章節 469: Tutorial?

Surtr comes to amidst screams of terror and pain, he didn't know how long he'd been unconscious but it must've been only a few seconds considering the state of the place. Most of the buildings were now on fire, barring the stone towers and walls, though, even those looked ready to crumble and collapse under the continued assault of the legendary beast.

"H-Hey! Surtr! Come on we need to get out of here quick!" Ralof says while crouching behind some nearby stone rubble to hide from the dragon's sight.

Surtr ignores the throbbing pain in the centre of his skull and lifts his head from the bloody chopping block, momentarily thanking the gods for saving him from having his head cut.

Once up, he and Ralof sprinted to the nearby tower that seemed to be completely empty, aside from the corpses of an Imperial and a Stormcloak who had inflicted lethal wounds to one another.

"Gods! It's a real God's damned dragon!" Ralof mutters while catching his breath, the man seemed to have a large gash on his side which may have been fatal had he not been wearing his Stormcloak leather armour.

The Imperials must've wanted them executed while wearing it to make a statement or something akin to it... Surtr wished he still possessed his plate armour right about now... Ignoring that, he focused on the situation and quickly realised that Ralof must've abandoned everyone else in his attempt to save him...

"Ralof, where is Ulfric and Galmar?" he hurriedly asks, not wanting the potential saviour of Skyrim to die in the belly of a Dragon, or with a blade in his back by a sneaky Imperial.

Ralof shakes his head, "They escaped while I tried to wake you, I suspect they ventured into the fortress for cover but there'll be a small army of Imperials down there... We must find a way to help!"

Surtr nods, deciding to thank his saviour another time, preferably once they were out of the range of a dragon's maw. He looks to the door and is about to try and peek to get a view of the outsides, but stumbles backwards when the whole thing bursts into flames.

He and Ralof barely make it to the stairs when the dragon's flaming breath breaks through, glassing the entire first floor of the tower and rendering them both sweating messes. Both because it was now an ungodly temperature, and because they were almost both fried...

"Look there! We can jump to the opposite roof and make a dash for the fortress!" Ralof says as they both quicken their paces.

*CRAAASH!*

Only to pause as the dragon's head crashes through the stone wall of the tower, its beady crimson eyes bearing down on the duo like a god of judgement. "SAHLO JUL." it growls, its very breath heating the insides of the tower and making it almost unbearable to withstand.

Surtr glances to the side and sees Ralof frozen in place, seemingly unable to move under the glare of the beast.

Seeing this, Surtr decides to take action, grabbing a shard piece of stone rubble with his bound hands and attempting to stab it into the dragon's eye. It hits, mostly due to its head being locked in place via the hole it'd created... It doesn't do any damage however, its eye seemingly as hard as the stone he'd used as a weapon.

He does accomplish making it flinch however, its instinctive reaction to protect its eyes works in the duo's favour. With its head retracted from the tower, Surtr grabs Ralof and hurriedly pulls him up the stairs and towards the other hole leading to the next rooftop.

*ROOOAAAAAAAARRRR!*

A fire breath bellows from the now enraged dragon, singing some of the two men's hair as they leap from the now thoroughly scorched tower.

They land on a burning building's roof and fall through its weakened wood, causing them to land heavily on the first floor with a thud... Surtr pulls Ralof to his feet and slams his shoulder into a blackened part of the wall, burning him slightly as he crashes through it and out of the building. All while ignoring the scorched corpses of a woman and her child who'd been unable to escape the cataclysm.

"Come on Ralof, that dragon'll be on us if we don't move!" Surtr exclaims, bringing Ralof back to his senses as both glance over their shoulders at the dragon which was still breathing fire into the tower, literally causing parts of it to melt and turn to molten stone.

Faster than Surtr thinks he's even run before, he and Ralof reach the entrance of the fortress, only to be stopped as someone calls out to them.

"Ralof! You damned traitor! You won't escape, even as that beast tears this place apart!" Hadvar, the Imperial ledger exclaims as some of his allies run to the side door of the fortress.

"You won't capture us again, Hadvar! Mark my words, retribution will come!" Ralof angrily retorts.

Hadvar growls but doesn't dare try to start fighting while out in the open and at the mercy of the dragon, he instead looks to Surtr, "You! Come with me and I promise you'll be forgiven for your crimes!"

Surtr's eyes widen in bafflement, "You just tried to cut my god damned head off! Are you soft in the skull, Imperial!?" he exclaims, but doesn't get an answer as the dragon flies overhead, forces both groups to rush through their respective entrances.

Ralof slams the large wooden door closed behind them, making sure to drop the locking bar into place to reinforce it even further. "We're alive!... How are we alive!?" he exclaims, seemingly shocked by the fact that he'd locked eyes with a dragon and escaped in one piece. "And you!... You're a madman! A Talos damned, madman!... Thank you my friend!" he laughs while grabbing Surtr in a hug, all the fear bleeding out of him as Surtr uncomfortably accepts its gratitude.

"Now help me get rid of these bindings! We'll need to fight our way through the Imperials to find Ulfric and Galmar!"

Ralof nods, "At least you've got your priorities straight! I'm still trying to figure out if up's not down..." he shakes his head before getting to work.