The Lancer class, one of the three Knight classes.
Superior Magic Resistance.
The peculiarity of being a vampire.
An intellect capable of retaining sanity even under Mad Enhancement.
A Noble Phantasm that forcibly erodes land to transform it into his personal territory.
The excellence of the Heroic Spirit Vlad III was too vast to list in a single sentence, and naturally, bringing him down required a cumbersome and elaborate process.
Because he is a 'Berserk' Lancer, his basic parameters are inflated, and since he accepted Mad Enhancement of his own volition, he does not resist brainwashing, allowing his stats to remain fully intact. Furthermore, since his Mad Enhancement is not the chaotic ravings of a Lancelot, but rather a state of rational insanity, finding an opening created by the Madness during combat is extremely difficult.
On top of that, his other Noble Phantasm, Legend of Dracula, grants him various abilities as a 'vampire' rather than a Heroic Spirit, which can, in a sense, be seen as his trump card.
Strength, Endurance, Agility, Magic Resistance, and Noble Phantasm; a hexagon-type Servant with no gaps. Even for one capable of a 1v1 battle against a Servant, fighting him head-on is essentially suicide.
"My, my. Has the 'Impaler' Grand Duke, who snatched away the virginity of Mehmed II's 20,000-strong army from behind, finally become dissatisfied with just the rear and is now thirsting for blood? Ho/mo/" (๑°ㅁ°๑)‼✧
"I will kill you!!!"
If he doesn't lose his sanity while trapped in Mad Enhancement, then I shall just force the Madness out of him.
[Are you c, crazy?! If you provoke a Servant like that, how are you going to deal with the aftermath!!!]
Olga Marie shouted in shock. Forget the Third Magic; the fact that she reverted to informal speech—neither plain nor polite—suggests my words were quite the shock... well, it's cute in many ways.
"There's no problem, so don't worry about it."
Dozens of stakes flew toward me.
As Vlad III's thorn-spear aimed precisely for my throat, spikes erupted from beneath the ground, flying upward as if to impale my torso.
If there ever was a 'net cast over heaven and earth,' this must be it.
However, I had the means to block it.
"Did you think I wouldn't expect this, you shameless cur! The moment your Bounded Field dissipates shall be your end!!!"
As I repelled all the thorn-spears with Shinra Tensei, Vlad III, who had approached me at some point, began hammering at the barrier of my Shinra Tensei like a madman. It was a form of defensive barrier, and he was clearly calculating that it would have a time limit. That calculation was undeniably correct.
"Converge-Expand!"
"...!"
I felt my entire body's Magic Circuits heating up intensely.
Simultaneously with the release of an intense repulsive wave, I blasted the Vlad III in front of me to a far-off place.
But Vlad III is also an undefeated master of a hundred battles. Fixing himself by driving his thorn-spear into the ground to withstand the powerful repulsive force, he glared fiercely and hurled dozens more thorn-spears at me.
"Summon - Animal Path."
"You think I'll let you block twice!"
The moment the repulsive force vanished and I summoned my beasts, Vlad III instantly switched from defense to offense.
After impaling five wild boars in an instant, he adopted a posture I hadn't anticipated. Stepping deeply with one leg, he assumed a javelin-throwing stance and threw his thorn-spear directly at me. Given the boost from a Heroic Spirit's Strength and Mad Enhancement, the remaining Animal Path summons clearly wouldn't be enough to block it.
"Shinra Tensei!"
"Dammit, that barrier again!"
"No, this time it's the opposite!"
While Vlad III was flustered by the sudden application of an attractive force, I waited for the opportunity and transformed my regenerated arm into the Asura Path.
"Flaming Warhead Arrow, melt away, Dracula!"
"Do you think this body would be defeated by a weapon created by a mere human!!!"
Right hand as a machine gun, left hand as a missile. Completely saturated in madness, he began charging at me, swinging his spear wildly rather than with technique. I calmly riddled his body with lead bullets infused with magical energy. However, living up to the name 'Dracula,' he seemed to possess regenerative powers as a Dead Apostle, simply regenerating from significant hits and continuing his approach.
"Finally caught you, you godforsaken..."
"Shinra Tensei!"
"You son of a bitch!!!"
Having sent him flying far away, I transformed my body again and began pouring volleys of bullets onto him.
Watching this, Vlad III seemingly decided to change tactics; he generated countless thorn-spears to throw at me, but they were all shot down by the Flaming Warhead Arrows intercepting incoming objects around me.
"...Good. I will show you the true depth of this body's power!"
At that moment, Vlad III's appearance shifted, and he vanished like dust.
[Be careful, he has activated Mist form.]
"Arcueid?"
[That is a vampire species equivalent to the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors, though in this state he cannot be considered a true Apostle. While he cannot exert physical force against you while your ultimate defense, Shinra Tensei, is active, it's unknown what kind of special abilities he might have.]
At that instant, a hunting hound, similar to the massive beast I had summoned when attacking the Clock Tower, lunged out and tried to tear at my throat. Moving my body to evade the hound, next came hundreds of vampire bats, creating a formation reminiscent of a cross-fire and rushing at me like a bird strike.
As I expanded Shinra Tensei to repel all the birds, they suddenly exploded, and a massive amount of stakes and spikes surged toward me.
"Emergency Evasion!!!"
In an instant, a tugging sensation below my navel caused my body to 'forcefully dodge' the stakes. The bats that had turned into leather fragments and fallen to the ground gathered back into one, returning to the form of Vlad III.
"You have quite a few parlor tricks, mongrel."
"...As expected of Legend of Dracula. The performance is truly terrifying."
It is not an empty boast that he overwhelmed Karna during the Apocrypha incident.
Although he was receiving maximum territory support at that time, Vlad III is currently being boosted by the Holy Grail. In terms of resources, it's virtually the same.
'If he has fully regained his sanity, we have a problem. I'd rather face him in a mad state where he doesn't use Legend of Dracula.'
The reason I provoked him to go mad:
It was to seal the Legend of Dracula, which makes dealing with him difficult. If it were a Dracula that relied blindly on his specs and lunged forward, I might have been able to chip him to death with a pair of Shinra Tensei and Asura Path.
Though he has the backup of the Holy Grail, a Servant only has one Spirit Origin, and I can continue to replenish my magical energy through Soul-Consumption, so I thought it was advantageous to consistently aim for the Spirit Origin. Of course, I considered the possibility of him regaining his sanity, but the speed was just too fast.
"I have decided. I will not kill you. I will drink your blood, turn you into my kin, and make you beg for death. That is the punishment I, the King of Impaling, shall bestow upon you!"
"Well, that's..."
'If it comes to that, I have no choice but to use my trump card here. It's better to keep the trump card hidden, but acting the fool to save it in a situation like this is truly idiotic.'
I have plenty of means, and against a grand hero like Vlad III, it wouldn't be a waste.
"Barrier..."
"Hey~ excuse us for a second!"
Just as I was about to unfold the magecraft alongside my hand signs, I felt something zoom past, and a powerful hand gripped the back of my neck.
A giant horse of light, the physics of which I didn't understand as it ran casually on the ground, began galloping while carrying myself, a woman, and a man who was fluorescent for some reason. Vlad III, who had shrunk into the distance due to perspective, was running after us, bellowing in rage.
"Sorry~ but it looked dangerous, so I thought the right thing to do was to get you out of there first. I was right, wasn't I?"
"Oh, uh. You're Marie Antoinette, right?"
"Oh, you know me~? That'll make communication much smoother~ Vive la France! My name is Marie Antoinette!"
"Then this must be the famous Amadeus Mozart. Are you two Heroic Spirits summoned by Alaya?"
"For the time being, you could say that~"
Come to think of it, there were Servants summoned to Orléans during this time.
Siegfried the Dragon Slayer, Saint George (Georgios), Master of Samurai NONGMIN, Marie Antoinette, Mozart... and even the younger versions of Kiyohime and Elizabeth Bathory.
Although in the original work they lack combat power and are weak enough that barely even Charles-Henri Sanson is a match for them...
"Hey there, cute Queen."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"I have a favor to ask."
If I cooperate with these two Servants, I can force that bothersome Lancer to retreat without wasting my trump card.