Twisted Avances, the Birth of a Legend

[quote=The Overmyynd]Silence. Solitude. An uneasy peace permeates the air in the Twisted Treeline, the smallest of the League of Legends Arenas. Trees creak silently as a gust of wind blows through the two lanes of advance, and temporal rifts begin to appear on the platforms at the ends of the arena. Light particles break off from the rifts in sporadic patterns as they grow larger, and begin to take shape. After a few moments, the twisting patterns of light dissolve, and 6 Champions appear in two groups, 3 on each platform. They take a moment to look around and acknowledge one another, identifying who their partners are going to be for this match. Ryze, Annie, and Alistar look one another over behind the Blue Guardians, and LeBlanc, Veigar, and Nunu note each other with little interest behind the Purple Guardians. There is little love lost between most champions, since they can be fighting alongside another member of the League one day and trying to kill them the next, with seemingly no rhyme or reason why. The political affairs of nations are dictated by the Summoners, and summoners alone decide which champion they wish to use to "negotiate". The combatants all walk over to their designated stores, and purchase their starting items with what little money they are given at the beginning of each match. They ready themselves, and head out to the center of the lower lane to attempt to gain the honorable First Blood kill. *** Running down the lane, Ryze feels... disquieted. Not from the upcoming battle; he has seen combat countless times, has experienced "death" more than he cared to think about. No, something feels... unbalanced. His connection to the ebb and flow of magic allows him to gain insight into his surroundings, its past, present, and future. Each place has its own distinct "taste", and he knew the taste of the Twisted Treeline like a child knows the flavor of his mother's favorite soup recipe. Today, it seemed... very strange. A tang, a bite, a shift in concentration that he could not place. He was forced to put his concerns out of his mind prematurely, however, when he saw the first enemy champion. Leblanc stood in the center of the lane, looking at him and his teammates with unnerving calm. The witch from the bowels of Noxus seemed to never be disheveled by anything. Ryze had killed her numerous times, and been killed BY her at least as much, and her face never changed. Not once. It wasn't natural, to find yourself fried, eviscerated, even eaten, and not show any emotion at all. So her passiveness was by no means a dead giveaway of a trap. She could have easily simply arrived there first, and was calmly awaiting her team mates in the face of onrushing enemies. Still, Ryze chose to take the careful approach, and not engage. Alistar thundered past him, and ran into the bushes. Ryze's connection to the Summoners within the League Headquarters let him "see" what Alistar saw. He quickly found that his caution was well placed. Veigar, hiding in the tall brush, immediately created a distortion in space that caught Alistar and held him fast, and Nunu and his Yeti began to beat upon the large bovine. Acting quickly, Ryze locked Nunu into a magical cage, and the fight for their lives began. *** Allerwith, one of the Institute of War Council members, watched the summoners with some small amount of interest. This battle was deciding the fate of a border village in the Ironspike Mountains between Noxus and Zuan. The winner of this match would earn the right to claim ownership of the village. Allerwith, personally, felt that there would be two losers today. The team that actually lost the match, and the town itself, no matter who the winner was. Observing the summoners and ensuring no foul play was taking place here in the Institute was one of his core responsibilities, and he looked upon his job with a degree of boredom. The summoners were forcibly locked in place by the magic entwining them with their Orbs of Connection, the magical device letting them control their chosen Champion on the fields, so one summoner physically interfering with another was an impossibility. The most they could do while connected was twitch or cringe slightly as they felt backlash from their chosen champion's pain. The only thing to truly worry about was an outside source coming in and assassinating a hapless competitor, and that was very nearly impossible, as well. There were no windows, no ventilation shafts, and no lavatories in the Summoning Rooms, and the one door into an out of the room was warded with potent magics, on top of being nearly a foot thick of solid battle steel. The Councilman placed his hand over his own Orb of Connection, and a birds-eye view of the battle filled his third eye. The lock down on the nervous system traditionally in place in Summoner Orbs was absent in his, so he was free to move and look about the room, and engage and disengage from the battle at any time. He noted with indifference that the Noxians had attained first blood on Zuan, slaying Alistar, but they paid dearly for it. Both Leblanc and Veigar fell before Ryze and Annie, their combined Stunning abilities locking their foes down and leaving them vulnerable. Only Nunu and his Yeti managed to escape, and even then it was a close call. He continued to watch the match while he kept a piece of his attention on the summoners and the room, becoming increasingly bored with the whole thing, having seen hundreds of similar battles. He removed his hand from the Orb, sat down in his chair, and pulled a device covered in crystals, small fans and gears, along with a small toolkit, from the inside of his robes, and began to tinker. If this device worked, it would allow a person to magically enchant the minute dust and pollen particles in the air, creating a vast web of listening devices that worked through the vibrations caused by sound waves. This small, easily concealable listening device could prove quite lucrative for him in the ever flowing, cutthroat world of Valorian Politics. *** Ryze opened his tome, calling forth the power of a vocal incantation to blast Veigar with the most potent spell allowed to him in the arena. As he watched the Yordle disintegrate into a cloud of electrically charged bits and pieces, he thought to himself that the limitations imposed on the Champions were both a blessing and a curse. Curse in that, in all of his travels, Ryze had accumulated an incredibly vast amount of spells, and could very easily find one to handle absolutely any situation, including mass destruction of an entire opposing team. The limitations were also a blessing in that, so could all of the other champions unleash their own unbridled arsenal. He silently shuttered as he thought of what the little ball of evil that lay in parts at his feet could come up with had he not been severely hamstrung by the regulations imposed upon him when he entered the arena. He would likely desperately look for an excuse to open a black hole that would eat the entirety of the Twisted Treeline, and half of all Valorian while he was at it, and the little bastard would probably cackle madly at the center of the maelstrom all the while. Ryze peered through the fog in his mind, looking through the eyes of his team mates. They had failed a surprise attack on Nunu, who was busy roaming the forest looking for powerful monsters to kill and take their boons. He shook his head in nervous thought. Annie, so innocent a name, such an innocent looking little girl with her teddy bear, and one of the most frightening presences on the Field. He supposed that that's what happens when an archmage of Shadow magic and an archmage of Pyromancy breed. In the year or so Annie has been on the field, he had seen a dramatic increase in the potency of her magic, as well as her proficiency at using it. When she grows into her teens... The thought disturbed Ryze so much he turned his attention away from it, and used the moment of respite to ponder other matters. Absently slaying the minions that poured from both nexus, he questioned the still uneasy feeling of the taste of the treeline. It had gotten worse. Much worse. The shift in the balance of the arcane energies was so wildly fluctuating now that it was nearly visible. He wondered if anyone else noticed... likely not, with the possible exception of LeBlanc and Veigar. No one else present had quite the kind of magical attunement he did; Veigar was so insane it was unlikely he would pay enough attention to care, and LeBlanc was just an unknown factor all around, so there was no way to know for sure. He guessed it had something to do with the unusual concentration of potent mages on the field today. It definitely was not normal for the Treeline to support so many powerful magicians... Its usual inhabitants were mostly physical combat oriented. He looked around at the edges of the lane, to the trees that gave this arena its name. Strange twists and knots throughout were so common it was highly unusual for a tree to look "normal" here. Many of them had wicked looking faces carved in them for reasons Ryze was at a total loss to explain. But one caught his attention in particular. Curiosity overcame him; he took a break from killing the helpless, mindless little minions for the meager gold prizes they offered upon death, and walked over to the edge of the path. A large tree, about 9 feet tall and strangely thick for its height, seemed to be crawling under the surface, the bark over its whole body shifting and crackling almost imperceptively. It had an unusually well defined face; eyes, teeth, even a kind of crown and beard fashioned out of wooden spears all appeared to have grown out naturally, instead of being carved. He moved forward to examine it more closely, when suddenly LeBlanc flashed through the trees beside him and threw a potent ball of magical energies at him. Taken by surprise, he took the full force of the blast on his chest, even as he hurled his own attack back at her. So over charged with power was her blast, it exploded on impact, and wisps and sparks flew in all directions as Ryze was thrown yards backward. Getting stubbornly to his feet, he looked up in time to see something... very strange. LeBlanc was on one knee, also knocked back by his power, which was lingering in the air. What was strange was that neither of their magics was dissipating. Instead, all of the aftermath of the spells was being drawn to the tree he was observing before he was attacked. The crackling and shifting intensified, and the eyes on the tree began to glow with an unnatural light. Curiosity at this strange, frightening phenomenon overpowered his instinct to kill his enemy, and all he could do was watch this tree change. Thankfully, LeBlanc appeared to be similarly incapacitated. The branches coming out of the trunk shifted, twisted and morphed, forming a small, clawed right hand and arm, and a huge, shield like left hand and arm. The base split halfway down with a deafening crack, and two legs were formed as they ripped violently out of the ground, roots tearing from the base of the trunk. 2 sets of eyes blazed forth, one from the tree's face, and one from his shielded left hand. A deep, earthy, heart wrenching howl began to emanate from the mouth of the tree as it started to swing wildly forth from its resting place, even as a high pitched, manic giggle trilled in the background. As the behemoth tree stumbled from the treeline onto the path, a small, bulgy plant creature crawled from the larger one's back and up his arm to rest on his clawed, right hand. Taking notice, the large tree looked at the small creature with frantic curiosity. In response, the little thing hopped up and down excitedly, and gibbered something unintelligible. This seemed to somehow justify its existence to the monster, and it turned his attention to his surroundings. Unfortunately, his surroundings included Ryze and Leblanc. Leblanc's reaction was swift. She stood up and started to run down the path towards the bushes leading to the heart of the forest. The monster tree roared, dissolved into a floating mass of leaves, branches, and pulsing magical energy, and shot off at an incredible pace towards its fleeing prey. LeBlanc looked back, and did something Ryze had never seen her do. Scream. Her normally pretty face contorted into something much less attractive out of pure, primal fear. This, more than anything, made Ryze's stomach drop, and his heart falter. What kind of monster is this to make LeBlanc react so? The heaving mass of nature and magic caught up to her and surrounded her, and thick, grasping roots exploded out of the ground and wrapped themselves tightly around her legs and torso. Blowing past and around her, the mass re formed into the gigantic tree, which then proceeded to rear back and slam its massive left hand straight down onto its helpless victim, crushing her like a hammer shatters a delicate crystal balanced on its end. Ryze watched this, transfixed in abject horror. He snapped out of it very quickly, however, when the beast turned its eyes on him. He scrambled to his feet, and wanting to avoid LeBlanc's fate, he threw a Cage at the beast. He caught him mid stride, and the creature froze, and roared his defiance from behind the magical barrier. The little creature began to hop up and down frantically, squealing its head off, and a branch coming out of its head started to spark at the top. The larger creature paused for a moment, then hurled his miniature companion at Ryze, the horrible little thing squealing with glee the entire time it was in the air. It landed a foot from his feet, and emitted a blast of strange magical energy that forced him back several feet. Sighing with relief that at least one of the behemoth's abilities wasn't overly dangerous, he turned to run, when something caught his eye. The little creature was not destroyed. In fact, it stared up at him with malicious joy, and began to run towards him! Ryze ran as fast as he could away from the vicious little thing, but the scuffle of the stubby wooden limbs and insane laughter behind him was faster. After only a few yards, a massive explosion rocked his body, and he was thrown forcefully into large, angular, spiky tree. Sliding down to the ground, coughing up blood, he knew his time had come. As he lay on his back, unable to move, his eyes sliding out of focus, he watched as the monster roared free of its cage, and began to lumber into the forest in the direction of the other Champions. He hoped that his team mates were watching as he was slain. Not that he cared for them overly much, but facing this creature was a fate he would wish on no one. He let his heavy eyes close for the final time, and was no more. *** The beast crashed through the forest, breaking his tree brethren as he went, unable to control his new abilities to move. Why was he alive? Why was he able to question why he was alive? Who did this to him, forced him from peace into tortured existence? And why? Was it the strange creatures he just slew? He felt something crawl from an abscess on his back, and saw another miniature treeling scuttle back onto his hand. It looked at him happily, and sat on his palm, swinging its legs between his fingers. The creature stopped his rampage through the forest, trying to calm himself in a small clearing. Perhaps he can will himself back to blissful peace? He stopped, moved into a space between two trees, closed his eyes, and tried very much to stop this incessant thinking and feeling. It seemed like it almost worked, until a thunderous crash came through the bush, and a smaller version of the two creatures he just killed and a much larger, furrier version with horns sprawled into view, screaming something that irritated the Tree's new ears. Then, from the other side of the clearing, yet another strange, furry, white creature, almost as large as the large one with horns, came into view, with yet ANOTHER creature riding on his back, this one even smaller than the one that was smaller than the two creatures he slew. They stood looking at each other for a moment, and began speaking to one another. He thought it was strange that they did not notice him, until he realized that he still looked like a peaceful tree, whatever the changes this curse might have wrought on him. Well... If these destroyers of peace were ignorant enough not to see danger when it sat plainly in front of them, he would feel no remorse for crushing them like the vermin they were! *** "Why haven't they come back?" Asked Annie. "Its been over 5 minutes. The penalty for death is never that long." "I do not know, little one" replied Alistar. "Perhaps it is because the creature was not part of the competition. The Summoners have no control over that which they do not summon or create." Veigar chose that moment to come crashing through the brush. "I saw EVERYTHING. What the HELL is going on?!?! Giant trees coming to life, throwing explosive little trees, crushing people like they were ants! What is this?! Some new Summoner trick?" "Calm down" said Nunu, exasperated by the situation. "It surprised two people who were badly wounded and had no idea what it could do. We are four perfectly unharmed warriors, who have a good concept of what it can do. All we have to do is find it, kill it, and get on with the match, and hope we get some answers when we get out." His Yeti grunted in agreement. Veigar shook his gauntleted fist at the general area of the forest. "When I find you, you rotting pile of logs, I will show you no mercy! " A high-pitched scream was heard. They all turned to look in time to see a small, squat plant with glowing eyes and a fizzing twig land with a poof of magical energy land in their midst. It looked about him, and locked eyes with Annie. With a squeal and a giggle, it started running towards her, and its own imminent immolation. Out of pure reflex, Annie coated herself with solid fire in the nick of time. The creature scurried to her feet and exploded with great force, throwing her back to the treeline. She stood up and dusted off her dress, thankful that her shield absorbed the brunt of the damage. She watched as one of the trees on the edge of the clearing roared to life and started chasing the trio of champions. Her teddy bear, clutched in both of her hands, burst into flames and disintegrated to nothing in a matter of seconds. A pair of malicious glowing eyes wreathed in fire appeared above a set of large, scorched teeth in the shadows behind her. As she backed into Tibbers' welcome embrace, a playful, dangerous thought crossed her mind. This creature is big, yes. It is powerful, yes. But it is a tree. And trees burn. Very well. As the shadows engulfed her, two huge paws with even bigger claws reached out of the darkness and closed around her, giving all the protection in the world to their master. The three ran together out of the forest into the top lane, exiting in view of the purple guardian. The ground shook as the massive tree followed after them. The three stopped, and turned to face the wooded monstrosity. It exited the forest with a roar, only to be caught by Veigar's temporal rift, becoming trapped inside its barriers. In response, it hurled its manic little plant at them, and it landed right in front of Veigar. He turned to run, but it was too late. The creature's aim was too good now. It exploded full force almost on impact, and Veigar was pushed back into the wall, badly injured. The vortex fading, the creature thundered out onto the lane towards Alistar and Nunu, another sapling clawing its way onto its perch. Alistar ran towards it, and head butted it with a satisfying CRACK as wood gave way to skull and horn. But the beast bent over Alistar as he was being rammed, and grabbed his torso with his massive shield hand, and lifted him bodily before slamming him repeatedly on the ground. Nunu commanded his yeti to freeze the tree, and hurl a magical ice ball at it. It impacted, and immediately the creature was covered in thick permafrost. Half frozen, it turned its head towards the offender. After a brief instant, the frost evaporated as the monster dissolved into the ball of nature and magic again, and took off after Nunu. There was no time to react. Nunu and his yeti were in the throes of iron like roots, and the beast began to pummel the yeti. Grunts of pain and effort escaped the furry companion, until finally he broke free. The tree pulled his arm back, and swung backhand for one final blow, knocking the Yeti nearly unconcious, and throwing Nunu from his perch. Alistar picked himself up. "We cannot continue in this fashion. One on one, he will surely kill us all. We must band together, and attack as one". The Abomination roared its defiance at them. As they prepared to charge once again into battle, Annie appeared out of the forest. Veigar yelled at her, "Where have you been, girl! We require your assistance!" Annie shrugged. "I was practicing burning down trees." As proof, a vast cloud of smoke was rising behind her." Alistar nodded in approval. "Very good, little one. You are just in time to aid us in ridding this world of the abomination that lies before us." The little girl smiled, and said "Let's get 'em!" Forward they charged, Nunu throwing frost at the beast, Veigar hurling temporal distortions, Alistar roaring life back into his bedraggled companions, and Annie pouring fire from her fingertips. The tree staggered from the impact of all the spells, and howled in pain. But as they closed the gap to begin the dismantling of the arborial menace, something strange happened. The tree recovered, and slammed its shielded hand into the ground. A huge ring appeared around the champions, with the creature at its epicenter. Strange totemic stones floated among leaves, branches, and pure magical energies. Each of the stones was connected to the tree by a thin line of pure white light, and the same light covered the tree in an opaque mesh. Unable to stop the advance now, lest they all be blown to pieces, the attack continues. Alistar, Nunu, and the beast trade blows over and over. Each time the creature was struck, a shockwave travels along the light covering him and up into the lines connecting it to the stones. Annie blasted the beast with as much fire as she could create, but it did not have the desired effect. Most of the flames were diverted off of the tree by the white light and channeled to the floating stones, and the longer she held the cone of destruction, the brighter the stones surrounding them became. After only a few moments of constant abuse, the stones were so bright it was hard to look at them. The creature, apparently having decided it had endured enough, again slammed its fist into the ground, and a shockwave poured forth from it. The Champions were thrown back, feeling as though they were being hauled by hundreds of briar vines digging into their flesh. The beast then raised its massive hand into the air, and screamed at the heavens. The stones glowed even brighter; painfully, piercingly so, and slammed back into the earth. There was only an instant where the ground inside the mystical circle felt as though it were alive and crawling, before the entire universe seemed to unglue, and fire, ice, meteors, and unimaginable pounding pressure surged forth from every angle to annihilate the four remaining Champions of the Institute of War. *** Allerwith looked up from his device. He could not imagine what was going on. All six of the summoners were twitching and shuttering in place. Even a soft moan escaped one of their lips. Disgusted by the so-called "Chosen" Summoners ' apparent lack of pain tolerance, he raised his hand back to the Orb sitting on his armrest. He immediately shouted in shock and dismay. Broken, battered, and ruined bodies surrounded a massive, living tree, who stood roaring triumphantly over their corpses! He thought to himself, this is not possible! Upon death, Champions' bodies are automatically removed, put back together, and reanimated back to original form during the games! Why are they still laying there broken? And what, by the Gods, IS that thing? He broke connection with his orb, and spoke frantically into his communicator, quickly, brokenly explaining what he saw to his superiors. After he relayed the situation, he placed his hand back on his Orb, and watched as the whole area shuttered and distorted as an emergency team teleported in, and battled to subdue the beast. Eventually, sheer numbers won out, and they managed to pull enough magical energy out of the thing to leave it able only to walk and swing that massive hand of his around. From that point, good old fashioned ropes and stakes finished the job. Emergency Medical and Necomancy Professionals rushed in after it was deemed safe, and gathered the bodies to begin immediate reanimation attempts. Allerwith allowed himself to lean back in his chair, and place his head wearily in his hand. What the hell happened in there? *** Ryze stood in one of the many meeting halls of the Institute of War, where summoners go to meet Champions, learn about them, and hopefully choose to favor one or the other. Never one to participate in said whore mongering, he stood in a corner, drinking a glass of mint water and glaring at the newest member of the League. Maokai, the Twisted Treant, he called himself. That is, after he learned to speak, instead of simply howl pure anger in your general direction. Oh, the attention this colossal mound of living, breathing wood was getting. So exotic, so strange, so powerful, they say; what can he do, what are his abilities, they ask. For his part, at least, Maokai seemed genuinely uninterested in the hustle and bustle that followed him wherever he went. Ryze didn't know exactly how the Healers and Necromancers brought him and the other five champions slain by this monster back to life, or why the usual reanimation and healing did not occur as it usually did. However, he WAS sure that it had alot to do with the wildly fluctuating magical energies inside the arena. Surely, the councilmen and game masters had to notice before the game began? Ryze shook his head in disgust. No one knew what the head Council was ever thinking about anything until at least a decade after the fact. However... This time, it may not be so hard to figure out. A new champion had not arrived on their doorstep of their own free will for quite some time, and the old roster of choices was beginning to grow... old. A new, fresh, powerful face would make the games and "negotiations" interesting again, thus validating their reason for existing. In some small way, he felt sorry for the being that had slaughtered him so easily. In return for making himself available to summoners to call forth, Maokai made a deal with the council, demanding that they research a way to take his sentience back from him, and return him once more to the blissfully un-thinking peace that was the life of a mere tree. The council hastily agreed, and the deal was struck. But Ryze knew from very personal experience that "research" tends to hit snags, problems, issues, and more setbacks than anyone could POSSIBLY imagine from the outset. He snorted with wry amusement. Right. Nothing anyone can do about it. Sure. And if the "researchers" are secretly paid to, say, take their sweet time getting around to an answer, well... It may very well take months, years even, to come upon something worth calling "progress". Or maybe never at all. All those pesky setbacks, nothing to do about it... Ryze shrugged, and headed off to his quarters to meditate. Another face on the fields of justice, especially when it is new and fresh, simply means less Summoners snatching him from his studies. As he walked, he thought to himself, it was worth dying to get this brief respite. This was my first attempt at fan fiction and theory crafting, i look forward to reading your critiques![/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]Format it to read better on MobaFire. No one is going to read it like that, and you know it D:[/quote]

[quote=DuffTime]I'm the "wall of text" guy and I didn't even read the first sentence lol.[/quote]

[quote=Canoas]I read the first 2 paragraphs. It was ok, you made some mistakes, but it didn't really make me want to read more.[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]It is actually really good, the author knows it, but it needs to be better formatted if he wants anyone in their right mind to read it. Once it is formatted, I recommend anyone who's interested in LoL Lore/LoL Fanfiction to read this. His writing can be exquisite at times.[/quote]

[quote=The Overmyynd]Thank you Jhoi. How can i take it down? i think im going to wait a week or so, reformat it, and break it apart into three parts to make it quite not so... wall of text-y[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]You can PM a moderator (Mowen, Scrax) to take it down, otherwise there's no other way to delete threads you have created.[/quote]

[quote=Canoas]Why take it down? Leave it there and edit the post later.[/quote]