Since the day she had met Ashen, Guinnevere has never seen the wayward young man to have ever went serious in a fight regardless of whether or not his opponent was trying to kill him. Sure he may act all berserk or reckless, sustain grievous wounds or outright be rendered near death and even kill people without hesitation, but Guinnevere has never actually seen Ashen put forth all effort to actually fight or to be precise; he was not actually putting his all into a fight. Heck, she has never seen him get really mad. At most, the only thing closest to the words 'angry' and 'mad' that he could be described with, would be the word 'annoyed'.
"Come! Make this life of mine burn with the fervor of battle, Oathbreaker!"
"..."
However, the Ashen before her was different.
Gone was his usual apathetic demeanor and his languid nature; what remained was an air of sheer bloodthirst and extreme focus. His eyes were narrowed and was only focusing on the dragon and despite having only one arm to hold Excalibur which is a two-handed broadsword, Ashen was swinging it around with enough force that surpassed what one could do with two arms and was even capable of deflecting the dragon's tail and claw attacks without trouble. It was as if the earlier scene of him being flung away into a building with a single swipe of the dragon was just a hallucination of Guinnevere's.
Whenever the dragon slashes at him with its claws, Ashen simply deflects it; the dragon swipes at him with its tail and he simply redirects it; and when it unleashes a scorching fireball at him, he simply splits it apart with Excalibur's blade. It was a bizarre scene of a human going blow-for-blow with a legendary dragon that would normally be completely impossible.
'What just happened? He was not that absurdly powerful the last time I saw him...'
Guinnevere could help but be confused by the battle before her. Granted, she knew Ashen was quite skilled and powerful considering his recorded feats of strength from long ago and that he is considered by Olivia-Guinnevere's mother, to be leagues stronger than the majority of the Knights serving the crown if not all of them, but this battle before her was another matter entirely.
Ashen's opponent is a legendary Elder Dragon, the highest class of dragonkind. A beast capable of annihilating nations in a single night. The one and only kind of dragon to have no recorded defeat even amongst the legends of humanity's history and yet here he was, fighting equally against it.
"I take back my words from before Oathbreaker! You ARE worthy of the holy sword!", the dragon-who introduced itself as Escalibor, declared excitedly as it swung its muscular arms at Ashen who used Excalibur to deflect the attacks.
Ashen did not seem to be too keen on responding to the dragon's excited words and it worried Guinnevere who watched him from the side;
Blood dripped down his face, his arm singed from the countless flames he had to endure, his white clothing now a sickly shade of brown and red as blood continued to permeate it in the middle of the fight.
'I have to help him!', Guinnevere thought and immediately, she began to chant a healing spell on Ashen.
Before Guinnevere could complete her chant, Escalibor-the dragon, pressed on its attack; swinging its powerful arms at Ashen in an attempt to sunder him into two.
"Oberon!", Ashen immediately responds by calling Oberon to his side and without missing a beat, Oberon blinked out from behind Guinnevere and then reappeared behind Ashen in a flash of light and spread his arms to his sides just as the dragon's arms closed in on both of them and catching the dragon's arms.
*Boom!*
The impact of the dragon's arms being caught by Oberon caused shockwaves so strong that the force was strong enough to blow away the every debris that littered the spot of the street they were fighting in. It even pushed Guinnevere back by a few feet causing her to imagine just how much force was put into that particular attack.
'No way! That kind of attack is more than enough to turn Buckingham Palace into rubble with one strike!', she thought so fearfully, 'I should help out!'.
With that, Guinnevere grasped Rhongominiad tightly and prepared to jump into the fray.
"Burn!", Escalibor shoots a fireball at Ashen who then cuts it apart with a swing of Excalibur.
"...", with a menacing light in his eyes, Ashen charges towards Escalibor while Oberon remained to keep the dragon's arms in check.
Seeing that, Guinnevere decides to attack Escalibor's back; specifically, its wings.
'If I can just damage its wings, it will greatly hinder its mobility and make it hard for it to take flight!', she thought so as she charged forward and chants the Lightning Meteor Spell.
Timing her attack just as Ashen had lunged towards Escalibor's chest, Guinnevere then jumps and takes aim at the dragon's wings with Rhongominiad, 'Got you!', as soon as she was sure that Escalbor wouldn't have enough time to evade, she let loose her attack.
Rhongominiad rips through the air with a thunderous roar, brimming with enough power that Guinnevere was sure that it would cause more damage than the one she did previously when she used Lightning Meteor on the andromorphic wyvern at Lambeth Bridge. However-
"Too predictable!", Escalibor angrily shouts and then uses its long and thick tail to swat out Rhongominiad mid-flight, flinging it into the distance and when it was sure that that was done, it started to glow a dangerous shade of green and in the next moment, pale green flames burst out from its body causing Ashen to immediately jump back and Oberon to let go of its arms.
'Wha-?!', Guinnevere's thought was quickly cut-off when suddenly, Escalibor quickly turns around and then uses one of its arms to punch her, 'Not good!', Guinnevere crosses her arms and immediately casts a barrier spell on herself almost on reflex.
In the next moment, Escalibor's fist connects with Guinnevere's barrier and easily smashes through and directly hits her, forcing the air in lungs out and make her gasp for air before finally being blasted away into a building.
*CRASH!*
The sounds of objects breaking upon her impact on them continued as the force of the dragon's strike blew her away with such force that she could feel her back sear in pain as she continued to break through what she presumes to be walls until finally, after what she believes to be the 5th wall, she hits a rather thick wall which stops her momentum.
"Gack-!", she coughs up blood as she slumped back onto the wall, "Ow...What...power...", she groaned while forcing her eyelids open to keep herself from completely fainting due to the pain, "Is this seriously the force Ashen...had been deflecting? You...have got to be pulling my leg..."
Guinnevere tried clenching her hands but they do not seem to respond, "I cannot...feel my arms...are they broken?", she shrugged.
She could not even feel her fingers nor muster any strength to even invoke a healing spell on herself. Not just that, her lungs began feeling like they were on fire, causing her to feel more pain than ever before.
'Rhongominiad...where did it go?', she wondered while painfully taking a look at her immediate surroundings, 'I...have to...go...help...', she tried to move her body once more but it somehow would not respond.
Rendered unable to return to the fight, she felt helpless and pathetic. With her title of 'Brynhildr', she grew complacent in the fact that it meant that she was the strongest of England. She forgot the fact that it only meant that she was the 'strongest human within England' and in the end got herself rendered unable to fight in a matter of seconds.
She lamented her current state and cursed herself for being naïve.
And then-
"You seem to be in trouble there O Queen of Brittania. Oh wait, it's supposed to be 'England' now."
-a voice calls out to her from right in front of her.
'What the-?! Where did that person come from?!', she thought so in shock as she stared at the 'person' that somehow just appeared right in front of her;
Wearing a piece of white cloth so big it practically covered the person from head to toe with only the tips of their hands showing from what would pass as sleeves of its 'robe'. The cloth covered the person's head so much that their face could not be seen.
They were quite tall-taller than Guinnevere who is almost 6 feet tall, and yet they didn't radiate an ominous presence. In fact-
'There's no shred of malice coming from it...', was Guinnevere's judgement.
To her, it was like she was staring at a statue; it looked alive but it wasn't.
"Anyway...since you cannot seem to muster any strength, just answer my questions with a nod or a sideway shake of your head okay? After that, I can help you out.", the person suddenly suggested much to Guinnevere's surprise.
Judging from the tone of their voice, the person before Guinnevere is a female and yet, she could not shake the feeling that the person is not just a normal human. There was something that felt vague in their presence alone.
"Alright! First question! Are you close with the boy fighting the dragon over there?", the person suddenly asks and catches Guinnevere off-guard and reflexively nod her head in response.
'Why did I just-?'
"Oh? Okay! Next question! Do you want to help him?", again, the person's cheery voice asks another question before Guinnevere could even process a single thought. Her body only responding in reflex to the person's question with a nod.
"Do you want to help him by running away like how he asked you to?"
Guinnevere shakes her head in denial.
"Do you want to help him by fighting by his side then?"
Guinnevere nods.
"Even if he might end up getting killed by prioritizing your safety over his? Because to be frank, you are not up to par for a decent fight against a Dragon-Father."
At that question, Guinnevere somehow managed to regain control of herself. She felt her whole body twitch at the question.
She couldn't answer. But it seems the person wasn't done asking questions;
"Hesitation. Is that because...logic has struck you?", the person asked.
'What is she saying?', confusion now started to creep over Guinnevere's mind as she tried to process the words the person had just asked her.
Logic? Did the person mean that Guinnevere hesitated because the thought of her being the cause of Ashen's death because she could not protect herself from the dragon would lead to the evitable defeat and destruction of England?
It is true that if she and Ashen were to die, no one else in the country would be able to fight-off the Elder Dragon.
But somehow, Guinnevere felt that it was not logic that made her hesitate in the first place. It was something else. Something more personal.
"Heh.", the person scoffs. Their tone, one of relief and amusement, "Looks like I need not interfere too much. Can you stand?", the person approaches Guinnevere and holds out their hand, "You could stand to be a little more selfish Brynhildr. Remember, you are a woman before you are a queen."
When Guinnevere looked at the offered hand, somehow she could not shake the feeling that emanated from the robed person was extremely familiar, causing her to unconsciously grab the offered hand.
As soon as she did, light enveloped her body and soon, she could feel her body feel light. The fatigue in her body started to dissipate, her aching back felt fresh and soon, she gets pulled up by the person and was able to stand again.
"What-a healing spell?", she looked at her body wide-eyed, "But I saw no mana being used...", she sputtered.
The person lets her go and then scoffs once more, "Well now. I believe this is yours.", the person hands her a golden lance.
"Rhongominiad?!", she cries out in shock. She thought the lance had been lost when the dragon swatted it out of the air earlier.
"You can stop gawking like a nitwit and just take it already.", the person chuckled.
"Who are you?", Guinnevere asked while taking Rhongominiad into her hands. Confusion now overwhelming her mind.
The person looks at(she assumes that the person is looking at her) Guinnevere and then simply walks away without a word.
"Wait!"
"You will know soon enough Brynhildr. Now go on, your Sigurd is still fighting a dragon over there!", the person points at the direction of Ashen and the dragon's fight.
There, Guinnevere could see bursts of flames rise into the sky as the fight seemed to intensify. But that was something that Guinnevere felt to be of secondary importance. Right now, she had to know who the robed person was.
'To be able to carry Rhongominiad without permission from its wielder...'
"At least tell me your name!", she insisted.
And then the person stopped and a powerful gust of wind blew across the ruined street. When Guinnevere finally managed to adjust her eyes, she sees the person-now without their hood, turn around. It was then that Guinnevere beheld the image of a very beautiful lady with long snow-white hair that danced beautifully with the wind and a smile so radiant that somehow it reminded Guinnevere of Evaline's beautiful care-free smile.
"Wha-"
With eyes shining with a golden light, the lady looked at Guinnevere and said, "He's yours now. Don't let him go okay?", and as Guinnevere blinked, the lady had disappeared without a trace leaving Guinnevere stupefied and in wonder.
"What the hell did I just witness?", she wondered as her hand grasped Rhongominiad tightly in her hand.