Thread: The Story of Bard, the Wandering Support

“Welcome to Summoner’s Rift!”

A female announcer’s voice echoed across the arena just seconds after ten champions, five on the red side to the north and five on the blue side to the south, were summoned. The two sides were divided only by a river that flowed horizontally across the center, and even that was divided vertically by a single lane that connected the red and blue bases. There were two lanes on both sides of the center lane. Both lanes had two towers to get past before either team could break through a third tower to get into the base, and an inhibitor and two more towers stood in their path to victory.

But before victory could even be considered, the champions had to get through the early game.

The champions took their places in lane as the female announcer told those on the field that minions would appear in thirty seconds. Two were top lane, two were mid lane, and three were bot lane. Two champions took their positions in a bush in the wooded area outside of the lanes known as the jungle.

The jungle was the place where neutral monsters spawned. One champion from each team typically spent their time in the jungle, defeating these neutral monsters to gain gold and experience, but sometimes, they would make an appearance in the lanes to assist their teammates. The jungle was split vertically by the center lane and horizontally by the river, where the strongest neutral monsters resided; each half of the map had similar monsters in the jungle.

The red half of the map, however, had two champions in the jungle. The first was a man who only wore a pair of red pants. A red headband covered his eyes. The second was an odd creature who wore a dark grey coat with red on the sleeves. His eyes and mouth looked similar to the three holes on a bowling ball, and his golden face was surrounded with a white beard. In his hand was an odd object, one that looked similar to a flashlight but larger at the end that the champion wasn’t holding.

It was obvious that not all of the champions that came to Summoner’s Rift to battle were human.

No, in fact, in the top lane on the blue side, there was a monkey dressed in armor holding a baton. The monkey, named Wukong, and the odd creature in the red side jungle, named Bard, were the only non-humans on the Rift today, but it was possible that other odd creatures were taking place in battles in one of the other arenas used by the League of Legends.

“Minions have spawned,” the female announcer said, her voice echoing across the arena.

In each base was a nexus, and this nexus had to be destroyed for either team to claim victory. The nexus also spawned waves of minions. One by one, eighteen minions spawned from each nexus. Three Poliwhirl led the way, followed by three Braixen, and six minions, three Poliwhirl and three Braixen, traveled to the three lanes.

In the jungle, larger monsters spawned into their respective camps. Bard and his team’s jungler, Lee Sin, got to work on the large Milotic that spawned. Her body glowed with a blue aura, and she used her tail to hit the champions attacking her. It didn’t take long for the duo to bring down the Milotic, and the blue aura she once held was transferred to Lee Sin upon her defeat.

Bard traveled to the bottom lane to join his ally, a tall man who wore a mask. He had a rifle on his back, but his main weapon was a revolver that held only four bullets. The masked man, named Jhin, tossed a grenade that bounced off of the Poliwhirl dressed in blue robes, defeating those Poliwhirl, and landing on a Braixen also dressed in blue robes. The color of the robes signalled which team the minions were allied with.

Jhin and Bard’s lane opponents were a woman whose arrows were so cold, they impaired the movement of anyone they struck, and a large, muscular man who held an icy shield. Unlike Jhin, the woman, whose name was Ashe, didn’t need to reload her weapon after four shots; it was almost as if her quiver had an unlimited supply of frosty arrows. Her lane partner, named Braum, paced back and forth in the lane, his eyes focused on the movements of Jhin and Bard, trying to understand the way they moved around in the lane.

The laning phase of matches on this arena was relatively dull compared to those in the other arenas. Matches on Summoner’s Rift could take as little as fifteen to twenty minutes if one team did extremely well and the other could agree to surrender, but they could also take as long as seventy minutes, or even longer than that. Still, even with the length, they were exciting to watch because anything could happen. A team could be winning one minute, and the next, they would be watching their nexus be destroyed by their opponents as they waited to respawn on the Rift.

Ten minutes into the game was when life for Bard got a little more exciting. Throughout the past ten minutes, Bard wandered off from the lane to collect Chimecho. With each Chimecho he collected, he felt himself getting stronger. For every five Chimecho he collected, a Chingling would start to follow him around. By ten minutes, he had three Chingling trailing behind him, jingling with each step he took.

But the time came for Bard to go on a magical journey of his own. Within the jungle were Pokemon that Bard was able to catch. The Milotic he and Lee Sin fought earlier in the game was just one of the many Pokemon within the jungle.

He traveled into the blue side of his team’s jungle first. The Milotic returned, but she didn’t lash out at Bard. She wouldn’t. The Pokemon in the jungle didn’t take sides; they remained neutral until they were attacked.

He went to a purple, frog-like Pokemon first. The Pokemon was curled up in a ball, and he appeared to be sleeping. Bard waved his flashlight-like weapon, and a burst of yellow light came from it and struck the sleeping frog. It jumped up, standing on two legs and spitting globs of poison at his attacker. The Pokemon was a Toxicroak, and it wasn’t particularly threatening. Junglers were typically able to take it out with little difficulty, though there were rare circumstances where they struggled.

It didn’t take long for Bard to jump up and place the end of his weapon on the Toxicroak’s head. There was a flash of light as the Pokemon was absorbed into the weapon. Toxicroak was captured. One down, thirty three more to go.

You see, within the jungle, there were Pokemon Bard could capture. Like the Chimecho he collected, the Pokemon he captured increased the strength of his attacks. However, the difference was Bard didn’t have to catch five Pokemon to increase the strength of his attacks. Instead, with each jungle monster he captured, his attacks would not only get stronger, but they would be enhanced too.

Bard moved onto the Milotic, who was curled up and resting. He waved his weapon, and a burst of light struck the Milotic, waking her from her slumber. The blue glow that shone from her body intensified as she shot up and started to strike Bard with her tail. Water splashed with each strike. Still, Milotic’s body couldn’t take the stress of being struck repeatedly by attacks enhanced by the Chimecho Bard was collecting and the poison that was laced in each attack thanks to the Toxicroak he caught moments ago. He was able to place his weapon on the Milotic’s head and catch her with ease.

With the capture of Milotic, Bard’s body took on the blue glow that Milotic once had. Two down, thirty-two more to go.

Bard traveled to the next jungle camp, but this one was unlike the two he’d just challenged. Unlike the previous two, which only held a single Pokemon, this one held three. Two small wolf-like Pokemon were curled up in balls on either side of a larger wolf-like Pokemon; all three were resting. The difference between the smaller wolf-like Pokemon was the fur: the smaller ones, known as Poochyena, had black and gray fur, and the larger one, known as a Lycanroc, had beige and white fur.

With one strike from Bard, all three wolves leapt into action. The odd champion was able to take the blows from all three wolves, though he felt his strength getting weaker with each swipe and bite that he took. He was able to capture the Poochyena first, absorbing their bodies into his weapon. The Lycanroc was the last to be absorbed, as he had a little more fight in him after his allies were captured.

With five Pokemon from the jungle captured and many Chimecho collected, Bard returned to his team’s base. The fights with Toxicroak, Milotic, and Lycanroc and his Poochyena wore Bard out. Returning to base would rejuvenate him and allow him to capture more Pokemon and to continue fighting alongside his teammates. It was a lot better than dying, which also restored your health and mana, but you also had to wait for a respawn timer before you could return to the fight. Death would mean Bard wouldn’t be able to capture more Pokemon, collect more Chingling to get more Chimecho following him, or help his team in fights, not that Bard was particularly known for helping his team in the first place.

Speaking of his teammates, Bard rushed out of base to join his allies in the river near the dragon pit. A large flying rock dragon spawned. His roar echoed through the arena. This was the first of six dragons that would spawn throughout the match. Bard had to catch this one in order to catch them all because the Aerodactyl that was perched in the dragon pit wouldn’t spawn again.

Both teams paced back and forth, waiting for the other to make a move. Shots were fired, of course, in an attempt to poke each other down and strike, but none of it was enough for an attack.

That is, until a glowing yellow circle appeared beneath the opposing team.

Bard’s allies noticed, but they waited just a moment to approach the enemy team. They knew what would happen if they moved too early or got too close to the circle. It wasn’t until Bard suddenly appeared through a tunnel that the enemy team realized it was too late.

A ball of yellow light collapsed on the ground, and the five members of the enemy team were trapped inside of the circle. All of them took on a golden glow, but they wouldn’t be immobilized forever. Bard and his allies advanced, and by the time the effects of Bard’s ultimate move were lifted, Bard and his teammates were ready to strike.

It was hard to see what happened in team fights. Everything moved so fast, a spectator would have to keep their eyes constantly moving to see what was happening. What was definite in this particular fight, however, was that Bard and his allies won with ease and they were able to assist Bard in his capture of the Aerodactyl.

Bard joined his allies in the center lane to push down the outer turret. With their whole team down for another five seconds, they had just enough time to bring the turret down. After a quick return to base, Bard joined his lane partner, Jhin, down in the bottom lane. A large wave of minions was pushing towards their own outer turret, and they needed to stop it before their own turret fell. Bard was able to catch a Braixen, a Poliwhirl, and a Graveler through this (with Jhin’s consent, as with his four shots in his weapon, he couldn’t easily eliminate all of the Pokemon that were at their turret and he knew that allowing Bard to capture the Braixen, Poliwhirl, and Graveler would empower his attacks), and with the help of Jhin, they took down the bottom lane’s outer turret.

Bard returned to the jungle when the bottom lane turret fell. He traveled through the river to encounter a small blue Pokemon that skated along the river’s surface. It was a Surskit, and she had a sister on the other side of the river. Bard attacked her, but she didn’t put up much of a fight. Surskit was the only passive Pokemon within the jungle, even when attacked. He was able to capture her with ease. He traveled to the other side of the map and captured the Surskit on that side as well. Capturing both allowed Bard and his allies to have vision of the area in front of the dragon pit and the snake pit in which some of the game’s most powerful Pokemon resided; the vision only lasted for a short amount of time, but it helped the team that held control over the Surskit in the river to know if enemies were coming down the river to attack or shove one of the lanes.

Also on the top half of the map was a larger than average Ekans. She was coiled up, but her eyes were wide open and ready to strike at anyone that dared to attack. Two of Bard’s allies, Lee Sin and another woman who held a strange idol, were already locked into combat with the Ekans. The snake was focused on the woman, named Illaoi, who struck the snake with tentacles. Lee Sin and Illaoi had done most of the work when it came to fighting the Ekans, so when Bard arrived, he was able to capture the snake with ease. There was an added bonus in that Illaoi was able to take a small purple orb to the top lane to summon the snake again to fight alongside their team and siege turrets in the top lane. Ekans’ hiss was heard across the arena as he was summoned to take down the inner turret of the top lane.

While Lee Sin went to assist Illaoi in sieging turrets in the top lane, Bard traveled back into the jungle to catch more Pokemon. He’d caught twelve now, and he needed twenty-two more to have caught them all. He wasn’t going to help his team work towards victory until all of the Pokemon were caught.

This time, Bard went into the red side of his team’s jungle and approached the five Torchic and the Combusken that waited for him. All six of them were clearly ready for a fight as Bard approached them. Whenever a champion passed by them, their eyes were watching and waiting for someone to come and strike them so they could fight. Without being hit first, they couldn’t hit anyone that passed.

Luckily for them, or perhaps unluckily, Bard did swing his weapon towards them. The flash of light was strong when it struck them, but the chickens were still eager to fight. They attacked fast, which Bard was aware of but wasn’t fully prepared for. They were able to whittle down his health quickly, but all five Torchic were captured with ease. At this point in the game, it didn’t take much for the champions to take out the Torchic; it was just the Combusken that had a little more fight in him. Champions with lower health typically struggled a bit even in the later game with the chickens, but not too terribly. Early game was the hardest for them, but it got easier for them as the game progressed. A few more hits on the Combusken, and Bard was able to capture it too.

He went over to the Arcanine next. He was resting peacefully in his home, though his eyes were open, watching for any potential opponents. Bard swung his weapon and watched as a burst of light struck the Arcanine. It chunked the Arcanine’s health, but that was no surprise. By this point in the game, Bard had collected eighteen of the thirty-four Pokemon on the map to collect, and each of those eighteen Pokemon empowered his attacks as he caught them. On top of those eighteen captured Pokemon, he was also collecting Chingling throughout the course of his travels on the map as well. For every five Chingling he collected, another Chimecho would appear and follow him. Right now, he had five Chimecho following him around the map, and each of those Chimecho also helped empower his attacks. Bard placed his weapon on the Arcanine’s head and absorbed it. Nineteen Pokemon down, fifteen more to go before the match could truly end.

Another team fight was kicking up thanks to the enemy team’s Lux snaring two of Bard’s allies and their Wukong dashing in to knock everyone up. Bard arrived just in time to save Jhin and a little man dressed in purple named Veigar. Lee Sin the jungler managed to make it into their backline to whittle the Ashe and Lux down enough to get them out of the fight before he had to retreat himself lest he die too. There were only a few casualties during the fight: on Bard’s team, it was Illaoi and the Veigar, and on the other team, the Wukong and their jungler, an assassin by the name of Master Yi, were taken down. Everyone else returned to their bases with injuries, but Bard, who arrived late to the fight, didn’t take too much damage and was able to return into the jungle to capture the next Pokemon.

At the final jungle camp Bard traveled to, there were two Rhyhorn sleeping. One was much larger than the other, but the other was an average size for a Rhyhorn. Bard interrupted their slumber with a swipe of his weapon. They were momentarily blinded by the burst of light, but Bard was able to capture the first one with ease. That one broke down into two much smaller Rhyhorn that he also captured with ease. No more spawned from that Rhyhorn, so he focused his attention on the largest one. Once that one was captured, it broke down into two average sized Rhyhorn that Bard captured, and both of those broke down into the much smaller Rhyhorn that he captured. By the end of it, Bard captured ten Rhyhorn before joining his team at the dragon pit, where they were challenging the next dragon.

This dragon was a large, magnificent beast that was green with purple spots on its body and a long purple tail that curled around its body. The tail had yellow swirls that rose up off of it, as if they were clouds. The Pokemon sat on top of a cloud, but it struck with the force of the wind. It was a Tornadus, and Bard’s team was only halfway to defeating it when they saw the enemy team approaching them. It was only a matter of time before they would have to fight the enemy team for the Tornadus.

Bard threw out his ultimate ability, and the circle appeared on the ground. The Wukong, Lux, and Master Yi were caught inside, and the Ashe and Braum still made their way towards Bard’s team. The ultimate gave them just enough time to allow Bard to capture the Tornadus and turn around to fight the enemy team. It was a good thing they caught Tornadus too as the extra movement speed they earned from capturing it allowed them to win the fight and push forward to destroy more turrets and push closer to their enemy’s Nexus.

Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, Bard and his allies caught three more dragons: a firey turtle named Turtonator, a blue water dragon named Gyarados, and the strongest one that they could possibly obtain in the game, a Slowking.

All they had to do was catch what was considered one of the strongest neutral jungle monsters in the game: Baron Arbok. Capturing this one would not only empower the abilities of Bard and his allies, but it would also strengthen the Braixen, Poliwhirl, and Graveler that fought for them. It was also the last Pokemon that Bard needed to complete his collection of jungle monsters and lead his team to victory.

Bard’s Sightstone allowed him to place several Gastly in the surrounding bushes near Baron Arbok’s pit. It was the same pit in which the Ekans, affectionately dubbed Rift Ekans, made her home earlier in the game. Now her much larger mother was in the pit, and it was time to take her down and end this match on Summoner’s Rift.

Bard’s team already started fighting the Arbok before he finished warding the area. The Gastly, which took on a red tint to show which team they were allied with, he placed would allow them to see if any of their enemies were coming to try and steal the Baron and possibly kill them too. If they died after receiving Baron Arbok’s blessing, they would lose her until the Arbok respawned, as that was what happened with all jungle camps, with the exception of the Tornadus, Turtonator, Aerodactyl, and Gyarados that spawned once per match; the Slowking was the only dragon that respawned on Summoner’s Rift. If the enemy team stole Baron Arbok, not only would Bard be unable to capture her until she respawned, but the enemy team would also receive her blessing. If they stole Baron Arbok and killed all of them, well… that wouldn’t be a good scenario at all because it could turn the tides of the match and cause Bard’s team to throw.

The fight began, and for a little bit, it seemed as if the enemy team didn’t know what was happening. That is, until a single red Gastly appeared near Baron Arbok’s home. Jhin used one of his four bullets to shoot the Gastly and destroy it as soon as he saw it. Bard continued to attack the Arbok, but he became increasingly aware of his surroundings. His allies did too. That ward signified that the enemy team knew where they were. It was only a matter of time before they came.

Bard threw out his ultimate, but he only caught Wukong and Master Yi. Lux, Ashe, and Braum still approached them. Veigar threw out a circle that trapped the three of them inside while Illaoi approached the three of them and struck all three with one of her tentacles. Lee Sin continued to focus the Arbok while his allies focused on keeping the enemy at bay.

Wukong spun around, knocking everyone on Bard’s team except for Lee Sin up into the air. Illaoi fell moments after. Veigar and Jhin were able to snare a few of them to give them a chance to back off closer to Lee Sin. Braum slammed his icy shield down on the ground as Bard approached Baron Arbok to capture her. Bard was knocked up, and he slowly made his way back to her.

Lee Sin flew past Bard, kicking Braum into his allies and giving Bard the opportunity he needed to capture Baron Arbok. A purple light shone on Bard, Veigar, Jhin, and Lee Sin. They were able to finish the fight and eliminate the enemy team. They pushed forward without Illaoi.

The inhibitor turret in mid lane fell. Bard dropped another Gastly ward.

The inhibitor fell.

Both nexus turrets fell. Seconds remained before the enemy team would come back up to fight them.

The nexus was halfway depleted. Wukong came up to successfully kill Jhin. Bard blinded the Wukong and stunned him with a flash of light from his weapon.

The nexus cracked and shattered.

“Victory!” Bard and his allies heard the female announcer say. Even Illaoi, who was still down for the count, heard the announcer’s voice. Their enemies heard her say “Defeat.”

The game was over.

Bard collected all of the Pokemon.

They won.

And that was the story of Bard, the Wandering Support.

Pokemon: Cash
Character Count: 22132
Author's Note: A little League of Legends and Pokemon crossover. I tried to explain things the best I could in the event someone who doesn't play League grades this.