"So then what, you ran into a monster?"
"Yes, Governor." Even a man hardened by years on the road couldn't stop the sweat from running down his face.
"Take me to it."
Caleb didn't waste any more words. He stepped down from the wagon at once.
Ziggs was hanging from a pole, so there was no need to worry about him causing trouble.
"It was... a monster."
Whatever he had seen had clearly scared him half to death. His mind was still a mess, and he couldn't get out a coherent explanation.
"All right." Caleb didn't press him.
His Hextech bow snapped open in an instant, his hand already gripping the center of the weapon.
He still didn't draw the string or set an arrow.
Caleb had Arcane Shift, so he wasn't in any hurry to commit to a fight.
His reasoning was simple. If the thing really was that vicious, then a man with the nerve of the one in front of him never would have been the one to come back and report it.
"Move."
Caleb shoved through the crowd and raised his bow, ready at last.
Then he saw the figure lying on the ground, and froze for a second.
"Hm?"
He lowered one hand and gestured downward. The people around him didn't understand, but they still obeyed and lowered their weapons.
"Put her on my wagon."
He didn't bother explaining. He simply bent down and hoisted the body up himself.
Purple skin bristling with sharp spines tried to pierce into his body.
But Caleb's physical strength had already been enhanced, so he took the hit with ease.
Even with the mask covering her face, he could still recognize her by her build.
Kai'Sa, Daughter of the Void.
Back in his previous life, Caleb had played her too.
No special reason, her Q made farming minions ridiculously convenient.
From Kai'Sa's voice lines, Caleb knew she was still a girl with a normal mind.
At the very least, compared to Cho'Gath or Kog'Maw, Kai'Sa actually felt like a person.
And honestly, Caleb couldn't help admiring her. To survive in the Void for that long and still keep her sanity, she had to be unbelievably tough.
Caleb also had a level ten healing spell, but under conditions this rough, there was no way he could perform surgery.
A basic examination, though, was still possible.
"Several ribs are broken. The bones in one arm are practically shattered."
Looking over Kai'Sa's injuries, Caleb's brows twisted into a knot.
"Her internal organs are almost completely displaced."
"And these legs are the least serious part. Just a few fractures, that counts as light."
He was stunned.
With injuries like these... Kai'Sa was still alive?
This world really made no sense.
Based on Caleb's limited chemtech understanding of the human body, plus the little medical knowledge he had, Kai'Sa was barely clinging to life. The only reason she hadn't died already was that living skin of hers, somehow taking over the function of her displaced organs.
That also explained why those spines just now hadn't been able to pierce his own skin. A Void-born creation was only this weak because it was so drained of energy.
"Damn."
Now this was a problem.
If Kai'Sa had suffered ordinary wounds, then with Caleb's skill and Zaun's suspicious-looking but still workable medical care, she might have been saved easily enough.
But these injuries were so severe that Caleb couldn't even imagine what could have done this to her.
Kai'Sa wasn't weak. At minimum, she was someone standing near the peak of mortal strength.
Caleb let out a long breath, like he had just made a very painful decision.
"Didn't think I'd have to use this so soon. We just left the city."
What Singed had given him, a restoration potion refined from Dr. Mundo's blood.
Caleb had actually wanted to save it. For the day he pushed his luck too far and needed something to save his own life.
But if Kai'Sa had appeared here, that meant there was serious danger ahead.
And Caleb needed to know what it was.
If nothing else, Kai'Sa had survived in the Void. Her ability to escape danger had to be among the best of the best.
And in the game from his previous life, her kit came with speed boosts, invisibility, long-range scouting, and extreme long-distance engagement.
Who had injured Kai'Sa?
Could that thing bring disaster down on the caravan?
That was what Caleb needed to think about most right now.
"All right."
Once he made up his mind, he stopped hesitating. He lifted Kai'Sa's head and poured the bottle down her throat.
Those potions came from Dr. Mundo's blood.
And after Caleb had hacked Dr. Mundo to pieces, shredding apart the chemtech incubator body that had been built by his years of swallowing random drugs, there was no way to keep cultivating more of those compounds. All that remained was to squeeze the source dry.
Singed had actually been generous. He had handed Caleb two full bottles. Aside from what Singed needed for saving Rio and restoring Warwick's mind, he had given Caleb everything else.
As the potion entered Kai'Sa's body, the effect was immediately visible. The places that had been twisted and displaced started settling back into place.
"Mundo really is a beast."
Caleb felt a little regret.
If only he could've chained that big lug down and drawn blood from him every day.
Then whenever anyone got seriously sick, they could just take a bottle of Doctor Mundo.
Too bad Caleb hadn't been strong enough back then. He'd only managed to use the Chempunk Chainsword to cut away the parts that should have been able to regenerate.
"Governor."
The man named Nickel edged closer and asked in a low voice, "What exactly... is that thing?"
The caravan had heard rumors about that kind of skin before.
If you ever saw it, run.
Don't stop and snap a picture.
Shurima was full of raiders, and no one knew whether that was just another story or something real.
But after seeing it with his own eyes today, Nickel was leaning toward real.
"She's a person."
Caleb didn't explain any further.
If he tried to explain Kai'Sa's origins, he wasn't even sure this man would believe him.
And if the guy thought Caleb was making it all up, then what?
Why waste the effort?
Caleb kept watch until sunset, but Kai'Sa still showed no signs of waking.
He sighed. The sunk cost was starting to hurt.
If Kai'Sa still didn't wake up tomorrow, he planned to use the second bottle too.
Just thinking about that made him genuinely miserable.
"Ziggs! Time for a search!"
Without ceremony, Caleb grabbed Ziggs by one leg and shook him upside down a few times.
With a clattering crash, a pile of... scrap spilled out of him.
But that scrap was nothing to underestimate. Ziggs was called an explosives genius for a reason. Give him the most unbelievable raw materials imaginable, and he could still turn them into something that blew up.
That was why, in a situation like this, Caleb had to search him thoroughly every so often, just to make sure he wasn't stockpiling enough material to start experimenting again.
Why did Ziggs like staying in Zaun, but keep doing his experiments in Piltover?
Obviously because Zaun had every kind of material imaginable, while Piltover's infrastructure was sturdier.
Caleb had only just finished the search when his chest tightened. He spun around at once.
At some point, Kai'Sa had already removed her mask, and was staring at him in silence. Who knew for how long.
"Easy now..."
Caleb stuffed Ziggs back into the cage with one motion, then immediately dropped into a guarded stance.
No other reason, that shimmering Void skin of hers looked unsettling as the sky grew darker and darker.
"You... saved me?"
Kai'Sa sounded hesitant. She didn't recognize the man in front of her, but she clearly remembered the last thing she had seen before losing consciousness.
Rek'Sai's speed inside the tunnels was beyond anything she could match. Even though she had escaped the tunnel network at the edge of its territory with everything she had, she was still left gravely wounded.
"How long was I unconscious?"
"No idea. But you've been asleep on the wagon for a full day."
Caleb shrugged and pointed toward the stove the caravan had set up not far away.
"You want something to eat?"
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