The rider leaped into the vicinity of the piano and, sure enough, the Knight attacked him as usual. He hopped backward to his dragons. “Guess we still need to do this the hard way.” His sight then turned to the Felmiers again. “Same strategy as in the afternoon. Ready?”

  The two musicians nodded.

  “Let’s go.” The human took a few steps forward with his dragons before stopping again and turning back to face Purple, who didn’t move at all. The higher dragon grinned and waved. His rider sighed.

  “Yer not gonna help them?” Findir raised his eyebrow at the insubordinate dragon.

  “They don’t need my help.” Purple then raised himself into the sky and “sat” in the air as he watched his partners’ battle with the Onyx Knight commence.

  Brown and Ryder, in his armor form, initiated the first strike as they shot sticky mud at the Knight. It dodged most of the shots while charging forward, but a few still landed at its joints. A second before it could swing its weapon, the mud solidified, rendering the specter mostly immobilized for a brief few seconds. The trio promptly launched it away from the piano and pinned it down to the ground with vines.

  “Now!”

  The Felmiers sprinted over to the piano. Aoede sat on the chair and cleared out the dirt that had gotten on the keyboard. As for Findir, he placed the case next to the piano, removed the violin, and positioned his instrument by his shoulder. Once both of them were ready, they exchanged a knowing glance with each other. He tapped his tail on her arm and uttered, “On three. One. Two. Three!”

  The synchronized notes from both instruments reverberated through the moonlit night. Now, with the addition of the violin, the song sounded richer and more emotionally moving than it was before. The Knight, upon hearing the true version of a familiar tune, roared as its head flung around frantically. This time, though, its roar sounded less like a hollow screeching and more like the shouting of a living being. The black aura grew, but at the same time, it became less opaque. The details of the man obscured by the curse grew more pronounced.

  “It’s working! The curse is breaking!” Ryder shouted.

  The specter tore through the vines like paper and lifted himself up straight on the ground again. Holding the greatsword, the phantom swiftly contorted its body to an extreme degree before twisting itself back to unleash a wide horizontal swing. The slash was so powerful that it sent a shockwave in the direction of the gang.

  In the split second that Ryder crouched and the dragons leaped away, the Knight zipped toward the human and smashed its greatsword downward. The rider evaded the attack by a hair’s breadth when he shifted the earth beneath him backward. Unwilling to give its opponent a fighting chance, the greatsword was repeatedly raised into the air and thrust downward. That relentless attack forced the rider to dodge backward instinctively instead of coming up with a good escape strategy. Brown tried to lock the specter down by shooting sticky mud at its leg, but it avoided all the projectiles.

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  Green growled fiercely and shot out a trunk at the Knight to push it away. However, when the greatsword was lifted into the air again, the phantom threw it at the trunk instead, cutting it in half like butter, and headed straight for the dragon’s head. A split second after the handle left the Knight’s palm, it reached out its hand and grabbed the teenager by his head. Green evaded the sword, but wouldn’t be quick enough to save his rider in time.

  As Ryder screeched out in agony and thought his skull was going to crack, rock spikes pierced through all over its body, thus loosening the phantom's grip. The rider pulled out his sword and chopped the hand that was crushing him off. Once he was free, he used wind magic to push himself away to catch his breath. The plant dragon ran over to his rider and tended him while the earth dragon squeezed the Knight’s body with an increasing amount of rock slabs protruding from the ground.

  As the song went past the first-minute mark, it became possible to make out the outline of Attis’ face. However, just like Purple mentioned before, the curse wasn’t going to leave that easily. The sickly aura doubled in size as the Knight roared louder than ever before without stopping. Hearing this, Findir muttered a spell under his breath and touched the piano with his tail, raising the volume of both instruments.

  Aside from Purple, the dragon rider gang’s eyes turned red as they poured all their mana into restricting the specter with earth and trunk-sized vines. The trio grimaced, as they could do nothing but reinforce the restriction around their target while leaving its head untouched.

  Unbeknownst to them, the greatsword that was sitting in the distance began wiggling as black aura spilled out from beneath the earth. In a few seconds, the aura swallowed the sword whole and dislodged it from the ground. It aimed itself at Ryder before spinning at high speed. When he heard the spinning sound and glanced at its origin, the black aura spat the weapon out, sending it flying at the speed of sound. The human widened his eyes. His body began moving backward. A stone wall started jutting out of the ground. But both attempts to avoid the attack weren't faster than the greatsword.

Death flashed across Ryder’s eyes.

BOOM!

  A cloud of dust suddenly appeared as dirt and tiny rocks splashed onto the trio.

  “I look forward to my meat, Ryder.” Purple, standing on the crater he created, smirked as he twirled the tip of the handle on his fingertips.

  Ryder couldn’t help but smirk as well before shifting his attention back to the Knight. The phantom had managed to claw its hand out of the ridiculously tough layers of rock, vines, and sticky mud, but that was all it was going to do. The trio would make sure of it. As the crescendo arrived, the curse unleashed its full power to force the Knight to escape, but it was too late. The trio had bound the specter so tightly that even Purple would need a full minute to escape without magic.

  Then, as the song entered its last stretch, most of the black aura had faded away. The Knight, now appearing as Attis with a dark, misty outline, ceased its struggles and shouting. Once the last note was played, the gang’s magic lay the unconscious Attis on the ground before they did the same. The red in their eyes faded away as they heaved as though they just completed a marathon.

  Findir locked his violin inside the case before rushing toward the gang with Aoede. As they passed by Attis, his arms suddenly moved, causing the Felmiers to halt their movements. Ryder kneeled back up and trudged toward the Knight with his dragons warily. When they arrived, Attis pressed his palms on both sides of his helmet. He removed it slowly before throwing it away, revealing his face for everyone to see.