Chapter III: The Taste of Defeat

Time seemed to slow down as the mass of pitch black scales barreled straight toward us, his eyes briefly twitched in my direction but his attention was swiftly taken by Minthara glaring at him and greeting him with her own voice "FUS RO DAH!"

I could practically taste his contempt as he simply stated "Bo." and ripped through the space in front of him, appearing directly above her, already mid swing with his front claws.

Which was exactly what I was waiting for as I activated the massive spell circle buried below the stone, immediately directing the many soul gems embedded within into a grand alteration spell.

An immense spike of earth struck out against the dragon, turning to steel faster than the eye could perceive, and was just about to impale him under his jaw.

But that was not all, as numerous spots in the pavement were shattered by dozens of my ballistae automatons, their enchanted bolts flashing out in glorious crimson as they targeted him from every conceivable direction.

"Strunmah." The cold voice resounded once again, a tinge of amusement coloring it this time.

Briefly I was confused by what he meant by calling out a mountain, and then had that confusion shattered completely as I felt his metaphysical weight increase, crushing a few of the legionaries that were unlucky enough to be close to him outright and forcing the rest of us to struggle to remain standing.

The ballista bolts I had spent so long enchanting detonated in a deafening boom, doing absolutely nothing whatsoever to the now enhanced scales, and some of them even bounced off doing even more damage to the town.

'Stop worrying about the damages and move to plan B you s'witt!'

The spike of steel went completely ignored as Alduin simply twisted out of its path with a speed that definitely should not belong to something that large and batted it away with one of his claws, ripping the thing out of the ground and launching it into a nearby tower blowing it to tiny pieces and likely killing everyone still atop it.

Minthara, rather foolishly, did not hesitate to charge at the now grounded beast, swinging her new blade with surprising speed she moved as fast as the greatest mortal warriors I have fought before, delivering a swift cut across one of his arms, immediately supported by a shower of lightning from Marco who was already making sure he had enough distance to run away if needed.

No one would judge him for it when he did.

Alduin actually winced slightly at the sudden stinging sensation and immediately whipped his tail toward the surprised Dragonborn, who was too busy gawking at actually hurting the weakened godling.

"Not the fucking time to gawk Minthara!" I yelled and immediately changed target from the gigantic cunt's face and started blasting the offending tail with dozens of spells of each element, slowing it down just enough for her to get out of the way and even managing to shear off some smaller scales... which then regenerated.

But a dragon's whole body was a living weapon, doubly so in the case of a dragon god. While we were focusing on a single limb he was already swinging out with both his arms, the pitch black claws practically flashing into existence before us.

I only had a split second to shadow step out of the way of the blow that completely shattered the house behind me without even touching it, suppressing my twinge of panic at the possibility of him outright killing Minthara, I appeared behind him just in time to see the result.

I will admit I did gape a bit when I saw her sword glowing a brilliant gold and a good ten shimmering ghosts vaguely resembling the Blades from the Septim era all blocking the blow together with perfect coordination.

Even the big bad dragon was distracted and looked like he was about to start mocking her.

I naturally did not waste the opportunity and immediately invoked Magnus' gaze, directing his staff straight at the asshole's asshole and combining all the elements into a single disintegration beam, just as Savos taught me.

And just to make sure it stuck I shouted "JOOR ZAH FRUL!"

The shout struck its target perfectly, shimmering over his scales in its baleful blue hue, but I could already feel the mountain shout still having an effect as the added 'weight' worked to resist my curse.

And then my spell struck.

A roar of pain and, more prominently, indignation almost blew out my eardrums as Alduin was slammed into the ground with the magical power of a god channeled by an archmage.

Minthara wasted no time in turning to the attack and started slashing at him like a complete madwoman, her own magic working to speed her up as much as inhumanly possible as numerous cuts appeared on the world ender's pace.

And then my six seconds ran out.

"TIID!" Came the clipped shout from the enraged dragon.

Time slowed down to a near halt, only Akatosh's blessing letting me see those two hateful orbs he called eyes focus their full intent on me and the mountain of black scales snapping around in an attempt to devour me, smacking Minthara in the face in the process and launching her straight at Marco.

My robes activated before I could even register the event, letting the jaws harmlessly pass through me and buying me just enough time to activate my next spell before the slowed time could drain my aetherial form.

Space cracked in front of me and I disappeared from my previous spot, suddenly standing hundreds of meters above the almost completely destroyed town.

Even from here, I could see the battle still going on, spells and bolts were still flying at the furious dragon, who ignored them all in his fixation on finding the mortal who humiliated him.

I naturally, would oblige.

Letting loose the levitation spell I activated on pure instinct, I let my self descend into a freefall, Auri-El's bow already in my hands and as much Magicka as I could push within bursting from within me.

Alduin's eyes snapped upwards, widening briefly as he felt the aura of my weapon.

My plan seemed to have worked as those same eyes were suddenly alight with fury, a predictably cruel shout leaving him in the next instant "RII VAAZ DU!"

Anyone else would have been stunned by pants shitting terror as the fucker literally attempted to eat my soul for daring to fight back, but I had long since prepared myself for his potential conceptual powers as my shroud allowed me to simply ignore the crime against nature directed at me.

Alduin had just enough time to blink in surprise as the overcharged sunhallowed arrow found its way straight into his gaping maw, exploding within him a blink later.

Once again I cracked the space around me, avoiding the claw attempting to skewer me and appearing to his side, my hands already weaving a new spell as he coughed in brain melting pain.

Something told me though, that that cough was anything but.

And then for the first time in a long time, my precognition failed utterly as I was suddenly smashed aside with an absent tail swing, thankfully not getting impaled on anything in the process as my off hand already went to work speeding up my healing.

As I got up I could see Alduin leveling another glare at me "You are a bold one indeed." He snarled "YOU SHOULD BE HONORED MORTAL! YOUR SOUL SHALL SERVE AS MY FIRST MEAL IN THIS ACCURSED WORLD!"

He must have expected something else because my following words actually made him stop for a moment, the attacks of the legion and my animonculi still completely ignored "How about no?"

"Enough!" He barks "I have toyed with you fools long enough! VOKRII MULAAG QAH!"

'Did he just use a fucking dragon aspect as a dragon?' I deadpan at the unfairness of the world, and then quickly book it as he practically teleports in front of me, whatever shout he used to bypass my clairvoyance going unused as he was focusing on keeping his current one going.

With each narrow dodge, I blasted him with more spells, re-shouting dragonrend every single time he managed to shrug it off, my throat bleeding due to the strain.

Buildings were blown up or crushed each second as our merry chase continued, numerous soldiers dying as Tullius' order to disperse could never remove the simple factor of dumb bad luck.

I led him back toward the square once more, straight down the lane my ballistae had repositioned themselves toward, all of them aiming at one of the bigger wounds on his rear leg as I blasted him with my last dragonrend before my voice gave out completely.

The sudden limp slowed him down just enough for me to blast even more disintegration beams down his maw, pushing him back even further in the hopes of making him fuck off.

And almost as if sensing the connection, the fucker smashed all of them including Gatecrasher, turning it into fine chunks and sending the bits of orichalcum flying in all directions.

I blinked in a mix of sadness and resignation 'Now it was personal.'

Dragonflesh replaced mortal might, and blasphemy appeared in my hand, my very blood filling the blade with the power to deny a god.

And then the fucker sped up so much that even with clairvoyance I could not stop what happened next.

He appeared in front of me, and with one swing shattered my mask, removed my jaw, and probably a good chunk of my face, I don't know because I could not really think at that moment.

And then he blasted me with what I vaguely recognized as a wordless unrelenting force.

Shit.

(Minthara's POV)

"Faster!" I yell at the twenty soldiers who volunteered to follow me, Hadvar, Marco and Junia among their number.

Marco spoke through his huffing breaths "We won't be able to help if we are dead on our feet when we get to them, we just healed!"

"I DON'T CARE!" I snarl and finally step out into the central square just in time to see the World Eater staring down at a completely butchered Reyvin, a fair number of his limbs thrown about and his prized blade impaled into the ground beside him.

"Know this mortal." Alduin rumbles "You were stron-"

"WULD NAH KEST!" I don't need to listen any more as I heft my hammer and launch myself at his head, the weapon that had already slain a dragon once before brimming with arcane power as the amulet hidden beneath my armor once more filled me with an unending feeling of certainty and purpose.

Alduin's head twitched to the side, redirecting the thunderous hammer blow to one of his horns. My blood sang with glee as said horn shattered on impact, sending him stumbling back with a disoriented grunt of pain.

Immediately I went in for another swing, ducking below a claw swipe and smacking the side of his head in the same spot Marco had just blasted him with lightning.

Suddenly, the World Eater retreated, the shimmering shield around his body weakening as if a timer had run out. His eyes loomed down at me knowingly, and then he spoke "This will do." He stated "We shall see each other soon... Dovahkiin. BO!" 

Because of course the literal god of destruction was smart enough not to keep fighting when weakened, just what I needed!

And then he was already far up in the skies, his form disappearing on the distant horizon mere seconds later.

Not allowing myself to relax I whirled on Reyvin's battered form, hoping against hope that he was still alive.

But there was someone else there, a lightly armored Dunmer I quickly recognized as Davos jabbing some kind of blade with red liquid contained within its far too thick hilt into his stomach.

I went to see what was happening but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. My eyes snapped to my right and I was greeted with the sight of an unfamiliar Falmer in an ornate, seemingly monastic, plate armor.

"Calm yourself, child. The lord was prepared for such an eventuality." His aged soothing voice did actually serve to dampen the fire coursing through my veins, just a little.

I must have remained distracted for far longer than I noticed because in the next instant I was looking at a half naked Dunmer who was stretching himself like nothing happened, a very satisfied smirk on his face as he asked "So, what did I miss?"

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BO = To move/fly

STRUNMAH = Mountain

RII VAAZ DU = Essence Tear Devour

VOKRII MULAAG QAH = Restore Strengthen Armor

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