Disclaimer: I don not own either Percy Jackson or TES
AN: For anyone wondering Njal is going to be based off of the Elder Scrolls lore. Which if you read and look into you can find that the TES universe is a very ridiculous place, with people able to break the fourth wall and take over the game, and with people who can casually raise an army of the dead. Now due to being not only Dragonborn, Njal is also a warrior/ mage combo I have had to put in personal restraints for him. In other words he won't instant kill every opponent he has because, as a warrior there is no honor in that. Now he won't become someone who refuses to use any of their power, but he won't start off with ripping his opponents souls out of their body or many other one hit kill things that magic would do.
A side Note: Does anyone have any idea on how the attribute system in the games scale to in RL? Because I wanted to incorporate it more but I have no clear idea on how it would function. Like at 40 athletics you can out run 30 mph deer as a joke and don't even get me started on the whole jumping across and on the water thing. Anyways if anyone had an good idea on that scaling, please message me about it. Now, on with the chapter.
A Few Days Later
Life for Percy had taken a turn for the better after he arrived at the Stormcrown residence. Not only did he get to see his friend/ rival Annabeth and her sister, who despite finding scary, he got along well with. But he and his mom were free from Smelly Gabe and his jerkiness. Plus him and his mom were talking about going to his favorite beach in Montauk. When Annabeth and Katie found out about the trip they had wondered if they could go as well. While initially he was not so keen on the idea, since it would be good quality time with his mother, he had since changed his mind when the two girls cornered him and guilt tripped him. Stupid sob stories about getting kicked out of school and how their lives would go down the hole. He knew it was a lie but his good guy side would not let him say no. He wished he was more like Njal in that regard, though his mom had said that would be bad since she believes Njal has some psychopathic traits or whatever. Some big word that meant something he didn't know. Anyways what was important was that the entire group was crammed into Njal's truck and on their way to the beach.
"Are we there yet?" Katie whined. They had been driving an hour out of a two hour and thirty minute drive.
"Katie, honey, if you start with that I am driving us off a cliff." Njal told his youngest. Eh, resurrection was always an option in case he had to follow through with his threat.
"Please don't dad." Annabeth said from the spot to the left of Katie. She really did not want to die because her dad had to follow through on a threat. Plus coming back as a zombie would not be fun.
"Um, it's not that far of a drive." Percy told Katie as he looked over at her. Really it wasn't, he guessed she was just impatient. Not that he realized he was about as impatient as she was, he just could hide it better than she could.
"Percy is right, its only an hour more." Sally chimed in, calming down Katie, if only for the time being.
"There now let me drive." Njal muttered. While he did not age, that did not mean he hadn't gained some old man like qualities, like mumbling to himself. The rest of the drive passed rather uneventfully as they came to the south shore of Long Island. The group pulled up to a cabin near the beach and got out of the truck and began to unload their luggage into the cabin. The children quickly changed into swimming suits and raced to the beach. Njal and Sally simply sat on the sand and watched their respective kids have fun. Katie had challenged Percy to a swim race, which she was destroyed in.
"So, I take it Percy's father is Poseidon?" Njal whispered over to Sally, as she looked at him surprised.
"How can you tell that from simply seeing him swim? He could just be a strong swimmer." She tried to avoid the topic as she wanted to keep Percy far away from that world.
"A. you just gave it away, and B. Tis more than him simply being a strong swimmer, it's the fact that he appears to be more at home in the water than on dry land and that the list of children of male gods that look like he does is very short. So it is a basic observation." Njal explained to Sally. She looked at him for a few seconds then looked back at the kids on the beach.
"You know, despite having moments where I question your ability to think, you are a lot smarter than you look." She back handley complemented. Njal let out a laugh and smiled.
"Well glad to see that my stature has disalluded you." He spoke. Sally simply raised an eyebrow at him and waited for him to continue. Njal smiled and looked upward as he elaborated.
"Tis easy to be smarter than you look. The trick is to make it seem that you are dumber than you look. Any fool can calculate strength, but what kills is when the do not calculate what they can't see. " Njal spoke sagely. He stared out into space as he remembered his days of exploring Nirn and going through life there. Learning ancient languages and magics, finding new items and weapons thought lost to the ages, slaying man and beast alike in uncountable numbers, waging a war against an enemy he hated with every fiber of his being, razing that enemy's army and home near singlehandedly.
He may have much more reckless in his youth but that recklessness had given him an advantage over most of his enemies. He was not afraid of taking a blow, or death for that matter. And though in the grand scheme of ageless and immortal beings he would be quite young, he had accomplished, achieved, and learned much more than most of them had.
That experience was what made him so deadly now, he could not only go toe to toe with the strongest warriors and win, but he could turn them to ash, break their minds, incinerate them with fire and lightning, have them ripped apart by demons and creatures made from the elements themselves, transmute their flesh into any material he wished, steal their life force for his own, absorb their skills, abilities, and attributes, and much more violent and nonviolent means all with the wave of his hand. His voice could lay waste to cities and even gods. He possessed so much of this power that he could use to rule this world and smite what ever enemies he had, and it would be so easy. Some mind control here, a tornado there, and an army of summoned creatures to top it all off. The mortals would have no chance to stop him.
Which is exactly why he wouldn't. Their would be no challenge in the fight, no honor in it, no learning from it, it would remove the point of fighting. That was something he would not have, a Nord prizes the fight most of all, the feel and rush of combat and the glory of slaying your opponent and claiming their heads as a trophy. He would not give that up. Not for something stupid and irrelevant as world domination. If Shadow Magic had taught him anything it was that the Multiverses expansiveness allowed for you to see every 'what if' scenario that you would have. He could see why Shadow Magic was rumored to be as strong as the Elder Scrolls themselves, it gave him power over the past, present, and future through the shadows of the world. And what he saw, he did not always like. He learned he could be a real evil bastard if he put his mind to it from them.
"Hey dad! We are going inside for some lunch." Annabeth's voice broke Njal from his inner thoughts as she saw that everyone was walking towards the cabin. He smiled as he was reminded of what he would now never give up, his daughters. Standing and walking over to the cabin he was treated to Sally making some blue food….for some reason and Percy explaining the context to Annabeth and Katie. He sat at the table, the chair being very small for him, and looked around with a small smile. Yeah, life was good.
Detective Mike was standing in a dark room with a single light shining in the middle. Under that light was a beaten up Russian mobster that he had tracked down and tied to a chair. The man had connections to the Dark Brotherhood, he would tell him everything, then he would die.
"The sooner you tell me what I want, the sooner this is over with." He told the half dead Russian. The man painfully looked up at him and spat some blood on his suit.
"Go to hell." The man replied. Mike's hand came alive with lightning as the man received several volts of electricity passed through the man. His scream would have reached the street if not for the fact that Mike had put up a silencing enchantment in the room. No sound got out.
"Would you like to answer again?" Mike asked blankly staring at the spasming man.
"Aghh! DA! I'll talk!" The man let out as the electricity slowly stopped. Mike motioned for the man to proceed.
"There is a number we call, a voice answers it, I don't know who it is or where they are. They just tell us what to do." The man spilled out. Mike stared at him and reached into the guys coat pocket and grabbed the cell phone.
"Which one?" Mike asked as he pointed to the contact list. The man made a head gesture towards the number that the man interrogating him wanted. Mike dialed the number and held the phone to the man's ear. He heard the man answer a question with one of the Brotherhood's passwords and took the phone and placed it to his ear.
"What do you want?" The voice said.
"Purification. Sithis demands your souls be taken to the void." Mike simply stated as he disintegrated the Russian with a fire bolt.
"...Who is this?" The voice calmly asked.
"Your doom. Just thought you should know." Mike told the voice before hanging up on it. Making an about face another light came on in the room as a shadow figure with a hood on his head sat behind a desk at the far end of the room.
"We traced the call, go brother and bring me their heads." The figure spoke. Mike bowed his head and replied.
"Yes, Listener." And left to go carry out his task for the glory of the Dread Father.
Njal and company were currently around a campfire as the day was winding down to an end. Each member of the group had s'mores and a soda as they sat around telling stories. Eventually Percy had asked his mom about his father, which made the light mood turn very awkward. Sally told him how his father was lost at sea and that they had only spent a summer together. Percy seemed to become saddened at this but Annabeth and Katie brought up how they never met their mothers as well. Seeing as how everyone was talking about their parental issues at the moment Njal decided to share his.
"My mother and father both died when I was…...four if I remember correctly." Njal shared as everyone stared at him now.
"You never told us about that." Annabeth said to him as her and Katie had never heard their father talk about his life. He mentioned things he learned, but never details on his life.
"They are dead. It would be of little relevance." He explained. The group still looked at him, not liking the explanation.
"Um…...wouldn't talking about it help?" Percy asked Njal. He had never meet his dad, but he had his mother. Njal had neither from the age of four on. That had to suck.
"In the culture I come from death is natural, and most of my people are...accustomed to it. So no, talking would not help." Njal reaffirmed. There was an awkward silence for about ten seconds until Sally spoke up.
"Well on that happy note why don't we go to sleep? We can still have fun in the morning." She asked the group. The younger ones nodded and began to get up and go to their respective rooms. Njal simply sat there by the fire staring into it. Sally looked at him concerned, and when he noticed he smiled and waved her off.
"I'll be fine. I just want to enjoy the night a bit longer." Njal told her. Sally stared at him for a bit and then walked into the cabin, leaving Njal alone. Hearing thunder clouds rumbling in the distance he looked up to see a storm heading his way.
"I have no intention of picking a fight tonight with you Zeus. Instead I pose a question to you. I have been reminisce in all the death that has surrounded me. I find that it builds character, as you don't know what kind of killer you are until you take a good long look at what you have done. I will admit, I have done many…...questionable things. I have killed tens of thousands for merely being in my way, yet where I should feel…...pity or regret, I feel only…...vindication." Njal spoke to the clouds as they seemed to halt for a moment to listen.
"I feel that all of my actions are justified because they ultimately lead to the ending of the Aldmeri Dominion. You have no clue what that is but to summarize, they are nazi elves. Now, I know that most of my body count is unrelated to them, but I feel that every kill I ever committed aided me in ending them. Whether it was to gain experience in a form of fighting or to obtain a new tool to use against them all of my kills had purpose. Can you say the same?" He asked the sky as it seemed to stay still in response. Taking that as no answer Njal stood up, blew out the fire with a gust of wind, and calmly proceeded to walk into the cabin. He had not expected an answer, but the silence was still upsetting.
Several hours later
Percy had just awoken from one of the strangest dreams he had ever had. He was on a beach at night during a storm as an eagle and a stallion fought back and forth. He had ran to intervene but then a massive and vibrantly colored dragon had flown over the two and roared over them, causing them to separate. The dragon had then turned back towards the two and let out another roar as it dove towards them. Then he woke up. There was a massive storm brewing outside as the sea and sky were once more at war with each other. Percy jumped a bit as he heard knocking on the cabin's door. He walked out into the hall and saw that everyone else was up as well. His mom opened the door to reveal his best friend Grover Underwood standing there, in the rain, without pants on. That was not the weird part though, no the weird part was that Grover was a goat from the waist down.
"Grover? What are you doing here man?" Percy asked as he walked towards Grover.
"*Huff, huff, huff* Why didn't you wait for me? It's not safe here, especially with what happened at the museum. We have to leave now!" Grover said in between breathes. Sall looked over at Percy with a concerned look.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Uh….my math teacher turned into a monster?" Percy answered questionably. The sound of a hand slapping a face and the murmuring of the word 'idiot' could be heard from Annabeth. His mother's eyes widened as she told him to go pack his things as they needed to leave.
"What kind of monster?" Njal curiously asked after telling his daughters to pack as well since apparently, they were leaving.
"Some weird bat thing." Percy told him.
"Sounds fun." Njal replied with a smile. Percy simply raised an eyebrow and slowly backed away into his room. After everyone had very quickly grabbed their things, everyone piled into Njal's truck, with Sally taking the wheel. The back had become rather cramped with four people tightly sitting next to one another.
"Where are we going?" Katie tiredly asked from the back. Sally had responded that there was a camp for people like the children which made Annabeth look to her father.
"There is a camp for demigods?" She asked. Njal nodded in confirmation.
"Why did we never go?" Annabeth inquired to her dad. This was news to her and Katie. And Percy as well but he knew nothing about this however while they had a general idea.
"No point. It would teach you how to protect yourself, which I did instead." Njal explained to his oldest. Percy then began to ask a million questions to his mother like, how she knew Grover, how long had Katie and Annabeth known about this sort of thing, and why he was not allowed to go before this moment. Before she could answer however the car was hit by something and flipped into a ditch. Everyone besides Njal was groggy and confused, while he merely looked incredibly pissed.
"Did he just hit my truck with a lightning bolt?" Njal asked himself. Growling slightly Njal startled everyone when he kicked the passenger door off of the truck and went outside and began screaming at the sky.
"Duraal lok rah! Zu'u fen oblaan hi!" He yelled at the sky. The sky rumbled in response as Njal yelled three words.
"Lok Vah Koor!" As those words left Njal's lips the stormy sky vanished and was replaced with a much calmer night sky. The rest of the group crawled out of the car and looked at Njal with wide eyes. Their shock was soon broken as a very loud mooing sound. They all turned around to see a massive figure standing across the field. The figure had to body of a very muscular man but the head of a bull. Njal began to cackle as he recognized the figure of a Minotaur.
"Is that a-" Percy began but was cut off by his mom.
"Don't say its name. Names have power." She said quietly. Njal, who had began walking towards the creature stopped and gave Sally a confused look.
"Names only have power if you let them. By not saying the Minotaur's name you are giving it more power. In other words, I will call whatever I encounter by it's name." He said with a condescending tone. He did not like it when people became too afraid to say a simple name.
"Sally, take the kids to the camp. I have to be reintroduced with an old punching bag of mine." Njal said with a massive and feral smile as he began to sprint at an unreal speed towards the monster. Annabeth merely deadpanned and Katie looked like she wanted to go with, but was being held by the back of her shirt by her sister. Sally then told everyone where to run to, as the group began to move away from the incoming brawl.
The Minotaur smelt an interesting and powerful smell sprinting towards him at a very fast rate. Letting out another moo, it began to charge as well. When both Nord and Minotaur meet in the collision, the surrounding air burst as Njal's punch and the Minotaurs connected. The monster though was pushed back as Njal then increased his strength behind the blow. Sliding a bit the monster let out a roar and swung at Njal. The Nord in return grabbed the arm of the creature and transferred its force into a throw across the field. Landing with a thud and denting the ground the Minotaur stood back up only to receive a right hook to the head. This opponent of it's was far stronger than it had initially thought.
Reaching out and grabbing Njal, the monster then threw him into a nearby tree, causing it to collapse. Njal let out a snarl as he then dashed back into the Minotaur with even more force. He tackled it back into the ground and grabbed both of its horns. He began to pull in opposite directions as he rambled like a mad man to the creature's face.
" Zu'u los luviik, Zu'u los graaziik. Zu'u los dovah do brom! Ahrk hi los simply lot niraat. Nu dir ahrk fun vorey do hin eylok fos fen koros wah daar wo jur dovah! " As he finished his chant Njal violently pulled and watched as the Minotaurs head was ripped into two opposite directions. The creature let out one last pain filled cry as it then turned into golden dust. Letting out a battle cry of victory Njal screamed into the sky as he held both horns in his hands.
" Lok rah! Dreh hi koraav fos koros wah daar tol wahl zey niist hokoron? Dahmaan fos Zu'u nunon drey fah waan hi wahl zey hin paal, hi fen ofun daar riil dez." Njal yelled into the sky. The storm clouds had been slowly returning as the fight had progressed. Having the rain come back and begin to drench him Njal began to walk towards the scents of the others. When he got there though Percy and his daughters had looks of horror on their faces.
"What?" He inquired. Percy looked Shell Shocked so Katie answered.
"Miss Jackson just disappeared in a golden dust when a shadow came alive and consumed her." She told her father. Njal's eyes narrowed as now someone one had given him plenty of reason to end their existence. And he knew only one god that controlled shadows. Hades, King of the Underworld would pay.