Singing or Fighting?

A/n: Sorry for breaking the publishing schedule I had going on. Had a few things to deal with IRL.

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"Dogs of the Volkihar clan!" Alina stood in the gatehouse and called the Vampires out, "Woe befalls upon you! Winterhold withstood tens the might of you and hundreds the courage. Spineless creatures of the night, this land will be your doom."

Alina used the regular taunting strategy which usually works on most opponents, a skill that was passed to her by her darling dear, Jon.

"That wench!" The face of the Nightscreamer twisted into all colors of cruelty and wanted to take a step ahead and punish the puny mortal.

"Wait!" The Nightmarshal spoke, "Houndmaster, entertain the human."

As the Nightmarshal gave the role of facing Alina to the Houndmaster, the other two vampire lieutenants fell in line… or had to do so despite their emotions. As for the Houndmaster, a ruthless sneer appeared on his vampiric fiendish face.

Just like most Vampire Lords, the Houndmaster was the epitome of terror a mortal can ever imagine and if it wasn't for the fact the Dare Troopers has seen thick and thin along with the Dares from the darkest depths of Blackreach to battling mad witchmen in the shadows and fires of Dragons, these men and women wouldn't have endured till this point. Still, the Houndmaster has some unique features of his own which set his face as more canine-like rather than the bat-like one.

"Woman! In the name of Molag Bal and Lord Nightmarshal, this Houndmaster shall rip you to pieces." The Houndmaster flew ahead while brandishing his claws and aiming them towards Alina's neck.

"Tired of living?"

On the opposite side, Alina's eyes glowed with dangerous light and just a second before the claws would reach her, a gleam of moonlight crossed with the vampire's claws in a soundless impact.

Once the exchange happened, the Vampire was struck back with an obvious surprise on his face. The sound of the exchange was heard almost a second later like the sound of shattering glass but what was shattering were the claws of the Houndmaster's right.

Before he could react, Alina jumped off the wall and kicked him right in the face, falling together to the base of the wall.

As they landed, the Houndmaster's face was planted to the ground and Alina was standing with her two agile feet on it while holding a saber in her left.

A few would mistake Alina for a frail spellcaster but in truth, she is a daughter of the sword-wielding clan, the Moonblade. A Nordic hidden clan whose origins are mingled with mysterious Akaviri traditions.

Alina's twin swords, Bloodscythe and Soulrender, are two demon-like swords that were part of her personal collection from the Deathbrand set. She owned the whole set as Jon handed them all to her but for now, she displayed only one sword.

"Im… IMPUDENT!"

Yet the fallen Houndmaster was far from over by a simple maneuver. As a Vampire Lord, it would take a miracle to kill such an entity.

His broken claws regenerated at abnormal speed and he slashed at Alina who simply returned the favor. Once an exchange occurred again, the same scenario repeated itself but the Vampire used his left after his right and Alina had to call the second sword to deal with that.

The Houndmaster was still beneath Alina's feet and so he used the hideous wings on his back to force himself up in a violent motion to cause Alina to lose footing but with the lightness of a feather, Alina let herself be thrown up in the air higher than the level of the city wall.

She kept her grace by flying majestically up into the air but as she reached the highest point she could reach, she blew a sharp whistle.

Back at the Dare Tower, two things reacted to Alina's whistle. From the Armory, a few pieces of ice started to vibrate and suddenly flew off their holding standing while shattering all the glass on their way.

These pieces of ice flew at an extreme speed out of the tower towards the eastern wall and as Alina was the highest of her flight, the pieces of ice started to bind themselves on her body to form a glass-like armor of ice.

Alina's Stalhrim armor set, the Deathbrand Armor. It merged with her red velvet dress and formed a battle dress unlike anything in the world. As Alina landed, she mustered the power of the storm and descended at the Houndmaster with sharp killing intent.

The Houndmaster wasn't just watching this whole time, he gathered as many dead thralls corpses as he could and channeled his necromancy magic to transform their bones into sharp projectiles that hurled towards Alina at the fire rate of a modern machine gun.

Alina slashed all the projectiles at an incredible speed and the Houndmaster was shouting from pressure but just as he felt he could finally push her back, he was struck by a rolling snowball.

"Lokthur!"

The gryphon, which curled its body like a snowball to distract the Vampire, flew up in the air and caught Alina to redirect her from the unending barrage of bone projectiles. As the two joined forces, they descended towards the stunned Houndmaster and aimed to tear him apart with blades and talons.

But just as he was going to be dealt with, a third party interfered. The Bloodscreamer charged forward and reached for the Houndmaster before tossing him aside.

"Useless idiot!" The Bloodscreamer cussed at the Houndmaster and instead of brandishing her claws at Alina, she was spamming a barrage of spells around the field.

The Bloodscreamer was a slender female Vampire Lord with long ashen hair and a zombie-like face with no nose or lips. A horrific specimen of a vampire for sure and her abilities were that of horror and terror as it all seemed. Once she let go of her spells, it all spread around in a wave of cyan mist that transformed into all sorts of monstrous beings that surrendered Alina in front of the city gate.

"Oh no." Alina, who was standing above Lokthur's back, made a shocked face but she was still half grinning.

Just as those monstrous apparitions started to rush towards her from all sides, the swords in her hands were switched with a staff and she jumped off Lokthur.

The staff Alina wielded looked like something eldrich and it was definitely Daedric. It was something she always kept close by in case it was ever needed and now it was its time to shine.

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[Skull of Corruption] <Daedric Staff of Nightmares>

- Dreamsteal

- Waking Nightmares

- Psychic Agony

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Alina wasn't even casting spells with the Skull but rather used its innate powers.

"WAKING NIGHTMARES!"

She hit the ground with the staff's heel and a shockwave of green sickening energy countered the spell cast by the Bloodscreamer. As the two spells took effect, no one expected what the end result would be.

The spell cast by the Bloodscreamer is called "Phantasmal Invasion'', a spell that creates a score of apparitions that take various forms based on the psyche of the onlookers. Some of the people in that situation reported seeing gigantic insects, Falmer warmongers, and even Jon Dare himself. As for Alina, she simply smirked as her spell came to play.

It was as if Alina had countered the Bloodscreamer's spell with a duplicate spell of her own. "Waking Nightmares" is the same thing as "Phantasmal Invasion" but with a slight massive difference. "Phantasmal Invasion" is an illusion spell, while "Waking Nightmares" is a conjuration power cast by a Daedric Staff linked to the Daedric realm of Quagmire, the realm of Vaermina, Daedric Prince of Nightmares.

In other words, while the Bloodscreamer cast a spell that creates a number of scary things, Alina conjured those scary things right away. The outcome was instant.

An illusion would be dispelled from the first damage it receives and the creatures summoned by the Waking Nightmares, also called the Waking Nightmares, are very much capable of dishing out and tanking in a formidable amount of damage. Illusions were merely distractions and mind tricks but Conjuration is a school of bullies who like to fight with numbers.

As soon as this exchange went on, the Bloodscreamer was dodging hot on heels with two dozen Waking Nightmares attacking her left and right.

"That's enough!"

The Bloodscreamer, however, was still a Vampire Lord and an ancient strong one at that. Full of agitation, she let go of her vampiric power and caused a blast of maleficent energy that devastated all the Waking Nightmares that were targeting her and sent that full force of power towards Alina.

Facing such a dangerous attack, Alina was coolheaded as she summoned one last weapon to her right hand. A staff of endless power and devastating force.

The Staff of Magnus!

With the staff at her right, Alina created a large enough magical shield that enveloped her and the entire gatehouse. It absorbed all the power from the Bloodscreamer's attack and stored it away inside the staff's core.

It was as if nothing had happened in the first place and the Bloodscreamer was left with an agitated look on her face. Both Alina and the Bloodscreamer kept staring at each other.

"Should I remind you that I still haven't taken my turn to attack?" Alina asked with a smug expression.

She faced two of the Vampire Lords on her own and stood her ground splendidly. Her skill was superior and her arsenal was vast, providing her excellence in both close combat and magic combat.

The Houndmaster, who was watching the past exchange, and the Bloodscreamer, whose attack just failed, both suddenly retreated to the side of the Knight-like vampire commander. Around them, Alina could notice that something has changed.

Many Vampires were spread around the area outside the wall to make a wide formation yet each of them seemed to be a capable spellcaster on their own accord. They all raised their grim-looking weapons and aimed them at the city wall.

"They were buying time!" Alina realized what just happened.

She was reeled out of the wall by the enemy commanders to distract her from focusing on the battlefield by fighting her themselves. Once their real plan was finally executed and there was no way to reverse it, they retreated right away.

The best way to overcome a seer is to make them look the other way.

"NOW!" The Bloodscreamer shouted and every vampire from the group under her command started screaming just like how she did back then.

"Cover your ears!" Akara shouted on the walls as many of the Troopers were still recovering from the first attack but this second one was imminent and dangerous.

These sharp screeches were sonic attacks, something that would damage the living greatly and leave them stunned and defenseless.

It was all too late and the sonic attacks struck the defenders who barely managed to put up a defense with simple magic wards. The problem with magic wards against sonic attacks is that soundwaves echo and travel by bouncing off surfaces which makes them quite tricky to handle.

As the troopers were about to collapse, Alina wanted to fly back up the wall but she was suddenly attacked with a barrage of magic spells that kept her on the defending end. She wasn't worried about the city since there were a lot of monsters dormant in Saarthal and would move as soon as the threat got real but she was genuinely worried for the Troopers who got disoriented by the sonic waves.

The Bloodscreamer was cornering Alina from the front and the Houndmaster was trying to get past Lokthur to strike her from behind. While Alina perfectly matched the Bloodscreamer, Lokthur spread his wings and started waving frigid gales at the Houndmaster who was trying to resist the power of the wings of one Snow-capped Gryphon.

In this time of impending disaster, the defenders fired their crossbows desperately and the Vampires pushed as hard as they could with their sonic techniques and the two sides started to lose people. The Vampires' numbers seemed to be increasing and the defenders on the walls were just reinforced with a second team joining on the wall with fresh soldiers and better magic resistance equipment.

The battle was getting as fierce as it could get.

But on the two sides, there was always that dangerous factor of the unknown. The Vampires didn't know what sort of Experts the defenders still have behind the city walls and the Defenders didn't know what sort of monsters the vampire still have in their backlines.

Despite the heat of the skirmish, the two sides were barely testing the waters but just at that moment, someone decided to interfere in the fight and cause a big disturbance.

The light over the sky of Saarthal started to brighten up and many eyes from the two sides were attracted to the source of that light. Seeing it clearly, the light was coming from the top of the Dare Tower. On top of that, some sections of the tower were brightening up as well.

Only a few people can do that, those who are surnamed Dare.

One of them is on the frontlines facing the Vampires and the others… Well, there is only one other Dare out there.

But the light from the tower wasn't even the beginning of how this thing can be used, it was merely a sign that the tower is being activated. The real thing came with the sound of war drums.

Just like the echoes of the sonic attack used by the Vampire screamers, the drum beat coming from the Dare Tower started to produce soundwaves of specific wavelengths that were slowly synchronizing with the Vampires.

"NO!" The Bloodscreamer suddenly froze in place and looked back, "STOP SCREAMING! NOW!"

She realized, as an expert in sonic attacks, that this feeling she got from the tower was something that can't be good and was going to be dangerous. Even the Nightmarshal, who stood way in the back, failed to recognize the danger and couldn't register why the Bloodscreamer was calling off the attack.

But it took a second for the Bloodscreamer's fears to come true and it was…

"A spectacle!"

… a bloodbath!

Those vampire screamers were the target. The soundwaves they produced were countered with a level of soundwaves that mixed with theirs and ended up redirecting their attack at their own heads, their skulls, and their brains.

Save for a few who heeded the Bloodscreamer's order, it was just fireworks of brain matter, skull pieces, vampiric fangs, and a large amount of blood.

The scene just cost the vampires over 80% of their screamer group and damaged the ones who stopped screaming on top of that.

As the screams died down and the defenders looked over the battlements at the scene of blood and gore that befell the vampires. The horror aside, it was a wonder how this small number of vampires was able to cause this much disturbance.

But those who looked at the other side of the wall towards the Dare Tower could see the eastern gate of the tower open and a familiar man walk out.

"Shit! It is him!"

"He returned and we haven't driven back the vampires just yet!"

"Fuck! Shit! Fuck!"

"Get your shit together!" Akara shouted at the troopers who were complaining, "Open the gates!"

Jon was walking at his own pace and as soon as the gate was opened, he could see Alina as she was facing two vampire lords on her own without falling back.

He smiled, knowing his naughty wife's attitude when she is up to blow off some steam. Her sword dance and magic casting, her magical armor and precise footwork, the intensity that keeps rising and falling in rhyme with her attacks and defenses, and on top of all, how she can manage four weapons at the same time by switching between the two staffs and the two swords whenever she wants.

Words just came to Jon's tongue as he manifested an Oud instrument by "Bardic Tradition" and started walking closer.

"Lamma badda yatathna!" (When I saw her sway)

He reached the outside of the gate and walked sideways out from the range of the fight before circling around the fight and watching Alina fight from the sidelines.

"Hibbi jamalu fatanna!" (My lover's beauty blew me away)

He then walked ahead past Lokthur and patted the Gryphon as he came to stand behind Alina. She couldn't lose her focus but as she sensed his presence, she turned to him with a blade aimed at his neck.

"Aman! Aman! Aman! Aman!" (Oh, Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!)

Jon raised his hand in surrender and with a warm look in his eyes as he sang while looking at his lover's eyes warmly.

[A/n: Lamma badda yatathna - Lena Chamamyan … check Sami Yusuf's version for translation.]