[Round 3] Saphen vs. Reyen

[Saphen]

Music...the very food the musician thrived on was now all around him. It was a feast of sound and the cook had left nothing to be desired. Every passing second fans screamed, music played, and bodies meshed into one powerful and erotic mass of energy. It was one of the few rituals humans had that truly allowed them to move as one entity, one mind, and one voice.

Many spectators were excited to see how a musician would perform on a true stage such as this one. Murmurs would slither through the crowd, everyone was talking about Saphen's last fight. Some onlookers joked that he wouldn't even show up after, as one audience member so eloquently put it, "the b*****d fell off the deep end!" But the bard would hear none of this over the sounds of roaring speakers and Erin Karter's boyish voice...one would assume.

But for once in his life....Saphen heard nothing at all, felt no beat, no song, no voice. The only sound, if one could call it such, was a small ringing in his ear as Saphen stared off into space. Hidden eyes scanning the mass of color that he could only assume was the crowd itself.

What...happened...the bard couldn't even remember his last fight or how he had gotten into the tiny room he was given to wait for his next battle to start. Pictures of celebrities covered nearly every inch of the pale green blockades, those set to protect him from his adoring fans. Each picture was marked with a signature from it's respective owner...right next to their face.

Face...His first reaction was to make sure he still had one, gloved fingers rushing up to make sure his 'true face' was not harmed.

They felt no skin, no soft flesh of any kind, only the smooth cold stone and for that he was relieved. He didn't feel 'scars' or any type of damage, it must have been repaired he thought to himself as he looked over the rest of his body. It was at this moment that Saphen realized he was sitting, his gaze moved down to his lap where he discovered his violin resting quietly. The bow sat next to it, perfectly parallel to the neck of his instrument, both seemingly waiting for their master's call. The fingers of his right hand extended slowly, gently gliding over the first string.

The sound of the audience returned...screaming loudly the names of the two fighters as well as Erin Karter in mixed exchanges of dominance. Saphen's masked face turned slightly, his fingers experimentally sliding over the second string.

The sounds of Karter's voice erupting in powerful song suddenly rushed through the bard's mind. Wasting no time the bard slid his fingers over the last strings at the same moment he stood up and kicked the small wooden door completely open.

As the crowd roared in excitement the bard took the stage, the audience parting as Saphen's quick pace would not be stopped.

The music...Had returned!

 

[Saphen]

Reyen toyed with the crowd, his obvious enjoyment over the mosh pit he had started was not missed by the musician. The bard detested these kind of people, their showmanship was trivial at best. His gloved fingers would curl tightly around the frog of his bow, hidden eyes glaring at the man as he made a mockery of himself on stage.

Saphen's head tilted quizzically as his opponent spoke to him. The bard stretching his arms absentmindedly as the man flaunted what little fame he had gathered over the course of the GTB.

Reyen

"I'm Reyen. You've probably heard of me. It's a pleasure."

Reyen, like Saphen, was indeed a social creature but they were not the same. Saphen could hear the bravado in his voice, the ego spewing from every word and it sickened him. In the bard's eyes, his form of entertainment wasn't about the audience...it was only about himself.

The bard chuckled, whipping his bow out sightly in one deft motion as he replied "Not enough to warrant repeating such formalities my friend." The crowd was truly in an uproar at this point, the challenge coming from the bard showing that he would not be outdone by the likes of Reyen and the disgusting filth he called a show.

The cacophony of voices would take sides as they cheered or taunted the fighters on stage. Reyen's blade was thirsting for blood but the music required even more than the lowly essence of humanity.

Saphen raised his violin, letting his chin settle in the designated rest as his fingers formed a chord.

"You think you can control the true power source here...But I believe you are mistaken...you may be entertaining but you are NOT...AN ENTERTAINER!! Saphen's right hand darted forward, pointing his sacred bow at his opponent as his voice soared over the screams of the crowd.

"Only music can unite us and I only need music to defy you!!!!!!!!!!!"

Saphen raised his bow, sliding it back and forth in short and swift motions along the strings. A sudden rock beat surged through the arena, constant and powerful it grew stronger by the second.

Now Playing: Tantric~ Down & Out

The boyish entertainer, suddenly realizing he knew the song, motioned for his dj to follow suite. His comrade didn't hesitate, spinning a record expertly he landed it on the turn table. A drum beat suddenly erupting out of the speakers as the man nodded in satisfaction. Twirling a second record on his fingers he tossed another down, guitar sounds crashing into the rest in perfect harmony.

Erin Karter, gripping his mic firmly began to sing to the Tantric song, his sudden genre change causing the crowd to grow more hostile as the energy climaxed in a glorious ritual of human flesh. Karter removed the boyish charms from his voice, replacing it with the edge necessary to truly sing rock.

Coming up for air so I can

Check myself again and I stand

The audience began to move, bodies grinding and meshing in the heat filled room. People leaping off the side of the stage and crowd surfing towards the back, hands clawing at every exposed area of skin as they thirsted for more.

The bard continued the consistent rhythm, deep and harsh as he spoke "Come at me Reyen, show me what kind of man you are when you stand alone in my world!"