"Throw me into the abyss of despair, and I'll climb back out over a pile of corpses…"
Urgot drew a deep breath and slowly turned around, looking at the two women blocking the middle of the path. "Are you here to undergo the trial?"
A mocking smile spread across his face. Long ago, the meaning of strength had changed for him.
Zaun, then Piltover, then Noxus.
He wanted all of them to know fear.
After enduring his trial by death, the worthy would survive.
"Heh, then I'll start with you two."
Vi and Caitlyn cursed under their breath almost at the same time.
"Get behind me, Cupcake."
"Watch yourself, Vi."
After exchanging that quick warning, the two of them immediately fell into a practiced formation. Vi held the remaining prisoners at bay from the front, both fists raised in front of her, while Caitlyn settled into an aiming stance behind her.
Only moments ago, from high above, Caitlyn had used a custom round to kill a Chem-Baron hanging far off in the distance.
They still looked relatively composed, but neither of them dared let their guard down. That giant body alone was bad enough, and those six chemtech legs were obviously not just for show.
Urgot moved forward slowly and raised the machine gun mounted on his right arm.
It took only one shot. Vi had instinctively brought up her left gauntlet to block, and the impact blasted it clean off her arm.
Then he raked the high ground with suppressing fire. Caitlyn lost her footing, and even though she clung tightly to her rifle, she still went tumbling down to the floor.
In barely a breath, the balance of the fight had completely reversed.
A chilling smile spread across Urgot's face.
The followers around him were the ones who had passed his trial, the ones who had survived.
Thousands of prisoners had climbed over each other's shoulders, rising higher and higher, helping him ascend one lift after another.
And now, these dozen or so people at his side were the only ones in the entire Dredge who had proven worthy to live.
This trial would spread through all of Zaun, all of Piltover...
And even Noxus.
A sudden laser beam cut off Urgot's thoughts.
That laser looked familiar.
It was the very thing that had sent him here in the first place.
Sure enough, Caleb's familiar face emerged from the smoke.
"Long time no see," Urgot said, drawing a deep breath as the tubes connected to his mask fed him the peculiar euphoria of chem-gas.
"Urgot?" Caleb frowned, still trying to remember where he'd seen this guy before. "Have we met?"
That single sentence sent Urgot spiraling completely into rage.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
In that moment, there was no trial, no creed, no philosophy.
Only by killing the man in front of him could he vent this hatred.
Vi and Caitlyn both looked at Caleb with strange expressions.
"What did he go do behind our backs this time?"
"No idea, but it's probably connected to what happened up topside."
"Ladies, instead of chatting, how about helping me deal with this guy?" Caleb said helplessly.
Only then did he finally remember who Urgot was.
The Noxian headsman who had openly tried to kill Ambessa.
So this was Urgot?
"Governor, where exactly did you pick up a problem like this?" Vi said, slamming a fist into Caleb without the slightest bit of courtesy.
The Atlas Gauntlets were definitely going to need major repairs when she took them back, and that pained her more than a little.
"I chopped off three of his limbs already," Caleb said after coughing a few times. "How was I supposed to know he could crawl his way back up out of this hellhole?"
"Can you find his weak point?" Caitlyn asked in a low voice.
If there were anything like a central core, then with Caitlyn's accuracy against moving targets, destroying it with her rifle would not be a problem.
"How am I supposed to figure that out in a few seconds?"
Caleb wasn't standing still while Urgot charged at them, either. Urgot wasn't especially fast, but every single step he took sent tremors through the ground.
A few unlucky prisoners who failed to get out of the way were already crushed beneath him.
"Behind me!" Caleb activated the Hextech shield he had developed himself.
He'd already been studying Urgot as hard as he could, but he still couldn't tell where the core was.
His back might have counted, except Urgot's upper body could obviously rotate a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
Chem-fire and a spray of pellets slammed viciously into Caleb's Hextech shield.
That shield had really been through it. Caleb had made it in the first place to block Jinx's rockets.
Because of that, he had designed its defensive properties around one principle, buffering and isolation.
Over the past several days, it had blocked everything from Dr. Mundo's cleaver to the scattershot blasting from Urgot's chemtech legs.
"DIE!" Urgot raised his front two legs high and brought them crashing down toward Caleb.
Caleb immediately tried to direct a laser from the Hex Claw behind him, but the coating on Urgot's body refracted it away.
At the critical moment, Vi grabbed Caleb and yanked him clear of the spot that was about to be crushed beneath Urgot's feet.
"You don't seriously think I'd fall for the same trick twice, do you?" Urgot said as he slowly turned his head and looked down at Caleb, sprawled on the ground.
The thrill of revenge had already overwhelmed his beliefs.
To hell with the trial, to hell with choices.
All of that could come after he killed the man in front of him.
"Did drugs scramble his brain or something?" Caleb muttered, completely baffled.
He'd thought this headsman was an idiot the first time he saw him.
If Urgot wanted to kill Ambessa, then why not just do it? With his skills, wouldn't it have been easier to swing once and cut her down?
Instead, he had insisted on shouting nonsense like, "Witness the strength of Noxus!"
Thinking back on the other Noxian fighters he'd seen, they all seemed to have that same not-especially-bright vibe.
Was Noxus basically a country where smart people ruled over idiots?
Urgot's abdomen split open, revealing two winches inside, along with an interior so hot it looked like a furnace.
"Is that even still a person?" Vi asked.
Even someone as used to bodily modification as she was could not help asking that after seeing this.
"Yeah! Big guy! Kill that bastard already!"
A shout from the distance pulled everyone's attention away.
That woman was waving at Urgot with a smug grin on her face.
"Twin tails, three nose rings. That looks like Alina, the last surviving Chem-Baron," Caitlyn reported at once with her sharp eyesight.
When people said "the last Chem-Baron," the more precise version was really "the last Chem-Baron under Silco."
The other Chem-Barons were still hiding down in the mines, continuing to build up their own gangs.
These five were among the very few who had managed to step into the open in Zaun.
Urgot narrowed his eyes, then burst into loud laughter.
Who said good luck never came twice? Here it was.
Two chains suddenly shot out from his abdomen and wrapped tightly around Alina's shoulders.
"Huh?"
Alina herself clearly had no idea what was going on.
She didn't know this tough bastard from the Dredge at all. She had just cheered while watching the show.
And that was enough to make him attack her?
Before she could think any further, the chains had already reeled her in at terrifying speed.
Urgot's left hand shot out and closed around her throat.
"So I still ended up doing your dirty work for you."
His eyes were filled with delight, and even his somewhat mechanical voice carried real emotion now.
Alina had recognized him too. She tried to shake her head and beg for mercy.
But in the very next second, she was dragged straight into Urgot's abdomen.
"Fear Beyond Death," Urgot said, looking down at Caleb from above. "You're next."