Blood of the Reach
A/N: Warning: lemon. This is why I gave this story an M rating, besides the violence and other hagraven originated obscenities, enjoy.
Chapter 10: The Battle for Karthwasten part 3: Last Stand
Xaxa Faolan Red
Everyone from the Sundered Hills has been numbed by the deaths of Aonai and Aryn, they were some of the best warriors some of us had ever seen, and in the blink of an eye they were gone. Now it was down to me and me alone to lead these warriors, that I call my brothers to victory. I never did it alone, I always had Aryn, or Aonai at my side. Aryn was a fresh warrior, fresh from initiation, but he was a prodigy, he died like a true warrior, he fought to the finish. But in the end the nords killed him all the same, as they did Aonai.
Raven was taking it especially hard, apparently Raven and Aonai were closer than I thought, or her feelings for him were stronger than just friendship, whatever the case we would have much to talk about later, but for now we had a battle to prepare for.
I sat around a large table surrounded by the Chieftains and warlords that had remained. In all four tribes had left, only six remained. We lost the Eastern Hills tribe, the southern Karth river tribe, the Bloodthorn tribe of the south, and the Anayla tribe of the south. Most of the south had abandoned us, and the eastern hills.
"We shall repay them for their betrayal Faolan." Esmeralda said, she was angry, that much I could tell, but she was never one to allow her feelings to cloud her judgment. "That we shall." Madanach agreed, and I nodded. "For now we need to prepare for this siege, the nords are closing in with large numbers." I said to them. "And we need to deal with these Beowulfs, they are a major threat." I continued.
"Why don't we just leave?" Raven said sounding defeated. How deep did her feelings for Aonai run. It seemed that her will to fight had died with Aonai. "Raven if we leave now we will be telling every tribe that we are weak, that Xaxa is unworthy to lead them." Vokar spoke up, me and Vokar had grown close over the past few months.
I nodded "We can't leave now; we have to hold Karthwasten at all costs. Are the traps and defenses ready, and are the squads ready for ambushes?" I asked Vokar, and he nodded "That they are Xaxa, they will move on your signal. "They will be here by nightfall; we will hold Karthwasten at all costs, no matter the price." I said to him, and he nodded.
"How many chosen swordsmen and warlords do we have left?" I asked him. "We have at least one hundred fifty chosen swordsmen, before we had over a thousand, but a lot have left with their tribes, or are wounded to the point where restoration magick can only do so much, we have at least twenty warlords, the rest are defending the redoubts with a large portion of chosen swordsmen and warriors." He told me and I nodded.
"How many shamans?" I asked him "About sixty." He told me "How many briarhearts?" I asked he looked at me grimly. "At least eighty, far less than what we had, they either left with their matrons, or took their warriors under orders from their hag." He said grimly and I nodded. Our numbers had fell greatly, but this would be the proving ground, this was my test, where the Sundered Hills would rise or fall, every warrior from the Sundered Hills and Karthspire remained.
"Let us prepare for death and glory, all able bodied men and women must fight to the last." I said to Vokar, and he nodded and walked away to prepare for battle, I did the same though I spared Raven one last pained look before leaving, she and Eithne walked off in an opposite direction, Kaie was off with Aeihe healing the wounded, and Alma'Lexia followed after me leaving Madanach alone.
"Do you think we will die Xaxa?" asked Alma'Lexia as she followed me into one of the caves in the nearby hills. "I know not if we shall or not, but if we do let us take as many enemies as we can with us." I said to her over my shoulder. She sighed, and I turned to look at her, the young Chieftess, I never asked what clan she led. "If you wish to leave then you may I would think no less of you." I told her, and she shook her head vigorously. "I have no problem dying at your side Xaxa, as long as it's at your side." She said, and I smiled and pulled her into a passionate kiss.
Eventually the kiss led to me taking her clothes off, and she taking off mine, and I was on top of her in a cave with water streaming down from the sealing into pools of water. The cave was familiar, something from an old story I think, but I was not concerned with that at the moment, I was concerned with the beautiful women lying naked underneath me looking up at me expectantly. Her body curved in all the right places, her breasts were far larger then Aeihe's and those things were pretty large themselves, and her thighs were thicker, and her rear was plump and round. I kissed her passionately trailing my kisses down to her nipples.
She gasped, and moaned softly as I trailed kisses down to her navel, she ran her hands through my wild mane of hair, her reddish brown hair sprawled out above her head. "Xaxa…" she began but another moan racked her body as I trailed my kisses down even lower. She gripped my hair, and wrapped her legs around my head, trapping me between her legs. He order was pretty clear, and I followed it. Her arousal was clear by the wetness pooling between her thighs. I began to lick and kiss the source of her wetness, causing her to arch her back, and moan loudly, crying out my name. Eventually I felt her tense up, and I knew what was coming, she cried out in desperation as her orgasm reached its climax.
"Xaxa!" she shouted to the gods, as she released her hold on me from between her thighs, and I trailed my kisses back up her body, and eventually our mouths met once more. "I love you." She moaned between kisses. "I…Love you to." I said to her, as she guided me inside of her. She arched her back and threw her head back, and cried out once more in desperation, as I got to work. "Yes…Xaxa… Don't stop!" she cried in pleasure. "I wouldn't dream of it Alma." I whispered into her ear, then I proceeded to kiss her neck, and I gripped one of her godly breasts in my hand as the other cupped her ass.
I continued to thrust myself into her, and then I began to feel myself tense up, I was reaching my limit. Alma'Lexia's body was driving me crazy. I grunted, and let out a low growl as she moaned. She began to move her body in rhythm with mine, as I kissed her softly. Then she did something unexpected, she mustered all of her strength into a maneuver which put her on top of me. She smiled down at me mischievously as she began to undulate on top of me. I began to thrust upward to meet her as she would lower herself upon me.
She threw her head back crying out my name, as she bounced up and down hypnotically on top of me. Eventually she began to tense up; moving faster and faster and I matched her rhythm. She reached her climax at the same time I did, and I released myself inside her, as she cried my name out loudly once more. Then she collapsed in an exhausted heap on top of me, kissing my chest softly.
"I love you Xaxa, but do you feel the same about me?" she asked, and I nodded. "Then what of Aeihe?" she asked, and that was the question I had been dreading. I didn't want to let Aeihe go either, but nor did I want to let Alma'Lexia go as well. "I don't know…" I began but she put a finger to my lips. "We can worry about that if we survive the night." She told me. Our tradition always told us to live every night like it was our last, because it could very well be our last night on nirn.
-Scene Break-
Raven Ap Madanach
Eventually night fell, and word from the ambush parties that a large nord contingent was on its way, with the Beowulfs. The parties attacked and then disappeared into the hills circling back around to Karthwasten.
"The nords are marching upon us now my lady!" cried out a young warrior from the Sundered hills. "What should we do?" another asked. "We ride out to meet them." I ordered, and I called for a contingent of warriors to follow. Among them was Vokar from Karthspire, me and him had a private discussion, he said he admires my leadership skills, and he has no heir to succeed him, so he told me that once he dies he wants me to take over his tribe at Karthspire. I didn't know what to say, but I didn't refuse, how could I?
"Raven, I am ready when you are." Vokar said to me, and I nodded. "Then let us go and meet our enemies. For the Reach!" I roared, and an uproar went through the contingent. With that we charged out of the fortified gates of Karthwasten and charged down to the Karth river to meet the nords there in battle. They had been bombarding Karthwasten with catapults and ballistae for nearly two hours. We had sent our best scouts, to take care of them, but they hadn't done it yet, All of Karthwasten was burning, and we were in the process of controlling the flames. There were chosen swordsmen behind me, followed by warlords, and all kinds of warriors in tow. I saw the first wave of Stormcloaks wading across the Karth river, and our archers began to hit them hard from positions hidden in the hills. We had set various traps on the way up to Karthwasten, and we had a very large area covered in all different kinds of runes, and other nasty surprises.
"For the Reach!" I cried as me and my comrades charged off to meet the nords at the river banks. Once we clashed with them, the bloodshed was immediate. Young forsworn warriors were sliced in two with greatswords, while Stormcloaks were blasted apart with destruction magick. I engaged a nord berserker with Red Eagle's Bane and took his head.
"We will slaughter you like our god Talos slaughtered you at the battle of old Hroldan!" cried a bear friend, just as an arrow struck him in the neck. "Your god is false, and his memory shall crumble just as you shall crumble before the forsworn!" roared Vokar, and then he took down two Stormcloaks at once with relative ease.
I stabbed a Stormcloak in his stomach, and then hacked him to the ground with my dwarven war axe. "is this all that you have brought to face us!?" I barked to the skies angrily. "Is there no one else who can stand against us?!" I continued, taking down another Stormcloak. I should've kept my mouth shut, just as I dispatched another Stormcloak, I saw a group running to the fray, and they were clad in what appeared to be nordic carved armor. A sinking feeling set itself in my gut.
The Beowulfs, the elite Stormcloak fighting unit, clad in their nordic carved armor, with the best nordic carved weapons to match. They were lethal and deadly, and strong enough to stand up to the Penitus Oculatus. They began slaughtering my comrades in great number, very swiftly, I had to do something.
"Vokar!" I shouted to him, and pointed to the Beowulfs, and he nodded. "I'll take care of it!" he shouted. He lobbed ice spikes at them, and then arcs of chain lightning. I had never really paid attention to Vokar, but his magicka was very strong, I never picked up on it before, until now. He summoned flame atronachs, and sent them forth against the Beowulfs, while he dealt with another group of Stormcloaks with his magick.
I charged them with some warriors in tow, and I jumped on top of one of the heavy armor clad nords, and thrust my sword through his chest, and I wriggled it around inside of his chest cavity cruelly causing blood to splash all around me. His blood got all over my hands, and my face, and smiled cruelly.
"Think twice before facing the forsworn." I snarled into his ear, and then I looked up and saw Vokar locked in struggle with multiple Beowulfs, and he was losing. "Vokar!" I screamed, and charged in to help him, but I was too late. I didn't know magick I was useless, and they hacked him to the ground, and moved on leaving him there to die. I ran over to him, and I cradled his dying corpse. "Raven… take my torc, only you… can lead Karthspire… into the future. Protect the people…" he gasped out before he died. Hot tears ran down my face, but I would honor his wish, he was like a brother to me in these past days, and I would do as he asked me. I had no idea how to lead, but if Xaxa could do it, so could I.
I donned his torc, and then I was surrounded by a group of forsworn, in a protective stance. I recognized them from Karthspire, they surrounded the body of their fallen chieftain. "Vokar is dead my lady?" one asked me and I nodded. "He told me to lead." I said to them, and they nodded. "First we protect his body, and then bury him, we shall discuss that later." Another said, I recognized him as a warlord.
"We still have a fight to finish." I said to them, and then they nodded, and I left to go and continue the fight. It was a losing fight, but we were giving them hell for every step they took, but the Beowulfs were pushing hard toward Karthwasten, they were already moving up the hill towards its newly fortified gates. But they were moving on Karthwasten on multiple sides, the Stormcloaks were about to cross the bridge on the far side, but Xaxa had a contingency plan for that, they were walking right into a death trap.
But I kept my focus on the Beowulfs, who were cutting our people down as they moved up the hill. "Kill them!" I shouted and a group of warriors rallied around me. "Give them nothing! But take from them everything!" I shouted, and then I charged and they followed. The Beowulfs were paying no attention to us, and they kept advancing up the hill. We clashed with them, and the bloodshed was immediate. I put one of them down with ease, and another of their group went down as well, but they soon reeled around and began their slaughter once more.
"Kill these witchmen and bring their heads to Ulfric!" the one who I thought was their leader shouted. That made my anger spike, I hated Ulfric, and he would answer to what he had done to me. That monster had raped and abused me, with his men and then they clapped their hands. I would have his head.
"Damn you and your Ulfric, and DAMN SOVNGARDE!" I shouted, and I leapt at their leader, and found a chink in his armor between his helmet and his breast plate, taking off his head. "Send them back to the Bear of Markarth in pieces!" I shouted, and then my warriors worked themselves into a frenzy and then the tide turned against the Beowulfs. Demoralized by the death of their leader, they fought desperately, but I refused to let any of them walk away from here today.
Just then the entire stone bridge going across the Karth river near Karthwasten exploded in a chorus of fiery explosions, lightning arcs, and deadly shards of frost. The Stormcloaks had rallied nearly all of their men to cross that bridge, and they paid for it. But the bridge didn't fall, why didn't it crumble. The Stormcloaks recovered and began to cross more cautiously, though many of them had died they still had a sizable force. Enough to take Karthwasten with ease.
Xaxa's plan had failed, but how? A sinking feeling fell to my stomach. Was it all over? Just then I saw a woman, it looked Like Alma'Lexia appear under the bridge, and she appeared to be smiling, just as the nords began to cross the bridge in full force, Alma launched a fireball at its underside, and then dove into the river, and let the current carry her downstream. The effect was immediate; the underside of the bridge exploded in a massive amount of fiery explosions, and then it crumbled, and fell. The Stormcloaks on the bridge were swept into the current of the Karth, and then the ones who survived were ravaged by lightning arcs.
Then joy rose up inside of me. Xaxa hadn't failed, and then I felt ashamed that I thought he had failed, that I head doubted him, and then I refocused on the task at hand. The Beowulfs, who were in a state of shock and awe at the fact that their army was almost all but destroyed? Then the Stormcloaks began to flee, the cowards were routed, and they would still have to deal with the countless other warriors hidden near the roads ready to ambush them once more in case they had been routed.
Then we began to slaughter the rest of the Beowulfs, within minutes the remaining Beowulfs and Stormcloaks were lying dead. And a huge uproar went up around the entire Karth valley, we had done it, we had beaten them, we were victorious, but our victory came at such a high cost. So many had died, but we had won. Their sacrifices were not in vain, we had won at a high cost, and now it was time to recognized the heroes, and bury the dead.
To be continued…
A/N: And that shall be the end of the fighting at Karthwasten for quite some time, but the drama is only just beginning. Enjoy, yours truly The Last Dragonborn Warrior
Also it's time I got this out of the way…
Disclaimer: I own nothing from Bethesda though I would like to except my created characters.