"What the fuck was that?!"
"I thought Archer was gonna die!"
"That was awesome! I couldn't see anything but it was like wham boom whoosh and then wham pow krrryck!"
"I get you brother."
Amidst the player's shouts, Max approached the assassin't body, only to find it dissolved.
'He suicided before Hrunting reached him.' Max thought.
The assassin had swallowed poison so potent that he preferred being melted to being killed. 'Another lunatic.' Max thought once again.
He couldn't even begin to imagine the pain the assassin must've gone through before his arrow reached him.
'Why was I targeted? Who placed the hit on me? Is it the Morag Tong here to take revenge? Or another assassin cult?' Max had many so many question but no answers.
He could only give up for the time being and focus on the matter at hand.
He returned back to the players amidst their almost worshipping looks and passed through the gate. "Let's go!"
***
The ground was up, the sky was down.
Butterflies had muscular legs and arms and foxes had tentacles growing on their backs. There were flying pigs together with slithering birds.
River was lava and fire erupted from the ground from time to time.
The air was so warm that it burned the lungs. All in all, it was chaos.
"Is this hell?" A players asked.
"Dude my HP is dropping continuously. What is wrong with this place?"
"It's so warm!!"
The players complained while Max scrutinized for anything that might've been keeping the connection with the mortal world.
'There it is.' He thought.
There was a tower in the distance. So far away that even with his Clairvoyance, Max could barely spot it.
There was a thin line connecting the tower and the gate together.
'Heh bastards.' The reason why no other stronger creatures could pass through the portal was the the tower was too far away, and thus couldn't supply the gate with high amounts of mana.
But this way, whoever closed the portal would have no time to return. Getting forever trapped in Oblivion.
'Fortunately, I'm an archer.' Max thought as his bow materialized in his hand.
"I am the Bone of my Sword." And a spiral sword materialized in the other.
It was Caladbolg II. The stronger version of Caladbolg III.
"I leave the Dremoras to you." Max said to Grid and the rest of the player and they scattered to take care of the demons who started approaching them.
Then Max knocked the spiral sword onto the bow and pulled the string while aiming at the core tower.
The sword became an arrow amidst the blue sparks. "My Core is Twisted in Madness——Caladbolg!"
With a sonic boom, the arrow was released.
*Boom!!*
The core tower exploded into pieces and the gate started fluctuating. "Retreat!" He yelled as he rushed the players to exit through the gate.
While the players were busy scurrying to the gate, Max fired swords after swords upon the Dremoras.
Some were as resilient as the first Dremora that crossed through the gate, and some died with a simple sword to the head.
Dremoras were the demons, Daedra as the race was called, of this world. The Oblivion Planes of relatively evil gods were filled to the brim with them. And they were immortal to the boot.
Every creature that habited Oblivion were immortal. They could be killed, but they would never truly die. Their souls were tied to the Oblivion and once they were killed, they would enter a state of sleep, closest thing to a death for Daedra.
It wasn't certain when they would 'wake up' once again. It depended on the damage sustained by them. Some might wake up tomorrow, and some might even be sleeping for a hundred years.
But they would definitely wake up one day.
And among the dremora that Max was killing, some recognized him. "Nah man, it's that dude again. I don't wanna sleep one more time." A dremora said as he slowly backed away from the battlefield.
After a while, all players had entered through the gate and only Max was left.
He also passed through safe and sound.
(A/N: Hah! You were expecting him to be trapped weren't you?)
After they all crossed to the other side, the gate disappeared.
"Yeah!"
"That was easy."
"Yeah Archer was there."
"Yeah. Isn't he a little but too much for a guide NPC? I mean, we aren't even doing anything. Everything gets solved by Archer."
"I'm fine with that."
*****
"The Gate has been closed." Max said in an office room.
"Good work. You're planning on heading to the Imperial City right?" Leopold said.
"Yeah. If I rush it, I can make the journey in five months."
"Good luck. And be careful."
"Got it. Captain."
With that, Max turned to leave the room and stopped in his tracks in anticipation of something.
"Anything to add Captain?" He turned to ask after not hearing the words he had been waiting for.
"No."
"Ah, is that so." And with disappointment evident in his tone, he left the room.
Right outside, Grid was waiting for him. "Let's go." He said as he walked out of the Drunken Huntsman and headed to the stables to grab a horse.
***
"What happened here?" Max said out loud as he looked at the ruins of the village he saw when he first set out from Horizon.
There used to be a small settlement but now, it was all ruins with no signs of living in it.
And from the looks of it, it has been like that for a while.
He got down from his horse and tied it to a tree before he slowly walked to the ruins of the village.
He cautiously walked around but still saw no one living.
There were dried up blood stains here and there, but no bodies could be seen.
'Was it Mythical Dawn again?' He thought.
*Crunch*
Then he heard the sound of dried wood being stepped on and turned to the sound.
Swiftly Kanshou and Bakuya materialized in his hands.
"Hrrr"
There stood a huge gray werewolf with steam coming out of its mouth.
"Awooo" with a howl, it summoned three phantom werewolves.
They were all standing there menacingly while looking at Max.
The phantom werewolves were nothing much, but the gray werewolf made alarm bells ring in Max's head.
"You… I remember you… I'd never forget that scent…" The gray werewolf said as he slowly approached Max.
"Me?" Max said while preparing himself for the incoming combat.
"You took everything from me." The werewolf said with his raspy voice.
"I don't even know who you are." Max replied, but apparently it was the wrong answer as the phantom werewolves jumped on him instantly.
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A short chapter today, enjoy~
I might take a break for some time in the future, will let you know.
Let me know your thoughts about the chapter, and if you enjoyed it leave some stones and reviews please~