Chapter 12: Plots, on plots, on plots, on plots
A/N I'll be straight with you. for a long time I didn't like this chapter. I've reworked it several times, but I can't find a way to make me happy with it. Yet again, there are plot points that need to happen here, but there are also somewhat repetitive issues with Poly that are coming to a close as he realizes who and what he is now. I didn't want to end it where I did, but it has been a while since I posted and I feel bad about that. I apologize for the cliff and the clusterfuck of a plot, but I think in the grand scheme of things, everything will turn out fun and good. Let me know whatcha think, if anyone is still there to read it. Lol.
~Apollyon Pov~
Alina nodding eagerly with a grin that would make a demon feel fear, check. Eve looking resolute and determined, check. Ysona smiling gently and stroking her axe blades lovingly check. Ri looking concerned at all of us before reluctantly nodding, fair. But what the fuck is Anna doing.
The pup's fur had slowly changed colors. Its previous shade was the color of a darkened chestnut with lighter-colored tip. Royal purple crept up from the base of each follicle slowly over taking each and every hair till it reached the end. From there, the color darkened into midnight black absorbing all the light around it.
Her previous wheat eyes had settled into a deep emerald green .
Feeling a qualitive change to her body she let out a howl that would have shaken the men we killed to their core but they died cause we were better so.
I know that Anna just evolved, but isn't this a little more than cliché? The main character receives a rousing speech and finds their will to fight, and their spirit gives them a new found strength to fight the very heavens themselves.
Plus, she has purple hair now with edgy black tips. So, she controls shadows? Isn't that the way things go? When wolves evolve don't they become alphas and fuck up anyone in there way? Anna's gonna make her own pack and leave me! That's bullshit… and plausible.
If I wanna test that theory all I need to do is take her to the companions and let her meet them to see what happens. Cause if there is anyone who have taken their werewolf abilities to the peak, it'll be the warrior group who bathe in the blood of their enemies… they probably smell like dog...
Anna started pacing as all of us stared at her with curiosity.
The purple seems to just be Amy stating her claim on whatever interests or worships her. So, she just snagged Anna's soul from Hircine? I don't get all these power plays but as long as they help us, I can get over them.
Clapping my hands, I gathered everyone's attention. "Anna's change aside, we need to get going. I don't what this barrow would be holding for the Vigilants, but a group this big can do some damage, more so when they all could be Paladins."
"If no one has an complaints it'll be like this, the rest of the trip; Me front, Eve and Ri mid, Ysona Lin mid, and Anna rip their fucking hearts out. Or whatever the new you can do. Sound good?"
Not saying a single word everyone took their spots, somehow Anna was front and center with me. Makes sense I didn't give her clear cut directions after all.
Putting her hammer back into my inventory, I pulled out one of the Vigilants silver swords. When we get to a town, I'm going to melt all of their gear down and make a fat paycheck.
Giving it a few test swings I nod before advancing down the hall way.
Making our way through the collapsing ruins, we notice that all of the burial urns and jars are broken apart and looted, all but confirming my suspicions that something besides the Dragonstone tablet is down here.
What could disciples of Stendarr be looking for in a dragon cult burial mound? The god of justice might seem dubious to nay sayers, but I find it hard to believe he would have ever lost an artifact of his to people who were enslaving and massacring their own kind.
Maybe something was stolen, but again that would mean that it was lost to enemy hands, and all the gods in this world willingly use mortals to wage proxy wars at any given time. An example would be Boethiah's priest desecrating Molag's shrine, sure it was the right thing to do, the big man has the power to kill the priest himself but he never did. Instead, he convinces/coerces the Dragonborn to do it themself.
Glancing at Lin over shoulder my brain never stops running, if the Daedric lords are half as interested in her as they were in the brain, we may not only have 2-5 gods after us but a whole lot more…..
*SIGHHHHHH*
Letting out the deep breath from the depths of my soul I carried on our march into the depths of the mountain in semi silent contemplation with the odd sigh slipping out every now and then. My new life is hard and confusing, my face betrays my heart-felt feelings, as a warm smiles bitch slaps the annoyance from my face. This new life is so damn entertaining, I can't wait to see how we get to the end.
Arriving at a familiar puzzle room, I'm not surprised to see a bandit impaled on the lever in the center of the room. I am however, surprised to see the iron gate barring the way has a hole, the size of a doorway, cut into the center of it. Which stressed me out, as there were runes that clearly had magical properties carved into the gate. Whoever came through here is at the very least strong and magically competent. Or just loved by their god/goddess.
Stone carvings were present but there were also dummy carvings littered throughout the room.
I was wondering how they made the "puzzles" into actual puzzles but this makes sense. Looking around the room that looked like the Riddler was let loose in with nothing but a chisel I was shocked by the sheer number of whales, snakes, dragons, butterflies, bears, wolves, swords, shields, axes and hawks. Ya boi was stunned for a couple of seconds, the sheer number of combinations would stress anyone out.
Another fuck you that whoever made this room decided to include, is that all of the carvings have a small button made from stone under them instead of the normal turnstiles… WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE DAMN LEVER?!
Bloody psychos.
"I think you all should look around, if we stumble on another room like this, it'd be better to know how to navigate them after all. If anyone wants to help, feel free because I'm not even sure where to start." That's a lie, I know which symbols to look for so maybe its patter recognition?
They were all carved to be the same fist size, and shape, with no obvious deviations in design or texture spread out over each and every wall.
Ysona, Eve and Ri are the only ones to stay and look around. Lin and Anna look to have gone into the next room saying that they won't go to far ahead or fight a group without running back to us. Cleverly worded, so if they find a duo or a single, they'd kill the poor guy or gal huh.
Not important, as long as they stay safe.
Glancing at the wall that I knew to have the needed symbols I did my best to see if it is like a shitty word search and the symbols would match up in a group of three somewhere.
That isn't working…
I don't have a big brain at all, still a little rattled I guess. There were a lot of bombs that the poor pink noodle has discovered today. It might be shutting down to keep itself from over heating.
Give me something little guy.
"Maybe they used magic to communicate the right order?" Ri is a genius and I will mofu mofu her at some point.
"One point to the cat girl! Try flames on each wall Ri, Eve some frost, Ysona…. Sit down and look pretty or something?" having the girls do two of the common elements I try sparks as we rotate around the room.
AH… nothing happened.
Maybe it will respond to raw magicka. Taking a different approach and standing in the middle of the room I sent out a pulse of raw, but harmless magicka out, filling the room. Not a single sign of magical resonance.
The fuck?
Dragons… the Thu'um is the next logical step here, but I don't know the draconic language. Don't get me wrong, I was/am a huge fan of the series, just not that kind of fan. Plus I don't get why the Thu'um was that complicated and impossible for mortals to use. Using the draconic language as a kind of magicka medium, dragons force their will onto the world to produce supernatural results.
Pacing around the room I racked my brain for any kind of clue that it could gouge out from the memories of the game I could find.
Dragon priests were the height of servitude in the dragon cult. They were masters of spell craft as well as the staunchest of worshippers that the dragons could've asked for.
Real simps for the scaly bitches…
Fuck it.
"Everyone clear out the chamber real quick for me." no one questioned me for a second as my eyes shut as channeling as much of my magicka as possible into my mouth.
Images of dragons, firebenders, and dragon slayers flashed through my brain as all the magicka I could summon was ready to respond to my will. It seemed giddy to be used this way, my blood pulsed in elation as something primal in me was deeply pleased by the spell I was about to cast.
When something doesn't work what do you do? I learned this from the breaker of chains herself, all problems can be solved with… Dragon fire.
The dimly lit chamber burst with light as a spiraling purple and white flame burst from my mouth. My magicka had taken on the colors of my two patrons as it hit the stone wall.
Ancient Nord runes faded into existence in between the symbols each one glowed the color of blood as a throbbing noise slowly thrummed throughout the chamber.
Three of the stupid rocks glowed briefly in sequence, stopping momentarily, then repeating.
That's… actually sick.
A small cat glomped onto my side jumping up and down. Cat people are also soft, file that away for alone time.
"What was that?! How did you do it? Why are they responding like this?! Ahhh this is amazing" dashing up to the second floor and pressing the buttons in the correct order. Ri freaked out even more when the already damaged gate raised up into the wall.
How did I do that? I tried to create a pseudo dragon's breath… ah. I'm an idiot. I'm part dragon, if I breathe fire trying to be a dragon of course my magicka will work with my bloodline to make it happen. That's how everything else has worked till now, why should it this be any different.
The question is why didn't Ri's flames from earlier work? Let's just chalk it up to cat flames aren't as hot as dragon flames so the runes didn't like them.
Yeah, that'll do tired brain, that'll do.
"You did well Apollyon, but let's catch up to the others. Who knows what's in this tomb." Ysona gently brought me out of my thoughts with a hand on my shoulder as Ri scampered down the stairs with a particularly happy bounce in her steps. Eve just had a self-satisfied look as she followed behind me. Clearly content with what we were able to discover here, whatever else the emo elf is thinking, is probably best left unknown.
"Aye, that's for the best." Walking through the open gate I collect the book that can improve someone just by reading… sighing I just tossed it into my inventory without thinking too much. The chest and jars were all opened and looted.
My fellow dragmer really does have the loot and scoot instincts of a respectable RPG fan.
Plenty of skeever corpses let me know that Anna and Lin passed through. Most are cleaved in half, while the rest have clearly been ripped in two… the hearts aren't eaten? The pup has standards after all.
My magicka has long since recovered, letting me create a floating ball of light that lit up this safety hazard of a spiral staircase. The whole place is made of stone, but they decided wooden stairs were the move. Idiots.
I'm too big for this shit. My height alone is forcing me to walk down the stairs hunching over to avoid hitting my head on the previous steps.
The winding tunnels of the barrow are both a marvel and an absolute pain in the ass. Roots of the trees growing on the mountain had sunk deep into the barrow ripping stones from walls and left chambers barely standing,
Arriving at the bottom we enter a burial preparation chamber. Where they make the mummies, I mean Draugr.
Anna and Alina were plopped on the table in the middle staring at the right wall of the room.
Walking up to them both, I gave them a sneak slap upside the head. "You guys missed how amazing we are. We solved the mess of a puzzle and-" about to continue my rant I turned about to examine the rest of the room.
Oh, that's healthy. A Draugr hung from the wall, 4 ice spikes pinning him to the wall two in each shoulder and two in each wrist.
Each leg laid separated with teeth marks showing that they were not separated cleanly. I know he's dead, but this is torture right?
His rotting flesh made me uncomfy but not nearly as queasy as I thought. What really threw me off was his eyes. That ethereal blue glow is insane. Dragons cursed an entire population of people, and they just took it. I guess that's all religions though, you pledge yourself to a god, devote your life to their teachings and in death you are "rewarded" for it. The only difference is the ending.
For the Draugr, it's eternal servitude in this rotting state, Hircine's followers get to hunt, and believers of the divines get Sovngarde if they are mighty enough. Sure there are plenty of others, but isn't this the gist? Hell, conjurors/necromancers/enchanters get their souls snatched by the ideal masters if they make a deal with them. Whatever the hell they even are.
I felt a pity I had yet to have for any other creature I slaughtered. Their gods, the dragons, abandoned them to this life of undeath. Forever wandering their tombs. Shit sucked.
Creating a ball of fire with mara in mind, a ball of white fire sprung forth. Streaking through the air it severed the Draugr soul's connection with its body. Blue eyes dissipated leaving a fragile leathery corpse behind.
My anger at my reckless companions dissipated entirely. Moving towards the exit I broke the tense silence.
"I know that all living things hate the Draugr, but can we just end them as quickly as possible? They just chose the wrong gods to believe in and something about that is so damn pitiful." I spoke with a soft voice as I walked through the chamber.
I didn't notice the looks of concern that all my companions had as they silently grouped up behind me. Especially a certain troublesome Dragmer.
Why did I feel so sad when thinking about them? They were masse murders/slavers sure. But almost every civilization has been, and they weren't fucking lorded over by fire breathing lizards. I mean what were these people supposed to think?
One of their main deities is a dragon god?! Of course they'll bow down to the servants of his son.
At the end of the day, the Draugr worshipped the dragons because of their might and their close relationship with Akatosh. By all rights, in this plane of existence, dragons are demi-gods if not some kind of god-kin. The old Nords weren't wrong, but they weren't right either. Now all they are, is a husk of who they once were because they believed that their lives should be devoted to apathetic flying lizards…
I'm gonna fuck up whatever dragon I run into. My anger burned back to life and brought my brain newfound energy as it processed what random synapses had brought to it in the last couple of seconds.
What it chose to focus on is the demi-god dragon thing… how the hell did we hurt Alduin? The dragon is the son of one of the creator gods of this world.
'Amy, Mara? Anyone there?' my silent prayer was answered fairly quickly.
'Oh? Do you need something Apollyon dear?' mara's sing song voice is soothing my turbulent thoughts.
'Did one of you help me with Alduin? I can't think of why I was able to damage the big bitch and then I remembered, I have two bad ass guardian deities watching my back.'
'That wasn't me.' a sultry domineering voice caused shivers down my spine. Amy, the things you could do if you ever choose to dirty talk with me.
'Wait it wasn't me either?' so it wasn't either of my benefactors…
'Akatosh.' The three of us spoke- thought? At the same time.
He's watching over Alina as his chosen champion to combat the big bad. It would make sense that he would interfere to allow her to get her feet off the ground and not die immediately.
So everyone and their mom has their popcorn on their lap as they watch this tale of the Dragonborn and her Daedric Champion. That could actually be an interesting ballad. I wonder what songs they'll sing about me.
'Do you think he's paying attention to me, or is he just focused on Alina? All this attention is a little off-putting.' Keeping a calm face to the outside my mind wandered to an image of several gods lounging about watching as I am in bed with… yeah. I am not a fan of that at all. Well maybe if it's just my goddesses, but that's besides the point.
'Hard to say what that old snake is up too. He's probably developed an interest in you, as he's been watching Alina.' Her tone softens as she gets to the end of her sentence. 'you know, you weren't supposed to end up in Helgen. Someone altered your starting location. Maybe it was the geezer. If he messes with our plans for you, I'll tear his wings from his spine.' Amy finished lovingly. The words might not have been the most caring but she said it like a doting mother to her child.
I really did feel reassured.
'Yeah! I'll make sure he realizes his mistakes if he hurts our Poly. You just focus on living your life however makes you happy. We'll try our best to keep the others away from you.'
'Thank you both, now if you'll excuse me, I am coming up on the spider's chambers. Buh-bye now.'
Focusing on the task at hand I see that Anna was walking on all fours next to me, sniffing the air frequently.
Taking that as a signal that others were around I cast detect life in my left palm while pulling out the silver greatsword from before. Fully expecting more Draugr or that big spider I know laying in wait in the next room.
What I didn't expect was the giant spider to be on the ground, eating?
Motioning to Evangeline, the elf responds by turning invisible and disappearing from the normal senses through the doorway. Only to appear moments later after impaling the giant spider's head with both of her blades. Causing it to flip on its back, legs curling into the torso of the beast. In the process of dying, it released from its mandibles, a very dead Arvel.
His right arm was gone but I think the real cause of death is this stab wound through his heart.
Looks like our Vigilants really have their own mission here. The golden claw is not on his person as well. I feel like the plot is thickening. Are these guys following their god's orders? Or is the leadership of the Vigilants compromised and this group has gone rogue in pursuit of some misguided form of justice.
Nothing was in this chamber that they would have wanted. Are they even Vigilants of Stendarr or is just another God interfering yet again.
"Hey Poly. Snap out of it! I've let you brood long enough." A slap to my back cause my ever-downward spiraling mind to snap back. Alina looks annoyed.
*Sigh*
I've been a philosophical soft bitch again.
"I know there's a lot going on behind the scenes in our lives, but we are going to cause chaos and have fun aren't we" I nod my head slightly, amazed at her intuition of what my problem is. "Then quit being a broody asshole, we already have one of those in our group." Eve's head whips to Lin as she glares at the jab thrown her way.
"We all are here to follow the badass who stabbed a FUCKING dragon in the eye. Not someone so worried about the future he can't have fun in the present. Buck up, and let's fucking kill something okay." That was a weird pep talk, but it made me laugh.
"Sorry, sorry ladies." Standing up from the ground my smile has yet to leave my face. "Let's carry on."
There were scorch marks surrounding the doorway. Duly noted these pure bois dislike spiderwebs a lot.
Post spider nest room was just a weird reception area? I am not too sure. The Nords seemingly build random ass rooms in all of their structures. This one has some sarcophaguses sure, and the rock that fell from the ceiling is a nice touch and really brings the room together.
The Vigilants spruced up this boring décor with the bodies of four burned Draugr.
Which leaves us in our current situation. One of the Draugr must have woken up after his buddies as he kneels next to the burned corpse of female warrior. Subtly casting silence, I walked up to the sad boi and gripped his head from behind.
Releasing the same holy flame I had earlier point blank quickly killing the long dead man.
"Doesn't this just seem like we are cleaning up after them at this point?" Ri's voice breaks our group into silent contemplation.
"Well, it's safer and easier that way. We can just sneak up on them after they've cleared all the dangers.
"The only reason we are here is to get a tablet and have Lin read a magic wall-" fuck, my thoughts leaked.
"Magic wall?" they all turned and looked at me.
Hehe I'm in trouble again, well time to continue with the whole, seer of potential futures. I see this as a total win. I get to say whatever meta knowledge I have and they just have to accept it. Hell of a lot easier than saying I am a being with memories of a different world where they didn't exist but most things from this one did as a game…
"Can we not talk about it all of it yet? Just know it's not because I don't trust you, it's just a lot." Tentative nods made their way around with a tail wag from our very large wolf friend.
Ah shit why not, the deserve to know a bit.
"I don't know what this burrow has in it that could draw their attention here. The dragonstone is here and that gives relatively useless information to us, but Farengar, the court wizard of Whiterun is after it. I was going to use it to gain the favor of Balgruuf. The magic wall is a source of power for certain beings of which, I have reason to believe you are one. I don't want to say much else but, that's the gist. Questions?"
"What do you think I am?" Lin's cocked head showed that she wasn't mad at me withholding information, just curious.
"Dragonborn. Me Ammit and Mara talked, and we think Akatosh helped us with Alduin because they said he's watching you. He has a long history with the Dragonborn that's convoluted but he basically makes/blesses their souls more or less. It could be the reason you learn things so easy, even among Dragmer."
Seemingly content with my response she starts staring off into space, which I think, is totally fair.
Evangeline looks entirely indifferent, Ri is just curious, and her tail is gently swaying side to side, Ysona… your face says you want blood as you stare at Lin.
"Um, Ysona? Don't fight with Alina please. At least wait till we clear the rest of this place." Snapping the half orc out of her reverie she turns to me.
"I thought having one blessed being in our group was enough to get my blood pumping, but the Dragonborn as well? You two are going to forge a new era and every fiber of my being demands that I go with you." Dropping to her knee, her dual axes lying next to her, "I've said it before but, my blade is yours till death takes me." talk about a lifelong commitment.
*Cricket noises*
"Ysona, instead of pledging your life to me, can't we just be shield-siblings? We promise to watch the others back, always and support one another in all our endeavors. I don't want this to be one-sided, here." lifting her from the ground like a parent would a toddler I hold her above my head. "You are a dear companion forged through blood, sweat, and I'm sure tears in the future. Don't put my life above yours. Okay?" flashing a milf a kind smile while holding her in the air like a child, just call me brad, the knock off Chad no one ever wanted.
Giggling "fine, fine, but I would gladly put myself in the line of fire for you. Don't say you wouldn't do the same."
"Ahem." Alina interrupted the semi-sweet moment "We need to hurry if we want to catch up to them." Her tone seemed uncaring, but her face screamed annoyed.
Cute.
"Yeah, yeah." Setting down the mature orc, I walked passed Lin patting her head gently as I moved on.
After walking for a bit we, entered a room where yet another battle had clearly taken place. Our dear Vigilants had burned their way through this mass catacomb with nearly 80 "beds" for the undead.
Glancing over the corpses on the ground which numbered high 30s low 40s I noticed that the Lin immediately started looting them. Not hesitating for a moment to grab the draugr's weapons and gold. Can't be mad at the girl for being efficient.
Joining her efforts and talking only the none rusted armors with me the rest of the girls scampered around while anna just paced. Clearly annoyed with how little blood she had been able to shed.
Making our was past the giant spike wall I laughed as Lin yelped before unleashing a blast of ice so strong it turned the barely moving Draugr into a standalone ice sculpture.
The rest of the girls joined me in laughing at her expense while she huffed in annoyance.
I remembered there being more undead sculptures lying in wait so I walked in the back to giggle at my friends. All of them had their own moments except Eve she just set herself on fire with her bloodline ability and walked through the oil filled hallway throwing a challenging look at any Draugr who charged her.
The rest of the hallways blurred until we hit the underground river.
Why is this here?
What did make me laugh though was the fist sized hole, burned through the coffin of the Draugr laying in wait.
Why didn't they kill the ones standing on the wall?
No, why didn't the Draugr try to kill them???
Hmm things are strange yet again.
As they were kind enough to open the gates for us I used my magicka to detect life around me as we moved forward.
Not seeing anything I looked down the waterfall to see what was there, and I was less than shocked to see a thoroughly burned yeti- I mean frost troll.
These guys just do not quit.
Going on autopilot I barey remember what has happened till I find myself next to a bisected restless Draugr corpse and a door that seems to have shut. Barring our way deeper into the barrow. Well shut doors are meant to be opened right?
Pushing it open I was stunned. The walls were decorated in what looked like claw marks, as if that wasn't enough, the stone that had been "clawed" was melted. 2 dozen Draugr littered the floor.
A large abomination stood, back flat to the wall, with a large circle piercing through his dome and into the stone behind him. A hulking Draugr. They live up to their name in real life. It is the same size as me with what were once beefy muscles, now withered by time and decay to match their fellow undead.
Truly pitiful.
Several of the downed Draugr had the helmets signaling that they were high level dragon cultists. These Vigilants, they are strong. Looking around the room I see that despite the numbers we think they have, it wasn't enough in this fight.
A fully decapitated corpse, wearing the robe-like armor of a vigilant lay discarded in the center of the room.
So this group of Vigilants can fight 20+ magic casting, battle hardened Draugr who can use the Thu'um and only suffer one loss? The fact that they lost one, makes me believe that they aren't fighting as one large group, otherwise he should have been covered by his allies like the group we fought previously. If they worked together as well as them, this likely wouldn't have happened… What is going on here?
While my other companions looted the Draugr corpses I went straight to the dead vigilant, inspecting his body for anything out of place on the off chance my paranoid ass brain is actually onto something here.
"Damn…" the vigilant's body was far too cold for a fresh corpse. Necromancy? Their bodies always turned to dust before so maybe not?
"Do any of you know raise zombie or a similar spell?" looking around at the girls I expected eve to be the one to step forward.
I am shocked however, to find, none of them fuck with necromancy.
Really?
All these semi-dark/tragic backstories, and not a single one of them decided that they needed to learn the dark art?
I'm both impressed and depressed. Waving them all off I turn my focus to find the weakest looking corpse in the room. While walking over to him a curious pup sniffs the Vigilants body behind me. let's just ignore that sound of ribs breaking and act like everything's normal.
Trying my best to visualize the corpse of a less-armored Draugr coming back to life I push the pale blue colored light from my hands to the corpse.
Hahah suck on that…. Someone I hate?
Patiently waiting for the body to rise from the dead as the glowing magicka swirled around it I thought to my next steps.
Huh… what are my next steps. Sure I have ideas that I'd like to happen, like taking control of Embershard, or maybe fucking around and saving the world from death/destruction/reaper of souls incarnate.
But for the first time since I've been here, I am stumped.
Alina should probably progress with the campaign storyline. If she doesn't, I'm not sure if she'll learn how to control her Thu'um. The word wall at the end of the barrow will be a solid test. That and the silly sky bean who will attempt to destroy Whiterun.
Should I be there for that? Everything that I need to accomplish is more in line with civil war campaign and establishing peace or destroying the governing bodies of the world. Finishing out that questline however I choose with the newfound freewill to do whatever I choose means I could change the fate of all of Skyrim. Perhaps even all of Nirn if I wish…
Because at the end of the day, that's what I am here, a wildly powerful, full of earth shattering potential, "neutral" party who can do whatever they wish at the behest of two of this world's goddesses. Granted if I fuck around too much I am bound to find out who is strong enough to kill me, but that honestly doesn't sound too bad.
My dragmer heritage is showing it's psychopathic glee at the thought of fighting world class entities who have trained all their lives to fight beings like future me… or the very Daedric lords themselves.
Is it really possible to reach their level here?
I know the gods were "Pushed" back by various heroes or even other gods throughout the centuries, but they literally shape, destroy and conquer realms of their own creation.
Nirn is just the hangout spot of these damn near all powerful beings. Even if they were pushed back I can't imagine it was at their peak of power, and something tells me-
*WHAM*
A viscious head butt from my canine friend sends me flying into the wall above the Draugr I was watching.
Oh shit!
Whipping my head to my new summon I see a corpse.
Poor choice of words, the Draugr is still dead.
Fuck. The Draugr is not standing up. The magic didn't succeed, whether my imagination wasn't strong enough or the spell I envisioned wasn't the correct one I do not know.
"Add that shit to the list Poly. One more magic you're going to have to test and strain over till you have a clear and precise picture of what you want." Anna just stared at me as I spoke to myself.
The rest of the girls had moved to the second level where some more intense fighting had taken place if the scorch marks and large chunks of vaporized wall were any indication.
Filing the dead religious homie on the ground below me to the 'potential problem' folder in the back of my head I jogged to catch up. Ruffling anna's ears along the way as thanks for keeping me grounded.
I really must have been a space cadet in my last life. I mean I have no real memories of the people of my past life or anything besides entertainment media/ games I shouldn't really have personality right?
But no, all of my actions feel like me.
My garbage brain trying to process 12 different thought trains at once, anxiety about the unknown, pride of what I've accomplished, determination… that one feels like a dragmer thing. I've been getting used to it, but it's not nearly as copacetic as the rest of my traits have been with one another.
The battle junky, I don't know it feels right and also nutty at the same time so maybe aggression is right, but the lack of A1 morality during fights may be the differing factor…
Those are good thoughts but I would like to get to the rest of this fucking dungeon. It feels like we've been stuck in here for weeks…. (:D)
The girls had paused up ahead clearly unsure of the strategy moving forward.
Like I have a good one. Snorting I see they are clearly looking for some kind of direction *sigh* well let's get on with it.
"I guess the best idea at this point would be to pair all of us up… Me and Ysona, Lina and Ri, Eve please watch Anna's back. Going in there, we are sure to have one hell of a fight. There are only a few chambers to the end of this barrow. I can't imagine that they are waiting for us, but there should be a Draugr lord at the end who might pose them some kind of challenge. Plus, I doubt he wasn't buried with his own soldiers."
Hesitant nods of understanding cycle through the group.
"Honestly, these people we are chasing may very well not be who we think they are. Disciples of Stendarr "purify" any and all monsters and there was a fair bit we had to clean up. That and there are some hints I've been doing my best to pick up on. Key thing is to be fucking cautious." Glaring at Alina and Anna in particular, "they have shown that they are more than capable of ripping apart high level undead with ease."
"Who do you think they are?" Ysona voices what everyone is no doubt thinking.
Taking a deep breath I tilt my head back looking at the ceiling. "could be disciples of a different god or daedra. Could be a guild who is piggybacking on this expedition's forces to steal away whatever they are looking for. I have zero clue."
"Well, might as well kill 'em." Thank you for the lovely idea Alina.
"We attacked first earlier, who knows, they might not try to fight us if we see them." The half orc has a point here…
"Does it matter? No one will know it was us. Anything can happen in these ruins, and these guys have something off about them." With a cute head tilt and hands clasped behind her back the kitten continued "I think we should kill them, take their money and go back to civilization." That is both terrifying and adorable all at the same time.
My head is fucked big time.
"And you Eve?"
"I am… upset that the last group detected me and I want to try again. It's not prudent to charge in however. Subtlety may be the way here." what an elusive way to say you want to cut them, but you don't want them to see you.
"Anna, I know what you want so let's just get on with it. Eve I'll try to cloak your aura with a spell, that's the only way I can think they detected you."
Imagining a layer of magicka coating eve's presence, and merging it with the surrounding stagnant magicka, my mind came up with her existing in a plane similar to void walking.
She will be able to come out of this "shadow" world at her leisure, but once she does it'll be flashy.
"I think I've got it. You'll be nothing more than a breeze until you choose to attack. It should, theoretically, merge you into another plane of existence, so if it looks strange don't bug out on me. Think of It like invisibility or silence, until you act, you are more or less, undetectable." Getting a look of determination in response, both my hands formed pitch black spheres, letting my magicka guide me, I pushed them together.
As they were about to touch I thrust my arms forward toward Evangeline, a ray of darkness burst forth.
Eve vanished from sight.
Casting detect life on my eyes I scanned the room.
"Damn, I'm good." There was not a trace of the dark elf.
Granted all the magicka in my body was basically gone and recovering as we spoke but still, a hopefully, undetectable assassin was added to our squad.
"Here we go." Marching through the winding path our group passed the puzzle wall… well apparently, this one was trickier than just finding and using the key.
Two dead bodies laid on the ground. Basically porcupines with how many poisoned daggers stuck in their corpses.
Ancient Nords were smart as fuck.
Creating a trap that could pierce steel armor with relative ease, that could survive the test of time? Wild.
They both wore the Vigilants armor… still no sign of the glass armor wearing leader.
Well of course the boss would never go down like the mobs before.
Arriving in the final chamber of the barrow, all I could think, was shit.
That's a hell of a lot of dead people boxes.
Each sarcophagus's lid was tossed aside as corpses burned on the ground. The sound of blades clashes rung through the cavern as the Vigilants clashed with the elite guard of the Draugr lord.
Two great pillars of rock framed the view of who could only be the Draugr Deathlord, combating a masked figure in glass armor. The glass warrior wielded azure flames in one hand and an elven like staff in the other.
That shit looks incredibly familiar.
His followers were being swarmed by Draugr, the piles of corpses around was a testament to their strength. But no matter how strong something is, eventually it will bend and break.
Mixed among the bodies of the Draugr, at least 10 Vigilants had fallen with more getting wounded every second. That shit is understandable, after all, these aren't the soft squishy Draugr from the game. They are all the elite units. Nothing less than scourges from what I can tell, which isn't much. Quite a few Hulk knock offs as well.
What in the gods names was buried here?
"FIGHT UNTIL YOU DIE YOU PLEBIANS! COVER MY RETREAT!" the masked figures disembodied voice echoed out, the Vigilants broke their formation as a young woman wearing steel plate armor with golden horned pauldrons and spiked gauntlets leapt towards the Draugr Deathlord.
As soon as she landed, the Draugr lord engaged. Meanwhile, the masked figure cast a blue flame wall spell behind him as he ran out the stairs leading to his escape.
At that moment, a dome of golden light lit up protecting the Vigilants in the midst of the cluster fuck of Draugr. Thu'ums were released by those undead that were able, shaking the very mountain surrounding us.
As the golden light and the voice of the undead masters clashed, it seemed a stalemate, shit was not. The golden barrier flickered for a moment under their combined might, before ultimately shattering sending each one sprawling out on the ground.
The two sides leaders clashed with magic, voice, and their weapons. Honestly it looked more like an anime fight than a clash between two medieval bad asses.
Flashes of sparks and bursts of magicka is all that was visible to the naked eye, to keep up with it I had to push electricity through my eyes and brain just to keep up.
Ya know what that means? I finally found my natural monsters in this world, the Tiefling didn't count he was a fucking daedra.
"Well, what the fuck is this shit?" … Lin, you're not wrong… I have nothing else to say.
"Hahahaha"
I can't keep it my maniacal laughter in, any longer.
"I think I'm done stressing for the day, and this looks too fun to ignore. I'm going in, do what you want, kill who you want, I'm headed straight for the top." Without speaking another word, I gripped both of my swords and leapt into the group of Draugr charging the Vigilants, ignoring the dumfounded looks of my group.
Well I did make a plan and then Leroy Jenkins'd it… I'll leave that problem for future me.
The world blurred as I swung and blasted spell after spell, the first three dropped to the surprise attack, but it drew the backs attention. Each Draugr was fully capable of matching my strength, making my heightened speed the only thing keeping me a step ahead of these old bastards.
My heart beat with delight, every blow from my enemies were countered, avoided and blocked. Each action nothing more than a millisecond from death as I marched to the enemy commanders.
What realistically took me 10 seconds felt like hours. My muscles screamed in euphoric harmony as I pushed them to their limits in order to make it to my goal.
'Forward. Left block. Jump. Swing. Thrust. Slap the bitch with your tail. Ice. Fire. Strong.' My thoughts had finally devolved from the previous strenuous high IQ theories, to the simplest commands possible.
'If you're going to be anything, be fucking efficient.' The simple quote, ringing in my head driving me to be better, faster, stronger.
Passing through the outskirts of the Draugr had been a good warm up, arriving at the barely living Vigilants I cackled madly to myself.
They were pathetic, barely 100+ Draugr and they had been reduced to 5 while taking maybe half of the Draugr down.
One foolishly brave lad decided to stop me. Raising his silver sword high with one hand he swung down while his opposite hand shot their purifying flame at me.
Sidestepping his swing to the outside of his guard as his flame burst through the empty air of my previous spot his eyes widened in belated realization, that I'm fucking great. Actually, what he realized was that as I passed my tail had a special spell on it…
Ya see, I'm a crafty bastard sometimes. The ice that lined the tip of my tail dripped with blood as I marched up the stairs to join the clash. Ready to put my training to the test in a fight where I think I'm going to probably get stomped, but that makes this way to exciting.
…. I am definitely not human.
To the outside world I must look terrifying, but I just can't find it in me to care. It's time to go all out.
Purple lighting coursed through my whole body as sparks shot out sporadically as dark corrosive gas blanketed the blade in my left hand, and a brilliant golden light took hold on the blade in my right.
Vigilant and Draugr lord paused their battle to gauge the new presence on their battle field.
The woman wielded nothing except her silver bladed longsword, while her opposite hand glowed white, not the golden of her peers.
Draugr lord was more menacing than any in the game. What looked like ebony armor served as his own. Instead of the simplistic pauldrons, his spiked bone shoulder guard looked menacing. Interwoven with the metal were large scales, the man had an incredibly sturdy looking ebony-dragon plate armor. Runes shown with darklight that seemed made to repel any holy-esque magic. Wielding a great axe with a head the size of his torso, it made me skeptical how he moved so fast…
His Thu'um!
So he's a master of the voice, duly noted.
Glancing once more at the woman I noticed her eyes had no pupil… and looked like fractured blue glass….
No no, brain you won't take this fight away from me.
Exploding forward, I swung both my swords towards the old leathery bastard.
"Su Grah Dun" with a whisper the Draugr sped his bodily movement up to match my own attack. Easily pushing me back with his raw strength as our weapons collided.
Flipping back to land on my feet I cast ice wall with my tail as I spiral through the ai. Creating a line of large icicles meant to impale the oldie as I propelled myself alongside the attack.
With practiced ease he sidestepped the lethal ice attack not seeing me coming from the opposite side of the newly formed wall.
'Mine you dry bitch' dropping the sword in my left into my inventory I gripped my sword to deal a devastating diagonal cut on the unsuspecting Draugr.
"Feim" the lord faded into mist as my blade passed through the space he once occupied.
Somehow stopping the effect of his thu'um, he reappeared after my sword had reached the apex of my swing. "Fus Ro Dah!" if before his voice was a whisper, this truly lived up to a shout. Somehow matching the effect of the GROUP of Draugr the mountain shook in response to his words.
'I'm fucked' that's all that passed through my head as I was launched into the air.
Colliding with the word wall I was sunk into the stone.
Then came the pain.
Thu'um is scary it enacts your will onto the world, near impossible to guard against in the case of several non-physical shouts. This just happens to be one of them.
Pulling my self out of the wall, I can't help the smile that surfaces.
This is it. I mean don't get me wrong, all of my fights have been somewhat challenging especially big boy, but this is a master. Everything about him is top tier.
Battle instincts, skill, thu'um? Master class baby.
Wrinkles had decided I was done and started his march out of the barrow towards where the masked fella had left. The girl disappeared from where she was standing with the blink of my eyes and was clashing with the old monster yet again.
I watched as my body instinctively moved my magicka to heal my internal bleeding. Concussive force is never something to brush off.
My eyes tracked every single movement the two made, my brain clearing itself of unnecessary thought so I could adapt to the fighting style of each.
Subconsciously searching for a way to win, in a state of such focus I probably could have performed the black flash.
These two are undoubtedly strong, but they aren't the peak. They are the first who have actual styles of combat that could compete with those stronger than them, not fighting on the instincts installed in them by their daedric lord. Daedra all fought semi-robotically and in turn predictable. Still strong as fuck.
But these two, spells cancelled by thu'um, thu'um dodged depending on if she could block it or not, weapon techniques that showed years upon years of training. These two are fucking warriors.
Respect and acknowledgement of the fighters before me is all I felt as I pulled myself from the wall. Each step of mine had me picking up speed with ecstatic glee I charged into a fight, I very much do not belong in. I'm not a tried and true warrior, at most a murder hobo with crazy instincts and magic, but even still, I will fight.
Cancelling all my magic except my lighting coursing through my body I swung the big ass sword with my whole upper body at the Draugr Lord. His back was facing me, but I knew he knew, that I was there.
'feim' not a second too soon the beast faded yet again.
The girl took the moment of inaction from the Draugr lord to channel her magicka into her left hand as she slammed the floor. A brilliant light lit up the room as what appeared to be a piece of the sun itself came crashing down towards the three of us. The Draugr lord had already cancelled his shout as his body solidified, he swung his axe in a shallow arc toward the woman, desperately trying to bring her out of the spell cast.
'Bold to forget about me.'
An earth pillar burst from the ground to hit the raggedy piece of shit's elbow with considerable force. Bending the attack up and away from the female templar.
the burning ball of holy wrath connected with the ground, the flames didn't hurt me at all. They were however the equivalent of holding a flashbang right in front of your eyes.
Bringing my left arm up to shield my eyes shit was still bright as hell….
Eh?
Where's the rest of…?
"YOU SON OF A BITCH" my left arm, halfway down my forearm was missing.
As the light rescinded, more like absorbed, the dragon cultist in front of me brandished his axe as he took up a battle stance. His dark runes did more than make him resistant huh?
A vague dragon-like aura had surrounded him but instead of the one cast by one's thu'um, this one looked far, far less powerful. It was simply red light leaking from the runes carved into the armor.
Something in me told me that it was draconic in nature and at this point my instincts are god-tier.
So he channeled the holy power of the Vigilant's leader to activate his trump card eh?
Sounds like a solid big bad.
Speaking of the pristine warrior priest, she was a sweating mess. I can't blame her, what she did was the equivalent of an ultimate spell in ESO… anything with the word ultimate in it, likely is incredible difficult to use in the real world.
So here I am, a one handed man with a two handed weapon against, someone who clearly was very important to the dragons. A most likely mind controlled templar, and a tomb full of dead and dying men and women.
What a day.
Now, how the hell do I win.
Undead hate fire… use enough lightning it makes fire…. Or plasma… fucking worth shot.
Building the image in my head, the skelly boy advanced toward me. each swing of his felt stronger than the last as I tried my best to deflect or dodge the blows.
"Fus ro dah!" I heard the first syllable and launched myself into the air above him. Avoiding a point blank blast that crumbled the stone staircase leading out of here.
Note taken, home boy is built different.
Thomas the train engine, I mean the Draugr lord, who just never quits blasted unrelenting shouts and blows from his axe as quickly as my sad little brain could picture plasma…
"God damn, I can't focus worth a shit while you swing that piece of shit at me you fucker!" the pain may be getting to me.
Okay if I can't make something complex, maybe simplicity is key.
Running out of ideas I try come up with defensive maneuvers, I drop my sword into my inventory and create ice to cover my gauntlet in the form of a buckler.
Memories barraged me, of fighting gods and linking the first flame as I did my level best to avoid being hit by the undead in front of me.
Leaping back to build distance, time seemingly slowed as the Lord brought his axe back in a position that looked like a lunge. The pointed spear tip on top of his weapon confirmed my theory.
"Wuld Nah Kest" the lord moved through this slowed down world as fast as a speed walk, while I was moving like I was stuck in a pool of syrup.
Not a large difference normally true, but it is, when you're trying not to die.
My increased perception bought me this time, now think.
Right shoulder facing death, arm up slightly tilted to my left, buckler angled to my left. Ah, good job body you made the moves near instantaneously. Magicka to my fingertips… no, as much as possible.
The Lord finally made it into thrusting distance as he propelled his weapon forward.
Mimicking a move, I had seen countless times, I parried the bitch, forcing his weapon away from my body with a push powered by the strength of my whole body. His momentum carried him another couple of steps forward unbalancing the legendary warrior. I used the force from his blow to spin the opposite direction as him, my hand covered in lightning as I thrust it into his back.
Ah yes I won instantly and everything turned out great.
*DROP* my body felt death approaching and so I fell, flat on my back as I watched the great axe soar through the air where my neck used to be.
Apparently, I'm a lot weaker than I thought.
My eyes squinted as I looked at the embodiment of death above me, I knew I should feel fear, but all I felt was the familiar song of happiness my blood and heart sung whenever I fought. Only now, instead of a muted choir, it was a full bore orchestra and I was front row.
"How exciting" my smile was gentle and serene as the dry boi brought his axe above his head and started the descent that could easily end my second life.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone