Now

Everything happened in a blur. In the triple onslaught, Bee did the only thing she could: retreat.

Dawnbreak's members had keyed in on Queen Bee being the bigger threat of the two of their adversaries. Their tactic to take out the strongest party first and then deal with the secondary threat was laser-focused. 

It wasn't much different from the plan Bee had proposed to Fire. But Dawnbreak had struck first.

'Ah!' Bee narrowly avoided Paradise's downward strike while her estoc slid Sleepless's blade just to her left. She braced for the unavoidable ball of light that Snowmobile had shot like a comet. 

In the blink of an eye, Fireshing raised her left arm. Her hand glowed. Unwilling to let her teammate be obliterated, Fire released a fiery orb of her own. 

The two spheres collided. The electricity crackled, suddenly infused with intense flames. The heat broke apart the charged strings, bursting the bubble in a deafening, immolating explosion.

The force of the released energy was catastrophic. The arena was ripped in two, forcing a wedge between the two teams. In addition to the heat which threatened to consume the combatants, the cloudy ground evaporated into wisps of vapor. 

The rift revealed only azure sky below. Falling would mean certain doom. Fortunately, the arena seemed able to self-heal. 

Already the fluffy cumulus wisps were sticking themselves back together. 

'Fire!' Bee sent off a quick message. 'Snowmobile has a sorcery Aspect!'

'I'll handle him.' The redhead gave an imperceptible nod. 

Sorcery aspects were rare, and having an artisan like the capable duelist was a boon for Dawnbreak. 

If not for Fire having a sorcery Aspect as well, taking on this group would likely have been impossible. 

'Keep him busy, and I'll deal with the other two men.' The Queen agreed.

'And Thorai?' Fire asked quickly.

'Keep an eye on her…' Bee wasn't sure what to say. 

Her intuition told her something was very wrong about the only female among the opponents. What kind of duelist closes their eyes before a match?!

'Is she blind like Bane?' The Queen did not think so. And when the flames and electric crackling ceased, her suspicions were confirmed.

As the conflagration dissipated, all four members of Dawnbreak had returned to their diamond positions. Opening her eyes, Thorai leveled her gaze at Queen Bee, and a wicked smile formed on her face. 

Pushing back her brunette ponytail, the mysterious woman stepped forward to whisper in Paradise's ear. Pulling back, Thorai winked at her opponent. 

'Go!' Bee signaled Fireshing before Paradise could act. The two ladies leapt over the closing fissure with their weapons raised. 

The tip of Fireshing's blade burned white with flames while the estoc sang as it cut through the air.

"Now." Paradise's word was barely above a whisper. Bee had only heard it because she was watching his face for any hint of his next move. 

Not that it mattered. Her strike would cause him to reevaluate whatever he had chosen. 

But then…

Bee's eyes opened wide. 'What the…' 

The Unlikely End tore through Paradise in Red's armor and into his left bicep but at the same time, it didn't. The man's arm moved just outside of the range of her devastating blade, remaining unscathed. 

Had she just imagined it? She was very good at visualizing what would happen to an opponent and then making it come to pass. But never to the point of hallucination. 

Bee shook off the strange feeling just in time to shift her body to block Paradise's response. He had exploited the moment and the chances of her being able to stop it were almost none.

Yet a flick of her wrist, which she had learned fairly recently, sent the man's blade away from her head and digging into the clouded floor.

Spinning away, the floating Awakened suddenly came face to face with Sleepless. The cold darkness in his eyes melded with his iris making them look like two interminable pools of emptiness. The anger emanating from his body told her one thing.

'Duck!' 

Bee dropped just in time for the blade of Sleepless's sword to arc over her. Instead of lopping off the Queen's head, the weapon cut a shallow stream of blood in the exact spot on Paradise in Red's arm where Bee had sworn she had hit him earlier. 

'What are the odds of that?' 

On the other side of the Floating Canopy, Fire and Snowmobile were locked in a battle of wills. The two powerful Awakened were using their Aspects to try and obliterate each other from the map. 

The tapestry of clouds was riddled with holes that kept healing only to be blown open by the next devastating hit. Fireshing was faster, but Snowmobile's Ability to craft projectiles as well as defenses kept him from dying more than once. 

 'You ok?' The fiery Awakened asked through [The Other's Voice]. 

Bee grunted before responding. 'Just peachy.'

Throwing back Sleepless with a kick from her armored foot, she met Paradise's espadon in a clash of steel. 

'When my mother told me boys would fight over me, I don't think this is what she meant…' 

'Every time I think I am going to land a hit, it's like things blip and this guy goes free,' Fireshing complained. She closed the gap between herself and the artisan, thrusting her spear straight at Snowmobile's chest. 

Except the space was no longer occupied by Snowmobile's chest. The spear met only air. 

Now standing to one side, the artisan crafted another of the electrified balls of string and sent it crashing down on Fireshing's head. That kind of blow would have ended a mundane human and cooked them like a holiday goose. 

Thankfully the close range of the attack meant that the ball had not been charged to its full capacity. Fireshing's pride and confidence had been hurt more than her body. 

'How did he do that?!' Fire gritted her teeth in exasperation. 

'I'm not sure.' Bee had seen Paradise speak softly again. Were his words some sort of enchantment that froze opponents in place long enough to avoid the blow? It was certainly possible. 

If that were the case, then Queen Bee needed to do something to silence him. 

The rules of the Dreamscape only allowed one offensive weapon per combatant at a time. Although a sword and shield could be wielded in tandem, two disparate Memories like a spear and a sword could not be used simultaneously. 

So if Bee wanted to use a long-range Memory to limit Paradise in Red, she would have to dismiss her estoc. That would take precious seconds and probably her life. The floating duelist would have to find another way. 

Sleepless made three quick strikes, pulling Bee from her musings in order to keep him from landing his blade against her body. The dark-eyed duelist was formidable. His brawn and pure power were enough to bring even seasoned Awakened to their knees. 

The third hit was enough to cause the Queen's toes to brush against the cloudlike floor. She hissed in pain. 

'Answers that question. The clouds do constitute earth in this case.' Bee fought against the wave of nausea. 

For a moment, she allowed Sleepless's anger to fill her. The immense emotion threatened to take her over, but fury was better than pain. Giving into the debilitating torment of her flaw would end in disaster, but letting Sleepless's passion fuel her, she found a way to channel the energy. 

With the man's unknowing assistance, Bee overcame the gnawing pain and pushed through. 

'Arg! Alright, enough is enough.' Bee's eyes lit with an ethereal glow. She knew what she needed to do. 

Adjusting her distance with the ground about a millimeter, the Queen raised her estoc.

Sleepless was about to get his first real taste of the [Unlikely End].