The desert rose when Taliyah called.
Sand and stone surged under her feet, lifting her higher as Cho'Gath smashed through the broken wall ahead. The impact scattered shards across the storm. Taliyah threw both hands forward, turning the falling stones into a rushing wave, but the Voidborn did not stop. The rocks broke across its chest and shoulders, leaving pale marks that vanished almost as soon as she saw them.
It was too strong. She could slow it, annoy it. But defeat it? Alone? With exhausted refugees behind her and a sandstorm choking every breath?
No.
The strange Xer'Sai beside her had been right.
Cho'Gath came on, each step shaking the ground. It was still half-hidden by the storm, but every glimpse made her stomach tighten. Its body moved with hunger. It was walking toward food.
Taliyah dropped her hands and pulled a trench open before it.
The sand split.
For one breath, Cho'Gath's front limbs sank. Taliyah clenched her teeth and dragged the trench wider, trying to swallow its weight, but the Voidborn braced itself and tore free. Stone groaned. Sand collapsed. The ground buckled like cloth under a giant hand.
Behind her, the shelter shook again.
She looked back.
The refugees were still inside, but the structure would not survive much more. Even if she could make them run, where would they go? The storm was too thick. The children could barely stand in that wind. The elderly would fall behind. The wounded would slow everyone down.
She needed a road.
The idea came with a weight in her chest.
Weaver's Wall.
She had done it before, but never like this. Never while holding a shelter together, fighting a monster, and guiding terrified people through a storm. The technique was still rough in her hands. It took focus and time.
Cho'Gath struck the ground.
A shock ran through her legs.
Taliyah staggered, almost fell, and caught herself on a rising slab.
The calm Xer'Sai moved closer.
Its head turned toward her. When its mouth opened, the borrowed voice returned.
"I am Bel'Veth."
Taliyah felt a cold line move down her spine.
She knew that name.
Logan had mentioned it. Jax had too. Never with comfort. Bel'Veth was not a friend. A Void monster with a mind, a ruler.
...
Xer'Sai burst from below, not frenzied like the others. These moved with purpose. They swarmed Cho'Gath's legs, claws digging into its hide, bodies slamming into joints and softer gaps. Some climbed up its limbs. Others circled, striking and retreating in practiced waves.
Cho'Gath turned.
Its roar rolled over the dunes.
"Why are you helping me?", Taliyah asked.
Bel'Veth's voice spoke again through the calm Xer'Sai.
"Go. They will delay him for a moment. No more."
Taliyah looked from the controlled Xer'Sai to the shelter.
"And after that?"
"Other Xer'Sai are approaching. Not mine. They will not ignore your refugees."
Taliyah wanted to curse.
So the gift came with another blade hidden inside it.
She had no time to decide whether Bel'Veth was truly helping or simply using her. The controlled Xer'Sai were already dying. Cho'Gath caught one in its claws and shoved it into its mouth. The crunch carried through the storm. Another Xer'Sai leapt for its neck, but Cho'Gath twisted and bit it in half.
Taliyah dropped to one knee and placed both palms on the ground.
The desert was too loud. Cho'Gath's steps. Xer'Sai claws. Refugees crying. The storm clawing at everything. Taliyah pushed it all aside and listened for the stone beneath the sand. Deep layers. Buried ridges. Broken plates. Old bones of the earth.
She grabbed them.
The first section rose slowly.
Too slowly.
A long spine of stone forced its way out of the desert between the shelter and the northwest. It was uneven, jagged, barely wide enough at first. Taliyah gritted her teeth and widened it, smoothing the top. The wall pushed forward one painful stretch at a time.
Cho'Gath fed behind her.
Each time it ate, something changed.
The Voidborn grew.
Not by much at first. A slight broadening of its shoulders. A thickening of its limbs. Then more. The controlled Xer'Sai that attacked it were not stopping it. They were becoming part of it.
A new shriek cut through the storm.
Taliyah lifted her head.
More Xer'Sai were coming.
These were the frenzied ones. They burst from the sand in scattered packs, attacking anything that moved. Some threw themselves at Cho'Gath and were crushed or eaten. Others turned toward the shelter.
Taliyah cursed and tried to split her focus. The Weaver's Wall lurched, almost collapsing.
A Xer'Sai leapt toward her from the left.
She raised a stone spike, but she was too slow.
...
A round shape slammed into the creature before it reached her.
The impact sounded like a boulder hitting a drum.
The Xer'Sai flew sideways and vanished into the sand.
Taliyah stared.
Something stood between her and the next wave. It was short compared to Cho'Gath, but solid and heavy, with a domed shell covered in spikes, thick legs, and a blunt face half-hidden by dust. It looked like an armadillo, a tortoise, and a rolling siege weapon had somehow agreed to share one body.
It turned its head toward her.
"Ok."
Taliyah blinked.
"What?"
The creature struck another Xer'Sai with its shell, knocking it away from the wall.
"Rammus," it said.
That was apparently an introduction.
Taliyah did not know what to do with that, so she went with the only useful option.
"Taliyah."
"Ok."
Bel'Veth's borrowed voice came from the calm Xer'Sai nearby.
"You are fortunate, girl."
Taliyah had no idea what part of this counted as fortunate.
Rammus rolled forward, curled into a spiked ball, and tore through three frenzied Xer'Sai in a straight line. Sand exploded behind him. He bounced off a stone ridge, uncurled, and planted himself in front of the shelter entrance.
"Keep doing that," he said, nodding toward the growing Weaver's Wall.
"Can you keep them off the refugees?"
"Yep."
He looked northwest, then added, "Your companions are in that direction. Vekura. Vekaura. Something."
Taliyah nearly lost her grip on the wall.
"My companions?"
...
She pushed harder.
The Weaver's Wall stretched farther into the storm, becoming a stone road above the shifting sand.
Rammus rolled, bounced, braced, and slammed. Xer'Sai claws scraped across his shell and failed to find purchase. When one tried to leap past him, he rammed it with his shoulder and sent it spinning into a dune.
Cho'Gath was still eating.
Controlled Xer'Sai. Frenzied Xer'Sai. It did not seem to care. Anything close enough became food. Its claws pinned them. Its jaws crushed them. Its throat swallowed without pause.
And it kept growing.
Taliyah saw it between waves of dust. Taller now. Wider. Its back spines rising higher through the storm. Its steps left deeper pits. Its mouth seemed larger every time it opened.
Then Cho'Gath stopped chasing the Xer'Sai.
It planted its limbs into the sand and opened its jaws.
The air changed.
At first Taliyah thought the storm had shifted direction.
Then the sand began moving toward Cho'Gath.
Being pulled.
Xer'Sai shrieked as they slid across the ground, claws digging uselessly into loose sand. Small stones ripped free and flew into the monster's mouth. Broken wall fragments followed. The sandstorm thinned around them as more and more of it was dragged into that endless dark throat.
The refugees screamed.
The Weaver's Wall trembled.
Taliyah threw everything she had into the stone beneath them. She anchored the walls deep, driving its roots down into bedrock. She pulled the shelter's foundation into the same grip so the whole structure would not tear free.
Her arms shook, her knees nearly buckled.
Rammus stood below, unmoved.
The pull dragged sand around him in streams, but he barely shifted.
Maybe he was too heavy.
Cho'Gath swallowed and swallowed.
The Xer'Sai vanished into its mouth by the dozen. Sand followed. Stone followed. The storm itself weakened as if the desert were being eaten out of the air.
Then Cho'Gath closed its jaws.
For one terrible moment, there was quiet.
Its body swelled.
Bones shifted under purple hide. Spines lengthened. Its head rose higher above the storm. The ground sagged beneath its new weight.
Rammus looked up.
He was silent for a second.
Then he rolled his shoulders and lowered himself into a fighting stance.
"Hmm," Rammus said. "Maybe this is bad."