DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dragon Age, damn it!
A/N: Oh-em-gee. Awakenings begins next chapter!
Chapter Four.
The dark spawn proved to be a great distraction for Neria's grief and heartache. The fight for Feraldan had begun and she knew that the Arch-Demon was getting closer and closer and the further she pressed on with her small force of troops back through Denerim, trying to reach Fort Drakon; the more she felt the Arch-Demon almost mocking her with its ever closer presence.
When it had become clear that the Arch-Demon was planning on attacking Denerim and not Redcliffe, it had resulted in a march back to Denerim that had taken only two days. The many dark spawn encounters they had had on the way had resulted in the elf accepting Oghren's challenge: who could kill the most dark spawn per battle. It definitely served to prove a distraction on its own and as Neria and Oghren shouted their count to each other, Zevran and Sten soon joined in on their game. But now, Neria found herself once more camped at the city gates of Denerim smelling the wood of burning buildings as she gathered intelligence from the lone messenger who had managed to survive getting through all the dark spawn that plagued the city.
"We need to find these generals and...Dispose of them. By doing so we will weaken the Arch-Demon's chances of calling for aid when we finally get to Fort Drakon"
Neria told her small party of five. Oghren cracked a smile at her choice of words, whilst Leliana raised an eyebrow. Neria shrugged and looked through the gates where she could see fighting soldiers, battling her increasing headache as the presence of the Arch-Demon intruded on all of her thoughts and calling her to come to it. Rubbing her forehead distractedly, she pulled her map of Denerim out of her pack and with the scout and her companions, began to plan the next phrase of attack which would begin in the morning.
That night despite all attempts at getting rest before the big day, Neria found she couldn't sleep from her nerves and eventually gave up trying to journey to the Fade in her sleep. Emerging from her tent gripping her staff uneasily with her fleece blanket wrapped around her shoulders, Neria sat herself down in front of the fireplace and attempted to stay warm. Along with the darkness came a bitter cold that Neria hated almost as much as she hated being underground.
"Can't sleep either, my darling Neria?"
Zevran asked as he emerged from the darkness. She nodded wearily as she fed the fire with her magic which made it roar still higher and give off an almost unnatural heat. Neria almost considered offering to take over guard duty to distract herself until she fell asleep, knowing that she would need the rest but decided against the offer, knowing that Zevran liked to unwind when he was guarding the camp.
"You can sleep in my tent and I will join you when I am relieved, if its company you seek?"
The elf offered as he attempted to peer into the darkness after hearing the slight rustle of bushes that could have signified an enemy approaching. She shook her head once and returned her stare back into the fire instead of answering. She still felt cold and moved closer to the roaring fire which seemed to welcome her like an old friend who she hadn't seen in an age. Still silent, she didn't seem to notice when Sten appeared out of the darkness to relieve Zevran and didn't react to any change until the fire began to die around the time that the sun's feeble rays managed to permeate the darkness to announce daytime and Neria broke away from her musings, knowing it was time to move.
Suddenly full of energy, she stood up and began to pack down her unused tent and rifled through her bags double checking everything that she had done in preparation over the last few days with Zevran and Wynne. Satisfied with her healing kit- which was the heaviest and fullest that it had ever been; so full that the flap didn't close properly, Neria continued to rifle through it before attaching it to her belt. Holding the jar that she had unearthed which contained a balm designed to resist spirit magic; her companions had packed the remainder of camp and Leliana distributed the small breakfast she had prepared for them to eat before walking the last few minutes to the city gates. Already the roars of ogres could be heard and the battle cries from the resisting army in response. Hoisting her pack on her back so it was more secure, she watched Alistair rally the troops that had just arrived from Redcliffe and already saw that he would be lead the Feraldan people well.
When the call to charge sounded; Oghren, Zevran and Neria quickly laid their wagers for the one with the highest kill count at the end of the battle and immediately afterwards, Oghren went roaring into battle, eyes a fiery red whilst Zevran disappeared, with only his triumphant laugh could be heard remaining. Chuckling, Neria jumped into the thick of the fray, crushing dark spawn with arcane magic and healing those as she all but skipped through the battlefield. Following the sounds of the trumpets that called allies to arms, Neria hurried towards the sound with Wynne closely following behind. Finally inside the city, Neria groaned at the chaos and destruction and was reminded of the destruction that she had seen at the Circle Tower.
The pull to the Arch-Demon was getting stronger, but now she could feel two more dark spawn calling to her to join them and knew that they must be the generals that the scout had told her about. Suddenly, she was happy that she had ordered Alistair to stay to defend the gate, as she struggled to not let the beckoning the dark spawn blood in her, overpower her own freewill. Instead she became determined and with Sten, Oghren and Wynne close on her heels went charging into Denerim. With Neria in the lead, she lead the group to the first general: an ogre which Neria promptly surrounded with an electrical storm as Sten and Oghren bore the brunt of the work. Never faulting in their movements, the Kossith and dwarf were a formidable team when united with a common goal and the first general fell, causing the ground to shake as the Arch-Demon roared from where it had perched itself on top of Fort Drakon.
The second general, to everyone's displeasure was a genlock emissionary which was when everyone praised the Maker that Neria had the foresight to bring along Wynne not just for healing purposes. As Neria defended the group from the dark spawn that were coming to their leader's aid, Wynne attacked the emissionary, often turning its attacks back on itself with the two warriors attacking when Wynne created a window of opportunity. As they shouted to each other their movements and strategies, they slowly began to wear the emissionary down just as Neria began to tire from the onslaught of dark spawn which was also combined with the call by the Arch-Demon to stop fighting and succumb to the horde. Finally, the emissionary was thrown to the ground and Sten was more than happy to separate the head from the body, before Neria set fire to the fallen emissionary to doubly make sure it was deceased as the Arch-Demon once more roared and this time Neria was certain with outrage as it felt the loss of its other general.
With urging from Sten not to stop and rest, Neria and Oghren searched the fallen dark spawn, taking balms, armor, runes and coin and then hurried onto Fort Drakon as the sky became blacker and blacker. With a blast of force from Neria, the gates of Fork Drakon were blasted open as the group all but slammed their way into the keep and they began the fight to the top floor to face the Arch-Demon. With sheer determination, the group persisted as wave after wave of dark spawn tried to stop them but they were not deterred. At the top most floor of Fort Drakon, they happened upon cinders- as if someone had set fire to the whole floor. Picking their way through the foot deep ash, they happened on Sandal sitting on the stairs.
"Enchantment?"
The young, feeble-minded dwarf lit up upon seeing people he recognized and he gestured at Neria and Wynne's staffs' and held out the handful of runes in his hand. As Sandal began to enchant the staves and Sten and Oghren's battle-axe and long sword respectively, Wynne and Neria were creating a strategy with their remaining troops. When Sandal cried out 'enchantment' excitedly, they knew that they were out of time and it was time to face the music…and an angry Arch Demon. As the small army of mixed races: dwarves, elves and humans started to move up onto the roof, Neria hugged Sandal and told him to go to Bodahan, who she had last seen at the city gates. Climbing the stairs, she emerged onto the roof and finally saw the Arch-Demon being attacked from all angles and it screeched and roared knocking back those who were closest. Neria felt a surge of power pull at her and with an angry holler, leapt forward and encased the Arch-Demon's legs in stone, stopping it from advancing forward. She exchanged a pat on the back from a dwarf at her quick thinking and struggled to hold the spell as those who had been affected by the Arch-Demon scrambled away from its direct line of fire.
When Neria couldn't hold the spell and it began to dissolve, the Arch-Demon flapped its wings, the force of the wind created pushing back those who were directly attacking it as it flew to perch out of the line of direct sword attack. But that didn't stop the mages and Neria banding their magic together to summon a storm of ice and lightening as six dwarfs manned the ballistae that shot bolts of iron into the Arch-Demon. Darting past the dwarfs to get to a heavily bleeding soldier, Neria called to the dwarves to keep on the ballistae when she noticed that the iron bolts were affecting the Arch-Demon. More roars signified the arrival of more darks pawn and everyone turned to defend themselves from the sudden onslaught. The anger that rushed through Neria surprised her so much that she stopped to get an understanding of why she was so furious, only for her to realize that it was the hoard's response to their leader being attacked. Using the horde's anger, Neria channeled it towards holding the dark spawn off as she sensed still more power building and this time, recognized it as Wynne's. Whirling around she saw that the Arch Demon was wounded; there was a massive tear in its throat from which blackened blood spilled and additionally one of its wings were shredded, preventing the demon from flying.
Grounded, it began to thrash around in desperation as it attacked those closest to it with spiritual magic whilst the remainder of the horde that was topside was slowly being reduced, little by little as Neria and her men gained the upper-hand. Ducking down underneath a broken ledge, Neria took the moment to replenish her mana with a well-deserved vial of lyrium and a potion to give her more energy. Taking a deep breath, Neria closed her eyes and tried to shut out the sounds of battle and regain a semblance of energy so she could keep going as the task that she knew she had to perform was drawing closer and closer. She immediately jumped out when she heard cursing in Antivan and dived back in the throes of battle to try and reach Zevran. As she all but blasted her way through the crowded roof turned battle field, she noticed that the Arch Demon was weak now and everyone could see the willpower of the few remaining dark spawn was weakening.
"Neria, kill it now!"
Oghren roared his voice cutting through the loudness of battle. The elf looked up from the human she was healing and saw the Arch Demon vulnerable and dying. Promising the soldier she would return, she upped and began to sprint for the demon only stopping to pull out a dagger and tear a slit up her tattered mage robes to allow for more freedom of movement. Coming to a stop at the Arch Demon's tail, she looked down and saw an abandoned long sword lying on the ground and after picking it up, began to nimbly pick her way up the demon's tail and darted along the long body and coming to the neck the Arch Demon sensed its passenger and began to rear and buck. Neria however had learnt from watching Alistair and the others fight ogres and pulled her dagger out and used it to stab her way up the neck of the dragon until she came to the exposed head. Quickly, she heated the metal of the long sword until it was glowing white hot and forced the weapon down into the Arch Demon's head. The stench of sizzling flesh filled Neria's nostrils as she still sent more heat through the sword. The dragon roared as Neria persisted despite its best attempts as she cleaved her way back down the way she came until with a loud roar the Arch Demon collapsed to the ground, no longer moving and leaving Neria dazed a couple of feet away. Standing, Neria stared at the space where the huge body of the Arch Demon laid, lifeless and hardly believing what she had just accomplished. Her shaking hands were the only thing that portrayed that she was still breathing and that she hadn't been petrified. Zevran, seeing his friend staring at the dragon ruffled his friend's hair as he stood next to her.
"We...are ridiculously awesome"
At his words, Neria began to laugh hysterically until tears were falling and suddenly feeling light-headed moved to sit down but instead pitched forward as she fainted from her efforts.