Bab 54: Kynesgrove
"I never thought I would ever be able to gain the respect my grandfather had before he fled Morrowind." An old dunmer armorer wept as he looked on his newly upgraded workshop, "You have more than earned my loyalty Dragonborn, and the Companions too."
The old dunmer was the grandson of the master armorer of House Hlaalu, but his ancestral skills had been scorned in Skyrim and his grandfather, father, and himself had all made due crafting farming tools and horseshoes while desperately trying to keep their cultural craft alive.
We had chosen to help the man build a proper set up in return for helping me better utilize the dragon bones using dunmer methods. During the week we spent in Windhelm the man and I learnt the secrets of dragon bonemold armor, enabling me to forge sets of truly transcendent equipment. The strength of dragon bone, the coverage of full plate, I may have mixed in two expert alteration robes taken from the Fort Amol Conjurers for Jack and myself as a part of my dastardly plan to become nearly immune to magical damage.
It really was quite dastardly, using a pair of enchanted rings and amulets we'd picked up over our travels, several skill books, and Jar-Shak's apprentice level study of the subject we would quickly delve into the Alteration branch of magic with the intention of maximizing our skill in the subject as fast as possible to connect with the Magic Resistance and Atronach Stars.
It was admittedly slow going as keeping stoneflesh up during spars was all our magicka could take, but it was coming along. We'd be journeymen by the time we reach High Hrothgar and would get their even quicker as we intended to go through Kynesgrove on the way south and get some tutelage from Dravynea the Stoneweaver.
Our last night in Windhelm saw the dockside argonians hold a feast for us, not in return for the one we held for them with our dragon meat, but to celebrate the fact that I'd successfully impregnated all the unmarried argonian women in the area.
The people of this world really know how to creep me out.
I kept expecting some kind of Red Wedding turnaround for defiling everyone's sisters and daughters, but just like in Whiterun they kept piling on the praise and gifts. At least with the human women I wasn't leaving them full of bastard children, but that just seemed to make everyone here even happier.
Strong seed, they kept saying.
The cult vibes made me more than happy to hit the road again.
Two days out from Windhelm we approached the small mining town of Kynesgrove, this place built around the mining of malachite, a much more valuable and rare substance than the corundum ore of Darkwater Crossing. All was going well until the dragon nation attacked. Alduin flew over with a pair of his bronze skinned home bois and they began their reign of fire on the town while the big black bastard went on to rez his pal, Sahloknir.
Leaving the sled behind we ran the final stretch between us and town.
"Jack and I will take one!" I shouted over the medley of screams and the roar of the fires, "All of you take the other!"
Jack flung a warp sphere at one of the Elder Dragons and I started sending arrows down range wishing I had one of my old machine guns. We weren't heroes, we weren't here battling these things because saving the people of Kynesgrove meant something to us, but the sounds of them roasting alive as everything they knew burned down around them did serve as motivation to not hold back.
The Elder Dragon was tougher, more mobile, and harder hitting than any we'd faced prior. It took three shots for me to connect and even then it was a grazing shot. The beast was aware and agile, and knew he could tank Jack's biotic attacks. After the second warp sphere landed without significant damage, Jack joined me in shooting as the beast played keep away and unleashed streams of raging fire on the people of the town.
Eventually the pressure was too much and a shaft hit him where the shoulder meets the chest, causing him to lose that slick evasiveness and take two more shafts before plowing into a burning home.
We launched more javelins into the wreckage and the dragon burst from the side of the building before clawing at the earth like an enraged Tigrex. The bastard actually used his horns to deflect a pair of javelins before Jack and I were forced to engage him in melee combat.
Jack timed a biotic charge to land just as I plowed into the big bastard with my shield raised and the collision put all three of us on our asses. I got up first and swung a hammer blow to his head and the Elder Dragon threw an overhand wing strike and comboed it into a swift tail strike that launched me into the wreckage of someone's home, a home that was promptly set even more on fire. Jack hit him with another charge as he tried to roast me, knocking much of the stream off target and into more flammable wood houses.
During the fight the dragon had broken off the shafts in the sides of his chest, but I noticed one thick shaft still sticking out of his chest a good bit. Rushing back into the fray I ducked under his claw swipe tail strike combo leaving me right where I wanted to be. With a roar I hammered down the nail that stuck out.
The wet quality of its ragged breathing clued me in on the pictured lunge, reducing the beast's shouting capacity and making it harder to recover it's spent energy on its attacks. We spent a few minutes evading and punishing the increasingly slow attacks of the Elder Dragon before I buried my axe blade in its neck just behind the skull, killing it instantly.
Jack and I breathed heavy, truly pushed for the first time since coming to this world. Bethesda definitely didn't animate this guy.
We didn't get a chance to catch our breath as the rest of the Companions had yet to slay their dragon. Drawing our bows, we got the drop on the beast and put a pair of javelins in its neck. We waited out its death throws and Vilkas rammed his sword through its eye for good measure. The beast lit up and Brienne had devoured another soul, but following the trail of light led to the girl kneeling over the scorched form of Ria, the newest member of the Companions before we joined.
"Get up girl!" I shouted as I lifted her with one hand, "You have to drain the other one before Alduin brings him back!"
"But, Ria!" she cried.
"Now!" I bellowed, "She will still be dead when you get back!"
I put the struggling girl over my shoulder and walked her back to our kill. I would have felt glad to permanently slay the beast if not for the arrival of the black destroyer himself and a bright orange dragon with a wide ridged neck and tail that landed to our side.
I placed the struggling Dragonborn down and got my shield ready to defend her from the bigger threat, but Sahloknir posed a huge threat as well even if his birdlike beak and bulging frog eyes made him look dopey. Revered Dragons were not to be tangled with lightly.
Alduin spoke to Brienne in the language of the Dov before realizing that she did not understand him.
"You do not even know our tongue, do you? Such arrogance, to dare take for yourself the name of Dovah. Sahloknir, krii daar joorre." With that said Alduin took off into the night, leaving us to his minion to slay.
"I am Sahloknir! Hear my Voice and despair!" the dragon spoke before launching a Drain Vitality Shout that I leapt with all my strength to get us out of the way of. The shout tried to correct course, but my dodge was timed too well and thus we just barely managed to evade the lethal shout.
It took everything I had to keep us away from the Revered Dragon's calamitous Thu'um. The Elder Dragons dealt massive damage to the town, and Sahloknir seemed able to match their output combined. His torrents of flames reduced homes to ashes as he pursued us and it didn't stop until a javelin bounced off his head and another stuck into his chest far shallower than ever previously seen. The rest of the Companions began to kite the dragon with their bows, the big beast far slower to rotate than the Elder Dragons but just as fast in a straight line with all his added mass turning him into a wrecking ball destroying all in his path.
We were slowly wearing him down when Torvar tripped over a beam hidden in some ash. Time seemed to slow down as Sahloknir barreled down on the Companion and snatched him up in his jaws even as more arrows riddled his form. The slovenly nord pulled a knife off his chest plate with his unpinned arm and rammed the blade in the dragon's eye before the maw slammed shut and Torvar fell to pieces, part falling to the burning ground, the rest falling down the dragon's throat.
Farkas and Vilkas broke away from the plan and rushed the Revered Dragon, evading his clumsy wing strike and ramming their blades into his chest to the hilts, taking the beast down with their ferocity.
"So this is my end, eh Dovahkiin." the beast gasped, "My voice has been silent for so long…"
Many of the Companions collapsed in exhaustion, covered in burns, and grateful to have survived. Looking out over the destruction, I knew that this time we wouldn't be celebrating our victory.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
JManM
JManM Got home from the fights and chose to finish the chapter I was working on before going to bed.
The championship bout was the best fight I have seen all year. Wilder showed up the best he has ever been and came up short getting knocked out in the tenth round. The man took a huge beating and showed that he had the heart of a true champion.
His record may be heaviliy padded, but the man has spent 29 rounds in the ring with the greatest heavyweight fighter currently competing. I think the Wilder who showed up tonight could defeat everyone else in the division except Fury and possibly Usyk.
Bab 55: Always Forwards
I just finished making adjustments to my shield when Brienne appeared in the ruins of the forge I occupied.
"I would like to apologize for losing my composure during the battle last night." the Dragonborn stated.
"Apology accepted, Tater Tot." I told her as I strapped the dragon bonemold spiked pavis to my arm, "Seeing Ria get cooked would be hard for anyone, let alone a girl who was a stable hand two months ago."
"And yet you and the others seem so strong." Brienne shook her head, "Like you were all ready to get back on the road as soon as the funerals were over. You all knew them better than I did, and yet Athis almost seemed happy for Torvar."
"All you manlings have a bit of Nord in you." I explained to her, "And if you believe in Shor and live a life of battle and honor you will have a place in Sovngarde when you die. "While all of us are down here eating trail dust and struggling he is up there where the mead flow never ends and the fists are always flying furious. Ria too. Athis can only hope that his true heart will see him born to Sovngarde, where he will join them again."
"But you won't be there?" Brienne asked the question she already knew the answer to.
"If I die, Ria and Torvar are going to have to invade the spirit realm of the Hist and snatch me up from the godtree's cycle of reincarnation."
"If?" Brienne scoffed, "You think dying is an 'if' for you."
"If you ever get as tough as me, you'll start to wonder if you are immortal too." I told her.
"I didn't know immortal's felt the need to run from dragons." Brienne needled, "You took one look at Sahloknir and ran for help."
"Had a very squishy Dragonborn with me." I told her, "You got good fast kid, but that fight was way out of your level."
"It felt like it was over everyone's level." Brienne looked down, "And he wasn't even the strongest dragon… if Alduin had fought we would have been done for."
"You're right, kid." I agreed, "If he had stayed that would have been the end for us and for the whole world, and for that… I am sorry."
"What do you have to apologize for?" Brienne looked at me in surprise, "You and Jack took on a dragon all by yourselves and helped with the other two."
"I got complacent." I shook my head, "My whole life I have taken every advantage I can get, but after coming to Skyrim, I felt like I could just brute force my way through everything this world could throw at me. But don't you worry kid, after I drop you off with the monks at the Throat of the World I'll chase down a lead on a hammer that should help make future fights way more simple."
"Sounds like one incredible hammer." Brienne grinned, "What were you doing before I interrupted?"
"Just getting my shield into a hands free configuration. So I can do this." I raised my shield activating my blocking powers and made the hand gesture for the healing spell, covering me in a warm light.
"I thought you and Jack couldn't use magic?" Brienne said in confusion.
"We used the Atronach Stone to switch birthsign powers." I told her, "We still have weak magicka pools, but the dragons' fire and frost attacks are purely magical, meaning the Atronach power absorbs half of its potency and turns it into usable magicka. We use the healing spell to boost our impressive natural abilities and we should be able to sit tight under their full power without too much issue. The solutions are there, we just have to think."
"I think I'd like to change signs when we go back south." Brienne told me.
"Good. We always have to be pushing forward, never letting the world push us back." I patted her shoulder and went back to adjusting Jack's shield.
Our trip south was mostly quiet except a brief stare down with the giants of the Steamcrag Camp and a detour trip up the Northwind Summit where we quickly took down another brown dragon and Brienne communed with the word wall. From then on it was a fairly normal journey for the roads of Skyrim. Brief tangles with the wild life and a couple of bandit parties that ran from the sight of us.
We arrived in the small farming community of Ivarstead in the afternoon and found a cheerful welcome from the denizens. After booking rooms for the night at Vilemyr Inn, we sat down to a hearty dinner where I addressed the Companions.
"We part ways tomorrow." I told them.
"Why leave when we are so close to the end of our quest? When the hour comes when we are needed most." Aela asked me.
"I've got a few leads on on things that will be of great use to us in the fight against the dragons, and you all are going to spend a fair bit of time up on High Hrothgar, training Brienne and making those old monks train her too. Don't let them bullshit their way out of teaching her the Thu'um."
"We won't." Skjor grinned.
"What do you seek?" Kodlak asked.
"Got a lead on the Hammer of Might south of here." I told them, "One of the ancient masked dragon priests as well."
"Volendrung in your hands would be a weapon most potent." Kodlak nodded in approval, "And denying the enemy a powerful spell caster is always a wise choice."
"I don't know how long it will take to make Brienne into a deadly warrior and a master of the Thu'um." I said after taking a big draw on my mead horn, "I plan to take a route west to Markarth, and then to Solitude and Dawnstar when I have finished in the Rift. If you finish her training before I return, send word to those places and I will cut our campaign short."
We spent the rest of the evening enjoying our friends, and set out for our own adventures the next morning.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
JManM
JManM
The breaking of the Fellowship already? Well, our Boromir already died, so the time was now.
In other news I have decieded that Daedric Artifacts are going to have infinite charge because they are supposed to be legendary weapons created by demon gods.
Volendrung is going to be Grunt's ultimate weapon in this story as it will gain power over time in his hands similar to the way the Ebony Blade does. Not sure what Jack's weapon will be. Maybe the Mace of Molag Bal maybe Dawnbreaker. Don't know. Perhaps Goldbrand or Chrysamere.
If you want to support me and my family you can do so at
ko - fi . com / jmanm
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