Mujika looked slightly annoyed. She flipped her head, to hurl her dread upfront and stared at it. She stood still right after, adjusting her composure, looking around with the usual irk on her face.
“Got you!” Prassaca muttered under her breath. She closed her eyes and started playing a certain set of haphazard notes but surprisingly repeating in a serial manner.
An angry Mujika suddenly felt a certain tune being faintly audible, making her feel a very acute degree of happiness, not enough to satisfy her deeper breaths. “Prassaca!” she exclaimed, slightly excited, as she looked up. She saw Jinx and Jill trapped in Redundancy V1.0, who also seemed to have heard the feeble tune.
Prassaca could hear their heartbeats gradually align to a similar pace. She opened her eyes and exhaled. She continued staring upfront, to spot the positioning of her enemies. She spotted a tall woman standing beside Mujika.
"There you are, Aisa." Prassaca mumbled. She saw four other men standing around Jinx and Jill looking around absentmindedly. “Five of them; they seem to be very aggressive. Those typical emotions!” She felt her fingers twitch.
“Hmm… I can fix this. I must play the tunes inspired by the musical era when the band Fatal Abyss dominated the music scene.” Prassaca closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She started playing a tune on her violin which took off in the E Minor Pentatonic scale, gradually transcending into the Dorian mode, occasionally flirting with the Phrygian mode. She could hear their heartbeat elevate at a gradual pace, at a certain rate, until they aligned.
“Hmm… I remember this peculiar change of pace of heartbeats. This is... Acceptance! GOT YOU!” she exclaimed, sounding a little excited. She stopped herself abruptly.
“Hmm… I should control my emotions.” she paused, “Emotions… They are worthless.” she fixed her composure and continued playing her music, flirting aggressively with the Phrygian scale this time around.
In a few moments, she felt a broil being pulled on their heartbeats. “This eccentricity, this panic, this suggests,” she paused, “Anxiety.”
She pulled the violin closer to her body tightening the grip of her right hand on the bow as she released a deep breath. She broke out into a rather dynamic melody this time, switching its mood at every other bar. The transcending obscurity of her music was distinguishably audible to Mujika, Jinx, Jill, Sayla and the five of Haizaki’s comrades present in the area.
“I must ignore this!” Mujika struggled to release a deep breath and glanced towards Jinx and Jill, letting out a slight nod. They all controlled hard, to consciously randomize their breathing pattern to not let the music disrupt their emotional peace. Aisa, the woman standing next to Mujika, seemed to be disturbed greatly. She started shaking her legs nervously and paced around in the area feeling even more restless by every passing moment.
Prassaca heard this sudden overdrive in Aisa's heartbeat. With an unfazed expression on her face, she whispered, “Now, we break down!” The quantization of her melody switched instantly, as she entered into a series of broken patterns. She heard Aisa's heartbeats peak for a brief moment.
"Hmm... Got you." she said, as she began going off-beat at random intervals, trying to struggle her way back to catch up with the rhythm. This sudden annoyingly unsatisfying progression of music irritated Aisa, as she tried to kick in the air with fury.
“What are you up to? Stop it!” screamed one of the four men. An angry Aisa, signaled them to keep their quiet.
Prassaca moved out from the side of the boulder and started playing her melodies aggressively. “Get me!” she screamed, “If you can.” she whispered slowly.
As soon as Aisa spotted Prassaca, she started making a run towards her. Watching Aisa run mindlessly wrecked havoc among the others, causing one of them to start running after Aisa. The others followed him.
“Hmm…“ Prassaca whispered, “Emotions… They are worthless.”
Meanwhile, Sayla had scooted towards Mujika, shifting her shape and color to camouflage with the weeds and rocks on the ground. Mujika sensed an impatient Sayla crawl towards her. She took her stance, ready to invoke the porcupine within her. Sayla extended her tentacles and tried to reach out towards an arm extended out of Redundancy V1.0. Sayla disabled one of the arms, allowing Mujika to breathe freely for a while. Assured that things were going as planned, Sayla started crawling towards Jinx, rather hastily, trying to fully release him from Redundancy V1.0.
Mujika could feel a subtle wave of heat pass through her arm. Scales started forming on it, erecting smaller, yet sturdier dense quills. Still weak due to the restraining force applied by Redundancy V1.0, Mujika was unable to shoot quills at her regular rate.
“What an idiotic plan!” she muttered under her breath. “Do you really want me to take them all down with one arm?” she blurted out, kicking the machine in anger. She concentrated harder and began shooting the quills one at a time, aiming stably at the four taller men running towards Prassaca.
One of her quills pierced through the leg of the man nearest to her, making him trip on the ground, paralyzing him temporarily.
“That’s one!” she scowled.
On the other side, Aisa had reached close to Prassaca, quicker than she had anticipated. Two lethal fangs had grown out from the sides of her lips.
“Hmm... I think Aisa will get to me soon.” She said without a hint of fear on her face. She focused harder to try and hear the heartbeats of an approaching Aisa. Prassaca broke out into a completely haphazard melody, changing its scale at every interval, complementing her mood. Aisa felt a soothing sense of calmness pass through her body, slowing her down considerably.
She struggled to maintain her pace and glared at Prassaca. “Stop controlling me!” she yelled and bit her finger, hurting herself, causing a sudden shift in her emotions. She leaped towards Prassaca.
“Hmm... She got me!” Prassaca looked in Aisa's eyes, with a blank expression.
Aisa scratched Prassaca’s face with her fangs and landed a hefty punch on her sides, sending her crashing on the ground. Streams of blood started running down her body onto the ground.
“Your powers are weak!” Aisa yelled as she started taking heavier steps towards Prassaca. The rain had gotten heavier, and small puddles of water had started to form on the uneven ground. Water splashed everywhere as Aisa stomped through the pools.
“Hmm... Complete transformation.” Prassaca gathered her violin and stumbled away from Aisa. She could feel a cold wave of blood traverse from her head to her feet. In a swift motion, she transformed into a dolphin, with her feet merging into a singular long blue tail. Scales of small white gills grew on her arms, as she sat in one of the puddles, trying to suck in double the amount of oxygen from the water puddles along with her nasal breathing.
“It is not about power, Aisa.” Prassaca said calmly and She started playing another form of melody on her violin.
“Your powers are weak!” Aisa growled and closed her eyes. She crouched towards the ground, ready to transform. She let out a loud scream and opened her eyes.
"Why did I not transform?" she wondered, as she made several unsuccessful attempts to transform. Her eyes grew wide open in disbelief as she took a few aggressive steps towards Prassaca, trying to pierce her further with her fangs. Prassaca was unmoved and continued playing her violin voraciously.
Exhausted, Aisa fell down to the ground, frozen and feeling restrained to move her limbs. “Ho-How did you-” she gasped for breath, “How cou-”
Prassaca continued playing her violin. “It is not about power, Aisa. You have emotions, and I am controlling them. You used Redundancy V1.0 which sends frequencies to manipulate the blood flow of humans to restrain them from transforming, didn't you?” she paused, not giving her enough time to respond.
“Emotions… They are worthless.” Prassaca said and added more force to the melodies on her violin, sending waves of excruciating pain through Aisa’s body. She started losing her breath by every passing minute.
“Hmm… It seems you are drained of energy, Aisa. Presenting, Redundancy V2.0!.” Prassaca said. “It is not about power, Aisa.” she said calmly. “It is about emotions… They are worthless, unless you know how to use them.”
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