Lancet had quickly pressed forward with his burst of excitement, but... Kestrel was not there anymore.

She had flowed out of the way somehow, her body tilting sideways so narrowly that the edge of his blade passed through the space her ribs had occupied a half-breath before, and then she was already moving again.

Her feet weren’t even touching the stone. Each step bled into the next without weight or hesitation, as though the mountain itself was lifting her and setting her down wherever she needed to be.

Lancet followed with a second cut, a rising diagonal meant to catch her shoulder, and she bent backward at the waist like a reed in wind, letting the steel skim a finger’s width above her collarbone.

The dragon spectres curled around her as she moved, their bodies tracing elegant spirals in the air that mirrored her own motion.

She did not block. She did not parry. She simply was not where the sword was.

Lancet tried everything, slashing the Guillotine over and over. He did a high right, low left, thrust center, sweep low—each one faster than the last, each one aimed at the gaps in her stance that should have been there.

But the gaps closed before his blade ever arrived. Kestrel stepped inside his first cut and outside his second, turned her hips to let the thrust pass along the curve of her waist, and lifted her back foot just enough that the low sweep kissed only air where her ankle had been.

She was flying around him. There was no other word for it. Her emerald hair fanned out behind her like a banner, and her greaves skimmed the stone in patterns that made no sense until they were already finished. Every dodge was an insult wrapped in elegance. Every evasion was a lesson he was not yet qualified to understand.

Lancet gritted his teeth and committed to one last, desperate strike. He pulled Grace through the Guillotine in a sudden surge, the blade flaring bright gold, and swung with everything he had left.

Kestrel gingerly stepped into the arc of the swing and caught the flat of the Guillotine between both of her crossed Dragonswords. The impact rang across the summit like a bell struck too hard.

She pushed with her wrists, and Lancet was sent flying to the ground. He skid through the rocky mountain floor until his head poked out of the cliff.

"Uggghhh!"

For a single stunned moment all he could see was the pale sky above the summit and the distant drift of clouds that had outlived the storm.

Then the tip of a Dragonsword entered his vision, stopping a finger’s width from the base of his throat.

Kestrel stood over him, one blade aimed down. She was as calm and assured as someone who had done this a thousand times and would do it a thousand more.

The dragon spectre coiled around her arm and along the length of the sword, spectral jaws open and aimed at his face, its eyes burning with the same patient hunger as its master’s. Her other Dragonsword hung loose at her side, still glowing faintly, still ready.

The mountain wind swept across the summit, tugging at her hair and his clothes, and for a long moment there was only the sound of his own ragged breathing and the faint, musical hum of her Grace running through the steel.

Lancet’s hand was still wrapped around the hilt of the Radiant Guillotine. Even in defeat, even flat on his back with the cold stone biting into his shoulders, he had not let go.

Kestrel’s face suddenly exploded into this big smile.

"Hah!" She tossed her head back, her emerald hair catching the wind. "Taste defeat, you childish Summoner!"

A laugh burst out of her. She raised her head and cackled like the princess she really was. A laugh that was bright and unrestrained and thoroughly, genuinely delighted.

Kestrel had just received exactly the duel she had been hoping for and was absolutely giddy about it.

Lancet stared at her, surprised at what he was seeing. But in no time, he too was laughing.

It started as a wheeze but Kestrel’s laughter doubled at the sight of him wheezing on the ground, and that sent him over the edge.

Kestrel dried a tear and she threw her free hand to her hip, her Dragonsword still aimed steady at his throat even as her shoulders bounced with mirth. "You should see your face! You thought you had me for a moment there, didn’t you?"

"I did have you!" Lancet managed between gasps. "For like... two seconds!"

"Two seconds is a generous assessment."

"One and a half!"

"Acceptable."

They laughed together, the sound spilling down the mountainside and into the silence of Stone Castles.

The dragon spectres coiled back into Kestrel’s blades with soft, fading hisses as she sheathed both swords behind her. Then she reached down and offered him her hand.

Lancet looked up at her silhouette against the pale sky, her hand extended, her smile still lingering at the corners of her mouth. He was still gripping the Radiant Guillotine, his knuckles white around the hilt even with the blade flat on the stone beside him.

He took her hand.

Once he was up, Kestrel looked him over once, then gave a single, slow nod.

"You did give me a little challenge," she said.

Lancet bent forward with both hands on his knees, gasping and half laughing from exhaustion. "You’re just saying that."

"I’m being honest."

He looked up at her.

For the first time in the entire duel, she let her approval show openly. "You are still below me," Kestrel said, "but no longer embarrassingly so."

Lancet barked out a breath. "That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me."

She looked at him and said nothing more. Lancet said nothing either — he couldn’t dare bring up how beautiful she looked when she was laughing or how pretty her emerald hair was with the braids loose, or why she was suddenly being nice to him.

Any of those topics would ruin the mood faster than an arrow.

"So what now?" Kestrel asked him. "Are you to return to your academia? You face this Renan Falconhart tomorrow."

Lancet glanced at her for a moment then walked further to the cliff, gazing into the distance beyond the Stone Castles where the clouds were red and black.

"Not yet," he said. He turned back to her and smiled. "I think I should summon the whole gang. Let’s go stop a Demon Break."