Chapter 7 – En Route to Daikar (3) 

My body hits a hard and cold surface with brutal force. I find myself in a seating position pressed against the cave wall. The impact makes my ribs scream in agony and dizziness is clouding my senses. Glancing over at the opposite side of the cave, I notice that Sylvia is in no better shape. She is attempting to stand back up, but she is wobbling. The bear's attack has left us both nearly incapacitated. 

Though his ability is invisibility and remaining unseen is what he does best, I am certain that Rowan has left us. It is just me and Sylvia against the [echo-blessed] bear. 

Still pinned to the ground by my shield, it delivers one strike to it, then two, then three and my ability shatters. It is now free and we are at its mercy. I wonder which one of us it will choose. Unfortunately for me, it runs in my direction. As I make peace with my end, Sylvia, now on her feet, releases a powerful shout. 

"Come here you beast!" 

She shows an enormous self-inflicted wound on her forearm carrying the rich aroma of her blood. The bear cannot help itself and changes its target. 

Guided by the metallic scent, The bear charges at her instead. She, however, has no intention of dying here. She swiftly dodges the bear's initial charge and rolls on the ground. She repeats this process several times, narrowly evading death's embrace each time. In her current state, even if she retaliated, the bear would suffer virtually no damage. Sylvia shouts once more. 

"Alden! On your feet!" 

My vision is blurry, and the world is spinning, nonetheless, I painstakingly rise to my feet and drag myself towards Sylvia and the bear. The bear is focusing all of its might on the FullCastle heiress, oblivious to my existence. With its attention on Sylvia, I do not doubt that I could easily make a break for freedom, but what would be the point of that? When my mother died, I did not have the power to protect her. Something precious was taken from me because I was weak. Now, someone else is dying right in front of me, except this time, I can intervene. If I do not do everything I can to save Sylvia, then I became an [enlightened] for no reason at all. 

I had decided to conceal the true extent of my abilities from my peers in hopes of taking them by surprise should the need present itself. However, that is meaningless now. I may not know Sylvia, but she has put her life on the line to save me. Her well-being now far outweighs such a selfish motive. I have decided that she will live to see another day. 

The bear Launches another attack at Sylvia, she is late in evading it by half a second and it rips through her right side. Relentless in its assault, the beast launches its next attack, Sylvia will not be able to dodge this one. The bear's razor-sharp claws approach her at frightening speed, she raises her guard in hopes of defending herself. As the golden-haired girl's body is about to make contact with, the bear's claws, a circular shield with a wolf's crest on it inserts itself between the two. I made it in time. I give Sylvia instructions. 

"Right in the middle, strike it with all your might Sylvia!" 

With her strike, I yell. 

"HARMONIC DESTRUCTION!" 

She strikes the shield and a loud, powerful noise resonates from it. Upon hearing it, the [echo-blessed] bear is momentarily stunned. It attacks the source of the noise with its full force, but my shield does not even crack. Unable to understand why, it realizes that it has gotten weaker. In a strangely human-like fashion, it stands on its hind legs and tries to plug its ears in hopes of cancelling the effects, but it's useless. The noise, no, the song plays in its very soul. 

When practicing with the professor from Lauderdale, I noticed that every time he struck my shield, a melody, different from mine, played in my head. It was easy to realize that it was his [melody] playing. In the three days of continuous training with him, I was able to deconstruct the intricacies of his [melody] and mostly understand its inner workings. 

Even though I composed my [melody] myself, because of the instinctual nature of the act, I did not truly understand what I had made or what being a composer implied. The truth is that the shield I use is a physical manifestation of my soul. Every time someone strikes it, the basis of their [melody] is slowly poured into my head. It is like they are playing their song on my instrument. This is only a speculation, but I have a feeling that, for any other [enlightened], this would not result in anything, especially for complex abilities born from complex [melodies]. But for me, as a composer, my understanding of [melodies] is much deeper. 

When Maestro Lauren explained that pure flow is the first step towards constructively altering your [melody] and reaching the second stage, an idea struck me. Using this concept, I would have a way to combine my nature as a composer and the intricacies of the ability manifested from my [melody] to reach a practical outcome. If [melodies] can be altered constructively, then they can be altered destructively. In this life-or-death situation, I took a chance and tested my theory on the bear. With its exceedingly simple [melody], it was easy to compose a destructive [counter-melody] with only a few hits from it 

Now understanding the real problem, the bear looks at me with eyes full of rage. It once more changes its target. I smirk. 

"Heh, you're smarter than I thought, but you should look behind you..." 

Sylvia gathers all the strength she has left, jumps on my shield, or should I refer to it as a gong now? Either way, she uses it to leap in the air. Taken by surprise, the bear looks straight at her but its already too late. She is on the verge of crashing down on it with terrifying might. Her heel collides with the weakest area of the bear's skull, right between its eyes. It already had difficulty dealing with Sylvia's attacks before but now that it is weakened thanks to my harmonic destruction, its skull caves in and it collapses. We have finally defeated the [Echo-blessed] bear. We both fall to the ground, exhausted. She is the first to speak. 

"Hehe...I knew you had potential..." 

"Thank you Ms. FullCastle, you're not so bad yourself!" 

"Ah, we're back to that now, yet you called me Sylvia earlier."

"Did I?"

"You did. Talking about earlier, you named your attack back there, didn't you? 'HARMONIC DESTRUCTION!' was it? The name could use some work." 

"Haha... Can you please forget about that Ms. FullCastle?" 

"Maybe if you call me Sylvia" 

"I could nev--" 

"I wonder how the others would feel about you yelling out your finishing move in a life-or-death situation; Maestro Lauren would definitely find it quite amusing." 

".....Okay, okay, maybe we don't need to go there, right...Sylvia?" 

"Better." 

'note to self, do NOT shout your ability names, or at least make it cool if you plan to' 

We are laying down, battered and fatigued after a grueling battle. We are covered in injuries. My ribs are cracked, blood is flowing from the back of my head and I am having difficulty breathing. Sylvia is in a similar situation her right side has been gouged, and there is a large wound decorating her forearm. Even so, thanks to the increased vitality of the [enlightened], we will live, and that is what matters most. This trial has brought us closer but now I know that I am not the only one who lied, Sylvia did too.