Saber (Fate/Crossover - Cress Albane)

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

## Profile

### Identity

Saber's true identity is **Cress Albane**, He is the son of Miguel Albane, a famous swordsman and master of the local sword fighting school. As such, he has practiced sword fighting since he was a young child.

### Personality

Cress is a kind and caring person with a great sense of justice and a strong desire to do good. In the face of the enemy, especially Dhaos, who murdered his family as well as the villagers of his hometown, he is instead ruthless and unforgiving, driven by vengeance. Cress enjoys saying puns. He does not say many in the original game, but he picks up the habit in some escort titles such as Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 and Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave. He intends to amuse his fellow party members by saying them but always receives contrary effects. He is a very loyal friend and is willing to risk his life for them.

## Abilities

Cress, being the traditional swordsman, uses swords and other blades in battle using the Albane School of Sword Fighting (アルベイン流剣術 Alvein-ryuu Kenjutsu). As the first swordsman in the series, many of his artes are considered the archetypal swordsman artes for the series. His attack strength is, unlike the rest of the characters in the game, separated into thrust and slash stats, with his various artes depending on one or both. Many of his artes are designed to either halt or push enemies away, as for most of the game it is Cress protecting three mages from most enemies.

Cress has such artes as Sword Rain, which subjects an enemy to a flurry of stabs, and Beast, which knocks enemies back with a lion's head. Cress also has several artes to boost his own abilities to either defeat enemies quicker, in the case of Coil which boosts his attack power, or allow him to fight longer, such as the health-restoring Inspiration. Also, unlike the rest of the characters in the game, his artes are separated into two, later three, distinct classes: the Deadly Skills (必殺技 Hissatsuwaza) and the Secret Skills (奥義 Ougi).

Deadly skills are learned through levels, while secret skills must, for the most part, be learned from books which have to be bought or found throughout the world. His secret skills build on his deadly skills, combining two of them into a stronger attack. Cress introduces an even higher tier of physical artes: the Hidden Secret Skill (秘奥義 Hi Ougi), which would later be termed the mystic arte. His Dark Blade is the first mystic arte in the series. Cress, through the agency of obtaining the Eternal Sword and its components, also uses various artes termed "space-time attacks" (時空剣技 jikuu kengi), which are mostly unique to him.

Another unique trait of his swordsmanship is the way his primary sword is designed; the hand guard has a tonfa-like grip sticking out perpendicular of the two other ends, allowing Cress to grip and wield the blade in a unique manner as displayed in the animation.

### Noble Phantasm

#### **Dark Blade**

Described as the "ultimate secret of the Albane style", this arte involves two wide slashes along the ground, followed by a final upward slash, leaving a trail of temporal energy behind as the user lifts themself and the enemy high into the air. After being inducted into the Miguel School of Swordfighting, Cress dreams of his father, Miguel Albane, as he is training to perfect this arte, and then Cress inherits the title "Master of Secrets" (おうぎでんしょう Ougi Denshou), which enables him to use the arte in battle.

## References

https://aselia.fandom.com/wiki/Cress\_Albane