"I mean, we did find a lot of blood, so we think the wolves-"
Darius silenced the babbling woman with a harsh gesture. He had understood the first time, but the scout had taken his silence as an order to continue and repeat her rambling.
"So no bodies? Clothing? The crippled girl he took with him?" He asked, clipped as always.
"There really was a lot of blood and, like I said, the animals-" Darius had lost interest and silenced her with another gesture of his head.
"Kalla," he called out, "you will take over."
The Warmason, the last one assigned to the Freljord-campaign and still alive, looked at him, dark eyes set. "My General," he acknowledged, "For how long will you be gone?"
Darius scoffed. As expected, Kalla did not question his orders any more. Without another word, the General turned and left the commando-tent.
Quiletta's son was missing. Had been for a few weeks, as it had turned out, and nobody had felt compelled to inform him. The boy was a bullheaded little shit, not physically strong enough yet to make his voice heard, but Darius saw potential. He could become the fighter Quiletta had once been. To achieve as much, the boy should not freeze to death, if that had not already happened. Weeks in the cold were deadly for the weak.
His potential and everything aside, the boy was Quill's son. Even now, Darius would go out of his way to try and please her, even if it meant looking after the masochistic idiot that was her progeny. This might be the last piece of sentiment he allowed himself to have for anything besides the empire, the last bit of compassion he had neither burned yet nor felt compelled to abandon right away. Even if it meant leaving his post for an extended period of time to go chasing around the cold Freljord.
The strong would survive, after all, even without him to lead them.
Noxus was built upon individual strength.
The air seemed to brim with a sense of foreboding. The weather afforded them hardly any respite, the desert's heat battling with the sea's salty breeze. Garen's nerves were tense to the breaking point and he felt the strain of his soldiers as much as his own. They all knew of the importance of their mission, about the heavy accusation their captain had approached them with - and they knew against whom they would act; against one of the most lethal women alive.
There, in the middle of the tattered swing bridge, a fleck of red flapped in the air, like a blood-tinted flag announcing sanguine victory. But she had not won, she was here, and this time, Garen would not fall for her antics. He had prepared everything accordingly and, seemingly, she had not noticed the soldiers surrounding her. There was no one else in this area besides her and his battle-trained comrades, she had no backup and whatever plan she had crafted to distract him would fail.
Despite his men's reassurance that she could not escape this, that they had superiority in quality as well as in their numbers, that even the bridge she had chosen cornered her, Garen was not so sure. The redhead was an assassin, and those worked best alone. Adding to that, Commander Katarina Du Couteau was smart; too smart to maneuver herself into a dead end like this. So, he kept his eyes open for signs revealing her real plan.
In the tensing of the atmosphere, the last moments he needed to collect himself, he asked himself - why? There had to be a reason for her to call on him, a motive beyond Garen's understanding. Had she simply wanted to kill him, she would have crafted a more elaborate ploy. Something like this was not the style Garen had become acquainted with over the last years - this alone roused his suspicion and the question that evoked his guilt beyond measure; because what if... What if she really needed his help?
Katarina practically vibrated with anticipation. She was skilled, but standing alone against at least eleven members of the Dauntless Vanguard plus their captain was quite a daring feat, even for her. She took a deep breath to collect and to center herself. She had chosen the battle-ground to outmaneuver their superiority in numbers and had an objective those dimwitted meatheads surely would not comprehend. Right now, those Demacian heroes should have detected her beloved daggers - at least those she had left hidden just enough to elicit pride at finding them. To lighten her mood, she imagined Talon's face when someone touched one of his beloved blades. The thought made her almost smile but, knowing of the eyes watching her, she stood still as a statue.
She just needed to be patient and, despite what most people thought about her, she could be as much. The incident on which she had gained her signature scar had left people thinking her to be a thoughtless hothead, an opinion she had undertaken every effort to correct but, as of yet, in vain. Being taken for an impatient spitfire had its perks, though, at least in situations like this.
She did not have to wait for long.
Soon enough, the imposing figure of the Dauntless Vanguard's Captain, Garen Crownguard himself, appeared at the vermiculated planks of the sorry excuse of a bridge.
"Hello Garen," she called out tauntingly, turning her back to the five soldiers trying and spectacularly failing to hide at the opposite end of the bridge. They must think her to be blind, deaf and stupid. Demacian soldiers in general were shit at hiding, their honed strength laying in offense-based open battle, but those monsters among men took the bulky cake.
"Commander Du Couteau," Garen greeted, formal as ever. There was a heaviness in his gaze that Katarina found hard to place. Something was bothering him. This expression stayed on his face even as he drew himself up, measuring her with the whole weight of his blue-eyed gaze.
As Garen's gaze wandered to his feet, Katarina already knew what he would be saying. He looked up again, his words as firm as his expression. "Commander, I will give you a chance. Surrender yourself so the Peace of the Quill shall not be broken. I give my word to escort you safely to your camp, I will even promote an independent investigation-"
"You clearly did not hear me the first time," Katarina interrupted, rolling her eyes. "But, since you did as I ask, I will let your behavior slide-" She heard the ruffling of heavy feet behind her, scandalized soldiers trying to be silent. She almost scoffed into Garen's face. "-just this once, so do not overstain my patience." As Katarina took one menacing step forward, the men behind her erupted into a flurry of screams and righteous fury, all of them trying to get ahold of the assassin before she was able to charge their Captain.
Garen, as it looked, had no desire to let his men do the dirty work, but stormed forward, accessing the bridge with a shouted "NO!".
If he meant his men or her, Katarina had no idea. He seemed to expect something more of her, more violent than her keeping still, her back turned to the horde of attacking Demacians. Who, seemingly, were not inclined to follow their Captain's order - or did not see themselves as the recipients of said words. Cold crept up Katarina's back as she concentrated on her daggers, the ones she had hidden well enough to not be found by straight-ahead-fighting warriors like the Dauntless Vanguard. The steel's call pulsated in her mind, the connection strained, but not yet broken.
She caught Garen's eyes with hers, snaring him with the intensity of her gaze. "Last chance, Crownguard," she snarled as she felt large hands grasp for her back. She did not move but accepted meaty extremities pulling her own arms back behind her back. She threw her hair back, whipping the two men standing behind her. One of them shrieked and shrugged back like an animal struck on the nose while the other one's grip tightened.
"Hands down, Second Commander," Garen interrupted the movement sharply and Katarina, all the while keeping her gaze on his eyes, heard a frustrated hiss behind her.
A slow smile crept on her face. "Afraid that your men will be those violating the treaty?" She purred, unmoving in the face of the silver and blue behind as well as in front of her.
He solemnly held her gaze, radiating a kind of calmness Katarina had only seen in very few people. It was the confidence coming with the knowledge of doing the right thing. "I will not let any harm come to you nor the contract we agreed upon-"
"-that was forced on us," Katarina shot sharply. "There are other reasons for prohibiting entrance to the mine than the possibility of a rock fall."
"We are trying to ally with Shurima and we will take the diplomatic-"
"Remember one thing, Crownguard," she stared into his eyes, "that you were the one who brought this upon yourself and your men."
He shook his head. "We will take the diplomatic-"
Their Captain's talk had captured his men's attention just long enough for Katarina to snap her head back, butting the one standing behind her in the nose. Before the second soldier had a chance to react, she wound her arm free and launched herself in the air in a perfect pirouette. Her heel caught the one Garen had called Second Commander straight in the temple, knocking him back. She landed in a crouch, rolling back to dodge the unaimed grasp of quite a few hands. Garen stabilized himself in a fighting stance, ready to face her head-on, and movement came into the other four members of the Dauntless Vanguard. With a scream of rage, they charged as one, ready to aid their Captain.
The suspension bridge swung and Katarina leaped in Garen's direction, throwing herself against the ropes at her left, adding her weight to the side the soldiers were burdening already. The bridge gained momentum, the raddled ropes securing it to the stone moving against her carefully placed daggers.
She crashed into the armored warrior in front of her like a fly against glass, but catching her weight made the man, who still had not drawn his sword, stumble. The clanking of armor almost drowned out the protesting screech of abused rope, then Katarina had maneuvered Garen around. She stumbled a few more steps towards the bridge's middle, and then the already faltering material under her feet yielded as the ropes unraveled against her steel.
Time seemed to slow down, Crownguard's expression comically changing from serious to surprise and then, as his head spun around, to horror as he noticed the bridge giving in. His gaze twitched to his men who flailed in the air, suddenly bereft of their footing.
For a beautiful, terrifying moment, the assassin was soaring.
The moment ended all too soon as Katarina felt gravity's pull, her hair fanned out and she plummeted down. Her world zoned in on herself as she readied herself for the fall, relaxing every muscle in her body to prepare for the impact. Just as she willed herself into a ball, navigating to face the ground, a hand grasped for her arm. Her concentration broke as Garen Crownguard pulled, disturbing her balanced and the coordinated effort it took to take a fall from this height. She struggled against him and eventually broke his grapple. Before the assassin was able to readjust her position, she hit the ground – hard for that matter. Blinding pain and white exploded before her eyes as her head hit a stone. She breathed out to at least prevent damage to her lung. Pain surged up her back as she tumbled through dust, down the valley of stone, down into what should have been a strip mine. Dust gathered in her eyes as she continued to roll down until, with a last hard impact against a broad stone, she lay still.
Everything spun, her lungs were bereft of air and her whole body hurt. Before the dust could squeeze her chest and make breathing impossible, she counted to five before she breathed out, expelling the foreign material from her lung. She followed up with inhaling slowly and keeping the air in her lungs for ten seconds before exhaling again.
The fall had been a lot more unpleasant than she had originally planned.
As a first step, she concentrated on her hearing. There was the quiet squeaking sound speaking for a head-injury, but her eardrums seemed to be okay. The rocks and gravel around her were still moving, adding to the annoying noise reverberating in her ears.
Before she had reoriented, there was the sensation of someone grasping her arm. She almost winced despite the inherent tenderness of the gesture but, instead of leaning in, she twisted and coiled to let the perpetrator taste her boot. Her movements were intercepted by a heavy hand pressing down between her shoulder-blades, pushing her back into the dust. The air left her lungs with a wheeze as she met the ground. Before she had the change to gather her wits, something heavy and cold closed around her wrists.
"That's it, Noxian, you have breached the Peace of the Quill. Are you happy now?" Words, interrupted by coughing, breached the ever-present whistling sound in her ears.
Huffing, Katarina relaxed to assess her situation. "Crownguard," she acknowledged, displeased that he had seemingly taken the fall much better than she had. She suffered a concussion, blood was leaking out of a deep gash in her arm and she was bruised by the fall. All of that because that idiot had disrupted her concentration and thus ruined her perfectly planned dash. She heard the distinct click of handcuffs closing and had to bite back the hysterical laughter rising within her. The idiot had not only bound her, he had dared to bind himself on her. He indeed was an incredibly stupid man.
The hand in her back relaxed in reaction to her own tension fading away. "Hereby, I take you prisoner until Kalamanda's council decides how to proceed with you."
She felt the hand in her back relaxing further as Crownguard looked out for his men. Katarina internally smiled, not hearing any sounds an alive man would make. But even like this, his soldiers' absence created the distraction she needed. Calling upon her remaining agility, she shrank up like a coil spring and wound around the heavy body in her back now serving as counterbalance. Before the armored man had any chance to react, the chain connecting both handcuffs pulled tight around his throat, kept bow-taut by the red-headed assassin.
"You will do nothing with me, Crownguard," Katarina hissed, "but you will listen to me now. Do I finally have your attention?"
As expected, Crownguard struggled, grasping for the iron restricting his airflow.
"Don't try me," Katarina whispered in his ear, relishing in the rush of the successful surprise attack. "Now that you so kindly followed my invitation, I-"
A low pitched grumbling, like two large stones grating against one another, interrupted her.
Her blood froze to ice.
The thing for which she had brought Crownguard in the first place had found them first.
This was not good.
She turned her head just in time to look into a pair of double-finger-length fangs, currently bared in a rumbling snarl. Slobber oozed over a blackened, loricated snout and two beady eyes, large as her palms, glowered at them. Boney plating guarding its neck was pierced with arrows, as was the rest of the huge, reptilian body. Right now, it was still about fifty meters away from them but she would not underestimate the creature's speed.
"Shit!" She cursed and was on her feet instantly. "Up, you idiot," she screeched but Garen was already on his feet, eyes wide before the monster they now faced.
In silent agreement, they both turned and started to run.
The beast behind them roared, an irritated sound nearly popping Katarina's eardrums and intensifying her already crippling headache, then the ground started to shake as it started moving. The slack shackles were enough reassurance that Crownguard was still hot on her heels, so Katarina leaped over what could have been an old, long-breached wall. Reaching the apex of her trajectory path, she became aware of the ground beneath her dropping into a pebbly slope. The impact came fast and hard, sending Katarina flying first and tumbling second as her world, once more, erupted into pain. She managed to get on her knees, sliding down the rest of the path, glad for the strong leather protecting her knee caps from rubbing away on the ground. She somersaulted and right before she was able to stabilize herself, the chain tugged on her arm, disturbing her balance and sending her tumbling down the declension.
With a last, hard bounce, she finally laid still.
For a moment, all she was able to do was catch her breath and force the pain blooming in her right arm back. She smelled the blood before she saw it. Her eyes blinked open to assess the damage she had received. A deep gash had opened up her upper arm, but the bleeding was shallow, not the spurting of an opened artery.
Crownguard had landed next to her, coughing and spluttering.
She was the first to recover, to pick herself up and look out for the monster still standing at the hill's peak. With a trumpeting sound, it came into motion once more, galloping down the descent, gaining frightening speed frighteningly fast.
Katarina pulled at her handcuff and, as soon as Crownguard gained a standing, she started dashing in the direction she had made out. "This way!" She pointed towards the destroyed village she had discovered her prior trip. Garen jumped into a sprint to follow.
The destroyed, brushy remains of a city long since reduced to ruins and rubble flew past them as the thundering steps of the roaring beast closed in. Katarina's thoughts tumbled as her steps did, the pounding headache making it hard to concentrate, to identify a spot to reassemble and rethink their strategy.
A sharp yank almost tore her arm out of the socked, making her whip back like a yoyo. Before she was able to make a sound, her uninjured arm was grabbed and she was dragged around the corner of a dilapidated archway, into what once might have been a grand foyer. Garen slammed her against the wall, having placed himself between the opening and her, his arm snapping up in front of her chest.
Katarina stared at his dented bracer crossing her chest, her gaze following the arm upwards to his averted face. He leaned to the doorway where heavy steps and low growling were getting louder. As the beast treaded into the fallen city, its steps slowed down, the sounds tuning down to a deep, warning grumble. Katarina braced herself against the wall, holding her breath as the thing's silhouette darkened the archway they had come through.
Her gaze flickered through the room they currently hid in, searching for another exit, anything that would give her superiority in an upcoming fight. She noticed a greatsword buried in a pile of crumbled ornaments, a heavy weapon, not suited to her tastes. There was no visible basement and no way to get away unseen.
The arm before her chest was not trembling and the attached man's expression had steeled to the calmness before a fight.
Then, the beast stomped past them, letting the fading light return to paint patterns on the uneven ground. Katarina let the breath leave her lungs slowly as the shadow of the reptilian thing's tail snaked out of her field of vision.
Garen's arm lowered before Katarina had the sense to intervene. The still-attached chain chimed.
The sound of too-heavy steps stopped and the growl closed in. Garen pushed away from the doorway, shoving his shoulder over Katarina's. This was the second time he placed himself between her and the upfront danger and, even though it would do little good in case of an emergency, the gesture warmed something within her.
They both held their breath now. Katarina hoped that the thing was not able to hunt by its sense of smell.
Slowly, the beast trotted to where it came from, past their hiding spot, it's steadily swinging tail once more casting its shadow through the entrance.
Having come to an unspoken truce, Garen made a run for the sword and pulled it out of the debris. When they emerged the building, the beast's back was still turned. This time it was Garen leading them over the century-old rubble, fleeing in the direction the beast did not look to.
A loud snarl horripilated Katarina's skin and she did not need to look back to know what was now following them. Setting her mind on escaping, she focused on the road ahead. One stumble would be her end. Usually her sublime footwork was nothing she had to pay any mind to, but her head was still hurting, the wound on her arm still oozing blood. On the other hand, the pain kept her sharp as they vaulted over rocks and dashed through old passageways. A bridge they underran crumbled under the force of the beast scarcely ten seconds after they had crossed it, Katarina counted. They were losing ground.
"Over there!" Garen shouted and changed his direction, tugging Katarina behind him like a kite on a string. The brute force of his stampede forced her to follow into the shadows of a narrow passage, where she, unable to foresee his sudden deceleration, crashed into his back. Neither of them stopped moving, they stumbled into the shrunken remains of a brick gateway.
The beast crashed against the stone, stopped by the small entrance. Dust trickled down as ancient stone quaked at the collision. With a curse, Katarina moved deeper into their temporary sanctuary, her eyes instantly adjusting to the looming darkness. The formerly low grumbling crescended to a cacophony of agonized stone, the flecks of dust flowing down increasing in size until the first stones gave way for the rampaging beast throwing itself against the way his intended prey had hidden.
Katarina looked back, into the gargantuan jaw opened for her, for them. A yank on the chain still wound around her arm forced her attention back to Garen.
"Quick, follow me," he ordered and pulled her in the other direction, away from their pursuer.
Katarina saw no sense in that, the way seemed to be blocked but, without further ado, Garen grasped an inanely massive-looking block of stone. Before Katarina could scoff in derision, he lifted the thing up. Thinking fast, Katarina slipped through the opening he had just provided, trying not to be too impressed by the presentation of raw strength.
The walls narrowed and Katarina bumped against one just as she became aware that is was her vision clouding at the edges, not the way in front of her. She gritted her teeth, willing her battered body to continue functioning. To preserve her strength, she dropped to the floor unceremoniously, closing her eyes. White dots danced behind her eyelids.
"We should be safe in here," Garen's baritone penetrated the raising fog in her brain.
The raging monstrosity fighting with ancient stone shook their sanctuary even here, at its core.
She felt the fighter closing in on her and she tensed, ready to mobilize her last reserves to claw his eyes out in defense.
"You are bleeding."
Her eyes snapped open at the astute observation, noticing he had kneeled down next to her. Her vision swam, she needed to blink to identify the object in his hand as the scarf formerly wrapped around his neck, held out in the way a beastmaster would approach a spooked horse. Katarina did not understand the concern evident in the lines of his face.
All of this would not have happened if he had simply followed her.
"And you are an asshole," she observed. Her vision flickered, darkness narrowing her field of vision. She breathed out in exasperation. "Everybody's got problems," she managed to get out before her vision blackened.
Darius trudged through the snow, ignoring the growling as well as the red eyes following him. The rhythm of his steps did not falter as the ring of animals closed in on him. A harsh gust blew snow into his eyes, temporarily blinding him. He mused what separated men from lesser men.
He looked back at the dozens of glowing eyes, hungry, all of them. They had surrounded him, and he knew. Fear separated predators from prey, he knew, and he stopped, grasping for his back, pulling out his water hose. Predators were able to smell it. He took a gulp before returning the water hose to his backpack. Howling echoed around him, signaling confusion, but Darius already knew - they would walk away if they did not smell any fear.
Darius continued his path with steady strides, watching the red glow disappear one by one. He was on the chase like the wolfs were, starting at the site where the scouts had found blood and pieces of clothing. Darius knew a fighting site when he encountered one, and this was, most definitely, a place where two individuals had fought. Snow had covered up most of the traces, there was no trail left to follow. Bones were also lacking, Darius had found no pieces of torn clothing.
The boy was alive.
Katarina woke slowly, which was unlike her. She was usually awake in seconds, at least when she was away from her familiar bed. Everything hurt. The soothing sound of a blade being whetted was the main perpetrator for the pleasant transition from sleep to wakefulness, for there were only two people who could be tending to their blades while she was asleep. Either her father was here or, even better, Talon. In any case, she had the luxury of gently separating from sleep's grasp to slip into the waking world. To aid the process, she concentrated on the sharp sound, trying to identify who was causing them. She would not put it past her brother to have appeared in times of need, and the thought was comforting. Maybe, just maybe she would be able to continue her nap if Talon watching over her rest.
The strides were long, so the weapon being sharpened had to match said length. Her ears picked up. The stride's pace matched up neither to her father nor her brother. She forced herself up, pushing strands of red hair out of her eyes.
"You lost a lot of blood," the now familiar voice of Demacia's posterchild greeted her.
Her gaze snapped down to her right arm, where she was surprised by a blue bandage, darker spots indicating where blood had sept through. The dressing was tight and otherwise clean. It was clearly the scarf she had formerly rejected, the Crownguard's crest peeked from where the ends were tied to a neat knot.
She was wearing a crest at her arm, and it was not the Du Couteau-sign.
She stared at the bandage longer than necessary, piecing together that Garen Crownguard had taken the time to cater to her wounds with something clearly belonging to him. After he had refused her offer for a joint venture and had failed to lure her into a trap.
Katarina did not understand why anyone would dare to share such intimacy with her. She briefly looked down her body, taking stock of her clothing; destroyed, but not more so than when she had blackened out. She should have expected as much from someone as proper as him, but still. The emblem taunted her from her peripheral vision. Nobody had ever even dared to try and mark her.
She turned slightly, taking in the massive back currently turned to her. Somehow, it did not feel like an insult, rather as if he was trying to give her privacy. He seemed to have changed their locations as well, for this was not where she remembered falling into darkness. A great stained-glass window threw colorful shades into their room. The night was over, the sun rising already. This might have been a cathedral once, a place to hallow whatever god these ancient society had worshipped.
Instead of addressing any of the insignificant thoughts tumbling through her head, she asked the most important question: "is it gone?"
"No. It's still out there," Crownguard rumbled, concentrating on his blade.
"So now what?" Katarina asked, ready to get up and into motion.
Garen stayed calm, despite her obvious tension. "We wait."
"You kidding," Katarina spat, looking around. She could either destroy the window and see where it would lead, or she could explore one of the dark hallways leading away from the great room they had taken refuge in.
"My men will be coming for us," Garen declared solemnly.
Katarina huffed. "And they are stupid," she stinted.
Garen exhaled. "Just stay quiet," the gentleness of his tone took the edge off his order as he tugged on the shackle still trapping Katarina's wrist, forcing her on her knees.
The croaking of carron birds disturbed the otherwise eerie silence, indicating that someone, or something, still roamed this area.
Katarina bared her teeth in defiance, ignoring his obvious try to force her into submission. "We need to find a way out of this graveyard," she insisted.
"The Vanguard will find us," he reinforced.
The only thing keeping her from exploding right into his face was his calming demeanor. "Our corpses?" she etched. "Your faith in your men is adorable, it really is, but a smart soldier wouldn't wait for this thing if they didn't have to!" She poked her finger at him accusingly.
That finally got the rise she had hoped for. He stood up, clearly agitated. "I've had enough-"
The low growl of an approaching beast silenced them both as they started to listen attentively, trying to identify the direction from which the sound had emerged.
Katarina looked at the ground, a frown rising to her face as she noticed the dancing, colorful lights of the cathedral's window being overshadowed. She only had a second to react. She turned away from the window, shielding her face right before something massively huge broke through it with a deafening roar. Katarina coiled but Garen was faster this time, he grasped and then threw her back like a ragdoll, stumbling over crumbling stone. The whole building shook, emanating the unholy sounds of a structure at its breaking point just as Katarina hit the ground. The windows, formerly reminiscent of this building's former grandeur, dashed to shivers, piles of freshly fallen stones stirred up dust. The monster's snarling head had crashed through, but the rest of its body was trapped outside.
Katarina bobbed up, taking in the jamming pile. Her gaze wandered to Garen, who looked at her with equal uncertainty. The man favored his left leg, indicating that he had taken a hit without her noticing.
Her eyes closed briefly as she picked up on the beast's raging sounds. Agreeing once more, they both turned to one of the dark corridors leading away from the center of destruction and, to accelerate their escape, she tucked herself under his left shoulder, distributing a bit of his weight from his injured side. Her own wound burned at the contact but the stamping growing distant, indicating a run-up rather than a retreat, motivated her beyond measure. Just as they slipped into the narrow passageway, the low howl closed in and, with a sickening crash, the whole building started to move.
Everything besides the heavily breathing man by her side and the low light at the end of their escape route blurred to insignificance, the screeching of ancient structures bending beyond their capacity, the ragged breaths of her companion, the light chiming of the chain connecting them.
A little square of light in front of them grew until they burst through the exit, deafening rumble of heavy stones collapsing accompanying their getaway. The ground under them still shook as the surrounding stones started to roll, fastening as the ground under them started to give way.
Low light stung her eyes as she assessed the new environment and the new danger, the opening sinkhole. Her heart dropped to her knees as she saw the scarp towering in front of them, looming over them like a taunt. Usually, she would be able to climb this, but with her injured shoulder -
- before she could finish that thought, strong hands grasped for her middle. She had a split second to figure his plan out, the way he spun around to gain momentum before his hold loosened. Katarina flew, more perplexed than she had ever been her whole life, even as she mechanically grasped for the tree sprouting out of the cliff. Had she just been thrown? The chain around her right arm pulled taught as she clenched the trunk in her hands. She had no mind to look what Crownguard was doing, but the chain slackened a little bit, giving her enough room to hook her elbow around the plant and secure her foot against the crag's stone, winding her hand around the chain for better distribution of her strength.
The earth rumbled with a final, loud roar, swallowing the building and everything around it in a twenty-meter-radius - along with the stones Garen Crownguard had balanced on. With a painful yank, the chain pulled taut and more than two-hundred pounds of flesh, muscles and armor nearly ripped Katarina's arm out of her socket. Red flashed before her eyes as she held on to the metal, forcing her body to endure like it always had.
A whole different kind of screech pulled her focus outwards, zeroing in on the weakest link between her and the man dangling below her, now pending a good ten meters above the ground. His eyes were opened wide in panic as they both watched the clearly ripped link slowly opening up. Katarina's mouth opened in protest as, with a final screech, the link fully opened.
Her companion paddled with his arms helplessly before gravity took its toll, pulling him towards the ground. Katarina helplessly watched his fall, expecting him to bash against the ground and lay still, her heart aching terribly as she watched his indeed still form laying sprawled on the ground.
Clenching her teeth and forcing her emotions back, she turned to begin her ascension, ignoring her protesting body until she stood upon the cliffside. This was a brief respite and she could not help herself but to look down again, to the broken corpse of Garen Crownguard.
To her great astonishment though, a shiver run through the fighter's body. She watched as he pulled himself together, clearly bracing himself as he looked up to her.
Their eyes met over the distance.
The low snarl interrupted them as they looked at the perpetrator. Katarina nearly screamed in frustration, the lizard-like monstrosity had spotted him and marked Crownguard as easy prey.
He turned away from her, readying the sword he had sharpened.
Katarina turned her gaze upwards.
This was his fault, after all. Had he simply followed her invitation, they could have gone down the mine shaft safely and she could have shown him the remains of the ancient society she had found, plus the remains of soldiers which looked like frozen in time conserved by whatever catastrophe had killed them in the first place. She had not studied the monster's movements, had only seen signs of great destruction, so this was not her fault.
As she faced the wall in front of her, she repeated that thought. It was his own fault and she had no reason to stay and risk her life for that stubborn stupid idiot… the blue bandage taunted her, the embroided sigil dull form dust. Frustration raked its ugly claws into her consciousness.
Instead of giving up, the Demacian readied himself to fight and in doing that, drew the monster's attention.
Plan before you engage, then attack on pure instinct, she reminded herself of one of her father's lessons. From her vantage point, she was able to observe, to see if she could point out a weakness in the monster's thick hide. She had to stay calm, to ignore the distraction of Crownguard fearlessly fighting for his life, dodging wide claw strikes. The loricated collar did protect its neck, but every time the thing lunged out with its claws, a tiny bit of its throat became visible. The sun had climbed just over the cliff behind her.
Katarina's dedication grew as she drew her two longest blades. She would have to time this moment precisely, a split second of hesitation would kill her. Luckily, she never hesitated.
One more time, Garen circled to the beast's left, anticipating the blow it was going to trade. Katarina anticipated this as well.
The assassin accelerated, she leaped, and then she plunged through the air, the sun in her back masking her arrival.
Time slowed down, her field of vision focused in on the lizard's claw which was cutting through the air just as she had reached the critical point of her descent. A sliver of its neck became visible with its muscles pulling taught. Katarina leaned towards her blades and plunged both of her daggers into the scaly hide, stabilizing herself and using her bodyweight to ram it through the scaly hide. The impact rattled her arms but she concentrated on the angle between blade and victim, tilting her weapons just enough as they sank through flesh like a hot knife through butter. The impact slowed her fall but gravity continued pulling her down, her weapons drawing two lines through the monster's throat.
In that moment, another sound pierced the fog of her brain. Crownguard had seemingly taken advantage of the situation as well, flogging his sword against the beast's snout like a madman.
Katarina's descent ended with her hitting the ground, landing on her knees to absorb the shock. Without waiting to see the effect of her attack, she rolled to take cover, seeing if the thing had survived her surprise-attack.
Instantly, Crownguard's back was in front of her, his fluid-darkened sword still in his hands. He breathed heavily, his back heaving.
But the monster staggered, a giant paw clawing at its neck. Katarina inhaled as the thing wobbled, fell – and laid still.
Katarina would have liked to break down as well. Her body had never hurt as much as it did now, but there was still one more potential enemy in her vicinity. She turned her gaze to Crownguard, who looked at the monster with eyes wide. Then, he turned to her, opening his mouth.
"Up first," Katarina ordered, before he had the chance to say anything. The Noxian would not take any chances, who knew what else might linger here.
Instead of objecting, Crownguard simply nodded. Once more, Katarina forced her fingers against stone, this time, with the adrenaline fading, realizing how torn her skin already was. The returning pain was somehow refreshing, reminding her that she was alive.
After pulling herself over the edge and onto green grass, she crawled to a nearby tree, throwing her back against it to regain her breath. Her eyes fell close, her body at its limits.
A heavy thud startled her. Garen's body had slumped against the tree as well, his eyes closed. Katarina forced her eye half-open, observing the man. He was not moving, simply gulping in deep breaths of air. His armor had gained new dents, blood and abrasions marred his face. He looked good like this, Katarina noted, victorious against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. It was interesting to not be the focus of his antagonism. Something seemed to have changed between them, even though Katarina was not able to pinpoint exactly what it was. He closed his eyes with her nearby.
Her head sunk against the tree. She could not rest yet. They had fallen down the bridge yesterday, his men surely already combed the proximity. As she listened closely, she already heard the noises of heavy armor.
While he had his eyes closed, she was free to feel for one of her daggers. First, she grasped for a lesser, easily replaceable one. She looked over to the resting Demacian, his eyes were still sealed shut.
With a swift movement, she twirled the blade in her hand and rammed it into the tree's bark, pinning the chain-link connected to his wrist against the wood.
His eyes snapped open as he looked to her in incomprehension.
Katarina gauged his reaction as she scrambled to her feet.
"Hey!" He protested verbally, a frown manifesting on his face.
Pleased with that, Katarina turned and ran, easing into the long strides her muscles would not protest too harshly against. Hearing his verbal protest, a smile crept over her face. Her gaze fell to the soiled blue still tightly wrapped around her upper arm. Yes, she had used the right dagger to pin him against the tree. Steel from the Ironspike Mountains felt like a good trade.
Hello again.
This was fast, as it was simply copying the amazing draft of "enemy of my enemy", a shelved video featuring Garen Kat and… well… you read it. You find a small video-clip as well as pictures on the homepage of Leif Jeffers. Let's hope Riot will be continuing this video soon 3 (My other reference is Darius's video "fear", this context is my headcanon.)
The next chapter will not be out this fast, for I have a new puppy who now needs my attention as well. Plus, skiing-season just started, jay! The next chapter, however, have more Talon and Lux in it than this one. The story will slowly be wrapping up and near its end. I said that a few times already, but it is really coming close.
Did you hear what that Riot-developer said? "A new, masked champion who refuses to die" will hit the rift!" PLEASE LET IT BE MARCUS! (Even though the phrase "some demons should remain in the past" doesn't sound good. Damn, I hope Riot has the same idea as I have.)
I hope you liked this chapter, I would love to read about your thoughts. Thanks for commenting, reading, PMing and encouraging me, you have no idea how much it means to me :)
101Asa: hmmmight happen :X
Generalblood1: I LOVED that cinematic. It was… so… awesome! Lux's eyes, Vi and Caitlyn, even Ezreal and Kai'sa. The animations… damn, I nearly went crazy. The content will be canon as soon as I cover the miles to that part of the story. How did you find it?
Spectrer: honestly: I sometimes forget details as well xD I hope the common thread is easy enough to follow, though.