Chapter 14: Chapter 14 : A magus instead of a magician
Channeling a little bit of mana on the blade he swung it to the rocks. It hits and they make a path, that was the sword's intent, to take rocks out of the way, simple but useful to help someone stuck or to enter where previously the rocks blocked his path.
The katana disappeared with him cutting the flux of mana completely and he ran, reinforcing his legs as much as he safely could.
Once he got back and saw the giant figure he also noticed that there were no more rats around. "Oh! The human is back! Did you abandon that pureblood?" The stray looked amused if anything else.
"Why are you here?" Shirou asked, getting closer with careful steps.
"'Here'? This is my home, I have been living here for years now, eating from the leyline below this school." The red head stopped on his tracks;
"There is a leyline below Homurahara?" The information shocked him.
"Yes there is! Such a lucky break to find this here!" The arms attempted to go up but they were barely moving until the stray gave up. "It is the perfect hiding! Using the mana of this small branch I survived as a stray! No one could find me and, once and a while I could send my rats to just get me a good meal!"
Shirou was only half listening to what the stray was saying, if there is a branch of a leyline below the academy and this guy has been 'eating' it... even with his minimal education he was sure that it was bad. "Is that why you are like this?" He moved a little closer.
"Yes, this form was maximal for my survival! Using the excess of mana I modified my body using the power of the evil piece that I still have!" Then the being started to let energy out again. "I raised my defenses and made this place my home! For the last ten years I lived like a king!"
"YOU CALL THAT LIVING?" Shirou couldn't believe that someone would do such a thing to himself.
"But of course! I have an army of loyal subjects! I eat what I want! I am a KING! Greater than that pureblooded bastard!" The hatred in his voice made obvious who he was speaking about.
"Your former master?"
"BAH! THAT IGNORAMUS! HE WAS THE REASON WHY WE LOST SO MANY MATCHES! AFTER OUR FIRST DEFEAT HE STARTED TO REJECT MY STRATEGIES! HE DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER IN TRYING TO IMPROVE OUR FIGHTING FORCE! ALWAYS COMPLAINING THAT WE HAD NO SACRED GEAR!" The rant then stopped and he started to laugh." But then I showed him! I SHOWED THEM ALL! MY STRATEGIES WERE ABSOLUTE! AND EVEN WITHOUT THOSE CURSED TOOLS FROM GOD I EASILY KILLED THAT PUREBLOOD BASTARD!"
"You killed him over a disagreement?" Shirou was starting to get angry.
"I KILLED HIM BECAUSE HE WAS AN IDIOT!" The smile on that face was as monstrous as the rest of the body. "JUST! LIKE! YOU!"
Two enormous rats came from the tunnels and charged at Shirou. The teenager barely had time to react when he jumped back to dodge one but the other managed to swipe and hit his side.
"After that girl showed up here I had to mutate some of my soldiers! They are not as small or versatile anymore but they are now powerful! I should have done this years ago!" The two rats strike at Shirou who dodges, he tries to retreat but they are chasing him.
For his first real fight he was fairing really well until one of the giant vermin hit him with its tail and his back hit a wall. The time it took for Shirou to recover his bearing was the time the rats directed themselves at him again.
"Oh! Looks like your little friend found an exit! BUT WAIT! I HAVE BARRIERS THERE! I HAVE ALREADY CLOSED ALL THE EXITS!"
The giant rats then stopped, Shirou used reinforcement to try and see why. When he failed he tried to force more mana on his eye, a risky endeavor but he needed all the information he could get.
While the stray spoke with, he supposed with Rias when he said 'Gremory', Shirou steadily increased the output of mana on his eye until he saw it. Whisper, almost fireflies made of mana going to the rats in a gray color.
Looking to the devil he could see that and a pure cyan going into him from above his head, he was seeing for the first time a small, not even the mais root, portion of the ley line below his school which was already just a small vertent of the main one beneath the city.
"...MILLIONS!" Once the speech was over the stray focused on Shirou. "Once I kill you I will take my time with that pureblood! One thing you can say about those bastards is that they produced fine specimens!"
Shirou got up and started tracing a new sword, the difference between tracing and projection is that he can make it closer to the original, with more substance, than any simple projection could have. They are still not 1 to 1 but since Shirou was working with both swords and he was their creator the difference was almost null.
Once again he pulls out a katana but where the rock mover had a brown handle this one is simple black with a little of gray. "WHY ARE YOU DOING ALL THIS?" If Shirou was honest he didn't want to fight.
"Because I can! Why else?" But with that answer his decision was made and the teen charged to meet the two rats.
The thing about this new sword is that it was the sharpest one that Shirou ever made, the result of his training and practice on forging metal using magecraft to improve the material while hammering away any impurity.
The rats didn't have a chance, their size just made them bigger targets. Shirou cuts the side of one and once the other tried to crush him with its arm Shirou cut it off followed by cutting the pest head.
"Tch. A magus instead of a magician but a fighting one at that! Funny how that is supposed to be rare yet two invade my home one week apart from each other!" Shirou was not interested in anything the monster was saying at that point, he was done with all this and ready to just finish this fight.