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Leaving Valerica stunned into silence by my declaration I focus back onto the dragon peering down on us.
He was larger than Vulthuryol yet still a fair bit smaller than Paarthurnax, his sickly green scales looked to be almost seeping with so form of disease yet it made him look no less powerful. Jagged spikes covered his back and extended onto his punctured, even gouged in so places, wings, though that obviously posed no problem to his flight as he descended onto the walls of the mausoleum with all the grace one could expect of sothing that big.
Two sets of large horns adorned the sides of his head while another was attached at the top, giving the impression of a jagged crown. A growth of scales hung from his jaw, almost giving him the look of a wise old man, a very sickly wise old man that could kick most peoples' asses of course.
"Hmmm..." The deep hum sends a shudder through the mausoleum, rousing dust all across the place, as the undead dragon observes our group. The vampires both retreat back and prepare for a fight but I remain unmoving, my weapons still held firmly in my hands.
"Long has it been since I've seen one of your kind." His eyes focus fully onto , gleaming with anticipation "I had not expected to see one who wields the voice in this accursed place, much less one of the fahlil."
Pre-battle banter, eh? I can live with that "And imagine my surprise when my research hinted that one of Akatosh's own sons was bound in service to a bunch of mindless soul thieves. I guess Alduin's leadership is as pathetic as his defeat."
"HA!" An odd mix of a bark of laughter and a derisive grunt leaves the rotten dragon as he shakes his head "Your courage does you credit mortal."
"No coward would ever dare enter this place." I shrug.
"Indeed" Durnehviir rumbles "You are here for the blood husk, yes?"
The complete and utter derision with which the dragon says it causes Valerica to sputter in barely contained fury, but she is no idiot, and seeing as she had already shown her fear to the dragon she remains silent.
"I am." I nod firmly, not allowing him to see a hint of concern in my movents "She is needed to stop a plot against the sun, another aspect of your father, no?"
The scales cresting his eye rise up by a fraction, mimicking an eyebrow being raised "I comnd your guile fahlil, but I am bound to keep her here and no words will stop from doing my duty. Willingly or not." He hums for a mont and speaks again "I am not without honor, however. This very place is a curse that binds , forbidding even death. Should you defeat I shall grant you the right to leave, so says Durnehviir!"
Now how to deal with this one? I am no Dragonborn so he will not make the sa offer he would otherwise but I would still be a fool not to try and get him on my side... What to do, what to do...
Even with my ridiculously quick mind, if I do say so myself, I had apparently spent too long silent as Durnehviir narrowed his eyes and growled "I await your answer."
ntally flipping through a massive amount of possible rituals before he grew too impatient I finally managed to find one that could theoretically work, my eyes widening briefly as I looked back up to the lumbering undead "I have a counteroffer."
He was visibly getting impatient now, a low growl leaving his throat once more, the eternal curse of boredom was truly gnawing at his mind in this place and he was no doubt eager to batter into a sar to vent his frustrations. Yet at the sa ti, he knew damn well that he had all the ti in the world so he chose to humor "I shall hear it."
"Put simply it is obvious to that you are even now trying to go around the chains that bind you, your offer in your master's na tells as much." His eyes narrow as his stare becos even more focused, but he does not interrupt which I take as permission to continue "How about this, if I win instead of rely letting us go you swear yourself into my service and I get you out of this place forever?"
He is silent for far longer than I was, his expression was unmoving but his eyes told all that I needed to know as I sensed the small instance of hope get ruthlessly crushed by millennia of depression. Ultimately he ends up simply shaking his head with a cold snort "I know not whether to take this as incredible courage or petty insolence."
"I feel no need to insult one who proclaims himself cursed in his own na." I retort without derision "Think about it, would you not like to feel the wind against you once again?"
"You would have believe that a re mortal can do what I could not?" He questions angrily "None may steal from the Ideal Masters and live, not even I."
Grinning confidently I flick Blasphemy in front of , the dragon's eyes imdiately focusing on it and widening by a tiny fraction as he realizes just what he is looking at "ridia called a re mortal as well."
For a mont he is silent, then he starts to rumble, and then an outright giddy laugh cos from his very core "Very well then! Let us do battle and if you are able to do as you claim you shall be Thur!" He spreads his wings grandly and shouts "VOKUN AAR ALOK!"
As the words of power echo through the mausoleum there is no imdiate effect at first, but a re blink of an eye later all the shadows in front of us starts to bubble and over a hundred draugr shaped shades colored in black and accented with sickly green erge and face us.
Already moving I summon up Scorch and start flying "You two deal with the shades, I will fight him in the skies!" I command the vampires and summon up my own undead servants.
Serana imdiately gets to work, using her recently discovered preference for getting close and personal she starts to dash through the different groups of enemies and rip them to shreds as she passes.
Valerica on the other hand, takes a mont to give one last assessing glance before she raises both her hands and starts casting alteration spells, rearranging the entire mausoleum with perfect precision and herding the shades into their death. Her spells were imnsely complex and precise, lacking true power, yes, but the finesse with which she cast them gave the impression this was the sa as casting flas for her.
Focusing back onto the ascending dragon I command the incredibly irritated Scorch (courtesy of the locale no doubt) to get us in close and he flashes toward our target, leaving behind a trail of golden flas that seed to physically clash against the very air.
Durnehviir's head imdiately zeroed in on us, he did not hesitate for a mont before speaking a fucking soul tear into existence "RII VAAZ ZOL!"
Using Scorch as a springboard, I jump up and unsummon him, letting the shout hit and do absolutely nothing as my shroud made my soul completely untouchable. Scorch appeared below just in ti for to take aim with the Staff of Magnus and direct it at Durnehviir, dumping a quarter of my total Magicka into a supercharged firebolt I launched a laser beam of sunlight at the dragon's core.
With a speed belying his stature, Durnehviir spun out of the way, dodging the spell almost completely but still losing a back foot in the process. As he twisted around his eyes flashed and he pulled out the old reliable "FUUUS RO DAH!"
This all happened in a single second so all I had the ti to do was shield my face as I was launched flying back, the rotten dragon moving in to catch in his jaws.
Luckily I was not without options as I taphorically yanked onto a shadow cast by one of his back spikes and appeared just above his neck.
Not being a complete idiot he imdiately started to twist but that did not stop from jamming Blasphemy into his back and allowing myself to glide down his side, letting the vorpal blade go to town shredding his already half-rotten scales and causing the dragon to let
out a pained grunt.
Just as I was about to fall out of his range, he once again twisted in place, a wave of Magicka blasting off his wings and barraging with blades of wind. Blades of wind I was unable to avoid as I was forced to defend myself from a flurry of claw slashes with all my might, my blade barely remaining in my hand with the help of ebonflesh.
I felt a dozen spells, and they very much were spells, strike and after only four bypass my robe's defenses, leaving bleeding but still very much intact.
Finally gaining so distance I breathed in "YOL TOR SHUUUUL!"
The dragon flas splashed against his massive form, making him instinctively curl up due to the pain of his flesh being roasted and giving enough ti to speed up my healing with
magic.
He snarled and snapped another unrelenting force my way, making my fall even faster but just as I was about to hit the ground and incidentally get myself impaled by an entire unit of spear-ard draugr shades I shouted "TIID!" the slowed perception of ti giving a perfect view of the dragon's massive jaw as I felt the shadow of a nearby pillar and pulled.
Ti snapped back into its natural flow as I appeared above Durnehviir just in ti for Scorch to pass by and pick up. The dragon smashed into the polished floor of the mausoleum at full speed, leaving himself stunned and fully open to attack.
Naturally, I chose to oblige. The Staff of Magnus crackled with power as I summoned a veritable sea of spell circles and pushed almost all of my personal and ambient Magicka into them. The false skies above us burned gold and all of it was directed at the still recovering
child of ti.
Yet I was still not done, my study into the voice may have slowed down but that did not an
I ever stopped practicing, and knowing what I was about to face there was only one real option to focus on, and so I breathed in... "JOOR ZAH FRUL!"
(General POV)
Durnehviir had just enough ti to look up as he heard the accursed shout of the mortals, the
dreaded clear blue wave of energy struck him head-on and he felt his scales beco as soft as human skin and his immortal soul loosen from his body... and then ca fire.
He had never felt such pain as both the accursed blasphemy of the mortal and his weakness to the sun made him almost unmanifest on the spot. But Durnehviir was no weakling, his will was far stronger than most of his kin, for even after millennia of tornt his mind remained
his own.
So as the courageous mage staggered atop his burning steed he forced himself to look at him through the flas "IIZ SLEN NUS!"
The elf tried to use his shadow trick to escape once again but the cursed dragon had gotten
wise to his reliance on seeing the future and simply employed his own, it stung his pride to do
so even for a mont but he would not allow himself to be defeated so easily, no matter how much he may desire this defeat.
The elf was struck by the shout head-on, surprisingly not fully turning to ice but still getting covered in it and smashing against one of the walls, losing both legs and an arm in the
process.
The dragon staggered up onto his feet, growling in frustration as he felt the entirety of his left side completely unresponsive and his wing mangled beyond swift repair. He prowled toward the downed elf, his servitude to the Ideal Masters not allowing him to even think
about sparing him.
But in his focus on battling the brave mage he had already written off his cowardly companions as weaklings, sothing he swiftly ca to regret as he felt the blackened stone below him extend into spikes and attempt to impale his no longer weakened flesh.
It did work to slow him, however, just enough for the other husk to dash next to him and deliver a magic empowered kick to his head, sending him sprawling to the side, but not before he used his still functioning wing to bat her aside and batter her with blades of wind, almost completely shredding her in the process.
The other husk let out so kind of... roar? Or was it a wail? And suddenly the spikes ca in
much greater quantity and size. He tried recalling his servants to aid him but all were too
damaged in the fight to respond and he realized with so amusent that he had been having too much fun to even pay attention to them.
Finally, after getting impaled for the fourteenth father damned ti he found the elder husk and imdiately shouted "YOL TOR SHUUUUL!"
It of course dodged, but that was not the goal, as it was still set afla and forced to retreat,
giving him enough ti to finally claim his triumph and assert his righteous dominance over the mortal.
He approached the now steaming shard of ice almost giddily, and breathed in... only to feel a
dagger of pain stab into his right eye and make him snap away. Regaining his focus he looked back only to see one of the pathetic souls owned by his masters looking at him proudly, a stick fashioned into a dagger oozing with what was once his eye.
"Fall before Jiub the Eradicator!" The soul acclaid even as it shook in fear. Even as it shook,
so did it once again charge at him "Jiub the Magnifice-!"
He chomped down and consud the soul, such courage earned it a place in his legion after
all.
Durnehviir turned back to his prize, and barely held himself back from gulping as he saw the divine staff that tore him asunder pointed right at his face, and the elf glaring at him with
sothing approaching hatred.
He did not even get to twitch as his head was blown off.
Shout translations:
DUR NEH VIIR = Curse Never Dying
FAHLIL = Elf
THUR Overlord
VOKUN AAR ALOK Shadow Servant Arise
RII VAAZ ZOL Essence Tear Zombie
JOOR ZAH FRUL = Mortal Finite Temporary
IIZ SLEN NUS Ice Flesh Statue
*Looks at your stone pouch expectantly*
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