"Shards of gss sprayed across the factory as Orion smoothly rolled onto his feet, ung an archaic blue sphere from his hand toward Zarkon as he rose.

  Zarkon's body shimmered e like an archaic shield, sending him skidding back several feet and tearing up the floor.

  'I miss my gun, but damn that was cool,' Orion smirked proudly, imagining himself pulling off a John Wick-style roll and shot.

  As the blue mist faded, Zarkon's low, gravelly voice echoed across the factory floor.

  "You... I know you," Zarkon snarled, l his metallic guard as the e shimmer faded. His murderous gaze locked onto Orion.

  "After I'm doh you, I'll kill Kieran with my own two hands!" Zarkon shouted, raising his arm as the on attached to it began to glow ominously.

  His body shimmered once again, and Orion quickly switched from offeo defensive magic, raising his shield fidently as an e, Syntaxi-infused energy bst shot toward him.

  Orion grunted as the shield cracked at its ter on impact, sharp pain shooting up his arm.

  'Shit! Syntaxi is no joke!'

  Gng around quickly, he acted on instinct as he saw Zarkon's on glowing again. Without hesitation, Orion sprinted sideways.

  "Little brat," Zarkon spat, though he looked slightly surprised. "Using magi Piltover? If you didn't cause all of this, I would've hired you fold!" As he finished speaking, another energy bst shot out from the on, followed by a sharp hiss as his cyberic suit began to lose power.

  The bst narrowly missed Orion, shattering the side of his shield and scorg his jacket before colliding with the wall. The resulting explosio debris flying outward, shaking the entire building. Orion dove behind a piece of heavy-duty maery.

  Outside, ks of metal and stone shot out in random dires. Faint screams and painful grunts came from those hit below, as Enforcers scrambled for cover.

  Breathing heavily, Orion coughed up blood into his mask and hissed in pain before shouting back.

  Crouched low, adrenaline spiking through his body, Orion rolled as he heard violent, metallic footsteps charging toward him.

  The maery exploded into shards as Zarkon smmed into it with his metallic fists, sending shrapnel flying in every dire.

  Zarkon scoffed, staring down at him with disdain as Orion's shield flickered, defleg the flying debris. "This is pathetic! Is this all magi do?"

  Slowly rising, his suit hissing as the Syntaxi energy pulsed through its circuits, Zarkon spoke with bitter disappoi. "With all the hype about magi the cil and Ferros, I expected more tharicks."

  Log eyes, Zarkon allowed Orion to rise to his feet with a knowing and fident smirk.

  " Ferros, the cil- whie did you betray the Uy for?"

  "her!" Zarkon snarled, his suit beginning to hum as Orion's eyes narrowed, realization dawning as he watched it surge with renewed activity. "We were using Ferros to create Syntixi prototypes. Those na?ve bastards trusted us to create weaker versions to manipute us and make us think ower- Hah!"

  Slowing his speech, his tourned darker, more accusatory. "That was until you and that coward rui. Now topside knows we betrayed them, and Ferros will send the Grey Lady to kill us."

  Looking down at his glowing fist fidently, he ched it as his expression hardened with resolution. "After I deal with you traitors, we'll eliminate Ferros and bee unstoppable. Zaun will be free- under our trol!"

  "Sorry, but that won't be happening," Orion said in a calm, low tone, switg to offensive magic. Power pulsed through his body, enhang his muscles and reflexes as a faint red aura iwined with a darker blue are glow around him. "Tell me where the blueprints for Syntixi are and I may let you live."

  "Hah! fident, street ur? We'll see how long that sts before I rip out your spine!"

  With a sharp hiss of steam, the two burst into incredible speed. Zarkon swung his shimmering e fist toward Orion's face, but Orion slipped to the side, delivering an are-infused punch to Zarkon's metallic arm.

  A violent burst e and blue mist filled the air as the two tiheir deadly dance- Orion focused on evasion and ters, while Zarkon attempted to deliver o killer blows.

  Maery was sent flying into the walls, and the shattered remains of windows and debris were hurled outward from the now-exposed floor to the streets below. The lucky surviving workers huddled in the er, away from the chaos, praying to any divine force to save them.

  --------------

  //Caitlyn PoV//

  Greyson and Caitlyn, along with the apanying enforcers, were violently thrown throughout the hallway. Half of their injuries at this point hadn't e from the firefights, but from the violent explosions and deafening noise.

  Two enforcers sprinting in front of them cried out as metal shrapnel pierced their bodies, blood spraying across the hallway. Greyson gnced bad motioned for Caitlyn to stay low as they broke out onto the factory floor.

  Caitlyn's eyes widened with horror as they locked onto the corpses before whipping back to the front.

  She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the destruaery y fttened like pancakes, and blood ttered across the floor. Her eyes darted around quickly, spotting the factory workers huddled in a er before she dropped to her stomach when another violent explosion and brilliant light erupted in the room.

  From the prone position, she raised her gun as the enforcers spread out along their side of the room, opening fire at the two blurring silhouettes e and deep blue, locked in a violent dance across the factory floor. If it wasn't for the bloodshed and the potential to be killed, she may have even called it beautiful.

  Her heightened pulse gave her whitened vision, her vision narrowing into a focused tunnel as she struggled to follow the streaks of movement. Recalling Greyson's training, Caitlyn inhaled deeply and steadied her breath, bringing her rifle into alig for the perfect shot.

  --------------

  //Orion's PoV//

  Panting heavily, Orion's body burned from the proloalemate. He hadn't expected the fight to be this difficult, especially after all the training. Acquiring this teology was now a definite must in his mind- at the very least for his own safety.

  He noticed the c workers in the er and tried his best to steer clear of them, though shards occasionally still flew in their dire.

  Zarkon didn't look much better. His plexion had grown pale, and his movements were slowing as the prolonged exposure to the Syntixi Crystal took its toll.

  Staying calm in this battle of attrition, Orio fident he would win- until sharp whistling sounds cut through the air.

  Wzzt-Wzzt-Wzzt.

  His gaze sharply darted toward the source.

  What the fuck? How are enforcers here already? Orion cursed inwardly. Shit, this offensive magi't stop bullets, and I 't el both.

  In that split sed of realization, Oriohe odds had turned against him, despite the enforcers' arrival. He doubted they could distinguish ally from fht now, especially with two enforcer corpses littering the entrance.

  "Topsider filth- kid, let's put our differences aside and deal with these vermin!" Zarkon panted heavily, but before Orion could respond, a bullet ricocheted off Zarkon's shoulder. Grunting as veins bulged across his forehead, Zarkon grabbed a stray metal panel and hurled it toward two enforcers.

  The sheer force of it cleaved them in half, spttering fresh blood across the wall. Zarkon ughed maniacally, his fidence reigniting. "Haha! I k! They don't stand a ce if-"

  Orion didn't hesitate. In that split moment of distra, he vaulted forward, driving both feet into Zarkon with all his weight and as much are energy as he could muster.

  Zarkon's head exploded outward, shards of skull whistling through the air with a siing, fleshy squish eg through the room.

  Breaking into a roll and springing to his feet, Orion sprioward the stairs, adrenaline pumping as his muscles and tendons screamed in pain but kept moving.

  He gnced back, triumph flooding through him. He had only a few mi most to find any blueprints ahe hell out of there.

  --------------

  //Caitlyn PoV//

  Caitlyn's bullet hit its mark. She saw the sparks fly and lifted her head, eager to see the damage she'd done.

  Instead, in that split moment, a metal panel whizzed through the air from the chaos of the fight and sheared the two enforcers standio her in half.

  Her eyes remained locked on the gruesome se- lifeless eyes stared back at her from behind shattered goggles amid the gore and blood pooling around them.

  A sharp snapping sound made her flinch, a small squeak esg her lips as she whipped her gaze back toward the battlefield. Her heart pounded as fear ignited within her. Like a se from a nightmare, blood sprayed across her face, apanied by the sting of sharp skull fragments slig her skin.

  "Stay down!" Greyson's voice barked sharply, followed by two gunshots.

  Caitlyn's eyes darted back to the fray just in time to see the blurred, blue silhouette of the ure speeding toward the stairs, bullets raining after him.

  Something definitely hit- she could tell by the sptter of blood trailing across the stairs- but she couldn't tell how severe the injury was.