User blog comment:HazelQuill7445/Awesome fan art/@comment-25936766-20180704225950/@comment-25936766-20180705032127

@Sentry: ......Dude....Gae Bolg failed to pierce all the 7 layers. It got up to the 7th and just plain stopped at that point. If Gae Bolg had actually destroyed Rho Aias, Archer would've died, plain and simple, no questions asked, because Lancer was literally using his Noble Phantasm's ability to be a guaranteed kill when thrown.

In fact, all the damage Archer took wasn't even from Gae Bolg, it was entirely from using Rho Aias: When the shield is damaged, the user also receives damage.

As for the thing about Noble Phantasms, 2 things:

1) Depends on the NP. Arturia's Excalibur is classified as Anti-Fortress, while Gawain's Excalibur Galatine is classified as Anti-Army, for example. Excalibur is practically a giant laser of destruction and Galatine is just a wider, less-long version of the same.

Then there are NPs like Billy the Kid's Thunderer (basically just a manifestation of his very-damn-good shooting skills) and David's Ark of the Covenant (a big dumb wooden chest that kills whoever it touches. It can even insta-kill all of Heracles's lives in one go).

Not all NPs are nukes, basically.

2) Rho Aias is not Archer's Noble Phantasm. And neither is Caladbolg, FYI. His NP is a Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, which is basically just a psychological weapon factory.