Well, gotta give it to xTRESTWHOx and NaanContributor for keeping with it.
With new armor and other means of protection, Yang, Weiss and Anum-La set off to the Rift. Yang was looking at her scroll in interest at the photo Blake sent them the other day while comparing it to her map, but wasn't sure if she'd be going that way. She thought to ask Weiss, but the vampire seemed to be sleeping on Toggle's back, and Yang didn't want to wake her if she didn't have to. She then pocketed her scroll and stretched out, enjoying the feeling of armor that conformed to her shape more freely.
"Man, this must be one step away from that Dragon Orb armor."
"What in Sithis' name is a Dragon Orb?" Anuma asked from atop her rented horse.
"It's a…uh… Darn, I hate having to explain this over and over." Yang pulled out her scroll again and selected a clip from one of the more recent episodes to show the Argonian , whose eyes lit up at what she was seeing. "So it's a series about these fighters defending the world from evil stuff, like alien emperors, androids, and monsters. There're also these orbs that summon a dragon that can grant any one wish, which is usually what they're fighting over."
"What an amazing little piece of magic! Is that a Lilmothiit he's fighting?"
"No… Just some kind of alien fox-person thing." Yang closed it back up and pocketed it again. "Are these one of those peoples I've never heard about?"
"I guess so, though at least you can be excused for not knowing about them, seeing as they're extinct." Yang's eyes widened a bit while Anum shook her head. "Happened during the outbreak of the Knahaten Plague. Everyone not a Saxhleel was susceptible. It killed many, and killed quickly. The human tribes of Argonia and the Lilmothiit were wiped out, and a lot of others fled the marsh entirely. Some say the Argonians were the ones to release it, seeing as we were the only ones not suffering from it. I think that's a load of guar manure, but it's been so long most people hardly care."
"Wow, geez…" Yang muttered. Even if she'd heard of a few before, the idea of whole peoples disappearing still greatly unsettled her. There was nothing like that in Remnant. At worst, people split and separated, or in some cases were pushed out, but she'd never heard of an account of one group of people in particular being completely killed off before. "How long ago was that?"
"Eh, maybe a thousand years or so. Can't quite figure off the top of my head, but it happened somewhere in the middle of the Second Era. So, you probably don't have to worry about catching it, haha."
Yang actually didn't have to worry about catching anything, but she didn't relay that to her friend.
A whiff of breeze made her pause to sniff the air. So far, nothing dangerous had approached, and the only vampire nearby was Weiss. The heiress had started wondering whether or not she was being watched, but Yang assured her that their traveling in the daytime meant that any vampires following her would be severely hindered. Also, the fact that she never spotted any was a good sign. They would have to keep visual track of the group to stay on their tail, and Yang could smell better than Weiss could see, so she highly doubted anyone from her 'clan' were around.
"Hey, you don't mind if I ask something mildly insulting?"
"Uh, insulting how?" Yang questioned back.
"Your friend's not into necromancy, is she? She smells like grave dirt and rot, even after you both had a few baths."
'Ah crap!' Yang mentally yelled. 'Should've known Argonians had a better sense of smell!'
"Arkay," the blonde squeaked out before thinking then cleared her throat. "I mean, uh, her family is really big into worshipping Arkay and stuff, and…she visits basically every one of his temples whenever we go somewhere."
"Really? Never could have guessed that."
"Yeah, she tries not to stick it in people's faces." Anum seemed to shrug at that and Yang sighed. 'Maybe I should've thought it through before bringing her along.'
"Well, s'long as you don't try to make me go in one. I'm not one for chapels and praying."
Yang nodded before pulling her horse to a stop. "Hey, Weiss. Weiss?"
Toggle suddenly bucked, tussling his rider and waking her from her doze. "Hm, wha?"
"I think that's Lake Honrich up ahead. You said this place was near where the lake feeds into the Treva River, right?"
"Hm, oh yes, right." Weiss sat up and stretched her arms and back a bit before squinting in the evening light and pulling her hood back over her head. "Well, there should be a place with an old brown banner flying outside."
Yang stood up in the saddle and looked around for a moment. "I think I see it over there," she pointed out. Weiss followed where she indicated with her gaze and nodded.
"Let's take a look then." The trio headed towards what looked like a shack but turned out to be a partially collapsed house. A man stood watch outside, but he didn't seem particularly hostile. As they approached, he offered them a smile and a nod, letting them know that this was likely the place.
"Seems like we're welcome," Weiss observed.
"Yeah. Kinda weird though." Yang sniffed the air slowly, picking up the scent of several humans and elves, a couple of Khajiit, and a faded but unmistakable tinge of blood. "Hey, Anum, you mind waiting outside and watching the horses with Toggle? We might need a quick getaway."
"Don't have too much fun without me," she warned them. "Also, maybe stay away from the product, hahaha."
As the Huntresses dismounted and headed towards the door, their Argonian companion took the reins of Lucky Day. Yang went in first, seeing a Redguard woman warming herself at the fireplace with a chicken being rotisserie cooked by another that looked almost exactly like her, likely twins. At the same time, a muscled Nord man stared at them from across the room. She recognized the wanton lust in his eyes and scoffed, catching their attention.
"Welcome," the woman greeted them as though they'd just entered a shop. "Just head on down and help yourselves," she said while indicating a trap door. Yang opened it up to see a ladder leading just a short ways down.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
The two headed down, closing the trapdoor behind themselves as they did. A man in scaled armor stood at another door just in the next room and looked them both over.
"If you're going downstairs, you keep your weapons to yourselves, or we'll be getting better acquainted," he quietly threatened them. "Head on in, and behave yourselves," he added as he placed a key into the lock and opened the door. Yang nodded while passing by, but Weiss glared at him a moment before going through. When the door closed behind them, Yang stopped in her tracks. She quickly looked around to see if there was anyone nearby, and when she couldn't find anyone, she turned to face Weiss.
"Moment of silence?" she asked. In response, Weiss cast a muffling spell around them, blocking out the sounds of coughing and hacking coming from ahead. "You not liking this as much as me?"
"If how much you like this is 'not at all', then yes. I don't like this one bit." Weiss rubbed her chin in thought. "How should we proceed with this?"
"Well, I have some ideas, but first thing's first. I smell vampires, and not you."
"How many?"
"Maybe a half dozen. A few more in thralls, but it's hard to tell past that stench." Yang rubbed her nose and sneered. "Ugh, I'm going to dip my head in the river when we get out of here. Okay, plan; we go in pretending to be customers. Might have to fork over some money to buy some of the stuff, but it's part of it. We go and pretend to get smashed, then see if we can't use that to our advantage."
"How will that get us in?"
"Think about it. Vampires are running a skooma ring. What's one thing vampires want more than anything else?"
"To not be a vampire?"
"I mean, the ones that like being vampires."
"Oh! Well, I guess the only thing they'd really want is blood." A light seemed to go off in Weiss' head at that. "Oh…"
"Yeah, it's just a guess, but I think they're feeding on the guys tripping themselves to sleep."
"It's not a bad plan, actually, so long as you don't overfeed and your customers don't overdose. Though…I'd be afraid of the effects of drinking from someone intoxicated."
"Yeah. We'll just have to see. Hopefully, you can talk them down once we're in. I doubt going up to someone and telling them you know they're working for vampires will work out very well."
"True. Well, shall we?"
"We shall." Weiss dispelled the effect and they continued on down. A Bosmer woman was safely behind a barred up counter, while a Dunmer man walked about with a tray holding several goblets and a couple of small bottles. A quick glance let Yang see that there were about six rooms, five of which had people seated around hookah-like objects with multiple pipes leading out of them. Weiss grimaced at the sight and smell of the place, and both of them noticed a reddish haze hanging in the air.
"Welcome, welcome!" the Bosmer behind the counter greeted them. "I don't believe we've seen you here before, have we? You can buy from me, then join any booth you'd like."
"Thanks!" Yang said warmly to her. "Say, I've heard of this place, but what's so special about this skooma compared to the stuff my buddy in Greenwood gets me?"
The lady smiled at that. "The secret is our mystic Redwater Spring. The magic in the waters opens the mind to experience Skooma in a way like never before."
"Ooh, definitely sounds interesting."
'Actually, that sounds dangerous,' Weiss thought. 'It's supposed to be a bloodspring down here, which begs the question, what's with all this effort?'
"Maybe you could give us a sample just to try?"
The woman began to hum to herself while tapping her chin, then nodded. "Since it's your first time... sure. Find a booth and enjoy." She placed a small, red bottle in front of them with a smile. Yang picked it up and winked at her before leaving to head to one of the booths. Weiss followed her into the least crowded one, which contained a ragged looking man and another in fine clothing. The ragged man was lying down flat while the well-dressed one seemed to be barely able to hold himself up.
"You there, bring me another bottle of skooma... Wait, who are you? You look like fun. Pull up a seat friend," he offered while pushing himself to lean against the wall.
"Thanks, bud," Yang said to him while sitting on a bench. Weiss sat next to her and the two looked at the skooma bottle and then at the device in front of them.
"Do you know how this works?" Weiss whispered to her.
"Why would I know?"
"If my friends could try this Redwater skooma," the rich man muttered, oblivious to their conversation, "they might finally understand why I like slumming it with you commoners."
"I feel mildly insulted," Weiss whispered again.
"At least you weren't quite that bad back at Beacon." Yang quietly ribbed the heiress.
"Hey ho, the gallery shows… hmhmhm hum de dum do," someone sang as he approached. Both the girls blinked when a Khajiit came in, but unlike any that they'd really seen up to that point. Yang rubbed her eyes and looked back down at the bottle in her hands.
"Did I get a contact high?"
"Uh, are you a Dagi, by any chance?" Weiss asked the monkey-like Khajiit.
"Dagi-raht, I am, I am. He is Bamhaba," the Khajiit greeted them happily. "This one is testing their sugars to make sure the skooma is good. So far, Bamhaba is impressed." With that, he sat on the rug across from them and started spooning up some moon sugar from a bowl. "Mm, yes!"
"Oh, that's cool. Hey, do you know how to work this?" Yang asked while indicating the hookah. "It's not like mine at all."
"Oh, certainly. You have skooma? This one will show you." Yang showed him the bottle and he reached across and took it with his long arm. Bamhaba looked it over a second then opened up something at the hookah's top.
"Simply enough, it goes in here. Just pour in," he instructed while doing so, "and make sure the candle is lit." He pointed at the candlewick directly under the bowl and it lit up from a spark from his finger. "Now just wait for it to boil. You know how to work the hose, yes?"
Yang picked up one of the nozzles connected to a hose and pointed at it. "Just press the button and suck in, right?"
"Gently does it," he warned her. "Don't want to suck up the water."
"Yeah, guess not. Thanks for that."
"It was no problem." He tipped the bowl into his mouth and ate up the last of the moon sugar before putting the bowl aside. The rich man next to them suddenly took up a nozzle and breathed in, coughing as red vapors left his mouth.
"Oh yeah…" he moaned. "Ohhh... that's good stuff. Believe me friend, I've tried it all and this is the best. I once paid three thousand gold for this fungus that grows in Giants' armpits. Couldn't stand up for days, but nowhere as good as this stuff."
"Oh, so you know then?" the Dagi-raht laughed before taking a puff. Almost as soon as he did, he fell over and started shaking. Weiss made to check on him, but Yang held her back.
"Trust me," she whispered. She looked around then pointed at the hose. "You ever play dead?"
"Yes?"
"Well, ultimate play dead time. No matter what, unless someone's doing something god-awful, don't move until I give the signal. Now…" Yang leaned over and closed her eyes. Weiss did the same, letting herself lie upon the bench. After a few minutes, she felt someone touch her and flinched a little. The person hesitated, but then continued on, picking her up and carrying her. Everything in Weiss' mind told her to scramble free, but she resisted long enough to feel herself set down into a soft pile of hay. Someone else grunted and there was a metallic clang next to her.
"That's the last of them," she heard the dealer say. "Poor sods can't resist after they get a taste of your dosed skooma."
"The water from the spring makes the skooma so much more potent, we'll have all the thralls we'll ever need. Good thing the boss heard that old farmer running his mouth off in the tavern about finding this place."
After a moment, Weiss opened her eyes ever so slightly to see someone in leather armor standing just outside of a cell door. Next to her was Yang, and just past her was an unmoving woman. Yang's eyes shot open, and then she slowly stood up to her feet. Weiss got up as well, then noticed that she still had her sword on her person.
'Amateurs,' she thought before slowly drawing Strahlendjuwel and aiming for the back of the elf. Yang gave her a thumbs up, and Weiss thrusted. The Dunmer gurgled out while clutching the point sticking out of his chest, but then Yang reached through the bars, grabbed him by the mouth, and pulled him further back along the blade. He struggled a moment longer, then stilled. Both the girls withdrew, with Yang taking a key ring from his person.
"Why'd we sneak in instead of fighting our way in, again?"
"Mostly to minimize casualties and make sure we're in the right place. Also, it was a test. They failed." Yang pointed out a corpse on a wheelbarrow and the one in their cell before unlocking it and shoving it open. "Anyways, we should probably bust this place, on the grounds of it being an illegal skooma den and a murderous vampire nest."
"They did say to deal with it however I see fit," Weiss recalled while bending down and picking up a spellbook. She hummed while looking it over and then bagged it away.
As the girls left their cage and entered what looked like a cave chamber with a drug lab set inside of it, Weiss focused on her Semblance and slowly summoned an apparition of the Arma Gigas, making it so that it was just a head taller than Yang, and then threw a Stoneflesh spell upon herself. Some men came around to see what was going on, and Weiss directed the summon to attack them. The Gigas swung its massive blade around its frame and cleaved through one man before backhanding the other into a wall, where he collapsed like a sack of rocks.
"Wow, useful," Yang commented before looking up and then jumping to where several vats were placed. A fanged woman who had been prowling in the shadows backed away from her in fear, and Yang cracked her knuckles. "Now, you can either-" Suddenly, the woman turned invisible, leaving the brawler to shrug.
"Well, I guess that- Hurk!" She stumbled back as something impacted her gut, then lashed out. There was a scream, and the woman reappeared as she was knocked back into a table, dropping a dagger with a dented tip. As the vampire groaned, Yang stomped over to her and picked her up by the collar of her shirt.
"That was very rude," Yang ground out while bringing her to her face, carefully transforming her mouth so that it was filled with lupine teeth, her jaw emitting disturbing cracking sounds as she did. The vampire seemed to shrink into herself as Yang bared her growing fangs. "Now, give me another reason!" The vampire girl's eyes rolled up, and then her head limply went to the side. Yang stared at her in confusion for a moment before letting her down gently.
"Huh, she fainted."
"Anything up here?" Weiss asked as she walked up the ramp.
"Just an unconscious vampire," Yang responded while looking around. "Trying to figure out what to do with her. I'm not exactly…comfortable with killing someone who's already down. Let's see… Moon sugar, moon sugar, bucket of water… Nothing to tie her with."
"We could stick her in that cell," Weiss suggested.
"Oh, hey. You're right." Yang picked up the unconscious vampire and then set her in the caged cell they had placed her and Weiss in earlier. For a moment, she thought about moving the corpse, but then figured it'd do no harm for now. After checking her for any weapons, potions, or lockpicks, they exited the cage and locked it up.
"We'll have to figure out what to do with her eventually," Weiss stated as they started searching around.
"Yeah, that's…not exactly easy." Yang thought on it a moment with a hum. "Wait, how about that vampire place? Duskcall?"
"Ah, Duskfall! You know, I've never actually been there. I just sent some vampires to the College and Savos Aren did the rest. Still, I suppose that could work. We'll see about it once we're through here." Weiss paused as she saw the cover of a book titled The Aetherium Wars and bagged it up. After crossing a drawbridge over the vats the two women and summon started heading deeper, hearing the small, rhythmic tapping of a pickaxe just ahead. As they turned a corner, the man digging turned at them and charged with his tool raised. Weiss' summon swiftly smashed against him then raised its blade. Realizing the man's blank eyes marked him out as a thrall, Weiss set her Gigas to nonlethally subdue, and it stopped its swing and kicked him in the face. A woman in furs came from another room and threw a fireball at them, and Yang leaped in front of it and tanked the spell. The apparition then charged forward and hit her with the flat of its blade, knocking her across the excavated room.
"Ah, so this is what they dug out," Yang observed as they went through a sort of U-turn in the structure then came upon a pull-chain in front of a block that looked as though someone had tried to pry it out or dig through it. She pulled it and waited for the door to open, then they descended even further through a narrow hole. Towards the end, they saw an open coffin in a room, and a deathhound turned to them and barked before it charged.
"Uh oh," Yang said before rearing back and smashing her fist into the creature's face. It let out a yelp as it was sent flying back into the room, where an elven woman came up and snarled at them.
"Aaaarrrrgghhhh!" she screamed as she came at Yang with her sword swinging. The Companion brought out her Dwarven axe and knocked the sword aside before smashing the blunt side against her and knocking her over and across the room. The vampire groaned in pain as she struggled up to her feet.
"Okay, do that again, and next time, you get to meet with Holy Ardon's sharp side."
The vampire hissed at her and threw a ball of magic into the dead deathhound besides her while simultaneously waving her hand across some inanimate skeletons and making them rise up. Yang and Weiss sighed at that.
"I warned her."
"You certainly did."
Yang threw Ardon at the vampire and the axe buried itself into her chest. This time, the vampire fell over dead, the skeletons and deathhound turning into ash at the same time. Weiss then reached a hand out and yanked the axe free with a telekinetic pull, and Yang grabbed it in mid-air.
"Handy," the blonde stated.
"A little draining though. Need to practice that spell a bit more."
They went up a set of stairs towards a door, but paused and looked down at some red liquid on the floor and filling in the cracks. Both of them smelled blood, but mostly from the vampires and thralls they'd killed. What was beneath them barely smelled like it at all.
"Odd," Weiss noted before going through. At the other side, even more of the impure liquid covered and filled the floor, forcing them to walk through it or at the edge of the hall. At the end was a small altar setup, with an old banner showing a worn sigil of Arkay, and a notebook set beside an inkwell and quill. Weiss picked it up and scanned its words.
28th of Sun's Dusk, 4E 200
I've found an interesting book of short stories on the pawnshop's shelves today. I don't think the owner will mind if I take it. I really should spend more time around the docks, these Altmer are too thin-blooded for my taste.
Anyway, one of the tales in the book is an account of the "Bloodspring of Lengeir's Feast," a fabled source of power for vampires. It's a story I've read several renditions of before but this version suggests that it may be located in Skyrim, in a ruin buried by quaking of the earth during the 2nd Era.
Considering that my business here with Inquisitor Amolmaire is, shall we say, at an end, it might be a good time to leave Summerset for a worthwhile diversion for the next twenty to thirty years. Perhaps I shall investigate this fabled Bloodspring.
2nd of Morning Star, 4E 201
I was able to obtain passage from Alinor to Solitude by way of ship. No mean feat with this Nord insurrection going on, I assure you. I ran across one of my own in the local tavern and feared at first that it might cause problems for me, but it turns out that she is well-positioned here in the city and has been happy to help if I keep a civil manner. We spoke much on my research into the Bloodspring and while she made sure to point out that she thinks it a "soft-headed pursuit" she did say that what she's heard would point to Riften.
Weiss read on about how Venarus kept searching for the Bloodspring, keeping in mind some of the details he shared in his writing as she went. When it finally got to where he'd found it, she'd decided without question that she thoroughly disliked this man.
The Bloodspring is not everything that I'd hoped it would be. Though it is blood and gives great strength it provides no sustenance. And the power it grants lasts only a short while and carries a weakening of the body and mind with it. I've had to lock the door to the chamber to keep the others from becoming completely dependent upon it. When I've tested it on mortals, it is worse for them, for it carries only disease and addiction with no benefits at all.
Addiction.
I may have just found a solution for our food problem.
"Well, that explains it," she said before closing the journal. "The Bloodspring can't provide sustenance to vampires. That's why they started the Skooma den, to attract weak-minded people and build up enough thralls to feed them. The Bloodspring's waters just made it even more addictive, and it's apparently diseased."
"Well, that's some crap." Yang then sniffed the air. "There's still some more people down here. And…I think I hear water running."
"We must be close then." Weiss bagged the journal and they pressed forward, pausing when they heard a voice up ahead.
"So why don't you just drink the blood from the spring?" a Nordic man asked. "I mean, that seems easier than running a skooma den…"
"The boss said it's some sort of 'profaned spring'," a feminine voice answered. "It looks like blood, but it's not the real thing. Drinking it gives you strength, but it also gets you pretty messed up. That's why we thought of putting it in the skooma."
"Hm, good idea, actually."
Yang rounded a corner and had to hold back her laughter when neither of them noticed her. It wasn't until a few seconds after Weiss entered as well with her glowing familiar at her back that either of them looked in their direction.
"Wait, who in Oblivion are you?" the woman said while grabbing the hilt of her sword. The man, on the other hand, had a key out and ready to stick into the gate of a cage holding several deathhounds.
"I'm Berna, this is Snow, and that's Snow being a showoff," Yang said as she indicated herself, Weiss, and Weiss' summon. "They sent us down this way. Supposed to give some stuff to the boss."
"What stuff?" the woman asked suspiciously.
"Dunno. Just handed me this bag, told us to come down here, then told me to hurry it up. Said he's wanted it for a while now. You wanna take it to him, or should we keep going?"
The two shared a look, with the man shrugging before the woman scoffed and shrugged.
"No one ever tells me anything anymore. You'd think after last week… Well go on, he's that way," she said while indicating a ramp.
"Thanks." After they went up and over, Weiss leaned over to whisper to her.
"What was that about?"
"Didn't feel like fighting all those dogs. Besides, needed to test out my acting skills."
"I am ninety-nine percent certain that the only reason she believed you was that the other possibility was that we killed everyone else on the way in here." They went through an open area from which they could see the other two in the chamber below for a moment and then reached a gate with a pull-chain near it.
"It's all about confidence, Snowdrop. If you sound like and act like you're supposed to be there, most people will usually believe you are."
"That's a terrible way of thinking," Weiss said before opening the gate and following Yang through.
"And yet, it worked. Oh, can you turn that guy off for a while? Might be harder with him around."
"It won't be as easy to bring him out in a pinch," Weiss warned her. "But it is a little draining keeping him out," she admitted before having the Arma Gigas dissipate. "Ooh, ow! Didn't realize how much it was pulling from me."
"I guess it's more of a boss battle thing."
Further along they came into a catacomb-filled hall, which led them to a chamber where a pair of vampires and a couple of deathhounds were. The vampires looked at them oddly, but Yang waved and they seemed to go back to their business. One deathhound growled and barked, but they paid it little heed and it simply left them alone.
"I can't believe this is working," Weiss muttered when they were out of earshot of the pair.
"Believe it!"
Through another gate, they came into what looked like a secondary lab set up at an ancient altar. They went by it and opened up one door just to find that it was a closet. Half a full set of human bones tumbled out, causing Weiss to step back to avoid them.
"Huh, guess we should have asked about skeletons in the closet." Yang laughed while Weiss groaned.
Beyond the room was a short hall that they immediately noticed was covered in traps. As the two gingerly stepped over and around the flagstone triggers, they noted the different dangers, such as the spiked swinging gate, dart chutes, and fire spouts. Past them, they opened a door into a large chamber with a stone arch bridge across from them. A long, stone table was set with several candles and a couple of bloodstained spots around the body of a dead and desiccated Orc. To the left was an enchanting table, and to their right was a raised dais with a throne upon it. In that throne sat a man who immediately shot up when he spotted them, an armed Nord and a skeleton to his left, and a vampire woman to his right.
"How in Oblivion- Who are you?" he demanded of them.
"Hi, I'm Yang, and I'm here to kick your ass. Give up and I won't splatter you across the wall."
"For gods' sakes… I'm here to collect from the Bloodspring," Weiss announced. "Let us by and there won't be any-"
"Kill them," he commanded his followers.
"-trouble." Weiss groaned and readied her blade while Yang took out her black axe while curling the fingers of her other hand. The man raised his own axe and charged her, but the blonde sidestepped him and brought Black Whisper down onto his back. The skeleton tried firing an arrow at her, but Yang barely felt it as it bounced off her pauldron and Aura. The vampire woman came at Weiss with a swing, but the fencer parried her and made a thrust, scoring a deep stab on her shoulder. As she backed away, Weiss readied an ice spike and launched it at her, piercing her other shoulder as well. Rather than go down, the vampire went back on the attack. The apparent leader roared out in rage and leaped for Yang, but she nailed him mid-air with a fireball she'd been charging. As he was sent flying back, now ablaze, she reached behind her back while dropping Black Whisper and drew her crossbow. The moment the vampire was back up, the bolt shot into his chest, eliciting a pained scream from him as he clutched it at the entry point.
"You can give up," Yang told him as she reloaded then threw a firebolt at the skeleton. "Just sayin'."
"Like I'd…give up to you mortals!" he yelled as he pulled out a flask and chugged it. Yang smelled the familiar sweetness of Sleeping Tree Sap and almost sighed. As he stood up seemingly at full strength, Yang fired the second bolt at him then hung her crossbow back after it hit.
"Well, I did want to test this out," she said while charging up a fiery spell, her other hand waving around it.
Weiss blocked another strike and focused the built-up power in her gloves. Like she'd hoped, the force behind blocked hits had fed into them. She readied herself for a thrust and the vampire seemed to be anticipating it. Her blade flashed in and the other tried to parry, but the force was too much for her to overcome, and Weiss kept on going, piercing through her opponent's chest and then all the way through her back. The heiress backed away from her foe and let her slide from off her blade. At the same time, Yang charged the man before her with her spell ready.
"I gotta say it! Luóxuànqiú!" she shouted as the swirling ball of fire was brought forward to meet the man's chest, her other hand catching his axe before it could reach her as her knees bent. The spell ground into him as it burned and pushed him back, and then Yang was slinging him forward with it and into the wall, where the fiery ball stayed and keep spinning, pushing, and burning for another couple of seconds before going out. When it died, the vampire collapsed and Yang panted while standing victorious.
"That was overkill," Weiss stated.
"Yeah, but he drank Sleeping Tree Sap. He was going so slow that it was the perfect time to field test that."
"Also, you're ripping off Mistralian ninja cartoons now?"
"Hey, if it looks stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid."
"Right…" Weiss walked over to the man and started rifling through his things, finding a key on him after a moment as well as another notebook. "Well, looks like my hunch was right. This was Vanarus Vulpin."
"So…we killed the master vampire of this bunch?"
"Essentially. It should be easier to convince those others to leave now, assuming they don't attack us once we make our offer."
"Yeah. Well, let's get your bloody water." Yang laughed at her own joke as they went under the arch. Weiss unlocked the door before heading in. Just past it they could see the Bloodspring in question, bubbling up from deep underground with the scattered pieces of at least five different bloody skeletons around it.
"Cheese Louise, look at that thing!" Yang muttered. "It's like something out of a Hell-Lifter movie."
"Oh, now I have a point of reference to compare my time at the castle to. Thanks," Weiss sarcastically said as she walked up to it. Just as she was about to reach into her bag for the Chalice, she saw two people come up from the shadows of the cavern, both of them in the same style of armor as the others from Volkihar Castle.
"You know," the woman began, "here I was trying to think of how to explain away your death as an accident, but you've gone and given me the perfect excuse." She smiled in Yang's direction, letting Weiss know what she meant by that.
"Yeah," the man added. "Guess you couldn't keep away from your little dog for too long after all."
"We're just lucky I was here to return the Chalice to Vingalmo, so he could make sure Harkon gets it back."
"Wait, what?" he yelled in surprise. "That's not what we agreed. We take it back together."
"Idiot. You didn't really think I'd let you walk out of here either, did you? Vingalmo wants you both dead."
"Well that's just fine. Orthjolf told me to finish off anyone who got in the way."
"Wow, Weiss, I didn't think when you introduced me to the family, it'd get heated so quick," Yang quipped.
"I don't even really know these two idiots," Weiss retorted. "Before we do anything, let me ask you something. Did either of you ever report back anything?"
The vampires looked at each other and then laughed.
"Are you kidding?" the man said, certain of his impending victory. "We didn't have time."
"We just made sure to get here ahead of you, whelp. Although it seems that was a waste of effort after all, with how you took your sweet time getting here."
"So no one but you two knows?"
"Just us," the woman confirmed.
"Good, good," Weiss intoned while getting in a stance. "Then all I have to do is get rid of you two."
For a second everyone was still, then all four burst into action. Weiss stabbed towards the man, but he dodged aside then leaped back while leaving a small stream of fire between them. During Weiss' moment of hesitation, he wrapped himself in the bloody cloak and transformed into a Vampire Lord. Yang tossed fireballs at the woman, who jumped out of their way while trying to retaliate.
"A little help here, Stalph?!" the woman called out to the other vampire.
"What? Can't handle it on your own, Salonia?" he taunted her while blocking Weiss' attempted stabs with his claws.
"Do you want to fight them both?"
"Ah, fine!" As Weiss reared back he leaped up and flapped his wings, lifting one hand up as something began forming. A second later, Weiss was dodging the claws of a gargoyle. With his opponent occupied, he focused a ball of red magicka and launched it at Yang, who raised her arms to block it, only to feel its power drain.
"Shit, shit, double shit!" she grunted as another came at her and she narrowly got out of its way. Luckily, Weiss had managed to prove that a gargoyle's wings are useless by throwing one into the air with her glyph and went back on the attack with a summoned Boarbatusk. The pig-like Grimm spun itself and charged at Stalph, who avoided it by turning into a cloud of bats. Unfortunately, the white Grimm hit a wall and landed on its back, where the vampire dropped down and skewered it with his claws. As it dissipated, Yang turned back to her foe to find she'd become a Vampire Lord as well. She dashed in and caught Yang's wrist before she could summon any more flames.
"No more of-" Yang's left hook came in and smashed her across the face, knocking loose a couple of teeth as she spun away. The werewolf cracked her neck and loosened her shoulders as she stared down the vampire.
"Yeah, no." Golden fur began sprouting up as Yang changed into her wolf form, reaching full transformation within seconds and roaring in challenge before charging.
Weiss ducked under a clawed swing and jabbed forward, punching through flesh but seemingly doing nothing to wound Stalph. She tried slicing his arm but watched as his skin sealed itself back together. He laughed before lunging at her, but she sped away with a glyph and left a lightning rune in her place. Stalph seemed to dumbly notice it before it exploded around him. As he screamed, Weiss took a stance and focused on forming a haste glyph beneath her while creating several repulse glyphs around her foe. She then jumped forward and began leaping between them, slicing him from every different direction. When she leaped back out and looked at him, he was covered in cuts, some bleeding profusely. He snarled at her, but then laughed as his blood seemed to sink back into him and his wounds healed near seamlessly. Weiss looked at him dumbfounded as he chuckled.
'That can't be right! How's he healing like that?!'
As Stalph seemed to stalk toward her, they both heard a pained scream alongside a roar and looked to see that Yang had tackled Salonia onto her back and was raking her claws across her face and torso back and forth. The vampire woman tried to bat her off and jab at her with her own claws, but then one came too close to the werewolf's mouth and got chomped on. Yang then shoved her claw through and ripped the arm away at the elbow. While other wounds were healing, albeit slower than on Stalph, her arm stayed severed and kept bleeding.
"Damn!" Weiss muttered before feeling her Aura reserves. She didn't have enough to summon back her Arma Gigas, much less Nahkrensos, but she could still fight. Instead, she focused in on something else and breathed in. As the claustrophobia-inducing mass surrounded her, Weiss opened her eyes and readied herself to fight the moment she came out. As the bloody chrysalis burst she thrust forward, surprisingly noting that her rapier was still in hand.
'What?' she thought as she stabbed into Stalph's arm before backing up and hovering in place. She was certainly transformed, going by the skin tone alone, but it was lighter than before, and her hand looked almost normal. A quick look at her other hand showed that she still had claws, but not like before. The last time, they had been more like Stalph's, with the middle one far longer than the others and the pinky shrunken down to the size of a toe. Now it looked nearly like its pair, but the claws were still long and sharp. A quick test of will and they retracted suddenly and she could easily bend her fingers. She then extended them again and could feel them go stiff.
Her attention snapped back to the battle as her opponent tried to seize the initiative with a sudden charge, and she flapped her wings, which she idly noted looked longer, to back away. She lashed out with Strahlendjuwel then followed up with her claws, raking them across his face. As he grunted in pain, she focused on her magicka and brought up a red orb that she slapped across his face. As he screamed she stabbed into his belly with her sword, twisted it, and then pulled it out. As he clutched the wound, Weiss readied herself for a decapitating strike, only for him to jump up and catch her arm before biting down. She screamed, stabbed into his back with her claws, and dragged them across, raking strips of his ashen skin. The male let out a yell and Weiss kicked him away with her talon-like feet while her wings held her aloft. He came to a stop and looked up at her in rage. He readied himself to rush back at her, but then Yang's bloodied maw came down onto his shoulder, clamping down like a vice that pierced skin and crushed bone while her claws sank into his other arm, immobilizing him. Weiss sped forward through the air, her left hand reared back and Strahlendjuwel disappearing as her claws extended. With a feral shriek, she stabbed forward into his chest, instinct guiding her between his ribs and into his heart, which she then ripped out. As it turned into vampire dust in her hand, Stalph dissolved into blood and ash, which Yang let fall to the ground. The werewolf looked up to her partner and grunted.
"You were holding back," she pointed out, her voice noticeably deeper but still quite clear.
"What?"
"You held back. That's why you still had your sword," she explained further.
"I was not," Weiss protested. "It was…completely unintentional. I didn't even think I could have my weapon. I certainly didn't have it the last couple times I transformed."
"Maybe you didn't mean to," Yang said as she starting shrinking down, her voice returning to its normal pitch, "but it was definitely the result. Once you let loose, it poofed, and you ripped him up."
"Look, I honestly don't know what you're on about." Weiss felt herself transform back as well, feeling more like she was sucking in the form rather than busting it out, her sword mystically coming back into hand along with her actual outfit as she did. "It's just something weird about how this whole Vampire Lord thing works."
"Look, I'm not trying to fuss, I'm just trying-" Yang paused and looked at her armor's shoulder, which stopped going down with the rest of her. "What the hell?" She pushed at it, but it refused to budge. "What?"
"Hold on." Weiss went around her and looked at the back to see a sort of dent in the scales. "Seems you got a chink in the armor."
"Aw, man! What am I supposed to do with this? I can't go walking around with one shoulder up to my eyeballs like some reject from Battleaxe Twenty-K." She sighed before trying to grow back to her wolf form, only to suddenly stop and wince halfway through when the armor refused to expand with her, and shifted back to human. "Great, that one snag's affecting all the interlocking parts around it. Now the whole torso's locked up."
"I guess you'll have to," Weiss shrugged, "take it off."
Yang sighed. "We left all the spare clothes on the pig."
From the other side of the room, there was a door that led to a hallway with several barrels and a large keg. From the smell, it was food and mead, but the scent of skooma was also wafting back in again. The pair weren't a hundred percent sure of it, but opening the next door verified their suspicion as they came up behind the dealer from the back of her barred section, the Bosmer threateningly holding a bow at the ready while a handful of angered men and women stared her down. Weiss saw one of the attendants lying in a pool of blood with a pair of arrows in his chest and a key clutched in his hand.
"Ha, it's over for you now!" one of the twin Redguards taunted the elf, seeing the two Huntresses emerge behind the barkeep. The Bosmer, not realizing what she was referring to, merely aimed her bow at her.
"If any of you so much as takes a step towards it, it'll be your-" Yang reached around and grabbed her drawing arm. The Bosmer then forcibly held her arms still while she slowly looked back at the blonde in fear. Yang brought her face a little closer and took in a deep breath through her nose.
"You're not a vampire," she concluded. "But you weren't one of the thralls either." She pulled her arms down and forced her to drop her weapons while putting her wrists together. Immediately, the other twin shot over and grabbed the key.
"I… How did…?"
"We recently came into conflict with Mr. Vulpin," Weiss began. "It did not end well for him."
"So that's it, huh?" the Breton man asked. "The vampires are dead?"
"Not all of them, but we're about to go back down and deal with the others," Yang relayed as the door was opened. "So, who still needs freeing here?"
"Uh, far as we know, their boss controlled all but a couple of us," the twin woman who opened the gate explained. She glared at the captured dealer and sneered. "Count yourself lucky, you harlot. If that were me, I'd have cut your throat out by now."
"Yeah, none of that," Yang said while pushing her over and grabbing a rag to tie around her wrists.
"Wait, why aren't we killing her?" the other twin asked.
"Maybe they're going to turn her in to the Rift guards," the Breton man guessed.
"Oh, well that sounds…" The woman paused and sharply elbowed the Nordic man, causing him to grunt while tearing his gaze away from Yang's…state. "Stop it!"
"Hey, can you blame me?" he asked with a smirk.
"Yes," the twins and Weiss answered all at once. Yang just sighed in inured disgust.
"Stare all you want, but if your hand comes close to me, you won't get it back."
"Well, if you didn't want men staring, why'd you wear something like that?" he shot at her.
"My armor got damaged," she snapped back. "Even if I was walking around in a thin, white tube top on purpose, that doesn't mean I'm doing it for men to see." After a moment, she smirked. "What if I wanted it to be just women looking at me?"
"…Do you?" the woman outside of the cage meekly asked.
"Down, Rea," her twin admonished.
As though waiting for the moment, the tied-up Bosmer suddenly rushed down into the back way. Weiss groaned and shot after her.
"Get back here!" she shouted after the prisoner.
"Damn it! Hey, you guys grab whatever and head back to the surface. We'll be up in a second. Don't open any cages," she warned them before going after the other two. When she caught up to them near the Bloodspring, though, her heart nearly leaped out of her chest.
"Weiss, no!" she shouted while lunging for them. Luckily, Weiss seemed to snap out of whatever daze she was in and removed herself from the elf's neck. As she backed away in fear, the drug dealer dizzily leaned against a wall and slowly slid down to a squat.
"I… I'm sorry! I was…fully intending to stop, I swear!"
"Weiss, calm down. Freaking out about this won't help." Yang grabbed the Bosmer's head and shifted it around to get a look at the bitten spot. "No real marks, but I can smell where you were draining her. I imagine she's going to be woozy for a while." Yang sighed and stood up. "You have some medicine on you, right?"
"Oh, yes! I keep a few just in case of…accidents," Weiss said as she dug through her satchel and pulled out a vial. Yang took it and leaned back down to tip the woman's head back and pour it into her mouth.
"Swallow," she commanded. The woman obeyed with a wince and smacked her lips slowly at the taste. Yang stood up again with another sigh while Weiss looked away in shame.
"Hey, don't be too hard on yourself. You know how many times I ripped up some guy when I really shouldn't have?" She placed her arm around the vampire and held her close for a moment.
As luck would have it, the remaining vampires were completely cowed by Yang and Weiss. Not because of Vanarus, but the two Volkihars that had been awaiting Weiss. It was a little embarrassing that they had, apparently, simply straight up told the guards they were vampires, demanded to meet their boss, and made him quiver in fear before simply waiting on her while taking a portion of the blood the skooma business brought them. The fact that Weiss and Yang had soundly defeated all three of them made the two even more deadly in their eyes. None of the four vampires wanted to challenge that.
"So wait, you wanted to be a thrall?" Yang, now clothed with a fur coat draped over her shoulders to mostly cover her spider silk chest wrap, asked the Nordic man who had been guarding the hound-filled room.
"Why not? I just do much of what I was doing before, but I get to be the servant of an eternally beautiful woman while doing it."
"You're too sweet, really," his master said with a smile while the other three looked disgusted at them.
"So you're really going to let them go?" another woman asked, her eyes glaring murderous daggers at the undead all the while.
"It's more like rehabilitation," Yang argued. "Or…an asylum? But for vampires? Basically they'll have to follow rules and a bunch of guys will be there to keep them in line, but you can still do stuff."
"All right," Weiss announced as she came from upstairs, "Tolfdir will be here to take you all to the College of Winterhold soon. I'm giving him this bag of confiscations to pay for the costs of a Mass Teleportation scroll." Said bag she was dangling was mostly full of moon sugar, skooma, and other illicit substances. All things that the College could convert into something useful or use for testing, but were extremely difficult for them to obtain. "You'll have a dozen master wizards and a plethora of mages of all stripes around you, so don't get any ideas. One wrong move and you'll be blasted to Oblivion. The master of the Haven has already been informed about you all and is on his way. Don't piss him off either. He's far more powerful than me."
"We're basically being imprisoned," a male grumbled.
"Better than I feared. At least we're not dead," his fellow argued.
"There is that to consider," Weiss agreed. She looked over at Yang and nodded. "Good news at least, Brelyna was able to get all the pieces I need for my next communicator prototype. Erevan's going to bring them to Windhelm, so I can pick them up there."
"Oh, that's cool! Did you get a moment to talk to J'zargo?" At the silence she received for an answer, Yang shook her head. "I won't push it, but it's better to get it off your chest sooner rather than later."
"I know, but…I'd rather it be in person, you understand?"
"Yeah, I guess I do." The blonde sighed. "Well, you could ask him to come down with Erevan."
"I could…" Before Weiss could ruminate on it any further, the pile-up of blubbering addicts shifted and a form leaped out while screaming.
"No! Namiira's rotting hand reaches for me! The Skooma Cat chuckles! Oh Jode! Oh Jone! Please guide me!" Bamhaba shot up and out of the cave, screaming all the way.
"Oh geez! Weiss, watch the kids. I'll go make sure the monkey cat doesn't hurt himself." As Yang went after the screaming Khajiit, the enthralled man raised an eyebrow.
"I'm fairly certain they don't like being called that."
When Yang got up to the surface, the other former thralls were staring at the top of a tall tree, where the Dagi-raht had climbed up and begun waving his arms wildly in the direction of the rising moons.
"Mama! Papa! Please forgive Bamhaba! He will leave skooma behind and become a changed cat!"
"Why'd the one that can climb trees in seconds have to have a bad trip? Yang grumbled. "Hey, you guys help me make sure he doesn't fall!"
"Having trouble?" Tolfdir asked as he walked out of the woods.
"Hey, you're here quicker than I thought," the blonde said in surprise.
"I've been all up and down this river and all its lakes. It was just a matter of remembering which shore was closer." He looked up at the Dagi-raht with an interested hum. "So what's happening here?"
"Guy's having a bad skooma trip. Started yelling about Namira and now he's begging his parents to forgive him."
"Oh dear. I've seen this before, though it was a tower, not a tree. Nothing for it but to wait."
"Yeah, I was afraid of that. Well, let me show you to the group. Hey Anum-La, make sure the guy doesn't have a bad fall."
"All right. Just make sure you come back with all your clothes this time," the Argonian laughed. At Tolfdir's wide-eyes, Yang just smiled and shrugged.
"Long story."
"Blake, good to see you," Erandur greeted her as she came up to the vicinity of the old shack. As she did, she noticed a crusty-looking old Nord wearing a helmet and tattered clothes leaned against the shack's walls.
"Hey, Erandur. What's up with that guy?"
"Seems to be some poor sod that lost his mind." He shook his head and sighed. "He rambled on about how Ulfric is actually Talos and both are a shape-shifting vampire. It sounded insane even before he started explaining how he went undercover as a prostitute that was a word for word match to the main character of Mystery of Talara."
"Ah, don't tell me any more about it, I'm still reading that one." She looked at the man and rubbed her chin as easily identified intrusive thoughts came up. "He's not bothering M'rissi and Inigo, is he?"
"Not particularly, though he did harass this passer-by yesterday who was wearing red. He believes he's part of the Stormcloak army, and that he's keeping Imperial spies and scouts from entering the Rift through Falkreath. The Legion's already been told about him. I suspect they'll be here in a day or two."
"We don't want to get mixed up in that."
"Which is another thing. Your friend Ruby asked me to ask M'rissi and Inigo about coming to that house she's been working on. There's enough room for them both without being cramped, and it's possibly a better place for the cat to grow. They're already packed and ready to go."
"Mrew! M'rissi has her things," the Khajiit said while coming out with a backpack. Blake jumped back when she saw the black kitten at her heels.
"What the hell?"
"That was about my response as well," Erandur admitted. "Something about that shadow magic seems to have affected little Lirry in a deep way, making her grow quicker than normal."
"I don't think we can call her 'little' anymore. She's twice the size she was when we found her," Blake said as she kneeled down to look over the now dog-sized, pure black sabrecat. Lirry looked at her cautiously, her ears back in a warning way, but not quite to an aggressive stance.
"Hoh, I don't think she likes you, Blake," M'rissi said with disappointment.
"I guess that's fair," the Faunus sighed as she stood back up and stepped back. "How have you guys been feeding her?"
"Exhaustively," Inigo griped as he came along. "She can eat a whole deer in a day at this point. I stopped bothering with butchering them and just leave them for her to chow down on. At this rate, we're going to need a mammoth herd."
"I tried stabilizing her with something similar to what I used to cleanse the cave," Erandur explained, "but the process seems uncomfortable to her. Hopefully, her future growth will be more manageable."
"I guess that's all we could ask for." Blake looked the group over while pulling out her scroll. "I'm calling Ruby to let her know we're on the way. Let's hit the road."
"Yes, let's get on with it." Inigo looked behind them nervously. "That man is crazy," he whispered. "And I do not want to be near him for another second. His talk of certain applications of fire salts was enough to make me consider whether or not his murder would be worth it."
"I don't even want to know," Blake deadpanned while her scroll called up Ruby. The girl answered with a smile and a nice view of the lake behind her.
"Hi Blake!"
"Hey Ruby. We just left that shack and we're heading your way. I've got Inigo, M'rissi, and Erandur along with Esbern."
"Don't forget the glutton of a sabrecat." Inigo commented from the side as Lirry pawed at his leg with a hungry chuff.
"Oh, that's good! I think we can meet about halfway at…" Ruby looked at her other hand, which was holding a half-folded map. "Ivarstead? No, wait, Helgen. Yeah, we can meet up at Helgen and split back up. I'll be taking Esbern up to Riverwood, and you can take your friends to the new house."
"Actually, I need to head back to Riften as quickly as possible," Blake explained to her. "There's something big with the Guild right now, probably the source behind most of the issues we've had."
"Oh, okay. Darn, guess I'll have to show it to you later. Oh well, it's not done yet anyway." Ruby smiled again and shrugged. A thunderous sound rang out, and Ruby turned. "Guys, I said deal with him peacefully."
"He swung first!" a pair of male and female voices defended.
"What was that?" Blake asked.
"Eh, it was just a Giant. A mean one. He was trying to demand that we give him our cow."
"Why do you have a cow?"
"For fresh milk, of course," Ruby happily answered, then sheepishly scratched her cheek. "I…may have gone a tad overboard, though. I got the cow, then I felt like she was lonely, so I got some goats and chickens, then I figured we'd need a few stables or a barn…"
"Are you building a small house or a farm?"
"A bit of both, I guess. At least the guys will have something to do. Anyways, I better go. I'm going to try to finish up this last wall before we leave tonight. Hopefully we don't have another skeever pack try to make a nest in the cellar while we're gone."
Ruby tested the draw of her bow a bit as she followed Lydia into the forest. Zora and Gorr remained behind to finish up preparations to head to Helgen, while Ruby decided to surprise her friends with fresh meat for themselves and their cub, and so convinced Lydia to hunt with her.
"So, what are we hunting?"
"We'll be hunting moose." Ruby waited for a second as they stopped and Lydia looked at her.
"Um, which way?"
"In the direction of moose."
Ruby felt a little dumbfounded by that, and tried to call upon what she knew about hunting as Lydia raised an eyebrow at her challengingly. It was, admittedly, not much. Huntsmen and Huntresses usually went into the field with enough provisions to last them their whole mission, and survival training for extended missions or getting stranded in the wilderness was a second year course. Blake did try to show them a little before, but she couldn't remember much about it. She tried to recall some basics and looked across the ground before her eyes spotted a couple of spaced-out hoof prints, each bigger than her hand. She looked in the direction they were going and then at Lydia.
"Uh, this way," she said before quietly going forward, stepping lightly through the leaves and keeping her eyes open. She could barely feel Lydia's presence behind her, and she certainly couldn't hear her. More tracks showed here and there, letting Ruby know she was on the right trail. A sudden noise from up ahead made her go stock still.
"Was that a bear?" she whispered to her housecarl.
"No, that was a moose."
"That was a moose?" Ruby had never heard, or really seen, a moose before. She always just figured it was a bigger deer. She certainly couldn't imagine any deer making a noise like that. She continued to stalk forward and soon began seeing the pelt of her prey. Silently, she stepped towards a closer and better angle until she could see the whole beast, and her eyes nearly popped out at what she was seeing.
"It's huge," she muttered as it continued on eating some acorn-like nuts spread about the ground.
"And dangerous," Lydia reminded her. "Aim for the heart, it's the quickest way."
Ruby nodded and nocked an arrow before aiming. Slowly, she drew back on the string while she lined up with her sight. She listened for the rustling of leaves in the wind and adjusted slightly for the distance. The moose moved a little, exposing the perfect place to plant her arrow, yet she did not loose it. Slowly, she let go of the tension.
"I… I don't know…"
"Ruby, listen," Lydia comfortingly whispered. "That moose there would not hesitate to try to charge or stomp you to death. If a sabrecat were hunting it, it would not hesitate to disembowel it. Both want to survive, and both have that right, but so do we." Quietly, she moved next to her, crouched down to her level. "We aren't striking out in anger, malice, or cruelty. If we were starving, we would have no other alternative. We'd need to survive, and whether it's plants or animals, we need to eat to survive."
That didn't sound very different from having to fight back against people who were trying to kill her, if she thought about it. Ruby looked back over at the moose. It had stopped chewing and seemed to look up, not at them, but at the sound of another moose in the distance. It let out another bellow, but then bent its head back down to chew up more of the forest nuts. She took up her bow again, drew it back, and took a deep breath as she aimed, no different from lining up a shot with her sniper rifle. As she released the breath, the arrow loosed and sank into the beast's chest. The moose turned and ran, smashing through the underbrush for a handful of seconds before collapsing. Suddenly elated, Ruby jumped to her feet and ran out to where it fell. Lydia followed her, and the two stopped to look at the felled animal.
"I…" Ruby tried to find the words, but none were forthcoming. Lydia reached over and patted her shoulder with a smile.
"Good job, Ruby."
"Helgen was destroyed by a dragon attack, from what I heard," Esbern said. "But to hear that it was Alduin himself… Well, if my eyes weren't open to the dangers before. And you even fought him."
"I wouldn't say fought so much as floundered," Blake admitted, her pride certainly feeling the blow. "We didn't even scratch him at the time. We've learned a lot since then, but I don't know if we'd be able to do anything if he showed up again."
The rebuilding town was coming into sight. Just as the group was nearly upon it, they heard a roar from the north. Everyone looked and saw a dark shape quickly growing from the distant haze. Another roar echoed out, and then a navy-colored dragon zoomed overhead. It banked back around while glaring at the town, and screams began rising up from the populace as they scrambled to get somewhere safe.
"No, not again!" Blake shouted as she pulled out her bow and ran to a hilltop. Carefully she aimed and loosed an arrow in the dragon's path, hitting it and catching its attention before it could move in on Helgen. With its eyes on her, Blake sent another shot at it then began running. The dragon roared again and then came after her, its wings beating the air violently.
"Find cover!" she warned the others. M'rissi scooped up Lirry in her arms and ran into the forests while Inigo took up his bow and began sending arrows at the aerial foe. "Erandur, watch over her!"
"On it!" the Dunmer priest answered while taking off after the young woman.
"Oblaan kaazze!" he yelled at them before unleashing icy breath upon Blake's location. She ran ahead of the freezing beam and managed to turn around and launch another arrow into his hide. Two consecutive shots came from Inigo, and the dragon looked at him in fury, readying another breath just before several explosive fireballs slammed into him, courtesy of Esbern.
"You won't have your way!" he yelled back at the dragon before sending a double-cast ball. The dragon winged up over it then dived down, his maw ready to snap up the old man. Esbern sent a pair of spells under him, one leaving a rune on the ground and the other sending him flying through the air. As the dragon passed, the rune exploded in a fiery column, burning its underside. Esbern flailed a little as he went through the air, then Blake came in and caught him, setting him back on his feet after they landed.
"Okay, any idea how to take him down quickly?"
"I… Yes. We need to hit the softer points, but especially around the wings. We ground it, and it's done for. The armpits and around the thighs are the places with the softest scales."
"Okay, I can ground him, but-" Blake's ears shot up when she heard a scream, and then she was speeding off like a bullet. Inigo was ahead of her at first, and both caught sight of the dragon shoving his way through the trees and trying to bite down on M'rissi as she ran with the cub in her arms. Erandur was trying to get his attention with fireballs, but he seemed intent on his chosen prey.
"Get away from her!" Inigo roared before he jumped up and onto the dragon's face. The reptile tried to shake him loose as the Khajiit took up his sword and began slicing and slamming it into his head. When Inigo was finally shaken off, the dragon had a fair portion of its facial skin peeled away and even spots of bone were exposed.
"Filthy mortals! Die!"
Blake dashed in and sliced Gambol Shroud across the dragon's cheek before leaping out of the way of his teeth. Before he went much further, a Frost Atronach rushed in and smashed his head with a mace-like hand. The dragon instantly turned on it and chomped down, crushing it between his jaws. Blake took the moment to look around their surroundings and saw how closely packed all the trees were. She looked to Gambol Shroud then nodded to herself as her plan came to mind.
"Esbern," she said to the man as she came up to him. "I have an idea. Don't let him take off."
"Oh, okay then, but…where are you…" He watched her speed off and nodded. "Right." He concentrated his magicka and formed an icy rune beneath the dragon. It exploded, hitting wings, legs, and belly, leaving the reptile's body partially covered in ice.
"My forebears hunted down many of your brethren, dragon," Esbern taunted him. "Prepare to join them."
"You…" The dragon's eyes narrowed. "I came here solely to stamp out any defiance, but you…deserve a slow, arduous death." He bared his teeth and began walking towards the Blade.
"I have learned of the dragonlore since I was a young man. Tell me your name dragon, so that I might etch it on your tombstone."
"Only your foolish bravery merits you the knowledge. Know that you died to the might of Lonkiindah!" The dragon lunged, but his teeth snapped onto a conjured wall of stone. As he ripped away the barrier, Blake sped by him, then went up and over. He snapped at her, but she was replaced by a clone and jumped from around a tree, ran back at him, then leaped over his head again.
"Jumpy cat! Stay still!" he demanded while trying to follow her with his gaze. His jaws continuously caught nothing, and even when it seemed he should have, Blake remained out of reach thanks to her Semblance. He tried jumping after her, only to gag as something held him in place. He shook his head, then looked around to see that his neck had been tied up by a black ribbon, wrapped around several trees in different directions. Blake stopped and pushed her Aura into the ribbon, constricting it and tightening its grip on the dragon. Lonkiindah roared as he tried to shake loose, but Blake kept her grip as she wrapped the end around the hilt of her Daedric dagger.
"You caught it!"
"Yeah, but that's not going to hold," Blake gritted out. Immediately, Esbern noticed how some of the trees were being uprooted. "And that's as much as I could stretch it out." She stabbed the dagger into the tree and took off again, this time reaching for the Ebony Blade.
'Time to see how sharp you really are,' she thought as she jumped up to and off from one of the highest points of her ribbon. She went up and above the struggling dragon and zeroed in on its neck. Gravity took over and pulled her down, and once she was near the dragon, she sliced down with all of her might. The Daedric blade split apart scales, flesh, and bone, all the way through the halfway point between body and head. The dragon tried to roar out in pain for a split second but went silent as he was fully decapitated. The head hung from the black lines like a macabre decoration while the body fell back then collapsed forward onto the ground, blood pouring out and steaming.
Blake felt the bliss that came with spilling blood with the Ebony Blade come and slowly fade, then sheathed the weapon as her friends rejoined with them, Inigo sporting a gash across his forehead that Erandur tried to heal.
"Hello?" she heard a familiar voice call out as the brush was pushed past. "We heard there was a dragon?"
"Over here, Ruby," she called out. The words were quickly followed by a ball of rose petals zooming out of the trees and stopping before her in the form of her team leader.
"Blake, you're okay! Whoa, did you do that?" she asked when she saw the dead dragon.
"Everyone did that," Blake answered, brushing her hair back. A Redguard man came in and smiled wide when he saw the corpse.
"Oh yes! The Gods have graced us!" he cheered while walking up to the body. Lydia came in with Zora just behind her, and the two noted the body as they regrouped.
"These are your friends?" Esbern asked. "The Dragonborn?"
"Yep," Blake answered with a nod. He then walked up to them and looked straight at Lydia.
"Dragonborn, you have no idea how happy I am to see…to know that you exist. With you here, there may finally be hope for this world. Know that the Blades will be there to stand by your side."
Lydia looked at him then over at Ruby. The woman cleared her throat and indicated the young girl.
"I'm sure my Thane, the Dragonborn, appreciates it." He looked over at Ruby in surprise as she waved at him.
"Hi."
"Oh, uh, I'm so sorry! That was terribly presumptuous of me! Still, my words stand…but for you! It is, truly, good to meet you, Dragonborn."
"Thanks. Anyways, let's talk on the way back to Helgen. We've gotta let them know the coast is clear. …And I think Gorr really wants a dragon steak."
The group looked over at the man who was measuring up the large carcass and deciding on which part he wanted a cut from.
"He was really disappointed when I killed the other dragon at Lakeview just before we left for Helgen."