War had already swallowed the horizon. Tanks thundered across the battered earth, their treads shaking the ground beneath Inazo's feet.
War horns howled, with a sound so deep it rattled his bone marrow, almost as if nature didn't want him to make it to the city walls. He wheezed, inhaling a lot of gunpowder, lingering in the air.
His feet dug into the loose soil, as his vision seemed to play tricks on him. Everything around him lacked vibrancy. His knees kept faltering, not being able to support their weight against the ever-moving ground.
Despite the difficulties, his grip on her body was resolute. He had one goal right now - to carry Jun-Ko to the medics of the city before the real storm began.
Barbed wire tore at his cloak as he vaulted over it, the sting barely registering. Dirt and grass exploded around him, bullets uprooting earth. Inazo ran, lungs burning, driven by a desperate hope and the terror of losing another.
He risked a glance over his shoulder. The Noxians surged forward like a black tide, relentless and hungry. Ahead, the Impervia Battalion bristled at the Nexus, a wall of armoured bodies and steel.
Caught between them, Inazo knew he and Jun-Ko, wounded and barely conscious on his back, would be crushed without a second thought.
He sprinted faster, weaving through the chaos, dodging soldiers and gunfire, the city gates seemed impossibly far, but Inazo clung to his purpose.
He wouldn't allow failure, not this time.
He pushed forward, battered from all sides by the armoured bodies of the Impervia Battalion. Pauldrons scraped his shoulders, metal edges biting through his skin, as his foot snagged on a slight ridge.
With Jun-ko's weight slumped across his back, Inazo stumbled, his knees struck the earth, the world spinning for a heartbeat. His chin hit the ground, vision blurring.
-----------------
As he struggled to rise, a different kind of terror caught his eye. A woman, with cold trembling hands clutching her son, pressing him to her chest, her face pale and eyes wide with helpless fear, as the soldiers charge on around her.
"Shhhh, little baby. Don't cry. It's going to be fine", she whispered to her panicked and weeping son, her gaze was locked on the towering Noxian looming above them.
The Noxian's blade-like arm arced down. Ink splattered everywhere. Its arm flew off, staining the nearby ground. The mother looked up with hope, her face stained with the same ichor.
Inazo's heart pounded till he could hear it in his ears, he couldn't let another innocent die, not while he still had strength. As the Noxian staggered from the blow, it stepped back, thrashing about, trying hard to regrow its arm.
"Hey, you lot. Move it, make it quick."
A few soldiers had deviated from the unending charge, shouting for the refugees to evacuate. One of them herded the injured, Inazo, Jun-ko, the mother and child, and helped them get behind a battered concrete barrier, while the others momentarily staved the Noxians off.
"There's no need to panic. Keep a steady pace behind me. We will make sure you get to the city safely.",
Inazo pressed Jun-ko into the soldier's arms.
"I cannot", he muttered.
"This is no time to be playing games, young man."
"I cannot!!",
"At least, not in good conscience."
The soldier met his eyes, as if testing his resolve. But he didn't find any, all he saw was a man with dropped eyelids and empty eyes, trying to make amends.
He clipped a dull gemstone to Inazo's amulet, his eyes a tad bit more relaxed from before.
"This will help against the Noxians."
"...Huh?",
Inazo barely registered the gesture-his focus was on the chaos beyond the barrier, where the fight still raged. A hand clasped his cloaked shoulder,
"Best of luck out there, soldier."
The soldier gave him a reassuring nod, before leading the others toward the city, Inazo lingered. He looked up at the greyish-green sky, raining down cannon beams.
A deep breath in, a long breath out. He was done running.
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Feet thudded against the ground, as Inazo leapt into the fray. His newly upgraded weapon gleaming with a fierce intensity as he lunged at the Noxian, each step holding immense ferocity and agility.
He moved with an elegance that belied the chaos surrounding him. His feet barely touched the ground as he weaved between enemies, executing slashes that sent ink-like remnants flying in all directions.
He targeted neck joints, tendons, and exposed flesh, his strikes punctuated by the satisfying sound of splattering ichor. As he spun gracefully, transitioning from one foe to another in a seamless dance.
He ducked under a wild swing from a Noxian's claw, pivoting on his heel to deliver an upward slash that cleaved through its torso.
The ink was not healing this time around.
"Must be the gem at work", he mused to himself, as he took a breath, in between slashes.
The Rotspawn let out a gurgling cry before collapsing into a puddle of dark matter. With each successful strike, another Noxian fell, and he felt a rush of exhilaration. This was power, control over the chaos he had to witness helplessly.
A sinister grin graced his features. His fingers dug into his palm as he grasped the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
However, his murderous thrill was soon interrupted by what he witnessed right after.
The tremors beneath Inazo's feet grew violent, each quake resonating with an unnatural rhythm. The ink pooling around him seemed alive, defying gravity as it coalesced into jagged streams that spiralled upwards. The remnants of the Noxians dissolved into this inky vortex.
Inazo watched, as the conglomeration of what he had slain give birth to the skeletal beginnings of an abomination-a spine forged from dense, gleaming ink. The spine extended upward, growing ribs and a jagged waist that anchored the monstrous form.
Layer by layer, flesh-like ink wrapped around the skeletal structure, flowing like liquid metal before hardening into grotesque armour plates.
These plates imitated the designs of the Impervia Battalion, almost as if they were learning from the soldiers around. But they were warped and twisted, desecrating their noble form.
Inazo's blade flashed as he fought to interrupt the abomination's birth, but the relentless swarm of Noxians clawed at him, forcing him back step by step. He couldn't help but keep swinging, but it wasn't nearly enough. It was like trying to swim upstream.
The abomination's limbs jutted out abruptly, elongating into clawed appendages that solidified with a sickening crunch. Its towering form loomed over Inazo, its surface writhing as though alive.
The creature's movements were calculated yet chaotic. It dispatched the soldiers around effortlessly, its ink-coated claws slicing through armour as if it were paper.
However, despite its erratic destruction, its focus was unwavering-it sought only the strongest opponent.
"Shit..."