The music pressed from all sides.
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
The weight of which, felt like a thousand invisible hands dragging him down, pulling at his focus.
Each note struck like a hammer, throbbing his spine.
Each swell of the horns poured fire through his veins.
The golden-crowned spirit never looked away; it's gaze pinned him in place, as if he was a subject kneeling.
Step. Step. Lunge.
Jacob's movements was a performance.
An execution disguised as art; his body in sync with the orchestra, as he struck at Riven from multiple angles.
The strikes weren't lazy in intent, but it was clear...
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
Jacob was having fun.
Striking nonfatal areas, he did so with an eerie expression written on his face, as the air filled with the scent of sweat and iron.
WHIZZ!
A twang of a string from the violins mirrored the wind of his blade passing Riven's ear.
Riven narrowly attempted to avoid those harming strikes, his ability to react severely hampered as it was smothered beneath the harmony of pain and sound.
It was a gruesome scene.
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
The music only amplifying it's effect.
WHOOSH!
Jacob's tempo quickened further, his face blurring under Riven's vision.
The percussion boomed as his strikes followed; heavy and relentless.
BANG! BANG! DING! TAK!
The strings shrieked; a flash of steel kissed Riven's cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.
The pain was hot.
All over it was hot.
He was alone in this space.
Were they still watching outside?
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
This was slow....certain.
Torture.
The hall of majesty resounding cries of the deceased.
Jacob's eyes gleamed in golden light, the blur of a smile evident on his face.
THUD!
Riven's legs buckled under a sweeping kick.
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
His vision swam, swaying to balance itself.
The music swelled - mocking, triumphant at the scene.
Mael's Fang dangled in his hands, the weight of it unbearable as it rested on the floor.
His fingers twitched, slick with sweat and blood.
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
Jacob didn't attack further.
He just watched, letting the music finish the work.
It was then, he chuckled a note:
"Stand." he commanded.
The edges of Riven's vision had darkened, he could barely hear him over the ringing in his ears.
He didn't need the words.
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
He was going to stand regardless.
Slowly.
He forced weight into his legs, his knees shaking under the strain; that defiant look never leaving.
As his muscles strained, the music picked up, spiralling into a frenzied climb.
Jacob's smile widened.
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
"Good."
He stepped forward, the air bending itself as he walked, whilst the spirit behind him conducted the others.
The next few moments...
Jacob wasn't fighting to win anymore.
He was fighting to break....
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
The first strike folded Riven in half, the air torn from his lungs before he could think.
The second came before he'd straightened.... smashing his jaw with a knee, snapping his head sideways.
The third landed where it hurt most; low, sharp and deep.
Enough to make his knees betray him as he spat out blood.
The spirit above mirrored the same cruelty.
It's head tilted as the orchestra's screech reached a fever pitch, resounding the sounds of laughter in the air.
BANG! THUD! BANG! THUD!
Each blow blurred to the next, the rhythm of the song too fast to follow.
The music being all there was in this hell.
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
Riven's mind drifted under the punishment...
It wasn't a voice.
Wasn't a true memory.
He just remembered the look his sword's namesake gave him, when he'd dropped him in training.
Cold. Measuring.
As if to ask -
"Is that all?"
That look...
DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!
Something indescribable swirled in his chest.
Come to think of it...
That look hurt more than these strikes.
Resonated louder than the sounds in the hall.
Pain faded into the background.
The rhythm of the orchestra dimmed.
All that remained?
It was the need to answer that look....
DUM! DUM! DUM! DU-
The rhythm of the sound faltered, brass quivered, strings missing notes ever so slightly.
The conductor looked down, questioning why the sound had dulled in tune, a raise in eyebrow from the spirit.
It was clear why.
The air had changed.
The hall still filled with music.... but it was less oppressive.
Jacob's grin slightly twitched.
Riven raised his head.
The dim light in his eyes steadied, sharpening into something cold enough to cut through the noise.
Huff
The curl of his fingers resting on Mael's Fang.
The notes in air strained to keep up, clashing in awkward bursts.
DUM! DU- TU! TA! TA!
The air trembled slightly before:
RIPPLE!
Riven's entire existence blurred, alarming Jacob immediately.
The music in the air trembled, clear in percussion.
TA! TA! TA!
Emerging from the shadows, Riven's eyes held conviction.
His body was covered in blood. Puddles raining down his head, across his body like a lake.
A painting of massacre.
But the eyes held life, a life he wouldn't give to someone like the person before him.
The music moved to his whims now.
It responded to him.
BANG!
Appearing to his left, Riven struck Mael's Fang swiftly; face fully occupied with re-gained focus.
TA! TA! TA!
The hall bounced a song of liberation across its halls, as Jacob was pushed back across the marble floor, surprise and shock well-masked with a hideous frown.
How could this insect ruin the flow of his majesty?
TA! TA! TA! DUM!
Jacob's counter landed like a hammer between notes, warping the rhythm into something chaotic and volatile.
The air quaked with their clash - sharp liberation tearing against crushing oppression.
TA! TA! DUM! DUM!
The music warped into a song of differences.
Jacob pressed forward. DUM! DUM!
Riven answered, his movements slicing the tempo apart. TA! TA!
The crowned spirit sat with a frustrated expression. Hands still by its side, clawing at its throne, it couldn't conduct this....
The hall could no longer tell which song it followed, its marble walls shook under the duet.
It didn't blend smoothly at all.
One made the air lighter; bringing an openness.
The other thickened the air, forcing those to match its monstrosity.
A violent chord of lightning slammed forward. Riven's foot slid back in time with the beat, his shoulder rolling away from the strike; not fleeing the note, but re-writing its measure.
DUM! DUM! TA!
RIPPLE!
The notes powering his steps, Riven vanished as quickly as one could say. The powerful clash of ideals masking his return, as he appeared directly in-front of Jacob.
TA! TA! TA! DUM!
SHAAHH!
The rise in tempo and pitch prompted Jacob to defend himself with a note of his own. Creating a mana shield in-front of him immediately for direct impact.... however mid-swing his duo vanished.
RIPPLE!
It was too late for Jacob to offer a return note, the sudden arrival of Riven too fast of a melody.
SHAAA! TA! TA!
A score of quickness erupted, as Riven carved Jacob's back, slashing downwards as a flow of blood rained.
D- TA! TA! TA! TA! TA! DUM! DUM! TA! TA! TA!
"AGGHH!!!!"
A string screeched in pain, a few instruments stopping....just for a moment.
"That's for before..." Riven muttered, breath rising and falling, blood covering his frame as he slashed forward.
Jacob's roar was drowned in the clash of colliding rhythms. His spirit's orchestra surged, brass and strings hammering in a fury, every note demanding Riven to kneel.
Riven's blade sang louder, the taste of blood rich in its grasp.
Each step carved space in the air, his tempo cutting holes in Jacob's commanding score.
TA! DUM! TA! DUM! TA!
The clash wasn't music anymore.
It was a war.
The titles of before didn't work in this space.
This was a victors hall.... who would emerge so?
The two songs tore the hall apart, neither willing to yield the final note.
The air rippled and collapsed, the marble floors erupting upwards with rises of gravity and destruction.
Pillars of before, reduced to rubble.
Both covered in the matter of their being.
Blood rich in the air, and present on the flesh.
TA! DUM! TA! DUM! TA!
What was it like watching this fight?
These two didn't care.
'I'm gonna kill you!'
'You won't win!'
The orchestra ran wild, no conductor to tame it.
It was a roaring symphony of noise.
TA! DUM! TA! DUM! TA!
Their movements blurred, steel flashed, magic exploding.
BOOM! THUD! CLASH! THAK! CHING!
They had different views.
Different ideals.
But their breath was the same.
Haggard, low, but never stopping.
Jacob's steps thundered, each swing heavy enough to break through anything; Riven's cuts slipped between the beats, threading silence into each note.
THUD! BANG! CRASH!
TA! DUM! TA! DUM! TA! DUM! TA! DUM!
A feint. A twist. Steel kissed flesh.
Jacob staggered backwards.
The hall seemed to exhale, as if even the marble itself had been holding its breath.
Riven lowered Mael's Fang just enough for his voice to reach Jacob through the ringing in his ears.
The commanding tune died down slightly, overshadowed by the freer, lighter contemporary.
"That's for Kalen."