In high spirits, Caleb returned to his office.
"I've been back for a while now."
He picked up another document and flipped it open.
"You're a little slow."
He said it into the silence, and the room remained utterly quiet.
Kai'Sa had taken Yuumi off to rest. For the past few days, it had probably been the most exciting stretch of her life.
A cloaked figure slipped in without a sound, and the tip of a blade was already touching Caleb's neck.
"Don't move. Move once, and I'll open your throat and your carotid together."
"Talon?"
Caleb could not help smiling.
"How do you know my name?!"
Behind him, Talon went rigid, and even the blade in his hand trembled slightly.
A good assassin was supposed to leave no name behind.
His target should never know whose sword had killed them.
Katarina, the general's daughter, might enjoy the title of the Sinister Blade, and keep throwing herself into one dangerous mission after another for its sake.
But Talon had always operated in the shadows.
So how did this man know his name?
Talon's thoughts were still racing when Caleb, whom he had already been certain he could kill, vanished from right in front of him.
Thunder roared overhead.
A bolt of lightning smashed through the roof and came crashing down from above straight at Talon.
A mage?
Talon's reaction was immediate. The gemstone on his cloak flashed, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared.
As General Du Couteau's shadow, Talon's assignments had taken him all across the world.
So far, he had never failed.
Three throwing blades flew toward where Caleb had been a moment earlier.
At the same time, a wide circle of blades suddenly appeared where Talon had vanished, spinning in place and slicing the air with shrill force.
Talon's judgment had been precise. The blades he had sent out behind him had indeed hit something.
But instead of the muffled sound of steel sinking into flesh, what rang out was the hard, sharp clang of metal striking something solid.
"How?"
In that tiny instant, Talon's mind was already running at full speed.
The next second, he had his answer.
Right in front of him stood a pillar of solid ice, radiating waves of frost.
"So that's it, three spells cast in an instant?"
Even Talon, who had carried out missions in countless regions and dealt with many mages, was used to most of them mastering only a single kind of power, usually one specific element.
But Caleb had just used lightning, teleportation, and frost magic one after another.
Talon's interest rose immediately.
Another shimmer of light spread across his cloak, and it carried him lightly over the ice pillar.
He had not expected his opponent to be this capable, but someone lying in wait surely would not expect an attack from above.
The blades that had remained spinning in place surged forward in a wave, moving together with Talon's own edge.
He could no longer obey Miss Katarina's order to capture Caleb alive.
Talon had a feeling, this man was dangerous.
Dangerous enough to affect the Noxian Empire where General Du Couteau stood.
"Die!"
As he closed the last bit of distance, Talon could not stop himself from shouting.
But a violent gust swept the blades away, and even the knife in Talon's own hand struck nothing more than a shield.
This kid has more magic?
Talon's eyes widened slightly as he looked at Caleb, who was standing there with an easy smile, as relaxed as if he were strolling through a garden.
Caleb did not waste a word on him. He drove a heavy punch straight into Talon's abdomen.
He had held back on that one.
After all, Talon was built like paper, probably not even as tough as Vi.
Talon twisted in midair with difficulty.
That punch had been vicious. He felt like everything he had eaten was about to come surging back up.
He kicked hard off the wall and escaped through the hole the lightning had blown open.
"I'll repay today's grudge!"
Even as he fled, Talon did not forget to throw out one final threat.
Tsk, even that didn't knock him fully out of the fight.
Looks like next time I'll have to hit harder.
Caleb's body gradually turned intangible and passed straight through the wall.
Just in time to meet Talon as he dropped upside down, directly facing him.
Without a second thought, Caleb threw another punch.
This time he used real force, and the blow instantly numbed all four of Talon's limbs and dropped him flat onto the street below.
"Thanks."
Caleb lifted his head and looked at the clear night sky.
The gale that had knocked Talon's blades aside, along with the shield that had appeared around Caleb, had both come from Zaun's guardian spirit, Janna.
"You're welcome."
The voice drifted through the wind, swirling faintly as if it had come from somewhere far above the clouds.
Caleb did not waste any time. He immediately started stripping Talon's clothes off.
…Don't get the wrong idea, Caleb one hundred percent preferred pretty girls like Kai'Sa.
Talon's cloak was obviously an enchanted item, and magic was still flowing through it even now.
It had absorbed a good part of the impact from the fight.
On top of that, his knives were probably strapped tightly to his hands, and who knew how many other tools he had hidden on him.
Since Caleb had the chance, he was going to loot every last piece of it.
"The Blade's Shadow, no wonder you're such an outstanding assassin."
The truth was, Caleb had broken out in a cold sweat just now too.
It was only because he had such a wide range of abilities, and because he was being protected by two demigod-level powerhouses, that he had come out of it like this.
Otherwise, with Talon's reaction speed and combat experience, handling him would have been effortless.
After all, Talon had once turned the Black Rose upside down. Among blade fighters, he was the kind of person who could brush against the word strongest.
Too bad for him, he had run into Caleb.
If Caleb had not been worried about waking Yaanogel and having that thing hit Talon so hard he'd end up begging him not to die, he would not have needed such careful coordination in the first place.
He could have just pulled back and gone for his gun.
But Yaanogel's attacks were far too violent, far too extreme.
In that sense, it was actually very similar to Talon.
And precisely because of that, Talon would never defeat a darkin like Yaanogel.
On top of that, with Janna backing him, Caleb was rock steady and not worried in the slightest.
Bang!
What woke Talon up was not cold water, or a soft breeze.
It was Jinx, slapping him across the face again and again with all her strength.
By then, all of his gear had been stripped away, and he had been stuffed into an ugly straitjacket.
"You!"
Talon's eyes were practically splitting with rage as he glared at Caleb, the man who had reduced him to this state.
"Relax. Are you going to be cooperative and talk, or do you want them to have some fun with you first?"
If Piltover's shadows were operatives like Camille, then Zaun's were lunatics like Jinx.
But Jinx was too impatient, she really was not suited for interrogation work.
Every now and then she would get too into it herself and stop caring whether the other person wanted to talk. She would vent until she felt satisfied first.
The result was that even if the prisoner wanted to confess, they usually could not hold on and ended up dying on the spot.
Caleb had heard about that from Sevika. Ever since then, Silco had handed interrogation work off to other people.
So this time, Caleb had invited someone much more suitable.
Elegant, self-controlled, and possessed of unique expertise in both drugs and the structure of the human body.
A thin bald man with blind eyes slowly entered Talon's field of vision.
He looked just like a professional doctor, latex gloves pulled snug over his hands.
"Well then, I'll give you one more chance. Help me deliver a message to someone in Noxus."
"Heh, ptooey!"
Talon spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, and Caleb dodged it with a quick lean.
The truth was, Caleb still had not completely decided whether to kill him or let him go.
But if they were going to become independent, if they were going to sever that old relationship that had once been something close to subordination, then they needed to show those people the resolve of the twin cities.
"Shake, shake, shake, shake."
Singed picked up a vial of medicine, and there was even a trace of pity in his eyes.
"From the look of you, you've already been through a lot of pain," he said softly. "But I'm sorry, that won't be the worst of it."
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