The Music Speaks

A powerful roar resonates from the creature, showcasing its lethal intent. It bends down, beside the fallen rhino, and reaches into its skull using the sharp claws on its hand. With a swift motion, it extracts something, a pink-ish, soft, sticky mass. Without hesitation, its mouth closes upon the blob, and it begins chewing fervently. It takes no more than a blink or two before the entirety of the rhino’s brain slides down its throat, inevitably heading toward its stomach.

With a satisfied growl, it lick its lips, savoring the last remnants of the taste. Then, with the ground cracking under its every step, it finally decides to approach us. I can distinctly feel it - the danger.

Its gaze slithers across each and every one of our bodies, and the longer it does, the more drool begins to pour from its jaws. If we do nothing, we’ll surely suffer a similar fate to Talyndra’s tamed [echoed].

Immediately, as I narrow my eyes to look into its being and hopefully predict its next movement, I notice just how erratic the fluctuations of its soul are - and that’s when I finally understand just what happened here.

‘This thing took a tuning pill, a handful of them even…!’

In shock, I lock eyes with Sylvia, and the look she gives me only echoes my thoughts, there is no need for an exchange of words, and even if there was - there’s no time for it.

“It’s coming!!” I yell, as I notice pureflow being distinctly channeled toward its legs.

Slashing through the wind, it is immediately upon us, or rather, upon Ivana. It cogs its left arm back, and with a stabbing motion, aims straight for her abdomen. I’m half a beat late, but I’m already sending my aegis to her aid.

‘So fast!’

Ivana, however, is unphased.

“I already knew you’d do that!” She says, before stepping to the side.

Its attack only pierces through air, leaving Ivana utterly unscathed. The beast isn’t done though. A second strike comes, this one a vicious swipe toward her neck. Ivana meets it with her sharpsong, both hands holding onto it, and flawlessly deflects the attack, as if she knew it was coming.

It tries to perform another blow, but the rest of the team has already caught up. Cold mist swirls as ice creeps up its legs. Three creatures - Talyndra’s summons - all with reptilian-like bodies, and large elongated heads jump on it, gnawing at its exposed fur. From both right and left sides, Sylvia and Zora are charging at terrifying speed, aiming to sever its head clean off.

Their instruments are held firmly in their hands, and the might behind their attack is nothing to scoff at. As I attempt to block any counter-attack from it, with the characteristic toughness, and the superior freedom of movement of my shield, three blood arrows are already whistling toward the monster, each aimed at the open areas between the bone plating. It's surrounded, attacked from all sides.

The creature inhales deeply, and with a deafening roar, the area around it seems to explode. Literally, its outcry pushes the air away from it to such a degree that anyone who dared approach, is repelled instantly. I instinctively place my shield in front of me, and I am spared from the outcome, but the others are not so lucky. The three of them, Ivana, Sylvia, and Zora, who got within close range, fly away, sliding across the frozen lake in different directions. Our first attempt at taking it down swiftly is a failure.

The beast is relentless, seeing as how I’m now alone, it rushes me. I do my best at parrying its attacks, but even with my soul vision, I am not as flawless as Ivana. Only at the third blow, it nicks my shoulder, drawing blood.

It doesn't even give me a moment to assess the damage.

Thankfully, I’m not left alone for long, the others have returned, and rapidly, the battle turns into a storm of attacks and the instruments cause a cacophony of noise. My aegis stands firm, deflecting its attacks with fluidity and allowing me more freedom of movement.

Sophia makes use of her ice to destabilize, and confuse it. Zora darts in and out, exploiting its every blind spot, while Sylvia uses her superior strength to contest it in a head-on confrontation. The tamed [echoed] Talyndra makes us of aren’t without merit either. They may not compare to the creature, but their presence is distracting and while they’re easy to disregard, the damage they cause does accumulate. With each opening we offer, Feyrin sends a few of his arrows flying toward it. Every time they hit, he gets to inject the creature with his blood, giving him a little more control each time.

Still, the beast fights back with ardent fervor. Its fighting style is peculiar, but frighteningly lethal. It can grow the bone plating anywhere on its body, but at the cost of leaving other areas open. It uses that first ability to a great degree of efficiency, rapidly reconfiguring its armor depending on its current needs.

The two sword-like protrusions on its arms, however, are its main weapons. They’re incredibly sharp, and a mere graze from them tears through [enlightened] flesh like a hot knife through butter. Even with blows of similar might to the ones which create cracks on its armor, the protrusions refuse to chip or break, leading to our side promptly abandoning that option.

And that roar…. It’s the worst of all. The chaos it creates is unbelievable. I can defend against it using my aegis, but the others cannot. Fortunately, it has a flaw. Its use is extremely conspicuous. If it seems as though it wants to make use of it, we prevent it from doing so, and if that’s not possible, we step back. So far, against all its natural weapons, we’ve been performing exceedingly well.

‘We might be able to do this!’

For a while, our side seems to have the upper hand, I’d even say we’re winning. The wounds on the creature's body are accumulating, and while we haven’t managed to breach it, even its bone plating is showing more and more cracks. Gradually, as the battle unfolds, its fur coat begins to be painted with more and more red, promising its inevitable demise. Our side isn’t unharmed, but it’s nothing we can’t handle.

The battle truly seems to be going well, when-

*crash*

The first to fall are two of Talyndra’s tamed [echoed]. In the time of a single heartbeat, a small delay between one attack and the next, the creature grabs the two reptile-like beasts, and smashes their heads against each other, splattering their insides on the surface of the lake.

Stunned, I jump backward and take a moment to think. I pant heavily as I gather my thoughts. ‘This won’t work…!’

I had already noticed, but I didn’t want to think about it. We’re tiring, while the beast isn’t. It’s only marginal for now, but our attacks are dropping in speed, power, and precision. Each and every one of its attacks, however, is just as deadly as they were in the beginning. The most miniscule mistake could spell our end. Just this fact puts incredible strain on our bodies and minds.

Even Ivana, still unscathed because of her mind-reading abilities, is starting to experience more and more close calls, simply because her body is slowly failing to keep up. The battlefield pauses for a moment. I look around to assess my companions. Except for Sylvia who seems in a better shape than most, large droplets of sweat droop from the faces of all present. Heavy pants can be heard across the lake, and though Feyrin fights from the rear, I notice his paling complexion - he’s running out of blood to use.

“We.. huff huff… can’t keep going like this, we won’t last…!” I barely manage to push out through heavy pants.

“We need a killing blow… Something that’ll put it out for good!” Sophia growls through gritted teeth.

“…That sounds nice, but I doubt it’ll give us time to prepare anything like that…” Ivana retorts.

Sylvia, with a somber expression, looks at me. “That thing you did against our Senior Tianna… can you do it again? It might give us the opening we need.” She asks, which seems to draw the attention of the others.

I bite my lip, betraying Sylvia’s hopes.. “Its usage of pureflow is… erratic, I don’t have a good grasp of it yet.” I say. “As for what I did to Tianna, maybe that could have worked… if it was using a [melody] of any kind…”

Silence, only the soft breeze blowing over the area.

Talyndra blinks a few times. “I’m not going to ask how you know but…You’re telling me it hasn’t been using one this whole time…?”

“Nope.”

“Haha….we’re doomed…” She mutters.

*hiek hiek hiek hiek*

‘Laughter?!’

My attention shifts to the creature, and it’s….laughing?

‘The hell…?’

Ivana arches her eyebrow. “Is the bastard mock-”

We’re all perplexed, but we soon watch in horror as it starts to make sense. As if time on its body had been reversed, all the wounds it received begin to heal, the cracks on its armor repair themselves and even the ear Zora had managed to slice off grows back. My eyes expand in shock as the scene unfolds before me.

The laughter echoes through the expanse of the terrain, and the longer it goes on, the louder it becomes. If at first it seemed restorative, now it seems to be enhancing it. The armor grows to cover more of its body, and while it had already been massive, standing at above a height of three meters, it begins to grow even taller, and even bigger. Four meters… five meters…. six…

Sylvia is the first to react, she quickly adopts a new stance, holding her warchord to her side. “I’ll stop this! I’ll leave it to you all to find something!”

“No!” Zora shouts. “They’ll need ya, Goldie locs. I’ll stop it!”

Sylvia’s head whips toward Zora. “What?!” She exclaims, alarmed.

Zora has no more room to care, however, she’s already moving. With one hand, she places her sharpsong vertically before her. She then places one foot in front of the other, and takes a deep breath.

“I’ll show ya somethin’ fun, ugly monster.” She taps her foot on the ground, the noise resembling a conductor marking time. Her voice is steady, yet defiant.

“Third Dance - Waltz of Dusk.”

*boom*