As we’re placed in the world of Zesskia without having seen the War of Unification, our first real look at a fairy is when Veronica Thorn lets Blood Daughter, her fairy, out to kill those who try to stop her from stealing the Black Tome. Blood Daughter is a sight to behold: A tall, floating woman whose face is covered by a doomed mask, can turn into mist, enter open wounds, and make her victims explode. Just as we get used to her, Free lets out his own fairy, Red Hood, a huge humanoid wolf that goes toe to toe against Blood Daughter as everyone runs for the hills. Everyone but Marlya, who isn’t quite sure of who she wants to help, her old friend Veronica or her new friend Free, as she needs information from both. And that’s when she discovers she also has a fairy, the eerily beautiful Ash Clad who immediately grabs both Blood Daughter and Red Hood and burns their arms. How is that for an opening fight?

While Veronica is presented as one of Dorothea’s many enemies, when Marlya is separated from Free by Jonathan and Patricia of the Gui Carlin’s mafia family, she runs to her childhood friend’s rescue. What follows is another incredibly animated fight as on one side, neither Veronica nor Marlya can summon their fairies, so they are alone against Jonathan and his fairy, Jenny Haniver, which can hide weapons and Jonathan inside itself; and on the other side, we have Free fighting Patricia and her fairy, Boneless, in the very small and claustrophobia-inducing catacombs where Red Hood can’t function at his full power. As our heroes have the disadvantage, it’s quite amazing to see them try to turn their weakness into the strength that can bring them victory.

Not all the amazing moments in the series include summoning fairies. Klara Kysenaria and Marlya prove this when they’re sent to interrogate “Buz", a mob-member-turned-informant who claims to know who has the Black Tome. Despite being paid beforehand, “Buz” decides that since Dorothea sent two young, beautiful women who seem delicate and weak, he’d ask them to “sweeten” the deal. Seeing Marlya knock out the mob goons with only the case of her rifle while Klara also knocks one out before drawing a knife to “Buz” while making sure her pretty dress is not ruined, is guaranteed to make you smile.

Sometimes, it is the villains who get the most awesome moments. This is true when we meet the mercenaries who were hired to disrupt the kingdom and steal one of the seven fairy weapons, which are the only things capable of killing fairies. First, we see Sophie, the group’s second in command, stand in the path of a train and shoot the conductor while still standing on the rails. Then, Beeve Liscar sends his fairy, Aizencup, which is basically Cerberus on steroids to hit the train on the side, hard enough to derail it before it hits Sophie. And that’s not the most amazing part: The big finale is when we see Liscar use his own Fairy Weapon to fight Free on top of the flaming train.

During all the series we only saw Director Nein Auler behind a desk or taking care of the delicate balance Dorothea has to keep between the Ministry of Fairies and the Ministry of War. While we’re informed she used to be one of the Seven Knights—the only soldiers who had permission to use Fairy Weapons—and a Fairy soldier, we had never seen her summon a fairy or fight. But the Duke of Hybrandz’ betrayal is discovered and she single-handedly defeats a whole squad of artificial fairies without breaking a sweat. Seeing her move through their numbers in a deadly dance is worth waiting until the eleventh episode.