Boom—!
Accompanied by an explosive sound, Sabrac gave Shirou Emiya no room to breathe. Dark crimson flames erupted violently, instantly enveloping his entire body.
In the blink of an eye, terrifying flames crawled along the twin blades gripped in Sabrac's hands, surging toward Shirou.
The unbearable heat forced Shirou to beat his wings sharply, retreating rapidly backward through the air.
The Nichirin blade he'd projected moments ago to block Sabrac's attack quickly melted away, dissolving into specks of starlight and scattering.
Under such extreme heat, ordinary weapons stood no chance; they melted easily into pools of molten iron.
Long-range attacks, then?
Truthfully, Shirou lacked confidence in defeating this eerie figure before him.
Whether it was his ghostly speed or those devastating Unrestricted Spells capable of wreaking instantaneous havoc, Shirou found them exceedingly difficult to counter.
Although Shirou could narrowly surpass Sabrac's speed by wearing two sets of Incursio Armor, he wasn't alone on this battlefield—far from it.
Whether it was the man who'd rescued Friagne earlier, or Friagne himself, Shirou could feel their hungry gazes fixed intently upon him.
Even if he managed to defeat this strange opponent at great cost, his injuries afterward would leave him vulnerable to Friagne's pursuit.
Moreover, even using two sets of Incursio at once, his momentary burst of speed wasn't guaranteed to finish off Sabrac.
He was only marginally faster—not overwhelmingly so, as when he faced Friagne.
He might even collapse from Incursio's backlash before defeating this mysterious enemy.
These thoughts flashed through Shirou's mind as he retreated.
Yet, his hands never paused.
In that very instant, Shirou projected a bow, swiftly notching a chained shortsword upon it. He aimed precisely at Sabrac's skull, firing from an incredibly close distance.
The dark-red flames surrounding Sabrac moved as though alive, instantly readying themselves defensively at the moment Shirou's arrow left the bowstring.
This defensive speed far surpassed anything Friagne could ever muster.
Hiss—!
The terrible heat began swallowing the chained shortsword whole.
As a superior-class Teigu, the quality and hardness of Incursio were incomparable to the Nichirin blade.
Yet, under such unimaginable heat, the outer layers of the Incursio blade began melting at frightening speed. It might become molten iron before it even reached Sabrac.
Broken Phantasm!
Shirou invoked the words silently in his heart. Although rapidly melting, the sword-arrow retained a stable form, allowing Shirou to control its destructive power precisely as it pierced through the flames.
Boom—!
Sizzle—!
Yet, the instant the explosion rang out, the crimson flames surged violently like a tsunami, utterly devouring Incursio along with its destructive blast.
At such a close distance, even a Broken Phantasm could not harm Sabrac.
Troublesome—extremely troublesome.
As Shirou retreated through the air, he shot several more sword-arrows to probe Sabrac's defenses. Yet, without exception, every single arrow was devoured by the crimson flames enveloping his enemy's form.
Rumble—!
Naturally, Sabrac wouldn't allow himself to remain Shirou's target practice.
With a thunderous roar, violent crimson flames erupted, swirling around Sabrac's body like a terrifying vortex.
Waves of dark-red fire surged beneath him, forming an immense wall of flame.
Sabrac rode the crimson blaze like a surfer upon towering waves, charging at Shirou Emiya with peerless momentum.
His speed obviously exceeded Shirou's by far more than a little.
At that moment, a heavy, silver-white blade streaked with crimson appeared in Shirou's hand.
Holding this knightly sword and covered head to toe in armor, Shirou felt—for just an instant—as though he truly was Saber.
Of course, he knew very well his swordsmanship couldn't match Saber of Red's. He could only roughly mimic the motions.
In the next moment, countless blades erupted from the roaring flames beneath Sabrac, surging like foam atop the fiery waves.
Before completely catching up to Shirou, the crimson waves beneath Sabrac launched blades enveloped in flame—like shooting stars streaking toward Shirou, covering the sky in a barrage of deadly steel.
This was Sabrac's proudest Unrestricted Spell—"Stigma."
Blades mixed within flames formed an inescapable whirlpool of death, pulling its victim in like prey trapped within a spider's web. Struggling only dragged one deeper—escape became nearly impossible.
Moreover, for Shirou Emiya, both the encircling flames and the countless incoming blades were mortal threats.
Perhaps a single blade couldn't easily penetrate the defense of Incursio Armor, but the blades numbered so many they became impossible to count.
Engulfed by such a storm of steel, there could be no second ending except death.
But if there was no way to dodge—
Then he would fight head-on.
Without turning or evading, Shirou, who had previously been retreating, abruptly halted mid-air, as though pulled violently by some terrifying force.
"Damn, that hurts—!"
Feeling his right arm almost dislocate, Shirou found himself pulled irresistibly toward Sabrac by an invisible, unstoppable force.
Nearly invisible threads, dozens of them, stretched taut from Shirou's right hand—so tight they seemed on the verge of snapping at any moment.
Incursio's threads lacked elasticity; they couldn't stretch, only tighten and harden immensely.
So what would happen when someone charged forward at high speed, pulling such threads until they snapped taut? The outcome required no further explanation.
The violent recoil instantly spun Shirou around, flinging him toward Sabrac at an even more terrifying velocity.
With the momentum of a bullet crashing straight toward the enemy's onslaught, Shirou shot forward.
Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!
The heavy blade spun powerfully in Shirou's left hand, the surrounding air violently churning.
Those blades, far inferior to a Noble Phantasm, shattered the moment they touched Shirou's enormous sword, scattering helplessly into the air.
Perhaps because he'd projected Mordred's weapon, Shirou's fighting style had become somewhat reckless and unrestrained.
---
T/N: how is he gonna win
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