Chapter 1
No Pain, No Gain

Huffing and puffing, the Yordle, a talented yet small race of inhabitants on Runeterra, tried its best to get into safety's arms by hiding in the lush brush of the famed Summoners' Rift. A realm like no other where different sorts of folk would be able to demonstrate their bloodlust insanities, renowned sense of Justice, or to catch 15 seconds of fame from the Arena's audience. It may not look or feel like the Paladium of Greek times, with its forest like appearance and twisting hidden paths, but it was often times used for battling out differences amongst the regions of Runeterra. Cassiopeia, being one of the many participating champions, was enjoying her cat and mouse game to care for the rest of her team members and their personal priorities. She, naturally, had her own motives.

"I will find you, my little prey, and when I do…*hiss*…I will squeeze you until your very last breath." she had a very amused tone to her voice.

Suddenly, to Cassiopeia's slight surprise, the sky became pitch black and a thundering boom was heard before Nocturne dashed out from behind, but the slippery lady was smarter than she appeared and blocked his first attack with ease. Clang! Came the noise from its first contact, then another, and so on. She was matching each deadly swing with succession that was attempted by the armoured menace. Nocturne started becoming a little frustrated at the fact that she was greatly skilled at blocking with her agile movements. Unfortunately, he didn't foresee the dirty blow from the side, as her tail lashed out like a whip to make contact with his torso. Pushed aside and away, he bluffed to have recovered from the impact and stood sternly before deciding to dash at her once more. There was a strong sounding screech of metal as their armour pieces connected and threw Cassiopeia off balance into a thorny bush. He, in turn, was out of breath and definitely out of options. They were both unaware of a giant circle on the ground, followed by a gleam of light in the clear blue sky as Pantheon made his descent. After landing very heavily, shaking the ground and sending a shockwave around him, he quietly stood upright to assess the situation. After assuming that all was clear, he looked over at Nocturne and gave his team mate a thumbs up with a satisfied grin. Cassiopeia decided that she had enough play time for one day as she realized her disadvantage and made her sneaky retreat. Little did she know the Yordle, she was chasing earlier, decided to engage her by making itself present behind her. Fwip! The small poison dart made successful contact with her shoulder blade, she hissed and turned to see who her assailant may have been. Her face showed some surprise and intrigue before everything went black. An announcer informed the audiences of Cassiopeia's demise. Both teams were pushing steadily toward each other's end points. Nocturne and Pantheon rushed through together, slicing and spearing everything in their path. The Yordle known as Teemo, was ahead of the two and quickly started setting up his explosive poison mushroom traps within a 35 meter radius of the end point, as to hopefully distract any on coming competition. Slowly but surely, they kept breezing through each obstacle one after the other. Nocturne's multiple slicing of the on coming sub-enemies, and Pantheon's damaging spear throws toward each of the three guarding towers on the way, made an effective and versatile combination. As they reached the Core, known as the Nexus, Nocturne hid himself to prepare for another surprise attack. Sure enough, Pantheon lured an opposing champion and engaged in battle. The opponent's name was Garen, the star of Demacia, he was a well known warrior due to his heavy conviction for justice on behalf of his prince, Jarvan IV. Garen was accompanied by none other than his magic wielding sister, Luxanna, which also sprung out of a near brush and sent a magic entrapment onto Pantheon. Seeing his partner's predicament, Nocturne decided to step into the fight earlier than they had planned, again the sky went dark however, this time slightly more on a dark purple hue than usual pitch black, he dashed out at the weaker enemy. Luxanna and Garen were not prepared for that type of assault and as Nocturne was approaching, Garen fled his current battle with Pantheon to guard his small sister. Successful in his attempt, Garen was knocked back as a result and not standing up. Lux ran over to him looking over him with concern, repeatedly calling his name. The match was over, the opposing team had won the battle as they were successful in defeating the guarding champions. Pantheon sighed as he thought, "Most likely not a good idea to leave a ranged attacker and a healing supporter by themselves. Oh well, next time will be different and I'll make sure of it." Fire in his eyes from being defeated turned into a confused worry as he looked over to Nocturne, fallen Garen, and whimpering Luxanna.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" He shouted as he approached them.

Luxanna started to babble incoherently as her tears overwhelmed her, "He's not getting up, by the light, what do we do!?"

Nocturne looked at Pantheon with confusion, "The battle is over, why is he still unconscious?"

Pantheon looked at them both, and started poking Garen's leg with the wooden end of his spear.

"Hey!" came out an angry cry from the little lady, "He's not a dead animal! You can't just do that to people! Show some respect to a royal guard of Demacia!"

"I could use the other end, you know." Was the small, to the point, remark from Pantheon.

Garen came to his senses during the middle of a heated exchange of glares between Pantheon and Lux. He looked at all three and asked what was going on. They all watched him for a moment before Nocturne asked "I didn't think my ambush would have been so effective after receiving considerable damage from Cassiopeia early on, but are you all right?"

Garen looked at them with a blank face and cheerfully replied with a spring to his step, "Of course, I'm all right! There is nothing this Demacian guard can't handle on his own!" he grinned afterward with a sturdy clang to his chest from his glove. He did not inform them that he himself had a mild run in with an enemy champion early on as well, which in turn made him weaker than usual.

Shortly afterward, an announcement was heard throughout the Arena, "A Summoner has become immobilized to participate in any further battles. That is all we know thus far, but will be investigating the matter further. Thank you."

With that, the four looked at each other without exchanging any words, which felt like an eternity of silence before Garen spoke up "I don't think we can stay here for much longer since another battle is being prepared. We should do some investigating of our own, I'm sure Noxus has something to do with this."

With that comment, they all parted ways, however, Nocturne wasn't so sure that it may have been the Noxian organization to be part of such a thing, since they had no intentions toward the entities that allowed them freedom of expression in the arena, the Summoner's Rift.