Got this one out a little later than usual due to capped internet (I couldn't load the site T-T). Playing Guild Wars 2 like mad at the moment so 8 may or may not be a bit delayed as well till my initial hype slows down a bit.
The Du Coteaus followed Talon along the rooftops closely, Talon himself carrying an irritable gorgon slung over his shoulder seeing as she couldn't jump. Her sisters found it highly entertaining but didn't dare let out their laughter in fear of being heard not only by her, but anyone nearby.
Noxus itself seemed to be on a high alert. There were regiments of guards roaming the streets for the first time in ages, sometimes halting and interrogating random groups of citizens. Katarina guessed that someone had found out they were missing and reported to one of the High Command, and she couldn't help but feel a bit excited about it.
However Talon didn't seem to be in the least bit happy about the current circumstance and she knew his mood couldn't possibly be just because of Cassiopeia. Katarina longed to ask what was bothering him, because knowing his intuitive nature when it came to the behavior of Noxians, whatever it was, was bound to happen. And she didn't exactly want to wait to find out.
They came to a pause atop one of the commoner's homes, waiting for Noxian soldiers to filter through the narrow street below so they could leap across to the next roof without the chance of someone looking up and noticing them.
A hooded figure approached the soldiers, stopping them. Katarina mentally groaned knowing this would cause them to waste valuable time; the longer they remained here, the more dangerous the situation could become. She glanced over her sisters, seeing the worry in their eyes, and let out a deep breath to replace the sigh inside her.
The stranger spoke to the soldiers for only a short time before they let them go. But even when they left, the stranger stayed where he was. The Sinister Blade figured out pretty fast that he was checking his surroundings and from his behavior that he was possibly communicating with a telepathic mage. Her company obviously noticed something was off as well; they were extremely tense, frozen in position.
Fortunately for them the stranger left before checking their roof closely and they were free to clear the gap in strong leaps. Katarina held onto her sister's hand in case she fell; the middle sister had no real experience with this kind of thing as she'd never lived her life outside of being a bachelorette.
Talon ran now, not wanting to extend their stay any longer. Being an assassin he hardly made a sound as he ran even whilst carrying a rather tangible burden on his shoulder. Katarina too was an assassin and shared this, but they couldn't say the same for her sister beside her.
"She'll give us away." Katarina stated in a hissed whisper after they leapt across another gap.
The Blade's Shadow did not seem concerned and returned her statement with, "Too late for that, we've already been spotted. Catch." Without further warning he threw Cassiopeia toward Katarina, who only just managed to react quick enough that the gorgon didn't fall onto the roof tiles below. It didn't seem to make anyone happy.
"Talon!" Cassio complained, but she didn't say anything other than that.
Not that she could, as he continued with another sentence. "You'll find the entrance to the Underground just over that wall." He indicated a stone barricade looming ahead of them. "Shouldn't be too difficult to get there and it's amongst the trees, under the rocky hill. I need to go kill someone."
The Du Coteau sisters followed his directions, but still watched as he dashed away, faster than expected. It had been a while since Katarina had actually seen him heading off to assassinate, so she guessed he had probably grown more talented since. In a way it slightly frightened her for she didn't think she had improved a significant amount lately.
And only just did her eye catch who Talon was chasing; there was a dark figure hopping away, small because of the distance between here and there. Knowing how formidable an opponent she and Talon were let alone Cassiopeia, the hostile assassin was most likely planning to report the sighting of the three plus one extra to his superiors. Talon's reasoning for killing them would be that their current location might give away their retreat path, and having the Noxian Assassin's Guild or more roaming the Underground wouldn't be good.
"Katarina," the middle sister said, "I don't know if I can climb that wall."
"It's not even that big..." Katarina said, sighing. As they reached it she jumped down onto a pile of wood that leaned against it, possibly used for firewood in the house she'd just left the roof of. "Pull yourself up." She told Cassiopeia, lifting the serpent above herself.
Cassio easily did as she was told and waited on the wall for them. Katarina caught her other sister as she dropped from the roof then threw her towards Cassiopeia, who then pulled her up beside her. The latter was repeated as Katarina jumped high and took her sister's hands, and then proceeded to land on the other side of the wall. The Sinister Blade then caught each of them to prevent them from injuring themselves upon their own landings.
"That was quite something to watch." A voice said from the trees.
Katarina was shocked. Not only because that voice was familiar and she could never imagine how they came to be here, but because she hadn't noticed their presence at all. Was she really that out of tune with her assassin senses? How could she lose so much skill in so little time?
Fiora and two followers appeared, dressed in a uniform of sorts. Katarina stepped forward and opened her mouth to ask why the Grand Duelist was here, but then remembered she didn't have enough time to care.
"If you're looking for a fight it better be quick." Katarina told her. "Not like it wouldn't be anyways."
"That's really not why I'm here, though... You honestly think it'd be that easy to defeat me?" Fiora wondered, a hint of disbelief in her voice. To further accentuate that disbelief, she shook her head at the Sinister Blade, making a tsk sound. "Knowing my reputation, that's very foolish of you."
Cassiopeia intercepted. "Who cares about reputation? Let's do this, right here right now. I'll take you on."
One of Fiora's companions responded swiftly to the serpent. "Poison is against the laws of the duelists. If you wish to face Miss Fiora, you will do it without your talent or fight not one but three."
Katarina placed her hand on Cassio's arm as the gorgon hissed at him and said, "Then your opponent shall be me."
"Very well." The Grand Duelist drew her sword and raised it, switching her stance into a battle position. She held it, waiting. Katarina knew she would have to take the first move. That first move could be the difference between loss and victory; it was crucial. She couldn't afford to mess it up.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the assassin drew two of her blades. Running forward to clear distance, she threw one towards Fiora, who, as she had predicted, parried it. Taking advantage of her knowledge that Fiora would defend herself, Katarina danced around the duelist as swiftly as possible and kicked her… in the butt.
"Ah!" Fiora exclaimed in surprise, tripping forwards but regaining her balance before falling. Katarina knew her small victory over Fiora would be quite short-lived and prepared just in time to counter the Grand Duelist's fast strikes with her blades, of which she had drawn another.
The two then engaged in a dance of strikes, parries and blocks, neither able to touch the other, both trying to find a weakness. However Katarina began to realize a massive difference between her and her opponent. Fiora's speed and reflexes were a lot faster than Katarina's, and despite Katarina's advantage of an extra weapon she found herself being pushed back. Keeping this up for much longer could lead to a fatal opening from the Sinister Blade.
And Fiora looked like she wasn't even trying. Katarina cursed and withdrew from the duelist's range. Whipping out kunai from their places on her leg straps and holding them between her fingers, she said, "I wonder how quick you really are?"
Glad that everyone was at a safe distance from the fight, she initiated her Death Lotus. As the first wave of blades flew towards Fiora they were met with a smile, and then the duelist disappeared from sight. Katarina knew not where she had went, but she could hear the clangs of steel against steel and the occasional laughter of her enemy. It took her a moment to figure out why.
Fiora was moving at a speed faster than Katarina's out-of-practice eyes could follow, parrying every kunai that posed a threat while drawing closer and closer to the assassin. Katarina knew the Blade Waltz was fast, but had the Grand Duelist grown so far in skill that none could see her at all when she performed it?
No. Focusing as hard as she could the Sinister Blade was able to slow the motion with her mind. She saw only flashes of her opponent, appearing then fading away at different angles around Katarina as she spun. It didn't give her enough time to react in the slightest.
"KATARINA!" Cassiopeia yelled, but it was too late. In the blink of an eye the Sinister Blade had been pushed back against a tree with Fiora's blade driven through her right shoulder, pinning her there. She screamed in agony, not used to the pain after so long without real combat.
The Grand Duelist breathed heavily, recovering from the exertion of energy. A few cuts lined her body where she hadn't minded letting Katarina's kunai touch her; she had been too busy getting out the life-threatening projectiles from her path to care for others. This left a great deal of tears and rips in her Nightraven uniform that were revealing at best.
She smiled to herself before opening her mouth to speak. "The League of Legends has made us soft. No mortality, lessened pain, lower expectations." Fiora paused as Cassiopeia tried to rush toward her and was restrained by the two duelists.
"In this world, our limits are infinitely higher, our opponents are infinitely stronger. That is why I train not for the League, but for Reality." She emphasized the last word so well that it embedded itself into Katarina's mind despite the assassin being pre-occupied.
Searing pain erupted along the wound as her body tried to reject the cold metal that had been lunged through it. A long trail of red wound its way down her arm as blood trickled from within, slowly dripping onto the dirt in small spatters. And yet, gritting her teeth, she closed her left hand around the sword's blade and tried to remove it. This attempt caused her to scream again as her hand was lacerated by the sharp steel in deep cuts, only made more severe by her pulling against it.
"Why don't you just end me," Katarina asked quietly, dropping her hand to the ground where it bled profusely. "I'm pathetic."
Fiora took the sword from Katarina's shoulder, quickly and mercifully. She knew the torture of having a blade slide back from your flesh slowly and didn't want to inflict more suffering upon her future ally. With a sigh she responded, "It would be unfair to the Black Rose if I killed one of their most valuable assassins, would it not? Your skills are rusty; that can be changed with hard work. I refuse to end the life of someone on my side."
Cassiopeia spat on the dirt and hissed, "Filthy Demacian! The Black Rose made a mistake in allowing you into its ranks!"
The duelists restraining her tugged her backwards as she struggled against their grips, one placing his sword to her throat. "Miss Nightraven is not Demacian, nor did they have to allow her; she is of Noxian blood!" He told her angrily.
The Serpent's Embrace stopped to devour the information for a second, but then somehow escaped her captors. She then knocked both of them over with her tail and rushed to her sister, fussing over her and checking that she was alright. The duelists climbed back onto their feet, but didn't try to stop her.
For a while all was quiet but the murmurs of the two Du Coteaus, though fate would not let them be. A disruption in the form of the Blade's Shadow arrived on the scene.
"What have you done?!" He called out, striking at Fiora half-heartedly. He knew she would parry it, though he had never intended to harm her. It was more of a warning blow.
She averted her gaze from him and felt confusion at the feelings entering her; slightly blushing at his seeing the condition of her outfit, and a small ball of guilt in the back of her throat over Katarina. It didn't allow her to speak; she wanted to explain everything to Talon yet the words wouldn't come.
Luckily for her, one of her companions was able to devise a worthy explanation in her place. "Miss Nightraven did not start the fight and continued it merely to teach a lesson, Sir." He said, and Fiora nodded in agreement.
"You should be glad this area's relatively unprotected by the military or you could all be dead." Talon said, glaring towards the duelists. "But to get to the point, Katarina's only half of why I'm worried. Haven't you noticed we're missing someone?"
The group fell silent and surveyed their surroundings. In an instant, Katarina and Cassiopeia were shocked. Their sister had disappeared completely; she was nowhere to be seen! They'd been so occupied by the fight that they hadn't even known she left. Who could have taken her, and how without their notice? Or had she left herself, out of fright at seeing Katarina in such a situation? What if it were a mixture of both?
"There's nothing we can do right now." Fiora stated emotionlessly. Her happiness at winning yet another duel had gone like the passing breeze that now played at her hair. Just when things had seemed like they'd be okay, something new had to pop up and ruin it.
Tugging at the material on Talon's arm, she said, "We must go back to the Black Rose. Don't worry, we'll save her later." As she walked away, he followed, picking up Katarina from beneath the tree along the way. As Cassiopeia went to speak he glanced at her, and she came along without a word.
"LeBlanc will fix this," one of the Nightraven duelists told them. "After all she's the Deceiver; if anyone can get what they want or need, it's her."
And while Katarina took her turn at being carried by her very own Shadow, she wondered to herself. Can anyone truly trust a master of deception?
