Didn't I say I'd have the next chapter ready? Here you go as apology for being gone. This chapter features a champion that I felt would need a strong character in my story.

Chapter 11: Assassins

"Don't you ever say that about Noxus!"

The forest was rather quiet as I stepped out of the bush-covered entrance. It was quiet and peaceful even during the daytime, but there was nothing peaceful about tonight.

Rez could feel a threatening aura in the atmosphere. He took a few moments to observe his surroundings. Nothing felt out of the ordinary. It was a normal looking forest night. With the scent of the air and position of the moon, the break of dawn wouldn't be coming for quite a while.

In a split second, Rez caught someone's arm to his side holding a knife less than an inch away from Rez's neck. He tightened his grip, forcing his "killer" to drop the knife and caught it before throwing him across the clearing.

The man caught himself before he could slam against a tree. He wore a hood masking his face, and had various blades around his clothing.

"You know, you almost had me there, jumping out from the trees." Rez held the knife in front of him and melted it, letting the chunks of melted metal fall onto the ground. "If this knife were to pierce my skin even the slightest bit, I was sure to be gone. I could smell the poison seeping out from the tip."

The man crouched down and was getting ready to strike again, but Rez continued talking. "Please excuse me, but have we met before? I'm sorry, but I was expecting a sort of red-headed woman."

The hooded man swiftly threw a small dagger at Rez who simply caught it with two fingers from the edge of the blade. The next thing he knew, another blade was held up against Rez's throat with the man behind him, holding Rez's arm against his back.

"Well shit... this ain't good." Rez mumbled.

"You really like to talk, huh?" The hooded man said in a hazy(batman) voice. "You're not gonna talk so much after I slit your throat."

Rez took a moment to think. "...Oh! I know now! You're Talon right?"

"What? Y-you know about me?" The hooded man asked perplexed.

"Are you kidding? There's not a single person who doesn't know you? You're one of Noxus' most infamous assassins!"

"Am I really!?" :D

Talon dropped all hostility and excitedly let go of Rez. "Am I really that popular among the people?"

"Of Course!" Rez happily said. "I mean you are a top pick for the summoners in the League."

Talon was feeling very joyous at the moment. "Well to be honest, I've always been wanting to fight you ever since you've caused such a big uproar in Noxus. Now that you're here, it gives me shivers to finally face you!"

"Likewise! I've felt the same way!"

"Really!?" :D

"No!" Rez said with a smile.

Before he even noticed, Talon's body from the ground to his neck was encased with ice rendering him immobile.

"Dammit! Not again!" D: Talon cried.

Rez folded his arms and walked up to the bladed assassin. "Now tell me. Why are you following us? What are you after?"

"Why'd you do this to me? Did you lie about everything you said earlier?" Talon asked. He sounded like he was about to cry.

"Yes." Rez stated bluntly. "Now answer me. I'm the one giving out questions here."

"You made me believe that people really liked me for once! Why did you have to do that!? You're so mean!" T^T

At this point, Rez thought it was pretty useless to ask him any more questions. He also started feeling bad for lying to him.

Rez scratched his head. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

Talon sobbed. "Do you mean it?" :'(

"Yes, yes. So how about we have a little duel to the death?"

"Yeah!" :'D

Rez was about to thaw out the ice that trapped Talon until a series of knives darted toward him which he quickly evaded each one.

Rez had a bit of a smirk run across his face. "I was beginning to wonder when you were gonna show your ass." He picked up his hat that flew from his head and put it in place. "It's been a while Kat. Let's go!"

Katarina attacked Rez in quick bursts of speed. He reacted by blocking each attack with his arms which he completely covered in stone.

The red-headed assassin shunpo'd above Rez and was about to slice across his face, but before the daggers could reach him, he caught both by the blades. "I see you're not in the mood to talk. Is it that time of the month?"

In a blink, Katarina disappeared from sight. She appeared a few feet behind Rez and quickly jumped at him, hacking the back of his right shoulder.

"Shit!" Rez thought. He stumbled forward and noticed a stinging pain coming from his hands. He looked and found that his palms were bleeding. The daggers pierced through his stone-covered skin from earlier.

Suddenly, a hard kick came from below his chin, causing him to stumble backwards.

"What's wrong?" Katarina questioned the Black Mage. "Why are you never serious? Why do you keep acting like such a fool?"

Rez wiped the blood coming from his lips and looked at the sinister blade. He smirked and spoke. "It's my image to be mouthy and obnoxious... until I met your frozen friend there, and I thought I should amp it up to keep my title." Rez pointed to Talon who was trying to thaw himself out by breathing heavily on the ice.

Katarina followed. "Talon has a few screws loose in his head, but don't think him to be a fool. He has been trained under the best to be one of Noxus' most exemplary assassins." Katarina skillfully threw a knife at Rez, piercing through his left shoulder. He winced at the pain. "Did you get soft, Black Mage? You're not as menacing as you were back then."

"Who knows? Can you please explain to me how hard was I before?" Rez had a small grin on his face.

"Tch. You're a disgusting ingrate! How could one such as yourself possibly wreak havoc among Noxus!?"

Rez chuckled for a bit. "You don't know who I am. I'm a 'go-with-the-flow' kind of guy who likes playin' around, but I know when to get serious when the situation calls for it. If you really want me to get serious, then fine... Let's get serious!"

Katarina heard an almost demonic-like voice coming from behind her shoulder. She felt the temperature rise as she turned her head and saw a pair of fierce, fiery eyes before a steaming fist collided with her jaw. She was sent flying before rolling along the ground. She got up and leaped back just as a group of spikes rose from the ground beneath her. She kept skipping along the ground, dodging each set of spikes popping up until she jumped on a tree.

"...Hey."

Katarina looked to her side and found Rez, giving her a sinister smile. He placed his hand directly behind her back and let out a big burst of heated energy. The point-blank mini explosion sent her flying out of the tree and fell face down on the floor.

Rez landed on the ground beside her and pushed her head against the grass. Steam was coming out from Rez's arm and Katarina looked to see that his pupils were lit on fire.

"I wonder..." Rez began while removing the knife on his shoulder with his free hand. "...why exactly do they send assassins to kill someone when he proved too much for the same assassins to handle?"

Katarina started screaming as Rez's hand got hotter.

"Are they tired of you? Did they find you useless and saw that it was better to kill you off? That is just like Noxus to throw out the weak. It's such a pity to serve an empire that is so blind to power."

Katarina's screams got louder as the side of her face burns each second.

"I bet they wouldn't even notice if you died!"

SMASH!

Rez halted when he heard a shattering noise behind him. He looked and saw broken pieces of ice were scattered on the floor. Not only that, but he was surprised to find multiple small bladed disks were hovering in a large circle around him. Each disk flew toward him in blinding speed and sliced through various regions of Rez's body. He coughed up blood and felt his body beginning to shake.

"You don't know a single thing about Noxus!"

Talon was standing a good distance away from Rez, holding up Katarina who he covered with his cape. The bladed assassin gave Rez one of the most intense stares he ever gazed upon.

"Don't you ever say that about Noxus again!"

Rez snickered. "Heh, what are you trying to- guhh!" A small cut formed across Rez's cheek.

"Noxus is a proud country where the strong prevail and glory can be found! It's a place that I'm glad to call my home. It gave me the chance to find my true potential! Not only do you hurt my friend, but you dare mock my country? I may be a fool, but I still got my pride, and if you think I'll stay stuck in a block of ice while you continue to spit on that pride, then you're dead wrong! I'll make you pay with every ounce of your blood!"

Silence filled the air for a long moment. Rez chuckled and said, "It seems both of us are protecting something we care about and we'll protect it no matter the cost. But let me say this. Spilling any more of my blood will be a grave mistake."

Rez looked up at Talon with eyes covered in a light blue glow.

"Come on. Let's go."

For those who forget, Rez can't lose too much blood or else the mana in him regenerates so quickly that he can't control it. Anyway, in the middle of writing this chapter, I decided to give him a stronger character than just a thick-skulled idiot. I never really played him at all, but I feel that he should get this for the Talon fans out there. I hope I did him justice. Thank you again for the support even after all this time! I want to keep this story going because of all my readers. Thanks Again and look forward to the next chapter!