“May I play a song for you?” Han Kong smiled sweetly at a grim-looking wolfman, placed a violin gently on her shoulder, and began to play before she even received an answer, “Never before has a member of the Lupus Clan been allowed to listen to my art! You can feel honored and leave this world satisfied!”

  The soft sound of music surged through the hall, picked up the pace, and soon transformed into a storm.

  Countless blades made from sound waves hurtled towards her opponent.

  In defense, he extended his claws as quickly as possible and began to parry every attack with swift blows, while the listeners standing around the arena could enjoy the enchanting music without being in danger.

  It was like night and day, whether you were fighting for your survival as an opponent between nearly invisible attacks, or whether you could enjoy the beautiful sounds from the outside.

  The listeners swayed to the beat, some clapping unconsciously, while just a few meters away, enveloped by the lovely music, a battle for life and death was taking place.

  Sparks flew across the arena, and the two opponents soon found themselves in a stalemate, with the Qi flowing from Hans' body into her instrument and the wolfman physically exhausting himself.

  “Which of those two will last longer?” Kilian asked the crowd, mentally analyzing the flow of Qi in both of them as his head bobbed back and forth to the beat, “Sister Han uses her palms, which are covered with countless tiny holes for the flow of Qi, while the member of the Lupus Clan has these points distributed all over his body. Both techniques are very different from that of the Shadowapes, but through my observations, I am slowly gaining a better understanding of the path of a Qi-Master who trains his body! It’s incredible how many different paths can lead to a similar goal.”

  “Hans’ attacks are somehow different than usual…” Murmured Brother Li, began to concentrate more intensely and finally grinned, “Ah, so that’s how it is!”

  “So the goddess of entertainment has also found a new pupil…” Thought Deidre as the fight in the arena slowly reached its decisive phase.

  “With such ridiculous attacks, you will never be able to hurt me!” Barked the wolfman, projected his majestic aura over the arena, and destroyed all the flying sound waves.

  “Are you sure about that?” The apegirl chuckled, pointing to her ears, “Have you ever considered that a musical attack can cause damage as soon as you hear the first note of a song? Or perhaps even before the sound of my instrument has been processed by your pea-sized brain?”

  The Lupus Clan member grabbed his head with his hands as he felt a warm liquid slowly running down his neck from his ears.

  “W-what have you done?” He asked, as his vision suddenly became cloudy and he realized that he was beginning to hear his own voice fainter and fainter.

  A tremendous force, which had accumulated unnoticed, finally ripped his eardrums completely apart and stormed forward unstoppably.

  With a blank stare, he launched an attack, but toppled over before he could reach his opponent.

  “From today on, you are unfortunately deaf!” The pretty little apegirl smiled sweetly, but her icy voice sent shivers down the spines of the surrounding warriors: “Your ossicles, your inner ear, and your vestibular system have been destroyed. If you're lucky, you might be able to move around a bit without dizziness in a few years!”

  “Winner: Han!” The familiar voice of the guardian broke the silence left by the disappearance of the beautiful yet dangerous music and heralded the next battle.

  A quarter of an hour later, the lifeless body of a man lay on the floor of the arena, and a roaring orc celebrated his victory, “I will tear you all to shreds!”

  “Next fight: Connor against Lilja!”, interrupted the voice of the guardian, and the victorious warrior left the arena, his face sparkling with battle intent.

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  “I-it’s my turn!” Swallowed the beast tamer of the Inner Academy of the Kong Clan loudly and looked at his opponent, who had already appeared silently in the arena like a leaf dancing in the wind.

  “Wind-Qi…” He murmured again and disappeared as if caught by a breeze, landing in the arena.

  “Your aura seems so familiar and yet so foreign…” Said Lilja with a look that seemed to see through years long past, as she drew her bow and knocked an arrow, “What legacy have you received?”

  “I was just about to ask you the same thing!” Replied Connor, his voice now toneless and two short blades, one silver and the other black, appearing between his fingers, “But I think you know the answer as well as I do.”

  An arrow shot towards him, accompanied by a gust of wind, and he answered with a blow of both blades.

  A discharge of Wind-Qi formed a cross and cut the flying arrow mid-flight into four pieces.

  Connor followed in the shadow of his first parry, dodging countless more arrows as he drew ever closer to the elf.

  When the two stood face to face, a bright, gleaming, curved blade appeared in her delicate hands in place of the bow, and once again, two attacks, accompanied by a torrent of Wind-Qi, clashed.

  “The Twins of the Wind…” Deidre thought to herself, recalling an old, sad legend, “Two halfbloods, half human and half elf, once fell in love on the edge of the forest between the territories of the two races. They led a beautiful, simple life, and soon after their marriage, they had twins. Overjoyed, they looked forward to a happy life, but fate played a macabre trick on them that would soon separate the young family. In the veins of the male halfblood flowed the blood of a powerful human nobleman, and in those of his wife, the blood of the elven royal family. The siblings were meant to lead a simple, loving life alongside their parents, but, as it so often happens in the grand scheme of fate, things turned out differently.

  The two human genes of the parents combined, and a purebred offspring of the powerful noble family was born.

  Meanwhile, his twin sister entered the world as a beautiful elf, a new member of the royal family with rights to the throne deep within the elven forest, at a time when the descendants of powerful families had been almost wiped out by countless wars.

  Thus, the paths of the disparate twins diverged in their very infancy, as the two families behind their parents learned of their extraordinary birth and sought to secure their inheritance. Consequently, their loving parents were secretly stabbed to death before the children were old enough to remember them! Both grew up believing themselves to be orphans, with no living close relatives, and the only thing they unknowingly shared was an exceptional talent for Wind-Qi.

  The elf was traditionally trained with the bow and the curved longsword of her ancestors, while the human boy danced across the battlefield with two shortswords, and both quickly stood out as capable young warriors.

  Now, after all these years, both legacies reappear together and face each other again on the battlefield? After having already taken each other's lives in a decisive battle, unaware of their origins, a battle that ultimately brought peace between elves and humans, and only recognizing each other as brother and sister in their dying breaths? Fate can be so cruel!”

  The fight in the arena became increasingly fierce, with ever faster blows crashing into each other, and the flying Wind-Qi neutralized itself upon collision.

  “Like our teachers’ skills, our abilities are almost identical…” Lilja murmured, took a step back, and drew her bow again, “But there is still one difference compared to back then!”

  “Oh yeah?” Conner gasped, out of breath, unable to keep up with her rapid movements, “And what is this difference supposed to be?”

  “Quite simply! We are not twins! I am a little older, have been training longer, and possess more Qi than you!” Smiled the beautiful elf, and with a pull on the string of her weapon, a gigantic arrow formed, aiming for the heart of the young warrior, “ I have more stamina!”

  “You’re right!” He sighed dejectedly and added with a grin, “You know what kind of relationship our two teachers had and how fate played them… What do you say? Should we bury the hatchet and fulfill their last wishes from back then?”

  "As students of the Twins of the Wind, we are now martial cousins according to the old rules..." Lilja considered briefly, without lowering the bow, but the pressure of the draw eased somewhat, "I can agree, but only if you give up!"

  “Agreed!” Conner finally replied with a sigh and jumped down from the arena with his eyes closed, “You win this time, but I want a rematch later!”

  “Winner: Lilja!” announced Deidre, while the beautiful elf grinned and nodded before leaving the arena.

  “Did sparks fly between you two in the arena?” Thrym asked with a broad grin as his gaze wandered from Conner to Lilja and finally to Edana, “And here I always thought you two were something like a couple…”

  “Shut your mouth!” Barked the two heirs of the Twins of the Wind in unison, and Connor, his ears red, turned to his beloved, “T-that’s not it! O-only our legacies are closely related, and all the new memories make it feel like we’re related!”

  Behind Connor stood the beautiful elf, nodding eagerly.

  Her head looked like a giant tomato being shaken up and down, while she repeatedly glanced surreptitiously at Kilian, who was once again being besieged by Aurelia.

  “I don’t know what that has to do with me? You can do whatever you want!” Edana replied coolly, refocusing her attention on the arena where the next fight between an orc and an elf had just begun.

  An axe and a blade danced in a circle, and about ten minutes later, a severed head with pointed ears slapped onto the ground, while Connor was still trying to explain himself with quick, jumbled words until Edana finally gave in, “I get it! As long as your feelings for your new cousin and me don’t change, it’s fine.”

  With a deep sigh and a throat parched from all the talking, the young beast tamer collapsed and thought to himself, before he began to meditate to regenerate his Qi, “At least I haven’t lost the battle of love yet!”