4-10: You are the melody that gives me courage

Fran’s Point of View

“Let’s start…”

For this battle I brought my violin as my only weapon, and Amelie had just her hands. She will probably use spells without assistance.

“Erase…”

Her body became transparent letting me see the other side of the stadium. I guess it’s time to confirm our theory.

“First chord!”

I played the violin as best I could, sending multiple shock waves toward her. Surprisingly, that moved her a little. That means I can barely damage her.

“That was all?”

“I’m trying my best!”

Trying to do more damage, I made individual attacks to her head, torso, and even her arms, but none of them had a different result than the first time I attacked.

“Fire ball.”

“Secon chord!”

A fireball was shot in my direction, so I played faster to counterattack.

“You can’t even cast a barrier?”

“Ugh.”

She probably was trying to distract me. My magic depends on how well I can play my instruments, so being distracted could make me commit a mistake and leave me vulnerable.

“Agh!”

The fireball finally exploded, covering me with dust. I used that time where she couldn’t see me to figure out how I could defeat her.

“What did they tell me…?”

We deducted that Amelie would be my opponent, so we discussed many ways to counter her magic. I tried my best to remember one of those ways.

“Kazu, what do you think?”

“Hmm…That magic doesn’t make any sense.”

“Why?”

“If she is intangible, shouldn't she sink into the ground?”

That’s it! I moved trying to get a good view, and somehow I got something.

“Her feet!”

The only way she could use that magic without dying was letting her feet in a corporeal state. With that information, I aimed my next attack in that direction.

“High!”

A shockwave was shot to her feet. And instead of letting the attack pass, she dodged it. That confirmed I could do something.

“I got it!”

“Impressive, only one minute and you already discovered the weakness of my magic.”

“Now I can do something!”

“...”

“Let’s do this!”

“...Fran Mujica.”

“...Eh?”

My enthusiasm disappeared in the moment she said that…After all, that was my last name.

“You were investigating?”

“Your parents are Elisa Symphos and Frank Mujica, two renowned musicians known throughout the kingdom. You're also famous, but not famous enough to be recognized by anyone other than the most dedicated music fans.”

“What are you trying with this?”

Ignoring her was the best, so I prepared my next attack…But her words made everything more difficult.

“Once this battle is over, I will tell them where you’ve been involved.”

“...Huh?”

In the moment she said that my attack was shot, but it didn’t reach her…It disappeared before…I played the violin badly.

“According to my investigation, you’re supposed to learn magic, but at the same time you’re supposed to prioritize the music. If they discover this, they will be disappointed, and maybe even take you from here.”

“...I-I-.”

“You can’t win this and use your favor to avoid me to do that. You know I’m not even trying to harm you.”

She was saying that in a monotonous way, but every word felt like a lot of knife tearing my skin.

“Fire ball.”

She attacked a second time. My mental state didn’t matter, I needed to block that attack.

“They will be even more disappointed when they discover you keep using your voice that way…”

“Huh?!”

My hands didn’t move when she said that. I wanted to know how much she actually investigated before this fight, but right now, I could only receive her attack.

“Guh!”

She clearly held back with that attack, otherwise I would have been seriously injured.

I was physically okay, but my motivation was destroyed.

“If you surrender now, those things will remain a secret. Your parents will still be happy.”

“...”

“I understand. Expectations can be problematic, but once you accept that you just need to meet them, you feel better. After all, some people simply can't choose their own lives and must take the one handed to them."

Her tone as she said that... seemed sympathetic, as if she understood my situation perfectly...For a second, I thought it would be better to simply accept her proposal. But a voice echoed through the crowd.

“You got this!”

Kazu's voice was strong. He was doing his best to cheer me up. Thanks to my keen hearing, I even heard Chloe scolding him for not cheering her up like that...I would have laughed, but it wasn't the time, so I looked straight at Amelie.

“That would be the easy way out. I admit I'd love to choose it, but I'm not fighting just for myself, so I'm not allowed to.”

“I see, that’s a shame…”

The number of attacks suddenly increased, so I tried playing a long song to keep countering as much as I could. Unfortunately, even with that I wasn’t able to manage the number, attacking wasn’t even an option.

“I angered you or something?”

“My patience is not infinite.”

My defense protected me for a while, but I wasn't prepared for a surprise attack.

“Fire arrow!”

A quick projectile surpassed my protection and impacted, but not on me. It pierced my violin, and then burned it.

“...”

“You probably can cast basic magic, but without your instruments you can’t do something better.”

“...”

“You're not going to give up? Then I'll just beat you.”

I was feeling something weird. I lost my only way to win this fight, but somehow, I knew I had something else…Then, I saw my hand.

“...ound…

“Hmm? You said something?”

“...Sound!”

Almost all of my mana went straight to my hand, creating an item.

“Another summon?!”

“...”

When the object was ready, I grabbed it. Obviously, no one recognized it…That’s because it was something Kazu explained to me.

“So, this is a microphone…”

I was able to make it just because Kazu drew it for me, but how am I supposed to use it?

“I guess I need to try.”

I brought my mouth closer to the microphone as Amelie looked at me in confusion.

“...Give me strength…”

My mind was clear of everyone other than me, Amelie, and Kazu. Only this time, I needed to do it.

“Living only with devotion, close my eyes, and emotion!”

“...What the-.”

Suddenly, a black fog spread across the area. Amelie tried to attack again, but the fog was too dense for accurate aiming.

“...What is this spell?…”

“With your words I felt a lock, and your hate was like a shock!”

“Wha-.”

A swift attack shot out from the microphone and landed on Amelie's feet. Just when I thought I'd barely damaged her, her body went opaque for a second, allowing me to see her pained face. Somehow, the attack had been extremely effective.

“You…”

With more time I could learn to use it better, but right now I can only attack. I have limited mana in the microphone and I could run out of ideas.

“Let’s enjoy this fight!”

“Unforgivable!”

Surprisingly, she made her hands tangible and created an ice spear and then charged towards me. It was so obvious that neither of us had been fighting seriously until now.

“Ice hell!”

“The pain and the shame burn my dreams like a flame!”

Millions of ice projectiles were fired from the spear, but a giant flare melted them all allowing me to get closer to her.

“Trap holes!”

“You never stop my cry, you took me away from the sky!”

Holes appeared all over the area, but I was lifted ten meters high, avoiding them. It was a good time to attack, so I tried to sing fast

“Cut our hands, shut our demands, only left a pain that always expands! ”

A big shockwave was shot at Amelie, and she was not able to dodge it. Instead of suffering the attack, she threw me her spear, but it failed.

“(What was that?).”

I needed to rest for two seconds after each attack, so I thought maybe she tried to use it but missed. But my deduction was incorrect.

“Change of course!”

The spear suddenly changed direction and headed straight for my chest.

“Crap!”

Just when it was about to pierce me, I used my microphone as a shield.

“Guh!”

The microphone didn't break, but it cracked, letting the mana out.

“This is not good…”

“Fire ball!

Upon landing, I moved to the left, barely dodging the fireball, and thought about what to do. I can't use the song I was singing when I'm losing mana like this.

I needed to improvise.

“With infinite words, you gave me a new world!”

Multiple spheres appeared and approached Amelie. She moved away thinking that maybe I was trying to hit her with them. But instead every single one stopped in the middle of the air.

“What?”

The spheres attacked Amelie with different spells. Strings, fire balls, ice arrows. Again she dodged most of the attacks, but her speed wasn’t enough to do it with the fastest ones.

“How…Why…?”

“Time to finish this!.”

My attacks were strong, but I was about to run out of mana. The next ones were the last lyrics.

“If the price for being safe is the smile on my face, abandon me in the maze and I'll search the way!”

The area was covered in more spheres, but Amelie didn't give up. She started running towards me, determined to finish me off directly.

A weak spell from a short distance would be dangerous, and my mana was almost out. I needed a quick verse to finish this, and without ideas, I just let the words flow.

“In the path of pain where I sob, heal my wounds with your smile and love!.”

Every single sphere shot to her a powerful sound burst, and just some meters from me, she fell to the ground stunned.

“...”

I approached trying to make sure she was defeated, but tiredness made me fall on top of her.

“Ugh!”

I raised my arm waiting for the words I wanted to hear, and after a short but at the same time eternal wait, I heard them.

“T-The winner of the second fight is, representing the challengers…Fran!”