"Damn you, don't underestimate me!" Tohsaka Tokiomi charged at Berserker as well.
"Roar!" A furious roar echoed through the heavens, as if trying to tear the very space apart.
Berserker gripped the thick lamppost tightly with both hands, wielding it like an unmatched divine weapon.
With a ferocious swing, the lamppost whistled through the air, descending like a black lightning bolt straight toward Tohsaka Tokiomi.
At the same time, violent winds surged all around, whipping up sand, dust, and rubble into miniature tornadoes that ravaged everything in sight.
The fierce wind howled shrilly, intertwining with the deafening crash of the lamppost smashing down.
Facing this overwhelming attack, Tohsaka Tokiomi wore a grim expression, yet his gaze remained unshakeably resolute.
He quickly clenched his fists, the muscles in his arms bulging instantly and gleaming with a metallic luster.
With a flash of movement, fast as lightning, he appeared directly beneath the lamppost in the blink of an eye.
"Bang!" A muffled impact resounded across the scene as Tohsaka Tokiomi used his bare arms to block the fatal blow head-on.
Yet Berserker's strength was simply too immense; despite successfully blocking the initial strike, the tremendous impact drove Tohsaka Tokiomi's feet deep into the ground.
Before Tohsaka Tokiomi could catch his breath, Berserker swung the lamppost down again, growing ever faster and more ferocious with each strike.
For a moment, the battlefield was a blur of descending lampposts, accompanied by a string of afterimages and deafening roars.
Tohsaka Tokiomi clenched his teeth, exerting every ounce of his strength to parry Berserker's violent onslaught blow by blow.
Sweat covered his forehead, streaming down his cheeks, yet he dared not relax for a single second.
He knew all too well that if he failed to find a breakthrough to turn the tide soon, a war of attrition would inevitably end in his own defeat.
"...That guy, is he really a Caster?"
Lancer felt as though a whole new world had opened up before him. Who had ever seen a Caster trading blows evenly with a Berserker? Even as a Lancer, he wasn't certain he could fight Berserker like this—this was simply too insane.
Rider muttered in response, "Since when are Casters this strong, and with such incredible martial prowess?"
Indeed, Casters were notoriously subpar in close combat, the type to die at a single touch—with the obvious exception of that Uruk Axe King.
Saber and Irisviel watched Caster, silently worrying for him. Berserker's assaults were vicious beyond measure, and Saber herself lacked the confidence to defeat him without releasing her Noble Phantasm.
Seizing the opening, Berserker swept the lamppost toward Tohsaka Tokiomi's legs from an extremely bizarre angle, swift as lightning.
"What?" Before Tohsaka Tokiomi could even react, the lamppost slammed brutally into a nearby shipping container, sending him crashing backward.
Without hesitation, Berserker drew the lamppost back, then hurled it with all his might directly at Tohsaka Tokiomi pinned against the container.
The lamppost pierced the air like a spear, rushing furiously to strike Tohsaka Tokiomi down.
Seeing this, Gilgamesh couldn't help but sigh with disdain, "Mongrels will always be mongrels. Failing right at the finish line—you truly disappoint this King."
Lancer and Rider felt a tinge of regret that such a magnificent battle was coming to an end so soon.
"Saber, can you go save Caster?" Irisviel could no longer remain calm; if this kept up, Tohsaka Tokiomi would die.
Saber shook her head helplessly. "I'm sorry, Irisviel, there is nothing I can do."
Despair gripped Tohsaka Tokiomi. He watched the lamppost hurtling toward his body, entirely out of strength to block it.
Was he just going to give up like this?
Tohsaka Tokiomi questioned himself over and over in his mind, but only endless despair and regret answered him.
I have to survive! I refuse to let my life end here!
Fired by this steadfast and fierce conviction, Tohsaka Tokiomi threw himself into total focus, casting away all panic and fear to enter a state of extreme concentration.
As his mental energy condensed step by step, a bizarre vision suddenly manifested before his eyes.
Countless transparent gears interlocked and rotated slowly in front of him, their outlines flickering faintly in the void—they were the physical embodiment of time itself.
Every turn of the gear symbolized the passage of time, yet now, focused by Tohsaka Tokiomi's sheer will, their rotation gradually slowed, as if certain gears were jamming.
The exact instant his mental power reached its peak, he let out a mighty roar:
"The World! Stop time!"
With his roar, a powerful wave of mental energy surged forth, jamming every single gear of time and halting their rotation.
Everything around him froze instantly. The wind stopped rustling the leaves, leaving them suspended in mid-air in mid-sway;
birds hung frozen in the sky, their wings caught mid-flap without the slightest movement;
in the distance, the river's ripples ceased, and water droplets hung solidified in the air, as if time had been pressed on a pause button at that very moment.
Yet, amidst this dead silence,
"Hiss—hum!" A spine-chilling sound abruptly shattered the peace.
It was the sharp screech of jammed gears, foreshadowing some ominous event about to unfold.
Immediately following the sound, the once vibrant, multicolored world was instantly stripped of all color!
The sky turned gloomy and drab, the earth shed its greens and browns, leaving only a monotonous black-and-white backdrop in the world. In that moment, time truly seemed to have completely stopped.
"Three seconds? More than enough!" Tohsaka Tokiomi's lips curled into a confident smile.
With a flash, he charged toward Berserker like lightning.
In the blink of an eye, he stood right before Berserker.
Without a moment's hesitation, Tohsaka Tokiomi unleashed his iron fists, hammering away at Berserker like a torrential storm.
Every punch carried incomparable power, moving so fast that his fists were nothing more than a blur.
These blows landed densely upon Berserker's body like a meteor shower, emitting muffled, booming echoes.
The sheer destructive force was terrifying to the extreme, resembling ten giant steamrollers crushing down on an ordinary man all at once.
Under such a ferocious onslaught, Berserker's body quaked violently, yet he stubbornly remained on his feet, refusing to fall easily.
Still, Tohsaka Tokiomi did not halt his assault, continuing his frantic barrage with the absolute resolve to thoroughly crush this formidable enemy.
The three seconds elapsed rapidly, and color flooded back into the world.
"Go to hell—!" With a final roar, Tohsaka Tokiomi's ultimate punch slammed heavily right into the center of Berserker's face.
"Splatter!" Berserker's entire body reacted as though battered by countless iron hammers, leaving shocking crater-like wounds across every single injury.
Even more staggering, Berserker's face was caved in, and blood flowed from his entire body like a river, a gruesome sight to behold.
Everyone present was left utterly dumbfounded, their mental capacities completely fried.
"…Um, did you see what happened?"
Lancer asked Rider, questioning his entire view of reality.
Rider's eyes widened to the size of saucers as he replied, "Did you hear that? Stopping time..."
Lancer suddenly recalled that right before Caster was about to be impaled, he had shouted about stopping time.
"Could it actually be true? That's just way too overpowered!"
"Ha! A man like that must be recruited into my army; he will surely be conquered by the Conqueror King's charisma!"
"..."
Standing atop the lamppost, Gilgamesh offered a look of utter disdain:
"Nothing more than childish squabbling between mongrels."
Meanwhile, Saber and Irisviel felt mostly a sense of profound relief.
Had they fought Caster to the bitter end back then, wouldn't they have suffered a miserable defeat?
Fortunately he was an ally, otherwise another formidable enemy would have been added to the board.
"I believe we have a serious problem on our hands. Caster is extremely troublesome."
The battle report transmitted through Kirei Kotomine's gem communicator gave Tohsaka Tokiomi a massive headache.
Caster's strength utterly exceeded their expectations.
Tohsaka Tokiomi had never imagined that a mere Caster possessed such terrifying core strength.
Not only that, but he had actually managed to heavily injure Berserker and leave him grounded.
It forced one to take this unusual Caster seriously—he had to be categorized as one of the greatest obstacles to obtaining the Holy Grail.
Hopefully, Gilgamesh would be able to eliminate him next.
—————————————————
On the other side, Berserker could barely stand, left swaying and clinging to a nearby shipping container on the brink of death.
"Berserker, do you have any final words?"
"What is... your name?" Berserker regained his sanity at the very end; at this moment, he was no longer Berserker, but Lancelot of the Lake.
"My name is Tohsaka Tokiomi, merely a nobody."
"To... hiomi, so it's you. It has been so long since we last met, my King..."
Lancelot's words left Tohsaka Tokiomi utterly bewildered, but before he could press for answers, Lancelot dissolved into a stream of light and vanished.
Tohsaka Tokiomi's body could no longer hold out either, the sudden wave of exhaustion causing him to collapse to the ground unconscious.
Suffice it to say, the battle just now had drained every last ounce of his strength.
Right then and there, the next grand battle was about to take the stage once more.