A/N: Characters are the property of Riot, but the plot twists and ideas are mine.
As Irelia left the inn, she was surprised to find out that the sun had barely risen over the horizon. The streets were slowly filling up with people going about their day, but the only one of her companions in sight was Iroh. Irelia approached Iroh, who was leaning against a wall across the street, a bit confused at the whereabouts of her other companions.
"Where is Arvile and Sumona? Sumona left before me, and I didn't see them in the inn while I was eating."
"They were getting a bit impatient waiting around," Iroh said as he started to walk, "so I sent them ahead to prepare the horses they got for us near the edge of town last night. We should arrive a little bit after dark tonight."
"I thought you said we would arrive before sundown tonight?" she questioned.
"Aye, lass, we were supposed to. Unfortunately, I heard from some locals that the bridge for the Kai-shi River is out, so we will have to make a detour around it."
Irelia pondered for a second trying to remember the river Iroh was talking about. She was fairly familiar with Ionian geography and most of its major mountains and rivers, it didn't take long to remember which river Iroh was talking about. This made Irelia frown, the area around the river was fairly deserted due to its close proximity to the mountains. The detour would take them one to two hours to complete.
It was enough to slow them down, but not enough to make them delay their arrival to the next day. The fact that it was only a minor inconvenience to a traveler was what worried Irelia the most.
Iroh must have been able to sense that Irelia was worried, because he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as they arrived at the stables. "I'm sure things will be fine lass," he said with a smile on his face.
"Yeah, you're probably right," she said with a halfhearted smile, trying to convince herself more than Iroh that they were true.
It had been several hours since Irelia and her companions had left, though they tried not to show it, they were all exhausted by this time. The remaining path was fairly straight forward considering they had just gotten past the Kai-shi River, which should have been the hardest part of their journey. Surprisingly, they had managed to cross the river without any issues, except for when a fish scared Arvile's horse and it nearly bucked him off into the river. The area past the river was mostly surrounded by trees and the occasional boulder on the side of the road. From their current location they could see a faint outline of the village that was highlighted by its shining lights against the almost night time sky.
Earlier that day Irelia had taken her blades out of her traveling pack. She had kept them there due to the fact that that most people found it disturbing how her bladed floated and seemed to react without orders from her. She felt most comfortable with them out, rather than hiding away in a bag like the last few days. Right now they were floating flatly on Irelia's back. Oddly enough, having them there made Irelia feel more comfortable. On a journey as long as the one they were making today, Irelia was grateful for the small comfort her blades had provided. Whenever Irelia wasn't able to distract herself on their journey, the dream from the prior night would creep back into her mind. Irelia had had dreams before, but none of them bothered her as much the one from the previous night. The white haired woman's face was still a blur, and the confusion it brought her did little to help sort out her thoughts.
As they got closer to the village, Sumona pulled her horse off to the side.
"Is everything alright Sumona?" Irelia asked
"I've been thinking," Sumona said as she tied her horse to a tree, "we have no clue if we can trust this Noxian. We could be riding straight into an ambush and not even know it. How do we even know that she showed up?"
The group remained silent as Sumona's words sunk in. They had all probably entertained the idea in their minds at one point or another, but Sumona was the first one to actually address it.
"You don't think the Noxian's would use ambush tactics do you? I mean even if they are mercenaries, aren't Noxians too head strong and honor bound to use such tactics?" Arvile questioned.
Iroh was the first to respond to Arvile, "Normally lad, you would have a point. They most likely wouldn't in a time of war, but these mercenaries have been here a while and are likely to do whatever they can to survive."
"There are probably some Zaunite mercenaries mixed in with them as well, it would be foolish to think that they are exclusively Noxian." Irelia added, unintentionally letting her distaste for Zaunites slip into her voice. Irelia hadn't cared much for Noxians, but at least they had fought face to face in battle. While Irelia had never experienced the horror of the Zaunite melters herself, she had seen the destruction they had caused to her people and the area's they had bombed. Just thinking about them made Irelia's stomach churn with distaste. Irelia took a deep breath, calm down, she thought to herself trying to push away her hatred for those that invaded her country.
Irelia snapped back to reality when Iroh had spoken up, "Sumona, do you think you could go and scout ahead to make sure that our Noxian friend has actually shown up?"
Sumona replied with a slightly concerned voice, "Of course, will you guys be alright staying here and setting up camp in the dark?"
"Aye lass, go on ahead. We'll wait here for ya here."
The Noxian warrior sat in a tree, looking out at the village entrance, expecting the warriors that Karma had sent to be here by now. She wore a long dark brown cloak that covered most of her body, hiding the tattered remnants of her military armor. Due to the repairs she had made to her armor it was probably equally as Ionian as it was Noxian at this point. She had taken off her hood as soon as it had started to get dark out, revealing her short white hair and crimson eyes.
Where are they…? They should have been here two hours ago. She thought to herself.
She didn't like waiting, the fact that Ionians were rarely ever late was something she respected about this country. Ionians being late was never a good thing, especially in a part of the country that was being terrorized by mercenaries. While the warrior didn't care much for the countries mercenary issue, she did have a score to settle with some of the leftover Zaunites.
The Noxian warrior's thoughts were interrupted when she saw a campfire shoot up in the distance.
A campfire? Fuck, there is a mercenary camp right by there!
She wasted no time jumping down from the tree and rushing out of town towards source of the light, fearing for the worst.
Come on, please be alive! I need your help and you guys can't do that if you're dead.
As she drew closer, her unease grew as the noise of clashing metal filled the air.
A bead of sweat ran down the side of Irelia's forehead as she fended off a mercenary's attack. It was only a few minutes after they had started the fire when they were attacked. Last time she had seen them, Iroh was on the opposite side of the fire near a boulder, and Arvile was across from Iroh near the road. Unfortunately, because of the men standing before her, she couldn't glance over to see how well her allies were faring. From the difficult time Irelia was having with them, she figured that they probably were having just as tough a time as she was. Irelia was able to block and dodge the mercenaries' attacks repeatedly. They weren't particularly skilled swordsmen, but they did have the element of surprise and they weren't fatigued from a long days travel.
Just wait for an opening, Irelia thought to herself, trying to herself from being rash.
It didn't take long for Irelia's patience to be rewarded, one of the mercenaries had charged forward at her screaming while trying to stab her in the stomach. Irelia nimbly stepped out of the way, using her blades to parry the blow and using her momentum to spin with the block and bring her sword around across her attackers exposed mid-section. Irelia backed off quickly out of habit to avoid a retaliation strike, narrowly avoiding another one of the mercenaries' attack.
Keeping her calm and after avoiding a few more attacks, another opportunity arose when a mercenary swung his sword in a large arcing motion towards Irelia. She stopped him with a swift kick to the groin, bringing her blade up into his chest as he doubled over. As she did this, the other mercenaries backed off a bit, mumbling amongst themselves.
Irelia was left confused since there was still a few of them left, surely they aren't retreating already? Irelia thought to herself. She had seen soldiers retreat from a losing battle before, but never this quickly.
Sunddenly a tall, bald, and burly mercenary stepped forward, grunting angrily. "That was my brother you Ionian wench, you are going to regret that!" he bellowed.
Irelia cursed to herself as he wielded the broadsword that had been strapped to his back.
The man swung his sword wide in a slashing motion towards her mid-section, and Irelia was forced to jump back to dodge the attacks. His movements were slow, but the size of the sword made it difficult for Irelia to get close to him. She couldn't block without risking that the sheer power of his attacks would knock her over. He continued his onslaught for three more strikes, before bringing the sword in an overhand strike downwards. Irelia narrowly managed to jump to the side. She used her foot to turn the blade so her foot was on the dull side preventing the sword from being raised upwards. Irelia used this opportunity to try and stab the man, but was stopped when the man grabbed her by the neck and hoisted her into the air. Irelia clawed at his hand as he choked her while lifting her up. The only saving grace she had was that his weapon was too heavy to lift with one hand so he couldn't stab her, and apparently none of the other men were willing to attack her while he was fighting.
This is going to hurt, Irelia thought to herself as an idea crossed her mind. She grabbed a hold of the man's wrist, and used it for leverage as she pulled her feet to her chest and kicked the man in the face. The man dropped Irelia, she used the dull side of her blades to tip her over midair so she didn't fall on her back, but she still fell roughly on her forearms and knees. Irelia coughed repeatedly as air refilled her lungs, looking up up she saw the man walk over to his sword while holding his nose.
Irelia heard the man cussing at her, as he hefted his sword. She used her knee to help stabilize herself and stand up, bringing her blade up in front of her. As the man walked towards her, Irelia prepared herself for the worst. Normally she wouldn't have had a problem dealing with the man, but with the exhaustion setting in from a long day's journey it made things more difficult. As the man prepared to lift the sword up, there was shouts from the other mercenaries. As the man turned, Irelia saw a figure in brown stab the man in the side with a large broken sword.
Irelia was momentarily confused by what had happened, but quickly snapped back into reality. Irelia ran up and quickly dispatched three mercenaries that were close by while they stood there stunned. With all of the mercenaries around Irelia gone, she looked around for Iroh and Arvile. As she looked over towards Iroh, she saw him defending himself against four attackers and when she glanced over towards Arvile he was dealing with the same amount. Irelia looked back and forth between the two, unsure what to do.
Irelia cursed to herself internally, I'm sorry, she thought as she rushed towards the battle closest to her.
A/N: So whose side did Irelia rush to? Find out next time on Dragonba- sorry wrong show, actually, next chapter will be Syndra and Zed. So you're going to have to wait two chapters to find out. Don't hate me! My girlfriend made me do it, and she controls the editing.
Don't forget to leave a review! Let me know what you liked and disliked, What can I improve, what you want to see more of, and how I did on writing my first ever fight scene.