User blog:Thrycius/Zheiro and The Moonlight Sculptor: Chapter 16

'''Disclaimer: This is a crossover fanfic between Brave Frontier and The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. I don't own either of those; they belong to their respective owners, namely Gumi/Alim and Nam-Hi-Sung (남희성) respectively.'''

'''Disclaimer (extended): This crossover fanfic now also contains some elements from the Type-Moon universe, owned entirely by Kinoku Nasu. I don't own anything from there, either.'''

Is this your first time seeing this story? Go directly to chapter 1 here!

“Are we ready?”

Zheiro looked back and forth between his two companions, nodding once to the storyteller who had asked the question. He was a bit nervous, but was as ready as he could be—at least, according to their plan.

Since the tower was large they were able to run about and stay clear of the Juggernaut for a few hours while they were getting prepared and setting their plan into motion.

But now, it was time to face it head on.

“Hmph. If that’s the case, what are we waiting for?” Sarui asked, twirling a giant paintbrush, leaving trails of paint in the air as a result. “I’m going in.”

Zheiro had no idea where she took out that paintbrush, but he wasn’t going to ask questions, especially in a situation like this. Sarui was more skilled in combat than he had initially thought after seeing her deal with monsters that got in their way when they had been trying to stay clear from the Juggernaut. Zheiro was starting to reconsider that maybe it wasn’t strange for an artist to actually know combat, before he realized that both Thrycius and Sarui were pretty big exceptions by themselves.

And while Zheiro had gotten lost in his thoughts, Sarui had already kicked down the door before them leading into the room where the Juggernaut resided and was already charging her way in.

For a moment, Zheiro panicked, but then he realized that his role in the plan was already largely over and there was only one thing left for him to do:

Wait for an opportunity or opening left to him by Sarui, and use what little combat techniques and skill to take advantage of it.

And thus, he nervously followed in after her, keeping cover whenever he could.

When Sarui stepped into the room, the first thing she did was throw a container full of paint at the Juggernaut, before moving to take cover behind one of the stone pillars in the area

Sure enough, a flash, and then a blast of lightning, accompanied by a loud roar from the Juggernaut itself, arced through the air and smashed into the stone pillar she hid behind, causing it to fracture and collapse.

Sarui wasn’t stupid. Stone may be a poor conductor of electricity, but taking a direct hit of lightning would be even worse. While she did have a large amount of pride, she also knew that she wasn’t immortal, and facing a deity without a plan or figuring out how it fights amounted to suicide.

In the first place, she wasn’t really interested in fighting the Juggernaut. It was only out of necessity that she joined in the fight, so she wasn’t particularly in all that great of a mood.

She didn’t care if the opponent was a deity. If it decided to get in her way, then she’ll just have to obliterate it using everything she had.

“Did you know, Juggernaut?” Sarui taunted. “I may be a painter, but I don’t particularly like water-based paints. Do you know what that means?”

Sarui jumped out from behind cover, running in with her paintbrush in hand, and noting that her initial attack had landed successfully— that first container of paint she had thrown had made a direct hit onto the Juggernaut, and paint was now seeping into the joints and cracks between the Juggernaut’s armor.

“It means,” Sarui said confidently, giving off a dangerous smile. “That some of my paints contains quite a number of toxic substances.”

While the Juggernaut was called a mechanical deity, only parts of it were—the main body, Thrycius had explained, was still of flesh and blood, of which could still be poisoned.

And thus, during the initial exchange of blows between the forces, the Juggernaut has already been poisoned.

“But that’s not all,” Sarui continued, fearlessly advancing closer. In retaliation, the Juggernaut flashed again, creating sparks in preparation to attack again with yet another bolt of lightning, a move that only caused Sarui to smile even wider. “Those very toxic substances are also quite flammable.”

Needless to say, the sparks ignited the paint, setting it aflame and burning all in its path.

And thus, before the second exchange of blows could even be launched, the Juggernaut had inadvertently set itself aflame, just by trying to attack.

Another roar shook the tower as the Juggernaut roared in pain and anger, ignoring the fact that it was aflame and launching more lightning at Sarui.

“By attacking so recklessly,” Sarui shouted, already behind cover, “You telegraph all of your attacks before they are even launched! I have already figured out your attack pattern!”

Immediately after the storm of bolts ceased, Sarui was already advancing closer, paintbrush and another container of paint on hand.

At the sight, the Juggernaut flashed and sparked again, in preparation to attack.

“I won’t let you!” Sarui shouted. The paint was tossed, and now that she was within range the paintbrush was thrusted directly under the Juggernaut’s guard, hitting it right under the chin with a powerful blow and knocking his face up just in time to get hit in the face by a container paint.

With the target no longer in sight and its attack already charged up, the Juggernaut could only release its lightning in a burst of random directions—a terrible mistake.

The lightning was dispersed through the Juggernaut’s armor and struck the closest object- the container of paint that it was already in contact with just as it had burst from impact against its face, causing a massive explosion of flame which showered all over the Juggernaut. With yet another roar the Juggernaut stumbled backwards as it knocked over a few stone pillars, causing even more damage as the pillars collapsed onto it.

In just three exchange of blows, Sarui had already seized a massive advantage.

Yet despite that, Sarui was annoyed. Extremely so, in fact.

After all, she had just lost 2 full containers of paint in this stupid fight! Did this thing know how much effort it took to gather all the materials needed to make this much?

Zheiro was astonished.

The battle had already began, and from his point of view Sarui had already taken control of the entire thing, setting it aflame and causing massive explosions which could knock the Juggernaut off balance.

Did she really even need their support?

Or rather, their fighting was so intense that every exchange caused the tower to tremble, making it hard for Zheiro to keep his balance. Even if he wanted to run in and attack during an opening, it would be difficult for him to do so.

Zheiro wondered where Thrycius himself was hiding. He had already declared that facing the Juggernaut headon was far too risky for him since a single stray bolt of lightning could kill him instantly, but Zheiro was having second thoughts.

Wouldn’t a direct hit by a single bolt of lightning normally kill him or even Sarui, too?

Sarui didn’t seem afraid, however; or rather, it appeared that she had already grasped the timing of the Juggernaut’s attacks and knew exactly when to hide and when to advance.

More explosions rocked the tower as Zheiro hid behind his stone pillar, hanging onto it for support, when the he saw the Juggernaut release not one, but a storm of bolts at Sarui that arced in every direction.

There was no way she could avoid that just by hiding behind a single stone pillar!

Sarui grumbled under her breath as she hid behind yet another stone pillar.

As expected, since the Juggernaut was a deity it would take quite a bit of time to actually bring it down.

However, the real issue is that she could not afford to have this fight drag out for too long, because there wasn’t an infinite amount of stone pillars she could hide behind. She had to end this quickly before she ran out, or retreat to fight in another location— and retreating was the last thing she wanted to do. She still had her pride, after all.

She was about to take a step out from cover when her skin started tingling from all the charged electricity in the air. Her instinct told her that just hiding behind the current pillar wouldn’t be enough to escape from the Juggernaut’s next attack unharmed, but there was nowhere else she could get to in time.

Pulling out her many paints and paintbrushes, she was prepared to take this attack head on— but she was too slow this time. Sarui cursed under her breath as she was surrounded by a cloud of explosions, dust and debris flying everywhere as even the pillar she hid behind exploded from the attack.

This was a pretty terrible situation, but…

Some time earlier, during their planning phase:

''“Isn’t there something useful Zheiro can do with his sculptures?” Sarui complained. “For example, move them around or use them as a shield or something, I don’t know.”''

''“If I held a sculpture large enough to shield me, I would barely be able to move!” Zheiro protested. “Not to mention it would probably be destroyed in one hit.”''

''“Tch. How useless.” Sarui clicked her tongue in annoyance. “I was expecting more out of my rival, you know.”''

''“Actually, Sarui, you’re not wrong.” Thrycius said. “There are many skills that past sculptors could use in battle. Among them was the ability to grant life to their sculptures, sculptural transformation which allows the user to assume the form and abilities of any sculpture created by the user, or even sculpting to create a vessel for an elemental spirit. Unfortunately, Zheiro knows none of these skills, and I never bothered teaching him as they were unrelated to Moonlight Sculpting.”''

''“Hold on,” Zheiro interrupted. “There were all these really useful skills for sculptors for combat, and you never taught me one despite making me fight all the time?”''

''“Well, like I just said, they’re not related to Moonlight Sculpting. Granting life is closer to reanimation magic or even puppetry, sculptural transformation is closer to transfiguration magic, and elemental sculpting… well, I guess you could learn it, but it’s too far advanced for you at the moment. Regardless, it’s not like the Juggernaut will just sit there waiting for you to learn a new combat skill, so there’s not much you can do. However...” Thrycius trailed off in thought.''

“However?” Zheiro continued, a little hopeful.

''“We could probably combine our skills to give the illusion of sculpture animation. You sculpt me a large number of sculptures, and I can move them around with magic and pretend they are animated. Then I can use them to defend the two of you, since I don’t really have any defense skills to support you two with. How about it?”''

“Agreed.”

Sarui did not close her eyes or brace for the attack, but instead leaped forward, away from both the Juggernaut and the pillar she had been hiding behind, not particularly expecting support from her mostly useless allies.

As if to mock her lack of faith in their abilities, however, at the very last moment a large number of statues had appeared, leaping forward to shield her from the attack, taking all the damage for her instead.

“About time I got some support!” She yelled, not particularly angry as she charged back in through the clouds of dust that filled the area.

The statues may have been controlled by that storyteller, but they were carved by her very own rival.

Even if they were only used as shields, at first glance they looked surprisingly realistic and dangerous, making for an even better distraction for the Juggernaut than some random pieces of debris.

After all, something that even looked remotely like a new potential threat flying at you would cause a much larger reaction than a stone being thrown at you; and as if to confirm her thoughts, a new wave of statues appeared, charging like a small army at the Juggernaut.

Sarui grinned madly to herself.

If they were doing their job in supporting her, then she probably wouldn’t have to worry too much about defense and focus solely on attack.

Just the way she liked it.

Zheiro breathed a sigh of relief as Sarui managed to pull away from the attack unscathed.

He might have been the one to make the statues, but since he had no control over their movement he was unable to do anything to support with them.

There wasn’t any time to make more during the fight too, so it’s not like Thrycius had an unlimited number of statues to use, either.

It’s true that he had already done his part earlier, but sitting here watching his allies fight was still frustrating.

On the other hand, with all those statues converging onto the Juggernaut with their kamikaze charges…

Wasn’t the Juggernaut full of openings that he could exploit now?

Quite frankly, the Juggernaut wasn’t just angry. It was irritated, enraged, way beyond furious!

First these three idiots show up in its tower, scurry around in it like mice, and when it finally caught up to them they suddenly turn around and fight with such overwhelming ability, launching annoying attacks that poisoned, burned, and even blinded it! At this rate, it knew it couldn’t win.

And now, these stone soldiers keep popping up from out of nowhere, blocking its attacks and recklessly charging at it! Where the heck did these come from!?

Trying to hit so many targets at once only caused it to become more frustrated as it was starting to get overwhelmed by the ridiculous number of enemies. The only thing it had going for it was its massive size and ability to shoot bolts of lightning at its targets, but there were far too many targets to try and hit now.

The most dangerous one present was obviously the only female present, but at the same time trying to target her was extremely difficult; yet, if it turned its attention away to focus on everything else, she would surely take advantage of it with some new trick up her sleeve.

Preparing to attack with another blast of lightning, the Juggernaut charged its reserves—

And that was when something sharp cut cleanly through its leg.

“Moonlight Sculpting Blade!” Zheiro shouted as he cut clean through the armor surrounding the Juggernaut’s leg, causing it to roar in pain as it stumbled, unable to stand properly on that leg anymore.

It wasn’t that Zheiro had to shout out the name of the technique, but he just suddenly got the urge to do so all of a sudden.

It was a skill that combined his current skill with the Imperial Formless Sword Technique along with what he had learned earlier while trying to take down some skeletons. Thrycius had told him earlier that it was an ability that could ignore any defense, and that he should have already figured it out after passing his test back in the Monster’s Nest.

Simply by applying the skill he had already learn to his attacks and sword technique, he was able to cut into the Juggernaut itself, completely bypassing the armor.

Zheiro stared at his blade in wonderment before Sarui pulled him back and threw him aside with such force he went rolling.

“Pay attention, you idiot! We’re still in the middle of battle!” She shouted, stepping in again to take advantage of the Juggernaut’s wailing.

“Ah, yes!” Zheiro replied, mentally smacking himself in the head for forgetting where he was. That thing may almost be down, but it was still quite dangerous, stumbling around and knocking various stone pillars down and causing the tower to continue shaking as it tried to stand on three legs…

Zheiro suddenly noticed something.

Pillars were used as structural support, right?

Just how many were left still standing?

As if to reward him for his astute observation, the tower began shaking harder than ever.

“Sarui! Thrycius! We have to get out of here before the tower colla—”

And then he was interrupted by the loudest rumbling that they have heard yet as the ground began to break.

When the rumbling and shaking finally stopped, Zheiro finally opened his eyes.

He was still in the same room as before when they had been fighting the Juggernaut, but now there was a huge hole in one corner of the room where the Juggernaut used to be. In fact, they were so high up that the only thing he could see out of the hole was the clouds passing by in the sky.

“Sarui! Thrycius! Are you guys alright?” Zheiro shouted.

“I’m perfectly fine,” Sarui noted as she made her way over to the hole. “Still, I didn’t expect Thrycius to be in this corner of the room when we fought the stupid thing.”

“Wait, what?” Zheiro exclaimed. “Are you saying that Thrycius fell off with the Juggernaut?”

“Seems like it,” Sarui said. “You didn’t hear? I may not have been able to see him through all the dust, but I could hear him shouting as he fell down after the Juggernaut.”

“I have to go check if he’s okay!” Zheiro shouted as he ran towards the exit.

“Hey, calm down already. There’s no way that stupid storyteller would die so easily….Although, I will admit that trying to survive a fall from this height is practically impossible.”

“How am I supposed to learn Moonlight Sculpting if he gets himself killed?” Zheiro protested. “Of course I have to check if he’s okay.”

“You won’t be able to learn Moonlight Sculpting if you get yourself killed because you were so excited you accidentally misstep and cause the tower to break apart further,” Sarui countered. “So relax first, and then we can carefully make our way down to check.”

Zheiro paused, before he capitulated with a single, “Yes.”

By the time Zheiro and Sarui made it back down to the base of the tower, all they found was Thrycius sitting on the corpse of the Juggernaut, grinning widely as they made their way over.

“You two sure took your time,” the storyteller joked as he leaned against the corpse in a relaxed manner.

“Thrycius! You’re all right!” Zheiro breathed out in relief. “How did you manage to survive?”

As annoying as he was, he was also the only person around who could teach Zheiro Moonlight Sculpting, after all. Zheiro couldn’t afford to have him die.

“It wasn’t too hard, since I could use the Juggernaut itself to soften my landing,” Thrycius said with his usual laugh. “I’m pretty amazed, though. The three of us managed to take out a deity by ourselves, and none of us are even warriors by trade, but artists!”

“I beg to differ,” Sarui said arrogantly, despite smiling herself. “It’s not because we were artists, but rather because the Juggernaut was too weak. Even if it was a deity, dying by falling off a tower is way too pitiful.”

“Ha ha ha! You might be right.” Thrycius laughed as he hopped off the corpse. “Now then. With the Juggernaut defeated and nothing blocking our way, shall we make our way over to Morgan?”

Earlier, during the battle:

Thrycius had been hiding at the far edge of the room when the battle was taking place, manipulating the sculptures that Zheiro had made. He was actually the first to note that the tower was also quickly falling apart as a result of their destructive battle.

“Oh well,” Thrycius laughed to himself. “It’s not like Zheiro or Sarui will die from something like this anyway.”

And thus he did absolutely nothing different to prevent the tower from breaking.

Many would have considered it a pretty bad decision to do so, but Thrycius just didn’t care.

And as a result, because of the Juggernaut’s massive weight and random stumbling near the edge of the room, floor beneath it to broke.

Completely losing its footing, the Juggernaut fell over the edge and out of the tower.

There was only one thing left for him to do.

“Oh no, I’m falling,” he shouted as he voluntarily jumped down after it.

It was a pretty long fall; after all, the tower was well known for reaching ‘amazingly high into the sky’, as written in the tourist attraction book that also didn’t exist.

Using the Juggernaut as a cushion, he landed quite easily with a loud explosion.

“Ouch. That actually hurt pretty bad,” Thrycius complained. “No more stunts like this in the near future, I guess.”

A short while later Thrycius would be doing stupid suicidal stunts all over again, but that is a tale for another time.

Getting up, he checked the state of the boss they had fighting.

“Dying by falling out of the tower is a pretty lame way to go, especially when only fighting two artists.” Thrycius commented to himself as he wrote in one of the many sheets of parchment he always carried on his person. “Although, I suppose I should make sure it really is dead.”

A few moments of checking later, and it was definitely confirmed to be dead.

“Death by falling out of a tower it is,” Thrycius said with a smirk as he looked back up tower, sitting on what was left of the Juggernaut. “This is probably the first time a deity was killed in such a mundane, stupid way. But still, I won’t deny that this was quite a fight. Now then, I wonder how they are doing?”

Swinging his legs like a kid, Thrycius waited for the two artists to finally arrive.

It wouldn’t be long before they could finally make their way through Morgan, where new challenges for the sculptor Zheiro shall await; Thrycius was honestly looking forward to seeing them all be cleared.

''A/N: Wasn't even expecting to update this soon, lol. I more or less started writing this thing this morning, got it finished, sent it off to get proofread, then here it is.''

No Ixia scene, though, this boss battle was pretty big enough as it was already.

''Anyway, here we are, the big fight vs the Juggernaut! It might seem like they steamrolled it through without getting hurt, but it was actually pretty tiring for them all. You can see their reactions and see if they really did get away unscathed in the next chapter.''

''The thing is, if a big fight occurs, I don't want people to unrealistically tank attacks that normally would get them killed. It has to be possible in a game though or it would get boring fast, but this is a written adaption, so yeah.''

''Also, Sarui is still fun to write, apparently. She's too good.''

''As always, special thanks to Restire for proofreading this chapter. And please leave a comment even if you didn't like it; constructive criticism is always helpful. Thanks!''

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