The Pink Haired Pirate: An Old Norse Saying
Rated: M for language, future mature themes, violence
Warnings: Spoiler alert for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
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The journey was continued in relative silence and yes, they have been ignoring Citrus' annoying habit of chewing boots the whole time. A Clannfear had rather huge and sharp teeth, so a pair didn't last him long. At first, Sakura had to leave a small sum of coins for the bergamot orchard owner, so he could buy a new pair.
And then, he had all the boots in the world to chew on after they raided that bandit camp. It was funny how their last words were 'Never should have come here!' or 'Prepare to die!'
And no matter how righteous could Marcurio act sometimes, he was pretty damn brutal, burning people alive. 'Hypocritical fuck.' Sakura muttered, before being shoved to the side.
"I heard that." Marcurio did nothing more but hand Sakura the map to Sancre Tor, as he peeled open another bergamot, and take a full bite of that horrifyingly bitter fruit. It made her visibly flinch, but she stepped to man the map nonetheless.
"We are not very far away. But Sancre Tor used to be a citadel, right? Supposedly impenetrable-"
"Unless you know where to look." Marcurio finished the sentence for her. He pulled out a scroll and sat down on a rock. Sakura immediately hopped on next to him. It was an accurate depiction of the Citadel, standing on high and almost unscalable cliffs. On top of that, there was no entrance. No gate, no concealed hidden passage... nothing. Nothing that could be seen, anyway.
"This looks like it will be some trouble. And if you don't get back to Arena back in time... if your brother doesn't kill you, then the slave driver will. And if he doesn't either, you will be hunted by the entire Cyrodiilic Underworld connection. Including your brother. There's only so much that can get away with a family pass."
Sakura pulled out the book she has gotten as a gift just a few hours earlier. She flipped it open. "I'm not letting you go in by yourself. I want to see the gauntlet too. It's a tomb after all; who knows what kind of traps they set up. And by they I mean the original builders."
"They must have been set off, Sakura. We are not the only ones to head for the tomb and we're certainly not the last. There has been the Champion who retrieved Tiber Septim's armor, and after the Blades disbanded, it has become a hotspot for raiders and bandits. Those assholes must have run the place dry." Marcurio did get a look from his pink-haired companion. 'The Legendary Sancre Tor' offered a nice enough description of the former citadel, including a detailed version of General Talos' attack strategy. The Cyrodiilic army was a stain compared to the legion of seasoned Nord warriors and Breton battlemages, and yet they suffered a rather embarrassing loss and most Breton nobles were enslaved.
Whatever magical barriers they erected must have been destroyed ages ago.
"Either way." Sakura brushed him off. "I guess it means we'll have to escalate the whole place. It will be a piece of cake for me- not to sound too arrogant, but how's your chakra climbing skills?"
Marcurio rolled his eyes. "Tora showed me a few things. In her own words, my control is pretty good. So I should be fine walking up a damn cliff.
"Trust him, Sakura-san." Tora was currently curling on top of his head. "As long as you two keep your old married couple banters for after the mission, you'll be alright." She heard him snort.
Sakura stared at Tora for a few minutes. "Damn. Look, Tora-san. We have spent so many genin missions looking to capture you... it's so strange to hear you talk. And it's so strange to see you without that red bow." She replied, truthfully. Tora visibly shuddered but didn't seem to have any hard feelings for her or her team. Or most genin teams. 'Capturing Tora' was a mission that went on for ages, from generation to generation, and the cat never seemed to suffer from old age as others might expect. It was strange how nobody questioned it.
Though the years of chasing while in the Fire Daimyo's wife's possession, trained her quite a lot and kept her in shape. She was a nin-cat, she could evade that woman even with her eyes closed. But when teams of ninjas were sent to retrieve her too... it was more than a simple civilian chasing after a cat.
"Do not fret, Sakura-san. All that matters is that Ponytail freed me." Hearing her purr, Marcurio did raise a hand to his head, to gently pet her under her chin. And Sakura smiled just a bit, before getting up.
"Let's head out, then. We'll climb up the wall and drop some nasty business on their asses." She grinned widely and walked ahead. Marcurio followed suit, picking up the book Sakura has almost forgotten.
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"You know..." Marcurio panted. "There was a dirt path. Down there. Right down-fucking there." He was climbing up the mountain, all the way up to the cliffs. "We could have taken THAT. I'm an apprentice wizard, not a mountain goat. Like you." He moved his head to the left, to avoid a well-intended pebble aimed for his face. He was climbing an almost vertical slope, that was infinitely made easier with the chakra-adhesive techniques, but he had yet to master to technique and walk up the wall like an evening stroll in a park.
"Practice a bit more and you'll become a mountain goat too. You seem to be averse to piggyback rides so you'd better grasp it for yourself as well." Sakura sassed him. Good news, they only had a bit of climbing left.
"Of course I'm averse to it! I don't trust you to carry us both, you almost fell. WE almost fell."
He avoided another pebble.
His only view was her ankles and was completely relieved when they disappeared. They finally made it on top of the cliff, and a wall of rundown cobblestone wall blocked their path. Sakura turned to him, motioning him to keep quiet, as she leaped and silently climbed up the towel. There was a single guard, that didn't even see her coming. Sakura pounced, tackled him down, and knocked him out with a single pressure point touched by a needle.
Soon after, Tora and Marcurio showed up, and he used his staff to spawn Citrus right among them. He was left at the mountain base, because he was not the best climber, and was too heavy to carry.
Citrus wanted to let out a happy screech, but Sakura immediately closed his muzzle with her hands, stroking it. "Shhhh, boy. We sneaking now. We have to be stealthy, okay?"
His pupils enlarged, and Citrus let out a softer guttural sound. Then, Sakura let him go. "Good boy."
Sakura spots a trap door, and she figured it might be their best bet to reach inside the keep. Even if it did not lead to the tomb itself, but it mostly leads to the courtyard. She pried it open and motioned them to come closer.
"Come on Marcurio, ladies first- ." She giggled and could see him roll his eyes for a second before she was shoved down the ladder. She gasped, but she landed on her feet.
"Hey!"
"You're a ninja, aren't you supposed to fall from even higher cliffs?"
Marcurio dropped down right after her, with Tora, and catching the Clannfear with a groan. "Ow, my spleen..."
Citrus started sniffing around, almost like a hound dog, for human and less human presence. The tower was completely empty, save for mini frostbite spiders and a lone skeleton sitting in a chair, at a round wooden table. There was a chest of loot beside, but they both have silently agreed that finding the relic was the main and most important objective.
There was an unfinished Cyrodiilic chess game on the table, with the pieces all scrambled around, and Sakura could guess whoever was playing with the red pieces, they were very close to losing. About two or three moves and the game would be over.
There was nothing worth noting, really. They just headed for the door. Until it slammed open, and out of nowhere, bony hands locked around their wrists.
"What the-" Sakura trashed, and has seen Marcurio do the same, while Citrus was being immobilized by two skeletons that like came outta nowhere. The chattery jaw cackled a little too close to her face for her liking.
"Necromancers! Of course! Tora!" He yelled. Tora was caught together with Citrus. Several robed men flooded the tower. They parted and allowed a lanky man in deep purple robes to follow through. He seemed to be in his late 30s, an Imperial through and through. The Tamrielic mages were unable to hide their might, power, and reserves, so Sakura could feel his magic radiate in waves. There was an odd warmth to it, kind of like you would feel when you were given a heartfelt hug. And no matter how dire the situation was... Sakura felt oddly calm, and peaceful. Like she couldn't raise a hand against the wizard holding them captive. What was he doing?
Her musing was broken by Marcurio's rather passionate declarations of pain-inducing promises, and that was almost new for her to witness.
"You're going to draw your last breath if you don't free us now, you heard me?!" He snarled. As a result, the grip on his wrists tightened. Marcurio visibly flinched, mostly in discomfort rather than pain.
Sakura, instead, waited. "So let me guess. No bandits. Just you, necromancers, and someone happened to have fed the Dean a few lies regarding a stolen package."
The man chuckled and walked closer, completely ignoring the other three captives. He grabbed her chin and turned her head around. "Perceptive little thing, aren't you?"
White steam started to rise from her chin, as her own nature chakra she was overheating her skin. The man's face shifted in pain, grimacing.
His hand dropped and recoiled like it has touched a hot pot in the oven. He shook it. "Seems you are full of surprises, little spitfire. Master will love his new puppet, once he's done with you. He just has to break you in, and then you'll be perfect." The man took a step back.
"Apprentices!" His stern command turned to the mages that awaited by his side. They immediately straightened their backs, in an almost mechanical manner. "You know what to do." And simultaneously, they rose their hands to form the exact same spell in sync.
"Do not think that just because my hands are tied by your bony little friends, I need them to kick your ass." Sakura's cheeks puffed. But not in a pouty, comical manner. Marcurio averted his eyes.
The door was blown away, along with the strange man and his thralls. He has made a last-second shield and saw the hostages elbow and crack through a skeleton's bone before running away, cat and Clannfear on their tail.
"What are you looking at, you useless meat puppets! Follow them!" He barked, and the young necromancers picked themselves up from the ground and started running. A blonde woman wearing a blank expression caught up to them, constantly shaping ice spikes and pinning after them.
"Come on, Marcurio, run!" Sakura ran right through the dining room of the keep and didn't do much but flip the entire table to buy them time.
"Hey!"
"I'm running, you damn pink-haired devil. I am RUNNING!"
They stopped behind a wall. They saw their shadows passing them, so they could allow themselves to exhale, relieved.
"Have you seen those guys?" Sakura whispered. "They looked so... lifeless. But not actually dead." She could briefly see something like a blue, glowing layer over their pupils, kind of like a cataract. If anything, they looked mostly soulless than something else. Kinda like the Draugr... but with intact bodies.
Marcurio nodded. "I did. It's like... their souls were trapped in soul gems. But they weren't killed for it. Do you know? Kinda like..."
"Dragur." They both said at the same time. They panted softly.
"Yeah. Makes me wonder if that's how Draugr was made. Nords enslaved or willing to live on at the price of their soul, to serve their dragon masters..."
Marcurio saw the bothered look on her face. "Don't think about it. Let's just focus on finding the Wraithguard. And getting you back to the Capital in time. Luckily, you get to fight pretty late." They nodded to each other, and Sakura peeked her head out. Her Sharingan was glowing.
"The way is clear."
Citrus, however, started to growl out of nowhere. He let out a loud screech and ran out of their hiding spot. Sakura felt the color draining away from her face, and so did Marcurio. And Tora would facepalm if she had any palms.
"Citrus, no-"
"There they are!" The strange purple man charged forward.
But Citrus had other plans. He charged straight forward and jumped, biting and snapping in half the neck of a younger necromancer, shielding his master. Neither Sakura nor Marcurio could move an inch, as the body fell down and the head rolled down at their feet.
The others pounced right onto the lizard, seeing it as the immediate threat.
"Citrus..." Sakura whispered as Marcurio tugged at her wrist.
"There you are, you two!" The man's hands charged.
"Let's move!" Sakura was dragged away, dodging the fireballs, as they headed deeper inside the fortress. Marcurio left behind several blazing runes, and it seemed that the man much less set off quite a few. All Sakura could hear was the explosions and Citrus' wails that felt like a punch to her gut.
Everything was alright. Daedra don't die. Daedra respawn. But they never die. And that thought kept her running away, keeping in mind her goal, and not charging right through her death because that strange man didn't seem to be fazed at all. Not hurt, and certainly more annoyed than anything else.
But after several turns, the halls seemed to have ended. And yet, there was no sign of the Wraithguard. Or a passage that might lead underground, because magical signatures existed for sure in the depths of the tomb. The poorly lit halls by candles and torches all lead to a single dead end. And the man in long purple robes finally caught up to them, without manifesting a single sign of exhaustion. Tora was burying herself in Marcurio's collar.
"You know, you two happen to be less clever than I expected you would be." He replied, smoothly.
"What the hell was that supposed to mean?!" The fire grew much larger in Marcurio's hands, fueled by anger. He stepped forward and shot all he had. All the fire that he could muster. Then, seeing as they had no choice but to tackle him head-on, Sakura jumped into the smoke.
"CHAAA!" She cried out, jumping and flashing forward.
The plan was not to leave him to recover at all. Sakura's right arm turned a shade of obsidian black, with a typical red undertone, just like her Captain would do, and charged forward with a fist filled with chakra to the brim, and pinpointed in an exact location, ready to be expelled at once.
But she did not hit flesh, fabric, or anything humanlike.
The man was smiling, as his hand was expanding a blue, transparent barrier. The smoke vanished, and Sakura was forcing her fist through the mana field. She was pushing. Mid-air. And the veins inside her arm and around her temples were becoming all more prominent.
That smile dropped into a small frown when the barrier cracked, and he didn't have much time to react when the fist collided right with his jaw.
Sakura felt a satisfactory smirk pull at her lips at the sickening crack of the skull and sent him flying right through a wall. The body planted right through the bricks and even more than leaving a deep indent, judging by the damage and cracks it formed around.
But necromancers started to run from left and right, and Marcurio ran right back to her side. "Sakura, that was..." He stopped himself and cleared his throat. "That was acceptable."
Sakura walked closer to the wall, and the thralls seemed to stop. Something moved inside the crack, making her take a step back.
"No..."
A guttural cough echoed from the rubble. "That hurt a bit. It's been a while since someone has managed to land a hit on me. Kudos for that."
That was not a man. Or at least, not anymore. The tanned skin of the Imperial peeled off right from the skull, revealing empty eye holes. Like the body was nothing but a human tissue costume, worn by the skeleton. And now that it was damaged, the raspy voice was no longer gentle and calm. It reminded her of the Draugr and the way they spoke solely in Dragon Language.
"What ... are you?" It was not just a skeleton. Skeletons were dumb, weak, and feeble. They were solely controlled by their necromancer masters and did their bidding.
"You're a lich," Marcurio remarked, and the undead felt the need to smile; a picture that looked horrifying with half of its face missing.
The lich clapped. "Very good, young Motierre. You two should have stayed away if you would have valued your own lives. What drove you here? Curiosity? Greed? Arrogance? The simple rumor of a Dwarven artifact? There has never been a gauntlet in the first place, but your mortal teachers are so naive and incredibly lost. It's almost sad. But do not fret-"
He rose his hands, and well... something happened. It was ancient magic maybe. Something so ancient that not even her advanced eyes could keep up with.
"Sakura..." Marcurio fell to his knees, and he immediately felt her hands wrapping around his arm, trying to pull him up.
"Get up, we don't have much time..." Her knees gave up under her as well. Her eyes shut tight, burying her face in his shoulder.
And when both of them were down, the Lich motioned two thralls to come over. "Your bodies will do good. They will do very well, and again, the Master will be pleased."
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A/N: Finally. It's over. It's been a while, again, but I needed time to contemplate what was going to happen in this arc. I thought of a few stuff and I don't really want to spoil. But, it will be fun. I guess?
Yeah, I suck with fighting scenes. I know. Is there a way you guys know how can I improve?
But honestly, this is it. Really. Nothing interesting. Because it's late and I have to write a bit more. I overcomplicated the Cyrodiil arc but I'm not planning to leave it unfinished or scrap it altogether.
I've still been getting a bunch of follows lately, and I must really thank you for that. I appreciate it. :) Okay, that's it.
Cheers!