chapter 245

Remedios' arrival back in Kalinsha led to her howling like an angry she-wolf, "How?! How?! How?!" She demanded to know as if anybody had the answer, "She got around us and captured it… no… No, that was why her army seemed so small! Damn it!" She swore again, her hands grabbed at her dark brown hair and pulled, threatening to tear it out in clumps.

The walls were manned with demi-humans, and even at a glance it was obvious, 'There are a lot of them… and worse, there are people in there…' Remedios cursed and clenched her hand around the sacred sword, one of the Kingdom's treasures, listening to the ringing bell of the city and the noise of various demihumans taking up their battle positions, her pulse raced and her blood burned inside her. The vein in her forehead throbbed, her face flushed red with fury.

Worse… 'They've got all those provisions… everything we stored, not to mention all the people I spent all that time evacuating… everything we tried to keep them from, and just like that, they have it! We don't have enough supplies or equipment for a siege, but even I know if I try to withdraw, they can just chase me down…'

In a word, it was bad, and Remedios knew it was bad.

Her brow furrowed as she tried to slog through her emotions to reach for the hopeful safe ground of solutions.

But that was brought up short when she saw the least likely thing in the world. 'Is that… her?!' Remedios did a double take, it seemed impossible, but from atop the wall of the city she saw a single winged figure jump down and land in front of the gate.

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"Remedios!" Neia roared, her voice filled the air as if it came from a dragon's own maw, "Remedios!" She called out again across the long divide between the two.

"Remedios! You killed To'Raven! I sought peace, you asked for war! Are you happy now you've got your way?! A handful of orcs and I have your wall, your city, tens of thousands of humans building my city and my Kingdom! Was that the trade you wanted?!" Neia yelled the taunt back at her one time idol.

Remedios fumed.

"Should we massacre you?! Remember the wall? Or does a red stain on a stone remember that much?!" Neia taunted her again, and Neia smiled at herself. 'This is so damn petty… but… I can't help but enjoy baiting this bitch…' She briefly mused.

"You can't win! But how about I give you a shot at what you really want?!" Neia offered with a proud cry that was celebrated by the cheering of her demi-human army within the city.

"Come and get me! A duel! I win, your army surrenders! I lose, well I'm sure you know how it goes!" Neia stretched out her hand and made a small 'come hither' gesture.

"Or are you afraid?!" Neia shouted out again, "Afraid to fight someone who isn't tied to a post?!"

She could feel the hate boring through her from where she could see Remedios on her horse.

'If she does nothing, her army's fighting spirit is as good as broken, and they're already in a bad spot even without knowing about my ambush.' Neia could only smile with contentment and fall silent then, she waited, and waited.

The weight of the moment hung thick in the air, the army arrayed before fallen Kalinsha was the majority of the army in the east, anyone would be hesitant about losing it…

"Don't forget, we've still got your mother and father!" Remedios shouted in a blind rage.

Neia winced. But fired back, "And I've got thousands of mothers and fathers… So what will it be?!"

Remedios winced and seethed, "A duel then!"

"Agreed!" Neia walked closer to Remedios' lines, stopping at the halfway point between the two.

Remedios began to trot her horse forward, it cantered without fear, seemingly oblivious to the possibility of its death, 'Poor dumb animal.' Remedios briefly sympathized and patted the horse's powerful pure white neck as she closed the gap between herself and the Queen of Frost.

She stopped when she was twenty paces away, her armor gleamed in the light, the tripointed symbol of her Majesty stood out prominently on her chest, her armored legs and arms looked no stronger than anyone else's at a glance… but Neia knew the truth. 'She's monstrously strong, always has been, but then… so am I.'

Neia bared her teeth, the sharp fangs replacing the ones she had what felt like a lifetime ago.

"You always were an animal." Remedios said as she put her helmet on her head and took up a straight stance holding her broadsword in front of herself. "All the dragon did was reveal what was already there."

Neia clicked her talons together and brought her wings in, "I am what I am because you made it so… this is all your doing, Remedios." She said while drawing an arrow from the quiver on her back. "This however, is the last time you'll be doing anything."

The martial arts of both were activated so fast that nobody on either side was sure who was saying what.

[Greater Agility Boost].

[Fortress].

[True Flight].

[Lesser Strength].

[Flow Acceleration].

[Lesser Hardening].

[Ability Boost].

Neia loosed her arrows as fast as she could from her position, but Remedios was batting them out of the way with her sword, a cry of bloodlust in her throat, her eyes fixed on her prey, the armies of both commanders cheering their side on, but neither champion heard or saw anything but their own opponent. The arrows came faster, and Remedios began smacking them out of the way with her open hand as she closed the killing distance.

She felt a sting in her knee as an arrow she failed to notice struck her squarely in the center, but she didn't even slow down, 'So close!' Remedios cried out in her head as the promise of dragonid bloodshed loomed large in her mind.

Neia avoided the strike, diving away, drawing more arrows, and loosing them as fast as before, striking at Remedios' arms and legs, the Paladin screamed out her frustration, "Stop running!"

Neia only fired more, [Boost shot]. She said, imbuing the arrow with some of her mana, the infuriated Remedios went to bat the arrow out of the way like before…

To her, it all seemed to take place in slow motion, her brown eyes widened, the arrow was glowing, coming at her like a shooting star, her sword swept out to stop it, only for the arrow to go past. She felt it impact her helmet, and howled with pain, she saw the sky as she began sailing backward, her hand still clenching her sword, her body arched as her helmet was sent flying, a crumpled, broken mess that rolled far, far away from the fight.

The demi-humans' cheers only egged Remedios on. "Damn you!" She shouted when she felt the ground thud against her back and she finally slid to a stop.

Neia's smile of triumph when her arrow hit, died on her face when she heard Remedios curse. 'Adamantite helmet… it has to be…' She thought as the woman stood and dashed toward her with rage fueled speed, the sword of the former head of the Paladin Order rose in a slash that would cut Neia from thigh to throat if it were allowed, and the dragonid Queen jumped backward, releasing her bow. The sword cut through it, severing the string and the arch in one strike.

A simple thing, merely a tool, but it belonged to Neia, and Remedios had broken it. The two could almost not believe it occurred, Neia stared down at it, dumbstruck for just a moment as Remedios picked it up and held it aloft like a trophy.

Her soldiers cheered, while Neia's rumbled and raged.

"You think you disarmed me?! No… not even close!" Neia snarled and charged forward.

"It doesn't matter! You're dead either way! Holy Strike!" Remedios yelled and white light struck with Remedios's gesture of her blade, the pure white of the whitest cloud surrounded and hid Neia from view. "That's it for you! It's over! It's over for you, you animal!" The paladin shouted, and then, as cheers went up from the humans and moans of horror from the demi-humans, Remedios took a step back in horror, for she heard...

Laughter.

"Really? This is your trump card? That barely hurt at all!" Neia said and charged out of the light as it began to shrink and fade away, emerging from it as if she were born there, Neia's wings batted and drew her forward, Remedios began to swing her sword like mad, and Neia swung her claws, they batted against one another, deflecting blows, ducking and dodging. Neia kicked at Remedios' legs, particularly at the knee she struck before, sending Remedios briefly down to the injured knee, she shouted her taunt. "Kneel to the claw of the Queen of Frost!" Neia mocked.

"How did you not die?! You're evil!" Remedios shouted the question and shot up, using her forehead to strike Neia's nose and sending a spray of blood down to the ground. 'She burned villages and towns, destroyed the wall, invaded our country, she has to be evil?!' Remedios's mind went nearly mad from her confusion.

"No, I'm not. And I never was." Neia said as she and Remedios straightened up. "You can fall knowing that you were wrong!" Neia hissed out, wiped her face, and flew. Her wings carried her close to the woman, and Remedios' sword went up, and then came down to end it all. Neia caught Remedios' hand at the wrist, got her own feet under her in the nick of time, between the strike and stopping it… they were both stopped cold.

The ground burst around them as they sank into it with the force of the blow, it felt as if the world cracked, Neia felt herself sinking down to one knee.

Remedios was smiling, wild, fanatical, she put her other hand on the sword, "Kneel before Her Majesty's symbol, animal… and it will be a quick death this time!" Remedios grunted out.

They shook, the struggle held them both fast. Both armies held their breath as they could feel the fight coming to an end.

Neia stared up at Remedios, focusing the natural terror of her eyes on the woman, "You have… t-terrible breath… Remedios." Neia huffed, and it was such an 'off' thing to say, that Remedios said nothing back to it.

Her eyes widened however when Neia looked up at her and said, "But mine… is worse!" She then exhaled, breathing frost into Remedios's face, the freezing breath began to blister the skin, turning it red, cracking it, breaking it, burning the paladin with cold in her eyes, nose, cheeks, and even inside her mouth.

Remedios howled at the sudden pain, tilting her head back, and Neia used the leverage of the momentary lapse to clench her taloned fingers onto Remedios' finger, ripping several of them free from the hand, the sword tumbled away to embed itself into the ground.

She then jumped toward the staggering paladin, and jammed her talons into Remedios' eyes.

The pain lanced through the paladin, tearing away the world of sight and leaving only the world of pain. She used her good hand to land a punch at Neia's torso, and it staggered the Queen of Frost back, but the pain and blindness were still present in the Paladin.

Neia clutched her body for a moment, the bruises and cuts she had were all like shattered glass that was on fire, her ribs, 'I think she broke six of them…' The Queen of Frost realized, and clutched the injured place, she closed her hand up, and began to punch in return, her blows hit like hammers against Remedios' face, the sound of crunching bones followed every strike as blood stained the scaled fingers of Neia's hand, and the Paladin finally went limp, falling onto her back.

Neia swayed once, 'I think that might have torn more than I thought… internal bleeding… this isn't good…' She told herself, but raised her fist into the air. The demi-humans watching cheered the victory loud enough that the sky itself might have gone deaf from the noise.

Neia's wings sprang out wide as she turned to the humans, she grabbed the limp and bloody head of Remedios by her brown and now very wet hair, and held the woman up, "Surrender! Or join her!" She then began to beat her wings, and flew back toward the city, a tiny groan from the unconscious woman revealed that life still hung by a thread, but Neia had what she wanted.

'I have my target, my prisoner, and my prize… at last!' She thought with glee, and wondered as a mere afterthought, what Remedios' army would do, but to it the thought was added that... 'It doesn't matter, I've already won.'