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Here's the chapter.
Enjoy.
Chapter 5:
Quinn could see Valor describing large circles above her through the bare branches of the trees surrounding them. The eagle was watching around, searching for any sign of enemy presence. Looking down, her gaze fell on Garen who was waiting, leaning on his sword, the beginning of the match. He had not said a word since they had left their base. He seemed particularly concentrated, probably preparing himself for a ruthless battle against Darius. Quinn admired the young man's dedication and discipline, but could not say it was her cup of tea. Somehow, she could not help but find Garen too commanding and too strict towards others as well as himself. That was may be why Valor did not like him.
She found amazing, and a little scary, that her companion could show more tolerance toward a Noxian assassin than their own allies. Quinn knew Valor cordially hated Fiora, and she could not really blame him, he didn't like Garen and distrusted Shyvana, as if she would eat him like a mere chicken. However, the bird seemed to have no particular animosity against Talon whose behavior was far from friendly. It was probably because Talon was an enemy and they could not expect anything else from him. At least with him, they knew what to expect.
"Wake up," suddenly said her summoner's voice in her mind. "The minions are already on their way."
Quinn suddenly realized that she was unnecessarily daydreaming and, during that time, the match had started without her. Cursing silently, the young woman rushed out of the protective halo of her team's turret and joined Garen who was already killing blue minions. As she began to shoot the little creatures, Quinn saw him frequently look around, probably expecting Darius coming at him at any moment.
Valor suddenly appeared from the sky to mark one of the minions, indicating its weaknesses to his partner, and Quinn hurried to finish it with a flight of well-placed bolt. That's when a familiar shadow appeared in front of her. Hearing Valor warning cry, Quinn threw herself to the ground, narrowly dodging the curved daggers thrown at her. She replied, firing a bolt toward the assassin, but he had already disappeared in the trees' shadow. A shot rang out into the Rift's silence and Garen uttered a cry of pain mixed with surprise. The bullet ricocheted off his armor and hit Quinn in the back. Sarah Fortune could not help a cheeky smile at their surprise. She blew on the barrel of her pistol to dispel the slight wisp of smoke that still escaped it, a flirtatious smile on her lips.
Garen looked around them, as if Darius would arise from the bushes to attack him, but there was no trace of the Noxian General around. He was nowhere on this lane. Garen understood that his strategy was already falling apart. The game had started for less than a minute!
Bravely gritting his teeth, Garen tightened his grip on his sword and took his momentum to race to the pirate girl while spinning like a top. Miss Fortune ran away on her high heels, while the Demacian mowed down everything in its path, cutting the minions like the blade of a crazy grinder. Quinn was running behind him, ending the few surviving foe, when she suddenly felt a presence behind her. Talon's sharp blade struck her in the calf, making her almost tripping. During the time it took her to regain her balance, the assassin plunged over her, his blade gleaming with an ominous bloody glow.
"Valor, to me!" Cried Quinn.
The eagle appeared, screaming, all claws out. When Talon's blade bit her flesh, Quinn saw her companion fall on the assassin's face, distracting him long enough to allow her to roll out of his reach. She straightened herself, gritting her teeth, ignoring the pain that went down her right arm and aimed her crossbow at Talon before shooting. In a move that tinkled the blades adorning his cloak, the assassin rolled into the shadows under the trees, but the yelp that followed warned Quinn that she had hit her target.
The scout had not the time to wonder if she can return to the base to heal her wound or not. A new detonation reminded her that Garen was fighting against Miss Fortune. Being herself a ranged fighter, Quinn knew perfectly well that her teammate was at disadvantage. Garen was in need of a little help. Quinn leapt forward, whistling Valor who was still circling above the place where Talon had disappeared. She sprang to her teammate, leaving the minions kill each other, and joined Garen in time to see him holding his bleeding right shoulder with his left hand. The wound did not seem serious, but it let out an important stream of blood. Quinn did not understand how a single bullet could so easily pass through the Demancian General's strong armor. This was probably due to the spells governing the fighting on the Fields of Justice.
Quinn had just joined Garen when a hail of bullet suddenly began to rain down on them, inflicting small but painful wounds all over their body. Caught in the storm, Valor flew away with an indignant squeal, several feathers on his tail and wings damaged by the bullets. In response, Quinn jumped on the redhead, both for attack her and get out of her spell zone. She crashed into Miss Fortune before bouncing back with the agility of a panther, and raised her crossbow to shoot the pirate. The little scream that followed was enough to satisfy Quinn and to prevent the redhead to escape at full speed. Freed from the area of her Make it Rain spell, Garen rushed to Miss Fortune and passed Quinn using Judgment.
"Valor, what do you see up there?" Quinn asked the still fuming eagle.
He looked down at the ground in time to see Talon slip out of the shadows and approach his mistress. With a shriek, he fell from the sky and struck the assassin, marking him. Quinn turned to see her opponent chasing her companion with a wave of his arms and aimed at him by reflex. It does not prevent the assassin to jump on her. His blade painfully pierced the young woman's side and she was spared only by her summoner's reflexes who propelled her away from the assassin with his Flash spell.
For a moment, they challenged each other and, with a sickly smile on the face, Talon turned away from her and went down the lane to the blue tower. It took a moment to Quinn's pain fogged mind to understand he was going to attack Garen from behind while he was fighting Miss Fortune. With a scream of indignation, Quinn rushed behind him.
His armor pierced by numerous small bleeding holes, Garen was losing, facing the redhead who was in no better shape. Talon leapt to Garen without warning, his blade drawing a long bleeding gash on his back. Quinn watched in horror as the young man put a knee on the ground, completely exhausted. Talon raised his weapon to finish the demacian, but at that moment, Garen, gathering his remaining strength, gave him a terrible blow.
"Demaciaaaaaaaaa!" he cried, while a giant blade impaled the assassin.
Taking advantage of this moment of inattention, Miss Fortune pointed her two guns at him and fired several volleys of bullets with a crazy laugh. Quinn saw her teammate collapse between their two opponents. Talon turned to her with a wry smile:
"Too bad you can't protect your friends, kitten."
Furious, Quinn clenched her fingers on her crossbow.
"At least I know what these words mean," she replied icily.
Talon clenched his jaw, giving her a dark look.
Without a word, Talon gathered himself and jumped on Quinn. The young woman stepped back and had no alternative but to flee along the lane to return to her turret. Her health level was not at the top, she did not have a chance against two opponents. Talon immediately chased after her but Miss Fortune, obviously seeing no interest in following them, recalled to her base to heal her injuries.
As she ran, Quinn felt the bite of Talon daggers in her back and would probably had fell if, in a sudden burst of inspiration, her summoner did not use Heal to give her a little health and increase her moving speed.
"He is all alone, finishes him," she heard him scream in her mind.
A glance over her shoulder and she saw he was right. A few distance from the turret, she turned to face Talon. A devious smile on his lips, he stood in front of her, relishing in advance of his little game.
"Tired of running, kitten?"
She did not bother to respond. Raising her weapon, she pulled a bolt at him. He replied, launching a volley of daggers at her. Quinn rolled on the ground to dodge, but one of the blades pierced her shoulder. Ignoring the pain, she stood up and took supports on the ground to propel herself on the assassin. She slammed into his chest, unbalancing him for a moment.
"Valor!" She called.
Understanding what was expected of him; the eagle swooped down on Talon and struck him with his wings and beak. Talon made a movement with his knife arm to shoo him away.
"Val", recalled Quinn.
The bird pulled away immediately and Talon had only time to see the crossbow pointed at his heart. The next moment everything went blurry around him and he heard his summoner's voice report that he had been killed.
Quinn breathed, looking at Talon lifeless body of on frozen ground, a strange pain in her chest pounding like her heart. Passing a gloved hand on her sweating forehead, despite the cold, the young woman asked her summoner to recall her to the base in order to heal her wounds. The familiar blue glow enveloped her, and a moment later, she found herself at the purple fountain. She heaved a sigh of relief as she felt the fountain healing powers close her wounds.
Tranquility, however, was short-lived. As she closed her eyes to enjoy a moment of calm in the bustle of the match, a roar of rage sounded just inches from her.
"You abandoned Lux, brat?"
Opening her eyes, Quinn saw Garen grab Ezreal by the collar of his jacket and lift him off the ground. Without really understanding what was going on, Quinn rushed out and put a hand on the Demacian general's forearm, in a soothing gesture.
"Garen!"
"This coward fled the field, leaving Lux alone against Darius," threw Garen while eying Ezreal.
Quinn clapped a hand over her lips in amazement. If Demacians were unable to forgive anything, it was cowardice. And Garen had always been particularly protective of his younger sister.
"Darius was going berserk," replied Ezreal, which obviously did not understand what he did wrong. "One of us was going to die; I'd rather it wasn't me."
With a roar of fury, Garen threw him to the ground. Quinn threw a glance over her shoulder at Lux. She had just reappeared and mutely witnessed the scene, pale and frozen, but fixing the piltovian with a hurt look in which anger and incomprehension could also be seen.
"Don't approach my sister ever again," Garen snarled.
He then turned to the blonde.
"I'll go with you; I'm going to make this fucking Noxian pay for what he did to you."
"Darius did nothing wrong," Lux said tonelessly. "He only followed the fight's rules."
She wondered for a moment why she felt the need to defend the Noxian but she spoke before she could stop herself. Darius had nothing to do in this; it was Ezreal who was unable to accept responsibility for his actions.
"Anyway," Garen snarled, glaring to the piltovian. "You're going with Quinn and if you leave her too, I guarantee you that the Council of Equity will hear about this."
"I have done nothing wrong," persisted the blond.
Garen paid him no attention and rushed running to the bottom lane where Darius and Draven were assaulting their inner turret.
"Asshole," threw Ezreal, once Garen was far enough to not hear him.
Quinn did not deign to interfere. Whistling Valor, she rushed to her own lane, without waiting to see if the piltovian was going to follow her or not.
* * The sands of war * *
The whole team stood at the center of the summoning circle, head down. Despite the lane change, Garen had failed to stop Darius and Draven's progression. The two brothers were too far ahead to be stopped. After a fierce but futile resistance, they had capitulated, attacked on all sides. No one dared to utter a word; while the summoners took care of deactivate the platform.
On the other side of the room, in the other summoning circle, the atmosphere was quite different. Draven laughed out loud while telling for the third or fourth time how he had "saved his brother's ass" by shooting Garen and Lux at the same time with his Whirling Death, while Sarah Fortune and Syndra exchanged their impressions on the game. Talon's eyes did not leave Quinn as she stroked Valor's feathers with one hand while whispering in his ear some inaudible words. He had avenged himself by killing the Scout four times proving he was far ahead from her.
Darius was the first to exit the runes circle and walk down his team's platform, running a weary hand through his hair. He was exhausted though he tried not to show anything. After Garen's arrival on his lane, he had no more attacked Lux, leaving his brother to take care of her, focusing his attacks on his rival. This had not prevented him to watch the blonde's actions from the corner of his eyes. Although she may seem frail, fragile and superficial at first, he had to admit that she was actually a hardened fighter and that these spells of hers badly hurt. What a pity she was not a Noxian!
Both teams greeted each other, shaking hands. Darius threw a look full of contempt to Ezreal while he ruthlessly crushed his knuckles in his large hand, silently promising him thousand deaths for their next match. The blonde hurried away without a glance, once the Noxian let him go, leaving his place to Lux. The blonde firmly shook hands with the general, her playful smile back on her angelic face.
"Congratulations Darius that was a good match."
Taken aback, the Noxian watched her as she hopped to his brother to congratulate him, missing Garen's disapproving grunt.
"Now that cursed game is finally over, we can think of the most important," Lux said as she walked toward the door, with Quinn and Garen. "Gragas's party!"
An arm landed heavily on her shoulders.
"So you said, babe! I'll pick you up at seven-thirty, be ready and don't disappoint me, if you know what I mean."
Lux froze and glared toward Ezreal.
"Oh, I'm sorry, babe," she replied icily. "But I will not go with you. I'll go with someone more trustfully. Question of priorities."
With that, she grabbed Ezreal's hand and strongly pushed it away, emerging from his embrace. Frozen in amazement, the piltovian looked her walk out of the room, while Garen's booming laugh sounded in the hallway.
"What a pity," Darius said in an openly ironic voice; as he walked pass the blond. "You were such a cute couple."
He exited the room, but not before launching a cruel smile toward Ezreal. See Luxana Crowngard rejecting that piltovian peacock's advances filled him with a strange sense of satisfaction.