Musical Battle!
A Catastrophic Cacophony of Chaos!
Ridley was still standing in one position watching Melanie. He was completely clueless as to what her power was, but somehow it appeared that she managed to completely control them with just her voice. Ridley reached and pulled on his ear, thinking about the earplugs he had always left in his ears in order to keep them safe from his own music...chances if he lost them...he'd probably be put under the same control as the others...Ridley's hand left his ear and went back down to his guitar...he still had his doubt about whether or not she was the person who the aura was emanating from...but sadly from the sound of it...whether or not she was the one that was releasing it, she was coming after them...so one of them had to take care of her and he highly doubted that she would stroll on past him and go after Zesiro instead.
Melanie strolled forward. She didn't want this fight to continue...she had originally planned on just using her Devil Fruit to harmlessly capture a couple of them while she took on the stronger ones. She hadn't planned on having to fight the member on their crew with the lowest bounty...if he could somehow resist her powers she had to think that the other ones had the power to as well. She didn't like this fact...her plan to easily capture half of the crew just with a simple song, but now that idea looked like it wasn't going to happen.
"Sleep!" sung Melanie, deciding to give her Devil Fruit one final try. Ridley once more didn't move, his fingers hovering slowly over his guitar's strings. Melanie twisted her lips up into a distasteful grimace as she kept her eyes on him. Melanie brought her sword forth and took careful aim at Ridley. "I never suspected I'd meet a man that could resist even these simple commands..." she stated as she took slow steps closer to Ridley. She brandished her blade as she moved in closer.
Ridley was snapped out of his daze as Melanie drew in closer and brought her blade out and into a wide arc, slicing the air that was in front of her with her long and sleek blade. Ridley backed up, jumping backwards, his fingers began to strum hard on his guitar, another wave of incredibly loud noise filled the area around the two combatants. Melanie reeled backwards from the noise, putting even more distance in between the two. Her eyes wide from the pain, she wondered if this was why her Devil Fruit power wasn't working. That his ears were just too damaged in order to receive her commands.
Ordinarily anyone, man, woman, or even animal that heard her singing any command would be forced to obey it. Her Devil Fruit ability made it completely easy for her to achieve the title of Shichibukai. Even if it wasn't for fighting capabilities, her power would easily 'convince' the Marines into making her the Shichibukai. It wouldn't have been the best way to start a strong relationship, but then again the current relationship she shared with the Marine Government isn't that great. But it was a necessary relationship so she decided to continue it and keep it going regardless of the problems it created.
Melanie bit her lip as she remembered her reason for joining the Shichibukai...she hated the World Government for what they did to her...but...she had to swallow her pride and accept their invitation to the Shichibukai to make her search easier...this was the quickest way for her to achieve her goals and as a result she will try her absolute best to keep this position of power until the day she accomplishes her goal.
Melanie strode forward, bringing her sword outwards aiming directly for a swift win with direct cut to Ridley's neck. Ridley dodged backwards and strummed even harder on his guitar sending another pulsing wave of loud noise forward at Melanie. Melanie grimaced as she continued on her path towards Ridley, enduring the painfully loud noise as she continued to get in closer. Ridley kept strolling backwards, intent on keeping the distant between him and Melanie as big as possible. He really didn't want to get any closer to her then he had to and the distant in between them suited him just fine. Enough for his loud noises to hurt her, but more then enough where her sharp sword couldn't cut into him.
"What's the matter?" mocked Melanie, attempting to irritate Ridley into action, "I expected more attitude and guts from someone that looked like you, but it looks like you have the guts and the attitude of a pathetic rat!" She drove forward with her blade slicing the air in between them due to excessive distance Ridley kept in between them, her strokes couldn't possibly get close enough to harm him.
Ridley laughed as he kept jumping backwards, "sorry, but I'm pretty sure if you were going for an animal reference you should've went with bat. If you ask me that fits so much better with me!" Ridley made another backwards jump as he lifted his hand into the air, "Apollo's Allegro!" Ridley brought his hand back down to his guitar strumming it quickly generating a soft melody. The melody rebounded off of the rocks that were strewn about the field and with each rebound the echoes built up and became louder and more numerous.
Melanie struggled to overcome it as the sound exploded with every step that she took. Her gut felt terrible it was like it was spinning and tuning, flipping all about making her feel worse and worse as the seconds past. The noise was making her sick to her stomach, not to mention her head was starting to pound due to the intensity of the painful noise. She finally broke free as she charged forward, bringing her sword around once more in another desperate attempt to cut Ridley.
Melanie just noticed it, but the distance between them had been shortened. She wasn't surprised as far as speed goes she had the upper-hand. She just needed to keep pressing him eventually he would make a big mistake and that would be the end. She pressed forward faster, bringing her sword up and down with each and every powerful slice. "You've noticed the distance between us has been shrinking, haven't you?" stated Melanie. She just needed to freak him out, the more freaked out an opponent was the higher the chance that they'd make a mistake.
Ridley grimaced. Of course he had noticed his ONE advantage slowly disappearing. Even with Melanie wasting her time with her fruitless slashes she was still faster then Ridley was when he was running backwards...he really shouldn't be surprised. She wasn't chosen as a Shichibukai due to her voice... "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to distance between us...I was too busy thinking about you. I mean I always assumed that if a girl was going to try to kill me she was at least going to be pretty...or Sage would've put her up to it...but you don't really fit either of those accusations."
Melanie twisted her smile from closing the distance into a distasteful frown as she brought her sword back around aiming for Ridley once more. There was still too much distance in between them. She twisted her sword about and made a powerful thrust forward with her sharp blade. With the speed and power of her thrust she nearly brought the tip of the blade into Ridley's gut, but Ridley had managed to make another dodge backwards, barely avoiding the tip.
Ridley cursed as he nearly stumbled backwards amongst the rocks jutting out of the ground. He was really starting to worry. There wasn't much killing intent behind her attacks...almost all of her attacks thus far had been shallow and intentionally shorter then they could be. If she wanted to kill him she would be aiming for the space behind him rather then at him in order to slice him clean in two, but it seemed like she was aiming just to cut him open rather than into. Ordinarily Ridley would be thankful that his opponent didn't want to kill him, but that meant that somebody else was coming to the island...and he highly doubted that Melanie would step out of the way for him to deal with the newcomer.
"I don't suppose you got a monster on your ship," asked Ridley with an uncomfortable chuckle. He really didn't like to think of either answer...both of them meant trouble for him.
Melanie's frown deepened. "Fight me, seriously!" she shouted as she brought her sword upwards and through the air. "I am tired of you making light of this manner...this is a fight! Either come at me with everything you got or stand down and die!" Melanie brought her blade up above her head and held it straight out with the tip pointed outwards and Ridley's head. "I am a Shichibukai and I will not be brought down by some simple musician who doesn't even take combat seriously." Melanie broke from her stance and charged she brought her sword out and around making a wide arcing slash with her sword.
Ridley was about to jump back, but he forgot about the rocks in the ground. As he brought his body back, his foot got caught on one of the rocks and he fell. The blade swooped by, its sharp edge flying by his head. The blade came by and completed its path just inches above Ridley's head. Ridley collapsed onto the ground, his eyes wide with temporary worry and fear, but that passed as he realized that through pure luck he had kept his head.
Melanie brought her sword up and quickly brought back down into the ground where Ridley laid. Ridley turned about, rolling across the dirty rock riddled land and brought himself back up and onto his feet. Melanie's blade dug into the earth, sending bits and piece of the rocky landscape into the air. Ridley swung out with his guitar. He slammed the hard metal bottom of his guitar into Melanie's leg. Melanie shook as the heavy blunt object came crashing into her leg. She stumbled backwards her free arm going down and grabbing hold of her leg in order to support it.
Ridley swung himself back up and onto his feet. He did a quick check on his body, making sure he didn't take any real damage without noticing. Everything felt in place, but as his curious fingers made their way up to his head he found out something was missing. "YOU CUT MY MOHAWK!" shouted Ridley.
Melanie looked at him as she removed her hands from her injured and battered leg. She looked at his ridiculous hairdo...it looked the same to her, "I think you are imagining things," she stated calmly and professionally as she brought her sword back around and in-between the two of them. "But if you want me to cut it completely off I would be more then happy to obl..." her words disappeared into a mess of music as Ridley began heavily strumming on his guitar.
"150 Decibels!" screamed Ridley over the loud noise of his guitar as he brought his hand down and across the strings. The noise amplified itself carrying the loud booming and almost nonsensical tones of Ridley's music throughout the air. Melanie shuddered as the noise made its way into her ears and nearly broke her eardrums. Ridley grunted against his own noise...his earplugs may have been high-grade, but they were in no way made to handle 150 decibels and keep them toned down. If it wasn't due to the daily subjection of himself to this kind of loud noise he may have fallen down as well.
Melanie grunted as she managed to remain standing. She charged forward once more, she finally put together her real aim...she didn't need to slice Ridley up, she only needed to make contact with his guitar. The sharp steel of her blade would mean an end to his guitar's precious strings and a guitar without its strings is nothing more then a wooden racket.
She closed in on him, Ridley had apparently foregone the idea of running away in a mad attempt to bring Melanie down with one final song. Melanie continued on regardless of the pain her ears were causing her, she brought her sword about with one final desire-fueled swing. Ridley raised his guitar and used its hard metal base as a shield. Melanie's sword met with Ridley's guitar and the clanging and scraping of the two weapons made a sound far worse then anything Ridley could've produced just by strumming on his guitar strings.
Melanie leapt back, the force of her blade bouncing off of Ridley's guitar, repelled her a few feet away. Ridley grunted, his fingers that he had used to reinforce his guitar and suffered a great deal of trauma from Melanie's swing, but they were still active...they hurt though. He should've considered himself lucky that those were the only injuries he had sustained thus far with his battle with Melanie...but he couldn't...he kept thinking about how she cut his Mohawk!
Melanie panted heavily. She had been running about and chasing this damn musician while listening to his loud and rather raucous noise that he created...now she felt terrible...the chase had made her short of breath and she was pretty sure she had gone deaf in one of her ears. However, she knew one thing for certain...this fight was not over with yet.
The End of the Concert!
Melanie's and Ridley's Finale!
I didn't think it would take me three or four weeks...those were just extremely high estimates...luckily (for you guys anyways), I couldn't find any good sources for my paper, so I wasn't able to work on it like I wanted to...but I still have to work on it and two other papers so don't expect me to get right back on schedule for another week or so, but I will hopefully continue to type the stories up (especially seeing as how I have recently psyched myself up for the next arc in this story...yeah, this arc not so much, but next arc...oh ho ho HO! I really think the next arc might just be the best one yet!)
Anyways, avoiding my own problems and the geniusness of the next arc. The fight between Melanie and Ridley is heating up...Ridley is no longer concentrating on the incoming evil that is Trevor but on the girl who just cut his Mohawk! Shame, too...they could've been such good friends...
P.S. For those of you who haven't forgotten...don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Mikoto who is currently bleeding out in a bar...I'll get to him...eventually.