"Relax... I don't mean any harm..." Sivir crouched down and slowly set her crossblade on the ground. Then she reached out, trying to stroke the head of the Skallashi as it drank.
The next second, a black blur rapidly expanded in front of her.
There was no time to raise her shield, and besides, this might not even be an attack driven by arcane power.
I'm done for.
That was the only thought left in Sivir's mind as she threw an arm up in front of herself.
Bang!
A loud crash rang out.
The shockwave whipped up Sivir's black hair. She opened her eyes in disbelief.
In the middle of the desert, with the blazing sun overhead, she felt a genuine chill.
Only when the ice pillar in front of her slowly split apart did she kick off the ground and retreat at once.
The frozen pillar shattered across the sand, then quickly melted into water, letting out a series of sharp hissing sounds.
"What?"
Sivir's eyes widened. She had no idea why a massive pillar of ice had suddenly appeared in front of her.
It didn't seem like Kai'Sa's doing, since this clearly wasn't the Void's handiwork.
And it didn't seem like that yordle cat either. She was pretty, sure, but it couldn't have been her.
After all, the use of arcane power, especially elemental magic, followed a classic pattern, starting small, then growing larger.
Today you make a little ball of ice, tomorrow you can create an ice spike, and the day after that you can produce an ice sculpture.
When crossing the desert, the two things you needed most were water and a way to cool your body down.
If Caleb could summon an entire pillar of ice, then why hadn't he used ice to cool everyone off over the past few days?
That would have been far better than carrying a mountain of supplies around just to preserve stamina.
Caleb wished he could have taken it easy like that too, but the first thing he had practiced was Fireball Spell.
Over the past few days, he hadn't gone back to reading that giant tome, From Beginner to Burial, and had only been practicing alone by the campfire.
Even so, his fireballs still weren't at the level where they could actually be used in combat.
Besides, now that he had Trundle's Pillar of Ice, there was no need to keep studying ice magic.
Seeing Sivir's astonishment, Caleb immediately strode forward and shoved her aside.
Behind him, Kai'Sa began moving at high speed with Yuumi.
Sivir's moment of shock didn't affect the overall plan.
It just meant the role of front-line distraction had been handed over to Caleb.
After all, Sivir was still standing there stunned.
And Caleb had long since developed the habit of planning first, then moving first.
On a battlefield, charging recklessly without fear of death didn't guarantee you'd survive.
But standing there in a daze, half out of your mind, meant there was an eighty percent chance you'd die.
Caleb stared straight into the Skallashi's eyes, preparing to avoid its next attack.
What was coming at him?
A hoof? A horn? Or a spray of sand?
Caleb frowned slightly. A Hextech longbow appeared in his hand, and he casually prepared to draw the string.
Even if people called it technology, it was still just magic created through the power of runes.
Against a Skallashi that almost certainly had magic resistance, Caleb had no confidence in how much damage his weapon could actually do.
Ah, whatever. Worst case, he could just Arcane Shift away. No big deal.
What Caleb never expected was that the Skallashi kept its head lowered.
Looking down on me?
Caleb stepped forward slowly, watching it warily.
"It's... keeping its head down?"
Caleb was a little shocked, because there was nothing by the Skallashi's mouth at all.
"Stop!"
Caleb raised an arm high and waved at Kai'Sa in the distance.
Kai'Sa had just been about to fire when her hand stopped in place. She looked over, confused.
The Skallashi gave a soft snort, sounding slightly impatient.
"It's acknowledging you..." Sivir's beautiful eyes were wide open, and she couldn't hide the trembling in her voice.
Why?
Caleb could feel the Skallashi's submission too, but since the problem had been solved, not having to fight was obviously a good thing.
"A hero!!"
"I can't believe I actually lived long enough to see something like this with my own eyes!"
"Our tribe's prosperity is just around the corner!"
The Shurimans who had been hiding behind the bushes couldn't help crying out one after another.
"It's not that serious..."
Caleb grabbed one of the Skallashi's horns and pushed himself upward, finally managing to climb on properly.
Its head was wide enough, but it was too bumpy.
Caleb still had to work his way back onto the broad area behind the Skallashi's neck.
"Down."
Caleb patted the Skallashi's rough back.
And the Skallashi, which could understand human speech, proved obedient enough, bending all four legs and kneeling on the ground.
"Come on."
Caleb excitedly called Kai'Sa and Sivir over.
What was this even called?
In his previous life, he had never even ridden a camel or a donkey, and now he was actually riding this divine beast?
This was amazing.
There was really nothing else to say besides that.
Once both women were seated on the Skallashi's broad back, Caleb gave it another light pat, and its towering body rose proudly beneath the sun.
"Let's go find that... what was it called again, that giant mount."
Even though Caleb forgot the word, it didn't affect the grandeur of his declaration in the slightest.
"The Dormun," Sivir reminded him softly from beside him.
Amid the cheers and discussion of the crowd, the Skallashi slowly began to move, heading toward the "endless plains" ahead.
...
"Who exactly are you?"
The way Sivir looked at Caleb became more and more cautious.
At first, she had thought he was just an armchair strategist, but it turned out he had real skill in close combat.
When a Noxian assassin whose strength was on par with her own had appeared out of nowhere, Caleb had spoken to her in the tone of someone giving orders.
And during the Skallashi taming ritual just now, it had also been Caleb who raised a pillar of ice and blocked that hoof for her.
So Azir had definitely sent him here with some deeper purpose in mind.
Sivir glared hard at Caleb, as if she wanted to split him open and examine him from the inside.
"Maybe I just got lucky." Caleb laughed it off.
He himself didn't really understand why Sivir, who possessed Shurima's royal bloodline, had failed while he had succeeded.
The moment Sivir stepped forward, Caleb had already been ready to cast the ice pillar at any time.
If the Skallashi attacked with some kind of skill, then Sivir could block it with her shield.
Any attack the shield couldn't stop was probably one launched directly with the beast's body, so Caleb had chosen the instant it raised its hoof and placed the ice pillar between the two of them.
Still, it was only a knockoff in the end. It hadn't cost Caleb much effort, but unlike True Ice, which never melted, this budget version had shattered from a single kick.
"What land do you rule?"
Sivir hated to think along those lines, but reality was forcing her to consider every possibility.
If someone possessed a fertile land and was recognized by its people, then even a Skallashi would submit at his feet.
Sivir's bloodline might be extraordinary, but in the end, she was still only a mercenary.
"You know Zaun, right?" Caleb said casually.
"Yes, that old but impoverished city?"
Sivir was a little surprised. When Caleb read the newspapers, most of what he skimmed over was about Piltover.
"Do you have some land there?" Kai'Sa had somehow drifted over too.
"That whole city is mine."
When Sivir heard that, she swayed twice and nearly fell off the Skallashi's back.
Seriously?
This guy?
He's the Governor of an entire city?
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