Author's Notes: I have returned! Wooooh!
Thanks everyone for the support and the helpful notes! I honestly can't thank you guys enough, regardless of the small size of my following. Honestly, I'm glad that my story is able to peak the interest of enough folks! I do these out of passion and love because I love both franchises and it's a bit sad to see how both of their stories are kinda frozen, in a sense! At least we still have Arcane!
I won't bore you anymore with words, though! Enjoy!
Years ago...
The streets of Piltover are once again bustling and full of life as the Sun's rays reflect on the various stained glass windows of nearly every building while the sounds of vehicles and machines rumbling through the streets are drowned out by the multitudes of civilians and workers of varying jobs walking up and down the sidewalks, all talking, gossiping and sometimes just shouting in general, as everyone is practically excited for their most celebrated yearly event: Progress Day!
A day each year meant to celebrate, well, the progress of Piltover as a society, with various inventors, scientists and lots of other folks show of their inventions. From the smallest toy to the biggest mining machine, no invention is too small or too big! Not to mention so many other people from all over Runeterra coming over to tour around the city, see the inventions and, for those that can afford it, sponsor or outright buy inventions for their own use or even help out their own societies.
However, while the rest of the city is celebrating such a big event, other folks are currently celebrating something more personal...
"Happy birthday, Ben!"
A united greeting by Carlton, Caitlyn, Cassandra, Tobias and various other guests, are the first thing 10 year old Benjamin Tennyson hears upon entering the dining room to his and his father's house as he smiles.
"Whoa! Everyone's here!" Ben chirps as he raises his hands excitedly before giving his father a hug, who of course hugs him back before carrying his boy over his shoulder, letting him sit atop it. "Thanks everyone!" Ben happily yells out as his family and friends all clap for him.
After a brief happy birthday song and Ben blowing the candles on his cake, everyone finally began to eat, especially Ben, as he scarfs down on some pasta while Caitlyn, sitting next to him, giggles at the sight of him enjoying his meal too much.
While the Kiramman daughter wipes away the tomato sauce on the Tennyson boy's lips, their respective parents are watching over from the side as they too enjoy their meals. "You know, I was worried he wouldn't take it well, considering his birthday is actually 2 days ago, but he's taking it well." Tobias comments before sipping on his glass of wine, reserved for the adults in the party like him, before taking a spoonful of a piece of Ben's birthday cake.
"He's a good boy." Cassandra says, wiping her own lips after she, too, took a spoonful of a different meal. "Plus, I think he was excited he gets to celebrate his birthday during Progress Day. You know he loves the fireworks at night."
Carlton chuckles as he drinks a glass of water instead, placing his plate down on a nearby table. "I also promised him that I'd take him to the zoo today and then we'd go check around the tents to buy any toys he'd want. With Progress Day, he's gonna have a wide selection to choose from."
The parents all share a laugh before going back to their meals. Carlton looks back to his son for a moment, seeing him hand Caitlyn a small plate with a slice of the cake before sitting back down next to her and the two share a hug. The Tennyson father smiles, seeing the good nature in his son... but then he sighs and frowns.
This sudden change in his expression did not escape the sight of his Kiramman companions, as Cassandra is the first to speak up, asking him, "What's wrong, Carlton?"
Carlton shakes his head, placing a palm on his forehead as he sighs again. "I told him those things as if to reassure him, and the gentle boy he is, he accepted and waited two whole days to celebrate his birthday, but... I feel sick to my core. Like I'm taking advantage of my own son's good nature."
"Nonsense, Carlton. You told him the truth. You had to go do something related to your work. If you were truly a terrible father that you think you are, you would not be here throwing a party for your son and celebrating it with him." Tobias tells his friend, patting him on the back. "You've just been a busy man."
"I know but—" Carlton tries to protest but Cassandra wags her finger at him to keep him silent.
"No more on this self loathing. Today is your boy's special day, and you will make it special! You wish to make it up to him? Then proceed with what you promised him and make this the best day he'll ever have!" Cassandra tells him, which made Carlton sigh... before chuckling and shaking his head.
"Alright, alright. I can never win an argument with any of you, huh?" Carlton responds before the three of them share another laugh. "I'll go check on Ben then. Then we start letting him open his gifts."
After saying so, the Tennyson father heads over to his son as he passes by what appears to be a blonde woman with red eyes, and nearly as tall as Carlton himself. She's wearing an outfit normally reserved for male butlers, complete with a black suit and tie, as she held a tray with several glasses filled with various beverages. Carlton speaks to her for a second and then gestures to the whole dining room before the two of them share a nod as Carlton heads towards his son.
This blonde butler then walks over to the Kiramman parents as she brings down the tray in her hand and offers the beverages to them. "Some more wine, or perhaps other drinks, Mr. and Mrs. Kiramman?" The blonde lady asks them.
"Oh, no thank you on the wine, Mazuma. We're trying to reduce it to just one glass a day, if we can help it." Cassandra says, revealing the name of the lady butler to be Mazuma.
"We'll take some of those other drinks, though! Smoothies, I presume?" Tobias asks, with Mazuma nodding, prompting Tobias to smile as he picks the glass with the red colored smoothie for himself and Cassandra takes the blue colored smoothie instead.
Mazuma then bows to them both and gives off a warm smile. "I hope you're enjoying the party, Mr. and Mrs. Kiramman. If you need anything else, I'll be nearby." She says before heading off to serve other guests.
"What a nice young lady." Cassandra comments as she takes a sip of her blueberry smoothie.
Tobias sips on his own cherry smoothie before responding to his wife, "Well, with the way Ben grew up, he seems to be surrounded by good role models. Where was she from again? It's been a while."
Cassandra takes a moment to stop sipping so she can answer her husband. "Ah, yes. I remember. Carlton mentioned she's from..."
Ionia, present day. Another day for Ben and Ester to have another trip around this magnificent and lush region.
It's been a day since Ben and Ester's encounter with the Kinkou Order and the Azakana, and while already physically recovered from that encounter, Ben's still a bit drained mentally. Which is why he woke up earlier than Ester, who's still sleeping. After deciding to rest together in the same inn, the duo had to sleep in the same room, though to make things less awkward, since Ester already paid for the room and they didn't want to spend extra to transfer to another one with two beds, Ben volunteered to sleep on the couch nearby. He didn't really mind, but it certainly did not help him mentally as he slept late, thinking about yesterday.
And now, he's awake early. To keep his mind at ease, he brings out his father's journal once more, takes the pencil in his bag and steps outside to the balcony of their room, drawing the Azakana from memory, and he's got a really good one, especially when the monster was born from his own doubts.
Like the Kraken family from nearly a week ago now, he manages to draw the Azakana perfectly and wrote down the details the Kinkou Order people told him about it's kind, it's behavior, and even his encounter with it. Though despite taking these details seriously, he couldn't help but make fun of the beast that tormented him by writing the word "jerk" near it's face and drawing an arrow pointing to the demon itself.
In his mind, the first step to healing from such a traumatic ordeal is by finding ways to keep fighting the manifestation of his doubts in any way imaginable, including making fun of it. It's not much, but to Ben, it's making him smile.
But that smile quickly fades as he frowns after remembering what the Azakana did and said. The beast killed people just to prove it's strong and because it manifested thanks to him, Ben feels responsible for those lives. From his encounter with the Navori brotherhood, they weren't exactly good people, but they didn't deserved to be slaughtered like that.
Despite telling himself he's healing, Ben immediately wounds himself again emotionally from thinking of those lives lost.
"Hey."
Ben raises his head as he hears that familiar voice. He turns around to see Ester heading out of their room and towards the balcony as well. She walks over to nearby stool so she can sit at eye level with Ben as he sighs. This sigh is immediately noticed by the Yordle gunsliger. "Hmmm... Alright, come on. Tell me what's wrong." Ester snarks, but was still mostly serious about her comment.
"It's fine. I'm just—" Ben says, but Ester shakes her head, interrupting him.
"Nope. None of that. You and I promised we'd talk things out when we get problems. So come on. Talk to me." Ester points out.
Ben scratches the back of his head as he leans back on the railing on the balcony, slouching a little as he looks upwards to the blue sky. "...The Azakana. I'm... I still feel responsible for the people it killed. I'm... I could barely sleep. And when I finally did, I woke up early from nightmares. If I had just been better mentally, then maybe..."
"What that thing did wasn't your fault." Ester reassures him almost instantly, causing Ben to turn his head to face her. "Is a gunsmith responsible for the lives taken by the weapons he sells just because he needs to earn a living? No. That responsibility lies on the people that bought his weapons in the first place. I'm not saying that the lives taken by that monster should be ignored but... It's not your fault. You couldn't have known an Azakana would be born from your own emotions. That things chose to take lives. Did you want those lives to be taken?"
"Well... No. Of course not." Ben replies, and his response makes Ester snap her finger into a finger gun pointing at him.
"Then it's not your fault. If you could, would you have fought that Azakana again, if it meant it would save the lives of those people, despite what they did to you and I?" Ester asks again. Ben shakes his head in responds, and Ester did her finger snap to finger gun again. "Then boom! Not your fault. You're a good guy, Ben. Certainly better than I am."
Ben tilts his head, confused at Ester's response. "Huh?"
"I don't tolerate folks who wrong me and my friends. I grew up in Bilgewater, where everyone played rough, so I had to play rougher. I'll be straight with you, Ben. I didn't care those Navori jerks died. They tried to hurt us..." Ester suddenly got dark, her tone filled with venom as Ben furrows his brows, worried at his friend's sudden change of tone... but then she sighs and shakes her head. "But you? That's not you. Even I can recognize a good heart, and the fact you mourn the deaths of people who hurt you makes you... Well, you. Naive? Probably... But... we live in a dark world. Sometimes a little light can be really reassuring."
Ester smiles as she and Ben look at each other eye to eye. Suddenly Ester holds out her hand for a handshake. "So here's the deal. I'll... try, and I really have to emphasize, TRY my best to not fall back into my old habits, but you have to promise me. You gotta stop blaming yourself for things you didn't mean for them to happen, alright? I don't want your spark dying out. Mine's already dying, and you're the only one keeping it lit now... Okay?" She says.
Ben looks at her hand for a moment and thinks about what his Yordle friend has said. In a way, this is basically them a way to change each other for the better, in Ben's mind at least. Perhaps he can make Ester see the light again and not be blinded by it, while at the same time, perhaps Ester herself can reign him in and break him out of his naiveté, offering him advice without letting go of his own principles. Seems Ester has her own journey to discover.
After thinking through all of that, Ben smiles, shaking Ester's hand. "Deal." He replies, with the two sharing a friendly smile towards each other.
"Alright!" Ester says as the two of them let go of one another. The Yordle gunslinger hops off the stool she stood on as she stretches. "Now come on. Let's get some breakfast and continue with your journal adventure, yeah?" She suggests, heading back to their room.
"Right! I wonder what other foods they have around here." Ben says, following Ester back inside as he carries his father's journal, tucked under his arm.
Back in the Kinkou temple, everyone was still talking about the encounter with the Azakana, though less about the demon itself, but more about how Ben fought against it. He seems to have left an impression on them despite his brief moment with them, especially the likes of Ember, Wind and Masa, who saw Ben in action.
But in between the discussions and murmurs, Master Shen is more concerned of the events surrounding the encounter, especially the deaths of the Navori brotherhood members in this part of the region.
He gathered some scouts to talk to at the entrance to the temple and after telling them their orders, he does a wave motion with his hand, causing the scouts to all bow before vanishing. Shen briefly ruffles his own chin in thought, but he put that aside as he felt someone approaching him from behind, who was none other than Akali herself, her mask not on her face, which carries a solemn and melancholic expression.
"Master..." Akali politely says before placing a fist on her palm and then bowing, with the Eye of Twilight turning around to face her.
"Akali. How goes the report?" Shen asks her as the Fist of Shadow herself finally raises her head.
"It's done, master. I've written the encounter with the Azakana, as well as our new frien— Err... allies, Ben and Ester, in complete detail, per your request. Masa, Wind and Ember also decided to write down their own words and thoughts on the matter." Akali replies, nodding to her master.
Shen nods back as he walks past Akali, telling her, "Well done. Take the day to rest, then. Take some time to meditate. By tomorrow, you and I will personally visit the sight of the Navori brotherhood's ruined encampment and learn what we can."
As her master walks away, Akali remains facing away from him as she narrows her eyes, her lips quivering a little. Finally, she turns around, looking at Shen and asks, "If it's my free day for the day, then... Can we talk? Master?"
Shen faces his student once more, hands behind his back, and sees that, despite the tough act she's putting up, Shen can see something's bothering Akali. He was silent for a few seconds, before finally responding, "Very well... Walk with me. Tell me your thoughts."
Akali takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment... before opening them as she faces her master.
After taking nearly an hour around the general area near the inn, Ben and Ester finally got a meal from one of the stalls selling nearby. Ben got himself some roasted pork seasoned in the finest spices around Navori while Ester got herself some more dumplings soaked in soy sauce. The two of them sit under a nearby tree as they enjoy their respective meals, all while Ben is reading through his father's journal.
As the Yordle gunslinger chomps down on her first dumpling, Ben, in between his own chewing, speaks up. "Alright, so I've been reading around and for our next location, dad mentions a place, or a group, called the Wuju Order."
"Wuju Order? Is this gonna be like the Kinkou Order again?" Ester asks him, placing another dumpling into her mouth before chewing, a bit of soy sauce sticking to her furry cheeks. She suddenly then sighs and frowns a little. "I miss Ember already. He was funny."
The shapeshifting boy shakes his head, chuckling, as he gives Ester a pat on her back. "If you wanna visit him, you can. I can look for the Wuju Order by himself. We can meet back up later." Ben tells his Yordle companion, who rolls her eyes and smirks.
"Nah, another time." Ester replies to Ben. "I'll see this one through. So, Wuju Order, right?"
Ester is then handed the journal by Ben, as they both take a bite of their meal together. "Yeah. He drew their symbol and a few people, even detailed who they are but, unlike the other entries, he seems to have omitted their location. Maybe to respect their privacy?" says Ben.
"If he really meant that, he wouldn't have described them in his journal to begin with." Ester points out. "Maybe it's for a different reason."
Ben blinks for a moment, tapping his chin, as he replies, "Yeah, maybe. We could try asking around where they are."
Ester hands the journal back to Ben, before he places it within his bag and continues to eat his breakfast, with his Yordle friend doing the same. "Well, we've done nothing but ask around anyway." Ben jokes, which earns him a light, playful punch to his side from Ester, as he chuckles. "What? It's true, though." He jokes.
"I know. Doesn't mean I like it." Ester snarks back before eating the last of her dumplings. "Your dad's journal is as good as the fake map we got yesterday: Technically correct in some sense, but confusing when you try to follow it. No offense."
"None taken. I kinda agree with you a little. Great with details, but a bit of a mess. I guess this is why he kept this one hidden. He must've given the council back home a... finished draft after revising it and properly arranging it many times with an official research paper." Ben surmises, eating the last of his roasted pork cuts. "He probably kept the journal for himself."
Ester then stretches until she hears a small pop from her back, relaxing her as she sighs in relief. "Well, let's not keep the Wulu Order waiting. We gotta ask them about your pops." Ester says as she stretches her arms a bit more.
"Wuju Order. You just pronounced perfectly earlier." Ben snickers, earning him an eye roll from the gunslinger.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Now come on. We gotta—" Ester tries to retort, but then the sound of metal clanging against each other and sudden gunfire nearby caught the attention of the duo.
Turning their sighs away from each other and towards the source of the new noise, they spot several Ionian men and women, all wielding all sorts of things, from brooms, to pitchforks, to actual weapons like swords and staffs, trying to fight...
...heavily armored people? In Ionia?
These new folks appear to be covered head to toe in dark, almost black, armor platings and helmets, with the pauldrons on some of them having large spikes protruding from them. Some had chainmail or cloth under their armor while others settled for just going either sleeveless tops or nothing at all. They were a mixture of men, women and some with indiscernible genders, usually due to being fully covered in armor, among their ranks, a total of 7 in their team. Some wielded swords, some axes, and some with firearms, that look more advanced than Bilgewater guns but are still primitive compared to Piltover weapons. All of them lack shields.
But the most striking part of their getups are the red cloth on their sets. From scarves to capes to waist bands. And all of them bear the sigil of the dreaded nation of...
"Noxus? Here?" Ben says as he gets up.
Ester herself simply twirls her newly gifted magical crossbows in her hands, courtesy of the Kinkou Order. "Noxians are always up everyone's business these days. I'm guessing you wanna take 'em down?" The Yordle markswoman asks, a smirk written on her lips.
"Yeah." Ben replies, angry at the sight of these Noxians attacking the Ionians, plowing their way through them with their superior and larger weaponry. The sight of such bullies makes Ben's blood boil. And if they're gonna be this way, then he'll put a stop to this now.
As usual, with the press of a button on his watch, Ben brings up the dial and with only a few turns, he finds the form he needs and presses it down, bathing his being in that familiar green light.
The Noxians themselves, with their superior weaponry and strength, gloat as they break the weapons of their foes with only one swing of their oversized axes and swords. The one leading them, though, is the smallest among them, not necessarily because they're short, but their allies are just too tall. She is a girl, about Ben's age, and is even only an inch or two taller than him. She has dark brown hair styled into dreads that tie into a braided ponytrail. She has less armor than her companions, only have small, lighter plates around her waist, her legs and her lower arms. She has a sleeveless black shirt on with similarly black plants and boots and has a red sash around her wiast that makes it look like tail coat.
In her right hand is a blade longer than her very arm and wider than her leg, yet she's wielding it with no effort as she blocks an attack from one of the Ionian victims they're attacking before pushing them back and kicking them to the ground. "Where is it?" The girl asks as she steps on the chest of her fallen victim, keeping them from getting up.
The poor person can barely breathe from how hard they're being stepped on, nevermind the fact the kick they received earlier had knocked the wind out of them already. Still, amidst their gasps for air, they reply, "I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Wrong answer." The girl in black replies as she lifts her sword up into the air, the sunlight making it gleam as the rays reflect on it's blade, as she was prepared to swing it down towards her victim...
...Only to be unable to move her blade as she felt like it was stuck in something. And it wasn't long before the girl sees a shadow has loomed over her, causing her to turn and look to see something that shocks her.
Just next to her is a creature as tall, or even taller, than her tallest comrade. It has two sets of arms on it's body, with a very muscular build. The creature has dark red skin, feet with only two toe-like points each, and four, glowing green eyes. It has an almost gladiator style outfit on, with golden gauntlets on each of it's four wrists, golden straps in an X formation around it's torso, a golden waist band and some golden greaves around it's lower legs. Alongside these are black pants, black fingerless gloves on each hand and a black, tattoo-like stripe in the middle of it's chest going down to it's waist.
But what finally gives away this creature's identity is that familiar hourglass symbol on it's chest, revealing him as none other than Ben of course.
And with this form, he is appropriately named FOUR ARMS!
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" Four Arms taunts the Noxian girl before serving up karma as he kicks her away while he's still holding onto her sword, forcing her to let go as she gets knocked down on the dirt.
The girl's allies then all turn away from the Ionians they were fighting and face Four Arms, just in time for him to break the girl's sword in half like a toothpick. After dropping what little remains of the sword left in his hands, Four Arms takes this chance to crack the knuckles of his lower arms before taunting the other Noxians by gesturing with his two upper hands with a "Bring it!" motion,
And true enough, the 6 other Noxian brutes all charge at the quad-limbed brawler as they attempt to swing their weapons at him. Yet despite this threat, Four Arms keeps a smirk on his lips as he meets their charge with his own, running towards his foes. The first Noxian to swing at him was wielding a big sword, similar to the girl earlier, though this time this warrior is only a foot shorter than the transformed being.
The Noxian swordsman tries to strike Four Arms, but he simply blocked the attack with both of his left arms and shatters the sword upon contact easily, shocking it's wielder. This left him vulnerable as Four Arms smacks the befuddled warrior in the face with two right hooks, sending him flying into a tree.
The next one was a Noxian woman, who this time is as tall and even as muscular as Four Arms, and swings her axe down with all her strength. Though he knows his red skin is durable from past experience, Four Arms was not taking any chances as this Noxian amazon looks like she lifts trucks during her workouts, so instead he dodges her axe attack, side stepping to his left as the axe's blade, thanks to the woman's attack, sinks into the dirt, creating an explosion of dust in the process.
While this distracts her, Four Arms manages to slide over and get behind the Noxian amazon and uses his upper arms to slip under her own arms then headlock her to prevent her from moving her arms, then he uses his lower arms to wrap around the woman's waist real tight to hold her. And in one quick motion, he suplexes the woman, tossing her over him and slamming her headfirst into the ground, knocking her out.
Taking out two of them already, the 4 other Noxians halt their charge as Four Arms stands back up on both of his feet and faces the remaining. He takes the time to crack his knuckles at them, trying to both taunt and intimidate his foes. Sadly for him, though, Noxians don't seem to be afraid of overwhelming odds as the remaining four stand their ground, with one of them even chuckling, though not to laugh at Ben, but because they seem more excited to face him as they twirl their dual pistols in their hands.
"Kinda trying to teach you guys a lesson here. The fact that you're enjoying the thought of fighting me is kinda ruining it." Four Arms snarks, though he does say so with a frown. As he says, these Noxians seem to look forward to fighting him. He's so used to bullies back home fleeing when they actually fight someone their size, that this is disturbing him a little. Still, if he has to fight to protect these innocent people, he will. So he grabs the axe of the now unconscious amazonian Noxian woman, twirls it in his hand before holding it with both of his upper hands as he charges at the remaining four, with them meeting him head on as well.
While this happens, several nearby Ionian citizens have either ran away from the battle, or stayed behind to watch, though from a safe distance. Just nearby is a small bar with a good view of this battle, and here, some of the people around have hidden behind tables or the bar's posts to watch the ensuing fight. Even the bar's owner is cowering from behind his own counter. But one who is unafraid at all, sitting and relaxing on one of the stools in front of said counter is a woman.
From her appearance, she appears Vastayan, having panther-like attributes, from her dark bluish furry body, to her big, pointy ears, her long, panther tail and her face being a bit more feline than humanoid. She has black, spiky hair slicked back, and her eyes are a beautiful red hue. She's wearing a white cloak around her, with a pinkish red and white outfit that shows off a bit of her chest's cleavage. She also appears to have a dagger sheathed on her side.
She has several, empty glasses on the counter behind her as she is drinking from another one in her hand. It's hard to tell if any of her drinks, including her current one, are alcoholic because she doesn't even look remotely drunk as she watches the ensuing battle between Four Arms and the Noxian invaders. Sipping the last of drops of her glass, she places it on the counter before reaching towards her chest to pull out a coin and placing it next to her last glass. "Stay safe, Hobbs." The panther woman says to the owner of the bar with her deep voice before moving away from her seat as she heads to the direction of the battle. "I found my entertainment."
Back to the fight, Four Arms manages to punch away one of the axe wielders by backhanding him as one of the ones with swords tries to slash at him, only to be met with the predictable result of their blade shattering on the quad-limbed brawler's skin. Four Arms then uses this opportunity to grab the now disarmed soldier by their leg and toss them at another sword wielder, knocking them into each other.
The Noxian woman with the guns tries firing her shots at her foe, but each shot bounced off and nearly hit her instead, forcing her to dodge her own shots. But while in the middle of dodging, she could barely react when Four Arms sprints at her and tackles her with both of his left arms, pinning her into a tree hard enough that it breaks like a twig, knocking the rest of the trunk and the woman over.
The first soldier Ben had punched into at tree earlier finally gets back up and takes the rifle he has on his back out, firing it at Four Arms without a thought. This time, the shot fired explodes on Four Arms on impact, creating a small explosion and a cloud of dust. However, when this Noxian soldier thought he got him, Four Arms simply forces the smoke out of his way with a swing of all his arms outward.
Four Arms simply stares at his foe with a smirk as he cocks back all four of his arms and, with one powerful heave, claps all four hands of his together and creates a booming shockwave from his hand so hard, he fires it off like a rail gun, causing this burst of air and force to jet towards the soldier. The force was strong enough to not only knock away the soldier into more trees, but kick up a ton of dust and even create a small trench from Four Arms' position to the soldiers'.
"Don't dish out what you can't take!" Four Arms taunts his now unconscious foe, but then he hears the other soldiers coming at him, with one of them jumping at him, forcing the quad-limbed brawler to grab the pouncing soldier by his armor.
As Four Arms blocks another sword swing from one of his foes and throws the Noxian in his hands he had just grabbed into another Noxian, the girl from earlier, the one Four Arms kicked, finally gets back up as she coughs. She sees immediately that Four Arms is handling her squad so easily, with some of their weapons already breaking just by making contact on any part of his body. Not even their own gunslinger is making a dent as the shots just shatter. She reaches from behind her belt and pulls out a knife, thinking of a way to take down Four Arms. Perhaps she can surprise him by jumping on his back and stab him in all four of his eyes. That just might be enough. So she crouches down, and tries to sneak in, slowly moving forward while Four Arms is distracted by her squad.
If she can just get close, then she'd—
"Psst. Hey"
The Noxian girl suddenly hears a voice near her as she slowly turns her head to her left and sees, of course, Ester, crouched down to meet the girl at eye level as she is mockingly tilting her head to the side and has a big smirk on her face.
"Whatcha crawling around for, little spidermonkey?" Ester taunts the girl.
In both a panic and a rage, the girl, realizing she's been caught, tries to swing her dagger at the Yordle, who was simply too fast for the girl as Ester effortlessly dodges her first swing. "Slow!" Ester says. Then she dodges another swing by ducking. "Sloppy!" Ester adds. And she dodges yet another, but this time, she just moves her head slightly. "Sad!" Ester quips again.
Despite the futility and amaturity of her attacks, the Noxian girl still insists as she tries to go for a fourth slash, but Ester not only dodges again, she goes the extra mile by jumping off the ground and landing on the girl's head. While she's light thanks to her size, she's still a full sized Yordle woman, so Ester was very heavy for the girl's head to support and causes her to fall face down on the ground. The Bilgewater Yordle then walks over from the head of her "foe", if she even counts, to her back and sitting on her, as one last mocking gesture.
"I haven't even used my hands, kid." Ester taunts the girl she's sitting on. "I thought you Noxians pride yourselves in being good fighters? That was just sad."
"I..."
Ester blinks as she looks at the girl's head, hearing her muffled voice thanks to being face down. "Hm?" She mutters.
"...am one of Noxus' Trifarian Legionnaries! A gloryseeker! A former slave from Urtis!" The girl starts boasting, trying her best to push herself off the floor, fighting against Ester's weight. "I will not be humiliated... by a furball in a pirate costu—"
BONK!
The girl falls back down on the ground, unconscious, after Ester struck her head hard, holding the same knife this self proclaimed "Trifarian Gloryseeker" tried to use against her, though the Yordle made sure to use the blunt end of the handle to do so.
"Well, maybe next time, complete your costume with a helmet." Ester taunts her now unconscious foe, a smug smile on her lips as she twirls the girl's knife in her hands. And just in time too as Four Arms finally approaches them both, carrying the unconscious bodies of the 4 Noxian soldiers he's been fighting for the past couple of minutes, and he's none the worse for wear, aside from a few dust on his body here and there.
"They're not so tough." Four Arms comments as he drops his foes on the ground next to Ester and the gloryseeker girl before dusting off all four of his hands. He then takes a look around as he spots that the citizens that were trying to defend themselves, as well as countless other people that have been watching the battle unfold, approach them in awe and surprise.
"Thank you, stranger!" The person the gloryseeker girls nearly killed earlier, speaks up as they approach Four Arms, unafraid of his appearance. "I know not what you are, but your actions spoke louder and you saved my life! I am eternally grateful!"
"No need to thank me." Four Arms greets them back with a smile. "Is everyone else alright?"
"Yes, thanks to you!" One of the citizens said, who was among those who tried to fight back against the Noxians earlier. "Are you some form of spirit Ionia itself has sent to protect us?" He asks.
Four Arms, despite his brutish frame would suggest, is still Ben deep inside, so it is jarring and kind of funny for Ester to see the quad-limbed brawler to sheepishly scratch the back of his head and blink in confusion. "Uh, no, sorry. I'm, uh, just a kid from Piltover." Four Arms responds.
"He's not kidding." Ester adds, chuckling to herself.
And this confused most of the surrounding people. His form does not resemble any creature that would look like they're from Piltover. He resembles more the strange spirits found in their homeland.
But in between the murmurs and the looks the citizens were giving each other, the panther Vastaya woman from earlier taps her chin as she observerse Four Arms more. Whatever's going through her mind is only for her to know.
Suddenly though, the Noxian amazon from earlier that Four Arms had knocked out wakes up at last and roars angrily as she gets back up, causing most of the citizens to flee. Some stayed behind, wielding random objects and try to stay their ground, a bit more confident thanks to the presence of Four Arms. Ester, this time, finally gets up from the gloryseeker girl and readies her crossbows.
But just as the giant Noxian woman was about to charge at them, a green blur swiftly goes past her, along side the sound of a blade's metal ringing. The woman was no longer moving and remains frozen in place... and all of a sudden, her armor gains a big, slash mark and cracks and a bit of blood spills from her torso before she falls down on the ground...
...revealing someone behind her the whole time.
This person was a girl, about Ben's height, if not slightly shorter, and about his age as well. She has short brown hair with a part of it tied to a much longer ponytail. She has a white garb with a tail coat, a green, corset-like cloth around her waist, reaching just below her chest, dark green pants, golden gauntlets and boots with some green highlights and similarly golden, pointed pauldrons, one on each shoulder. Most peculiarly, she has what looks like a fusion between an eyepatch and goggles covering the right side of her face, and the goggle portion of it has three, round and perfectly green hued lenses on it.
In her hand is the weapon she used against the amazon, wielding a doubled bladed sword, with each blade curved and pointing opposite directions.
The mysterious girl spins her weapon in her hand before gently placing it on her back. She then faces towards Four Arms, Ester and the rest of the remaining citizens and gives them a bow. "You are all safe now. I am Jun, of the Wuju Order." The girl, apparently named Jun, introduces herself.
The citizens all clap in joy and relief as Four Arms was still at awe at the speed and precision Jun had just used against their common foe. But then he realized what she had just said. "Did she just say she's from the Wuju Order?" Four Arms asks Ester.
"I think she just did." Ester nods before patting Four Arms on his leg, as if to motivate him. "Go on. Ask her. I'll be right behind you."
The quad-limbed brawler nods as he moves towards Jun, who is a bit taken aback from him approaching, though she does not enter a fighting stance. For some reason, she could feel that Ben has no ill intention at all. "Hey, uh, nice job. Thought I took care of her already. She's not... dead, is she?" Four Arms asks.
Jun shakes her head as she points at the unconscious Noxian woman she just took down. "I made sure not to strike any vital organs. Just enough to paralyze her momentarily. These Noxians must be questioned for coming to our lands." Jun replies, though she turns her attention back to Four Arms as Ester walks towards them both. "I have not heard or seen a creature like you before, but it appears you defended our people. Are you a spirit, perhaps?"
"No. But everyone seems to think so. I'm just a kid from Piltover who was taught to do the right thing." Four Arms replies. And just in time too, as that familiar beeping finally rings before a bright red flash engulfs him, turning him back to Ben. "See?" Ben says, pointing at himself with his thumb to emphasize him not being a 'spirit'. "Name's Ben. Ben Tennyson." He introduces himself
Everyone else that was still around to see this were a bit astonished at the giant, four armed entity become a human boy in a quick flash, though the panther woman was intrigued even further, as she finally forms a smile on her lips. "Hm... The Boss could use someone like him." She whispers to herself.
Jun, being the closest to Ben right now, as Ester finally reaches them, of course asks, "A pleasure, Ben, but how were you able to do that?"
"It's a long story." Ben replies, scratching the back of his head again.
"Hm. Perhaps you can tell me when we next meet then." says Jun, smiling back at Ben sweetly.
"Sure— Wait, next time?" Ben asks as Jun walks past him, approaching the unconscious Noxian soldiers.
The girl with the double blades then crouches down as she slightly pushes one of the Noxians to roll him over to turn him on his back as she examines the soldier's red cape. "Noxians have been intruding upon these lands for while now, but these specific ones seem to be working in a specific squadron tasked with searching for something. The Wuju Order has placed me to investigate and I have been, but I am nowhere close to real lead, until now." Jun explains her situation as Ben and Ester approach and stand beside her.
"Okay, I don't really know the whole history of Ionia and Noxus, but I always heard they invaded these lands, right?" Ester asks as she too crouches down, though her eyes go from the same soldier Jun turned to the female soldier that wielded guns against Ben earlier. She smirks all of a sudden as she starts rummaging through the Noxian gunslinger's stuff.
"Right! I studied that back home." Ben comments. "Back in 984 AN, the grand general of Noxus at the time ordered and invasion here."
"That was a long time ago, and yet the echoes of war can still be heard even now, and the dark legacy they left behind still lingers." Jun nods as she takes out a rope from her back and starts tying up the hands of the unconscious Noxian soldiers. "These soldiers are among them. We still don't know why they have traveled so far in-land, but whatever the reason, it cannot be good."
After tying them all up, Jun then stands back up to face Ben, holding out her hand for a handshake. "I cannot thank you enough for protecting my people, but this is my duty now. I hope Ionia treats you well, Ben." Jun nods with a smile, keeping her hand out for Ben.
Ben looks at her hand for a moment. He could shake it right now, and let her be. Find another way to the Wuju Order for clues about his father... Or he could just go help her. And he'd have a higher chance of getting Jun to lead him and Ester to her Order and...
No. That's manipulative. No one in his life taught him to be that way. The worst is Vi just teaching him to trick bad guys because they deserve it. But Jun's just defending her home.
If he's going to help her, it's because he must. These Noxians are problematic, and that's an understatement. Jun and the people of Ionia need help, and if he's going to commit to his promise to Caitlyn, then he's going to help as many people as he can while he's out here.
"I'm going to help you, Jun." Ben announces to her, with a slightly stern look, which cause Jun to be surprised as she retracts her hand.
"Wait, really?" The bladed girl asks. "No, I couldn't possibly ask you to risk your life for—"
"These Noxians are hurting people for their own selfish gain. I've been raised to not let those kinds of people just run around and do as they please. And I'm not about to stop just because this isn't my own home." Ben replies, interrupting the swordswoman. The Piltovan boy then takes his turn to offer his hand for a shake as he looks at Jun directly in her only visible eye and smiles. "If you would have me—"
"Us."
Both Ben and Jun turn their heads to their side to see that Ester has just taken the guns and ammunition of the Noxian gunner, placing her dual pistols behind her back as she smirks at her friend and the newcomer. "I'm not sitting this one out." Ester adds.
Ben smiles, proud of his Yordle friend's eagerness. He then corrects himself, saying, "If you would have us, we are willing to assist you."
The Wuju Order girl sighs, though not out of annoyance, but in positive disbelief that two strangers are so eager to help her. With a defeated but happy smile, she shakes Ben's hand and nods to him. "Very well. I would be glad to have you by my side." She tells them.
The three share nods as Ben and Jun finally stop shaking hands. The swordswoman crouches back down to the Noxian soldiers and picks one of them up and slings them over her shoulder. She seems surprisingly strong despite what her slim frame would have one believe. "My camp is just south from here. If you can carry the others, I'll meet you there and we can form a plan." Jun tells them before jumping away. In one leap, the girl manages to reach the top of the nearest tree and continues to keep jumping, heading south as she had instructed.
"You're a magnet for girls in green, aren't you?" Ester teases Ben, patting his leg. Ben just rolls his eyes.
"You're not wearing green, so you don't count." Ben retorts, looking back towards the remaining Noxian soldiers. He checks on his watch, though, and it is unfortunately still in red.
Ester laughs at Ben's statement, though, as she sits on one of the soldiers. "Yeah, but Akali and now Jun? I guess green attracts green." The Yorlde gunner jokes, pointing at Ben's green jacket.
"Hey, this is my favorite jacket! How could I possibly have known Akali and Jun would—" Ben replies, but then he stops once he takes a look at the Noxians on the ground. "Uh, Ester? There were 7 Noxians earlier, right? And Jun picked up one of them, so there should be 6 left for us to carry."
"For you to carry. I'm not carrying any of them... But, yeah. Why do you ask?" Ester replies, turning around to look, but true to Ben's confusion, there's already someone missing.
Ben speaks up, "There's only 5 left."
Ester squints her eyes, looking at the fallen soldiers. She recalls Jun carried one of the guys wielding swords. Taking him out of the equation, upon closer inspection, Ester finally notices that the one missing is...
"That girl." The Yordle comments, sighing. "Guess she's got a tougher noggin' than I thought. I'll go find her and meet you guys up in the camp."
Ben blinks as his friend starts walking off. "Shouldn't we stick together? How will you even find her?" He asks.
Ester waves him off, though, as she says back, "I'll be fine. You can carry them with your four armed guy again. Don't wait for me." And soon, Ester picks up the pace of her steps as she goes from walking to sprinting, heading off elsewhere, making Ben shrug in confusion.
"I can never read her." Ben says to himself. With a sigh, he looks back to his unconscious new 'companions' as he waits for his watch to recharge. "It's a good thing Jun tied them up. At least when they wake up while I'm still recharging, they can't do anything. Gonna be boring to just stand here all day, though."
"Then let me take a few minutes of your time."
Ben jumps out of surprise as he steps back and turns around to see the panther Vastaya woman from earlier, who just giggles at his astonished reaction. "Sorry, that was rude of me, but I'll be quick. You're a good fighter, kid." The panther woman says.
"Uh, yeah. Thanks. My sisters taught me... Ummm, who are you?" Ben asks, skeptical. He does have a moment of looking at her from bottom to top. She's gorgeous, if he's being honest, though he's not really letting that distract him right now.
"My apologies. I am Chan Nyancy." The panther woman, Chan Nyancy, introduces herself. "But just Nyancy will do. I overheard you mention you're from Piltover, correct?"
Ben nods, though with a skeptical, raised brow. "Yeah. Um, is this gonna be a bodyguard hiring thing? 'Cause I'm not for sale."
Nyancy takes it in stride and laughs off Ben's response as she suddenly reaches towards her cleavage again. Ben respectfully looks away, though he sighs a little. If he was his teenage self, he'd probably be blushing, but he's gotten used to being around enough attractive people that he's learned to control himself.
Nyancy then pulls out what appears to be a strange card. It has golden trimmings around it with a big, golden wolverine head in the middle, biting down a red ribbon wrapping around the card itself. The Vastayan woman then hands it over to Ben as he finally looks back to her, catching the card in his hand. "I'm not hiring, but I am looking for talent. And you might like such a big opportunity. If you ever get curious, the bar over there?" Nyancy starts explaining, pointing at the bar she came from earlier. "Show that card to the bar tender and he'll direct you to the right location."
"What for? What're you inviting me to?" Ben asks, still skeptical at this sudden invitation as he looks at the new card in his possession.
"It can be anything you want. A source of information, a good time, maybe a way to knock around some heads if you ever feel frustrated." Nyancy teases Ben as she starts walking away. "You'll never know if you don't go... Oh and take this."
Nyancy once again pulls something out in between her chest and takes out a coin, tossing it over to Ben, who catches it as well. "For luck. Be seeing you, kid." The Vastayan woman ends and heads off, with a small sway to her hips as she does. Ben just rolls his eyes at the sight.
Still, that whole thing just confused him as he looks at the card and the coin. The coin doesn't seem special. It looks just like any gold Noxian coin around Ionia. But the card makes him curious. Aside from it's design, which he admits looks really cool, it has an eery aura to it that he can feel.
With a sigh, he simply puts it in his bag for later as he hears the beautiful sound of his watch humming and glowing green. "Alright. Let's go lifts us some Noxus mooks." Ben tells himself as he dial in his watch.
After running around for a couple of minutes, Ester has lost track of the girl that ran away. The Yordle gunslinger just groans in frustration as she puts her hands on her hips and taps her feet. "Ester, you really need to stop showing off..." She mutters to herself, annoyed at her impulsiveness to go search for someone without a trail. "I guess I have to... ugh... Ask around..." She adds. She's glad Ben isn't around or he would have teased her about that.
However, she doesn't need to do such a thing, thankfully, as the sounds of crashing and shouting can be heard nearby. With her big ears, she hears that loud and clear and traces where the noise came from. Running and climbing up a nearby tree to get a better view, Ester spots the gloryseeker girl she's been looking for, who is currently pushing away an Ionian merchant selling pots and pans as she makes a break for it, trying to run.
This did not worry Ester, though, since the girl is running on a very open field, with no trees or even big boulders to hide behind. And she's got one heck of an aim. She'll use one of her crossbows for now, hoping not to make a noise, and aims it at the girl's leg, hoping to halt her advance. She'll just patch her up later.
With a finger on the trigger and her aim true, Ester lines up her shot and...
...realizes something. Wherever this girl is running to, it would most likely be directly towards her encampment, where more of these Noxians could be in. "And Jun's been trying to stop 'em for a while now. Huh. I'm an accidental genius." Ester compliments herself as she retracts her crossbow, allowing the girl to keep running. "Alright, gloryseeker. Let's see if you can lead me to what we're seeking."
Jumping off the tree and landing on both feet, Ester sprints in full speed, tailing the Noxian girl.
With a bright red flash, Ben turns back into human as Jun finishes tying up the Noxians he brought to the biggest and toughest tree near her camp, with said camp mostly comprised of a now burnt out campfire and a small, green tent with Jun's belongings inside.
It took some time, but Ben, carrying the Noxians in while transformed, had finally found Jun and it's here where they will begin her plan, of which she hasn't told Ben yet. "What's next?" Ben asks appropriately as Jun nods to him, approaching their prisoners.
She pulls her wooden canteen of water on her side, opens it and splashes it on one of the soldiers, waking him up. Once he finds his bearings, after getting over the shock of cold water on his face first, he spots the two emerald heroes before him and he immediately snarls. "You! I'm not talking!" The soldier immediately declares, glaring at Ben and Jun.
"Aww, his first words! You're doing great, sport!" Ben taunts him as Jun, without hesitation, pulls her double blades from her back and aims one end at the soldier they have tied up.
"You will talk, or you'll find out what Wuju Style does to a person's neck!" Jun threatens the soldier, but all this does is make him laugh.
Staring directly into her eyes, this stubborn prisoner simply retorts, "You think I'm scared of ya, missy? I've met enough killers in my life and I can tell just by looking at 'em in the eye. And you..."
Jun's face remains angry, but her eyes slowly go from squinting to softening up as the soldier keeps staring.
"You're no killer. You didn't even kill Tina here." The soldier taunts her more, gesturing to the Noxian amazon tied up next to him, unconscious as the rest. "I'd say let your boyfriend here take over, but he don't look like a killer to me either."
Jun was a bit taken aback by Ben being called her boyfriend. She had a small blush for a second, but it faded too quickly enough to not be noticed. Still, she can't let this soldier's words intimidate him. She needs answers, but she won't get it if she lets small taunts get to her. She was about to ask something else, until...
"You don't know who I am." Ben suddenly says, catching Jun and the Noxian soldier's attentions. He suddenly crouches down, seeing the soldier eye to eye, and glares.
Ben's face was basically expressionless, but he was staring at the soldier straight and unblinking. At first, the soldier was annoyed, but the longer Ben stayed staring silently, the more and more the soldier was creeped out. "What, you think a staring contest will break me, punk?! You ain't no killer!" The soldier snaps at Ben.
After such a long silence, Ben keeps a straight face, but finally speaks. "I don't like killing needlessly. I never have. Life is precious and should never be wasted. That's what my foster parents taught me..."
"What're you..." The soldier was about to ask, but Ben continues.
"But the older I got, the less naive I got. There's still some stuff I don't know much about the world. About how things go. But don't think for a second being a Piltovan didn't burn the image of war and death in my memories." Ben's stare got less emotionless and looks like he's getting actually angry. Even Jun is getting worried. "I was raised by the Sheriff of Piltover, and her wife, my sister-in-law, is one of the must brutal fighters in Zaun that I've ever met. They've taught me that life is still sacred, but sometimes they need to be taken, if it means preserving others' lives. It's not just part of their job, it's how the real world is. And I know that, no matter how many times I push back against that truth."
Then, Ben presses his arm against the soldier's neck, slightly cutting off his air. Jun's astonished but wants to stop him, but when she tries, Ben uses his free hand to gesture to her to let him do this. She's worried Ben's becoming violent, but for now, she'll trust him. Besides, she's too fast for him anyway while he's human, so she can stop him before he goes too far.
Ben continues his dark speech. "I made a promise with someone that while I'll keep her honest, she'd teach me to face reality, and I am now. And Noxians like you? You've caused a lot of problems and pain for everyone around here. That's reality. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to tell us what exactly is your squadron doing here, you're going to crawl back to wherever you came from to show us where the rest of your team is, and then you're going to stop hurting Ionians. Because if you don't..."
Ben's face fully becomes angry as he grits his teeth glaring into the eyes of the Noxian soldier, who's beginning to shake in fear. "I promise... You're going to regret it for the rest of your VERY. SHORT. LIVES!" He threatens the man. For a second, the Noxian soldier could've sworn Ben's eyes briefly changed from green to bright blue then back to green again.
"Okay! Okay! Stop! I'll talk! I'll talk!" The soldier broke from Ben's speech as he sighs, finally letting his arm off the man's neck and getting back on both feet. The Piltovan boy then turns back around and walks to the nearby edge so he can look elsewhere.
From his body language, Jun can tell Ben had just release a lot of stress and tension there, and now he's trying to hide his shame from doing so. It's like a part of him he doesn't like showing. For now, she let's him be to think, as she takes her turn with the now terrified soldier. "Alright. Answer truthfully. Why are you here?" Jun asks, putting her blade back on her back now that she no longer needs it for threats.
"We were sent here under orders from the grand general himself." The soldier replies, in between his quivering. "Our mission was to retrieve an artifact somewhere in these mountains that we believe we could use for our operations. We had a scouting party encounter this artifact weeks ago, but only one of them came back from the encounter. He told us the trees themselves fought against us and defended the artifact to the bitter end."
"Of course. If pushed, Ionia, the land itself, will fight back. Your people should have known this from years of war against us." Jun responds, a stern look forming on her face.
"That's why they sent a bigger group this time. Our squadron, led by our captain, Farron. We came with heavier equipment. All that's left is the artifact itself, but we haven't had luck finding it. It was no longer where the scouts last found it. Nothing but more vegetation and trees than when they last left." The soldier explains.
"Then tell us where your encampment is." Jun asks at last.
"That... I... No. I've said enough." The soldier replies, denying to answer all of a sudden. "You got me the first time... But you will not make me betray the location of my comrades!"
Jun glares at the soldier, and could see in his eyes that he has steeled himself altogether, ready for what's next. He speaks the truth. He will not break a second time. "I believe you." Jun answers.
Before the soldier, a bit astonished at Jun's response, could say anything, Jun socks him in the face, her fist glowing green as she does so, knocking him out. She sighs, a bit annoyed but at least they got some answers. It doesn't make it any less frustrating they didn't get the location.
As she ruffles her own hair, fixing her ponytail, to calm herself down, she turns her attention back to Ben, who she sees is still looking out over the edge in shame, arms crossed as he thinks to himself. Jun's annoyed scowl becomes a sorrowful frown as she approaches her new ally.
While she doesn't wish to intrude in his alone time, she also wants to know if he's okay. So she braves the risk and pats Ben on his shoulder, asking him, "Do you... wish to speak of what happened?"
Ben feels her hand on his shoulder. It was certainly warm than the cold he's feeling from his own actions and words from earlier, so it was a little comforting, causing him to sigh as he replays Jun's question in his head. "I'm sorry you had to see that." says Ben. "Some... 'things' resurfaced. Bad memories."
"From Piltover?" Jun asks.
Ben nods. "Yeah."
Ben finally sits down on the ground, squatting into a meditation-like sitting pose as he relaxes his arms over his thighs. Jun does the same as she kept eye contact to Ben's face. The boy finally turns his head to look at the Wuju bladeswoman as well. "I couldn't possibly know the struggle Ionia had to go through with Noxus, but I know what war looks like. Piltover and Zaun... They could not get along. Even today. There's always tension between both cities and sometimes when that tension reaches a limit, things escalate and... war happens. And I've seen it. I've been in it. I..." Ben trails off as his hand starts shaking.
The sight of this tugs at Jun's heart. She's seen this kind of reaction to harsh memories of battle and war. One's she has as well. Without a second thought, she holds onto his hand to help him calm down. "Ben..." She mutters. "You need not to be ashamed of witnessing war. What matters is, you survived and you can learn from it. The Wuju Order... Before I joined, they used to be bigger. Warriors of great renown."
Ben holds onto Jun's hand tight as she listens to her. His gaze met her's as Jun shares her story. "But... war broke them. In their attempts to defend Ionia from the Noxian invasion, they almost succeeded, but revealing themselves like that made them targets, and the Order was obliterated by Noxus, leaving only one survivor. My master, Yi. Just like you, he, too, was nearly broken by war. But rather remain broken, he rose back up and pieced himself back together, restarting the Wuju Order and began teaching those he can. While our temples and hideouts remain secret, we do it to learn from our mistakes. The members of our Order still stand with Ionia as we show our blades off as beacons for the innocent and warnings to those who would do them harm."
Ben silently gasps. This whole time, all but one of the original Wuju order had died, and the current one is made up of the survivor and an entire new generation. He set aside his personal mission of finding the order to the back of his mind, and all he feels now is pity at this master Yi being the last of the old order... but happy he found peace by bringing it back.
"That is why you need not be ashamed to have said what you said and did what you did. I could and still can see in your eyes, that while there is an anger towards those who would cause injustice, there is also love and care to protect those who cannot protect themselves." Jun continues as she too holds tightens her hold on Ben's hand. "And that to me is a sign you have not lost sight of who you are."
Ben smiles, nodding silently as he closes his eyes. Jun's right. He can admit he went a bit extreme on his own threats... but only because he can't bear watching innocents be harmed in the first place. It's normal to be angry at such unjust actions. With a sigh of relief, Ben opens his eyes once more and nods to Jun. "Thanks." He tells her.
Jun smiles back to him... and finally notices that she's been holding onto Ben's hand really tight the whole time, causing her to blush a little and retract her hand from his quickly. "Ahem... O-Of course! Happy to h-help." The emerald swordswoman says, despite the stuttering.
"Well, now we know why they're here, but not where the rest of them are." Ben goes back to their mission, standing up and facing the still unconscious soldiers. "I don't think the rest of his team would be as afraid of me as he was if I try that same tactic on them."
"Indeed." Jun agrees, standing up as well. "But they are our only lead to their location and our chance to stop them."
"Not the only one!"
That all too familiar voice sparks hope for Ben and Jun as they turn around and sees Ester, approaching their camp. "You have no idea how much running and walking I've had to do today. And it's still just the morning." Ester jokes, yet despite what she says, she doesn't even look tired at all.
"Ester! Wait, where's the girl?" says the Piltovan boy, looking around Ester after asking her.
"I let her keep running. I figured she'd lead me straight to her camp." The Bilgewater Yordle replies before giving her two companions a finger gun. "And lucky for us, she did."
Ben and Jun share a smile, nodding to one another before facing Ester once more. "Lead us there, friend!" The Ionian bladeswoman requests.
Traversing through the forests once more, Ester leads the two emerald heroes to where she tailed the gloryseeker girl earlier. It took a bit, since Ben decided to preserve his watch's power by not transforming so they had to go there on foot, but once they arrive, they hide behind a rock atop a clip as they survey where the Noxian encampment is and what it's like.
The first thing the trio notice is that they've managed to camp near a river, produced by a nearby waterfall. This must be deliberate so they'd have an easy way to obtain supplies of water for themselves, as well as find enough fish for them to feed on.
On the other end of their camp are stumps of trees that have been chomped down, most likely either to make their campfires or, after more observation, use them as fences to form a perimeter.
In the middle of all this is, of course, the camp itself. The camp is teeming with various tents, dead, smoldering campfires, racks filled with weapons and armor, and of course the soldiers themselves. While not a big army, they were still numerous. Neither of the trio could keep an accurate count, so they gave up trying. Instead, they focus on any particular soldiers that might look important. The soldier they interrogated earlier mentioned a captain Farron. So far, none of these grunts struck them as looking like a leader...
...until someone, from the appropriately biggest tent, emerges.
He was a giant of a man, easily already standing taller than even the tallest possible height of a human being, which is made worse by his armor being so bulky and intimidating that he looks even taller than he already seems. His armor is covered head to toe in spikes, with only his helmet that's completely obscuring his face lacking any spikes at all. But the lacking features of his helmet aside from small eye and breathing holes make the man look more like a monster made of steel than someone with flesh and bone under all that bulk.
The trio immediately agreed silently that this was definitely the fabled Captain Farron. "If he's not the captain, I think I'd be scared of whoever is in charge of him." Ben comments, earning an agreeing nod from the two ladies with him.
While they continue observing, Ester keeps watch of the gloryseeker girl from earlier. Last she saw of her when she tailed her, she was talking to other soldiers, so the Yordle didn't get a good look of what happened afterwards, before she herself left to go tell Ben and Jun about this place.
As if to answer her, Ester finally spots the girl... is being held by two other soldiers, her arms in chains as they pull on it, forcibly leading her to the presumed captain Farron. "What the hell?!" Ester mutters, glaring at this turn of events. Her words catches the attention of her two companions, who momentarily look at her before turning to see where she was looking, and they too were shocked at the sight.
They can't hear what's happening, due to the distance of their hiding spot, and Farron's hidden face meant they can't even see if he's angry or not, but it's clear from the way the giant brute was pacing from side to side as he keeps looking at the girl, who hung her head in shame that she can't even look at her superior, she's being reprimanded.
"Are they giving her shit just 'cause she failed to stop us?" Ester says, glaring at Farron and frowning at the girl.
"That's how Noxus deals with everyone, including their own. Failure has severe punishments." Jun nods.
Ben can see that this is frustrating Ester. Whatever is going on, he'll have to ask her after this, but for now, he'll take initiative so they can actually save the girl. Ben tells the two ladies, "Okay. Let's take 'em down then. I'll handle the big guy. You two can—"
The Piltovan could not even finish his plan, however, as they hear mechanical noises from the camp, or rather the other side of the nearby river.
Once they turn their sight towards there, they soon spot a giant, box-like object being pulled in by giant, lizard-like creatures. This "box" is about the size of a small house, with wooden "walls" under metal rims, attached to four wheels, two one each side, so that these giant lizards could pull it easier.
The lizard-like creature themselves were three times the size of a fully grown horse, and are just as armored as the Noxians, complete with giant headpieces over their craniums and fully armored torsos.
Around these boxes are four new people: Three women, one man.
Near the giant lizards pulling the giant, wheeled box, one of the women was leading them while riding on her own strange creature. She was a slender but muscular woman with a finned helmet that completely covers her entire head, showing only her dark brown eyes. She's wearing a sleeveless red leather crop top that shows off her abs and black leather pants, all underneath some armor on her chest, knees, arms and legs. Her most striking part of her entire outfit, though, is the big, flowing red cape on her back, flapping in the wind that makes it look like wings. In her right hand is a peculiar spear, with a flat end rather than a pointed one, and the blade of the spear itself was more rectangular and axe-like, while in her left hand, she is holding the reins she's using to control the movement of her mount. The creature she's riding is, while reptilian like the ones pulling the giant cart, only has two legs, has less armor, multiple eyes and a long spiked tail.
Next to her is the tallest among the four new arrivals. She is tall woman, with a similar outfit as the first that shows off her midriff, though she lacks her companion's abs. Her top also has a much longer sleeve and she lacks any armor on her arms, aside from metal claws on her fingers. Instead of a red cape, she instead has a red sash around her waist, acting as a coat tail. Her helmet shows off a bit more of her jaw, though the slits for her eyes make it harder to see what her eyes look like, ironically, and has a long, red plume that makes it look like her helmet has it's own tail. Fittingly, she too has her own animal companions in the form of two large wolves. The wolves themselves lack any armor at all, aside from their large, blackened metal helmets that covers their heads entirely, apart from their glowing red eyes and some holes for them to breathe through.
On the other side is the shortest of the three women, though not by much. She's lacks the helmet of the other two women, and even the man they're with, showing off her completely bald head. She has a giant scar that runs down from her forehead, through her left eye and ends on her left cheek. Unlike the other two, she's completely decked out in leather armor, covering her entire torso and even her legs. The only metal armor on her person are two metal pauldrons on her, one one each shoulder, with the one on her left shoulder being bigger than the one on her right. While she has a cleaver-like longsword on her hip to her left, on her right looks like an unholy amalgamation of a whip, a flail and an axe, as her other weapon looks like a whip's handle attached to some chains with a double bladed axe head on the other end.
And finally, the man leading them all is the one covered the most in blackened armor. Unlike most of the Noxian soldiers so far, his armor looks pristine, with not so much as a scratch. Atop his armor is red cloth, with the sigil of Noxus on it in the chest area. He's also wearing a helmet completely covering his head, with a thorn-like crown around the top portion of it. The helmet also comes with a golden face plate that actually does look like a person's face, but unmoving and emotionless. Even the supposed eye holes for the man to see through is pitch black, making it look like as if his face plate is his face. On his side is a simple longsword in it's sheath.
The sudden arrival of these four rang so many alarms in Ben, Jun and Ester's heads, as despite the intimidating presence of what they thought was Captain Farron, these new arrivals somehow, despite being shorter than the giant of a man in the camp, more intimidating than him.
"Okay... This is new." Ester mutters, with her two companions nodding in agreement. "They weren't here when I scouted the place out."
"Should we revise our plan?" Jun asks.
Ben shakes his head, though, but his face goes from confused and back to determined once more. "No. We're just adding to it now. I'll handle the big guy AND the new arrivals, if I have to. You guys can get the girl out of there and take down as many of the Noxians if they get in your way." says the Piltovan boy.
"Don't go carrying the world on your shoulders, Benny." Ester responds, shaking her head. "Look. I can get the girl out and take down some of those goons. Once I get the kid to safety, I'll come back for the assist. Jun, think you handle the big guy over there in the mean time?"
Jun nods. "I shall. My blade is sharp, my strike is true and my spirit is strong." She replies. "If I can, I will assist you in battling the other four, Ben."
"Alright. That's a much better plan. Thanks." Ben smiles and nods.
Jun smiles back before all three of them nod to each other and head off to do their parts in the plan.
Down at the camp, tensions are rising as the supposed Captain Farron walks over to the river to meet with the new arrivals as several soldiers go with him, including the poor, now shackled, gloryseeker girl being pulled by her chains by her fellow Noxians.
She grits her teeth, trying to resist, but the guards handling her are physically stronger and pull her with ease.
Once the Noxians from the camp and the Noxians that just arrived meet up, with the river in between them acting like a wall to keep them apart for now, Farron and the golden face plated soldier speak.
"We weren't told of your arrival, Enoch!" Farron speaks in a deep and booming, intimidating voice. "What are you doing here?!"
Enoch, the name of the man with the golden face plate, chuckles as the three women with him approach, standing behind him. They're all scowling, as if they don't actually want to be here.
"The Grand General is disappointed in your progress, Farron. You have been stationed her for weeks and yet you haven't found even a single clue of where the artifact could be." Enoch replies to the large man in front of him, arms behinds his back. Despite his face being hidden by his headgear, his smugness can be felt by his body language alone. "He has sent to retrieve it myself. I will be taking over this operation while you are to be taken back to Noxus where you are much needed."
The giant, brute of a man scoffs, crossing his arms as he huffs. "Good! My time has been wasted hunting for this stupid relic I'm convinced does not even exist!" Farron snarls.
"That's because the Grand General thought this task would be simple because the artifact was already found, and so he sent a simpleton like you to go retrieve it and bulldoze anyone that got in your way. But I guess you can't even handle something like that." Enoch mocks his fellow Noxian.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Farron roars as he angrily approaches, trudging through the river to reach Enoch. Before he gets close though, the three women behind him move forward, getting in between the brute and the smug soldier. All three of them raise their weapons and point them at Farron to stop him. Even the wolves one of them brought start growling at Farron.
Enoch just chuckles as he watches Farron halt, the river splashing onto his armor like harmless droplets of rain. "Oh don't take that as an insult, Farron. Let's face it. You're a tank. A wall of meat and metal. You're suited for sieges and direct combat. You were sent here because with you as the living battering ram, you would have torn through anyone and anything and find the artifact fast. But you know Ionia. Even the damned trees are alive. There might have been something that made your mission harder, so you're being recalled. I'll be taking over the hunt and the investigation of our missing relic. You understand that at least, right?" Enoch says, his tone still as smug as he has been since he began talking.
The giant man in the river was still growling as Enoch remains out of his reach while the three warrior women before him are keeping him from attacking. Despite everything Enoch has described him as, for some reason, Farron has not even tried to plow through the opposition before him. It's as if he knows who these three are and what they're capable of.
With another snarl, Farron turns around and starts heading back to the camp. "You better be sure I don't find you alone, Enoch. Or you'll regret everything you've said." says Farron as he reaches solid ground again and walks towards his tent.
Enoch himself just chuckles to himself before raising a hand to signal the three women, who all ease up and move back behind him. "Alright, men!" The golden face plated man yells out to the rest of the Noxians in the camp listening to him. "You're with me now! Anything I tell you to do, you do it with as much dedication as you did with Captain Farron, if not more! Understand?"
"Yes sir!" The Noxian soldiers all respond, which did not please Farron in his tent as he packs up his stuff.
"Good. Now pack up and ready your armaments. Lead me to where the artifact was last found!" Enoch commands, with all the soldiers doing exactly as he says, packing up their supplies, armor, weapons and tools.
While they do, Enoch spots the gloryseeker girl in chains, with her guards still holding onto her. Enoch was about to cross the river to reach her, but then the bald woman grabs his shoulder to stop him and turns him around to make him face her. "You got your soldiers, Enoch. You don't need us anymore! Give us what we came here for." She says in her gruff, rageful voice.
"That wasn't the deal, Teneff." Enoch says, calling the bald woman by her name. "The deal was you help me find the artifact, and then I give you what I know about your... 'mission', so to speak. These soldiers are fodder in case we run into what attacked the scouts weeks ago."
The rider on her two legged reptilian mount then commands her beast to move and approach Enoch as she scoffs, saying, "And what are we then, Enoch? Just much stronger cannon fodder?"
"Nonsense, Marit. You three are more like..." Enoch ponders, tapping his chin while Marit, the woman he's speaking to, waits, glaring at him. "Hm... Bodyguards, I suppose. But I will honor our deal. Once we find the artifact, you may leave. Even if we run into these 'living trees'. That will be our problem. Besides, even if we did... I still have that." Enoch points towards the wheeled cart behind them, making all three women look at it as well.
The woman with the wolves with her crosses her arms. "Let us hope it will be enough. These lands grow stronger for every scar it heals from." She says in a rather stoic manner.
"It will be, Arrel." Enoch drops her name. "Now I need to take care of something."
Enoch then takes his leave, leaving the three women with him all glaring at him, as he crosses the river to approach the girl in chains. The guards keeping her captive stand at attention as the gloryseeker girl just hangs her head in shame. "She bears our colors and our armor, but she is in chains like our enemies. What has she done to receive such punishment?" Enoch asks the guards with her.
Before they respond, though, Farron, finally leaving his tent as he carries a very big bag over his shoulder, says out loud, "She failed us and let our enemies claim victory, and she could not even so much as gather the information we sought for!"
"Ah. I see." Enoch speaks as Farron approaches them. The girl in chains just tightens her fists and closes her eyes.
Farron roars, "We cannot tolerate failures who lost to a bunch of peasants with brooms and pitchforks!"
"Hmmm... A fair point, Farron." Enoch seemingly agrees, but he continues. "In that case, we shouldn't tolerate your failure as well! I mean, need I repeat that you have been here for weeks and have yet to claim victory yourself?"
Farron grunts at this, before growling at Enoch further. His fist tightens and he looks about ready to explode...!
But then he just... leaves. He walks away, turning his back from Enoch, the girl and the guards as he heads off to the forest behind their camp. "Hm. I really thought he'd retaliate. Anyway... You." Enoch catches the attention of one of the guards. "Release this girl. Let her prove she has more use than the captain thinks she does."
"Yes, sir!" The guard Enoch spoke to responds before rummaging his pocket for the keys.
But before he could find it, all of a sudden, a loud howl echoes nearby, catching everybody off guard, distracting all the Noxians present from whatever they were doing. Even Farron had to stop walking as he was nearly out of the camp.
The guards who have the girl in chains could not even react fast enough when Blitzwolfer emerges from the nearby trees, jumping from the tree top and pouncing on Farron himself. The brutish man, despite his own strength, was not prepared for this sudden appearance of the wolf man and Blitzwolfer actually manages to knock him down on his back.
The transformed Piltovan didn't waste anymore time as he immediately gets off the giant Noxian he just knocked down and runs on all fours, heading straight towards Enoch. The soldiers, after finally recovering from their shock, all try to take out their individual weapons and attempt to get in Blitzwolfer's way, with some even swinging their weapons at him.
Their attacks and blockade were in vain, though, as the wolf man dodges every slash, swing, stab and even some gunfire coming his way, all the while he retaliates by slashing at his foes with his own claws. While some were just knocked around thanks to their armor tanking the hits, Blitzwolfer actually manages to tear through the lighter armor on some of the Noxian soldiers, though the transformed boy made sure not to actually kill any of them, only slashing his claws enough to create big but non-lethal wounds to at least incapacitate them.
After the wolf man plows through his enemies, he finally nears Enoch and the girl in chains, as well as the guards, as he approaches in blinding speed...!
But before he can even get close, suddenly, Teneff jumps in, blocking Blitzwolfer's path, and, using her chained axe head, she whips it around and swings it at Blitzwolfer. The wolf man manages to block it and even lets the chain wrap around his arm so he can use it to anchor the weapon to him and pull Teneff towards him, though to his surprise, Teneff doesn't look bothered. In fact, she's smirking as she is rocketing towards Blitzwolfer after being pulled... with her spare sword in her other hand, aimed at the transformed Piltovan's chest!
Blitzwolfer dodges in time, with Teneff missing her strike as her foe sidesteps as quickly as he could to his left, though the brutal hunter was still able to land on both feet and turn around to face Blitzwolfer. She then suddenly pulls her chain whip, forcing Blitzwolfer closer, while he didn't move much due to his superior physical strength, the wolf man was still surprised Teneff still had enough strength to make him move towards her a few feet, enough for her to run up to him herself and swing her sword.
While a durable form, Ben knows Blitzwolfer is not as tough as either Four Arms or Diamondhead, so he's not gonna take his chances by blocking the blade. He does, however, boldly and shockingly opens his maw and instead bites down hard on Teneff's sword, shattering it's blade to pieces before spits out any metal he may have in his mouth. The momentary surprise Tenneff had from his way of protecting himself allows Blitzwolfer to then cocks back his arm with the chain wrapped around it and rockets his fist forward, hoping to punch and knock out the brutal hunter.
Before his attack lands, though, something gets in between them and blocks his punch. Blitzwolfer felt a bit of pain as he sees what he struck is metal. Upon closer inspection, he looks to the rest of this metal object and sees it's the broad side of Marit's axe-like spear.
Marit, still atop her two legged mount, retracts her weapon and attempts to swing it at the wolf man. Blitzwolfer tries to move away, but forgot that his right arm is still chained, as Teneff forcefully reminds him by pulling on it to keep him from completely dodging and holding him in place. Having no choice, Blitzwolfer finally opens his maw again and splits his upper and lower muzzles to unleash his sonic howl, firing it off towards Marit and her creature.
The force of his howl was powerful enough to knock Marit off her mount and even knock down the reptile she was riding on itself. Blitzwolfer then closes her mouth and holds onto to the chains on his arm with both of his hands and spins around, lifting Teneff with him as she held onto her weapon. After a brief few seconds, the wolf man then tosses Teneff away and into Marit, who was just getting back up, knocking them both down on the floor.
But as Blitzwolfer removes the chains wrapped around his arm, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his back, causing him roar in pain and then grit his teeth. He reaches towards where the pain originated from and pulls some things out: throwing knives, three in total.
Blitzwolfer's stab wounds on his back were small, especially compared to his whole body, though it didn't stop a bit of his blood trickling down his fur. This attack makes him turn around to face where the knives came from and spots Arrel, with her wolves standing at the ready as they growl at him. She herself is holding a couple more throwing knives in between her fingers as she crosses her arms into an X formation. "I thought you were some random Vastaya that just wanted to attack us, but your splitting jaw and that powerful howl is unlike anything I've seen before." Arrel says, the first to speak to Ben among her sisters. "You will be tamed, or you will be put down." She adds before whistling.
This must be the cue for her wolves as they then run at Blitzwolfer at their top speed as they howl and roar at him, pouncing at him with their claws!
As the battle rages on with Ben vs the three Noxian elite, Enoch was still watching this unfold, together with the girl in chains and the guards. His arms were still behind his back, and he seems entertained at watching the battle with this strange wolf man that came out of nowhere.
Still, though, he has a mission to complete, so he suddenly takes out his sword and stabs the ground to hold his sword in place. This catches the attention of the girl before him as he looks at her, his unmoving, golden face plate creeping her out. "Do you wish to redeem yourself, girl? To reclaim the glory you lost?" Enoch asks her.
The girl stares at Enoch, though she couldn't help but avert her eyes for a moment as she still feels creeped out by his presence. But as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, the girl faces Enoch once more, opening her eyes and says, "Yes!"
"Good answer." Enoch compliments her as he then pulls his blade out of the soil under his feet and brings it up. For a moment, the girl thought Enoch is about to swing it down on her... but instead, he slashes down and strikes the chains restricting her hands, cutting the chains and allowing her to move her hands again.
The girl closes her fists as she feels freedom once more. She can't help but smile, but she is even more surprised when Enoch hands her his own sword. With a nod, he asks her, "What is your name, soldier?"
"Rojo, sir." This Trifarian gloryseeker introduces herself, her eyes full of determination. Rojo holds her new sword tight as she stands at attention.
"A pleasure, Rojo. You work under me now. Reclaim your glory with me." Enoch compliments her, giving her a nod, before gesturing to both her and the guards that held her captive. "Do any of you know where the artifact was last seen? We still have a mission to complete, and this... monster is simply a distraction we can't afford."
"We do, sir." Rojo says. "All of us in the camp have been there. We can show where it is."
Enoch nods and gestures for them to lead. "Show me the way then." He asks, with Rojo and the guards all saluting before heading off West, Enoch following them.
Before they could even take a couple more steps, though, several shots are fired at the ground near their feet, causing them to halt from shock and self preservation. The guards didn't even have time to react when suddenly, from some nearby bushes, Ester emerges and pounces on one of the guards' face. While the guard has a helmet, it does keep his face exposed, enough for Ester to punch it repeatedly until his face was black and blue, his mouth was missing a few teeth and finally being knocked unconscious.
The other guard tries to attack by swinging his axe at the Yordle gunner, but she simply slides underneath him and actually punches him in his crotch, which did not have any armor. It was enough to make the guard wheeze in pain before falling to his knees, keeping his hands on his likely now broken 'family jewels' and then fully falling on the floor.
Once she's made sure the two guards are out of commission, Ester stands back up on both feet and pulls out her new guns, aiming them at Enoch, but not at Rojo, which actually surprises the young girl. "Alright, buckethead. Let the girl go or my next shots going to turn your faceplate from gold to a splatter of red with a hint of black powder!" Ester threatens Enoch.
However, the man with the golden face simply laughs off her attempts to do so as he crosses his arms. "Do you see me holding her hostage, you fur ridden abomination?" Enoch mocks the Yordle gunner while gesturing his hand to Rojo, who's in a fighting stance as she gets between Enoch and Ester, sword at the ready.
This does surprise Ester, as minutes ago, she saw the girl captured by her own people. She had just arrived, so she completely missed the part of her being freed by Enoch. "Wait, I thought she was..." Ester says, but she can't even finish her words when the girl with the sword runs at her, swinging her blade with a mighty heave.
Ester is still faster though, so like their last encounter, the Yordle simply dodges each and every one of Rojo's slashes. As she does so, she still takes some time to speak to the kid, telling her, "Why are you still fighting for them? They put you in chains just 'cause you failed to do your mission!"
"Shut up and fight!" Rojo insists, swinging her sword in vain as her foe was still too small and nimble for her to truly cut down.
"Sorry kid, but I came here to stop them from hurting you in the first place." Ester responds. Rojo's next swing makes her slide underneath the girl before pouncing on her to get on her back, annoying the girl.
Rojo, gritting her teeth, tells the Yordle on her back, "You would not understand what I went through! They're the only ones who accepted me! Gave me a cause to fight for!"
"You're probably right. I can't imagine what you must've gone through. You told me you were a slave, right?" Ester responds, still clinging onto Rojo who keeps trying to shake her off. Her words, though, catches the full attention of the young girl as she yells angrily and finally tries to grab Ester from her back.
The Yordle girl was still quicker, though, as she hops off before Rojo could grab her. And, with her surprising strength, Ester does a sweeping kick that knocks Rojo on her back. The Noxian girl growls as she still tries to swing her sword at Ester, who once again simply dodges it by jumping backwards. "I was! And they freed me from my shackles!" Rojo yells, getting back on her feet as she locks eyes with the Yordle.
"Then why would they shackle you again, just because of a failed mission?" Ester drops the metaphorical bomb, causing the girl's eyes to widen and her lips to quiver slightly.
Rojo grips her sword, grits her teeth and looks down. "It was a mere punishment. It was nothing compared to what I endured before..." She still tries to justify her previous predicament, her tone slightly softer and sounds like she's on the verge of crying.
"Maybe you're right, but if they really did respect you, they wouldn't be putting chains on you." Ester says. "I don't know what you went through, I couldn't possibly. But I do know being in a crew, a family, that actually respects you. When in a crew, you're equals. You may do different jobs, but you are all equally important, and your lives are not expendable. Even my captain would risk her own life, fighting through untold horrors, just to save one of us. You fail, you get a scolding, but you don't get locked up. Getting put behind some bars or being chained up does not help anyone improve. Just makes them feel like shit as they sit still, doing nothing. Being locked up is for our enemies, not crewmates. And once we lock up one of our own, what does that make them? What does that make us?"
Rojo listened to Ester's speech as she processes them in her head. She tightens the grip on her sword and finally holds it with both hands, though she has yet to lift her head up to look at her. "You don't know what I..." She says, but Ester shakes her head and interrupts her.
"You've said that so many times already, it's losing it's meaning. Stop this, kid, before you make a mistake. And I'm not talking about killing me. You're not good enough to do that. I'm talking about sticking with people who do this to you, and give you false promises." Ester tells her.
Rojo shakes her head as well, though, and finally raises her head to look at the Yordle gunslinger. "I will not abandon the people I owe my life to!" She yells, fury in her voice as she steadies herself.
"The same people abandoning you right now?" says Ester. Rojo was confused at first, but then Ester points behind her, which makes the gloryseeker girl to turn around...
...and see that Enoch has left her behind. He himself is now heading West as originally planned, together with a group of new soldiers. Seems that after Rojo herself said everyone in the camp knows where the artifact was last seen, he saw everyone as expendable, so long as he has someone from the camp to lead him to the location.
Rojo's fury was already boiling from within, and now it's just scalding hot, though this time, her rage is not towards Ester, but at Enoch. His manipulative words, his false charisma and his misleading actions. All of it just so he can use her to as a distraction.
Bad memories begin to surface in Rojo's mind. Flashes of her old life.
A king who sat on his ass and let everyone else die for him.
That damned crown...
And as Rojo recalls that crown, she can see that thorn-like crown on Enoch's helmet looks uncannily similar to the one she sees in her memories.
...And she snaps.
Rojo yells in rage as she ignores Ester completely and runs at Enoch, blade in hand!
"No! Kid, wait!" Ester yells out to her, but it was in vain, as Rojo can only hear the sound of her own breathing, her own throbbing heart and the sound of each step she took as she runs at her new target.
Enoch immediately spots her coming as the soldiers with him all turn as well, ready to fight Rojo. But the golden faced man instead grabs the sword of one of the soldiers and, once Rojo got near, swinging her sword at him, he simply parries her blow, deflecting her strike and keeping her off balance.
And in that brief moment of vulnerability...
Enoch thrusts his blade at her...
...stabbing Rojo in her gut.
Ester, who was watching and running in an attempt to stop her, could only cry out, "Noooo!"
"Congratulations, Rojo. You failed to claim glory twice in one day." Enoch mocks his victim before pulling out the sword from Rojo as she spits out blood, her gaping wound also leaking as she involuntarily takes a few steps back before falling to her knees. "It's a new record." Enoch adds, further mocking her as he tosses the sword in his hand back to it's original wielder.
The Noxian bastard then gestures to the rest of his new squad of soldiers from the camp to lead him to their mission location, with all of them nodding as they head out, but not before he whistles out and signals the giant lizard creatures from across the river to follow, pulling the box cart with them.
Ester finally reaches Rojo, who finally fell on her back as she continues to bleed. Ester aims her guns at Enoch and his men, but hands are shaking and the sound of Rojo beside her coughing up blood is making her hesitate.
Does she shoot them all down now to stop them, but let Rojo bleed out... or does she let them go so she can focus in giving Rojo aid?
The answer... was obvious.
With an angry growl directed towards herself, Ester holsters her pistols and runs over to Rojo. The crackshot corsair then rips off a huge part of her coat and uses it as to stop Rojo's bleeding as much as she can. "Don't die on me, kid! Come on! You're Noxian. You guys are tough as nails, right?" Ester tries to speak to the bleeding girl before her, with Rojo, gritting her teeth as if to resist the pain, all while some tears fall from her eyes.
Darius...
Rojo's mind was elsewhere, even as her body was giving out.
Back with Blitzwolfer, he was too preoccupied with handling the three huntresses before him, as he had to swipe and knock away one of Arrel's wolves before smacking away the other.
He didn't get enough time to rest as Teneff returns and jumps on his back and uses her chains by wrapping them around Blitzwolfer's neck and using them like a makeshift garrote wire, trying to suffocate the wolf man as much as she can.
While this is happening, Farron finally gets back on his feet, growling in anger as he looks at Blitzwolfer getting ganged up on by the huntresses. Despite his helmet hiding his face, he's clearly pissed at what Blitzwolfer had done to him earlier, and so he reaches in his back and pulls out his weapons: two big spiked balls on chains, one on each hand of his.
He was about to run to the battle so he can personally beat down Ben, but then he hears the sound of a blade striking metal and wind zipping past him, and all of a sudden, his right shoulder pauldron suddenly gets chipped, as if a blade cut through it like butter.
Farron then looks down and sees Jun in front of him, her back turned against him as she is in a fighting stance, signifying her as the one responsible for his pauldron being damaged.
She turns back around to face her gigantic foe and points the tip of one of her sword's blade at Farron. "You have been responsible with harassing and harming my people. And for that, you shall pay!" Jun says and spins her double bladed sword in her hand, staring down the goliath before him.
Farron, though, just laughs at her with his deep voice. It's as if Jun's threats completely washed away his anger towards Ben and he finds himself amused at Jun. "I don't care who you are, kid. But if you're asking to be crushed, then I'm happy to oblige!" With a roar, Farron then swings his twin flails at Jun.
To his shock, though, Jun suddenly disappears in a flash of emerald light. The armored brute looks around for any signs of his foe that had just vanished, but not even a few seconds in and he suddenly felt like he's getting slashed from every angle every nanosecond. All around him, multiple flashes, sparks and even afterimages of Jun are appearing and disappearing in quick succession until eventually, Jun returns from the same green light that made her vanish.
Before Farron knew it, parts of his armor have began falling apart and torn to pieces. Or rather, cut to pieces. While Jun's lightning fast multi strike attack didn't strip Farron of his armor, it is now damaged all over, with slash marks all over his equipment and some of Farron's blood on some of the unarmored sections of his body dripping all over.
Jun smiles a little, a little proud she was able to damage such thick and powerful armor. Her training must be paying off. But small victory could not last long as Farron remains standing and roars in rage before slamming down both of his flails down onto the ground, shaking the ground and creating a long and wide crack on the ground the nearly knocks Jun out of balance.
This does distract her long enough for the armored brute to charge at her and shoulder tackles her, forcing the Wuju bladeswoman to block his strike by spinning her blade in front of her, projecting a green barrier in front of her. Farron collides with this barrier, creating sparks from his armor and the barrier itself as he keeps pushing forward, and it was enough, as Jun was slowly sliding backwards, grunting and struggling to keep Farron at bay.
Jun mentally scolds herself as she tries in vain to push back the brute. Her blade and spirit may be able to cut Farron and his armor, but she didn't even think about him not caring about his armor or his own injuries and just stubbornly push forward to keep fighting.
Blitzwolfer, still being choked out by Teneff, sees Jun fighting the Noxian captain, and worry immediately washes over him over his own safety, as the brief moment he gets distracted, Marit jumps in front of him and swings her axe-like spear at him. While he manages to step back in time to prevent himself from getting cut in half, Marit still manages to slash at his chest, creating a wound as Blitzwolfer's blood trickles down his body and causes him to howl in pain.
At that moment, Ben's mind deep inside Blitzwolfer is slowly going blank. His wounds are making him bleed out slowly but surely, practically draining his energy, and Teneff's chains are still choking him out, slowing his breathing, so he's barely getting any oxygen in his brain, all the while he's worried Jun will get hurt.
There's too much to process and he doesn't even have the strength to take it all in...
...and then he lays his eyes on where Ester is...
...and sees Ester, kneeling down and trying her best to keep Rojo alive, with the young girl herself already looking pale and paralyzed on the floor.
And everything goes silent in Ben's mind. The noise around him sounds muffled and his vision darkens as he focuses on the dying girl on the floor while his friend looks like she's on the verge of crying while still doing everything she can to keep Rojo from bleeding out.
And on the other side is a new friend he just made, who just wants to protect her people and uphold a legacy these lands once lost, but now some Noxian brute is practically bullying her with intent to kill her just because she got in his way.
Blitzwolfer — Nay — Ben's mind cannot take it anymore. His turn to Rojo once more as the girl was coughing up blood. She might die at any second...
If she does...
No... NO!
Not again!
NEVER AGAIN!
And he snaps.
As if the feral instincts of Blitzwolfer himself overrides Ben's own mind, the wolf-like beast opens his snout once more, splitting his jaws again, and howls into the sky in rage, unleashing a powerful, loud, ear piercing sonic blast from his throat that deafens the three huntresses surrounding him, as well as any other nearby Noxian soldier somehow still awake, including Farron. Even his allies were not safe as Jun and Ester both had to cover their ears from this sudden sonic attack.
With everyone nearby having their ears ringing from Blitzwolfer's rageful howl, the feral beast then grabs the chains around his neck, pulls on it enough forward and finally bites it down, breaking the chains before grabbing Teneff on his back and throwing her at Marit, knocking them both down.
When Arrel recovers, she gestures to her wolves and points at Blitzwolfer, commanding them to attack. The wolves do so, pouncing on the wolf man with intent to claw him apart, but Blitzwolfer was still in a feral, rageful state of mind as he casually backhands both wolves away before he himself pounces on Arrel, knocking her on the ground and then punching her in her gut, knocking the wind out of her, enough to make her unable to move.
The enraged werewolf then turns his attention to Farron and runs at the brute on all fours. Though Farron recovers quick, he was still physically slower as Blitzwolfer was right in front of him in mere seconds before the wolf man opens and splits his jaws again and fires a powerful sonic howl at the Noxian captain at pointblank. The howling blast was so powerful, amplified by Blitzwolfer's proximity to Farron, that it actually tears off chunks of the man's armor, bit by bit, until eventually not even Farron's weight combined with his remaining armor could keep him on the ground any longer as Blitzwolfer's howl finally knocks him away, flying into the forest until he's out of view.
Watching their captain get blown away, some of the remaining Noxian soldiers in the camp fled out of fear or just ran after their captain into the woods. Those who stayed behind seems to relish in wanting to fight this feral beast before them as they charge at Blitzwolfer without a second thought, their weapons at the ready.
To their dismay though, Jun regains her focus and, blades in hand, swings hard and fast, unleashing a powerful gust of wind from her slash that blows all the other soldiers away, though some managed to stand their ground thanks to their heavier armor and continue to attack.
As the sounds of blades clashing and Blitzwolfer's howling echo across the land, the three huntresses finally get back up, though Arrel is struggling a bit as the punch from the wolf man earlier still hurts. It genuinely feels like Blitzwolfer practically concaved her insides, though considering she's still alive, it probably just feels that way and it's not actually what happened within her guts, though it still hurts to move.
Marit looks towards the battle and growls before snapping her fingers, commanding her mount to come to her. Once the two legged beast arrives, Marit mounts on it once more, though as she does, she spots Teneff grab a spare sword from one of the nearby fallen soldiers and started walking towards Blitzwolfer. "That's enough, sister! He's not worth it." The wrathful rider yells at her brutal sister, who's just gritting her teeth.
"I'm going to ear off his fur and make him into a coat, and turn his skull into my trophy!" Teneff venomously utters, fury and hate in her voice, but Marit commands her beast to go and block Teneff's way.
"You will have your time, but right now, you know why we are here! And our only lead to it is running off without us!" Marit scolds her sister as Arrel joins them, her wolves being injured but are still alive as they shake themselves off.
"My wolves still have his scent already. We can still follow him. Waste time on that beast, and we might lose the trail." Arrel adds to the conversation as Teneff is still gritting her teeth so hard, she might as well break them through friction alone.
"...Fine!" The brutal hunter yells out, sheathing her newly taken sword before tightening her fists. "But if we encounter that thing again, his hide is mine!"
Marit huffs, before offering a hand to Teneff. The bald warrioress takes it as her sister lifts her up and lets her ride on her mount as well. Arrel does the same as Teneff takes her turn to lift her up, with the three of them all riding together as Arrel whistles and commands her wolves, both of them sniffing the ground and then the air before finally chasing the trail they smelled, with Marit commanding her beast to follow the wolves.
Once Blitzwolfer finally knocks the last Noxian soldier out by slamming his head into the dirt, he howls into the sky in rage. But it wasn't long before he started breathing heavily, inhaling and exhaling quick as he looks down at the ground... and slowly puts his hands in front of him to look at them. Whatever rage he was feeling, it seems he's finally snapped back to reality as he sees and feels both of his hands shaking, trembling.
"Ben?"
Blitzwolfer jumps a bit as he is surprised by Jun walking over to him. She places a hand on one of his own as he looks at her eye to eye. "Are... you okay?" Jun asks, holding Blitzwolfer's hand tight.
The wolf man's still astonished look finally softens as even his ears flop down and he returns the small embrace of his hand to Jun, holding onto it tight as well. "I... lost control... Bad memories sprung up and... Wait...!" He says before suddenly remembering as he looks over and sees Ester and Rojo once more. "Ester!" Blitzwolfer yells and lets go of Jun, running on all fours to reach his Yordle friend. Jun follows suit, though she was much faster and even reaches Ester and Rojo ahead of Ben.
Once the four of them are all together, Blitzwolfer finally turns back into Ben in a bright red flash and kneels down, with him, Ester and Jun all looking at Rojo, bleeding out. "Is she...?" Ben mutters, placing his hands on Ester's as they both attempt to stop the bleeding.
"A wound this deep with a sword as the one that buckethead stabbed her with? Her chances are..." Ester responds, but she trails off as her lips quiver, her eyes looking towards Rojo's face. The poor girl seems to have entered a shock and has completely stop moving. She was still breathing, but it was rapid and hoarse. "Damn it! We gotta save her!" Ester yells out.
"... I can try." Jun finally speaks up, making the Piltovan boy and the Bilgewater Yordle look towards her.
"You can?" asks Ben.
Jun nods. "I am a bit inexperienced with the healing arts taught to me, but it can't hurt to try." The bladeswoman says before clasping her hands together and closing her eyes.
As Ben and Ester wait what will happen next, they were not prepared to see Jun suddenly float in a meditative position as her body glows with a green aura surrounding her. Then, she unclasps her hands and opens her palms, aiming them both towards Rojo as she too started floating. Ester and Ben had to let go of her to make sure she actually floats.
Jun was concentrating hard, keeping her hands towards Rojo... and she suddenly screams in pain.
Ester almost instinctively wanted to jump up and stop this just from Rojo's reaction alone, but Ben places a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head, basically silently telling Ester to let Jun work. The Yordle grips her fists, unable to stand hearing Rojo in so much pain, but she has to trust Ben and Jun.
Jun, for her part, is wincing, as while she's actively healing the girl before her, she too cannot stand the screams. The pain Rojo is feeling must be excruciating for her to scream this way, but she has to keep going. Not mention, she hasn't really used this magic to heal others before and she too is feeling the pain Rojo is feeling, even if it's just a tiny fraction of what the girl must be really feeling.
As Jun kept going, the fear in Ester's eyes vanish and turn into relief as she sees Rojo's wound is healing, slowly closing up and eventually, fully recovered. Jun then gently sets Rojo down on the ground. Rojo herself is now fully awake and is now moving her body a bit, though she remains lying on the ground as she touches where her giant wound used to be.
The Wuju girl, though, suddenly feels a wave of weakness in her body as she starts losing control of her floating state. But before she falls down, Ben hops over to her spot and manages to catch her in time, carrying her bridal style. "Whoa! You okay?" Ben asks as Jun rubs her forehead, trying to ease the pain.
"Yes. Just... felt dizzy. The healing arts of Wuju style is usually meant to heal one's self, though it's because we focus on our own wounds. It seems using one's spirit and mind to heal others makes me feel their pain too. I'll be alright, though." Jun replies, smiling at Ben, thankful it's his face she sees after feeling so weak. For some reason, she can't help but feel easy around him.
Ben nods, smiling back at Jun. "Glad you are, then." Ben tells her, their eyes looking into one another's for a while.
"Ahem..."
Jun and Ben turn their heads as they heard Ester clear her throat. She's looking at both of them directly with a smirk on their face. "If you two are done flirting, we still got stuff do?" said the Yordle gunner smugly.
Once she said so, Ben and Jun realize that the former is still carrying the latter. Jun blushes as Ben just chuckles before gently letting her down, letting her stand on both feet as Ben scratches the back of his head while Jun, still blushing, just laughs it off, though her own laugh sounds more nervous than humorous. "My bad." Ben says.
"Why did you help me?"
The light hearted moment between the two, and even Ester, is interrupted when this time, it was Rojo who spoke, sitting up on the ground as she keeps her eyes on Jun. She looks angry, but her anger doesn't seem directed at any of the trio. "I am your natural enemy. I am Noxian. I have harmed and nearly killed some of your people... you could have let me die and it wouldn't even be your fault. But you didn't... Why?" She asks Jun.
Jun blinks, staring back at Rojo for a good while before closing her eyes. Everything the girl said was correct. Even today, Rojo nearly killed someone just because they didn't have an answer for her question. But even after all that, she healed her.
After a bit, Jun opens her eyes and tells Rojo, "My order, before I joined, was once destroyed by Noxians themselves. And even now, you terrorize our homes for selfish reasons, with no care for who you slaughter. Young, old, men, women, others... You're right. I should hate you... But, the Wuju order was rebuilt and dedicated our lives to protect others, especially the victims of Noxus... And today, you were no different."
The Wuju girl then moves closer to Rojo and offers her a hand back up. At first, Rojo just stares at her hand, glaring at it. And yet the trio could still tell her anger was not towards any of them. As if to prove them right, Rojo actually grabs Jun's hand, with Jun finally helping her stand back on her two feet, though she still places a hand on her gut. "You should rest. I don't know how much I healed because I've never done so on another person before, so in case there's still some lingering pain, it would do you well to recover first." Jun tells Rojo.
Rojo nods, but then looks away, as ashamed. She walks away for a moment, her back turned against the trio before just standing still, crossing her arms.
While Ben and Jun nod to each other, silently agreeing to let the girl have some time to herself, Ester, still worried for the girl, moves over to her, patting her leg. Though Rojo does not react, she does not ignore Ester either, as she closes her eyes and sits down, letting Ester pat her shoulder this time to comfort her. "You okay, kid?" Ester asks. "And I don't mean your, well, no longer existing wound. I'm sure you're a tough nut. But, the whole... betrayal thing."
"... I've... met Captain Farron before. It was the same day Noxus liberated my home and integrated Urtis into their nation. At the time, I tried to defend my king. I attacked him and took back my king's crown to give it back to him. But then my king betrayed me too. He tried to send me to my death as no more than a way to show off his 'divine right' to rule. But thanks to... someone else with Captain Farron, I was saved from him." Rojo began telling her story as Ester listens. "It never even occurred to me, at the time, regardless of me joining Noxus, Captain Farron would hate me for that one sleight. Probably why he's been giving me hard time. And the moment I slip up, like today, he took that chance to put me in chains."
Ester continues to listen. She's not quite sure what to say, or if she should even say anything, afraid to interrupt the girl, so for now, she'll let Rojo speak her mind. The Yordle finally sits down as well, taking her place beside the Noxian girl.
"So when sir Enoch came, even freed me himself, I thought maybe it was just Captain Farron. Maybe he was only being a petty bastard, and Noxus has other good folk, like the man that saved me from an eternal suffering of slavery... but he used, like my king before. I was fodder. A distraction. I guess I should have seen that coming from a man who also wears a false crown on his helmet." Rojo narrates, hugging her legs close as she buries her face between her thighs. She did not shed a tear, yet Ester could still feel her sorrow.
"... I've... already told you a while ago, but still, I should say... I don't know what you could've possibly suffered through before Noxus found you. But what I do know is that... I was also kinda lost before." Ester shares, patting Rojo's back. "Let me tell you a little secret. Yordles like me? We can't stand being alone for too long. Sometimes, if left alone for long enough, we go insane. We lose ourselves to the isolation. And I was alone for a long while... but then my Captain found me and gave me a place I belong to. Sound familiar?"
Rojo was silent for a moment... but then she peeks from her thighs to look at Ester, which was enough for the Yordle gunner to know Rojo got what she meant. "Now, I'm helping out Ben over there find his mom. Part of it is because I kinda owe him and it's bother me for a while if I don't pay him back... and the other part is... well, no one deserves to be alone. And I didn't want the kid to feel lonely in his journey. I sure as hell was before I met my crew, and I almost lost myself." Ester adds more before suddenly holding up her fist to the girl beside her. "So, if you ever change your mind about your crew, you got a place with us."
The Noxian girl doesn't answer at first, but she was still looking at the Yordle to her side. It took a few more seconds of silence before Rojo finally returns the gesture, fist bumping with Ester. "I'll... think about it. But, right now, it's not safe for me here either way. Can't take the chance that these soldiers didn't see me charge at Enoch." says Rojo, standing back up on both feet, with Ester following suit.
"True enough. If you need a place to lay low, Ben and I slept in an inn, East of here." Ester mentions and nods to Rojo.
Rojo replies, "Thanks. I'll check it out later, but... I got something else to do."
Meanwhile, Ben and Jun are discussing their next move as they look over to where they last saw Enoch. "I believed I caught a glimpse of their leader heading this direction, but beyond that, we wouldn't know where else to look." Jun mentions.
Ben nods, tapping his chin as he says, "Yeah. Not to mention, there could be detours they could have gone through. Multiple paths, and not just in a straight line to the West. I could try to scout out from the skies with my flying forms, but that could take time, and there's a big chance by the time I find them, I wouldn't have enough energy left to stay transformed for the actual fight."
"You don't need to do all that."
Ben and Jun turn around and see Rojo approaching them together with Ester by her side. "Because I know where they're headed." Rojo tells them.
Ben and Jun look at each other for a moment and smile, happy to know their good deed bore fruit to help them out. "Where?" Ben asks the Noxian girl.
Far up West, Enoch and his remaining squadron of soldiers are now standing in the middle of a strange, wide circular field surrounded and walled off by trees. There's a pond of water in the middle with several large rocks and boulders randomly placed in the area. And among all the walls of trees, there seems to be one particular patch of them all stuck, huddled and wrapped around each other.
"This is where the scouts first found the artifact, sir." One of the soldiers say as she approaches Enoch, who is currently petting one of the giant lizards attached to his giant box cart. "We came back here on the first day of deployment here, but when we come back it was gone."
"I see." Enoch responds, placing his hands behind his back as he looks around. "And where exactly in this place did the scouts find the artifact? The exact location."
The soldier he's speaking to then walks off to lead Enoch some place else. Eventually, she leads him to the big pond in the middle of this strange field. "Here, sir. This pond didn't used to be here when the scouts arrived. They said the artifact used to just be stuck in a big stone in the middle of this field, but then they were attacked by what they described as the trees themselves coming to life. When we came back here, there was just water."
"... And none of you bothered to search under the water?" Enoch asks, his tone almost sounding like he's annoyed.
"We did sir, but there wasn't anything in the water. Not even fish of any kind." The soldier replies, but Enoch groans, his annoyance now much more clear.
"I didn't say in the water, you knuckle dragging buffoons! I said under! Under the water!" Enoch yells, his composure slightly breaking as he glares at the soldier before him, who backs away, slightly terrified. "This is why you don't send brutes to do a simple search and capture mission. When you're told to find fish, you go looking for it in the sky!"
The soldier steps back a little as her fellow soldiers are also a bit scared of Enoch. "We're sorry, sir! Captain Farron said—"
"Farron is a mammoth with the brain of an ant! Ugh... I have to do everything myself!" Enoch, enraged by his soldiers' stupidity, yells at them before finally moving towards his box cart. "Luckily, I don't need any of you for this next part."
Without warning, Enoch suddenly punches one side of the box cart and actually presses a giant panel-slash-button on it that then causes it to open up by dropping all the sides of the cart to sides as the giant lizards tied to it flee, their chains breaking as they do so.
And once this happens, the soldiers finally see what has been inside this cart all along.
It's giant mech suit of some sorts, made of partial steel, stone and a little bit of wood. It's about 17 feet tall, with a rotund torso with a big, circular, glowing chest piece in the middle. It's got tank-like treads, two arms, one on each side, with separate armaments, as the right arm has an actual hand with a giant chainsaw-like blade attached to the wrist. The blade itself is glowing orange and looks extremely hot. The left arm lacks a hand but instead has a giant cannon on it instead, with the inside of glowing orange, akin to the blade on the right. And the top portion seems to be the cockpit, as it has several controls and a steering wheel-like mechanism in the middle.
Enoch climbs up this newly revealed vessel and sits in the cockpit, pulling on a lever on the side as the glowing port on it's chest glows blue, lighting up as the mech roars to life. The Noxian higher up then commandeers his vessel to move forward and drives it towards the pond. "Now stand back. I'm about to do what you buffoons should have weeks ago!"
"Enoch!"
Before Enoch could do his task, though, he hears someone yelling his voice, and from where they arrived from, the man wasn't even surprised to see the three sisters arrive.
Teneff and Arrel hop off Marit's mount as she herself commands it to run towards Enoch, unafraid of his mechanical vehicle. The nearby Noxian soldiers even back away, seemingly more terrified of Marit than they are of Enoch. "You left us there, you bastard!" Marit yells at Enoch. The man himself seemingly rolls his eyes, from the way his head moves, as he leans on the side of the cockpit just to give Marit a look.
"Well, yes, I did, but I knew you'd pull through eventually. I had a mission to do and I didn't want to waste anymore time here than this squadron already has." Enoch says, his annoyed tone gone and his smug one returning.
"In case you forgot, Enoch, we have a mission too! We aren't cannon fodder you can just throw away at the enemy!" Teneff yells this time, finally catching up to her sister as she, alongside Arrel and her wolves, approach the mech.
Enoch just scoffs and places a hand on his forehead. "Our deal is still in full effect. Any threats you may try to throw my way are pointless, anyway. I have the information you need, so until the artifact is found, you still need me." The rider of the mech says, with all three huntresses glaring at him.
Arrel takes her turn to speak, telling the man, "You test our patience, Enoch. Don't think we aren't prepared to take your life, even if it means losing our lead."
"Do you not see the giant vessel before you?" Enoch retorts, arms raised in disbelief at Arrel's threat. "A marvel of Noxian engineering, surpassed only by the grand general's very own Leviathan. Your threats are as effective to me now as throwing pebbles at a hurricane! But since you insist so much on this, then fine. Let me do my work and if the artifact is here, then I'll tell you what you need so he can stop bothering me."
Enoch then ignores anything else that the sisters were going to yell at him as he operates his mech to move and aims the giant cannon at the pond. The cannon hums and whirs as it's flaming orange glow grows brighter and brighter. This was the sign it was going to fire a shot, so everyone else in the area, including the sisters, all run off to a safer distance before the cannon fires.
Finally, Enoch presses a button on his console and the cannon finally fires, it's shock exploding into the puddle of water as the blast creates a giant pillar of dust, smoke and steam. As the air hisses and the remaining waters evaporate into more steam, the smoke dies down and in the middle was no longer a pond, but a giant, blackened crater...
...and in the middle of the crater is a stone slab with several, rune-like markings on it that were glowing with different colors. Enoch, the soldiers and the three huntresses all peek down the crater to look at this strange, runed slab, with Enoch even having his mech place the right hand down towards it so he can use the arm as makeshift stairs.
As he travels down the arm and reaches the slab, he dusts it off with his own hands, removing any leftover dirt, black powder and dust. By doing so, he accidentally causes the runes to glow brighter and, all of a sudden, something emerges from the slab out of thin air and a flash of light, and Enoch could not be happier to it.
What emerged was a strange, laurel wreath-like crown made of gold. The two ends that meet in the middle of this "crown" look like golden flames emerging from the wreath, yet when Enoch touches it, it did not give off any heat and doesn't even hurt him.
The madman holds this artifact in his hand as he practically laughs in excitement, unable to take his eyes off his prize. "Is this it? Is this the artifact we have sought for?" Enoch asks rhetorically, knowing precisely what the answer is.
But some of the soldiers answered anyway, with one of them saying, "It matches the description, sir, yes."
"Then we have done it! Ha! And the scouts were afraid of a bunch of wood and leaves." Enoch celebrates with a chuckle from his throat...
...though perhaps he celebrates too early as just as he says that, the ground starts to shake and the rustling of leaves can be heard from up above. When Enoch and the rest of the Noxians with him all look to where the noise is coming from, they see that the big, huddled up trees earlier... are now unraveling and began forming together, merging and combining until they all form into a different thing entirely.
After a quick few seconds, these trees have now combined into a giant, golem-like construct made of wood, leaves and magic. It hunched down with it's long and large arms, using them to support it's weight as it's legs were too small to do so, making this tree construct resemble a gorilla, though it only has one, blue "eye", if that can even be called that, glowing like a spotlight as it shines it towards Enoch, still holding the crown-like artifact. It's blue eye then changes from a soothing blue to blood red as, despite lacking any other facial feature, it looks at Enoch with rage.
"Oh." Enoch mutters, finally realizing that this entity is what attacked the scouts. He then looks towards his soldiers and yells out, "Well don't just stand there! Attack!"
The soldiers all hesitate as they stare at the protector of the artifact, shambling towards Enoch slowly. They even subconsciously start taking steps back as their hands shake, with some of them even nearly dropping their weapons because of all their shaking.
Enoch just groans at the soldiers in frustration before running back up the arm of his mech and riding it once more. Once on it, he commandeers it and makes it aim it's cannon at the guardian entity, ready to fire. But much to his shock, the protector digs one of it's arms into the ground and, in mere seconds, several wooden vines emerge from beneath the ground under Enoch's mech and they wrap themselves around the mech's cannon, forcing it to aim up and preventing Enoch from attacking it with it.
"Alright, you overgrown weed! Let's see how you like this!" Enoch mocks his new foe as he then has the right arm of the back move and use it's chainsaw-like blade to heat up and cut apart the vines, burning through them like a hot knife through butter as Enoch frees his mech's cannon.
This attack seems to harm the guardian as it had to reel back it's dug in arm, and in turn, retract the vines it used earlier, using the soil under it's feet to put out the fire. As it looks at it's slightly charred hand, it's red eye glows brighter, likely indicating it is now angrier as it finally marches towards Enoch faster than it used to and actually tries to tackle Enoch. But the Noxian madman was ready and has his mech block the protector's tackle and revs up the treads to keep him moving forward and push against his foe's charge.
While this is happening, the three huntresses are watching, alongside the other soldiers, a bit amused at Enoch's struggle. Though while they have smirks on their faces, Marit's smirk fades from under her mask as she growls. "As amusing as this is, Enoch still has the information we need. Let's cut down that tree and get it over with, sisters." Marit tells her sisters, with Teneff scoffing and Arrel nodding.
"Fine. But once we get it, I'm punching his helmet off." Teneff tells her sister as she pulls out her sword.
Arrel was going to speak, but then she notices that her wolves suddenly turn around, growling at something behind them. The tracker follows where her wolves are looking and see Ben, Jun, Ester and Rojo arrive from where they came from. "We have guests." Arrel announces to her sisters.
Marit and Teneff turn around and see the four of them together. All of them immediately recognize everyone else except Ben, who they have don't know about, having only been familiar with Blitzwolfer earlier. "They're persistent, aren't they? No matter. They're dead either way!" Teneff growls.
While they all stare down their old foes, Arrel squints, staring at Ben, trying to tell who he is. She sees her wolves growling at him specifically, so the wolves must've encountered him before, enough to anger them like this. Then there's the fact that Blitzwolfer is not with this group and has been replaced with this random boy.
It didn't long before Arrel finally puts two and two together and points at Ben, with Marit and Teneff confused as to why she's doing so. As if to answer them, she says out loud, "He was the manwolf earlier."
"What?!" Teneff yells angrily, as her hate for Blitzwolfer has never vanished, only temporarily repressed. But now with Arrel's revelation, whether she's even right or wrong, Teneff didn't care as she then charges at Ben, aiming her sword at his throat as she let's out a battle cry.
From their side, Ben yelps a little as he spots Teneff charging at him, bloodlust in her eyes and fury echoing from her shout. Before she gets close though, suddenly, Rojo herself gets in front of him and, with a draw of her own sword, blocks Teneff's attack, defending Ben. "Go! Get Enoch! I'll hold her off!" Rojo yells but then the brutal hunter before her just kicks her down.
"You're in my way, scum!" Teneff yells at Rojo and actually raises her sword, ready to stab her.
Rojo, in her mind, feels like this must be karma, as sweat runs down her forehead, remembering that what Teneff is about to do to her is an exact mirror to what she almost did to that Ionian earlier this morning. The girl was prepared to take another stab, as if to atone for what she's done...
...only for Teneff to stop her attack when Ester jumps at her face and proceeds to punch her on her cheeks repeatedly. Teneff manages to actually get Ester off of her and toss her down, but Ester manages to land on both feet and pulls out her pistols once more, firing two shots at Teneff at the same time.
To Ester's surprise though, Teneff was actually not only got good reaction, but was also fast enough to intercept her bullets, slicing them both in the air with her sword. "Okay, that is not normal." Ester comments. "You two, get to the big guy. Rojo and I got her."
Ben and Jun nod, before the latter, much to the former's surprise, suddenly carries Ben in her arms and vanish in a bright flash of green light as a green blur zips past Teneff, making her growl in anger as her quarry is taken from her.
"Ugh! Fine. I'll deal with you two, then once I've skewered you both, I'm killing that boy!" Teneff roars out, all while Ester keeps her guns trained at the bald warrioress and Rojo gets back up from the ground, sword in hand.
"Touch one hair on his head, and you're getting yours filled with lead!" Ester yells at Teneff as she fires more shots from her gun.
Once again, the brutal huntress actually manages to slice some of the bullets in two, and some she actually blocks with the broad side of her sword, a smirk on her face all the way. Even when Rojo tries to take advantage of Ester distracting her by side stepping and attempting to cut her from the side, Teneff still blocks the attack as their swords clash.
"My strikes, I get it. I'm not trained enough to handle someone of your caliber... But there's no way you can casually just slice bullets out of the air." Rojo notices, all while her blade against Teneff's are creating sparks as the sword push against one another. "There's something else to you three. Even Captain Farron didn't want to face you, and I've never seen him be afraid of anyone."
Teneff maintains her smirk, before side eyeing Ester and sees the Yordle ready to fire at her again, so the brutal huntress jumps back as just as Ester fires, completely missing Teneff. "You're young. You've never seen what Noxus is truly capable of. Farron only ever showed you steel and black powder. But Noxus did not win this many wars on those alone. You think only Ionia is capable of magic?"
Suddenly, Teneff places her empty hand over her face, hovering over close enough to be near, but a bit far enough not to completely touch her face too.
Ester jumps over and stands in front of Rojo, as if to shield her of whatever will happen next, yet what does happen is something neither of them were prepared for.
All of a sudden, two rows of several, lime green glowing marks appear on Teneff's face, going down from the top of her bald head and across both of her eyes, like a vertical scar over both her eyes...
Jun, despite carrying Ben's full weight in her arms, is somehow still able to speedily move forward as they both make a beeline for Enoch. From Ben's perspective, it looks as if Jun is just running normally, yet everything around them is so slow.
This must be what people feel like when I carry them as XLR8...
Ben thought to himself, a bit surprised at this sudden change of roles. His watch is still in the red, so he can't transform yet to help himself.
But before they even reach Enoch and the guardian, something swipes and trips Jun mid run, causing her to fall over and drop Ben in the process, the two of them tumbling down on the dirt.
While dizzy from what just happened, both Ben and Jun try their best to force themselves to get back up and catch their bearings, as they're in a battlefield, only to spot Marit on her mount and Arrel with her wolves approaching them, together with the remaining Noxian soldiers.
But what is new to them is that Marit's axe-spear suddenly has glowing runes on it's broad area, the same as the ones on Teneff's face. They also see that Arrel's claws are now glowing green as well, and not only that, but even her wolves have the same kinds of bright runes on their bodies, wrapping around their bodies.
"Magic?" Ben asks, looking at the runes.
Jun nods, but the glare she's giving the two sisters before her shows how uneasy she feels. She comments, "It is certainly magic but... It doesn't feel like the magics in Ionia... This feels... stranger... darker..."
Marit then responds, as she holds her weapon tight, "You have no idea..."
"...what we are capable of." Arrel finishes for.
And, as if their minds linked, the three sisters, despite Teneff herself being far from her two other sisters, all say in unison...
"To serve the greater good."
Before any of the heroes could react, the three sisters then unleash magical energies from their spots as they obtain new things.
Teneff, over at Ester and Rojo, suddenly gains a glowing green, ethereal, skull like mask over her face, with sharp fangs. Her eyes' sclera change from a natural white to a terrifying dark hue. Teneff laughs maniacally, her voice sounding like it's double, with her regular voice playing with a much deeper one.
Marit's axe-spear suddenly gains a scythe-like blade made of the same ethereal energy as the runes on it. Marit proceeds to then twirl her weapon in her hand, creating the illusion that she's spinning a glowing green circle in her hand as she chuckles.
Arrel, though seemingly only has glowing claws... but then her wolves start to change as the runes on their bodies glow brighter. All of a sudden, these same wolves grow in size, larger than even Arrel herself. Their helmets grow with them, but gain ethereal green horns on them like those of a bull's and their claws protrude out and grow much longer as well as they snarl with a much deeper tone in the throat.
"What magic is this?!" Jun yells, aiming her blade at the sisters before her. "It feels unnatural, unreal. A perversion of life, that it mutates even wildlife!"
Marit chuckles as she commands her mount to move forward, holding her new energy scythe in hand. "Noxian rune magic. Rare but powerful, and now it will be used to annihilate you!" With that, Marit then swings her scythe and unleashes a wave of her dark magic that Jun is forced to grab Ben and then zip away to dodge the attack.
But just as Jun stops and sets Ben down, Arrel's mutated wolves suddenly jump and attempt to pounce on both of them.
Jun was about to use her blade to defend herself... but then a bright flash of green beside her causes her stop and the wolves are suddenly blasted by fireballs, exploding on impact and knocking away both of the monstrous canines.
When Juns looks over to where Ben was, in his place is now Heatblast, his flames growing bright as he enters a fighting stance, to which Jun does the same as well. "I am still not used to that." Jun says with a smile.
Heatblast chuckles back, his fists glowing as he conjures fire from them, ready to fight. "You haven't even seen the other 7." He jokes as Marit, Arrel and the remaining soldiers are all in shock at Ben transforming in front of them.
Arrel spots the hourglass symbol on Heatblast's chest, and recognizes that Blitzwolfer also had one on his stomach earlier. "So the boy can transform into creatures. This is most interesting." Arrel comments but Marit just growls.
"I don't care what kind of power he's got! Take him down!" Marit commands the rest of the soldiers and they all charge Ben. It seems their fear of the guardian earlier was exclusive to it, as they seem more confident in fighting Heatblast, who's only slightly taller than any of them.
But underestimating him is a mistake as Heatblast makes quick work on the soldiers by just gathering fire between his hands and unleashing it into a fireball that he throws down at the ground beneath them, creating an explosion that blows them all away and knock them unconscious as they fell on the ground.
Now it was just him and Jun facing against Marit and Arrel. With a loud yell and a swing of her scythe, Marit commands her beast to charge forward, as Heatblast does the same, running towards the wrathful rider and her mount. In turn, Arrel snaps her fingers and commands her wolves, that just got up on their paws, to run at Jun, and like her fiery friend, Jun runs at her foes as well, spinning her blades in her hand.
Marit swings her scythe in a wide arc, unleashing a powerful, arcing blade of energy that travels towards Heatblast in blinding speed, but Heatblast evades the attack, firing off a powerful explosion from both of his hands and shooting it beneath his feet to launch himself into the sky. As Marit's attack completely misses and slices apart the ground instead, Heatblast, still airborne, then swings his own arms in a similar arcing move as he throws discs of flame at the wrathful rider. After seeing Wind during the fight with the Azakana yesterday, he was a bit inspired to throw his own flaming shurikens.
Sadly, Marit simply spins her scythe in front of her to block the fiery disks, dispersing them all before she does her energy wave attack again by swing her scythe at Heatblast. This time though, the flaming hero gathers heat from both of his hands and unleashes it into a beam of fire at the incoming rune projectile. Both attacks collide into an explosion of flame and magic, creating a thick wall of smoke above Marit that blocks her view of her opponent, causing her to growl in annoyance.
But the fights not over as from within the smoke, the wrathful rider could see something heating up and heading towards her, and she immediately knew this was Heatblast, so she repeats her attack again, slicing the smoke in half so she can cut down Heatblast from the sky...
... only for her to see it was not him, but a fireball he left there in the smoke to act as decoy. Eyes wide in shock and confusion, Marit can not even ask herself internally where Heatblast went as he immediately reveals himself by landing behind her and her mount.
The rider was still fast to react though, as she turns her head a little to see Heatblast from the corner of her eye and commands her beast to whip it's tail at the flaming hero. This seemingly works as the creature swipes it's tail at Heatblast and seemingly strikes him on his side...
...but Heatblast saw this coming as before he could completely get knocked away, he finds the strength and reaction time to hold onto the mount's tail and anchor himself using it and digging his feet into the ground, much to the surprise of Marit. And she doesn't even get the chance to rectify this mistake as Heatblast frees one of his hands holding onto the tail and balls it up into a fist before aiming at Marit. He then unleashes a small but powerful fireball that blasts the wrathful rider off her mount. Heatblast made sure the fireball was powerful enough to do that but not so hot it would actually cause major burns on his enemy.
As Marit drops on the ground, her armor and some parts of her skin slightly singed, she gets back up, ignoring the pain, only to see Heatblast place one of his hands onto the rear of her beast and heat it up, causing it severe pain as it's skin gets burned, leaving a scorch mark of his hand on it. This was enough pain to scare the beast away as it runs off, heading deep into the forest and leaving the battle entirely.
Rage and annoyance are present in Marit's face, even if only her eyes are visible, as she grips her scythe tightly before leaping towards the transformed boy and swiping her weapon down at him. Heatblast manages to dodge in time by rolling to his right and landing on both feet before he enters a boxing stance.
"Teneff had the right idea all along. You're a pest that must be killed!" Marit roars at the fiery entity before, who maintains his boxing stance, all while he does little jumps in place, as if to keep mocking Marit.
"If I want your opinion, I'll just beat it out of you." Heatblast answers with a smirk on his rocky face.
Marit runs at him with another swing of her scythe, but Heatblast simply ducks under it before delivering a straight jab into her face, angering her. When the wrathful rider tries another, this time as a downward vertical slash, Heatblast weaves and sidesteps to dodge it, and then lands his another punch on her, this time on her side. Marit, growling under helmet, then tries another slash horizontally, but this time Heatblast moves forward and blocks the handle of the scythe, preventing the blade from striking him, before he finally lands a punch into Marit's gut, knocking the wind out of her. But he wasn't done as he then opens that same fist he punched her with and fires off a small explosion that knocks her back away from him, with the wrathful rider accidentally dropping her weapon in the process.
"Thank you, Vi." Heatblast whispers to himself, thinking back on Vi's lessons for him.
Meanwhile, just nearby, Jun dodges the claw slash of one of the wolves before backflipping away to dodge the pounce of the second one. Just as she lands on both of her feet, Arrel comes in and tries to swipe her own claws at the Wuju girl. Jun blocks her strike with her blade, but this made her vulnerable for Arrel to grab her by her throat with her other hand and sicks a bit of the tip of her claws into her neck, causing Jun to grunt in pain, gritting her teeth to prevent herself from yelling as her neck bleeds a little.
"It was foolish of you to face us alone." Arrel taunts Jun, in her own stoic, almost emotionless way as her wolves approach.
But as Jun struggles and kept gritting her teeth, to Arrel's surprise, she suddenly takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, calming down. Before Arrel could even ask what she is doing, the Wuju girl's eyes jolts back up into opening and reveal they are now glowing a bright green. Then, Jun unleashes a small shockwave from her body that forces Arrel back, letting go of the girl as she skids backwards that her wolves had to block her to stop her from falling over.
As Arrel opens her eyes from getting blown away, she is a bit surprised that Jun is now meditating in the air as her blade floats beside her. The wounds she gave the girl were even healing in mere seconds.
"The arts of Wuju makes an army out of one. I face you alone... for I am enough!" Jun boasts — nay — states facts as her eyes remain glowing. She then grabs the handle of double bladed sword, and whispers to herself...
"Wuju style."
"What are you—" Arrel tried asking, but in a blink of her eye, Jun was suddenly behind her. She didn't even notice she was gone from her view before the Wuju girl swings her blades in a circle. This attack causes yet another shockwave that knocks away Arrel and her wolves in separate directions, with Arrel landing on her face.
When the wolves get back up, they try to attack Jun once more, only for her to vanish in a flash of green light and, like Farron before, multiple after images of Jun appear and disappear all around these wolves before they all suddenly fall down, blood spewing from their bodies as Jun reappears where she vanished.
Arrel finds the strength to get back up, but the moment she turns around, Jun was suddenly in front of her in speeds the tracker could not even comprehend before the Wuju girl stops just a few feet away from her foe... and taps the tip of her sword onto Arrel's helmet.
To Arrel's shock, her helmet suddenly cracks apart and all the pieces fall the ground. "It was foolish of you to face me with pets rather than other warriors." Jun taunts Arrel one last time before using her fist to punch the tracker, hard enough to send her spinning and then falling over.
On the other side of the battlefield, Ester was unloading her guns at the now rune masked Teneff, who keeps blocking her shots. Just as the brutal hunter tries strike down the crackshot corsair, Rojo gets between and blocks Teneff's strike. They weren't done yet, though, as Ester climbs up Rojo's back quick, pulling out Rojo's dagger from her back along the way, and then attempts to swipe said dagger at Teneff.
Unfortunately, Teneff steps back and dodges the Yordle's attack before kicking Rojo away again, and Ester on her back, she too gets knocked over, the two of them falling on the floor. But as they get their bearings back, Ester noticed something from Rojo blocking Teneff's strike and getting kicked by her. "You felt that, right?" Ester asks Rojo.
To the Yordle's satisfaction, and a bit of pride, Rojo nods, replying, "Yeah. The rune didn't make her stronger, just faster."
"Fast enough to shield and dodge my bullets. But not strong enough to probably take them. That's why she's mostly on the defensive, and only attacks either of us when she finds an opening." Ester continues as Rojo finally stands up, with the Yordle following after. "I have an idea. Take this."
Ester then tosses one of her pistol to Rojo, who catches it in time as the Yordle brings out one of her crossbows to replace the gun she lent to her new ally. "Keep her on her toes. We divide her attention with projectiles from multiple angles, then on my signal, you take her out." Ester whispers to the Noxian girl. "All we need is one good shot."
"What are you two twerps yapping about over there?!" Teneff growls at them before chuckling to herself. "Doesn't matter what you do, either way! I'm faster than either of you!"
As if to try and prove it, Teneff darts forward and attempts another slashing attack at Rojo, who blocks it again this time, but due to Teneff's speed, she just barely does so as Teneff manages to make a cut on her cheek. To the brutal hunter's shock, though, Rojo aims the gun Ester had just given to at Teneff's gut. Rojo did not fire yet, but Teneff was so surprised at this she had to jump back...
...only to be forced to block Ester's pistol shots again, defending herself using her sword to intercept the bullets coming her way. And her problems did not stop there as she then hears a shot from elsewhere ring out and she blocks another shot from the other side. After doing so, she sees that the one responsible for this second attack is, of course, Rojo, the barrel of her new firearm smoking as she glares at the brutal hunter.
Eventually Teneff is met with hails of gunfire coming at her from all sides as Ester and Rojo take run literal circles around her, firing their pistols at the same time as the bald warrioress is overwhelmed by their combined attack.
Teneff was deflecting and block them all as fast as she could, but sometimes a shot would slip past her defenses, grazing her leg, her arm and her cheek, as she cannot block multiple projectiles from different angles at the same time all the time.
With each cut on her body made by the bullets grazing by her, Teneff was slowly getting impatient. Despite her speed, she can't find a real opening to attack either Rojo or Ester, as if she tries to attack either one, the other would have a clean shot on her, and even if she deflects that shot, the one she tried to attack would be able to attack her as well while she's distracted.
But she doesn't care anymore. These people have been annoying her since the encounter at the camp, and things have gotten worse since they showed up. Her self preservation being overridden by her desire to kill, Teneff this time only blocks Rojo's shot as she let's Ester's actually graze her on her shoulder, this time, the bullet was not as off as the other times as it fully wounds and creates a big gash on Teneff's shoulder.
Despite what the duo thinks, this did not slow down Teneff one bit as she used that brief chance to zip towards Rojo in blinding speed and actually tackle her, knocking back the gloryseeker girl and cause her to tumble, dropping on her back and next to one of the unconscious Noxian soldiers Heatblast knocked out earlier. As Rojo winces in pain, feeling her back, she looks slighty to her side, where the soldier is, and sees him still holding his giant axe in his hand.
Ester then fires one shot from her pistol and another from her crossbow, one after the other, forcing Teneff to face her. Teneff, though, smirks under her rune mask before laughing, enough for her mask's "mouth" to open as she then cuts down the bullet in two, and is about to cut the crossbow bolt...
...but the Yordle smirks. Because she always intended for this. As she remembers very well that during the fight with the Azakana yesterday...
...Her crossbow bolts are explosive.
And so when Teneff tries to cut it in half, the moment her blade's edge and the bolt's tip touch, the bolt explodes into a fiery magic that detonates so hard, it actually burns through nearly half of Teneff's body and knocks her back to the ground, Teneff finally screaming in pain as her burning skin and some exposed, burnt muscle are showing all over her body.
Ester winces at what she had done. She knew the bolt would explode, but she did not take into account that if it was powerful enough to harm an empowered Azakana, then it would be nearly lethal for a human being, even one with a minor speed enhancement like Teneff. Still, she's seen, and has done, worse under Captain Fortune's orders.
Much to her shock, though, Teneff roars into the sky as she gets back up on both feet, despite her severe injuries. Even her rune mask is now cracked in half, showing the left side of her face, revealing it to be horribly burnt and disfigured. And to Ester's horror, it seems Teneff has lost her mind as she starts laughing to herself, even as blood and burnt skin spills from the left side of her face.
"That was your last chance and you blew it! I'm... I'm still standing!" The burning huntress cries in in both fury and twisted humor before she runs at Ester in blinding speed and tackles her into a tree, pinning her to it as Teneff chokes Ester with her right arm, as her left has now actually been blown off by the explosion, leaving only a bleeding, burning stump. "I've changed my mind! That boy was a nuisance! Congratulations, I finally found someone I hate more than him... and it's you!" The burning woman roars at Ester before she starts laughing mad again.
"Well... glad to make an impression, though I do wish the explosion didn't blow apart your little magic mask. You look a bit disturbing to look at..." Ester taunts her foe more, even as she is being choked out by her. However, the Yordle maintains her own smile as she grins at the burning madwoman before her. "You know what would fix this, though? You should complete that look... with a helmet."
Ester speaks those out loud before winking to someone behind her. Teneff was confused by this, but when she tries to turn her head to see where Ester winked, it was too late...
...As Rojo had just thrown the axe she saw towards Teneff, and the whirling blade comes at her target...
...the axe impaling it's blade into Teneff's skull deep as blood spews from her head...
...Killing her.
Teneff's final gasps were raspy, before sounding like she's gargling her own blood... and her body falls down, letting go of Ester as a result, as the Yordle drops to the ground on her rear, coughing from being choked out. "You know..." Ester mutters, though she coughs again after she says, before clearing her throat to continue speaking. "...I thought you'd use the gun I just gave you... But that works too."
"I learned that from someone else." Rojo replies as she runs over to the Yordle gunner and offers her a hand up, which Ester happily takes as she stands back on both feet.
The Bilgewater Yordle and the Noxian girl both look at their foe, her eyes still open yet her breathing has stopped, with blood still trickling down her her and from her mouth as her rune mask fades away into nothing. Despite her experience, Ester could not help but sigh at the sight of their fallen enemy. "I broke my promise immediately..." Ester whispers to herself.
"Hm?" Rojo asks, but Ester only shakes her head as a response.
"Nothing. I'll be okay. Let's go check on our pals." Ester says, pointing a thumb over to where Heatblast and Jun were fighting Marit and Arrel. Rojo nods as they head off towards their allies.
And just in time too, as Heatblast had just thrown the unconscious Marit over the equally knocked out Arrel, both sisters atop Arrel's downed wolves as well, with Jun standing beside him.
When he sees Ester and Rojo approaching, Heatblast immediately runs up to them, with Jun following after. "You guys okay?" He asks.
"Was there any doubt?" Ester smugly replies, giving her friend a thumbs up, making Heatblast chuckle.
Rojo, though, is just staring at Heatblast, a bit perplexed, though she does spot the symbol on his chest and finally recognizes who he is. "How many forms do you have?" She understandably asks.
"Ten, including this one." Heatblast answers. "Now come on! That Enoch guy's still—"
Sadly for them, though, the ground shaking and a loud thudding causes all of them to turn and see that the tree guardian has fallen down, roughed up and burned on some parts, as it's bright red eye flickers... before fading into darkness.
The quartet all look over and see that Enoch has triumphed over the spirit, chuckling as he has his mech approach them. "Well, would you look at that. I suppose nature can only do so much when you bring a hundred ton vessel of steel and fire to fight back." Enoch boasts.
"You!" Jun yells, anger spelled on her face as she points her sword at the Noxian madman from his cockpit. "You defile these lands with your machines, brimstone and steel! You will pay for what you've done, tenfold!"
"Oh please. The guardian was hardly a threat. What chance do you think you have?" Enoch boasts and suddenly, he commandeers his mech to then slam the ground with it's right fist, creating a powerful shockwave and an explosion of dust that knocks away Heatblast, Jun, Ester and Rojo away as they all get blow off into the distance.
The shockwave so intense, it even blows away the unconscious sisters and the wolves as they all end up hitting the trees nearby.
Once the attack dies down and the dust settles, Heatblast groans, pushing himself off the ground and clutching his head in pain, before looking around, only to see that his friends have all been knocked out by the attack, hitting their heads on the trees and have fallen over on the ground. His transformations better durability seem to have made it so that only he is awake from that attack.
The fiery hero growls as he stands back up, the ground trembling underneath him as Enoch's mech approaches, it's tank treads desecrating the green filled earth beneath even further.
"The guardian defeated, your friends, unable to help you. You've run out of allies, boy!" Enoch mocks Ben further, even laughing at him as he threatens Heatblast by aiming the mech's cannon at him.
With a rageful grunt and balling up his fists, Heatblast stands back up as he glares at the Noxian madman, his body glowing brighter and hotter from anger. "I don't need any help to take you down!" Heatblast boasts back at his foe before sprinting at the mech in full speed.
Enoch laughs to himself again as he attempts to swing the mech's fist with the giant chainsaw attached to it, revving it up and trying to cut Heatblast down. Unfortunately for him, Heatblast manages to fly off the ground by firing blasts from his feet like a rocket and shooting upwards before landing on the arm that just missed him.
Heatblast then fires off a torrent of flame from his hands, the blast heading towards Enoch from his cockpit, but Enoch quickly has the other arm with the cannon intercept the attack and block the blast. "This is Noxian steel, boy! It's been heated up in our forges many times to form this amazing vessel! What makes you think your candle of a flame could even hope to burn through the platings?" Enoch boasts more before whacking Heatblast off the right arm with the cannon arm, as the fiery hero stumbles on the ground like a pebble skipping on water.
Still, Heatblast manages to stand back up on his feet as he glares at the madman on his cockpit. "If I've learned anything about forging from Jayce, is that not every metal is fireproof. They all got their own melting point!" Heatblast yells out before gathering heat between his hands and then raising them both up as he conjures a giant fireball above him. "So I'll just turn up the heat!"
The blazing Piltovan then throws his giant attack towards Enoch, who simply laughs it off again as the glowing blue chest piece his mech has starts glowing even brighter. To the shock of Heatblast, this chest piece then fires off a powerful, blue beam that completely overpowers his giant fireball so hard, it obliterates the flames into exploding in mid air as the beam goes straight through and headed towards Heatblast himself.
The fiery hero just barely dodges as he jumps to the side while the blast hits the ground he once stood on and unleashes a powerful blue explosion that knocks Heatblast even further away.
As the explosion slowly dies and the smoke from the blast remains like a fog, Heatblast gets back up and stares at where the explosion came from. If he could physically sweat, he would be right now, as the blazing Piltovan's eyes are wide in shock. He could only say, in disbelief, "That blast. That blue glow from the chest of the machine... That's Hextech!"
"Oh? You know Hextech, do you?"
Heatblast could still hear Enoch through the smoke, though it is still preventing him from seeing anything within two feet in front of him, so the fiery hero keeps his guard up, raising both of his fists in front of him while looking around.
"You know, when I saw you from the corner of my eye earlier, you did look pretty strange from the attire alone. You look too well dressed, and you didn't look like any Ionian I've seen and even slaughtered here. But you seem familiar with Hextech? Are you from Piltover, boy?" Enoch's words echo around Heatblast as he keeps looking.
Heatblast, though, just scowls as he keeps slowly turning around in a circle, trying to see where Enoch could be. He can feel the ground shaking, so Enoch's mech has to be moving, but it's still hard to tell where.
"What's it to you?!" Heatblast yells, playing along for a bit so he can hear Enoch talking again, trying to triangulate his position.
"Well, I just love the irony, honestly. I don't know how old you are, but you do look old enough to have witnessed what happened years ago between Zaun and your home. And Noxus' involvement with it." Enoch speaks. Heatblast is slowly getting a good handle on where he could be as he squints towards a particular direction. "So imagine my surprise to see you here, a Piltovan, getting yourself involved in Noxian affairs, after our nation became essentially a hero to your's!"
There you are!
Heatblast mentally yells as he swipes his right hand down, tossing a fast moving fireball towards a direction of his choosing, the fireball traveling through the smoke...
... and it explodes, as Heatblast hears Enoch grunting in the distance. This confirms his hunch as he follows this up with another beam of fire from both hands, the blast piercing through smoke enough that it clears through it and finally gives Ben vision of his opponent!
While Enoch manages to duck in time and dodge Heatblast's attack, the fiery hero finally has sight on his mechanized foe. "You guys weren't heroes! You escalated that war, so you can get your hands on Hextech in secret!" Heatblast cries out to Enoch in rage before rocketing towards him by blasting off jets of fire from his feet, launching towards Enoch's mech in blinding speed.
While on the way to his target, Heatblast heats himself up to temperatures he hasn't done so before, rising up his flame's heat before finally reaching the mech and, with a cock of his fist, punches into the mech's chest as the force of his attack combined with the extreme heat he's giving off was enough to both puncture through and melt through the vessel.
As Heatblast heavily damages the mech, he sees the Hex crystal within the mech that's powering it. He was about to grab it but Enoch's mech was still functioning, so he has it grab Heatblast with it's right hand. It succeeds as Heatblast's attempts to grab the crystal are thwarted with the mech's entire hand covers him and pulls him away. Enoch then has the mech tighten it's grip in an attempt to crush Heatblast within.
"You think you've won just because you put a little dent on my machine?!" Enoch yells with fury, tightening the grip of his mech further as Heatblast screams in pain. While his form may not have bones like his human form, he can feel the rock-like parts of his body cracking. "Piltover, Ionia... You're all the same! We give you a better chance to survive this world, and you all waste it by pushing us back! You're all so afraid to be part of something better! Something superior to what you have! And for what? Nothing!" Enoch rants off as the mech keeps gripping Heatblast tighter...
...until he feels a sharp pain on the side of his neck. Blood spews from his wound as he yelps. He pulls his right hand back and feels that a dagger has struck his neck, so he pulls it out and looks where it came from...
...and sees that it came from Rojo, who has now woken up as she glares at Enoch, fury, bloodlust and disappointment all mixed from within her eyes.
It didn't take long for Enoch to realize this was not a killing blow, but a distraction, but he was still too late as suddenly, a slashing sound and metal striking metal rings out before him and he sees that his mech's right arm has been chopped clean off, and he spots Jun suddenly appearing on the other side, her blade shining in her hand while her eyes and goggles were glowing green like earlier.
And Enoch's misfortunes did not end there as several crossbow bolts suddenly strike the now chopped off hand of the mech and explode, breaking apart it's fingers as the Noxian madman sees that Ester had fired all those bolts from both of her magical crossbows.
Finally, Heatblast, now free from the hand, emerges from it and jumps over to the mech once more.
"Wanna hear something funny, Enoch?" Heatblast says, looking at Enoch eye to eye as he fights through the pain all over his body. "You just got beaten by a Piltovan, an Ionian and a Noxian! With a bit of help from Bilgewater. You wanted to talk about irony? You just got one!"
And with that, Heatblast finally grabs the Hex crystal from the mech, pulls it out and depowers the entire thing.
"Noooo!" Enoch yells out as he places his hands over his head in fear and disbelief, but it was not the end as Heatblast tosses the crystal over to Ester, who catches it perfectly, before the fiery hero grabs Enoch off the cockpit and tosses him this time, with Jun catching him by the back of armor and zipping away.
Finally, Heatblast sticks his hand where the Hex crystal used to be and heats it all up, then his whole body, and finally the mech itself as the steel all over it's entire structure begins to glow orange and heats and finally, Heatblast yells out a battle cry as he fully melts and the whole mech, raising the temperature to the point that the mech can't handle it anymore, exceeding it's melting point as it becomes nothing more than a puddle of molten metal on the earth.
To make sure this doesn't end up burning the forest down, though, Heatblast made sure to absorb all this heat before in time, making the metal harden. Any stray flames that may have traveled across the grassy field and the trees, he also sucks in, absorbing them all so he can stop any potential forest fires. He's had trouble like those in the past.
Once all the heat and fire is gone, what's left of the mech is now just a big pile of hardened metal that looks like a rock formation made of steel. Heatblast jumps off of it and dusts his hands off as he looks at his work. "Welp... sorry about that. But I just had to make sure nobody can use that thing or repair it ever again." Heatblast tells Jun as she approaches, pulling Enoch behind her before they're joined by Ester and Rojo.
"It is alright. These lands know your intention and will forgive you." Jun nods. "Besides, you returned these natural metals and minerals back to the earth whence they came."
"I'm pretty sure those are Noxian metals though..." Rojo was going to comment, but Ester elbows her leg to stop her from speaking, which she did upon realizing she nearly ruined the moment. "Sorry." She whispers, earning a light chuckle and a smile from the Yordle.
"No!"
Their little moment is interrupted when Enoch breaks himself free from Jun's grasp backs away from them. All of a sudden, he pulls out the crown-like artifact he strapped to his belt and hovers it above his head with both hands. "I will not lose to you children!" Enoch yells as everyone enters a fighting stance, facing against the madman.
"Put that down, Noxian! You know not what it can do!" Jun warns Enoch, gripping her blade tight just in case.
However, Enoch just laughs as he takes some slow steps back, though Ben and the girls are approaching him in the same pace. "Oh, you're afraid, aren't you?! We sought this artifact for the great power it brings, and now that I have it, I can use that power against you! I'm sure the grand general will forgive me if I bring this crown as 'slightly used'. He'd understand I had to use it to eviscerate you all!" He yells out and starts laughing as he finally puts the crown on his head.
"No, Enoch, wait!" Heatblast yells out, but Enoch just keeps laughing as he suddenly begins to float in place, the crown around his head growing brighter.
"Yes! YES! I feel it! The power! This crown, this energy, it's...! It's..." Enoch starts to boast, but then he starts trailing off... and suddenly grunts in pain, and then he seems to have changed his tone entirely as he now tries taking off the crown off his head, yet it was not budging while it was growing brighter and brighter. "No! It's painful! No! Get it off! Get it o—"
He could not even finish his final words as the crown flashes bright into a golden light, forcing the quartet to shield their eyes as the last thing they hear from Enoch is a loud, echoing, blood curdling scream of pain as the light becomes to bright to even look at...
...and it dies out in a mere second as all that was left of Enoch... is nothing. Nothing, but the crown itself, dropping on the ground, smoking like a gun barrel.
"Wha—" Heatblast stutters, in utter disbelief as Enoch was just gone. Just like that. As his symbol on his chest flashes red, he turns back to human, with Ben's face much more readable than Heatblast, as the girls could see his shock and confusion. "Is he... did he die?" He asks.
Ester approaches the artifact, taking out one of her own daggers and pokes it like it like one does using a stick, all while Jun runs over to where Enoch found it in the first place, checking out the stone slab with runes. "Well, either he died or that crown ate him. Either outcome sound equally bad." Ester says, backing away from the artifact.
"We were after something so dangerous?" Rojo asks, though whether to herself or the others, it was not clear, as she wasn't really expecting an answer, her mind still in shock like Ben's as she keeps her eye on the crown, still smoking.
"Well, whatever it did to him, it seems no one was ever allowed to wear it." Jun says from her spot on the crater, reading the runes on the stone slab. Ben, Ester and Rojo slide down the crater to join her as she remains crouched down near the slab. "I can't read most of this, as it's using an ancient Ionian dialect that's been lost to these lands, but I can read a little bit of it."
"What does it say?" Ben asks, crouching down beside Jun.
Jun then reads the runes she can out loud, saying, "To whoever wears this, be prepared to be humbled, for this wreath shall judge your sins and burn you with them. Should you have too few, or none at all, you may be worthy of it's power. Should you have many..."
Jun stops there as she squints. "I can't read the rest." She admits.
"Well, if that thing judges by sins, then we don't need the rest, if buckethead's vanishing act is anything to go by." Ester points out.
Jun then touches a particular rune in the middle, which makes her nod. "This was the artifact's name... And it seems rather fitting." Jun says.
"What is it called?" Rojo asks.
Jun looks at them all, giving them a nod, and answers, "It roughly translates to... 'Hubris'."
The rest of the team all look at each other and silently agreed.
That was a fitting name for an artifact that did that to a man like Enoch.
All of a sudden, they feel the earth tremble once more. They all quickly exit the crater, climbing up to reach high ground again and see that the guardian construct seems to have healed itself over time, standing back up on it's arms.
While Jun, Ester and Rojo all look in awe, Ben, while happy the spirit is still alive, suddenly looks around, and finds the crown from earlier. He goes to pick it up, surprising the ladies with him, and then runs over to the guardian spirit, unafraid.
Ester wanted to stop her friend from making a mistake but Jun halts her instead, nodding to her, silently telling her to let Ben work. Ester sighs and nods, though she does feel a bit of a deja vu. Must be something that happened earlier today. She just shrugs it off though.
As the guardian spirit rises, it's red eye spots Ben approaching... but then he stops as he raises his hands carrying the artifact, handing it over to the guardian. "Here you go! Umm, sorry about the forest. I went a bit overboard." Ben speaks up as the protector spirit leans down to look at Ben closer, it's eyes still red. "I really shouldn't have picked a fire form in a thick forest, so, I'm really sorry. You can have this back. You were protecting it, right?"
The moment's a bit tense as the guardian tilts it's head, as if confused by Ben's actions and words. It was silent for a couple of seconds as Ben was staring back at the guardian. There was still no fear in his eyes. In fact, the spirit sees something... bright within them.
After a long silence, the guardian's eye finally becomes blue again and raises it's head, before hovering it's hand over Ben. The crown in his hand is then lifted up and goes to the guardian's hand, before the majestic entity then moves over to the pile of hardened metal Ben had made earlier as Heatblast.
The guardian then grows several vines from it's back and has them grow and move over to the stone slab in the crater before using them to pull out the slab and move it to the very top of the steel formation nearby. It then places the crown back to the slab as it absorbs the artifact back into itself, before spirit basically hugs the steel and grows more vines around it, until eventually, it fully envelops it all, creating a gigantic tree around and over the steel pile to keep it, and the artifact, protected.
The quartet watched it, at awe of how alive Ionia's land must really be to create such a beautiful and larger than life natural wonder like this.
Rojo, after seeing this firsthand, sheds a single tear. The beauty of Ionia and it's living lands... Has this what she and her people have been trying to destroy?
She wipes away that tear and looks away, ashamed of herself.
Ester sees this and pats the girl's leg to comfort her. Though when she looks to where Rojo was looking, she accidentally sees the rest of the battlefield. Aside from the crater Enoch had made, the Noxian soldiers are still unconscious, but the sisters...
"They're gone." Ester mentions, which makes the other three look and see that the three huntresses are indeed gone, even Teneff. They must've taken her body and ran away during the battle.
"Either they'll find a place to lay low to get revenge on us, or they'll just leave." Ben comments. "If we're lucky, they'll pick option number 2 and leave."
"They're stubborn. Most Noxians are." Rojo says.
Jun nods, though while she agrees with the girl, she smiles, determination written on her face. "If they do return, we'll be ready." says the Wuju girl.
After a long trek back to where they all first met, around the small village where Ben and Ester got some breakfast, Rojo, now carrying her bag she took while they passed by the Noxian camp from earlier, walks away from Ben, Jun and Ester.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Ester asks, making Rojo stop in her tracks, sighing.
The Noxian girl smiles, though, as she turns to face her new allies. "I have much to think about. About my life, and what I want to do. I don't know if Noxus was ever truly for me, but... I know the person who saved my life, and he's nothing like Farron or Enoch... I get why you guys don't like Noxus, and I'm starting to feel the same... But I need some time alone. To find myself." Rojo answers.
Ester nods and smiles back. She then approaches the Noxian girl and offers another fist bump. Without hesitation, Rojo takes a knee and fist bumps with Ester. "Don't get yourself killed out there. I didn't do all this just so I could bury you." Ester jokes.
"I won't. But... if you ever need an extra blade, then I'll be there... Well, if you find me." Rojo jokes back, before she stands back up and walks away.
Ben and Jun smile and watch as Ester waves goodbye to a friend — nay — a sister she had just made, shedding a single tear and making a chuckle.
"It seems that even some Noxian can be changed." Jun comments, her smile still on her lips. "Their nation has much to learn from Rojo. And I have much to tell the Wuju Order."
At the mention of the Wuju, Ben finally remembers what he and Ester were supposed to do... But now, he hesitates. After all the suffering both the people and the land of Ionia itself he has seen and heard of himself, Ben finally understands that perhaps the reason the Wuju Order is hidden now in both his father's journal and in present, is because of the suffering they endured. The loss, the pain, the deaths.
Ben really wants to meet the rest of the Order, if only to ask his father's history with them. To know the next clue to this long puzzle his father left behind... But even if he can tell himself, and even Ester, to keep it all a secret after the encounter... He just can't risk it. He doesn't want to put them all in harm's way, after everything.
Jun was his only lead... but to respect her and her order's privacy... He can't go through with it.
"So... this is goodbye then?" Ben finally speaks up, facing Jun.
Ester's ears twitch, hearing Ben's words, as she turns around to look at the two emerald heroes. She thought they were going to ask Jun about the Order, so now, she's a bit confused.
Jun, though, shakes her head, but smiles back to Ben as they look each other in the eye. "Goodbye... for now. But if you are staying around Ionia, then perhaps we'll meet each other again! After all, you seem to have a knack for trouble... And solving them." Jun replies to the Piltovan boy.
"Well, I can't ignore it when people need help." Ben nods, smiling as well.
"That is a very admirable trait, Ben. You have proven even outside Ionia's borders, there are people who have the heart to do good." Jun tells him. "Do not worry. You are a valued ally... and... friend."
"Thanks. You too, Jun. I'm happy to have met you." says Ben.
And as they stare into one another's eyes... Jun suddenly moves closer... and kisses Ben on his cheek. It catches him off guard, and for the first time in a while, he actually finally blushes, though only a little, as he smiles while Jun pulls back, chuckling shyly.
"I'm happy as well, Ben. May we meet again!" Jun nods and finally vanishes in that familiar green light.
Ben rubs the cheek Jun had just kissed, his blush fading but his smile remaining. Ester, though, snickers, arms crossed as she finds that all amusing. Ben raises a brow, looking over to his Yordle friend. "What's so funny?" He asks.
"Nothing. Just that I got an interesting story to tell Akali now." Ester teases Ben, which just makes Ben roll his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, laugh it up. Wait 'til I tell Ember you were all sappy and tried to adopt yourself a younger sister." Ben teases back as he walks away.
Ester, her smug expression transforming quickly into embarrassment, chases after Ben as she lightly punches his leg, causing him to laugh it off. "Don't you dare!" She yells at him as Ben keeps running and Ester keeps chasing.
"Alright, alright! Sorry!" Ben responds and finally stops running as he catches his breath, Ester standing beside him, pouting at him. "Whew... I'm still tuckered out from all the fighting... I wish Jun healed us first from the exhaustion."
"Oh yeah." Ester remembers. "You didn't ask her about the Wuju Order."
"Hm? Oh. Right. Yeah, I thought I'd just let them have their privacy, after everything they went through..." Ben clarifies to Ester, realizing she couldn't have heard his inner thoughts.
Ester, to his surprise, nods in agreement, though she does sigh afterwards. "Yeah, though now, we gonna have to... ugh... Ask around again..." She groans.
"Yeah. Ask around..." Ben repeats his Yordle friend's words... and then, as if a lightbulb turns on above his head, he remembers something. "Hang on..." Ben says he rummages through his bag... and pulls out the card the Nyancy woman gave him earlier this morning.
Ester sees the card and raises a brow. She asks him, "What's that? Where'd you get that?"
"Someone gave it to me earlier. It seems to be an invitation to something big." Ben explains. "She told me it could lead me to a lot of things, like entertainment, a place to, I guess, fight some people... and information."
"Informa— Oh. Okay, this place already sounds shady. I've seen that kind of stuff in Bilgewater. Either whoever gave that to you is telling the truth or is setting up a trap." Ester shares, crossing her arms once more.
"We'll never know if we don't check it out." Ben replies. "Besides, I got you with me. Remember our deal? You'll reign me in from my, quote unquote, 'naivety'?"
Ester sighs. She'll have to tell Ben about what she did to Teneff later. But for now, she'd have to agree. They don't have any solid leads right now, so perhaps if this place Ben is invited to really is special, then they'll have to check it out, especially if it can help them. "Fine But if it's a trap, you owe me the next couple of meals." Ester replies.
"Deal!" Ben agrees before he walks off. "Now if I remember correctly... the lady said I should show the card to..."
He looks around for a bit and finally, he sees the bar Nyancy had pointed to earlier. "The owner that place." Ben continues.
"Oh, good! I could use a drink anyway." Ester comments, walking ahead of Ben as he follows her.
There's been so much action today... and yet their rowdy day has only just begun...
Meanwhile, at the same beach and port Ben and Ester arrived from, a small, passenger ship arrives. While many of the people that leave the ship all look like they come from all over Runeterra from their different outfits, a particular group are all covered in cloaks.
While they all vary in heights, they all seem to be women. One of them is even on a... mechanized wheelchair of sorts.
These group of ladies all seem to be striking, yet the one in middle looks the most eye catching of all. While like rest, her body is covered in a cloak, her head is sticking out, revealing a beautiful dark skinned woman with a long braided hair, a peculiar eyepatch on her right eye, with her left one being a beautiful green hue, a cute little mole on her left cheek and thick, dark lips.
She smirks as she sniffs the clean air of Ionia, before exhaling and laughing it off. "Well, ladies. We're here. And it looks like we're just in time!"
"Oh calm yourself, Samira." The lady in the wheelchair says, moving her means of mobility forward. She has a messy pixie cut hair and is wearing red tinted sunglasses over her eyes as she slightly lifts them up. "We're not even there yet. Remember the plan."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it, Indari. But you know me..." Samira says to Indari, revealing the name of the lady in the wheelchair, as she herself walks off.
"...Either we take the shot... or lose our chance!"
ENDING NOTES: At last! It is done! Wahooo! Now I can deflate into a balloon from tiredness! Blegh!
XD
Alright, alright, some ending notes.
So there we go! A chapter to introduce more friends, and enemies, for Ben, focusing a lot on Ionia's struggle with Noxus and introducing Jun the Prodigy from Legends of Runeterra!
For those who know who she is, don't spoil it to the others! But hey, maybe I got other plans for her! You can never know!
This chapter, I'll admit, is mostly to set up for the next ones coming in as I plant more seeds to follow up on the ones I already planted with Jack, thanks to Nyancy, who is now a panther Vastaya in this version (and a lot less annoying, I promise), handing Ben that infamous gold and red card! I bet some of you already know who that belongs too! Nyehehe!
Now, for the die hard League lore fans, I have to also clarify something. I bet you folks already know of the three sisters featured in this chapter and you may wonder where those rune magics came from. Well, I made them up! ...Uh, sort of.
Those runes do exist in Runeterra and are on a special (but broken) weapon that belongs to a special someone you may already know, but I decided, as we've said around here already, taken some liberties and decided to give that same kind of rune magic to the three sisters as well, just to make them a legitimate threat to Ben and the others, but also to act as foreshadowing to our special someone later on, and the challenge they will face when confronting the remaining sisters!
And as you can also see, well... Yeah. Enoch's gone! Whether he's dead or not, well, that's a secret for now! But yes, he is indeed Noxian in this version. But he leaves behind a surprise I will spring to you guys later on, so stay tuned!
This chapter is a mix of a lot of Ben 10 episodes that I decided to combine and subsequently create my own little story for. A bit of "The Purge", a bit of "The Ultimate Weapon" and a little bit of "Viktor: The Spoils" too! But I hope you guys liked it!
And as for Rojo, she'll appear again someday, and Ester will be delighted to see her (basically adopted) sister again!
Anyway, again, I hope you guys enjoyed it! And as usual, leave behind some criticisms if you'd like, but let's keep it civil, yeah? I'm not George R. R. Martin levels of writing, so I hope you guys understand I can't make perfect chapters, just ones I try my absolute best in, but any help is still appreciated!
And as always, have a pleasant week!
