"Welcome to the Proving Grounds!" A booming voice echoed across the area. "The three of you have done well to be able to survive to reach here, but now you must prove that you're worthy to be killed by me!" The same voice informed the three girls before laughing maniacally.

Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun then realised that they were alone with their respective partners, while Sooyoung and the rest had disappeared. Tiffany started to panic, but Taeyeon assured her that the others were nearby for Taeyeon could still sense their souls.

"By the way, these champions that I've chosen to face you are from the League of Legends and they are somewhat like reflections of the three of you. You'll see why soon..." The evil voice told the girls before wishing them the best of luck and instructed the three champions to take over.

The three girls and their partners, already in weapon form, braced themselves for the incoming attack, but there was none. The champions in front of them showed no signs of aggression. In fact, they were all smiling sweetly, except for the skeleton guy, who can't smile.

"I'm Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox. Don't you trust me?" The women with nine tails introduced herself as she blew a kiss towards Tiffany.

"Of course I do..." Tiffany replied, her eyes glazed over and she started walking slowly towards Ahri. Thankfully, Jessica managed to make Tiffany snap out of the spell by transforming back to her human form and giving her a kiss of true love. "Thanks, Sica... I can't believe I got charmed that easily..." Tiffany mumbled, ashamed of herself.

At this time, the women wielding a pair of daggers spoke up: "I'm Katarina, the Sinister Blade. Violence solves everything." And in one step, she appeared behind Taeyeon with her daggers against Taeyeon's back, in a backhand grip. "Not bad for a kid..." Katarina praised Taeyeon as she felt the tip of Taeyeon's sword against her back as well. Both of them turned to face each other and smiled, each detecting the murderous glint in each other's eyes. Just as fast as she reached Taeyeon, Katarina was back at her comrades' side.

Finally, the skeleton introduced himself: "I'm Karthus, the Deathsinger. Do you... feel a chill?" The three girls immediately felt a chill down their spines. Seohyun could not shake off the irrational feeling that the skeleton was planning to kill her first.

"Now that we are done with the introductions... Let me explain the rules of the battle... Each of us have one passive skill and four active skills only, so the five of you can only choose five skills in this battle, with one being a passive skill. The passive skill does not need to be consciously activated to be used. Also, all of us will have three lives each and those who get killed will only respawn three seconds after they are killed and at the spot where they die. For a short and exciting battle, all skills will have no cost or cooldown and there won't be any irritating minions in the way! Last girl or skeleton standing wins for her or his team. Understood?" Katarina briefed the girls.

The girls nodded in understanding and discussed quickly what skills to use. After a minute, they decided and told Katarina which skills they would be using.

Taeyeon started first: "My passive skill allows me to turn invisible if I don't attack for three seconds. My other skills will be Dissonance, Warp, Path of No Return and Lightning Dissonance."

Tiffany then stated her skills: "My passive skill causes the movement of my enemies to slow down when they are near me. My other skills will be Freeze, Hell Flame Phoenixes, Flaming Tornado and Absolute Zero."

Lastly, Seohyun stated her skills: "My passive skill will allow me to regenerate faster, the lower health I have. My other skills are Sleep, Blood Puppet, Brain Haemorrhage and R.I.P. But in this battle, I do not need to have my blood in my target to be able to use Blood Puppet and Brain Haemorrhage."

"Fine by us..." Katarina replied, before telling the girls her own skills: "My passive skill is Voracity, which reduces my all my cooldowns when I get a kill or assist. Since there is no cooldown, this skill is useless, but I don't need any passive skill to defeat the likes of you three... My other skills are Bouncing Blades, Sinister Steel, Shunpo and Death Lotus. Bouncing Blades deal damage to up to five targets, each subsequent target will be dealt lesser damage and all targets will be marked. I can consume the mark to deal additional damage. Sinister Steel deals damage in an area around me and I gain additional movement speed for a while if I hit anyone. You girls saw me using Shunpo just now, except that I was kind enough not to deal any damage to Taeyeon. Shunpo also allows me to take reduced damage for a few seconds after I use it. Death Lotus allows me to spin extremely quickly, throwing daggers at three nearby enemies, even invisible ones. Each target can only be hit by up to ten daggers and if my concentration is interrupted my skill will be cancelled."

Following, Ahri introduced her skills: "My passive skill is Essence Theft, which allows me to the health of those hit by my other skills. This skill only takes effect on the next skill I use, after I hit nine targets with my other skills. My other skills are Orb of Deception, Fox Fire, Charm and Spirit Rush. When I use Orb of Deception, I throw my orb out dealing damage in a straight line and when it returns to me, it deals more damage on the way back. When I use Fox Fire, three flames will appear around me and damage the closest three targets. If there's only one target, then all three will hit the same target. I used Charm on Tiffany just now and Spirit Rush lets me dash a short distance away and release essence bolts which deal damage to the nearest three targets. Each target can only be hit by one bolt, but I can dash up to three times in a single cast..."

Last but not least, Karthus introduced his skills: "My passive skill is Death Defied, which allows me to continue casting my spells while I'm dead for another seven seconds. My other skills are Lay Waste, Wall of Pain, Defile and Requiem. Lay Waste deals damage to anyone in a small area of effect and it deals double damage if it only hits a single target. Wall of Pain slows down any enemy who passes through it and causes those enemies to take more damage from any attack. Defile continuously deals damage every second to those standing in an area of effect around me. Requiem deals a huge amount of damage to everyone on the enemy team, but requires channelling like Katarina's Death Lotus, so if I'm interrupted, no one will take any damage. However, if I'm dead, I can't be interrupted, so if I cast Requiem after I get killed... Good luck!"

"Hmm... I see what the evil mastermind meant when he said you're our reflections... Katarina is an assassin like Taeyeon. Ahri is charming and uses fire like Tiffany. Karthus is like me as both of our skills are not as flashy as our teammates but they are still as lethal if ignored..." Seohyun commented.

"So you realised..." Katarina sniggered. Ahri giggled cutely and Karthus laughed. "Now let's start the battle!" Katarina shouted as she used Bouncing Blade, targeting Taeyeon as the first target, before she used Shunpo and appeared behind Taeyeon, backstabbing her. Katarina immediately followed up with Sinister Steel, damaging the three girls while consuming all the marks to deal extra damage to the girls and finally she used Death Lotus.

To prevent Seohyun from cancelling Katarina's Death Lotus, Ahri used Charm on Seohyun and while Seohyun was charmed, Ahri used Orb of Deception to damage all three, before casting Fox Fire and Spirit Rush, dealing loads of damage on all three. By then, Taeyeon had been killed, Seohyun and Tiffany dangerously low on health.

Karthus laughed and jumped into the fray, turning on Defile and dropping Wall of Pain on the two survivors while spamming Lay Waste around. Tiffany was killed by the continuous damage from Defile, but Seohyun's regeneration allowed her to remain alive for long enough to use R.I.P. to kill off everyone on the enemy team, with the help from Tiffany's Absolute Zero which she had managed to cast just before she died.

With that, Seohyun escaped from Karthus's Defile, which was still on due to his Death Defied skill. Karthus just laughed and casted Requiem which Seohyun could not cancel. Seohyun prayed hard that her regeneration would save her, but it didn't and so after the first skirmish, everyone had died once.

Taeyeon and Tiffany who had just respawned just as Karthus finished channelling, were hit by the attack as well, leaving them with two-thirds of their health remaining. A second later, Katarina and Ahri had respawned, while Karthus's Death Defied still had four seconds of effect left. Taeyeon, who was invisible, unleashed Lightning Dissonance once she saw Katarina and Ahri respawn. Tiffany casted Absolute Zero as well, however, Ahri managed to avoid being hit by casting Spirit Rush to get out of Absolute Zero's area of effect.

Katarina, however, did not managed to escape, but was still able to deal some damage by casting Death Lotus, just before she died. By doing so, she managed to hit Taeyeon and Tiffany with about three daggers each, reducing their health by just enough for Ahri to kill Tiffany by using her remaining two dashes from Spirit Rush to dash back in with Fox Fire on, followed by Charm and Orb of Deception.

Taeyeon then used Path of No Return and Dissonance on Ahri, hoping to finish her off, or at least go down with her. Ahri, on the other hand, casted Fox Fire and her Essence Theft ability activated at the last moment, allowing her to some of Taeyeon's health, so she barely survived Taeyeon's attacks. A quick Charm, followed by another Orb of Deception, finished the job.

Not giving Ahri any time to rest, Seohyun who had just respawned, immediately casted Brain Haemorrhage, killing off Ahri. Karthus's Death Defied duration had just ended and he lay completely still on the ground, waiting for another three seconds before he could respawn. Seohyun, who had about one or two seconds before Katarina respawned, readied herself to use Blood Puppet.

Once Katarina respawned, Seohyun instantly used Blood Puppet on her and when Ahri respawned a second later, Seohyun controlled Katarina to attack Ahri, leading with Bouncing Blade, followed by Shunpo, Sinister Steel and finally Death Lotus. Fortunately, Ahri managed to use Charm on Katarina, cancelling her Death Lotus, allowing herself to be hit by only one dagger.

After that, Ahri turned to Seohyun and casted Spirit Rush, dashing around Seohyun, so that she could not get a good focus on her to use any skills. In addition, Ahri, casted Fox Fire, Charm and Orb of Deception, killing Seohyun with the help of Katarina's Bouncing Blade and Shunpo, after Katarina was released from Seohyun's Blood Puppet. Nevertheless, Seohyun managed to cast R.I.P. one more time, allowing the newly respawned Tiffany to finish Ahri off for good with Hell Flame Phoenixes.

Katarina, knowing that Taeyeon would be respawning soon, wasted no time to unleash her combo of Bouncing Blade, Shunpo, Sinister Steel and finally Death Lotus, onto Tiffany. Tiffany used Freeze on Katarina to cancel Katarina's Death Lotus, but not before getting hit by five daggers, as she was caught off guard.

Without any further hesistation, Tiffany Flaming Tornado and casted Absolute Zero, which killed Katarina. Unfortunately, Katarina managed to cast Bouncing Blade, Shunpo and Sinister Steel just before she died, bringing Tiffany down with her. While Katarina was unleashing Death Lotus, Taeyeon had just respawned and was hit by five daggers as well, greatly reducing her health.

Once Karthus respawned, Taeyeon immediately used Lightning Dissonance to severely damage Karthus and close the distance between them. Following she used Dissonance and Path of No Return, before using warp, to get out of Karthus's Defile area of Effect, his Wall of Pain and multiple Lay Waste, surviving with a tiny bit of health left. Karthus was also left with a similar amount of health. Cackling madly, Karthus chased after Taeyeon, prepared to go down with her.

Just then, Seohyun respawned and Taeyeon looked into her unni's eyes and told her: "You're our final hope..." Those were Taeyeon's last words before she used Warp to appear in front of Karthus and used Dissonance to kill him, before dying due to Karthus's Defile and Lay Waste, which he casted while his Death Defied ability was active.

Seohyun waited patiently for Karthus's Death Defied ability to end and for him to respawn, careful to make sure she was not in range of his skills. In the final three seconds of his ability, Karthus casted Requiem in an attempt to lower Seohyun's health by as much as possible. Seohyun lost one third of her health immediately, but in the three seconds that Karthus took to respawn, Seohyun had already regenerated half her missing health.

"So this is it..." Seohyun stated.

"Indeed it is..." Karthus agreed.

With a battle cry shouted by both, they charged at each other, Karthus turning on his Defile and Seohyun casting Sleep, to render Karthus unable to use any other abilities for three seconds. Based on the situation, Blood Puppet was useless, so Seohyun just used Brain Haemorrhage and R.I.P. to deal as much damage as possible, even though she was sure that Karthus had no brain, but since her skill could still damage him, she just used it.

At the same time, she was receiving damage from Defile, but she trusted her regeneration to keep her alive as she used attack after attack, skill after skill, to defeat Karthus. Karthus, on the other hand, used Lay Waste and Wall of Pain, whenever he was not knocked out by Seohyun's Sleep, which was not very often...

Eventually, Seohyun killed Karthus, but her escape from his Defile was slowed by his Wall of Pain and she now she was taking double damage from Lay Waste, in addition to the damage from Defile. With three seconds remaining from Death Defied, Karthus casted Requiem again in a last ditch attempt to kill Seohyun.

Seohyun who had just managed to escape out of range of the rest of Karthus's ablities, prayed hard once again for her regeneration to prevent her from dying. This time, her prayers were answered and she was left with barely one thousandth of maximum health.

Seohyun breathed a sigh of relief as she knew that she was the last girl standing which meant that her team won and they have proven themselves worthy of facing the evil mastermind. Her surroundings starting shifting and dissolving, but when everything finally returned to focus, she was once again just inside the castle gates.

The rest of the vanguard was there, along with their trainers and they all praised Seohyun for bravely fighting to the end and helping the Vanguard of Death emerge victorious. Seohyun flushed red from all the attention and denied that she was as good as they said.

Their cheers were cut short when a lone figure appeared in front of them and announced in a booming loud voice: "Let the final battle commence!" At the end of his sentence, Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and the other trainers were flung into the air, leaving the Vanguard of Death alone in the battle to determine whether good or evil will prevail...