Chapter 7: Draugr, Demons, and Dragons, Oh My!
The following day, the party of five (as Solaire also tagged along), had now gone towards the Gustekan countryside to look for the Dragon Shrines around the area.
"Wow, this notepad the Greybeards gave me is amazing," Emilia said, as she kept analyzing the list of Shouts she was given before they left. "It lists every known Shout I'll be able to learn."
Subaru leaned over to have a look. "Does it also list what they do?"
Emilia nodded. "Mhm. There are some pretty self-explanatory ones, like Fire Breath, Frost Breath, and Storm Call, but there are also ones that are really weird, like Become Ethereal."
"Sounds like it makes you ethereal," Patches stated the obvious.
"Indeed. It allows you to become intangible, in a way. This allows all attacks to pass right through you. This shout makes you quite literally invulnerable." Solaire explained the shout.
"That sounds too good to be true!" Erik exclaimed, amazed that such a power exists.
"Unfortunately, you also cannot attack whilst this shout is active," the bucket-helmeted knight added. "If you try to, it prematurely ends."
"Ah, there's the catch!" Emilia grumbled that such a cool power had such a weakness.
"There's also Kyne's Peace and Animal Allegiance, which passifies and allows you to command animals respectively." Solaire continued.
Subaru did a double-take at that. "Hold up, all types of animals?"
The helmeted knight nodded. "As far as I know, yes. Although, Dragons are the only exceptions."
"Still, it'd be useful against crabs,"
"Oh yeah, the mudcrabs here are massive pests. I think they might be an invasive species." Erik said in annoyance.
Subaru gave Erik a questioning look. "You mean those man-sized ones?"
Erik nodded. "The same. I don't know what it is with arachnids being so huge in Gusteko."
Subaru and Patches looked at one another, before suddenly bursting out in laughter.
""BAHAHAHAHAHA!""
"What?" Emilia and Erik wondered what they were laughing at.
Subaru wiped a tear. "Ehehe, sorry… it's just that I find it funny that people are worried about those itty-bitty mudcrabs, when they've never even seen the great crabs down south."
Erik and Emilia did a double-take themselves. "... What?"
"Oh, you didn't know?" Patches asked, giving one of his classic shit-eating grins. "Great crabs are way bigger, around the size of some bigger demons, and they lurk in the marshlands, and can pummel your entire body with just one of their claws."
"... We need to get those Animal shouts as soon as possible." Emilia said, her eyes and tone conveyed the dread at that thought.
"Agreed," Erik said, his voice also morbid.
A thought crossed Subaru's mind. "Oh yeah, would that shout work on Mabeasts as well?"
"Do they qualify as animals?" Solaire asked.
"Not naturally created ones, but yeah."
"I give it a fifty-fifty chance," the sun-loving Undead said.
"Well, there's no harm in trying if we get the chance," Emilia said.
"True, true. Well said, Emilia. Anyways, that map said the closest Dragon Shrine was on a bridge, right?" Subaru asked.
Emilia looked at the map. "I think so. There looks to be a bridge as a place called Arcwind Point. There, we can find the Drain Vitality shout."
"Well, I think we found the bridge." Subaru pointed upward.
"So... who wants to cross first?" Patches asked.
Subaru looked at his fellow undead. "Afraid of something being here?"
The bald Undead sputtered at that. "Trusty Patches? Afraid?! Preposterous!"
Erik gestured to the bridge. "Then why don't you go first?"
Emilia nodded as she thought about it. "Yeah, you are an Undead, so you'll be fine."
Patches relented. "Fine, fine, I'll go!"
Patches heads out across the bridge, while the others wait. Five minutes later, he comes back, his face carefully blank.
"So, what's the verdict?" Subaru asked.
"I have good news and bad news," Patches said in a cheery tone.
Solaire tilted his helmeted head. "What is the good news?"
"I found the Dragon Shrine. It's on the other side of the bridge, on top of that round tower next to the mountain."
"And the bad news?" Erik skeptically asked.
"This place is crawling with lots of Hollows. Some of them were armed with bombs."
Erik took a second to process that. "Bombs? Like Fire crystals?"
"No, not crystals," Subaru corrected the dirty blond. "They use gunpowder inside of metal shells, and then set them alight before tossing them. A few seconds later, boom."
Patches jerked his thumb back. "There were also some Draugr in there, but neither them or the Hollows were attacking each other."
Solaire looked about ready to take out his sword and go "Leeroy Jenkins" his way into battle. "Alright, a worthy challenge."
"Wait... I got an idea," Erik spoke up.
"We're all ears."
Erik turned to Subaru. "Subaru, you said that these bombs needed to be set alight in order to explode? Like with fire?"
"Yeah, what about it…?" Subaru trailed off. He started to see what Erik was thinking, as he looked toward Emilia.
Pretty soon, everyone else was looking towards the silver-haired Half-Elf.
Emilia, meanwhile, noticed that everyone was staring at her. "Eh?"
"What sort of ice do you use, Emilia-tan?" Subaru asked.
Emilia did not know how to answer that question. "I... um... well, I know it's not Water magic, as I can't heal anyone, but what does that have to do with anything? Isn't it just a special type of Ice magic or something?"
"Nope, it's likely that you use some kind of advanced Primal Fire Magic. Fire Magic is all about temperature," the Japanese man said. "Meaning that you can learn both fire and ice, as opposed to ice and healing."
Emilia's eyes widened in shock. "Wait... that's possible?! But I've never used Fire before!"
"Hey, it's alright. If you can't do it now, I can just use my pyromancies. They may not be Primal Magic, but I'm sure they'll still work for the plan." Subau patted her back.
Erik looked confused. "Pyromancies?"
"Yeah, they're one of the four schools of Gwyn's pantheon of magic, Soul Magic. The others are sorceries, miracles, and hexes," the nasty-eyed Undead explained.
Primal? Soul Magic? Emilia thought to herself, wondering what Subaru was talking about.
"Huh. I'll need to ask about this later." Erik hummed to himself.
Subaru turned to look back at the Half-Elf. "Emilia… think you can do it?"
"... I don't know... but I'll never know if I don't try." Emilia said with a determined look.
Subaru clapped his hands together. "All right, it's game time."
Soon enough, everyone crossed the bridge, and after arriving on the other side, they found the hollows and draugr Patches mentioned. Luckily, the Undead enemies still hadn't noticed the group.
"On three… one… two… three!"
Taking a deep breath, Emilia pointed out a finger, and said a single incantation.
"Goa."
A ball of fire erupted from the tip of her finger, hurtling towards the walking corpses.
FWOOOOOM!
Once the fire ball hit its target, the flames spread to the bomb, which caused it to explode. The explosion then caused a chain reaction where the flames from the initial blast spread to the other bombs, blowing them up as well. Luckily, an Ice shield from Emilia was able to block the explosions and protect her comrades.
"Are they all dead?" Patches asked.
"We got some stragglers." Erik said, getting the attention of the others.
Some of the Draugr and Hollows survived the blast, and turned their attention to the group. In response, some of them pulled out their weapons, only to be stabbed by Patches and Erik, while the long-ranged attackers were done in by the magicks of Subaru and Solaire.
Subaru nodded. "I think they're dead now... well, as dead as they can be."
The five of them proceeded to walk through the empty bridge, making it to the other side, seeing the tower up ahead.
"So, the Shrine is at the top?" Emilia asked Patches.
"I mean, I didn't see it anywhere else, so it stands to reason it should be —"
"INCOMING!" Subaru suddenly shouted.
BOOOOM!
Before anyone could ask why Subaru screamed, a massive Demon with a skull-like face, horns and a tail jumped from the top of the tower down to where they were, armed with a greataxe
"SCATTER!" Subaru shouted to everyone else.
As Erik ran, he shouted, "What the hell is that?!"
Subaru answered, "That's a Taurus Demon!"
"That's a huge bitch!" Patches cursed.
"ROOOAAAR!"
The giant brown Demon roared at them, and began to swing its ax around the place.
"Look for a weak spot!" Erik yelled, fire El Huma crystals off.
Patches proceeded to disappear again, before stabbing the monster in the back, drawing its attention and anger.
Emilia fires off multiple El Humas, but they seem to merely annoy the Demon.
"I got it! He's big and slow! Aim for his back and play keep-away from him!" Subaru shouted.
"I shall keep his attention on me!" Solaire proceeded to shoot a spear made of lightning and shot it at the Demon, while everyone else went behind the creature. "EN GARDE, BEAST!"
With everyone else behind the creature, they attacked in full force.
"FUS ROH DAH!"
Using Unrelenting Force, Emilia unleashed a shockwave to knock the monster on his front, leaving it open to their attacks.
Subaru pelted its back with Minyas, while Erik launched Humas towards the monster. Emilia launched a bunch of El Humas, while Patches repeatedly stabbed the Demon with its spear.
Eventually, the Taurus Demon fell, and once again, just like the stray Demon from the beginning of the journey, exploded into a bunch of black-and-white souls.
Subaru, Patches and Solaire insanity screamed "MINE!" and proceeded to gorge themselves on the souls of the Demon, looking almost animalistic in the process.
Emilia just looked disgusted. "I'm so glad I'm not an Undead…"
Erik turned to give Emilia a strange look. "Don't you eat Dragon souls?"
The Half-Elf wisely did not respond.
As the three Undead finished scarfing down their souls, they stood back up, and pretended to act as if they just didn't just act as wild animals gorging on a fresh kill.
Wiping his face, Solaire asked, "Speaking of which, where is the Dragon?"
"You mean the Shrine?"
Solaire shook his head. "No. According to the Greybeards, there have been Dragons hanging around the Dragon Shrines recently, but that Demon was there instead."
Subaru suddenly had a lightbulb go off in his head. "Oh, wait, I know this cliche."
Emilia looked at Subaru, confused. "What's a cliche?"
BOOOOOM!
"ROOOAAAAR!"
Suddenly, a Dragon came flying down from the tower and landed in front of the group, clearly angry at the intrusion on its territory, roaring at them.
"The "sudden jumpscare" cliche," Subaru sighed.
The Dragon was a large gray wyvern, with curved horns and several spikes all over its body. While it proceeded to roar, everyone took cover behind various junk before it began to breathe fire upon the bridge. "ROOOAAAAR!"
FWOOOOOOM!
"Alright, Dragon killer! Do your thing!" Patches gave a smile to Emilia.
"Wait, aren't you going to help?!" Emilia cried out in shock.
"Yes, we are. Right, Patches...?" Solaire glared at the bald Undead, who nervously chuckled and nodded. "That's what I thought."
Emilia uses her ice to put out the fire, before going on the offensive, creating two ice swords and rushing forward.
"YAAAAAAHHH!"
Subaru proceeds to use some sorceries, before slowly walking up towards the Dragon and going for melee. The Dragon grew irritated by this, and decided to fly up and keep its distance, using its fire breath to attack.
FWOOOOOOM!
Patches cursed something about "cheats," before throwing his spear square into the wyvern's big red forehead. However, unlike before, the spear did not pierce the Dragon's flesh, instead bouncing off to the ground below.
TINK!
Erik's face went pale at that. "Crap! Its hide is too thick!"
"Alright, time for the big guns," Subaru hissed.
FWOOM!
Shocking everyone, Subaru summoned a black flame into his hand, and lobbed it towards the Dragon, actually causing it physical pain. "RRREEEEE!"
The Dragon recoiled at the pain, and suddenly fell back down to the bridge.
BOOOM!
Emilia looked at Subaru in shock. "What was that?!"
"A special type of pyromancy," he simply said.
"Let's finish it off!" Erik cried out.
At Erik's cry, everyone roared, and threw their best attacks at the beast, killing it.
And with that, there was one less Dragon around.
"Well, let's never do that again!" Patches yelled in frustration.
After absorbing the Dragon's soul, Emilia opens up her map. "I don't think we have a choice on that…"
Subaru already knew where this was going. "I'm guessing we'll have to deal with a Dragon at every single Dragon Shrine?"
"I'm afraid so," Solaire answered.
Patches decided it was time to leave. "Welp! It's been nice knowing ya — Gack!"
"Where are you going?!" Subaru asked, grabbing his collar.
"Far away from you loons!" Patches said, trying to pry himself free.
"Get back here!"
Solaire ignored their hijinks, and asked, "So, where to next?"
"To the Shrine," Emilia said, pointing up to the tower.
The group climb up the stairs of the tower, and find the Shrine on the top floor. Like before, one of the words on the Shrine glowed, before an ethereal energy spread to Emilia, but it went away.
"Interesting architectural design…" Subaru muttered to himself.
"Did it work, Emilia?" Erik asked.
Emilia nodded. "I think so."
"Well, why don't you test it out?" Subaru suggested.
Emilia looked shocked for a second. "... You want me to use "Drain Vitality"... on you?"
"Ehhh… test it on Patches." Subaru pointed at his fellow Undead.
"Wait, WHAT?!" the bald Undead shouted.
Emilia looked for a moment, and then shrugged. "... Okay. GAAN!"
"Wait, wait, GYAAAA—"
After being hit by the shout, Patches fell over and became far too tired to move.
"Hey, Patches, how do you feel?" Subaru asked, kneeling down to his friend.
Patches could not speak, but merely made some voiceless sounds.
"Eh, I'm sure he'll be fine," the Japanese man said.
"I shall carry him until he recovers," Solaire said, picking him up.
"The good news is, you have the power. Guess it's time to move on," the black-haired Undead said. "One down… who knows how many more to go."
"About fifteen more," Emilia answered him.
"One down, fifteen more to go," Erik said, as they all left.
Authors' Note: And thus begins the low-level quest the party's got to do in every single RPG. (Unfortunate, but necessary…) Eh, they'll be killing gods soon enough.
Anyways, we know that this week was a bit of a short chapter, but the truth is, we didn't really have much we could put into this segment. But hey, at least you get to point at the obvious boss fight reference we put into this chapter. Now… It's comment time.
5queso: Praise the Sun, indeed! Glad you enjoyed our last chapter so much! I'm pretty sure everyone's favorite sun-loving knight had a part to play in that. See you soon! (It's nigh-impossible to not like him!)
SenSlice: The in-universe explanation is that for the last four hundred years, Subaru has been busy taking care of some unfinished business, which mostly took place in Lugnica. Because of that, he never really stepped foot into Gusteko, meaning he didn't really interact with the world of Skyrim. Outside of that, the reason is because I'm handling Subaru and Dark Souls, while Infinite handles Emilia and Skyrim.
Kifhjoofff: Yes, other people from Re: Zero will appear. Eventually. (Just don't expect them anytime soon.)
Anyways, that's all the comments we have for this week!
If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules!
Also, expect something… big… coming soon… hehe…
That's all for today, thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time!
- Ernalore and Infinite the Celestian