4E 202, Tomb of Labyrinthian
Kiera Fendalyn
Dawnbreaker clanged against Krosis' staff, sparks of light colliding with shards of frozen ice. The Dragon Priest's guttural hiss reverberated through the tomb as he unleashed another ring of frost.
Blue-white cold pulsed outward, forcing Kiera to slide back across the icy floor.
Dawnbreaker responded instantly, its flame-like light flaring and wrapping around her arms to fight off the extreme cold that now permeates the interior of Labyrinthian.
Even with her immense tolerance to the elements, Kiera felt the overwhelming cold seep into her bones.
Despite the numerous dragon souls she possessed that increased her resistance to extreme temperatures, the chill that Krosis wielded was not one that could easily be brushed off. This was no ordinary frost—but an ancient, priest-level magic that could perhaps numb even dragonfire.
Behind her, Savos shouted through chattering teeth, "Keep at it! All we can do is stop Krosis before Morokei gets out!"
The shadows near the pillars rippled, and Karliah emerged and vanished again like a phantom. Every second, another volley of obsidian arrows whistled out from the darkness. Krosis conjured a crystalline ward of solid ice with one hand, letting each arrow shatter uselessly against it.
Just as Kiera attempted to rush him again, Krosis slammed the butt of his staff into the ground.
Six frost atronachs erupted from the floor in a ring around her. These towering, jagged constructs of ice that began to lumber towards Kiera's location.
Kiera readied her stance in reply.
One atronach's forearm extended into a massive frozen lance and stabbed down. Kiera flipped back as the spike hit the floor and detonated in an explosion of ice shards.
Her blade still thrummed with the remnant power of Elemental Fury, her arms moving faster than mortal vision. In a blur of silver and white, she released a dozen slashes in a second.
SHING—SHING—SHING—SHING—SHING—SHING
Three atronachs collapsed simultaneously, their torsos reduced into slabs that unceremoniously to the ground.
The temperature rapidly increased, countering the chill, as Savos got serious. Behind her, his voice rose into a sharp incantation. His entire body was wreathed in potent orange flames as he thrust his hands forward.
A beam of condensed fire erupted from his palms, hot enough to turn the white mist into water and evaporating them instantly.
It tore through the other three atronachs, blowing them apart in a whirlwind of steam before continuing straight into Krosis.
The Dragon Priest skidded backwards, his cloak smoldering as a thin layer of ice cracked from his body like armor.
Karliah struck next. She dashed out from the shadows, a blur barely seen. She vaulted off a column, twisting midair, loosing an arrow wreathed entirely in shadows.
Krosis flicked his wrist.
A glacier burst from the floor like a rising fang, blocking the arrow at the last second. Though Kiera noticed how the arrow pierced through and stopped mere inches from Krosis' eye.
'Karliah's arrows can get through his defenses.' She realized. Which means she needed to give her an opening.
Kiera charged again, this time enhanced by her shout. "WULD NAH KEST!"
She shot forward faster than a lightning bolt, appearing behind Krosis mid-swing. He turned too late, not able to react as Dawnbreaker cleaved his left arm from the elbow.
He let out an unholy screech as his other arm slammed his staff downward, conjuring a spiraling hurricane of frost.
Kiera countered with a ward. Even so, the cold scraped at her skin like razors.
Her lungs burned. Had this been anyone else, Kiera was certain they would have frozen solid by now.
Yet even through the pain, she forced herself to keep fighting. The extreme cold gave her body a sense of lethargy so deep, she could feel herself slowing. Though the remnants of Elemental Fury made it so her arm still swung with power.
Her blade carved across Krosis' mask, sparks bursting from the blow. The priest staggered, a glowing cut now visible on the once thought to be indestructible mask.
"Savos!"
The Archmage answered in kind. Lightning crackled in white-blue halos around his arm as he unleashed a bolt with enough force to shatter a mammoth skull.
KRAKA-THOOOOOM!
The cracking sound of thunder nearly deafened her as the lightning smashed into Krosis' chest, paralyzing him. His limbs jerking violently as arcs danced across his robes.
Karliah seized the opening instantly, reappearing from the shadows behind Krosis. Her bow was already drawn, the arrow between her fingers made of pure shadow, black mist rising from the tip.
"Nocturnal guide me," Kiera heard her whisper.
She released it, the bolt tearing through the air.
Just seconds away from impact, a low vibration filled the tomb.
A brilliant blue-white glow began bleeding through the cracks in the far wall. A glow unlike flames, unlike frost, unlike anything Kiera had ever felt.
It was pure and raw magicka given form.
Kiera reacted on instinct. She yanked Savos and Karliah behind her, planted her boots into the ground, and cast Dragonflesh once more, layering the spell until her skin shimmered with molten bronze scales.
At the same time, she extended her free hand and conjured a massive dome-like ward, a silvery-hue spectral shield that extended past all three of them.
That happened in less than a second. The beam hit and vaporized Karliah's arrow near instantly as the world vanished in pure light.
Ice shattered and pillars crumbled to dust as the very stones of Labyrinthian moaned like a wounded beast.
Kiera held firm. But even with all her power, the force blasted them backward, burying the three of them beneath rubble. Only her ward prevented the stone from crushing them entirely.
The light faded as the dust settled.
Slow and ancient footsteps echoed through the chamber that Kiera could barely hear through the cracks.
A skeletal figure, blue magicka streaming from its ribcage like liquid fire, stepped into view.
Covering his face was a mask made entirely out of pale, blue glass—carved in a way that was similar to the rest of the Dragon Priests.
But it was the object in his hands that caught her attention. A long, golden staff, inlaid with runes that she couldn't even begin to comprehend. At the head was a crystalline orb, shimmering and pulsing with raw magicka that made the air around it vibrate.
Morokei.
He spoke, a voice rasped with the chill of a glacier grinding across mountains.
"Krosis, nii los qo wa koraav hi kriist. Naan goes ko faal outside lein?"(Krosis, it is a surprise to see you awake. What goes in the outside world?)
Krosis rose up, still staggering from the loss of an arm. "Alduin los kriist. Rok zaan mu." (Alduin has risen. He calls us.)
They did not look at Kiera. Not at Savos. Not at Karliah.
The battle was beneath them.
Morokei merely raised the Staff of Magnus, and in a blinding pulse of blue, vanished from the tomb.
…
4E 202, Battlefield up the hills and mountains of Labyrinthian
Aela the Huntress
Mankar Camoran managed to escape, though not without Aela giving him something to remember her by.
She had lunged for his throat, only for the Altmer to unleash a wave of crimson flame that swallowed her whole.
The blast hurled Aela back like a thrown boulder. The towering silver wolf, large enough to rival dragons, skidded across the mountainside, fur singed and smoking. The ridges cracked under her weight.
She snarled through the pain, shaking embers from her pelt. She could feel the sharp ridges of the mountain digging into her back, but she forced herself upright immediately.
No prey escaped her twice.
She lowered her body, claws digging into stone, preparing to pounce. Only to step in her tracks as a gargantuan wall of flames erupted between her and her target.
The fire hissed and roared like an angry elemental, the heat sharp enough to sting even her supernatural flesh. She paced before it, hackles raised, jaws snapping.
Then the fire split open like a curtain, revealing a massive fireball that surged and slammed right into her chest.
She flew back again, skidding, rolling, the heat burning so deep it reached her bones.
She tasted blood.
Whatever foul magic Mankar wielded, the crimson flames somehow were able to disrupt the natural healing her werewolf form granted.
If she took another hit like that, she doubted she could get back up.
'Damned mages…' She forced herself to her feet with a growl.
This wolf form was too large, too easy a target for his destructive magic.
Her body shrunk as the silver fur receded.
Aela rose back in humanoid form, this time wrapped entirely in the Savior's Hide. The enchanted hide was powerful enough to ward her from the chill, remaining warm even in the bitter mountain cold.
She called her weapon as the Spear of the Hunter materialized in her hand. A long, 8-foot shaft ending in a triple-edged blade.
With a simple thought, the spear shortened to a one-handed length. Its weight still perfect in her hand.
She circled the wall of flames as her eyes flicked through, hunting.
There, she could see Mankar standing on a ridge, hands glowing with black lightnign and crimson fire, scanning frantically for her silhouette.
The Dunmer prisoner stood near him, still bound by the wrists and ankles.
Aela grinned, baring teeth. Mankar was looking for her straight ahead. Too bad for him though, she was a hunter first and foremost.
She never fought from the front.
Aela sprinted low, boots silent across the stone, circling through broken ridges and jutting boulders.
Mankar muttered an incantation. Black lightning crackled between his fingers.
He sensed nothing.
Perfect.
Aela leapt to another ledge, rolling behind a fallen pillar, then flicked her spear. The weapon elongated mid-air, silent and deadly.
The tip sliced across Mankar's shoulder, leaving a long, bleeding gash. The paralytic enchantment sparked as he struggled to bring up the shoulder.
Mankar staggered, eyes wide.
"Persistent mongrel—!"
Aela was already moving.
She ducked behind a rock as a gale of crimson fire exploded in her direction, the heat brushing past her cheek like the breath of a forge.
She spun, spear lengthening again, and thrust it from behind cover.
It clipped his thigh this time, making his leg buckle.
He snarled, golden eyes burning.
He lifted both hands.
The mountain trembled.
"REVEAL YOURSELF!"
A pulse of black light erupted outward, rolling in every direction like a shockwave.
Aela braced herself as the wave passed her. It felt like being hit by icy water.
The moment it did, Mankar turned to her instantly. Aela made to dash and hide once more, only for the Camoran patriarch to track her movements every time.
His grin was sharp as a razor.
"There you are."
Dark crimson lightning shot forth from his palms. Aela dove aside, rolling hard as the lightning obliterated the ledge she'd been crouched on. Stone vaporized in a hiss.
Recovering quickly, she turned and lifted the spear in his direction. The shaft lengthened, but a Dremora Lord appeared in the nick of time and deflected the blade of her spear.
Flame atronachs and the legions of Dremora started to appear upon the ridge. Red-robed Mythic Dawn cultists scrambled up with daggers and staves.
Mankar's grin widened, "Just in time."
Aela narrowed her eyes. Despite the condescending tone, she knew that the paralysis had definitely kicked in at this point. It was taking everything he had to not collapse into a heap.
Yet as she looked around, even she knew how rapidly the field changed.
Aela was a hunter first and foremost. She didn't fear a fight, but even she knew she couldn't take on an army alone.
Another firestorm roared toward her. Aela hurled herself sideways, spear elongating again as she swung it sideways, the long shaft catching numerous Dremora and sweeping them away.
She didn't wait for another opportunity.
She sprinted toward the Dunmer woman still bound and blinking through the chaos.
"Hold on!" Aela barked.
Aranea barely had time to gasp before Aela barreled into her, wrapping an arm around her waist and leaping off the mountain.
They plunged hundreds of feet into the air. Wind howled in her ears as stones blurred past.
Aranea screamed into the roaring air as firebolts swerved past them, the Cultists and the atronachs firing them from the canopy.
Aela forced breath into her lungs, feeling the old wildness surge through her.
Silver fur burst from her skin as her limbs expanded. Her skull elongated as a snout formed on her face.
She exploded into her colossal werewolf form mid-fall, muscles swelling, claws extending.
She curled her massive body around the Dunmer woman, shielding her completely as they plummeted.
…
AN: Morokei OP, pls nerf.
Anyways, I've been teasing how powerful Morokei is for months now. The dude is crazy powerful, probably one of the strongest priests around.
Aela also finally saves Aranea as they tumble down the mountain, making sure that Mankar struggles in the meantime.
The war is rapidly finishing now as most of the battles are starting to dwindle. I hope you guys enjoyed this one!
More chapters are available on my Pat_reon. Chapter 94 should be available by the time this chapter is posted. Just look up my name, TeemVizzle, and you'll find me.
Cheers guys and see you next time!