What was she witnessing right now?
"You ain't shit!"
Awooo- Boom!
"Yo' ugly ass mama ain't shit!"
Awooo- Boom!
"Yo' daddy ain't shit!"
Awooo- Boom!
"Yo' Dragon ain't shit!"
Awooo- Boom!
"Yo' drip ain't shit!"
Awooo- Boom!
"When a skeever looks at you, that bitch gon' think; 'Man, I'm more handsome than this motherfucker!'"
Awooo- Boom!
This was abuse. Pure and quite literal abuse.
Leonidas was just throwing slurs and insults at the Dragon Priest, who is constantly forced on the defensive as Leonidas just… Conjures his explosive wolves, grabs them by the legs, then swings them like weapons at the Dragon Priests.
And makes them blow up at point blank.
Never before had she seen such an horrendous yet terrifying fighting style.
Nor heard so many vile insults be spewed one after the other in quick succession… But she shouldn't be surprised, as this is Leonidas after all.
Case in point-
"You damnable mongrel!
He had the composed Dragon Priest go crazy within the first minute.
Slap!
"Who the fuck you think you talkin' to?!" Aurelia gapes as Leonidas outright slaps the shit out of Krosis, "Should've learned from yo' mama! This what happens when ya talk back!"
Leonidas shouts before hopping to the side without care to dodge an enormous wave of rising ice spires. The way he just acted so unbothered and nonchalant despite the powerful opponent in front of him was both hilarious and… very attractive.
With a whistle, Leonidas gazes at the line of ice spires while rubbing his chin, "Having performance issues?" He asks, looking back at the trembling Dragon Priest, "You poor fucker… You got Erectile Dysfunction, huh?"
Aurelia wheezes, wanting to scream and cry and curse Leonidas for being so stupidly crude with his words-
"I am going to destroy you." The Dragon Priest growls out in a trembling voice filled to the brim with fury and hate.
Alas, Leonidas instantly fires back, "Bet you used to say that to the ladies." Aurelia starts punching the ground, her still silenced voice allowing her to scream freely, "Then they'd take one look at your crotch and burst out laughin'!"
Krosis twitches. The grip over his staff tightens to the point that the creak is very, very loud across the peak of the mountain.
"Why you shakin'? You mad?" Leonidas asks in a very honest confused voice, "Why you mad, then?" If the Dragon Priest still had a functioning body, Aurelia had no problems believing that he'd be suffering a seizure right now. "Have I offended you?"
Aurelia blinks when Leonidas turns towards her, "Have I said anything offensive towards him?" She gapes beneath her helmet, "I simply pointed out the things you must improve on! Which… Its your whole existence, but that's your problem to deal with."
Leonidas sighs and waves his staff, launching forward a massive wave of ice that collides against Krosis's own, the ungodly screech of pure madness coming out of the Dragon Priest now slightly muted from the two obstacles between them.
"I swear, people just can't take advice…" Her lovely yet insufferable friend sighs and approaches her, "Can you believe the guy? Resorting to violence when I am trying to help him out of the goodness of my kind and warm non-existent heart?"
Yes, and Sheoggorath is a very sane man.
Aurelia just stares flatly at Leonidas through her scaled helmet, but her stare does not faze the robed Undead, "Jokes aside… You alright?" Her hand comes up to point at her throat, then make a slitting gesture. "Can't talk? How… Doesn't matter. Can you fight?" She nods, having used the time Leonidas took to enrage Krosis to recover from the previous blow and her reserves.
Her sharp gaze locks on her friend through her helmet, a silent question in her eyes, one Leonidas swiftly gets, "Best way to win is to either wear him down… Or you hit him with all of your Holy Magic, at once." Yeah, the second plan sounded better. Problem is- "I could kill him if I bombard him, but I'd rather not risk damaging the Mask. It is very useful."
If Leonidas – the man who she now knows holds a massive library worth of knowledge within him – says that, then she can trust those words.
Picking herself up, Aurelia brandishes her sword and lets out a long breath of cold air as the ice that separates her and Leonidas from Krosis slowly shatters and collapses into fine, sparkling dust.
On the other side of the now destroyed wall of ice, was the floating masked Dragon Priest, the grip over his staff as tight as it could possibly be. "I have never met someone so… annoying, and infuriating. Never before did I want to kill someone so badly, and not raise them as a corpse afterward."
Leonidas, of course, perks up, "Why, thank you!" It's not a compliment, you dumbass! "He a nice guy, ain't he? Such a sweetie…" Aurelia gives her idiotic friend the flattest gaze ever.
Of course he can't take anything seriously.
"Yet, despite that… I am wary." The Dragon Priest next words stun Aurelia, "Something about you… It makes me nervous."
"So I shall not waste anymore time and give you no more lucky shots." Slowly, the Mask on the Dragon Priest's face lights up… The bright azure flames gush out of it in massive roaring waves, the very temperature dropping lower and lower as the flames cloak around Krosis and spread across the flat peak. "It seems I have slept for far too long, since even a worm can now make me use this."
The roaring azure flames gather behind Krosis, compressing together until it slowly takes the shape of a tall, slender humanoid female clad in black obsidian armor that contains the blinding glacial flames.
"Cold-Flame, huh?" Leonidas muses in interest, seemingly recognizing the azure flames before them. "Guess it's time to pull out the big guns then!"
Krosis sneers, the brilliant cold flames wrapping around him like a suit of armor, the feminine Atronach behind him floating around, twin fireballs conjured within her open palms. "I'll grant you the honor of listening to your final words." The Undead haughtily says, hovering above a conflagration of azure flames.
Leonidas hums and tilts his head, "A question then, if you will." The Dragon Priest remains silent, so her friend takes it as a cue to speak once more, "Who is Konahrik?"
Aurelia blinks in confusion at the name. 'Warlord', her faint knowledge of Dragon Language supplied.
Yet… Krosis falters, then outright freezes in what seems like outright horror.
Then, finally, her roars, "How do you know that name?!" His azure flames swell and roar with might, as if reacting to his rage and confusion.
Leonidas, of course, kindly answers his question with a very evil cackle, "That hoe of yo' mama told me!"
"You insolent wretch-" The Dragon Priest's furious words falter and sputter out.
Aurelia quivers, then shivers and starts shaking as her breathing becomes heavier.
Even with the azure flames dropping the temperatures of the already cold mountain down, she could still find the cold bearable, probably due to her increased strengths from absorbing Dragon Souls.
Yet… Now she felt like she had jumped into the depths of frozen ocean.
Her gaze turns towards Leonidas, dense frost covering his robes and staff and the ground beneath his feet. Snowflakes fell off his form, and a dense mist poured down around them like a thick curtain that made breathing way harder than it should be.
"Y-You…" Krosis trembling voice makes Aurelia's gaze snap towards him, and her already wide eyes widen even more as she witnesses something she never tough possible. "Just what the hell are you?"
An Undead… Was shivering from the cold.
"How can you make me fell cold!?"
The fearful and nervous roar from the Dragon Priest is met with a roaring cone of azure flames blasted from his staff and the floating Atronach behind him.
Leonidas merely swipes his staff across the air.
And the whole of Shearpoint quivers as a literal hurricane of glacial winds was hurled at Krosis, tearing stone and rocks apart and reducing them to frozen dust that scatters in the howling and screaming winds.
Aurelia doesn't waste a second in charging forward once the roaring and frozen winds die down, and her shoulder smashes straight through the frozen and cracked massive Ward with laughable ease.
Krosis hisses, wreathed in azure flames as if set alight, turns his head towards her while tilting his staff, conjuring roaring cold flames around the twisted purple gem at the top.
His Conjured Atronach does not stay still, both of her palms coming up to face her- Yet Aurelia slaps them out of the way and headbutts the Elemental, forcing it to stagger back while-
"The fuck you lookin' at?!" Aurelia's head turns just in time to see Leonidas drop kick Krosis in the head, flash freezing half of his masked face and robes and causing the Undead to miss the bolt of condensed azure flames aimed at her head.
A burst of laughter at the sight escapes Aurelia, which makes her realize the curse on her form has been lifted.
"Duck!" Leonidas calls out as he lands on his back, and Aurelia does so while launching herself forward, dodging the swipe of a blade made out of azure flames aimed at where her head used to be.
A glittering star sparkles to life on the tip of Leonidas's staff, and Aurelia outright jumps over the booming bolt as it piercing through the air and turns the conjured Atronach to sparks on impact.
"Blasted, useless thing!" Krosis curses, the azure flames around him growing fiercer and brighter.
Despite not having mastered it yet, or even having gotten it under good control, Aurelia clads herself in the sparkling Ward-Skin spell as the brilliance of Holy Light cloaks her blade.
A plan forms inside her head as she raises her greatsword, watching with narrowed eyes as Krosis floats back while conjuring another triple-layered Ward between her and his form.
So she takes in a deep breath, and- "FUS!" She roars out, a wave of ethereal energy crashing into the powerful barrier with immense force, enough so to displace the air and azure flames.
The first Ward gives way, and greatly cracks the second one.
Her slash turns into a stab, and the second Ward gives way, while her blade pierces deep into the third one.
A cold, cruel laugh comes from Krosis, his form no longer retreating as he conjures more azure flames above his staff.
Beneath her helmet, Aurelia smirks coldly as she draws back her left arm and stomps forward.
Her arm crashes through the Ward. Her blade drops to the ground.
Her fist reaches for Krosis's head- Then it opens, and her gauntlet-clad fingers latch onto his Mask- "NO-!"
And then she wrenches it back with a laugh, her gaze landing on the decayed face of the floating corpse before her.
The azure flames vanish within the blink of an eye, and she can feel Krosis start to panic and grow fearful.
He was too overconfident…
A clattering sound rings out behind her as Aurelia tosses the Mask away, then she blinks when Leonidas rushes past her- "Let's finish this shit the proper Nord way!" The robed man shouts as he delivers a terrifying uppercut to Krosis's chin, sending several rotten teeth flying.
Something inside Aurelia just… snaps, and she launches herself forward too, her own fist crashing against Krosis's left cheek with enough strength to deform his skull and shatter the remaining teeth.
The Dragon Priest staggers back, words try to leave his form, but Leonidas pounces forward once more with a cry of- "As I said before- You ain't shit!" And a punch to the face that pushes Krosis back once more soon follows.
A laugh bubbles out of Aurelia, her fist shattering the rotten scaled chestplate the floating Dragon Priest was wearing. "Yo' mama ain't shit!"
Huh…
That was her.
She shouted that.
Leonidas falters momentarily, seemingly staring at her with emotions she cannot understand before he too laughs out loudly.
Is this the first time she truly heard him laugh so heartily?
He sounded so… Nice.
"Yo' daddy ain't shit!"
Another punch. More hearty laughter.
"Yo' Dragon ain't shit!"
Aurelia felt so… free. So alive.
She hadn't felt like this in ages.
"Yo' drip ain't shit!"
And she started to feel like this while she was… Humiliating a powerful Undead.
And throwing insults at it.
She blames Leonidas.
"Yo'… Magic ain't shit!"
Yet, she also felt herself thank the lovable idiot.
She could only feel this way thanks to him.
Where would she even be without him?
"Hah! Good one!" Leonidas laughs a laugh that makes her heart flutter and her cheeks flush, then he downright drops kicks the beaten up Dragon Priest further back, "Yo' Mask ain't shit!"
Oh Gods…
"Yo'… I don't know what to say, but it's still shit!" She cries out as she chops down with her hand, ripping off the Dragon Priest's remaining arm with the staff clutched inside it.
She was falling for this idiot, wasn't she?
Rushing forward once more, Leonidas tosses her greatsword at her before slapping Krosis once- twice- thrice-
"Who told you to wear a green hat?!"
"A dog's fart is worth more than you!"
"I'd rather step on horse shit than look at you!"
"My Magic better!" Slap! "My drip better!" Slap! "My bitch's better!" Slap! "My dick's bigger!" Slap! "My staff's better!" Slap! "And finally-!"
Slap!
"Your army was a bigger headache than yo' bitch-ass!"
And with that final shouted insult, Leonidas jumps out of the way, allowing Krosis's stumbling and beaten, confused form to stare at the blinding sun roaring to life in front of him.
With a massive smile on her lips, Aurelia focuses and dumps all of her Magicka through her blade-
A roar of "Fuck your Ancestors to the eighteenth generation!" comes from behind her-
And then she lets loose all of her Holy Magic in a beam of purification aimed at the humiliated Undead.
"Let there be light!"
Night turned into day.
Clouds filled with lightning disperse, revealing the ocean of stars above.
A "Whooohooooo-!" howl comes from behind her as Aurelia laughs, and laughs, and laughs until she is crying.
The beam of platinum-gold light shoots off of Shearpoint peak and cuts straight towards High Hrothgar, smashing into the side of the distant mountain with a loud rumbling sound.
And as the beam came to an end, the only sound one could hear at the top of the mountain was the sound of laughter.
Aurelia's sword fell from her grasp, her hands coming to clutch her belly as she hunched over and fell on her knees, shoulders shaking from laughter.
And to make things worse, Leonidas swaggered over to the trench she left behind by erasing Krosis before 'spitting' on the ground. "Asta la vista, hijo the puta!"
While she couldn't understand what he said, it still made her laugh harder as she rolled on the ground.
"You alright over there?" Her wonderful friend calls out, her laughter slowly dying down as she breathes in and out, armored hands resting on the ground to help her stand up on shaky feet.
Once up, her arms instantly wrap around Leonidas's form. His feet are lifted off the ground, and she starts spinning the idiot around with a cheerful giggle, "Never felt better!" She cheers while Leonidas just hangs there, like a wet noodle.
"My pride as a man has been thoroughly destroyed and stepped on." His voice sounded so dead, making her giggle turn into full-blown laughter, "I am going to jump off the mountain. I swear."
With a grin under her helmet, Aurelia stops spinning and nods her head towards the discarded mask on the ground, "And give up the chance of obtaining that?"
And now Leonidas was somehow flying through the air and towards the Mask.
The woman blinks and looks at her arms, then at the man that just smashed into the ground with a "Yoink!" call- Then he started kicking his legs in the air while giggling like a kid.
Shaking her head fondly, Aurelia turns her head to stare down at the discarded staff on the ground and at the twisted gem on top of it… Before she brings her boot down on it and feels the Soul Gem become powder.
A very satisfied sigh leaves her lips at that moment.
"You know…" Leonidas speaks up, still laying on the ground, "I feel like I should take you to kill the Undead more often, if that's how happy it makes you."
Aurelia's heart flutters.
Should she consider this as an outing between a man and a woman?!
Oh Divines, she has no experience in this!
Aurelia would bashfully cup her flushed cheeks right now if she didn't have a helmet on. Instead, she settled for fidgeting shyly in place, "I-I'd like that…"
"Why you acting so bashful now…" Leonidas questions softly, sounding very confused from his spot on the ground, "Oh, right. There's a World Wall there."
Her form perks up, and her head turns towards the crescent moon shaped wall that somehow survived their battle.
What did Leonidas say a few moments ago?
Ah, right!
"Yoink!"
And to think she was worried that Krosis would be as terrifying as the monster sealed beneath Whiterun.
….
Somehow, Aurelia found herself actively joining the victory party, and even sharing a few drinks with those that offered it to her.
She had swiftly lost sight of Hildr, who started chasing Gretel after Leonidas told her to 'Turn into a werewolf and eat Nazeem's guts out' or something among those lines.
So now there was a young girl armed with a knife and pure feral energy asking around for a 'Nazeem' while her older sister chased after the smiling murderous brat.
As for Leonidas? He vanished after starting a brawl where he smashed the Jarl's head through a table, blamed Farengar for it, then kicked a random Nord soldier in the nuts, which kick-started the chaos that was… actually still going down inside Jorrvaskr.
There were bodies hanging out of holes in the wall, knocked out soldiers and Companions laying at the top of the overturned ship-roof, some even drifting in the waters of the canals circling the square.
And some hanging from trees… Which made her wonder if they found the hogtied Bosmer hanging from a tree Leonidas left behind in Riverwood.
The whole city was throwing a party, getting drunk, celebrating and mourning the dead in their own ways, and just shouting or cheering until they couldn't anymore before resorting to punching each other.
She was actually starting to quite enjoy this, she had to admit.
Now, if only she could find that idiot of her lovely friend before he caused further chaos just by existing…
Nursing her drink and wincing at how powerful the alcohol was, Aurelia looks around until finally, she spots the robed form of Leonidas.
She blinks when she noticed that Farengar of all people was before him, handing what looked like a letter to him before leaving.
Blinking, Aurelia makes her way over, nodding to the Court Mage as she walks past him.
"Leo!" She calls out, bright smile on her face, a strange desire to hold his hand lighting up inside of her, "Everything alright?"
Her smile falters when Leonidas hums as a response, then hands her the letter.
Taking it in her free hand, Aurelia's smile swiftly disappears.
Then her stomach drops.
It was an invitation to join the College of Winterhold.
"Oh…"
A.N. DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!
The power adorable couple shall finally split up since they met!
I hate it, but Aurelia must grow. Can't have her always rely on Leonidas.
Plus, this also lets me focus more on Hildr. I wanna flesh her out some more, as she'll be a recurring supportive character.
Also, if Krosis losing so easily is a bit of a turn-off.. Consider that he is the weakest Dragon Priest in the game, and that Leonidas was worried that he was scaled up compared to the game, while Aurelia feared that he was like Dinok, the dude under Whiterun.
Then, they were disappointed, and utterly humiliated him.
Also, I absolutely loved having Aurelia just go 'Fuck it!' and let Leonidas corruption take hold. Hope y'all liked that!
Also, if you all wish to read FIVE CHAPTERS ahead of this one, then hop on over to my and select the right tier to do so!
p at re on SamuraiCheem
Lots of love and hugs to y'all!
Toodles!