After some time, I am thrown into a circular arena. The floor is made of pure white stone, and so are the walls. The stands which surround me are completely empty, making me and my opponent the only ones to find themselves here. The opponent in question is a tall, golden haired man with green eyes.

‘Huh, his family name is quite fitting.’

A voice resounds through the arena.

[Welcome to your first official ‘Showdown’. In a moment, a list of the basic instruments will be made visible to you, simply select your preferred one and it will appear in your hand. Once the signal is given, you may start your battle. The rules are simple: defeat your opponent within the allotted time frame. This includes forcing them to surrender, or killing them. There are no ring-outs. While anything that happens here will not affect your real body, please remember that the results affect your ranking, and thus your life at DaiKar. ]

‘That’s the perk of virtual reality, we’ll be fine even if we die here.’

The golden-haired man speaks to me with a sneer as soon as the message ends.

“I’ve heard about you from Rowan. Apparently you ran away from the bear in your first test, even leaving the FullCastle lady behind. I guess that’s all you can expect from a commoner.”

I ignore it. I don’t have the energy to argue with him at this very moment. Though it bothers me that Rowan is spreading lies, Maestro Lauren and Sylvia know the truth, which is what matters. Instead, I focus on selecting an instrument. When the window pops up in front of me I waste no time and select the sharpsong. It adjusts itself to my proportions and nicely sits into my hand. Peregrine does the same. The start of the battle is announced.

[Please assume your battle positions. The battle will start at my signal. 3…2…1…Fight!]

Despite the announcement, neither of us makes a move. I tend to wait for the opponent to come for me, and he simply sits there, unbothered and inspecting his instrument. Without raising his gaze to meet mine, he exclaims, a grin on his smug face.

“Guess what other piece of information I've had the chance to come by. You're an orphan. I imagine your parents weren’t there to teach you proper morals, is that why you acted so cowardly? Even if they were, commoner trash probably wouldn’t have much to teach. Wouldn't you agree?”

His aim is obvious, he is attempting to make me lose my cool in order to make this fight easier for him. I can understand why his logical thinking rating is so high. He’s taking all the precautions he can to secure the best ranking possible. However, it is not nearly enough to destabilize me, I have heard that one more than a million times by now. With a disappointed expression, I reply.

“Your provocations lack originality.”

He chuckles, uncaring. Impatient, I charge towards him.

“If you won’t come at me then I will.”

For now, I do not intend to use any of my songs. I want to take this chance to learn about his [melody], should I ever face him again later. As I rush towards him, I prepare a rudimentary horizontal slash meant for his torso. When I am upon him, my sharpsong follows its intended course, with no sign of a counter from him. Unhindered, my instrument goes right through him, literally. He remains unscathed even after my strike fully exits his body through the other side. In the next moment, he attacks me with a similar motion, I summon my aegis in its path, but his sharpsong phases through it. I am left with no choice but to leap backwards in retreat.

‘Intangibility... My absolute worst match up…’

He seems pleased with himself.

“I also know what your [melody] does, Alden Thorne, this fight has already been decided." He says.

Maliciousness radiates from his words as he shares information with me.

"Let me tell you something. I don’t know if you’re aware, but my older brother informed me that all Showdowns are recorded and publicly accessible...”

A grin grows on his face

“....Those from your peak have informed me that you often hang around the FullCastle lady like a fly. After I'm through with you I’ll use the recording to show her that she should swat you away like the fly you are!”

I roll my eyes. I’m unsure why he feels such a strong need to provoke me, but it is not working. While I do commend him for at least switching his angle, I wonder if he thinks he’s the first one to chastise me for being around Sylvia? I’ve heard it at least a dozen times by now, either directly to my face or as a quiet whisper. Her own brother nearly crushed my hand for that very reason. Plus, she’s the one reaching out to me most of the time!

Rather than play into his boring provocation, I double down on my initial attack and rush towards him. Unfortunately, my every slash goes through him while his attacks ignore my defense and aim directly for my body. After we exchange a few blows, my understanding of his ability grows. From what I understand, he can render specific parts of his body intangible depending on his needs. It makes sense, if his whole body went intangible at once, his instrument would fall through his hand, and his entire body would plunge into the ground, after all.

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Additionally, he cannot materialize an object or body part if there is matter obstructing it. By this I mean that he cannot plunge the sharpsong into my body, and force it to become tangible to cause internal injuries. I tested this out by goading him into thrusting his sharpsong right through my heart, but then placing my aegis right in its path. As expected, his instrument went straight through my ability, but it also went through me and then exited my body without causing any harm. A risky gamble, I admit, but It was worth it.

In terms of battle skill, he is not bad, far from it, but he is also not quite of Sylvia’s caliber. I’d say that in terms of pure skill, I am ever so slightly ahead, but perhaps he has a bit of an edge in this fight by relying on his [melody]. This leaves me with a substantial amount of breathing room to learn about his battle style and how he incorporates his [melody] into it. Though I have yet to find a way to harm him, I imagine that he can’t keep doing this forever, his flow will run out eventually. On the other hand, since he has yet to actually hit my shield, my flow reserves are nearly full, only being spent on pureflow output. If I relentlessly attack him, he will exhaust himself before the end of the allotted time. Once that happens, I’ll use the song of idleness and finish him off. It’s a bit of a boring fighting style, but effective nonetheless.

I execute my plan. His masterful evasion has yet to falter, he is truly an expert at making use of his [melody] to avoid attacks, even when I believe I've taken him by surprise. Nonetheless, I notice his breathing becomes heavier and more laborious as I shower him in attacks, he’s draining himself. Sure, I’ve suffered a few shallow wounds here and there, but most of the damage was avoided thanks to my new ability to identify pureflow pathing. As such, I am relatively fine while he is nearly exhausted. Observing the state of the duel, I must agree with his earlier statement, this battle is already decided.

As I perform a downward strike towards his cranium, he jumps back, truly evading one of my attacks for the first time. It must be dawning on him that he has been using his [melody] too much. Perhaps he hasn’t met an enemy who is this apt at defending against his attacks before, but also willing to pointlessly attack him in return. Now heavily panting, he blurts out a few words.

“You…huff huff…You really think victory is within your grasp!?”

I can’t help but let out a sigh, wondering what he plans on saying now.

“I may not hail from Lauderdale, but I have connections! I am aware that you have family that still attends, you think I won’t be able to reach them while you’re stuck here?! Think again, I’ll personally make sure their school lives turn into a living hell!!”

My expression turns dark. Insulting me, or anyone else is one thing, it is just words, childish provocation. I can take that much, as I have my whole life. This, however, is a threat, one against my precious family at that. At his words, I nearly lose my cool, but barely manage to keep my composure when a sinister idea pops into my head.

Peregrine still has more to say.

“Forfeit this match and I won’t h-”

I scoff.

“Perhaps you don’t know because I have yet to harm you, but this place accurately replicates pain.”

He looks at me in confusion.

“Wha-?”

I summon my aegis, not giving him the time to answer. I strike it once.

‘Crescendo’

This time, the empowerment is not directed towards me. Peregrine looks at his body, perplexed, and speaks to me.

“W-what are you doing? Are you… making me stronger?? HAHA! You finally get it, you’re not meant to win! Don’t worry, I’ll make your death a swift one!”

He rushes towards me, but before he can reach me, I strike my shield again and continue.

‘Crescendo, triple amplitude’

“I still feel a sting from every cut you’ve inflicted upon me when I move, is that not fascinating?” I ask.

He laughs loudly without paying attention to what I say.

“I’m bursting with power! Perhaps it is that you’ve lost your mind after my threat, commoner? Either way, I’ll gladly take the win, haha!”

I continue as he nears me.

“On that same topic, do you know what happens when your body receives more pureflow than it can handle?”

With an attack directed towards me, he shouts.

“Die!”

I evade it and pursue my explanation.

“Maybe you don’t, but that’s okay, because I do. It’s like intentionally removing your natural limiter, your body simply isn’t made to handle it-”

He ignores my words and attacks me with his sharpsong, creating a shallow incision on my chest.

“HA! Take this! I feel invincible!!”

I, however, do not stop my monologue.

“-and, unable to bear the burden, your muscles tear, your organs fail under the strain, to put it simply, your body falls apart.”

Before attacking me again, Peregrine freezes, startled by something.

‘Did he finally notice?’

He touches his nose and stares at his fingers, which are dyed red. By inspecting the rest of his body, he soon realizes that his nose is not the only thing that bleeds. Taken aback, he questions me.

“W-what did you do to me? What is this? EXPLAIN!”

I tilt my head.

“I just did though?”

I do not bother going over my lecture again and I strike my shield for the third time.

‘Crescendo: quadruple amplitude’

Despite his realization, his exhausted body can’t help but to accept the empowerment, and his current panicked state prevents him from fending off my ability. He bleeds more profusely and the muscles in his right arm burst, opening it up.

“AAARGH!! STOP IT!!”

I strike my shield once more.

‘Crescendo: quintuple amplitude’

This is a level that I had never even considered going to before. Thankfully, Peregrine is here for me to test out its effects. He falls to the floor, his wails almost bursting my ear drums and every muscle in his body self-destructing. I have no pity for him. All of this would end if he simply stopped using pureflow or refused crescendo's effects, but he has not realized that yet and I do not plan on revealing that. I slowly step towards him, and bend down to his level. I grip his lustrous golden hair and whisper into his ear, ensuring that whatever I say is inaudible to the recording function of this room. With this type of person, the important part is to scare them into submission, just as I did Leon.

“Listen here, Peregrine, If you ever talk about my siblings ever again. If their names so much as graze your vocal chords, I’ll rip out your spine through your mouth, you hear me? Not here, but out there. Do you honestly believe anyone can get to you before I do? ”

His words are jumbled and incoherent as his gaze meets mine. He seems terrified, I'm unsure if his fear is due to the situation or my current expression. I smash his head against the floor, pull it back up and ask him,

“Do we understand each other? All I want is a simple yes or no, if you want this pain to stop, of course.”

At the top of his lungs, he replies.

“Y-yes I get it! I-I surrender!! Let me out! Let me out!!”

I let go of his hair and a voice resonates throughout the room.

[Winner: Alden Thorne]