152 Chapter XV: Dragonslayers
I feel the massive explosion of power wash over me for a moment, a tiny bit unexpectedly sticking to my headpiece, only to suddenly surge in a singular direction. I see Minthara panic, not sure what to do with all the light flowing toward her through the cloud of dust we were covered by, as the majestic combination of soul and divine energies slams into her I hear her gasp loudly.
The dragon soul takes all of ten seconds to be consumed but for us, it might as well have been an eternity. Minthara gives me one last dazed look before slumping down unconscious, the sudden surge of sensations and likely memories knocking her out on the spot.
With a wave of my hand a gust of wind clears the dust cloud and I am greeted with the glorious sight of Vulthuryol's corpse. Unlike what I was originally expecting, the entire thing was intact save for losing a large portion of its luster (the small river of dragon guts spread from the spike pit definitely not helping in that regard).
My eyes soon landed on Tolfdir who was busy commanding the gawking adventurers to make sure the Falmer didn't suddenly counterattack now that the dragon was dead.
With a sigh, I pick up Minthara and throw her over my shoulder, making my way toward the old Master.
As he sends off the last mercenary he turns to me with a cheerful grin "I see your plan has worked Reyvin." He scratches his beard and winks playfully "You seem quite adept at pulling out masterful ideas when under pressure."
I shrug "Eh, I like not being dead." I try and downplay it but a small part of me remains proud of my ability.
He chuckles "Indeed, dying would be bad" His gaze lands on the dragon "Especially after such an achievement" A wistful sigh leaves his throat "To think I would one day be able to count myself among the dragonslayers of legend..."
"To be entirely fair, this twat was a known coward among his kind" I tilt my head as I examine the carcass "Even if he seems to be of the more ancient variety."
"Hmmm, quite" Tolfdir mumbles "Now that you mention it, it almost looks like he was drained" His right eye twinkles as he turns toward me "You wouldn't know anything about that now would you?"
It takes me a moment to compute but the moment I realize he is implying I was Dragonborn I burst into a fit of amused laughter "Oh Divines no!" His eyebrow raises and I go on "If I ever found myself the subject of prophesy I think I'd go against it out of sheer spite."
"So it is a prophesy then..." He mumbles, the twinkle in his eyes increasing mockingly. My mouth thins in annoyance and it is now his turn to laugh at me.
He wipes a tear and lets out a final chuckle before turning serious "So it is your student then?" I nod, no reason to hide something like this from him, he frowns "And you claim to know what you are doing?"
I look around carefully, and after noticing that the only person other than us present was Davos standing guard atop one of the houses, and turn back to Tolfdir "She will be needed in what is to come, and if she falls or doesn't become strong enough the world gets eaten." I state with finality.
The old mage frowns, his eyes searching my own for deception, before finally sighing "The prophesy of Alduin shall come to pass then?" He asks tiredly.
My eyes widen "You are aware of it?"
He nods gravely "Yes, my clan, the Ebon-frosts have been hunting down the dragon cult for millennia." His face twists into a scowl "The fools would always promise our doom at the jaws of their god whenever we ended them."
After a moment of reminiscing he claps his hands, his scowl turning back into his usual relaxed smile "Well then, all we can do is give our all in preparing and aiding the child of time" His eyes twinkle once more as he looks back to the dragon "And what better way to start with that than learning how to mimic a portion of the dragon's power."
My curiosity grows but before we can proceed I call for Davos and order him to carry Minthara back to camp, deciding not to fuck with Murphy I send Scorch and my first shade to follow him just in case.
As I do this Tolfdir walks up to the dragon and without any preamble his right arm bulges as his engorged muscles contract... before he rips off a section of scales with his bare fucking hand.
And to think there was an entire quest about getting a special knife for something like this...
"You plan on advancing the flesh and might spells with this?" I ask as he rolls up the scaled skin like a bolt of cloth, completely ignoring the fact that they are harder than orichalcum.
He nods enthusiastically "That and so much more" his grin widens "Say, would you be interested in joining me in this endeavor?"
"Oh?..."
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The cleanup took the remaining day and then some, well I call it a cleanup but we all knew that occupying the city would take waiting for another batch of reinforcements so it was decided that a section of houses that were mostly free of tunnels and still mostly intact would be turned into some kind of forward outpost.
Naturally I immediately swarmed it with my automatons, conquering the place just to be overrun by the endless numbers of Falmer a day later would be more than merely infuriating.
Contrary to my expectation (even if it really shouldn't have been) the morale of the surviving adventurers soared instead of plummeting, their gazes toward our little troupe of dragonslayers full of adoration and even worship in some cases.
I swear I have never had people follow my commands as attentively as they did now...
An entire day passed after the battle and only then did Minthara finally awaken.
I made my way to her section of my base the moment I was informed of this by one of my guards. Soon I stood before her room and I gently rapped my knuckle on the metallic door that lead inside and immediately heard some stumbling from inside.
A full minute after I made my presence known I heard her mutter "Come in."
I made my way into the small room, one of many I had built for my household, and immediately noticed just how disheveled the young demi-god looked. Her hair was a complete mess and the dark circles around her eyes seemed to have dark circles of their own.
"Well..." I mutter "You seem to have seen better days."
She glares at me before rolling her eyes "You have no idea how it felt..."
"What, you expected that consuming a literal spirit of time would be easy? Especially for your first one?" I cannot help but ask incredulously.
She sighs and her shoulders slump "I just had uncontrollable power and millennia of memories shoved into my brain and most of them do not make sense, I feel like I am not myself anymore and..."
"...aaaand?" I ask curiously.
She looks down "Even the tiniest hint of disrespect makes me want to snap your neck." even as her voice is filled with disgust her eyes gleam with fury.
"Oh." I note dumbly and scratch my chin, the possibilities storming through my mind at record speed, after some silence I finally ask "Have you tried directing the memories and power in any way?"
She shakes her head "I just woke up, let me see." She turns completely silent and closes her eyes in concentration, soon power similar to what I have felt yesterday starts gently flowing around her, and she seemingly grows a centimeter or two, everything about her seeming just a tiny bit more defined.
The circles around her eyes disappear fully as she nearly jumps with the merest twitch of her legs, she tries to balance herself for a moment before leaning onto the wall and breathing deeply "That was..." she breathes in loudly "Amazing." A happy grin spreads on her face.
"So... what did you do exactly?" I ask patiently.
Her eyes twitch my way before she seemingly refocuses on reality "I first tried focusing all my power into my Magicka" I nod, a wise choice seeing as it would help her with literally everything, she goes on "That failed, then I tried to guide it through my body much like Arcane Ascension but even that didn't work" She shakes her head "And then finally I tried focusing the memories on a shout, the moment I thought about whirlwind sprint I felt the power surge into my everything and here we are."
"Do you still feel any discomfort?" I ask and then quickly add "Or the foreign impulse for that matter?"
She frowns in thought before shaking her head "I feel perfectly fine now... though now that you mention it I feel... bolder? More confident?" her frown deepens "It is like I am drunk on mead yet my mind is perfectly clear..."
I hum "We are going to need to deal with that as soon as possible."
I notice a minute flinch as her eyes focus on me "What do you mean?"
"Dragons are known to be extremely prideful" I explain patiently "They are dominance incarnate, you slurping their souls down like some fresh Black-briar is not going to just go down without any issue, so we will evidently have to train you to resist the impulses."
She looks incredibly uncomfortable with the idea but after a long staredown relents and sighs "Very well, I guess that getting randomly pissed off at everyone would be a bad idea..."
I snort and clap my hands "And after that decennial understatement, let us go and test out just how strong you have become."
Her somewhat downtrodden expression suddenly turns into one of glee as he quickly grabs her warhammer... only to trip when she swings it too forcefully in an attempt to lay it on her shoulder.
I cackle and run toward a secluded training ground, the furious and sputtering demi-god stumbling after me the whole way.
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My leg flashes out in a high kick as my staff gets knocked out of my hand by a hammer strike that felt like it was going to break all my fingers by mere proximity, I feel my foot connect to something and a large crack sounds as Minthara is launched against the cave wall.
I rapidly chug down a stamina potion before she can get up, we have been going at it for four hours at this point and she was still brimming with energy.
The redhead groans as she gets up, her left hand immediately going for her jaw and casting a restoration spell as she glares at me.
"What, didn't expect I'd kick the shit out of you?" I smirk and quickly thank Akatosh he didn't give her laser eyes because I would be dead otherwise.
Her bones produce a loud cracking sound as she resets them "I really do not like you right now Reyvin."
I clutch at my heart "Woe is me that I have been betrayed so!" I quickly duck as a wide hammer strike passes over my head, the same rolled up scroll from yesterday appearing in my hand as I bonk the overextended Minthara over the head.
She flinches like a cat and hisses "Do you really need to do that every time?"
I shrug, slowly tapping the scroll in my hand, and drawl "If you don't want to get bonked then stop letting me provoke you so easily."
I quickly deflect a wind blade and point an accusatory finger at her "Oi! Only self-alteration."
She rolls her eyes and casts ogre's strength in preparation to continue our bout but Davos entering the training enclosure interrupts her.
I raise an eyebrow at him and he explains "Sorry for the interruption boss but Tolfdir told me that the celebratory feast has been prepared."
I turn back to Minthara "Feeling well enough to attend now?"
Her shoulders relax and she nods "Yeah..."
"Most excellent" I clap and dramatically point toward the rising smoke at the center of the fortress "Onward to drunkedness and merriment!"
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If you give me power stones I shall grant thee dragon bones.
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