Rise from the Darkness

Music Suggestion: Black Sun- Death Cab for Cutie

Chapter 1: Drenched in Rain or Blood?

A/N: *READ THIS* The chapter below is actually something I have already posted in my other story "League of Oneshots". After heavy consideration, I have decided to adapt it into a full time story. I figured this chapter would be a good precursor for the actual story. For those who have yet to read this, please continue as normal. For those who have already read this, fear not! I already have a second chapter up that is a lot longer (and better imo), so feel free to skip to that, or perhaps reread this if you want to catch up.

The sky sobbed over Noxus. Its rain pounded the rooftops and alleyways mercilessly, yielding for nothing. A hooded man made his way precariously through the slums, head down and eyes up. It was just another typical day for Talon. Steal and kill, steal and kill. That was all his life had consisted of lately. The days seemed to blend together, each the same as the last. They passed in a blur and before he knew it, he had grown quite the reputation in Noxus. "The Shadow's Blade", they called him. Heh, what a joke. As of late, though, his notoriety had caused him to receive attention from actual Noxian guards. These were not the typical bull spewing guild members that normally approached him. No, these were trained professionals. Still, they didn't stand much of a chance against him, but they did pose some big questions. If Noxus was sending their own men after him did they want to kill him? Recruit him? What was next, an assassin of his own caliber? A battalion? Who knows. If they wanted to play games with him then he would play right along. But he would be playing his own game on his own terms.

He made his way through the slums. Talon hated the name 'slums', it didn't really do the lowest district of Noxus any justice. A more appropriate name would be 'the hellhole your soul gets sent to to erode away.' And it had done just that. He never once in his life considered himself a good man, but he used to be...better. He used to look at the people in the slums and feel a strong sense of longing. Longing to escape this place, this hell, and make a life for himself. But now, after all this bloodshed, after all the death he had seen, he looked at the people in the slums with nothing but disgust. He came from absolutely nothing, against every odd that fate could throw at him, and he had made a name for himself. He had found a talent, his talent, that no one else could match him with. Well, not in this shit hole anyway.

The hooded Talon made his way through the alleyways and run down streets. While most people went for cover to escape the downpour, he welcomed it. Rain provided two things: Cover and a distraction. Both were necessary for an assassin. Little did he know, a woman with white hair had been following him the entire time.

"If everything goes according to plan, this 'Shadow's Blade' will be captured today, and brought straight to you and I." A female voice said from a dimly lit room, a fireplace being the only source of light.

"I wouldn't count on it my dear." Came a man's voice, standing across from the woman.

She stepped further into the light illuminating from the fire, revealing her entire figure. "Hmm?" She pondered aloud. "Why would that be, dear? He is being surrounded as we speak. Those soldiers of yours will have him cornered."

"But that's just the thing, Leblanc, he IS cornered. That is precisely why my intuition tells me he will escape us yet." The man said.

"I don't see your reasoning, Swain. Care to explain?" Leblanc asked.

"When a man is cornered…" Swain trailed off, stepping closer to Leblanc and into the light, revealing his dark green robes and cane. "He has only one option. He must fight. There is no place to run. He cannot retreat, he cannot run left nor right. No… He can only go forward. He can only fight those that have cornered him. And if I have inferred anything from watching this man over the last few weeks, it is that he does not fear us. Those few individuals in this city who don't fear us are the only ones that can best us. In the face of our soldiers, he will not falter. The real question is, can our beloved commander even put a scratch on him? That is really what I want to find out from this little experiment. I want to see how she fares against a man with nothing to lose, not like the typical braindead Demacians we send her to kill. He will fight with nothing held back, like a true warrior. Believe me, he will be captured and become mine… In time."

"You mean Riven?" Leblanc wondered. "She seems to be a most promising soldier, love, I believe she will fare finely."

"Riven has too pure a soul. I have seen the way she serves me, the way she kills. She does it out of loyalty, to me and to Noxus. Soldiers like her can only go so far, you see. They are limited by a code of ethics and morals, unfortunately. But this man, the 'Blade's Shadow', as they call him, I have seen his work. I have firsthand witnessed the bodies of his victims collecting in the gutters. I have seen the way he kills. It is not for the glory of Noxus, nor is it out of any sort of loyalty. He kills because he can, because he's good at it, because he must. Every man has a wild beast inside him, but only a select few actually let that beast surface and show its true nature. This remarkable specimen has gone above and beyond that. He has fully allowed the beast within himself to take control, and now he is a rampant wolf, killing whatever he can whenever he can."

"Oh Swain." Leblanc held her face in her hands sarcastically. "You always were so poetic. But what is your plan for him? Surely he cannot be of use when he is so dangerous and unpredictable, or 'wild' as you say."

"Its simple." Swain said matter of factly. "I merely want to put a collar on him. I don't want him to stop being a wolf. That is what makes him strong. All I want is to make him… My wolf."

Talon could feel eyes on him. There was no rationale for anyone to be stalking him at the moment, nor was there any evidence that such a perpetrator even existed. But after being hunted daily for years now, he tended to trust those 'gut' feelings.

It was no different this time. The skin on the back of his neck stood up, and he could feel stares landing on his back. He could not pinpoint from where, exactly, but figured he might as well go into the open and get this over with. If it was another guild member, which it most likely was, then he would bait him out and dispose of him rather quickly. No sense in drawing it out, for Talon was not one for drama.

He strutted to an open courtyard that was emptied of people and stood in the center, the rain making it difficult to see in any direction. He vaguely felt his hands grip the blades hidden under his sleeves, ready to slide into action in a matter of milliseconds. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Come out and face me, coward!"

And he almost immediately regretted it. Sure enough, his stalkers had come out to face him, but they were no guild members. At first he was confused when the first few people came into view. They adorned red and black armor, fitted with helmets and the whole lot. Their weapons looked heavy, ranging from battle axes the size of his entire body to maces that looked like they weighed several hundreds of pounds. These were no guilders, these were soldiers. Not the kind that had been giving him trouble lately either, those were just petty street guards, but these were legitimately trained killers. He took a step back and took inventory. It appeared to be 5 soldiers in total, 3 male, and 2 female. The three males held relatively large weapons, one of the women held a pair of slim but deadly looking knives, and the last one held a glowing green sword bigger than any of the other soldiers' weapons. He turned to make an escape, knowing he was outmatched. It is better to live a coward than die a hero. Unfortunately, he realized how poor a choice he had made to come here. The courtyard was surrounded by large walls on three of its four sides, meaning the only way to get out was straight ahead, which was exactly where the soldiers were standing. He snarled, realizing that there was only way out of this.

"Which one of you is the leader?" Talon asked calmly. The girl with the gigantic sword stepped forward, noiselessly.

"Ah, so its you." Talon said, gesturing to the girl that had stepped forward. "Do tell, have you come to kill me today?"

"No." The white hair girl said. "We have orders to bring you back to high command alive, whatever the costs."

"That's too bad…" Talon responded, his mouth curling up into a small smile. "Because if you wanted to just kill me this would've been a lot easier." Like a switch, he leapt into action. He flicked one of the knives hidden in his sleeves to the outermost Soldier. The man obviously had not been prepared for Talon to make such an aggressive move so quickly, because he took it in the throat without even making an attempt to dodge. The soldier dropped to his knees, clutching at his now opened throat with blood pouring out. The other four looked at their fallen comrade for a moment, but Talon did not wait. He dove straight forward, slamming into another one of the soldiers. He was caught off guard, and Talon used his momentum and body weight to fully topple the man to the ground. Swiftly, he used his other blade to deliver a blow into one of the weak points in his armor. The man's rib cage was punctured deeply, and the blade made its way into his lung. His eyes widened as an excruciating pain overtook him, and he started coughing violently. The other three soldiers had reacted now, charging Talon. Talon was quick to respond though, performing a backflip off the downed man and landing a good distance away from the oncoming soldiers.

Talon stared at them for a moment as they charged forward. Time seemed to slow down as he made calculations on whom to attack and whom to dodge. This happened everytime he was in the heat of battle, and he loved it. Because in times like these, when his life was on the line, he truly felt more alive than ever.

The woman with two knives got close to him. She swung forward with both blades, to which he sidestepped. The man with the battle axe swung his weapon downwards at Talon's chest. He nimbly rolled to the side, and kicked the man's leg out from under him. He reached behind his back for his last hidden weapon, which was his signature arm blade that he had gotten after a raid on a guild that was most insistent on him joining. Equipping his arm blade, he brought it up just in time to counter a heavy blow from the girl with the large sword. The force of the blow knocked him back, and he staggered for a few steps before regaining his composure. The man he had kicked down had begun getting back up and both women charged him once again. He ran straight to them and ducked under their swings simultaneously. He did not stop his stride, though, as he continued running to the disarmed man still pushing himself off the ground. Talon kneed the man in the chin, causing his body to flip over and him to land on his back. Swiftly, Talon brought his blade down on the man's neck, decapitating him.

He turned around to face his last two attackers. The woman with both knives had began running at him while the woman with the sword stared at her newly beheaded comrade in disbelief. Talon dodged her swings easily. She seemed angry, and Talon had learned that it was never a good thing to fight with emotions. Each of her swings were sloppy and lackluster. Talon merely brought his free hand to her helmet and hit it off quite hard. She crumpled to the ground and dropped both of her blades. She looked up at Talon with hate in her eyes. He grasped her chin quite roughly with his hand and stared at her. She had long brown locks and green eyes. He raise his blade in the air.

"Such a pretty face, what a shame." He said. At this point, the girl with the huge sword had broken out of her trance and noticed what was happening.

"Miranda! No!" She yelled, sprinting towards the girl in The Blade's Shadow's grasp. It was all for naught, though, as his blade came down into her chest. Her lips quivered for a moment, before her body went limp and she face first into the stone ground.

Talon looked up at the last remaining soldier whom had stopped running mid stride and stood there, staring at him in disbelief. He smirked, relishing in his almost certain victory.

"Tell me, how does it feel as a leader to watch your entire squad killed before your eyes?" He said sadistically.

"You...You… You murdered them!' She spat, violently shaking with rage.

"What is your name, girl?" He asked.

"Riven is my name and fuck what Swain said! I'm going to kill your right here and now!"

"Ah, ah, ah" Talon said, waving his finger in the air for emphasis. "You seem to think I'm the bad guy here. Let us not forget that YOU came here to attack ME! That is the only reason I had to kill your pathetic excuses for soldiers."

"They were good people!" She yelled.

"Perhaps I should send you to the same place I sent them!" He retaliated, spring forward at him, expecting a quick victory. It would not be quick, though. Riven fought well, better than the rest. Unlike many others, she seemed to thrive off her anger. She harnessed it and used it to her advantage. After what felt like hours, the two finally separated for a moment, both trying to catch their breath. They both had received their fair share of cuts and lacerations, but Riven had taken the better of one of Talon's swings to her midsection, and she was bleeding profusely. He looked up and grinned at her.

"I am really enjoying this," He said slightly surprised. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time, but, unfortunately, all good things come to an end." Talon raced at her, arblade outstretched. She heaved her sword up to block it, but he was too fast, and she was too exhausted. His blade found its mark into her left shoulder, digging deep into her skin. She let out a cry of pain before falling to her knees and dropping her sword. Her vision started to blur as she accepted the inevitable end. It never came, though, as she opened her eyes to see Talon putting his arm blade behind his back.

"You fight like a young man, with nothing held back. Its admirable, but irrelevant. However, you are too much fun to kill just now. We will meet again soon, Riven." That was the last thing she heard before passing out. Talon gathered his blades as well as the blades of the brunette woman before strutting back to his home.

Four more bodies for the gutter.