Christine read the drake notification and decided to head back to base to spend her gold. As she walked she evaluated her laning phase.
At first she’d loved her dress, the whole idea of escaping into a video game reality had kept her and Mel sleepless and talking for hours at many a sleepover. To wake up as a goth bride had massive appeal and suited her style, she was glad she felt comfortable in the dress. This had quickly turned to disappointment however when she’d been only able to cast the protective shell at level 1 and then later when she’d learned the hard way that it only repelled magical attacks.
Christine surmised now that she was a hyper scaling champion, because as weak as her level 1 and 3 were, her 6 was insanely strong. Upon turning 6 she had gained full control of her dress and could hide in shadows around her. She could dip in and out of the shadows becoming targetable and untargetable, even shadow walking short distances - a few meters at most. To do it she literally hopped from one shadow to another whilst intangible and if it was close enough she’d teleport.
She had the freedom of imagination to customize the shape of the dress to suit her needs. She had decided upon a ‘Doc Oc’ style setup for combat. Two long shadow legs would prop her into the air while she swiped at her opponents with two more long shadow arms that struck like scorpion stings.
She hadn’t managed to kill her opponent, as he had run the first time she had tried to fight him. He simply farmed her minions under his tower. She thought she’d done pretty well even if she hadn’t gotten a kill like some of her teammates had. At least she didn't die and lose her tower like the bottom lane boys.
When she got back to base she guessed that enough time had passed that it should be night but the sun still blazed like it was midday. She hated the sun. Her father had died of skin cancer two years previously, and she was now paranoid about exposure.
Her mother made her look sane however, the woman was now agoraphobic. She hadn’t left the house in two years. Christine had been taking care of herself since a week after her 14th birthday. If it weren’t for Mel's family she may have been taken off of her mother. A case worker had come to check on her living conditions around 6 months after her dad died. Neighbors had been complaining that her mother wasn’t taking care of her. Mel's parents, who lived on the same street, had been there when the case worker arrived. They had been the adults that answered the ladies' questions. They had promised that they would sign whatever form they needed to ensure that I would be looked after at home. There would always be a safe house with a hot meal and a bed if I needed it. They’d talked to the rest of the street and everyone sort of looked out for us after that. Mr Giannis would mow our lawn when he did his own. A social worker saw my mother 3 times a week and most nights I ate dinner at Mel's and only went home to shower, sleep and put my mother to bed.
She went to the shop and spent her gold, upgrading her mana crystal into a lost chapter. It transformed into a loose stack of papers with runes inscribed onto them. She stashed them into a pocket in her dress and waited for her team. The boys respawned and shortly after Tim and Mel returned.
After some waiting for Mitch and Craig to get to level 6 through killing monsters in the jungle nearby the team was ready to try to fight together again.
The plan was simple: they would show up in the middle lane, wait for the enemy team to gather and Mel would engage them, then Craig, Tim and Christine would follow up with damage while Tim supported them with heals and shields.
They made it to the midlane and at first things went great, the enemy team gathered as five immediately and the two squads faced off from across the lane.
“Mel, are you ready?” Christine asked her.
Mel nodded and charged in, heading straight for the boy with the marbles who darted into the bush and up to the river, his team scrambling to follow him as Mel gained on him. Christine went into Doc Oc mode and her new height allowed her to see Mel in the long grass about to walk straight into the boy with the marbles.
“Mitch, get a ward down there now!” she called and Mitch scrambled ahead and pulled a suspicious, flashlight shaped device from his robe and threw it into the bush. Immediately Mel could see a glowing red outline of the enemy ADC in front of her and she dived to the side as a black marble whizzed past her head. Christine shout out a tendril of shadow from her dress and caught the marble, allowing the magical detonation to go off harmlessly without hurting her team.
Mel chased the ADC into the river and the team ran behind her to keep up. The enemy team was above them in their jungle and the ADC ran to meet them as Mel gave chase. She cast her ultimate, growing greatly in size to the point where she was literally Mega Mel. In her titanic form she took a few short strides and then raised her foot to stomp the enemy team under her giant boot. The enemy Midlaner with the reflective abilities raised his shield to block Mel and she turned her heel at the last second pivoting her foot to land a few meters away from the enemy team but causing a shockwave that took most of them off of their feet.
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Craig and Tim saw this as an opportunity and sprinted into the enemy jungle, Christine watched as Mitch, hot on their tail, also entered the choke point. The enemy team was getting to their feet as the boys closed in, but to Christine's horror from her vantage point she saw that there was only four of them standing in front of her teammates. That’s when the enemy support stepped out of a bush in their jungle, she’d been obscured from vision. She dived forward into the choke point then turned and opened her book unleashing her ultimate ability. A sonic screech hit Craig, Tim and Mitch slamming them into a wall just as the enemy jungler leaped into the air, screaming ‘CANNONBALL” he then curled up into a ball tucking his knees into his chest before impacting the ground causing a seismic shockwave of his own that bounced the boys again into the air knocking their health bars down. Mel, who was nearby, was knocked off her feet by the shaking of the ground. The boy with the marbles fired a sparkling ball that expanded into a large bubble with a lightning storm inside of it that caught the boys in the air, suspending them and striking them with lightning bolts. Her opponent from the midlane and the enemy top laner then stepped forward and both swung their weapons in wide arcs causing blasts of energy to erupt forward that eviscerated the last of their health.
Enemy triple kill!
“Ah shit, wombo combo.” Christine said.
Mel picked herself up and engaged the enemy team but was quickly repelled back, signaling Christine to retreat.
Christine did not retreat, she stalked forward with her long limbs and shot out a tendril from her dress, piercing the enemy support through the back killing her instantly. The moment her shadows touched blood her eyes glazed over and she felt her teeth elongate and sharpen. She became a literal nightmare, jumping into shadows and reappearing twenty feet in the air stabbing out randomly with her dress and taking shark sized bites out of anything that got close to her. At one point she appeared behind her opponent mid laner and he spun with superhuman speed raising his shield to block a snap of her jaws only to have his shield CHOMPED in half with a loud crunch of breaking wood and steel.
Christine ate his head.
An ally is dominating!
Mel had died somewhere in the heat of battle and eventually Christine was the only person left alive. She was covered in gore that slowly faded from her body and a string of announcements popped up.
Pentakill!
Aced
She grinned to herself and headed to the midlane, destroying the minions and then the enemy tower.
Your team has destroyed a turret.
She checked her inventory and was shocked to see 2031 gold so she headed back to the shop to buy her first complete item - an Archangel Staff. The staff granted her ability power, mana, haste and when she reached 30% HP a passive would kick in granting her a shield. Best of all though she could actually wield the staff and found it was useful in directing her shadow tendrils with increased precision and more powerful strikes.
When her team respawned the boys begrudgingly congratulated her on her performance in the team fight. Not one of them met her eyes.
Mel however gave her a huge hug.
“Ignore them, they’re embarrassed. I’m so grateful to have you in my life and on my team.” Mel said with a smile.
Christine smiled back.
“You’re my best friend Mel. I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else.” she said in return.
“Hey Christine please don’t take this the wrong way…” Tim started and everyone tensed up turning to look at him.
“Your abilities are terrifying. Genuinely scary.” he said.
Craig and Mitch nodded.
“We watched from above while you… single handedly tore apart the enemy team.” Mitch said nervously.
“I’ll remember not to get on your bad side.” Craig said.
“Guys, we’re on the same team. Just be normal.” Christine said.
“What do you mean? I think that’s a normal reaction to witnessing the birth of a serial killer.” Tim said.
“Hey Christine, thanks for carrying the entire team on those dainty and beautiful shoulders of yours. Why yes of course you can start a massage train, go ahead boys. These shoulders need attention and love.” Christine said sarcastically, turning her back and looking over her shoulders at the boys.
Mitch walked forward and raised his hands and Mel grabbed him, planting him firmly in place. She shook his head at him and he raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“What’s next, girls?” Craig asked them earnestly.
Mel graciously accepted the change in subject and decided it was time to go all in.
“Remember the dragon?” she asked Tim who frowned and nodded.
“My greatest triumph, yes. How could I forget?” he said.
She ignored him and continued to explain.
“Well that’s a Scuttlebug compared to our next team objective. There’s no solo killing this one. It’s going to take everything we’ve got to destroy it as a group and we will be putting ourselves at a massive risk of being attacked by the enemy team while we try to kill it.” she said.
Tim did not look pleased. The other boys avoided eye contact and looked at the ground as they realized what Mel was referring to.
“What’s it called?” Tim asked.
“Baron Nashor.” Mel said.