In the safe zone Lanaya was not even irritated that she had been killed. She never got really angry due to her lack of emotions, but she didn't like it, either. This time, though, it didn't matter at all to her. She was even a little glad that it had been her and not the Crystal Maiden they had gotten. The thought had her frowning before she took a little time to get her focus back and to push the woman from her mind.
It worked okay but as soon as she left the town said woman was running towards her and all of Lanaya's concentration was gone again. The Assassin gritted her teeth in irritation. How could one woman bring her off track so easily? It was a mystery to Lanaya. But not one she intended to solve.
If it hadn't been too obvious that she was avoiding the Maiden she would have turned away from her. And when the woman stopped in front of her, her distress clearly visible on her face, she thought she should have gone another way, no matter how it looked like. And when the Crystal Maiden started to speak, and Lanaya had the sudden urge to reassure her, she knew that she should have turned away as soon as she had seen her.
"I am so sorry I couldn't do more to save you!" And from her expression she really was sorry. Though the Templar Assassin didn't see why it should be her fault. But it was probably her nature, just like she was friendly to everyone, no matter how unfriendly they were towards her.
It took the Templar Assassin a few seconds to answer, because she had to swallow the nice words she wanted to say. Instead she gave her a curt: "Wasn't your fault." before continuing on her way. She felt the Maiden staring after her.
Before she reached first tower on the road, which she realized wasn't middle road but top road, she had enough time to repeat her routine of getting her focus back. Goal: destroy the heart of the enemy town. Notice: the heart of her own town had to be protected, she had to stay alive, kill as many enemy heroes as possible, destroy the enemy towers. The way: fighting and fighting.
When she reached the point where the soldiers were fighting she went through her second routine: how many enemies, what enemies, and so on.
And when the two enemy heroes from this road, a knight on a horse with dark armour and a voodoo priest with purple skin, appeared, she was more than prepared. And though they were two against one, she did well enough, her Psionic Energy strong. It was almost funny to watch how they struggled against her and how they backed away when the Beastmaster and the Morphling reappeared.
The Templar Assassin had thought the time away from the Crystal Maiden would be good for her and that she would feel more balanced. But the opposite happened. She kept looking into the woods, if she would come to the top road with the Juggernaut again. She wasn't able to focus on the fight in front of her properly, her thoughts drifting back to the woman more than once. It was annoying and as soon as one of the enemy heroes made the mistake of coming too far forward, she attacked, angry at herself and trying to push the beautiful, smiling face of the Maiden out of her mind by being more aggressive. The danger it posed for her would leave her no time to think.
It worked well enough. The Beastmaster and the Morphling adapted to her more aggressive fighting style extremely quickly and they were able to destroy the enemy tower because the two heroes made no move to hinder them. And then the Morphling charged forward and stunned the knight. Lanaya joined the attack and when the voodoo priest tried to save the knight with an ability that dealt extremely much damage, even to the Assassin, the Beastmaster was there and he had an ability to stun an enemy as well. He disrupted whatever the priest had been doing and stunned the knight, who had just been about to move, again. Three against two they were now able to kill both enemy heroes, especially since the priest was, completely without any armour, an easy victim.
Afterwards she returned to the middle road, collecting the rune from the rune spot on her way. The deer man was there but he was alone. He had probably used the time where she had been gone to kill as many soldiers as possible to get the money. Now that she was back she would make it harder for him again. But she wouldn't stay long on this road. The war had progressed and it was time to change the roads more often now, to get together with the others instead of going alone. It was a team performance to win this war and even Lanaya needed support against five enemy heroes.
She debated where she should go next and the Crystal Maiden snuck back into her thoughts. Lanaya would almost have hissed at the deer man when he used one of his abilities in exactly the second where her concentration had wavered. This war was starting to get extremely annoying. She was here because she liked it, the purpose it gave her. Normally she would have liked the challenge the deer man presented, as well, but she only felt irritated when he attacked her, nothing like the thrill a worthy opponent normally caused.
When the Crystal Maiden ran through the stream to the middle road and a sudden burst of panic speared through her body as the deer man turned towards her, she even knew why the challenge was not welcome this time. The Templar Assassin was afraid that what was a challenge for her was the death for the Maiden. And as much as she tried to block all feelings regarding the woman, she knew that the sight of her dying would be absolutely dreadful.
Before the deer man could switch his focus onto the easier target, the Templar Assassin started her offensive. It almost worked, especially since the Maiden was near enough then to use her abilities and the Juggernaut came out of the woods at her back as well. But the deer man wasn't alone anymore, either, and even the ice of the ice woman wasn't strong enough to kill all enemy heroes.
They ignored Lanaya with her Refraction and the dark knight stunned the Crystal Maiden with a burst of magic, interrupting the raining ice she had caused. The Templar Assassin, as well as the Juggernaut, had nothing to stop their forward movement and it didn't take them long, only a few hits of their blades, to kill the cheerful woman and leave her lying in a pool of blood.
This time Lanaya didn't try to supress her feelings. She would probably not have been able to. With a cry on her lips she attacked, her Psy Blades cutting through everyone in her way. She was relentless and the enemy seemed unsure how to react to her sudden outburst of fury and aggression.
Two went for her and tried to kill her while two retreated. It was perfect, because two were no match for the Assassin. She used everything she had, totally focused on killing the ones who had hurt the Crystal Maiden. And when the first was dead and the second tried to flee she felt, for the first time in this town war, the calm she had been missing. She had a goal: to kill the retreating enemy hero, no matter what cost. Her focus was there, as if she had not struggled all the time, her purpose clear. She was as deadly as ever, the Templar Assassin on the hunt. The enemy hero had no chance.
But as soon as he was dead, the Assassin could feel the agony at seeing the Crystal Maiden die, again. She had to grit her teeth to stop from crying out, the pain slicing through her body as if she was attacked. She had looked even tinier in front of the dark knight on his horse. Vulnerable.
She had to stay away from the woman, had to stop looking at her. So she decided to go to the bottom road and kill the enemy soldiers. She would try to get the tower there as well and she could definitely do that alone. She would try to stay alone on a road and just hope that the others would be able to fight the enemy heroes without her. If they tried to gank her she would be prepared.
First tower went down without her encountering any resistance. So she kept going for second tower. She was aware that she wasn't as deadly as normally, because her focus wasn't as good as normally. But it had to be enough.
When three enemy heroes appeared she was able to get away, though it was a narrow escape. She was definitely not one hundred percent concentrated and it showed. She was extremely lucky though, because at the rune spot a regeneration rune was waiting. Then she headed to the middle road, wanting to get second tower there as long as three enemy heroes were at the bottom road.
That was where the others joined her.
The Templar Assassin tried to ignore them, especially the Crystal Maiden, and just focus on what she wanted to do: destroy the tower. But she could feel the Maiden behind her, could sense were she was standing, what she was doing. Lanaya was somehow attuned to every move the woman made. It had been that way for almost all the war now, Lanaya just hadn't noticed it before. Maybe the awareness had gotten stronger somehow or it was because this time the ice woman was behind her and she still knew where she was and what she was doing though she didn't see her.
At first it made her crazy to be so aware of her but then she realized: if she always knew where she was and what she was doing, she would always know if she was in danger. Maybe it was something good and not something bad. She had worked all the time against this awareness with the belief that it would distract her. But especially after the last fight, when the woman had died, it seemed like a good thing to know where she was. Maybe then she could prevent her death in the next fight.
Lanaya took a deep breath and accepted the awareness she had of the Crystal Maiden. It was against everything she had learned, against the fact that she was an assassin, trained always to act alone and not to care about any other creature. But as soon as she stopped to fight this strange bond between her and the Maiden, as soon as she accepted the fact that she was attuned to her, her mind calmed down and her body relaxed.
It was such a sudden reaction that the Assassin stopped to fight for a second. All this restlessness inside of her was gone all of a sudden.
And when the first enemy hero appeared out of the woods on their flank, she could feel it through the Maiden and react before anyone else had a chance to, even the enemy. She was fast and deadly and when someone attacked the women from her back, Lanaya switched her focus, leaving the one in front of her to the Juggernaut. The Crystal Maiden was between them now, completely shielded by them, and she began to cast the raining ice. It was a perfect fight and even the third hero, who tried to attack the Maiden, was hindered before he could get his first hit.
When the fight was over the Templar Assassin was still standing in front of the Crystal Maiden, her Psy Blades ready to attack and the Refraction still shielding her. But the enemy heroes were all gone. Lanaya thought they hadn't gotten all but she wasn't sure what the others had done while she had been protecting the woman behind her. And strange enough, it didn't matter.
"Wow, Assassin, that was unbelievable!" The Crystal Maiden's voice was full of admiration. Lanaya couldn't help herself, she had to turn around. The Maiden was absolutely beautiful, some ice shards still clinging to her blond hair, making it sparkle, while her eyes were such a bright blue, they looked like the clear sky on the coldest day of winter. And she was smiling again, her expression full of wonder and joy. Her gaze captivated Lanaya's and she found herself unable to look away. "You are really awesome! And thank you for protecting me. That was nice of you."
The Templar Assassin blushed at the praise and was absolutely glad that half her face was hidden by a mask and the other half was mostly covered with war paint. Because, an assassin who blushed after a compliment? Not very assassin-like.
"Hey Rylai, could you help pushing, please, as long as they are all dead?" The Juggernaut was hacking at the enemy soldiers with his sword, his deep voice slightly muffled behind the mask he was wearing.
"On my way!" the Crystal Maiden answered before she winked at Lanaya and ran towards him.
The Templar Assassin kept standing on the same spot, she simply turned around to be able to keep looking at the woman. She was confused. First about this awareness she had for the Maiden. Then about how her mind and body had reacted after she had stopped to try to push this awareness away. She was definitely confused about how she had found her inner focus while protecting the woman. And about their encounter just then.
The Juggernaut said something to the Crystal Maiden and she laughed. And, to add to all the confusion she already felt, the Templar Assassin smiled at the sound of her joy. When she realized that she was still staring at the Maiden with a smile on her face (luckily hidden behind her half mask) like some retard, she frowned and turned away, leaving the road.
Something was definitely wrong with her. But at least she had figured out how she was able to concentrate in the fights. That was definitely an improvement to the first half of the war.
Lanaya tried to sort through her feelings while she was on the bottom road. She fought against the soldiers there and then she went into the woods to kill some of the beasts that lived under the trees. This way she spent some time getting money and experience. It was nothing for which she would need a lot of concentration and so she let her mind wander, going through all her encounters with the Crystal Maiden, even the ones in the last war. At some point her feelings towards the woman had changed and now she tried to pinpoint this encounter. Not that it mattered much. She couldn't undo it anyway.
At first she hadn't really noticed her. She didn't care who was in her team in the town wars and so she didn't waste any time with looking at them or learning their names. The first time she had noticed her had been when they had won a team fight and she had laughed, the sound so in contrast to the fight that Lanaya had been absolutely astonished by it. She had looked at the woman for the first time and her beauty, especially when she was laughing like that, had erased all thoughts in her head. It wasn't as if she had never seen a beautiful woman before. Lanaya wasn't ugly and as a famous assassin she could get her pick of beautiful women all over the world. It was more the joy in life, which radiated from her body, that made her so breathtakingly and dizzyingly gorgeous.
But this had not been the problem. The Templar Assassin had been focused enough after that. Of course she had glanced at the Maiden from time to time but it was only because she was bootylicious and she couldn't help but admire her body. She had fought with the Queen of Pain once and she had stared at her even more (she was a demon woman who ran around half naked all the time and had a body to die for). So this hadn't been it.
Maybe it was just all together, her good looks paired with her friendliness and her selflessness. The longer she thought about it the more she was sure that she couldn't pinpoint the time when she had developed this awareness or since when she felt so drawn to the woman, felt the need to protect her.
Lanaya had never felt such a connection to any creature since her tutor had died.
Maybe she should just seduce her after the town war. Maybe it would clear her head to get hot and sweaty with the Crystal Maiden.
But even more important: she had to choose her team mates in the next town war so she wouldn't have to fight with her again. She didn't think that sex with her would let this connection dissolve. In the worst case it would even get stronger.
The Templar Assassin stopped when a thought struck her. She could choose her allies in a town war but she couldn't choose her enemies. What if the Maiden was on the opposite team and she had to fight against her? The Assassin wasn't stupid and she knew that she would never in all her life be able to harm her. Which was a real problem. Her only goal in life was to participate in the town wars and destroy the heart of the enemy town. She couldn't achieve this goal if the Crystal Maiden was protecting said heart. Which left only one option: if she couldn't fight against the Maiden she had to fight with her, no matter how distracting it was. She couldn't not fight in the town wars because then she would be stranded in the real world again, without purpose, feeling useless and lost. So that was no option either.
So fighting town wars together with the Crystal Maiden it would be. She wasn't the least happy with this decision but since it was the only option for her she didn't have a choice.
Taking a deep breath, Lanaya resumed killing the beasts in the woods while making her way to the middle road. There she met the Crystal Maiden and the Juggernaut again, who were slowly retreating from the advance of all five enemy heroes. The Templar Assassin moved parallel to them, staying in the shadows of the woods and waiting for the right opportunity to attack. The opportunity was presented by the Morphling and the Beastmaster, who appeared at the back of the enemy. They were definitely ready to attack and Lanaya wasted no time to go for the first enemy hero.
Someone had placed a Sentry Ward on the road, so when the beetle went invisible they were still able to see him. The fight, which then broke out full force, was complete chaos. The knight could make illusions of himself and the spells from the voodoo priest and the deer man were all colourful, creating flashes of colour all over the battle field, making it harder to concentrate on focusing on one enemy hero. And then the Crystal Maiden dowsed everything in ice. She had encased the priest in ice and was making snow and ice rain down on all of them now, dulling everything with a white blanket.
In all this chaos, colours, noises and movements, Lanaya was absolutely calm. She stayed near the Maiden all the time, attacking with her Psy Blades while keeping an eye on all heroes. Her hits were well aimed and precise, designed to deal as much damage as possible. Only when the first two enemy heroes were down and the others started to retreat did the Assassin leave her place at the side of the Maiden. Now it was time for her to go on the hunt, to kill those who thought they were fast enough to escape an assassin. The Morphling was by her side, his ability to rush forward making him even faster than the Assassin.
The three enemy heroes weren't stupid, though, and they parted ways, making it impossible for Lanaya to kill them all.
It was good enough, though, and they kept going forward. They were all still alive and when the Juggernaut activated some kind of healing ward, their injuries vanished.
And that suddenly they had won the war. They were able to destroy the barracks of the enemy town on the entrance of the middle road. When the heroes were all resurrected and ready to defend their town, they backed away a little. But they only used the time to switch roads and start their next attack on the bottom road. They were confident now and the Templar Assassin, having found a way to fight with the same focus and precision as always, was rocking it. She could feel the presence of the ice woman a little behind her all the time, calming her.
Finally she didn't feel off balance though she had to admit that her goal had somehow changed over the last fights. Her purpose now wasn't only to destroy the heart of the enemy town. It was to protect the Crystal Maiden and in the course of that to destroy the enemy town. But it was working and so Lanaya stopped questioning it. She took her need to protect the Maiden and used it as her new focus point instead of trying to push it away. She wasn't sure to what it would lead but at the moment she didn't have the time to think about it. She had to win a town war and if that was the best way to achieve this goal, she would take it.
The next fight against the enemy heroes was not as successful as the previous one, because this time two of their allied heroes died as well. But Lanaya didn't really care. The Maiden was alive and almost unharmed and her own injuries didn't faze her in the least. They just kept going for the enemy towers and the barracks at this entrance to the town and then went to the top road. There they would wait for their allied heroes while going through the woods to kill the beasts. And then they would start their last attack, going for the tower on the entrance to the town at the top road and then for the two towers in front of the heart.