A/N: Hello readers! This chapter may end up being quite the long one as there is quite a bit of world-building in here. Hopefully it doesn't bore you or confuse you. If you like the story so far, please let me know with a review, favorite, or follow. This is my first fanfiction so there is bound to be a multitude of errors or inconsistencies, so feel free to leave a review pointing them out. Constructive criticism only please, if you think the story is trash at least say why. Also, this story won't be updated as consistently as I'd like to as I'm in the middle of a bunch of tests and projects for school, but there shouldn't be too long of a delay between chapters. Fingers crossed.
As a side note "True Bond", "Truly Bound", and "Truly Bonded" have the same connotation, it's just that I might use variants based on how it fits into the sentence then. I might also refer to it as just "bound" or "bonded" as a shorthand. Anyways, onto what you guys are here for.
As Han and Yeri were duking it out with Joseph, over at the Labrys God-Weapon Academy, sounds of a fight could be heard.
Two fighters, one a smaller staff-wielding boy bearing resemblance to a monkey, and a taller blond female with a sword and shield were locked in an intense fight. Judging by their appearances and heavy breathing, they were on the last leg of their fight. The two rushed towards each other, the girl aiming to bash the boy with her shield. The monkey-boy dashed back, leaving a clone behind to pretend he had been hit, but realized too late that it had been a feint. The girl instead thrust her sword forward, projecting a solar blade that pierced through the clone and hit the monkey-boy, knocking him down. Before he could get up, he felt a blade drawn at his neck. He looked up to see the girl standing over him, holding him at sword point. He tapped the ground 5 times, signalling to the AI orb watching the fight that he surrendered.
"And the winner is Leona!" Said a disembodied robotic voice.
Wukong sighed as he pushed his battered body off of the arena floor.
"Damn it! I was sooo close to beating you!"
Leona gave him a tired grin as she stood, trying to catch her breath.
"Almost had me there, Wukong. There were a couple of times where you could've gotten me, like when I raised my shield a little too high to block your staff. You could've reversed direction on your staff and gotten a hit in before I could try and block with my sword."
Wukong sighed, remembering that moment. He had hesitated, thinking it was a ploy to bait him into overextending.
"What's our record now, Leona?"
"20-1." Stated Leona. Seeing Wukong's frown, she added, "But that doesn't reflect the actual fights themselves. They were much closer than the record shows."
Wukong perked up at that. The first year was undeniably gifted in battle, but against senior fighters like Leona his lack of expertise really showed.
"Hey you two! Hurry up and get ready for the graduation and Binding Ceremony!"
Wukong and Leona turned to see their fellow Battle Club student Caitlyn standing in the doorway of the arena. He gave her a mocking salute.
"Yes Ma'am!"
Caitlyn sighed, and turned to leave when she heard Leona yelling after her.
"Wait for me, Cait!"
She turned around to see Leona running after her. In the corner of her eye, she saw Wukong heading off towards the boy's dorms.
"Cait, do you think you'll be bound today?" Asked Leona.
"Not sure, but after what happened with us getting bound last year just to have the bond break makes me wonder if I want to get bound."
Leona nodded at that, thinking back to their first bonding with the summoners last year. Each year, all the champions currently unbound would attend the graduation ceremony for all summoner academies across Runeterra at the Institute of War. There, once the graduating summoners officially graduated and were able to use summoner spells freely, the Binding Ceremony would begin. True Bonds were supposed to last a lifetime, unless a summoner retired, was unable to participate in matches, such as from career-ending injuries, or were charged with serious crimes. Leona's summoner decided to retire early after seeing that she couldn't keep up with the intense competition in the League. Caitlyn's previous summoner, on the other hand, had landed himself in jail after trying to force himself onto her. Summoners and champions were forbidden from having relationships by the Elder Council for many years now, as a few years ago a famous dating scandal between Katarina and her Demacian summoner nearly shut down the entire League of Legends competition and the Institute of War itself. Or so the rumors went. Nobody except the Elder Council knew for sure what had happened, but despite their efforts to keep the story under wraps, bits and pieces were leaked, some true, some fake. Both had their fair share of trauma from their experiences, as other champions not part of the God-Weapon Academies mocked them, quoting things like: "Imagine being picked to attend the God-Weapon Academies, getting True Bonds, and then having them break in less than a year. Pathetic."
Reaching their dorm, the two girls quickly stepped in to shower and get themselves ready for the ceremony before hopping on the train to the Institute of War.
A few hours later, Han met up with Yeri outside of their dorm building to walk to the train station to catch a ride to the Institute of War for their graduation and subsequent Binding Ceremony. Both wore their summoner robes representing the region they came from, which was also the region they would compete in. His were the standard Ionian white robes with teal highlights and stripes across the sleeves and shoulders. Hers were the bright gold and white of Shurima which contrasted with her dark blue hair quite nicely.
Yeri couldn't suppress her grin as she listened to her best friend (and secret crush) ramble on how cool it would be to finally be a summoner.
"I can't wait to be able to use champions in official matches and duels! Hey Yeri, what champion do you think you'll be bound to?"
"Hmm? What did you ask me, Han?"
"I asked what champion you think you will be bound to."
She thought about it for a bit. 'Who would I like to be bound to? I'd like to have someone who's like Han.' She shook her head frantically. 'No! Now's not the time to think about Han!' She turned back to Han.
"I'm not sure, what about you? Hell, I probably won't even get a Truly Bound champion."
"Maybe, but I'm getting the feeling that you're gonna get at least one. Same goes for me as well."
"Same as in don't know who you'd like or that you think you're also going to be bound to one?"
"Both. It would be nice to get a champion from one of the God-Weapon Academies though. I've heard they're quite skilled in what they do."
Yeri hummed in agreement. The two of them had reached the train station and were now boarding the train. They sat in silence as the train left the station, both content to just watch the scenery fly by them as they headed towards the famed Institute of War.