Book 2: Chapter 21: The Chen Heng Who Wants to Mouth Off
The first battle Mash and Fujimaru Ritsuka went to was the one between Georgios and Lancelot. Georgios was a Heroic Spirit that focused on defense, so he found fending off Lancelot quite easy. However, his offense appeared to be lacking. Hence, the advantage of two fighting against one was rather clear now that Mash was here.
When Mash joined the battle and took out her shield, she disrupted Lancelot’s offense, and his attacks weakened.
This seemed like a classic scene of domestic violence.
Then there was Merlin’s side. Merlin’s Illusion Arts and the French army’s support allowed him to reach a draw with Gilles de Rais. However, Merlin wasn’t serious, hardly putting in any effort.
As a Grand Caster candidate, he reached a draw with a Heroic Spirit of the same rank. Furthermore, he had support from others. Who would believe he was going all out? Certainly not Chen Heng.
The others did not experience many problems because of Chen Heng’s tripled gravity field. They mostly held the upper hand. The French army could deal with the wyverns and skeleton soldiers. The gravity field prevented the wyverns from flying, and the skeleton soldiers’ movement slowed; they were no threat at all.
The French army Chen Heng had recruited had its uses. At the very least, the Servants on his side did not need to take time out to deal with the riffraff.
Chen Heng initially wanted to help Merlin kill Gilles de Rais since Gilles de Rais was the true culprit. He did not want a situation where Gilles de Rais regained the Holy Grail after he defeated Jeanne d’Arc Alter. That would mean having to fight another boss—which would be a bit of a hassle.
However, Chen Heng swapped opponents with Jeanne d’Arc. After all, Gilles de Rais was already so pitiful, so just let Saint Jeanne d’Arc, whom he dreamed about, handle his end.
Now that the enemy had lost momentum and the victory was already set in stone, they could afford to mess around a little.
Chen Heng flew to the battle between Jeanne d’Arc and Jeanne d’Arc Alter. The two Jeanne d’Arcs had just backed off after a clash.
“Hey? He Who Knows Fate, why are you here?” Jeanne d’Arc found it strange when she saw He Who Knows Fate come over. They had initially agreed on Chen Heng, Mash, and Fujimaru Ritsuka roaming around to assist the other battles after they dealt with Fafnir, maximizing the results, before dealing with the final boss.
Before that, Jeanne d’Arc would delay Jeanne d’Arc Alter while Merlin restrained Gilles de Rais.
“Jeanne d’Arc, go work with Merlin to deal with Gilles de Rais. I’ll deal with the Dragon Witch. Simultaneously, I’m going to see if I can convert her to Chaldea’s cause,” Chen Heng whispered; Jeanne d’Arc Alter did not hear him.
“Hey?! Why are you two coming forward? What are you discussing with each other?” The current Jeanne d’Arc Alter felt very frustrated because of Jeanne d’Arc’s earlier questions. Those questions had made Jeanne d’Arc Alter question her life. Now, she wanted to use the battle to numb herself.
With the support of a Holy Grail, Jeanne d’Arc Alter only fought to a draw, but this was because she unconsciously held back, so she feared nothing when Chen Heng joined in.
“Got it. I’ll support Merlin, then.” Although Jeanne d’Arc did not know why Chen Heng seemed confident of converting Jeanne d’Arc Alter to their cause, she trusted him because of his confidence.
“Hey, old pal! We meet again! This is our third meeting, right?” Chen Heng greeted Jeanne d’Arc Alter after Jeanne d’Arc left. Jeanne d’Arc Alter did not stop Jeanne d’Arc. Rather, she felt quite happy about a solo battle with Chen Heng.
Jeanne d’Arc Alter had wanted to beat up Chen Heng long ago. This fellow not only tricked me twice, but he also speaks in an incredibly irritating manner.
Earlier, Jeanne d’Arc Alter with a Holy Grail fought a weakened Jeanne d’Arc to a draw, purely because Jeanne d’Arc Alter did not go all out. However, it was different with Chen Heng. Jeanne d’Arc Alter hated Chen Heng a lot in the first place. Furthermore, she believed he killed Fafnir earlier.
Hence, Jeanne d’Arc Alter absolutely would not hold back against Chen Heng.
“You scoundrel, are you here to seek death? This great me is not a dragon like Fafnir. Your Dragonslayer is useless on me!” The only thing that could prevent Jeanne d’Arc Alter from attacking Chen Heng was his gravity field. However, he was maintaining his gravity field over a vast area and definitely had no way to raise the gravity further.
A Magus going against me in close combat? Can I even lose? If I do, I’ll eat Fafnir while upside-down!
As Chen Heng was about to sass Jeanne d’Arc Alter, she thrust her flagpole. Watching the flagpole, he quickly took out a sword from his spatial space to block. “You should listen to others first. If you don’t let me speak, how am I to mouth off?”
Jeanne d’Arc Alter operated unconventionally. Earlier, the two Jeanne d’Arcs exchanged ripostes for so long without problems. Yet, when it came to Chen Heng, Jeanne d’Arc Alter attacked without letting him speak.
“How ridiculous! I can listen to you after I kill you!” Ignoring Chen Heng, Jeanne d’Arc Alter swept her flagpole across after pulling it back. As a faux Servant based on Jeanne d’Arc, created by Gilles de Rais using a Holy Grail, Jeanne d’Arc Alter’s combat skills were incredible. Furthermore, she possessed a brute force that Jeanne d’Arc lacked.
“…”
After all, Jeanne d’Arc Alter’s original parameters included A-ranked Strength, A-ranked Agility, and A+-ranked Mana. With a Holy Grail supporting her, her excellent parameters became even more excellent.
Jeanne d’Arc Alter’s attacks were ferocious and contained substantial force. Chen Heng found them somewhat hard to deal with.
Don’t forget Chen Heng only had B-ranked Strength, B-ranked Agility, and A-ranked Mana. His parameters were already inferior to Jeanne d’Arc Alter’s, even without a Holy Grail. What more with one now?
However, it was still fine. After all, Chen Heng had practiced the Chen Clan Sword Technique to the peak. Although he did not know why the Servant’s status screen only evaluated the Chen Clan Sword Technique as B-ranked, he felt it was because of a low opinion of him. However, he could use techniques to compensate for his insufficient Strength and Agility.
Jeanne d’Arc Alter’s flagpole was similar to a spear. She just needed to furl the flag on the pole, and there was no difference. It was just longer.
The spear was considered the king of cold weapons. It had three primary characteristics: flexibility, great offensive power, and strong penetrative power. Jeanne d’Arc Alter brought out these three characteristics to the greatest extent.
[TL Note: Cold weapons refer to weapons that are not firearms or weapons involving fire or explosives. Here is the Wikipedia entry on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_weapon.]
Furthermore, the longer a spear was, the more powerful it was. Jeanne d’Arc Alter used her reach advantage to make Chen Heng suffer significantly. Fortunately, the Chen Clan Sword Technique possessed exquisite moves, using speed and strength to offset his weapon’s disadvantage.
Nevertheless, Chen Heng fought purely with the weapon, disdaining to use sword qi or his abilities. Otherwise…
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