A/N: Believe it or not, this isn't the scene I was talking about, despite it being pretty high up in my want to write list. Well the Hornet one was actually something that I wanted to write the moment I thought of her to the plot. So enjoy!
His weapon met with hers, the sparks of his lightning infused weapon left little if any marks on her needle. Either it was exceptionally made, or the Queen herself was using Soul Wands.
The latter, most likely. He pulled back and swung at the Insect, the weapon was nearly jarred from his grip when she batted it aside. Wardes immediately found himself at the back foot, as the Queen met his swing with jabs and strikes from her needle.
Barely he managed to survive them. The mage back paddled away from her strikes, as he tried to move them away from his body. But for one strike he deflected, she moved her needle fast enough to strike him in another area. Small cuts and nicks appeared on his body, stabbing him just enough to hurt but not enough to fatally wound.
Wardes chanted, and when one thrust was blocked he casted the spell, directly towards her chest.
Wind blew at the Queen, it kicked up the dirt and blood around them, it should've been strong enough to send her flying.
Instead the Insect placed her weapon in front of her and it merely pushed her back. He poured more of his will into the spell, and he saw the Queen slip just slightly.
Wardes cancelled the spell, the blood underneath his feet splashed as he dashed forward as fast as he could. The Sword Wand, still glowing with electricity, stabbed forward towards the skull of the Insect in front of him.
The Queen tilted the weapon just enough.
His weapon came to an abrupt halt, the tip of it slamming into the length of the needle like blade, instead of her skull. Then, just as his weapon touched hers, the Queen swung upwards and Wardes could only silently cry out at his exposed chest.
The needle came down, faster than Wardes could recover from the parry and block it.
So instead, he threw himself out of the path of the weapon.
He held a gag as the mage rolled on the blood of the men that the Queen had killed, but it was enough. Barely he managed to avoid the strike, the tip of her weapon meeting the bloodied ground instead of his body.
Wardes pushed himself off the ground, and quickly he took several steps back, grimacing at the blood on his body before turning his attention back to the Queen.
Slowly, she pulled the weapon from the ground and held it behind her. Her head turned to face him, her movements languid and uncaring.
Wardes had to calm his breathing after a second, while the Queen stood there without any sign of exertion herself.
"Tch," His tongue clicked "You are not taking me as seriously as you should." He warned her.
Those eyes bore into his mask, her needled was pointed his way again, prompting him to take a defensive stance.
"I wish to capture you, traitor, to know of your reason." She informed him, her words echoing around them "If I wanted to, you would have died the moment you walked in."
"Are you sure about that?"
Her arm pulled back, and the next thing Wardes next knew he had to move his hands to deflect something that flew like an arrow to his throat. His shoulder screamed at him at the sudden movement.
But the pain paled at the panic when the Queen suddenly vanished from her spot, only to appear above him. The needle, the projectile that he had deflected into the air, suddenly returned to her grasp and Wardes stared up at the rapidly descending figure of his opponent.
"I am."
[Scene]
The Nail sliced the soldier shoulder to hip, and Sib landed on the ground before the two bisected piece of the soldier did. It moved, charging at another one of the soldiers it's master had told it to fight.
This one carried a longer weapon, only the tip of it had a sharpened edge.
The soldier screamed at its charge and thrusted the weapon forward.
There was a flash of light as Sib swung it's Nail upwards. The Soldier's arm was wrenched upward as he diverted the strike upwards. The wooden shaft near the tip of the weapon couldn't handled such a change in direction and broke apart.
It spun in the air, twirling from the Vessel's strike.
The man stared at it in bewilderment, before that bewilderment turned to panic.
The Vessel pulled back the arm holding the Nail and swung, the metal tip was turned into a projectile and it stabbed itself into the soldier's face, killing the man instantly.
Sib landed on the ground once more, and looked at the corpse in front of it. It looked around and saw the other five that lied around it.
More than a few of the soldiers that it was fighting was avoiding it, just as many of the ones that it's master had called allies.
With it's position being relatively safe, the Vessel looked up. The ship above them continued to fire, some of them fired into the air blasted what little specks that the Vessel could not see, while some would be blasted their way.
Large metal balls slammed into the ground, stopping some of the soldiers it was allies with from charging towards the village, while the purple blasts of energy seemed to try and frighten the ones in the air.
It's gaze followed one of them, the beast had leather wings connected to its arms, Drakes it's Master had informed it. It swerved in the air, fighting the ones that its Master had called Griffin Knights.
The way it moved, it seemed that the Drake and its rider was playing with the Griffin.
And as it did, a Void Tendril suddenly shot up from below. It impaled both Drake and rider, so hard that it stopped its movement in the air.
The gaze shifted from the Drake and down to it's Sibling. Whereas Sib only had five corpses around it, at the moment, Bug was surrounded by the bodies of both soldier and animals. Both Allies and Enemies.
Red and Black seemed to cover the ground underneath it. While the Vessel itself was pitched black with the Void having swallowed it's skull.
The Void Tendril however had not come from the Vessel, instead they grew and thrashed around from the growing puddle of Abyss underneath. The thrashing of the tendrils only matched the continue erratic shaking and shivering of their owner.
Sib averted its gaze and instead turned to its Master, she stayed near the Princess. One hand holding a wand, the other it held the book that she had been writing in for the past few months.
It noticed her panic as she casted her spells, the abyss colored spells continued to fire above them at the airborne enemies.
Strange, it seemed that the more that she casted the spells, the darker the day was getting.
It turned away from its thoughts, when one of the soldier had gathered the courage to suddenly strike.
The Nail was poised to strike, only for it to stay by its side when a steel Valkyrie lunged at it with its spear, followed by flames streaking through the air.
[Scene]
She came down like a guillotine, and Wardes could only praise his own skill and luck as he managed to throw himself backwards before she could impale him.
The moment his eyes landed forward, he saw her lunged at him. He tried to move to intercept the strike, but he was too slow.
The needle stabbed his shoulder, the weapon piercing flesh and bone. The only consolation in Wardes' mind was that the shoulder she had stabbed was the one that had the near lame arm from the burning blood.
Despite the pain, he took a swung at the Queen.
The kick in his chest that freed her needle from his shoulder and sent him sprawling backwards was her response.
Once more he was splashed with blood. Wardes openly grimaced under his mask before he sat up.
To his continued ire the Queen did not take the chance to kill him, instead she stood there with her weapon held behind her. He looked at his injured arm, and found to his relief that he could still move it. Pushing against the bloodied ground, the mage found himself back onto his feet.
The Queen made no move to stop him, instead she stood there.
He felt his anger grow, the spell was chanted under his breath and Wardes pointed his weapon.
A gust of wind, once more fired at the Queen. This time he aimed it lower.
He grinned when the Queen leapt into the air to avoid it. He cancelled the spell and as fast as he could, he chanted another spell.
His Lightning spell came to his lips, he pointed his catalyst at the Queen in the air. In the air she could not dodge, not unless she suddenly unfurled a pair of hidden wings, and if she could not dodge his strike.
"Lightning!"
She would die.
Once more his spell arc through the air, the target was in the air.
The Queen released her grip on her needle.
Her other hand once more plucked at the air around him.
Wardes saw how the area around them seem to shimmer for a bright moment.
Before his Lightning spell struck the Queen.
Once more his eyes widened. The spell, instead of frying the Insect instead circled her, it came close to touching her but the spell merely moved along an invisible path around her instead.
Her leg shot out and kicked the needle like blade through the air. The weapon stabbed onto the blood soaked ground in front of him.
Wardes only had time to look at it before he realised.
Following the same invisible path, the lightning spell moved towards the Needle by his foot. The mage tried to back away, but it was too late.
Pain filled Wardes' world when the lightning grounded itself into the bloody floor and flew into his similarly bloodsoaked clothes.
[Scene]
Henrietta watched as another one of Albion's soldier dropped from the spells thrown by the students.
In her mind she could not help but feel amazed at the display.
Guiche Gramont, the youngest of the family who were well known for their golems, commanded his Valkyries in ways she never would have expected from one who was merely a Dot Mage. Summoning them in their bronze forms, before transmutating them into steel just as quickly.
Alongside him was, if she recalled, a Germanian who showed her prowess with her flames spells.
Her hand moved and conducted the flame as if it was a flying serpent. And while it was not as strong as the one that held the actual moniker of Flame Serpent, the constantly moving flames did well to distract anyone that came close.
No.
The ones that handle them were…
"Urgh, FIREBALL!"
Henrietta winced as another wave of black fire erupted from the wand of her friend. The Unicorn she was riding let out a panicked whiny that she could barely manage to calm down before it started running away.
She looked up at the flames, the sight of it was absurd when she recalled how Louise had told her that she had been a Water Mage. But the sheer heat from the spell…
Louise slumped over slightly, her breathing growing heavy. Despite that one hand still held her wand and, still to her surprise, the Founder's Prayer Book.
Around her the rest of soldiers were trying to hold back the Dragon Knights that had came to attack her, and more than a few Insects had came to assist her as well.
Henrietta wondered.
The Warning that she had received from the Queen of Hallow Nest. Had it been a warning to this attack, or had she just gotten lucky that another calamity was forseen and this was just luck?
Thoughts of the increasing Insect migrations, about how she had been warned just a month prior, the refugee camps that she had preemptive prepared only for them to allow her to reach Tarbes just in time to help.
Her thoughts were cut short as she panicked cries from around her.
She looked up to see cannons fired her way.
Alongside it was the purple beams of energy from the Lexington. But what shocked her the most.
Was that the sky was growing darker and darker.
"It can't be night time already," She muttered, she and her group hadn't been here for that long. But she shelved that thought away, just as the Gramont's Steel Valkyries stood in the way of cannons.
They were punched through, but they arrested the cannon balls momentum. She turned to him, and saw him continue to cast more and more of his summoning spell, trasmutating them and then sending them to block more of the shots and cannonballs. His orange eyes seemed to keep track of the number of his constructs, taking note of when they would perish and then summon one to replace it immediate. As if the moment one of his Valkyries was cut out of existence, he brought another one just in line with his limit.
Above them, the false flame serpent seemingly grew stronger. The Germanian eyes grew frenzied, orange eyes shoot wide as her mouth moved faster and faster. The once distracting flame turned into an actual mimicry of the Flame Snake's signature spell. What the Valkyries did not block, she saw the flames burn and shockingly diverted the cannon balls before they could reach them.
If they managed to get out of Tarbes alive, she needed to award these students with a medal for their bravery skill.
That future thought aside, she glared up at the Lexington. Even now she could still see small specks of Insects hovering around, and more than a few of her own Griffin Knights trying to get close only to be blasted out of the sky with the cannons.
"I trying to think of one…"
Then, she heard Louise mutter ontop of her horse.
The Valliere, the hand holding her wand gripped her head. Her other hand gripping the Prayer Book as if her life depended on it.
"I know it's the most important target," Louise continued to mutter "But what can I do?!"
Her eyes moved across the battlefield, before she deemed it safe to approach her friend.
"Read from the book?" Louise looked annoyed "Bug, there's nothing there except what I wrote already!"
Her eyes flicked to her friend's Familiar, well the first one. It was a distance away from her, and to her surprise the Water Spirit was looking their way. It's white eyes boring into her friend.
Was she talking to it?
The day seemed to grow darker and darker, and Henrietta looked up to see what was happening.
"Fine!" She heard the rustling of pages, but Henrietta looked up to see something she never thought to expect.
The Moons, in broad day light, they were converging together.
"See there's nothing… huh?"
Is was then she was aware of the slight rumbling around them.
[Scene]
Wardes gasped, only by his sheer will that he managed to retain his own consciousness after he had been blasted by his own spell.
His Sword Wand, no longer charged with a lightning spell, planted in front of him as he gripped the handle. He had to keep his grip on it, else the twitching of him limbs and muscles would have sent him sprawling on the.
His breaths came out in short bursts, as if his body was trying to remember how to breath. The mask wasn't helping, but Wardes couldn't think of removing it at the moment.
The Queen stood before him, her blank eyes staring down at his hunched over form. Her hand reached in front of her, and Wardes was only slightly aware of the Needle that had directed his own spell to him was pulled from the ground and then returned to her hand.
Wardes would have accepted it, if at that point the Insect had struck him down at this moment of weakness.
Yet, as he slowly, but surely regained control of his own breathing, as his muscles stopped their uncontrollable spasms. Wardes was still alive.
Pain unimaginable filled his body, but he was alive.
He lifted his head, his eyes wide and frantic as he stared at the Queen. She continued to stare at him.
"Why?!" He snarled out "Why draw this out?!"
"I told you did I not?" She spoke "I wish to capture you. You an ally turned foe, and I want to know the reason."
"Why have you not spared the others then?" He asked "They could easily be the same!"
"Those without magic have long stopped being aware," Her head looked up, staring at some of the Soldiers that Wardes knew had to be controlled by Cromwell's spell "Their mind not their own, pushed forward by a force stronger than they can imagine. They deserved nothing more than a merciful, but quick death."
She lowered her head "And those that were not controlled, had no masks to hide their faces or their goals. They came to hurt as foes, nothing more and nothing less."
Wardes couldn't help but chuckle "So I'm special then, just because of that I'm a traitor?"
"And due to the Void that has touched you, but has not claimed you."
Wardes closed his eyes at the final sentence, he figured that hanging around Cromwell would rub something off from the new Emperor from Albion.
Slowly he pulled his weapon free from the ground, and he was ready to fight.
But then…
The Queen looked up, as the area around them started to shake. He heard the click of a… tongue(?) before she levelled her gaze at him once more.
"It is starting."
Wardes stumbled slightly. There was no change of tone in her voice, but he could feel that it had less weight somehow. There was no power in her words anymore, not that it did not have its own commanding presence.
But the way her body tense, the way she seemed ready to run despite the obvious advantage she had in their fight.
It looked like how a commoner would make way for a Noble.
Wardes suddenly felt his throat seize, and the mage started to cough. He felt his mouth be filled with a liquid, one that he could tell was not his own.
He ripped off his mask and coughed into his hand.
Black sludge, darker than the night sky covered his blood soaked gloves.