Chapter 26

Blood dripped down Athias's hand.

Different trails of the crimson liquid coalesced at his wrist then stopped, frozen solid by the chilling mist that gave chase. A thick icicle was lodged in the palm of his hand, skin, flesh, and bone destroyed, it's frosty essence quickly spreading across the rest of his hand.

It burned. A deep baleful burn that sought to numb his entire hand, skin to soul.

"Get up, Remiel!" Athias shouted as he gathered flames around the wounded hand and closed it, crushing the melting icicle. He switched to a healing spell and a ward, struggling to count their approaching attackers. Moonlight revealed brief glimpses of fur garbed Forsworn. "Check the other entrance!" Auri, who had been coming his way, heeded the order and turned to rush towards the opposite end of the cave.

More icicles shattered against his fully charged ward alongside the occasional arrow, the projectiles tearing through the strings of bones they set up. Two spell casters and a single archer? He couldn't see where the archer was, but the forming icicles gave away the mages among their number.

The moment the bleeding hole in his palm sealed up, Athias casted Oakflesh then downed the magic resistance potion Remiel had created.

The flow of his magic jerked like an old car on its last legs, slowing as the potion took effect. Remiel hadn't been able to completely rid her concoctions of the drawback, but managed to minimize it. It took extra effort on his part to keep the magicka powering his ward moving at maximum efficiency.

"There's some coming this way!" Auri shouted. He could hear something crash against the cave wall and her firing arrows. "Only one of them is using ice magic!"

By this point Remiel had crawled out of her tent, dagger drawn and Scrap at her heels.

"Help Auri!" Athias ordered. Neither of their strengths laid in close range combat so he could only hope Auri managed to take down most of the Forsworn on her side before they closed in. Failing that, Remiel would have to make good use of her ward and Scrap's blades.

The approaching mages slowed down and three Forsworn, brandishing axes and swords made of bones, emerged from the darkness, cutting through the remaining strings of bone.

[Forsworn Looter]

[Race: Breton]

[Level:11]

「Health: 130/130 Stamina: 143/160 Magicka: 125/125」

Left with just enough magicka to maintain his active spells and cast a handful of basic spells, Athias made quick use of one, ward dropped in favor of sparks. Dark purple electricity raced from his palm and enveloped the face of the one closest to him.

With a scream the woman stumbled back. Perhaps due to her race's natural resistance to magic she remained upright, but stumbled about.

Engaging the other two, Athias found himself on the defensive, steadily loosing ground to their swinging blades. Wild aggression guided their attacks, no room given for a counterattack. Any attempt would end with one of their weapons hitting home.

If he fought on their terms, he'd be overwhelmed.

An axe came for his side. A stab closed in on his head.

Athias ducked just enough to avoid the stab as he stepped forward. The axe dug into his side, not going nearly as deep as it should've due to Oakflesh. A single thrust pierced the heart of the axe-wielder, that fur armor nothing against elven steel. With an angered roar, the other forsworn raised his sword with both arms. Athias abandoned the blade and stepped back, the heavy swing missing entirely. He unsheathed his second sword and pierced the man's neck. Athias left that blade behind as well, narrowly avoiding an arrow and icicle aimed for his lower half.

As he retreated back into the cave, Athias ripped the axe from his side with a grunt and chucked it into the recovering woman. She crumbled to the ground, the axe in her neck putting a near immediate end to her disoriented advance.

Auri and Remiel passed him, utilizing the tried and true method of the latter keeping up a ward while the former fired around it.

A single Forsworn, arrow lodged in skull, laid on the other side of the camp. Scrap remained on guard near the corpse. The group attacking them must not be that big if they didn't have enough to swarm both sides with close ranged fighters.

Downing a magicka potion, Athias healed the cut to his side. It wasn't shallow but compared to the excruciating pain from the icicle, it wasn't enough to give him pause.

「Alert: Numerous skills advanced」

「Speech 23 -> 24 Light armor 24 -> 25 Block 26 -> 27」

That was quick.

"You managed to take them down?" Athias asked as Remiel and Auri returned.

"The mages; all that magic was giving their position away. The archer took off." Auri said. She kept her bow in one hand and arrow in the other. A wooden arrow tipped with a bronze colored head. Auri followed his gaze to the arrow and frowned. "Those mages looked like they were using the same spell as you. Bone wasn't going to cut it."

There had been a few times in Nchuand-Zel where her attempts to help had been all but useless due to her choice in arrows. He hadn't realized she'd decided to compromise and look into other types.

"We aren't going to be getting much sleep tonight are we?" Remiel asked.

"Can't risk being here if they come back with more people." Athias said, moving to gather his stuff. The others followed suit.

The icicle could have ended his life had it hit his head or heart. Were the Forsworn so good at concealing bloodlust that they didn't trigger sixth sense or had just been so distracted he didn't notice their approach? Maybe it was a distance thing?

Whatever the case, he didn't want to deal with more of them until he had some better defenses against spells. A potion taken after an assault started wasn't good enough.

x-X-x

Traveling by night wasn't so bad.

The howls and roars of distant predators kept the silence at bay. More than once, one of them nearly stumbled over uneven rocks and slopes. And, as usual in Skyrim, there was the cold to bite at them.

Yeah, traveling at night was mostly bad.

They'd taken to walking closer to the main roads rather than cutting straight through the tall mountains to avoid any accidents. Athias wasn't too bothered by the cold compared to the other two. Remiel held her arms close to her chest, occasionally twitching while Auri was flat out shivering, her thin cloak and minimalist armor doing little to combat the chills.

"Hold on." Athias called out, slipping off his pack. He tossed his old heavy fur cloak to Auri. She covered herself in it without hesitation, smiling beneath its heavy hood; it took more than a little willpower not to crack a joke about her height with how oversized the thing was, its ends folding on the ground.

"You wouldn't happen to have one in there for me would you?" Remiel asked.

"Only the one." He said, retrieving and unfurling his map. "Shine your lantern over this."

Grumbling about Forsworn and bad luck, Remiel pulled her lantern off her bag and held it near him so they could get a good look at the parchment. They'd opted to travel with them off to make it difficult for any possible followers to keep track of them. His Sixth Sense wasn't acting up. Hopefully that meant all their stumbling in the dark wasn't for nothing.

They were near the south east of Markarth, a good distance from the city. Not as far as it felt, but that's just how it went when so much of their time had been spent going up and down mountains rather than using the main trails to go around them.

That tower Remiel wanted to head to, represented by a dark question mark, wasn't too far.

"I never seen a map with these enchantments. Where did you find it?" Remiel asked.

"Somewhere in the Jerall Mountains." Athias said. The mountain range he'd woken up on had been labeled with the name after that comparison he did with the one from the Jarl of Falkreath.

"That's it? Surely you remember the exact place you found something so unique."

Athias shrugged. It's not like he could tell the truth and he had no desire to come up with an detailed lie. Sooner or later a contradiction would expose it for what it was.

"We aren't far from that tower you wanted to visit. If we skip out on sleep, we might be able to reach it by morning." He said.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get a move on." Remiel said. She put out her lantern and led the way, careless of the dark.

She was nothing if not predictable.

"Remi does have a point. You wouldn't forget something like that." Auri said. He hummed and she dropped the subject, the two of them following after their excitable companion.

He hoped she continued to overlook things he didn't want to talk about, but Athias wasn't an idiot. She was sharing more sensitive things with him and would one day expect the same of him; relationships were a two way street.

That would be a day of lies and half-truths.

Athias had no intention of sharing how he came to be in this world with anyone. Not even Auri.

x-X-x

Tea. If you don't drink it you should. If you do, you should condense some into power stones and give some to me.

Anyways, the writing for my star wars story has been going well for those interested in hearing about that. May begin posting it here in the next week or two, currently in the process of getting feed back from patreons which brings me to my next point.

You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. If you want advance chapters or just want to help me turn writing in a life long endeavor considering supporting me on patreon. The more of you that join us, the closer I get to fulfilling a dream.

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Peace.