The Music Speaks

‘How is any of this fair!!!’

In the span of around thirty minutes or so, Tianna has managed to incapacitate, immobilize, or force nearly all of the second quarter trainees to surrender. She began her rampage with the long range combatants, immediately taking them out of the contest. Faced with her assault, Adam managed to hold out for a moment, using his repulsive blasts to keep the hair off him. Nonetheless, he eventually fell prey to her relentless pursuit, just as all of the melo-string and blast pipe users did. Then she moved on to all of those who possess utility or support [melodies], and they fell, one by one. Some took longer than others, but they were all inevitably defeated. The ease with which she did it left me speechless. Of course, our difference in levels played a role, but I also believe that our numbers dwindling so rapidly was also due to our lack of preparation. We were unable to protect those who could support us, but could not protect themselves. As such, she was able to take out the most annoying of her opponents, leaving only the really slippery or hard to knock down trainees.

Now, the only ones remaining currently are myself, Sylvia, Alex, and two other trainees from Lauderdale, one who is able to turn solid inorganic objects liquid with a touch and another whose body can emit bursts of blinding light. She has been able to face all of us without so much as breaking sweat or moving a single step from her original position.

Contrary to her sheepish nature, when it comes to battle efficiency, Tianna is nothing short of a monster. Not only is her offense flawless, but so is her defense. The hair she controls acts both as a spear and as a shield. She manipulates it with such finesse that she can have individual sections of it attack different opponents, in different ways, simultaneously. Whenever you are on the receiving end of her attacks, the hair which comes flying at you is much more than a simple projectile. It can feint, evade, perform strange maneuvers, and to some extent, it seems like it can even think.

If, by some miracle, one is able to get past the glowing hair barraging them with attacks, they will only be met with an impregnable barrier of it that surrounds her at all times. In fact, that is what happened to Sylvia, with my aid and the help of some of the other trainees, she maneuvered to where she believed was Tianna’s blind spot, only to be parried by a barrier made of hair and to be sent flying back. Tianna did it without even looking at her too. The more I watch her fight, the more I think that the hair truly does have a mind of its own.

As I run around the field, using my aegis to fend off Tianna’s attacks, I shout, hoping Sylvia will hear me. “Any Ideas!? I’m not sure I can hold on much longer!!”

She leaps over a whip-like attack which strikes the ground with a thunderous clap, lands on her feet, and uses her warchord to repel more streaks of hair coming towards her. “I need a way to get past that barrier of hers!! Do YOU have any ideas!?”

Hair emerges from the ground to my right and to my left. It bee-lines straight for me and attempts to wrap itself around my body. Sensing the danger, I rotate my shield quickly, and make it perform one swift revolution around me, repelling it all, albeit with much effort. Unfortunately, despite the strength I put into it, I am unable to cut through that hair of hers, which is the issue that has plagued all of us during this fight. Her hair is invulnerable. Pulling on it does not break it, it cannot be cut, it does not tangle, and it seems to have an infinite range. What’s more, though it is difficult to see because of the sheer number, I am almost certain that Tianna is sending waves of pure flow through every single strand of hair simultaneously, further enhancing its strength.

In fact, she is not just sending pureflow to patches of her hair, controlling them as a whole, no- To me, it seems that she is sending pureflow, individually, to each of her tens of thousands of strands of hair. I only know of one other person who’s computational ability is anywhere near that level and that’s Soulweaver. The way that person operates all of their avatars at the same time strongly reminds me of Tianna’s fighting style. I cannot help but be in awe at this display of skill. While I have difficulty sending pure flow to a few different muscles in tandem, she is doing the exact same thing, but on an unfathomable scale, as if it was second nature to her. All the while not showing any sign of fatigue, her hair is still as robust, as strong, and as fast as it was thirty minutes ago when the massacre began. Truly, there are no other words to describe her but ‘genius’, a monstrous one even.

As I am evading the blows to the best of my ability, I hear a muffled wail behind me followed by a bright flash of light. When I turn around, I see one of the remaining trainees fall face first to the ground. The hair then carefully carries him away from the battle zone where cold water will be splashed on his face to wake him up, just as it was with the other trainees who fainted. Now, only four of us remain, and we have yet to make any progress.

‘I just need a second, an opportunity to make use of it, and we might have a chance to at least reach her!!’

By this point in the fight, I have gathered more than enough insight into her [melody] to make use of harmonic destruction, if even for a second. I am confident that with it, I can disrupt the flow of her melody to a sufficient degree that her control over her hair will be affected. However, there is a reason I have yet to use it. It is not that I do not want to use it in order to keep its existence a secret, since I doubt anyone but Ronald, Tianna or the Maestro would be able to fully grasp what I did. Instead, It would be more accurate to say that I want to use it against TIanna, to see how well it would fare against a second stage, to see how far away they are from me in terms of power.

The reason I am holding back is much simpler in reality. I know that if I were to use it carelessly on someone like Tianna, sure, she would be destabilized for a moment, but that would be it. If I did not seize that opportunity to attack her, she would regain her composure immediately. She would plan her battle strategy accordingly and I would never get such a chance again. That is why I have been holding onto my trump card for this long.

‘Well, it won’t do any good either if she knocks me out before I can use it…!!’

I slide under a speak-shaped segment of hair aiming to stab my heart, getting my battle suit dirty, to then have to twist my body sideways to avoid the same hair looping around and going for my neck. When I step backwards out of harm’s way, my back bumps into a hard surface. I turn around to look at what has stopped me, coincidentally, a beautiful woman with blond hair and deep blue eyes appears to be doing the same. “Alden, I may have a plan!” She says, still looking out for potential surprise attacks.

I painstakingly repel a blow using my sharpsong and let out a loud grunt. “I’m listening!”

“That thing you did against the bear, can you do it again? That ‘harmonic destruction’.”

“Right now? Sure, I can, but it’d be pointless. Even with it, I doubt it would reveal any openings.”

“That’s okay. You see, I happen to have something in mind. Before that however… I don’t mean to pry but… what exactly can it do? I know that it somehow disrupts the [melody] or the pureflow output of your target, one or the other, or both. I won’t ask you how you’re able to do that, but what I need to know is, how potent is its effect, and once again, what exactly can it do?”

“Well, I won’t delve too deep into the details, but essentially, once certain conditions are met, I can indeed mess with the flow used towards playing a [melody] or flow used for pureflow output. Usually, if I use it for a [melody], it deactivates it for a moment, or, depending on the user’s strength, can make its control more difficult. See, I would use it here, but I feel like someone of her level would immediately realize that something’s wrong, and it would all be for naught.”

Sylvia flips her golden locs to the back of her head to remove any obstacles in her field of view. “... How long can you deactivate her [melody]?”

Strangely enough, I notice that Tianna has not attacked us during this conversation.

‘Is she intentionally giving us time to strategize?’

Taking advantage of this calm before the storm, I answer her. “Deactivate it? I probably can’t do that at all, but I’m confident I could make her control over it weaker for at least half a second.”

“Hmmm.. would that also do something about its toughness? It is nice if she cannot control it as well, but if we still can’t get past it there’s no point….”

“I’m not sure… Maybe? I can’t say for certain.”

She places her hand over her mouth pensively. “Would it be possible for you to intentionally weaken the hair’s solidity? Just enough so that I could cut through it with all of my strength. She might notice if her control wanes, but surely that would be harder to perceive, no? Could you do that?”

Perplexed, I raise an eyebrow, as if she has said something utterly ridiculous. “No? It doesn’t work like that, I can’t just pick and choose which parts of her [melody] I want to tone down!”

She raises an eyebrow too. “Why not?”

“Well, because it-”

I interrupt myself in the middle of my own sentence.

‘Wait, actually, why not?’

I pause for a moment. I look down, even more pensively than Sylvia had been a moment ago, and I ponder her words. Why not indeed?