Katarina Du Couteau, the daughter of General Marcus and the high tier assassin, was right in front of Riven in less than few seconds since the Sword Master called out to her.
For the first seconds, Riven wanted to magically teleport of out the place or take her words back. The whole idea of gathering information about Katarina presumed it to be done without the redhead knowing about it, and Riven's sneaky operation failed before it even started. Her mind went simply blank when her eyes met Katarina's.
The saliva never seemed so hard to be swallowed.
Riven lowered her head and tried to find any point in the ground to look at. She couldn't get herself to look into Katarina's eyes, not in this moment, not when she was exhausted.
The pain Riven was feeling was one of the greatest ones. If she wanted to be noticed, there should not be any weaknesses visible. And yet, her whole body itched, she was trying to hold herself together not to tremble in front of Katarina who would most likely be tempted to leave mean comments about Riven's condition.
"I will leave you for now, remember about tomorrow's training." Sword Master looked at young soldiers and smiled before simply walking away, leaving Riven in situation she would love to avoid.
"Mongrel." Katarina placed hands on her hips and snickered. "Missed me?"
The mix of seductive and yet mocking voice made the young soldier hold her breath. She was not ready to ask Du Couteau about things that bothered her. It took Riven quite a while before the voice left her throat.
"As if." Soldier mumbled, still not looking up at the assassin's face.
"Oh?" The slow movement of Katarina's arm caught Riven's attention. The long, slim fingers touched soldier's neck and moved upwards to the jawline. Slim yet strong, the hand forced Riven to look into Katarina's eyes. "I thought that even mongrels get lonely, but I guess that's what makes you survive more, huh?"
For a split moment Riven could not understand the meaning behind those words, but Katarina continued.
"You, dogs who can't appreciate the lives of anyone but yourselves, will live long and die like cowards." The fingertips studied Riven's jaw. "But who would ever check what's inside your guts, excluding enemies."
"Huh..." Riven frowned. "Assassin, who talks about caring and appreciating lives. I guess we can find a walking paradox in Noxus."
"Mongrel, don't you think too high of yourself?" Katarina smiled more to herself than to Riven, looking at her own image in soldier's eyes.
"Shut it, I'm tired of this nickname." She really was, but at first she didn't really want to say it out loud. The words simply escaped from her lips.
"Shut it." Even though Katarina did not say anything, Riven repeated her words and forcefully shoved off redhead's hand. "High tier assassin my ass, you lower yourself to a rookie, because what? It's entertaining? Fuck off."
It was a foul move.
Up until now Riven didn't notice the man beside Katarina. He took few steps and grabbed Riven's neck. With a full force he put her down to the ground like she was weighting less than a feather.
Kneeling next to her side, he pulled out a blade and put to her throat.
"Your life may mean less than the respect they taught you." His voice, as sharp as the blade he was holding, made Riven come back to her senses.
"Oh come on Talon, don't be mean to lil` mongrel, she'd never hurt me." Katarina laughed quietly and sat on the ground to match their level. "She's too weak anyway."
Riven growled in response, but she couldn't deny the assassin's words. For now she was weak, but her growing strength could overcome the swift moves of an assassin one day.
"You can check it, your bare hands are enough to take down wild dogs like her." Katarina did not hide her rising excitement over seeing Riven meeting the ground once again, even though she didn't stand up yet.
Riven had a problem with understanding her words again, and felt like she was facing a true sadist. Du Couteau wanted her to spar with her friend. Not to acknowledge Riven's strength, but to make fun of the newbie.
She struggled to stand up. The hours of the training she had earlier definitely pushed her towards the limits and the shaking muscles would not take any more. The knees barely took her weight, but she looked at the man next to her with a dumb pride in her eyes.
With a deep breath, Riven flexed a little to remind her ligaments that they should work properly for at least some time.
"I'm not weak." Her willpower made her voice not tremble, even though her body did.
The man put down few daggers and looked at Katarina before standing up to face his opponent. The bloodlust did not leave the assassin's appearance, even though he had no weapon. Riven bit on her cheek to stay calm.
Young soldiers had never experienced a fight with the assassin. She knew that if she would have been attacked by one, her body would be underground for a long time already. Their swift moves and precision was on a whole other level compared to normal fighters and the brute strength of average soldier.
Although his slim body seemed weak, Riven started to think a lot about his possible weaknesses. The hit she took earlier was strong but not enough to make her vision start to blur even with the added impact she took hitting the ground. Her first assumption was simple - in her highest spirits she could match his strength bare handed. The second thought appeared as fast as the first one, with a body like his, the man would definitely be very agile.
Her strategy was simple - to predict his first hit and counter it. If the first blow would be predicted, she could either have enough time to strike or at least be noticed as not a bad opponent.
When Riven had straightened her back, Katarina looked at her friend and slowly nodded her head. It meant one thing to the man, he could have his few seconds of fun.
Talon's moves seemed to be on a whole different level of fighting posture. The quickstep made Riven almost believe that teleportation was a normal thing for people without magical abilities. His steps were almost too fast to be noticed with bare eyes. The true dance of an assassin, Riven seeing it for the first time in her life.
She was unable to follow his movement and just jumping behind was not an option, but she was sure that her senses were not stupid. As soon as she felt his presence in front of herself, she put her arms up in order to block the hit aimed at her throat.
Riven never thought that someone could actually change the direction of their body within a split of second. Talon's hand never touched Riven, in fact, she never saw him in front of herself.
Her eyes widened as she realized that the assassin was right behind her.
With a single kick she was on the knees, gasping for the air. Thanking herself for being able to twist her body just enough to get the hit on her stomach, not the ribs. The tightened abdominal muscles made her reduce the damage a little, but it was not enough to not feel the enormous amount of the pain.
Riven felt like a disgrace, the so-called sparring didn't even last a whole minute but she already lost it horribly. She couldn't withstand the exhaustion caused by the training, making her willpower drain out very quickly.
"Not worth." His quiet words reached Riven's ears and caught her attention. But as fast as she looked up to him, she felt a horrible wave of pain in her face, before blacking out and hitting the ground.
Long hours passed before Riven regained her consciousness. The itching sensation in her body seemed to stop being as rough as before, but the burning feeling in her face didn't stop existing. Her head seemed to be too heavy to rise.
She had to let a few minutes pass before slowly opening her eyelids, to see the sky. The dusk was presenting himself in front of her and she began to wonder how long has it been since she was knocked out.
She knew she was weak, but never thought that she would lose within one hit. Since she was just a kid, she had to fight in order to survive, as a lot of orphans had to do. But even so, she was never forced to kneel on the ground before bringing the other one with her.
'Fucking Du Couteau.' She thought and gripped her fists.
"Oh, you woke up." The voice next to her made Riven snap her eyes open, but she had yet to get up.
She didn't answer, only turned her head to see the red haired assassin laying on the ground next to her.
"Mongrel, I have been wondering, what's your name?" Katarina didn't turn her face from the sky, but Riven could sense the assassin's irises turning towards her.
Few seconds had to pass before the soldier could actually answer, but before doing so, she smiled.
"Riven Storm." A proud response got out of her throat.
"You asked me why I'm lowering myself to you." Katarina slowly got her back out of the ground and crossed her legs before looking at Riven. "If you want to know, there's a fighting event in two months. If you'll win I may answer you."
"They aren't letting rookies into the ring. It's for the..." The Arena was held twice a year, the event was created in order to show the strength of the members of the army and their experience in continuous blood bath in order to name a champion.
"That's why I asked about your name. Don't disappoint me." Katarina's palm reached to Riven's face and covered her eyes. "Prove me wrong or die there, I'll watch you, Mongrel."
Riven gritted her teeth. The touch she felt a second ago disappeared as well as the silhouette of the assassin.
She just couldn't believe that she took the bait right from the assassin's hands and revealed her full name without thinking of consequences.
"Fucking Du Couteau." She repeated, but this time out loud.