Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Three: Dark Sarcophagus: Verse One-Hundred and Twenty-Seven

Alvin sent his opponent flying through a wall and into a side chamber out of sight. Their conjured beasts had destroyed each other but Alvin’s had proven to be more potent. He quickly followed after his foe and vanished as well, but the rumbles from their battle could still be heard and felt.

However, in the treasury room, two new battles had begun to rage. Cypher was struggling to climb as fast as he could to reach the top of the pillar and he caught sight of Alex first.

Alex moved in, twirling his Scal’tar, and stabbed it at his opponent. The shield-bearer blocked with his massive shield and tried to bring his lance to bear. Alex was able to knock it aside though and leave a deep gash along the shield-bearer’s shoulder.

It was strange that this Order member had chosen such a weapon. At long distances, it was a powerful piercing tool and able to deal blunt damage.

However, up close, it was next to useless as an offensive weapon. The shield-bearer couldn’t even cast effective spells with both hands occupied, and his lack of experience was clearly showing. Alex on the other hand was quick and effective, landing light blows every few seconds.

His training over the years had yielded great results, and he knew that Glenda must have had a hand in that. Alex was even better than before with his Scal’tar and was able to lock himself into place for a strong thrust or slash, and then return to an evasive stance in quick succession.

Alex was maintaining a close offensive and it was everything the shield-bearer could do just to defend. One would think that two people with long-reaching weapons would prefer to be at a distance, and while that was certainly true for the shield-bearer, Alex was wise enough to immediately take notice of the weaknesses of such a large lance.

His only real obstacle was the massive shield, but due to its size and Alex’s speed, he was able to turn that to his advantage. Alex was slipping around the edges and striking before the shield-bearer could move to stop him.

The large lance was mostly flailing around and Cypher chuckled at that sight as he climbed. For the moment, he could safely say that Alex had things under control. The damage he was inflicting was minimal since the shield-bearer still wore armor and had wards active, but little injuries would stack up. Alex still hadn’t even taken a proper hit yet.

Of course, this was all from Cypher’s point of view some several meters away. For Alex, this battle might have been going well, but he was using large amounts of Zight to inflict what wounds he could. The shield-bearer was strong, almost absurdly so.

His physical strength and durability well exceeded the first rank and Alex knew that he had to maintain a close distance or that lance would do serious damage to him. The shield must have weighed two hundred kilograms at least, and the man could still move freely enough to block effectively. His lance was also quite heavy, and to use both in conjunction with each other meant that this Conductor was not to be taken lightly.

Alex dodged a bash from the massive shield and then ducked under the lance that soon followed. He rose up and caught the wrist of the shield-bearer with the tip of his Scal’tar. His blood began to flow, but the cut wasn’t very deep.

The shield-bearer then let out a battle cry, and a dome of Zight materialized and faded away, pushing Alex back a few meters and opening up the distance between them. Alex panicked and raised his Scal’tar to block. The lance came down and knocked the weapon from his hands with its massive weight and Alex jumped back again. He had lost the close quarter’s advantage as well as his weapon and things would only get worse from here.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the room, Melodi was weaving her way between the pillars and firing off arrows at the puppetmaster. Each of those puppets would dodge or block her arrows before they could reach the puppetmaster and were launching counterattacks.

They were not only equipped with projectile weapons that could fire needles and steel pellets at fatal speeds, but they could also fire quasi-rank one spells. Each one could only use one element, but that didn’t matter when the four of them could attack at once. The spells were weak, but they could be fired in quick succession and were hard to avoid.

Even Spark was having a hard time holding them off, though he had managed to mangle one of the puppets and render it useless. The puppetmaster seemed unable to do anything other than pilot the puppets, but he would move from place to place and readjust his battle strategy each time.

Melodi knew that stopping him would be the key to victory. The puppets were where his main battle strength was concentrated, but he himself didn’t seem very strong at all. Spark roared and let loose a stream of lightning at the peak of the first rank, which impacted a pillar after missing one of the puppets.

Spark was smarter than normal Zightbeasts thanks to his connection with Cypher, but in his eyes, he did not differentiate the puppets from their master and saw them all as threats to be defeated. He didn’t quite realize that all he had to do was take out the puppetmaster.

Melodi on the other hand was trying her best to avoid the incoming attacks, and launch ones of her own. She strung two arrows into her bow and fired, each arrow was laced with her own Zight and infused with a spell. The first one crashed against the cloak of a puppet, and water began to engulf it, slowing it down and causing the fire spells it was casting to fizzle out.

The second arrow continued on toward the puppet master and would have hit him if not for his quick thinking. Another of his puppets rushed to intercept the arrow and was nailed right in the head. Like some kind of horrible plague, a rocky substance began to spread out from the impact site and solidified around the puppet’s joints.

The puppet fell to the ground and shuddered, but in another instant, the spell was resisted and bits of rock flew everywhere. Another puppet flew towards Melodi and shot two large blades of wind at her. She quickly rolled to the side, but the attack managed to slice off the end of her bow.

She quickly cast it aside and pulled another identical one from her dimensional space. Spark dashed forward towards the water-soaked puppet and blasted it with a stream of lighting from between its horns. The puppet broke into pieces and the water flowed away as the spell dissipated. Spark’s paw crushed the head of the puppet into dust as it let loose a roar and sped off toward another target.

Melodi dashed away and hid behind another series of pillars. She went to aim around a corner but tripped on something and lost her balance. Another blade of wind shot her way but she was able to pull back and avoid the attack.

Curious, she looked down and took notice of something which made her eyes widen. She quickly grabbed it and stored it away for another time. She was too weak to use it now, but it might come in handy later. She took a deep breath and readied herself to dash off again. However, the Puppetmaster was standing right in front of her ready to strike.

Just as his raised sword fell towards her head, Spark tackled him to the ground and began to rip and tear at his flesh. The other puppets jittered erratically and flailed about until their strings were unintentionally cut.

The puppet master managed to kick Spark away into the distance, who let out a yelp of pain. The puppetmaster struggled to his feet and made a hasty retreat. However, one of his arms was hanging loosely by a strand of torn muscle and flesh, and his torso was bleeding profusely.

Melodi took the initiative and nocked an arrow laced with a fire spell. She took aim and carefully waited for the Puppetmaster to stop moving between the pillars. This shot might be the most important one so far, and she was running out of arrows.

Her dimensional space held many more bundles of arrows, but it would take her a few moments to reload her quiver. Those, however, were moments she didn’t have, this puppetmaster could take up his puppets again at any moment. Spark struggled to his feet some meters away and shook its head in frustration.

Cypher had only caught glances of their battle from his pillar as he climbed and had winced as Spark was kicked away. Anger boiled up inside him, and he cheered on Melodi in his mind as he struggled to gain ground. The pillar was slick but he was determined to make it to the top.