Chapter XXXIV: Welcome to Hell

"...And I would thoroughly recommend that you all study up on the arcane script before you finish your first year of magical education as going on without such basic knowledge will leave you in the dust behind your peers." Savos Aren finishes his lecture and lightly bows to the students "Thank you for coming to the lecture and welcome, once more, to our great college."

He then promptly disappears from his position with a loud pop.

As if a switch was flipped the entire crowd disperses, leaving the new students all alone within a minute, all completely dumbfounded.

The tall Altmer claps his hands "Well, might as well go and explore a bit. Not like we are going to have all that much time for it later..."

"It can't be that bad..." The Dunmer lady questions quietly and as a couple of pairs of eyes focus on her she shivers and squeaks "Can it?"

The massive Argonian lets out a grinding chuckle as his predatory smirk once more appears on his scaled face "You should go back to the land of ash if you are afraid of some effort, little elfling." His voice is a deep, rumbling thing, practically screaming the feeling of danger with each word.

"Oh?" The Nord woman tilts her head from nearby "Looks like we have a tough guy?" She asks the Argonian mockingly while releasing her presence like she as taught.

The beast growls at her with narrowed eyes before huffing "At least not everyone here is a weakling." He points his thumb toward the door "Want to check this 'Hall of Refinement' out then?" His grin twists from predatory to challenging.

"I thought you would never ask" Minthara grins back.

As they walk outside Marco shakes his head in disappointment "Not even ten bloody mintues..." Before quickly following them, soon joined by the rest.

Minutes later they enter the arena within the Hall of Refinement, only to be stunned with a scene both mesmerizing and terrifying: An Altmer woman engaged in a rapid duel with a Dunmer man, both of them moving at ridiculous speeds as they exchanged spells and strikes.

All of the students' ears were drawn to Minthara's mutter of "When the hell did he get that much faster?"

(Reyvin's POV)

My blood boils with excitement as I keep pushing Faralda back, each of my strikes easily cracking through her defenses. Oh she was still far more skilled and experienced than myself but I was now well and truly a supernaturally powerful creature, my speed and strength boosted by both my robes and spells, exceeded hers by a massive margin and each of her strikes was now easily predicted.

I tilt my head to the side, just enough to dodge a risky high kick from my combat teacher, and grab her leg, immediately slamming her into the floor with one hand.

She coughs out in pain and tries to roll out of my grip but just as her leg twists out of my hand, my glaive fins its way to her throat causing us to enter a stare down.

She glares at me for a while before a satisfied smile spreads on her face "It would seem I have been defeated." She 'laments' "How unfair life is"

I chuckle and unsummon my staff while offering her my hand, which she takes and playfully shoves me as she launches herself into the air. She stretches herself like a cat as she praises me "Your rate of improvement has been astonishing, I think you might be ready for the final step."

I raise an eyebrow "The attunement ritual and more good old siege magic then?"

"Nothing so crass" Faralda huffs "The proper name is 'Grand Destruction Magic'"

"Indeed" I nod 'sagely' "Can't have people criticizing our naming conventions while we burn them alive"

We both share a dark chuckle before she declares "You should find me when you have the time and I will instruct you on how to perform the elemental attunement, your Arcane Ascension has reached a sufficient level so you should be able to connect to fire whenever you wish."

"You flatter me, dear Master" I do a fake swoon "But we might wish to entertain our unannounced audience first." I point my hand toward the gaggle of excited students.

The usual sadistic grin appears on Faralda's face once again as she titters out a "Yes we really should."

The two of us approach the awed apprentices, both of us likely carrying some very worrisome expressions. I greet them all with an overly cheerful smile "Welcome, one and all to the combat arena, where you may commit gratuitous violence to your heart's content!"

"I am Master Reyvin, not of any specific tower at the moment, and I will be helping my dear colleague and teacher" I point a hand toward Faralda "Master Faralda, in tor- *Cough* teaching you about destruction magic and general combat skills."

Both of my apprentices' eyes narrow at my slip of the tongue.

I, naturally, ignore them completely and turn to the rest "Seeing as you all seem to be very enthusiastic about this topic, we might as well hold a bit of an... early class." I wink at them "Impress me enough and I will give you a nice little hint that might save you a day or three."

I quickly organize them into pairs and have them duel, all of them can seemingly hold their own at least to some extent, but there seem to be only three actually powerful combatants among them.

Seeing as they aren't currently being punished with extra lessons, both my apprentices are naturally among that number.

The one that at the same time surprises me and doesn't is the Argonian. Seemingly using Alteration to strengthen himself on instinct and breaking through his opponent's defenses with unfiltered aggression.

A couple of rotations later I invited the Argonian to approach me after I noticed a massive problem with his style.

Might as well have some fun before I have to go to Solitude later.

He jogs up to me, looking rather comical in his undersized robes, and greets me with a grunt "Master?"

"Name?" I ask.

And almost burst into full-blown laughter when he responds with "Sleeps-with-fishes."

"That seems a mouthful" I drawl, purposefully provoking him "I will call you Fishy for now."

As expected, the massive beast growls at me.

"Oh?" I raise an eyebrow "Hit a nerve, did I?"

He grits his teeth as Magicka starts flowing through him.

"Come on then, little farm tool, show me what you have got!" I make a 'come hither' motion with my left hand while summoning my staff in my right.

Predictably, he pounces at me with feral speed... and gets the shit kicked out of him within three seconds.

"Again" I command, and with a snarl, I am once more shrouded by Fishy.

Over and over, he tries to simply throw himself at me and end me with sheer power, and time and time again I keep punishing him for it.

As he is once more bodily slammed into the ground I tap my foot and ask "Do you understand what you are doing wrong?"

The Argonian stills for a moment, his rage cooling a bit as he frowns, finally he asks "Power without skill?"

"Indeed" I nod happily "Use your brain when you fight, you obviously have enough of it to be accepted here."

He seems to be almost battling with himself as his tense muscles relax and he nods "I... understand."

"Excellent!" I exclaim "Who knows, maybe you will even manage to advance from farm tool status to n'wah status sometime this year?"

I giggle like a child as I once more dodge the snarling creature.

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(Minthara's POV)

"Gods" Marco wines from the common hall's floor "Please just take me now! The pain is too much!"

Onmund, who was seen Marco fight at Haraldstead, looks at him with bafflement before sending me a questioning glance, to which I shrug in response "Don't listen to him, being dramatic is literally in his blood."

The grounded worm huffs "Don't bring my uncle into this!"

"J'zargo is confused..." The exhausted cat man mutters from my left.

Brelyna, the Dunmer, pats him on the back by telekinetically floating her hand "There, there J'zargo, it will all be alright."

The heavily bruised Argonian glares at all of us while nursing his heavily bruised hands, he looks at me specifically and asks "It sounds like you know the mad elf?"

"Which one?" I blurt.

Much to my surprise, 'Fishy' as I've heard Reyvin call him, huffs in amusement "The Dunmer."

"Yup" I nod "He is the one that taught me" I point at the waste of breath "And this one, how to do magic, straight up conscripted me while he was Court Mage in Solitude." I add with an annoyed huff, hiding my gratitude for the act.

The Arognian nods, and then asks with a heavy frown "Does he have anything against my people?"

'Oh?' I tilt my head "Why do you ask?"

Fishy looks away, almost as if embarrassed "He kept calling me farm tool..."

Brelyna bursts into a fit of giggles before shutting her mouth with both hands, immediately trying to look as small as possible as the massive lizard man glares at her.

I palm my face slowly before shaking my head "No, he just insults everyone because he finds it funny, pay it no mind. He might be completely insane but he knows what he is doing."

The Argonian nods with surprising amounts of relief "Good, I wouldn't want to go through today's 'training' again just because he was bored."

"J'zargo thinks you may not get your wish." The Khajiit mutters with a thousand yard stare.

"Speaking of insane Dunmer" I turn toward Brelyna Who gulps instinctually as I ask "Why did you keep staring at his robes of all things?"

She shivers and looks around, as if in a panic, before sighing and asking "Did you not see the heraldry he wore?"

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(General POV)

The Thalmor ambassador walks down the familiar halls of the Nords' Blue Palace, her nerves growing tenser with each step she took.

'Why hasn't Astrid killed him yet?!' She raved within the safety of her mind 'The damn cur will ruin the entire conflict with his meddling, I can't have the war finishing too quickly or my Lord will skin me alive...'

She nearly bumps into an old Nord woman watering the vases around the hallway, and barely holds herself back from incinerating her on the spot.

'Damn lesser creatures.' She curses inwardly.

Minutes of frustrated wandering later she stands before the door to the throne room, the Housecarl on duty letting her in without any fuss this time, and she enters just in time to be met with a peculiar scene.

Royal Thane Reyvin Flame-tongue stands before the seated High King of Skyrim with a conspiratorial smirk, just as the Ambassador enters his speech reaches its peak as he proclaims "...And so I have brought you proof of my great endeavor and gift to Skyrim's people."

He summons a cube of ice, and casts a controlled magelight, allowing everyone to observe what is within.

What Elenwen sees makes her skin go from gold to white.

"Behold!" The hero of Solitude proclaims "The head of Astrid, the leader of the Dark Brotherhood!"

The Dunmer turns to the Ambassador with a smile consisting of pure and concentrated malice as he asks "Such a great deed, wouldn't you say, honored Ambassador?"

She only manages to force half of a polite smile as the entire left of her face remains paralyzed with fear "Indeed" She mutters, her voice half-broken "How great..."

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