20demayo Chapter 422: Chapter XLII: A Full Hand
Chapter 422: Chapter XLII: A Full Hand
chapter 422: chapter xlii: a full hand
(general pov)
'one foot before the other, one foot before the other...' was all his mind could focus on as he kept himself moving forward, barely managing not to disturb the others marching beside him as he forced air into his lungs.
his hands still shook from the feeling of an argonian monstrosity trying to yank his spear from his grip, the beast were so, so much stronger and yet... yrel, the young cobbler from the poorer parts of kragenmoor, just another face in the numberless masses really, shook his head and refocused once more on moving his feet.
the gambeson he wore smoldered under the harsh morrowind sun, the rough fabric sticking to his skin as if it were made to be as uncomfortable as possible, the only thing managing to distract him from his discomfort being the constant clack of wood and metal caused by near three thousand elves marching as one.
a cart pulled by a large guar passed him by, the loot taken from the invaders stacked neatly atop it. their... glorious leaders he supposed, they did lead them to devastating victory after all, told them everyone would get their share once they came back to the city, and while some grumbled no one wanted to waste more time in that corpse covered field.
"you alright there young'un?" an old gravelly voice drew him from his thoughts.
yrel startled but managed not to disturb the formation as he turned to look at the one addressing him.
the old mer, simply known as grey to most, and the leader of his unit, was grinning at him, the old one's chainmail glinting proudly below his breastplate, and a sheathed saber waving slightly from his hip as he looked down at one of his charges.
"i am fine." is all yrel could say, the ash raised by the march making any kind of talk an effort. he was almost jealous of his superior's better equipment, but grey's story was one many knew, and not a unique one either.
so many veterans of the previous invasion had lost so much...
"we did good today." grey interrupted his thoughts again, the old mer's voice sounding wistful "almost feels like a dream to loose so few."
yrel blinked and hissed, still making sure not to draw too much attention "over a hundred of us died!"
grey just snorts in response "if this were the first invasion we'd have probably lost more than half, and that is without victory being certain."
the young elf found his words failing him, so all he could do was direct a horrified look at the old one.
"don't give me that look boy." the old elf snorts again, though one far less humorous this time "our leaders back then weren't crafty enough to use the lizards' weight and size against them, best they could do was give us a shield and tell us to buy time." he scoffs "and i didn't even dream of getting armor before proving myself..."
"so all of this..." yrel looks around baffled.
"yes, we needed a child of the devil to show us how to fight." the old mer says dryly.
the younger elf once more gives him a horrified look.
grey just shook his head "don't worry, those high and mighty types never care about what we say anyway."
"well." yrel felt a spark of indignation within his chest "child of the devil or no, i for one am quite happy he came here."
the old elf chuckles dryly "i ain't stupid enough not to be grateful he saved our asses. just an old man yapping on about the world turning on its head is all."
just as yrel as about to continue the conversation, they both heard heavy hooves striking the ground and turned to see the very figure they were discussing passing them by. lord dagoth's glowing eyes scoured the formation briefly, before he ever so slightly nodded and moved forward.
"sweet fucking good daedra!" he heard grey hiss.
all too happy to not draw more attention from the elf who took an entire flank on his own, he looked back to the old elf "what is it?"
"can't you feel it?" grey asked instead of answering.
and yrel found that he could, the stiffness of his limbs, the sores and blisters on his feet... all of it healed as if it were never there.
grey shivered "one fucking look..."
yrel did not need much elaboration on that.
"come on kid." grey clapped his shoulder before he could ponder what had just happened any further "he probably wants us not dallying if he bothered healing us, the city is minutes away anyway."
they kept marching on silently, even as the very air surrounding them felt reinvigorated and the grumbling and bellyaching of those around them stopped entirely. soon the walls of kragenmoor came into their sights and yrel couldn't help but smile happily as he saw the crowd gathered just after the great gatehouse.
then, after a bit of searching, he saw his sister's relieved face, and felt for certain that all the blood and death had been worth it.
(reyvin's pov)
a fireball struck a trio of riders who were attempting to flank around them, the rest of the
mounts of the dozen or so attackers once more recoiling in fear, much to the apparent fury of
their riders.
"and i am out!" the far too cheerful mage clapped her hands, uselessly slumping against a nearby wall as she did so.
merin zadir of great house dres felt like throttling the little girl foisted onto him by the
telvanni but luckily for the damn incompetent, his enemies still held most of his fury.
the animals, seeing as their heavily armored mounts were proving a detriment, began dismounting, their massive leader leaping off his own mount effortlessly and immediately flowing into an overhead swing with that same massive cleaver sword.
merin barely managed to deflect the strike without losing every bone in his shield arm,
dropping his whip and drawing his sword he tried stabbing the lizard through his eye but only managed to scrape his brow as his opponent dodged to the side.
another two lizards joined the fight, forcing merin back on the defensive as all he could do
was deflect their flurry of blows, mentally counting down the time the rest would need to
reach him.
"oh!" the shrew suddenly cheered "i forgot i had those!"
in the next instant a blast of bright blue lightning nearly blinded him as a bolt of chain lightning instantly killed five of the lizardmen, leaving only four of them alive and currently hissing a furious battle cry.
taking his chance, merin slammed his shield into one of the animals and stabbed the other
through the heart, kicking the leader in the knee and buying leverage to back away as the massive argonian tried decapitating him on reflex "by the webweaver, if we survive this i am going to fucking murder you karvanni!"
"swearing by the webweaver only means you are lying~" the little shit singsonged as she pulled out another scroll but before she could cast the spell it held, one of the animals wizened up and launched its spear at her, striking her in the shoulder and practically nailing her to the cave wall as she shrieked in pain.
the leader of the argonians pressed the attack, finally managing to break merin's shield as the dres was momentarily distracted. he tried pulling out a side knife but another of the argonians slammed into his side with a shield of its own, sending him sprawling onto his
back.
everything turned oddly quiet as the leader went to strike him down... only for a blade to emerge from the lizard's chest, numerous bloody fractures spreading through his body from the original wound, effectively disintegrating him as the damage became too great. the body fell apart and revealed a shrouded elven figure, it couldn't possibly be an argonian, but merin was understandably distracted as he saw something else behind the elf.
a downright massive specimen of spider was currently dragging one of the animals' mounts
and spinning it into a cocoon as the beast wailed weakly under the no doubt murderous
poison. merin rose his hand to warn the elf, causing him to turn around, and what followed was something he fully suspected was an illusion...
as the elf unsummoned his ebony crown and approached the spider without a hint of fear...
and then began to fucking pet it.
"who is a good girl?" the elf cooed in a rich and powerful voice "yes you are!" and. kept.
fucking. petting. the. giant. metal. spider!
merin was fucking done with today.
a full hand
of stone!
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