Sora understood immediately. She raised her staff. "If I remove the air around him, the sound can't travel. The barrier will drop."
"Do it now," Kang Min said.
Sora channeled her remaining mana. Three spheres of shimmering blue energy shot toward the cathedral spire. They expanded around the Piper, creating a pocket of absolute silence. The music stopped abruptly. The rats in the square collapsed into a daze, the magical compulsion broken for a moment.
The Piper's eyes widened. He dropped the flute from his lips and tried to step out of the vacuum. He looked at the players with newfound rage. He realized he was being outsmarted by a group that refused to follow the rules of his fable.
He jumped from the spire. He didn't fall; he glided on the remnants of the sound waves. He landed on a rooftop twenty meters away and pulled a second, smaller flute from his belt.
"You think silence is your ally?" the Piper shouted.
