Determined to teach Faen and his fellow outsiders a lesson, Xayah and the others launched a sudden attack without hesitation as Faen passed by.
Purple feathers tore through the air. Accompanied by the sound of friction against the wind, the feathers under the sunlight flew toward the horses Faen's group was riding like sharp daggers.
"Trying to kill my horse?!" Noticing Xayah's attack—although he had anticipated it—Faen still raised an eyebrow. Immediately after, a flowing water shield rapidly formed from the moisture in the surrounding atmosphere, parrying all the feathers. Although Xayah's burst damage made her one of the top-tier ADCs in the game, in reality, Xayah was ultimately just a Vastaya, and she hadn't mastered primal energy like Neeko. Even if she was capable in combat, she would always be slightly inferior. Case in point, although her physical constitution far exceeded an ordinary human's, and the feathers she threw could easily pierce rock, the instant they touched Faen's water curtain, they were completely washed to the ground.
Seeing Faen's action, a look of profound disbelief filled Xayah's eyes.
"The magic of Oovi-Kat is actually responding to him?!"
Oovi-Kat was different from other regions; the natural magic here was filled with the consciousness of wild nature itself. Under these circumstances, because of their innate connection to the natural world, the Vastaya felt like fish in water here; no matter what they did, it was exceptionally easy. But for an ordinary mage entering the Oovi-Kat region, let alone casting spells, just managing not to suffer internal injuries during spellcasting—due to the region's hostility toward the mana accumulated within their bodies—was already considered lucky.
But now...
Wait, no, it wasn't that the magic was responding to him, but that his will was overriding the magic.
He was, after all, a character who became a "Champion" in the game. Even if, in League of Legends, being a Champion didn't necessarily mean one was truly a hero, one thing was undeniable: the vast majority of playable characters in League of Legends served as the core characters used by Runeterra's writers to advance the world's storyline. The most obvious examples were major storylines like the Ionian Wars, the Rise of Shurima, and the Ruination.
Although there was no tangible manifestation of this, based on Faen's physical intuition, these female Champions all possessed innate talents far exceeding ordinary people to varying degrees. For example, Riven's innate magic, which allowed her to convert her willpower into a storm—this wasn't explicitly detailed in the base game or the lore, but the reality was that even though the current Riven hadn't commissioned Elder Souma to destroy her runic greatsword, she could still unleash Wind Slash through the conversion of her willpower. After all, even for the Riven in the game, the very act of reforging her broken blade was a manifestation of her willpower.
As for Xayah...
In the lore, Xayah's rise should happen several years from now. After the Ionian Wars concluded, all of Ionia suffered severe damage from the war brought by the Noxians, and the shock to the Spirit Realm spread directly to the northeastern region on the other side of the Shon-Xan Highlands. Primal magic lost control, natural magic withered, and as the hearts of men lost their restraint and began consciously expanding into Vastayan territory, Xayah—having lost her homeland—joined the Vastayan rebels in enacting revenge upon the Ionians. They captured fortresses and left behind a trail of corpses, earning her the infamous moniker of the "Violet Raven."
Although it sounded a bit strange—for example, Ionians building fortresses and invading wild nature.
But this also indirectly proved the kind of trauma the Ionian Wars brought to the Ionian people.
The Order of Shadow, an organization that revered violent revenge, went without saying. There were also numerous civilian armed groups, such as the Navori Brotherhood, who attempted to incite civilian hatred by assassinating the "heroes" of the Ionian Wars, thereby provoking war. And as conflicts increased, it was only natural for a few "crouching dragons and hidden phoenixes" to emerge among the Ionians.
Returning to the present, upon discovering that her attack was ineffective and that the opponent's consciousness seemed to override natural magic, Xayah sharply realized something was wrong. Compared to ordinary Vastaya, Xayah's connection to natural magic was much tighter; this was one of the reasons she was able to detect that Faen's consciousness was superior to natural magic. But precisely because of this, when Xayah noticed Faen turning his gaze toward her, a subconscious surge of fighting spirit gripped the avian girl's heart.
Without the slightest hesitation, Xayah instinctively turned and ordered, "Run! We must pass this information to the tribe elders!"
A consciousness that overrode nature—regardless of their purpose for coming to Oovi-Kat Island, it meant their identities were extraordinary. Unable to match them in strength, the best option was to report the situation to the elders in the tribe, allowing the tribe to prepare for whatever might happen next.
On the other side, although they were quite far apart, Faen still heard Xayah's words. Somewhat surprised by this short-ranged ADC's acute hearing, Faen had no intention of easily letting go of the delicacy that had presented itself before him. He reached out his hand, and with a surge of mana, Xayah found a ring of water mist appearing around her. Before she could react, the water mist swept her directly to Faen's side.
When the water mist dispersed, Xayah found herself dangling by one leg in Faen's grasp, like a hunted turkey.
A flash of terror crossed Xayah's eyes. She instinctively tried to struggle and fight back, but in the next instant, Xayah felt the air around her seemingly solidify, making it impossible for her to move even an inch. Amidst her bewilderment and confusion, Faen spoke to the few avian Vastaya nearby, who were hesitating between trying to rescue Xayah and evacuating immediately: "There's no need to be so tense. I came here entrusted by the Enlightened One of the Temple of the Long-Standing, Karma, to resolve the issue regarding the withering of primal magic. I mean no harm."
As he spoke, Faen freed his right hand and displayed the Mark of the Twin Dragons on it, saying, "If you don't believe me, just tell your elders about this mark. They will understand."
Hearing Faen's words, although they weren't sure if he was telling the truth, seeing that Faen didn't seem to harbor much malice—and considering they were the ones who initiated the attack—one of the Vastaya asked, "Then can you let Xayah go?"
"I can. However, I am not familiar with the avian tribe. If possible, I hope someone can stay to introduce me to the various customs of the avian tribe, to prevent unnecessary conflicts."