The Music Speaks

The formation the three remaining [enlightened] employ is rather simple, one man with a melo-string stands in the back firing arrows. His job is to provide cover for the two women accompanying him, should they prove to to not be our match. A tall woman wielding a pair of accordifists rushes in my direction. Her instrument allows her to deliver devastating blows while remaining at a safe distance. She has seen what happened to her comrade, making her cautious in her way of entering close quarter combat with me.

The other woman who wields the warchord attacks Ivana, who prevented her from saving her ally. They both waste no time and play their [melodies], the woman wielding the warchord shouts.

"Don't think you'll get rid of us so easily!"

With my hands full, I am unable to help Ivana. All I can do is win my battle and hope that her dueling skills are as good as her teasing skills. The tall woman rains blows upon me with her accordifists, leaving me no choice but to parry her attacks to the best of my ability. Every time I attempt to get closer, she extends her instrument forcing me to step back. I still have no idea what exactly her [melody] does or if she has even used it. The man with the melo-string fires arrows at every opening he gets. He does so either in my direction or Ivana's. Occasionally, these arrows duplicate while traversing the air, allowing him to target both me and Ivana at the same time, most likely the result of his [melody].

As I battle the tall woman, deflecting the arrows being fired in my direction, I steal a glance at Ivana. Dismissing my worries, she has yet to receive any injury from her opponent, skillfully evading every arrow and slash coming in her direction. It is as though she performs a dance, anticipating each move before it has even been made. That is most likely exactly what is happening. When she fights her enemies, they must be thinking about her, forcing their thoughts to be revealed due to her [melody]. This renders evading their attacks quite the simple task.

"You think you have the luxury to look away?"

In the next moment, a strange portal opens in front of the tall woman, pure flow courses through her arm the accordifists extend through it and emit sound. Another portal appears right in front of my chest, her fist smashes against my solar plexus, taking my breath away momentarily but inflicting no real pain.

"Warning, Critical damage received. Solar plexus - Defenses at : 50%"

"Warning: 1 additional blow of the same magnitude will cause failure of the defensive capabilities of the suit in the : Solar plexus area."

'This suit is something else, I almost felt nothing there'

"Well that's an interesting [melody]" I say

"The last one you'll ever see."

She continues her attack, and she has clearly gotten serious. Multiple portals open in rapid succession all around me, she showers me in attacks, leaving me unable to respond. Because of her [melody], she is able to stay at a safe distance. Further back in the rear, the man is still firing his arrows, but I am in no real danger. The tall woman's attacks, although unpredictable, do not carry enough strength to put me on the ropes if I parry them properly. The man's attacks, although annoying, are predictable and easily avoidable. All I must do is find a way to break their formation and defeat them. That is when, I remember an event that happened not too long ago, and an idea strikes me.

"Uh, S.O.N.G.?"

"I await your command"

"Activate smoke screen."

"Command registered - Activating tactical enhancement: Smoke screen"

Without even waiting for the confirmation message, I lunge at the woman, disregarding defense. The surrounding area fills with dense gray smoke, obscuring everyone's field of vision, including my own. The enemy must think that if they do not see me, then I cannot see them either, but they are wrong. Today, I have come with one of the most advanced pieces of technology combining both ordinary and [enlightened] knowledge.

"Activate thermal vision"

"Command registered - Activating tactical enhancement: Thermal vision"

Heat signatures are displayed in my field of vision, one of them standing right in front of me. The next sequence of actions happens in a flash. As soon as I activated the smoke screen feature of the suit, the tall woman jumped back in hopes of rapidly exiting the cloud, but that was a mistake. With her now unstable footing, she is the perfect prey for the song of imbalance. I disrupt the pure flow coursing through her leg and she falls on her bottom.

"What did you just do?!"

I spare no time to remedy her confusion. Before she can utter an other word, I am upon her and my sharpsong is travelling straight down, aimed at her chest. She opens one of her portals in the path of my instrument to defend herself. As my sharpsong goes through, another portal opens, this one aimed at me, she is attempting to harm me with my own attack. An aegis with a wolf's crest embedded on it appears in the path of my own instrument, causing it tp resonate.

'Crescendo'

My strength and speed dramatically increase, beyond what my level should allow. My bones creak, and my muscles scream in protest, this empowerment is unnatural. I let go of my sharpsong, still passing through the portal, and direct pure flow to my fists. With a precise blow, I strike her trachea and crush it, she is unable to react. She gasps for air, but finds none. I watch as the life is snuffed out of her eyes, tears falling from them. No last words escape her mouth, she simply dies, in silence.

I have no time to contemplate what I have just done. The man wielding the melo-string panics and beckons his partner to wrap up her battle, but he hears no answer. As the smoke clears, the situation is made clear, Ivana has also prevailed against her opponent. The warchord wielding woman lays on the ground with several small cuts decorating her body and one major incision cross her stomach. Ivana appears to have slowly weakenet her opponent before dealing the final blow, unlike me who simply brute forced my way to victory. It is unclear whether the woman even had the chance to properly display the extent of her [melody].

"F-F*ck this, they don't pay me enough to die!"

The archer runs away, loyalty is clearly not a major value in this place, what else would you expect from criminals? I glance in Sebastian's direction. The second stage bald man, or at least what I think is the bald man, has been turned into minced meat. Their battlefield resembles the after math of a tornado. Sebastian stands at the center of a field covered in blood and different body parts, staring straight at me.

"HAH! That wasn't too bad! Alden, was it? With that level of skill, you can clean the Sympholance on the frontlines!"

I ignore his comment and direct my gaze upwards, where Sylvia should be fighting a few ordinary people and one [enlightened]. As if knowing that everyone has wrapped up their battle, Sylvia descends, dragging the [enlightened] woman behind her. Once she touches the ground, she tosses the woman in front of her and speaks through our communicator to tell us to reach her location.

When we all arrive, Sylvia asks Ivana to use her ability. In response to Sylvia's request, she places her hand on the woman's forehead for a moment, removes it and looks in our direction. With a grim look, she speaks.

"... Getting in won't be that easy unfortunately..."