A Fake Familiar Reborn

Chapter 19: Promises and Punishments

Then again, there was simply no way his incompetent younger self would have been able to actually overpower Illya. Certainly, Rin could have done it, but his younger self? The idea was somewhat amusing to consider, as he was sure Illya would have torn him to shreds.

“We'll talk about this later. Right now, someone else needs to understand the consequences of their reckless actions.” He said while gazing towards Sona’s group, protectively clustered around the still unconscious heiress. He wondered, what could have pushed the typically levelheaded girl to perform a Servant summoning despite him having previously warned her of the potential downsides and dangers inherent to the ritual? He knew for certain that she did not seek the Grail, having already acknowledged its nature as a Monkey's Paw.

“What should we do about her?” Yuuto asked, subtly nodding towards Rider while taking a defensive stance, sword in hand — the Servant’s only acknowledgement of the action being a slight head tilt, as if asking what he intended to actually do with the metal stick he held.

“Don’t even think about it,” Archer snatched the sword from the boy's grasp and threw it away. “Idiot, never try to confront a Servant unless there’s no other option. Begging or running away are preferable alternatives, understood? She could kick your head off your shoulders before you realized you were staring at an afterimage. You already can’t keep up with me even when I’m holding back, and her speed and physical strength both outclass my own.”

As soon as he heard that, a terrifying chill crawled down Kiba's spine. Their sparring sessions before and during the training camp had ingrained into him just how big the gap between them really was in both skill and power. The admittance that Archer was holding back made his own weakness a harder pill to swallow, but he wasn’t dumb enough to stay blind to the facts, even if his pride as a swordsman took a rather humbling hit. Archer was fast enough that even his Knight Piece made no difference at all, forcing him to rely on defensive swordsmanship patterns and educated guesswork to try and parry incoming strikes — which failed more often than not, though Archer had assured him that he was getting better with each spar.

And yet, Archer plain-out admitted that the blindfolded woman before them was even faster than himself. ‘Servants… just what kind of terrifying entities are they? They were supposed to have been humans before they became Heroic Spirits, right?’

If Archer was alive and able to fuse with a Knight Piece… would it even have any effect on his overall speed?

“Archer!” Came Rias’ frantic shout, and his eyes caught the sight of her and Akeno flying to him at full speed, with Asia, Gasper, Koneko and Issei right behind them. He didn't miss the slight tensing of Rider’s posture as she suddenly appeared by Sona's side, positioning herself between her Master and the new arrivals.

As for Archer, he found himself starting to worry as he saw the way Rias and Akeno were glaring at the other Servant. Hopefully he didn’t have to worry about any of them doing something outrageously stupid such as atta—

“You'll pay for this!”

“—!?”

Unfortunately for him, his worst fear nearly came to be when his Master screamed at Rider. An orb of Destruction power hovered in midair at the end of Rias’ fingers, ready to fly towards the violet-haired servant whose brows seemed to furrow slightly beneath her blindfold.

His eyes widened, his pupils contracted into pinpricks, and cold sweat started pouring off his back as he panicked for the second time today, a brand new experience for the normally stoic Counter Guardian.

"You fool!" Even if he had to be a bit strong-handed and use force, he was determined to do so, as the alternative would be infinitely worse.

As he was about to move and forcefully detain Rias from doing anything else, a certain white-haired Rook got to Rias before he did and latched onto her King, stopping her from doing anything.