Irelia: Ionian Fervor – 6

Irelia arrived at the city of Malthrir in the late afternoon. The weather was much cooler in the north of Ionia, but Irelia felt extremely comfortable. As she made her way into town she began to feel a familiar sense of dread kicking in. It was the exact same way she had felt walking into the city of Ionia several days ago. On high alert, she held her blades out in front of her, ready to attack. As she wandered on the outskirts of the city, her unease grew the longer she went without seeing someone.

As she debated her options, she decided to go with a reckless choice. She called out, “This is Irelia, Will of the Blades, Captain of the Guard of the Ionian defense forces. If there are any Ionians here, show yourselves!” She only had to wait a moment before a door opened about a hundred yards in front of her. She jogged over, blade at the ready, hoping she wasn’t walking in to a trap. A strange face peeked out of the doorway and said, “Welcome to Malthrir.”

Though Irelia had heard of the Wuju Bladesman, Master Yi, she had not met him personally. He had been assigned to the northern forces during the Noxian invasion, and Irelia made a name for herself fending off the southern invaders. She knew in theory about his odd goggles he wore, but it was another thing entirely to see them for herself. There were seven green, glowing eyes to them, and he looked more like an insect than a warrior. She tried to mask her surprise and quickly said, “Master Yi, I’ve been assigned to provide you with assistance and…” She paused, knowing this was going to be a sensitive subject. “I’m also here to take over operations in this area.”

Master Yi’s face remained impassive, and the silence hung in the air for a long moment. “Very well,” he said with a professional tone. “Come inside and let me update you on the situation.” Irelia felt slightly guilty, but orders were orders. As they walked into the house, Irelia saw it was well furnished and had clearly been lived in, but it was empty. “Where are all the civilians?” Irelia sincerely hoped they had not already fallen. “They are all holed up together underneath one of the buildings across town. I’ll explain more once we are safe.”

They reached a staircase on the far side of the house and Master Yi knocked on the side in a peculiar pattern. When it opened she followed Master Yi down a hidden staircase and found herself in a dimly lit room with soldiers scattered throughout. It was dismal and Irelia asked, “What on earth happened here?” Master Yi looked back and said, “We were attacked by Zaun. They were led by a man I’d never seen before. He spoke with a heavy accent and had some kind of arm coming out of his back.”

He hesitated, “They used some kind of gaseous weapon on us and we evacuated the city as soon as possible. That’s how we ended up down here.” Irelia looked around and said, “Is this all the fighting forces we have left?” Master Yi nodded and added, “There is nothing we can do to combat them. The gas is easy enough to stop if you have something covering your mouth and nose, but by the time we learned that, we had no men left. That gas is quick acting and deadly.”

Irelia sighed and leaned up against a banister. “Thank you Master Yi. I’ll decide what we can do and get back to you shortly.” He remained standing where he was and said, “One more thing… why did it take you two weeks to get here? The journey only takes two days, and we sent someone out as soon as this started.” He hesitated, “And not that I haven’t heard of your reputation as a warrior, but I was hoping we’d get more reinforcements.  As it stands we only have one hundred men to fight off an army.”

Irelia was shocked at the Duchess’s treatment of the situation. She had not known it was this bad. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I only heard about it three days ago, and the Duchess made it sound as though the problem wasn’t too bad.” She looked around and raised her voice, so everyone in the room could hear her. “I need anyone and everyone able to fight to come with me. Prepare yourselves to counteract their poisonous agent, but now we go to battle.” One of the soldiers protested feebly, “But we’re so outnumbered, how could we ever win?” Irelia laughed and said, “Clearly you’ve never fought with the Will of the Blades before.”

An hour later, after preparations had been made, Irelia led the group through the city. Master Yi had informed her that the enemy had taken up positions outside of Malthrir, and refused to go in, where the defenders had the advantage. It was a smart move, but Irelia had a feeling that she could strike an easy victory here today. She had donned black armor for the occasion and wore a strip of black cloth over her face to cover her mouth and nose. She knew it made her look intimidating, and was relying on it for the upcoming confrontation.

As they reached the western border of town Irelia saw the Zaunite army in the distance. There were only one thousand soldiers, but she knew their advantage lay in their techmaturgy, rather than their numbers. She signaled for her team to wait behind her and Master Yi yelled out the orders. Stepping forward, she called out, “I am looking for the general of this army. I wish to speak with him.” There was laughter among the Zaunite camp that was quickly cut by a metallic sounding voice.

“Move out of my way, I will see her.” Irelia gasped as she saw the face of the man who had attacked her in Ionia. What she had mistaken for rags was actually a mechanical mask, and she heard the sound of heavy breathing through it. The man laughed and said, “So, Irelia, you recovered from my attack did you? I’m surprised, that gas is supposed to be fast acting and deadly.” Irelia regained her composure and said, “It didn’t work very well then. I’m still here.” She wondered how he knew her name but gave nothing away.

“I am Viktor, general of Zaun. I come to your humble state for one reason. I want to kill you all.” He laughed again and the mechanical arm on his back pointed at her. “You Irelia, stand in my way, and for that, you shall be the first of my prey today.” Before Irelia could retort, a laser beam appeared from the hand and headed at her. She dove sideways, feeling the heat from it pass by her. She yelled out, “Ionians, charge!”

Behind her, the Ionian contingent leapt into the fray and began attacking the Zaunite soldiers. She saw Master Yi diving left and right into battle, attacking with a speed and ferocity that lived up to his reputation. She saw Viktor running towards the back lines of the battle and firing his laser at any Ionians he could see. She cringed when she saw it hit one of her fellows in the leg. The laser sliced through it cleaner than any blade, and the man fell to the ground screaming.

Irelia shook it off and concentrated on the battle around her. She dove in and out, attacking all who came near her with her blades. She saw a group of four in front of her and concentrated on her options. Quickly deciding, she dove at the man on the right, impaling him with two blades, while turning in mid air towards the other three. She quickly threw one of her blades in a line through the closest one. He fell over dead and the other two abruptly stopped, rethinking challenging her. By this time, it was too late as Irelia dashed again to the furthest opponent, stabbing him while throwing her last blade in to the back of the other soldier.

As they slumped over, dead, Irelia looked around for Viktor. She saw him on the edge of the battlefield and quickly made her way to him, stabbing any who came near her. Though he wore glowing red goggles, she could tell the fury etched in his face as he fired laser after laser at her. She continued to dodge as she came nearer and upon reaching him, she swung with all of her might. She cut off his right leg and arm with one swing, and he cried out in pain.

Just as Irelia was about to deliver a killing blow, Master Yi shouted out behind her, “Duck!” Irelia reacted without thinking and hit the ground. Just above her, a blade went slashing by and she threw her blades behind her. She heard a groan and looked back to see two soldiers with her blades stuck in their stomachs. She quickly grabbed them back and turned to finish off Viktor when she saw he had disappeared. She gazed around the battle and heard his mechanical voice yell, “Retreat!”

She gave chase, but a large group of Zaunite soldiers got in the way. She quickly dispatched them with her floating blades but the Zaunite army had gone into full retreat. She saw viktor using his mechanical arm to hang onto a soldier that was carrying him away. She turned to survey the battle and saw that the Ionians had managed to make it through relatively unscathed.

Master Yi walked up to her and said, “Thank you Irelia. Temporarily we are safe, but we must fortify our defenses.” She nodded, and knew she should be proud of this victory; she just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She said, “Yes, well, let’s get everyone situated in the city again. I’ll need someone to send a report to the Duchess.”

Well, I’m hoping that no one REALLY knows what’s going on yet, but I do love speculation :). John Smith correctly predicted the final battle of the War for Freljord (half of it anyway), and I hope this one has you guys intrigued. I’m liking Irelia’s character, and I’m looking forward to the next few days.

Have a good one Summoners.

-Tale Master