The first conscious choice Hagen made was counting the number of enemies that had emerged from the shadows between the marketplace coils. But of course, before that, he subconsciously determined the tempo of the battle clock.

“142 BPM,” he informed Jeso. “Twenty-four Winds.”

Indeed, two dozen Windoren soldiers wielding clarinets, trumpets, and trombones had surrounded them. These weren’t the normal variants of the instruments—these had jagged edges and steel-reinforced components. A long tube connected the mouthpiece to a gas mask, allowing the soldiers to swing their instruments freely while still being able to make sound waves. They wore silver armor and some had the Sondersien insignia on their chestplate.

Jeso regarded the soldiers with a mix of caution and annoyance. He wasn’t in the mood to fight right now. Hagen, on the other hand, was more than happy to reduce their enemy’s numbers.

The Princcairs drew their respective weapons: Hagen, his twin sabers; Jeso, his guitar. They exchanged a glance and silently agreed to each take out twelve Winds. If all went smoothly, they would be able to finish this without changing the tempo.

1: the initial attack. Sound waves from every Windoren, enclosing in on the Princcairs.

2: Jeso strummed once, effectively canceling every sound wave coming at him. Behind him, Hagen also repelled his side of enemies.

3: The smaller instrumentalists—clarinets and trumpets—propelled themselves forward while the trombones stayed back. Jeso found himself facing seven Winds at close-range.

4: one down. Jeso hurdled over the leftmost Wind and, as he flipped, brought his guitar down on the soldier’s head, caving his skull in.

5: Two of Winds that had rushed in fired at Jeso.

6: two down. Jeso dodged and plucked a sharp sound bullet at the nearest one, threading a hole through the soldier’s chest.

7: The Winds fired six simultaneous waves.

8: three down. Jeso played a double stop, sending one sound wave to nullify the attack and the other to kill the right-most Wind.

9: The trombones fired from the back.

10: Jeso strummed to swing himself over the approaching waves.

11: five down. Then he strummed again and flew in between two trumpets. With a quick left-right swing of his guitar, two more skulls were broken.

12: The remaining two Winds in close quarters, who were both clarinets, fired. At the same time, two of the five trombones in the back headed towards Jeso.

13: seven down. Jeso brute forced his way through this one, using a wide swing of his guitar to bash the sound waves away. In that same swing, he connected with both soldiers’ rib cages.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

14: The trombones swung at Jeso and he descended a few meters with a strum.

15: nine down. As the distant trombones fired, Jeso grabbed the closer soldiers’ instruments and dragged them down, using them as a shield against the approaching waves. Their bones shattered upon impact.

There were three remaining Winds on Jeso’s side, all a good distance away. Except only now did he realize that one of them wasn’t wielding a trombone, but a flute. She also had different armor than the rest—slightly darker and less robust.

16: barrage. The flute played a trill and the sound bullets came at Jeso like machine gun fire. With no time to strum before the next beat of the battle clock, the Princcair pivoted in the water, weaving around most of the sound bullets. Two skimmed his armor, making shallow, irrelevant cuts.

17: The two trombones fired simultaneously. However, Jeso countered with a double stop. He absentmindedly noted that the flute was charging towards him, but he kept his focus on the trombones.

18: eleven down. Either Hagen saw Jeso’s situation or he needed it in his own fight, but the tempo of the battle domain suddenly sped up. The trombones didn’t notice at first, and Jeso used the next immediate beat to kill them with a double stop.

19: another barrage. The flute had adapted to the tempo change after missing a beat initially, and now drove countless sound bullets towards Jeso.

20: dodge. With the tempo now faster, Jeso felt himself sinking into a flow state.

21: Jeso strummed a sound wave at the flute.

22: The flute dodged and sent a larger wave in return.

23: With an arced strum, Jeso avoided the blast and barreled towards the enemy.

24: sound bullet barrage. Jeso weaved past every single one and swung his guitar at the flute’s head.

25: block. The soldier raised her instrument, and metal struck metal. For a moment Jeso was able to get a close look at her.

This one’s armor was strange. The higher ranking Winds wore dark but also bulkier armor, but this flutist wore something fitting for a spy or assassin. Jeso couldn’t see if she was a Green or a Blue past her mask and helmet, but her eyes burned with a frightening fire deep within.

26: Jeso fell back a little, and the two circled each other for a moment.

This could either end in a few seconds or drag on for days, Jeso thought. She could just be a passionate soldier, or a formidable fighter.

27: surprise attack. Well, Jeso should have seen it coming. The flute lunged towards him, almost stabbing him in the gut had he not twisted just in time.

28: An opportunity had presented itself. Jeso grabbed her arm, pulled her even closer, and strummed his guitar so that the sound wave hit her body, point-blank, with full force.

The explosion sent Jeso tumbling backwards through the water. He was unharmed, though. When he repositioned himself, instead of seeing the mangled body parts of his opponent as expected, he saw nothing.

The Princcair spun in a circle, searching every nook and cranny of his surroundings.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Right on time,” Hagen remarked. “Let’s go.”

But Jeso blinked and scanned the area one more time. They’d been fighting in the middle of the marketplace; the corpses floating about were all exposed and nowhere near large enough to hide someone, which made the nearest cover at least fifty meters away. The sound wave needed to propel someone that distance was impossible to produce on a flute.

The woman had simply disappeared.