Type-Moon, but the Servant is Tom

Chapter 142: Tom and Red Archer's Battle!

As it seemed like Tom was about to lose his grip, he had a sudden clever idea. He swiftly extended his right foot, and just in the nick of time, managed to clamp the spear between his two toes!

"Phew," Tom let out a sigh of relief after successfully gripping the spear with his toes. He wiped his forehead with his hand, flicking off a tiny bead of sweat in the process. However, to Tom's surprise, the droplet landed right between his two toes, acting as a lubricant.

The spear immediately became slick, sliding out from between Tom's toes as if it had been coated in oil. Witnessing this, Tom extended his arms like rubber bands, reaching out just in time to catch the spear before retracting them back to their normal length. But after going through that sequence of grabbing the spear, Tom found himself no longer clinging to Bai Song's neck. Instead, he was now seated on Bai Song's shoulder.

Meanwhile, Red Archer released the tension on the bowstring, causing a magically crafted arrow to shoot toward Bai Song's direction in an instant.

"Whoosh!" As the arrow was shot, it appeared to have frozen in mid-air, almost as if a passing vampire had cast a momentary time freeze upon it. The arrow remained suspended, seemingly motionless.

Strangely enough, no one, not even Red Archer who had released the arrow, noticed anything peculiar about it. This included Bai Song and even the arrow's shooter himself.

Seeing the attack coming, Tom exuded confidence and smiled. Blocking arrows was something it had plenty of experience with. Just the other day, it had caught numerous arrows from someone else. Naturally, there was no reason to panic.

Tom pondered for a moment. Since it had successfully intercepted arrows many times before, there was no doubt it could stop this one too. There wouldn't be any unexpected surprises!josei

With this in mind, Tom single-handedly gripped the spear, leaped from Bai Song's shoulder onto Spike's head, and extended the spear forward. It stood erect in front of him like a raised flag. Tom decided to use the spear's shaft to block Red Archer's attack. There was no doubt it would work!

Once Tom had everything in place, the arrow that had been motionless for quite some time finally... moved!

"Whoosh!" The arrow shot forward with a thunderous sound, moving at incredible speed, carrying the kinetic energy equivalent to a tank shell, heading directly towards Tom.

The arrow was incredibly fast, taking just an instant to perfectly hit the arrow that Tom had positioned in front of himself.

"Clang!"

"Ah-ha!" Tom exclaimed confidently, watching as the arrow was indeed blocked.

"Tsk." Red Archer, standing at a distance, utilized their powerful Archer-class vision to observe the moment when their probing attack was blocked. However, Red Archer wasn't discouraged. After all, the previous attack was only meant to test the strength of Schrödinger. But clearly, that attack didn't even meet the minimum requirement to provoke a response from Schrödinger.

Red Archer decided to go for a more powerful strike next, planning to shoot an actual Noble Phantasm to test Schrödinger's capabilities. With the decision made, Red Archer prepared to use their Projection Magecraft to create a counterfeit Noble Phantasm.

However, before Red Archer could decide on the next Noble Phantasm to project, their attention was drawn to the unexpected turn of events happening with Tom in the distance.

The ordinary arrow that had struck the spear didn't deflect as anticipated. Instead, it seemed to skid off the spear's shaft, taking an abrupt turn to the left. It shot straight towards Tom's face, as if Red Archer had unlocked a homing feature.

"Yikes!" Startled by the arrow's unexpected trajectory, directly aimed at its handsome face, Tom screamed and tried to dodge the attack by turning its head. Unfortunately, it didn't have the opportunity to do so.

"Boom!" The moment the arrow hit Tom's face, it exploded, creating a cloud of smoke that engulfed Tom's entire head. However, the explosion's range was far from what Red Archer had expected. Instead of the anticipated tank shell-level impact, it was more like a firecracker.

As the smoke cleared, Tom's head, now charred black, emerged from the aftermath. If it were nighttime and Tom didn't open its eyes, it would have seamlessly blended into the darkness.

Tom blinked a few times, as described by the novel's perspective. It then turned its gaze back to the spear it was holding, only to realize that the arrow had hit the exact spot where its sweat droplet had fallen earlier.

It was the lubricating effect of the sweat that caused the arrow to skid off the spear's shaft and directly towards Tom the cat.

In the end, it was a self-inflicted mishap.

Observing the events with Tom, Red Archer raised an eyebrow, unable to fully comprehend how the arrow had hit Tom. According to logic, it shouldn't have been possible to hit its target.

Red Archer, holding the black longbow, contemplated the situation. They hadn't used their Noble Phantasm, "Gáe Bolg," which had a lock-on effect. So how did the arrow they had shot manage to take a turn and hit Tom's head after being deflected by the spear? Moreover, the power of the explosion seemed off as well.

Red Archer was well aware of the attack power of their arrow. Even if the enemy had high damage reduction, the explosion effect should still have been noticeable. But the explosion on Tom's face didn't seem to match up, feeling more like a damp squib than anything else.

Lowering their head to examine the longbow in their hand, Red Archer wondered if there was an issue with the weapon. Unable to comprehend what had just transpired, Red Archer ultimately decided to stop thinking about it.

Raising the longbow again, Red Archer prepared to attach a newly created arrow, but this time it wouldn't be a regular arrow. It would be a Noble Phantasm longsword.

However, before Red Archer could attach the sword to the bow, they saw Tom already standing on Spike's head, wielding the spear, and approaching them. Tom's head had returned to its normal state, as if nothing had happened during the perspective shift.

Seeing this, Red Archer reluctantly abandoned their plan to continue using the bow and instead picked up the projected Noble Phantasm longsword. They prepared to face Tom head-on!