At the same time, Luke and the others were still on the road to Hill City.
Having foreseen the coming snowstorm, Luke no longer pushed the march. From here, it would still take about a day and a half to reach Hill City.
So he decided to stop and rest where they were.
They found a stretch of open ground in the mountains, and before the blizzard arrived, the temporary camp was set up without issue.
"That's a lot of snow..."
Inside the tent, Lux stared blankly at the heavy snowfall outside, the drifting flakes reflected in her eyes.
Even she knew that this snow was not good news for Demacia.
Luke was also watching the snow outside, and he knew that once this storm came down, his brother's offensive would likely have to be delayed as well.
The air was cold. His fitted silk clothing did a decent job of keeping him warm, but the exposed parts of his body still felt the bite of the chill blowing in.
He could not help lifting the hot teacup in his hands and taking a light sip.
Just then, one of the personal guards came hurrying through the snow. The moment he entered the tent, he reported to Luke before even catching his breath.
"Your Highness, about three to four li ahead, we found a suspicious group. They're moving quickly through the snow, and we don't know their objective. Judging by their direction, they're about to pass along the far side of our camp."
"A suspicious group moving through a snowstorm..."
Luke thought about it briefly, then stood up. "Gather some men. We're going to take a look."
While the temporary camp had been going up, the rangers in the group had gone ahead to scout, and the report had come from them.
This area was already outside Demacia's borders, so the appearance of a suspicious group was nothing unusual.
Still, at a time like this, they had to check it out no matter what.
On the other side, a group of men trampled through the snow at high speed while shouting at one another.
"That bastard runs fast!"
"She hasn't stopped to rest for two straight days, damn it!"
"She killed so many of our people. I have to catch her!"
"This snow is freezing. Kadaven, is your tracking still working?"
"We've gone through this much trouble and brought this many men. Don't tell me we're going to lose her now."
"We're almost in Demacian territory. At least this snow can help cover us."
"No matter what, we need to catch that damned woman fast. If the Demacian army spots us, we're dead!"
"Kadaven?"
"Stop rushing me. I can't focus like this!" the man called Kadaven snapped irritably, raising the staff in his hand.
He concentrated, and his eyes lit up with a glow of magic. At once, a guiding trail appeared in his vision.
"She's right ahead. Move!"
He shouted, and the group immediately sped up.
Far ahead of them, a cloaked figure kept running through the snow. Beneath the cloak whipped by the wind, the face of a woman could be seen, along with skin of a purplish-red hue.
Her face showed clear exhaustion. She had run an unknown number of miles without rest.
And it was not just the last two days and nights without pause. Ever since the destruction of her homeland, all the way here, she had been hiding and fleeing.
She did not know why, when she was already struggling just to survive herself, she had still chosen to stir up more trouble.
But as a human, shouldn't a person at least have a basic conscience?
Even if, from a biological standpoint, she was not human.
Still, after living among humans for twenty years, she could no longer cast aside that part of her identity.
So when she saw a notoriously brutal warband massacring an unarmed village without distinction, she had stepped in without a second thought.
Because she had interfered too many times, they had eventually discovered her.
And so they sent more men, and stronger ones, specifically to deal with her.
What they did not know was how dearly they would pay once her anger was truly unleashed.
Unless she was absolutely forced into it, she did not want to transform and draw that even more terrifying being to this place.
Hunger, exhaustion, and fatigue all wore her down together, and Shyvana felt herself growing weaker and weaker.
When she realized she probably could not escape, she simply stopped running.
Not long after, the sound of footsteps came through the snow. One figure after another emerged from the storm, all eyes fixed tightly on her where she stood.
"So you're done running?"
"You killed so many of our men. You'll pay for that."
"Be careful. She's a dangerous fire mage."
At the front, the warband commander watched Shyvana with a wary expression.
Shyvana knew a fight was unavoidable. She stared coldly at them as heat began radiating from her body. The searing energy instantly melted the snow beneath her feet and kept the falling snow from coming anywhere near her.
That alone made the hundred-plus people opposite her grow sharply more vigilant.
"Finish this fast! She's used too much magic on the road, and she's had nowhere to recover it. That threatening attitude is just a bluff!"
Kadaven, a mage himself, saw through the fact that Shyvana was putting on a strong front while already running on empty.
And he was right. Shyvana had spent too much magic dealing with pursuers during her escape, and she had never had time to recover.
But she still held one final trump card she would only use if she had absolutely no other choice.
"Come and try it."
Shyvana threw out the challenge, her unusual orange eyes fixed on them, radiating a powerful invisible pressure.
That aura alone was enough to make it hard to breathe.
But with Kadaven's words, the group no longer hesitated, and all of them charged together.
Shyvana kicked off the ground and shot forward at the same moment. Locking onto the one rushing fastest, she threw a punch without a word.
The man immediately raised his shield to block, but in the next instant Shyvana's fist smashed into it with overwhelming force, hurling both shield and man backward straight into a tree, where he vanished into the snow.
The others, already aware of her terrifying strength, were not surprised. What they were truly wary of was the even more dangerous fire magic she wielded.
They did not retreat. Before long, Shyvana was trapped in the middle of their encirclement, and their attacks came in organized waves, like a unit that had undergone professional training.
Along the way, she had attacked three Noxian warbands, each over a hundred strong, and that had drawn the attention of Noxus, which in turn sent even more men after her.
This force numbered several hundred and was stronger overall. They had mobilized that many people just to deal with her alone.
That ridiculous ratio was proof enough of just how many people Noxus had, and it also showed that they truly could not tolerate Shyvana's defiance of imperial authority.
Encircled, Shyvana was clearly at a disadvantage. There was even a mage among the enemy, launching spells at her from time to time.
Whenever she could no longer handle the pressure, she would erupt with a burst of flame around her body and force them back.
But it was never long before they charged her again.
"She really is finished!"
"Don't hold back!"
"Take her alive!"
Shouts rang out from among the enemy, and all of them realized that this dangerous fire mage really was reaching her limit.
Shyvana's chest rose and fell lightly, but the pressure in her gaze did not weaken in the slightest. She took a deep breath, clenched her teeth, and prepared to throw caution aside.
At that moment, with a sharp whistling sound, an arrow suddenly shot out of the snow and punched straight through one man's head.
Shyvana instinctively halted the motion of her transformation.
Then came more whistles in quick succession.
In the next second, over a hundred arrows rained in toward the enemy.
"Ambush!" someone shouted in alarm, raising a shield to block.
The others scrambled to fend off the volley, though some who reacted too slowly were still struck.
The sudden development left Shyvana staring for a moment in surprise.
The warband, meanwhile, had all turned fully alert.
Out of the snow emerged one white-clad figure after another, their pale armor almost blending with the blizzard itself.
At the front was a handsome young man with calm eyes. He pointed his sword forward and said, "Kill."
The instant the word left his mouth, the hundred or so figures behind him surged forward and charged the warband.
"Damn it, it's the Demacian army!"
"They found us this fast?"
"Boss, what do we do?"
Though surprised, the warband quickly shifted into a defensive formation.
"They've only got this many men. They're handing us an easy win. Kill them too!"
Seeing that the enemy had only a little over a hundred men, the warband commander grit his teeth and decided to force the fight.
In weather this bad, even if they turned around and ran, there was no guarantee they would escape.
What was more, no matter how anyone looked at it, they had the advantage in numbers.
They had several times more people. Why should they be afraid?
With that order, the warband reacted at once, dropping the defensive formation and shifting into an offensive one.
In the next instant, the two sides slammed into each other.
Shyvana had no time to think about any of it. She immediately joined the battle.
Luke really had not expected to find a Noxian warband here. He had only brought a hundred personal guards with him to scout the situation. If he had known, he would have brought everyone.
Still, even with only a hundred men, that did not necessarily put him at a disadvantage.
His personal guard had been selected through layer upon layer of screening. Every one of them was well-trained and strong on an individual level.
And after this much time fighting together, they had developed excellent coordination.
Luke swung Snowglance at an enemy.
The man had just begun to raise his weapon when he saw a flash of sharp swordlight, and then the world spun around him. Blood sprayed out and dyed a broad patch of snow red.
Taking a moment to glance over at the cloaked woman, Luke caught sight of the purplish-red skin revealed when she moved her arm, and at once confirmed her identity.
Shyvana, the Half-Dragon. (League of Legends)
Luke was not actually surprised to see her here.
If he counted the timeline, this really was when Shyvana would be active outside Demacia.
Originally, when Jarvan IV was trapped deep in enemy territory and in mortal danger, it was Shyvana who passed by and rescued him. (League of Legends)
But now his brother had not thrown himself into a death trap.
So naturally, Shyvana had not needed to save him.
That was why her appearance here did not surprise Luke at all.
At the moment, she was probably still being hunted by her mother.
As he was thinking, several enemies had already rushed him and attacked without a word.
Luke did not panic in the slightest. He calmly stepped back, first taking the strike of the nearest enemy. Snowglance scraped along the man's weapon with a harsh shriek of steel.
In the next second, a thin line appeared across the man's throat. He clutched at his neck in horror, choked twice, and fell.
Before the other enemies around him could even react, Luke's figure blurred, and he moved with extreme speed, using Sweeping Blade. (League of Legends)
Several arcs of swordlight flashed through the air, accompanied by sword intent as soft as drifting clouds.
In the space of a single breath, Luke had already appeared behind them, flicking the blood from Snowglance.
With a soft rush, the men all collapsed into the snow for good.
Shyvana, who had also been stealing glances at Luke, felt a flicker of shock at the sight.
Those few sword strikes just now had been so fast that even she had failed to see them clearly.
At that moment, she suddenly saw a cold arrow shooting toward Luke's back and hurriedly shouted, "Watch out!"
Luke had naturally sensed that sneak attack as well, but before he could react, a flying dagger moved even faster and intercepted the arrow in midair.
The second dagger flashed with cold light and buried itself straight into the neck of the hidden archer behind a tree.
Luke turned toward where the daggers had come from, surprise flickering in his eyes.
There in the snow stood a red-haired woman with a slender figure. Her long crimson hair whipped in the wind and snow, and her beautiful, cold face held a proud stillness. A narrow scar ran down over her left eye, but it did nothing to diminish her beauty. If anything, it only gave her an added edge of ruthless allure.
Seeing Shyvana here did not surprise Luke.
Seeing her, though, absolutely did.
Their eyes met for a brief instant, and then the red-haired woman moved.
Her body shot forward at great speed, a dagger appearing in her hand at some unknown moment as she slashed at the warband.
In a flash of steel, the merciless blade had already taken one man's life.
A spray of blood splashed across her cold, beautiful face, making that fair skin look all the more untouchable.
Luke still had questions in his mind.
But he felt there would be time to ask after all this was over.
He glanced toward Shyvana. At the moment, she was being pressed from all sides by the enemy and looked increasingly drained.
The exhaustion of the long pursuit had pushed her to the brink of collapse.
Seeing that, Luke flickered forward in a few quick steps and swung Snowglance, breaking the pressure around her.
"Thank you."
Shyvana looked at the man's back in front of her and voiced her thanks. Then she stopped conserving her strength and threw herself at the surrounding enemies.
The battle continued, but it was not unfolding at all the way the warband had expected.
They realized that even though they had several hundred men and the other side only had a little over a hundred, they could not seize any advantage at all.
On the contrary, their disadvantage was obvious. After several coordinated assaults from the personal guard, they had already lost nearly half their number.
And their count kept dropping.
The number on the other side, meanwhile, seemed not to change at all.
At last the warband commander realized how bad things were and roared, "All troops, retreat!"
The moment he shouted it, he turned and fled without hesitation.
Seeing that, Luke gave the order at once. "Chase them. Don't let a single one escape!"
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