Blood Stains the Long Bridge (Part 1)

"Caitlyn! The Tyros Family you asked me to investigate..."

Vi burst into the Chief Constable's office without knocking, as usual. Perhaps the timing was unfortunate today. As soon as she entered, two pairs of eyes in the room fixed on her.

"Uh..."

"Let's skip the report then. I'll approve the case files and get them to you as soon as possible."

"Okay, we'll take our leave then."

Seeing Caitlyn start to usher them out, the owner of the other pair of eyes – a young policewoman with fiery red hair – sensibly packed her things and turned to leave. As they walked past, Vi glanced at the young colleague with disinterest. She was met with a fierce glare in return.

"Quite a capable young lady."

The office door closed, and Vi let out a somewhat roguish whistle.

"Is she that... former Chief Constable Markos's Daughter?"

"That's right."

Caitlyn picked up her now-cool coffee and took a sip. She suddenly sighed.

"It's been quite a few years now, counting from the night her father died on Long Bridge. Even his daughter is old enough to be an intern at the Enforcement Department."

"Sounds like you still feel bad about her father's situation?"

Vi blinked in surprise.

"That former Chief Constable was going to kill you back then, on that very bridge, with a revolver pointed at your head."

"He received his just deserts, didn't he? Markos wasn't a good man, but that doesn't mean I'll be prejudiced against his daughter. At least from what I can see now, that girl is a promising prospect with good abilities. It's just because of her father's past, you understand."

Caitlyn said helplessly to Vi.

"She's very prejudiced against people from the Undercity, so you two probably won't get along."

"I don't really care. There are already enough people in this precinct who don't get along with me to form a whole squad. One more or less makes no difference."

Vi rolled her eyes nonchalantly.

"As long as you look at me properly, that's all that matters, cupcake."

"Pfft!!"

Caitlyn nearly lost her ladylike composure and spat out the coffee she was drinking. She covered her mouth with a tissue, a blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Why are you calling me that all of a sudden?"

"Well, you suddenly started talking about the past."

Vi scratched her head, looking utterly confused.

"What's wrong? Why the big reaction? I've called you that plenty of times before, haven't I?"

"You know it's before?"

Caitlyn shot Vi a chiding glance. After a moment, she continued in a reminiscent tone.

"Sometimes, when I think back, it's really amusing. When you used to call me that. You were such a cynical street punk back then... Okay, you haven't changed much, but at least I don't have to worry about you punching out Enforcement Department colleagues just because you don't like the look of them."

"Tch, that's just because they didn't dare provoke me to my face."

Vi swaggered over and plopped down onto the chair opposite Caitlyn, crossing her legs.

"Hey, speaking of which, I don't get it either. I used to hate you Piltoverians from across the bridge. At first, I wanted to punch every single one of those guys in the face. I never expected to end up on the other side of the bridge myself someday. It's really... ah, forget it, I can't think of a good way to put it. Anyway, I don't know if coming to Piltover to be this darn enforcer after hearing you was the right or wrong thing to do. I thought coming here would let me do more for the Undercity than fighting in the gutters. But now, I can only stand by the Long Bridge and look over there to remember where I came from and what I want to do. Tell me, have I changed? Become... less like Vi?"

Vi's sudden shift to a serious topic left Caitlyn in silence. After furrowing her brow in thought for a moment, Caitlyn gave her answer.

"It's not just you. It's me, Cadet Dilana, and the late Sheriff Max, and Silco. That Long Bridge is the most sensitive nerve connecting the two cities, where they intersect. Countless lives are intertwined upon it. Even the relationship between Zaun and Piltover is like that. What happens on that bridge is the most direct reflection of the relationship between the two cities."

"Oh? Then how do you explain Piltover unilaterally sealing off the Long Bridge these past couple of days?"

"In special times, special strategies are necessary."

Caitlyn sighed, rubbing her forehead. Clearly, this matter was putting a lot of pressure on her.

"The gas leak in the Undercity has displaced many people, but Piltover can't help everyone. And realistically, a large influx of Undercity refugees would create an additional burden on public safety. The Council doesn't want to bear these negative risks. Therefore, restrictive measures are necessary."

"But won't that make the Undercity people resent us? Piltover has always been living comfortably above them, and now they're pulling this stunt."

"Perhaps... but we have to consider Piltover first. So, we can only hope that even if negative incidents occur, they are kept within a certain limit. It's for this reason that the officers at the Long Bridge outpost are permitted to carry live ammunition."

"So, you're saying we can only sit around and hope nothing happens?"

Vi stood up, clearly displeased with Caitlyn's attitude. Caitlyn merely shook her head helplessly.

"We both know, Vi, the conflict between the two cities has a long history. But there's nothing we can do except try to delay it from developing in a worse direction. At least, that's how it is now."

Vi wanted to retort something, but whether it was due to a lack of words or some other reason, she ended up sighing along with Caitlyn.

"Sigh, let's just hope nothing else messy happens during this critical time..."

"Sheriff Caitlyn!!"

As soon as Vi finished speaking, an officer burst through the door. This surprised Caitlyn and gave her a bad premonition. Enforcement Department officers were generally respectful of hierarchy and wouldn't easily barge in without knocking, unless...

"We received a report of a violent explosion on the Long Bridge, casualties unknown!"

"What?"

Caitlyn's eyes widened, and so did Vi's. With remarkable synchronicity, they stared at each other with almost identical expressions for a good while before remembering what they should be doing.

"Form ranks, everyone gear up and follow me to the scene. You, go notify the Medical Department and have them send a rescue team to accompany us."

Ling Ying conjured a gust of sword wind, scattering the thick smoke swirling around her and the mist pervading the bridge. A strong scent of blood immediately assaulted her nostrils. Ling Ying looked ahead speechlessly. Where the Enforcement Department's protective wall had stood, now only twisted wreckage and several dark, gaping pits remained. As for the officers, they had either vanished into thin air or become "part" of the bridge. At least at this moment, there was no difference between Piltoverians and Zaunites; their flesh, severed limbs, and corpses converged on this bridge, painting it into a road leading to hell.

"Save... save... me..."

A person, covered in blood and gore, crawled into Ling Ying's field of vision. He wailed, reaching out a hand towards her. But Ling Ying remained unmoved. From her perspective, the poor man's lower body had long since disappeared. Only his instinct for survival kept him moving.

"Please... you... save..."

"Crack!!"

Before he could finish, a large foot stomped down, clearly with no intention of avoiding him. The poor man's skull shattered with a crisp sound, while the owner of the foot seemed oblivious, continuing to walk forward with that foot stained with red and white.

Ling Ying raised her gaze, observing the approaching figure. It appeared to be a man. The word "appeared" was used because his skull, with only sparse hair remaining, and his bulging muscles were covered in distinctly abnormal purple markings. At first glance, they bore a resemblance to Ling Ying's Void Transformation Ability. The difference was that this guy's entire body was terrifyingly deformed. The foot that crushed the refugee was as thick as a tree trunk, while the other was shriveled, even more so than an ordinary person's. He limped forward across the Long Bridge. When he was about a hundred meters away from Ling Ying, he stopped. He twitched his nose, sniffed, and then, like a cat catching a mouse, charged forward with excitement.

"Get back, don't come out."

Ling Ying turned her head, giving a few instructions to Orianna and Jayce, who were still recovering from the shock of the explosion, and conjured another Shadow Barrier to protect them. At this moment, the thing that was neither human nor ghost rushed before her. Ling Ying calmly sidestepped to evade its attack, her sword edge subtly shifting.

"Screech!"

The Mutated Man suddenly faltered, looking down. He saw a two-finger-wide gash across his abdomen, from which foul-smelling, purplish-red blood was gushing. This strike clearly enraged him. The Mutated Man roared, raising his fists, each the size of a stone basin, high above his head before smashing them down violently towards Ling Ying.

With a deafening boom, stone fragments flew, and a considerable pit appeared on the concrete bridge surface. However, the person who should have been there was gone. The man was stunned. His eyes, squeezed to mere slits by the purple pustules on his head, scanned upwards. Just then, a mass of black mist bloomed above him. Ling Ying shot out from within, a line of cold light flashing through the air. A bloodline instantly spurted from the Mutated Man's remaining eye.

"Awooo!"

In pain, the Mutated Man let out a beast-like roar, instinctively covering his eye with one hand while fiercely swiping with the other towards Ling Ying's general direction.

Ling Ying, however, did not gain an advantage by dodging as she had before. Instead, she made what seemed like the worst possible move—standing her ground, raising her hand, and punching, meeting the Mutated Man's fist head-on.

The next moment, her slender arm collided with his arm, which was several times thicker. Then, in a way that defied all logic, she halted his fist mid-air, preventing it from advancing even an inch.

"If it's about brute strength, I won't lose."

Ling Ying's lips curved upwards. Her right arm was engulfed by vibrant purple markings, like ice cracks, transforming her fair skin into dense scales and her fingers into fearsome claws. The power from the void easily repelled the mutated creature several meters back. Seizing the moment while he was off-balance, Ling Ying pressed her attack, pinning his just-swung fist. Then...

"Crack!"

The same chilling cracking sound as the poor man whose skull was crushed earlier echoed. The Mutated Man's right arm was twisted into a pretzel by Ling Ying. His pale bone protruded from the flesh, and broken bone fragments pierced through his elbow. Such agony sent the Mutated Man into instant madness. Like a frenzied beast, he roared and flailed wildly with his remaining left arm. But soon, he quieted down. Ling Ying had severed his left arm with an upward sword slash. The Mutated Man's body swayed and fell backward. Ling Ying, with a nonchalant expression, "casually" tore off his right arm. Amidst a rain of blood, Ling Ying, sword in one hand and an enemy's severed limb in the other, resembled a terrifying monster from a dark fairy tale. Her vertical pupils, with serrated edges radiating from the center, conveyed a bloodthirsty craving.

"Is that all you've got? Tsk..."

Glancing at the Mutated Man writhing on the ground, Ling Ying contemptuously curled her lips, her expression bored. She casually tossed the severed arm into the canal. Then, she walked over to the Mutated Man, raising her Doran's Blade and bringing it down towards his neck.

"Looking at how this guy is dressed, maybe he's also from the Undercity in Zaun? But how did they turn into this mess, and why are they attacking the Piltover outpost on the bridge?"

The moment her sword was about to fall, a string of questions flashed through Ling Ying's mind. However, thinking under the influence of battle fervor and other negative emotions clearly wouldn't lead to any useful conclusions. It only caused her sword swing to falter for a moment. Yet, it was this fleeting hesitation that changed Ling Ying's next action—she didn't swing her sword after all. Instead, she suddenly leaped, rapidly disengaging from her original position. Two seconds later, a stone statue, over a person tall, plummeted from the air. The mutated creature, already at death's door, was unceremoniously smashed into a pulp. Ling Ying, who had landed several meters away, first glanced at the shattered stone statue that should have been standing by the bridge. Then, she followed the trajectory of the falling object with interest. She saw a colossal figure emerging from the mist on the bridge. Accompanied by footsteps as heavy as falling hammers, each step the creature took added new scars to the already battered bridge surface. If the previous mutated man could still barely be recognized as human, the creature before Ling Ying, standing as tall as a floor, had already crossed the line into non-human classification. However, it was somewhat familiar: this Humanoid Tank was covered in large areas of Purple Markings, just like the previous man. The difference was that its limbs were encased in seemingly crude but exceptionally sturdy Steel Armor, and its head was covered by a massive, water-vat-sized Circular Helmet. Several devices resembling breathing tubes extended from beneath the helmet, directly inserted into the behemoth's chest cavity. The helmet itself was filled with an unknown Purple Liquid, its internal structure obscured. Only two fierce glints, like eyes, flickered within.

"Interesting."

Ling Ying raised an eyebrow. Her words held no trace of worry or fear, but rather a combative spirit. When she saw over a dozen more mutated creatures, similar to the one smashed to bits earlier, following the Humanoid Tank out from behind it, this emotion gradually escalated into intense battle excitement. It drove her to stride forward, facing ten times her number of enemies.

"Swish!"

She tore off her blood-stained coat and tossed it aside. Ling Ying was left with only a thin, form-fitting undershirt. Then, she forcefully plunged the Doran's Blade that had always been with her into the bridge surface. In its place, a scythe as tall as a person suddenly appeared in her hand out of thin air. The dark purple hilt, at first glance like metal, resembled more the carapace of some biological creature. The curved blade was almost transparently thin, surrounded by a purple sharp aura that made it look more like a blade of light. It bore a striking resemblance to Piltover's Hextech energy swords. However, Ling Ying knew they were completely unrelated. The long scythe originated from her other body—the primary offensive weapon of the Mantis Void Beast, its Forelimb Scythe. Its appearance in this form was naturally related to Ling Ying's fusion with her Void Consciousness. Previously, she had been extremely cautious when using Void Power, fearing that the Void Consciousness would regain dominance. Now that she had defeated it and made it a part of herself, Ling Ying no longer had to worry about nonsensical things like her own body rebelling against her. Thus, she could use the abilities of her Void Body without reservation. Of course, this wasn't entirely without side effects. With Ling Ying and the Void Consciousness merged into one, and their two bodies connected, Ling Ying's original personality had naturally suffered a backlash. Certain wild instincts originating from the Void Creature had taken root in her subconscious. It was manageable normally, but once she entered combat, she became uncontrollably restless and excited, just like now.

Swinging her "new weapon" from hand to hand, Ling Ying smiled and licked her lips, her foot speed increasing. Her mutated opponents responded in kind. The helmeted behemoth let out a roar to the sky, and the mutated creatures around him instantly charged at Ling Ying as if injected with stimulants. It had to be said, a group of creatures with abnormally swollen limbs running was quite a comical sight.

"Alright, let's see what you've all got."