Day 7.
The war zone had officially gone from "oh look, some fireworks" to "why is God personally bullying me."
Our guild base sat in the middle of what looked like the apocalypse.
Because Zeref, Rank One, poster boy of flaming overcompensation, decided the best way to announce his arrival was by spamming Meteor Shower.
Flaming boulders the size of carriages fell from the sky in a rain of hellfire.
The ground shook. Trees combusted. One poor knight's shield straight-up melted into something modern art museums would reject.
"ZEREF!" I roared, Leonhart's deep voice booming like I meant business. "Stop treating my flag like it's a barbecue pit!"
Another fireball slammed into the earth right beside me. The explosion launched me back into the dirt like a cheap ragdoll.
Luna dragged me upright with a scowl. "Focus!" she snapped, hurling her healing light to stabilize the others.
As if that wasn't enough, Kael picked that exact moment to make his grand assassin entrance.
Rank Three, Shadow Reapers' golden boy, slid into the battlefield like the shadow of someone's recurring nightmare.
One slash, two of our members fell.
Another step, three more went down, blood spraying across the dirt before the system mercifully cleaned it up.
"Fantastic," I muttered, auto-cast already spooling in my system. "Zeref sets me on fire, and Kael slices me into sushi. Perfectly balanced, like hell itself intended."
Keiji didn't even blink. He was already chanting, staff blazing with icy power.
A wall of jagged glaciers erupted from the ground, colliding with Zeref's firestorm in a spectacular hiss of steam and exploding sparks.
"Do not falter!" Keiji shouted, his voice cracking through the chaos. "Hold the line!"
"Oh sure, tell that to my nerves!" I yelled back, blocking another strike with Leonhart's ridiculous longsword.
Because Kael had decided I was his new dance partner.
He blurred in with assassin speed, blade flashing, every strike aimed to kill.
But Leonhart's auto-cast was my unsung savior, my avatar moving like a machine, deflecting slash after slash, countering with brutal precision.
It was terrifying. It was also the only reason I wasn't sliced like sashimi.
Our blades clashed, sparks flying. His eyes narrowed behind that stupid half-mask.
And that's when instinct, horrible, inconvenient instinct, took over.
I grabbed the edge of his mask mid-block and yanked it down.
Kael's face was revealed in the middle of the battlefield.
And holy gods.
Handsome. So stupidly handsome.
Sharp cheekbones. A jawline that looked carved by divine spite. Eyes like molten steel simmering under assassin rage.
I squealed. Out loud.
It echoed over the battlefield.
Kael actually paused mid-swing, probably wondering why Leonhart, six-foot-everything knightly beefcake, had just let out a noise better suited to a teen girl at a boy band concert.
"Oh my god you're HOT!!!" I blurted before I could stop myself.
Then immediately caught his dagger on reflex, Leonhart's arm absorbing the shock like I was some seasoned duelist instead of a hormonal disaster.
Kael's expression flickered between confusion and fury. His lips twitched, like he couldn't decide if he should kill me faster or ask me what the hell I just said.
"Focus!" Luna screamed from behind me, blasting a healing ray past my shoulder. "Stop gawking at the enemy!"
"I can't help it!" I squealed again, parrying another strike. "Look at his face! It's ILLEGAL!"
Kael lunged again, blade flashing toward Luna.
Instinct took over. Leonhart's body moved like the perfect wall. My sword intercepted the strike, sparks flying an inch from Luna's terrified eyes.
Kael's face was inches from mine. Too close. Too beautiful.
I almost squealed a third time.
Almost.
Instead, I shoved him back with a grunt that came out way too manly.
"This isn't fair," I muttered under my breath, parrying his next slash. "Why does my mortal enemy look like he walked out of a romance novel?"
Another meteor slammed into the earth. Zeref cackled somewhere in the distance, flames lighting up the battlefield.
Keiji roared back, his voice carrying ice and fury as another frozen wall shot skyward to intercept.
Our base looked like the aftermath of an elemental divorce case. Half fire, half ice, all misery.
Kael didn't care. His strikes came faster, sharper.
My auto-cast countered every one. Slash. Thrust. Dash. Strike.
But every time his face got close, I nearly dropped my guard just to appreciate it.
"I hate this," I muttered, deflecting another blow. "I hate that you're trying to kill me and also that your eyelashes are prettier than mine."
Kael growled something low under his breath, probably an assassin death threat, but all I heard was hot villain noises.
Then he spun, aiming low, a dagger sweeping for my ribs.
I blocked, sparks flying, adrenaline spiking.
And then I laughed. Out loud.
The kind of hysterical laugh that only comes from realizing you're probably about to die, but at least you'll die staring at a really good face.
"Leonhart!" Keiji's voice snapped me out of it. "Hold position!"
"I am!" I yelled back, slamming my sword against Kael's dagger, our blades locking. "I'm holding! I'm also having a crisis, but I'm holding!"
Kael shoved hard, breaking the clash, and darted back into the chaos. His mask half-hanging, his face still burned into my brain like an inconvenient screensaver.
I panted, chest heaving, sword trembling in Leonhart's iron grip.
My stomach did a flip.
Not from gore. Not from fear.
From the fact that I had just squealed like a fangirl in the middle of a death match.
And Kael had heard it.
Everyone had heard it.
Even Zeref's cackling faltered for half a second before another meteor roared down.
"Focus!" Luna barked again, smacking me upside the head with a healing light.
"Right! Right!" I croaked, raising my sword again.
I shook off the daze, squared Leonhart's broad shoulders, and planted myself in front of the flag.
The ground cracked under another meteor. The air froze under Keiji's counter.
The world blurred into fire and ice and steel.
But my brain was still screaming one thing, on loop, like a cursed mantra.
Kael is hot. Kael is hot. Kael is hot.
I gritted my teeth, swung Leonhart's sword, and vowed one thing out loud for the entire battlefield to hear:
"I SWEAR I'M GONNA WIN THIS WAR, BUT I'M ALSO GONNA GET HIS SKINCARE ROUTINE!"