A Berserk Heart 5.1

From the initial clash Faeran quickly understood one thing. As far as speed went, Medusa was faster than he was.

And as far as physical strength went. She was dead even with him, even reinforced. Which meant, she most likely still had her Monstrous Strength skill.

Yeah, if it was just his own pure abilities, without having had the time to see about learning Mana Burst, his greatest physical ability would not let him overpower his opponent.

Thankfully, in the last little while he'd come into a certain trump card he was not expecting.

Faeran ground his teeth and with a shout thrust the axe sword up and out, overpowering Medusa and sending her flying up into the air where she smashed through the top of one of the buildings surrounding them and came out on the roof. She would have went flying even further if she didn't lash out with the hooked spear in her hands and hook it onto the building and grind her body's momentum to a halt.

Despite having been smashed through the thick stone wall of a building, the purple haired beauty didn't have even a hair out of place, "Hmph, so you have some of the strength to go with that getup of yours huh?" Medusa hummed smirking down at him, "Though, you're not quite as strong as the real Berserker was."

Indeed he was not. But he wasn't that far off it now. Thanks to a handy dandy little passive ability from his new servant. Among other things.

Mash had two very interesting Personal skills.

Wall Of Chalk Obscured In Time. Now this skill in of itself was completely bullshit. She could use it on herself or another. And not only did it increase the users overall power, even that of Noble Phantasms, it also for a short period of time shifted the target out of the time axis, more or less removing them from the time stream for a short period of time.

It was an ability that more or less, worked to the same degree as Avalon and made the user un hittable for that small period of time. An ability that could allow the user to get around even Ea!

But the bullshit of Mash's abilities didn't end there. No, because her second Personal Skill, while not quite on the same level, was overpowered as well.

'Now Is A Wall Of Fragile Snowflakes'

A very weird name for a skill. But, the effect of it could not be underestimated. As long as someone Mash considered an ally was in her general vicinity, or in Faeran's personal case connected to her as her Master, this skill would heavily enhance their physical body, both strength and durability and even further in his case, protected him from mental attacks and poison.

Now, what happened when that was applied to someone with God Hand? Well, Faeran had the answer to that.

Because, ever since he formed a contract with Mash, not only had his strength parameter risen to B+, but God Hand itself had risen to C+!

"I'll take care of that eventually," Faeran shrugged at her words, and he did plan to. there were so many ways for him to get stronger or hit harder and faster, like Mana Burst for example, he'd been practically waxing poetic about it in his head, but he really was eager to give it a shot, "But ignoring me for the minute, there's something about you I don't quite get."

"Oh?" Medusa casually twirled her spear, "And what's that boy? I thought you were my biggest fan? Clearly you're not living up to the title."

"Nah see it's cause I'm your biggest fan that it seems so odd to me," He grinned at her, his eyes going to and lingering on her weapon, "That's Harpe right? It's gotta be." he asked.

There was no other weapon like that from her legend.

"This old thing, why yes it is," she grinned down at him showing of all her teeth, "I suppose then you know little boy, what's going to happen when I cut you with this? You won't be healing at all, ever."

"Doubtful," Faeran retorted unconcerned. After all from what he remembered of Harpe, for all its ability as a god killing weapon, it wasn't an outright absurdly powerful Noble Phantasm and he seriously doubted it was of a high enough rank to get through his God Hand, "No see, what I don't get is why you have Harpe at all. Why the hell would you get summoned with it, it makes no sense. It was used to kill you, but you never wielded it. You're far better suited to being a Rider with your pegasus, or even a Caster secondary to boost your eyes and the Blood Fort Andromeda."

The coy predatory look on Medusa's face faded away to be replaced by a frown, "You do know an awful lot about me don't you boy? It makes me wonder, have we met somewhere before for you to be this confident about your knowledge of me?" she mused. She stared at him for a moment before huffing and shaking her head, "It does not matter, as I am now, there is no going back. But, I'll tell you this in respect for this admiration you claim of me boy. It is true, I'm not normal even by servant standards. I was revived by the one in possession of the grail, Saber. But, before she cut me down, I was not a lancer as I am now, I was originally summoned as the Rider class."

Faeran's eyes widened, 'Wait, Saber has the grail? Is it Arturia? The hell is going on here?' he wondered wildly, thoughts racing.

"I'll correct you on one thing though, Alter, that's what Saber is going by now, but I am not the same as her," Medusa plastered a grin on her face and leered down at him with glowing topaz eyes, "She has been altered at the very core, her very history twisted. I on the other hand, am merely stained and blackened by the revival of the grail, filled with a bloodlust that will not be satiated, it is in fact taking all I am now not to throw myself at you to bathe in your blood!"

Oh.

Faeran grit his teeth, "So there's no chance of you joining me?" he asked, hoping for a positive answer.

"I'm afraid not boy, the only reason I'm not a raging beast like the others are is because I dealt with a much greater bloodlust in life, but even so, you'd find my spear in your back no matter how I came to like you, it is my nature now," Medusa licked her lips, "It's too bad, I would have liked to hear your story and learn just why you claim to be my biggest fan."

Faeran sighed, this...this was fucking shit, "It's not a big secret, I'm not from this world and ended up here by accident, and while I never met you, I was lucky enough to get to see you in action in another grail war," he shrugged and explained casually, "I came to admire you when watching all you did and even developed a bit of a crush on you."

"Is that so?" Medusa chuckled, lowering herself down into a ready stance, spear pulled back behind her, "Then I'll apologize in advance, I'm sure you're quite disappointed to see me in a hideous form like this."

Faeran snorted, "Not really, even now you're beautiful beyond belief, so beautiful that It's easy to believe you were once a goddess," he replied. So beautiful in fact, that if it weren't for the supreme confidence that Herakles mental abilities provided him, he'd be stammering and stuttering over himself no doubt even in this situation, "No wonder that shrew Athena was so jealous of you."

Medusa just stared at him for a moment, "...You, what's your name?" she asked after a moment.

Ah, she wanted to know his name then? That actually meant quite a bit to him, "Faeran Morganach, I hope you remember it," he grinned up at her, "It's the name of the man who would have stolen you for himself if you were still normal."

"Is that so?" Medusa chuckled, "Whether I kill you or you kill me and return my spirit to the throne, I'll inscribe that name on my spirit origin. I'm sure you'd be a fun master to be summoned by in another time and place. But ready or not Faeran, here I come!"

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Axe Sword met Spear and the street ground rumbled, a massive shock wave blasting in every direction.

​

Olga huddled behind Mash's shield couldn't help but stare open mouthed as her new companion and the servant, apparently Medusa of all people! engaged in combat.

They moved in blurs so fast Olga couldn't even see them. All she saw was the after effects of their clashes or missed hints. The street splitting apart, great chunks of debris reigning down through the air, cars flying around as if they weighed as little as feathers.

She watched as Medusa appeared on the opposite side of the street from Faeran and whipped her hair out towards him. Her long purple hair transformed into hissing giant snakes, each one larger than Olga herself.

They swerved around and pincered Faeran from all sides, maws open wide with huge gleaming fangs dripping with venom.

Faeran spun in place and lashed out with his huge axe sword slicing through them. They turned back into hair a split moment later and fell gently to the ground having been cut from his opponents head.

As he completed his spin he gave a shout and tossed his sword through the air like a boomerang. If a a six foot sword of pure rock could even be called as such while spinning at speeds that would make a helicopter propeller jealous.

Medusa easily dodged to the side and made to dash towards Faeran, but just as suddenly as she did, the sword was gone and Faeran was in its place. Olga barely had time to comprehend the switch before Faeran's fist smashed into the female servants face and shot her through the air like a bullet.

She slammed into and through a building destroying it utterly just a second later from the sheer force behind the punch.

"Woah!" Fujimaru gaped wide eyed at the sheer strength Faeran had. Olga made a mental not to have him taught to school his emotions better, the plebian commoner had no idea how to act in this situation. Though she'd give him praise for not falling apart and bubbling in despair.

Mash interestingly enough didn't say a word. In fact, she was so intently focused on the fight that Olga was almost shocked. She rarely interacted with the girl, but she'd known her for years, and such an intense gaze was unusual for her.

'He's incredible,' Olga shook her head and focused on what was important, 'That strength and speed coupled with his family magecraft, I can barely fathom how powerful he is.'

It was odd how familiar he was with the servant. But then, Medusa herself seemed to know of the servant within Faeran just from seeing him, so perhaps he'd encountered the servant in his own world before he ended up here?

Still, with that power, Olga, shameful as it was could not suppress the butterflies within her belly. With him on her side...yes, yes things might actually go well for her for once!

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"...This isn't right." for the second time Faeran couldn't help but state how off things felt.

​

"Heh...and why's that?" Medusa grinned up at him from where she lay in the rubble remaining of the building she'd been punched into, blood was trailing from her lips, "Should you not be proud, you've overcome the legendary Medusa after all?" she teased.

He shook his head, frowning, "...If I actually beat you properly in a fight I might," he replied truthfully. After all, as much as he wanted this woman, she was strong. And there was a chauvinistic part of him that relished in his strength and the fact he was stronger than the woman he wanted. But, that was wrong, because; "You should be stronger than this, way stronger! You should be able to walk a punch like this off!" even if it was to the face after catching her off guard, Medusa wasn't so weak that she'd go down from one measly fucking punch!

Not even the full servant Herakles should be able to take her down with a single punch!

"You threw the fight!" he accused, growling. Despite the situation, a spike of rage shot through him, boiling in his veins.

Medusa chuckled, only to cough and spit out some blood, "Not quite," she rasped, "I told you didn't I? You were right in that I shouldn't have been summoned like this. I told you I was a Rider before right? Well all my physical abilities have been drastically lowered and all of my skills and even my Noble Phantasm have been sealed off, I'm little more than a patch work job, the only abilities I have access to are my eyes and my Monstrous Strength." she revealed.

"..I don't get it." Faeran shook his head.

"Looks like you don't know everything huh?" Medusa teased, "I bet you think I'm a Lancer now, right?"

"...You aren't?" Faeran's eyebrows rose, surprised. Then why did she have Harpe?

"No, I'm Avenger," Medusa grinned, and shakily rose her hand to show off Harpe, "You saw this and thought me a Lancer. But no, here's the thing boyo, I wasn't summoned with this, It was already here, I was just drawn to it, I could sense it ever since I was brought back."

Now his eyes widened, Avenger! His mind raced. Now it all made sense. "That's why you're so much weaker!" he gasped, the Avenger class he knew was incredibly weak. the only decent stat they had was speed, "But then how did you make those snakes and keep up with my strength."

Medusa giggled lightly, "I thought you knew everything about me as my biggest fan?" she teased again, "My Monstrous Strength skill. The more I use it, the closer I come to turning back into the Gorgon. My power over snakes is one of the first and weaker abilities I had back then, so it was a simple matter to progress far enough to use them."

That was how she could come close to his strength. She was pushing her Monstrous Strength skill to the point where she'd already begun turning into the Gorgon.

​

"Why go that far?" he couldn't help but ask.

"It's in my class name, to avenge," Medusa stopped giggling and gave him a small smile, "I wanted to kill the bastard that caused all this and avenge my master. I didn't know her for long, but I liked her and wanted to protect her. I failed."

So Sakura was dead too huh? Yeah, now he was beginning to see the bigger picture here. Rider was incredibly loyal to Sakura, there was a lot of things she went through that she was disgusted by just to protect Sakura.

"Who caused all this then?" Faeran asked seriously. This guy was the reason Olga was here in this place as well. He'd need to find him eventually.

"I don't know his name, only that he appeared out of nowhere with the Holy Grail," Medusa grimaced, "Over night the world became a sea of flames and everyone died and then he turned Saber into the thing she is now and she killed all of us other servants and then brought us back with the grail to serve her. He's most likely hanging somewhere around Saber and Archer." she explained.

Right, so either way he was going to need to deal with fucking Emiya and Saber Alter huh? Talk about a tall fucking task. Emiya was his worst opponent right now in a one on one and Saber Alter fucking rinsed the real Berserker when they thought.

"Alright," Faeran nodded after a moments thought and looked into her eyes, even darkened and a different shade, they were still hauntingly beautiful, "I'll rip his head off for you."

The smile she gave him made his heart skip a beat, "Is that so? Then I can rest easy knowing my 'biggest fan' is on the case."

He bent over and smirked at her, "Yeah, but since I'm gonna be doing that, I'll take my payment in advance." he replied and before she could reply, he covered her lips with his own.

Those hauntingly beautiful eyes of her went wide, but she didn't resist as he probed her lips with his tongue. She opened her mouth and welcomed him.

He kissed her passionately for a good twenty seconds or so before pulling back and felt an immense pride well up in him when he saw her staring up at him wide eyed, pale cheeks flushed, "Better than I even imagined." he winked.

Thank fuck for Herakles. Indomitable was the best skill ever.

She stared at him wide eyed for a moment before her lips quirked back into a smile, "Well, since you you took the payment, you better deliver on your promise and kill that bastard." Medusa demanded.

"Oh, I plan to." he bared his teeth at her ferally. He was holding it down, but the rage still simmered in his veins. That motherfucker was a dead man walking. He actually got to meet Medusa as he dreamed of, and he had to kill her. All because of that trash.

He was going to personally see how much he liked a taste of the Nine Lives Blade Works.

"Good," she nodded slowly and allowed her eyes to close, "If you summon me in the future, try to summon me properly fan boy, okay?" she teased one last time before her body began to fade into golden light.

The golden shimmering light seemed to swarm around him for a moment before fading away.

The only indication that Medusa was ever there to begin with was the hook headed spear laying amongst the rubble. He picked it up and sighed, eyes looking to the smog covered sky blotting out the stars.

Despite the fact that Harpe remained and confirmed that one of his ideas had a lot of merit and that he had a mass of power at his finger tips, he couldn't help but feel morose.