ONE FELL SWOOP - Chapter 7
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Action
Author's Note: Somehow, I was on a writing spree, and I managed to write enough content for another chapter! We're starting to get into the minds of more characters now, so hopefully, this'll blossom into something that both reader and writer will enjoy. I've only proof-read this once but I was super-stoked to publish another chapter so there may be small errors here and there. Hope you don't mind :)
Without further ado, let's dive right into the next chapter!
Chapter 7: Valoria City
Crow Prince. Damn you. Damn you, damn you, damn you! I swear my Blood Oath with overcome your persistence.
"Rayven!" Karma grabbed Rosalyn by her shoulders, shaking the girl and bringing her back. "Please listen. I don't have much time left here. I have already gone against my father's orders in coming out here."
"O-okay." Rosalyn still sounded troubled.
"I also have news about your promotional matches. Yesterday, the Order intercepted a transmission concerning a champion that was just registered into the system. But for some reason, the champion didn't have a designated name. All we could decipher were scrambled coding, but we managed to retrieve the champion's title."
"Why are you helping us?" Rosalyn was reverting back to her suspicious-self. "How do we know you're telling the truth?"
Karma closed her eyes and breathed out. "You're right, you have no reason to trust me. You also don't have to trust me when I tell you that I knew Kaleb since he was a child."
"And you're tell us this now?" Ekko exclaimed.
"It was a detail that I thought would disrupt and deviate from the message I was to give to you. If I told you outright from the start that I was a . . . a childhood friend, you would've gotten suspicious immediately. I first gave you the message so that the main focus of the conversation was established. It's a lot easier to establish credibility if I don't sound like an advertisement for some long-lost friend or something."
"Fair enough," agreed Rosalyn.
"I care for Kaleb as friend, which is why I helping you out. I don't care what you think of him, but he was a good person. Perhaps a little more compassion would suit you better."
Ekko was mentally begging for Rosalyn to apologize or take her cold words back, but she said nothing.
"Regardless, let's not deviate any further from the focus. This new champion's title. His title is the Black Phantom. And he's been placed in your bracket. If both you two and the Black Phantom and his mage win your first matches, you're up against him in the second match."
. . .
"Well this track and report mission is just getting better and better. Remind me why we decided to camp out in the rain?" Katarina complained to her partner, who was sitting cross-legged beside her.
"Because we're tracking, Kata, it's what we do. This spot was the best I could find for covert observation." Talon gestured to the rooftops around them.
"The rain is making the tiles quite slippery. What if we fall off?" Katarina pulled at Talon's sleeves, trying to get his attention. Talon's eyes remained glued to his binoculars.
"You're twenty years old, Kata, can you please act like one? You're losing all sense of professionality." Talon berated her.
"What's so professional about tracking and reporting?" Katarina shot back. "We're assassins, not spies."
Talon sighed and put his binoculars down. "Kata, you want to know something?"
"W-what?" Katarina suddenly felt self-conscious and fidgeted with her jump-suit's collar. Talon was looking at her with his rare, serious gaze. He was usually much more nonchalant.
"Sometimes we just gotta take a break from all the killing. I feel like I smell my victims' blood more than my own sweat these days." His gaze was cutting through all her mental shields effortlessly, as if a knife through butter. She couldn't return it.
"I-I didn't take you for a coward." The girl tried to play off her nervousness with a verbal taunt, but it was in vain.
"Yeah, call me a coward. Just so you know, I'm intent on retaining my humanity."
"A killer with a conscience? What an ironic joke." The shaking in her voice was very subtle but nevertheless, existent. She remained unable to return Talon's piercing gaze.
"Whatever. Do your job, Kata." Talon returned to his binoculars.
"What's there to do?" Katarina started fidgeting with her hair, trying to straighten out the knotted ends. "Our target isn't even here. I mean, we'd make better use of our time if we figured out where the hell our target is. What's the point of tracking if Kaleb isn't here?"
"Look for him, Kata, use your observation skills. He might be smarter than we think he is, hiding in the shadows."
"Even if he were here, there's no reason he would be hiding. He wouldn't even know he was being watched," scoffed Katarina.
"Shh." Talon raised a finger, silencing her. "Let's get closer. They seem to be raising their voices."
Katarina followed suit as Talon wind back and then, with a running start, leaped to the opposite rooftops. They creeped closer to the gates of the League Headquarters until they reached the last house, which was the closest they could get to the group of three individuals who were now engaged in an intense conversation.
"—body was stolen before the Order of the Lotus could preserve it for his funeral ceremony," said the lady wearing a kimono.
Body stolen? Funeral Ceremony? What…? Talon tapped Katarina then pointed at his ears, signaling her to listen into the conversation too.
"What the FUCK?" the dark-skinned boy exclaimed.
What the fuck, indeed. Talon was just as confused.
The tall lady's mouth began to move again but no sound came out. Or rather, Talon couldn't hear what she was saying. She had lowered her voice to a whisper.
The boy replied in a more conspicuous tone of voice. "Why would a dead body need guarding?"
"Due to our ongoing investigation on the peculiar circumstances of Kaleb's death . . ."
At that moment, Talon froze and stopped listening to the conversation completely. He turned slowly to look at his partner, who had the exact same look on her face. Eyes wide with surprise. Face tight with panic.
Kaleb's death . . .
Their track and report mission was all for nothing. Worse yet, any evidence they could've gathered from the body including clues as to what Kaleb's abilities were, they lost to the thief who stole the body. The mission was a failure. It was a long time since they'd failed a mission.
Master Swain is going to . . .
If it was any other mission they'd failed, Swain would've easily forgave them. They were, after all, his most reliable assets. But they both knew this was most possibly one of Swain's most important plans.
"You are not permitted to return unless you have succeeded in completing your mission," Darius had informed them. "The rules are as usual."
The rules are as usual—my ass. Talon pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. 'You are not permitted to return unless you have succeeded…'
That meant if they failed the mission, there would be nothing to report. It would Swain's turn to track them and hunt them down. And then kill them. It was Swain's twisted perception of obedience. Obedience, to the Master, was not as simple as listening to orders. It was successfully following through with his plans. The worst part was that there had been nothing to thwart the plan. The usual reason for a failure, Demacian intervention, was not at play. Katarina and Talon had simply failed to the natural causes of coincidence. Unfortunately, in Swain's eyes, coincidence did not exist.
There was one more thing left to do though . . .
"Kata. We have to find this individual. The one who stole the body." Talon said quickly. His partner simply nodded her head.
"Kata. Kata listen. Did you happen to catch what she said after Kaleb's death?"
Katarina nodded her head again but gave him a questioning look.
"Sorry Kata," he apologized, "I kinda lost it after the lady mentioned our target's death."
"Mmm. Well she said something about flying black hooded figure. That was all I caught."
"Thank goodness." Talon sighed with relief. "At least we have a lead."
The man stood up adjusted the blades at his belt. "For now, we're going to continue tracking the boy and his female friend over there until we have gathered more clues. We have to find out what happened before news of his death gets into Master Swain's hands. Fortunately, it seems that his death was covered up quite well by the Order of the Lotus. Let's use that to our advantage."
Katarina stood up and stretched her legs and nodded, yawning as she did so.
"Kata you have to treat this situation seriously," Talon placed a hand on his own forehead, "From now on, we have to watch our backs too. We're basically fugitives now."
"Okay, okay." Katarina took a deep breath and closed her eyes, smiling calmly.
"I'm serious now."
. . .
As they walked through the streets of Valoria City, Katarina itched to play with her blades. She was bored. Unfortunately, to Talon's insistence, they had to don their cumbersome cloaks to conceal their identities and of course, there was barely enough space underneath the cloak to move her blades, much less, twirl them.
She pulled at his sleeve.
"Talon," she instinctively pushed her bottom lip forward, "How much farther is the inn?"
Talon looked up at the sky and sighed in exasperation. He turned to Katarina and was about to reply when he saw the expression on her face.
Raising his eyebrows, he chuckled, "Kata. It might just be my imagination but are you pouting at me?"
Katarina pressed her palms to her cheeks and inhaled quickly.
"N-no? Why are you making s-such false accusations?" her voice quivered.
Oh no . . . she mentally gave herself a slap on the back of her head. Please tell me I did not actually . . .
"Oh yes you did. You can't hide that expression from me, Kata." Talon smirked. "Though now that I think about it, you haven't made that face since your 16th birthday. I still remember you, pouting, all the while complaining about how Master Swain banned birthday celebrations in Noxus."
"You remember the most unnecessary things—"
"And how happy you were when I threw you that surprise party with our Crimson Elite squadron."
"W-what—?! Why are you bringing up such embarrassing—?" Katarina gaped at Talon.
"Embarrassing?" Talon tilted his head to one side. "I thought it was rather . . . one of our happier memories."
"How did we . . . how did we even get on this topic?" In her state of emotional confusion, Katarina almost slammed into a food stall on the side of the street. Talon wrapped his hand around her waist and pulled her back towards the center of the street as if it were any other gesture. He continued the conversation as if nothing had happened while Katarina blushed profusely.
"Well, we were talking about your pouting expression, right?"
"Yeah, so? Why are you bringing it up?" Katarina pulled on her hood to hide the blood that was rushing to her cheeks.
Talon's smirk grew wider. "Kata. You just admitted to pouting even though thirty seconds ago, you were insistently denying it."
"W-wha—?" Katarina was speechless. Unable to reply, she instead, slapped him as hard as she could on his back.
"H-hey! What's your problem Kata?" Talon tried saying it seriously, but in the end, failed to contain his laughter and snickered out loud.
"You're just—honestly! So unnecessary." Katarina gave him a disapproving 'hmph' then stormed on ahead of him.
"At the end of the day though, that expression . . . it's one of your cuter ones." Talon added after a moment of silence between them.
"Mmmph!" Katarina made a choking sound and then proceeded to miss a step, stumbling to regain her balance.
"W-what I mean is—!" Talon desperately searched his brain for an excuse for his uncharacteristic comment. "It . . . it's one of the things which make you human. Just like when I say I need a break from all the killing. Right?"
I hope I haven't actually made her angry. Talon didn't know whether to chuckle to himself or feel nervous. Though, what kind of girl gets angry at compliments?
"Hmph. Fair enough. I'll let you off the hook this time." Katarina strutted ahead, seemingly humming to herself.
The man sighed. I don't know what it is, but the atmosphere seems more . . . relaxed than usual. Well, I have to admit it does feel better than the tense atmosphere we always have in Noxus.
Maybe Kata's right. Maybe I am growing soft.
But is that . . . is that really such a terrible thing?
I guess it's a new and unfamiliar feeling.
But it feels good.
"Hey, smart ass." Katarina pointed at a not-too-shabby-looking building. "Is that our inn?"
"Huh? Oh yeah. Yeah, that's it." Talon smiled. No use in thinking such thoughts now. First things first, the mission.
"Hey uhh—" Katarina hesitated and pinched her cheek, as if she was stuck between making a decision. "Why . . . why did you do that thing when we first left for our mission?"
Talon looked at her blankly. "What thing?"-
"Y-you know. When you—" Katarina gulped and mustered all her courage. "When you k-k-k-k-ki—"
"K-k-k-k—excuse me, what?" her partner was utterly confused.
"When you kissed me!" Katarina yelled without meaning to, then covered her mouth.
So much for putting a block on thinking such thoughts, Talon face-palmed. I've got to defuse this bomb quickly, before it gets out of hand.
"Ohh that, haha. It was just a joke." Talon chuckled as naturally as he could. "You're still brooding over that?"
"J-just a joke." Katarina repeated softly. "Huh. I see."
"What's up? If something's bothering you, you can just tell me."
"No, it's nothing. Nothing at all."
She closed her eyes, looking ever so slightly disappointed.
. . .
"Hey, hey, check it out."
"Those two?"
"Yeah they're the new ones."
"How do you know it's not simply their first ranked match of the season?"
"I looked them up on the public registry. They're completely new."
"We'll crush them as soon as they leave the fountain."
"I bet they're scared shitless."
"Would you four quiet down?" The fifth mage adjusted his glasses and shook his head. "This is why I hate these soft-resets. I always get put into such low-elo queues at the beginning of the season."
"And what rank were you last season, you cocky little shit?" The tallest of the four men, his imposing presence evidently distinguishing him as the leader of their group. "I'll have you know that every single of us in our party and our champions made it into the Silver league."
The fifth mage scoffed. "I made it to Gold III last season. I can't say the same for you and your buddies. Bet you all are too poor to even afford your own top tier champion."
"We run along just fine with our current champions. All four of them were undefeated gladiators, master assassins, and professional marksmen in their own right." The leader of the four shot back.
"Pathetic. I earned just enough last year to hire Master Yi of Ionia. And we sync quite well too."
The leader's smile grew even wider. "Good! We'll have an even greater time crushing that new mid-lane duo. See you on the field soldier."
As the tall mage walked back to chat with his party members, a voice sounded in the fifth mage's head.
"Markus. What do you think of our new duo?" Master Yi asked in his usual, quiet voice.
"Not much. After all, we'll leave it up to that tall mage over there and his champion to take care of mid-lane. We're taking charge of the jungle."
"But you know, Markus, what do you think of them?"
"They're new on paper, but realistically? No, I don't think they're new to battle. I believe they will prove to make this match a little more interesting than I foresaw."
"Hmm, how can you tell, Markus?" Master Yi's voice resonated.
"I can see it in that girl's eyes. She has seen things that are far too brutal for the eyes of the innocent. And that boy's tattoos. Those are the marks of the infamous death zone in Zaun." Markus commented.
"Good, good," Master Yi sounded satisfied."You have not yet lost your edge, Markus. Although I do believe you've developed quite the unique sense of humour."
"How so?" the question was cold and unwelcoming.
"Well, you've managed to deceive those men into thinking you're a Gold-ranked mage in the league when you've in fact, peaked at Platinum II last season." The Wuju Bladesmaster chuckled.
"Hmph. I just thought it was for the greater good of this match if those four hairless apes over there didn't get overly confident."
"I see you remember my advice. Do not let your pride blind you. Just remember, if we somehow fall into the scenario in which we are outmatched, do not let your anger get the better of you. Anger gives motivation without purpose. Doubt is the greatest enemy."
An alarm sounded as the lights above the circular room dimmed to the lowest setting. Five circles engraved into the stone floor, each positioned to form a larger, encompassing circle, lit up with a blue, magical glow. Markus moved into his respective circle, which was marked with a symbol of a tree, and raised his hands, palms upwards, as if addressing a crowd. The other four mages moved into position as well and did the exact same.
As soon as all the mages assumed their positions in the circle, mystical power surged through each of them and cast a powerful aura surrounding each individual figure. A compartment above each mage opened up and from the cavity lowered three electrodes. They gently attached themselves to the foreheads of each mage.
"Mage sync complete." A feminine, robotic voice announced. "System functioning at 100%. Mages may now use the telepathic communications system."
Another wave of power surged through the circular chamber and mages' eyes began to glow with a blue light.
"Champion-Mage sync complete. Functioning with—0% chance of error. The match will begin in . . . thirty seconds."
"Ey, what do you all say to camping mid lane?" the tall mage shouted.
Markus rolled his eyes. "There is no need to raise your voice. We can all hear you inside our heads."
"Still the cold little fucker aren't you?" the tall mage laughed loudly.
"Don't make me mute you."
"Alright, alright, just make sure you gank my lane you goldie-mother-fucker."
"I will gank when you provide me with an opportunity to do so." Markus said without a hint of humor in his voice.
"Five, four, three . . ." the announcer counted down.
Markus's eyes gleamed with exhilaration. Markus and Master Yi's voice merged together, speaking in unison.
"Let us begin."
. . .
"How much health does he have?" Ekko asked before ducking to avoid a red bolt of energy soaring from a minion's staff. He dashed quickly to the left, then blinked to the attacking minion and smashed his Chronoblade over the creature's head. It gave a mechanical groan and dissolved into a mush of digital particles.
"Ugh, I can never get over how weird these creatures are," He said in disgust.
"They're bio-digital projections. Creations of the Hextech mainframe. The closest analogy I can provide you is they're similar to what you understand as a tangible hologram." Rosalyn said without the slightest hesitation.
"Thanks, Rose." Ekko grinned.
"Please refrain from using that name during a match." Rosalyn rebuked him indifferently. Ekko sheathed his weapon and gave up on small-talk.
"Well, how much health does that guy have? He's been camping under his turret for the past few minutes."
"We have reduced his health to approximately 46%."
"Always the exact numbers," Ekko commented under his breath as he drew his Chrono blade again. "Thanks, Rose."
"I've told you repeatedly not to call me R—" Rosalyn began but Ekko had already sped off towards the enemy turret.
"I'll do my thing, you do your best to get me out alive." Ekko sent the message as a mental image, which entered Rosalyn's consciousness through the telepathic communications system.
"Fair enough."
The boy jumped over a minion, using its head as a step and soared even higher into the air. At his peak height, he threw a small device the size of a golf-ball towards the tower which, as soon as it hit the ground immediately expanded into the Timewinder. A temporal-electrical field resonated off the Timewinder, slowing everything around it but the expanded device itself spun like a top at a dangerously high speed, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. When Ekko landed, the Timewinder contracted and flew back towards the boy, smashing everything blocking its way.
The man underneath his turret had hid behind it, letting it take the brunt of the attack, but was visibly affected by the Timewinder's temporal-electrical field. He stumbled out into the open, dazed. Spotting Ekko a few meters away, he shouted an obscenity and drew his saber, rushing recklessly at the boy.
"I guess you're the same as any other amateur, aren't you." Ekko called out to the man. He stood in place, waiting until the last moment to swerve to one side, balancing on one leg at an impossibly low angle but maintaining his center of gravity on that leg all the while. The enemy champion's saber swung harmlessly over him as he brought his Chrono blade upwards in one quick motion and into the back of the man's head. There was a crunch sound of impact as the blunt force of Ekko's unique weapon finished the man off. The man's body crumpled to the ground, limp and lifeless, before fading away as if it had never existed.
By now, the turret had already begun targeting him as the ground before him exploded into smoke, dirt and rubble. His ears were filled with a disorienting ringing, throwing his perception into confusion. The first turret shot had missed by a few inches but he couldn't risk letting down his guard a second time. The sound of air being sucked into a vacuum told him the turret was charging its next shot, but the speed between the charge and discharge was insane. Before Ekko knew it, another giant bolt of red energy torpedoed towards him, homing into him like a heat-seeking missile.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE." Ekko screamed into his telepathic-comms. Today, he decided, was not the day to die.
"Okay," Rosalyn replied blandly. Ekko felt a push from an unseen force, saw a flash of yellow light envelop him, and in the blink of an eye, was instantly teleported a ten meters from the spot where he would've been fried by the turret shot. He sighed with relief.
"Should've walked away." Ekko thought cheerfully, before getting rebuked by Rosalyn again.
"Enough with your silly catch phrases, Ekko. Every time you think or say them, I can hear you in my head loud and clear. It's irritating and distracting." Ekko heard Rosalyn say in his head.
"Just happy to be alive, Rose."
"It's not like you'll actually die when your health is reduced to 0%. You'll simply respawn at the fountain a few moments later."
"I still feel 70% of the pain, Rose. Although I don't expect you to understand." Ekko retorted, but immediately regretted it.
"You don't understand a SINGLE thing about pain, so don't talk to me about pain." Rosalyn lashed back at him, rage burning through cold, emotionless demeanor for a second before expertly returning to her previous state of mind.
"Return to base and heal up. We'll take down the mid-lane turret on our next push."
Ekko should've been glad that Rosalyn's anger had dissipated as soon as it sprung forth, but instead, he felt as miserable as ever because the first and only display of emotion from Rosalyn that he had witnessed in the past few days was this black, bottomless hole of negativity.
I wish I knew how to fix this, he sulked.
Come back to us Kaleb.
Come back to us.
I've taken quite the liking to this "character's-thought-based" chapter endings if you haven't noticed, but as I suspect it is a merely a writer's fad, the way I end off chapters will eventually diversify. If you enjoyed this chapter, and if you've enjoyed this fanfic thus far, please leave a comment below in the review section!
As of now, I'm probably going to continue working on this fanfic and take a break from my other story but FEAR NOT, I will try to make the updates and revisions to Reunions to the best of my ability in compensation.
Peace!
~Nightrous