Suddenly, with Shry's surprise attack, it was like they were back to square one, but now, they finally viewed Shry as a threat, acknowledging his power.
"I was going to go after you after I defeat Cydel, but I guess we can have a 2 on 1" Tiy said arrogantly, successfully aggravating Cydel, but as for Shry, he just acted like nothing happened, acting the fool.
"Now you're going to get it!" Cydel retaliated as she got into a stance, ready to pounce.
When suddenly, more crumbled balls of metal rushed at her immediately, causing her to fall back, essentially restarting the spar among the three participants.
Taking advantage of the sudden distraction, Tiy was about to attack Cydel, with a non-empowered flame appearing around his right hand while his left prepared another sequence. However, his actions didn't go as planned, as a coin-sized disk flew in front of his face before suddenly erupting into flames, causing Tiy to fall back as well this time.
"Woah" Tiy couldn't help but exclaim in both shock and relief.
Suddenly, as Shry's attack simmered down, it was like their aggression and the flow of battle had completely changed, as Shry attracted the ire of both of his sparring partners.
(Yes! I'm finally able to keep up now) Shry happily exclaimed inwardly.
Before they could attack him, Shry quickly fished out another disk from his pocket, and with a loose fist, released the Natural Node in his hand into a less advanced silver disk, activating it before immediately throwing it to the ground and creating a metal wall that acted like a smokescreen, hiding his next actions from his opponents and giving him ample time to take out more disks from his pocket while Tiy and Cydel hesitantly approached the metal wall, not knowing what Shry would or could do.
Hiding behind the wall he created, while Shry organized his disks, part of his wall began to melt as a familiar face returned to Shry's line of sight.
Even worse, suddenly appearing behind him while he was distracted was his other opponent, her face smug as she looked at the back of Shry's head, expecting to see a face filled with shock.
However, even as he turned around to face Cydel, his face didn't change; in fact, the smirk on his face just grew wider as he pulled out a special green disk and quickly activated it.
*FEEEEEEE* A heavy gust of wind blew behind Shry, pushing Tiy away, leaving him with only one opponent for now.
Creating non-empowered ice in front of her fist, Cydel immediately went for the first strike before Shry made his move, but unfortunately for her, Shry and his heightened senses were able to sense it from miles away, easily dodging it.
Cydel's empty fist hovered in the air as the ice that was supposed to break upon contact fell off her fist, intact and without a scratch, until it fell onto the ground and shattered into pieces.
Weaving away from Cydel's punch, Shry's body began to gain momentum as he prepared his fist for a counterattack, going for Cydel's shoulder.
Cydel wasn't able to react; all she knew at that moment was that something had impacted her left shoulder before the pain kicked in.
"Woah, I didn't expect you to be so good at fighting." Cydel sincerely complimented her, a bright smile appearing on her face, happy that the friend that she thought was defenseless was actually this competent.
It was a sweet moment, but it didn't last long, as Cydel had already been preparing for another attack during her speech, and before she was even done, she'd already launched it, sending another ice-coated fist at Shry.
Knowing he couldn't dodge this one, Shry decided to mitigate the attack instead by blocking it with his left hand, sparing his other hand that was holding onto his disk.
"Ufff" Shry grunted as he stumbled backward purposefully to get some distance, as it took time for his disks to activate.
As if that was not enough, Tiy had also returned from being blown away, and the first thing he did was use his grade 2 sequence to gain an advantage on the two.
"Red Streak vol 1"
Releasing his grade 2 sequence with its name, a string of fire was sent straight at Shry and Cydel, splitting apart as it reached in between the two.
Thinking quick, Shry stepped back again and quickly threw another metallic after he activated it, creating a thin metal wall to protect him from the string of fire.
Unfortunately for Shry, the string of fire was more powerful than normal fire, as it came from a sequence, so it easily pierced through his wall, leading him to use his last resort.
Seeing that there's no other choice, he pulled out the green disk again and activated it again, but this time, he pointed it against the ground, launching him into the air where the string of fire couldn't reach.
But then... He kept on going, farther and farther up.
Shry had miscalculated; he didn't expect the wind would be this strong, and now, he found himself high in the air with no way to land.
"You're out," Hytile casually called out as he cast a sequence to catch Shry, without saying the name of whatever sequence he used.
Before Shry could even start falling from the sky, a visible crescent-shaped green wind appeared under him, creating a familiar image of a boy sitting inside of a crescent moon, fishing in the clouds, before the strip of wind delivered Shry to Hytile like a flying carpet.
For a moment, after Shry was delivered to Hytile safely by his sequence, Tiy looked at where Shry is now, worry flooding his mind and causing him to be distracted and almost lose to Cydel as another barrage of snow was fired at him.
Frustrated that he knocked himself out, Shry lightly complained.
"Dang, I was so close to taking out both of them."
Shry wasn't so sure if he could really defeat both of them, not even in a one-on-one. But, after that spar, it gave Shry a bunch of inspiration and ideas on how he could cover his gaps.
"Great decision to make the metal into something like a crumbled piece of paper; I don't know if we could deal with a concussion with what we have here." Hytile complimented his student, keeping the data he had gathered in his mind for now, planning to write it down later.
"Yeah... But we should test it on some Quardes someday; I doubt I'll be fighting any humans for real." Shry's demeanor suddenly changed into something more logical and serious, resembling his mother, a side that he rarely shows.
Thinking about what Shry suggested, Hytile deeply considered the request. He knew that there are merits in testing it against a live Quardes, but he doesn't want to bring his student near such danger, especially with his lack of defensive ability without his disk.
Throughout these years of working together, Hytile had grown quite fond of his student, and at some point he even made a rule for himself, a rule to always do every experiment and other activity related to their research with Shry, so, unluckily, abiding by his own rules, Hytile can only test out the disks in harmless environments.
"Don't worry about that too much; we can test it with some imitation skin or even real skin from the Quardes," Hytile explained his idea, unintentionally garnering a frown from Shry.
(Really, even you... I guess that's to be expected), Shry thought, upset about constantly being coddled.
Upsettingly, Shry had never been allowed to go near danger; even when their school held an annual drill that's mandatory for every student to participate in, he was always the exception, the only student in the world that's not exempt from this practice.
To keep children's composure stable during an actual Quardes attack, children are taught how to handle a Quardes as soon as their Node matures. After their long and grueling history with the Quardes, it left an awful scar on humanity as a whole, one that is so deep and poisoned that it's impossible to heal.
Childishly, Shry really wanted to experience that danger too, so he began exploring odd and weird places, because that's the closest thing to danger, naively hoping that he'll encounter a stray Quardes one day to prove himself, but fortunately, he never managed to encounter one, not even after 3 years.
After all the commotion from Shry's spar died down, conversation flowed very easily between everyone there, even Estin, but that's mainly due to her sister, Yuwwe, speaking for her.
All of this continued with Tiy and Cydel endlessly fighting until the time to open the party finally came.
In the end, neither one was declared a winner; both of them tied as they exhausted their Node.
Making their way back to the front of the Resonance Hall, everyone split up, setting up the final touches on the party, while the others stood far outside the party, ready to receive guests, in case there were guests who were skeptical just like Estin when she first got here.
...
Car after car drove in with the invited guests, and unsurprisingly, most of them stopped at the front of the Resonance Hall, hesitant to go in.
Which then prompted them to meet with the receiving group that consists of Shry's parents and Rekka to ask if this was the right address, as it is still a preposterous thought that a Resonance Hall that's so sacred to humanity is actually the venue for a party... run by a 10-year-old boy at that.
One by one, friends that Shry hadn't talked to in a while began to show up, showing that Tiy was successful in dragging them here as per Shry's request.
However, they were missing one, quite possibly the most important one as well, and that is Callon. Also known as Cal, Shry's best friend that abandoned him.
"Dang it, Cal! Why are you so annoying?" Tiy shouted out in anger and frustration, looking like he's ready to charge at someone.
As Tiy openly voiced his frustration, the other kids that followed Callon and abandoned Shry began to feel uncomfortable, especially so for a kid with greenish-yellow hair like a leaf during the start of fall and a pair of dim neon-yellow eyes.
"Sile, what happened? It's unlike Callon to reject a direct invite like this." Cydel bumped Sile in the back, secretly asking him the logical question while Tiy raged and made a scene.
Unlike Tiy, who only maintains the minimum amount of contact to stay friends with Callon, Cydel has actually been on friendly terms with Callon and hangs out with him quite frequently, making her the secret bridge that hangs in between the two friend groups.
"Urgh! I tried to drag him here, but he kept droning on and on about 'I can't let him follow me; I must protect the weak.' It has gotten really annoying lately," Sile remarked with frustration in his voice.
"C'mon, he's still on about that twisted ideal of the strong must protect the weak...!"
"I guess I can't really blame him too much though after what happened to his father," Cydel bluntly stated her opinion, breathing a sigh of frustration as she reflected on what happened during the Erasure of Pertice.
Seeing his father, the most powerful musician he has ever seen, more powerful than some generals, reduced to such a state, had a huge effect on him.
"HOLD MY SODA; I'M ABOUT TO CHASE AFTER THAT COWARD!" Tiy suddenly yelled.
At that moment, it looked like Tiy was really going to run out of the party to find and drag Callon here by force.
*Wooong* the air sounded as Tiy began to sprint.
Running toward the parking lot and being chased by Shry, Cydel, and Sile. Tiy quickly got on his bike before any one of them could stop him.
By the time they got there, Tiy had already begun cycling away.
"I'LL BE BACK IN AN HOUR; DON'T UNRAVEL THE SURPRISE WITHOUT US HERE," Tiy yelled, his voice gradually getting quieter and quieter as he rode away.
Seeing that Tiy is now too far away to hear him, Shry suddenly had a funny idea, causing a devious smile to grow on his face.
"HONEY, DON'T GOOOO! WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?" Shry belted out, as guttural as he could make it sound; even tears began to come out.
Not only was Shry's voice extra dramatic, but his body movement also reciprocated the cinematic flair that Shry somehow created. Some guests were even immersed in the scene, their brains convinced that what happened was actually real.
"Did anyone record that?" Suddenly the scene that Shry curated fell apart, as Shry broke character, taking the dramatic scene and turning it into an awkward one.
Without taking long at all, a familiar voice answered Shry's question.
"Definitely," Cydel said in a spiky, conniving tone, clearly just as or more amused than Shry.
After hearing Cydel's answer, Shry immediately jumped over, borderline skipping to Cydel, excited to see the result of his performance.
...
"HEY CALLLLLL, OPEN UP!" Tiy angrily yelled at the gates of an average-sized mansion.
The mansion was just like any other building in this world, a unique, bombastic design that's meticulously crafted by the owners to match their personalities; one of the traditions in this world.
Elegant cyan-colored glass flowed around the mansion like a moving curtain, while the actual building was built like a pearl with shiny marble on the outside, and thankfully not permeating into the interior.
"HEY, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME. LET ME IN." Tiy continued to yell, familiar with Callon's house.
While Tiy wreaked havoc on the other side of the gate, an irritated boy with sandy beige hair and amber eyes walked out of the front door of the mansion and yelled in retaliation, wearing a set of casual homewear.
"THE DOOR IS ALREADY OPEN, STOP YELLING!"
____
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