“Let’s clip those wings, then!” Karl yelled.

Karl swung next to Lillian - he was aiming for the wings on her back. He’s trying to ground her like that? I thought.

Lillian’s strike landed, though it was a glancing blow. Her aim was thrown off by her surprise at Karl’s swing. She still did a bit of damage, though. His HP was down to 1345. However, that was the lesser of his issues.

Lillian flew back up into the sky, and then looked over her shoulder where Karl tried to swing at her wings. They were unaffected by his swing.

“Looks like you can’t damage them…” she muttered.

“Nngh, you got me there, yeah…” Karl winced.

Some blood started to come out of the cut Lillian left.

“Yeah, that hurts,” he added.

“Don’t get distracted now!” Lillian called out.

She flew down for another pass which Karl dodged. She flew back out and stopped.

“You’re good at dodging me. Seems time to change it up.”

Lillian started to make her approach, but this time she did so slowly. Just before she came within Karl’s striking distance was when she reached near-ground level and readied Mana Blade. Karl readied his sword for Lillian’s approach. 

Lillian swung her blade at Karl while he blocked. She wasn’t actually on the ground, instead floating above it and using her flight abilities to move around to try to find an opening. Karl, meanwhile, tried his best to parry Lillian’s attacks. He’s disadvantaged in speed and mobility. However…

After learning Lillian’s timing on her strikes, eventually he deliberately pushed forward on one of his parries in timing with her strike. Lillian went flying back from his push - she wasn’t grounded and Karl had the strength advantage.

“This isn’t going well for me,” Karl said.

“Hmm… are you going to go on the offensive at some point, Karl?” Lillian asked.

Karl looked at her as she floated in the air in front of him, choosing to not respond.

“Or are you simply going to wait to be defeated? I thought you had a show to put on?”

She’s trying to bait him, isn’t she?

“Hmmm… you know what? Fine,”

Karl took the bait!

He looked at Lillian in the air for a moment before adding:

“But you’re going to come at me for it,”

He readied his blade for Lillian’s next approach. Lillian started to come down, but what happened next was definitely something to put on a show: Karl lifted his blade with one hand sideways, above his head and silently used Heavy Strike. With his doubled strength, he threw his sword tip-first at Lillian as hard and fast as he could - which was quite fast.

Lillian wasn’t expecting this, as she had to make a reaction dodge to not get impaled by Karl’s sword. However, she wasn’t fast enough: his sword caught her somewhere on her left side just below her collarbone. The force of the blade carried her backwards with it, leaving a trail of blood in the air in its path.

The blade, Lillian in tow, eventually reached the edge of the island, where it hit the barrier keeping the fight in and the spectators out. Karl’s sword slammed into the barrier and shattered on impact. The barrier wasn’t designed to have any give, though I don’t think Mother had expected someone to throw a sword at it like that.

Shrapnel from the sword sprayed into the shoulder and chest area of Lillian. Lillian must have lost consciousness on impact, as Vampiric Flight had deactivated and she fell to the ground in a heap. Immediately after her body faded into magic particles, and she re-appeared in front of us.

She checked herself for a moment, before leaning back to lay on the ground. Karl looked over at her outside the arena. Lillian started to chuckle, as did Karl.

“What a bold play,” Lillian sighed.

Therya stood up and started making her way to the panel by the door earlier. Lillian stood up again and started following her. The rest of the Pathfinders started making their way, so me and Mother started following them as well.

“Well, crap,” Karl said.

He was looking where Lillian had hit the ground, finding his sword was there in a dozen or more pieces. After a moment he caught up with the rest of us.

“I won the duel, but I broke my sword in the process,” he said.

“Do you want me to collect the pieces?” Mother asked.

“No… I don’t think you can re-forge that, anyway. Kaitlyn gifted that to me,” 

“Well, you’re gonna have to get a new one, then,” Delan said.

“Not the end of the world,” Lillian added.

Later, after the duel, Therya showed the dorms for the new Guild office, along with some extra spaces for storage and supplies. With Karl’s sword destroyed, the Pathfinders weren’t going to go back into Diamûn (or any major fighting effort) until he got a new one. Their rest of the day was spent relaxing and resting. The guild staffers were coming tomorrow, and soon after the general public would be too. I was sitting over by the beach on the entrance island as they were about the pavilion.

“Hey, Kaya,” Lillian said.

She had wandered over to sit next to me.

“What?”

“So… I’ve been curious, what do you think of the people from where you came from?”

I looked over at Lillian.

“What do you mean?”

“You were originally from the former Trellian Kingdom lands, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Some of the people from there will eventually come to Diamûn… are you going to be okay with that?”

“...why not?”

I looked at her with a confused look.

“I don’t know what your past is. But I can’t say for sure that someone who may have wronged you in the past won’t come to Diamûn,” Lillian said.

I thought about the question for a moment, trying to remember some of the people I met before Mother. I… didn’t like all of them, and started to look downcast at the prospect of seeing them again.

“Hey, hey… are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, um… I just… bad memories,”

“Do you want to hear about her past?” Mother asked.

She had appeared behind us and we both turned to face her.

“...yes.” Lillian said.

I didn’t say anything.

“Well… I’ll talk to you about it later tonight, then,” Mother said.