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One of the abilities of the Force was called Force Sense. It was categorized as a Jedi Ability, but in reality both sides could learn it. I hadn't.

Yet, I felt it. The wound in the force that was Alduin. He may not possess any Midi-chlorians, the dragon was so powerful he affected the world with his mere presence, bringing a strong pressure on it, and us men.

I'm not ashamed to say that at this moment, I felt fear. From the deepest part of my mind, I felt it. I was standing in the presence of death.

That's when my enhancement and my experience kicked in as I regained control over my movements, just in time to dodge the tower which Alduin had barely scratched, and was falling down on me.

But while I managed to dodge it, I found myself separated from my teammates and the Stormcloaks. There were barely any Imperial soldiers on my side too, it was mostly civilians…

Fortunately, the Imperials were smart enough to ignore me as they either cowered or tried to shoot Alduin, in vain of course.

As for me, I ran.

I knew I stood no chance against Alduin, and before long the entire surface of the town would be razed down by Alduin, killing everyone. Moreover, the only exit I knew of from the game, the underground dungeon, would get blocked after the Dragonborn got into the cave, meaning that if I didn't get there fast enough, I would end up blocked inside, and possibly crushed to death by the crumbling city.

Fortunately for me, Alduin wasn't aiming for me. I was probably no different from an ant to the dragon. As I ran, a few of the meteors were aimed at me, but as I was watching out for them, I managed to dodge them.

*Zap*

But as I was running, a bolt of lightning fell down from the sky, striking me in the back. It was far too fast for me to even see, let alone dodge.

I was sent flying into a nearby house, my body paralyzed as I recoiled from the attack.

Had it not been for my Super Soldier Physique… was this really a 7-men difficulty? This felt much harder than In the Tall Grass!

After a few seconds, I regained control over my body, but I wasn't in too good of a state. My shirt had been blasted apart, and I had a large black burn mark in my back. I was also feeling a little weaker, and my connection to the Force had been weakened.

It seemed Skyrim's anti-magic effect on lightning affected Force Abilities too.

Although I wish I could have taken a moment to breathe and recover, I didn't have time for that, so I got back out of the house, picked up my Imperial Sword, and continued running.

As I ran though, I felt apprehension as I only crossed more Imperials, most of which were dead, but did not see the dungeon.

But as I was growing frantic, I finally found something.

Hadvar.

And Alduin.

The dragon had landed on the ground, and was looking at me with his red eyes. I saw a sneer in its eyes, before he opened his mouth.

"Yol-Toor-Shul!"

I jumped to the side as the dragon's shout resonated with my soul, and in the next instant I felt the temperature increase massively.

Pathetically crashing through a door, I felt my back burn despite having dodged the attack. Looking back, all I saw was fire, engulfing the entire street.

And as my vision was filled with the dragon's hellish fire, I was left asking myself a question. Did I cause this?

Not the dragon's attack, of course I had nothing to do with this. But me saving Lokir, had this been what turned this mission so much harder than it should have been?

Had I followed the game's narrative silently, would we have been able to follow the Dragonborn through the city, facing next to no danger, as he would?

Then, did Anthony die… because of me?

But as the fire finally ran out, I strongly slapped myself.

While I had caused a battle to break out, it had been Anthony's inability to react accordingly, as well as his greed, that had killed him. Or rather, his weakness.

I had been greedy too, but I was strong enough to live through the consequences, because I'm not dying on a fucking 7-men mission!

Emboldened, I jumped to my feet, and ran out of the house. Seeing the destruction did hurt my conviction a little, but I kept running.

Alduin's fire was nothing like the game. Here, the entire road had been burnt, and the front of the stone houses had melted from the extreme heat. Had I not jumped, not even ashes would be left of me.

Hadvar, upon seeing me running his way, placed a hand on his sword, putting himself in front of the two he was protecting, a kid and an old man, obviously prepared to use his life to protect them.

I snorted as I arrived next to him, "Are you fucking mad? I'm not fighting you with that dragon in the sky! We need to get to the dungeons, do you know the way?"

Hadvar looked stunned, before he nodded, "Follow me!"

I let him lead the way as the old man and the boy took refuge in a house. Not the smartest choice, but I didn't care about them.

With Hadvar guiding me, we quickly managed to reach our destination, the keep!

And as fate would have it, right as we arrived there, we crossed Ralof, who was accompanied by my teammates. Wait, no, one was missing. Lucy. The girl my age who had refused to say what she did in life.

Probably dead.

"Ralof! You damned traitor. Out of my way!"

Hadvar, on the other hand, had other worries as he screamed at Ralof the moment he saw him.

Probably better than anyone at pissing Hadvar off, Ralof smirked, "We're escaping, Hadvar. You're not stopping us this time."

Hadvar glanced at the group following Ralof, which had not only my teammates but also the Dragonborn.

Speaking of whom, I could finally take a good look at his face. He had long dark hair, but that I already knew. He had an impressive build too, barely smaller than me, and even while in prisoner garbs, he looked like a warrior.

If he was the same as in the game, then he probably was weak for the moment, but not for long.

Having made his decision, Hadvar snarled, "Fine. I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde."

Ralof continued smirking, before shouting while glancing at me, "Come with me, to the keep!"

At the same time, Hadvar shouted, "With me, prisoners. Let's go!"

I must say, Hadvar was not being very persuasive, which might be why I nearly always picked Ralof to follow.

However, I didn't care about them for now, as I eyed the Dragonborn with curiosity.

In the game, whomever the player chose, would live. As for the other, he would die a nameless death.

The game having already proved to me that saving lives could earn rewards, I decided to base my actions on the Dragonborn's. Of course, it also brought its own fair share of danger, but if I wanted to live through this game, I needed to always be ahead of the curve, not following it.

Because of my own opinion of Hadvar's words and position to the Dragonborn, and the fact that he was a Nord, I expected him to follow Ralof to the end.

Yet, he surprised me as he ran after Hadvar, speaking for the first time, "You better absolve my sentence!"

That… did not sound very Nordish.

Whatever. I signaled the group with my eyes, to tell them to follow the Dragonborn. Chris, Erik and Sarah understood right away, following Hadvar right away, while Jonathan lagged for a moment, before following them with a pale face.

I was left with Ralof, who scoffed at my teammates. Running to his side, I strongly kicked the keep's gate open, while patting his shoulder as I explained, "I sent my teammates with him for their safety."

Ralof ran into the keep, scoffing, "What are you doing here then?"

Grinning as I ran behind him, I replied, "Carving a path out!"