Dota 2 World: Return of Oracle

Chapter 12: Of Fire and Ice

*DESERT OF MISRULE*
Being sent to another place through Enchantress was apparently not as bad as going through the sigil, it seems. When we arrived on the Desert of Misrule, it was on the smooth sand, instead of plummeting to our deaths like when we were in the western forests. However, the moment we arrived, we could already hear the sounds of a major fight going on. Getting up immediately, I realised that Drow Ranger was not sent along with us, but Rylai and Lyralei were still here.

Rushing to the sound of the battle, the scene that greeted us was rather brutal. We could see armies of creeps fighting one another: one dark red with some kind of crusted armour, as if from dried molten lava; anothet glowing green armour, as if they were from the forests' regions. In the middle of the two clashing armies, Invoker was fighting off four heroes at once: A guy riding a bat throwing strange bottles that explodes, another guy wielding dual mini-axes with painted tatpos all over his body, a hound-like guy who seemed to revel in cutting Invoker while making him bleed and a centaur, definitely a centaur. On Invoker's side was a huge fire-breathing dragon who's trying to distract the flying Batrider.

Not too far away, resting on the ground was a girl, who I knew was Lina once Rylai shouted, "Lina!!", as she rushed forward.

Although Lina was on the ground, she seemed to be only slightly hurt. It took only a moment to realise that she was resting probably more due to the fact her magic was wavering, rather than her actually being hurt. Drawing Eldwurm, I could see Lyralei hesitating to help Invoker.

"Lyralei, hey, you there? Come on, we're gonna need your help." I said, shaking her off her reverie.

Nodding reluctantly, she drew back her bow and fired a Power Shot right at the Bloodseeker, disorientating him. Getting the space he needed, Invoker's expression changed in an instant.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a huge tornado flew in and swept up Batrider, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker and Centaur Warruner altogether, just as a huge meteor flew down, just like when Invoker was fighting Pudge in the battle of Blueheart Glacier. After the meteor rolled over them when they plummet down from the tornado, Invoker swiftly let loose a wave of defeaning blast that hit a 360° all around him and all of them just evaporated on the spot.

Thoroughly exhausted from the intense display of magic, Invoker slumped to the ground, drained. It was not to my surprise then that Lyralei aimed her bow at Invoker, ready to fire the moment he tried to move.

"You!" Lyralei was screaming.

To be honest, Invoker seemed to genuinely not know what Lyralei was talking about, at least until she mentioned the gale and her house.

"You... it can't be, I thought they had no child, I thought..." Invoker started, "It seems you people would have to hear the whole story, but not here, follow Lina to her home first, then we'll talk."

Before I could move to help Rylai with Lina, the huge dragon transformed, becoming a heavily armoured knight who went over to Lina and draped his hand around her, helping her up.

Rylai nodded to the Dragon Knight and came over to me, saying, "It's okay, Davion'd help her, we just need to follow them."

Based on how rush things had been since the Seed, the memories and the battle, I keep wanting to talk to Rylai, but never seem to be able to get the words out.

As we moved, Lina started talking to all of us, "The heroes came out of nowhere. If Invoker wasn't already here when they'd arrived, me and the locals would probably have been destroyed by now."

Curious, I asked the Dragon Knight about how he came to be in the desert.

Dragon Knight stared at me and said, "I'm only a knight, not a dragon. After my blood merged with Slyrak the Dragon, I was wandering the lands in search of other surviving dragons, when I happened to enter this desert, where I met Lina."