In an unknown forest.
It was summer. The trees were thick with branches and leaves, faintly blocking the falling light and forming broad patches of shadow.
Not far away, the sound of a creek flowing kept drifting through the woods.
A figure traveling quickly suddenly appeared, then stopped.
Katarina wore a tight set of leather armor that outlined her graceful, curving figure. Her shoulders and several other areas were wrapped in light armor. Her beautiful red hair still swayed slightly from the motion of stopping, while her bright, aloof emerald eyes now swept across the surroundings.
"If I were you, I wouldn't choose this place for an ambush."
She suddenly spoke, her cold, clear voice echoing through the quiet forest.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Several sharp sounds rang out in succession. Crossbow bolts shot toward Katarina from different directions at high speed.
The next second, Katarina vanished from where she stood. The bolts struck nothing. In the blink of an eye, she was standing on a huge stone, and beneath her bloodstained blade there was already one more dead soul.
"We've been exposed. Attack together!"
A voice came from one corner without hesitation. In an instant, several figures leaped out and lunged at Katarina together.
Faced with this situation, Katarina showed no panic at all. She raised her hand and shot a dagger at one of the assassins.
Such an obvious attack could naturally be dodged. Yet the next second, Katarina's figure disappeared into thin air, and she had already appeared instantly at the dagger's position.
Without mercy, she raised her hand and stabbed into an assassin's ribs. A choking sound came from him, and blood poured from his mouth.
"Shunpo?!"
"Everyone, be careful!"
The assassins cried out in shock and became even more vigilant.
"Since you investigated me, why did you still dare come?"
A sharp, cold smile curved Katarina's lips. As her words fell, her figure vanished from where she stood again.
The assassins looked around in panic. Suddenly, one assassin's eyes widened, and he roared, "Luca, behind you!"
Luca's face filled with terror. By instinct, he swung his weapon behind him. The next second, a sharp pain tore through his arm, and he could not help roaring in agony.
"Ahhh!"
The scream did not last long, because Katarina had already swung her dagger and stabbed it into his neck. Before the blood could spray out, she vanished again with another Shunpo.
Two moments, two dead.
She was like a ghost, and an atmosphere of fear instantly wrapped around the scene.
For a moment, it was impossible to tell who the real assassin was.
These assassins finally understood why Katarina was called the Sinister Blade. It was because no one knew where she would appear the next second, or what method she would use to kill.
At the same time, she represented death. That was what made her sinister.
This was the title Katarina had recently earned. She had already risen to fame in the assassin world and become a renowned top-tier assassin.
"Stay calm! Group together, we have the numbers!"
An assassin gripped the weapon in his hand tightly. Then he suddenly glimpsed a flash of red hair and cried out, "Left!"
He attacked to the left at once. At the same time, all the assassins moved, but they struck empty air.
"Looking for me?"
Katarina appeared behind them and spoke mockingly.
The assassins turned back, and she flicked her hand. Two daggers shot out at once. While the assassins dodged them, they began guarding against whether Katarina would Shunpo to the daggers' positions again.
Only this time, Katarina did not. Repeatedly using Shunpo consumed a great deal of stamina, and she did not want to waste her precious strength on a few small fry.
"She's out of weapons!"
One assassin noticed that Katarina's hands were empty and immediately rushed forward, swinging his weapon to cut her down.
Clang!
The next second, however, the crisp sound of weapon striking weapon rang out.
The assassin's eyes widened as he stared in shock at the dagger that had appeared in Katarina's hand out of nowhere. He had no time to think and launched several fierce attacks in succession.
Katarina blocked them all. Then with a reverse motion, she diverted his force and directly disarmed him.
Immediately afterward, her dagger stabbed into his shoulder. Then she twisted it, crushing the bones in his shoulder. At that moment, the assassin's four remaining companions also rushed over.
Katarina kicked the assassin in front of her. Two assassins dodged aside, while two others continued attacking.
Holding one dagger in each hand, she handled the two men's attacks with ease while retreating. Behind her was a large tree, and she was about to have nowhere left to go.
Using the opening created when she knocked both attacks away at the same time, she leaped. Two assassins were chasing from the front, so she stepped onto one assassin's shoulder and used the momentum to flip backward.
Her feet landed on the tree trunk. Like a cat ready to spring, she pushed off with both legs and darted away nimbly.
"Damn it!"
The assassins could naturally see the difference between their movement techniques. Right now, their numbers were their last hope.
When the distance widened, the assassins fired crossbow bolts.
Katarina dodged back and forth through the trees, toying with the assassins below until they were spinning in circles. Once no more bolts came, she stopped and smiled indifferently.
"Now it's my turn. I've changed my mind. Using you to test a new move might not be bad."
She raised her hand and shot the two daggers out again. The assassins immediately fixed their eyes on the daggers and prepared to attack.
They wanted to predict Katarina's landing point by watching the daggers' paths.
They had indeed guessed that Katarina would do that, but they had not guessed where her landing point would be.
Because the daggers suddenly multiplied.
Katarina leaped lightly down from the tree. Two more daggers flew out. Midflight, those two daggers suddenly became six, each flying in a different direction.
The sight dazzled the assassins. The next second, Katarina disappeared. She Shunpoed to one dagger, and two more daggers flew out.
The daggers grew more and more numerous, dancing constantly through the forest alongside Katarina's ghostlike figure.
Now no one could predict where Katarina would land, because there were too many daggers to guard against. She was like the reaper of death, appearing in a sudden instant to take your life.
The four assassins died in despair just like that. Even with the four of them relying on one another, it was useless.
A pile of corpses lay on the ground. Katarina finally landed steadily, her breathing still very calm, though a few beads of crystal sweat slid down her forehead.
Although she had intended not to waste stamina, testing a new move seemed to have wasted a little more of it.
But that did not matter. She was quite satisfied with this move, and recently, she had even given it a new name.
Death Lotus.
She looked around and noticed something.
It was the assassin whose shoulder she had stabbed earlier. Whether because of luck or something else, he had actually survived by chance.
At this moment, he lay trembling on the ground, staring at Katarina in terror, as if his eyes were saying, "Don't come any closer."
At a moment like this, even Katarina's stunningly beautiful face could not soothe the fear in his heart.
Katarina looked at him, and a smile curved her lips. "Who sent you? Answer well, and I'll give you a quick death."
"I, I don't know. In any case, it was a mission given to us by someone important. We didn't want to take it either, but refusing meant death too. Please..."
Before the assassin could finish begging, Katarina had already thrown a dagger, burying it in his forehead.
A thoughtful look appeared on her face as she murmured to herself, "Then it seems it was Darkwill."
It was also possible that it had been one of Du Couteau's enemies. He had made plenty of enemies over the years, and after his death, there would always be someone who wanted to take revenge on his family.
She was now a little worried about her mother and sister far away in Shurima, but this was not the time to go find them.
Because as her activities in Noxus increased, she could see more and more clearly that Noxus, under Darkwill's rule, had already reached the edge of rot.
And that man had already begun targeting the Assassins' Guild, sending several waves of assassins to kill her one after another.
Right now, no matter who had sent this group of assassins, Katarina would treat it as Darkwill's doing.
When the time came, she would settle both old and new debts with him.
Thinking of the road she still had to travel, Katarina quickened her pace.
Half an hour later, she arrived at a treehouse in the forest. Only after confirming there were no other ambushes did she push the door open and enter.
Then she found a chair and sat down casually, waiting in silence.
Another half hour passed. A figure appeared outside the door, then pushed it open and walked in.
She looked at the newcomer. He wore gray robes, and a mask covered his face, leaving only a pair of calm eyes visible.
She went straight to the point and asked, "Did you find the results?"
"Yes."
Talon nodded slightly, took a record from inside his robe, and placed it on the table in front of Katarina. "This is the information on Melli that you asked me to investigate. This is everything I was able to find."
Hearing that, Katarina slowly picked up the information from the table and began reading. Then a thoughtful look appeared on her face, while an interested gleam flickered in her eyes.
She murmured to herself, "I wonder what that guy will do once he finds out."
Talon stood to the side without disturbing Katarina. Only after she finished reading the information on the paper did he slowly speak.
"It looks like you still haven't heard the news."
Katarina raised her head in confusion. "What? I've been running around everywhere these past few days, so I really haven't received much news."
Talon said, "Demacia has attacked."
Katarina froze slightly. "Attacked?"
"Yes." Talon nodded and said, "The one leading the troops is that second prince, the son of Melli, the one you asked me to investigate. Trevale has already been breached, and they are still continuing their advance."
After hearing that, Katarina did not answer. Instead, she lowered her head and fell into thought.
Upon hearing this news, she did not feel surprised at first.
Ever since she had been by that man's side, she had vaguely sensed that although he seemed careless and unserious, once he truly did something, he always shocked everyone.
That he would personally lead troops against Noxus was, to Katarina, honestly something that would happen sooner or later.
The more one understood that guy, the more clearly one realized how extraordinary he was.
So Katarina was certain that sooner or later, that man would make Noxus suffer a great loss.
She just had not expected that day to come so quickly.
It seemed Demacia had only recently lifted the Mageseeker prohibition not long ago, yet he had already led an army here.
Thinking about it more carefully, this was indeed a good opportunity.
That fool Darkwill, ignoring the objections of the people, insisted on continuing to send troops to attack Ionia.
If it were her, she would not pass up such a good opportunity either.
"But if that guy is leading the troops, Darkwill is in trouble."
Katarina slowly thought it over and spoke to herself.
Hearing this, Talon asked, "Is that prince really that impressive?"
"He's just a damn prince. But no matter how bad he is, he's still countless times better than Darkwill."
Katarina snorted coldly, seeming a little angry.
Talon said nothing. Observing Katarina's expression, he learned that Katarina seemed to know that prince.
He did not know what Katarina had experienced during her time in Demacia, but he figured she had met that prince.
After staying silent for a few seconds, Talon asked, "What are you thinking?"
"About Demacia attacking?"
Katarina's gaze flickered. In the past, when Du Couteau controlled the Assassins' Guild, he would usually assign missions to assassinate enemy generals.
After all, the Assassins' Guild was ultimately loyal to Noxus. Finding ways to solve Noxus's problems was what they were supposed to do.
Right now, as the leader of the Assassins' Guild, Katarina naturally had to consider whether to intervene in this war.
"What do you think of Noxus as it is now?"
Instead of answering the question, Katarina asked Talon one in return.
Talon thought for a moment, then said, "An idealized, hypocritical empire. The empire has always promoted the idea that as long as someone is strong, they can rise. To me, that is just a slogan the upper ranks came up with to trick the lower ranks into risking their lives."
"Among them, I haven't seen many people who truly managed to rise. This phenomenon can be seen in every corner of Noxus. Power circles around and around, and in the end, it always falls into the hands of those nobles and warlords."
This was the real Noxus.
Those who held the world in their hands had always been Darkwill, and had always been those nobles and warlords.
Among the commoners who had truly risen, the one who left the deepest impression on Katarina was only one man.
The Hand of Noxus, Darius.
This man had started as a nameless soldier in the army and climbed step by step to his current position as Noxus's Grand General. What he had truly relied on was only his overwhelming strength, strong enough to suppress everything.
He had genuinely killed his way up from the very bottom, step by step.
Even a man like that could only barely make those nobles and powers accept him as their equal.
That went even more for those weaker than him.
The reality was that capable people still had to lower their heads and serve those incompetent people in power.
It was just like that saying, a family spends centuries and dozens of generations struggling and working. Why should they accept some commoner standing beside them as an equal so easily?
So in Katarina's eyes, the true essence of Noxus had already become a hollow lie.
Perhaps many years ago, Noxus had not been like this.
But at least, it was now.
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