Chapter 12: Blade vs. Mage

"I like horse radish..."

It was a calm and peaceful night in Valoran. However, somewhere in the middle of a large forest, a battle draws out that was neither calm nor peaceful.

The Black Mage had a blueish-green energy emanating from his body. With all the cuts and wounds he received from Talon and Katarina, an excessive amount of blood came into contact with the mana in the air, causing him to regenerate mana at an unstable rate but also giving him a boost of speed and power. With this dangerous outcome, he chases Talon across the forest, but the Noxian assassin proves to be much more formidable in terms of speed.

The bladed assassin was quick to jump from tree to tree, keeping his distance from Rez while also tossing out a seemingly infinite amount of daggers. Rez, on the other hand, kept up his chase, dodging each dagger and traversing through the forest, knocking some trees down in the process.

One of the branches broke as Talon stepped on it, causing him to fall to the ground. He saw Rez running to his point of landing and acted quickly. In an instant, he appeared before Rez and swiftly slit his throat before going invisible.

Rez healed the cut in no time. He looked around to try and find his target. Talon going invisible doesn't prove to be of much use however, as Rez was able to feel Talon's body heat. Rez found Talon was skipping through the trees again away from his pursuer. He charged up electrical energy in his palm and shot it at Talon's direction. The lightning wasn't much of a bolt as it was a huge blast of electricity. The assassin looked back and avoided the lightning, but not completely as the shock hit the left half of his upper body causing him to fall helplessly to the ground.

Somewhere away from the fight, Katarina wakes up near the trunk of a large tree in the forest. Her body was aching and slight burns were visible across the side of her face. She got up, ignoring the pain and walked around. She was feeling rather weak so she limped on one leg.

After wandering around for about half an hour, Katarina heard a loud explosion not so far from her. She quickly headed toward that direction. As she made her way to the area of the explosion, the large trees around her started to fall down. With her wounds, it made it difficult for her to move around, but she managed to avoid getting crushed.

A few meters away from her, Katarina saw a cloaked body lying face down on the ground. Underneath the body was a puddle of blood. In that moment, she immediately knew who it was.

"TALON!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

Looking ahead of her, Kat saw Rez slowly walking toward the body from a distance. He lit up the area around him with the overflow of mana releasing from his body. He looked the same as the day he invaded Noxus. The overwhelming figure he poses is reminiscent of that terrifying day.

Kat ran to Talon's side. "Talon! Talon, get up!"

She moved his head to look at his face. Talon's eyes twitched slightly until they slowly opened.

"Kat?"

His eyes widened and he quickly got up to face Rez. Katarina was shocked.

"Talon! What are you..."

As soon as he did, Kat saw Talon has lost his entire right arm. Everything from his shoulder to his fingertips. Gone. A large amount of blood dripping from where it once was held. Even a large portion of his upper right torso was burnt black.

"Are you crazy!?" Kat yelled. "We need to fall back! He's far too strong!"

"Kat..." Talon said softly. "Our mission was to retrieve the girl with the essence. What we need to do is distract this guy until she successfully captures her."

Katarina was silent.

"And if we run, not only will our goal be on the line, but my pride as well." Talon gave a sinister grin and stepped forward. "Don't you dare to think about interfering, Kat. I alone will teach him that you don't mess with Noxus."

Talon and Rez walked towards each other with a large space in between them slowly closing. The assassin held his remaining left hand to his side and a multitude of bladed disks circled around him. The mage had the same idea and had two circles of small rocks around him. They both threw small projectiles as if equipped with a machine gun. Each blade and rock that was shot clashed against each other. Both sides were receiving small cuts and gashes on their bodies.

Rez continued to shoot pebbles, until he noticed that Talon was gone. Instinctively, Rez jumped back, dodging Talon who attacked from above. Rez noticed Talon's hand was buried underground and before he knew it, a string of blades chained together came from beneath Rez and slashed him across his body to the side of his face. Talon pulled out his hand from the ground along with the bladed chain. The chain acted like a whip that Talon was able to handle with relative ease. With this, Talon could strike with swift, wide sweeping attacks from a safe distance.

Talon lashed out at Rez, which caused the Black Mage to block with his arm. However, the chain wrapped around it and proved even more difficult to remove due to the fact that the chain was formed by many sharp edges that pierced deep into his skin.

Rez, on the other hand, held firmly onto the chain and pulled Talon toward himself. Yet again, Talon disappeared and Rez felt his arm being pulled behind him.

As soon as Rez pulled the chain, Talon jumped in the air mid way and landed on a tree branch behind Rez. With all his might, Talon pulled Rez and slammed him against a tree. The force was so great that the tree fell and crushed Rez.

Meanwhile...

Ahri woke up from her nap. She stretched her body and tails, moving the blanket off of her.

"Hmm? Did I have a blanket?" Ahri pondered for a bit and remembered Rez had put it on her just before she dozed off. She smiled brightly. "He's always so thoughtful." She looked around and wondered. "Where is Rez?"

The Nine-Tailed Fox got up from the wonderfully comfortable couch. She felt a bit woozy as she took a few steps, but she was just getting over her fatigue from sleep.

Ahri heard a creaking noise coming from the door leading outside.

"Rez?"

Ahri froze in place. "W-what are you doing here?"

Thank you for all the readers who are patiently waiting for new chapters! It's because of you guys that I keep going! I promise to continue writing as much as I can.

I decided to cut the battle short because I felt that it would drag on longer than it should. I want to hurry and give Ahri some more screen (or text) time.

Please send me some feedback. I really appreciate reading your guys' thoughts. Again, Thank you and Happy Birthday!