Beneath The Surface

Resolution 45 - You're more human than ever.

Normal text
Thinking
Onomatopoeia

Astaroth's POV
After days of venturing around Valoran City, the group have more or less seen what the modern city had to offer. So they were now relaxing in the penthouse. While Astaroth was content with lying around like a waste, the hyperactive Kali cannot endure minutes of boredom. The girl's full of zest and shit. She needed to be constantly preoccupied with distractions to release the pent-up energy. As a result, Kali started acting like a menace, talking nonsense while badgering everyone not named Ahri. Astaroth's head was about to explode from the sheer amount of brain-dead chatters. And she could tell Kaisa was just about the same. Her patience was wearing thin from this infuriating brat.

"Let's do something," Kali whined for the umpteenth time.

"What?" Kaisa snapped.

"Anything. Just... something. I don't wanna stay inside."

At this moment, a shadowy portal ripped open in an empty space. Evelynn strolled out carrying drinks.

"Here. Bubble tea."

Thankfully, this was enough to occupy the rogue's obnoxious mouth. She happily sucked on the straw, finally quiet and docile. Much cuter than the previous chatterbox. There was visible relief on Ahri's face as she stood up to retrieve her portion. Astaroth sipped the drink, feeling the intriguing sensation of mushy pearls sliding smoothly down her throat. What a novelty beverage. It tasted sweet with milk and tea blended in a perfect ratio. Ever since she discovered this delicacy, she has been asking Evelynn to help her buy one every other day. It's just too freaking good. A pity her boring city of birth has nothing interesting of this sort. Watching the sloshing cream-coloured liquid rapidly draining in Kali's cup, Astaroth started to panic at the inevitable racket that was to come.

Fortunately, the mother hen brought more good news, "There's a freestyle duel taking place nearby. Apparently, the sign-up period ends in a few hours."

The kid instantly bolted from the couch, "Then what are we waiting for??? Go, go, go!"

Truthfully, Astaroth wasn't fond of getting into meaningless brawls with a bunch of raging hormonal teenages. She had enough of those in Piltover. The goal here was to relax and be enthralled! Not being the circus clown entertaining others! But the impulsive rogue that's bursting with overly-radiant energy was up for a round of slugfest. Just from the face of pure excitement, she's definitely itching to bash someone's head in.

Astaroth's too fed up to bother antagonising her so she got up, "Let's go."

A couple bus stops later, their group was standing before a massive indoor sports stadium. The duel was probably an event to create buzz for this newly built infrastructure. The moment they walked through the double sliding doors, cold air-conditioned air blasted into Astaroth's face. The lobby was packed like sardines. Boisterous discussions filled the air. Hordes of people gathered here. All of whom didn't look like battle-hardened warriors. Most were downright scrawny and petite. Which was understandable since this city was relatively peaceful. They didn't have to deal with constant civil strife and infighting like Piltovans. It would have been dumb to participate in a brawl when they're so ill-prepared but in the face of bountiful prize money, these hyenas could do anything. It's just too damn enticing. To common folks, this was indeed an attractive reward worth cracking their skulls for. But not to Astaroth. It was merely chump change. Not something worth the effort. Just from the crowd loitering in the area, it would likely take a long time to weed out competitors until only one was left. Annoying.

Seeing her frown disdainfully, Kali reassured while smoothing out Astaroth's furrowed brows, "I don't care about the placings. Just a little pastime before we return. We won't stay until the end."