I was coughing and wheezing from running so fast. Definitely a far cry from how impressive I had been just minutes prior. Due to that everyone else in the room decided to put some distance between myself and them. Hadvar stood off to the side, his large arms crossed over his barrel chest. Ralof was tending to a wound on the female's shoulder, and the other s'wit sat on one of the beds sharpening his axe as he glared over at Hadvar.

I had finally regained my bearings, and looked at everyone with my head held high, "Apologies for the hesitation, just needed a bit of respite."

"No worries, elf. With how you handled yourself out there, I understand the pause." Ralof said with a grin. His face then got serious and he glanced at the other two rebels, "Einvaul, Sapri. We need to get moving quickly, even if it takes moving with this… Imperial," his eyes were narrowed at Hadvar who seemed complacent in ignoring him, "we lost Jarl Ulfric in the chaos, so hopefully he's fine but we need to get moving."

The s'wit, Einvaul probably, nodded, and glanced at me, "What about the elf?"

"Leave well enough alone, lad. He already proved his mettle." Ralof chuckled, "Heart of a Nord, that one."

I ignored most of the conversation as I maneuvered over towards a chest at the foot of a bed. With a quick glance for a key, I didn't find one, nor was it locked, so I cracked it open. Inside was a bit of leather armor belonging to an Imperial, a bit small but would probably fit regardless. I began throwing it on myself. Yeah, way too tight, but I hopefully wouldn't lose circulation. It rubbed painfully on the burn on my back, causing it to itch. No weapon though, which had me cursing my luck silently.

With another quick glance I saw a weapon rack with a single shield. No sword, considering that all of the Stormcloaks pilfered that already. Just before I could get to it, Hadvar grabbed the shield and stood there looking the part of legionnaire. I sighed and surveyed the room again, but saw nothing.

So I held my hand up, and my fingers began sparking with electricity. Not as effective as a weapon, but it'd do in a pinch. I opened my mouth to speak again, but the sounds of steel clashing echoed from the other room. And without even thinking I dashed down the hall and peaked through the barred gates. In combat was the Imperial captain, she was getting thrashed around by a group of reavers. A group of corpses, Imperials and Stormcloaks alike littered the ground.

They had probably shown up because of the chaos, hoping to profit off of the misery and take this village as a new base. Fetchers were always the same. I could leave her in there to fend for herself, considering she was probably merciless and would do the exact same thing to me in that situation, but I couldn't. So with a grunt I reached up and pulled the chain to drop the gate and sprinted into the room. My allies were a few moments behind. I charged into the biggest and baddest looking reaver in there, hoping to take out the head honcho.

Not expecting the sudden interruption, my tackle knocked him over and he slammed into the ground. Sparks charged in both of my hands as I let loose a stream of electricity on the disoriented man. He convulsed in pain for a few moments, and then went limp. The sounds of steel on flesh continued behind me, and I risked a look.

There were probably seven or so reavers left. Three were laying into Ralof who was swinging his sword around like a raging animal, chuckling all the while. One was on each of the others, the captain looked like she had it covered, Hadvar and the s'wit also had their reavers on the ropes, but the woman. Sapri, her name was, was struggling against the brute of an orc who was trying to viciously kill her.

I had faith in the rest of the "friendly" combatants in the fight, so with a rush of adrenaline I ran towards the orc. My fist swung towards his spine and I heard a crack with the force of the blow as the man roared and turned towards me, glaring and frothing at the mouth. He looked like a rabid beast. It was at that moment that I realized why people called them beast-mer. He swung his mace down at me, and I clumsily tried to dodge out of the way, which stopped him from slamming the blunt weapon into my head. It hit my collarbone instead and with a sickly cracking sound, it was shattered as I growled in pain.

So not only did I break my knuckles off of his back, he also shattered my collarbone.

I didn't have a lot of weapons, and Sapri had backed up and started drinking a potion, panting heavily. With a quick glance around the room I got an idea. I put my fists up and started swinging wildly, throwing him on the defense. I threw a punch so close to him that he had to lean back heavily, and then I dropped low and swept his leg. With him on the ground I charged up a small bit of lightning and electrocuted him. Not enough to kill him like I had his ally, but cause a brief moment of paralysis from the voltage. With my off-hand I picked up a battleaxe, and with both hands grasped the weapon. This fetcher had broken my hand and collarbone, sure they were easy fixes but it was mighty inconvenient. So with a roar I slammed the blade down on his head.

Blood and bone flew everywhere with the force of the blow. The rest of the reavers all eventually fell, Sapri going to help Ralof, and the s'wit easily dispatching of the Bosmer who tried to go toe-to-toe with him and also assisting the other Stormcloaks. Hadvar and the captain both quickly dispatched of theirs as well.

A golden light came from my hand and my bones began to crack and re-align. It was honestly always a painful experience, but it was one of those things you had to deal with. With a bit of effort, I pushed myself up with the battleaxe. I was starting to feel exhausted with how much I had done and endured in such a short amount of time. As the captain came down from her battle high, she glanced around the room and her eyes landed on me before she narrowed them and glanced at Hadvar.

"Any reason that you are conspiring with rebels and a fugitive, Lieutenant?"

Hadvar nodded, "We figured it would be the best idea to make it through the ruins of Helgen with more numbers, Captain."

The captain glanced at everyone. The Stormcloaks seemed to be the most on edge with this situation. Seemingly satisfied with something, she nodded almost imperceptibly.

"We best get moving then."

She glanced at me, and looked like she wanted to say something, but walked further into the keep instead. Hadvar followed behind, and the three rebels shared a look and then cautiously followed. Leaving me alone in the room. I could just leave now, and nobody would know. What are the chances that they would care anyway? Fairly low. I had done it before, it was practically my MO at this point.

It's how I got to where I was today though. Running away from my problems. When the going got tough in Ald'ruhn, I escaped to Cyrodiil and then Hammerfell and when that got difficult, I went to Summerset Isles and when they tried to kill me for being non-Altmer, I ran back to Cyrodiil. That was my first mistake. I made friends that I shouldn't have, and when me and a friend tried to run he ended up stabbing me and leaving me for dead. Taking everything worth anything. Probably to go buy skooma. That was my second mistake, leaving with him. I knew the kind of person he was. I just hoped beyond hope that I wouldn't have to be alone anymore. It didn't work out at all.

This all went through my mind in a second before I came to the conclusion. I couldn't leave these people like I left Daynlea. But back then I didn't have a choice.

Now I do.

I glanced down the hallway towards where the group went and followed them, descending down the stairs and into a collapsed chamber. I heard the sounds of combat in an adjacent room, and barged in. I saw the others engaging in combat with another sect of reavers. With a silent vow, I slashed the battle axe down on the closest one to me, it left a massive gash down his back. Luckily there wasn't a crazy number of them this time so we quickly dispatched them.

"What took you so long, elf?" The s'wit growled.

"I broke a bone fighting that orc, wanted to make sure I wouldn't be a detriment. Problem with that?" I said, looking at him out of the corner of my eye, "After all, looks like you had these reavers pretty well handled."

"That we did, lad." Ralof said, putting a heavy hand on the other man's shoulder.

The captain glared around the room, "How did bandits even make it in here?"

"They probably snuck in through the cave entrance at the edge of town," Hadvar sighed, "they were probably encouraged by the destruction and thought it was a good chance to secure some loot and a new base of operations."

Sapri grunted, "If we clear this lot out, more will come. There's always more."

"Then we better do our best to make sure there isn't." I rasped.

The others nodded. I looked around the room, it was probably a storage room before today. I saw a bag, which I grabbed and filled with food and potions. Also, I snatched a map of the region. Looked like the nearest city was somewhere called Falkreath, I'd have to swing by there, maybe that would be a good place to lie low. But I had to make it out of this place first.

"What do you think you're doing?" I heard the captain growl.

Without looking back, I answered, "Taking things that are better left in our hands than the hands of the reavers."

When no response came, I tied the bag shut and threw it over myself. It rested at my hip like a messenger bag. No other words were spoken as I stepped further into the destroyed compound. Down the stairs and into what looked to be a torture chamber.

On the ground, each separated by about ten feet was the top and bottom half of an older man dressed in legion armor. About fifteen feet from his legs was a heavily breathing man. Next to a Stormcloak corpse with an arrow through the eye. Another rebel was dead near the opposite door, burned alive from the looks of it, and from the smell of ozone it was a lightning related destruction spell. A single bandit lay collapsed on a table, a sword through his back.

Septims littered the ground and I, being the opportunist I was, and also broke, snagged them. I also grabbed a coin purse from the dead bandit, and filled it with the rest of the coins. At the sound of movement, the big Imperial man cracked an eye open. His breathing was raspy and wet. He definitely had blood in his lungs.

I cautiously walked up to him, his eyes bored into my soul. He coughed and blood dripped from his lips. His hand reached up towards the dagger in his chest and he made eye contact with me. I nodded and took the knife out. The wound was too bad for just healing potions and my rudimentary understanding of restoration magic to fix. I looked him in the eye again and he nodded. Steeling my resolve, I sunk the dagger into his throat, muttering a Nordic prayer under my breath. The sound of the dragon outside causing chaos still brought me back into the moment.

Snapping my eyes up, I felt a hand touch my shoulder. It was Hadvar, a look of either pity or sadness danced on his face.

"You feel deeply don't you"

I grunted, "It's nothing."

I stood up, looking at each of the other people in the room. Each of them were staring at me with an odd look. I decided to ignore them.

"We gonna sit here and stare, or are we gonna get the fuck out of here so we can each go on our merry way?" I said, and then began to walk down the hallway.

The hall itself had cells, this was obviously some kind of prison. A literal dungeon. Which was further cemented in my mind as we stepped into a room with cages hanging from the ceiling. Some had corpses, Nords dressed in rags that smelled like they had been dead for far too long. It was ignored though. I already knew the horrors of war and I didn't need to revisit them. We stepped into what looked to be a forgotten part of the fort, a big empty room with a natural stream coming from the ceiling. The stonework here was pretty shoddy but otherwise held up. There was no one in here, perhaps the reavers we ran into were a scouting party.

Just as that thought went through my mind, I cursed my luck as an arrow flew out from underneath a bridge. I turned myself just enough where the arrow sank into my arm, and I grunted. Pain in the ass, but I was gonna leave the arrow in there. Wouldn't want to bleed out in a place as dreary as this. Another group of bandits rushed in from underneath the bridges. There were probably about fifteen of them. Normally I would say that a group our size could handle that, but we were all feeling the exhaustion.

I didn't have a lot of alternatives, so I took out my newly acquired battleaxe. One of the reavers, a Breton with a terrible burn on his face and bare torso charged at me with a sword, twirling it before a flame spell charged up in his hand. I scoffed. Fool, using fire against a Dunmer was like asking to be killed.

A gout of flame came from his raised hand as he charged toward me. I raised my arm to protect my face, and let the flames harmlessly lick against the skin. The blade followed shortly after, which I quickly raised the axe to parry, knocking him off-balance. What a truly terrible fighter. I swung the axe for his midsection and cleaved into it, causing him to scream in pain as he passed out from the pain. Only to die shortly after.

A burning stabbing sensation sunk into my lower back and I growled in anger. I shot a look over my shoulder and saw a Bosmer sink a dagger into me. With another growl, I slammed my elbow into his face, which caused his head to snap back and the dagger to slide up, tearing into me even more before ripping free as he collapsed. My vision was getting woozy. I knew this feeling. I was just poisoned, and it was pretty hard stuff too.

"Nchow."

That was the last thing I said before my head hit the ground, and I was accepted into the warm embrace of unconsciousness.

A/N: That was a pretty long chapter. By my standards at least. What do you guys think? Do you want longer chapters? I kinda struggle with longer things because I like to be as concise as possible, but I understand that a lot of people enjoy reading longer chapters, myself included. Anyway, I changed a lot about the Helgen Keep dungeon considering that it would be weird for the Stormcloaks and Imperials to fight any of their own allies, and I think this makes some sense. Bandits thrive on chaos and destruction, so sneaking in while there is a monster terrorizing the village seems like a pretty solid thing to do. I also tried to show a lot of Sodrius' personality in combat. Making it a brutish fighting style, with little bits of finesse thrown in there. After all finesse can use strength or dexterity lol. Now for the reviews, I really appreciate the only review I have on this story so far. I'm not exactly the most popular writer on here, which makes sense because I'm not very good at it lol.

VtolxVenom: Yes, we will be getting more bits and pieces of Sodrius. You even got a little bit in this chapter! I'm not gonna give his past all away at first, maybe people will be able to piece it together, but it'll be a while before there's a chapter devoted to his past. As for his actual personality I hope he came across as convicted as I want him to, because that's a pretty big part of his character is his conviction. And I will absolutely try to do that original thing that will make you think of how "perfectly I illustrated it", maybe I'll do an epilogue before the next story where he goes and does his own thing. I hope this satisfies your curiosity!

Now like I said, don't be afraid tp review or ask questions. I will answer all the questions I can in the end of chapter notes. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter of Dragon of Ash. So long and goodnight!