96 Chapter XXXVII: Battle of Wolfskull (Part 1)

(General pov)

The two armies stared each other down, one doing so without a hint of emotion while the other did so with grim determination in their hearts.

King Torygg quickly called for an officer meeting so they could come up with a plan.

As the leaders of the attacking force gathered on a small hill overlooking their men, Legate Rikke was the first to speak "The last scout report came in two days ago and there were no mentions of a fort, much less a giant."

With a cheerful smile, not at all befitting the situation, Savos Aren explained "Undead are such fascinating creations, my dear Legate. They can work without rest and with surprising precision if properly supervised, it is no surprise that this amount managed to create a fort as soon as they heard of our coming."

She frowns "And it is utterly impossible to hide a force of this size from a bunch of mages that can use reanimated birds as scouts."

Aren pipes up "Oh my, I am surprised you are aware of such abilities."

The frown on Rikke's brow deepens "The Thalmor made liberal use of necromancy during the war, you would either learn about or die to it. I just didn't know you could use them to pull forts out of your backside." She quickly sends a small bow to Torygg "Excuse my language, my King."

Torygg rolls his eyes and doesn't respond.

Reyvin cuts it "Speaking of the n'- *Cough* our dear friends from Aldmeris, I am surprised they aren't here and doing their best to 'help' us to our deaths."

Falk Firebeard grunts at this "They were surprisingly quiet about the whole thing... suspiciously so." he looks at the young Dunmer with a raised eyebrow "Speaking of suspicious, where is your 'butler'" he asks with audible quotations.

"Oh, he is up and about." Reyvin merely shrugs with a brilliant smile.

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(Thalmor assassin's pov)

Lady Elenwen's orders are clear, the human King dies today.

I hum out my calming mantra as I check my bow and the special poisoned arrow intended for his heart. The Archmage's participation almost sent our plans into disarray, but the Lady Ambassador managed to procure this enchanted bow from her Dremora merchant associate that supposedly pierces most arcane shields with ease, something we confirmed after torturous testing.

I personally disdain working with such creatures, but if it brings the ascension of Aldmeris I will gladly ignore my own misgivings.

Just one shot, and the Nords will be at each other's throats, the humans will be all the weaker for when we are ready to strike them all down.

I raise the bow and prepare to draw, they are holding some kind of council so it is the perfect opportunity to spread suspicion and discord among their ranks, what the undead don't slaughter they will kill on their own in the confusion.

Just as I am about to nock the arrow I faintly see the lesser elf marked as a low-priority target known as Flame-tongue among the Nords smile in my direction and wink.

What the?!

Before I can react I feel someone grab me from behind and stuff something in my face, my consciousness escapes me and the last thing I hear before passing out is "How the fuck did he even know he was there?"

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(Reyvin's pov)

I suppress a cruel grin as I see Davos grab the Thalmor agent.

Xelzaz really is a godsend.

Since I found his scroll in the presumed belongings of a Thalmor agent I have always made sure to place a small tracking rune on whatever I sold him, and the absolute madman didn't even care as long as I gave him a bit of a discount.

Note to self, check everything he sells you thoroughly from now on.

So imagine my surprise when I felt one of my enchantments nearby tracking us, some scouting later and would you look at that, a Thalmor agent preparing to take a shot at one of us.

He will make a great gift to Torygg when I am done with him.

I notice Aren looking into the distance from the corner of his eye, he sends me a wink and an approving nod. Really, if he wasn't such an annoyance all the time I would consider him a badass...

Back to the council then...

"An assault would be foolish and you know it" I hear Fireberad say in his usual stern voice.

Rikke sighs "I am aware, but foolishly exhausting our mages before the real fight will just make us easy targets for the necromancers and vampires."

Falk looks at Aren who nods "While we could theoretically flatten the entire fort in a minute or less, with liberal use of Magicka potions of course, that would leave us weakened and tired enough to be of much lesser use when the real threat emerges."

"And what is this real threat?" Torygg asks.

Aren shrugs "Oh just the small army of necromancers and vampires waiting inside."

One of the Centurions, a Breton asks him "Aren't you an archmage? Shouldn't they be easy for you to take down?"

Rikke lightly palms her face in irritation, while Aren waves him off "Fighting a dozen on my own? Sure. Fighting fifty of them with the three of us completely drained and overdosing on potions?" He makes a strained sound implying a 'hell nah'

The same officer looks at him weirdly "Why would the three of you fight them on your own? We will also be there."

I cut in "Yes, to fight off the innumerable undead no doubt waiting down there as well."

He makes an 'O' shape with his mouth and wisely decides to shut up.

Firebeard, always the straight man in the room, claps his hands to get everyone back on track "Now that that is over and done with, does anyone have any better ideas that aren't: make a ladder of bodies or just remove the walls?"

I walk up to the center of our group and say excitedly "I have a cunning plan!"

Everyone looks at me expectantly and with a devious smile I begin my scheme.

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(Necromancer apprentice's pov)

There they are, arrayed against us... An entire elite cohort and Savos 'fucking' Aren himself.

What in oblivion is Master Malkoran thinking listening to that wench calling herself the Ritual Master?!

A mysterious woman comes to your lair, tells you to follow her for great power and without an ounce of hesitation you abandon all your earlier plans and rush after her.

And of course, it isn't him freezing up here, smelling the still rotting giant we raised and looking death in the face just across the damned field.

No! It is me and my dear wife...

I look at my Anne. Oh, she was so beautiful in life! Even now her dead eyes fill me with warmth. Such a shame she didn't listen to me when she got sick and I said we were going to seek eternal life together.

Well she would get it whether she liked it or not.

I look at the field again and notice a small dark dot in the distance slowly crawling toward the gate.

Is that a Dwemer spider?

Made of iron....

What?

(Flash back to the council, Torygg's pov)

I really do hope Reyvin has some kind of idea. Of all the people at court he is the most chaotic to be sure, with all the good and bad that brings.

He snaps his fingers and a sphere of iron falls to the ground... it looks like a bulky iron version of the sketches of Dwemer automata I read about when I was young.

Hmmm... Falk did say something about that when we were deciding if we were going to invite him, let's see where this will go.

"You brought a metal ball? How is that going to help?" Rikke asks irritably.

Reyvin raises an excited finger "Not just any metal ball!" and after a dramatic pause adds "A metal ball of death!"

She frowns "Explain."

Reyvin merely waves her off "Just watch and enjoy." He approaches Savos and starts whispering something to him, as he talks I see the Archmage's expression shift to a more and more gleeful one.

Without any further reaction Savos summons a bunch of... scrolls? and starts stuffing them into every single spot of the automaton he can.

I want to be worried, but their expressions tell me that whatever they are doing I wouldn't wish even on my enemies.

(Back to the necromancer)

Are they sending the thing to bring some kind of message?

I mean it's just a simple spider, even if it is impressive they managed to make the thing move properly... Maybe I should grab it and study it, it could be the thing that puts bread on the table when Anne and I finally decide to settle down and have our kids!

I command the skeletons to go and grab it and bring it to me, which as good little pets they do immediately.

Soon I am looking over a bulky Dwemer spider, but before I can examine the thing I hear a distant screech coming from above.

(Back to Reyvin)

"Alright, you have stuffed the spider with scrolls and sent it to the enemy..." Rikke says slowly and then snaps at me "How exactly do you plan on detonating them?"

I smile "Scorch, come out please."

With a fiery 'pop' my glorious hawk boy appears on the snow next to me, immediately evaporating it and looking at me expectantly "What do you want pops?"

Once again I am on the receiving end of a bunch of very confused and some scared stares, but instead of elaborating I bend down and start whispering my devious idea to Scorch.

I can sense the twinge of sadism he has come to the forefront as he bobs his head like a peacock "A marvelous plan, leave the degenerates to me!" and flies up into the air.

I look back up to the others and see just about what I expected, what I didn't expect was a Savos staring into the distance with a hint of nostalgia in his eyes for a moment.

Naturally he regains his bearings almost immediately and says with his usual cheer "I see you already ascended your familiar, congratulations."

I bow theatrically "I live to impress."

(Back to the necromancer)

I look up and see another dot, this time of a bright orange.

It seems to be getting bigger, almost as if it is getting closer.

With terrified realization I swiftly look back down to the spider and notice a bunch of folded, and more importantly primed scrolls attached to the bottom of it.

There is a 'thud' sound behind me and I jerk back to see a large fiery hawk looking at me with what I think might be pity.

"Hey there..." I say slowly.

He continues staring.

Deciding to try and calm the obviously magical creature and stop it from detonating whatever is attached to the spider I approach slowly while saying "It's all right buddy, no need to get scared, I won't hurt you."

The hawk looks at me sadly, like he wants to be comforted.

With growing confidence I continue my approach and slowly pat the bird's head, as expected not getting burned by its flames "There, there. It will be alright."

The bird suddenly jerks its head and looks me dead in the eyes with what I swear is a sadistic smile "Bwok bwok motherfu-"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

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