Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 10: Give me all you got!

In an open space surrounded by a crowd of caped young people, stands two people facing each other, one with blond hair, blue eyes dressed in the same garb as the majority of the crowd with what seems to be a rose in his hand, the other, blue haired was dressed in a simple dark blue shirt and trousers combination. The fact that the blond was waving the rose in front of him as he spoke as if intending to strike the figure half his size in front of him made an amusing sight.

The smaller figure, Chrono asks incredulously "A duel?"

The blond, Guiché replies in a serious tone, holding his rose like object to his chest and expression implying that he was noble "Precisely! For a person whose status is that of a commoner and a familiar to have disgraced me and made two ladies cry!"

Guiché then whips his rose holding hand to the side and leans forward in a dramatic manner as if to show righteous fury.

In a smug and flippant tone Chrono replies "Not only cry, I'd add that they were pretty pissed too!" causing laughter from the assembled crowd.

Provoked by that response, Guiché angrily thrusts his rose straight in the direction of Chrono and says "You'd better be ready! I'll be waiting in the grounds in front of the vestri."

Guiché then stalks away from the area leaving a smug looking Chrono standing.

From the side, a pink haired girl stomps towards Chrono and grabs his hand to pull him yelling rhetorically "What were you doing!"

The now annoyed due to having his smug moment interrupted Chrono replies "What do you mean?"

Louise as she drags Chrono along replies in a worried and hurried tone "It's not a matter to explain. What were you thinking when you foolishly accepted that duel?"

Hearing the answer and noticing that Louise had dragged him quite a distance now, Chrono asks "Where are you taking me?"

In a matter of fact tone, Louise replies "To apologise to Guiché. If we hurry, he might forgive you."

Changing to a firm stance such that he could no longer be dragged along, Chrono resolutely replies "Don't want to! Why do I have to apologise to that moron?"

Alarmed, Louise turns around to face Chrono and says, panicky. "You really don't understand anything! A commoner can never overcome a noble! You'll be lucky if you get out of this just hurt!"

Chrono thinks I'm a noble too by your world's definition of the term, you just don't know it. If I can find a chance to learn your world's magic and demonstrate it so that I don't break the Prime Directive, I'd put you in your place.

Out loud Chrono replies confidently, tearing his hand out of Louise's. "Just watch me take him down!"

Turning his head towards two nobles standing nearby, one of who we recognize is the fat blond kid who seemed to know Guiché well. Chrono asks "Hey! Which way to the grounds in front of the vestri?"

Amused, the noble responds, pointing the way with his finger "Ah, that way!"

This causing Louise to shout at the fat kid and identifying him to Chrono at the same time "Malicorne!"

Saying thanks to Malicorne, Chrono runs off in the direction Malicorne had indicated. Behind him Chrono could hear Louise yelling at him to wait, Malicorne saying "Wow, this is a sight!"

Louise utters with a seething expression. "Geez! Why is my familiar so selfish!"

Catching up to Chrono, Louise and Malicorne find themselves in a crowd similar to the one where Guiché issued his challenge, only that they were now in front of the vestry instead of near the outdoor tea area.

Off to the side, they hear the redhead Kirche comment to a light blue haired girl next to her. "She really knows how to entertain us."

We also see the maid Siesta looking worriedly in the crowd this time. In the middle of the gathering, Guiché says to Chrono, arms folded across his chest, rose in one hand, standing close enough to give an intimidating presence in comparison with the diminutive Chrono looking much like a high school student bullying an elementary school kid. "I complement you for not running away and coming here."

Chrono replies "Who would run away from you?"

The two combatants are interrupted by a shout from Louise as she runs up to the feuding pair "Wait! Guiché! End this nonsense! It's forbidden to duel!"

Guiché replies to Louise "What's forbidden is a duel between nobles!"

Pointing his rose, which Chrono had long since identified as a dressed up wand, a primitive magic amplification device, at Chrono. Guiché continues "He's a commoner. There's no problem."

Chrono narrows his eyes as he hears this. Louise responds to Guiché in panic, stuttering as she does so. "That's... because there was never anything like this!"

Amused at her distress, Guiché slyly asks Louise. "Louise, could it be that this commoner has moved your girly heart?"

This acquiring an indignant outburst in response from Louise. "What do you think you're implying! He's just a kid! How do you expect me to just watch my familiar get his ass handed to him?"

Unable to stand the tension, Siesta rushes in and holds Chrono protectively. She then begs Guiché "My lord, I know that I'm out of place, but please forgive him, he's just a child!"

This earns laughter and sympathetic jeers at Guiché from the rest of the crowd. "Yeah Guiché! Stop picking on kids!"

Guiché angrily shouts back. "Shut up! Whatever you all have to say will not change the fact that the duel has already begun!"

Waving his rose wand in front of him and causing a petal to fall to the floor, he summons a metal golem that looks like a female in armour with the face of a fox holding a spear around the same height as Guiché with Chrono studying the process intently.

Wonder if I can copy this magic to make myself a noble? Golem summoning using a physical object as an anchor eh. So far I've witnessed these forms of magic usage in this world, spells done via verbal chanting using a wand as a focus, spells via a physical object and a focus such as the spell just now, mere uncontrolled channelling of magical energy through a focus like Louise and rune inscribed magic such as those in their lamps. No computer compiled magic codes exist for obvious reasons nor the imaginary runic circles that modern Mid-childan and Belkans use either. I could always just cause an explosion like Louise and declare myself a noble. But first I want to have some fun with Guiché here. Analysing the golem in an instant, Chrono smirks. This is going to be easy, an 'E' rank golem like this one might give a normal human a hard time, but since it's directly controlled by Guiché I'll be fine.

Motioning for both Siesta and Louise to move away, Chrono begins magically strengthening his body with no outwards visual cues.

Guiche declares in ignorance of Chrono's thoughts and preparation "My name is Guiche the Bronze. Therefore the bronze golem, Valkyrie, shall be your opponent."

Unsurprised by the golem and heavily experienced and trained in combat unlike his compatriot in another universe(1). Chrono enters the Strike Arts(2) stance the favoured martial art by the Mid-childan magic academies and in fact all Mid-childa for its strike focused unarmed combat, easily redirecting the heavy straight punch from the Valkyrie Guiché sent at him with the back of his wrist and grabbing the elbow using the momentum as it goes past to flip the golem over him and away in one smooth motion. Rushing towards Guiché at what seemed to be a natural pace so as to strike before the golem could recover, Guiché back-pedals to maintain the distance.

Smiling Chrono taunts as he chases Guiché. "That's cheap! Using magic against someone who supposedly can't like that. I was expecting a good fist fight!"

Smiling back as he circles around the area to keep Chrono away from him, Guiché responds "Isn't it obvious that since all sorcerers are nobles, they would use magic to fight?"

Looking on at the duel from a safe distance Louise yells "You understand now? A commoner can't defeat a sorcerer!"

By this time the golem had caught back up to Chrono striking at him with light swipes from the spear it was holding so as not to get thrown again. Using his small size and therefore better agility, Chrono dodges them with practiced ease, seeing the paths the tip of the spear moved in. Oh? Guiché's learned from his mistakes. I've got to get this spear out of its hands or at least get a weapon of my own.

Maybe recognising Chrono's distraction Guiché makes the golem thrust the spear at Chrono, creating just the opening Chrono was looking for. Jumping slightly and using his hand to push on the side of the spear thereby removing himself from the spear's path. Chrono, still airborne, grabs the now overextended spear and shoves his two feet first into the oncoming head of the golem, ripping the spear out of its hands.

Angered at seeing the defeat of his Valkyrie and that Chrono had now obtained a weapon. Guiché states "Oh, It seems that I have held back too much! Since you seemed to want that spear so much you can keep it! It won't save you from what's coming!"

Confident that he could handle anything that Guiché threw at him, Chrono swipes the spear around himself in a flashy manner, showing off to the crowd. Getting into a stance, holding the spear with one hand resting the spear in the crook of the same arm behind him. Chrono beckons towards Guiché with his free hand. "Give me all you got."

-Author's Notes-

Hi all, that was chapter 10 of TnC. This is the first fight scene that I have written ever so I hope it was at least understandable. The fight will be finished next chapter where Chrono will first visibly use his Mid-childan magic visibly in front of the crowd but I still have to work out the details since I changed the storyline due to suggestions from reviews. I was originally not intending for Mid-childan magic to appear until at least the battle at Albion with Chrono first using this world's magic after Louise first brings him to one of her classes, but it seems as if people can't wait that long.

Notes I would like to make:

(1) Just in case it wasn't obvious, I was referring to Saito.

(2) Strike Arts is a canon reference from volume 1 chapter 3 of the official continuation of MGLN Strikers, MGLN Vivio, or it could be Vivid, I can't tell, the cover it is written like this "o' "

Lord Arkan glad to see that you're enjoying my story, thanks for the review.

Sexy Neko Hibiki Being a lover of long chapters and stories myself, I can tell you that I don't like them when they become too congested or don't flow. Knowing that I'm still new to writing fanfiction I'm acutely aware of my own limits. Furthermore both of my possible beta-readers are only willing to read chapters ~1500 words in length, Chapter 9 was pushing 3000. I will attempt to write longer if I get enough reviews by other people requesting me to do so. However, this will severely lower my rate of updating.

Jubi Knight Thank you for being the first to provide me with a review including an actual opinion and suggestions for improvement. I have replanned my story from this chapter onwards to bring forward the deviations from canon. I also apologise for seeming to take most of Saito's lines, it's just that Chrono's verbal character is so similar to Saito, except that he's brave and a genius, whereas Saito admits to being slow and a coward. As for making this into my own story, I actually want the main events in the timeline for ZnT to happen, with drastic changes. I am not particularly going to leave that entire timeline alone as I wish to keep this a fanfiction and not an original fiction using character names and designs from the anime and once again thanks for your detailed review.

Hoped you all enjoyed reading. See you next chapter.