Hello everyone! Welcome to the chapter you have probably been waiting for since the start of that filler chapter that came before this! Yeah! That sentence made sense! Woo!
Yeaaaah…
Change Log:
-I'm going to make an effort to make the description of things fit into normal chunks of text a bit better. Basically, environments will be described at the same time as character actions. I won't lie, I did a bit of this in the last chapter but wasn't bothered to actually put it in the change notes because that would have taken too much effort.
-There won't be a bottom-of-the-chapter description for reasons that will make sense later but it will be back next chapter.
This joke is as calm as the last. It's nice, right? Imagine a smooth, silky voice telling you: To stop a Zyra from flaming, you have to get to the root of the problem.
Ooh yeah, smoooooth.
Also one final thing I should mention, this isn't going to be the last chapter of the season. I'd never end on something not a multiple of five. So, expect filler chapters at some point.
Enough of those shenanigans, on with the chapter!
Chapter 48: Showdown
"Wha- wait! Who! What?" I shouted while waking up, flailing around for a few moments before promptly falling to the floor. "Oof."
Everything was already going so well. At least, if I did fuck up, I could blame it on the concussion I gave myself.
"Come on Zoh, you're the smartest man alive and you can't even wake up properly." I mumbled while rolling onto my back. Immediately, I was blinded by the sunlight shining directly into my face. "Bloody hell that's bright!"
My exclaiming must have woken Ahri, as her upper-body sprung up from the bed. Her eyes searched the room until she spotted me.
"Wow, you really suck at waking up."
"You don't say?"
"Well, are you going to get up or am I going to have to kick you until you do?"
"I see no reason for such violence."
"If that's the case, you better get up."
The sigh I let out was as disgruntled as they come and expelled all the air in my lungs. It wasn't entirely too difficult to get up, but I put a lot of effort into making it seem like I was using every ounce of my strength and still struggling.
After a while (I really stretched it out) I was on my feet with my hands on my hips, doing my best to look like more of a morning person than I was. Ahri looked at my face for a moment before her gaze abruptly fell to below my waist.
"Oh yeah. Forgot about that."
For a few moments I looked all over the floor, trying to find something to make myself decent with. The sleepy haze in my mind cleared enough to stare up at the chandelier.
"So, are you going to get those down or am I going to fight completely naked?"
"I feel like you should be able to get them down on your own."
"I'm not that tall."
"Invent something. Hell, I'd bet you already made something for this exact situation."
"I did. However it, like everything else, is up there."
"Right, so you're utterly helpless to get that stuff and without that stuff you're useless. I really should help you."
"Yeah, you really should."
"Fine, I will. Once you've completed this list." Ahri threw a notepad at me. She'd filled it with stuff I had to do before she would even consider getting my clothes.
"Doesn't this seem a bit unreasonable to you considering we have to go kill people later on?"
"Oh shut it, that's not until the sun goes down and it's only eight."
"It's eight?! Fuck me, can I go back to sleep for a decade?"
"You'll be going to sleep forever if you go to fight with no clothes on."
I glared at Ahri for as long as I could until I couldn't resist the urge to look away.
"Fine. But at least give me some boxers in case someone comes around. I'd hate to give Zed even more mental scarring."
"I suppose it's only fair. There's a fresh pair in the wardrobe. Wait, I've got a good idea." Ahri dashed over to the wardrobe and was back under the covers in the blink of an eye. A weak wave of wind hit me a moment later. "I am now laying on the only pair."
"You enjoy making my life difficult way more than you should."
"I'm your girlfriend, I'm supposed to make your life difficult. And vice versa or whatever that phrase is."
I rubbed my temples in frustration then asked:
"So should I expect you to act like this all day or can we actually, you know, enjoy ourselves?"
"This mood will last for a few hours at best. So, pretty much the entire time you're going to be trying to earn your clothes, I'm going to be trying to get inside what you've got. At the moment, you've got nothing so my job is a lot easier."
"Fuck me…" I whispered to myself while getting on the bed.
"That's the plan."
"No I wasn't- just… sit up. Please."
"Nah, I'm pretty comfy right now."
I tried my best to not appear irritated. After deciding it wasn't worth the hassle to convince her, I picked Ahri up with one hand then put her down after grabbing the underwear.
"No fair." She grumbled as I made myself decent.
"I would be more inclined to play fair if it was not eight in the morning."
After taking a seat on the end of the bed, I grabbed the notepad and glared the top of the list. There was not a time in living memory where I had enjoyed completing a list of menial tasks. This occasion was no exception as the first thing I had to do was 'clean everything'.
Multiple hours of boredom later (12:50):
If there was one lesson I learned from that list, it was that there is always a more tedious thing. You may think that you are doing the absolute most mundane activity ever concocted by the clusterfuck of nonsense that is the universe. Who even decided that the insides of doorframes needed to be cleaned? When did that become common practice on Runeterra? How boring were the lives of people that someone said 'you know what, let's clean the INSIDE of doorframes to pass the time'? You could use that time doing something constructive! I could cure twelve diseases and invent a new breed of bear with that time!
Suddenly, I felt something poke my face. When I looked, it was Ahri.
"You must be really mad about whatever you are thinking about."
"How do you know?"
"You make faces when you're thinking hard."
"I didn't notice. Are they normal faces or really silly, overblown ones?"
"A mix."
"Bugger. We should get on now; it's not like I was thinking about anything important anyway."
"Now, you have one last task to do before we can get dressed and find some food."
"The last task on here is to ask you for the last task."
"I'm going to give you one guess to work out what it is."
"Is it sex?"
"Nah. You kinda suck at guessing. I just want you to give me a hug and say some reassuring things."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Oh… nice." I approved while embracing Ahri. She immediately pushed me onto the bed, letting go of the hug as I fell, and I began to think that she may have lied when she got on top of me. To my surprise, she just leaned down and hugged me again.
"You're halfway done already."
"Oh right yeah… I do not really know why I need to be reassuring you, we couldn't be in a stronger position. Our enemy is surrounded, low on manpower, horribly outmatched and up against the armies of the two superpowers of the planet and a huge group of the greatest warriors on the planet. Plus, we are the main characters and I fail to see how this season could be dragged on any longer."
"Can't you just look down to the bottom of the page and see how we do?"
"I am not entirely convinced the author knows how he wants this to play out exactly so there's no chance that I know."
"Great. I can't wait to be in the middle of a fight where everything is going fine, only to then make an idiotic mistake out of nowhere so I can get injured or killed for 'dramatics'."
"Best not to think about it. The longer we talk about the subject the longer it will take them to repair the Fourth Wall."
"I don't think there's anything they can do to save it at this point."
"R.I.P in pepperonis."
"It won't be missed."
Ahri kept herself wrapped around me for a while, nuzzling her face against my neck. Deciding that I may as well be nice for a while, I moved one of my hands up from her back and scratched behind one of her fox-ears. She let out a low, quiet purr and curled up on top of me.
"Just a bit to the left."
"My left or your left?"
"Yours."
I did as asked and she instantly let out an extremely satisfied, long sigh.
"My existence could not be any better right now."
Later that afternoon (17:30):
"My existence could not be any worse right now."
"Oh, stop whining will you? It is a jolly good day for a battle!"
"It's raining so hard you could swim through the air and I'm ankle-deep in mud!"
"Like I said, a wonderful day for battle."
"Oh yeah, I'm sure it's great if you're protected from it all by a few inches of metal. It's pretty shit for the rest of us."
Shen hopped up from his kneeling position to contradict:
"The weather conditions are above and beyond my minimal standards."
Akali dropped down from a tree and added:
"If this keeps going all night it'll be helpful. Electrical magic and rain never mixes well."
"I'd rather get zapped a few times than sit out here for fuck-knows how long waiting on Noxus and Demacia. The lazy bastards are probably sitting in their garrisons drinking and fighting."
"You are just being pessimistic because you're grumpy."
"Too right I am! We came here hours early and for what? None of you have even told me what we're doing!"
"You have been moaning about the rain since we left Noxus, so there hasn't really been a chance to tell you. Also, you should know from the briefing we had yesterday which, and I'm only assuming here, you ignored."
"I listened to most of it."
A short staring contest later, she yielded:
"Okay, so I only listened to a little bit. Not like it matters anyway, I'm just here to kill dudes and dudettes."
"You shall certainly get plenty of chances to do that. For now, though, please go check up on the other groups and make sure they are ready. When you get back I'll explain how everything else shall proceed… hopefully."
General POV:
Begrudgingly, Ahri agreed and began trudging through the waterlogged mud. Each step sunk into the earth and splashed all manner of filth over the fox-woman's legs, worsening her already sour mood.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to walk far before reaching the first group. Laying side-by-side on the cusp of a hill, they were all doing the job of surveillance. A rather boring job, they had discovered. It had taken the best part of ten minutes for them to work out where the summoners were preparing for combat, what the patrol paths were and Nocturne had even spotted the tail-end of the ambush group heading into one of many patches of forest that surrounded the League.
Reluctantly, Ahri laid down next to them. She understood that, even though they were just over a mile away from the League, someone standing on top of a hill that poked just above of the treeline would be noticed. The closest person to Ahri was Lissandra, so she got landed with the job of bringing the fox-woman up to speed.
"Okay you little blighter, here it is. Those twats off in the distance are hiding some guys in the trees on the opposite side of the big, pretty building to us. The bulk of their army is gonna set up literally right outside the damn gate. It's the tactical way of saying 'fight me, bitch'."
"Why bother coming out and fighting us at all when they can just lock themselves up inside?"
"That'd be great, actually. Then we would be able to blow up the walls from the outside and the debris would kill soooooo much stuff. I'd laugh."
"Oh, makes sense I suppose. Anything else I should know?"
"Well, you should know how to breathe, eat, sleep-"
"Don't be a twat. I meant about the summoners."
"In that case, nah mate. Not really. We haven't seen much of the big guy himself or any champions. Just a bunch of scrubby, unimportant summoners. Although, weren't you sending Zed to work that shit out?"
"Ummm, yeah, let's pretend I remember being part of that conversation."
"Speak of the fucking devil, I see him on the top of the building!" In an instant, all but Ahri had put binoculars to her eyes.
Zed was meditating at the highest point of the League building. Nowhere was more uncharacteristically obvious than atop the spire that threatened to scratch the clouds above. Zed knew what he was doing, however. Everyone who would have been able to see him was dead; propped against nearby walls to hide their demise. The assassin had been meticulous in his planning. By the time the bodies shall be noticed, a sea of violence will have formed outside.
Zed enjoyed surveying his work from the spire. Summoners were working away below, building up defences and battlements. None of them would know the futility of their effort until it was far too late.
The lack of bloodshed at that moment in time rapidly bored the ninja. He had other business to attend to and time was becoming short in supply. Without a word or a moment of consideration, Zed leapt off the spire. He passed through a flock of birds before hitting a shadow on the side of the building, disappearing into it like it was water.
Convinced that Zed knew what he was doing and was doing it well, Ahri patted Lissandra on the shoulder as a way of saying 'goodbye' then crawled away from the hill's edge. She got up to reveal a front-side covered in filth of all sorts.
The entire walk to the next group was spent attempting to clear away the layer of mud that covered everything she didn't want it to cover.
By the time Ahri reached Rengar, she was still dripping with dirt. He didn't seem to notice. The beast-man was almost entirely focused on setting up a massive artillery weapon he had, in his words, "procured" from a particularly heavily armed pirate ship. Rengar also mentioned something, in an irritated tone, about oranges.
"So, if you're doing this, where are Yasuo and Lux?"
"Doing unspeakable things to one-another. Loudly. Thanks a lot for that."
"I'm really sorry. You won't have to deal with their shit for much longer now."
"If my mind is not in shattered pieces on the floor by tomorrow, you'll owe me. If it is, everyone will be dead."
"I'll keep that in mind. So, what is this actually for? One artillery gun can't do much, can it?"
"Normally, that would be the case. Any decent army would want many so they can rain death and debilitating injuries on their enemies. However, we're only going to be able to take the shields down long enough for one volley. That one has to make a really big hole in the gaudy building a mile that way. Gangplank just so happened to have the biggest gun around right now, so I took it and we're going to load it with this special warhead Zoh made."
"He made it? You realise that means it's going to go way over-the-top?"
"I'm counting on it!" Rengar laughed while screwing on the barrel.
Being quite interested in explosions, Ahri spent some of her limited time looking over the gun. In every sense it was a massive, antique cannon. Made of solid iron with copper and gold furnishings in a nautical theme, the barrel alone was about twice as long as Ahri herself. It appeared far too wide to be usable until the fox-girl saw what it would be firing. A giant, cylindrical shell with a cone-shaped end which was made from glass and held, what looked like, a miniature galaxy inside. A sticker had been slapped on the side of the shell which read 'Terrible idea, do not use'.
"Rengar, there's a sticker here that says we shouldn't use this bomb."
"The day I take orders from a sticker is the day I give up on existing."
"Alrighty then... have fun…" Ahri strolled away, leaving Rengar to finish assembling the massive gun. He was itching to put his weapon to use. The idea of hunting hundreds of creatures at a time from miles away was irresistible, even though he had always preferred watching his prey's hearts slowly stop pumping, the life falling from their eyes, the final spasms of their muscles before they gave in. He paused in the middle of tightening a bolt.
"I cannot wait to get back to matches. It has been far too long since I one-shot a carry."
Only one group had yet to be checked. Comprised of every friendly champion outside of the League building before they went into lockdown.
Caitlyn, Tristana, Blitzcrank and Graves were kneeling behind a fallen tree a few metres from the main group. The rest were all stood in a circle, conversing about various issues and bug-bares. Garen was trying his best to explain to Draven, Katarina, Darius, Jayce and Fiora that they had to hold back until after the explosion went off before charging in. He very clearly became frustrated and saw an out when Ahri was stepping in.
"Hey, would you mind explaining the plan to these guys? I do not feel as if I am getting through to them."
"Uh, yeah, right… so basically, you don't go in until after the explosion goes off because otherwise you'll get blown the fuck up. Trust me, I've seen the monstrosity of science that's going to be doing the exploding."
"But I can just W it and take no damage."
"No, Fiora, it won't work like that."
"Why not?"
"Because we're not in a match. You can't actually parry everything."
"I can parry summoner spells."
"Yeah, maybe in-game, not here."
"Surely I can survive it, I am a juggernaut!"
"You're not that OP, Darius."
"I'm not sure about that…"
"Look, just do what the plan says and you'll get to kill plenty of people!" Ahri was quickly understanding why Garen had become frustrated. She sighed when she noticed who had yet to question her. "Draven, Jayce, I've never seen you this quiet. What is it?"
They exchanged whispers for a few short moments before Draven stepped forward.
"We are both very clear on the plan of battle. However, it would be greatly, emphasis on the 'greatly', appreciated if some sort of entertainment was provided for the hours leading up to my next glorious victory."
"What kind of entertainment do you want?"
"The 'adult' kind."
"You two are old enough, why not entertain each other in 'that' way?"
As Ahri walked away with a smile on her face, Draven's expression became considerably more disgruntled.
"That is NOT what we had in mind."
"Well that's too bad."
Draven grumbled before turning to his left. Suddenly his expression lifted to a smile.
"Hey Kata, why don't you give it a-"
He was cut off abruptly when Garen's hand smacked him over the back of his head.
Zoh's POV:
Ahri finally returned as I was shoveling the final lumps of dirt back where they came from. With some fallen leaves and twigs for concealment, no-one would be able to tell how much of a death-trap that place was. I stuck the shovel into the ground and leaned on it as Ahri began:
"Hey, where are the ninjas?"
"They went ahead to the staging ground and let me finish up here alone. My masterpiece shall be completed soon so we will be able to follow in their footsteps. Why don't you tell me how things are going while I finish up?"
As I scattered some foliage around, Ahri explained what she had learned to me. Everything was going to plan, save for Yasuo and Lux.
"Oh yeah and Zed's doing his own thing."
And Zed.
"Apart from that everyone seems to know what they're doing but me."
When I was finally done, I stood up straight then turned to Ahri.
"I suppose you have earned a second explanation. Listen this time. Each champion will have a bunch of Noxian or Demacian soldiers assigned to them. We'll all be given positions at the edge of the forest to the South of the League building. All you have to do is go straight towards it. It is rather difficult to miss, so I expect you shall manage that just fine. Along the way, you will almost certainly come across some of the ambush summoners they have put in that forest. You are going to have to carry your soldiers through this, because they can't fight the summoners alone. History taught us that much. Once you're through the forest, you'll end up a few hundred metres from the building itself. The protective force will be large, dug in, and incredibly motivated. Fortunately, they will be put off-balance by the HUGE explosion which will also probably kill a fair few of them and wreck a decent amount of the defences they are preparing. All you have to remember to do is to murder your way into the building then meet up with me outside of the Head-Summoner's chamber. If anything fucks up, run to here and bait them into this area. If you think you've seen a large group of people die as quickly as is possible, you'll realise how wrong you are when they step over here. Simple enough, right?"
"Yeah. Let's hope this is one of those rare times when everything actually goes to plan and we don't have to use whatever you've rigged up here."
"That would require a level of optimism even I do not have. Now, let us go and wait for our allies to get here. You can help me think up a speech while we wait."
"I don't know how to do that."
"Neither do I. However, for now, let us pretend that two wrongs make a right so two people who can't do something, when put together, do the thing well!"
"Can't wait."
Later that night (21:00):
Confidence. The one thing that the expressions of everyone present contained. Looking across the sea of people, I could fully understand why. Noxian and Demacian troops mingled together. Some shining in vibrant gold and blue, despite the long-gone sun and downpour falling on us; others practically invisible in their dark colours, save for the occasional glint of gold or a flash of menacing, red eyes. The contrast was stark, and it gave credence to the feeling in my gut that the chatter among the troops was not entirely friendly. These people were natural enemies and they'd be dragged together to fight someone who never really cared about. It was my hope that we could get it all over with as quickly as possible and hurry the soldiers back to their respective city-states, preferably, before they started killing each other.
Thankfully, the leaders were getting along better than their soldiers. Swain and Jarvan were, inexplicably, chatting and laughing like best buddies. I would have questioned them about it, but I decided not to when I heard the words "… that's why I always sleep with a cannonball…"
Seeing as I could not find an excuse to put it off any further, I got into my armour and shouted "OI!" to get everyone's attention. It took a few seconds for them all to stop talking and focus on me.
"Did you know, there's a building about a mile behind me? It's a pretty big building. It's surrounded by little Summoners who have spent the last few weeks making life difficult for Noxians and Demacians alike. I have a list with me. On it are the names of the more than two thousand people who have been murdered by Summoners for missing 'protection payments'." I pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper and threw it into the crowd. "That's why I'm here. I've memorised every name on that list because every single one constitutes a gross failure on my part. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that none of your recognise anyone on there, but everyone here knows that's not the case. We have the ability to stop this now. We have the ability to prevent a single extra name from being added to that piece of paper. I am willing to lay down my life in pursuit of that goal. I'm not asking any of you to do the same. All I'm asking of you, is to kill as many of those fuckers in robes as you can. Think you can do that for me?"
The resounding "Sir, yes sir!" gave me my answer.
"Hoorah!" I exclaimed while grabbing my axe and holding it above my head.
The officers began their shouting and organising immediately, hurrying away the soldiers into their positions and groups. I stowed my axe by my side then went over to the rapidly-dispersing group of champions. I passed by a few of them on my way to Ahri so I gave out my best encouraging phrases. I'm pretty sure I got glared at by Graves when I told him "Teamwork makes the dream work".
Once everyone was a decent distance away, I got speaking to Ahri.
"You feeling ready yet?"
"Not at all. Should I be?"
"Nope. I've been in this sort of situation before and it is always the same. It will not feel real until you are stood in the aftermath, trying to come to terms with the weight of human loss."
"How do you do it?"
"I'm still trying to work that out."
"Oh…"
"Just… promise to be careful. I don't know what I'll do with myself if I lose you."
"I know what I'll do without you, and I can tell you now it won't be fun at all. So, please, don't get stabbed or shot or anything."
"Those I can deal with. It is the lightning that I might struggle with."
"You and me both. So I take it you haven't worked out how to protect yourself from that stuff yet?"
"I have yet to come up with a solution to the 'magic electricity' problem. It does not act in any reasonable way."
"Fingers crossed then. Want a kiss for good luck?"
"I'd take it without the luck."
I leaned down enough for Ahri to give me a quick kiss. It felt rather abrupt, but apparently it was all planned.
"You can get the rest of it once we're done."
"I'll hold you to that."
I stood up and un-clipped my helmet from my waist. It was genuinely difficult to pull it over my face, as it felt like the point of no return. Ahri jogged away through the rain until I was left alone in the middle of nowhere. A terrible uneasiness settled in my gut and I realised just how many times I had been in that situation before. No matter how much I tried to escape it, war kept coming back. Maybe it was me. Maybe I should have tried harder to avoid it. Maybe I should have stopped sticking my head into so many things.
Maybe I just needed more orbital lasers.
"Yeah. That's definitely the solution here."
It mattered less each step I took towards my group. I would have had no chance of seeing them what-so-ever without the infrared vision on. They were all very well hidden in a large pile of boulders that jutted out from the ground. There was no denying that I was glad to see they were Demacians. The last thing I needed was my platoon being bloodthirsty maniacs.
No offence intended, of course.
"Everyone ready?"
There was a mixture of nodding and "Yes, sir".
"The op begins in thirty seconds. Get in formation."
They formed up with me as the point of the arrow formation. The rangers formed the line behind me and the melee soldiers provided the protective flanks. One hundred soldiers, all in all.
Once they were all in position, I gave the hand-signal to move forward. We crept through the forest at a moderate pace, the only noise coming from the squelch of water-logged mud under our boots and the never-ending patter of rain on our armour. All I could smell was unwashed helmet.
The forest grew denser as we advanced until I was twisting and weaving through trees and bushes, barely able to fit through some of the gaps. Vines hung down from the canopy a few metres above, effectively removing any ability to swing a weapon. Even so, we pushed on.
A few steps later, I almost fucked up big time. The especially thick area ended abruptly and I was left standing in a clearing. Barely a foot in front of me was a Summoner, sat on a tree stump, overlooking the clearing. He was faced away from me, eating a sandwich, but somehow did not notice me.
Desiring to avoid killing as much as possible, I whacked him over the head with the side of my axe. Knocked to the ground and thoroughly unconscious, he wouldn't be taking part in any fighting for a good long time.
I stepped out into the clearing and surveyed the surroundings as my platoon filtered through the treeline behind me. It was only a few metres across in any direction but it was enough to show that we had gone through the most heavily populated part of the forest and emerged from the other side. In front of us, the trees were so far spread apart that we could drive a tank through without too great an amount of effort being required.
A hand signal informed the men to follow me in single file as I went over to the side of the clearing. We hugged the side close, knowing that being discovered then would spell disaster for the plan. It couldn't be allowed to fail. The last thing I wanted was to be slapped by Akali.
I led on as we re-entered the forest. My soldiers got back into an arrow formation as we began making our way through the trees. We approached a line of bushes and I tried to peak over it, only to find that I was not tall enough. I didn't particularly want to walk around them, so I just crept into the bush. When I reached the other side, I was confronted by a Summoner looking straight at me and whistling a tune. I was about to knock him out when I noticed that he was not so much looking at me as he was looking past me.
He hadn't noticed me yet.
I didn't dawdle, instantly gripping both his shoulders in my hands and pulling him into a head-butt. A surprisingly loud 'donk' noise sounds, briefly making me worry that we would be noticed as I hauled the limp Summoner's body into the bush. I calmed down upon seeing that he had been quite a distance from the rest of his group.
Around fifty was all we had to deal with. It almost seemed too perfect.
I motioned for my archers to line up in the bush.
"Pick your targets." I whispered to the one next to me. He relayed the information to the next guy, who passed it onto the next, and so on. After a few moments I got a tap to confirm they were ready.
"Take 'em out."
The distinctive sounds of arrows pelting through the air was followed by every single one of the Summoners dropping like sacks of potatoes.
All the soldiers outside of the bush saw was my hand popping out and giving the thumb's-up. Despite the blanket of darkness that covered the forest floor, they understood the message. Everyone moved forward and we approached the crackling, makeshift fire the Summoners had set up. Strangely enough, the light it emitted was only visible when within a few metres of it and there was no smoke. I stared around at the bodies which littered the floor and thought back to the briefing.
My eyebrow raised when I realised there should be more. Quite a few more.
On que, a group of seventy or so Summoners appeared a few dozen metres in front of us in a rectangular formation. Some of them wore the usual cloaks and others had basic iron armour and pikes.
Alone, we could deal with them. The problem was, Twitch accompanied them.
"Huh. That's bad." I stated before gripping my axe and hurling it, full force, towards the closest enemy. It slammed into him hard enough to send the Summoner flying back into another behind him. Immediately a circle of fire surrounded us all, trapping us in with the Summoners. Twitch began firing madly into my ranks as we began charging towards them. I took multiple hits from every sort of projectile you could imagine before I could dive for Twitch. He was almost in my grasp when the rat disappeared into a cloud of green smoke. Trying to not let the fall break my stride too much, I threw myself up and jumped onto the nearest Summoner. He hit the ground and the fire in his hands was snuffed out. I spent a few seconds punching him in the face until I was pretty sure he wouldn't be getting up, even if he did wake up.
After standing back up, I took a moment to assess the situation. A small group of Caster Summoners was huddled at the edge of the fire, drawing on it to increase the potency of their spells. They were doing a lot of damage to my guys, so I decided to take them out.
One of them was removed from the equation by my grappling hook. That drew their attention to me just as I smashed the closest one I could in the face. I picked up another by his collar and knocked him out with a head-butt. Immediately after, a large amount of lava was poured onto my helmet. With it still running down me, I moved onto the next guy, delivering a punch to his gut. He keeled over, allowing me to pick him up by the arms and use him to bludgeon his allies. After flinging him somewhere behind me, I spun my body around and flung my arm out, backhanding another summoner with the metal glove. The force of the blow knocked him a few metres away.
My momentum stopped completely when I took a bolt of electricity to the back. It went straight through my armour and gave me more than just a jolt. Thankfully, it wore off quickly and I turned to the Summoner who zapped me. She was almost half my height and only appeared to realise the situation at that moment. I elbowed her on the face then kicked her away. At that point, there was only one Summoner left standing in the small group and he was very clearly scared out of his mind. I didn't honestly care, so I choke-slammed him.
It was at that point something slammed into my back and got embedded in the armour, immediately followed by multiple other things that felt very much alike.
Upon turning, my assumptions were confirmed. Twitch was all the way on the other side of the arena, spraying and praying into the fray. He was taking out about as many Demacians as he was Summoners and no-one was able to get close enough to stop him.
Time was wasting, so I began rushing towards him, grabbing my axe along the way. By the time I was close enough to swing for him, I looked like a pincushion. Despite that obvious issue, I still went at him with everything I had. Unfortunately, he was able to avoid everything I attempted. Every time he couldn't duck or dodge, he would stealth away and reappear again.
Seeing the need to switch tactics, I drove him close to the fire then threw my axe at the right side of his body. Just as expected, he tried to dodge left. I was ready, and managed to grab him by the snout. As I was about to smash him into the next century, an incredible pain shot through me, seething my insides and immobilising me out of the sheer intensity of it.
Twitch wiggled out of my grasp as I began to realise what happened. All of the bolts had been shoved further into me and then abruptly yanked out.
There was no time to dawdle, however. Twitch was already firing into me once again so I had to get up. No way was I letting that happen again.
I dislodged my axe from the ground and began walking towards Twitch. He interrupted his own firing for a moment to throw a small casket of a green liquid. I threw my axe up and put all my attention on catching the casket carefully. I did, then immediately threw it back. He seemed to revel in the feeling as it spread over him, but when he tried to go invisible to avoid an attack by a Demacian, he couldn't do it properly. The green was still visible and covered a lot of his body.
"Well, poop." He sighed as I caught him with a shot from the grappling hook and swung him into the fire.
The loss of Twitch quickly turned the tides of the battle. I was able to body-block a lot of spells headed for my soldiers while also directing the archer's fire. The main objective was leg-shots, but I didn't risk anyone to keep up the mostly non-lethal approach.
When the last Summoner was dropped, the ring of fire dispersed. Finally, we could catch a breath and lick our wounds. It was a nice respite until the adrenaline began wearing off. It was then that I remembered how it hurt to see soldiers counting their friend's bodies. Dozens of families would have to spend the next few days reassuring themselves 'they just got delayed'. I sure as hell didn't want to be there when they realised how bad it actually was.
As much as I would have liked to, we couldn't have any more time to grieve. If we held up any longer the sadness would turn to anger.
For the sake of the Summoners we captured, I gave the command to move out.
The trees turned to Pine the closer we got to the building. They were grown in a perfect grid, making it difficult to sneak properly. At the same time, however, it made it very nice and easy to see how far we had left to go.
As we approached the final few metres before the abrupt end to the treeline I halted the platoon. Very cautiously, I inched towards the end of the forest. It was dark enough and the trees were thick enough that I was not even remotely visible as I peeked into the massive clearing ahead. An awe-inspiring force of Summoners had been amassed outside of the doors of the League. Thousands upon thousands had been assembled in battle positions. Nexuses had been set up to soak the entire area in magic-enhancing energy. Short, solid-steel barricades protected the segmented groups of Summoners from conventional legs up to their waists. Un-manned blimps floated above the field to block any projectiles that got through the glowing, yellow force-field. It illuminated the entire place very well, preventing us from sneaking any further.
They had definitely taken the idea of 'throw everything at a problem and it'll probably go away' to heart.
I very nearly jumped out of my skin when a voice appeared in my helmet. It took me a moment to comprehend what it was saying after realising what it was.
"…Are you there? Is this thing on?"
"Uh, yeah I'm here. Who am I talking to?"
"It's Akali. We've completely cleared the forest and will be able to begin the main assault when the final few groups get in position."
"How are we doing for losses?"
"They're better than expected. At some point Braum showed up and prevented seven separate groups from losing anyone at all."
"Seven? How did he get to them all?"
"No-one knows. It's damn nice to have him here, though."
"You won't find me arguing against that. I love the guy."
Once again, my skeleton almost propelled itself into space when I felt someone grab my shoulder. In a matter of milliseconds I had grabbed them by the arm and thrown them onto the ground in front of me. My axe was in the air and ready before I realised it was Ahri.
"Jeez Ahri, you can't sneak up on me like that."
She rubbed the back of her head and pouted as she got up.
"I was just joking around! How was I supposed to know you'd flip out and hurl me at the ground?"
"Seems fair to me that I be on edge at a time like this."
"You could've at least checked who you were chucking before you chucked them. Just look at what you've done to my dress!" Ahri grumbled while turning around and pointing at the dripping layer of mud on her back.
"To be fair, you were already pretty filthy. It's not like you were fine before but NOW you'll have to have a shower and get your clothes washed."
"But what if my clothes are ruined? These are my favourites."
"I'm sure they'll be fine. Even if, somehow, they won't wash we can just go find some more. I highly doubt that there's a clothes-designer-person on the planet who wouldn't be honoured to make some clothes for you."
"Well, I suppose-"
"What in the name of balance are you two talking about?" Shen asked from next to us. At that point I was so on edge that it didn't surprise me but Ahri flinched so hard she got some airtime.
"I threw Ahri on the ground accidentally and it got more filth on her dress so I was explaining how it's not a problem."
"That didn't even answer half as many questions as it raised."
"You know what, I will explain it to you tomorrow. Everyone just get back to your soldiers and we'll get on with the damn attack."
Shen was gone immediately but Ahri was a bit more stubborn.
"But I don't want to, they're all green and creepy."
"You will literally be with them for another two minutes at most before you get into the fray and, inevitably, lose track of them."
She took a big breath of air then sighed while looking up to the sky.
"Fine."
Ahri disappeared into the trees as I removed my helmet to wipe my forehead. It immediately became apparent how dark it actually was when I didn't have technological assistance. The darkness came hand-in-hand with the cold. It cooled the sweat on my forehead and made my breath clear to see. The frozen air eased my throat as I took hold of my helmet with both hands and held it in front of me. For years it had been my public face. People didn't know Zoh Kihn, they knew the armour. Its image was equal parts adored and reviled. As much as it should have, none of that mattered in the slightest to me. It was just a really cool helmet with night-vision and a laser somewhere.
Finally, the feint sound of speaking beckoned me to adorn my beloved piece of head protection.
"-all teams are in position. Give Rengar the call when you are ready."
Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out.
In.
"Cut the generators and fire!"
A massive explosion sounded, echoing through the forest as the projectile flew through the air above. It left a streak of fire and smoke in its wake and was on a direct collision course with the shield. Moments before it would have struck the yellow bubble, the power was cut. In an instant the shield disintegrated into nothing and the shot sailed safely through. It flew, straight and true, past all the obstacles set in its way.
Kaboom.
I struggled to my feet among the flattened trees of the forest. The ground was burnt to a crisp and a plume of smoke that threatened to leave the atmosphere ascended into the sky. There was no longer a door for the League. It was just a crater and an opening that spanned half of the building. Before it, barely anything remained of the Summoner army. One of the most powerful fighting forces ever assembled on Runeterra was reduced to tatters in moments by a very dangerous assassin and a huge bomb. What was left stood up to see entire treeline replaced by a wall of soldiers.
One word spelled their doom.
"Charge!"
The blanket of silence that covered the night was once more broken by the simultaneous roars of thousands of battle-cries. Nothing could save them from their fate as a wave of iron closed in. They tried to stave it off with everything they could, but no amount of spells could slow the onslaught.
I was the first in. With a great leap, I fell through the air onto a very unlucky Summoner. The dunk came hard and fast as he was cleaved in two. I smashed into the fragile earth, buckling it and flinging a few surrounding enemies into the air. A few swings of my axe left them in pieces before they even hit the ground. I charged through the ranks of Summoners before me, flinging some aside and slicing others in two. Nothing stopped my momentum until I smashed into Sejuani. She immediately threw a bola of ice, locking me in place. Her boar attempted to follow up by jumping towards me, intending on knocking me to the ground.
All did not go as she planned, however, as I smashed free of my frozen bindings and grabbed her mount by the snout. It whimpered as I spun and threw it over the heads of Summoners, Demacians and Noxians. I moved on quickly, resuming my unstoppable rampage. So many Summoners fell to the sweeping blows of my axe. I was already nearing the edge of the crater when another Champion got in my way. Mordekaiser.
I crashed into him, shoving him back a few feet before he regained his footing. Shards of metal began swirling around him as I was shoved back. Before I had a chance to prepare, the ground below me exploded up in a shower of metal. I was knocked onto my back and dazed, but I was lucky enough to come to my senses in time to roll out of the way of his mace. It got stuck in the ground long enough for me to hurry over to my axe and take it up. I had to lean far backwards to avoid a sideways-swing that was going directly to my face. It opened up an opportunity for me to spring back up and fling my axe at him. The blade got stuck a few inches into his chest-armour and he was still reeling from that attack when I ran up and RKO'd him. That ended the fight instantly, so I pulled my axe from Morde and went to the edge of the crater, which was only a few metres away. I stared over it and into League building, locking eyes with a few allied champions.
Ziggs pointed at something next to me with a bit of worry on his face. I turned to see a Summoner right next to me. Out of instinct, I sung my axe at him. A huge, deep gash was left in his mid-section. Immediately, he began bleeding profusely and I thought nothing of it until he fell to the ground, his hood falling away as he dropped. Everything stopped. It was Sam.
My heart stopped. I choked on my breath. Every muscle in my body trembled and lost feeling as I fell to my knees. Tears fell from my eyes as images flashed through my mind of everything nice he had done for me and of the genuine, wonderful smile that appeared on his face every time he was with his baby and wife. My hands went to my head, desperately trying to keep the images out. They just wouldn't stop.
Champions from inside rushed past me, joining in the fray as I broke down on the floor.
Then I heard it. A vile, despicable laugh. I already knew who it was before I turned my head, but I looked anyway. My hands clenched and I stood tall to face him. Rage filled my thoughts as his laughing died out.
"Why? What reason can there be for this?"
He held his hand out and Dis appeared in it. The Summoner threw Dis to my feet. He used the last of his strength to grab my leg and look up.
"He's… one of… us…"
And then he was dead. I'd lost the closest thing I ever had to a proper father. He was always watching over me, keeping me safe. It may have not been for the best reasons, but it was better than what I had otherwise.
He was gone too.
"Do you finally understand? I can take anything from you. This entire time, you have been playing into MY hands. You have been existing by MY rules! You and your little army is here because I will it! How else would you have achieved so much with so little interference on my part!? Yes… it's all settling in now. I can see it in your eyes."
"You didn't answer my question. Why?"
"Dominion, for the sake of dominion. I have spent my entire life observing and moderating the supremacy of lesser creatures. Why should they be allowed to rule when I exist? I was ordained at the beginning of existence to be the ultimate arbiter of every ruler in the universe!"
"That is not how it happened and you know it!"
"It is what I say it is and all shall kneel for eternity!" He declared in a voice that boomed across the entire battle. The Spirit threw his arms out and everything inside the shield was covered in a sea of lightning. All around me, swathes of people dropped to the ground en-masse until only I and the Spirit were left standing. In one motion he redirected all of his lightning directly at me. I edged towards him as it seethed my skin and burned my insides. I could see nothing but the endless torrent of power as it coursed through the air and into me. I was face-to-face with him and slowly raising my axe in the air when he blasted out energy in all directions. I was flung back through the air and could feel what life I had left ebbing away as I lay on the ground. My muscles gave in and my head lulled to the side.
The last thing I saw was Sam's lifeless eyes staring into me.
