'What the hell kind of music is this?!,' the Marquis mentally cursed as he did his best to keep up with the frog/tiger woman's attacks while also avoiding getting caught up in the rhythm of the new song blaring in his head. He didn't know what "funk" was, but it was throwing him off.
'Why is there so much clap-why did the pace change?!,' he griped as he was caught off guard by the sudden change in pace, taking a tiger kick to the chest.
"What's wrong? Can't keep up with moves, cagna?," Hurricroak taunted while bouncing her feet to the current beat of the song, which just happened to be in the middle of a lull.
A condescending smile was plain on Hurricroak's face and the Marquis hated it.
The Marquis could clearly sense he was at least a full
'Detestable frog! I shall learn this song as well!'
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Earlier in the fight, the Marquis had recognized that his opponent was making use of the [Rhythm Combo] art.
[Rhythm Combo] was an aether art that, as far as the Marquis knew, was known only to the monks of the Harmonic Divinity Hall, a sect that called the Adamantine Empire home.
The Harmonic Divinity Hall was famed for their understanding of musical theory, mastery of instruments and their abilities to understand and improve any song after hearing it being played once. On top of that, they are known to be avid collectors of music and sound based Aether arts.
Whether it was combative or supportive, it is said that if anyone needed to find a sound art, the Harmonic Divinity Hall would have it. Of course, some of the arts they collected were not meant to be shared with the wider world, such as [Rhythm Combo].
A signature of the Harmonic Divinity monks, [Rhythm Combo] was a staple move that allowed an almost perfect union between musical knowledge, martial prowess and pure improvisation.
The art allowed the user to turn any song in their repertoire into a devastating attack that can befuddle and confuse their enemies, while delivering a merciless beat down at the exact same time. Unfortunately, this great strength was also a great weakness.
If the opponent of the user happens to recognize the song, or learn the rhythm of it while the art was in use, it was possible for the opponent to be able to block and counter all of the attacks and heavily reverse the situation in their favor.
Granted, it is possible for masters of the art to abruptly change the song mid combo, changing the rhythm of the attack as a result. However, such a feat takes years of practice...normally.
There was a radical theory floating around Valresta's music world that the most popular songs at the time only needed four chords, so theoretically a practicer of the art would only need to know those four chords in order to do whatever combo they wanted. This theory never really gained traction because all of these songs sounded so different one another though.
Then again, mash-ups, remixes and shuffles weren't exactly a native thing...
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The Marquis kept up his defenses as the tiger formed Hurricroak kept kicking and punching him to the rhythm of "Uptown Funk". It was rather difficult for him to keep up, especially when the song in question kept switching from a slow pace to a rapid pace at seemingly random intervals. The keyword here however was "seemingly".
'Just need to time it correctly,' the Marquis thought as he tried his damnedest to learn the song while being forced to move along with it.
The Marquis had noticed that there was a lull in the music before the change in pace, and knowing a thing or two about music, such things tend to be included more than once.
"Nani? Can't keep up with my moves?," Hurricroak taunted as she landed a quarter of combo kicks before landing backwards and bouncing again.
"There!"
The Marquis proceeded to launch a strike, hoping to pierce Hurricroak's heart during the lull of the song with his arm.
Hurricroak looked a little shocked that the Marquis had managed to time his attack with the song's lull...but it was only for a moment. A very fox-like grin soon formed on her face as she held up a claw.
[Next,] she said with a snap of her fingers.
"Bah! Again?!"
Suddenly, the funky horns of "Uptown Funk" was replaced with the rhythmic strumming of snarling metal strings. The sudden change in tone caused the Marquis to momentarily pause. A pause that allowed Hurricroak to go from tiger/frog to fox/frog without interruption.
Gone were the muscular limbs with beautiful orange striped fur and tiger features, replaced with limber limbs, foxy ears and six flowing tails that had a slick blonde color to them.
In time with the guitar strumming, Hurricroak used her new fox tails to entangle the Marquis and repeatedly slam him into the ground, in time with the music of course. The slamming eventually stopped however, when Hurricroak decided to use the Marquis like a punching bag.
A combination of repeated shocks to the head and some definitely inelegant music, was giving the Marquis a splitting headache of sorts.
'What even is this song?! What's a shota?!"
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Zhen Liu stared at his left hand in disbelief as he immediately recognized the song that Hurricroak was, ironically or intentionally, was beating the Marquis's ass to while in a fox hybrid state.
'Are you serious right now? "Touch Fluffy Tail"? With a fox form to boot?!,' Zhen Liu mentally screamed.
'...that has some implications I'm now worried about.'
'Finishing touches for what finale?!'
Before he could continue asking, he was interrupted by the sound of Hurricroak throwing the Marquis towards a wall as she snapped her fingers to signal a change in song.
The sound of electric guitar filled his head again, but this time it came with drums, and a short playing of the chords that was soon followed by a powerful scream. At the same time, Hurricroak traded in her fox features for wasp wingers and some nasty stinger arms, taking off into the air in time with the scream and dive bombing towards the Marquis.
Zhen Liu was blank faced as the sheer amount of nostalgic music bombs finally broke him.
'Holy...Lonely...Night?'
Zhen Liu wasn't entirely sure, but he swore he could feel devil horns being thrown up in his mind.