The Next Level

Archer standing in the middle of an empty wasteland like field held his Hunting Bow in his hand looking at the far distance thinking to himself, it was as though he was more or less wondering what he should do in order to become more powerful in case the day ever came that he was to face Gilgamesh. He knew that he might have an understanding of how things worked in terms of his battle style since he himself was an Archer classed as Gilgamesh was yet Archer did not feel to confident in his power now. Gilgamesh was known to be outrageously powerful and at Archer's level it would be a while until he could unlock the Unlimited Blade Haven. His strength and Mana was high enough yet his link to his own noble phantasm was no where near the requirements to unlock it fully. Archer pulled the string of the Bow as he charged a Mana arrow firing it down the endless wasteland field knowing that it won't hit anything, he used this mainly as a way to test his power. Disgusted with his energy's performance he looked at the Bow in his hand.

"If only I could gain a strong opponent...Then I know I could do it.."

Archer looked at the wasteland around him once more aiming his Bow at the endless field and pulling back once more to fire yet another energy arrow into the nothingness that was before him hoping that a strong enough opponent for him to test his power against would arrive in the area.

The endless wastelands reached for miles on end as even wind seem to be in horrid abundance there. As the man who stood in the center of the field launched off arrows, they ended up somewhere. The roar of a deep engine that was enabling this bike to move at speeds of one hundred miles per hour, a mercenary sitting on it, was traveling to his next location. Suddenly, intercepted by an arrow, he stopped short. He saw arrows coming from a significant source. He wouldn't stand for this, he wanted to know what was up. He revved up his bike as he then started to burnout and turned without moving, but then shot off at high speeds. As dust was his shadow he approached his target and the source of these projectiles. He then noticed a man just standing there, launching off arrows from his bow. As he slowed to a stop, he removed his goggles and took the keys from his bike, slipping them into his pocket as he had no weapons with him, slowly approaching the man who was using Archery.

"..."

Archer stopped instantly at the sense of feeling the presence of someone approaching him. He lowered his bow turning back to face the person that came out to this deserted area. It was strange to him, no one comes this far out even if it was just for practice, it sometimes even confused Archer himself as to why he came here but he knows that this man was not hear just to practice his skills..or was he? Archer's bow vanished back to it's fault using the Mana he possessed as he crossed his arms.

"Who are you?"

"Who are you to be launching arrows that almost hit me?"

Cloud spoke, as he then looked into the mans eyes, then following up by crossing his arms as well.

"That is none of your concern.."

"Keeping to your self and from what I see, following along your own destiny..Traits of nobility."

Archer turned looking at the landmass where he was shooting and closed his eyes knowing that this person could not possibly know the nobility that he had. To Archer this nobility was a mystery to himself.

"You know nothing of the nobility that I possess."

"True, I was on no grounds to speak my mind..But there is one thing I must know"

"Which is?"

"I can see by you shooting arrows and constantly making them better..You're training, so how about a battle?"

"Heh..So it's a battle you want then I accept your challenge. Tell me the name of the opponent I'll be facing here."

"I'm Cloud Strife...And what is your name?"

"I go by the name of Archer..Now since your the challenger I'll give you the honor of first strike."

"Alright"

Cloud has not seen such honor from anyone for years, in fact, he was surprised. He then took a few steps back as he approached his MotorBike, Fenrir, and looked to the dashboard. He then reached under there clicking a button as both sides of the Bike sprang open, loaded with a different variety of swords. He grabbed one as he combined it with multiple swords, each time a blue aura emerging from it. This just showed the sheer power of his weapon, each blade having its own aura. After a time, about twenty seconds, it formed a gigantic BusterSword, weighing easily a half a ton. Cloud then threw the sword into the air, catching it with his right hand as he then slid his feet to turn around, facing his opponent. Clouds aura began surging all around the blade as he then stabbed the bustersword into the ground, the blade facing him.He held the hilt as he then used his power to preform a backflip, the sword being dragged in the ground as he held it in the air for a bit. He quickly turned the blade around so the blade faced his opponent as he then stabbed in the ground.However, aura came pouring off the sword as it ripped through the ground,coming at his opponent from three directions. This was a Tri Blade Beam attack, an attack where aura comes from the sword and explodes on contact. However, he launched three separate Blade Beams that came from the front, left and right.

Archer now impressed by the display of strength, skill and power shown by Cloud made him a bit more interested in the fight. His eyes were concentrated on Cloud's movement but what strayed his attention was the Tri attack that was shot through the ground by Cloud. It was not a mere form of magi that Archer was used to seeing more or less a compression of pure magic and another force of energy that ripped the elemental borders of the person using the attack which would explain why Cloud must have been able to perform such an attack with ease. Not allowing any of the three attacks to touch him Archer took a high leap into the slowly backflipping while in the sky, he looked at Cloud and in seconds his hand received the Bow that he was shooting with before. "Heh this will be a bit more interesting than I thought." Archer spoke pulling back on the string of the bow automatically generating a Mana energy arrow which he shot at Cloud, pulling back once more he shot another then another until a storm of Mana arrows came crashing down in Cloud's direction.

"Using your energy to form a weapon..This will be more interesting than I thought!"

Cloud then held his Buster Sword out as he then stabbed it into the ground as a blue shield began forming from the center of the sword. Instantly, Cloud used his magic spells to create a blue barrier, with strong defense, and was not able to be seen inside, covering a three sixty degree angle. Each arrow hit and had slight effect on the barrier. The barrier was close to dying out as it began fading, but as the storm continued, an odd presence came from the shield. Instantly, the barrier started to crack as the odd presence enlarged. A tip of a sword pierced the front of the barrier as then a whole sword came through. The barrier then cracked into shards of energy then all merged into the sword that came breaking through and behind it was cloud. The hilt of the sword became engulfed with aura as it then propelled the weapon forward,Cloud holding onto it as he flew in the air. He rushed towards Archer through the Arrow storm as The aura the was propelling the sword acted as a small barrier and the sword pierced through many of the arrows. Cloud charged through the air showing nothing would stop him with his powerful stab attack, wondering if this attack would hit Archer.

"Rho Aias!"

Archer spoke placing his hand out forming the infinite defense barrier known as Rho Aias (ロー・アイアス, Rō Aiasu?): The Seven Rings that Cover the Fiery Heavens (熾天覆う七つの円環, Shiten ōu nanatsu no enkan?). This barrier technique perhaps one of the very few defensive spells that Archer has in his arsenal was able to project a extremely powerful spiritual aegis that began that spawned off seven rings. The magnificent defense was able to block just about any sort of physical attack that spawned off from the opponent and was in some cases able to reflect or bring twice the recoil to the attacker. Archer usually did not use this attach unless it was necessary. Cloud having such a skill as this would make keeping the barrier up a bit troublesome however he would be able to block this attack with it.

As Cloud charged in, he noticed a barrier be made. At first, he was a little dumbstruck, but as he made contact, he felt his power be reversed to him. He fell, but landed on the ground as he then was covered by a green aura. He was healed slightly, but he stopped in between due to losing time. Cloud then jumped more back as he stabbed his Buster Sword into the ground. Cloud then took a step back as he looked to the blue sky with white clouds. He then smirked as he charged energy into his hand. IT became a large glow as he thrusted his hand forward, sending the energy into the sky. The sky became black, following up with black storm clouds, as suddenly something became bursting through the sky. Meteorites began raining from the sky, many large ones, all at high temperatures and speed. Cloud looked at his attack and began charging more energy in his hand.

"Something must break that shield...So behold The Meteor Rain! My level three limit break!"

Archer noticed that there were meteors coming from sky and began dodging them as they came down one by one. It was not long before he turned his attention back to Cloud shooting his Hrunting Arrow into the ground below him. Archer had no idea what type of magic was causing this hailstorm of meteors but he did know that if it connected correctly it would cause more than serious damage. Still Archer did not mind it, he was having the time of his life in this fight. He aimed his Bow at Cloud now standing on equal ground with him, in his hand he materialized the sword Caladbolg II (カラドボルグII, Karaduborugu II?): The Fake Spiral Sword (偽・螺旋剣, Gi rasenken?). It's known ability which made it legendary was not to be a sword of combat but Mana source that could be changed according to the master's will. In this case Archer was the master and usually formed the sword into a ultimate unblockable arrow capable of shooting it's target down with one blow if connect properly. He smirked pulling the Caladbolg in it's celestial arrow form on the string of the bow charging up his Mana for a little to better enhance his accuracy. Archer then fired the arrow that came blasting at Cloud in a spiral motion.

"Get ready for this..This Arrow is one of my Noble Phantasms, a legendary Irish spiral sword given the name the Fake Spiral Sword because of it's trait that no one that has used it ever actually used it as a sword. In my version if I use this weapon as an arrow it serves as a perfect shot that allows me to penetrate almost anything with one shot."

"Looks powerful..."

Cloud knew that the arrow could pierce anything just by seeing its power, so he was about to use this to his advantage. Cloud then braced himself by setting his bustersword infront of himself and putting it horizontally. He slid his right foot back as he then let the arrow make contact with his bustersword, making it hit a certain part of it. This slowed and weakened it slightly, but then his Buster Sword split into its multiple parts that it was made up of as all of the shards hit on the ground in all scattered areas. Cloud pulled his sword away, the remaining parts, as he let the arrows hit his left shoulder, the shoulder with his armor on it. The arrow went right next to the wolf symbol on the armor pad, but stopping not going through his arm. Cloud used his busterswords power to slow down and weaken the arrow so it wouldn't completely pierce, and using his armor, though not as strong, it prevented the arrow from going completely through. Cloud then looked at the arrow and slowly removed it from his arm, he showed some of his pain he just endured. A green aura covered once again to just allow him to move his arm, however, Cloud stopped as he then looked to Archer once more bracing himself.

"Nice attack...But you'll have to do better heh..."

"You've actually made this a bit more interesting than I thought Cloud..Impressive, if I know my fighting styles correctly then I'd say you have some military background to you..However let me introduce you to a special ability of mine...Hrunting...Come forth.."

Archer spoke pulling back on the string of his bow instantly making his arrow of the broken Phantasm appear in hand and ready for firing use. He let off a little smirk since he knew that Cloud was a strong opponent and it had been quite sometime since a normal human could actually give Archer a challenge. It pleased him and he now knew that Cloud should not be taken lightly, in fact Archer even could vision himself fighting with Cloud in the near future perhaps even as partners but he was not ready to give in to such a thought yet. It had to be proven that Cloud was worth such a choice. The Mana surge began to rapidly increase in the arrow of Hrunting having a light based aura flow around the whole body of Archer and in seconds he released the arrow sending blazing with great speed at Cloud.

"Cloud..I hope you know that you are by far one of the most unique fighters that I have faced in my time however I fear that not even you could stand up to the Hrunting arrow..Like the Caladbolg II it cannot be stopped by any defense however unlike the Caladbolg II it is not an energy based arrow to be weakened, I give you credit since you were the first to find the flaw to the arrow of Caladbolg II..However Hrunting will always hit it's mark, it's ability will automatically seek it's target no matter what happens..It searches reverses and strikes down anything in order to hit the mark that I set for it with my Mana. When the Caladbolg II barely touched you you instantly allowed me to place my Mana mark on you as the target...Now the Hrunting arrow will search and search until it hits you and when it does lets pray you can stand after the blast Cloud."

Cloud was shocked at how Archer described this attack, a little phased at first. But He quickly regained himself. He knew the arrow was like the Caladbolg II in the sense of it standing up to any defense. However, it uses Archers mana as a target, which helps show to where the Arrow will strike Cloud knew he couldn't do anything but take it, so he was in a tight spot. As the arrow closed in, Cloud moved a bit around in different directions as the arrow kept hitting him, but it wasn't bad enough to stop him from moving

"A man once told me...In his last minutes...That I was his living legacy...I'm not about to fail him!"

Cloud's aura then burst that moment as he began moving at extreme speeds, the Blades that made up his Buster Sword began to float in the air.. The arrow was right behind him as he then found himself below Archer. He then developed an idea in his head as he looked to a blade of his Buster Sword. He dashed towards it in midair, placing his feet on it, as he then kicked off, passing right by Archer. As he did, he stopped behind him and turned so he was directly behind Archer. He then moved in near Archer as he attempted to grab him to place him in a Full Nelson lock.

"If you say this can pierce any defense, then it should have no problem with you!"

Archer instantly looked behind him in a bit of surprise looked behind him at Cloud not knowing that he actually intended to use him as a shield. This alarmed Archer if the arrow had actually manage to connect with Archer then it would mean trouble, however there was one thing too, it would also hit Cloud. Archer struggled to break free from the full nelson lock looking at his Hrunting arrow which was coming in closer and closer. His face began to sweat a little as he looked back at Cloud who was holding on tightly.

"What the..Are you completely insane, let go!...You'll..You'll kill us both!"

"I've had worse."

In that instant, Cloud firmly locked his hands and showed he was ready to endure the attack. He kept a strong stance to prevent movement and now he used his might to keep this lock from being broken and was completely ready for the arrow to hit him.

"Hrunting Release!."

Archer yelled out releasing his broken phantasm, he could not and would not allow himself to be struck by his own attack for he knew the severity of the damage it could cause Archer turned his body at a side angle attempting to flip Cloud over his shoulder and onto the ground.