Heracles' battle roar not only made the Shirou and Illya on the screen tense up but also made the audience outside the screen grow anxious.
Although the audience had anticipated that a battle would occur during Shirou Emiya's rescue of Illya, they had assumed the opponents would be Assassin or Black Saber. Berserker's sudden appearance caught everyone off guard.
"How are Shirou and the others supposed to fight this now?!"
Shibamatsu gasped, feeling that Shirou's group was now backed into a corner.
If Saber and Assassin as a pair were a tough challenge, then adding Berserker into the mix was just outright unfair!
Initially, Shibamatsu thought the forest battle would feature Rider against Black Saber and Kirei and Shirou against Hassan of the Cursed Arm.
Who would've thought that Sakura Matou would throw away all sense of fairness and pull out a trump card?
In UBW, Shirou might have managed to defeat Gilgamesh, who could easily take down Berserker, but that didn't mean Shirou himself was capable of beating Berserker.
Let's not forget that even Archer, the stronger version of Shirou, lost to Berserker in the movie version!
In games like LOL or other MOBA games, there's a concept of hero counters—due to differences in skill design, some heroes are hard-countered by others, leaving no chance for a fair fight.
Even though games like LOL didn't exist in this world yet, people still understood the idea of attribute counters.
If they hadn't played MOBA games, surely they'd played Pokémon.
And even if they hadn't played Pokémon, they must have played rock-paper-scissors, right?
The logic is the same—Gilgamesh could defeat Heracles easily because he had the ultimate weapon, the Chains of Heaven. But Shirou couldn't replicate that with his projection magecraft.
Everyone could tell that even if Shirou could activate his Reality Marble, he wouldn't necessarily stand a chance against Berserker.
Let alone now, when this version of Shirou didn't even have access to his Reality Marble yet.
At this point, Shinji's Type-Moon cinematic universe was only beginning to take shape. Singularities and Lostbelts hadn't even been hinted at, let alone the concepts of Grand Servants or Beasts.
In this environment where only Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero existed, Heracles was still a dominant force, not yet reduced to a glorified health bar. He remained one of the top-tier Servants.
While he might not be the absolute strongest, he was certainly among the top ranks.
Therefore, the general consensus among the audience was that Shirou's team stood no chance against Berserker.
Perhaps Shirou could get lucky and take a few of Berserker's lives, but in the end, he was bound to lose.
"Looks like Rider will have to swoop in and save the day," Fujita predicted.
"Not necessarily," Shibamatsu countered. "Shirou has Archer's arm now. Maybe he'll pull off a Reality Marble and turn things around."
"I don't think—"
Before Fujita could finish, he was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering.
Kirei Kotomine crashed through the window into the room.
"What are you dawdling around for?"
Without giving Illya or Shirou a chance to react, Kirei grabbed Illya's arm and swiftly leaped out of the window.
"Wha—Illya!!"
Panicking, Shirou rushed to the window. He leaned out to see what was happening, only to be startled by another of Berserker's deafening roars, causing him to lose his balance and fall out of the window as well.
Illya's room was three stories above the ground. Considering the height of the castle's rooms, it was roughly equivalent to falling from an eight-story building.
Shirou had to channel all his magical energy into his legs, strengthening his body enough to barely land without serious injury.
"Damn it!!"
Shirou groaned as he rolled across the ground, grateful that he hadn't become the first male protagonist to die from willingly jumping out of a window.
Seeing Shirou's clumsy landing, many in the audience couldn't help but laugh.
They had to admit that Shirou Emiya, as a protagonist, was quite entertaining—he reminded them a bit of Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk: exceptionally talented but lacking self-awareness.
As a result, every time Shirou started a battle, he would inevitably find himself in a position where he couldn't beat anyone and ended up getting pummeled the entire time.
But once he found his rhythm, with his protagonist buff at full power and his inner cosmos ignited, he could suddenly become unstoppable.
However, this time, before Shirou could find his footing, Illya was the one who took action first.
Slap!
As Shirou landed, he heard a loud slap. It turned out Illya had slapped Kirei across the face.
"It's incredibly rude to treat a lady like that."
Illya got off Kirei and ran over to Shirou with concern. "Shirou, are you okay?"
The stark contrast in Illya's attitude toward the two was obvious to everyone.
"I'm surprised. Are you giving up because you know you have no way out?"
Kirei mocked Shirou from above with a condescending tone.
"I only jumped because you did!"
Shirou couldn't admit he had been scared into falling, so he pinned the blame on Kirei instead.
"Jumping from that height without using magecraft? Truly impressive."
Though Kirei's tone conveyed genuine admiration, his expression made it clear that he thought Shirou was an idiot.
"Well—"
"That wasn't Shirou's fault."
As a good sister, Illya immediately stood up to defend her brother's honor.
"Shirou isn't just physically stronger—his mind is influenced by Archer as well."
"So not only has his body toughened, but even his thought process on how to land from that height has become similar to Archer's."
Kirei Kotomine picked up Illya effortlessly and said to Shirou, who was still lying on the ground, "Enough with the chatter. We need to escape now."
"Kirei!"
"If we get caught, we'll be killed," Kirei added coldly before dashing toward the castle gate.
Shirou quickly followed, and just in time too—because the beast was unleashed.
"■■■————!!"
A section of the castle wall collapsed, and a massive dark shadow burst out from the depths of the forest.
Thus began a high-speed chase of adrenaline and terror through the woods.
Shinji had deliberately avoided showing Berserker's full, corrupted form during this sequence, offering only fleeting glimpses. Most of the shots were brief and fragmented.
Instead, Shinji focused the camera more on the fleeing Shirou Emiya and Kirei Kotomine, employing the same visual language often used in horror and monster movies to emphasize the monster's overwhelming power and destructive force.
Of course, in most cases, this method also helped cut costs.
But since this scene featured Heracles himself and Shinji didn't need to save on CGI expenses, the choice was made purely to build suspense and set up the climactic duel between Shirou and Berserker.
"■■■————!!"
The beast's roaring continued, yet neither the audience nor Shirou could see the shadow pursuing them.
Only the sound of devastation, like a storm tearing through the forest, gave any hint of the chaos. Occasionally, the wreckage left in its wake came into view.
Unlike the agile Kirei and Shirou, who dodged and weaved between the trees, the beast simply bulldozed through anything in its path.
To put it simply, the creature wasn't just a crazed wild animal; it was a hundred-kilometer-per-hour runaway bulldozer tearing through the forest!
Fortunately, the two escapees weren't ordinary humans either. Even while carrying Illya, Kirei Kotomine easily dashed through the forest with incredible speed.
The uneven ground, tangled trees, and the little girl in his arms didn't seem to slow this "M" priest down at all.
What surprised the audience more, however, was Shirou Emiya's performance.
Kirei's superhuman physical prowess was well-established, solidified through two movies and a TV series.
This was the man who could punch through trees a decade ago and still throw "mud balls" with young warriors ten years later. To the audience, Kirei was the epitome of close-combat prowess.
But Shirou? His physical abilities were always mediocre at best, with his only advantage being faster recovery.
Even during his legendary UBW battle, his physical feats weren't particularly exaggerated.
Yet here he was, keeping pace with the sprinting Kirei through the forest as if possessed by a god.
Despite the rough terrain, Shirou was sprinting at the speed of an elite sprinter, weaving between trees without hesitation.
Although he stumbled and got snagged on branches a few times early on, he quickly adapted to his new body.
Soon, Shirou was sprinting through the forest as skillfully as Kirei.
Shinji had deliberately styled this sequence after those in superhero films, where the hero goes through a process of learning to control their newfound abilities. Onscreen, Shirou appeared to be adapting to his enhanced physique with remarkable speed.
It was only now that the audience realized Illya's earlier claim about Archer's arm influencing Shirou's body wasn't just an excuse—it was absolutely true.
"Whoa, now things are getting interesting," Shibamatsu said with an excited grin. "Could Shirou really end up fighting Berserker one-on-one?"
Hearing this, Fujita perked up and eagerly leaned over to ask, "And if not, what then? Are you heading back to the basement?"
"Get lost! I didn't make any vows this time!"
Shibamatsu kicked him away.
Onscreen, Shirou, now fully accustomed to his enhanced state, even began bantering with Kirei mid-sprint.
"Hey, Kirei, are you even human?!"
"That's a question you might want to ask yourself first," Kirei replied, clearly unimpressed.
"I—" Shirou started to retort but hesitated when he glanced at his own arm.
"Never mind that. If we can maintain this speed, we might just escape."
Kirei spoke calmly, "For some reason, that beast doesn't seem to be at full strength. This is our chance."
Unfortunately, Kirei's words carried the curse of overconfidence.
"Thinking you can escape? How naive."
A chilling, murderous voice interrupted their conversation.
Shirou immediately turned his head.
Through the gaps in the rapidly retreating trees, he caught sight of a pale, skeletal mask moving parallel to them.
"Assassin!!"
Shirou's shout was filled with anger, and the red bandage wrapping his left arm twitched unnaturally.
"Holy crap!!"
"What the hell? Scared me to death!"
"F**K!!!"
"Damn it all!"
Many in the audience jumped out of their seats when the massive white skull suddenly appeared onscreen, their hearts racing.
In such a tense moment, the unexpected jump scare was too much for most to handle.
One unlucky viewer, watching on his computer, got so startled that he punched right through his monitor in shock.
"What the F—"
The guy stared at the shattered screen, utterly devastated.
<+>
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