Yep.
Uh-huh.
Totally.
Still too lazy to do these.
Woo.
Chapter 54: The Archon
"Why the hell would you make something like that? It's immoral as fuck, man."
"When I set out to create this kind of device it wasn't for mind control. It was just something to prevent someone from moving, to replace hand-cuffs and stuff like that. However, as often happens with me, I ended up making something entirely more complex than I originally planned. Instead of just blocking neural signals that would make someone stop moving, it somehow managed to allow for total control of the actions of an individual."
"How do you go from a pumped-up tranquiliser thing to a mind-control machine?"
"I'm pretty sure it's a well-established fact that I am not very good at making things that I mean to sometimes. Like that time I tried to make an extra-squidgy rubber duck and ended up with a planetary doomsday device… quack, quack motherfucker."
"I don't think I want to hear that story."
"Definitely not. Entirely too many locals on incredible amounts of hallucinogens were involved. None of it made any sense at the time and it still doesn't now."
"Somehow, my life would make a lot more sense with an abundance of hallucinogens."
"You and me both, honey." He chuckled while crunching the device in his hand and tossing it over his shoulder.
"Don't call me 'honey'. It sounds weird."
"I've warmed to it over time."
"Well you better reverse that then."
"Sir, yes sir."
"God, I hate it when you say that."
"That's why I say it-" He began before a loud 'donk' noise hit my ears and Zoh flew across my field of vision, landing a few metres away and destroying some chairs on his way down.
"Huh. That was odd." I remarked before turning to my right to find Vi standing there, fists at the ready. Thankfully, she wasn't pointing herself at me, so I felt safe enough to ask: "Why'd you do that? I mean, I'm not complaining, he kinda deserved it, but why?"
"Lady, I never forgot a beating. And that son-of-a-bitch gave me quite the nasty one when we first met."
"Surely you've got him back for that before now."
"Obviously. But now we can go for a no-holds-barred rematch!"
Zoh pushed himself up and pulled his axe from his waist before chucking it aside.
"This is not the place or the time for a fight. But if you want a grudge match, you're damn well going to get one."
Zoh's POV:
She immediately charged at me with one of her power-fists charging up behind her. I waited until she was thrusting it forward and within a few feet of me before I went to dodge. Turning to the side and ducking backwards, I watched as her attack swung over me. Before I could get a chance to counter, she swept my legs from under me, dropping my back to the floor. She was about to drop a charged fist on me when I rolled out of the way, letting the ground where I was take the blow. A crater formed and a few shards of concrete flew into the air around us. They were still dropping when I jumped up to my feet a squared-off with Vi. We circled each other, neither wanting to make the first move, until she charged her fist and sped over to me. I dodged her upper-cut by sliding to the left, taking the chance to grab her by the neck when it showed itself. I took two steps forward while holding her high above my head before slamming her into the ground. She had barely spent a moment on the ground before bringing her fist up and pointing at me. Thrusters in her gauntlets and back propelled her upwards at such speed that the punch she delivered to my gut brought me up with her. We were a few metres in the air when the thrusters ran out of power and she swung her fist around to punch me down.
"This ain't good." I acknowledged blankly before getting smacked to the floor. I couldn't see over the crater I made in the floor, but it thankfully looked a lot worse than it felt. When I shoved myself up to my feet, I instantly noticed that a fist was a few inches from my face. I felt some hard things hitting me all over, and finally came to my senses in the centre of the clearing Nautilus had made when fighting Ahri.
My eyes started working again in time to see Vi running at me, one fist behind her back at the ready. She was far enough away that I had time to get up and brace myself. When her fist went forward to strike at me, I put my hand out to catch it. The sound of metal crashing against metal could be heard from anywhere in the stadium, yet, despite all the force behind it, I managed to stop the blow dead in its tracks. She brought her other arm around for a second attempt, but I caught that too. She was visibly bewildered, so I took the chance to throw her backwards. Unsurprisingly, Vi recovered from the confusion quickly, and prepared to throw a fist at me again. I did the same and we ran at each other, stopping in the middle to throw our fists. Going against what both of us expected, my attack was significantly stronger than hers, enough so that, when our fists met, she was thrown backwards. I immediately sprinted after her and jumped in the air, dropping next to Vi as she hit the ground. My fist came down with me, slamming into her chest and propelling all the air from her lungs.
As she gasped on the floor, I twisted over and sat on my ass. It took a second for the adrenaline to die out, but when it did, a considerable amount of my body started to hurt. Especially…
"Ah, my back! Is this what old people feel like all the time?!" I exclaimed while rubbing my back, quickly realising the futility of doing so in armour. I took a moment to look around and realised that we had finally swept up the last of the Summoners. They were all either dead or being collected up so that we could work out what to do with them.
The pain of the fight was still seething through me when Vi finally remembered how to breathe. I looked over to her and sighed before standing up and looking down at her.
"Looks like it's two-zero now." I pointed out cheerfully while holding my hand out to her.
"I thought I had you… for a minute there." She coughed with a smile, taking my hand and using it to get up.
"You very nearly did."
"This does mean that it's a best of five now." She declared while poking my chest.
"Sure. But, if you don't mind, I suggest we do it without the gauntlets and armour next time. We keep going like this, we'll break something important."
"Aww come on, that's half the fun!"
"Yeah, it is. Unfortunately, we've both got someone that will hurt us if we destroy too much."
"Cupcake talks big, but she'd never really use that gun on me! Right Cait?"
I turned around as Caitlyn approached, her gun resting on her shoulder. She stopped a few feet from us but didn't confirm Vi's assertion.
"Cupcake?"
"I shan't make comment on the subject. We have more pressing matters at hand, such as the sudden reappearance of one of the most dangerous men on the planet."
"I'm quite offended that you needed the 'one of' in there."
"While I have no doubt that you are in possession of the tools necessary to do catastrophic damage to Runeterra, you have shown yourself to practice restraint in using these weapons. There are others who attain a slightly lesser destructive capability but a far higher level of willingness to use them, as you have no doubt seen."
"Yeah, I had guessed that those massive purple cracks in the landscape aren't all too healthy for the planet." I confirmed as Ahri strolled up beside me.
"As much as I wish it were otherwise, those are not even our main concern at this time. We have reason to believe that the League has developed a weapon so massive that no current power source comes close to being enough for it. It could supposedly blast straight through the shield that Heimerdinger constructed to protect Piltover from the WMD's already at our adversary's disposal."
I turned to Ahri, the realisation dawning on both of us at the same time.
"I think we may have something you need to know."
Many hours later (21:00):
"So, this is your base." I stated, slightly confused by their choice, as we approached the heavily-guarded entrance. Metal barricades had been placed all around the skyscraper, as every other building that had surrounded it was gone. The rubble had been cleared away, giving any would-be attackers the task of covering the fifty or so metres from the cover of the buildings to the skyscraper itself. All the way, automated and manned turrets, guards, and a few champions would be firing right at them. I was pretty sure, from our swerving approach, there was a decent number of mines surrounding the place as well. All to protect a building that I remembered pretty well.
"Yes. Until recently we had been operating out of the police station. We were forced to abandon that location when it was… how to say…"
"Blown to shit!" Vi interrupted proudly.
I chuckled lightly before pointing out: "Yeah, I've had my own problems with bases blowing up a lot over the years."
"Yes, well, this time around there are no weaknesses to be taken advantage of in our defensive grid."
"You've jinxed it now."
We passed by the outer line of barricades and Caitlyn almost immediately sighed, bringing her hand up to her face: "Speaking of which…"
I recognised the woman who was running towards us from the building, flailing over her head. Jinx seemed quite happy to see us. Odd, considering what I recalled her relationship with the law enforcement of Piltover being.
She hadn't really changed a whole lot. She still had a pink minigun, shark-shaped rocket launcher, and the rudimentary energy-pistol. Her hair was still blue and in two long braids behind her, while her eyes were still pink. She was still in pink short-shorts, a make-shift bra, and some battered combat boots, most of which were adorned with bullets. Oddly, her skin looked like it had never seen the sun. Ever.
When she reached us she dived at Cait and Vi, tackling them both to the ground. The three hit the dirt and Jinx immediately bear-hugged the other two, yelling: "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen! Why did you not tell me you had a space laser?! I wanna use it! I'm using it! Tell me where it is so I can blow something up! Promise it won't be us! Don't make me pinkie-promise though cause it's going to be on us!"
Vi threw the crazy lady a few metres into the air, only for her to land with a roll and get right back up to her feet, exclaiming: "Tadaaa!"
Caitlyn helped Vi up before explaining: "I am sorry to disappoint you Jinx, but we cannot claim ownership of the weapon you speak of." She began before pointing to me: "He can, however."
She looked at me, a wide, insane smile on her face. I knew that we'd all end up extremely dead if I was dumb enough to give her the ability to fire it even once, so I looked her dead in the eyes and declared: "No."
Her face went straight and she took in a deep breath before falling backwards onto the ground. She then shouted: "UGH! You suuuuuuck! Sooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuch!"
She grabbed her missile launcher and opened and shut its mouth while putting on a voice: "He's just thinking about the safety of others."
"Shut up Fishbones! I'm not in the mood right now."
…
A dangerously insane human being.
She was still arguing with her missile launcher as we stepped past and headed for the entrance to the building. I was hit by a pang of nostalgia as we entered the lobby, which was pretty much completely unharmed.
"The room where cupcake and the eggheads spend most of their time is on the second floor. Well, I guess it IS the second floor now." Vi paused before explaining further: "I had to punch some walls. Turns out, walls are nowhere near as fun to pound as faces."
"Great. Let's go make a plan."
"No need, though we appreciate the enthusiasm greatly. Heimerdinger and Jayce are developing a plan to retake the city with the resources you have given us access to."
"So, what do we do?"
"We have a… 'unique' issue near the top of the building. If you could solve the problem, we would give you first-choice of what room you occupy."
"It might help if you tell me what the issue is before I go up there. I want to know if I should go up with my axe or my screwdriver."
"We would love to explain, however we have absolutely no idea what it is. I do not personally believe that either of the tools you listed would do any good for the situation."
"Okay, what floor?"
"Seventy-third."
I turned to the strangely-quiet Ahri and asked: "Want to come help me or sit down here looking bored?"
"Uh, oh, yeah, I'll go with you."
"Nice. Enthusiasm."
"Hey, I'm thinking about important things. Lay off."
"I can't wait to find out all about it later. Let's go solve a mystery."
Vi and Caitlyn went separate ways as I and Ahri went over to the elevators. The skeletons and Champions that had come with us, some of whom struggled to get through the door, made themselves comfortable as I pressed the button.
"You seem very distracted right now. I don't think you've ever thought about something this hard before."
"Look, I'm just… everything is happening so fast and… ugh, you wouldn't understand."
"Why not?" I questioned as the elevator pinged and the doors opened. We went inside and I pressed the button as Ahri struggled to find the words: "I don't think you would though. Having you back is… it's making me miss what we used to have. All those nights cuddling in the hot springs, going out drinking with friends, making love on every piece of furniture we owned…"
"Why do you think that I wouldn't understand that?"
"Because you haven't experienced the last nine months! It might as well have not happened to you, but I had to live it! I spent months travelling the planet, searching for you, going off any scrap of information I could find! Do you realise what it's like spending that amount of time feeling like you're half a person?" She shouted angrily, tears welling in her eyes.
I reached out and pulled Ahri to me, hugging her close while admitting: "I can't say I have, not for that amount of time anyway. I'm not sure how much it will help, but I take full responsibility for what happened. I didn't take into account how strong he could be until it was entirely too late."
"I don't understand why you couldn't just nuke it from orbit…"
"This is too personal for that. I'm going to destroy every single thing this man has built until he is little more than a broken, defeated husk. Then, I will murder him so violently I could very well get put on trial for crimes against humanity."
"Don't you dare put lives on the line just for the sake of revenge."
"I won't. If everything goes to plan, only one person will be dead by the end of this."
"When has anything ever gone to plan?"
"There's a first time for everything." I joked as the elevator dinged. I let go of Ahri and stepped out into the halls. At first, everything seemed to be in order. When I tried to go down one of the hallways, however, I noticed a problem. After only taking a few steps down the hall, I was suddenly walking back towards the elevator. I frowned, turned around, and tried it again. And, just like last time, I got a few steps before finding myself walking the wrong way again.
Ahri looked surprised and confused, while I was just mildly irritated.
"Oh for fucks sake, not this shit again!"
"What is it?"
"This is a prank that one particular race likes to pull on planets with a low level of technology. The fact it is here means a few of them are too." I explained while taking a few steps towards the field, stopping just before it. A quick punch shattered it like glass onto the marble floor.
"Thankfully, it has the in-built deficiency of not standing up well to fast-moving objects."
As I went around breaking the rest, Ahri's curiosity forced out the question: "These aliens, they aren't… dangerous, or anything? Right?"
"Oh no, incredibly so. It's said that their empire has conquered untold thousands of worlds. In reality, it's only a few hundred. Still, pretty impressive."
She stared at me, wide-eyed, and eventually put her hands out to the side before letting them flop back down.
"You mustn't worry so much. They only invade planets worth having."
"Hey, that's rude!"
"Sorry that your planet isn't cool or useful enough to be invaded by intergalactic tortoises!"
"It's still a lot better than yours." She grumbled while crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from me.
"Right now it is. But when the author guy gets around to updating the chapter it is described in it's gonna be cool as fuck."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"It's not meant to."
An hour later (22:20):
"Okay, there's only one more floor to clear." I sighed while stepping back into the elevator with Ahri.
"Do you reckon it's going to be like the others or some cool penthouse thing?"
"… You weren't paying attention on the way here or in the lobby, were you?"
"Not a whole lot. As I said, I was thinking. Why do you ask?"
"I- well… you'll see in a second."
The doors opened and we entered a large, dome shaped room. The walls were entirely made of glass, meaning the only place that you couldn't see through was where the elevator shaft connected to the top of the dome. The only things inside of the room that could be considered 'walls' were the fabric sheets that draped from the ceiling, separating the room into a few distinct areas. Each area was as big as the average apartment, and all were decorated in the same white-grey colour scheme. As could be expected from something in Piltover, everything incorporated some sort of technology. For example, the light was provided by hovering drones that somehow managed to emit no sound.
The realisation hit Ahri as she left the elevator and looked around.
"Oh, this is just… perfect…" She cooed while twisting to look at me. The look in her eyes told me I had to get out of that armour.
The second I was out in the open, Ahri jumped on me. I was knocked back against the door of the elevator as her lips met mine. She broke away for a moment to jump up and wrap her legs around my waist before reengaging my lips.
I swear, I grabbed her ass to help keep her up. No other reason at all. None. Zero percent chance of there being any other motives.
LEMON BELOW
After punching the wall a few times until I managed to hit the lock button for the elevator. Ahri had already slipped off my jacket, but I had to pause it for a second to ask: "What's got you in the mood so suddenly?"
"It's not suddenly. I've just been hiding it…" she whispered into my ear, taking a few seconds to kiss my cheek a few times before finishing: "…and we've not even caught up for a week yet."
Ahri removed my shirt with practiced precision while I noted with a smile: "Sounds like I've got to put in a lot of extra work if we ever want to get back on track."
"Please do… but remember… hard, not fast…" Ahri pleaded, constantly interrupted by short moans forcing their way out of her lips. I kept kissing down her neck while taking a few cautious steps towards the bedroom area. She tugged down her top just enough to release her magnificent breasts, making me pause for a moment to appreciate them. I planted my lips against them a few times before looking up to see where I was going. A short kiss to the lips later, I threw Ahri backwards onto the bed. She landed with a bounce, making for a very good view. I kicked my shoes off then crawled onto the bed, towards the smirking Ahri. When I got near, her tails wrapped around me wherever they could and tugged gently, encouraging me ever closer until our faces were barely an inch apart.
"Any requests?"
"Just get down there and make it up as you go along."
I smiled and gave her a kiss before moving my attention to her tits. While planting my lips against them a few times, one of my hands went under her skirt. I teased her through the thin material of her underwear while focusing the rest of my attention on one of her tits, letting her grope and knead the other one herself. She gasped and moaned as I licked and sucked on one of her nipples. Her panties moistened more by the second as I added a few light nibbles to my efforts. My hand lifted her underwear to get at the prize beneath, rubbing her lips as the groans emanating from her lips reached their peak. Her body shuddered beneath me as she hit her first orgasm of the night.
"Ahh, the perks of having a comically-sensitive girlfriend." I thought to myself while pulling my hands and lips away from her for a moment. Her limp tails offered no resistance, despite still clinging to my arms and chest, as I shuffled back from Ahri, giving myself enough space to pull her out of her clothes. The only thing that I left in place was her underwear. That was something I'd get to in time.
After finally undoing her shoes and dropping them at the side of the bed, I returned to the quickly-recovering woman. A seductive smile graced her lips as she leaned up against the headrest and wrapped her hands around my head. She pulled me close before running her tongue up my cheek. She didn't waste a second before turning my head slightly and smashing her lips into mine. I snuck a hand into her underwear and grazed it over her bud. She moaned into our kiss as I stroked her clit, only stopping to turn my fingers on her lips. I slowly and carefully pushed a finger into her, tickling all of her most sensitive spots as I delved deeper and deeper. It didn't take long for me to go as far as I could, so I curled my finger upwards and stroked her walls. She could barely maintain the kiss thanks to the pleasure contorting her face, so I moved my head down to her neck. My free hand went to her head and tickled behind her ears, finally bringing on her second climax of the night after only a few seconds. I kept my finger inside her and continued kissing her neck as she wrapped her tails all around us.
The make-shift cocoon was only broken when Ahri guided my hands away and rolled me off her. I blinked and somehow missed my trousers and boxers being removed. Ahri immediately flung my clothes aside and knelt down next to me. She reached over and wrapped a hand around my dick, her smooth and dainty fingers stroking my manhood. Her every movement was slow and planned as she threw her hair to one side and leaned down over me. She put her lips against the head while still jacking the rest off with her hand, taking slightly more into her mouth with each consecutive kiss. The feeling of more and more of my dick disappeared into the warm, moist embrace of Ahri's mouth couldn't be done justice with words. She kept going until I felt the back of her throat and, not giving herself a moment to pause, started bobbing her head up and down. Her tongue licked at anything it could, helping to build the pressure inside me. I had to start focusing on delaying my climax as much as I could, which, ultimately, didn't help a whole lot.
After a little while, she retracted her head most of the way and cleaned off the precum. She pushed my legs down flat against the bed and put on knee between them. She pushed her boobs together before aiming my penis up and plunging it through them. A few seconds of shifting her tits around, probably trying to get comfortable, she started bouncing them up and down. It felt like the second she returned my shaft to her mouth, I was right back on the edge. Having her boobs and mouth around my manhood never got old.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long before I couldn't hold back any longer and, with a few grunts, came into Ahri's mouth. She kept licking and squeezing me, coaxing out as much as she could and extending my orgasm as much as she could. I laid back and let out a satisfied sigh as Ahri removed herself from me and wiped her mouth. She stepped off the bed and strode confidently around to the end of it before leaning down and places her hands on the covers. Most of her tails went to one side, but one remained back for a little while longer to slither under her panties and pull them down. She slapped her butt a few times, sending a message loud and clear.
I hopped off the bed and went over to her, taking a few second to marvel at her incredible ass. I grabbed and rubbed it before placing my dick between her cheeks. For a little while I was content to play with her butt beneath my hands and slowly thrust my hips back and forth.
However, it didn't take long for the allure of her moist folds to get too much for me. I used her backside to keep myself balanced as I pulled back and aimed my length at her pussy. Plunging in, I immediately got to ploughing into Ahri's welcoming depths. The warmth and tightness was as mind-numbing a sensation as ever.
I kept going into her with an ever-increasing fervour, the power of my thrusts rocking her back and forth. Her moans grew in volume and frequency suddenly when a tail snaked beneath her and started groping and playing with her bud. I decided to try something new, pulling my right hand away from her ass before quickly bringing it back down. She reacted instantly and intensely to the unexpected spanking, climaxing hard and screaming her approval. She trembled underneath me, her walls clenching and loosening repeatedly. Her arms gave in and her face fell onto the bed, only capable of moaning happily when I slapped the other cheek.
Under the constant squeezing of Ahri's depths, it came as no surprise when I felt an orgasm quickly building. Thanks to a decent amount of spanking and some strong thrusting on my part, Ahri was approaching another of her own climaxes.
When I felt myself on the very edge of coming I leaned down and hugging Ahri from behind, gripping her breasts with my hands. I seized up and shot my load deep into Ahri's pussy, pushing her into her own orgasm. Her tails wrapped around my body and held me close, keeping me in position for her inner walls to encourage as much semen to flood into her as possible.
Her tails only let go when I couldn't give any more and Ahri was done riding out her climax. I pulled out of her and flopped to the side, landing on the bed. I stared up at the star-filled sky as Ahri flopped down next to me. We were both pretty much out of breath, but she still had enough energy to roll onto me and nuzzle her head into my neck.
"Hey Ahri?"
"Yeah?"
"You're still on the pill, right?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, good…" I trailed off as I thought for a few seconds. At that point, I realised how quickly I was recovering my strength, so I asked: "Want to go again?"
"Yeah!"
LEMON OVER
The next day (15th 15:50):
I dived out of the way and straight into one of the many piles of burning debris. It was crushed to dust beneath me as I slammed into the hard ground beneath. The amount of warning lights on my HUD was definitely getting to the point where I was worried. I could deal with four or five. A couple dozen wasn't so easy.
My adversary conjured up a tornado of ice and molten metal that flung out its contents randomly and at incredible speeds as I got up. It grew as I approached, the amount of shards colliding with me growing by the second. I had to keep and arm out to stop the swirling snow from blocking my view.
"Stop this Archon! You'll destroy the entire city!"
"Piltover shall fall! IT. MUST. FALL!" His booming voice seemed to assault my ears from all directions at once, so easily audible over the raging whirlwind of unlimited destructive potential that he was raising into existence. Its winds were already reaching the point where they lifted huge chunks of concrete and metal, slowing my advance.
"I can't let you do this! I'm sorry!"
I wasn't sure if it would help my conscience at all, but I felt like an incredibly vile human being as I ran forward and launched myself into the air. Even as I smashed through the veil of the tornado, my axe raised high above my head and on a collision course with the Archon, I couldn't shake the deep feeling of soul-crushingly powerful pre-emptive regret.
A few hours earlier (11:30):
It would have been a lie to say that I was feeling confident as we waited on the 'scout' to return. I had full confidence in Ahri to get there, find out what was going on, and return just fine. The concern was what she'd tell us we were up against when she got back.
I tried not to think about it. We knew that there had been a quick and significant rise in Summoner activity in one of the regions of the city, but the levels of increase were not unheard of according to Vi. According to her, it was going to be easy.
Then Ahri dashed into the lobby and over to us, explaining: "This isn't going to be easy."
As if things couldn't already get any worse, I got an awful hand. I sighed and dropped the cards on the table before looking up at Ahri: "What are we dealing with?"
"Big ol' compound, fresh garrison of Summoners, supplies for a century and a half… you know, the usual stuff."
"Well that's not too bad I suppose. Does this new base still work with the plan we've already got?"
"It would… if not for one final detail."
Everyone at the table looked over at her as I asked: "What, exactly, would that be?"
"You know how a normal Summoner wears purple robes with metal armour over the top and all that?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Imagine one of those, but they float and the armour isn't on them, it's floating around them and moves to intercept incoming attacks. His robes are white, his armour is platinum and he's so powerful I can feel the magic emanating off him from here."
"Okay, so let's just kill him. If he's as powerful as you say, he's too dangerous to take prisoner."
"You see, I'd approve of the idea if it wasn't for one final detail."
I stared at her and frowned: "What?"
"He's a child. Ten at best."
Nautilus immediately went wide-eyed and dropped his cards. Damn, he had a good hand. Three aces.
"Oh god, they actually did it…"
"Did what?"
"When I was still with the League, I spent a lot of time standing guard in the labs. They… they experimented on children… the screams… shall haunt me until the end of time. The things they did to those kids, trying to make them powerful… trying to make them 'Archons'."
Ashe reached over and patted him on the shoulder as he put his face in his hands.
"I'm sorry you had to experience that. If you want to sit this one out, none of us would blame you for a second."
He shook his head and replied glumly: "No. I must be there."
"Okay then. If everyone is ready, let's go."
We headed out through the minefield and began heading towards the northern outskirts of the city. The trip through the desolated streets was eerily uneventful. The near-constant sounds of fighting were gone. Completely. I could even hear the flickering of the fires that were attempting to consume buildings all around.
In fact, so little happened that my mind wandered to completely irrelevant things, such as the awful smell that had followed us all the way from the base to the industrial district.
My boredom grew to the point where I started playing card games in my helmet.
Who-knows how long went by before we turned a corner and found our target. It must have been a while, as the sun had moved a bit and I had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I sucked at Spider Solitaire.
A few hundred metres from us was a concrete wall just slightly higher than most of the nearby factories. Guard towers popped up above it, but the compound was otherwise utterly featureless from where I was standing.
I went back around the corner, pulling a few of the others back with me. Everyone else got the idea and hid from the lookouts.
Ahri poked me on the shoulder from behind a few times until I turned around.
"Are you sure we can't find an easier way around this? I like explosions more than most, but this seems uselessly dangerous even to me."
"We could find a much easier way around this. Hell, we could just lob some meteors at the place. We're doing this because we can minimise casualties without all that much risk."
"Zoh, I can practically taste the magic coming off that kid from here. If he's not a risk I couldn't tell you what is."
"Oooh great, magic. If only I'd already beat on hundreds, if not thousands, of magic users in my time… man, that experience would be helpful. Oh well, guess I'll just have to wing it." I responded jokingly while signalling for Nautilus and Renekton to set up the launcher.
"I'm not going to lose you again for the same damn reason I lost you last time! Your overconfidence is going to get you killed and there's nothing I can say to make you realise that!"
I put my hand on her shoulder and tried to dispel her worries: "Well it's a good thing then that I left the confidence at home for this one. Pretty soon you're going to realise just how little I have left to chance in this."
I turned her around and pointed to one of the few still-standing skyscrapers while radioing an ally: "Fire."
Multiple floors near the top of the building were momentarily consumed by smoke as the sound of cannon-fire spread through the city. For the first few seconds, it wasn't quite clear what had been shot.
When thousands of bones appeared into view over the compound, my plan became clear. They rained down upon the compound with an almighty clattering, shortly before a second round of explosions went off. The building was once more choking with smoke and anyone inside the compound had to play a game of 'find cover or you'll get fucked up by the hundreds of weapons falling from the sky'… The name could probably do with some work.
Ahri didn't have time to say a word before I had jumped onto the missile and fired it. The street was drowned by dark-grey smoke for only a moment before the thrust had built up enough to launch me forward. The scarred and broken buildings became little more than a blur before I felt the missile suddenly shudder and slow considerably. Some rocks flew by me as I took in the details of the compound.
Moments after I let go of the missile, it went directly up and exploded above the compound. Confetti in absurd amounts fell onto the field as I pulled out my axe and declared: "I'm bringing the pain, and the party!"
Mere moments later a small donkey fell on me and bounced to the ground, scampering off as soon as it got its footing.
"And a donkey… Apparently… How the hell did that get in there…?" I wondered as the skeletons started knocking the still-stunned Summoners out. Everything was going better than expected.
The elements of confusion and surprise could only last so long, however, as fighting quickly erupted into existence. The considerable hole I had smashed in the wall allowed my fellow champions to join in the vicious melee. Despite there only being a few dozen Summoners there, they were all fighting with conviction and skill I had never seen before in their members.
No matter how much they tried, their number could only last so long against the tide of skeletons. We had brought in so many that I could barely get a good swing in for fear of smashing apart some of my own army.
Just when victory seemed to be an inevitability, the Archon decided to make his appearance from one of the buildings. At that distance even I, the most magically un-attuned person on the planet, could feel the power coming off him. I had no doubt that I had met more powerful people in my time, but they were trained. They knew how to contain that immense power. The kid that was coming over to fight me had no such control.
Any skeleton that attempted to charge at him was turned to dust in an instant when they got too close. Nothing could stop his steady advance on me as I pulled out my axe. I was still hoping beyond hope that I'd not have to use it, but the chances for that shrunk with every moment that went by.
A flick of his wrist flung me backwards into a building. I smashed through the brick wall and a few of the pipes inside, which began spewing water on me as I came to rest on the ground. I sincerely hoped that it was not a sewage pipe.
I didn't let myself get distracted for more than a second, grabbing a brick from the ground and hurling it at the kid. I wasn't sure it he was trying to prove a point or just toying with me, but he let the brick sail through the air towards him and ping harmlessly off one of the floating armour plates that surrounded him.
"Hey, that didn't work! I know what to do!" I exclaimed while picking up two bricks, still held together by a layer of cement, and threw them at him. Round two went as well as round one.
"Damn! How could such a flawless plan fail?" I questioned while pushing myself up off the floor, only to be immediately shoved back onto it by a wall of bricks smashing into me.
"Okay, you win the brick fight. I can admit to that."
When I noticed the building collapsing on top of me, I sighed.
It took me a few seconds to excavate myself from the rubble, but when I did I found myself in an unfortunate situation. The ground below me reached up, forming two large hands, and grabbed me by my arms. He channelled for a few moments before unleashing hell in my general direction. A stream of lightning struck at me for above, so powerful that the smallest of arcs that blasted off the main bolt was enough to crack a nearby chunk of rubble in half. Electricity poured into me in amounts that could have powered a planet for months, yet I felt none of it. Everything was being safely diverted and, if my calculations were correct, he had only filled a billionth of a percent of the crystal by the time he stopped.
I turned my head up to look at him, pausing like that for a second before wrenching the hands from the ground. They crumbled into nothing as I started moving forward, stepping down the pile of crumbled building as I approached him.
Obviously not expecting me to have survived that so handily, he stumbled backwards in an attempt to get away while throwing as many bolts of lightning or balls of flame as he could. If I had to compare the effectiveness of those attacks to anything, I'd say they were pretty close to damp cardboard. Although not quite as bad, cause the cardboard would have at least got stuck to my armour and made it look bad.
Eventually he backed up into the side of a load-lifting truck. Nowhere left to run.
The moment I got close enough I swung my axe sideways, hoping to knock him out. It got within a few inches of wishing him a good night's sleep before the noise rang out and he was bashed to the ground.
Somehow, he was absolutely fine. No cries of pain, no profuse bleeding, no sudden loss of the ability to breathe. Nothing.
Clearly, that wasn't good. So, I dived onto him and pinned his arms down with my knees. He wasn't going anywhere, so I started punching him in the face repeatedly. I kept going for a while, only briefly stopping to note: "This would look really bad without context."
Eventually I realised that I wouldn't be achieving anything that way, so I stopped. Every single swing had failed to connect, smashing into an invisible shield. A quick scan showed that it was magic-based, unsurprisingly, and immensely powerful. The only way through it would have been an utterly magic-null material, but the only example of that on the planet would have been the blade of my axe.
My head slumped forward in shame, allowing him the time to channel an ability that blasted me backwards a few metres. I landed on my back and sighed. I couldn't knock him out and I couldn't talk him down. Any attempts to restrain him would be ultimately useless against someone so powerful.
I stayed down for a few moments, hoping that Ahri would jump in, exclaiming about how she had suddenly discovering that she possessed the ability to remove magic shields. That would have been nice.
Instead, everything was frozen by a wave of ice. Me included. My helmet informed me that everything, bar the Archon himself, had been frozen solid. I was under at least a foot of ice, so he was probably not expecting me to get back up.
I shoved both arms up at the same time, immediately dislodging and breaking the ice. The Archon was floating in the air, mumbling something and holding his two fists together when I got to my feet. Based on how long it was taking him to cast, this was not going to be a positive experience for anybody.
In a last ditch effort, I shouted: "If there's a person left in there after what they did to you, please, stop this!"
His answer came as a truck, sending me hurtling backwards once again.
A few moments later:
I was pretty damn glad that something smashed me away before I could impact the Archon. Even though he was about to destroy a city, I'd never have been able to forgive myself for his death. I crashed into the ground and, when my vision stopped spinning, I stared up to see Nautilus hugging the Archon. The ice covering everything melted surprisingly quickly and the storm subsided shortly after.
Nautilus would definitely have some explaining to do.
And we'll learn about that shit next time. Won't it be dandy?
I hope you all had fun with this chapter. It's a bit later than some of the previous ones, cause work has very suddenly flooded into my life. So, yeah, that stuff could've come at a better time.
Anyway, I hope you all have a jolly good time with your lives between this chapter and the next one (whenever the hell that's coming out).
Goodbye.
