Saber (Fate/Crossover - Matt)

**Saber** (セイバー, *Seibā*) is the servant of ??? in the ??? Holy Grail War.

*"Bring it on foes! I ain't afraid of you!"* ― Matt

## Profile

### Identity

Saber's true identity is **Matt**, a recurring character in the Epic Battle Fantasy series. Along with Natalie, he may be considered the main protagonist of the series.

He is a "main character" of sorts for the series and, judging by his name, serves as an author self-insert. Matt is a "Magic Knight" character archetype who uses melee weaponry (mostly swords) and focuses on melee and single-target spells. He is still a skilled swordsman in his own right, and has saved (and destroyed) the world on several occasions with his allies. He is also known to be an expert gamer as well in Epic Battle Fantasy 5, and had a father who was a famous pirate. NoLegs is his cat that was initially an enemy, but was tamed and became a valuable asset to the team ever since.

### Appearance

Matt is depicted as a young adult (possibly in his 20s) with fair skin, blue eyes, and long blonde hair; the latter is worn mostly loose, with a few locks tied into small braids framing his face.

In Epic Battle Fantasy, Matt wears what appears to be a red deerskin jacket, a matching hat, and moccasins (this would become the Leather Hat and Leather Armor in future games). In Epic Battle Fantasy 2, he switches to pirate attire, with a black jacket, scarf, and a sword sheath strapped onto his belt. In subsequent games, he can wear a wide variety of outfits, although his default set remains pirate-themed.

As of Epic Battle Fantasy 5, Matt's "canon" outfit appears to be the Captain's Hat and Hobo Clothes, with either the Ultra Pro 9000X or the Heaven's Gate as his weapon of choice.

### Personality

Matt is definitely the brawn of the group, not the brains. He displays a happy-go-lucky personality, is impatient and prone to uncautious actions (such as poking sealed Lovecraftian horrors and eating obviously poisonous things), and has a disregard for long-winded procedures and intellectual activities (in Epic Battle Fantasy 4, he states that he hates solving puzzles). The page image from EBF3 aptly describes him. He will also eat almost anything. Matt is lecherous, but apparently to a lesser extent than Lance.

Also, Matt is the second most morally ambiguous character in the group (right after the aforementioned Lance), as he expresses absolutely no qualms looting innocents' houses and killing anything that stands in his way. This puts him at odds with Natalie and Anna, as depicted well when it came to the taming of the Wooly Mammoth.

In EBF5, Matt is much more down to earth and slightly more reserved around others than his previous incarnation. While his thievery-based aspects are still present, he is a bit more laidback and genuinely cares about the party, particularly Natalie.
Matt admits that he has led a sheltered life, with his investigation of what caused the power outage at the beginning of the game apparently being the first time he has left his house in several weeks. According to him, his parents were sailors who took him all over the world with them, but he was too young to remember any of it. Eventually, they left him on Hope Harbor when it became too dangerous for him to come with them, forcing him to learn most of what he knows by himself. Matt is uncertain where his parents are now or even if they are alive, saying that he's accepted that "sailors usually don't live very long". On the flipside, it is possible that Matt's "sheltered life" is more in the sense that he hasn't gone far from home. Furthermore, as he was the children of sailors who may have lived a very rough life, he may be seeing his life as sheltered in comparison to that of his parents.

Throughout the game, Matt serves as the character who usually breaks the fourth wall to teach players what they need to know about the game, be it tips or insights, which in most cases nobody else in his party understood. He appears to be the first in the group to recognize the existence of the player, describing them as an omniscient guardian watching over them. Although he remains uncertain of this for most of the game, he eventually expresses his belief that the player had been guiding the party this entire time, essentially protecting them from terrible fates. When asked by Lance of the evidence of such belief, he pointed out the absurdities of having a menu or even chat box filled with dialogues, which they do not need in the first place, bringing up the question: "Why do they even exist?"

## Abilities

Being a warrior, Matt's main attack is to chop the enemy with his sword. His signature Bushido skillset focuses on hitting single enemies with powerful elemental attacks (Earth, Ice, Holy and Fire skills are all available to him) or special effects (like hitting all enemies, draining life energy or poisoning them). It usually involves slashing very, very fast and hard or striking the ground to cause various effects like a stone spike or fire pillar to burst from the ground.

His Bushido skills include attacks such as Revenge, Drain, Windslash, Quake, Iceberg, Eruption, Unleash, Seiken and Legend. His Special attacks include Temper (a buff to attack), Protect (a party-wide defense buff), Screamer (a move that reduces opponents' defense) and Power Metal (damages enemies and heals the party). He can Unleash the power of his weapon to deal heavy damage and inflict special effects.

One of his signature Limit Breaks is Cleaver, wherein he assaults the enemy in a vicious frenzy of strikes, dealing heavy damage and effects based on his current equipped weapon. His other, Ragnarok, drops dozens of giant weapons from the sky, finishing with a massive sword. He can use Annihilate which has high chances to inflict instant death to enemies (so can Anna in the fourth game).

He can choose from his large collection of swords and other melee weapons, including Heaven's Gate, Rune Blade, Blood Blade, Stone Edge, Inferno, Blizzard, Black Fang, Swift Brand, Anarchy, Soul Eater, Razorback and many, many more.

Matt's moveset has fluctuated a bit over the games. In the second game, he could summon NoLegs, in the first game Mog was replacing NoLegs, and several of Matt's attacks didn't even exist yet. In the fourth game NoLegs can instead be summoned by anyone (with an altered power, too). Also in the second game Matt could use Air Strike, an attack that was later given to Lance. In the fourth game, some moves that used to be his signature moves (like Protect) can be learned by other characters.

### Noble Phantasm

#### **Ragnarok/Matt Likes Swords; "Mah Swards, Let Me Show You Them"**

Saber likes swords, no seriously, he REALLY likes swords. Matt not only has access to every single blade, lance, sharp-appendage-torn-from-mythical-beast and sword he acquired in life, but in fact is drawn to and prone to find and acquire new ones, which grants him an equivalent of the Collector skill at rank A for such objects.

#### **Godcat Approves; "Worth Proven to the Creator; Existence Allowed by the Destructor"**

As one of the four heroes who stood before and fought its creator to prove humanity's worth and value, and who succeeded in that endeavor, Saber gains a blessing that equals full rank Pioneer of the Stars as well as mid rank Charisma and Counter Hero.

Note: last NP applies to the four EBF d00ds

## References

https://epicbattlefantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Matt

https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Matt\_(Epic\_Battle\_Fantasy)

https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Matt\_(Epic\_Battle\_Fantasy)

https://all-fiction-battles.fandom.com/wiki/Matt\_(Epic\_Battle\_Fantasy)

https://characterprofile.fandom.com/wiki/Matt\_(Epic\_Battle\_Fantasy)