THE MOMENT
"Queen Bailey has chosen not to receive you," Tiberius, the Royal wizard, stood his ground with heaving breath. Around him, a battle waged on. Their forces held the line with fierce stubbornness, but his focus was on the singular leader of the demon forces. The Dark Lord himself threatened to push past Tiberius, but he didn't know how powerful Queen Bailey really was. The invader had no idea of the powerful technique she taught to her strongest warrior. She'd developed a method to use their own magics against them and he could spend life force as mana. Fortunately, the Dark Lord had taken his time playing with Tiberius and left him with a lot of open wounds, and easy to access blood. He straightened his back as his blood began to glow with red magic. "You are not welcome," he added and his own blood ignited into scarlet flames around him.
"What? That's cheating!" The Dark Lord grumbled with a heavy sigh. "I don't have time for this," he made a gesture with his hand and in an instant, his demonic army disintegrated into white dust. Tiberius was satisfied with himself. He'd won, thanks to his Queen's gift. As he was thanking her in his mind, he was surprised to see her appear suddenly, and approach the Dark Lord. He hurried to stand by her side hoping to watch her humiliate the villain.
"What gives? I thought we were having fun," Queen Bailey asked.
"We were when I was winning...," Darkmoon the Dark Lord answered. "When did you unlock Fury Casters?" he pointed at Tiberius, and the wizard stood prouder. He'd done well.
"Wait, are you giving up just because I upgraded my units?" she asked. Tiberius recognized that tone, and he was glad she'd never used it on him. She was annoyed, even if she kept her emotions calm.
"It's not like that," Darkmoon shook his head. "I thought this was going to take a certain amount of time, because I was gonna win. Now, I don't know how long it's going to take to win, and I've got other things to do."
"So. You're giving up just because I upgraded my units?" Queen Bailey asked again.
"Fine, I guess if you want to call it that," Darkmoon shrugged. Tiberius was proud of his Queen. She put the Dark Lord in his place, treating him like a teenager instead of the powerful force of darkness that he was. And, she wasn't even that much older than the portly teenage boy Dark Lord. "I promise next time, I'll play the whole game. Besides, I quit, so you won this one. I don't know what you're complaining about," he added.
"Don't bother," Queen Bailey completely destroyed Darkmoon, from Tiberius' perspective. "Winning isn't the only thing that's important to me; I like to actually enjoy the game. I think that, going forward, don't bother challenging me to anything," she said as she turned her back to leave. Tiberius followed her with a spring in his step once she dropped her last line. She'd already turned away and spoke with her back to Darkmoon while walking away. "You're just a waste of time."