Chapter 51: Battle of the Bands |
The first light to pierce the darkness came with an audible clunk from above, a new spotlight spreading a thin cone of illumination over a dozen tightly packed people. Then came one clunk after another, more spotlights spreading across the crowd. A dozen audience members turned to three dozen, to a hundred, to a thousand, each standing with barely a few inches between them. If how densely packed they were worried them, they didn’t show it on their faces.
No, as soon as the lights had begun coming on, the crowd had erupted into applause and hollers. Hands and drinks reached into the air, some of the people even beginning to jump and cheer. What were they cheering at? The fronts of the two stages on either side of them.
The crowd stood undulating between the stages facing off against each other, even though they currently remained shrouded in darkness. Even standing on one of those stages, Hiral couldn’t see the others, though he could feel them. Feel how ready they were with the song already looping in their heads. All they needed was the signal to begin, but it wasn’t quite that time yet.
No, thanks to the rules of the “battle” that’d been put in Hiral’s head along with the skill to play his guitar, he looked up for what he knew would come next as the spotlights on the crowd cut out. Plunged back into darkness – though he could still feel the crowd now he knew they were there – his eyes immediately went to the next part of the show.
Hundreds of thin beams of light shot from behind his stage and the sides, cutting lines through the darkness, while some kind of mist or smoke filled the space above them like a cloud. And, as the cloud thickened, a shape took form. A man, powerful muscles flexing on his bare arms and chest, and a simple, wooden spear in hand. He wasn’t a Maker – despite his bulk being similar to a Shaper’s – or a Grower, a Bonder, or a Builder, but he was them. Legs like tree trunks resolved from the cloud on either side of the stage as the avatar took up his position in preparation for the coming “battle”.
And his opponent? Across the crowd roaring even louder at the appearance of the avatars, floated the one representing the Infested. Almost unsurprisingly, this wasn’t a man, or even a person. Nine tentacles weaved through the air as the even larger squid took shape. Nearly twice as big as the avatar above the party, its limbs were already stretching above the crowd, bathing them in the red light that made it up, as it reached to crush the life out of its opponent.
With that acting like the signal to begin, a wordless shout tore out of the darkness on the far stage, with a wave of pyrotechnics dispelling the shadows to reveal the Infested and Possessed. Instruments shrieked to life, like their voices were forcefully ripped out of them, and a soundwave of physical force washed across the crowd.
Much like Hiral’s party, each of the Infested and Possessed held an instrument, their hands furiously working as they hammered out their heavy metal melody. The one with the scrolls stood at the front of the stage, both hands on the microphone as he practically shouted into it, his torn and raspy voice forming words Hiral couldn’t understand, though he didn’t need to.
Whatever the Infested was singing was a song of challenge. Of war and conquering. Of dominance and destruction.
Individually, the performances were chaotic. Shrieking. Loud.
But, together? Together, the heavy, seemingly formless notes crashed into something with drive. Even directly opposite the other band, Hiral could feel it passing through the crowd and fueling their energy. The music – yes, it was music – had a beat to it. A pulse like a heart that would pump the blood through his body for him. It carried ahead like a rising wave, picking up the cheers and passion from the crowd, wrapping them in even more anticipation as it all built.
Towering, it roared toward Hiral and the others at the same time the squid-avatar stretched its tentacles for their avatar’s throat. Like it wanted to end the battle before it even began, the Enemy went for the kill.
“Fall, fall,” Right and Left whispered into their microphones from the darkness, not quite at the same time, so one sounded like the echo of another. Their voices cut into the coming wave, but they weren’t enough to stop it by themselves, just like the avatar above could only slap aside one of the nine tentacles that came its way. “Fall, fall,” they said again, undaunted, the other band’s sound threatening to crush them all with a physical weight bound to the pounding drums and screaming guitars.
Just when it seemed like the volume of it all would be too much, the force of it grinding Hiral’s bones, a single, thin spotlight shot down from above as a lone note pierced the attack. Like a hot knife through butter, Li’l Ur pulled his bow across the strings of his violin, opening a path through the assault. Against the titanic weight of the six instruments arrayed against him, there was no way he could possibly hold them off on his own, but a second note followed the first. Then a third, and a fourth, a haunting melody rising and building a defense like new growth in spring.
Where Hiral had almost expected a dirge to come from the lich – death was kind of his thing, after all – he closed his eyes and felt sunlight dappling his cheeks through a canopy above. Though the burnt scent of fire lingered, there was also the smell of nature enduring.
Opening his eyes again, Hiral looked up at where their avatar had grabbed the tentacle wrapped around its throat. More tentacles wrapped its other arm and chest, but it stood tall and straight, buoyed by Li’l Ur’s music.
“RAAAAAAH,” the Infested singer shouted into his microphone, the other band’s music somehow increasing in fervor even more. Faster came the notes. Harder came the drums.
Just like that, Li’l Ur wasn’t enough, the tentacles around the avatar squeezing. Crushing the life out of it. The little lich’s eyes narrowed in concentration, those same flickers of black fire rippling across the strings of his instrument, but the wood of the stool beneath him creaked under the pressure of holding back the music on his own.
On his own, until a barrage of sharp notes joined the violin as another, larger spotlight illuminated Seeyela at her piano. Light sparkling on her Armor of the Ghost-Web Matriarch like it had crushed-diamond on it, her fingers danced across the keys. Starting on the right side, the woman wove a soft web of a melody, barely audible under the pressure of the Infested’s epic howling. But, as her notes carried and spread – as they supported Li’l Ur and allowed him to stand straighter again – her fingers moved to the left. Deeper notes joined the higher, her own wave building with the web secured.
To Hiral’s mind’s eye, the dappling sun rotated beyond the horizon, a full moon rising to shed its cold light on the forest below. Pure and white, Seeyela’s melody spread a new web, this one across the sky as stars sparkled like the light did on her armor.
Playing together, calm and evocative – and the polar opposite to the band across the crowd – the pair didn’t push back, but they did hold their own. Seeyela’s fingers increased in speed as they crossed from high to low notes, while Li’l Ur’s bow blurred across the violin, the intensity of their duet increasing steadily.
“Fall, fall,” the doubles whispered again.
Du-du-du-du-DUN-DUN, Yanily’s drums came in out of nowhere, somehow fitting perfectly in line with the emotional line from the violin and stabbing notes of the piano. Four short, two heavy. Four short, two heavy. Four short, two heavy, Yanily repeated the rhythm, before Left and Right came in again.
“Fall, fall,” they whispered into their microphones at the same time Hiral activated Domain of the Sun+.
Though the buff wouldn’t behave normally in this “battle”, the glowing walls that erupted on all sides lit the stage up as Hiral and Gran’s fingers flashed down past their guitars.
“Fall! Fall!” Left and Right said, voices louder now, the whole band sparking to life.
Yanily’s four short and two slow, built in speed and rhythm, like a storm coming over the horizon. Hiral and Gran, fingers a blur, and hands sliding up and down the necks of their instruments didn’t try to overpower their opponents’ sound. No, where the other side went for pure volume – pure power – by layering the same chords over and over each other, Hiral and Gran wove around the other’s tune.
As Hiral sped up, Gran slowed down. When the vampire leaned back to vibe her whammy bar – the pitch screaming like a declaration of war – Hiral stayed at the lower notes, meeting Romin for the two of them to advance together like a shield.
Behind them all, tooting and stomping, Wallop’s short, short, short, long notes twisted in and out of Yanily’s beating tempo, the howling wind to Yanily’s thunder. As if that wasn’t storm enough, Hiral, Gran, and Romin brought their own notes into the grouping, helping to lift the beat higher. Pounding it back in opposition to what was coming from the other stage and into the crowd. Above and below it all, the pureness of the violin and piano acted as the land and starry sky, housing the storm. In the spectral amphitheatre, more audience members appeared, arms pumping in time with Yanily’s drumline, and feet stomping to shake the whole arena.
Some of the heads in the crowd that had only banged to the Infested’s metal melody suddenly paused at the new tune invading their ears. At the story being woven, with only the occasional “fall, fall” from the doubles breaking up the otherwise purely instrumental intro.
The Infested continued with repeated, shouting chorus after shouting chorus, and the jumping crowd and the squid above showed they were clearly winning. The audience was loving what the Infested were doing, with the whole song feeling like standing at the top and looking down. Like being the pinnacle.
With the party struggling beneath.
After the first minute of this, it seemed like the party was barely hanging on. Their instruments cried and fought, forged a solid foundation, but it didn’t seem like they had that something special to counterattack. Their storm built, but couldn’t make it over the mountain that was the Infested’s hammering song. The squid had fully crossed over the crowd, and towered even above the humanoid avatar, with its tentacles wrapped around every limb. To somebody just walking into the arena, the fight would look on the verge of being over.
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Like they sensed victory close at hand, the Infested doubled down on their chorus, throwing everything they had into another pounding round. Like a spectral army of their own, more pyrotechnics shot into the sky behind the band, shapes like charging cavalry emerging from the smoke. With the crowd loving it, jiving in tune with it, their hearts beating with it, how could they not?
Which was exactly the moment Seena finally stepped up to her microphone, the fingers of her right hand closing sensually around it one after another. With one look at the crowd, her head beating in time with the building storm of the group behind her, the party leader smiled.
“FALL, FALL,” Right and Left practically shouted, the sudden volume of it turning a hundred heads, the music from the band kicking it up a notch, just in time for Seena to open her mouth.
“Final staaand across the laaand to make ‘em paaay,” she fired out, voice strong, loud, and sure, before she rapid-fired out the next line. “Hands do grip tigh’ their speaaaar.”
“Fall, fall.”
“Broken dreaaams, echoing screaaams, on rainy days.
“As breath o’life escapes, those who fiiight are slain.”
“Fall, fall.”
As Seena’s mouth opened for the next verse, the crowd was already turning in her direction – eyes wide in anticipation. This wasn’t just a chorus. This was something new.
“Flame and steeeel, woe and weaaal, enemy an’ foe.
“With naught but fear to fear!” she roared.
“FALL, FALL,” Left, Right, and the crowd roared back with her.
Above, the avatar threw off one of the tentacles around his arm, his massive, empty hand reaching over to grab the limb gripping his neck. Muscles bunched and bulged, the hand squeezing like a vice, and crushing the tentacle between its fingers.
“Where a sun can’t waaarm a broken soul brought low.
“Plights and liiies of the liiives, worming through their souuuls,” Seena sang, her free hand lifting with the note. Building the anticipation in the crowd as the music rose with her hand. As the storm built and built, the air around them practically electrified. Drums hammering, the air around Yanily was charged, his every movement sparking in the air as thunder rumbled. Next to him, saxophone howling, Wallop shuffled side to side as his head rose and fell in tune. Back on the stool, black flames danced across violin strings, the lich bending back and forth as he put everything into the instrument in his arms. Seeyela’s hands raced across keys both black and white, the chords creating a pull around the piano, anchoring the other music to her.
Hiral’s right hand lifted and held, a pregnant pause suddenly falling across the band. Above, the avatar got pushed back by the renewed strength of the squid, but a smile crossed its lips.
Seena’s hand came down, along with Hiral’s, Grans, Yanily’s, Romin’s, and Seeyela’s, the music roaring to life.
“On who the sky falls!” Seena launched back into the song, lightning flashing from the avatar’s shoulders.
“Battle breaks all!”
“FALL. FALL!” Right and Left shouted.
“On who the sky faaaaalls!” Seena repeated the chorus.
“FALL! FALL!” the crowd cheered, while Hiral stepped up into the air on pink planes, his hand racing across his guitar strings. Opposite him, Gran floated up, her whammy bar crying to the twisting storm and starry sky above.
“FALL! FALL!” the arena rumbled again, Right and Left leading the crowd and the chorus, at the same time Hiral activated his pseudo-aspect. Three black coats erupted into white light, but Hiral didn’t stop there, reaching out to the others and creating scarves and highlights of white energy across their armor.
“FALL! FALL!” they all cried one more time, the energy of the crowd blasting across the party’s band, and the scarves snapping back like they’d been caught in a powerful gale.
In the spectral domain all around, heads unabashedly banged in time with the thundering drums. Arcs of electricity streaked across the walls, and small sconces gently burned to life. Through it all, something still built. This wasn’t the peak of the show, and the crowd knew it.
Having stepped back from her microphone during the chanting chorus of the crowd, Seena watched it all. Timed it all. Rode the wave of energy and anticipation, until she stepped forward again.
This time, both of her hands slowly wrapped around the microphone, and she leaned slowly forward, lips parting in a smile to reveal her teeth. Her mouth opened just a touch, the crowd practically losingit for what was coming, but she just ran her tongue along the tips of her teeth instead. That only sent the cheering crowd into hysterics, held on the edge by the continued music pouring out of the band behind her.
No matter where anybody looked, there was a show.
The two guitarists playing from midair.
The shuffling Runeocerous playing a saxophone without fingers, his rear end wiggling in time with his passionate notes.
The pianist, whose chords pulled anybody who looked at her in and didn’t let go, with notes as vast and beautiful as the night sky, and stars sparkling within the piano itself.
The calm bassist, who was distinctly not flashy, but carried the others’ melodies directly into the beating hearts of the crowd.
The tiny lich, his upper half bending and straightening as his very soul seemed to echo in every note.
And, finally, in the back, the drummer pounding with never-ceasing arms and the foundational beat who was the heart of it all.
Having given the crowd that chance to take in the band, Seena’s hand again went into the air, and the crowd’s breath caught. They were ready for what was coming. The party was ready to bring it.
The Infested were not.
Seena’s hand came down as flames exploded, the Mantle of the Phoenix providing its own cone of pyrotechnics around her as she launched into the next chorus.
“As the raiiin takes the suuun, cowards cry and ruuun!
“At their baaacks, six remaaain!”
“FALL! FALL!” Right, Left, and the entire arena shouted together.
“Over hills, thousand kills, baaattle just beguuun,
“Fight and bleeed, mighty deeed, till the day is wooon!”
“FALL! FALL!”
“But they’re chaaanged, all but saaane, reaper in their eyes,
“Speak their foes final rites!”
“FALL! FALL!”
Hiral’s fingers raced up and down the frets of his guitar, his front leg bent out in front of him as he hunched over his guitar. Runes danced along his fingers, plucking notes out of the air with Separation and hurling them at the crowd with Piercing and Impact. Around him, the Edicts and Primal Chord sang and danced, spinning in time with each other, and instinct hauled another ability out of his PIM.
Resonance of Heroes billowed out through the joined Chords. It reached into the newly formed stars above the avatar as it ripped one of the tentacles clean off the squid. It ran with the lightning across the wall of the Domain of the Sun. It burned with the black fire dancing across the violin strings and appearing as flecks within a flaming mantle. And, it reached out to the discovery of something new. Two, somethings new, to be precise.
For one, it seemed to stretch out into the future. Into possibility. What could be. It was the many paths the party may walk. A providence.
The other, it was a promise. A tie that bound the party together. The sworn pledge they would always be there for each other. An oath.
With those five connections echoing in his mind – in the Primal Chords of their instruments – Hiral flexed the power of his Edicts. Again, the arena shook. Beat with the thundering drums. Roared with the crowd and stomped with their feet.
The Infested slammed on their weapons – their instruments – while their squid-avatar reached across with its eight remaining limbs. Too bad for it, Hiral pushed Resonance of Heroes to bring in some support.
Atop the wall of the Domain of the Sun, lightning arced and met, time and time again in the second between seconds, as a massive, scaled claw reached up. A second claw joined the first, the spectators at the top of the domain simply erupting in cheers so loud their voices went hoarse. Then the draconic head appeared, Heaven’s Punishment roaring in time with the howling guitars. Lightning struck his horns with every beat of Yanily’s drum, and the echo of the Progenitor looked to the huge squid.
A second roar – along with a beam of utter destruction – from its mouth simply eradicated two more tentacles.
Things got worse for the red avatar, though, with previously invisible lines between the stars developing. Quickly forming into a web that spanned the entire sky, eight terrifying eyes opened, a pressure from them pushing down on the squid. While the crowd just roared louder at the eight-legged monstrosity stalking across the very sky, the weight on the squid only seemed to grow. A flash from the eyes, and two of tentacles wrapped around the party’s avatar’s chest simply tore in the middle. Ripping away in a shower of bloody-light-sparkles, the squid now held on with only its four remaining appendages.
Still standing below in that frozen moment, head back and looking at the sky, something in Seena’s eye flashed. Flames like the birth – or rebirth – of a universe billowed even further out of the cone of fire from her mantle. Wings lifted and spread as the Mother of Flame embraced the crowd within her comforting warmth. Within the eyes of every member of that cheering crowd, another spark glowed, matching what was in Seena’s eyes. Together, emotions surging through the connection, the huge flaming bird snapped its wings open.
Where those wings passed, two more tentacles became ash, leaving the party’s avatar held by only a pair.
Just like that, the party’s music came barreling back in like an avalanche, rolling over the defenses the Infested had put up, and crashing onto their stage.
Seena stepped forward, both hands back on the microphone while her eyes – and every eye in the crowd – flashed together.
“Backs to the suuun, marching ooon, victory cries!
“Left a waaake, unbound faaates, true heroes do rise!” she sung, throwing her hands into the air with another flare of fire from her mantle. Thousands of hands in the crowd in front of her – along with all those in the Domain of the Sun – rose with her. There, she held them all. Met their eyes and hearts with her own.
“C’mon,” she said instead of singing. “You know what comes next!”
“Fall, fall,” Right and Left whispered. “Fall, fall.”
“Sing it with me!” she shouted, the crowd roaring right along with her and leaping into the air in a giant mass. And, as they came down, so did her hands, while she leaned up to the mic.
“ON WHO THE SKY FALLS!” she sang, a thousand voices joining hers as the whole arena shook with their words. As two thousand feet hit the floor. “Let me hear it!”
“Battle breaks all!” the crowd sung on their own while Seena spread her arms to them, much like the Mother of Flame had.
“Yeah, that’s it! One more time, give me all you’ve got! You ready?” Seena asked.
“YEAAAAAAH!” the crowd answered.
“Fall. Fall. Fall. Fall. Fall. Fall,” Right and Left chanted, while the rest of the band stopped, leaving just Yanily clacking his drumsticks in time with the doubles.
“Build it back up!” Seena pointed at Li’l Ur and Seeyela, the violin and piano coming back in softly to join the drumsticks, Left and Right chanting, “Fall, fall,” the whole time.
“Your turn, big guy,” Seena pointed at Wallop. The big Rune-o stepped forward, head rocking side to side as his sax joined the melody of the other two instruments. His short, short, short, long rhythm had the crowd pumping their fists and head in time with it.
Eyes didn’t blink. Lungs didn’t exhale. Hearts raced.
Seena lifted her hands one last time. Up with them went Hiral’s, Gran’s, and Romin’s hands.
Along with every fist in the crowd.
“Here we go. Don’t you dare disappointment me!”
The bellowing crowd promised they wouldn’t.
Down came her hands, the rest of the band following in kind. Hiral’s fingers crossed his guitar’s strings at the same time the others did, while Yanily found his drums again, the beat absolutely dropping like a meteor on the arena. Purple void energy, the red of gushing flames, and the white of unfathomable lightning strobed and flashed, lighting up a thousand excited faces.
Leaning into the microphone, Seena opened her mouth.
“Fall. Fall. FALL. FALL!” Right and Left built in volume with each iteration, lifting the crowd right up there with them. Everybody knew what it was coming, and when it did, Seena and the entire crowd belted out the chorus.
“ON WHO THE SKY FALLS!”
Above, the avatar tore away the final two tentacles, his powerful fingers staying wrapped around one so the squid couldn’t escape. Then he stepped forward, lunging with the unused spear in his other hand, and driving it straight into the core of the other avatar.
“BATTLE.
“TAKES.
“ALLLLLLLLLLL!” Seena screamed along with the crowd as red light exploded overhead, showering the arena in victory, before the roar of the adoring crowd shot back for the sky.