Birds chirped gleefully, and the seconds before the battle began felt like years. The moment the horns sounded, Lumi was gone—appearing in a burst of snow crystals at Titania’s side, her claymore already half-way through the strike. Titania leapt into the air, landing atop the flat of the sword. 

Titania took to the skies, flying upward at a diagonal angle while firing off dozens of shots from her pistols. The illusory bullets pelted her blade, which had a thick layer of ice covering it. They dissipated the moment they struck the cold surface. 

“I stand corrected,” Jolan mused as he watched the duel. “I overlooked Lumi’s unique weapon attributes.” 

“Yeah?” Yara asked.

He gave an affirmative hum and elaborated. “Nivellian ice seems to have magic absorption properties, and her claymore allows her to project an almost invisible barrier outward from the blade. These factors allow Lumi to counteract the queen’s illusory bullets.” 

Dev nodded silently, his attention fully focused on the combatants. 

The duelists maintained their distance, circling around each other at dizzying speeds. Their wings were out, drawing in more arcana from the environment, allowing them to enhance their flight capabilities and strengthen their abilities. Lumi’s wings had a look to them like frosted stained glass windows on a chill winter’s night, while Titania’s wings exuded presence and power—the edges were wrapped in gold foil, much like Dev’s. The Winter Fae kept up her defense, her claymore covering most of her body, yet Titania did not relent with her barrage of illusionary bullets. The whine of the shots as they soared through the air was all the crowd could hear through the enhanced sound of the dragonfly feeds. Even one shot that landed could prove fatal for Lumi, so it made sense that Titania kept her onslaught going until there was a possible opening in her opponent’s defenses. 

Lumi increased her speed, spinning counter to Titania and reducing the distance between them. Soon, she was close enough to strike—but Titania had already summoned her spear in preparation. 

Clang. The weapons struck each other, sparks flying from the impact. Lumi’s technique was strange, but effective, as it forced Titania into a defensive stance. Titania deftly countered Lumi’s strikes with the long reach of her spear, blocking some attacks with the haft, while avoiding other hits altogether with skillful dodges. 

The two moved with such agility that sometimes only the clashes of weapons were visible. With an overhead strike, Lumi almost managed to catch Titania off-guard. In the last second, the faerie queen raised her arm, catching the blade on her scale-lined gauntlet. 

While the blade was trapped for a moment, Titania delivered a powerful kick to Lumi’s chest, launching her across the battlefield. With a thundering crash, Lumi burst through the side-wall of one of the tall fae buildings that were still under construction, landing in a heap of dust and rubble. 

Titania let out a slight laugh, and a metal frame slid up from her collar, encasing her head in the shape of a fierce helmet—the face of which had a crystal-like section that hid her features from view. The dragonflies could barely capture the scene as Titania lunged forward, assisted by her wings that gave her a burst of speed in the air. In mere seconds, she had crossed a gap of almost a mile and dashed into the building, sliding to a stop. Lumi’s sword was stuck upright, but the fae wasn’t there. It was a trap. Out of preternatural instinct, Titania raised her spear and caught the end of Lumi’s blade. Lumi had dropped down from the shadows above her, and the sword had been dematerialized from across and rematerialized into her hands right before Lumi had begun her sneak attack. 

Titania used her leverage to pull the weapon forward with her gloved hand and slammed her fist into Lumi’s face, followed by a grapple that forced her to fall. The queen kept Lumi pinned beneath her knee and pushed her head down with her free hand, making sure to shove her face into the floor. Titania raised her spear and then thrust toward Lumi’s right arm. But Lumi had moved her arm slightly right before impact, and the spear dug into the floor, cracking it. 

In that moment of surprise, Lumi raised her hands over her head, the claymore appearing in her grasp. She thrusted upward from her prone position, stabbing backward at Titania.

The queen was forced to evade, and Lumi spun to her feet, crouching with her hand on the ground—resembling a sprinter getting ready for a race. Her sword was at the ready in her other hand, and she held it with such ease that the weight didn’t seem to matter to her, despite the tremendous size of the claymore. 

Now Titania was caught without a weapon, and Lumi was flying at her with incredible speed. She swung at Titania, and she slid out of the way, the unbreakable ice of Lumi’s sword cutting right through the stone pillar. The section of the ceiling above them collapsed, and Titania caught a piece of falling debris and threw it with full force at one of the giant windows. The glass shattered into a million fragments, and Titania was outside of the building before the ceiling had finished collapsing. 

Lumi had jumped out a window on the side, and the two opponents floated in the air for a moment before Titania’s spear appeared in her hands. 

Unseen by her opponent, Titania’s lips pulled themselves into a tight, condescending smile. “I can do the same thing as you, little girl. Dematerializing your weapon is considered somewhat of a low blow around here.”

The queen’s voice came out altered from behind the helmet, much deeper and intimidating than the usual. 

“There’s no such thing as honor on the battlefield—just who lives and who dies,” Lumi stated.

“Have you seen a battlefield with your own eyes?” Titania asked. “You’ve been Devesh’s personal pet since you first arrived here. The battlefield is not something you wish to see, I assure you.” 

“I have seen so much. Ever since I was born, I have seen nothing but a battlefield. My people were slaughtered by the dogs of the Autumn Court. None of us knew if we would live to see the next sunrise. My mother died trying to smuggle me to safety. Her dead body shielded me from the other soldiers, who couldn’t tell I was there. I had been so hungry and so tired that I had fallen asleep as she was carrying me.” Lumi looked down at her palm, which was covered in a long scar. 

She pulled up her sleeve, revealing more scars that ran down the length of her arm. They looked like marks done by a knife. “I had spent most of my life as a slave to the Autumn Court, forced to do their bidding and punished when I did not. They would cut into my skin with iron knives—not enough to kill me, but enough to cause me mind-numbing pain from my blood’s reaction to the poison. They would do this to me every week in order to ‘keep me in my place,’ regardless of any mistakes I made, or didn’t make. So do not lecture me about wars and battlefields and death. I’ve had more than my fair share of that experience, and I wish...

“I wish all of you would just…STOP,” Lumi yelled. She disappeared from sight, moving faster than anyone had seen her before. Slight flashes of an icy blade appeared around Titania as Lumi launched a storm of strikes at her. Titania didn’t move, spinning her spear around her body and deflecting the near-invisible slashes and thrusts of Lumi’s claymore. 

“My my. Don’t lose your temper,” Titania said over the clanging and clashing of weapons. “It was a simple question, my dear.” 

Jolan looked away from the screen, a melancholic look across his face. “I had never been an Autumn Soldier myself, but I know Lumi bears resentment to the court I used to belong to. I don’t think she can ever forgive my people—nor should she. We did terrible things in our pursuit of the advancement of our civilization. I can never atone for the actions of my people, but I can try to make up for it as best I can.” He sighed. “I know she will never see me as her true friend, not in this lifetime. Perhaps in our next births, we can be together as companions without the divide between us.” 

“I wouldn’t give up on your connection in this lifetime just yet, Jolan,” Yara said. “You still have many decades yet to build something with her.”

Jolan blinked multiple times, then turned his gaze toward the screen to watch Lumi. “Yes…I’ll keep your words close to my heart. It’s not over yet—you’re right.”

“Mhm.” Yara nodded and smiled, then continued to gaze upon the intense fight that showed no signs of slowing down. Lumi’s aggression had increased by ten fold, and she was now chasing Titania across the skies. 

“She’s letting her anger get the best of her,” Dev said in a quiet tone, the first time he’d spoken since the fight began. 

Yara glanced at him. “She has the right to be angry, you know.”

“She has every right to be angry. She bears the anger of her entire family, the hopes and dreams of the entire Winter Court. But letting her emotions spiral out of control will not serve her current goal.” Dev looked worried. “Titania is no regular foe. I know she has something up her sleeve.”

Titania was flying backwards, Lumi hot on her trail. The queen twirled both her illusory pistols out from their sheaths and into her hands, sending blasts of purple light at Lumi. 

Lumi swerved out of the way, avoiding the first volley of bullets and using her sword to block the rest as she closed the gap. In a last second maneuver, Lumi increased her speed and reached Titania, bringing her claymore down into Titania’s side, drawing blood for the first time.

Titania’s helmet split open, revealing her face once again. Her expression was cold, yet she held a very slight smirk. She held Lumi’s blade with her right hand, preventing it from digging further into her side, but in her left hand—the spear had materialized. 

Lumi gasped in shock as she realized the spear had already gone through her chest. Titania had left a slight opening and summoned her spear right as Lumi had come within striking range—impaling her with the weapon before it had even materialized completely. Titania looked into her eyes, and Lumi choked out in pain, blue blood spilling from her mouth. 

“You were right about honor, little one,” Titania said as Lumi gasped for air. “It’s simply a farce created by the ruling class to ease the minds of its soldiers as they commit atrocities in the name of their lord.”

Yara, Jolan and Dev stared at the screen, their eyes wide. Yara covered her mouth.

“My dear Oberon is victorious once again,” Queen Titania said, her laugh echoing throughout the viewing area right before the dragonfly feeds shut off.