I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 442: Mashu, Your NP Gauge Is Full, Now Go!
Although the newcomer concealed herself beneath a black cloak, longtime fans recognized her instantly.
Or rather, they recognized the black-and-purple bodysuit that emphasized her dangerously curvy figure.
"Rider! That's Rider, right?!"
If Fujita had merely been excited when Mashu first appeared in her Servant form, then now he was genuinely ecstatic.
"Rider! It's really Rider! We haven't seen her since Heaven's Feel!"
To a certain extent, Fujita's reaction represented the feelings of many veteran Fate fans, especially those who first entered the franchise through Fate/stay night.
For them, Fate might not have been a childhood memory, nor some life-changing masterpiece that altered their worldview.
But after all these years, after following movie after movie and series after series ever since FSN, Fate had become an irreplaceable part of their lives, and that was why the moment Rider appeared onscreen, Fujita became so emotional.
Unfortunately, the Medusa appearing on the television screen was not exactly the Rider older fans remembered.
The biggest difference was her class.
Actually, during the scriptwriting phase for Prologue, Shinji had hesitated over whether to keep the original game's Lancer, Musashibou Benkei.
But in the end, he chose the manga and anime adaptation's version instead—the giant scythe-wielding Medusa.
There were three main reasons.
The first was simple:
Visual appeal.
Unless someone had particularly niche tastes toward muscular men, most viewers would naturally prefer watching beautiful girls clash in flashy combat—especially well-endowed beautiful girls.
The second reason was nostalgia.
The battle against Lancer was one of the movie's major mid-story highlights. Musashibou Benkei was simply too unfamiliar as a character, making it difficult for audiences to gauge Caster Cu and Mashu's strength through fighting him.
But Medusa was different.
Even if she appeared as a Lancer, viewers would instinctively compare her to Rider's previous performances.
The third—and most important—reason was to silently tell every viewer sitting in front of a television or computer screen:
I'm about to begin the grand tradition of class-swapped Servants…
Ahem.
In other words, from FGO onward, there would be many new Servants where the Heroic Spirit remained the same, but their Saint Graph and class changed entirely.
One such example is the Caster Cu who would soon appear afterward.
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"Now then~"
Onscreen, Medusa tilted her head slightly, licking the corner of her lips again and again like a beautiful serpent preparing to strike.
"What kind of death should I give the three of you, I wonder?"
"Perhaps I could petrify you first… then slowly shatter you piece by piece…"
"Or maybe my scythe could slit your throats and let you slowly bleed to death—"
BANG!
Mashu never gave Medusa the chance to finish her villain speech.
Shield raised, she charged forward like a cannonball.
Facing Mashu's ferocious attack, Medusa merely swung her scythe lightly and blocked it effortlessly.
"So fast!"
Mashu's expression stiffened.
She had expected that charge to at least push the enemy back, but her opponent's speed and strength had far exceeded her expectations.
"What an impatient little girl."
The smile disappeared from Medusa's face.
"If you're in such a hurry… then I'll start with you."
The instant she finished speaking, Medusa's scythe began dancing through the air.
The two Servants immediately clashed head-on.
Centered around their battle, violent storms swept through the streets of Fuyuki City, reducing the already ruined landscape to even greater devastation.
"Mashu!"
"Wait—what are you doing?!"
Seeing Ritsuka recklessly trying to rush forward without thinking, Olga Marie hurriedly grabbed him.
Turning back unwillingly, Ritsuka shouted: "Director! We have to help Mashu!"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
At this moment, Olga Marie was far calmer than he was.
"Just look at that battlefield! We have no way to interfere. If we go over there, we'll only get in Mashu's way."
"..."
Ritsuka bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
"Believe in Mashu," Olga Marie said quietly. "They're both Servants. There's no way she'll lose."
"But…"
"Servants have a Servant's role, and Masters have a Master's duty," Olga Marie reminded him sternly. "If you want to help Mashu, then do it the proper way!"
While the director lectured Ritsuka on how to become a qualified Master, the battle between Mashu and Medusa gradually began tipping toward a clear victor.
Though both were Servants, their fighting styles could not have been more different.
Mashu, who wielded a massive shield as her weapon, fought with broad, heavy movements. Relying on the shield's sheer weight and size, the usually gentle girl displayed an unexpectedly wild and aggressive combat style.
Medusa, meanwhile, was the exact opposite.
Using her scythe, she adopted a swift and graceful fighting style, darting around the battlefield at blinding speed before launching sudden lethal strikes like a venomous serpent.
Normally, a clash between these two styles would end in one of two ways.
Either Mashu would use overwhelming force to suppress Medusa, smashing her into constant defense before eventually pinning her beneath the giant shield, or Medusa would dominate the battlefield through speed, waiting patiently for a single opening before delivering a fatal strike.
And yet, the two somehow arrived at a third outcome.
Despite being the one who should've controlled the battlefield, Mashu was instead being completely overwhelmed by Medusa.
Because Mashu's raw strength was inferior to Medusa's, she couldn't properly exploit the advantages of her shield.
Every time she swung it toward Medusa, the attack was either effortlessly blocked or casually deflected away.
Gradually, Mashu shifted from the aggressor into someone desperately defending herself with her shield.
And against an agile enemy like Medusa, the moment you fell into passive defense, defeat became only a matter of time.
Not only did Mashu herself realize this, the audience watching from in front of their screens thought the exact same thing.
"Looks like Mashu's definitely going to lose. The difference in strength and combat experience is just too huge."
Fujita sighed regretfully.
"She's fighting well, but her opponent is Rider."
Aoko raised an eyebrow.
"I thought Shinji Matou would make the new heroine bully all the old FSN characters just to hype her up. Didn't expect her to be this weak."
"It's probably to leave room for her future growth. There are still several movies left, after all."
Having watched so many Shinji Matou films by now, even Alice had started analyzing stories from a narrative perspective.
"Then how is Mashu supposed to win this fight?"
That question made Aoko pause in thought.
"How did they handle Berserker back then again…?"
"Ah, right. They'll probably have Ritsuka rush in and block an attack with his body. A classic reenactment."
"So the main theme of FGO has evolved from 'watching Emiya Shirou cook' into 'watching Fujimaru Ritsuka cook,' huh?"
Aoko smirked lazily.
"They're both reckless idiot-type protagonists. No originality at all~"
"Maybe he'll suddenly awaken some hidden power," Alice suggested. "Like Shirou fighting Gilgamesh at the end of UBW."
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Unfortunately, none of them guessed how the story would actually unfold.
"Damn—!"
After her shield was deflected once again, Mashu gasped in alarm as she realized her mistake.
BAM!
With a precise and elegant kick, Medusa sent Mashu flying before she could even raise her shield to block.
"So weak."
Spinning her scythe gracefully, Medusa sneered.
"I truly can't imagine that you and I are both Servants."
"Hah… hah… You're completely different from the previous two Servants…"
Leaning against a collapsed wall, Mashu felt an overwhelming sense of frustration.
Her consecutive victories against Hassan and Darius after obtaining Heroic Spirit powers had made her somewhat overconfident.
She had started believing she possessed the strength to fight any Heroic Spirit.
But thinking about it carefully—Assassins were never Servants specialized for frontal combat to begin with.
And defeating Berserker had only been possible through a sneak attack.
There was nothing honorable about that victory.
In the end, compared to truly powerful Heroic Spirits, a Demi-Servant like herself was insignificant.
Facing one of the elite Three Knight Classes, a Lancer had crushed her back to reality in barely a single exchange.
"But… what about them…"
Mashu glanced sideways from the corner of her eye and realized that Ritsuka and Olga Marie were no longer where they had been standing.
"You still have the spare attention to look elsewhere?"
Medusa clicked her tongue and pressed the blade of her scythe against Mashu's throat.
"Any last words?"
"They probably escaped…"
A faint smile appeared on Mashu's exhausted face.
"Thank goodness…"
"Director… Senpai…"
"Please… stay safe…"
"So those are your final words?"
Medusa slowly raised her scythe.
"Then… farewell."
She had no intention of worrying about the other two humans escaping.
How long had she even been fighting this girl? With human speed, how far could those two possibly have run in such a short amount of time?
Even if she killed Mashu first and hunted them down afterward, it would still be more than enough.
But just as Medusa lifted her scythe to sever Mashu's head, Olga suddenly burst out from behind the rubble behind Mashu and thrust her palm toward Medusa.
"Flash!!"
A burst of brilliant white light exploded outward, instantly blinding Medusa.
As everyone knows, flashbangs are the most universally effective crowd-control ability regardless of power scaling.
After all, even in Dragon Ball, where gods punch planets apart like brittle crackers, the strongest control technique was still the Solar Flare.
So naturally, it worked even better here.
"Spiritron Transfer!"
Taking advantage of the moment Olga Marie immobilized Medusa, Ritsuka activated the second designated spell built into his Mage's Association Mystic Code.
Mashu suddenly felt a warm current surge through her body.
In an instant, her Saint Graph overflowed with magical energy.
"Mashu, now's your chance!" Alongside Ritsuka's furious roar, Mashu thrust forward with her shield, driving the sharp lower edge directly into Medusa.
"AAAAAH—! HOW?!"
Wounded, Medusa let out a hysterical scream.
Rather than continue attacking the nearby Mashu, she immediately redirected her fury toward Olga, who had remained standing there after throwing the flash attack.
"Just die already!"
Feeling humiliated at being toyed with by mere humans, Medusa no longer cared about slowly tormenting her prey.
"ᚨ (Ansuz)."
A pillar of fire suddenly erupted between Medusa and Olga Marie, cutting off the attack and saving the director, who had already believed herself doomed.
"What?"
"What's happening?"
"Tch, so he's here too…"
Unlike the shocked Ritsuka and Mashu, Medusa immediately recognized who had intervened.
Without hesitation, she turned to flee.
Unfortunately for her, she was already too late.
A giant wooden hand burst upward from the ground, wrapping around her body like a prison and locking her firmly in place.
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Tn: I updated the story once every 2 days, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 476: Shirou: I'll Take Both[1]!
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