As Ralof and Leon entered the keep, they came into a small room with a caged door on either side. Ahead, they spotted a dead Stormcloak soldier near a table. Leon had alwaysed wondered how he died. He assumed he was mortally injured trying to escape the chaos outside. When he made here, it seems he had finally sucumbed to his wounds. Ralof kneeled beside his fallen comrade and placed a hand on him. After a moment of silence, he slowly stood up again. "We'll meet again in Sovengarde, brother." he said reverently.
He looked at Leon. "Looks like we're the only ones who made it. That thing was a dragon. No doubt. Just like in the children's stories and legends. The Harbingers of the End Times." Leon just shrugged. "Yeah, maby. But I don't think we're screwed just yet. Look we can talk about this later. The dragon will start tearing at the keep in a minute or two. We gotta move." he said urgently. Ralof nodded. "Right. You might as well take Gunjar's gear. He won't be needing it anymore." Leon looked over Gunjar's body for a moment before walking over and unstrapped his iron war axe. "I'm fine just the way I am. I'll take his weapon for now though." He gave the axe some experimental swings, then starting swinging it around with speed and style Ralof never saw before. "Impressive. You seem to handle a weapon quite well." he complimented. Leon continued swinging the axe as he spoke. "To be honest, I'v always been more of a sword guy." He gave the axe a flip in the air and cought it effortlessly with his hand. "But it'll do untill I get one."
"You sure you don't want his armor?" Ralof said with a raised eyebrow. "Positive. I know it's light armor, but I'd rather not sacrifice an ounce of my agility for a bit of protection. Though a pair of gauntlets wouldn't hurt I guess." Leon walked over to the gate on the right side of the room and tried to open it, with no success. "Figures." Then they heard voices from the other side. "Imperials! Quick, hide!" Leon and Ralof hid on either side of the gate as they waited for the Imperials. Leon gripped Gunjar's axe in excitment. He knew it was that bossy Imperial Captain and a lower rank soldier on the way. He was gonna enjoy this.
As the gate opened and the Imperials walked pass the two, Leon stood up and roundkicked the Captain in the back, knocking her forward off her feet. "That was for leaving a bruise on my back, bitch." Leon spat. Before the other Imperial could draw his sword, Ralof stood and charged at him shouting "Death to the Empire!" The Imperial turned in time to see Ralof bring his axe down on his neck. He fell to the floor, dead. He turned to see how Leon would fare in battle. The Captain was already on her feet, sword drawn, and charged at Leon, hellbent on maiming the one who slandered the Empire and made a fool out of her.
She swung her sword furiously at Leon, who quickly deflected the blow, then quickly spun around and swung his axe on the crest of her helmet, knocking it off. The Captain, now helmetless, turned and glared hatfully at Leon, feeling humiliated again. Leon just smirked. "Say, you look cute without that helmet. Unfortunatly, sweetheart, I'v lost all interest in you." The Captain just roaredand charged again. Leon quickly flipped his axe in the air brifely before catching it and throwing it without warning. The axe collided heavily with the Imperial's face. She fell back and did not get back up. Ralof was nothing short of impressed. "I must say, lad, your techniques are a bit unusual, but I can't argue with their results." Leon gave a short bow. "I try my best."
Leon bent down on the Captain's corpse first removing the axe from her face, then sifting threw her belongings, taking a key and her sword. "You won't mind if I takes these, do ya?" Leon said comicly waveing the items infront of her corpse, earning a chuckle from Ralof. After strapping the sword to one of the loops on his pants, he walked over to Gunjar's body and placed his axe in his right hand. He then patted the fallen Stormcloak on the chest. "Thanks for lending it to me, man." he said standing up. He looked to Ralof who gave him a respective nod. Suddenly, the roar of a dragon was heard outside and the keep trembled for a moment, almost making the duo loose their balance. "Shit. Time to go." Leon said as he walked over to the locked gate and unlocked it with the Captain's key and he and Ralof preceeded further into the keep.
The two ran down a few stairs and came into a hallway. Suddenly, the keep shook again and mass amounts of debis fell infront of them, blocking their path. "Damn it! That dragon doesn't give up easily." Ralof said exasperated. Leon looked to the door on their left. "Guess we take the detour." They entered what looked like a storeroom. They encountered two more Imperial soldiers and took them out easily. Leon realished in the irony of using one of the Imperials' own weapons against them. As they sheathed their weapons, Ralof spoke. "An old storeroom. See if you can find some potions. We might need them." "Check" Leon responded. After searching the Imperials, he found some sort of pack on one of them. He wondered if this was the kind of pack the main character of the game had to carry his/her stuff around. He also had to wonder how they were able to hold so many items, big and small. He assumed it was magic or something and left it at that.
He walked around the room, grabing whatever he could. Most were minor level potions and some alto wine bottles. Satisfied, he returned to Ralof who was waiting for him by another door that lead back into the hallway. "Done then? Let's go." As the duo continued there decent into the keep, they heard the sounds of battle not far from where they were. They quickened their pace and came to another. Ralof couldn't surpress the gasp that escaped him. "Shor's bones...it's a tourture room!" Leon was more focussed on what was happening in front of them. Two Imperials were engaged in battle with two Stormcloak soldiers. From the looks of it, the Stormcloaks were loosing. "Shit, they're in trouble. Let's go!" Leon shouted as he and Ralof charged forward, weapons ready.
The Imperial executioner was about to blast another stream of lightning at the rebels when a sout cought his ear. He turned in time to see Leon charging at him. He tried to cast his Spark spell at him, but in one quick strike, Leon severed one of his hands. The executioner screamed in pain, but Leon wasted no time and jabbed his sword upward, colliding with the man's chin and the tip of the blade exited throught the top of his skull. In a fluid motion, Leon removed his sword from the executioner's skull and swipped the sword in the air, causing the blood to shoot off to the floor. Ralof took advantege of the other Imperial's distraction and brought his axe down on him in a savage blow. With both enemies dead, Leon looked up at the two Stormcloaks. The female was scratched in a few places, but nothing serious. The male however diddn't look so good.
"Was Jarl Ulfric with you?" Ralof asked the female as Leon went over to the injured male, dug into his pack and pulled out a minor healing potion and offered it to him. With an appreciative nod, the soldier took the potion and quickly drank it. Most of his wounds healed, though a few minor ones were still present. Still, he was battle ready again. "No. I havin't seen him since the dragon attacked." the female Stormcloak said. Ralof then ran over to one of the cages. "Wait a minute. Looks like there is something behind that cage." Leon walked over and peered inside. There was a dead novice mage inside. Next to him was a spell book, a couple of minor restore magicka potions and a few scattered gold coins. Ralof tried to open the cage door, but it was locked. "Ahh...locked." He turned to Leon and gave him a few lockpicks. "See if you can get it open with some picks. We might need that gold once we get out. Grab anything useful and let's go." Ralof then ran ahead with the other two Stormcloaks. Leon then went to work on the lock. As he worked, he had already broken half the lockpicks Ralof gave him before finally getting it open. "This is a lot harder in real life than in the game. And this lock was only Novice level." he thought.
The first thing that his eyes were focused on after opening the cage door was the spell book. He knew it contained the Novice level Destruction spell Spark. He wondered that since he was here in his game, could he do magic? "That'd be SO badass if I could. But I bet it's a lot more complicated than in the game. Do I even possess any magicka? Well, talking to myself in my head isn't gonna get me anywhere. Guess there's only one way to find out." He picked up the book and opened it. He then felt this tingly feeling in his head, as though the book itself was filling it with it's knowledge. The book then began to crackle for a moment, then in a flash, turned to dust in Leon's hands. Just like that, Leon had knowledge of the Spark spell deep within his mind. "Wow. You really DO learn the spells just by reading the books! Maby it's not as complicated as I thought."
Of course, learning a spell and actually casting it were two different things, Leon realized. He decided to try it out now. He looked at his left hand and concentrated, trying to "equip" the spell in his hand. Then surprisingly, lightning sparks now danced about in his hand. Next, he shot his hand forward and wasin't dissapointed when a stream of lightning started shooting from his hand. He pulled back and it stopped. He looked at his hand in astonishment. "Badass!" He could use magic! Then in all the excitment, he remembered that Ralof was waiting for him up ahead probably wondering what was taking him so long. Leon quickly gathered the potions, gold, and coinpurse from the dead mage and hurried down the path to catch up with his friend.
To be continued...