A few moments before…
Queen Bee turned around to have a front-row view of the small stream of blood staining Thane's satin garment.
'How sharp was the shuriken to pierce the skin of a Transcendent?!' The woman was very glad that the star had missed her neck. Something that powerful would have torn her head clean from her shoulders.
With a pale face, Unorganized Laundry fell to one knee. He dipped his head. "Forgive me."
Thane's face remained unreadable beneath thick make-up.
The voice of the Dreamscape answered in a measured tone. "It was an accident—"
The shining golden sea around them wavered. Bee felt suddenly woozy.
It wasn't like when Lost had messed with her perception.
She felt on the precipice of waking up inside her pod. Bee was being pulled between two worlds. She steadied herself.
'What is going on?'
Those around her seemed to be having the same struggle. Confusion permeated the air.
What could have caused such a disturbance?
'The Saint!'
Thane was the creator and sustainer of the Dreamscape. Without the Transcendent, this strange place between the waking world and the Dream Realm would cease to exist.
While the rest of the participants were only there as a copy of their real bodies, Thane might have been physically present. If that was the case, then his injury was very real.
That meant that the poisoned shuriken had dug into real flesh.
'Oh no!' Looking down, Bee could see tiny cracks form in the crystalline floor. If the dream shattered around her, would she be stuck here or propelled into the waking world?
Shooting a panicked look back to the Saint, Queen Bee opened her mouth to break her vow of silence.
Thane held up a hand and the Dreamscape stopped its quivering. Queen Bee's relief was profound. The Saint clapped loudly.
"As I said, it was an accident." The Transcendent rose to his feet and spread his arms wide. The cut, covered in puss, was already beginning to heal. "Proceed."
The last word boomed a little too forcefully. Bee struggled not to cover her ears. She looked at Unorganized Laundry. He was still bent in half.
She frowned.
Something felt off. The man's posture spoke of embarrassment, but his feelings were incongruous with his humble appearance.
The Awakened had just injured the Dreamscape creator and possibly poisoned him, and Nickel was...relieved?
'I have to be misreading the situation. Maybe Nic is just happy that Thane did not require justice for the injury.'
Bee sensed Iza's movement. She quickly warned her partner. 'Fireshing!'
The elegant Iza attacked with her blade, breaking the redhead Fireshing from her daze. They resumed their deadly duel, leaving the other pair behind.
Unorganized Laundry rose from his knee with a vicious grin.
Bee hardly recognized him. His emotions were brimming with murderous intent.
Her position in the arena had caused him to wound a Saint. Laundry would not let such embarrassment go unanswered. He was after blood.
Hers.
In a split second, Bee was already on top of her opponent. There was no way she was going to let him get a jump on her.
Normally, she would have waited for her adversary to summon a weapon, but something inside the Queen said that the courtesy would get her killed.
So she attacked.
Seeing her coming, Laundry moved out of the path of the [Unlikely End]. It sang past his ear like a fatal melody.
Resummoning the scimitar, the perceptive Librarian shifted his stance and retreated with his back to the Saint. He no longer seemed intent on making sure Thane was watching his display.
Something about his sudden change bothered the Queen, but she did not have time to contemplate. Even before the Memory was fully manifested, Laundry made an overhanded strike at her head.
The blade solidified at the perfect moment, hitting against the [Unlikely End] with measured precision.
The pair raged around the field. Bee's fluidity and focus alongside her ability to change styles at will made her glide across the arena with ease.
In contrast, Laundry was silent and sly, striking out like a serpent and then retreating at will.
The battle of grace versus stealth was mesmerizing.
With each passing minute, Queen Bee felt more like something was wrong. The more she pushed down the feeling, the more it came back in double force.
Despite her placid expression, the mental strain was taxing. 'Don't give up!'
'Stay strong!' Fireshing answered easily.
The floating duelist had not meant to send the message but was very glad she did. Her teammate was alive and well.
Bee could sense Iza coming up behind her, but there was little she could do about it. Feeling the cutlass strike her armor, the Queen rolled her shoulder to let it slide off harmlessly.
As she jumped around to answer the assault, Fire's voice rang in her mind.
'Oh no you don't!'
Unexpectedly, a ball of fire engulfed the trio. The Queen held her breath and closed her eyes. Her charm would protect her from the pain, but that did not mean she wanted to inhale the heat.
The fire cleared almost as quickly as it began. Laundry and Iza had whelps on their exposed skin, but Bee felt fine.
Though what was that smell?
'Your hair!' Fireshing gasped.
While the Librarians fell back, Bee felt her head with her gauntlet. She had been mid-jump when the ball came. It seemed the tips of her hair were out of range of the protection. She wrinkled her nose against the stench and chuckled softly. 'Don't worry. I have had worse haircuts...recently!'
Feeling the stealthy duelist's emotions, Bee turned just in time to block a dagger to her neck. He almost had her.
A trickle of blood accompanied the stinging sensation.
The Queen winced, resisting the urge to cry out. At least it didn't seem to be covered in poison like the throwing stars.
'Bee!' Fireshing had seen the display
Shaking her head, Queen Bee answered forcefully. 'Keep going. You have got her on the run!'
With neither of their opponents having a Sorcery Aspect, Fireshing was their strongest offense. The moment Iza had disengaged and moved away, she lost her main advantage.
When the kimono-clad librarian tried her luck avoiding the blaze, Bee and Laundry were hit with another fireball.
'Sorry!' Fire blushed.
Queen Bee did not respond. The nagging sensation at the edge of her consciousness was crowding her thoughts. Something about Laundry's actions didn't make sense.
He was not acting like the subdued Academy librarian she knew. The ferocity in Nickel's eyes was frightening.
Why should she be surprised by that? Didn't she have a persona in the Dreamscape as well?
Yet, that persona was being neglected because Bee was facing off against two friends.
She needed to regain her clarity.
With a deep breath between strokes, Queen Bee allowed her eyes to shift colors freely. The release of emotion allowed her to regain her calm.
It was time to get serious.
The cadence of the battle shifted.
Laundry could feel it too. He put some distance between himself and the other warrior as he switched out his weapon. This time it was a straight ninjato.
Reflecting the sheen of the golden floor, the blade swung around either side of its wielder's body.
Unorganized Laundry charged at his opponent in a blur.
Blocking the sword with her own, Bee felt the reverberation all the way to her toes. Only a slight adjustment by her knees allowed her to keep her feet from the ground.
'My turn.'
Bee's eyes stopped their shifting.
She whirled her estoc in an explosion of attacks.
Her mind was solely focused on her opponent's destruction. The tenacious librarian fought back bravely, managing a second cut on Bee's cheek and many dents in her armor.
However, slowly but surely, Laundry gave ground.
While his strength lay in the quick and silent strike, Bee's advantage came with her stamina. And the longer the battle went on, the more that advantage came into play.
Group battles always came with at least a minor break in between rounds. Laundry was used to huge bursts of energy followed by a period of rest.
In contrast, it was possible in the individual dreams for one opponent after another to challenge a single adversary in a never-ending line. There were nights where Queen Bee had fought nonstop until morning. She was no stranger to pushing through fatigue.
That is what she did now. When the powerful librarian began to show a hint of languor, Bee went in for the sting.
Laundry's growing frustration made him hit more and more chaotically. In desperation, he swung in a diagonal arc to slice her skull in two.
Flooding the [Unlikely End] with essence, Bee lifted her weapon slightly.
But not enough to block the blow.
Instead, she transferred her weight so the force of the ninjato hit her left pauldron. The armor cracked slightly under the catastrophic hit.
Bee groaned, her sound overshadowed by the metallic clash. Despite her pain, a smile came to her face.
For while Queen Bee took a hit to the shoulder, Laundry received one directly in the gut. The estoc sank deep into his stomach and came out the other side.
All at once, the insidious enchantment activated. The librarian's eyes went wide.
The area around the blade began to dissipate like sand falling through an hourglass.
He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The fighter dissolved into a pile of dust before being blown by the sea of the wind. A few sparks flew on the breeze before the Dreamscape announced.
"Unorganized Laundry has been eliminated."
'I did it!' Bee took a deep breath.
She had funneled much of her essence into the sword to get the full effect. If it hadn't worked, the Queen would have been in serious trouble. That was why she had saved it for just the right moment.
Turning to her partner, Bee didn't have time to react to the other duo.
All she could do was shield her eyes.