Autobiographies vs. Epics: Grudge Match

The wind howled. Windows rumbled.

"What a peculiar item..."

Gutted and disembowled, a bestial lizardthing laid in a pool of its own blood, soaking into the carpet.
It looked up at its soon-to-be killer with pure hatred, for that was the extent of its emotional spectrum.

A wraith by the name of Michael Roa Valdamjong looked down at the beast with a blade in his hand; a blade the beast once carried in its scaled claws.

"I've never quite seen anything like it. It's so... different. Where did you ever get something like this?"

The beast merely stared. Growling and snarling was beyond its capabilities in its dying state.

"I'm quite sorry, my friend. I know it was yours, but for the sake of my Master, I shall be taking it. And, I'm sorry it had to end the way it did between us. You should have known better than to attack a defenseless Wanderer..."

The Servant heard a raspy hiss, and turned to his side.

"And it would appear you have an entourage."

Several more humanesque lizardthings began to crawl out of the shadows.

"Investigating this mansion turned out to be more work than I thought it would. Bother. I really must be getting back to my Master..."

The beasts snarled and approached... and their time was cut short.
Bolts of golden sparks danced through each and every one, reducing them to ribbons.
Sizzling scales and steaming blood splattered the floorboards.

Roa's outstretched hand crackled with electricity.
Electricity of a violet shade.
He smirked, for he was meeting someone new.

Throughout the steam and smoke, a figure emerged. Golden sparks shone at his left, and a gleaming scythe rested at his right.

"Well met, my friend! To whom do I owe the gratitude of assistance?"

A tall man with a skeleton's visage stared down at the wraith with a man's.

"I have not spared you death. It is merely delayed.
I am the Herald of the New World. I am death.
I have come for you, spirit."

Roa shook his head, smile unfading.

"How crude! To think my savior wishes to be my executioner... well, I suppose you only 'saved' me from a light sweat."

The Herald extended his hand that wielded the staff.

"To forge the New World, your death in this one is required. I extend you mercy: painless sleep. Press forward, and you will find much to fear."

"...I don't fear death, my friend."
"You will not have much time to do so."

CRACK!

A golden streak of thunder streamed from the staff,
and the Herald merely held his ground as it surged.
Roa stood unwavering. Well, having slightly wavered.
A tilt of the head, and the bolt merely singed a hair.

"I suppose I have no other choice. I hope you know... I enjoyed meeting you, death."

A single snap of Roa's fingers was all it took.
In an instant, more wraiths appeared beside him.

The Herald lowered his staff and examined his new adversaries.
Two tall men, relatively bland.
They carried themselves similarly to Roa.

"More cattle for the slaughter? I shall not introduce myself again."

Stabbing his staff into the floor, lightning and smoke filled the room.
The discharge traveled to claim its victims, yet the wraith to the left of Roa put up his hands, raising a shield.
Roa and the other figure fired an onslaught of sparks and wrath onto their attacker's location, yet the smoke cleared, revealing it empty.

The room creaked.
A hole had formed in the ceiling.
The predator had resorted to stalking his prey.
And, cries surrounding the hall, more predators prowled.

Roa dismissed his summons, and exited through the door behind him.

"What a groanworthy situation. Even with Master's impressive mana and power, prolonged use of my stamina is unwanted."

Beasts of fur and claws smashed through the walls from all around Roa and lunged at him.

Giving them no thought or time, surges of sparks and flames cut through them as Roa sped down the hall, aiming for a large room he knew which held a staircase.

Near the end of the hall, just at the room the Servant aimed for, the door burst into splinters.

A minotaur stood at the end of the hall, wielding a huge shield.
Unfaltered in his advance, Roa lobbed a blob of darkness at the beast; it merely buckled behind its shield.
The blot splattered, raining burning shadow.
The beast was unfaltered itself.
A roar, then charge.

Roa stopped in his tracks, and outstretched a palm.

"A memento from Pompeii!"

An explosion of fire and smoke burst from his hand, knocking the beast onto its back.

Although it had not lost its grip on its shield, it was no longer protecting itself.
In a flash, Roa appeared above the beast and drove the blade he had acquired earlier into its heart.
Warm blood splattered his hands, and the beast's cries of pain were shortlived.

And the ceiling creaked.
As Roa reached for the shield, the Herald dropped through the darkness, and slashed in an attempt to bisect his advesary.

Roa made a swift dodge, and met his opponent with a swift kick to the abdomen.
Despite the Herald's greater size, he was knocked off, although he landed on his feet.

"Come to me, my friends!"

Roa's outstretched palms surged magical energy, and more apparitions came into existence.

A gaunt man in a shabby clothes, and another in golden armor stood before the skeletal actor.

"No harm shall come to Roa!"

The other man spoke an Asiatic language, unrecognizable to the Herald.

"Knaves! All shall fall who stand in the way of what has yet to pass!"

The Herald aimed his staff... and an unforseen inconvenience prevented him from firing away at his opponents.
A clawed beast of his own making clung to his arm, and he was unable to finalize his assault.

"VERMIN! AT THE WORST TIM-"

And the Herald's curse was cut short by a fist meeting his jaw.
The wraith of golden armor launched the Herald far along the hall Roa had ran across, and directly into the room where they had first met.

The Herald was barely able to regain his composure just enough to avoid a blast of lightning from the gaunt wraith.

The Herald noticed that a beast had still clung to him.

"Very well! There is a use for you!"

Tearing it off his arm and impaling it on his golden staff, its electrified and flailing body was launched across at the wraith in golden armor.

It connected, and it shocked him.
The beasf burst into electric gore.
The targetted wraith convulsed and fell to the floor, but it did not keep the wraith down for long,
He got up before long, the gaunt man at his side helping him.

They both turned to see the Herald prepare his next attack.
His eyes glowed, malice emanating from them.

"DIE!!"

The blast of lightning surged through the air, aiming for the golden armored wraith.

The gaunt man had just a second to react with a blast of his own, and haze filled the hall as his spark reached out for the Herald's.

The haze cleared, and the gaunt man grimaced.
A hole existed in the head of Roa's armored defender.
Falling to the ground, the wraith dissolved into vapor.

"You'll pay for that!"

The true Roa, dashing from behind, acquired shield surging with electricity, simply concurred.

"I do not approve of harm coming to my friends!"

Hurling the shield like a discus, it connected with the armor on the Herald's shoulder, chipping it and knocking him away.

He was knocked through the door that lay at the other end of the room, and lept to his feet.
He closed it, breaking line of sight, and allowing for a new approach.

The gaunt wraith pursued him, while Roa took a short moment to think.

"That strategy again? Ugh. Cockroach."

His drifing thoughts went to the memory of the summon who had been pierced by lightning a moment ago.

"What a troublesome individual. I hate subjecting the instances of my friends to such people, especially one such as... such as..."

A cloud.
Confusion began to set in.

"I... I don't remember him? How could I not remember him!? He was... he was... gah! That's impossible! I should remember everyone!"

Then Roa realized it wasn't a cloud.
It was a hole.
Panic begsn to set in.

"That man...! H-He... he took my memories?! H-How!? When did he manage such a thing?! That shouldn't be- that can't be possible!"

Roa focused, and he snapped his fingers.
The wraith he had just summoned was no longer coming as easily.
And he tried again.
And he tried again.
And again.
To no avail.

"N-No... it's like... my friend is truly dead..."

Roa focused. He had lost too much precious time.

"I can't lose anyone else!"

The gaunt apparition disappeared in an instant, and Roa burst out a window to his left.
He was in the courtyard of the mansion now.
And he was surrounded by beasts.

"Retreat is my ideal option!"

Beast after beast ran at Roa, mostly feathered.
Deftly moving past each one, slashing and burning with fire of the heavens and hells, he ran for the iron fence that surrounded the mansion.

He buckled his legs and prepared to leap out of danger, and yet a terrible force struck him at his back.

Singed and burnt, Roa rolled, stopping at the fence, and looked at his aggressor.
A feathered beast impaled on his scythe, the Herald of the New World stared down, a crackling staff in hand.

Roa stared down the Herald.
A beast coming to prey upon him was struck down by crackling electricity, him paying it no mind.

"You took something dear from me, monster. I have no choice but to strike you down."
"I shall take more from you. I hope you have learned to fear death."

The madman was right.
For the first time in a long time, Roa feared his own loss.
This wasn't just normal death, which he had recorded before.
This was oblivion.
He couldn't let that happen.

Roa thought hard.
He had to make a choice.
He could either risk his memories in an all out assault against the Herald, where he would most certainly lose at least one treasured friend, or risk his only his life.
Roa had never encountered such an ability... and knew what he had to do.

This man could take his memories... but his existence as a Servant... as an entity within the Throne of Heroes... that could never be taken.
That was Roa's being.
As a Recorder, and a Wanderer.
More than that...
His Noble Phantasm would triumph.
He had a candidate in mind.
He was unkillable.

"Herald of the New World... for the sake of mt friends... YOU WILL DIE BY MY HAND!!"

Roa surged with electricity, and launched a beam of pure power onto the Herald.

"HAH! VANISH, VERMIN!!"

A golden spark of lightning was emitted from the Herald's staff, and it cracked from the strain of such a powerful blast.
His eyes glowed with malice and bloodlust.

The blasts, powered by each adversary's convictions... never met.

A fat, beaked vulture-esque thing charged at Roa.
Despite the power emanating from him, its large body tanked through the energy, and barreled into him.
His aim was offset.
He missed.

The great beam of mana was discharged into the mansion, and it sliced through it like a hot knife through butter.

The Herald did not miss.

The lightning from his staff pierced through Roa, and into a building behind him.

Roa coughed up blood, and collapsed.
And he laughed.
A weak, dying, pathetic laugh, but a laugh.
He laughed for what felt like ages.

"Hahahaha... s-sorry, Master... guess I was a little selfish... wasting a body like this..."

The Herald, at some point, made his way over to Roa.
He stood over his body, to examine the sword that he had on him.

"You still breathe? Ha! Add foolishness to your list of qualities, rat."

Roa smiled. He looked uo to his killer.

"N-No... I'm not foolish. Merely selfish. I hate you, monster. You took what I held dear. I couldn't let that happen again. I hope you die in a gutter, having picked a fight you couldn't win. And yet, I'll survive."

The Hetald squatted down. Roa had caught his attention.
Roa felt like he could see through his mask.
He thought he saw pity, for a second.
Then he noticed it was twisted glee.

"How amusing! You really don't understand your end, do you? Oh, vermin... I was not misleading you. I am death."

Another beaked beast came from behind Herald, and he skewered it with his scythe.

"Just like your summon, you are being unmade."

Roa's smile faded.
His face turned to show true fear.

"W-What... t-that..."

He was silent.
He felt himself slip away.
It's like he couldn't revive at all.
And the reason was simple: he really couldn't.

"I have the final say in all stories, vermin. I am the author. If I wish something to end, it ends... that is my will."

Roa looked up at the Herald.

"Your treasures... I assume that your precious familiar was destroyed by me? Such values... I do not have them. I have a tale with more challenge and crisis than any other. That is why I am worthy to be protagonist. That is why I am the Herald of the New World. And that blade you have acquired through your trials... is worthless."

Roa slipped away into oblivion, and the Herald left his body.
The Herald's own body ached.
He needed to rest his wounds.
And get new treasure, his current ones were strained and damaged.

Caws echoing behind the Herald resonated in his armor, and he knew to make his escape.
Those beasts realiy did not let up.

Bounding over the fence and racing into the night away from the beasts, the Herald felt alive.
More alive thsn he ever felt before.
He was a winner.
An achiever.
His joy was boundless.

And as he dashed to a rooftop to overlook Oxford, he wanted to push his aching body to kill again.