Arcane: The Gods Want Me to Pick a Route-Chapter 173: Akali vs. Illaoi (EC)

The crowd below stared up in shock at the ship floating in the sky. Seriously—when had Bilgewater people ever seen something like this?

Sure, they’d heard that Piltover had Hextech airships. They knew the Twin Cities already had vehicles that could fly.

But knowing and seeing were two completely different things.

Once it was right there in front of their eyes, they still couldn’t help being stunned—each of them standing there slack-jawed, staring up at the air.

Even Illaoi looked thrown off. Powerful as she was, even she didn’t have the ability to fly.

Among all of them, Gangplank was the first to snap back into motion. The moment he registered what was happening, he roared at his men:

"Shoot! What the hell are you all standing there for?!"

As he shouted, Gangplank moved too—snatching a flintlock from a subordinate, working the mechanism, and aiming straight at Sarah’s head, ready to blast it off in a single shot.

Sarah’s eyes trembled. She bit down on her lip.

Gangplank’s gaze was vicious. He didn’t hesitate.

To hell with Nagakabouros. To hell with Illaoi. To hell with gods.

Gangplank wasn’t about to let the duck that had already flown into his hand suddenly flap away.

But right as he finished cocking the weapon and was about to pull the trigger—

Up in the sky, someone was faster.

On the airship, Jinx moved in one smooth, practiced flow. Her right hand dropped to her thigh, her right foot stepped forward, and she turned her body into the wind. Her blue hair whipped into a messy halo as she narrowed one eye.

In her right hand, she raised an exquisite little pistol—custom-made at Logan’s request—and aimed it down at Gangplank from nearly two hundred meters away.

Then, with a sharp whistle—"Fwee~"—she fired.

A vicious current of electricity exploded from the barrel like a spear, twisting through the air like a writhing little snake as it shot toward Gangplank.

"PFF—!"

"FUCK!"

Gangplank never got the shot off.

Jinx beat him to it. One hit punched straight through his arm. The electrical blast shattered bone inside his forearm, and he clutched it in agony as he screamed.

"Haha! You wanna compete with me on draw speed?!" Jinx pulled her hand back, puckered her lips, and blew at the muzzle like it was hot. She squinted, looking smug and dazzling all at once.

No joke—across the Twin Cities, Jinx might not have the single best precision...

But if it was about drawing fast and firing fast?

She was absolutely number one.

And when it came to accuracy, the only person who beat her was Caitlyn. But if it came down to an actual duel, Caitlyn wouldn’t stand a chance.

Caitlyn wasn’t good in close combat, and she wasn’t good enough to beat Jinx in a long-range shootout either~

Jinx had complete confidence in that.

"Sarah, don’t just stand there!" Jinx shouted down.

Then she took two steps back, raised her fist, and slammed it down on a button on the control console.

Click.

Logan heard the airship shift. Under the jingling alarms and the blaring music, the painted grin on the airship’s hull split open—revealing two pitch-black tubes.

A second later, those tubes spewed massive clouds of blue gas, flooding downward in an instant.

Jinx pulled out two masks and handed them to Logan and Akali. She put on her own as well—a mask covering nose and mouth, leaving only her eyes and upper face exposed.

"Gas masks~" Jinx told Akali.

Akali took it in a daze. Honestly... earlier, Akali had thought Jinx was just some loud, goofy lunatic—basically a tagalong hanging off Logan. And Ionia had plenty of that type.

But what Jinx was doing right now made Akali rethink everything.

This wasn’t a tagalong at all.

"When did you make weapons?" Logan asked, putting on the mask, genuinely curious.

"What are you thinking?" Jinx said, like the question was ridiculous. "How could anything I build not come with weapons?"

As she spoke, she used the controls to lower the airship.

"C-Cough—!"

"Th-This fog is poisonous—cough—everyone, hold your breath!"

"Damn it, we can’t get out—the gas spread is way too big!"

Dropping to about thirty meters up, Jinx hit another button.

"Ding-ding-ding~~~!"

The painted grin on the airship shifted again. The big blue laughing face flickered a few times—and then transformed into a net, a dense blue mesh pattern.

PSSHH!

From the black tubes on both sides, nets launched out—one after another—spreading downward to blanket the people below.

From the moment Jinx arrived with her BGM to the moment the whole scene turned into chaos, it hadn’t even been a full minute.

And on the platform, Sarah hadn’t frozen for a second.

She’d always been bold and sharp. The moment the gas started pouring down, she moved.

She drove power into her knees and lunged—headbutting a Bilgewater thug beside her in the confusion. As she pressed him down, she twisted and rammed her elbow into his chest. Then, with her legs bound, she arched hard, launched herself, and kicked a fallen short blade on the ground—sending it skittering straight to Rafen.

As Sarah’s right-hand man, Rafen had already understood her intent from a single glance. He crawled forward fast, raised the knife with his bound hands as best he could, stretched his arms out, and chopped down with all his strength.

CRACK!

The blade cut the rope, freeing Sarah’s legs. She tapped the floor instantly, shifted stance, and put both hands behind her back while Rafen flipped the knife in his grip.

Sarah dropped her arms. The rope sawed into her wrists, cutting skin and drawing blood—but it snapped.

She grabbed the blade and cut Rafen loose too.

"Get our people out—now!" she shouted through coughs.

Visibility was collapsing fast. She could barely see her own hands anymore—only voices, only sound, only the direction of movement to tell friend from enemy.

But as Sarah freed the third crew member—

A green object whipped toward her like a battering ram.

The long green bar struck her and sent her flying.

She crashed backward several meters, feeling like her bones were about to shatter. She forced herself upright, shook her head, and felt blood mixing into her red hair and streaking over her cheek.

Then she saw it.

The dense fog around her was being swallowed by green light. Within a four-meter radius, vision cleared sharply.

And Illaoi was walking toward her.

Up on the airship, Logan tapped Akali’s arm, smiling as he pointed down at Illaoi—who looked like a walking fortress, cradling the Idol as she advanced on Sarah step by step.

"See that woman?" Logan asked.

"Hm?"

"She’s yours."

Akali rolled her eyes and snorted. She put on the gas mask Jinx had given her, drew the sickle-like blades at her waist, and leapt straight off the airship.

From thirty meters up, Akali moved like a ghost. She used the tall buildings on either side as stepping points—light, fast, precise—and landed on the ground in just a few flickering bounds.

In front of Sarah, Akali looked up at Illaoi’s bulging muscles. Even in a chaotic battlefield, Illaoi’s face remained unnervingly calm.

Akali’s lips curled into a sharp, mocking smile.

Illaoi stared at Sarah and said evenly, "Sarah. You’ve already earned Nagakabouros’s recognition. Come. Accept the trial. I will make sure you live."

"A trial? Why the hell would I take orders from a giant octopus?" Sarah sneered, snatching a chunk of broken stone and throwing it at Illaoi.

Illaoi didn’t block. She let it smack her face.

"You will change your mind soon," Illaoi said. "We are motion. The True Eye will grant you strength. Destruction is not the purpose—change, and following your true—"

Illaoi chanted as she spoke, and the massive spherical Idol in her hands swayed. Dim green light poured from it, forming small, eerie tendrils.

And then—

An unwelcome voice cut in.

"More of that disgusting brainwashing prayer crap!"

A girl’s voice, cold and sharp—then she burst out of the fog like a blade, appearing inside the green-lit barrier.

Her hands shifted together, the sickle blades in her grip flashing like fangs.

Akali had charged through the smoke the moment she landed. And the second she heard Illaoi reciting the same kind of sermon that made her sick when Shen did it, she completely lost patience.

CLANG!

Her blades smashed against the Idol with a screech, sparks erupting in a blinding spray.

And in that instant, Akali’s body had already slipped behind Illaoi’s flank—then flickered to the front, low and tight, under Illaoi’s center line.

Still crouched, Akali snapped upward—reversing her right-hand grip and driving her blade straight for Illaoi’s throat.

"Impudent wretch!"

Illaoi’s bell-wide eyes locked onto Akali. She muttered a word and whipped her leg up.

Her steel-like body wasn’t slow at all.

That kick was brutal—fast and heavy—dragging green light and a gust of wind with it, screaming through the air as it slammed toward Akali’s stomach.

But Akali was even faster.

She planted her left hand on Illaoi’s kicking thigh and used it to prop herself up—going into a one-handed handstand on Illaoi’s leg.

She was so light she looked like paper in the wind, twisting midair and changing position again.

Her long, lean right leg whipped down in a savage inverted hook—driving her heel toward Illaoi’s skull.

SMACK!

It landed.

Akali didn’t linger.

She used the impact to spring away and landed near Sarah. One hand held her sickle blade; the other snapped out throwing blades in a tight arc.

"Uh, th—"

"Save it," Akali cut her off. "I don’t have time to protect you. You can still run, right?"

Sarah froze for a beat, then nodded. Holding her stomach, she staggered up and got out of the area fast.

Akali stayed alert, eyes locked on the green barrier. She watched tendrils block the throwing blades she’d launched.

That kick had definitely connected. It had slammed straight into Illaoi’s skull.

Under normal circumstances, that was lethal.

Akali’s heel strikes hit like a scythe—one clean chop, and people died.

But the feedback from that hit told Akali something immediately:

This woman might not be a fight Akali could win.

Illaoi’s body was exactly what it looked like—hard as forged steel. Akali’s kick to the head had felt like she’d kicked a metal pillar.

And from Illaoi... Akali felt the same kind of threat Shen carried.

A kind of pressure that didn’t come from skill—just from what the body could endure.

Even so, Akali held her stance.

"You’re Ionian," Illaoi said.

Her voice came from ahead as she stepped out of the fog, wrapped in green light that illuminated everything nearby.

Nagakabouros’s divine glow could drive off even the Harrowing’s Black Mist—so this much poison gas was nothing.

Akali didn’t answer.

She lowered her body and surged forward again, using the smoke and chaos as her stage—her home field.

This was how Akali fought best.

She was never someone who stood toe-to-toe and traded punches. She killed with technique, with cunning—using any method, any angle, any opening.

"You’re good," Illaoi said calmly as Akali stayed silent. "Very good. You also have the right to take Nagakabouros’s trial."

Illaoi advanced step by step, rolling her shoulders, loosening her body.

And Akali closed in again and again—using every part of herself.

Elbows like blades. Knees like hammers.

Striking Illaoi’s softest points with the hardest parts of her own body.

Their fight looked like it was proving one question:

Between the strongest body and the finest technique—what actually wins?

On the airship, Logan watched the remaining time on his weakened state while Jinx chattered nonstop in his ear.

"Logan, Akali is actually that insane? You really can’t tell just looking at her!" Jinx stared down at Akali fighting Illaoi, envy flickering in her eyes.

She was too agile.

Jinx thought her own flexibility was already great, but watching Akali move made Jinx feel like her body was stiff as an old grandma by comparison.

It wasn’t even close.

How could someone’s limbs be that flexible?

Whip kick, whip kick—how is your leg actually whipping like a damn rope?!

It was absurd.

Jinx even thought that if she and Vi teamed up—if Vi wasn’t wearing her gauntlets—Akali would still put both of them down in two moves.

That was how scary she looked.

But soon, Jinx saw the shift.

Akali started losing ground.

"Logan, Logan—Akali’s not gonna make it!"

Logan opened his eyes and looked down.

Illaoi was now drawing on Nagakabouros’s power. Countless green tendrils sprouted from the ground and lunged toward Akali, and Akali’s movement got pinned down.

Akali’s strength—and her attacks—couldn’t break Illaoi’s defense at all. She could only rely on speed to contain Illaoi.

Earlier, she’d had the advantage because the poison fog Jinx created gave her the exact battlefield she was used to.

But now, green tendrils grew everywhere like vines, swaying and snapping toward her from all directions. It was instantly ugly.

Then, during a chain of backflips as she tried to retreat—

One tendril flashed and caught her ankle.

Akali tried to brace and slash with her sickle blade.

It didn’t cut.

The tendril hoisted her upside down and dragged her toward Illaoi.

"Logan! When are you planning to move?!" Akali shouted.

"You’re really just going to watch?!"

Hanging inverted as she was hauled forward, Akali couldn’t hold it in anymore.

What the hell—your body still isn’t "recovered"?!

What weakened state?!

You’ve been bouncing around like you’re fine this whole time!

Up on the airship you were even flirting with Jinx—how is that "weak"?!

Her yelling turned into furious cursing, but just as she got within a dozen meters of Illaoi—

A blade of wild wind came screaming in.

WHOOOOM—!!!

In Bilgewater’s Upper City plaza, the poison fog was blown away in a violent burst—revealing a long crack torn into the ground, more than ten meters in length, like the earth itself had been sliced open.

Every Bilgewater spectator stared, dumbstruck, at the fissure.

Then they saw a black-haired young man appear on the opposite side of the plaza, two fingers held together.

Logan grabbed the green tendril with one hand and tore it apart with sheer force.

As he felt his strength returning, a smile spread across his face.

"Quit yelling," Logan said. "I’m here, aren’t I?"

Akali dropped to the ground, slapped at her leg, and stood up—shooting Logan a furious look.

As expected.

Her earlier guess had been completely right.

This guy really was stronger than her.

Speed, strength, and even technique—

Wind Swordsmanship wasn’t something ordinary people could learn. If it were, a sword art that terrifying wouldn’t have vanished from Ionia.

And Logan?

He looked at Illaoi—who had narrowed her eyes at him—then smiled and waved casually.

"Illaoi," Logan said. "Switch opponents."

"Now I’m the one fighting you."

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