Tsukaima no Chrono
Chapter 11: Get off of me!
"Give me all you got!" Chrono taunts while he flashily manoeuvres into a staff fighting stance completing the action before the golem which he obtained his current weapon, a spear, had even landed from his attack, gaining applause and laughter from the gathered crowd.
Narrowing his eyes in anger, Guiché replies in a cold tone. "So be it, commoner, for this humiliation no amount of begging from you or your master will make me spare your life!"
Waving his rose like wand in front of him, Guiché unleashes a vast shower of petals summoning more Valkyrie type golems similar to the one that Chrono just defeated wherever they had landed. In mere seconds what was just a single opponent became a veritable army for Chrono to face against.
Guiché must be over stretching his magical abilities Chrono thinks as he watches the golems rise slowly from the ground where the petals landed. It's taken a whole minute already, even thogh I'm holding back, any competent soldier regardless of whether they had magic or not would've dispatched him already.
Chrono continues to watch as the golems rise out of the ground. How incompetent is he? If it takes him this long to summon this many golems, how does he expect to control them in a decent manner? I can't be bothered waiting anymore.
Chrono charges towards Guiché intending to knock him out with a single punch, watching Guiché's mouth open and close in comically slow motion along with the rest of the crowd's before realising that his speed was much faster than it should be.
Eh, did I forget to limit my boost in my excitement while I was showing off? Not wanting to reveal his magical abilities or give question to his sudden performance increase, Chrono mentally cancels all his enhancements, the sudden change in bodily coordination causing him to trip and plummet to the ground.
The crowd and Guiché were unaware of Chrono's plight as they looked towards Chrono to see his reaction to the sudden change in the balance of power. What they actually saw was Chrono quickly disappearing from his location followed by a loud sonic boom and a large dust cloud billowing in Guiché's direction followed by a wave of earth.
"Not so confident..." Guiché is unable to complete his taunt as he chokes on the dirt thrown at him, some of it managing to get into his mouth.
Spitting the dirt out in disgust, Guiché spots Chrono wedged face first into a 4 meter long trough right in front of him. Seeing the chance to finish Chrono off, Guiché makes all of his golems charge, jump or dash towards Chrono spears raised and ready to stab into the poor kid, making Louise and Siesta gasp worriedly in fright. As he pushes himself off the ground while shaking the dirt and grass out of his hair, Chrono wipes his eyes clear, granting him a view of the hand holding his acquired spear and the brightly shining familiar symbol upon it.
Falling like that can't have looked good. Wonder if my master is embarrassed, I know I am. These glowing runes explain why I was suddenly so much faster. That's right I'm a familiar now aren't I? I'm supposed to be granted superior speed and strength while wielding a weapon in order to protect my master. Chrono then chuckles slightly That probably counts for her pride as well.
As Chrono lets the facts sink in he notices the increasingly shadowed area around him, in alarm he looks up, watching as Guiché's many golems thrusting their spears downwards at him. Panicking, Chrono lets the survival instincts instilled in him from his enforcer training run wild in an attempt to protect himself.
The crowd steps back in awe as Chrono uses the barrier, one of the three types of active defence(1) Mid-childans employ, a bright blue light blasting all the attacking golems away from him, as the barrier ejects all the kinetic energy it had nullified allowing Chrono to stand up. Despite his internal chaos, Chrono's external demeanour was positively calm and chilly. Multiple small, blue glowing balls of raw magic forming around Chrono then darted out in all directions, streaking through the air looking much like plasma shot from particle projectile cannons(2), indiscriminately heading towards anything and anyone that might be considered a threat, forcing the majority of the students watching his duel with Guiché to take cover behind the nearby shrubs and trees. Loud thumps were heard as the magical projectiles slammed into Golems and vegetation alike with a force akin to a punch from a professional boxer causing bark and golems to fly. Chrono regains his senses as he watches Guiché who was standing in the middle of the field with nowhere to hide, be hit by two of the bright blue globes of energy, once in the stomach then the jaw sending him to the ground, defeated.
Feeling dejected at his own incompetence Chrono mentally berates himself. No! I used my magic in front of these people. How should I explain this? I guess I should just come clean and tell them I can use magic. It wasn't any of the advanced magic requiring a magic circle compiled by a device anyway.
Looking around at the damage caused by him, Chrono sees many eyes watching him, peeking out from behind their cover. Some of those eyes were in awe and admiration and others in fear, like Louise and Guiché's, the ones that made him feel most depressed were those of Siesta as if she had been betrayed. Chrono throws down the spear he had been holding and starts walking towards Siesta who begins to run away. Chrono is interrupted by a shaking Louise who has managed to gather the courage to approach him. Louise timidly asks, caressing his bruised and dirty face. "Are you alright?"
Chrono giving a short, tired response. "Yeah. This isn't enough to take me down."
Walking towards Guiché who backs away while sitting on the ground in fright, Chrono says, his posture proud and confident. "Do you realise your position, your mistakes and what you must do to repent in order to regain your honour or do you still want to continue this duel?"
Lowering his head in defeat, Guiché blurts out, losing the duel "I give up."
A huge cheer rose from the now reassembled crowd.
Guiché continues to speak in a low voice. "You weren't a commoner after all, it is no wonder I lost. A noble of your skill level, I will make it up to you for this challenge."
Hearing that, Chrono fills with rage intending to correct Guiché. "That was not my point at all! You need to treat everyone equally..."
Chrono continues the sentence in his mind as he loses both the strength to speak or stand. ...with respect. Guess that duel took alot out of me after all.
Chrono then completely blacks out forcing Louise onto the ground under him as she attempts to catch him causing her to exclaim in surprise. "Oi! Be careful!" Only to be responded to by persistent snoring.
"He's asleep?" Unable to move Louise struggles in vain as she yells. "Hey! You're heavy! Get off me! I'm telling you, get off of me!"
-Author's notes-
Hi all, that was TnC chapter 11. Apologies for the late and short update, but I've had no access to the internet or a computer due to an overclocking accident, which I have only just managed to repaired yesterday. Again, this chapter was part of a fight scene which I have no idea whether or not I handle well. I can visualise it in my mind, but whether or not the readers can, I don't know. Please let me know what you think.
Notes for this chapter were:
(1) Vita explains this best as she teaches Subaru in episode 6 of MGLN Strikers.
Barrier magic to nullify hits. Shield magic to repel it. Field magic to surround yourself in order to reduce damage.
(2) Think clan ER PPCs from the battletech games, or the bolts Chrono fires at Fate and Arf when he first appears in MGLN.
On the other hand I was surprised at the number of reviews I received during this hiatus.
Skurosagi Thanks for reviewing again. The magic portion was included in this chapter as the duel had not be completed yet. It seems that you prefer out right magical battles. You will see many more in the future.
Jubi Knight I hope this met your expectations for Chrono's magic, It's not exactly the standard you would see in Nanoha's battles, but Chrono's devices are both currently damaged and inoperable. It should be relatively canon however if you think back to episode 10 of the original MGLN where Arf attacks Prescia Testarossa. Another example would be of Nanoha training the noobs in Strikers, where she creates balls of energy etc without having RH deployed.
Shadow Zeranion Chrono is officially triple A+ rank in terms of pure magical power as quoted in the original MGLN and is a triple A+ ranked mage meaning that he can fully utilise that power. His actual abilities with or without his devices should remain the same since storage devices such as S2U and Durandal, unlike intelligent devices merely store energy and also amplify and help channel magic more efficiently in order to raise the rate at which Chrono can use spells. Technically that means that he would have to know how to form all of his spells without a device. Intelligent devices can learn spells and use them, all of their own volitation as demonstrated by both Mach Calibre when it saves Subaru and frequently by Raising Heart. As per chapter 3 of TnC, Chrono does have both devices on him.
GeshronTyler A friend of mine has lent me the light novels for ZnT and I am currently in the process of revising and improving my storyline, of interest is the fact that the anime actually strays very far away from the novels in many parts. It has opened many an opportunity to actually allow Chrono to contact the MGLN world and vice versa. We'll see how it develops as I'm not too sure myself yet.
Sorry about the long authors note, it was almost as long as the chapter. Hope you all continue to enjoy reading TnC, see you next chapter.