Fate/Heroes - Chapter 11

Gray stood still, his spear on the ready for any incoming attack from the members of The Team. He knew the personalities of each member as well as their individual abilities.

Kid Flash, the fifteen year sidekick of the Flash, vanished in a yellow and red streak and appeared on the side of Rider.

Everything was slow motion to the yellow speedster. He found that when he ran, the entire world around him slowed down because he was moving too fast.

The only people to ever match his speed other than his mentor, the Flash, was Superman and Wonder Woman. The former was the greatest Hero on Earth, and the latter was the daughter of a Greek God and had the blessings of many other female Gods.

The could “see” him when he ran, and had reflexes to counter his moves. An he firmly believed that they were the only beings that could see him whenever he ran.

Wally gazed into the golden-amber eyes of this Rider figure in front of him which slowly turned to look at him. The former’s eyes widened at the superhuman movement of the silver armored figure, who waved his spear in a cutting motion, colliding with the sternum of Kid Flash.

The fifteen year old never saw it coming.

The other seven members of The Team only saw Wally’s figure vanish like it normal did, not to be sent flying back in a instant from a wave of Rider’s spear.

Their teammate wasn’t heavily injured, but knew that his pride was damaged more than anything.

The sound of the spear tapping the ground echoed throughout their ears and green colored lightning bounced off his body like a coat.

“Let’s dance”.

With an earth shattering boom, the red striped figure of Rider vanished, and Miss Martian’s voice resounded throughout all of their minds.

“He’s above us!”.

Superboy was the first to respond to M’gann’s words and the clone leaped up, pulling back his right arm to swing at the Pseudo-Servant.

They all though that since Rider was mid-air, he would have no way of dodging the powerful blow of the Kryptonian. He may not possess the same level of strength as the real Superman but his strength still exceeded that of many metahumans.

But they were wrong.

In a flash of light, Rider’s silver armor changed slightly, and the image of a large diamond shaped shield took its place.

The weapon collided with Superboy’s arm, but the latter’s eyes widened as the ox hide covered shield not not bend, dent or break for that matter. Only Gray’s glowing pink colored eyes showed any form of movement, before the clone was smacked into the ground with a force far greater than he previously expected.

“Conner!”.

Miss Martian neglected her psychic connection to the rest of the team, and gestured for Zatanna and Artemis to attack from afar. Having Aqualad confront him directly and Robin and Batgirl taking potshots in order to reveal weaknesses and anger Gray.

The target of said potshots nodded his head somewhat at the thought of said plan.

“Not bad, not bad. But you guys need to do your homework before picking a fight with someone like me”.

The heavy silver armor of Ajax The Great vanished and Achilles sleek silver armor took its place once more. The green garbed archer shot several arrows during this transformation, all hitting their targets and exploding directly on Gray’s body.

The group looked hopeful for a second and their eyes widened when Gray’s spear cut through the smoke, revealing his unmarked body, and golden-amber eyes glaring straight at Artemis.

“Y’know, I was killed by an Archer in my previous life. And even if you are a woman….. it still won’t douse my hatred for your weapon of choice even in this one”.

Several more batarangs collided with Gray’s body, all of which were deflected by his other Noble Phantasm, [Andreias Amarantos: Amaranth of the Brave].

It was a Noble Phantasm that was the crystallization of Achilles’ near-immortality during his life. When he was born, his mother, the Goddess Thetis wanted to make Achilles immortal in order to secure he son’s safety. But his father, the King of Phthia, Peleus, refused and didn’t want to take away his son’s humanity, leaving only his heel out of the holy flames which cleansed him of his mortal blood.

It is his sole weak point and only weakness. Those possessing a higher rank Divinity than Achilles could ignore this blessing, and those with Divine Constructs could attack Achilles directly but….

“Unless you have someone who can ignore the [Andreias Amarantos: Amaranth of the Brave], you’re weapons are useless. Even Superboy, with all his strength does not possess the capability to harm me”.

The members of The Team noted this strange name and kept it present in their minds.

“I’ll still find a way to kick your ȧss!”.

Superboy leaped out of the hole that Gray had smacked him into, and started punching Gray’s body, who dodged every powerful blow with an equally fast speed.

The Pseudo-Servant raised an eyebrow at the disorganized barbaric way of fighting, and his inner warrior cringed at the wasted potential. The Rider Class Card sent over a mental message to Gray, who raised an eyebrow at it’s meaning.

‘Are you sure? He is trying to kill me right now’.

The affirmation from several of the other Class Cards were all the reasoning Gray needed.

“Your form is horrible Conner. I could hit you three times if I wanted to”.

Gray spun [Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē: Spear-tip of the Star Traversing Skies] in his hands. it collided with Superboy’s shin, sternum and chin as the Kryptonian was stunned for a second before continuing his uncontrollable flurry of punches.

Gray sighed but listened to the other Servants words.

“The distance between your legs should be wider. Relax your shoulders a little more. It will make it easier for you to turn and rotate your upper body…”.

The clone of Superman furrowed his brows and ignored the words of his opponent, who was blocking arrows and batarangs and dodging punches from him.

“You should try to make your punches faster rather than stronger. Your speed can easily be reach a level were I have to block rather than dodge. If you were to-“.

“Shut up!”.

Superboy’s angered voice cracked through the night sky like a bolt of lightning, his eyes, and the eyes of the other members of The Team widening at the sight of Conner’s fist being enclosed by Riders.

His eyes glaring at the teenagers while shaking his head in disappointment.

“As I thought. Your still just a child”.