Adventure's In Bottom Lane

Quick comics about what silly things my friends and I do on League of Legends! Enjoy!

ONESHOT: Poisonous Blood

The town was brimming with people wanderings the streets.
At the fountain square is posted a bulletin board listing announcements, job offerings, and bounties.

A girl among many others were crowding around as an official hangs new postings.
It was a weekly event. Most of the crowd was composed of the wanderers, vagrants, vigilantes, or the town's guild members.

The girl, with her brunette hair, tries to squeeze her way through, reaching the front to look at the new postings.

She scans over a few, reading them aloud quietly to herself.
She spots one particular wanted poster of a young man wanted "Dead or Alive" for a hefty sum of money. However, what was surprising wasn't the sum so much as who was offering it.

There were two postings one posted above the other. Two different bodies of government were after the individual, and the two seemed to keep rising the reward money on each other.
"For the general security, the following individual must be restrained"
The picture depicted the criminal seemed poorly drawn. An ugly man with dark hair and covering his eyes. She wasn't sure if the features were exaggerated or not, but there was a cleft chin, high cheek bones, a pig nose...

"How strange" the girl says. "The reward money rose again. It's been a whole year since this criminal's been running loose. If he's so 'dangerous', then why hasn't anyone put him to justice yet?"

"Hum… Guess it ain't so easy catching a criminal with a shabby drawing like this."
An unfamiliar voice seemed to peer above the girl's shoulder. A man was leaning over slightly, looking at the same poster that her eyes had been fixed on. She was startled when her hazel eyes met the stranger's vivid blue ones. His eyes had a strangely eerie characteristic. A black blade almost as tall as he hung on his back. Most of the others in the crowd had dispersed after scanning over the bulletins, until there were a couple of the straggling crowd.

Before the girl could say a word, the stranger reached out a hand towards the wanted poster in question. He was surprisingly tall, easily towering over the young girl. "But, I guess that's what you have to expect from the 'World Preservation Bureau' and the 'Church of Rebirth'." The man shrugged slightly. "One's a small branch of a branch of a branch of government, while the other is just some weird cult. Their information network is probably as weak as lotus root strings."

"Lotus root strings?" The girl asked aloud. Though the stranger treated it as a rhetorical question as he roughly pushed past her. Now that he was in front the young girl could see the stranger clearly. His hair was a dark black, spiking slightly reaching to his shoulders. A headpiece that covered both his ears and circled above his head like a hair band seemed to keep most of his unruly hair out of his face, though the stray hairs of his bangs still poked.

As everyone else had left, the stranger began to rip the poster off the bulletin. However, the girl reached out to grab the man's wrist before he could pull the poster free from its fastening.

"What do you think you're doing?" She said sternly. Her eyes were hard, fastened with a glare as she looked up questioningly at the man.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He raised an eyebrow, looking down at the young girl. He noticed a sword at her side and hard leather armor. A small cloak was draped over her shoulders. While she definitely wasn't a drop dead gorgeous woman, she was a modest young beauty. "Oh? Ha ha! You're a knight? No, probably an adventurer. Who'd have heard of a female knight of the capital? "

"W-What about it?" She didn't like how he chuckled at her.

"Ah well, I don't see many woman adventurers traveling by themselves either. You a swordsman? Hum… but you're dressed like a mage..."

"Are you saying that I'm incapa--"

"No, no! Ha ha!" the stranger laughed to himself slightly as he tried to shake off her presumption. "No need to take offense, little lady." He pulled his gloved hand from the girl's grips, and rested it on the girl's head, ruffling her hair a bit. "The world's a dangerous place. Whether you're a grown man or a little lady like yourself, fate treats everyone equal."

"Nevermind that, it's not 'little lady'! I'll have you know that I'm a grown woman."

"Oh? Well, what would this 'little lady' want me to call her?" He smirked slightly. Her face was turning red in frustration of the stranger's constant teasing.

"The name's Quinn! Quinn of Albien."

"Albien?" The stranger's sarcastic smirk got on her nerves even more. "Isn't that a small rural country? What are they known for? Growing wheat?"

"A-Ah! The nerve…! And how about you? Are you saying that you come from some noble heritage or something?"

"Hum… I'm no noble. But I guess I could give a name for a name." He finally ripped the poster free from the bulletin before the girl named Quinn could stop him. "I'm Keiran of Cateel. Nice to meet you, Quinn." He crumpled the paper and threw it in the nearest trash bin. "And see you later."

He waved casually, walking away at his own steady pace.

"W-What? Get back her!" She said, trailing behind the man. "First you insult me and then leave? You can't just do that to public property either! Hey! Cant you hear me?"

Quinn prodded the stranger, until she realized what seemed to be music coming out of his headwear. He was tuning her out.

"Hey! Listen to what I have to say to you! Why are you so rude…!"

He stopped in his tracks to look behind him. "Eh? Were you talking to me?" His expression was something of what she believed to be fake surprise. "Please stop following me, I don't want people to think I'm into that sort of thing little ladies like yourself." He shrugged slightly

Ignoring his jabs, she demanded with a serious tone, "Why did you deface public property? Removing a wanted poster from the official bulletins is against the law."

"Don't tell me you're one of those 'justice' spewing vigilantes." His tone changed as he loomed over Quinn intimidatingly. His eerie eyes looking down on her was unnerving. Without her knowing, her hand unconsciously motioned to grab the hilt at her side. "So how about it, little lady? Are you going to come for my head because I tore down a slip of paper?"

"Well… No… but…"

"Besides, if you want real information, you'd go looking at private guilds and associations for it. Not some public bulletin board."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that people don't give information for free. Especially with such a high bounty, most prefer to keep to themselves."

"But if he's so dangerous, why would people…"

"It's a double win. They could either sell the information for some extra cash while also getting an advantage over novices like you. People are greedy at heart. Even those vigilantes who claim their actions are just, it all boils down to them enforcing their own selfish desires." He turned back once more to leave, tapping his head piece to see if the music was still playing.

"Even so… why would you do something like that?" Quinn asked in earnest. "You know… that man is notorious for destroying a whole town in a matter of 3 days. They say wherever he goes, pestilence and destruction lay in his wake."

"Oh? So you at least know the basics, eh?" he said this in passing as he sat down in one of the many patio cafes at the fountain square. He expressed a bit of annoyance when the young girl sat across from him. Keiran could see in her eyes that she wasn't going to let him off easy. "So, what else do you know?" he asked this while motioning for a waiter.

"I only know a bit, but who doesn't know about the escapade to slay the herald of the end of the world, Jormagundr, The World Serpent.  Oracles were foretelling of the day it would come ashore upon our beaches. It's poisoned blood would seep into the land and poison our crops. Pestilence would spread."

"It's obvious why people in power wanted the thing dead." Keiran sipped his tea as he tolerated the company of the girl. "Nobles, government officials… losing your power to something as uncontrollable as fate is a bitter thing, right?"

Her expression turned almost piteous as she recounted the tale. With a slight nod in acknowledgement, she continued. "Out of the many groups that were sent, one of them succeeded in piercing the serpent's heart. But one of them was a traitor. He killed every single one of the men aboard the ship just as it was about to hit the docks. A single survivor was left from the massacre. The poor man hurried to report the crime and was sav-- "

A fist slammed on the table, quickly silencing Quinn before she could say anymore. "Enough." He stared at her steadfast. "Hearing about that 'poor man' makes me sick."

"But why…?"

"Hum… it's not the fact that he became a renowned noble that 'saved the world' that bothers me, but his expression when telling such bold faced lies."

"His expression? Lies? You talk as if you saw him first hand." she said indignantly.

Keiran silently sips his tea. It didn't seem as if he was going to answer her inquiry anytime in the next lifetime, so she decided to let it rest. Perhaps he was one of those adventurers that were easily jealous of others' fortune.

"A-Anyways… what's your deal? You… You made me go completely off track! You still haven't even explained why you ripped that poster off!"

The man sighed deeply at the girl's constant buzzing. She was the one that followed him. "You're one to talk. What's your deal exactly?" He shook his head before sipping his tea again to calm his nerves, trying to think of how to get this pest off his shoulders. "Not only did you go off track by yourself, you were the one that followed me in the first place."

"Explain to me why you ripped off that poster, and I'll leave you alone. That man is a dangerous criminal that people should be aware of. He destroyed the city Ca… Ca…" She seemed at a loss for words.

"Cateel?" He finished off for her as the waiter came back to put the bill on the table.

"A-And you're from…"

"Cateel."

There was an awkward silence as the waiter left with a "Please pay the front desk" before walking off towards another table.

"O-Oh… Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry… Are you a survivor from the Cateel massacre?" Many things dawned on her at that moment. The reason why he must have been jealous of the survivor from the voyage must have been because of that. The reason for why he's been so reluctant to talk must be because of his grief on the topic. But why….
"Ah! I got it?"

"Hm?"

"The reason why you tore off that poster… it's because…!"

She grasped both his hands in her own, bringing it to her chest. Keiran could feel his own face blushing at the very awkward situation this may appear to others. "Uh… What are… you…?"

"You must have ripped the poster down so that no others would encounter such a terrible ordeal. No… you must have done it so that you can be the one to bring him to justice for revenge against all the wrong doings!"

"W-Well…"

"With blade in hand, you hope to reap the world of that foul creature that threatens all of humanity… in the name of your lost friends and family in Cateel. Am I right? Right?"

"Ah… Uh…" Keiran couldn't help but be astounded by the strange girl's rose colored way of looking at the situation. "…Yes?"

"Ah…! I knew it! That's so valiant of you!" She finally let go of his hand. However, he could see stars literally gleaming in her eyes. "Ah~ The adventures of a lone man in search of the murderer of his family. This is the reason why I journeyed from home to begin with~!"

Keiran couldn't help but smile a bit. For some reason he found the girl's romantic visions of valor and daydreams soothing in the normally monotonous days of traveling. It reminded him of himself in many ways.

"Well, I wouldn't say it's that--"

A sickening sound of pierced raw flesh seemed to resound in the air as Quinn looked in horror. An arrow  had stuck itself in the man's shoulder as he fell from his chair in pain.

"Auuugh… Damn it…!" Kieran cursed from the pain surging through his arm.

A voice from  the distance could be heard along with a few others.

"I got him." A man could be heard in the distance. Up above the building, there were two men aiming cross bows.

"No, you missed. You're supposed to aim for the head…!" The other replied as he began to put the man's head in his cross hairs.

"A-Are you alright…?" Quinn said as she hurriedly went to the stranger's side. "W-Why…? What's happening?"

"Just get the hell away from here… right now…!"

"I can't just leave you--!"

Before she could say another word however, Keiran had literally shoved her to the side as another two bolts flew towards them. One hit his back and the other just grazed his face, knocking off his headset. He couldn't help but wince at the pain throbbing through his wounds.

Kicking down the table along with the unpaid bill and unfinished drink, he used it as a temporary cover from the cross bow fire. "Co…Covering for… you… is a real pain."

"I-I can defend myself…! But your wounds…" She reached out to touch his bleeding shoulder but he stopped her with a firm grip.

"Don't touch it!" He nearly yelled out, but winced once more as the pangs of pain choked up his throat. "Forget about it, just get out of here!"

Quinn nodded hesitantly as he let his grip loosen on her wrist. Without another word, she made a quick dash away from the cover of the table.

"Oh? That girl is making an escape." One of the archers noted as he saw her dash away. "Should we shoot her down?"

"She might be an accomplice. Maybe there's some money on her head too." The other replied as he took aim at the girl.

"Yeah, doesn't hurt to kill someone in pursuit of a criminal, eh?" Another unfamiliar voice loomed from behind them. As they both turned, the tall shadow of Keiran loomed over them as a blade as dark as night came down on their necks.

"How did--" One of them began, but it was quickly silenced. Not so much as a scream was uttered before a sharp stinging pain could be felt in their that. They swore that a blade darker then black had sliced their heads clean off. But before they could say a word of disbelief, their heads slid clean off their necks.

The two of them howled in pain despite no visible wounds. While reality differed from their mentality of pain, the feeling itself of a searing blade piercing flesh till it hit bone was burned into their minds as they collapsed.

Leaning down towards the two of them, the dark haired man with vivid blue eyes offered an explanation to the husks of men. "If death is in your thoughts… then I will be at your side to reap those intentions." He kicked one of the men's heads, letting it roll until suddenly both it and the body turned to dust in the wind.

Keiran turned his back on the heap of ash. And with a sigh, he dejectedly muttered under his breath. "I guess the malice of this world itself will see to it that I can't die. Ironic as all hell..."

As he headed for the roof exit, the door swung open violently. On pure reaction, he readied his blade forward but was dumbfounded by what came out. A familiar brunette burst through the shadows of the roof stairs and struck a battle ready pose.

"Not so fast you assassins! I'm here to put an end to your…" She looked at Keiran with an equally dumbfounded expression. "To your…. W-W….Whaaaaa??"

Keiran sighed as he sheathed his sword back on his back. "So you didn't run away?"

"W-W-What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?" she blushed a bright red color as she dropped her blade. She felt her cheeks become hot. "I was just…. Uh…. Oh… this is embarrassing…"

Walking over to Quinn, Keiran put a hand on her head as she ruffled her hair. Her expression was somehow cute. "Well, I appreciate your thoughts, girl."

"It's Quinn!" She puffed up her cheeks in frustration as she brushed his hand off. "Wait… what happened to your wounds?"

"Hum…? Oh… uh… magic?"

"Magic?"

"…Yeah."

"Then why did you phrase it like a question? And why were those guys after you? Where are they anyways?"

"You're just chock full of questions aren't you?" Keiran began to push her towards the exit, away from the scene that he had made. She tried to look back, but he blocked her view. "Let's go. We're finished here."

"But what about-- Ah! Stop pushing me! I'm going to fall down." Before she could topple down the stairs however, she was lifted off her feet and thrown over the man's shoulders. "P-Put me down!"

"Come on." He sighed as he reached into his pocked to pull out his music player to switch to his favorite song. "I'll treat you to tea or something."