I had been waiting in a tree on the outskirts of the Ionian camp for little over an hour waiting for my target to return, 'This is not worth my time' I thought to myself fiddling with one of my knives.
I was about get up and leave when I noticed someone wearing armour that matched the description of my target 'About time you showed up' I thought smirking and reaching for one of the daggers strapped to my legs, after a few seconds of lining up the throw I sent it flying towards his neck.
I was shocked when the dagger bounced off something a few inches away from him, and I was shocked further when he turned around, glowing, and I managed to Shunpo out of the tree a few seconds before a ball of energy hit the tree, smashing it into many splinters.
He then turned towards where I had jumped to and launched another ball of energy doing with the same effect, after two more trees had met the same fate I started to go on the offensive jumping towards him and throwing three daggers towards him, one of which imbedded itself in his armour. After that I jumped behind him and went to plunge my dagger into his back, but the blade barely pierced the amour. Soon after my failed attempt I felt a tight grip around my throat and my feet leaving the ground.
After a few seconds of struggling, I felt the grip on my throat lessen slightly and I heard my target "Katarina, is that really you?". I started to panic slightly because my target knew my name.
"How the hell do you know my name?" I said trying to calm myself. In reply my target chuckled for a few seconds and then removed his helmet I was shocked as I saw the face under the helmet, "Gareth?"
"I'm touched that you remember me" he said jokingly, lowering me to the ground and letting go of my throat.
"So this is why you left" I said gesturing towards the Ionian camp. "To slaughter your own kinsmen" I felt my anger start to rise at what Gareth was doing.
"Katarina you know me, do you really think I came to Ionia just to kill Noxians?" he said in reply to my outburst
"I… I don't know" I said "I mean the Gareth I knew during my teenage years, never would have raised a blade against another Noxian but all the reports say that you've helped slaughter hundreds" I said feeling slightly confused about the situation I was in.
Gareth looked like he was about to respond when he grabbed me by the shoulders and whispered into my ears "Someone is coming, so please for old times sake get out of here, please".
I was about to object but I decided against it, so I started to head back to camp when I realised that I couldn't go back to camp empty handed so I climbed up into a nearby tree and started to watch as a man walked towards Gareth, the thing that did pique my interest was the emblem he bore on his chest armour, It was that of a blue snake poised and ready to strike on an orange background resembling dripping blood. I recognised it as the family crest of the Isanty family, a noble Noxian family that was almost as renowned as my own family, the Du Coteau, in the art of assassination. 'Why would a member of a noble Noxian family be in an Ionian camp?' I wondered. I decided to stay and eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Zydan its great to see you" I heard him greet his visitor. 'Zydan, so that was his name.'
"Hey Gareth, is something wrong? By the look on your face you must have seen a ghost." this young man by the name of Zydan said with a chuckle.
"No, Nothing's wrong just thinking about some things" I heard Gareth reply. 'After all these years and you are are still a terrible liar Gareth'
Apparently Zydan seemed to agree with me. "Has anyone ever told you how bad you are at lying?" he said smirking at the mage, before continuing to speak. "So who's the ghost?"
"I've been told countless times that I'm a terrible liar, and it wasn't a ghost just someone I didn't think I would see for quite some time" Iheard him tell Zydan.
"You're still avoiding the question of who it was Gareth, Noxus may train people to be cruel and merciless but they do train us to have some brains in our head as well." Zydan said poking the side of his own head.
"That's the reason I'm not telling you Zydan, because I like having my brain inside my head" came Gareth's reply
Zydan seemed to comply to with what Gareth said. "Ah well, anyway I came to tell you that I have been assigned to join a company of Ionian soldiers and help ambush a large group of Noxian soldiers that weren't at the battle for the Placidium."
The Ionians were planning an ambush? Noxian command would need to know of this. There was only one squad that wasn't at the battle that could be large enough to warrant a large ambush, Riven's squad. This was going to be a hard fought battle, but the Ionians would have more troops and would eventually win.
"Well, I wish you luck Zydan cause if you screw up Irelia will… not do anything at all, because you'll be dead, ahhh she might dance on your grave"
"Now you see my amazing logic of joining. I'll see you again soon Gareth." Zydan said with a smile
As Zydan walked away from Gareth I quickly made my way towards the Noxian camp, they had to be informed of the ambush and of this Zydan person.
Me and my squad were trekking through the forests of Ionia hoping to avoid detection for when we came across the next inhabited village. The last reports we had received were that the main Noxian army were making their way to the Placidium where they would take control and win the war. When I joined the war, I had thought that I would fight in glorious battles, facing foes with strength and honour, but instead I was assigned to killing civilians. Innocent people, from the newborn to the elderly, were slaughtered without a chance to retreat or surrender. What glory was there to be had in killing people who couldn't fight back. However my thoughts were pushed aside as my squad walked into an open clearing. We had been marching at a fast pace for most of the day and I decided it would be as good of a place as any to set up camp. "Everyone set up camp." I told everyone before pointing to a few men. You three, we will take first watch for the night, position yourselves around the camp." The men nodded their acknowledgement and set out to keep watch.
Half an hour later, the camp was set up and and most of the soldiers were starting to fall asleep, and that was of course the perfect time to get ambushed. I saw the three other guards fall down dead, each with an arrow sticking out of their foreheads. Instinct took over as I rolled from where I was just standing, and dodged the arrow that would have been the end of me as well. "Ambush!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as a massive group of Ionian soldiers ran out into the clearing, surrounding us and blocking any chance of escape. As they charged us, my squad came rushing out of their tents, armed and ready to fight. 'At least I trained them well' I thought as I saw that victory would be almost impossible as their forces greatly outnumbered us. I turned my attention to a nearby mage and yelled at him. "Send a signal for reinforcements!" The soldier responded quickly and within a few seconds a bright light was shot in the sky. Now all we had to do was survive for as long as we can while we waited for backup to arrive. If reinforcements didn't arrive in time however, then at least I would be able to die battling soldiers to the death, at least I would die fighting a warrior's death.
My squad and I began to charge towards the Ionian ambush party and blades were met with blades as the two sides clashed against each other. I charged into the thick of battle, killing any Ionian soldiers that got in range of my massive runeforged blade. These soldiers were well trained, but they crumbled under my assault as I cut my way through their attack. However, as I turned back to kill a soldier who tried to stab me from behind, I saw that the rest of my troops were struggling under the Ionian ambush and their defences were slowly being broken. It would only be a matter of time before our forces fell, but still I kept cutting down soldier after soldier until I came across a young man with odd looking weapons. They were a pair of rings of steel with edges jutting out from each side. That didn't matter though as I rushed towards him and swung my blade down upon him, he was going to fall under my assault regardless.
And yet he didn't, I had to admit he was fast as he dodged strike after strike I unleashed upon him. He jumped backwards from one of strikes and threw one of his weapons, which I managed to block with my blade. Good, now that he was short a weapon he shouldn't have been a problem to take care of, but of course he caught me off guard as his weapon returned to his hand and he immediately took advantage of it by charging directly at me, aiming straight for my neck. I managed to duck in time and proceeded to try and sweep his legs out from under him, but instead of letting me trip him, he jumped over my crouched body and landed after doing a flip through the air. I stood up straight and saw him looking at me, instead of following up on his offence. "You're one hell of a fighter Riven." How did he know my name? I saw that his chest armour had an emblem on it and I examined it to see that it was the crest of a noble Noxian family by the name of Isanty.
"You bear the family crest of the Isanty's and yet you fight for the Ionians. Explain yourself."
"Simple, I was dragged into this stupidity of a war and when I was supposed to meet my end at the hands of Irelia, I was spared instead and given a second chance. I could have gone anywhere I wish and yet I chose to stay here and fight back against Noxus."
While his response made sense, it only served to anger me and I charged at him, trying to cut him to pieces while I yelled. "So you willingly turned your back on Noxus, your own home that raised you and made you strong!"
My words seemed to anger the traitor as he dodged after blow, unable to make a counter attack as my sword out-ranged his weapons and I wasn't giving him another chance to throw them from a safe distance. "Raised me? Made me strong? I was nothing special to my family, just a tool to further their own reputation and goals. The only reason I ever even went to Ionia is because I was forced here as a punishment for my own 'weakness'. Do you want to know what apparently makes you weak in Noxus? Apparently refusing to kill someone behind their back is considered weakness! Noxus is corrupt Riven, it's filled with politicians and snakes who would betray you for the tiniest portion of power."
"No! Noxus shows it strength through battle, where the strong prevail and are respected for their strength and glory in battle!"
"Glory? Then tell me, how glorious did you feel slaughtering those villagers who couldn't even fight for themselves?" The traitor had struck a nerve with that question and he knew it, but I would not be swayed by his treacherous talk. "The leaders of Noxus don't care about you Riven, you are just a puppet to them and you allow them to pull your strings like an obedient little puppy. You will serve them willingly and when you're no longer of use they will either stab you in the back or hire someone else to do it for them."
"No! You try to deceive me with lies, but I'm no traitor and Noxus has no need for politics! We fight for what we deserve and prove our strength through battle. Those that are strong rule over Noxus and those that serve the strong do so out of respect."
"No, they serve out of fear of being punished and humiliated. Ask yourself this Riven, have the current leaders of Noxus actually shown any strength? If so then why is Jericho Swain in such a high position of power? He has done nothing but lie, scheme and use foul magic and yet he is one of our most prominent leaders."
His words were beginning to make me question some of the choices made in the past but still, that was no excuse to betray Noxus and turn on his own home. It was time to finish this traitor as I raised my blade and let all my ki energy flow into my blade. I would put all my power behind this one strike and end him quickly. My blade began to glow a bright green and I swung my blade towards him as he stood a good distance away from me. As my blade completed the swing, my stored ki energy left my blade and flew towards the traitor in a deadly wind slash. I smiled as I knew that it was too fast for him to avoid and he wouldn't be able to block it with his weapons. Yet he stood his ground and he quickly raised his weapons as they started to glow, one glowing with a blood red colour while the other resembled a deep, sea blue colour. He wasted no time in throwing his weapons and instead of being cut in half, the weapons blocked the wind slash. The two abilities we had just used were competing to overpower one another but neither could break through the others assault, and so the two powers colliding against each other erupted, causing a massive gust of wind to send us both flying in opposite directions of one another.
I was sent rolling across the ground but I was stopped as I hit a tree. I picked myself up and I looked around to see that my battle with Zydan had taken us quite a far distance away from the main fighting. I saw that my dismissal from the main fighting had quickened the Ionians' victory and that the remaining Noxian forces were soon to fall. I had wasted all my energy on fighting the traitor and I would not last long when they caught up to me, but I saw that the young man who had betrayed Noxus had not been so lucky, as I saw his body lying unconscious next to a shattered tree. He must have been blasted right into the tree and knocked out by the impact and I started to slowly stagger towards him as I held my blade firmly, readying it to apply the final blow.
Before I could reach him however, I looked up to see something flying through the sky, coming down towards where we had signalled for reinforcements. The object landed and exploded, releasing a misty gas that caused everyone to start clutching their throats and dropping lifeless to the floor. That was our back-up? A chemical bombing? Why would the Noxian Command willingly sacrifice their own troops, even if it was to kill a number of their opposition. I was outside of the range of the gas, thanks to my fight with the traitor. My attention turned towards the traitor and I began to realise that what he had told me, what I had thought was a useless attempt at deceiving me, was turning into the cold, hard truth as I witnessed the poison gas claiming the lives of every soldier except for me and the traitor's. Just moments ago my thoughts were on finishing the traitor but now as I saw the truth behind his words, I couldn't bring myself to leave him. I was not strong enough to carry him on my shoulder in my current state, so I grabbed his arm and began to drag him behind me as I made my way out of the forest, away from the gas.
After an hour without pause, I finally made it out of the forest and near a main road. I dropped the still unconscious body of the young man that was a member of the Isanty family. His family connection explained how he knew me, just about every Noxian knew me by name. He puzzled me, he had everything given to him from birth, from power and influence to wealth and other selfish pleasures, and for some reason he hated his life in Noxus and had turned his back on his home. Why? Just so he wouldn't be used as a mere tool? He had so much going in his favour and yet he hated it all because of one negative in a room full of positives. I would think of him as a fool but he was able to see Noxus for what it had turned into, while everyone else was still stuck inside a glorious illusion. Now that I was free of this illusion I couldn't go back to it, Noxus was no longer how I had imagined it. I grabbed hold of my runeforged blade and began to store as much ki energy as I had been able to recover and unleashed the energy into the blade itself, splitting it in half and leaving it as only a remnant of what it once was. As the blade was destroyed and my ki energy left my body, I was overcome with exhaustion and collapsed on the cold hard ground, and everything faded to black.
And that is chapter 3 of Mercy and Rivalry. How did you like our attempts at Katarina and Riven's point of view? How are you enjoying the story so far? Please review and give us any constructive criticism you may have or anything you enjoy about the story.