Armor sparkling brilliantly as always, Taric emerged from the treeline atop a hill. He sat above a steed that few saw him with as most of his time was spent on the fields, where his horse played no part. His horse was adorned with the same scattering of gems as he himself was, granting wards and protection to the horse as well as bolstering its stamina. Behind the two, the dark forest loomed, providing stark contrast as the sun came out from behind a grouping of clouds to dazzle against his armor, making his presence known to those down the hill.

The small camp of bandits looked up from their supposed safety. Taric expected them to look worried from his presence, but they merely started laughing. The freezing winter air made his breath into steam as he breathed out heavily in irritation. "OH MAN," one of them threw up their hands in mock anxiety, "THE GAYLORD IS HERE!"

Remembering the tales of chaos that the previous village he had just visited told him, Taric kept his ground, wary of the power this foolish group of bandits was said to have. There were seven of them in total, all of them laughing about their supposition about his sexuality. No immediate leader stood out, all of them wore the same quality of clothing, wearing the same level of weapons at their belts. There was absolutely no clue he could gather about their tactics beyond the fact that they left giant craters in the ground where livestock used to stand.

"Go back to the mainland, Gaylord," one of them said at him, "This is Ionia, we don't need your kind here."

Taric dismounted, reaching behind for his hammer and shield, fastening the latter onto his arm with practiced motions, gripping the fine handle of the former with familiar strength. Around him, the gems hummed with energy, spoke to him about their power, sang beautiful melodies with the air. He focused on the rag-tag bandits before him, they emanated nothing, no music, no feeling, they had foregone their humanity.

Seeing him arm himself, the bandits started to draw their weapons, looks of disbelief on their faces. "Listen, Gay-be," yet another one started to say, a tone of irritation seeping into his voice, "We'll kill you just like we did those children last night who stepped up to us, because that's what we do to people who stand up to us."

Taric closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath of stark, chilled air, feeling the power of the gems respond to his call. Once again he would require their aid to uphold justice. Opening his eyes, Taric spoke calmly in his rage, the opals in his chestplate balancing his emotions to provide focus, "You are nothing more than glass, waiting to be smashed."

The gems swelled with power, warning him before the blast came. Taric dropped to a knee, thrusting the shield out in front of him, taking an inferno of flame in the process. The fire hit his shield and dispersed out around him, as if hitting a forcefield. The air around him hissed and spat, being sucked into the flame to fuel it as it continued to smash against the power of the gems. Feeling a slight drain, Taric knew he would tire before his opponents did. He gripped the hammer, feeling the weight as a reassuring presence, driving him to action. His person swelled with melody, straining against the cacophony of dissonance.

He stood, the power flowing through his body, forcing the flame back from the shield, projecting a larger area of safety. A layer of frost built up on his armor, casting a blazing light on the ground around him because of the sunlight and the flame. Breathing calmly, Taric began to walk forward, heavy steps from the sheer weight of his equipment flattening the grass into mud below his feet.

Muffled yells could be heard from the other end of the inferno, but Taric neither cared nor could hear what they were saying. Continuing his steady pace, it wasn't long before the hill was behind him, no more than 10 yards could separate him from the nearest enemy now. The flames intensified, doubling or tripling in power. Taric was caused to stop for a moment, opening up his soul to conduit the power of gems even more. He was practically fully encased in ice before he started walking again, the discord between the harmony of the gems and the dissonance of the flame grew greater.

Suddenly the flames stopped and a flash of iron could be seen to Taric's right. Feeling a slight presence of physical force, Taric looked to his right and saw the brigands' plan. They had suddenly stopped the flame to allow another of their group to sneak up on his right and stab through his armor. Embedded in an inch of ice was a clumsy attempt to pierce his defenses, the wielder of said sword held onto the hilt in a feeble attempt to remain in control of the situation. His eyes grew wide as he was met by Taric's cold gaze. Taric saw nothing but fear, an animalistic reaction to the sudden absence of control.

A second later, Taric's hammer had landed into the villain's face, pushing an inch of the biological matter within in any direction it could escape. The human shell fell, blood slipping off the hammer in tandem as if water over steel. Once again, the gems vibrated in their place, giving Taric time to raise his shield again as the inferno began anew. More muffled yells went off behind the fire, but the gems were all Taric could hear. They sang of the apex of power, they spoke of where the magic was coming from. Crystalline power flowing through his hammer, Taric brought it down against the ground, a wave of energy coursing through the air.

The flames went out, his gems had destroyed the artifacts with their weakness, their instability. The four bandits dropped the wands, unable to keep up the energy demands that they demanded. Before they could blink, Taric had swept up next to the closest on his right, lashing out with his weapon in the process. Just like that, only three bandits remained.

One of them collapsed to his knees, screaming. The other two scrambled for their physical weapons. Focusing his will through the gems in his shield, Taric forced a brilliant dazzle of energy into the closest bandit, knocking him to the ground. Reacting quickly, Taric smashed his hammer down a third time, dispatching the stunned enemy. five feet to his left, Taric saw the last mentally sound bandit covering the one who had settled into a fetal position as his tears streamed down his face.

"Your attacks are slow, now I know how to beat you," spoke the bandit confidently. He surged forward, clearly having some training in the use of a blade. Taric tried to block the attacks as the flurry landed upon his shield, but two strikes got through, the first clanging off the ice clinging to his armor, but the second managed to penetrate his defenses enough to slice into his side. Grinning, the bandit gloated over a surely defeated Taric.

Taric merely looked up into the eyes of the soulless, and burst the aura of ice that gathered around his person. Shards of the armor exploded, sliding into the legs and chest of the bandit who had just wounded him. With a horrifying yell, the bandit tried to fall down, but found that moving at all caused the shards to cut deeper. Taric raised his hammer for the last time of the fight and crushed the bandit before him.

All that there was left was the wimpering one five feet in front of him. First, Taric lifted the pommel of his hammer slightly, the gems within glowing with power to heal the slice in his side. Then, Taric strapped his weapon and shield once again upon his back, taking heavy steps in the grass to rest directly in front of the bandit.

The gems spoke to Taric, told him of the man's loss, he had only become a bandit to try and protect his older brother who had always been reckless, and how the brother was dead. Such loss, such pointless loss of a future to protect a brother who didn't deserve it. Taric kneeled before the man, forcing him onto his back and bringing his head up to stare directly into Taric's brilliantly blue eyes.

"Look around you," Taric began, thinking on the carnage left behind by the fight, "This will always happen when magic is used for the purpose of destruction, the forces of justice will return fire and life will pay the price." Taric allowed a tear of sadness to build and roll out of his eye as he continued on, "This is what violence causes, nothing but more violence, there is nothing to be gained from this."

Pausing, Taric planned to go on when the bandit surprised him, "I understand, I will change my life and fight violence with kindness, there's no point in living if I don't learn from this."

Nodding, Taric released the man, certain of the truth spoken from the heart. Looking around, Taric had one more thing to attend to. A large chest sat at the back of the encampment. Making his way over, Taric readied his magical healing powers again. Opening it, he found the real reason for him to be here, a clump of a weak, blond-haired human lay at the bottom of the space. Reaching down and tenderly lifting his friend from the box, Taric smoothed Ezreal out on the soft grass of the clearing. He had suffered greatly at the hands of the lawbreakers, numerous signs of torture layered his skin, likely only for their amusement. It was fortunate his clothes remained mostly intact, meaning he was likely not sexually abused.

Grabbing a ruby from a pocket, Taric held it above the Piltovian's chest and willed it to sing, glowing bright red as it did so. He continued the flow of power for several minutes, moving the gem around Ezreal's body, causing the bruises, cuts, and burns to close and lighten to a healthy pink color. When the last of the injuries had been healed, Taric sighed deeply, a large burden off his mind for the first time in a week. Replacing the gem into a pocket, Taric sat down next to Ezreal, knowing his friend would wake up momentarily.

Groaning in protest, Ezreal did wake up only a few seconds later. "Ohhh, I feel like I drank as much as I did on Snowdown." Pretentious smirk upon his face as he turned to face Taric, Ezreal said, "I knew you'd come get me, it was all a test after all."

Grinning, Taric almost rolled his eyes and replied, "I did say I would find you if an expedition went horribly awry, the gem in your amulet is far too easy to hear from anywhere on Valoran."

Ezreal rolled forward, clearly unconcerned about how his pants were held up by merely two belts now, and got to his feet. "Yeah yeah, easy errand blah blah blah," he said smugly. "Thanks though, I was kinda in a tight spot there," he said earnestly, a rare occurrence indeed.

Taric got to his feet as well, "I said I would find you, my friend." A few seconds of silence passed where they simply stood and relaxed. "Now let's go, Ionia is a complicated place," Taric said, ready to return to the Institute.

"Agreed," Ezreal said resignedly, perhaps hoping to swing past the famous Ionian hot springs first. He was always getting into trouble, Taric remarked to himself. Steady gait, the two walked out of the clearing, stupid jokes being told to pass the time on their way back to mainland Valoran. Taric knew he would always be there for his friend, no matter what would happen, the gems willed it to be so.

Author's note: Merry christmas that random person you know who you are. I know this is super late but you know, oh well, better late than never I figured. Only took me way too long. Hope you enjoyed it.