Chapter V: Extermination (Part 2)

A/n: I give my deepest thanks to Alberto Kalach for their most generous support on patreon.

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After Scorch finally regenerated, Reyvin sent him to scout out the path ahead.

Everyone thankfully seemed to be battle-worthy, having people being too wounded would slow them down tremendously.

The ashen hawk returned after a couple of minutes and relayed what he saw. Long, winding tunnels, covered in traps and ambush spots, the Falmer were ready for them this time.

After Reyvin explained the situation to the guard leader, the old man grunted in irritation, apparently he had to fight Bosmer in the great war and they used similar tactics.

Even after taking a good minute to think of any better ideas, it was decided that they would just have to slog through prepared enemy positions, no one liked it but if they got to save the prisoners it would be worth it.

They moved with caution, noticing and disarming a claw trap every now and then, soon they started to get ambushed by lone Falmer archers but with Reyvin casting wind-wards on the guards in front of him and the Falmer being blind, they were quickly taken out by the twins, or by Scorch ripping out their throats.

This continued for almost an hour, just when they would relax, a new ambusher would attack them, making everyone stuck in a state of constant tension.

Finally, they reached a new chamber, and if not for the small village's worth of Falmer arrayed in front of them they would have thought the underground river surrounded by glowing mushrooms and chitinous buildings to be breathtaking.

On the far side of the large cavern, Reyvin spied a fenced-off area where a bunch of Nords of all ages were tied up, thankfully the Falmer were too dumb to use hostages in this situation, or maybe they underestimated their attackers.

The Nords were stunned by the sheer number of enemies facing them, over a hundred Falmer, seemingly the entire remaining population of the cavern stood in a haphazard formation, with what looked like a mage standing in front of them, wielding a staff made of chaurus parts.

Speaking of the disgusting giant bugs, there were three of them at the side of the formation, thankfully not as large as the one they faced already, and with no riders this time.

Thorgrim quickly analyzed the situation and decided that the only way to victory is for the guards to be the anvil to the mage's hammer.

The guard made a shield wall with the twins taking positions behind them. Reyvin's task, however, was to face the enemy wizard and stop it from destroying the Nord's formation.

The two sides stared each other down, no one willing to make the first move, that is until Reyvin decided to not let his comrades get mentally exhausted by the stare-down and launched a lightning bolt at the enemy mage with all his might.

The creature was unable to react in time and a large chunk of its Magicka got burned out by the Dunmer's spell. The other Falmer enraged by this, charged the Nords in an unorganized fashion. It appeared that most of the warriors of this settlement were stationed at the beginning of the cavern seeing as these lacked proper armor or weapons.

The lines crashed into each other but thankfully the chaurus were blocked by their foolish owners and were unable to cause much damage.

The Falmer mage focused on Reyvin and started throwing ice shards with great speed, forcing him to start casting wards to not get his brain splattered on the ground, it even managed to nick him in the leg, but it was negligible.

The back and forth continued for what felt like an hour but was really less than a minute, changing his tactics from purely defensive Reyvin started throwing in lightning bolts and firebolts, landing a few hits that the blind fucker across the field failed to notice.

After the prolonged exchange of spells, the creature's Magicka reserve was draining far quicker than Reyvin's, and it showed as it started throwing fewer and fewer spells out.

In a last attempt to end him the Falmer raised its staff and launched a concentrated beam of lightning at the elf, but predicting the attack and not being a complete idiot, Reyvin threw himself to the side and finished the Falmer mage with a firebolt to the face.

Turning back to the battle he realized that it was not going too well, dozens of Falmer were dead but so were three of the guardsmen, the twins seemed to hold their own quite well, summoning maces in one hand and casting frostbite in the other.

Thorfinn was going on a rampage slaying multiple Falmer swarming him, but he was growing tired.

Thorgrim was smashing things left and right, not slowing down for even a moment.

But it was not sustainable, the guards would lose out. Reyvin aimed where the enemy was most bunched up and started throwing fireballs and downing Magicka potions in quick succession, each couple of fireballs was followed by Reyivin downing a magicka potion, this went on until he ran out of supplies and noticed that there were still too many of the damn Falmer.

Two more guardsmen fell to the onslaught, which was now finally joined by the chaurus beasts waddling over the corpses of their masters.

Understanding that there was no other way out Reyvin calmed himself and breathed slowly, there would be consequences for this but it had to be done, he quickly positioned himself to the side of the formation so as to not hurt his comrades with what he was about to do.

After a second of centering himself, he breathed in a large breath of the putrid cavern air and focused his very essence into a shout.

"YOL!"

The world itself seemed to be set aflame for but a flickering moment and a gust of fire far more potent than any spell he may cast left his mouth.

All of the chaurus and a good number of the remaining Falmer were instantly disintegrated by the dragon flame that hit them, the rest were burnt and quickly dispatched by the momentarily stunned guardsmen.

Reyvin's throat burned and he felt as if his very soul ached, Scorch quickly de summoned himself after ripping another Falmer's throat out and immediately got to trying to help his master heal.

The last thing that the young elf saw before he lost consciousness was the dumbfounded faces of the Nords and the twins rushing toward him, healing spells already prepared.

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