Hello viewers, this is a collab story between me and my friend "Blargmaster13" that we decided to write, based on our ideas for champs we made and posted on the site. We advise you to read these if you get confused about some of the vague references to their back stories. These champs are "Zydan- The Ringmaster" and "Gareth- The Avatar of Mercy". I will be writing in Zydan's point of view and the brief sections of Irelia's point of view, while Blargmaster will be writing in Gareth's point of view. We hope you enjoy the story and seeing as we are relatively new to writing we would appreciate any feedback/criticism you have to offer us. And now that I'm done rambling on, enjoy the story and we hope you like it.
It was late in the Noxian invasion of Ionia and when I last heard of the Noxian forces' progress they were making their way to the Placidium and claimed to have enough men and resources to take it by force with ease. I was making my way to join the Noxian army and assist in any fighting that may still be required. This was my punishment for being weak in the minds of family, all because I thought it was wrong to kill someone who had their backs turned to me. But I guess that's the way of Noxian life, if you can't kill a target no matter what the reason may be and you were considered weak and must be punished. This was my punishment, to join late in the invasion of Ionia and participate in what I saw to be needless slaughter of innocent people. These people weren't fighters, they were just normal people trying to live a happy and peaceful life but no, we just had to go and kill them all because they had minerals and other stuff we could mine. Ingredients that would just go towards waging war with some other country I couldn't care less about fighting.
It's not that I despise fighting or killing, in fact I would do either without hesitation if there was purpose or reason for it, but killing and slaughter are two different things and I despise cutting down those who cannot fight back. Now, at the age of 17, I made my way to a village that had already been passed through and left lifeless, expecting to see rotting corpses and burned down huts. What I witnessed left me surprised as I saw Noxians retreating for their lives as Ionian troops, led by a young girl with blue hair and a flying blade that caught my eye as it flew towards the Noxian troops, charging towards them cutting down anyone not fast to escape their assault. Unfortunately for the Noxians, the Ionians were trained to fight with speed and precision while Noxians focused much on pure strength in their training, allowing the Ionians to catch up with relative ease.
This was nothing more than unnecessary slaughter, only with the tides turned. It was obvious that from the last I heard of the invasion's progress the tides had somehow been turned and the Noxians had been defeated, unable to continue the relentless assault they had begun at the start of it all. I knew it was basically suicide but I couldn't just sit back while simple soldiers were killed just for following the orders of corrupt leader so with a certain feeling of finality and determination I readied my chakrams that I had lived and survived with for most of my short life and leaped in between the Noxians and Ionians, stopping the Ionian forces for a second before they began to descend upon me. They were kept back however as whenever one of them got within range of my chakrams they were quickly cut down.
I fought without hesitation. I had a purpose for fighting and these were trained fighters willing to fight and attack me without a second of thought so I felt no regret in ending their lives. They had trusted their life into their own hands and fought with honour and I in turn returned the favour by fighting with the same honour. Whenever they fell to my blades they were ended with a swift precise strike that left them alive for no more than a second. The longer I managed to keep them at bay, the more time my comrades had to escape to a safe distance. Some Ionians inevitably managed to make it past me but they weren't backed up by the same amount of fighters as before and were much more cautious in their pursuit. After several minutes of continuous fighting I found myself completely surrounded by Ionian troops and I realised that the troops that passed me earlier must have realised that pursuit was now pointless and had circled back to corner me. I saw there was no longer any reason to take any more lives and hooked my chakrams back to my belt and dropped to my knees and looked down to the ground, awaiting for someone to end my life quickly. I was caught off guard however as I heard a female direct her voice towards him.
"Stand up and face me." I looked up to see the girl from before facing me as her blade flew around her seemingly ready to pierce right through me at the slightest action. I was slightly shocked to see that the girl couldn't be any older than me. I slowly stood up facing the young girl. "Unhook your weapons and fight me Noxian." As I did as she requested and armed myself with my chakrams, I had a question I wanted to ask her.
"Why not just kill me when I was on the ground?" She seemed offended as I asked her what seemed to me to be a perfectly reasonable question.
"You fought with honour and I will not execute someone when they have just given up. I will see to it that you die with honour, weapons in hand." I respected her honour and I decided that if I was going to meet my end I would make sure I gave her one hell of a fight.
"Then if I am to die with honour than you should know that my name is Zydan Isanty" The girl nodded her acknowledgment before telling me her own name.
"Before you die, you may call Irelia Lito. Now that introductions have been made it is time for you to fight your last fight." As soon as she finished speaking, she lunged at me, with her blade right in front of her, at an almost inhuman speed forcing me to dive out of the way to my left. She quickly followed up her attack by making the blade come down on me, forcing me to use both my chakrams to block the blade. It left me open however to her actual attack as she delivered a powerful roundhouse kick directly at my chest, sending me sprawling across the ground. I instinctively rolled out of the way and was glad I did as I heard the sound of her blade hitting the ground hard. She was clearly experienced in battle and she had the advantage of having that damn blade flying around trying to shred me from limb to limb while she engaged me close up.
And so the fight continued, with her attacking me with her blade forcing me to defend, while she hit me when I was preoccupied with her blade. She was slowly fatiguing me and waiting for me to make a single mistake against her blade so she could finish me with a simple strike. Whenever I tried to take the offensive side however she would simply dodge my attacks before sending her blade my way forcing me to narrowly escape a fatal blow. Her plan was simple but it was working wonders and I was slowly beginning to take minor wounds that were only exhausting me faster. The battle began to reach its end as she took me by surprise by charging right at me without her blade to distract me and by the time I went to react by striking at her, she had grabbed my arms and began to sweep her foot across the ground in an attempt to trip me. In response I jumped off the ground avoiding her sweep but realising my mistake too late, as while in mid-air I saw her blade fly straight at me. Just before the blade stabbed me, Irelia released her hold on my arms sending me flying straight into the ground, several metres away from her as the blade collided into me, going right through my ribcage.
You could say I was fortunate that her blade had narrowly missed my heart and lungs but I knew I would die of blood loss regardless. The blade exited from my body and I could see Irelia just look at me from a distance, knowing I was finished. I knew I was dead so I forced myself up to my feet and tried one more last ditch effort before I met my end. I sent my chakrams hurling at Irelia. Irelia, caught off guard, managed to evade one of my chakrams but the other managed to slice through her armour, cutting the side of her stomach. It wasn't lethal but I couldn't help but smile at the fact that I would at least leave a reminder of our battle on the girl who had fought and defeated me in a fair battle to the death.
Yet, the battle was still not over as to my surprise the chakrams began to fly back to me and placed themselves into my hands. I now had a way to combat Irelia's blade and I used it to my advantage sending my chakrams flying towards her with reckless abandon, forcing her to either dodge or block with her blade. I managed to wound her again but this time in the gap in her shoulder pads, just under her shoulder. This caused a small worm of hope to begin to form inside me as I may just be able to defeat my opponent before I died. This hope was erased immediately as all of a sudden I just collapsed and fell to the floor. Damn. I had lost too much blood from before. I noticed my chakrams fall to the ground beside me and I frantically reached to grab them. If I was going to die then I would at least die with my weapons in hands. I saw Irelia begin to approach and I assumed she must be coming to finish me off in case I tried to surprise her like I had just done. But it was pointless, I wasn't going to live and as I had that thought, everything turned black and I lost all consciousness.
I was engaged in combat with this Noxian who called himself Zydan and i was awaiting his death as he tried to pick himself from the ground. It was futile and he knew it just as much as i did. Next thing I knew he was standing on the ground and, in a last ditch effort, threw his strange looking weapons. As surprised as I was, I narrowly avoided getting cut in half, but i was still left injured as one of his weapons managed to cut through my armour leaving a wound across the side of my stomach, that I knew would leave a scar that would probably last for the rest of my life. I could probably get Soraka to heal it after the battle but there was no way I was going to dishonour the last show of defiance this Noxian showed me. The fight may have been one sided from the very start but he had never stopped fighting no matter how inevitable the outcome seemed to be.
I was caught off guard when I saw something that only I should be capable of. His weapons were returning to him and placed themselves into his hands as if they had never left his side. I saw him look at his weapons with shock and I realised that this was not a normal occurrence, but I had other things to worry about as he soon took this new change of events and put it to his advantage, throwing his weapons as if possessed by a madman. He was forcing me on the defensive as I dodged and blocked his weapons with barely any time to react. He managed to cut through my defenses again as i was sliced just below the shoulder. I began to become concerned that if I couldn't get back on the offensive, he may just be able to defeat me.
As soon as my concerns popped into my head however, the relentless attacks that were berating my defences just all of a sudden stopped. I looked to see Zydan collapse to the ground, seemingly unconscious. I usually would have just let him lie there and die in peace but after that first surprise he gave me by throwing his blades, i wasn't going to give him another chance to turn the tides. So i approached his lying body and I readied my blade to stab right through his heart, guaranteeing his instant death. "May you find peace in the world beyond this realm" I said as I sent my blade flying straight towards him, but before my blade could finish the Noxian off, Gareth appeared out of nowhere and I felt my blade stop in mid-air as he blocked the blade with magic
"This man will not perish this day!"
As the Ionians charged into the Noxian army, I was in the middle of a detachment of soldiers killing my former kinsmen with blade and spell, as I cut through their lines I could hear steel clashing towards the front of the Noxian lines. 'It seems that her little stunt worked' I thought as I swung my blade removing the head of another soldier. It seems that my 'distraction' and the remaining Ionian forces charging seemed to have severely damaged the Noxians' Morale and they were starting to fall back. When I went to chase after their retreating forces I felt my body freeze up, 'No, you will let them go, they have earned our Mercy by running', as I regained control of my body I sighed and moved to provide support.
As the Ionian soldiers continued to push the Noxians back I quickly noticed Irelia engaged in a duel with someone, even from the distance I was standing at it was obvious that it was a fairly one sided fight as Irelia impaled her target with her blade and dropped her opponent onto the floor, as I saw Irelia raise her blade to end her poor opponents life I felt a surge of energy as her opponent threw his bizarre weapons, although Irelia managed to dodge one, the other one managed to slice through her armor and wound her. As she was starting to be pushed back by her opponent I quickened my pace towards Irelia.
When I started to believe that Irelia would be defeated her opponent suddenly went limp and fell onto his stomach, at this stage I was quite close to their duel and saw the face of her opponent, someone I recognised from my years living in Noxus, it was Zydan. I noticed Irelia was moving towards Zydan to finish him, as I saw Irelia raise her blade I felt my control over my body start to lessen and soon enough Mercy had taken over. As Irelia sent her blade towards the prone form of Zydan, a large amount of energy left my body as I teleported in front of Irelia's blade. As Irelia's blade impacted with the the barrier Mercy had erected I started to regain control of my body.
"No" Mercy said in a very monotonous voice to Irelia before surrendering control back to me.
Irelia stood there with a blank expression on her face before saying "Why did you just protect this Noxian Gareth?" Irelia looked at me as if she were beginning to become suspicious of me.
"Because he does not deserve death, he was giving his life to save his kinsmen, I think that earns him his life"
"And what if we spare him and he decides to try and kill us afterwards? If we spare him, we may later regret it."
"Ok, two points, One I am pretty sure that either you or me could kill him if he did turn and Secondly its not his style"
Irelia's blades began to point directly at me, reflecting what could only be a deep sense of suspicion. "And how could you possibly know what his 'style' is?"
I sighed and replied to her question "Zydan Isanty, Part of a Noble Noxian family who specialised in the art of Assassination, his father was a family friend and our families would get together for celebrations, I know it isn't his 'style' because he was always against the idea of stabbing people in the back"
"If his father was a Noxian noble then who exactly were your family before you came to Ionia?"
"Before I came to Ionia I spent a large portion of my life living in Noxus, and eventually I was adopted into the Du Couteau family" I said, feeling guilty at the sense of relief that had washed over me.
However that relief was short lived as she sent her blade hovering right next to my neck, ready to slice it open if I tried to make a move. "If I hadn't witnessed your assistance in this war then I would have killed you immediately, but I will let you live. Are you positive that if we let this Zydan person you seem to know much about," Irelia said, briefly turning her head towards Zydan "that he will not threaten us when he awakens, because if he brings harm to any of the Ionian people then I will hold you just as responsible for his crimes."
"Yes I'm sure that he won't be a threat to any Ionian citizens when he wakes up, if he does I'll kill him myself, and I honestly don't think you could kill me even with your new-found flying sword trick" I replied.
"Fine, then I will grant him the chance of freedom, but remember what you have just sworn Gareth, and I expect you to keep your word if you are wrong about him. Now if I were you I would get him to Soraka before he dies of blood loss or else our agreement really won't matter" Irelia said as she walked away from me and the dying figure of Zydan.
As Irelia made her exit I moved over to the unconscious body of Zydan, lifting him up as I started to channel the energy required to teleport to a nearby medical tent where Soraka would no doubt be. After I materialized inside the tent, Soraka briefly looked up from her current patient, sighed and pointed towards an empty bunk. Once I had placed Zydan on the bunk, I left the tent so Soraka could focus on healing him while I waited patiently to hear whether he would survive or not.
