433 Caaarrrrl!?

Once the group was in a secure place, Michael spoke about his role in the defence, immediately offering to fight the 'King Mud Crab' as it'd been named by most of the city by this point.

Sure, he could just let Solitude deal with it, knowing that the Ballistae his company had sold them would probably pierce its shell with ease, but then again, he had no idea if he'd lose EXP from the kill, nor if having Solitude help him in the fight would breach the rules of the Hunt.

Eventually Torygg agreed to let him go fight the King Mud Crab, though, with the knowledge that he'd have his men get involved if Michael was struggling or in danger. They had no idea just what abilities the mud crab possessed, but Sybille had a suspicion that it gained the strength of everything it ate, which is why it got bigger with every mud crab it ate.

What would happen if it managed to eat Michael? Yeah, no one wanted to know. Even if the curiosity of the group was palpable.

Soon enough, the army of mud crabs was in range of the city's defences. Ballistae and wall-mounted catapults unloading their ammunition at the sea of crabs.

*THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!*

Carapace and shell pieces scatter as they shatter, with stringy mud crab flesh beginning to thick layer the ground, even as more of the critters scuttled atop their kin's corpses to reach Solitude's gates.

The next that were in range were the archers and mages, who each launched their attacks to massive effect. Explosions of ice, fire, and lightning erupt around the battleground, easily killing the helpless mud crabs as they continue their suicidal march.

Atronachs of every kind were summoned below the walls and acted as walls that destroyed any foe that got near them... That is, until the King Mud Crab shot the Wabbajack as one of them, causing them and all other Atronachs to abruptly turn into cheese...

With that, Michael decided it was time to go confront the Champion of Sheogorath. Before it shot the Wabbajack at the gate and turned it into jello, or water, or something...

He gives a nod to Sybille and Blinks to the ground before beginning his charge. Obviously, he could have flown there from the top of the wall, but the risk of getting shot by the Wabbajack in mid-air was too much. Plus... He'd recently discovered the Empire's law that forbids any spells that granted flight, the Levitation Act...

Considering that Solitude was the city that was linked the strongest to the Empire, it'd probably be a bad idea to openly flaunt such laws in front of everyone.

Regardless, he Blinks from the back of mud crab to mud crab, quickly traversing the army with relative ease. He does have to avoid some Wabbajack projectile as he does so, the magical bolts hitting mud crabs behind him and causing various effects.

Some grew larger, some grew smaller, some turned into cows that were quickly devoured by the other mud crabs, while others turned back into regular humans, who were also quickly devoured.

The closer he got to the King Mud Crab, the harder avoiding the projectiles got, fortunately, his base Agility was exceptional, not mentioning his stacks of [Essence Shift] he'd gathered as he killed mud crabs in his path with a spare ebony sword he had in his inventory.

"Alright you giant rangoon, let's get it-!" Michael starts but finds himself blown away as a mud crab behind him explodes into confetti after a Wabbajack bolt hits it.

He's blasted straight towards the King Mud Crab, which already had its pinchers ready to bisect him... He twists in the air and skims past them and manages to grab a protruding part of its shell, allowing him to flip up to its back.

The pincer holding the Wabbajack erratically jabs it towards him, not using its sight, but simply shooting where it felt Michael on its back. He avoids them, but this method of aiming, of course, did have some issues.

Michael flips over another magic projectile, not noticing that its trajectory would hit the King Mud Crab's carapace...

*POOSH!*

Once it connects, the entire top layer of the shell on the crab's back morphs, causing many disgustingly slimy tentacles to sprout and whip around, each tipped with a bone spike that dripped with some sort of green acidic substance.

Michael's quick to react to this, blasting them with a Fade Bolt that begins jumping between them, somehow registering each one as its own individual entity, which isn't really strange when you consider their origin.

He also casts a Muffle spell on himself to prevent the King Mud Crab from locating him any longer, the spell not only muting the sounds he makes but also muffling the impact of his feet, preventing it from feeling them through its shell.

This only causes it to start spamming Wabbajack bolts around at random however, some hitting nearby trees and causing them to turn into some sort of treants that uproot themselves and go berserk, some hit a few of the remaining tentacles causing them to grow bigger and more phallic-shaped... And some even hit the walls of Solitude, causing the stone to transmute into millions of baby hands (Yes I'm looking at you Carl.).

Everyone atop the wall screams as they plummet into the pile of hands, the siege equipment crushing a few underneath it, along with the countless baby hands that are turned into a disgusting mulch of bloody, tender flesh.

"What. The. Fuck..." Michael mutters as he sees all of this going down, his left eye twitching erratically as he focuses on the literal mountain of bloody dismembered baby hands. It's almost shocking enough to allow the Wabbajack to hit him, almost.

Michael abruptly jumps backwards, performing a flip as he lands behind the claw holding the Wabbajack. "Alright Sheo, you sick fuck! Try this!" he roars as he chops his ebony sword into the joint of the claw, swiftly cutting it off in a single blow.