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That's right — just as the battle between the two Artorias locked into stalemate, Maverick remembered something.
He also had weapons.
He could also shoot people.
Without further consideration, he popped open his suitcase on the tarmac, loaded himself up with everything inside, and hit the battlefield with a submachine gun in one hand and the sniper rifle in the other.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
He was not foolish enough to shoot into the Artoria vs. Artoria exchange. The two of them were moving at a speed where friendly fire wasn't a possibility, it was a guarantee. His Artoria would likely forgive him, but the situation didn't need additional complications.
His target was the other Emiya Kiritsugu — the one who had headshot him at the landing zone, who was now standing to the side watching the Servant battle with the exact expression of someone who had forgotten there was a war happening around them.
Maverick's submachine gun opened up.
The enemy Kiritsugu took a round to the shoulder, stumbled out of his spectating state, swore, pulled his Glock and returned fire while sprinting hard toward the nearest airport bus for cover. Maverick kept the pressure on, stitching rounds across the tarmac and up the bus body — close, close, close — and was lining up the kill shot when the bus pulled away.
Full stop. The bus just drove off.
Both of them stood in the sudden open space and looked at each other.
[Screaming]: THE BUS LEFT
[Dying]: THE DRIVER JUST LEFT
[Analyzing]: wait — the driver was an NPC, and the NPC saw a gun battle happening and drove away. that's what a real bus driver would do.
[More_Analysis]: it waited this long because it was watching the Artoria fight. the gunshots hitting the body is what snapped it out of it.
[Losing_It]: the bus driver was watching Artoria fight and forgot to leave. I relate to this bus driver on a spiritual level.
The enemy Kiritsugu, now fully exposed, looked at Maverick.
Maverick raised the submachine gun.
The enemy Kiritsugu's health bar reached zero.
[First_Blood_Adjacent]: MAVERICK
[Celebrating]: MAVERICK GOT THE KILL
[Fan_Rising]: after everything — after the airport, the church, the NPC, the statue, the sniper — MAVERICK GOT THE KILL
The link broke. Swimsuit Artoria, mid-Noble Phantasm clash, felt it — the sudden dissolution of the connection, the Master gone. Pain crossed her face, fast and sharp. She pulled out of the exchange with a snarl, turned toward Maverick, and raised Excalibur.
"You scoundrel. You killed my Master. I'm going to—"
Fear, Maverick thought, very clearly, is what I am currently feeling.
His body moved before the thought finished. Lips barely parted.
"Fivefold Innate Time Control."
The world went fast — genuinely fast, not the haptic-feedback approximation he'd experienced before but something close to the real thing, five times the physical throughput crammed into one second of time. Swimsuit Artoria's horizontal slash came in and he was already leaning back, the blade passing through the space where his torso had been, deactivating the multiplier the instant the dodge was complete.
He landed. Stable.
Swimsuit Artoria blinked.
A bloodstain bloomed across her chest — Saber Artoria's sword, which had found the opening in the same moment Maverick created it. The two movements had happened simultaneously from opposite sides.
Swimsuit Artoria looked down at the wound.
Then looked up at Maverick, expression shifting from rage to something more complicated.
"Even in summer," Maverick said, slightly out of breath, "that's a bit much."
Swimsuit Artoria was quiet for a moment.
"If I'm not a bit much," she said, "the summer Spirit Origin isn't worth having. And I wanted more time with my Master."
Her Spirit Core was shattered. No Battle Continuation to buy her more time. She didn't fight it.
Under everyone's eyes, she dissolved into points of light — starlight, scattered and briefly beautiful, and then gone.
[Quiet]: ...
[Moved]: she just wanted more time with her Master
[Feeling_Things]: I was not prepared for that to hit the way it did
[Analysis_Mode]: okay she had Territory Creation A-rank from her Caster sub-class, if she'd had time to set that up the fight goes differently
[More_Analysis]: and Independent Action from her Archer class — she could have hunted Maverick for three days after the Master died. she didn't because she was angry. emotional decision.
[Respectful]: she was always going to lose the direct exchange, but she had win conditions and gave them up
[Counter]: the Master was too aggressive, that's the real issue
The system notification appeared:
[Congratulations — you have eliminated player "Tears_of_a_Thousand_Years." Reward: 1 holy grail fragment. (Fragments persist after the match. Collect seven to redeem a Holy Grail from the in-game store.)]
[Fan_Club_Rising]: AFTER ALL THIS TIME. MAVERICK FANS STAND UP. IS HE THE MVP OR NOT?!
[Honest]: yes, Maverick is the MVP, and Artoria is the one who carried him to a position where he could be MVP
[Counter_Counter]: so what? they're a team. check the breakdown — if Maverick hadn't taken out the enemy Master, Artoria might not have gotten the opening
[Laughing]: might not have gotten the opening? Artoria was pressing that fight
[Measured]: she was pressing it, yes, but Swimsuit had win conditions she hadn't used yet. Maverick's intervention closed the window.
[Final_Word]: the real MVP is the bus driver
[Agreement]: the bus driver deserves recognition
[New_Player]: my download finished, is anyone running online mode?
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