LoL Novel Excerpt(s) #2

A rogue Summoner had escaped to a nearby graveyard, presumably to perform prohibited acts of nectomantic magic. It was rare that cases like these arose, but when they did, the Crimson Elite were entrusted with keeping things under control. Tonight would be a test of that control.

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  At nightfall, this particular graveyard was blanketed by thin layers of translucent fog. Piles of moss and other vegetation had crept and curled about the tombs and other various structures throughout the grounds. Spiraling cobblestone paths leading to underground crypts circled and bent all around, though it was rumored that the most elaborate crypts, belonging to Noxian noblemen and distinguished military figures alike, had no pathway, but were concealed by the stealthy guise of Summoner’s magic.

  And every now and then, a shrill cry would pierce the near-silence, courtesy of the restless ravens who'd yet to seek refuge.

  ‘Just stay quiet and keep up,’ demanded Talon, he let the words convey frustration. Katarina merely nodded in acknowledgement, but her mind was elsewhere.

Why would a banished Summoner be so obsessed as to call upon the empty spirits of the dead? She wondered. 

  Noxian graveyards were not unlike those of Demacia, Ionia, or any other in Valoran. They had ceremonial tombstones, inscribed with phrases of virtue, respect, and discipline. Noxians were a proud a people as any other, and thus all dead citizens were given due respect in this way. Given the reports of this Summoner, it was clear that he was bereft of all respect.

 ‘Yes, whatever you say,’ she replied absentmindedly.

Talon didn’t have the patience for failure, and he had even less patience for incompetent allies. Katarina had proven herself on the fields of battle with high frequency, but this was more than just a routine skirmish against Demacian patrols. In fact, he had no idea what to expect, and perhaps it was this fact alone that put his mind in such a heightened state of mental alertness.

  ‘Just keep your mind on the mission,’ she quipped, not concerned in the least.

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  The pair of assassins had ventured through the graveyard entrance, and were now nearing the ritual grounds. The upkeep here had clearly been avoided, as there were piles of overgrowth, next to no tomb  maintenance in sight, and there was not a not a single lit lantern in sight. Some of the tombs dated back hundreds of years, and others mere months.
 Being surrounded by all this death gave Katarina some time to contemplate the death she'd dealt. The thoughts sensed of remorse, sorrow, and regret, but she had not the tolerance to consider them for long. Expert mental discipline made it possible for her to regard such emotions with transience, and as if washed away by a torrent, they left her mind, replaced by the more immediate sensory perceptions of the surrounding area.

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 And there he was, dressed in black, his arms outstretched and circling in slow motion. His hooded head bobbed slowly back and forth as he chanted some arcane ritual. He did not articulate words, but sounds, and neither assassin could decipher the meaning. Then, without so much as a sound, the situation changed dramatically. Talon’s mind became warped by spell-craft for but an instant that seemed to last minutes…

  ‘What are you DOING in this PLACE!’ he thought… it was the Summoner, somehow interfacing with                                his thoughts. His words resounded with the torment and grief of one who’d devoted a lifetime to believing in    pretentious falsehoods and corrupting power.

  ‘You FOOLS! This is my PLACE. These are the DEAD you are toiling with. I AM toiling  WITH!’

  ‘GET OUT!’ said the Summoner, each word growing louder than the last.

Then, in a swift motion, Katarina whipped around and grabbed Talon by the forearm, nearly bringing him to the ground. Given her slim stature, it was a surprise to him that she could be so forceful.

  ‘Snap out of it,’ she voiced calmly, ‘it’s not real.’ The Summoner had no vanished from sight. Where he had once stood, billowy wafts of pink smoke remained .

  However, the Summoner had left behind much more than smoke and mirrors…

  Talon shook his head.

  ‘How did he do that?’ he asked.

 'I don’t know,’ replied Katarina, ‘but we need to get out of here. He's sealed the exits. There is little time.’

  Pulse quickening, she watched as black forms shifted from beneath the residual smoke that now circulated at the feet of the weary assassins.

  ‘Undead…’ croaked Talon, his voice barely audible, and Katarina said nothing as she readied her blades. The Summoner had left them a sizeable force of minions to contend with, and it was unlike any force that they’d faced before. These minions were empowered by forbidden enchantments. Their eyes appeared as orange spheres blazing fiercely, and their skin was rotten, dead, sores leaking and fizzing with all manner of effervescent pestilence.

  While Katarina took several cautionary steps backward, Talon surveyed the situation with a bored ease that belied his experience on the field. Whereas Katarina was of the opinion that every combative situation should be handled with pinpoint tactics, Talon had the stubbornness to slay at random, irrespective of precision...
 And there was much slaying to be done.

LoL Novel Excerpt #1

Noxian Champions weren't often known for their subtlety. Talon, one of Noxus’ finest assassins, was reputed to enter a blade shops one moment, and leave with half their inventory the next. He was a blade collector, and his hobby was obsessive.

Wafts of cool autumn air circulated through The Blade and Bludgeon. At the moment, Talon was observing a fine selection of wall-mounted weaponry within the shop. He eyed the gleaming weapons as a masterful architect would examine a building. Considerations of blade geometry, differential heat-treating, taper, blade harmonics, and points of balance circulated through his mind. No compromises were to be made; only the finest would do. Behind the counter, a middle-aged shop-keeper stood. The man’s visage was interlaced by precise facial scarring, indicating that he was a veteran blade-master. As the man cleaned the intricate hilt of an ancient rapier, it became obvious that his hand-eye coordination had deteriorated throughout the years, which probably explained why he managed a shop now instead of blade-dancing with Noxian dualists. Those days were long behind him.

‘How much for that one?’ Talon mused, motioning to the serrated micro-blades. The rune-inscribed weapons had wrist-mounted straps. Perfect for close range assassination, he thought.

‘For the whole set, or just the display model?’ replied the shop keeper. Ignoring the question altogether, Talon said nothing. It should have been clear to the keeper that display models were not to be considered.

‘Actually, it’s sold out,’ hinted a familiar voice. ‘I’ve already claimed that model.’ Talon turned to face Katarina, and furrowed his brows. The assistant shopkeeper, who'd been dealing with Katarina at another area in the shop, had several ivory-coloured boxes under one arm, and was totalling up costs with a pocket-book and quill in the other.

‘Cute,’ said Talon in an uninspiring tone. Katarina’s actions were often less than amusing to him. ‘And you intend to use all of them at once?’ 

‘Of course not,’ she replied condescendingly, ‘one must use backups for when the others break.’ She smiled coyly, and reached into a small brown sack of gold, retrieving far more than was needed to purchase the weapons. Talon simply stood there, observing the exchange, and the Shop owner, looking slightly bemused, scratched his head.

Shifty talks about Stuff: Mostly LoL

Villains: Get Stormraged.

In WoW’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade, it became obvious that Illidan was the main baddie.

This fact became self-evident at the release of patch 2.1.0 – the opening of Black Temple, where the self-proclaimed Lord of Outland made his debut. He celebrated this event by mercilessly extinguishing all hardcore raiders for weeks to come.

Illidan was the perfect villain. In the extradimensional realm of Outland, this angry elf demon was often seen wielding the wicked Warglaives of Azzinoth, legendary items sought by Rogues and Fury Warriors alike. He appeared to revere cruelty, as indicated by his vicious, shadowy wingspan and demonic horns.

With respect to Warcraft Lore, it’s important to know what made Illidan such a convincing villain. The first thing to know is that his actions in WoW pale in comparison to his former exploits. Essentially, his meddling with the Well of Eternity, Queen Azshara, and the likes of Deathwing serve to better enforce his status as Über-villain.

Addicted to magic, power, and stricken with jealousy (with regard to his love interest, Tyrande), Illidan was banished to prison by his brother for creating a second Well of Eternity atop Mount Hyjal – an act of extreme danger that resulted in the exile of the Highborne after they tried to blow things up with a magical storm!

While in prison for ten thousand years, Illidan had plenty of time to contemplate the finer parts of life;

Isolation can do that to the mind. Now, after all the long centuries you kept me chained in darkness, it is only fitting that I bury you in turn. –Illidan

Upon being released from prison, courtesy of Tyrande, Illidan went off to cause more problems. He allied with the demons, turned into a demi-demon himself (after obtaining the powerful and corrupting Skull of Gul-dan), and escaped to Outland, where he sought to establish dominance. While in Outland, Illidan was once again lead to do evil things in the name of untold powers of magic, a temptations made worse by his demonic connections (Kil’jaeden). He also made friends with Lady Vashj and Kael’thas Sunstrider: reputed to not be the nicest kids on the block.

Now, players who worked their way through The Black Temple may recall Illidan’s distinct omnipresence. Unlike other bosses, Illidan seemed to possess this aura that authenticated his evil villain status. He was not just after unlimited power and glory, he wanted to spread wholesale death and destruction without provocation. When you got to Illidan, it was truly a feeling of epic accomplishment (usually preceded by extreme frustration, courtesy of the Council fight). When his chamber doors became unlocked, the raid would race up dual stair-cases, and fight a few trash mobs. Then, through the final doors (assisted by the Shade of Akama, and some epic cut-scenes), you were in, and there was no going back. The presentation of the encounter was flawless, and the delivery spot-on. When you got to Illidan, you knew that s*** was going to hit the fan, because this was a half-demon that simply needed to be slain. No compromises were to be made. You thought to yourself, Illidan, the one who’s taunted me since the beginning of The Burning Crusade, is about to bite the dust!
This was motivation enough to endure the countless wipes that were to follow.

As far as WoW boss fights go, the Illidan fight was technically impressive to say the least. Raid awareness, reaction time, positioning, and communication skills were all put to the test here, and it took no small amount of elbow grease and Redbull to stay focused. As some might remember of Ensidia’s (then Nihilum) world-first Illidan kill video, their main tank Kungen enjoyed brief internet acclaim for his liberal use of his custom ‘MAX FOCUS’ raidsay macro.

When the fight started, all types of rocket-ships and pain-trains assailed the main tank. Illidan’s leaping shred attack was almost always accompanied by a 1/3rd or more hp cut of even the sturdiest tanks, and this was the easy part. The annoying part of phase one came when he spewed out shadowy elementals that rushed your raid group, exploded, and caused confusion. After what seemed like an hour of this nonsense, Illidan went airborne, and left two parting gifts in the form of ridiculous fire elementals. These elementals were no easier to tank than Illidan himself, and they had to be positioned near firewalls that would instagib if touched. To make matters worse, he blasted the scared, crying raiders with laser beams that only Chain-Heal and Circle-of-Healing spam could remedy. As a healing priest, this had to have been my least favorite part of the fight! From there, with the fire elementals slain, you needed a pro warlock tank to take shadow-bolt hits for a while, and avoid dying to AoE volley attacks that pummeled the raid.

With the warlock tanking phase complete, you bore witness to an epic moment in video game history, that of Maiev Shadowsong finally hunting her long-sought prey. Even now, I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t seen this cinematic, so I’ll end it on a suspenseful note. All in all, if you haven’t killed Illidan, and have an active WoW sub, I recommend you do so asap. If not, then go play My Little Pony the MMO, or Hello Kitty Online. I’m sure those games have excellent villains to contend with.