A Search Through Runeterra (Arcane)

"Let the world hear our howls and know that death awaits." ~ Naafiri, The Dawg Jr.

Comments? Please? Or some power stones?

Also what have they done to my game..... I haven't played league in a month.

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The group came back with information.

Gregori looked through them all and he had prepared himself for the invasion. The fire crackling a couple inches from him.

There were two things that stood out in the information provided to him. One more curious than the other.

Information of shamans from Demacia.

Shamans were the names the Freljordians preferred to call mages. These ones were from Demacia. Gregori hadn't expected that but it did make sense. Demacia wouldn't accept any mages at the moment so it only made sense for them to relocate. But he had not imagined they would brave the harsh climate of the Freljord. Not to mention fighting for a tribe.

It was bizarre.

The information also contained information about a mage who fought an Iceborn and won while in contact with True Ice.

This was a wild card. One similar to him.

A powerful Demacian mage... His lips slowly curved up into a smile.

This might be a good test of his abilities against another mage. Or group of mages. Since he wouldn't be using Caalyx, it would be a matchup of pure skill. Him or them. He had the skill, experience and power but they had the numbers. It would be an ordeal.

But it was necessary. The fight against Naganeka proved that. He was woefully underprepared and underestimated the power of a Darkin. The years of peace had dulled him. He had relied on thinking instead of moving instinctively. He had chosen to take it slow instead of going all out at the very start.

Small mistakes.

But they added up. They always did. And never in his favor.

He needed to be strong and prepared enough to beat the sum of all his mistakes.

Gregori flexed his cold fingers, the numbness doing little to mask the fire that burned inside him. 

He sighed, looking at the sigh fog in front of him.

It wasn't nervousness.

Just some feeling that rose from the pit of his stomach. Something that made him feel a little queasy. The small pressure building in his throat. The one you cannot swallow no matter how many times you try to.

His body was waiting.

As if it was expecting something.

Something big would happen in this upcoming conflict. And he would be on his own.

The group he would be facing had two Iceborn and a number of mages. Among them, an exceptional mage. Druvask riders and even Wildclaw riders were a part of this group. Nearly sixty man strong. 

Various skills and various abilities.

A true melting pot of combat capabilities.

The other thing was the timing of the attack. Two days. They would all attack simultaneously in two days. A rush that would break through any of the defenses that Avarosans could be able to muster. 

The previous impossible mission seemed downright easy now that he considered it.

His body was ready. Not in perfect condition but ready nonetheless. The only thing out of tune was his mind.

His mind wasn't in the right place.

He knew what he had to do and he had accepted it. But it was as if he was looking at himself from the outside. He didn't feel the anticipation of the fight in his head. 

Either he had completely lost the feeling or the continuous shocks and battles over the past year have numbed him to the thought of conflict at this scale.

Gregori had formulated multiple plans on how to take them down but only one stood out.

It was simple.

Extremely so.

But it was effective. Effective enough that it would win him the battle quickly and without harm.

The last few days, he had spent fine tuning his control over his own magic. Pulling things seemed like a simple ability. And it was. But it was more than that. His original understanding of the ability was to just pull things around. But no. It was much more. He could pull whatever where ever.

Any thing could be pulled as long as he had the magic and control.

Both he possessed.

The magic training had garnered the attention of the children as well.

And they followed him to train. They watched. Questioned. Replicated. And improved. The most important thing they had learned was control. Rell and Daani were extremely good at control but lacked the pure power. Rell's tattoos provided some leeway but it was a stopgap. Not something she could rely on forever.

Annie on the other hand? Less control but immense power. It was a guarantee.... being contracted to an extremely powerful demon. But she had little to no control. It was a byproduct of her maturity. She let the flames burn as they wanted instead of how she wanted. She felt no remorse for any of the things she burnt. But Annie was always like this. Guilt-free. Something he hoped would change with age. 

Faye was both weak in power and control. Both had the chance to develop but she was still lagging behind the group. The moment he had started patting the children for performing well, she flipped her stance and started training as hard maybe even harder than the rest.

Motivation was her key.

The most surprising was Sydell.

He had imagined that the boy's magic just let him shoot webs and walk on any surface but no. It strengthened him. He could match up to an Iceborn in terms of physicality. A true hidden talent.

He could leap farther, run faster and be more flexible all the moment he let the magic run through him.

It was straightforward but diverse in the same sense. 

Both his power and control over it was very high. Something he did not expect to see in him.

But despite having the magic necessary to keep this up, he got tired quickly. A physical limitation. One that would fade as time went on and he grew into the man he would eventually be.

Just a matter of time until he stand over them all.

But his powers would be more suited to large cities and structures. Even forests. Large open fields would be bad for him. In his element however? he would be unstoppable.

Briar on the other hand... she did not care, at all. She watched them train. She didn't do any training. It wasn't necessary. The blood magic was constantly active. Constantly coursing through her at every instant.

Her body recognized it. She recognized it. And so did he. There was no need to force her to do something she wasn't interested in. He wouldn't force her even if she was completely fine. It was also not good to train her blood magic. That was dangerous and with her condition, unpredictable.

He was happy with her being happy. The girl needed it. 

The final child. Daisy. She felt left out due to the absence of magic but convincing her of the abilities of Iceborn was easy. She was one. She knew what she could do. She knew what her weapon could do. 

Instant Death was not something to be looked down on.

Put the Iceborn against a bunch of Noxian soldiers and they will win ninety percent of the time purely because they would just kill them in a single attack. An Iceborn on a mount? That was a game changer.

And Ashe was special among them with her bow. There was only one known long range True Ice weapon and she possessed it.

A one hit kill long range weapon?

Unstoppable.

But she was still inexperienced with it. She was a good archer. Key word being good. Not the best. Having spent most of her young life training with blades, knives and axes, shifting to a bow was an ordeal.

One she seemed to be handling pretty well.

It was why she and Tryndamere were on opposite ends of the battle. Both had the power to end up stopping an invasion by themselves.

Especially Tryndamere. The blood magic had made him into something akin to a Human-Darkin hybrid but left the connection to a weapon behind. Almost like a partial ascension, tied to his mortal shell.

After a few conversations with Caalyx, the three of them had come to the conclusion that this ailment could only be cured when Aatrox was separated from his current host.

Tryndamere and the other Iceborn from the allied village would be together in repelling one side of the invasion where as Ashe, Braum and Gragas would be holding off the other side.

Ashe needed the protection to dish out the arrows. Braum provided that with his shield and Gragas kept everyone away from her while swinging his barrel, an interesting choice of weaponry but if it worked..... it worked.

Gregori reached for his own weapons. The shield, a hand-axe and a few knives. All were kept sharp.

Gregori greased the outside of the shield and cleaned the area around the outer spikes. Routine upkeep of the weapon was not needed, it was indestructible but he wanted to do it. A pre-battle ritual.

Just him and his weapons.

Him and his tools.

A final swipe of the cloth and Gregori looked up from the shield. His eyes were sharp. A glint of something dangerous under them, they flitted toward the crackling fire before shifting once again, this time to his side.. He reached for a group of glass vials next to him. He had something to take care of and it would take most of the day to complete.

"Well then..... I suppose it is time to surprise them."