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59.6% Unbound Familiar / Chapter 425: Unwilling Patron

Chapter 425: Unwilling Patron

Veik, the Champion of Peryite lets out a sigh as he slowly but steadily makes his way to Riften. His Affliction had gotten far, far more severe since the meeting of the Champions, and Veik knew full well why... Peryite hadn't wanted to participate at all, not even turning up when the other Daedric Princes were preparing the rules and making demands.

But, Veik was determined to dutifully serve his lord, even if Peryite didn't see the benefits that winning such a competition could grant... Sure, his presence had essentially forced Peryite to participate and potentially lose something if he lost, but he was certain he could win this with little to no trouble.

His Lord's artifact, the Spellbreaker would see him through the battles long enough for him to get up close and personal with his enemies. Once there, he'd allow his sickness to spew toxic fluids onto them, giving him enough of an advantage to cut them down... This tactic worked against most, as even the most heavily men still required their eyes to see, a spray of acidic vomit through their helmet's eye slits and the battle was all but won.

Still, that didn't mean he would be arrogant. He was sure the other Champions had trump cards of their own... Especially that 'World-Hopper' that drew even the attention of the Daedric Lords. To give him the best chances, he'd head to Riften and start spreading the Affliction to everyone, creating what would essentially be a biological fortress to protect himself.

He needn't worry about Peryite's shrine, because as one of the lesser respected Daedra, no one should know its location. Veik only hoped that his Lord wouldn't punish him so severely once he won this...

Veik eventually reaches the road a couple miles from Riften but pauses in his steps as he gets a bad feeling all of a sudden... Cold air blows through the area, causing him to shiver and pull his furs tighter, glancing around to search for whatever was giving off that ominous feeling.

*Whiii!*

A whistling sound has Veik quickly spinning around with Shieldbreaker bared, the Ward created by it blocking and shattering the spear-like ice projectiles that'd been cast at him. He draws his sword and peeks over the shield, spotting the foul visage of Clavicus Vile, specifically, the short Champion who he'd seen wearing the Masque of Clavicus Vile... "A fellow Champion!? I had thought that such cowardly tactics would be beneath you!" he mockingly remarks, feeling assured in the fact that his opponent was a mage, someone directly countered by Spellbreaker.

The short masked figure just tilts their head to the side, not saying a word while readying their staff.

"Both mute and dishonourable? Fine!" Veik sniffs, ignoring the fact that he himself had intended to infect an entire city to win the competition.

The Afflicted Champion gives a roar as he charges forward, Shieldbreaker held directly in front of him to block any incoming fire.

Clavicus' Champion, Charlotte, gives an exasperated shake of her head while drawing a line in the ground below her with her staff, causing a huge wall of ice to form and catapult itself toward the man, as if a giant had thrown a glacier.

Veik doesn't give any indication of worry however, continuing to charge and smashing his shield against the glacier... Surprising Charlotte as the ice all morphs around the man before shattering, the shield essentially making him an unstoppable object in the face of any magic.

Seeing her spell fail in the fact of the artifact, she creates along the ground behind her and skates backwards, throwing out needle-like ice shards in all directions.

Veik slips slightly as he sprints onto the ice, but somehow manages to keep his balance as he advances, steadily gaining on Charlotte. His brows rise to his hairline as she taps her staff on the floor however, causing the ice shards she'd cast earlier to turn around and shoot straights towards him in almost all directions.

"I won't fall for your tricks!" he exclaims while digging his blade into the ice and suddenly spinning around, catching almost all the projectiles with his shield. A couple hit his legs, but they are negligible.

He's forced to block yet another ice spear as well, which he does with relative ease. And soon enough he is upon Charlotte.

The short girl had covered her staff with sharp spikes of ice in preparation for the upcoming melee, but this proved quite ineffective as Veik leads with another shield charge, her staff losing all of its ice reinforcement as she tries to block the shield with it.

She's thrown to the side by the attack, and has to cast a powerful blast of air at the ground to avoid Veik's subsequent sword strike, this doesn't grant her much distance however as Veik keeps on her like a rabid dog.

"Your magics are powerless against my Lord's blessing!" Veik roars, only to be blasted in the face by a torrent of water that Charlotte had pulled from the atmosphere. Veik is thrown backwards with surprising force at the strike, but he quickly regains his footing afterwards, allowing him to continue his attack once he'd recovered his composure.

The two continue to battle, with Charlotte managing to lower the effectiveness of Shieldbreaker's magic ward by using elemental manipulation as opposed to direct spells. Unfortunately, this doesn't completely negate the defences, as Daedric Artifacts aren't just items with tight gimmicks.

Finally though, the two line up for the last exchange. Veik was limping slightly and had frostbite climbing up his fingers on both hands, along with patches of ice still clinging to his body.

Charlotte was leaning on her staff, a red wound on her stomach from where she'd been sliced. She'd quickly frozen it over, but that didn't mean it was healed. Part of her robe was singed off too from the acidic vomit the Champion of Peryite had spewed at her...

"It's time to end this. I'll present your head to my Lord!" Veik shouts as he charges, shield up to block the spells that would undoubtedly come... He's surprised however as Charlotte fires nothing at him.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Kingsprovince

Faruk Ereng

next chapter

Chapter 426: Crawling Chaos...

He reaches Charlotte and brings his sword down, the blade going through her but not eliciting the feeling you'd expect, nor the sight of bloodshed... "Illusion!?" he yelps as his feet slip on the ice buried under the snow.

As he falls, a shadow appears above him as a heavy wall of ice forms, the thing tipping over and falling on him, threatening to crush him into pulp. He's unable to raise his shield however as spears of ice sprout from the ground, attempting to run him through.

"WAIT! NO!"

*CRASH!*

*SPLATTER!*

Red and green dyes the snow as the Afflicted Champion's body implodes as if caught in a blender, or a hydraulic press.

Charlotte's form materialises nearby as the invisibility wears off, the girl stepping over and making the ice all melt, revealing Shieldbreaker to her. She touches with her foot, sending it to Clavicus Vile.

"How did you know you'd find a Champion in Riften?" the vampire living in the Chain of Arkmis asks his companion.

Charlotte shrugs her shoulders, "Many people, there was bound to be one." she quietly says.

"Well... Find somewhere safe and look at your wounds, drink a Cure Disease potion too. Catching anything from one of Peryite's will not be fun. I assure you."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While all of this was happening...

Around the East of Dragon Bridge Village a normal-looking mud crab slowly makes its way along the derelict roads... Well, normal apart from the large Daedric staff tied to its back.

No one had encountered it on its journey yet, but one unlucky soul had decided to see his family despite the ominous Blood Moon hanging overhead.

...

"... Mud crab?" Marcus mutters to himself as he spots a small figure making its way down the road, he was tempted to give up his journey due to the strange sight, but figures one easily mud crab didn't pose a threat to him...

Unfortunately, as soon as he got into range to see the staff tied to its back, his fate was already sealed... The Wabbajack abruptly fires a red bolt at the man, causing a purple explosion to ring out, enveloping him and displacing him, sending him to Oblivion and swapping him with a Dremora who appears in his stead.

"WHO SUMMONS..." the Dremora trails off as he looks down at the mud crab, only to drop to his knees as soon as he spots the Wabbajack. "LORD SHEOGORATH! I-"

The Wabbajack fires again, covering the Dremora in another bout of purple smoke... Once it clears, the true horror of the situation becomes apparent...

Two mud crabs make their way down the road, everyone unaware that this was only the beginning. The Beginning of the long, pinching, clawing death...?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere in a tavern in Whiterun, two sweaty people stumble out of their inn room after hours of sex and debauchery... The Champions of Sanguine and Namira had completely ignored the competition and decided to enjoy themselves, knowing that no other Champion would be on their tail yet.

"You rut like a dog in heat... You almost wore me out." Eola remarks as she and the Champion of Sanguine, Prixus sits at the bar and orders a few rounds of ale.

"I am a man of many virtues, yet, you still managed to outlast me, woman..."

Hulda, the inn owner, serves their drinks and begins cleaning a dirty tankard, "The whole inn is aware of your 'virtues', never heard a man squeal like a woman before... You sure you weren't the one being stuck?"

Prixus lets out a sigh, "You know, if you weren't the one serving my drink I'd have crushed your head for that."

Hulda chuckles, unaware that the man wasn't joking...

*CRASH!*

Suddenly, the doors to the Bannered Mare are smashed into splinters as many Vigilants of Stendarr charge inside, quickly surrounding Eola and Prixus while the other patrons of the inn flee.

"Daedra worshipping scum! Surrender yourselves and those foul artifacts and we may be lenient!" a heavily armoured man leading the group demands.

Prixus levies an analytical eye at them, "How did you know we were here? Surely you couldn't tell our identities by the sound of our merry-making?"

Eola sniffs derisively at him, "I told you carrying around that damned staff was stupid!" she says, gesturing at the Sanguine Rose sitting next to Prixus.

"Ah, well, I couldn't very well hide the gift of my Lord. Even someone as tolerant as Lord Sanguine wouldn't endure such a slight... Besides, it isn't like they wouldn't have noticed all the missing people you've been engorging yourself on..."

Eola scowls, "Fool, you say this in front of our arch-enemies! Are you such a dullard that you think only with your lower head!?" she angrily says, eyeing the surrounding Vigilants who were taken off-guard while observing the couple's spat.

"Bah, they already know, if they knew a servant of Namira was here then-" he pauses at the Vigilant's now even more cautious stances, the group only now seemingly realising that two separate Daedra worshippers were present. "Eh, forgive me for the time being? I suspect we may be in trouble." he says, grabbing Sanguines Rose and funnelling magic into it, causing portals to Oblivion to open up all around the inn, causing many heavily armoured Dremora to appear in the seats that were left vacant by the previous patrons.

"MORTALS!" x10, all of the Dremora shout simultaneously as they recognise that they'd been summoned... And in the midst of what looked like a battle too.

The lead Vigilant of Stendarr takes a tentative step back from the small army of Dremora, each of them looking more deadly than the last. "Well, shit..."

"S-sir. We should retreat and gain aid of the town guard." one of his men whispers as the Dremora stand and prepare their weapons.

"Yeah... We'll do that... MEN! FALL BACK AND SHIELD WALL THE ENTRANCE!" he shouts as the enemy charges.

"RRAAAAGH! DIE MORTALS! PEEEERISH!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to : https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Kingsprovince

Faruk Ereng

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