Clash of Flames

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Despite the ages, he remained in Blackreach unmoved and unbothered for Time wasn't even something that would faze him. And from the perspective of a marvelous machine, time is prolonged as there is maintenance and in his eyes, there is an entire city beneath his feet that was built on just that.

The Dwarves of old built a city in Blackreach to be the capital of their empire which would outlast any civilization above ground. If given the same time as the other races were given, this wouldn't have been even a fair play and the Dwarves would have advanced so much in the past 4000 years that they would overthrow the rest of the races on Nirn.

But they disappeared and left a city empty and silent.

For him, it is sad.

The Dwarves were the best musicians ever known on Mundus and their music carved stones, run machines, altered reality, and made the world dance around them. How could all this wonder turn into nothing but rubble in a wake of the ignorance and the idiocy of the Falmer slaves who are nothing but refugees of the surface? How did the masters of wonder and the people of the deep just vanish?

Years have passed since that.

Adventurers came and went and the machines were either fighting or maintaining themselves. The city, such as all the Dwarven Colonies, was powered by the Energy of Nirn's core, something that can't even be depleted. The volcanos and the underwater rivers created a natural steam power source which the Dwarves maintained, improved, and exploited rather masterfully.

With every chime of their Tonal arts, Magic would be harnessed to submission.

That's what the world is missing right now. That's what the sons of Man and the Mer are still squabbling about trying to decipher with no real progress for ages.

Only he remained with the last secrets hoping that one day the Dwarves return and fill Blackreach with their music.

And as he hoped, he slumbered away.

Until he heard a chime one day.

A chime only a Dwemer can create but it was mixed with something else.

Something… Draconic.

***

*10 minutes earlier*

Blackreach shook with the first interaction between Jon and the Dwarven Colossus.

Jon initiated the fight with the Colossus which was still scanning for the noises coming from all corners of Blackreach. The way he did it is by making a large rock levitate and hurling it towards the Colossus.

The dreadful sound of stone crushing against metal was merely the start of a series of sounds that were about to be made by the Colossus. It couldn't even bother with Jon throwing such a large thing at him and so it turned to him, scanned him thoroughly with its red eyes, and designated him as an enemy.

In a Dwarven Animunculi's point of view, anything that is not a Dwarf should be eliminated. Jon was locked on by the Colossus which started to walk towards Jon with big steps, each of them shaking the ground and shattering the earth.

As the Dwarven Colossus entered its battle mode, its Dynamo Core started to ignite properly in order to prepare a high output of energy. With that, all the gears and the hydraulic hinges started to be highlighted by the red light coming from within and a magnificent scene was displayed in front of Jon's eyes.

A Dwarven Colossus is like a walking building with 4 to 5 stories in height. To match that, Jon was standing on top of the ruins of Blackreach waiting for the dreadful opponent to approach.

The only thing this Colossus can be compared to in appearance is its smaller relative, the Dwarven Centurion which uses steam, as these two are the ones that walk on two feet and have a full humanoid appearance. However, the Dwarven Colossus has two retractable pincer blades on its right arm and its left arm is completely shaped into a cannon. On top of that, the Colossus has a large hunchback that carries an array of weaponized mechanisms.

Once the Dwarven Colossus reached the perfect distance from Jon, it raised its left cannon arm, aimed it at his target and…

"Ward!" Jon hit the ground lightly with his staff.

… a surging outflow of flames akin to the breath of a Dragon was let loose at Jon.

Flame and Magic clashed and the flow of fire was split in two by the work of Jon's Ward. Not so much as a single spark managed to get through his defense and the ward's ripple was clear and still until the Colossus ended its greeting.

"Alright, my turn."

Jon let go of his staff and joined his hands together filling his palm with crackling electricity which was shaped into a sphere that started to enlarge at a ridiculous pace before…

*ZAP*

… getting released at the Colossus.

The power and focus of the energy were so threatening that it took the light away as the spell struck but the Colossus stood tall and took the spell like it was nothing.

"Okay…" Jon smiled wryly, "That seemed to have energized you."

The Colossus moved not Jon's ranting but it took a large step towards Jon with the pure intent of stomping him down.

The foot landed on the run, which oddly enough didn't crumble but to the Colossus' sensor's, Jon's biometric signal wasn't in this direction anymore.

*TINK* *TINK*

A warning signal appeared in the Colossi's mainframe as it detected damages in its body frame. The scanners immediately picked Jon who was in the direction of the damaged area but…

"That's gonna hurt."

A 7 feet and feet tall armored man had two long chains coming from his arms and ending with two anchors at the side of the 45 feet tall Colossus. With just sheer physical power, the man pulled the construct down.

Judging that the Colossus had one of its feet raised to stomp on the ruins, its entire balance became focused on one foot which was band news for the colossus at the moment.

The towering construct couldn't even balance itself as it crumbled down with a massive thud that sent shockwaves through the entire cavern system.

"And let's hope I didn't wake up a slumbering ancient evil… yet." Jon said as he retracted the anchors and took enough distance from the fallen Colossus.

Away from him, many of the Troopers watched the first exchange happen in delight and were cheering for the massive win as they completely tied down the Falmer Servants they just extracted.

Back to Jon, he switched to the Halberd and walked towards the colossus to do some digging but suddenly, his vision was filled with red grim color as a pattern formed behind the dust.

He could hear the sound of various contraptions working systematically and in mere seconds, the temperature increased dramatically.

*Swoosh*

Using spells like "Accelerate" and "Haste" as well as his martial aura, Jon phased out from his place as missiles of fire magic started to descend above his head.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Wherever he went was exploding with highly intense fire missiles which leveled everything they landed on with the ground. The ruins and the corpses of the Falmer lying around were turning to dust as the Colossus started to fix its body forward while keeping Jon on the run.

As a reaction, Jon raised his staff and started shooting back Fireballs at the same rate as the Colossus while surfing around with his speed and trying to kill the distance between him and the Colossus but he was getting cornered fast. He utilized the Boots of the Apostle a few times to break off tight situations but he felt more maneuverable on his feet.

With the Colossus now standing but only keeping distance and intending on blasting Jon from distance, Jon found it extremely time-consuming to exchange fire with this machine at this rate since he seems to have been competing with it in its specialty.

He retreated away from the last blast and changed his pose holding his staff from its lower end with two hands and standing ready.

The Colossus didn't change its attack pattern with Jon switching his and kept sending Fire Missiles endlessly as if there was a Rocket Barrage launcher installed on its back, which was the case actually.

With Jon taking this pose and not moving, the Missile started to descend directly at him at an incredible speed and…

*ponk* *ponk* *ponk*

Jon madly swung his staff around and hit every Fire Missile before it hit him. With the weird properties of pride, each Fire Missile was instantly redirected towards the Colossus.

The physical capabilities of Jon were enough to do just this good and the Colossus was hit badly with its own fire.

For those who were watching, it felt odd how much Jon was preparing for this fight and how easily he was handling it. Still, the part Jon was after didn't come yet and as soon as the Colossus was stunned with its own missiles, Jon immediately switched to full offensive as he used the Boots of the Apostle to run up and land on the Colossus' back with his Halberd in his right.

As a reaction to that, the Colossus stood tall and started trying to shake off Jon who was effortlessly clinging to it and destroying certain areas on its back with the Halberd. The incredible power of Jon's hits was making the supposedly indestructible Colossus burst and break.

As soon as the backshell was cracked and opened, Jon discarded both his weapons and started to break in with his body inside the raging Colossus.

"What a mad lad!" Wulfur couldn't help but exclaim before turning to Alina, "Alright. It is time, I guess."

Alina nodded.

"Issue the Signal!" She said,

Immediately, Wulfur took out a horn and blew its sound to echo across Blackreach. The sound was very powerful for a horn but all the troopers standing near Wulfur could feel the vibrations of that sound disturbing their senses and could see the small pebbles on the ground bouncing with these vibrations.

Vibrations of these levels were able to travel far and wide distances and be perceived by creatures that live underground. Falmer, Chauruses, Dwarven Animunculi, and all that dwell deep in the hidden sections of Blackreach.

This signal also meant that everyone must evacuate right away as hordes upon hordes of the deep dwellers were just about to fill the Silent City.

But that wasn't the end of it all, the final invitation was still to be issued.

After all, with all these guests arriving, there is bound to be a Main Guest.

The Dwarven Colossus was still struggling with the uninvited guest inside of its body and since it had no inner defenses, it could only move around trying to shake this thing off.

Inside its mainframe, many error signals were popping out everywhere as there was no solution for the amount of damage it was receiving and so, it tried to overheat its core to expel…

*CRASH*

But whatever it tried to do, it was halted when the head of Jon's staff broke the red crystal of its Dynamo Core.

With that, the Dwarven Colossus is officially dead… or is it?

With the red light coming from its inner parts disappearing, the Colossus surely lost its power source and its weapons lost their fire too but somehow, it still kept its balance and it was clearly standing with no energy.

It was balancing itself, raising its arms slowly, trying its right hand's fingers one by one, then finally clenched its fist with full power making sparks fly from the collision of metals.

The red light of the Dynamo Core has indeed disappeared but electricity started to replace its fire.

Lighting ran through its Heart, a new core emerged, power different from what it used to have powered its gears and…

Blue Light came from within.

It took a step forward.

"He's doing it!" Wulfur exclaimed from afar, "Look at the big fella! He's doing it!"

"Here he goes." Even Alina felt excited.

The Dwarven Colossus staggered a few times before getting a grasp of walking again and finally stood in the middle of the Dwarven ruins under the fake sun of Blackreach.

Slowly, its head was forced open like a hatch door Jon walked out from it.

He looked up to the fake sun, took off his mask, and took in a deep breath before…

"FUS RO DAH!"

The Unrelenting Force shout gathered the vital energy into the raw power that pushed through everything in its wake and struck the fake sun.

*DINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*

The fake sun wasn't even crushed by Jon's mighty shout yet a loud ring came out and it was way stronger than Wulfur's Horn.

This was it!

Jon grinned and immediately returned inside the Dwarven Colossus.

*ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR*

What followed was a roar far stronger than anything echoed through Blackreach today. The invitation surely worked and the main guest arrived.

Large wings fluttered and created storms in the caverns of Blackreach as a large shadow crossed the caves and landed on top of the ruins.

Then words in the tongue of Dragons echoed.

"Joor Lir! Nunon Yol ahrk Gol! Zu'u koraav nid Dilfahliil. Wo los hi wah mey zey?" A strong voice shattered the stones with its echoes and filled the hearts of men with horror for it was an actual Dragon.

"Who am I, you ask?" Jon replied as he jumped back inside the Colossus and closed its head hatch and put the mask on, "You can call me Duke Fleed!"

And the Colossus' Eyes lit in Blue.

"Grendizer! GO!"

Read Early Content on Patre0n. Also consider Commenting and Joining Discord all on this URL: https://linktr.ee/donovel

[Join us on Patre0n for extra 12 Chapters]