The silence that followed the Thunderjaw Wyvern's crash was not one of peace, but the terrifying momentary lull before a cataclysm. Sebastian, masked and armed, found himself isolated on a narrow, icy ledge hundreds of feet below the main battle line. His Veil of the Silent Sentinel armor was scored and dusted with rock, and the dull ache from the mana-burn injury in his side was a constant, draining presence. He stood over the momentarily incapacitated Thunderjaw Wyvern, his Twin Starfang Blades—Dawn and Dusk—drawn and radiating faint, alternating energies.
The attention of the Northern forces, initially divided by the sheer chaos of the Southern and Eastern assaults, immediately snapped to the grounded leader of the Masked Plunderers.
Above him, the majestic, azure-winged Aurorawing Dragon circled, its rider, Princess Anya Frosthelm, a vision of cold elegance and lethal purpose. She had seen the aerial strike from Prince Ashmed and recognized the opportunity. The Plunderers' leader was vulnerable, and if the Wyvern could be permanently disabled, the Ice treasure was hers.
Princess Anya's voice, clear and cold, cut through the din of the fighting. "The leader is grounded! His aerial companion is weak! Finish the Wyvern! Aurorawing Dragon, prepare the Frost-Shatter Lance!"
The Aurorawing Dragon gathered its energy, a wicked, spiraling spike of pure ice forming at its snout, aimed directly at the Wyvern's immobilized body.
Sebastian, witnessing the lethal intent, knew he couldn't afford to have his Thunderjaw Wyvern destroyed—it was too recognizable, too powerful a core companion. He focused his limited remaining mana, projecting a small, sharp burst of energy toward the dragon, aiming to divert the projectile.
But Princess Anya was too skilled. The Aurorawing Dragon simply adjusted its trajectory, maintaining its lock on the Wyvern's head.
Sebastian had no choice. He had to draw the attack to himself.
With a superhuman leap, leveraging the raw, innate strength of his War God Body, Sebastian vaulted over the Wyvern, landing directly between the downed beast and the oncoming ice projectile.
He brought the Midnight Core Aegis shield, which he had recalled moments after the crash, up just as the Frost-Shatter Lance impacted. The force was immense, sending a shuddering vibration through his arms, but the Tier IV shield held, redirecting the residual force away from the Wyvern.
However, the maneuver left him dangerously exposed.
Princess Anya, recognizing the sacrifice, quickly descended. She realized that targeting the beast was impossible while its master defended it. She leaped gracefully from her Aurorawing Dragon's back, landing a mere thirty feet from Sebastian. Her own weapon—a slender, crystalline rapier that hummed with focused cold—was drawn.
"You waste your life force defending a mere beast," Anya stated, her voice devoid of emotion, her beautiful, fierce eyes locked onto his mask. "Hand over the beast-rings and surrender the summit."
Sebastian, though severely fatigued, did not waver. He shifted his stance, the Dawn blade held high, the Dusk blade low—the signature posture of the Unified Twilight Blade Art.
"The surrender of a master is not in my vocabulary," Sebastian replied, his voice a low, mechanical rasp through his Sentinel Facemask. "And the Heart of Ice is not yours to claim."
The duel began without another word—a concentrated, brutal exchange of master-level martial arts in the midst of a Rune-Beast war.
Sebastian struck first, launching into the initial sequence of his style.
"Twilight Draw – Heaven's Threshold!"
With a single, explosive breath, both of his Twin Starfang Blades were unsheathed and crossed. The Dawn blade arced upward in a blinding flash of simulated light, designed to momentarily stun and confuse the opponent's sensory perception. Simultaneously, the Dusk blade descended in a silent, perfectly measured cleave, utilizing the confusion of the light to deliver the killing blow.
Princess Anya, however, was prepared. Her Mythical Talent, Rusalka's Depth, granted her not only exceptional agility but also an almost preternatural awareness of fluid movement and attack patterns. She didn't block the blinding Dawn blade; she used its flash as a reference point, ducking beneath the brilliant arc and meeting the silent Dusk cleave with her rapier, deflecting it with a precise, minimal movement.
Sebastian flowed seamlessly into the next stance.
"Radiant Fang, Fading Claw – Eclipse Fang!"
The Dawn blade lunged forward in a deceptive, aggressive feint, forcing Anya's rapier up to defend her head and chest. As her guard shifted, the Dusk blade vanished from sight, arcing low and wide from Sebastian's blind side, targeting her exposed flank. This was the core principle: distract with brilliance, strike with silence.
Anya was forced onto the defensive. She twisted her body, her Rusalka's Depth talent guiding her movement in a fluid, impossible motion. She managed to parry the Fading Claw with the pommel of her rapier, but the sheer velocity of the Dusk blade opened a score mark on her crystalline armor—a visible failure in her defense.
She pressed her attack, her rapier a streak of freezing light, seeking to exploit the fatigue she could sense radiating from his core injury. She lunged, attempting to use the Water Affinity imbued in her blade to freeze his movements.
Sebastian countered with the defensive stance, Serenade of Light and Silence – "Dual Tranquility." He stopped moving, his breathing dropping to almost nothing. His Dawn blade rotated slowly, perfectly mirroring her incoming strikes, reflecting the light and briefly blinding her. His Dusk blade, meanwhile, absorbed and redirected the kinetic force of her rapier, turning her own momentum against her.
It was a stalemate of technique: Sebastian's perfect, aggressive duality versus Anya's innate, flawless defense.
In a furious exchange, Sebastian executed a feint and then brought both blades forward in a desperate, final parry to drive her back. The Dawn and Dusk blades met Anya's crystalline rapier at a near-perfect perpendicular angle.
SCCCCCHHIIIINNNNGGG!
The force of the impact jarred both of them to the core. Their masks were inches apart. Through the narrow, exposed slits of their visors, their eyes met.
Sebastian was momentarily, fundamentally stunned. He saw not the cold, ruthless determination of a rival prince, but a fierce, captivating fire in her gaze—a depth of resolve that mirrored his own. Her beauty, usually shrouded by her mask, resonated with an intrinsic, terrifying power that shook his focus.
Anya, equally affected, felt a profound, physical shock. She had dueled against many of the greatest warriors in the Northern Kingdoms, but none had possessed the breathtaking artistry and raw, unyielding power of the Unified Twilight Blade Art. She felt an unfamiliar, non-hostile resonance flare between them, a recognition—not of love, but of peerless equal. This man, the feared 'Plunderer,' was not merely a brute; he was a master craftsman of war.
Sebastian, driven by instinct, momentarily broke the stalemate, forcing a sliver of distance. He prepared his ultimate, killing stance.
"Horizon Split – Sundering Line!"
Before Sebastian could launch the devastating twin-strike dash, the sky above them screamed.
The grounded Thunderjaw Wyvern had, with immense effort, managed to channel a violent burst of lightning, desperate to defend its master. Simultaneously, the Aurorawing Dragon, seeing the critical danger to its own master, unleashed a furious Ice Breath.
The two massive elemental blasts met exactly over Sebastian and Anya, canceling each other out but creating a localized elemental explosion—a blinding, chaotic Thunder-Frost Gale that hammered the ledge.
The force was too much. Sebastian and Anya were violently thrown backward, the momentum of the blast forcing them away from the duel.
A loud, piercing scream then tore through the wind: "Traitors! The Western Empire will take the prize while you bicker!"
The massive Aquaros Dragon of Prince Sigismund Laurentias Von Albrechtstein—an evolved, water-based beast—flew past, aiming a devastating stream of pressurized water at the pond holding the Heart of Ice, intending to seize the treasure and escape the battlefield entirely.
The shared threat, and the abrupt end to their duel, forced Sebastian and Anya to momentarily cease hostilities. The war was far from over, and the chaos had only intensified. Sebastian, weakened and injured, knew he had barely escaped the most dangerous duel of his life.