Welcome to Summoner's Rift!
A high pitched voice announced loudly from somewhere in the sky, but the young woman in brown robes didn't even mind the all too familiar sound. Countless times she had already entered this arena; countless times she had won, lost and died at the hands of her enemy, at the lack of her ally's ability or at the lack of her summoner's skill. She could remember the first time she was invited into these gruesome matches by the institute of war, being controlled and sharing your body with another person is not a feeling you could get used to easily. She herself took years before it didn't bother her anymore.
"Are you ready?" echoed a voice inside her head.
"Yeah, yeah, I hope you're good at this sport, dying is such a drag you know" she replied.
She could feel the amusement of her summoner grow exponentially, and she could almost imagine him smiling when he said "You don't need to worry, I won't let you die even once"
"Hmph, Don't even try making promises you can't keep"
That was the voice of her Summoner, he was the reason that she entered the rift for this match. It was almost tradition more than law, ever since the Institute was formed, that a Summoner would choose his champion to fight with him or her inside the fields of justice. Those who took up the job of being a "Champion" were equally or sometimes even stronger than her. Monsters from legend and demons that might have spawned out of some nightmare, sometimes a lucky young man or old crone who had developed their skills under circumstance or perseverance, but it did not matter, if you were accepted inside the Institute as a champion for the fields of justice, then you were, in your own right, legendary. Your reputation as a vicious killer or a powerful monster would be well known outside the Institute's walls, and you would be given special admission above the law wherever you went.
The most renowned reason for others joining the league would have been to test their strength, for others it was revenge, more power or for greater fame, but it was their gauge of strength that had them pursue the career of a champion for the League.
Of course there was the part that you had to share your body with your summoner and you had to work together tirelessly in order to gain fame and respect. The most annoying part of everything for the archer was the part where the champion and the summoner had to share their minds and emotions In order to communicate effectively. She found it hard to calm down when she knew that someone else was in her head, though that didn't bother her anymore, it still took a long amount of time before she could get used to it.
She darted through the bushes gracefully, hiding in the shadows and the tall green grass. She didn't think anybody would be able to see her at this rate, she was confident that she could even take out the enemy Jungler by using this trick.
"I'd rather not try that one" muttered her summoner.
"Who said I was going to try it?" she asked him in a fit of defiance.
She could hear her summoner sigh in exasperation "Let's not go through this again Ashe, I want to play it safe this time, especially this time. You have no idea what this match means to me" he had pleaded her.
The frost archer rested herself in the outer bush, just beyond the trees where the Blue Golems camped. "All the more reason to try unconventional tactics" she tried to convince him.
In truth, she knew he was right; the whole enemy team is probably guarding their jungler, or if they were bold enough, would have taken the Spirit of the Elder Lizard from their jungle. And invading by herself would have probably done more harm than it would any good. With her decision made, she crouched even lower, darting her eyes from side to side, looking for any possible movement by the enemy.
Her teammates had positioned themselves accordingly by now. Their support, Janna, was just behind her if anything went wrong. The rest of her team was in front of the Golems, waiting for the magical stone monsters to appear. Fifteen seconds on the clock before they would appear and she had guessed that they had stayed near mid lane for far too long, she and Janna had better head for bottom lane now or else they might be left behind on farm.
"We're long overdue here in mid, let's go already" she told the summoner.
"Yes, you're right, let's head out."
The little minions were just about to reach the outer turrets, small, cute purple little humanoid creatures that were controlled by newly introduced summoners who were still only getting used to the magic.
Ashe and Janna cut through the purple minion line just in time to see the two waves crashing over each other in a metallic clash of steel on steel and the low quiet hum of magic in the air. The frost Archer looked around, only to find that their enemies were nowhere in sight, she would have guessed that they were still with their own jungler just in case her team had tried to invade a little later.
The first few minutes of the matches were always the most boring parts of the game, they would methodically try to destroy one turret at a time until they got to the nexus in the fields of justice, a huge magic infused stone with a glowing crystal on top of it. That was the main objective of the team, break that gleaming rock and you would win the game.
However, things were not always as simple as that, usually it would take a long time, given that both teams were of equal skill. Ashe need not worry until a few minutes later though, because as she said earlier, the matches were not the most thrilling early on, usually this was the part when they each member of the five-manned team would try to get the better of their opponents to get some sort of lead, gather as much gold as possible, try to get a shot at the opponents, deny them creeps, break a turret and all those other objectives.
It was the late game that Ashe really lived for. When the whole team had enough gold to get items from the shop, particularly the legendary ones, which gave them leave to unlock their full potentials in the fields of justice.
The items were not the real deal though, since the Institute wouldn't dare hand them the real life legendary objects like Randuin's Omen or the Locket of the Iron Solari, the items they were given were only mere replicas that sometimes didn't even have the same effects as the original. Not every item inside the shop were like those though, the smaller items like the boots of speed and the rejuvenation bead were, In fact, pretty common item in the continent of Valoran.
But ever since a little over a few decades ago, the Institute of war had decided to make the games more interesting by limiting the power of the champions early in the game using extremely powerful sealing magics. They had decided that the champions would grow stronger the longer the game went on and the more replica items they bought, until they reach the point that they had grown strong enough to unlock the true potential they had outside the fields of justice.
And so the game went on its usual pace, the periodical gank, the constant strategies and the fights grew more frequent and more intense as the time went by. True to her summoner's word, she had not died a single time yet, and she had to admit, she was pretty impressed.
"Don't mention it" replied her summoner.
"Would that I could get a summoner of your caliber all the time, I wouldn't have to die so often" she commented.
And she wasn't lying about what she said either. You might not die inside the fields of justice due to some sort of magic or the other that she didn't care to understand, but the pain and unease of dying could still be felt by the champion, which made Ashe extremely annoyed whenever she got paired up with one of those "Bronzies" the lowest tier of the Summoner rank.
She didn't have anything against them personally. Generally she thought that the lot of them had good, kind hearts. She just wished that they had the superior intelligence required to avoid dying twenty times in the field.
Ashe could remember one time when she was summoned by this girl; she could tell she was young and inexperienced by the sound of her nervous cracking in their mental communications.
She had guessed right.
The frost archer had never known such pain as what she had experienced then. If she looked back, she could remember that the game lasted nearly an two hours and a half due to the inexperience of both the teams, and she could certainly not forget how she had died near half a hundred times during the match.
Thirty minutes into the game and it was almost as intense as any game that she had ever had inside the fields of justice. All of the turrets had gone down by now, and almost every single objective in the area had been cleared by both teams, though since all of them had killed each other off, everybody in both sides of the river claimed no advantage over the other, except maybe Ashe, whom had still not died a single time.
She crouched low in one of the bushes, waiting for something to happen. A slight mistake by the opposing team, movement by an enemy, or the initiation of a clash by her teammates, she had to be ready for most anything. If something happened at all in the next few seconds it would most certainly affect the outcome of the entire battle.
In the calms between the dance of blades and the bright colors of floating magic particles, the fields of justice never ceased to amaze her. Crouching low inside a thicket of bushes, being one with the calming sound of the flowing river and the rustle of the grass on the ground and leaves in the trees, the smell of different aromas mutated from the magic that spilled in these fields from years ago drowned her nose in the sweet scents of rose and lavender, of a beauty lost so long ago to the wars that had plagued Valoran over the history of its inhabitant's existence.
You could almost forget that the wars were responsible for the fields of justice, the Institute of War, and the magic that continues to poison the lands south of the Barrier. But of course, those were not the only things this war had done for the whole continent of Valoran.
For one, the rune wars caused an exponential advance in the magic that had spread like wildfire after the last rune war. Advancements in Techmaturgy, Hextech and all other forms of the craft had increased in knowledge over the past few years at an incredible rate, it was almost hard to believe that just a few years ago people had to make do with walking and riding horses as a means of transportation. Of course, the richer organizations had the use of teleportation by means of magic, and even the rich families that were scattered across the continent had use of these sorts of advanced magic. If you were common folk though, riding from one place to another would be extremely difficult if not inconvenient.
But today, thanks to the advancements in magic and technology, people have more convenient modes of transportation. One could get across from Demacia to Noxus in a matter of a day and a half when before it would have taken you a little over a week.
And not only that, there were more forms of convenience today throughout the region than Ashe would care to comprehend. Mechanical automatons, floating vehicle transports, crystallized magic photons and all sorts of other science stuff that she had no use of knowing.
Because to this woman, her life was not connected to the technological advancements of Valoran, nor did she have any care for the politics of Demacia, Noxus and the Institute of war. She was more concerned of her tribe, the Avarosan's back in the region of Freljord, where the white cold ice can deal a killing bite just as good as the flashing stroke of a sharp steel blade.
Cold was the least of their worries, with the three powerful tribes always on the verge of war, it was a miracle the three of them hadn't killed the other off yet, though the frost archer thought that it was only a matter of time before her fears would become a reality.
"Heads up, I see movement" said the voice from inside her head.
She looked around and caught the shadowy figure darting just across from her. From the corners of her vision she could see four more approaching just behind the opponent. And in a fraction of a second, the battle that would decide the match would take place.
She let her arrow loose in between the two trees, and it shot fast and cold crossing the lane at an immense speed. It took only three seconds before she saw the explosions of ice and heard the sounds of battle from the other side of the jungle. She could hear Malphite knocking the enemies into the air and feel the sudden gust of wind as Janna creates a powerful monsoon to throw her allies off balance.
With no time to waste Ashe darted through mid lane and went in to join her allies on the other side of the rift. Entering through the river, she could see the battle was going well for them, Jarvan IV was raging a fight with Malphite while Janna was hurling tornadoes futilely at Lux. Master Yi was clashing blades fiercely with Katarina, who blinked behind him in an attempt to confuse the Wuju master.
Ashe didn't even hesitate to go in and release volley after volley of frozen arrows against Ezreal, dealing as much damage as possible. Ezreal was just as quick as her though, and blinked behind the Jarvan and Malphite; out of harm's way from her last few shots.
"Get him Blake!" screamed Ashe inside her head. A great flame shot from the heavens and ignited Ezreal, burning him until he went down and shattered into a million light shards.
"Good job Summoner" the frost archer told him.
"II's the least I could do, now, back to work"
The battle was far from over; Warwick had just entered the heat of the battle and set his eyes on Ashe. The wolf howled in fury, tasting the kill and rushed for her on all fours, not even minding the ongoing battle happening around him. He slashed at her, but as swiftly as she could, jumped back and dodged the attack while shooting two arrows, hitting the wolf with a resounding thud. That did nothing but enrage him though, and soon he continued his pursuit. He slashed and bit and howled at the frost archer but did not even manage to land a scratch, unlike Ashe who had practically made the wolf into her own personal hedgehog.
Warwick continued the pursuit, slash after slash after slash missed her as she swiftly continued to rain arrows over the enraged beast. Her luck didn't last long though, because Warwick managed to maim the woman, sending her to her knees. The wolf howled in triumph just before he got a taste of her blood, raising his arms for the final blow before he would kill her.
"Stand up Ashe, I got you" Her Summoner echoed.
Just before the claw had landed upon her, a yellow barrier of energy absorbed the blow and blocked the wolf's hand. Standing up, the frost archer jumped back, and with a quick volley of arrows finished her enemy off. Warwick let off a final howl of anguish before he finally went down and shattered into shards of light.
"Thanks" Ache told him breathlessly.
"Don't mention it, now let's hurry up and end the game"
The frost archer marched through mid lane with what was left of her team; she could almost taste the sweet feel of victory as the enemy's nexus explodes in a dozen shards of light.
Without hesitation they broke the inhibitors and moved on to the nexus, shooting at it as the huge stone building cracked and groaned under the pressure of unstable magic particles. The crystal glowed blue under the orange colored sky. You could hear the nexus thrum more vigorously as her team dealt more and more damage to the object.
Ashe let loose one final arrow and the Nexus broke completely.
The building imploded on itself before letting out the immense magical energy hidden beneath its stone shell, shattering the crystal on top of it with a loud crack and forcing the parts to snow down like a million sparkling stars.
Ashe stared all around her and basked in the beauty that the end of the match brings every time a Nexus is destroyed. She simply found it beautiful that something so destructive created an image so beautiful that she would not get tired of it no matter how many matches she'd fight.
Light pulsed on top of Ashe's head and went down to touch her chest; she lifted up her hands to catch the blinding light in order to see what it was.
In front of her lay a beautiful trinket that symbolized some sort of crest containing rare pure silver inlaid with gold edges. A blue crystal hummed with so much power that it seemed to glow as it continually pulsed around its golden nest at the center.
"What's this thing?" She asked more to herself than to her summoner.
"Oh, that's an announcement of my achievement really, you shouldn't bother yourself so much with it, it'll be gone in half a heartbeat" he replied.
"What's it for? Is it a medal of some sort?" she persisted.
"Well, no if you're not a summoner, it wouldn't mean anything"
"Then what does it mean?" she asked sharply.
She could feel the excitement welling up inside the summoner as he announced to her "Well, it means that I had just won my promotion series and have finally been raised to the rank of a Challenger"
Ashe had expected more, in truth, such a beautiful trinket used to exclaim such a trivial occasion did nothing but belittle the beautiful object, or so she thought. But being rather negative to someone who seems to have taken much pride in his achievement was not something the frost archer was wont to do, and so, keeping her thoughts to herself she simply replied "Congratulations" before a pillar of light surrounded her and transported her out of the fields of justice, severing the connection she had with her summoner and sent her back to Valoran once more.