes would carry a great amount of power. She used her strength in combination with her speed as a skilled fighter. Yet all of her attacks kept getting blocked and effortlessly evaded by Archer.

Using such an absurdly long sword wasn't an ideal option for close combat. It was thanks to Sasaki Kojirou's skills that Archer was able to effectively pull off his moves when Brynn was on the offense. But he was also holding back immensely to not hurt the woman.

Killing a Knight was the last thing Archer wanted to do. He didn't know Brynn's rank, but if someone like her were to die, then he would promptly need to leave Ken before more trouble found its way towards him. It didn't help that he had to be mindful of where the blade would actually hit her; there was very little armor around her to begin with, so accidentally cutting her skin was extremely easy.

Even if Sasaki Kojirou's sword wasn't ranked, it was still a finely crafted weapon able to cut through normal steel blades.

Their clash went on for a few more exchanges before the other Knights decided to join in and help their commander.

"Surrender!"

Five more came upon him, their weapons drawn.

'The situation is getting out of hand…' he complained to himself. Holding off Brynn with the Laundry Drying Pole with one hand, he used his left hand to trace a normal shield and managed to deflect some of the attacks.

His Reality Marble wasn't limited to just blades; he could also trace shields. Technically, he could trace anything human-made, but the cost would be substantially more, compared to tracing a sword.

Seeing the black shield appear in Archer's hands and easily fend off their combined attack, the girls shouted in shock, "A mage!?" Now that was better than what the men from before called him, but he still preferred Magus.

He began using more of his prana to his limbs the longer the fight went on; they were fighting with peak human strength, which wasn't an issue. But with their numerical advantage, they would tire him out if he continued to fight defensively. Not to mention, more were definitely going to join the longer the fight lasted.

"For god's sake, woman! I'm telling you that this isn't my fault!" Archer shouted as he blocked another one of her attacks before pushing her away with a strong kick to her unprotected front, his patience running thin from this farce of a fight, and their instance of him being at fault.

"And you five are getting on my nerves as well!"

With his other sword now free, he channeled more of the Fake Assassin's skills to his limbs.

Crack!

With a single swipe, he managed to break the five knights' weapons.

Brynn, while recovering from her fall, couldn't believe her eyes. Indeed, she had seen him evaporate an entire army with a single attack, but she had attributed it to be a powerful spell. Most magic users only focused on long-range combat, leaving them weak to close quarters.

Yet this man handled her and her subordinates at the same time effortlessly in melee combat.

It was a truth that hurt her pride.

But she had to acknowledge his skills as well. And somewhere deep within her, Brynm wanted to be able to reproduce such feats of swordsmanship as well.

"We need to call for reinforcement!" One of the Knights shouted as she gazed upon the broken sword in shock. "Inform Maia-sama of his presence and call for backup from the Templars as well!"

'Shit,' thought Archer, already feeling a headache coming through.

This was getting out of hand way too quickly, and he needed to de-escalate the situation before it became irreversible and ruined his stay at Ken. If he continued fighting, then the entire kingdom and the Church would hound him for the rest of his stay in Eostia while finishing his mission.

He had to come up with a compromise. Sometimes retreating could be considered a sound strategy when pushed against a wall..

He knew that his meeting with Maia back at the Inn wouldn't be his last. Maybe she'll be less angry this time.

Knowing his luck, he highly doubted it.

Bringing his sword to Brynn's face, a few inches away from her eyes.

"I could have killed you and your friends here just like I did with these men behind me. I could’ve done it long before anyone realized who did it. But I held back because you weren't here with malicious intentions and that this truly is nothing more than a big misunderstanding… on your part. I am innocent, this was merely self-defense, and if I have to prove this fact to Maia herself…"

Both sword and shield vanish with motes of blue light, just like his bow did the last time she saw him use his powers.

"...Then I'll put up with it once again."

Bringing his hands up his head in the least threatening way, as a form of surrender. "Here, you can rest easy and not call an entire army after me. I surrender."

The situation felt weirdly familiar.

Archer hoped that Maia was in a good mood. He didn't want to get hanged again.

{Break}.

-Ken, Main castle-

At the center of Ken was a large black castle built nearly a thousand years ago, before Ken even existed. Said to be one of the seven landmarks where Celestine and Olga waged a battle in the past. No one knew just how powerful the Goddess was in her prime, but considering that it was rumored that the map itself had to be redrawn—many could imagine the extent of her powers in the past was vast.

In an office flooded with paperwork and books in every corner, Maia slumped on her table with several wine bottles stacked in a pyramid in the corner of the room. Drunk and incapacitated, she had been intoxicated ever since she came back from her trip from Grünes Bergdorf.

Why?

Because that detestable man's words and face wouldn't leave her mind.

'Lovestruck, immature girl,' those were the same words bouncing around in her head since her trip back home. She tried distracting herself with any means possible, from training to drinking her entire stash in a single session.

But he wouldn't leave her alone. It became so bad that even in her dreams, she would relive the interaction. Maia hated it! She wanted to teach that man a lesson on speaking so badly to her and about Vault. How dare he paint Vault as a villain? To accuse her of risking her people's lives over the recognition of a single person.

Why was she getting so angry on this matter!? It wasn't the first time someone insulted her or spread false rumors about her—yet she ignored them all.

Yet his words shook her more than anyone else.

"I overreacted," muttered Maia, picking herself off the floor and headed to her desk for a more comfortable seat. She shouldn't have gone angry like that, she shouldn't have brought out her swords, and she failed to be civil. Claudia would be disappointed in her for sure. Despite the equal status the Shields may have, nearly everyone respected Claudia to the same level as their Goddess. She was their mentor, teacher, and even a mother figure.

"No! He was in the wrong as well. How dare he talk about Vault in such a way!? That man is a true warrior who risks hisife everyday for the the people of Eostia and is willing to face the Dark Queen on his own!"

He was wrong about her, Vault and everything else.

If she ever got the chance to meet him…

Maia promised to herself to set things right and prove to him that she wasn't the type of person he thought her to be. Maia of the Kuroinu no longer existed; what she needed to become was Maia, the leader of Ken and Queen of Mercenaries.

Knock

Knock

"Argh! Fuck, don't knock so loudly! My head feels like it will explode."

The doors opened, and a single maid came inside with some news from the Knights. Apparently, they had apprehended a murderer who claimed to have acted in self-defense. Commander Brynn—for some reason—requested her presence and advice on the matter.

"Ah, come on, I told them that I was having a day off... Alright, tell Brynn that I'm coming, and if this is a minor problem, then I'll swear I'll have the girl clean up the entire castle butt naked!"

Whoever this prisoner was, he better be worth her time.