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42.77% Unbound Familiar / Chapter 305: Instant Regret

章節 305: Instant Regret

Elsewhere within a dim cave, Malyn Varen and his student, Nalecar had just arrived with a hundred or so freshly raised corpses that the former had managed to steal from Winterhold's cemetery.

After his expulsion from the College, Malyn had immediately gotten to work in creating an army to snatch back the artifact that was stolen from him. It didn't matter who had stolen the Star of Azura, Malyn would make everyone in that misbegotten College pay for it if he had to.

His ambitions to attain immortality via soul trapping himself could only be furthered through the use of Azura's Star. Other soul gems were simply too fragile to hold his soul without taking away all of his free will.

Sure, the voices in his head kept telling him to turn back and to stop wasting his time, but what did they know!? Those voices were in his head, so they only knew what he did! They wouldn't realise his genius until he finally achieved his goals.

Unbeknownst to all, Malyn's mind had been so thoroughly warped by Azura due to his attempts at desecrating her artifact, that recognising normal from not, or reality from delusions had been getting further and further away from him. His mind was falling apart at the seams, and the only thing that was keeping him functional was the unifying concept of attaining immortality... It's for this reason that raising an army of undead to assault the College had struck him as stupid and insane.

There wasn't anyone to tell him otherwise either, most of his students had either abandoned him or been killed, and even Nelacar was simply too afraid to remonstrate him... How do you reason with a mad man?

"What is this place, Master?" Nelacar tentatively asks as they step into a cave that Malyn seemed far too familiar with.

Malyn gestures over at the wall, causing a multitude of torches to light themselves, revealing a hidden laboratory. Not only that, but there were skeletons wearing Apprentice robes scattered about, painting a very alarming picture for Nelacar.

"M-master... What are those?" the Altmer chokes out as he stares at the old corpses.

Malyn looks up from the enchanting table that he'd begun examining and crooks a brow, "What do you mean? The cave, the table, or my research materials?"

"Y-your research materials?" Nelacar parrots.

The Dunmer nods, "I'll take that as a question, my student... These are the fools who failed to meet my standards. At least they were useful in testing my theories regarding soul trapping and soul warping."

Nelacar's mind was swarming with questions now, but he simply couldn't voice them. If his master had killed all of these other Apprentices, what hope did he have!? Indeed, he'd been looking for a way out as soon as his master began plotting to create an army, but he hadn't had a single chance to leave... Even his toilet breaks were monitored by Atronachs that'd warn Malyn if something untoward occurred.

Despite how old and frail the man was, he was still an expert in multiple fields, Conjuration only being one part of his vast abilities. One wrong move and he'd have an army of Flame Atronachs chasing him to his death...

Fortunately, it looks as if he wasn't completely alone in this situation... Sorkas and Jernil, two of Malyn's students that'd been forced from the College, had just entered the cave from a side entrance and greeted Malyn on their knees. "Master, you've arrived!"

And they appear to have already known about Malyn's murder of the other Apprentices, judging by their lack of reaction to the bodies.

"Of course I have you fools! Now stop idling around and prepare more servants for the coming battle!" Malyn exclaims prompting the two Nords to begin working.

Malyn looks over his shoulder at Nelacar, "Boy! Once we've enough servants, we'll march to Fort Kastav and take it over. The pathetic mages that are holed up there will bend to us or die!"

"W-will that not just waste our resources, Master?" he asks, knowing that many of their raised zombies would be destroyed by the Mages... Many of their enemies would die in battle, and many more would simply refuse to serve them. It was a lose-lose scenario to Nelacar.

Malyn growls, "Are you questioning me!?"

"No! Master!"

Malyn continues to eye Nelacar for a couple more moments until the boy had sufficiently sweated enough. "Our undead would fall in droves against those amateurs in the College! Even if we gained the services of one mage for all of the undead, it would still be worth it! Do you understand!?"

Nelacar nods, and Malyn has him immediately get to work in creating yet more Atronachs, Familiars, and Undead for their steadily growing army. Usually, folk who'd attempt this wouldn't have the resources to fund it, but Malyn, in his warped mind, had anticipated a large scale battle occurring in the future and had already planned for it. There was enough Frost, Fire, and Void salt to permanently summon many Atronachs, along with a good amount of corpses from both animals and humanoids being prepared.

Nelacar could only hope to find a way to escape soon, otherwise, his fate would be sealed... He had no doubt in his mind that the Arch-Mage would utterly destroy them if it came to it. Against Savos Aren, an army of undead would only serve as meat shields. Which left Malyn, Sorkas, Jernil, and Nelacar to attack the Arch-Mage...

Not just attack the Arch-Mage... But all of the other Masters and Apprentices in the College... Yes, this plan was doomed. And the worst part? His master, along with Sorkas and Jernil actually thought they could win... What utter fools.

"Gods, let me live past this and I will become as pious as is possible!" Nelacar almost feverishly prays under his breath, making sure none of his 'companions' could hear.


創作者的想法
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

JayJonnaJamison

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Faruk Ereng

章節 306: Wary Lead

The search for the undead army had gone pretty well thus far. Michael had learned how to track from Riki, who'd taught him many things from how different kinds of creatures walked, their gate, what tracks they left, etc.

Riki had actually made a point to use multiple hours to teach Michael how to recognise undead tracks. Apparently, he thought that knowing whether he was following undead required far more attention than anything else... Michael knew it was because of the Dead God, but Riki was reluctant to say more on the topic.

Regardless, he was probably the best 'undead-tracker' in the world now. Along with the only person who bothered to specialize in 'undead-tracking'... It didn't really help in this situation either, as he was already aware that he was tracking undead. But, at least he'd know if he was tracking an undead dragon or something, he supposed.

It'd been three hours since they'd left Winterhold, and some of the Apprentices were already getting irritated. On an entirely unrelated matter, these same people somehow also forgot just how cold the weather of Skyrim could get and had only left in their Apprentice robes. They were warming themselves with fire magic, but Michael was sure they'd run out of Magicka before they were anywhere near the undead.

The undead themselves had marched south of Winterhold and then started climbing up a steep hill West of the straight road, forcing the group to begin wading through thick snow under the mountain which held the tall standing statue of Azura.

They'd already had to take a couple breaks since the Mages were so out of shape. Even Tiffania had more endurance than them, which was saying something.

Despite all the problems, the group was quickly enclosing on their targets. The undead didn't move very quickly, and even if they marched through the night, they weren't suited to travelling through thick snow... Michael had even spotted rotten shoes and other articles of clothing that'd fallen off of them.

Just as Michael was thinking that this would be a long job, he spotted a large shambling mass as the group made their way over a hill. "Found them!" Michael states in a voice barely loud enough for the entire group to hear.

The other Apprentices move beside him and gape at the number of corpses, "Wow, that's more than I expected!" Borvir mutters aloud, clearly thinking that he'd bitten off more than he could chew.

"You wanted an adventure, well here it is. I hope you aren't regretting it already, little brother." Rundi says, patting Borvir on the shoulder.

"Bah! I could handle that lot alone!... But-, you guys won't let me have all the fun... Right?" he says while glancing at Michael, stumbling over himself to cover his ass just in case they threw him to the wolves.

Michael shrugs, "I don't know. I'm curious to see if they could turn you into a zombie with a bite..." he says, causing the Nord to suck in a cold breath at the thought.

"D-don't make jokes like that, Michael!" Derflinger whispers from his waist but Michael just taps him hard a couple of times to keep him quiet.

"What do you guys think?" he asks, leaning his head towards Charlotte and Illococoo.

"Had worse." Charlotte states, adjusting her glasses after using a low flame spell to remove the frost gathering on them.

Illococoo nods, "Me and big sis fought a big dragon before, you know! Way stronger than those guys!"

"Hah!? A dragon!? Who are you trying to fool?" a nameless Apprentice from the crowd laughs, but is thoroughly ignored by them, especially Illococoo who is content with ignoring their existence entirely.

Michael turns towards the group and coughs into his fist to silence them, "Alright! You guy's see our target, but before we run at them like headless chicken', we should make some basic plans!" he says and some start murmuring to themselves but Michael continues, "And before you idiots start asking 'why', just look over there! If the hundreds of undead weren't enough, how about the fact that a fairly strong mage is probably living in that cave!? If you guys wanna go and die like lemmings, go ahead, but I'll still be up here watching you die!"

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

In the end, his reasoning couldn't really be argued against, even if the undead were weak individually, the sheer quantity of them was evidence enough of the strength of the mage who'd raised them.

A regular Novic Conjurer could only raise a single weak zombie, so they must at least by at the expert or master rank. That, or they had an artifact that increased their strength, which would only make them more dangerous than if they were alone...

After that, it wasn't difficult for Michael to arrange the Apprentices into a makeshift formation. Conjurers would be in the middle so that they could summon, maintain, and protect their summoned creatures.

Restoration mages would be at the back to keep them safe from any stray attacks should the enemy mage choose to fight instead of fleeing.

And everyone else would be at the front lines... Destruction mages, Alteration mages, and Illusion mages were the most suited to being the first to engage as most of their spells were direct, and needed to connect with their target to work.

Of course, this formation was almost entirely made of solely mages, making it incredibly fragile should the enemy actually reach it. Only Michael, Borvir, Rundi, and a couple of other Nords present were actually trained to fight in close quarters. This disadvantage could be alleviated via summoned creatures, but it wasn't optimal, at least in Michael's view.

Regardless, this was the best they could come up with. Their enemy was a bunch of zombies protecting the cave entrance, so there weren't any 'advanced tactics' they could use... So unless Michael wanted to sneak inside and assassinate the mage, they were stuck with a direct assault.

As for why Michael didn't do just that and kill the mage himself? Well, doing so in front of so many witnesses would out him as an assassin, or at least, someone capable of it. Should it become public knowledge, many avenues of attack would be cut off for him as he'd become a prime candidate in any investigation. Plus, he wanted to try out and see how he and the girls had progressed with this world's magic...


創作者的想法
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

JayJonnaJamison

Jack Allen

Faruk Ereng

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