"No!" Jayce's shout came out almost hoarse, but reality had no intention of bending to his will.
Mel stepped in front of him, the clothes she wore blazing with brilliant gold.
It was like a second sun had suddenly appeared.
Jayce's eyes were nearly splitting with fury. He swung up his hammer and leaped into the air, bringing it down with all his strength.
Caleb reacted just as quickly. In almost the same instant, he spun around and smashed forward with a shield bash.
But both of them were a step too slow.
Mel had already collapsed to the ground, coughing up a huge mouthful of blood.
The golden patterns on her clothes had all shattered, and she had already lost consciousness.
"Where's the nearest hospital?"
Caleb was the calmer one. He turned to Caitlyn and asked.
"Just take her to my house. My father is skilled in medicine, and we can send for the Medarda family doctor."
Caitlyn answered at once.
That counterattack had obviously been Hecarim's last desperate strike before running out of strength.
This time, as he turned and left, he did not even look back when Caleb's thrown axe buried itself in his body from a distance.
The remaining wraiths that emerged were pinned down by Zeri and Caitlyn's gunfire, and the group fought as they withdrew, making their way all the way to Caitlyn's home.
With the Kiramman estate's luxurious structure and its private guard force, even if a fully restored Hecarim came looking for trouble, the mansion's defenses could hold out long enough for a high-tier team to come reinforce them.
Mel lay in Jayce's arms. After coughing up that mouthful of blood, she had not moved again.
As for the others, they headed for other battlefields the moment they passed through the doors.
Some of Heimerdinger's turrets were still operating, while others had already been destroyed by spirits crawling out of the Black Mist.
Along the way, with support from three fighters from Zaun, Piltover gradually began to stabilize again.
...
"These things really are hard to put down."
Ekko drove his iron sword through the head of the creature in front of him again, but it only dissolved back into drifting strands of Black Mist.
"Tch." Jinx clicked her tongue in irritation.
Tonight was the night she had fired the most artillery in her life, and every shot had hit something alive.
But none of it had caused any truly meaningful damage. Jinx hated the feeling of her punches landing in cotton.
"Watch out!"
Ekko's warning made Jinx instinctively dodge toward his side.
A hook followed a moment later.
Ekko knocked the deathly cold chain hook away with one blow.
"So tell me, how should we proceed with this delightful torment?"
A figure carrying a lantern stepped out of the Black Mist and slowly reeled back the hook he had just thrown.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ekko triggered the alarm on his body.
The other four heroes stationed in Zaun would immediately head his way based on the signal.
Until then, nothing could go wrong.
Ekko's expression twisted with strain.
That brief clash just now had been enough, his hand still gripping the sword was still crawling with a bone-deep chill.
Right now, the only thing he could do was keep stalling for time with his Z-Drive.
Caleb had gone to reinforce the City Above, so the burden of leading the undercity naturally fell on him and Viktor.
Nothing could go wrong, absolutely nothing.
"It seems your soul has suffered quite a bit."
Thresh's smile carried a freezing malice, and pitiful wails kept echoing out from that lantern.
"Run!"
Ekko did not look back at Jinx, he only roared the order.
In the distance...
"You go, I can hold her off!"
"All traitors must die!"
Zac and Blitzcrank, the two larger ones, one launching himself forward and the other boosting his power output, both rushed toward the place Ekko's signal had come from.
Warwick glanced at Viktor and decided to stay behind for the time being.
Ghostly green spears, almost solid in form, rained down toward Viktor.
Viktor calmly set down a Gravity Field, then swept a laser across Kalista as her agile movements slowed.
Meanwhile, his other two hands were at work as well, siphoning energy to add a shield over himself while also unfolding a shield wall.
It was the Hextech shield Caleb had given him earlier together with the Hex Claw.
But the spear ignored both the shield and the shield wall, plunging straight into Viktor's chest.
With a shattering crack, the intangible spear vanished, and the pain that followed was so vicious it drilled straight into bone, forcing Viktor down to one knee.
"Raaagh!"
Warwick's primal fury erupted completely, and he charged at her on all fours.
But once Kalista was outside the Gravity Field, she was far too agile. After taking three or four spears, Warwick also collapsed to the ground after another cracking burst.
...
Cold sweat poured down Ekko's forehead in steady drops.
If any part of his body was touched, even just the edge of his clothes, his soul would be dragged away.
Using the Z-Drive this frequently would obviously cause fractures and instability in time itself.
And when that happened, it would not just affect him, it could affect all of Zaun.
Boom!
A massive crash rang out.
A steel fist slammed into Thresh.
But he seemed to casually flick his chains, and Blitzcrank's iron fist was instantly reeled back by its cable.
"Oh?"
Aim, hook, cast.
Thresh, whose throws never missed, yanked the chain back, only to show a flash of surprise.
No soul?
Then again, something made entirely of steel from top to bottom having a soul would have been a stretch.
It had been a long time since he had visited another mortal realm, and this place was proving full of delightful surprises.
"Fall back!"
Seeing that Thresh still looked completely unhurried while he and Jinx were already at their limit, Ekko shouted instinctively.
Even with two extra helpers, they still might not be able to break through his defenses...
Unless...
"Bye-bye!"
Jinx flashed her usual grin, and then a blinding light burst from the shark-shaped barrel of her launcher.
It was the Super Mega Death Rocket!
The shockwave and dirt thrown up by the explosion blasted everyone off their feet, including Jinx herself, who had already been edging backward.
In midair, Zac caught both Ekko and Jinx, then cushioned their landing by acting like a living airbag.
Even the newly emerging wraiths, who had been about to swagger in and take advantage of the situation, were completely shattered by the aftershock of that strike.
"Hah..."
All of them were gasping for breath.
No matter how you looked at it, there was no way the one at the center of that explosion could still be alive.
Yet before the smoke had even cleared, another hook shot out.
This time it caught Zac.
Zac immediately severed that small portion of himself and abandoned it.
"Well, well, well," Thresh said, unable to hide his fascination. "This really is one surprise after another."
Boom!
A bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky.
Caleb had arrived.
If even Ekko thought something was too difficult to handle and had sent a signal, then it was a safe bet that no one in Zaun could have dealt with it alone.
Sure enough, the moment Caleb arrived, he saw exactly the face he least wanted to run into, Thresh.
"You seem to be the one in charge?"
Thresh's voice was slow and measured, like an elegant nobleman politely greeting a guest.
Around them, walls of ghostly green light rose one after another.
The Box.
Caleb did not waste a single word on him. He just raised his hand and shouted,
"Janna!"
Come on, there was no way Thresh was a boss Caleb could handle at this stage.
Even if he dragged the entire twin cities into the fight, all that would do was help Thresh stack his passive.
Calling Janna directly was nothing to be ashamed of.
After a burst of violent wind, Thresh, who had seemed immovable until then, was forced several steps back, while the wounds and crushing pressure weighing on the others were swept away in an instant.
It was Zaun's guardian deity, Janna, the Storm's Fury.
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