"Don't you have a cocktail party to attend to?"
The Enforcers laughed, and Caitlyn rolled her eyes before turning. Immediately, she shouted, "Fire! Fire!"
Everyone stopped laughing and immediately followed her lead toward the burning tent.
When Caitlyn arrived, only one kept pace with her speed and shouted breathlessly, "What's happening?!"
"Get the fire brigade!" Caitlyn yelled as she analyzed the situation before running for the nearest extinguisher and began to put out the flames.
Meanwhile, the others arrived in a slow jog. She glared back at them frustratedly, already putting out the flames while the Sergeant squinted into the inferno.
"Help! In here, please! Help me!" a little girl cried from within the flames.
The Sergeant and his subordinates forced their way into the fire despite their slowness, arms raised to shield themselves against the heat, determined to save the child.
"AAAAAAAAA!"
Hollow shrieks echoed through the flames as green wicks tore an entrance open on the far side. Their eyes locked in shock, then fear, as the figure wreathed in darkness peered at them with hollow, skeletal eyes from beneath its hood.
Black winds mixed with green flames formed into a wave before another angry, male shout echoed from its mouth. The projectile unleashed toward them and they shouted, raising their arms protectively as if it would have done anything.
Outside, Caitlyn stumbled back, heart pounding as a strange image, a monkey, burned itself into the tent fabric. Fear crept up her spine.
"Get out, n—" Caitlyn began to shout when three bodies shouted in pain, their bodies flung out into the street several meters away. She ran over to check their condition.
"Help! It's so hot, please! I'm trapped!" echoed out, followed by a maniacal, distorted laugh.
The other Enforcers who had been assisting with the fire backed away, raising their arms defensively, ready for a fight.
"Stay with me, you'll be alright," Caitlyn said, checking the wounded and letting out a relieved breath after determining they were just knocked unconscious. Her head snapped toward the fire's entrance before freezing.
Within, the abomination laughed as it raised its arms triumphantly. The green and black flames around it clashed violently, even smothering parts of the blaze with its unnatural power.
"I'm a helpless little girl, and I've set the building on fire!" The voice warped from that of a child to a malicious, mischievous woman as the laughter continued from gadgets and dolls hanging above in the tent. "By accident, totally by accident!"
The distorted voice nonchalantly added, "Also, I've brought this dynamite."
KABOOM!
The shockwave sent everyone flying backward, even with the distance they had made. Caitlyn, despite being low to the ground, was thrown off her feet and sent tumbling while the unconscious bodies slid across the cobblestone behind her.
Her vision went black for a moment, white specks dotting her sight as she struggled to find her bearings. Her eyes drifted toward the tent, toward the remains of the skeleton buried under burning timbers, lifeless and unmoving.
Her head rolled to the other side.
Someone was running... a woman?
She caught the blur of bright blue hair disappearing behind the marbled pillars of the Academy portico.
Caitlyn's blurred vision shifted, and her eyes fixated and cleared upon a dark figure walking calmly after her.
It turned its head just enough for her to see, just enough for her to tremble as she lost consciousness.
Those burning eyes, filled with deep and terrible evil, seared themselves into her mind as everything faded to black.
---------------
Xander sighed with relief as he watched Caitlyn lose consciousness in front of the burning inferno that was once a pristine Kiramman tent.
At least I don't sense any corpses. For now, at least.
Finding a body in the Undercity hadn't been difficult before he came here.
It was the Undercity after all.
He'd turned a corner and practically tripped over one after getting directions from the drug addict, who incidentally was also begging for his life. He felt a little bad, but it made getting the information very easy. Strangely too, when it came to the corpse, he noticed he had this sixth sense, a pinging sensation in his mind that told him it was there.
He summoned the skeletal mage from that corpse, dismissed it, and then gathered its unnaturally clean bones into a filthy sack from a trash pile before heading out.
By nightfall, with no disaster having struck yet and Piltover calm after Progress Day, he crossed the river without issue. There weren't even any stumbling drunks let alone Enforcers. It was a straight shot across the bridge to the fairgrounds right up until he saw her.
A woman with bright blue hair.
Jinx.
She danced, laughing and twirling as if she were at a ballroom instead of amid flames. Fire licked the sides of the tent as she departed. In one hand, she held a burning torch that she tossed back into the growing flames; in the other, a gadget shimmered in the light, spinning playfully between her fingers.
Xander sighed and stepped into the shadows of a nearby alley, spilling the bones onto the ground.
Summon Skeletal Mage.
The skeleton rose once more, its form wreathed in black mist. Hollow eyes stared back at him, waiting.
"Go," Xander ordered quietly. "Enter the tent from the opposite side. Force the intruders out with a spell but don't kill them."
He paused.
"Don't seriously injure them either. And do not give chase. Stand your ground."
The skeleton bowed its skull slightly.
"At your will, Lord. I will not kill them. I will drive the invaders out. The tent will belong to you, Lord!"
For the first time, Xander froze, caught completely off guard.
That… is not a Diablo feature.
The skeleton cackled gleefully, clearly proud of itself, before turning and gliding around the far corner of the alley and disappearing into the night.
Xander blinked, watching the corner where it vanished.
Does it instinctively know what and where I'm talking about based on my memories?
Sprinting out from the alley, he ran one extra street around to avoid Caitlyn before slowing to a stop.
Strange, I felt absurdly fast...
In the shadows of the building near the Academy that towered over him on the left, Jinx was crouched, peering across the street at her work.
She looked ecstatic, biting her lower lip and giggling and bouncing on the balls of her feet like a child caught in the thrill of mischief.
Xander shook his head as he heard his minion's distant, echoing laughter. Maybe that was a reflection of himself too, he thought, as he watched Jinx giggle at the destruction like it was all a game.
She seemed both confused and entranced, her eyes gleaming in the firelight as she adjusted her satchel. Her gaze flicked down to the device in her hand before letting out a disappointed sigh.
"Well, I guess I killed two birds with one explosive."
KABOOM!
Debris rained down across the street. The ground trembled beneath him, forcing Xander to widen his stance to stay steady. That brief, involuntary movement caught Jinx's eye when she ducked back around the corner to avoid the rubble.
"AAAH!"
She shouted and spun around, stumbling back a step. One hand darted for her gun while the other clutched her satchel tight.
"You're hideous, you know that, right bud?! Like- Like really fucking ugly!"
Xander froze as she leveled the gun at him and immediately realized his mistake.
Ah, shit. I don't have Bone Armor… or any defensive spell yet.
She hesitated, head tilted in wary curiosity. He could see the weapon trembling slightly in her grip, her finger twitching against the trigger, ready to fire.
"What are you?"
He didn't dare move, and instead spoke in his usual low and eerily calm tone that carried.
"Your sister Vi is alive. So is Vander."
BANG!