Throughout the class I was never able to shake off that feeling. She taught just as any other teacher would, acted normally, and even cracked a few jokes throughout the lecture, but somehow, something within me found her deeply unsettling.

Nonetheless, I was able to understand the information she was lecturing us on for this first class. It began with her asking the class if we knew where exactly our instruments came from. Since no one seemed to know, or at least no one was brave enough to speak up, she answered the question herself.

Here’s the gist of what she stated:

Instruments come from another device that can also be referred to as an instrument. It is referred to as such because it is constantly playing a tune which reproduces the [melody] of an [enlightened]. In fact, that device itself, is the by-product of the [melody] of some ancient, long-gone [enlightened]. While that person’s real name has since long been forgotten, they are still well-remembered by their epithet; The Artisan and that’s mostly because that is also the name given to instrument producing devices; Artisans.

According to the Professor, it is said that The Artisan could imbue the power of [melodies] into specific objects of his choosing. His ability did have conditions, but through human engineering prowess, as well as [enlightened] cooperation, the power of that person’s [melody] was improved upon and immortalized for worldwide use. This innovation gave birth to a drastic increase in the combat power of [enlightened] and advanced warfare by leaps and bounds.

I personally found it strange that someone so important doesn’t at least have a statue or two built in their image, but I decided to not inquire about it during the class. The rest of the first class was mostly a recount of historical events. She went through the important events that led the concept of instruments to reach what they are today. Some of them included the industrialization of their production as well as the emergence of different types of instruments.

The class was rather interesting, which made the time go by much faster than I anticipated and led me to this moment before I even realized. Now, it is time to leave and return to our mountain peak to train with Maestro Lauren. As I stand up to head out, Zora’s eyes gleam with enthusiasm.

“Wow! That was so interestin’! Who knew instruments had such a cool history?!” She exclaims.

Alex nods in agreement.

I must also agree with Zora on that point, but I steer the conversation away from that topic. “Don’t you guys think the Professor was a bit, I don’t know, strange?”

Alex is the first to reply. “What do you mean?”

I sigh. “I’m…not sure. I just got this weird feeling when looking at her…”

Zora tilts her head in confusion, but then a look of shock creeps up on her face. “Turtle! Are ya into older women or something’?!”

“What!? No!!”

“Don’t be shy! Actually, let me tell ya somethin’ turtle. The other day in the library, I read that love often starts with an unexplainable falsification!” She says while raising a finger in the air as if lecturing me.

Alex clears his throat. “Fascination. An unexplainable fascination.”

She snaps her head in his direction. “He gets what I’m sayin’!”

Perplexed, I raise my eyebrow. “Wait, why are you reading books about love?”

Her face turns beet red. “C-Cause I want to!! Can’t a girl be interested in that sorta stuff?! That ain’t even the important part here!”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It seems like my comment has shut down her desire to tease me for the time being. I’m curious about the intensity of her reaction, but after a glance from Alex that essentially says ‘don’t bother’ I decide against it. I mean, she is at that age after all, maybe someone at DaiKar has caught her fancy. I do find it somewhat comical that she has resorted to learning about love through books, however, but most definitely not unlike her.

Another week passes

“Good job Alden, Now Camille and Ugo, execute burning forest!”

Vines sprout from the ground and wrap themselves around the simulated beast before us. It is made in the image of a tiger with two horns protruding from its forehead. Each time it swings its paws, the wind weaves itself around its attack, increasing its destructive power many fold.

Upon Sophia’s command, Ugo sets the vines on fire. While his flames are inextinguishable, they spread just like normal flames. Indeed, the more flammable the material, the more dangerous they become. Using the vines as fuel, the fire spreads uncontrollably and envelopes the beast, subjecting it to immolating heat that refuses to wane. Unfortunately, however, that is not nearly enough to bring it down, and it relentlessly attempts to take me down in order to get to the pesky long range combatants behind me.

Painstaking, I act as a vanguard and prevent it from moving forward by using my aegis as a first line of defense. Everytime its attention shifts away, I throw my shield at it like a flying disk which only makes it angrier and it focuses more of its attention on me. Skillfully, I evade the most dangerous attacks, and block the ones which threaten those behind me. I have yet to suffer any grave injury, but I am well aware that I will not be able to keep this up indefinitely.

“Any day now!!” I say impatiently.

Finally, the air whistles and a small hole, no larger than a marble forms on its temple. It freezes, and sways unsteadily as it attempts to retain its balance. Despite the gaping hole in its cranium, however, I do not expect it to fall so easily. It shakes its head, and looks straight in the direction of where the shot came from. It seems as if it is on the verge of pouncing towards the shooter, but quickly, another shot is fired. This time, instead of being hit, the horned tiger waves its paw and swipes the bullet out of the air, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the air itself blocks the bullet’s path. The beast then growls loudly in the shooter’s direction to intimidate him. Its anger does make my hair stand on end, but it is clear that its movements have become sluggish. The well-placed shot has weakened it greatly.

Ray speaks through our communicators. “My position’s been discovered, I’ll leave the rest to you guys while I relocate.”

Sophia, who has no intentions of letting the beats rest or run towards Ray, shouts through our communicators. “Aim for its legs while it’s distracted!”

Without wasting a moment, I grip my sharpsong firmly.

‘Crescendo’

I send unique waves of pureflow to different parts of my body which are then optimally amplified by a singular frequency of crescendo. With this drastic increase in raw power, I use my aegis as cover to slide under its belly and attack its left hind leg precisely where its joint is located. This forces its leg to bend and brings it down to its knee. With that attack, I draw blood and earn myself a loud angry roar from the beast. Now that its mobility is reduced even further than it already was due to the flaming vines, a missile of flame descends from the sky and severs the tendons in its right hind leg, rendering it completely immobile.

Still, we do not give it any time to think., Sophia leaps onto its snout, and launches a spear of ice into one of its eyes. Being among the softest parts of its body, the spear easily penetrates its eye and frost spreads from it. In an attempt to defend itself, it tries to attack her but I send my aegis flying at it to deflect the horned tiger’s paw before it can cause any harm.

The beast, enraged, roars, and the very ground trembles. The winds around it quicken and swirl, threatening to give rise to a dreadful tornado. Evidently, we have pushed it to a state of desperation where it now feels forced to expand all its energy to dispose of us. It is aware that it will be vulnerable once it has finished its attack, but the horned tiger is left with no other choice. If it did manage to bring its attack to fruition, we would no doubt suffer dire consequences. Fortunately, we have no intention of giving the necessary time to do so.

Sophia speaks through the communicator: “Camille! Now!”

Camille responds swiftly. “On it! The devil’s herb will reach its brain shortly!”

Another one of our plans is coming into play. A seed was planted into the ice spear long before it reached inside the creature’s eye, only waiting to bloom upon Camille’s command. As such, its brain is now being invaded by one of the many toxic plants in Camille’s arsenal, the Belladonna. The tiger starts to experience signs of disorientation and confusion which will eventually turn into seizures and spasms, and ultimately death. Of course, That is if the opponent was of a similar level. However, I can clearly see Camille grunting as she struggles to maintain her concentration.

“I-It’s fighting back! You guys have to kill it fast!” She says.

In response, I shout through the communicator. “Guys! Flame Guillotine!”

Ice mist is spread around the horned tiger’s head, and two frost pillars rise to immobilize its neck. I initiate my shield’s high speed rotation, and Ugo ignites it to further increase its destructive power. With the flaming aegis, I run towards the beast to get within range while Sophia uses all of her strength to hold it down. Meanwhile, Ugos’s job is to make sure that nothing gets in my way. While flying through the sky, he wards off the tiger’s paws and paves a path forward for me

I am now but a few meters away, ready to launch the finishing strike. It is at that exact moment that the tiger’s remaining eye locks on to me. All of my senses scream that something terrible is about to happen, and I prepare for the worst. That is when a voice speaks to my communicator.

“Keep moving!” Ray exclaims.

The air whistles once more. With an incredibly precise shot through the gaps in the wall of wind erratically dancing around it, the tiger’s remaining eye bursts. I cannot help but witness the sight with awe. Now confident in our victory, I launch my spinning aegis towards the soft part of its neck and gruesomely slit its throat. A torrent of blood gushes out, slowly chipping away at the mighty beast’s resilience. A second passes and it wobbles, then another passes and it falls to the ground, defeated.

Together, we have finally managed to prevail against an Echoluminous beast.