"Congratulations to all you who have made it through the first round," Ezreal says to the remaining competitiors. "I'm impressed with all of whom has made it so far." He quickly glances at Ven.

"The second round won't be so easy," Enishi interjects. "You have three hours to hunt and bring the head of a Madrigoat (a rabid goat-like creature that stands 10ft tall and weighs over eight-hundred pounds, with a head no bigger than a football). You should be able to locate them around the caves. Remember, they move in packs. These creatures are vicious so please be careful, and watever you do... don't die."

"Yes sir!" The remaining competitors shout in unison.

"Good luck," Enishi says.

The fourteen remaining competitors arrive to where the Madrigoats typically roam, at the bottom of a cliff where they graze in a grassy field surrounded by unexplored caves. 

Some of them have agreed to team up to take down one of the massive creatures. Of course, majority of them rush to team up with Lox. With Merrick out of the competition, Lox had no choice but to partner up with a few of the lesser talented students. He figures he could get them to do majority of the work for him and he will take the credit for it. Ven on the other hand, plans to work alone since he knows that no one would want to work with him and would rather see him dead. They all stand at the edge of the cliff, side by side, observing the massive beasts. 

"I count about twenty of them. There's enough for everyone." Says one of the competitiors.

"How do we take these things down?" Asks one.

"We just need the head, which is ridiculously small compared to the rest of their body. We just need to catch them by surprise." Another responds.

"We're all going to help each other? R- right?" Says another, shakily.

"Lox?"

Lox smirks and folds his arms. "Follow my lead. Ven." Ven raises his eyebrows and looks at Lox. "Watch and learn."

He then jumps from the edge of the cliff and lands into the middle of the Madrigoat herd, startling them. In typical fashion, they all react violently. They all raise their hooves and charge at Lox with their pointed horns.

The other students watch in awe as Lox raises both of his arms and outstretches them, summoning a mass amount of water, creating a massive tidal wave.

*Not bad.* Ven says to himself and folds his arms.

Lox then throws the wave of water at the oncoming Madrigoats, toppling them all over in a single motion.

He then singles one out and leaps highly into the air, and gathers more water and forms an ice sword, and drives it right into the Madrigoat's neck. An ear piercing sound erupts from the Madrigoat's mouth as it spits out blood. Lox then easily removes the sword and then beheads the beast in a fluid motion. 

"Too easy," he says as he wipes the splattered blood from his cheeks. He then looks up at the star struck students. "Get your heads now before they get on their feet!"

The desperate students all leap off the cliff and rush towards any one of the Madrigoats, sprawled out on the ground in shock, hurrying to behead them. Some of them beheaded the beasts, and some even chicken out because they couldn't stand the sight of the blood and run away. Ven stayed on the cliff, watching them from above. Lox then locks eyes with Ven and laughs. 

"Everyone got one?" He asks as he raises the head of the beast he slew, blood dripping from its decapitated head. 

The reamining competitors all nod their heads. Lox ushers them to get back up the cliff and once they're all back up, Lox then creates more ice swords and send them flying into the beats, killing them all. He then looks up at Ven and smiles.

"Good luck," he says with a sneer.

The other competitiors leave Ven alone at the edge of the cliff. He looks up at the sky.

He then leaps down from the ledge of the cliff and inspects what is left of the herd. 

Dead.

All of them.

Some left with heads and some without.

He knows he shouldn't behead one that's already dead, that would be too easy and he's sure that he would be disqualified for taking the easy way out; Lox would make sure of it. The only way for Ven to move on to the next round is to take one on and bring back its head, on his own. He looks around him and notices an entrance to a cave.

He walks over to the entrance of the cave and stands at its mouth, staring into the dark depths of it. He takes a deep breath and forms a flame so that he can illuminate the dark and walks inside of it.

The cave is dark and dreary and the only sound that can be heard is the drip of the water from the stalactites. He walks deeper and deeper into the cave, looking and hoping to hear the sound of a Madrigoat. Praying that he gets lucky and finds one that is sleeping. 

*Crunch*

Ven stops walking and looks down. He raises his foot and sees what is now a crushed skull of something of what must've once been an animal.

*Whoosh*

A strong breeze passes by Ven.

Ven's flame suddenly goes out.

It's pitch black. 

A deep roar can be heard from inside the cave

Ven quiets his nervous breathing.

He quickly forms another flame.

He blinks his eyes a few times to adjust to the light.

Once they do, he is suddenly face to face with enormous, jagged, blood stained teeth.

*ROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!!*

The beast roars loudly, shaking the cave in the process.

"Oh SHIT!" Ven's yells and quickly turns around and bolts out of the cave, with the beast following closely behind.

Once outside, Ven turns his body and fires a blast at the creature. The Madrigoat opens its mouth and swallows the fire, seeming to be unaffected by it. The creature charges at Ven, but he manages to avoid it by rolling onto the ground. He quickly gets to his feet and now in the light, Ven takes a good look at the beast.

This isn't just any Madrigoat. This one is about fifteen feet tall, easily over one thousand pounds, souless red eyes, enormously curved brown horns, long jagged yet sharp teeth, black massive hooves that can easily put a hole in a boulder and a long muscular tail, a symbol of pure strength.

The Madrigoat roars and stomps its feet and then charges at Ven with lightning speed.

Ven throws balls of fire at the beast in an attempt to slow it down but it knocks them out of the way with its horns and attempts to stab Ven with them. He dodges its atacks and attempts to counter but does not see the beast whip its tail around, hitting Ven in the stomach and knocking him into a neaby tree, hard. He doesn't have time to catch his breath because the Madrigoat is already charging at him again. He moves just in time so that it crashes into the tree, shattering it into thousands of splinters. The beast comes to a suddent halt and turns its body around to face Ven and starts to stomp its feet. It roars, shaking the surroundig trees.

"You're fast for a big guy. Geez," he rubs his stomach and then yells, "But Ok. I'm going to take you down!"

Here is a picture of our favorite Water Madokai, Kia!

Art by: Krysten Deidrick