Boram Darkwill, the current supreme leader of Noxus, stared at the two kneeling figures in front of him.
The first one was a dark-haired male with sharp features and piercing eyes, his grey coat hiding most of his body.
Boram liked this man. He never spoke up unless asked to and always carried out his tasks perfectly.
The other one was a curvy female with long red hair and a big scar across her left eye, giving her a feral look. Her eyes were just as piercing as the man's eyes, but she on the other hand was not someone that Boram enjoyed working with. She was always rebellious, arrogance evident in every word she uttered and she would even sometimes outright refused to do her assigned tasks.
They both were champions, so even with Boram as the supreme leader of Noxus, they were way stronger than him. He knew that the only reason their Du Couteau house had not yet overthrown his Darkwill house was because they didn't care about power.
Still, these two posed a threat to him, and Boram didn't like being threatened. Not one bit.
Nonetheless, Boram would need them for the war against Ionia.
But who was to say that the rebellious one would survive the battle? Something bad might just accidentally happen to her.
"Talon."
Said man raised his head upon being spoken to.
"There is a general that I need you to take care of. If my sources are correct, then he will lead a big part of the main army that will go against Riven. His name is Surlio. Search for him and eliminate him. A ship is already prepared for you at the docks. Leave now." The man nodded and left without another word.
Boram didn't even bat an eye as he vanished without a trace, instead turning to the subject of his ire.
"Katarina." His face twisted in disgust as he stared at her lowered head.
Said woman also raised her head, annoyance written all over her face as she stared deep into Boram's eyes.
"What do you want?"
Boram held himself back, now was not the time to fall for her mockery. Soon enough, she would not be able to annoy him anymore.
"General Regirou will lead the army that will go against Darius. Go find him and kill him." Boram said.
It might have sounded like normal request, but Boram knew something that Katarina didn't know. And that was the fact that Regirou had a champion defend him. He did not know which champion it was, but hopefully it would be enough to take Katarina out.
Not to mention, Regirou alone was one of the most powerful leaders in the nation besides the legendary champion Irelia, having been dubbed "The War god of Ionia". There were even rumors that he would surpass all the other champions if he would receive a blessing of Runeterra to become one himself.
Boram smirked as Katarina left. Whatever happened, it would be good for him.
Maybe they would even kill each other off.
Irelia restlessly wandered around in her room, deep in thoughts.
The Noxians must have already arrived at Navori, but she had yet to receive any news regarding the battle. She knew that it would not be enough to stop the army of Noxus, but she hoped that it would at least slow down their advances so that Ionia could gather more soldiers.
The problem with Ionia was that it was not united like Noxus. They did of course have a capital and a council that ruled over most of the nation, but there were lots of tribes out there that didn't want to be and could not be controlled.
One of such were the Vastaya, or the more southern Wuju fighters.
As Ionia's army was right now, they would very likely lose the war. She knew that Karma and the council had tried hard to ally with the Ionian tribes, but most of them refused to even talk with them, let alone join them.
"At least we managed to make a deal with Shen and his apprentice." She mumbled.
A sudden knock caused her to rush to the door, coming face to face with a young messenger.
"U-uhm, Lady Karma ca-called for you." The young man stammered with a beet red face.
Irelia only now realized that she still wore her sleeping cloths, consisting of way to short shorts and a tiny top.
She slammed the door shut, blushing madly.
"Y-yes! One moment."
What an embarrassment.
Karma looked up as Irelia walked through the door, entering the council chamber.
"You called for me?"
"You will be moving out today."
Irelia tensed. She had dreaded that the Noxian army would just roll over their measly defenses, and now her fears came true.
"What happened to the army that was supposed to delay the Noxians?"
She could guess the answer, but asked anyway.
"They did manage to delay some parts of the Noxian army, but they were completely decimated by the main armies led by Darius and Riven."
Irelia sighed.
"How many could you convince?"
"Not many, but I believe that it will work out somehow."
Irelia knew that she didn't believe her own words.
"You will take half of the army to fight against Riven and Regirou will fight against Darius' army. Luckily, Lee sin agreed to help us out, so he and the monks will fight with Regirou."
Irelia felt relieve spread through her. The monks may not have an advantage with numbers, but each monk was very powerful on their own, not to mention Lee Sin himself.
"I've also planned a little something. Who knows, with a bit of luck it might turn the war around."
Irelia didn't ask what she meant, already having a hunch now that Shen and Akali had agreed to help them.
"When will I be departing?"
"Whenever you are ready."
Irelia suddenly felt exhausted. What had they done to deserve this?
"Give me an hour." Was all she said before she turned around, leaving to get ready for war.
Karma sighed as she watched her go. She sincerely hoped that everything would work out. She couldn't bear the thought of her best friend dying when she didn't even have a partner yet.
The young leader sighed in exasperation. There was not much going on for her in that department either.
A smile reached her lips.
Both she and Irelia were hopeless when it came to love.
"Ethron! There you are." Narlou said as he came to a sudden stop before the blonde man.
"Ah, Narlou! What wrong?"
"I've made up my mind. I want to start learning enhancement magic right now if that's possible."
Ethron's eyes lit up with delight.
"Of course! Follow me."
The man led Narlou through the rows of tents that were being built. The battle had taken some time, so it was already dark outside, which was why Darius had decided to just camp at the beach for tonight.
They eventually reached the forest and came to stop at a huge tree.
"Punch it with all your power."
Narlou didn't question the man, doing as he was told. The bark cracked under the force and his fist started to throb uncomfortably, but other then that nothing happened.
"Not bad. Now, instead of punching the tree with your fist, I want you to close your eyes and imagine a fist made out of magic in place of your real fist. Once you have done that, Punch the tree again."
Narlou stood there for a couple of minutes, just imagining what the man had told him. Ethron didn't seem to mind waiting, so they were engulfed in silence, only disrupted by the occasional shouts from the Noxian men back at the beach.
The silence was broken by Narlou punching the tree again, but the results didn't change. He frowned, he could've sword that he almost got it.
Ethron didn't seem to mind his failure though, instead trying to cheer him up.
"Don't worry about it. It normally takes at least a few weeks to unlock it with this kind of training method. It took a few days for even me to unlock it, and I was called a rare genius."
Narlou's frown deepened. He was sure that he almost got it, but there was no way that he would unlock enhancement magic that qui-
He remembered how he unlocked his mana, which he did in only half a day. Why couldn't he do the same with unlocking different kinds of magic?
If that was the case, then the support system was really overpowered.
"Wait."
Ethron watched curiously as Narlou gathered mana in his fist and struck the tree with all his might. A little more of the bark was destroyed, but nothing had really changed.
The experienced fighter smiled fondly, remembering the time he had started learning magic. He had been just like Narlou, confident that he could master it on the same day.
The teenager on the other hand started to smile as well. With the help of that last punch, he understood how the magic enhanced his body. He was confident that he could unlock it with just one more try.
"Alright Narlou, just keep doing this and come find me when yo-"
"Wait! Just one more time."
Something in Narlou's voice made the older man stop. He shrugged and turned back to watch Narlou.
He might as well humor the boy one more time, not that the kid would actually do it.
This time Narlou only concentrated for a minute, quickly gathering his mana to create the imaginary magic fist. He could feel his bones becoming sturdier, his muscles hardening and his skin becoming thicker.
Magic flooded his hand, and it felt amazing.
'Now!'
Narlou hit the tree with all his might, wood splinters flying everywhere as his arm perfectly penetrated the thick Ionian wood, leaving a gaping hole within it.
Ethron stared at Narlou's fist, then at the hole in the tree.
"Huh?"
The kid had actually done it, and with just three tries too! The boy's talents were beyond this world.
Ethron shuddered as he looked at Narlou one more time, his fist still oozing mana. He had found someone who would easily surpass him if given the time. He could not let such an opportunity slip by!
"You are the most impressive person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, Narlou!"
Said boy smiled sheepishly and removed his hand from within the tree, the magical smoke slowly disappearing form it.
"Anyways, now that you have unlocked it, let's move on to the next stage!"
You have unlocked "Enhancement magic"!
Narlou smiled excitedly as he glanced at the window that had popped up after his punch through the tree.
He had, at first, been a bit unsure if he should reveal his talent, but upon seeing Ethron's reaction, his worries immediately vanished.
Right now, he was listening to said man explaining how to raise his proficiency with enhancement magic.
They were standing in a clearing not too far away from the camp, the lowering sun basking them in orange light.
"There are lots of ways to raise your skill with the magic, but I found out that the best way to truly understand enhancement magic while also raising its proficiency is if you do it like this."
He picked up a rock and poured some magic into it. Then, without a warning, he threw the enhanced rock at Narlou, who quickly jumped out of the way.
"What the hell?"
"The mind works the fastest when it's under lots of stress."
Ethron picked up another rock and enhanced it. This time, Narlou was ready though, waiting for the rock to be thrown.
"What I want you to do is to try and hit me with an enhanced rock. Simple, right?"
Narlou raised an eyebrow and turned his gaze to the ground to search for a rock, only to get hit in the stomach by Ethron's rock.
"Who said I'm going to give you time to do so?"
And with that question, hell broke loose.
Narlou barely had time to pick up a stone as Ethron threw rock after rock at him, his entire focus on dodging. Even when he did pick up a rock, he did not have enough time to enhance it with magic. So, the deadly dance continued for the next few minutes with Ethron throwing rocks at blinding speed and Narlou dodging them.
The teenager felt himself becoming tired the longer the game continued, moving out of the way of incoming rocks as fast as he could.
How was he even supposed to counterattack?!
"If you can't hit me in the next 5 minutes, you won't get any food for the rest of the day."
Narlou barely managed to dodge the next rock as he registered the words. He knew that he could just eat food from his inventory, but the fact that Ethron would deny him food for not doing something impossible irritated Narlou to no end.
A sudden pain shot up his leg as a rock grazed his shin.
"You are losing focus kid."
Narlou gritted his teeth. This was getting really frustrating!
"Anger will get you nowhere boy. You either hit me or you get no food."
Narlou felt frustration crawl through his mind like a worm, eating up every last bit of his patience and distracting him from the task before him as his teacher continued to throw rocks at him.
'How dare this fucker-!'
One moment, Narlou was dodging stones, and the next he was flying through the air, smashing against a tree with his back. A rock had hit him right into the stomach, forcing every bit of air out of his lungs.
"Hmm, I guess no amount of talent can help you control your emotions. You might be strong, but your mind is still unrefined. Don't worry, you will surely get it within the next week or so, but as I had promised, you are not allowed to eat any food today."
His brown hair moved in the wind as he watched his teacher go back to the beach, his anger forgotten.
He had failed.
For the first time since Narlou got his powers did he feel a crushing sense of defeat. He had not been defeated because his opponent was stronger or because of luck. No, Narlou had lost because of his own weakness. It made him want to get up and punch trees until his fists were bleeding, but that would get him nowhere.
This was not something that he could overcome with his talent. No, this was something he had to train just like other people would.
'This reminds me, I still need to spend my rank points.'
He desperately wanted to rank up his enhancement magic before the timer on his rank points ran out, but he was so tired that he could fall asleep right on the spot.
'Maybe I can rank the magic up tomorrow.'
With that thought, Narlou dragged his tired body back to the camp.
He did not eat anything that evening.
Your "Enhancement Magic" has ranked up!
"Yes!" Narlou exclaimed and let go of the stone he had been holding, letting it drop on the floor right next to other dozen stones.
Upon waking up, Narlou had spent the entire morning training his enhancement magic on lots of different stones.
It had taken a few hours and lots of energy, but Narlou had finally managed to rank it up by one. He noticed that ranking up enhancement magic also increased his mana pool, but since it was still at such a low rank, the increase in mana was barely noticeable.
He looked at his rank point timer and saw that he still had some hours left, but he knew that he would not be able to rank it up in that time. So, he was about to spent them on his magic when someone tapped his shoulder, making Narlou jump.
"Enhancement magic can even be used to make your steps silent." The recognizable voice of Ethron stated, taking his hand away from the teen's shoulder.
"Ethron! I was just training." Narlou said, feeling like he had to explain himself.
"Sorry for being so rude yesterday, but I have to if i want you to progress." The man said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it." Narlou said with a wave of his hand.
He was less angry at the man and more angry at himself.
"I can feel that you had a breakthrough though. Your enhancement magic is stronger than before. To think that you could achieve this in just a day, you are truly talented beyond words."
"Breakthrough?" Narlou asked.
He had only ever used the term "rank" to classify the strength of magic since that was what the system used.
"Oh right, it means that your magic has become stronger. It takes at least a month for even talented people to have a breakthrough."
Narlou shrugged, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"Don't let it get to your head though. The moment you become arrogant is the moment you will fall."
"Of course!"
Arrogant people had always been on Narlou's hate list.
"So uhm, are we going to train today again?"
Ethron's expression morphed into a smile, happy to see his disciple being so motivated.
"Naturally, but we will be moving soon, so we have to train on the way."
Narlou nodded, not being put off by the thought of moving again. It was in fact the complete opposite. He looked forward to the next battle where he could test out his new skills.
"Oh, and by the way, I may or may not have heard that we will encounter some resistance soon."
The words were spoken in a way that was meant to inform, but Narlou could tell that Ethron was looking forward to the next fight just as much as he was.
"Well then, lets pack our things at get started!"
Half an hour later, Ethron was throwing rocks at Narlou at the back of Darius' unit, them not wanting to disturb the others. They were doing the same thing as yesterday, only this time Narlou was much calmer. He still had yet to hit Ethron with a rock of his own, but at least he now had his emotions under control.
"Hup!"
Narlou dodged another stone by smoothly bending down and picking one up for himself. He quickly jumped into the air, just in time to dodge another stone from Ethron.
His movement had gotten better and smoother as they continued their training, but no matter how well he moved, he just wasn't fast enough.
His movement was not the problem though.
It was his enhancement speed that caused his inability to win, because whenever he got a rock, the enhancement would take too long to finish so that Ethron would inevitably see his rock and sidestep it.
He knew that this was a problem which could be solved by raising his rank, or in Ethron's words, archive a breakthrough, but then why would he want him to do this exercise? It would be way faster to just raise its rank by constantly using it rather than playing this game of dodge-stone.
Narlou thought back to Ethron's words at the start of their training yesterday.
"The mind works the fastest when it's under lots of stress."
'Why would he say that? Is there something he wants me to do? Some kind of secret trick that I should discover?'
Narlou dodged another stone as the question kept repeating in his mind.
"Looks like you've gotten used to my attacks. Should I try a bit harder?"
Narlou immediately found himself unable to think of anything other than dodging as stones kept coming at him at speeds much faster than before.
He could just barely pick up a stone before he had to dodge again as if his life depended on it, clutched the stone tightly as he jumped to the right.
"Come on kid, you've only got a minute left."
Narlou's brows furrowed. He was trying his best to just dodge, how the hell-
'Calm down! He just wants to rile you up.'
His anger vanished. He needed to concentrate.
Gathering mana in his hands, he let it flow into the rock, immediately throwing it at Ethron who dodged it with ease.
"Too slow."
Narlou didn't react in any way other than a short twitch of his eyebrow. He couldn't let emotions consume him.
"You are not trying hard enough."
It was a simple statement, but it caused Narlou to almost get hit by a rock.
'I am trying my best you fucker!'
He shook his head, trying to dispel the frustration again. He had learned from last time. He would not lose his temper today.
"30 seconds left, and you still have yet to hit me. I think I overestimated your talent."
The thin wall that held back his emotions broke like a damn, flooding his mind with anger and frustration. He knew it was childish and dumb, but Ethron was a person he respected and wanted to gain recognition from. To hear him say something like that was quite hurtful for the young fighter.
A need suddenly crept up inside of him. A need to show Ethron that he did have the talent to be his disciple.
He wanted to prove himself.
He wanted to pick up a rock and throw it with all his might.
And he did just that.
As he poured all his frustration and need into the rock, everything suddenly became clear to him. How to use his mana to maximize the efficiency of mana consumption, how to use mana to make it as powerful as possible and how to enhance an object in such a way that it would be fast enough to hit Ethron.
But Narlou noticed none of this. He only noticed the disappointment on Ethron's face as the he kept throwing stones at him.
Then, without a warning, Narlou threw the rock at Ethron with extreme speed. The older man's eyes widened as he saw the rock, but it was already too late to dodge.
He took the full blunt of the attack, getting pushed back a few steps by the power of the enhancement in the rock.
They both stood there for a second, staring at the rock as it fell from Ethron's chest to the ground.
"You really did it! My fucking god, kid. I am so jealous." His teacher said as he clapped loudly, a proud grin covering his face.
Narlou's mind was blank. What had just happened?
As if he could read Narlou's thoughts, Ethron explained.
"One can also archive a breakthrough by understanding their magic to a certain extent. Magicians call this "Enlightenment", as it increases the overall power of your magic drastically. You, my student, just achieved that."
A happy smile began to form on his face.
He had finally done it! Ethron's praise was like music to his ears.
A question suddenly came emerged in his mind, breaking the stream of happy thoughts.
"I achieved it when I was full of emotions, so why did you want me to control my emotions better?"
"That's because the higher you fly, the harder you fall. When you can control your emotions and then feel anger and frustration, wouldn't those emotions be way stronger? That's what I made you do, because one needs large amounts of desire to archive this kind of enlightenment."
Narlou nodded along. This made sense as far as he was concerned.
"Well then, enough training for today, lets catch up to our unit!" Ethron said and started running, closely followed by Narlou, who's eyes kept glancing at a window that had popped up after his Enlightenment.
Your understanding of "Enhancement Magic" had drastically increased.
Rank 2 - Rank 4