The Web of Strife 13

"Press the attack! Don't let up!"

"Easy for you to say!"

Saber led the charge, invisible sword cutting down construct soldiers and the rare spiderkin in equal measure. Following close behind was Shirou, who had traced the dual white and black swords that Archer had once favored, striking at any foes that Saber missed. Bringing up the rear was Strife and Rin, who were firing bullets and spells respectively at the mass of enemies in front of them.

A particularly large construct brought both of it's bladed arms down on Saber, who parried with her own sword before bisecting the construct diagonally.

She looked at the mass of foes in front of her and her eyes widened. Behind several lines of their enemies was a large construct carrying an equally large chain fed gun. No sooner had she noticed it then it started slowly rotating. She grabbed Shirou and threw him behind the fallen body of the construct she just defeated before shouting at Strife and Rin;

"Duck and cover!"

BRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKABRAKA

Strife grabbed Rin and threw her to the ground (ignoring her string of curses), before hitting the ground himself as the first shot just grazed his mask. He crawled his way behind a stone pillar, unceremoniously dragging Rin along with him.

When they reached the pillar Strife started unloading Mercy at the gun construct, and while every shot hit it's target, none had any effect, and the construct kept firing.

"It has heavy armor on, a gun with tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, and the entire party is pinned down." Strife growled to himself and he started reloading Redemption.

"What the hell do we do now?!" Rin yelled, barely voicing her question over the thundering of the construct's gun.

Strife sneaked a glance from behind a pillar. As the gun wielding construct was laying down fire, the other constructs were slowly advancing. The first of their number was within spitting distance of Saber and Shirou.

"Cover your ears Second Owner..." Strife said, neither knowing or caring if Rin heard him. He took aim at the gun construct with Redemption and fired. The shot hit the construct's head, but nothing happened. Strife, using his mask however, saw the bullet sticking to it's head, flashing at every half second interval.

Under his mask Strife smiled.

"Boom."

The bullet exploded, engulfing not only the construct but also the surrounding area in an explosion of purple energy, disintegrating everything it came into contact with.

"The gunner's down!" Strife yelled as he got out of cover, spraying the constructs with bullets, "Keep up our momentum!"

As he leaped over Saber and Shirou, Strife felled many constructs with his guns, racing forward until he was in the middle of the mass of the surviving constructs and spiderkin. Faster than any save Saber, he shot the entire mob, parrying melee blows with his guns when necessary, shooting off heads, limbs, and blasting holes in their chests, all the while slowly advancing down the tunnel to the main chamber.*

"Are there none among you who can stop these intruders?!"

Casses, former Duchess of the Depths, raged in her cavern chamber, thrashing her giant limbs, shaking the earth, and crushing any unfortunate spiderkin who wasn't wise enough to keep their distance.

"They will be here soon, and thanks to your incompetence, I will have to fight them myself! Like a common brawler!

"But they will not take me... oh no, I will be victorious, I will destroy them, I will suck the marrow from their bones, the juices from their guts, and then, one day soon, I will return to Yselik, triumphant, I will cast down the Sisters SIghtless, and I will be Queen! Me!"

Shots, screams, and the sharp sounds of metal on metal reached her ears, coming out of the main tunnel. She turned to face the sounds, a thick, viscous, venom dripping from her mandibles.

"I hear you intruders! I await you! Come and face me!"

Another shot to the head, another construct fell. In between kills Strife barely noticed the opening at the end of the tunnel.

"This is it humans!" he called out to the rest of the party, "Casses is just ahead. I hope you have enough fight left in you for this!"

Two spiderkin leaped at him, claws and fangs outstretched, and was then bisected by Saber and burned by Rin respectively.

Grail Servant smirked at Strife, "We're just fine Horseman. You worry about yourself."

Strife nodded, then stepped through the cave mouth.

It was very dark, darker than even the tunnels had been. Even his mask's nightvision was having trouble seeing the whole cavern. In this darkness Casses had the advantage of stealth, and could strike first at him, or the humans.

Thankfully, Strife had a secret weapon; a surefire way to get Casses to reveal herself:

Be himself.

"Casses! Deposed Duchess of Depths! Come out and die you miserable coward! I don't expect much out of you, you Creator forsaken exile!"

"You dare speak to me in such a way!" Casses booming yet shrill voice called out from the darkness, "I will break you little thing; you and your human pets!"

Strife aimed in the direction the voice came from and fired. A scream of rage confirmed that he had hit his mark. He heard shaking and the very ground started to tremble.

"Here she comes!" Strife called out to his party, firing in the direction of the noise before Casses came into view.

She was a massive spiderkin, and deceptively fast; Strife barely had enough time to dodge before her giant legs crushed him.

Saber struck, slashing at the beast's legs with her sword, leaving deep cuts that only served to enrage Casses as she raised a giant leg and swatted the servant aside, sending her straight into a cavern wall. Casses then lept at Saber, who used her speed to dodge just in time before Casses shattered the wall where Saber was only a half second ago.

"This would be a lot easier if I could just blast her!" Saber cried as Casses kept trying to crush her.

"If you unleash your full power Saber you'd bring the whole cave down and kill all of us!" Rin yelled as she kept firing small spells at Casses, "Shirou, now would be a good time to contribute!"

"I'm working on it!" Shirou said as he dismissed his two swords and traced a large black bow. He then traced a sword, altered it's shape to make it more streamlined, notched it, and let loose at Casses, and exploded.

When the smoke from the explosion cleared a few seconds later, Casses was gone.

"Where'd she go?" Shirou asked. Strife, still holding his guns, shrugged. Then his eyes widened behind his mask;

"Above you, move!"

Shirou looked up and saw Casses over him, hanging on the cave ceiling, fangs dripping with venom. She let go of the ceiling, and pointed her large legs at Shirou. He traced another arrow and shot it at her. It exploded on impact, breaking her controlled descent.

The bad news was she was still going to land on him.

"Shitshitshitshitshitshit-" Shirou cursed under his breath as he reinforced his legs and ran like hell to get out of the way. At the last second Saber grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out of the way as many tons of spiderkin crashed where he was standing just a few moments ago.

Saber landed a few yards away and let go of Shirou, who was breathing heavily. Strife jumped to their position, firing his pistols at the fallen Casses' grotesque head. The first salvo hit her but then Casses righted herself, jumped onto the cavewall, swiftly climbed up and vanished.

"Why didn't Shirou's attack hit her?" She asked Strife as she scanned the dark ceiling, sword at the ready while Shirou shook off the last of his shock and traced another arrow.

"She must be a teleporter!" Strife replied, scanning the cave with his mask, "Some of the Sisters Sightless of Yselik have that power, but it's very uncommon. I didn't think she knew how."

"Obviously she does!" Rin said as she ran over to their position, "You know that bit of information might have been useful before we picked a fight with her."

Strife growled. If Rin heard it she chose to ignore it, instead turning to Saber, "Saber, can you occupy Casses? I've got something that may end her!"

Strife blinked, "You have something that can take out a giant spiderkin? Dare I ask what?"

Rin reached into her pouch and produced a ruby the size of an average human's clenched fist. Shirou's eyes widened at the sight of it.

"The Gem of Babylon? You actually managed to save that thing?"

Rin looked smug, "Yes I did. It helped us out during the Grail War, it can definitely help us end an overgrown arachnid."

"I'm sorry." Strife said, "but what exactly is this thing? Other than an oversized rock of course."

Rin rolled her eyes, "This gem can make things go boom. The bigger the thing, the bigger the boom."

"You've waited until now to tell me that you have this weapon?" Strife asked incredulous.

Rin shrugged, "You have your secrets Horsemen, and I'm entitled to mine. Regardless, this gem takes a minute to charge, and my feet must be stationary the whole time, so I need you three to keep Casses in one place while I fire this thing up!"

Casses reappeared in front of them, striking out with her legs. Saber grabbed Rin and Strife grabbed Shirou and the party managed to jump out of the way in time to put a few yards of distance between them and Casses.

"We'll give you your stationary target!" Strife said, running to, and firing both of his guns at Casses. When he got close enough she brought both of legs down on him, but Strife slid out of the way under her, unloading his weapons into her soft belly. Screaming in rage Casses tried to stomp him with all of her legs, but Strife was too fast.

Shirou and Saber exchanged a nod, and he dismissed the bow and traced two curved swords. Both Saber and Shirou also ran at Casses, and when they reached her they rained dozens of blows on her legs.

As Casses screamed Saber jumped into the air and brought her invisible sword down hard on Casses' left front leg, cutting it clean off. Casses roard in pain and hatred as collapsed under her own weight.

"Now we finish this." Strife said, holstering his guns. As he held out his arms a green smoke engulfed his body, covering it completely.

Then the smoke vanished, and in Strife's place stood a new being.

It was a giant in silver and brass armor, and though it possessed a helmet similar to Strife's mask, that is where the similarities ended. Instead of two pistols, this giant had strapped to his left arm a twin linked rotating chain gun, which was as long as the original Strife was tall, while strapped to the right arm was a huge cannon, which was equipped with a giant bayonet.

The giant aimed both weapons at Casses' prone body before unleashing hell.

Deafening booms of the cannon mixed with the constant barrage of the two rotating guns, blowing watermelon sized holes in Casses' body, as well as spraying her gree blood everywhere.

Screaming, Casses tried to get up, either to jump or to teleport, but Shirou traced an arrow with a long chain attached to it, and fired it at Casses' head. It struck true, impaling one of her mandible, while Shirou drove the other end of the chain into the ground.

Casses tried to pull out, to break the little chain, but it was deceptively strong. Saber meanwhile kept up her flurry of blows, hacking off another of Casses' legs, causing the spiderkin to fall to the ground once more.

The giant jumped into the air, and landed on Casses' back. He then drove his cannon into her flesh, impaling her with it and his bayonet.

"No! This is not an end! Not like this!" Casses screamed in outrage and disbelief.

"Yes." the giant said in Strife's voice, "Like this."

He fired his cannon into Casses' back over, and over, and over again, until his shots broke through to the other side. He pulled out his gun from her back, and green smoke enveloped his body once more. When it disappeared, the Horseman Strife stood in the giant's place.

Rin, holding the glowing ruby, looked slightly disapointed, "I guess you won't be needing me to blow her up then." she said, more statement than question.

Strife chuckled and shook his head.

He jumped off Casses' back to her left side, and began to walk towards her head, drawing Mercy. He stopped when he was face to face with her, placing Mercy's barrel right between her many eyes.

"Why do this?" Casses asked, "I am neither of the First or the Second Kingdoms. I was not a threat to the balance, nor was I molesting the humans. Why must I die?"

"I follow the orders of the Charred Council." Strife responded, "When they want a spider killed I don't question them."

Casses weakly laughed, "So you are just a glorified assassin for the Council then Horseman of Strife. You are no Guardian of the Balance, just a lapdog."

"Maybe, "Strife admitted, "But that's more than what you're going to be."

BANG

Strife holstered his smoking gun. Casses, the Duchess of the Depths, was dead.

He turned to Rin, "My superiors don't want Casses' body to remain here. Can you use that gem to vaporize her body?"

Rin scoffed, "Yes I can. After I do though, you're leading me to her treasure."

Three days later

"A bargain is a bargain. Are you satisfied Second Owner?"

Rin and her companions (Rider, Sakura and Illya having joined them in the meantime) stood in front of a mountain of treasure, filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables from Yselik and beyond.

They had just finished moving the hoard from Casses' underground tunnels, and divided it between to the Tohsaka basement, Einzbern Castle, the Emiya household, and the Matou mansion. They were currently in the basement of the Tohsaka's.

"Yes." Rin said, "I am indeed satisfied."

"Sister, are you crying?" Sakura asked with a bemused grin on her face.

"No!" Rin replied, maybe a little to hastily, "I just have some dust in my eye."

"Some gold dust maybe Illya said under her breath. The homunculus ignored the glare Rin shot her way.

"If that will be all," Strife said, "I shall take my leave of you. This partnership was... amusing."

"That's one word for it." Shirou replied.

"I will say this though." Strife said, "I hope we never meet again. For if we ever do, it may not work out for your species."

Shirou nodded grimly, "It is a sentiment that we share then Horseman."

"Heh." Strife exclaimed. "Goodbye humans."

*I imagine that Strife's fighting style to be like this:

[MEDIA=youtube]0-ANcaESZtw[/MEDIA]

Specificlly the :48 to 1:06 mark.

Whew, this took a while. Despite my chronic procrastination, the Web of Strife is almost done. Just the epilogue remains.