Aight so I've been thinking about doing this kind of chapter for quite a while and now feels like the right time for it so I want to get right into this.

Joke of the chapter cause I'm a good guy (I swear): Your mamma is so ugly she gives Nocturne nightmares.

I hope you're not offended of anything. I'm sure your mother has a lovely personality.

This is gonna be like, 10% stuff, 10% fluff and 80% fighting.


Chapter 42: A Fight

Zoh's POV

Stars. Stars everywhere. Each of them with their own planets and stories. I always felt closest to them when simply staring up, gazing at them and the infinite darkness that surrounded everything. At the same time as it filled me with a sense of dread beyond the capability of anything else, I couldn't deny that it was beautiful all the same. Like a shark: amazing to look at, but you wouldn't want to get close to one.

Normally, I would never get the chance to stare at the sky after the blue had drained away. Either something needed blowing up or Ahri was in the mood.

Luckily, Ahri was not around and, if all had gone to plan, everything that needed to be blown up, had been. No-one was around and Megan's hand was safely secured in mine. The only danger I could see was the chance that I would walk into something and she wouldn't stop me.

We continued to make our way down empty yet claustrophobic streets until I felt Megan wrench her hand from mine while yelling "Ahri!" with glee. I looked down from the sky in time to see a tail, white as snow, disappearing behind a corner ahead of me. Megan rounded the corner soon after and I was immediately in my armour when I heard a scream of fear. Seconds later I was at the end of a road which was occupied by both Megan and a bright white wolf that was taller than me and snarling at my sister. She was cowering against a wall with the giant creature bearing down on her, preparing for the kill. I had to act quickly so I did the most rash and stupid thing I could: I threw my axe straight at it. Unlike pretty much every other time I had thrown the damn thing, it actually hit the target sharp-end first right on the neck. It felt good to hit something up until the point when I realised it had gone in just over an inch. The beast turned its head to me and let out a low, angry growl.

"Megan, go hide somewhere. Please." I shouted as the giant wolf began running at me, axe still lodged in its neck. I began sprinting towards the wolf, matching its pace. We met in the middle and swung at each other. I smacked its snout, causing it to stumble backwards; however it managed to return some damage, swiping my chest with its claws. To my surprise, they actually sliced a way through my armour, leaving a deep claw-mark diagonally across my chest armour. They didn't get all the way through my armour but they did better than anything had ever done before.

It took a second for us to both recover and go at each other again. The beast attacked first, going for a similar swipe with its other claw. Fully aware of how much it could hurt if I didn't stop it, I caught the wolf's leg in my hand then put all my effort into throwing it over me. I managed to fling it a few metres further away from Megan, who was still looking for somewhere to hide.

When the beast hit the ground, it did so with a thud and a whimper. Through incredible luck, it had landed on my axe and pushed the weapon further into its neck. I went to finish it off but was prevented from doing so when it lunged at me, taking my waist into its mouth before throwing me a few metres down the street. I hit the ground and rolled, pushing myself up to avoid being mauled before I could react.

It only slightly worked and I quickly found myself in the air and, shortly afterwards, in someone's house. I was dazed for a second but then realised that there was a very large, very angry looking wolf approaching through the hole in the wall. I desperately looked for a weapon and ended up opening a drawer full of kitchen utensils.

"Aha!" I exclaimed before taking a handful and throwing them at the wolf. After a few seconds of throwing everything from knives to sporks I found that there was nothing left to fling. All I had really achieved with that tactic was to get a few things stuck in the wolf's face and I had pissed the beast off even more.

A growl escaped its mouth before the giant thing dove straight at, jaws open wide and claws outstretched. I put my foot up and its face smashed right into it. Unfortunately, I didn't block its claws in time and ended up with two deep scratches down my sides causing me to scream in pain. In retaliation I pulled its claws out from me then kicked it in the throat with all of my strength. It was knocked back onto its side as the wolf struggled to breathe for a few seconds. I used the time to struggle to my feet and walk over to the beast, wrenching my axe from its neck. Blood poured out but as far as I could tell it did little more than make the thing angrier as it got its breath back. I was about to end it once and for all when something hit me very, very hard and sent me crashing through the house, then through one connected to it, then into a garden and finally through a stone fountain before I landed on a bed of roses.

"I am spending way too much time flying through the air these days…" I mumbled while pushing myself up onto my feet. A jolt of pain shot through me when my armour rubbed against an open wound. There wasn't time to worry about it as it dawned on me that the wolf on the other side of the hole was not quite the same as the one I had been fighting seconds earlier. Instead of white fur it had purple, three eyes instead of two, mandibles instead of none and two chitin-covered tentacles protruding from its back to boot. To make matters worse, I couldn't see any of the wounds I'd inflicted on it previously.

Some people from the houses looked through the holes I had made at me but none of them seemed to notice the wolf.

"Everyone, look behind you then run the hell away."

It took them a moment but when the growling started they turned to its source and were then all gone astoundingly quickly. Once we were alone it began walking towards me, speeding into a jog, then a run and finally a sprint. Never one to be out-gunned, I quickly switched into a different set of armour that was only different from my main in that it had more weapons and tools but less armour. It was also a wonderful shade of turquoise.

I jet-packed over it to avoid getting slammed but it caught my foot with one of the tentacles. It yanked me back down to the ground but I had already drawn my gun, immediately blasting it in the face. That achieved very little so I threw the gun aside and pulled a halberd from my back and used it to block the beast's mouth as it tried to bite my face off. I pushed it back then delivered an upper-cut to its face, keeping my fist in contact with it to let the wrist-mounted flamethrower burn through its flesh. It recoiled then picked me up with its two tentacles and tried to pull me apart. It hurt quite a bit so I fired my grappling hook at the roof of a nearby building before putting the jetpack on full power for a second. It was enough to send us both flying into air but I was stopped from going too far by my grappling hook reaching its limit. I came to a stop sudden enough for the beast to lose its grip and be flung a few hundred metres away. It landed somewhere on the edge of the town as I detached my grappling hook and flew high into the air to pinpoint where it was.

I saw a flash of purple come from a guard tower before it crumbled into rubble. Some pained screaming came from the same direction and I was about to go investigate when I heard someone shouting my name from far below. I looked down to see Ahri and my mother waving their arms.

"Zoh! Where's Megan?"

"I don't know! Last I saw she was looking for somewhere to hide!"

They had a short conversation before both running in opposite directions. When I looked back over to the destroyed guard tower I saw the wolf, now with insectoid wings, gaining altitude and coming in my direction. Below us there was an increasing amount of activity as people came outside to see what the commotion was about. People were shouting and screaming but it all went quiet when the wolf shrieked. It was shrill and echoed throughout the town.

Not long after, it got in range of my weapon so I swung it, only for the beast to pull it from my hands and throw it away. I pulled out two swords and began dodging as it tried to spear me with its newly sharp-ended tentacles. Eventually it managed to get one to land, spearing through the edge of my chest armour. Thankfully, it didn't hit me personally, simply slicing through the metal. Even so, it provided a grip for it to yank me towards its waiting claws. Not such a great idea, as I held both swords out in front of me. Both swords went straight through the beast's claws. Another shriek escaped its throat as it tried to impale me on its other tentacle. I stopped it before it could by grabbing the tentacle before pushing both swords, claws still stuck on them, into its chest. I had what I considered a good idea so I threw its tentacle aside then pointed both hands at its screeching mouth before firing my grappling hook and flamethrower. I retracted my grappling hook, chunks of burnt flesh exiting alongside it, before pulling a few types of grenade from my belt and throwing them into its mouth. I flew away as far and as fast as I could to not get caught in the blast but when I looked back I did not see a distant wolf being blown to jibbly-bits.

What I turned to find was a mutated wolf that had grown to the point where I was about as tall as its foot. It was so big that it no longer needed to fly to be at eye level with me.

"Hey! That's cheating!" I shouted as it dropped to the ground, crushing a few houses with each foot. It immediately swiped both of its tentacles at me, which I fully expected to dodge with ease. Unfortunately, it roared at me, sending waves of void energy which disabled my electrics briefly. It was enough for me to be smashed full force. I was dazed until the moment that I hit a tree and crashed to the ground.

'It's someone else's problem now' I kept repeating to myself. That's what I used to rationalise staying there for a while. Too much of me was in too much pain for me to consider getting up and fighting the beast again. Surely, Ahri or someone would kill it while I lay on the remains of the tree. So, I kept my head down and shuffled until I was as comfortable as I could be with so much of me broken.

I would have been able to stay there quite happily had I not heard the sound of a child screaming followed by a cry for help. It was definitely a voice that I recognised.

With that, I put my arms out and pushed myself from the floor. It took a few attempts but eventually I got to my feet and stared back at the town. Over the treeline I could see the beast randomly attacking things in the town. From the looks of it, the town's defence forces were incapable of doing anything to it and I could not see anything of Ahri.

None of the gadgets I had were working anymore so I switched to one of the only armour sets I had that would work in this situation, the flexible armour Ahri found me making early one morning. It was completed save for the helmet which I had not added yet and the paint scheme which I hadn't bothered with.

I drew my axe then made my way to the top of a nearby hill, albeit with some struggle. Once at the top I had a good view of the entire town and at that point I exclaimed:

"Beast! You don't get to touch these people until you're through with me!"

It tried the same tactic that worked last time except it was trying to squish me into the ground rather than smack me away with its tentacles. Once again the waves of void energy hit me but there was nothing for them to disrupt so I simply sidestepped its attack. The tentacles slammed into the ground next to me so I smashed my axe into it. My weapon was thoroughly lodged by the time that the creature retracted its extra limbs. The wolf proceeded to attempt to throw me off but I held tight onto my axe. After a second I got a handhold so I ripped my axe from its flesh then stabbed it back in further down the tentacle. I continued with this pattern as it tried to fling me off until I was at the midpoint of the tentacle when I just let go and let myself fall onto the creatures back. It immediately attempted to get me off by shaking its body. I just held bits of its fur as it tried to get rid of me and found that it worked pretty well. Slowly, I made my way toward its head, dodging the occasional sweep by its tentacles.

After a minute or so I was stood on the beast's head. I raised my axe then brought it down with all the strength I had left. I was expecting something good to happen but for some reason my axe only managed to get a centimetre into its head. With a sigh I removed my axe to inspect the damage. I got down on one knee and looked at the hole I'd made. It was pretty pathetic so I decided I might as well attempt to expand it with some explosives. All I had on me was an anti-tank mine so I lodged it into the hole then strolled over to the side of the wolf's head. I then kicked its eye very hard which was enough to make it bring one of its tentacles down on its own head just to get rid of me. It wasn't very difficult to step out of the way and when it made contact with its own head it hit the mine too. There was an explosion but it was almost entirely muted by the massive purple tentacle. The wolf let out a distinctly alien scream and thrashed its head and body around violently. When it had settled enough for me to get a look at the damage I realised I'd just scalped it. The bone underneath was completely intact but all the skin and fur had been blown away.

As I stood around trying to think of a solution to the present problem I failed to notice Shen appearing next to me. I was startled when he spoke:

"I don't even what to ask to make sense of this situation."

I jumped back slightly but when I realised who it was I calmed down and replied.

"You know, I've been here this whole time and I don't even understand what is going on."

"Helpful. So, how do you we supposed to kill this monstrosity?"

"I have no clue. Everything I've tried has just got me hurt and made this thing stronger."

"Do you not have some sort of explosive for this?"

"I did. Then it all blew up with the mountain." I answered with a frown.

"So none of your weapons can harm this creature?"

"Not currently. I have a planet-cracker attached to a moon in this solar system which would do a fantastic job of killing this thing…" I trailed off, waiting for Shen to connect the dots.

"But it would also destroy Runeterra."

"Precisely. In fact, the only thing on the planet that could kill this beast without annihilating the surrounding area would be the cannons you destroyed, with some modifications of course."

"That is no longer an option, but there must be another way…" He pondered while scratching his chin.

"Shen, now that I think of it, I've been a bit of an idiot here."

"How so?"

"This thing. This whole situation. I've been in a boss fight and not even realised it. Do you know what that means?"

"No."

"Big, glowing weak spots. We just have to find them and then hit them enough."

"Ah yes, you showed me a boss fight in a video game before. I did not realise they were accurate to real life."

"They're not but we're not in real life so let's go stab some things."

"As you say." We both began searching the wolf's head and back, looking for weaknesses. Before we could properly get into the search I quickly stopped Shen just to give a warning:

"Also, while the fourth wall is down I'm just going to say, it's about the time in the story where the comedic relief character gets killed off for dramatic effect so you better keep an eye out."

"I did not realise I was funny."

"You would be if the writer knew how to do comedy dialogue."

"Alright then. I'll stay on my guard."

I flashed him a thumbs-up then went back to searching. My efforts intensified with each building destroyed but I was still being held back by the many injuries I had already sustained. As much as I was not willing to admit it, I was very much hurt and the smallest knock could probably have crumbled my bones to dust.

Some time passed before eventually I was hanging from the fur on the creature's chest and I noticed a glow coming from where its heart was.

"Shen! I found it!"

I waited for a reply when I noticed one of the beast's tentacles flailing wildly. Someone was hanging from it and when I concentrated a bit I noticed that it was Shen. At the same moment, he replied:

"I'm dealing with my own thing right now so if you could sort that out yourself I would really appreciate it!"

"Huh. Wonder how he got in that situation…" I pondered for a second before remembering that it was Shen. Confident that was the reason for the situation I moved on to the pressing matter of the giant purple glowy thing above me. Reasoning that it couldn't hurt to try, I pulled out my axe and hurled it upwards. It planted itself inside the wolf's body with a squelch and that was confirmation enough that I had discovered a way to destroy the beast. I patted myself on the back then pulled myself up to grab the axe. When I yanked it out a large amount of very dark purple liquid splashed out from the hole and went all over my face. A little bit went into my mouth and I realised at that point that I had found the single most disgusting liquid to ever in this universe or any of the ones that came before. It tasted like, what I imagined, genocide would taste like if you somehow bottled all of that pain and suffering.

After emptying, at the very least, all of my bowels I wiped the rest of it off my face then stared back up. Through the hole I saw a mass of purple things writhing and lashing about randomly before I realised the awful truth of it all.

Suddenly, the entire purple area burst. As I fell to the floor I noticed that the stuff I had seen inside was falling with me. Dozens of horrifying void creatures were falling alongside me and they all seemed to be quite intent on moving my head an unhealthy distance from my body forcefully.

When I hit the ground I immediately pushed myself up to my feet and got my axe ready. A few moments later the area around me was blanketed by void creatures with more spikes that could possibly be necessary poking out of them. When they were all on their feet they stared at me but none of them moved. Searching for a way out of that predicament I stared around me to get an idea for an escape. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a circular clearing with some food stalls dotted about. A man about my age was sitting behind one of them trying to sell the void creatures vegetables. He was ginger and about seven foot tall with an average build.

"Uh, guy, what do you think you're doing?"

"Selling vegetables."

"To the void things?"

"Yes."

"I don't think they eat vegetables."

"How do you know? You're not one of them."

"That is true but they're void creatures. I've only ever seen them eat people." As I tried to explain he picked up a nearby voidling that looked kind of like a crocodile and threw a carrot in its mouth. To my surprise, it chomped on it quite happily then jumped out of his grasp and strolled away. I simply sat there, dumbfounded by the scene I had just witnessed.

"I… guess I was wrong. Huh."

The other voidlings had been watching intently and as the other disappeared from view they all turned to the stall owner. Soon enough he was serving them all vegetables and they were giving him money. The most confusing part of the situation was where they got the money from and, considering how things had gone up until that point, that was quite a feat.

As the attention was no longer on me, I shrugged and started running to the closest wolf leg. There was a wooden fence in the way but that didn't last long. Once I was at the leg I prepared to climb it before someone patted me on the leg.

I spun on my heels and looked around to see no-one. It took a second for me to stare down to see Megan standing at my feet crying. Not being entirely sure what to do I picked her up so that I was eye level with her.

"Why are you crying?"

She continued crying so I gave her a hug and hoped that would help at least a little bit.

"Uh, right… well I've got to go… how do I put this… send the big dog to paradise prematurely. Yeah, that works."

I put her down but that was very clearly a terrible idea as her crying intensified massively. It worried me enough to instantly pick her back up again which, thankfully, calmed her down a decent amount. Seeing as I didn't want to leave her there all by herself I began shouting for Ahri and my mother. I heard nothing back so I guessed that they could not hear me over all the screaming and roaring and explosions. For a second I weighed the pros and cons of leaving her there and ended up deciding that it was somehow better to bring her with me.

So, I put her on my shoulder and began clambering up the wolf's leg. It didn't seem to notice me as I pulled myself and Megan up. Eventually we got to the top of it and I immediately noticed a few changes. At some point its tail had morphed into something more akin one owned by a scorpion and pincers had formed on the end of its tentacles. To make matters worse, Shen was nowhere to be found.

Discarding the assumption that it was a generic boss battle I thought up a quick plan and rolled with it without a second thought. My logic was, its bones were the difficult bit to destroy so I simply had to kill it without trying to go through bones. The main difficulty this created was that I could not get to its brain in any easy way so I had to settle for the other organs. The only obvious way to begin carrying out my plan was to start hacking away at the bits of its back that weren't protected by the beasts' spine or ribcage. I got about half a metre in before I felt a weight lifted off my shoulder. When I turned my head I quickly recognised a critical error I had made.

When I stared up to find where she went I saw Megan being dragged through the air by one of the tentacles. It had her in its pincer but from what I could tell she wasn't harmed too much. My absolute worst fears came to life when it didn't play with her as it had with Shen. It simply threw her down its throat.

At that point a part of me broke. It was more painful than any of the cracked bones or bleeding gashes. The thing that had stopped me from giving up was gone and I had no other reason except revenge.

I let out a war-cry then went back to carving it in a total bloodlust. In seconds I had sliced so far in I couldn't be seen above the hole. One of its pincers tried desperately to pull me out but I simply turned and grabbed it. I dropped my axe and grabbed the pincer with both hands then wrenched it apart. Then I went back to digging. In seconds I was standing above one of its organs. I had no idea which it was so I started hacking at it with no real strategy or tactics. It spewed blood and something else I didn't recognise. I found that it wasn't held in by much so I grabbed it and ripped it out before throwing it behind me. Whatever it was, it didn't matter enough to bring the beast itself down.

After a bit more carving I reached another organ but this one was much bigger. When I hacked at it some acid spewed out. I was confused for a second before I noticed the sound of someone crying and someone else trying to calm them down. When I moved aside some light shone in and I saw Shen clinging to the side of what I presumed to be the stomach with one hand while holding Megan in the other.

"Zoh! I'm so glad you're here! Please, take this thing off my hands!"

I ignored the strangeness of his priorities and took Megan out of his hands, still speechless. Not at any point had I considered anyone would be able to survive being digested by the giant creature.

Safe to say, I was overjoyed.

As I helped Shen out my bloodlust subsided. My thoughts became clearer and I managed a smile. Shen patted me on the arm then left to get straight back to the fight. I took a moment to hug Megan close. She was still clutching onto her water-bottle but she managed to get one arm around my neck. After a second I put her down and ushered her away from me until she was a safe distance away. Then I got back to the task of slicing further into the wolf until, a few minutes later, I got to something that looked vaguely like a heart. It had a sickly-green tinge and purple veins running through it, giving the organ a vile and diseased look.

It didn't take long for me to work out how to best get revenge so I put my axe down by my side then grabbed the heart with both hands. Ever so slowly I began stepping backwards. With each step I heard another tendon tear and saw a new spout of blood appear. I got a metre back before the final damage was done when two major arteries burst, spewing blood over everything that was not already covered. Seeing as there was not much point killing it any slower, I ripped the wolf's heart in an instant. I shoved it into the beast's stomach then escorted Megan out as the wolf went through a series of violent spasms.

A second later we emerged into the chilled air of late night, drenched in blood and some acid. I picked Megan up then jumped from the wolf just before it tumbled to the ground, crushing many houses as it landed. I fell into the middle of a street and just about managed to keep Megan from harm from the fall.

I put Megan down then deactivated my armour while laying on my back. All at once my wounds were starting to hurt like all hell and it was making it exceedingly difficult to get comfortable. Once all the adrenaline was flushed from my system I could pretty accurately tell what was broken and how badly it was. All in all, I had to have about forty two broken bones and six very large and deep cuts down my sides along with some smaller cuts and bruises all over my face.

The first person to come over to me was Megan who kneeled down beside my head and stared at me. She was still dripping in the monster's blood but it didn't seem to bother her all too much.

"You alright there buddy?" I questioned while reaching up with my hand and wiping her face of tears and blood. She had calmed down enough to almost smile as she held out her bottle for me to take.

"I'm fine, thanks. If you've got any bandages somewhere I'd appreciate that though."

"I don't have any… he might though." She responded while pointing to someone on the other side of me. I turned my head in time to see Shen collapse into a similar position to mine only a few feet away from me. He looked at me and smiled under his mask.

"Thank you for pulling me out of that creature. I didn't enjoy being shit out of a giant wolf the last time."

"You've done this before?"

"Indeed. Though last time it was not deformed by void energies."

"So I was right, it was void. We're going to have to talk to Malz about this."

"I do not believe he is behind this."

"Neither do I, but it would be good to get an explanation for how this kind of stuff happens."

"I do hope that this is the fault of the League."

I raised an eyebrow to him which caused an explanation to be given:

"If it's a random occurrence then it's a problem as I've never seen nor heard any stories of this happening before and if it's a person or group behind this outside of the League then we have a new enemy altogether. We can barely deal with just the one."

"I don't particularly like the idea of the League having the ability to do… whatever that was to anything from tigers to sheep."

"Who knows, maybe it was a random act of mutation by some mad void god who momentarily decided that he had a deep hatred for this town in particular and you just got in the way."

"I like that one. I hope that's the proper one."

Shen patted me on the shoulder just before something took his attention and he got up. I was intrigued enough to roll onto my belly and push myself up. I barely managed to get to my feet but once I was up I was knocked straight back down by someone tackling me from the side. I muffled some cries of pain but still somehow managed to feel relieved when I was wrapped by a series of white, fluffy things. Ahri squeezed me tightly and planted hundreds of kisses on the side of my face. In-between some of those she found time to declare:

"Zoh- I'm- so- happy- you- survived!"

"Yeah, most of me did."

Ahri stared at me with concern so I assured her:

"Oh it's nothing serious. Just some cuts, bruises, broken bones, maybe a bit of internal bleeding. So, you know, the usual stuff."

"Do you need any medical help? I learned a bit from some paramedics."

"Honestly, I don't think it's something you can help with right now except maybe lightening up on the hugging. I appreciate it, but I'm pretty sure you just doubled the amount of broken bones I've got."

Ahri jumped off me in an instant then helped me to my feet while apologising profusely. She really did think I had died for at least a little while. Once I was up I finally had a moment to get an idea of where I was and who was around. We were in the middle of the road just outside of the bowling alley. People where running around, trying to help other citizens and put out the fires consuming considerable parts of the town. The close-knit nature of the buildings meant that fire had spread all over and the inferno had lit up the streets as well as the sky above. Somehow, despite the time of night, pretty much everyone seemed to have gotten out of their houses just fine. Either the town had excellent fire safety drills, an incredibly well trained fire department or someone/something else had intervened.

Around me, Shen, Akali, Zed, Garen, my Mother and Megan were all greeting each other while Ahri beamed at me, clearly eager to tell me something but holding back while I got my bearings. Before I let her speak I got into my original armour and pulled a medical pack from the back of the belt. Once I had got rid of my tattered and broken armour I opened up the med-kit, bandaged myself, injected some Kolto then cringed a bit as my body-parts attempted to heal much faster than it was made to naturally. Once the pain from that process died down a bit I put the remains of the med-kit down and turned to Ahri who immediately burst out:

"Zoh I did a good thing!"

"What exactly did you do?"

"I got everyone in the town out of their houses and it was such a rush! You wouldn't believe how good it felt to help all these people!"

"Wait, everyone? Like, all of the people in the town?"

"Well, a few left on their own but I pulled most of them out. I even had to dive into quite a few burning houses!"

"I… don't really know what to say. I've never been this proud of you. Hundreds of people in this town owe their lives to you." I praised while holding my arms out. She cautiously approached then embraced me lightly. Her tails caressed my back and one did the same for my butt.

"Ahri, please, children are around."

"I don't care. She'll understand in a few years." She replied while pulling her head back to look me in the face. I noticed a devious smile before she pulled me into a gentle kiss. It was a few seconds before we were interrupted by Megan groaning:

"Ewww."

I broke apart from the kiss and hug then turned to Megan and kneeled down before questioning:

"You don't like kisses?"

"No! They're gross and icky."

"Aw, well that sucks because you're getting one right on the cheek." I replied before picking Megan up and doing exactly as I had promised, much to her dismay. At that point I was still overjoyed by the fact that she and Shen had survived. As I put Megan back down I reminded myself to thank Shen for keeping her safe while inside the wolf.

As soon as her feet touched the ground Megan ran away from me and over to her mother who was talking to Shen. I got up and patted Ahri on the head before strolling over to my mother who turned to greet me:

"Ah, good to see you have kept enough of your bones intact to walk and annoy your sister."

"'Intact' is a strong way to put it. 'Teetering on the edge of crumbling to dust' works better."

"That's a bit of a mouthful though. Anyway, it's well past Megan's bedtime so we're going to head home. It's not yours so I hope you stay up to help these people."

"Yeah, yeah we will. Goodnight mum and goodnight Megan."

I gave them both a quick hug and said my goodbyes along with everyone else as they departed. I could only assume they were going to go to the next town along to find an inn as it was probably best to assume that the inns for the town we were in at that point were probably on fire at least slightly.

As they left my vision I turned to join the rest of my friends in their conversation before I noticed Dis watching on from the side of the road in his full armour. Ahri got talking to Akali as I walked up to the Spirit.

"Hey man. What are you doing here?"

"The Council gave us more vacation time so I just came to my favourite planet to see what was happening. I noticed the flames and big wolf… thing tearing up the place so I came here. Unsurprisingly you're here. I assume somehow this is your fault."

"Probably. I got in a fight with a wolf but someone or something else turning it into whatever the hell it is now."

"I know who it was but I'm not going to tell you. What I will say is that they are not too far from here really. Unfortunately the future has too many variables for me to be able to tell what is going to happen in this situation."

"Why won't you tell me who it is so I can narrow the future down a bit?"

"Along with our new vacation time we got some new rules and telling mortals about the timeline is now forbidden. I may not seem like it, but I am definitely a being with rules in his heart."

"That's inconvenient. I'd like to have a chat with whoever did this. They probably owe the townsfolk quite a bit with all these fires and crushed buildings."

"Right now it's at about seventy two thousand gold worth of damage so, yeah, a bit. I do find- wait… someone could tell I was watching the situation unfolding."

"How? Aren't you supposed to be all-powerful?"

"No. my species simply has a better connection of magic than most. Just as your species has a better grasp of warfare than most."

"Hmm. You mentioned a situation. Is it about the fire or something else?"

"Something else entirely. You shall not enjoy it if this is the timeline we are going down. I must depart now. There are things I must investigate further." He concluded before bringing his fist to the centre of his chest and disappearing in a flash of fire. I thought we were done before I heard a voice in my head:

"Your mother and sibling went down the wrong path."

I took it literally and followed the route they had gone until I got to a crossroads. It became obvious which way to go when a flood of people ran out of one of the roads screaming. My worry skyrocketed with every person who ran from it as I headed down the path. The road narrowed until it was nothing but an alley with a left turn at the end of it. When I reached that turn I looked down it to see a dead-end a few metres away. Near that end was a summoner holding my mother and Megan in the air with blobs of water. He instantly noticed me.

"Ah, just on time. I was hoping you would be here to see this."

I slowly stepped out into the open with my hands up so I didn't seem like a threat. The voice was familiar as the person who had almost killed me with lightning.

"Alright, whatever you're planning on doing just wait a moment. We can talk about this. No-one. Has. To die."

"Why? Why can't people die every once in a while? Why is that such a difficult thing for the world to accept? I'm just a man trying to get a bit of power but everyone has to go out of their way to make that difficult for me, then they get annoyed when I retaliate! Well I've had enough of it! I will kill your little terrorist group then bring order to this pathetic planet. If the only way that can be done is with iron collars and chains then so be it!" He exclaimed before swiping his hand. Instantly, my Mother and Megan were dead. The life gone from their eyes as a soul-crushing sadness overtook every part of my existence. I fell to my knees as tears welled in my eyes.

"No…"


End of chapter. Cliff-hanger buddies.

Anyway, I've not got much to say except my apologies for this being super damn late. I re-wrote this 7 times because I really couldn't find a way to keep this fight interesting until I realised I could just make the enemy change the way it acts and attacks without changing the enemy itself. Genius. I know.

Anyway I'll see you lot in the next chapter which should be coming out pretty soon if all goes well (which it probably won't).

Bye.