Fate Has Decided upon your victory, Cora Lambros. Obtain it.
Seiji’s words echoed through Cora’s mind as she stood on the stage. She ignored the cheers of the crowd, the focused stares from her parents, and especially the tiny bit of nerves still in her gut. The fight was already over, she just needed to finish it. Cora took a deep breath, absently flaring Dragon Fury as she continued to play Seiji’s words back in her mind.
“Cadets, prepare for battle!” Sir Lasko shouted from her father’s balcony.
Fate Has Decided upon your victory.
“Begin!”
Obtain it.
The moment the match started, Selene kicked off in a coat of yellow-white aura, assaulting Cora with a flurry of imperceptibly fast punches. Cora parried as many attacks as she could and dodged a few others, but a few inevitably landed. That was fine though, as these attacks didn’t hurt enough to cause any real damage.
My turn.
Cora ducked out of the way of a second flurry of punches, coating her hand with Dragon Fury and conjuring a Dragon Shot within. Under any other circumstance, she wouldn’t steal Seiji’s technique like Lirio had, but this was a competition. She couldn’t afford to pull any punches. She hooked Selene in the stomach with the Dragon Shot before the girl could start another sudden onslaught. Selene staggered with the explosion, but only for a moment.
Selene flexed her coat of yellow-white aura and roared. She summoned a ball of black aura and threw it straight at Cora, not unlike an actual Dragon Shot. Cora ducked out of the way as Selene formed several more, throwing almost haphazardly as Cora dodged them more and more easily.
If you won’t take this fight seriously, then I’ll just end it early!
In their many fights before the Exam, Selene never fought like this. She didn’t even fight like this in the Hell Pit. Cora couldn’t help but feel a touch of anger rise within her. She’d respected Selene as the only Cadet in the entire Exam that could truly challenge her. Now that they had an opportunity to fight in front of everyone in Haven, she decided now was the time she wanted to fight safe?
Cora scoffed as she dashed toward Selene, dodging the girl’s pathetic wave of blackened fireballs, preparing a Dragon Fire in her right hand. The moment she reached Selene, Cora reached her arm from behind her and unleashed her Dragon Fire… but nothing came out. Selene must’ve registered her confusion, because the girl let out a wicked smile as she spoke.
“Did you forget?” Selene crowed, a hard smile painting her lips. “Always pay attention to your surroundings, Cadet!”
Just as the words left Selene’s mouth, a shadow formed over them both. Selene backpedaled as Cora looked up, horrified to find a halo as wide as her body floating above her. At the center of the yellow-white ring was a ball of what felt like enough aura to destroy a city.
Cora tried to cast her Dragon Stance but wasn’t fast enough. The ball of aura grew to fit in the entire halo, forming a ray of aura that crashed down on Cora like a lightning strike. Cora screamed from the pain. She could still cast Dragon Stance, she knew, but with how powerful this attack was, she’d be out of aura as soon as it ended. Knowing this, she endured the most painful attack she’d ever been struck with.
The moment it ended, she could only hear the roaring applause of the crowd. She felt the judgemental stares of her parents. The pitying look Selene gave her as she continued to gather aura. It was humiliating. How had she let herself fall into such an obvious trap?
She cursed herself, struggling to her feet but was immediately struck by an aura-infused uppercut from Selene. When had she even gotten there? Selene’s attacks were slower, far easier to predict, and yet Cora couldn’t dodge them. She couldn’t use Dragon Stance to ignore them. All she could do was get hit and try to dodge.
Cora gathered Dragon Fists in her hands just as she’d trained Seiji to do during their first training session and struck Selene’s exposed side. Selene sidestepped it, throwing a bomb of pitch black at her in response. Cora guarded it with as little aura as she could spare and threw a Dragon Shot at her blind spot. Selene turned, swatting the blast away and closing the distance with a single step. She leaned in close.
“I thought you were better than this, Cora.”
With that, she kicked Cora across the stage.
The audience’s cheers were deafening. She knew her parents were likely disappointed. What would Endora think of this whenever she saw it? She’d trained her for the entire Exam for it to end like this?
End? Since when do I think about the end?
From the moment she’d been born, Cora was expected to be great. She’d fought with the best tutors in the world, learned from the smartest minds, dreamt of standing beside the most prolific Valkyries in existence.
I don’t want to stand beside them. I want to stand ahead of them.
“Only the weak deal in possibilities!”
Cora readjusted her thoughts as she recalled Seiji’s words. She thought of Endora, and how the people of Haven viewed her as their friend. For many, Endora was the closest they would ever be to a Valkyrie. She thought of her mother, the strongest Valkyrie in recorded history. Cora didn’t want to stand ahead of them. She already was.
How often did she lose? Cora could hardly remember a time she lost a fight in her life. She remembered the Botanist’s Bond Event. The looks of fear the Servants gave her. The looks of resignation the Cadets gave her. She remembered the looks of defiance the Alex Twins had given her. It’d filled Cora with a feeling of rightness when she made Alexandra go down. No, she didn’t make Alexandra go down, Cora made her submit.
“Fate Has Decided upon your victory, Cora Lambros. Obtain it.”
Of course Fate decided on her victory. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Be it a peasant, a king, a god, or the whims of Fate, it was the nature of all living things to submit to Cora Lambros.
Obtain it…
Cora scoffed as she rose to her feet. She didn’t need to obtain anything. Right now, she had a single goal, make Selene submit. Selene had the nerve to look down on her, to defy her, to do anything other than throw herself on the floor and await judgment. As much as it bothered Cora, she supposed it was necessary. She’d already informed most of her subjects of their position at Botanist’s Bond Event, but Selene hadn’t been at the Botanist’s Bond Event. Cora could cut her a little slack. Regardless, that gave the girl no excuse to so openly defy her. Sometimes, people forgot their place. It was a Queen’s responsibility to remind them.
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Selene watched Cora lay on the ground for a minute straight, surprised Sir Lasko hadn’t ended the fight. Sure, she was still breathing, but there was no way she was getting up. She’d put enough aura in her attacks to kill Lirio, and if that boy was anything he was resilient.
As she lay sprawled out on the stage of the Coliseum, Selene could only describe her emotions as bewildered. Cora seemed to be having a conversation with herself in her own head. Her eyes were closed, her blue aura formed then dissipated with each breath, and her fists were clenched like she was about to do something. Selene could practically feel her master yelling at her to finish the battle, but Selene… couldn’t. She couldn’t explain what was holding her back, but it felt as if some invisible force prevented that. Attacking Cora would just be wrong in a way she couldn’t under–
Cora’s blue aura blazed like an inferno as she rose from her spot on the stage. How? Just a moment ago she fought like she’d been completely drained of her aura. There was no way she had that much in reserve. Selene shook herself. She had no time to gawk. She coated herself in her Royal Armor and sped off.
Cora didn’t move an inch. Selene had to fight the urge to dodge, but she managed to land a kick in her opponent’s midsection. Bewilderment slowly turned to caution when Cora didn’t flinch at the attack. She looked down at it, hardly moving her head, then back up at Selene.
“What are you doing?”
It hardly sounded like a question. Everything began to connect in Selene’s mind like puzzle pieces clicking into place. She’d heard her master mention that fighters on the brink of death tended to be the most dangerous. Cora wasn’t at risk of dying, though. Sure, her Royal Decree had almost knocked her out, but they both had likely taken stronger attacks than that. Besides, there was no way they were allowed to–
Selene went flying as Cora kneed her faster than she could react. Cora was there before she could land, running alongside her and grabbing her by the horns. Selene tried to form a Royal Shadow in her hand but was too slow as Cora slammed her into the stage before the black ball could form. As she looked up at Cora, Selene had expected to find a look of pride or even smug satisfaction. When she was met with a look of pure rage, Selene began to sweat.
She rolled out of the way of a blue ball of fire Cora threw. Where she’d just been there was now a tiny crater in the stage. Selene’s most powerful attack hadn’t formed a crater. Cora continued to throw those bomb attacks, each one barely missing and forming a crater wherever they detonated.
I can’t let this go on much longer!
If any of those attacks landed, Selene knew it’d be over for her. She didn’t know Cora had this much in reserve, but letting Cora waste her energy simply wasn’t viable when she was starting to run out of her own. She needed to finish this, and she needed to finish it–
The entire Coliseum shook as Cora gathered aura. For just a moment, Selene froze. It felt as if her entire body had just given up, just like that. She cursed herself for her own cowardice but managed to recall her training. The instant she put up her Royal Shield, the entire stage was enveloped by blue fire. Even though the yellow-white shield stood tall, aura splitting behind its ten-foot height, she still fell back from the sheer force of the technique. She’d never seen an attack like this from Cora. Hell, she’d never seen it from Queen Eir. When did she–
“Submit!”
Cora’s voice echoed through the Coliseum as the flames dissipated. Selene spared a moment to look over the audience, glad to know they’d been protected by an invisible field of aura. Before she could turn back, Cora blasted Selene’s Royal Shield with a deafening explosion of blue fire. Selene instinctively yelped.
“Submit!”
To Selene’s utter horror, her Royal Shield, the physical embodiment of protection she’d developed as a teenager, had begun to crack. It only did that when the attacks were lethal. Another deafening explosion and more cracks spidered their way across the tall shield.
“Submit!”
Selene yelped again, fight fully drained from her body. She felt like she did when she was a girl, hiding in her room with her siblings. She’d tell them that her scars were a mark of pride. Real Valkyries had bodies full of scars. When you were a protector, you got hurt. She’d decided not to tell them how terrified she felt when she got them, though. You never knew when the next attack would be the one that killed you. Especially when the attacker was–
“Submit!”
Another explosion, and the entire shield was webbed with cracks. Selene felt the same fear now that she did when she was a girl. She thought she’d gotten stronger. She thought she’d moved past that fear. She was powerful enough that if anyone threatened her family, she could deal with it personally. And yet, looking up at Cora, she felt a long suppressed terror take hold of her once again. She wasn’t a Valkyrie Cadet anymore, she was a scared little girl. Tears formed in her eyes as she looked up at Cora, terrified of what was about to come.
Will this next attack be the one that kills me?
“Submit!”
When Cora struck Selene’s Royal Shield again, it shattered like glass. Selene stared up at Cora with misted eyes, unable to run or defend herself. Cora trudged closer with a look of absolute power she’d only ever seen in Queen Eir.
She stopped at Selene’s feet and formed claws with both of her hands. Cora loomed over Selene, staring down at her with stone-set eyes. Selene closed her eyes, awaiting Cora’s judgment. Rather than a deathblow, she was met only by a single word.
“Good.”
With that, Cora’s eyes slowly became more and more distant, but Selene hardly registered. When Cora fell into her trembling lap, she didn’t look. When Sir Lasko began to speak, she didn’t hear it. When the black ball formed in front of her, she didn’t even speak. Her mind only continued to move when she was teleported back into her room by Miss Thea.
That… who was that? Selene vaguely remembered Cora looking like that for a brief moment during the Hell Pit, but she hadn’t turned into that. What happened for her to become so terrifying? Selene played back as many possibilities as she could think of. She was the daughter of Queen Eir and King Vassilis, but neither of them felt like–
Her Servant!
She remembered Seiji Otsuki. Wasn’t he an assassin in his old life? He talked about killing people for fun back on his home planet. Sure, she put on a good face since they were allies, but that boy disgusted him. She’d met plenty of his type, and none of them had ever become more than unpredictable murderous lunatics. If he’d gotten to Cora… Selene shuttered. If Cora had come out the gate with the aura she had at the end of the fight, she would’ve won with no effort. By the time the Final Exhibition came, it’d be too late.
“Selene! Please, talk to me! Are you alright?”
Lirio had been pleading with her from the moment she returned to their waiting room. He held her shoulders now, and she truly appreciated the comfort. She looked into his hazel eyes as he looked back into hers. Selene truly hoped he could feel her urgency. There was only one way they’d be able to defeat Cora and that little devil in the Final Exhibition. She wrapped her arms around his waist and spoke as earnestly as she could manage through her slowly retreating nerves.
“Lirio, my love, I need you to defeat Seiji Otsuki. If we don’t get the Favorite’s Rites, we can’t beat them.”
She felt her heartbeat quicken at that. Before she could get lost in worry, Lirio loosened his grip on her shoulders and pulled her into a kiss. Selene couldn’t stop her tears from flowing. Today had been a long day. She melted into him, sobbing into his chest as she let out her stress and nerves. He stroked her head and spoke softly.
“I swear to you, my love, I will defeat him.”