122. Piltover Ablaze (6)

Katarina waited patiently in the shadows, waiting for the patrol in front of her to pass.

One thing had to be made clear—even if she was the only Blade Master Noxus currently had, that did not mean she could face an entire squad of Piltover guards alone and come away without a scratch.

Blade Masters could not do that sort of thing.

Those who earned that title were deadly blades in the shadows, not warriors who charged head-on. Besides, the place she was in now had the highest security rating, and the Hextech firearms in those guards' hands were no joke.

She counted her own heartbeats, one after another. Time passed very slowly in situations like this. Fortunately, she had long since grown used to it.

Fifteen minutes later, the guards near the square gradually moved away. Katarina poked her head out from the shadows beneath the statue and warily observed her surroundings.

Piltovans—at least the wealthy ones—were very fond of an architectural style that, in Katarina's eyes, was extremely bizarre. It looked like a mishmash, or like the designer had suffered a fit while drawing the blueprints.

The female assassin fixed her sharp gaze on one of the buildings, carefully sweeping over every detail.

Three stories, no windows, only one main door—a textbook example of easy to defend, hard to attack. According to the intelligence the army mages had given her, this was one of Piltover's secret underground prisons.

She had no idea how those mysterious army mages had gotten this information, but she had to admit they had been a great help.

If the plan could succeed, that was.

She waited patiently in the shadows again for an hour. The guards changed shifts twice. She memorized the pattern, then took advantage of a gap in the patrols to