Sofalia smiles to herself. She is now alone on her throne as the Advisor heeds her request. Somewhere in the shadows, he must be hiding and watching her from a safe distance.
She recalls the day she learns about him, about his ridiculous story of coming from a different realm. Even now, she is suspicious of its realness. The only reason she believes half of the ridiculous tale is because of Fenrir’s reminder that he may be an existence like Fenrir, and because of the knowledge he shares in the past five years.
There is a subtle calculation in her actions, but as the future Queen of Blumend, this is only natural. She cannot have it that Varen the Third carries everything. If he does, she might as well instate him as King instead of her.
The sky gradually becomes darker. Sofalia understands that they must be here. The change in weather phenomenon can only be attributed to Magic Sky, a mage who specializes in various Sky Magics.
Sofalia draws Brilden, the rapier from her waist in preparation for combat. Shortly after, the Harpy Queen appears. Her green hair sways left and right as she bounces in the air, and her green wings extending from her back flutters softly while she descends.
“Hello their~ milady…” She greets Sofalia as if singing. There is a mysterious power in her voice, and Sofalia understands that it must be one of her Bloodline Arts.
The power of Legacies is truly mysterious in that they can change the biological aspects of a meager human to this extent. The glorious wings stretching from behind her are like a work of art for their beauty alone. Small feathers like jade stretch out from the Harpy Queen’s ear contributing a unique aesthetic, canine tooth peeks out from her lips giving her an impression of wildness, and then there are those beastly eyes that seem to penetrate her every secret.
Sofalia has come to understand that the Harpy Queen’s arrival is to do some recon on what she is up to. Considering the beastly eyes that seem to possess the same capacity as Tinel’s sense of smell, Sofalia confirms that the Harpy Queen is here for scouting duties. “Where are the others?”
“What do you mean?” The Harpy Queen quickly replies, playing innocent when in fact, they must be colluding already. “It is a respectable duel for the name of Trinity of the Sky, I won’t bring my soldiers if you know what I mean… and I am willing to wage my share of the title, milady, however, I want something of equivalent value if we are to make a bet…”
Sofalia frowns, finding the Harpy Queen’s actions sly. Even if she is pretending, and actually has intentions to murder her, she is still doing something like this. “What do you want?”
“Archduke…” The Harpy Queen grins.
Archduke is a realm above Duke. The former can only be granted to those who share the royal blood. In a sense, the Harpy Queen is provoking her, but considering the weight of Trinity of the Sky, then wagering the title of Archduke is really of equivalent value.
The pretenses are tiring Sofalia. In the past five years, she continues to train, learn skills, and keep a low profile. Occasionally, she appears on banquets and more important responsibilities either belonging from the dark or the light.
Thus, Sofalia is overly aware of the Harpy Queen’s nature— an Underworld Crime Boss who sees the opportunity to make quick money out of Blumend.
“This is an opportunity…” Sofalia realizes as this one-on-one is favorable to her. She must attack in a way that will catch the Harpy Queen and the other two who are hiding off-guard.
Azure translucent frost elements dwell on her rapier. Her magic build focuses on ice magic, rune magic, and reinforcement magic. Meanwhile, her martial arts focus on swordsmanship, footwork, and evasion.
Skill— Frost Magic: Thorn of Ice
The frost magic becomes more vivid as the translucent foggy white that exudes from her rapier becomes like the flames’ tongue, except it is not red, but blue. In the blink of an eye, Sofalia reappears in front of the Harpy Queen.
Skill— Sword Stance: Brittle Point
The rapier strikes down at the Harpy Queen at incredible speeds, but the Harpy Queen is faster. The moment Sofalia realizes that she hits nothing, she activates another skill in succession, not a microsecond afar from the also skill she executes.
Skill— Frost Magic: Breath of Frost
Every time she strikes with her magic, a blizzard will automatically come in succession. Since her rapier is under the effects of magical reinforcement, every strike she unleashes from her rapier will summon a blizzard.
The Harpy Queen is able to dodge the initial strike, but the gap that she is able to win for herself is easily taken back by Sofalia.
Frost elements tremble in fury from the tip of Sofalia’s Brilden, and instantly, a storm of ice chases the Harpy Queen down. The Harpy Queen snickers at the sight of the magic. Her beastly eyes easily see through the flaws in the weakness of the magic.
Skill— Wing Art: Tempest Strike
The Harpy Queen’s wings enlarge and with a single flap, it summons furious winds which easily cuts through and dispels the blizzard. “Ah~~” She moans. “Foolish girl, I am the nightmare of mages!”
Skill— Talon Art: Tempest Claws
Her hands transform into a Harpy’s talons, her every finger sporting sharp talon-like weapons that specialize in shredding its enemies. It has similar effects to Breathe of Frost as Tempest Claws can summon Tempest with its every strike.
The only difference is that Tempest Claws is not restricted by mana.
Skill— Talon Art: Wind Slash
With a flurry, the Harpy Queen safely attacks from a distance testing Sofalia’s abilities. Invisible winds form equally indiscernible heavily pressurize crescent cutting force. The only indication these deadly wind slashes are even here is because of the occasional summoning of furious winds from the Tempest Claws at every strike and even a few forming into tornadoes.
The ruined castle is already in irreparable shambles by this point.
Sofalia calmly defends by summoning Ice Shields consecutively. They are low-level magic, but with her level and mastery of the skill comes the qualitative change of even the most insignificant magic. She masterfully controls the Ice Shields to defend and move.
With the Ice Shields, Sofalia uses them as platforms so that she can try shortening the distance with the Harpy Queen. This time, it has become a battle of range. The Harpy Queen is shamelessly kiting Sofalia.
Yet.
The Harpy Queen feels annoyed as her every attack seems to be not working. It is because occasionally, on top of the layered Ice Shields, Sofalia is also summoning blizzards from her rapier by striking empty air through Breath of Frost.
Sofalia is steady, and her emotions seem to be unaffected.
Slowly, Sofalia is gaining distance. The advantage that the Harpy Queen has is now weakening. It is only a matter of time for Sofalia to reach her. Alas, it is too much wishful thinking on the Harpy Queen's part that this will be easy.
“That’s fine, I have done my scouting responsibilities now. I should leave it to the other two.” Her thoughts aside, she verily wants to kill Sofalia by herself. That way, she will have more negotiation power against Skyvan and Eslan.
Her eyes see all through the weaknesses of the skills that Sofalia throws at her. Even the occasional Ice Shields and Blizzards can be easily cut through with her Talons. However, the Harpy Queen is afraid to engage in close combat as her eyes are warning her severely that her close combat abilities fall short of Sofalia.
Thus, it is only right that she calls her back up to finish things quickly. She just needs an opportunity to dive in and slash her talons against her.
When the Harpy Queen is about to signal the other two who are hiding with her Skill— Cry Art: Call, something strange happens. Sofalia suddenly vanishes in the wind under the cover of her own blizzard.
Skill— Movement Stance: Silver Flash
“Caught you,” Those two words send a chill down the Harpy Queen’s spine as she hears Sofalia's voice from behind her. She tries to escape, but from above, below, front, and to the sides comes the instantaneous summoning of Ice Shields which seems to be waiting just right there.
Skill— Sword Stance: Brittle Point
A rapier pierces the Harpy Queen’s chest from the back, and frost elements begin to invade her body. She dully glances at the rapier peeking out of her bountiful chest. From within, her veins, organs, blood, and everything start freezing. With a blizzard from within, the Harpy Queen implodes into crimson and frozen chunks of bird meat.
Sofalia strikes at the empty air once more, causing a blizzard to occur. She hides herself under the blizzard, taking her time to recover. The lessons she takes from Van the Third, or the PVP guidelines as he likes to call them, showcase themselves in all of their glory.
She doesn’t even need to use her ultimate and she is able to deal with the Harpy Queen like that, surely, the remaining two will be a more difficult opponent. For some reason, she is feeling wronged that this is kind of easy. “The Harpy Queen wasn’t even able to use her Ultimate…”
Recalling the moment Brilden stabs the Harpy Queen from the back, she realizes that she must be staining the honor of a warrior. But if it is her Advisor, he will argue that it is part of being a warrior to throw the best strategy you have at your enemies.
Moreover, Sofalia is having a misunderstanding that the Ultimate Skills are easy to acquire, maybe because of being around Van the Third who can magically pull Ultimate Skills from even the most random places.
Sofalia’s short rest comes to a stop as her blizzard dies down. She remains standing on an Ice Shield to maintain altitude. She is aware that the other two are as much prolific Aerial Combatants as the Harpy Queen.
