BCloud
patreon
IBHJ Chapter 702
🕑 Added 2024-02-06 01:42:33 +0000 UTCOutside, Sigurd was already scowling deeply at Valkyrie. He didn't feel he was mistaken. The green-haired Valkyrie had used a skill that greatly restrained him - Dragon Slayer!
And it was no minor Dragon Slayer skill!
Sigurd was a famous hero in Norse mythology, while Siegfried was the protagonist of the "Nibelungenlied." The two could be said to share the same origin, both having slain the evil dragon Fafnir. However, unlike Siegfried who bathed in the dragon's blood and obtained the Noble Phantasm "Armor of Fafnir," Sigurd swallowed the dragon's heart and achieved self-modification, becoming a Dragon-kind Servant like Salter.
By devouring Fafnir, Sigurd became extremely powerful, at the pinnacle level among Sabers. Compared to heroes who achieved the title of god-slayer, there were relatively fewer dragon-slayers, so the Dragon Kind was rarely suppressed by others.
But unfortunately, he had encountered Shirou - someone who could copy skills and bestow them on others, a complete bug!
In his early years, Shirou had broken into the Root and copied dozens of skills from the army of Heroic Spirits. In later years, he increased his repertoire to over a hundred skills. Many he didn't even recognize or could use well, but he copied them for potential future use. For example, during the Romania Holy Grail War, he had copied Atalanta's [Hunter's Aesthetic] on that premise. And it was the same for Dragon Slayer.
Shirou didn't plan to intervene personally, as that would expose him to Skadi. But he absolutely couldn't stand idly by when he could easily help save others - that was his nature. Therefore, he used his skill to buff the Valkyrie.
He buffed three layers of [Dragon Slayer C] to the green-haired Valkyrie, directly restraining Sigurd's very existence and allowing her to block his attack.
And that was just the start—
The other Valkyries, beaten down by Sigurd earlier, twitched their fingers slightly and slowly stood up.
"Impossible! I made sure you couldn't get back up! And this feeling...Dragon Slayer again?" Sigurd looked at the Valkyries in disbelief.
He was certain his attacks had made it impossible for the others to rise again. Yet now they were standing, emanating that same natural enemy sensation as the green-haired Valkyrie!
And that was, of course, because Shirou had buffed them - granting one layer of [Battle Continuation C] from Cú Chulainn and two layers of Dragon Slayer C.
The revived Valkyries began a pincer attack on Sigurd.
And this time, their assaults were no longer useless. The Dragon Slayer skill made them the natural bane of Sigurd!
Although their parameters were still way inferior compared to Sigurd's, with the multiple layers of Dragon Slayer and the Valkyries coordinating at point-blank range, they could fight pretty evenly with him for now.
But after all, he was Sigurd. This famous Norse hero, even without his fame boost, was still extremely powerful. After a brief discomfort, he started crushing the valkyries again.
"It's no good. Even with your help, they're no match for him, Eternal King!" Salter said.
As a battle-hardened King Arthur, she easily saw the key problem. Though boosted by Shirou's Dragon Slayer and coordinating at zero range through their Network, the Valkyries' stats were still way below Sigurd's. He would likely crush them again soon.
"Don't worry, Saber," Shirou smiled confidently. "The real show has only just begun."
She looked at him, feeling a bit helpless inside. This guy was sometimes wise, sometimes playful, sometimes mentoring, sometimes flirtatious - truly hard to figure out. She didn't know what kind of person he ultimately was.
In fact, compared to the straightforward Gilgamesh, Shirou was indeed complex and difficult to read. What kind of king are you? Salter wondered.
Shirou didn't care what she was thinking. Right now he was making precise skill adjustments. He naturally understood that even with skill counters, without comparable base attributes, one would still struggle to win. So it was expected that the Valkyries found Sigurd difficult, even with Dragon Slayer.
However, that was before his adjustments. After he made his tweaks, the situation took a drastic turn.
When Sigurd fiercely stabbed at a Valkyrie with no way to dodge, Shirou removed all her skills and gave her three layers of [Instinct C].
And with her new triple [Instinct C], the Valkyrie seemed divinely guided as she lightly sidestepped Sigurd's lethal strike.
This surprised Sigurd and the Valkyries themselves.
And this was only Shirou's basic manipulation.
He could buff three types of skills for others, freely switching as long as he had enough mana. This fully displayed the strength of his support abilities and versatility.
At least...Salter watched dumbfounded.
The triple [Instinct C] let the doomed Valkyrie escape death. Three layers of Kalaripayattu, the Enlightened One's defensive martial art, allowed her to block Sigurd's strike. One layer of Spartacus's skill, turning Sigurd's attacks into pleasure instead of pain...
It was Shirou masterfully manipulating his skills to dazzling effect, resulting in the much stronger Sigurd unable to gain ground against the Valkyries.
And Salter...Well, she was completely awed by his showing off. Only after witnessing his maneuvers did she realize...
So skills can be used like this!
It's so difficult...Salter realized staying true to her worldview while with him would be...extremely difficult!
"Damn—!" Sigurd swept out a sword strike, blowing the Valkyries back.
How is this possible? Why are they so hard to defeat? It's almost like when they were alive...
Wait a minute—!
Could it be...
Sigurd looked at the green-haired Valkyrie and asked in disbelief: "You all...have you remembered who you were?"
"We're just us. Beep - I'm Valkyrie Type-C 11475," the green-haired Valkyrie replied, vigilantly watching the intruder.
"Is that so...you haven't remembered. Good - you're still expendable then," Sigurd tightened his grip on the demonic sword, coldly staring as his body emitted an icy aura.
Salter's eyes widened. "Is he about to unleash his Noble Phantasm?"
Shirou narrowed his eyes, uninterested in whether Sigurd would unleash his Noble Phantasm. But Sigurd's words did interest him greatly.
What was Sigurd implying? Was there more to these Valkyrie clones than meets the eye?
Come to think of it, the way Sigurd had addressed Valkyrie C 11475 didn't seem like he was talking to a typical enemy or stranger...but rather someone he had known for a long time.
It appeared many secrets were buried in this Norse world's two-thousand-year history. Shirou's eyes narrowed.
At that moment, Sigurd, who was about to unleash his Noble Phantasm, instead frowned and slowly extinguished his surging mana.
He turned his head slightly, looking disgustedly in another direction. "Can't believe I'm being told to temporarily leave Valhalla alone... My only reason for responding to the summons is Valhalla. Hmph...fine then. Killing the last Norse god first and dealing with Valhalla later is also acceptable."
Sigurd turned his head back, coldly looking at the highly vigilant Valkyrie. "You're lucky..."
He leaped into the air and fled.
"Do we chase?" Salter asked Shirou eagerly.
"No." He shook his head.
She frowned. "Why not?"
"Because we've been discovered." He raised his hand slightly, pointing at the windows.
Salter turned her head slightly to look and couldn't help being taken aback. The Valkyries had already put away their spears of light and surrounded the windows. Undoubtedly, they had been discovered.
The red-haired Valkyrie spoke in a stiff, hollow voice: "Please come out, Eternal King, Lady Artoria. Valkyrie Type-B 224 cautiously calls out to the two hiding underground."
"Now what? Make a run for it?" Salter asked.
"No. Let's go out."
She frowned. "Didn't you say we can't head out earlier, or we'd get exposed and Skadi would capture us?"
Hearing this, he stood up and brushed the dirt off his rear, smiling. "They've so graciously invited us - why would we turn them down?"
As he spoke, he headed out first.
Ah! What exactly was this guy thinking?! Salter felt a terrible headache coming on. She had never met someone as contradictory as Shirou.
She felt compared to Gilgamesh, Iskandar, or even Kiritsugu...they were all much simpler people than Shirou.
Comments
Azelios Rosemile
Compared to how he treat His Arty, he is actually teasing Artoria a lot more. If Arty were to look, jealousy would flame. And yes, I very much look forward to ALL Artoria face confrontation
JeanMartin Freites
And Salter's confusion won't be cleared any time now.
