"This matters not." The older man laughed. "My hearing hasn't completely gone." At this time, a song voice swept through the arena.
"I am your angel; come to me angel of music..." The crowd was moved by its richness. The Harpist was moved by something else. Inside that rich voice, full of strength and bitterness, was a feeling, something both freezing cold and boiling hot at the same time.
There was no doubt about it. This Phantom he was facing definately had high chi skill. The Harpist twitched his ears. Judging by the sounds, his opponent was a tad to his right.
"Shall we begin?" The Harpist asked.
"You will curse the day you dared to / challenge the Phantom to battle you!" The Phantom replied, and cut loose with an ear-splitting howl.
This did not resolve the Harpist's dilemma - a bolt of energy was coming at him, and he needed to get out of the way. Slamming his guqin into the ground, the Harpist managed to flip over the instrument just in time as Erik's attack
"The Phantom comes for you / do not try/ to escape your fate / for you cannot hide!" Each word was literally a dagger that flew towards the Harpist. This time, the Harpist was ready and sank into a one-legged stance, balancing his guqin on his leg. Fingers flying, he responded with a musical counterattack.
"Deadly Melody, level 1! Sword Shadows!" He called out. A flurry of swords and spears flew towards the musical daggers. "Deadly Melody, Level 2! Whirling Sound Barrier!"
The Phantom laughed. It was a terrible sound, filled with malice. The sound waves flew towards the Harpist in an intricate pattern. They struggled against the Harpist's barrier. Right when it seemed the barrier would hold, the Phantom unleashed another vocal barrage. This time, the attack was different. The previous waves of energy were concentrated in lines - if they hit, they would cause amputations. The sound waves of this technique, however, were more like a fog, spreading throughout the arena.
Suddenly, the Harpist realized that this was actually the Sound Coffin technique - the user surrounds his oppenent with a cloud of sound energy, then sends tiny "shards" of that energy into the opponent's body, which explains the tiny holes found on the corpse of the first unfortunate soul to have been on the receiving end of that technique.
The Harpist slammed his instrument on the ground. "Deadly Melody, Titan Pounding Mortar!" A shock wave shot out from the guqin, dispelling some of the "sound fog." Not satisfied, the Harpist ran his fingernails along the guqin's strings, creating a nasty zipping sound. This ended up disrupting the sound fog even further. Finally, the Harpist spun the long instrument all around his body, plucking on its strings occasionally. "Deadly Melody, Level 5! Sonic Tornado!"
Soon, all the sound fog had dissipated. The Harpist let loose with a roar and directed his technique at the Phantom. Shrieking winds surrounded the deformed prodigy, and for a while he seemed at a disadvantage. Then came a burst of song, and the winds died down.
"Though you've escaped my trap / Don't lose your head / My power over you / Grows stronger yet / And though your technique is strong / You soon shall find / The Phantom of the Opera can strike / Inside your mind!"
This was no empty boast, as the Harpist found himself under attack by a swarm of ghostly otherworldly beings.Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind for a counter.
"Deadly Melody, Level 7! Orpheus Soldier Rising!" All around the Harpist, a cohort of undead swordsmen rose and battled the Phantom's summoned minions.
Both combatants prepared themselves for one final strike, eyes red with rage. The Phantom laughed. "Past the point of no return, my friend!"
The Harpist's eyebrows furrowed as he attempted an experimental technique. "Deadly Melody, Ultimate Level! Sonic Cutting Wave!"
A bright blue beam of energy, thin as a sewing thread, shot out the Harpist's guqin. The Phantom sang. A giant ghostly chandelier shot out, spinning like a top. It absorbed the energy from the Harpist's attack and simply grew bigger and spun faster. Suddenly, the Harpist did something no one expected; he took a running leap and launched a tornado kick at his opponent. Caught off guard, the Phantom could not dodge in time as the Harpist's foot knocked the mask off his face. A piercing scream rang out. Under normal circumstances, the sound waves of that scream would have beheaded the Harpist right there. However, the incongruity caused by the mix of the scream and the Phantom's previous attacks ended up canceling both out, opening the Phantom to a follow-up attack from the Harpist.
This oppurtunity the Harpist did take. His guqin slammed into the Phantom's gut, knocking him out of the arena.
"Winner, the Six-Fingered Harpist!" Came the cry from the announcer's box.
The Harpist saluted his adversary as the Phantom got to his feet. After fixing his mask, the Phantom stared intensely at this man who had just defeated him. Then he spoke up.
"Congratulations, my friend." The Phantom cleared his throat before going on. "I must tell you, however, that I am past my time. Your body techniques are strong, but your musical techniques require improvement. I do see that you have the potential to become a very angel - or devil - of music. Thus, I present to you my life's work - The Ballad of Don Juan. You may be able to combine it with your Deadly Melody and create an Ultimate Masterpiece."
"Why, thank you." The Harpist replied. "Strictly speaking, we are all just musicians. As a courtesy from one musician to another, I shall practice it diligently."
The Phantom grinned as his body turned to dust. "Finally, someone to pass on my music!"
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