Zed watched the giant serpent as it summoned a volley of spikes around itself, brutally impaling at least twenty Ionian soldiers in one fell swoop. Even from a hundred feet away, he could hear the raucous shrieks of raw agony, but he didn't flinch. There was no fighting this monster, at least not without the victor. This he had repeated multiple times to Irelia. In all honesty, he pitied the Captain of the Guard. Her troops alone would not be able to slay Baron Nashor, but they also couldn't very well let it run rampant.
Another horde of men liquefied into puddles of flesh and bones, adding to the heaps of mutilated and melted carcasses littered across Ionia. An odd sensation tugged Zed's heart as he surveyed the damage he had indirectly caused.
Who was he kidding? He had no heart.
A new presence entered Ionia, which trapped an escaping breath in his throat. This feeling was all too familiar.
It was her.
It was like lugging a dead cow. As Akali trudged her way back to Ionia, she cursed her decision to bring Syndra's corpse with her as well. Then again, many horror films had sequels because the main character always failed to confirm the psychopathic killer's death. Akali sure as hell wasn't about to live a second terrorizing chapter in her life.
But goddamn, this woman was inexplicably heavy. It didn't help that Akali's body felt like collapsing to the ground because it wasn't accustomed to the power that the dragon's buff gave her. Thankfully, the entrance of Ionia was in sight. Just a few hundred steps more and she'd finally be home.
Somewhere between her thoughts, her legs buckled from their constant expenditure. Akali made no move to break her fall and instead braced herself for a full on collision with the concrete.
The seemingly inevitable impact never came. A solid arm slipped under her shoulders and flipped her body over so that she faced the sky. Akali recognized the person before she even had a chance to look.
"Zed," Akali greeted as he placed his free hand underneath the back of her knees. Had she felt less drained, she probably would have made an effort to wrench herself from his grasp.
Her eyes lazily traveled upward. The bloody mask was back. Zed faintly recoiled when Akali ripped it off of his face. Its metallic exterior felt cool beneath her fingertips, so unlike Zed's heated stare. She felt his gaze turn to the ground, where Syndra's grisly corpse lay.
"I had to do it," Akali whispered guiltlessly, not bothering to view his reaction. For most of his life, Zed's only ally was Syndra, and now that she was dead, Zed had no one. Akali wasn't the least bit sorry for killing Syndra, but she couldn't deny her guilt for forcing the Shadow Master into more solitude.
"I know," came his solemn reply.
The grip around her frame tightened, but instead of shrinking away in disgust, she relaxed. Against her will, her head lulled against Zed's chest and her eyelids drooped dangerously. The world began to fade into obscurity, but it wasn't at all menacing.
She was far too tired to interpret the meaning behind his words as Zed murmured, "I rather it be her than you."
A low vibrant energy hummed through Akali's body. It must have possessed some healing properties, for the weariness in her limbs slowly ebbed away, leaving only soothing vitality in its wake. The bed she had been tucked into seemed to swallow her whole, not that she was protesting.
A symphony of harmonious music began playing, rousing her body from its short, but efficacious respite. She forced her lids wide open and immediately regretted it. Moonlight filtered in from the exposed window next to her and right into her corneas. The music abruptly drew to a shrill stop, and furious shuffling could be heard afterwards. Someone clumsily scrambled to cover the window the curtains. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Akali began to recognize the woman's silent but well-intentioned demeanor.
"Sona?" Akali's voice came out as a wheeze, and she cringed from the strain on her arid throat.
Sona ambled to the other side of the bed and retrieved a glass of water that stood on a nightstand, gently holding it out for Akali. She sat up to grab the cup, but unexpectedly, pain in her middle blossomed. Her hand immediately went to clutch her stomach, which apparently had been bandaged meticulously in the time she was unconscious. Her gaze shifted from her belly to Sona, who sheepishly shrugged and opted this time to help her out by raising the cup to her cracked lips. Only after the water had slid easily down Akali's esophagus was she able to utter, "Thank you."
Sona nodded in response before exiting the unfamiliar room in search of something, which gave Akali some time to think. She hadn't an idea where she was, but she surmised this place was somewhere along the outskirts of the town.
Footsteps outside the door alerted her of a new presence. Akali barely registered Shen's entrance until he situated himself next to her on the bed. He wasted no time to hug her frail frame, mindful the bandages around her sides.
"How do you feel?" Shen asked immediately, surveying the motley of bruises on her skin.
Akali opened her mouth to respond, but a slight tremor that shook the house quickly shut her up. It was still alive. The process of waking up had truthfully erased all thoughts of Baron from her disheveled mind, but now that she was fully alert, Akali realized every second she stayed in bed was another second of destruction. To the best of her ability, Akali plucked off the covers and clambered to her feet, ignoring Shen's protests.
Nope.
No sooner had her feet touched the ground than Akali collapsed back onto the bed. The second time wasn't any less pitiful to watch. Or the third, or the fourth...
"You need to rest," Shen all but commanded, leaning over to prop the pillow against the headboard. That was exactly what Akali couldn't do, at least not when Ionia was being obliterated from ground to sky.
"You need me out there, not lying in here like an invalid." Her protests fell on deaf ears though, for Shen didn't cease his bed primping.
"You were out cold for almost twelve hours. Until Sona heals all of your wounds, you're not leaving this bed." A low grumble echoed in her ears, to which Akali's hands immediately sprung up to cover her stomach. "And until after you've eaten," Shen smirked.
Akali petulantly jutted out her lower lip into a pout and crossed her arms defiantly as her best friend tried to tuck her in. In one final act of protest, she glared at Shen's face. Her dissent died quickly as Akali scrutinized the dark circles beneath his eyes; he hadn't slept a wink for the past day, she was willing to bet, and the other soldiers on the field were probably suffering the same fate. Her eyes met Sona's, which flashed with unmistakable lethargy.
"Once I'm fully healed, I'm going back out there."
Shen nodded without question, shocking Akali. "I've since learned that preventing you from doing what you want is a very unwise choice."
The most Akali could do was offer a sincere smile and allow Sona to resume her healing ministrations. Life seeped into her bones. It was the strangest sensation to have the blisters on her feet vanish, the bruises on her skin dissolve, and the tissues in her dislocated shoulder reconnect themselves, but it sure as hell was soporific. Without knowing it, Akali tilted her head back onto the comfort of the pillow and fell asleep once again.
One of these days, Akali swore, she would rethink her every second of her life leading up to this moment and discover just how she managed to find her way back in the same exact predicament when she fought the dragon: hanging onto its body for dear life. Her grave was being dug deeper by the second.
Baron flipped its head backwards in an attempt to knock off the intruder hanging on its neck. Its response was anything but appreciated by Akali, who clung onto one of the protruding spikes on its head. It unhinged its jaw to release an annoyed howl and shook its head side to side. Akali could only clench her eyes shut in an attempt to clear the recurring ringing in her ears. No doubt she would have to see an otolaryngologist after this.
Baron's swinging rocked her body laterally like a pendulum. When it lurched her upward, Akali relinquished her grip and soared skyward to the blood moon before landing atop Baron's head once more. Perspiration rolled down her temples and stung her eyes, but Akali blinked until the pain subsided.
Not two hours ago, Akali had been sleeping in bed under the care of Sona's euphonic etwahl and healing techniques. Curse her damn circadian rhythm for tricking her into sneaking in another hour of rest! Akali had learned when she finally awoke that it was Sona's house she had been brought to, and that another three hundred people were killed. Upon hearing of the latter, Akali jumped, fell, out of bed and rushed to put on her battle gear. News inherently traveled fast during wartime, for Shen reappeared outside her bedroom door within five minutes. He said nothing as she snatched her kama (and mourned the loss of the other one) and instead wished her good luck for whatever the hell she was about to do.
Which brought her back to now, in the present, as she struggled to find a steady stance on Baron's head. One of its three heads looped around the neck of the middle one, where she stood, and eyed her hungrily. It opened its jaw and Akali caught a glimpse of dark green coming from its maw. She jumped off of its head and onto the spiraling neck of the second, impaling its hide with her kama. Thusly Akali dragged it with her as she scampered down its neck. Despite how much of her kama disappeared into its skin, it didn't draw an ounce of blood.
Too busy peering at the damage over her shoulder was Akali that she didn't see the third head line its mouth directly in her orbit. It lurched forward, snapping its jaw menacingly so that spittle flew from its fangs. A charged jump was enough to launch Akali over it, and as she traveled above its head, she slashed her blade through all of its beady, yellow eyes. It recoiled and jerked its head backward into Akali's hovering body, which shot through the air. A somewhat dilapidated structure intercepted her unstable trajectory. Her reflexes kicked in as she flipped herself feet first against the brick wall, and summoned much energy to launch herself back to Baron like a cannonball. The army below gasped at her bravery, some even cheering her on. Intuition told her Baron would soon live up to its legendary bravo, for it leered at her with unrivaled bloodlust.
It let loose its mighty roar, a battle cry of some sort. All three heads, though one was blinded, turned their strict attention to Akali, who in response, narrowed her eyes. Truth be told, the dominant surge of bravery she felt was incredibly foreign, but Akali shoved aside her digressions and focused on weaving her way through Baron's heads to safety.
Safety, she snorted.
The smallest head lunged for her with frightening ferocity that almost made her falter. However, its physical prowess did little to compensate for its want of intelligence. It was as if each head possessed its own brain, for another one swooped down. Neither one was smart enough to anticipate the collision it would have with each other, so it was child's play as Akali merely stepped onto their tangled necks and hopped to the main brain. Without question, Akali plunged her kama deep into its skull until its blade vanished within Baron and snatched it back out. A viscous, plum liquid gushed out, adding to the collection of blood on her robe. It cried out, but whether or not it was in pain was uncertain. The two others that were trying to untangle themselves stopped all failed attempts and looked at each other, a tacit understanding amongst themselves obviously present, but that did nothing to hinder Akali from jabbing her kama into several eyes.
Suddenly, pain exploded in her right arm, not only making Akali double over, but also destabilizing her footing. The slightest shift in its posture had her peddling dangerously backward. Reminiscent of her fight with dragon, she hooked her weapon around one of its spikes, but it merely shook off her feeble attempt and bucked her off.
Shit!
"Akali!" she heard someone scream.
The air in her lungs abandoned her as she descended from the red sky. Akali didn't have time to contemplate her demise because something, or rather someone, caught her just before she made contact with the pavement. A rush of wind forced her eyes shut, and then there was absolute stillness. Her eyes flew open to see the guise she hated with all of her heart, but she nodded with gratitude. Zed lowered her to the ground. Somewhere during her free fall, Zed had jumped after her and teleported the both of them to a shadow.
She made a move to sheath her kama, but involuntarily hissed when her arm throbbed achingly. Zed gingerly cradled it to survey the tissue damage and observed aloud, "The cut is too deep. Sona will have to heal you before you go back out m again." He dropped her arm somewhat angrily and fiercely ripped a piece of cloth from his cloth armor. "You were speared by one of Baron's retractable spikes and didn't even realize it."
Uncomfortable silence formed as a result of Akali's inability to reply. The strip of cloth became a makeshift tourniquet for her bleeding arm.
"Do you know what you're doing?" he asked, not with condescension but with caution.
Akali wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and headed for Sona in the backlines. Frankly, the idea of fighting the serpent seemed much more appealing than staying alone with Zed. "I…"
Up until this point, her plan had been to weaken the creature and the question of what she would do afterwards had never occurred to her. "I'm going to weaken it." Her response would have been more convincing had it not been phrased in the form of a question.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and swiveled her around to face him. She cringed upon looking at his mask. Zed peeled his mask away, silently noting that he would probably need a new one if he were to effectively talk to anyone Ionian.
"You need to end this."
Akali stepped back from his grasp and puffed her chest. "I know."
Something written on Zed's face knew something she didn't. "No. I mean you need to end this."
Hopefully he understood the quizzical look on her face because his words made absolutely no sense without context. Just what the hell was he trying to imply?
"You need to kill Baron."
Now where was that bluntness before?
Kill Baron?
She had a better chance of doing so in a hundred years when she would be dead. "You're insane."
"But you already knew that, didn't you?" he countered fluidly. "No one man should have the power that the Baron Nashor promises, not Syndra, not me, not anyone. A clean stab to the heart should do the trick."
Her head began to swim, not only from Zed's sudden proposition, but also from something else. "If it's as easy as you make it seem, why hasn't anyone ever done it?" Akali asked dubiously, forcing a swallow down her suddenly torrid throat. She didn't know it was possible for the red gleam in his mask to grow even darker.
"Killing it requires more than just physical strength."
It required more than just physical strength? Her physical strength was only slightly above average at best, and there was no way in hell she ever could depend on her other questionable "strengths." So she did what any other sane person wouldn't do: she laughed. Cackled, rather. Maybe it was her blood loss that had her acting insane. Whatever it was, how would it explain the fact that there were two Zeds in front of her?
"What exactly is so funny?"
Akali could see his perplexed mien through squinted eyes. There was no humor in his question; there really wasn't a question in his question, either. Or was there? Either way, it was hot. Much too hot. She almost snickered when Zed's eyes widened.
"Fuck," he muttered under his breath. "We need to get you to a medic."
"I'm fiiine," Akali drawled out with far too many added, slurred syllables. A gurgling, demonic noise caught her attention until she realized it was from her own stomach. It churned uncomfortably as if it was being folded into itself infinitely. The discomfort quickly escalated into sharp pangs of piercing sensations that assaulted her gut. Something travelled from her stomach through her esophagus and spewed out of her mouth so quickly that Akali barely turned around and directed the vomit away from Zed. It was all she could do to not collapse in the puddle of throw up.
"The spike was poisoned," Zed cursed, kneeling down to gather her limp frame in his arms.
P...poisoned…?
The rocking motion of his steps exacerbated her urge to vomit a second time. Many things crossed Akali's mind that moment, most of which tried to comprehend what was supposed to be a simple sentence, but delirium had taken control of her. The back of her pharynx burned from her stomach acid, making her retch in response. Crudely, Akali dragged the back of her hand along her mouth.
Zed didn't bat an eye as she projectile vomited a second time over his shoulder like a champion. Somewhere in the middle of her heaving, the roof she had just been on transformed into concrete. A blur of blue moved in her peripheral vision, but when Akali moved to look, it disappeared. Her bottom touched a soft surface and the warmth of Zed's arms abandoned her. Something nudged her shoulders gently to lie her down, but her vision was far too warped to see. Her lids closed. Music filled the distance.
"It's not working." A hand was pressed to her sweaty forehead.
"She's burning up quickly," spoke Zed. Even in her poisoned state, Akali could hear the panic laced within his calm demeanor. "She should have been dead already, but something within her is delaying the lethal effects of the poison."
Dragon.
"Healing will do no good." The command was spoken with a subtle accent. Shuffles ensued. "I have to cleanse the affliction at its root."
Behind closed eyes, all Akali could see was a flash of bright viridian. Whatever it was, she wouldn't be able to find out because her consciousness was slowly slipping away.
Lath Rian Oune Vi Phyla...
Whether the mantra was in her head or chanted aloud by Karma, Akali would never know. Darkness ripped away from her spirit and left it near dead, but in its wake, a flood of life essence poured into her body so violently that her back arched from whatever she was lying on. It suffocated every part of her: her senses, her body, her thoughts. Before the true storm could wreak its havoc, everything halted. For a brief period of time, there was no screams to be heard, no silhouettes to be seen. Akali's spine collided roughly against the material beneath it, drawing a groan from her. Despite a long internal battle with her body, Akali pried open one lid to see a heavily breathing Karma leaning next to her cot. Just seconds after, her body began to glow from Sona's healing abilities, and minutes later, Akali was able to sit upright on the cot as if she hadn't been near death moments ago.
"Thank you," was all she could whisper on a breath.
Karma and Sona nodded in reply, both of who were quite disheveled from their unexpected patient. Relieving them of her presence, Akali rose from the cot, which felt less than repulsive given that her robes were drenched in blood and sweat. Zed mutely surrendered her weapon when she opened her grimy palm to him and followed right behind her as she trudged onward to Baron for the second and, if all went well, final time.
Once Akali was within jumping distance of the creature, she launched herself onto its slender neck and stabbed her blade into its hide as a grapple. Abruptly, a spike thick enough to impale ten people propelled outward into the air, grazing only cloth, but before it could retract, Akali gripped it with her free hand and scaled her way to the top of the main head. A loud whoosh diverted her focus. Before Akali could even turn her head, a distinct slicing noise echoed through the air, culminating with a silver shuriken lodging itself into a space right above her. Specks of purple dripped from its bevel. Akali ripped the shuriken out of its neck and used it as a pick to climb up.
"Fire at will!" Irelia barked at her army, which then roared in unison and launched a wave of volleys.
Honestly, Akali knew their feeble arrows would not even scratch Baron's epidermis. It was all just a distraction to protect her, she assumed. But still, Akali couldn't tear her eyes from the flurries of arrows that pierced the wind itself, even though they would all inevitably be deflected easily. Imagine her surprise when purple blood emerged from several hidden lacerations and drip down Baron's neck, which begged the question: how?
The answer, she observed, lied not with the material of the arrowheads or its shape. In the safety of the backlines, hundreds of sorcerers and sorceresses stood behind the archers, infusing each arrow with glowing magic.
Magic and melee attacks could pierce its skin. The ratio of casters to melee fighters as of now was hundreds to almost none, since most of the close combat warriors were either impaled, melted, or terrified beyond comfort. For now, Akali was better off waiting for the magicians to weaken Baron rather than individually hacking away her energy futilely at its body. In the meantime, dangling on Baron's neck wouldn't do her any good, so her best option was to hightail it back to the rooftops and dart back in at a more auspicious time.
The only ways to get back to safety were either to climb back down Baron's neck, which was quite a gamble considering the hundreds of spikes that trailed the back of the middle head, or to flag down Zed for a one way trip away from this beast. Akali waved her hands frantically to Zed, who stood wary nearby on a rooftop, in an attempt to catch his attention, but something else captured hers. Her eyes trailed the vast breadth of Baron's neck from its head to its lower body and then did the same for the other heads. Akali wasn't at all familiar with Baron's anatomy, but it wasn't an accident that out of three heads, two were spike less. Neither was it pure coincidence that the lower her eyes travelled on the main neck, the more retractable spikes spotted around one specific region before resuming its random pattern down the rest of its body.
Could it be? That blasted Zed had never told her where the heart was, but that particular section looked rather promising.
Clumsily, Akali glided— tripped, down its back until she stood above the heavily protected region. Cautiously, she tapped her kama against one spike. It consequently shot out from underneath the skin, triggering a heart attack within Akali, and retracted within approximately twenty seconds.
Triggered by touch. Interesting.
The spikes were definitely guarding something, and Akali, the curious cat she was, touched three more with her blade. Expectedly, all three sprang up in response and slid back into their voids.
"Irelia!" she screamed.
A distant, "What?!" could barely be heard over the noise of chaos.
"Do you see where I'm standing?" Akali gestured to her entire body. "I need your soldiers to hit this sweet spot after I jump off."
Hopefully Baron didn't understand English.
Like walking on a minefield, Akali tiptoed up to a promising curvature of its spine, an optimal place to not only jump away to safety but also to trigger every spike. She could only hope her top speed was faster than Baron's reflexes. Undoubtedly, Shen would have her head for even thinking about attempting this. Adrenaline pumped in her veins.
"Ready!" came Irelia's voice
It was now or never, do or die-
Now's not the time!
Akali darted forward, trying to escape the mental apprehension that she would definitely have if she waited any longer, and trailed her kama along Baron's spine. Behind her, the acute sound of spikes shooting up echoed in her mind, urging her forward.
Don't look back. Her body betrayed her mind. Don't look back!
Somewhere in the midst of her hypersensitivity, Zed and Kennen began shooting their shurikens with the speed of a gun, slicing away each and every tentacle that threatened her route. The whistle in the air behind Akali was unmistakable. As her momentum disappeared, so to did Akali from Baron's monstrous body. Only now as she jumped to a building did she give herself the chance to look back. The arrows sailed upward into the sky, quickly turning down to Baron's back. The triggered spikes, which had not yet retracted, were smothered by the envoy of magic infused arrows, each shattering into mere pebbles.
Another brick wall stopped her impetus, but Akali used it to jump back to Baron, where the now nonexistent spikes were either cracked or flattened enough into harmless stubs. Once her getas touched Baron's hide she immediately sliced and hacked away at it in every which angle. Once her getas touched Baron's hide she immediately sliced and hacked away at it in every which angle with Zed and Kennen covering her from afar. Pieces of its purple flesh slapped her cheeks, but it fueled her drive to discover what was underneath.
Then she heard it. Felt it, actually. An erratic beating below her feet reverberated through even the marrow in her bones, and it was at that moment Akali knew she hit the jackpot. She sliced until she could see what her other senses felt.
A monumental, bulbous heart shrank and contracted before her eyes. Due to its monstrous size, it had hundreds of vessels and arteries weaving in and out, the same plum blood on her face flowing through the complex maze of veins to the rest of the body. The mere sight of the human-sized organ stunned Akali. Its slow heartbeat was mesmerizing, almost comforting, but a cry in the distance jolted her back to reality.
Abruptly, Baron shifted its focus to the two ninjas on the rooftops and in one swift motion, razed the entire building to rubble.
"No!" The shriek that tore from her was that of a crazed woman.
In the middle of her distraction, a tentacle hovered over Akali threateningly. Before she could leap away, Baron swung. An iridescent, viridian shield formed around her just in time to take the brunt of the blow, but the damage it couldn't withstand shattered the shield into pathetic pieces before her eyes and sent Akali flying through the air. If Baron's direct hit wasn't enough to shatter her ribs, then her collision with solid concrete certainly was. The impact of both its tentacle and the cement had robbed her of breath and left the world pitch black for a brief moment. Despite her foggy vision, Akali could discern a second tentacle in the air slamming straight to the ground. Soon enough, the only thing she was able to see as she writhed in pain were the slimy scales on Baron's tentacle.
"Akali!" That sounded like Shen, but at this point with her battered body and mangled mind, Akali really couldn't tell.
She had tried. That was all that had been asked of her.
Before Akali closed her eyes in preparation for swift death, her eyes caught sight of purple particles forming around her frame. She recognized this energy far too well and smiled. In a matter of seconds, Shen in all his gory glory stood protectively in front of Akali and hurriedly picked her up into his strong arms. His bloodied face scrunched up from exertion as he struggled to dash away. Just before the tentacle smashed against his shield, Shen unceremoniously threw her aside, where another warm presence caught her. Right before her now wary eyes, Shen was pounded into the ground face first, a small crater forming around him from the sheer force of the blow. The tentacle rose. Shen didn't.
"Shen!" He didn't respond to her shrill scream. Akali winced as she clambered out of the person's grip, but arms held her back.
"Let me go-" Akali began, but her voice died as she saw the trail of tears running down Irelia's pale cheeks.
"Go back and heal yourself up," Irelia choked out the order, trying her best to suppress her sobs. "I'll go get Shen."
Akali latched onto Irelia's bicep. "You'll die," she cried out meekly.
Irelia turned to face her and dropped something into her hands. The tears accentuated the lucid ocean of blue of her irises. "Then you must finish what we started. The world is counting on us. This is what we agreed to when all of us vowed to defend our home. Now is not the time for fear. We must win, or die trying." She rushed for Shen's possible corpse without another word.
Akali's tears blinded her as she placed the biscuit in her pocket. The ache in her head and abdomen dulled in comparison to the one in her heart. However, she would do nothing if she didn't receive medical attention soon. Baron released a blood curdling cry, stopping Akali in her tracks, and Irelia's soon followed after. Her blood turned colder than ice. Akali wiped her tears, only to wish she hadn't. Several yards away from Shen, Irelia lay, her eyes closed, her face bruised and bloody.
How had it all turned so badly so quickly? All of her best friends were either incapacitated or dead. As heartbroken as Akali was, in a fit of rage and despair, she sprinted forward, ignoring the biting pain in her ribs.
Kennen.
Gone was the human afraid of slaughtering.
Zed.
Unshed tears clouded her vision but she furiously blinked them away.
Shen.
She swiped one of Shen's ninjatos from the ground and charged forward.
Irelia.
Akali was more alone than she had ever been.
Baron howled. Akali let out her own barbaric scream. She hopped onto its body. Several tentacles aimed for her, but with frightening ferocity, Akali cut them cleanly with the ninjato. One however knocked her backwards, making her lose all the distance she had. She ground her teeth from the pain and shoved the biscuit into her mouth crudely. Her legs carried her back to its heart even faster than before. Baron's right head lunged for her, but the army's relentless barrage of arrows impeded its path. In response, the left head thrusted forward. Akali ducked at the last second and plunged the ninjato into its gigantic neck. It thrashed wildly in the air, playing according to Akali's prediction, and almost crashed into the middle head. It moved at the last second above the main head in order to prevent a collision. Akali's almost beat out of her chest as her fingers released Shen's weapon, causing her to plummet tens of feet in the air.
Every tear she cried, every rivulet of blood she shed, every ounce of pain she had felt in her life had led her to this moment, as she unsheathed her kama and dove straight for Baron's heart. Her life, she realized, had been created for this very moment.
This was for the thousands of soldiers who had risked and sacrificed their lives, for the thousands who would suffer sleepless nights like she, for the rest of the world which would never catch a glimpse of Syndra's handiwork.
In a fit of blearing wrath, Akali snarled, "Die," and submerged her blade within the heart of the Baron Nashor.
Many of you asked for Zed to return. Welp, there he is!
I am extremely poor at writing fight scenes, so bear with me guys. On the bright side, there's at most two chapters left to this story, so I'll be out of your hair by then. :^)
And once again, I apologize for the overdue update. Plsdontkillme
Hope this chapter sits well with you guys. Have a sunshiny (and hopefully not disgustingly sweaty and sticky) day!