"Sovereins Dominance? And what does it do?" Lanius asked. The bandits still had about half a kilometer until they reached the village.
"Basically, it engulfs a body part in ice, but grants it a special ability. That body part is then called a Part of the Sovereign." the spirit of the Winter informed him. Lanius touched his bandaged eye. The memory of it getting covered by the thin layer of frozen water flashed in his mind.
"So I have the Eye of the Sovereign. And what ability does it have?"
"When activating this ability, you can see things that others cannot see." Freida's explanation was too plain.
"Can't you be more precise?" Lanius rolled his eyes.
"Very well. Every animal, spell and entity leaves behind a trail of energy. Using the eye, you can see these trails." Freida replied with a pissed tone.
"Ok, this will definitely come in handy." Lanius though.
By the time they were done, the bandits had arrived outside the village, and they halted about 50 meters away from the torii. They seemed confused to see a new warrior outside the village.
"Who are you?" one with a bronze pauldron, seemingly their leader, yelled at him.
"Who I am doesn't concern you. What does concern you is that you will not harm this village again, unless you want to have a forced number reduction in your crew." Lanius spoke.
"Kid, for that and only that, I'll bash your head in so hard that you'll travel to the other side of the continent!" the bronze pauldrons threatened,causing some of the bandits to snicker.
"He is not one of the villagers." a woman told the bronze shoulders in Va-Nox. "He looks like one of those snow barbarians."
"See the marks on his face? He's a filthy vastaya." the bronze pauldrons replied to the woman, also in Va-Nox.
"Noxian soldiers that defected and turned towards pillaging after the war. Heh, typical." Lanius though.
Suddenly a strong wind began to blow, making the tail of the young mans coat to flow.
Lanius then pulled off the bandage that covered his left eye. He could still see from there, but his vision was both foggy as, the ice wasn't crystal clear, and slightly magnified, so in order to see normally, he had to cover it.
"For a Winter to use the Sovereigns Dominance, he needs to say or think of one simple chant in ancient Freljordian." Freida told him. She then revealed the chant to him.
"I see..." Lanius closed his eyes.
.
.
.
"Uugham Vor'naem!" he chanted in his head.
He then opened his eyes. Everything in front of him had turned into pitch black. Then, once he focused in what was in front of him, one by one it all appeared. A bright crimson outline resembled each of the bandits and another brown each of their horses. Only one was yellow. He then looked around them. The white roots sunk below the ground, right where the position of the wheat around the dirt path that led to the village was.
"I now understand. It's just like when I fought with the two Kinkou." Lanius though. He instinctively looked at his kusarigama, forged from the kama that he had taken from the female Kinkou. It was now faintly white, just as it was then.
"I guess it's time then." Lanius blinked again, deactivating the Sovoreins Dominance.
Just as he blinked, his vision returned to normal,now facing the bandits.
"What's wrong fella? Something got your tongue?" the bronze pauldrons asked with a wide smirk.
Lanius did not respond to him, instead he looked at another guy with a scar across his mouth like he had it slit and sewn back. He looked like he was in his early 50's, with a black cloak. It was the one with the yellow essence.
"Your best warrior threatened me. I challenge him in a duel. As their leader, you either leave or allow him to fight." the winter told the middle aged man in Va-Nox. In response the man's eyes widened, slightly surprised that Lanius had figured out that he was the real leader. The bronze pauldrons was rather shocked,same with the other bandits.
"Very well...and if you win, what happens?" the leader asked Lanius in Ionian.
"Simple, you leave and never come back." Lanius replied, keeping a straight face.
"But if we win, we'll durn this village down and enslave its inhabitants." the leader said with a smirk, making his face even more disgusting. "Why are you doing this, boy? You're not a villager."
"I simply despite bandits that prey on the weak,much more Noxian bandits."
"Titus, make sure you don't hurt both your and our pride." the leader told the bronze pauldrons in Va-Nox, offended by the young man's remark. Titus jumped off his horse and approached Lanius. He stopped about 5 meters away from him and stabbed his voulge into the ground from the hilt. He then took a step back and took off his pauldrons, before he slammed them together, emitting a clanking sound in order to scare Lanius. Tho this allowed the young man to see something like a rune engraved onto the mans skin. Lanius did not react to neither the rune, nor the clanking. Instead he took off his coat and pulled out his kusarigama just as Titus had fastened his pauldrons back on and picked up his voulge.
"Begin!" the leader yelled and both of the two challengers launched themselves at each other after a battery.
Titus plunged his voulge forwards, trying to stab Lanius from the start. The young man quickly pulled his weapons chain, stretching it and blocking the attack. He then flipped the weapon forward, bringing the kama forward. Titus quickly reacted and blocked the sharp edge with the voulge's staff. A sharp clank echoed, followed by a couple of sparks. He the brought his right knee up and almost slammed it into the young man's stomach.
Lanius reacted quickly for a man that hadn't combated for 14 years, making even himself wonder if Freida was enhancing his abilities. He counter attacked after jumping a meter back and slammed again his kusarigama forward, which Titus blocked.
"Get the filthy Vastaya Titus!"
"Rip its guts out!" the bandits cheered. The villagers on the other hand prayed to their gods that the stranger that risked their village won.
Lanius was starting to understand his opponents movements. Despite being kinda bulky, he was agile, balancing his mass with his speed and good handling of the voulge. But Lanius wasn't a nobody either. He had grown into a village that had always valued combat, thus he was experienced. Lanius looked for an opening and found one, when Titus brought down his voulge towards the young man. As the metal slammed against the ground, Lanius jumped over it and after a roll in the air spun the kusarigama and landed behind his opponent, slicing him in the back. The bandits frowned, some even turned around their heads with sadness. From his entire battalion, Titus was the only one that had never been wounded, making them believe that he was almost invincible.
"ARG!" Titus yelled, as Noxians almost never fled the Battlefield, thus they prioritised armoring the front rather than the back, making soldiers weak on their backs. He quickly got up and once he turned around, Lanius saw that he was fuming. His face was red from anger, making Lanius regret wounding him on the back.
"Fine... I guess I'll play dirty...!" Titus muttered through his teeth. He stood up right and straightened his back, grimacing from the pain of the slice, that was quite deep.