The entrance isn't actually visible, but it's for the sake of the thread.
Phase 1 Stipulations:
Lancer doesn't want to let them in
Ciel and Shielder want to get in
For Phase One each side will make a total of 2 posts, one outlining their general strategy for this phase, and one reacting to what their opponent intends to do this phase. Then it will be opened for voting and if necessary we will move onto the second phase, with the new conditions stipulated in another post.
It should go without saying that referencing abilities you do not have will lead to immediate disqualification, I have full knowledge of all builds present here and vouch that if they reference an ability or skill rank they do not possess that will not be counted.
"We don't need to hurt him Ciel, let's just move through."
Shielder does not want a fight, at all. However there are some disagreements about how to handle the current situation. In any case, Shielder's objective is just to get through the entrance without anyone getting hurt.
He's going to release Aegis, and move toward the entrance. Ordinarily he would hang back while Ciel attacks and wait to use Aegis as a reactive measure. He isn't going to do that here because he hopes Ciel will recognize he's just trying to push through the entrance without hurting Lancer. If Lancer attacked while they were inside, it would rather defeat his whole reason for holding them off so he will probably not do that. Shielder is taking getting inside the door as his victory condition.
Shielder's indicated to Rider that he should stay back, and Rider is too wounded to contribute inside the entrance and Lancer has no reason to hurt him, so Shielder's just going to leave Rider behind.
Shielder isn't going to carry Ciel as that would make this more awkward, but as long as she's keeps within 5 meters he can shield her. Two people will have an easier time breaking through a goalie than one, if his vision dictates it would be rather easy to block a strike while Ciel slips inside.
Shielder isn't entirely expecting Ciel to go along with his non-harmful approach, but we'll get there when we get there.
It is never ideal to face one's own allies in the field. Yet some people are held back by their own stupidity and naiveté and it is the duty of their... comrades to set them on the right path if they cannot do so themselves. To that end, Lancer is a road block in Ciel's path, and needs to be removed.
Between the two, Lancer should realistically focus more on the servant in his face than the master, so Ciel will use that opportunity to stall him with an aquatic containment shell she fires from the gun clutched in her right hand, before dashing past him and into the cave entrance. She doesn't expect this to hold him for long, and if the situation grows more serious she may resort to more serious weaponry, but for now she still intends to conserve ammunition. This specific munition was inspired by the Idea Blood of the 22nd Dead Apostle Ancestor, Chromclay Petastructure. It creates an inescapable aqueous trap that is functionally impossible to destroy with brute force.
It's not that she expects this to be some fight ending move, but with his likely focus on Shielder's own moves, she's intending to use it as an opening to let her slip past the fight entirely and get her own idea of the situation inside.
Similar to Shielder though through a different method, Lancer is capable of speeding up his cognition to the point that time appears to stand still (though obviously that is limited to 2x here), using this for a variety of stuff including move reading against opponents who are his physical superiors. Is this move reading as good as 5 seconds worth of precog? No. He does, however, have minor precog that aids him in this and he is both physically stronger and also a decent chunk (1.75x) faster than Shielder.
This doesn't really matter, though. Lancer's eyes seem to only look at Shielder momentarily before flashing past him and towards the woman he's in front of. Through both danger sense and his presence detection he's aware of the incoming bullets before they leave the gun, and he moves, straight past Shielder, straight at Ciel.
Her attacks are annoying, but with forewarning, they shouldn't be too bad. Lancer is exceptionally good at avoiding ranged attacks, able to slip through the smallest of gaps present in waves of attacks, even when heavily injured. He should be able to slip through the bullets to reach Ciel, at which point he swings, not hoping to hit her with the tip of his spear but instead attempting to buffet her with a storm of wind and force her back.
Woon-seong swung the White Night Spear.
Boom-
Struck by a huge storm, the two corpse puppets were pushed back.
187
If he's incapable of weaving through the bullets and gets caught up in one, Neji is capable of breaking out with an omnidirectional burst of chakra:
Gallery
Ch. 258
So Lancer's omnidirectional burst of flames should be able to accomplish similar if he puts some oomph behind it. After all, Ciel doesn't expect this to be able to hold Lancer for long even without any real ideas of his capabilities and it's not exactly her strongest ammunition.
Lancer is an idiot, of that there can be no debate, but he's not such an idiot to engage in some sort of non-lethal, two-hand touch, defense on a Burial Agent while completely ignoring the Servant trying to get by him. Well he is that much of an idiot, but he's not so much of an idiot to do that alone.
As previously elaborated on, Archer's Queen's Eye allows her to see the true nature of her opponent, as well as the skills they possess. Long before they had made the decision to come to blows, she had already looked over Shielder and his Master and determined their respective threats.
She did tell Lancer that she'd provide cover for him, so that's what she'll do. She's going to send out a barrage of warning shots, perfectly placed arrows to cause superficial damage to Ciel and Shielder, something easy for her to accomplish with her Marksmanship EX. An important distinction from her attacks against Millennium is that these are all real arrows, there's no space wobbling here, just multiple arrows being fired at once. There's no fatal threat posed by these shots, but there is a very clear message, go no further.
Now obviously the discussion here will probably revolve around whether Archer's arrows can pierce Shielder's shield, so I am obligated to state that with the Blessing of Artemis active, Archer possesses Marksmanship EX. It does not matter how her enemies decide to flee, whether they erect barriers, become intangible, leave this dimension, attempt to stop or destroy the arrow, none of them will prevent Archer's arrow from finding its mark. Additionally the person her feats are taken from (me, writing Marksmanship EX feats literally for her in the previous iteration of this scenario) is able to fire through Self-Field Defense, which at EX was an absolute defense in the same way Aegis is.
Visions flash before Shielder's eyes. Arrows that cannot necessarily punch straight through his defense, but that he cannot ignore either...
This feels familiar. It's not one of the gods I know, but...
Shielder reverses course and heads for Ciel, covering her in his defense. He's quite good at recognizing the threat of projectiles mid-flight and adjusting his actions accordingly. As for Archer's ability to pierce his defense, I'm sure she could, but with just a single arrow, not repeated shots? Regardless, Shielder has A-rank endurance and will block with his body with needed. Superficial wounds aren't really a problem so this is ultimately immaterial.
He isn't going to continue going forward after this. He knows Riesbyfe summoned an Archer-class servant, he can figure out what's going on. There's a disagreement between masters, but there's a limit to how far he'll go against allies.
"Stop, master. Two servants is too much. We'll wear ourselves out too much to be worth it."
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