Chapter 512 - Dragon Rising (4)

Many thanks for our new patron @Timothy Hesselink.

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A Dragon descending on Whiterun, now that was a reason good enough for Alina not to choke the living ghost out of the woman who accompanied her husband for two years without her permission… a temporary reason as she gracefully added.

When the Jarl descended from his palace and stood under the Gildergreen tree calling the men of Whiterun to come and fight a Dragon, all the warriors of Whiterun came running. The opportunity to fight a Dragon, now that is what those crazed Nords call Honor. Fighting a Dragon and dying is a golden ticket for Sovngarde, fighting a Dragon and slaying it is a golden ticket to becoming a legend, even just participating in a fight against a Dragon is still a big deal. At this point, few could resist the temptation of glory.

"Sis, you're awfully silent." Jullanar spoke to Alina.

"… When Jon said there will be Dragons, everyone including me didn't want to believe… no, we were too afraid to believe that what he said is true. Now… look at how things unfold."

Alina seemed to be very depressed for the fact that everyone was in denial regarding Jon's warning.

"What of it?" Jull asked, "I told you Jon wasn't lying, he introduced me to a dragon once."

"…"

"You still think I am lying? Well, you know Jon can be a swindler, a trickster and…" Jull turned to Miranda eyeing her from top to bottom, "… and a little bit unfaithful but he still doesn't like lying. In fact, he considers strength to be telling the truth without minding anyone else."

"Yes, thank you. Can I now get some time to be jealous on my own?"

"Speaking of Jon… where is he?" Wulfur asked then turned to Isha and the Altmer twins.

"He said he'll be there once it starts but he left us with a very strict order… it only applies to the three of you as well." Isha said.

"Say it."

"He said to never interact with him during the Dragon Hunt in any direct way." Isha's words were sharp like a razor on Alina, Jullanar and Wulfur.

Alina and Jull became silent but Wulfur was obviously dissatisfied.

"Why on Nirn would he say such a thing?" He glared daggers at the three newcomers.

"Wulf… be quiet. Comply with Jon's plan." Alina said and ended the conversation before it attracts more attention. After all, the six of them were all together in the public gathering where Jarl Balgruuf was talking to the people.

"… and so, I won't be saying more than this. If a dragon attacks Whiterun, it won't look good for the people who can't fight or run this we should go for the Dragon before it comes to us. With the strength of our swords and arrows with the blessings of the Divines, we shall not fail our people. Kinsmen, time to draw glory!"

The Jarl finished his speech and led the men of Whiterun towards the main gate. It wasn't just an accidental call to hunt a dragon as on the way one could see the rapid preparations that were put into this call against the dragon. It seemed that Jarl Balgruuf had prepared for a siege beforehand and kept his armory ready. Crossbows, Enchanted Weapons, Ballistas, Magic and all the necessary preparations were all at arm's length.

The Companions joined as fast as they could and Aela walked with Alina and the others.

"You six are not at each other's throats? That's progress." She said.

"Temporarily." Alina added.

"Doesn't matter, I know where Jon is." Aela said.

The others were looking all around themselves but they didn't feel a hint of Jon.

"He's already ahead with the scouts. I ran into him this morning but he was strictly keeping his identity covered. What is he waiting for?"

"Wait! You ran into him?" Wulfur said angrily.

"Calm down, big guy. He said he has a plan that will require us to work together while he acts on his own, it is for the sake of everyone… or so he stated." Mirren said.

"Alright alright." Alina let go of all her unimportant feelings for the moment and spoke, "Jon is relying on us for something important so let's not mess it up. I'll be nagging Oblivion out of him later on but let's do what he says for now. Wulfur, don't get stubborn on us now."

Wulfur snorted as he seemed a bit angry at Jon for not showing up despite being around. It was safe to say that the ones that missed Jon the most were his wife and girlfriends but the one who was itching to meet Jon no matter what was Wulfur. The half a year alone, they stopped Wulfur from going after Jon like ten times already.

Missing out on the excitement was what Wulfur hated the most but this was all away once the Dragon Hunt party left Whiterun with the Jarl heading west, there, everyone could hear the sky rumbling with a terrible mighty roar.

The Dragon has descended on the tower.

***

A few miles ahead of the Dragon Hunt party, the scouting party was witnessing the terror of its lifetime.

"TAKE COVER!"

"IT'S IN THE SKY!"

The tower was akin to a bunker under being bombarded by modern cannons, each Fire Breath shout the Dragon sent from the sky were shaking the heaven and the earth in unison. It was clear that whoever was outside the tower had met their demise if the heavens weren't merciful.

"Tell your men to retreat. They are like sheep sent to slaughter." Jon said as he walked out of the watchtower.

"Don't just stand there. Find cover you fools and make every arrow count." Irileth pulled an injured guard in the tower as she started organizing what's left of the scouting party, there was a little to no hope in this situation but those men can't die pissing themselves if the hold is to survive a Dragon.

She looked through the tower's door to see Jon standing there looking up to the sky. There was not much to do inside the tower other than shooting arrows from the arrowslits or risking to go on its top so Irileth followed Jon outside. The scene out there can only be described as something worse than what she could even imagine. The land was burning and the rocks were melting, that which was touched by the dragon fire turned charred black. Such destruction can't even be caused by those at the apex of Pyromancy.

"Where is it?" Irileth asked.

Jon only pointed towards the rising smoke south of the tower where a lot of rubble could be seen. There, a titanic silhouette moved with the land shaking beneath it. Irileth turned pale as soon as she realized the situation.

For her, who is an extremely fast fighter, she can dodge a fire breath that comes from the sky and shoot back an arrow or a spell at the moving target but now that it is on land, the range of evasion became dreadfully tight and the dragon can just walk to them.

Her imagination refused to take her to the situation where this massive creature lands and starts wrecking the place physically. She could only tighten the grasp on her sword and summon a [Thunderbolt] spell on her left readying for a bitter fight.

On the other hand, Jon was carefully watching and calculating every move done by the Dragon. Jon knew Mirmulnir from his name, a Dragon loyal to Alduin's horde that lived for a very long time on the peaks of the Reach hiding and waiting while secretly hunting. The Hunt was this dragon's hobby and a hunter loves to see his prey struggling to outsmart its predator so Mirmulnir was silently playing the scouting party to death.

"Such a bad habit playing with food. Didn't Alduin tell you it's wrong?" Jon aimed his hand forward with a small pebble in his hand launching it with his thumb towards the dragon hidden behind the smoke.

The Dragon didn't react for a second but a strange thing happened.

*BOOM*

*ROOOAAAAR!*

"Bullseye!" Jon smirked widely.

The silhouette behind the smoke finally moved ahead and showed its night appearance, a Dragon walking on four limbs covered in bronze scales with two large horns on his head and other two minor horns behind them.

"DUZIIR JOOR! (Insolent Mortal!) I will feast on your flesh."

The Dragon's wrath was real and Jon was its target. Say what you want about Magic and Aura but once the Dragon shows its anger, the world starts to shiver.

"Yep, bad idea." Jon took Irileth by the shoulder and teleported away as their spot was engulfed by a stream of raging fires.

Irileth realized what happened and looked at Jon. He can teleport indeed but that doesn't matter now.

"What have you done to the dragon?" She asked.

"Pissed him off. Kinda my thing pissing others off. Let's split, the dragon will be after me."

Jon ran from the place he was hiding in and attracted the attention of the Dragon. A moment ago when he threw a pebble at Mirmulnir, he put a [Fire Rune] on that pebble and aimed it perfectly at the dragon's nostrils. It is obvious that a dragon won't get hurt by that but imagine someone punching your nose from the inside, pretty nasty.

Irileth signaled for the guards in the watchtower to start firing arrows at the dragon but nothing would take his attention from Jon other than vaporizing the flesh of that mortal.

"Coward Mortal, run or hide, I will find you!"

Jon was fully utilizing his parkour skills to evade all the Fire Breath shouts the dragon dishes out. Still at one moment, Mirmulnir stopped shouting all of a sudden. Jon stopped at his place to see what's going on and noticed something different about the shout Mirmulnir was using this time.

It was as if the dragon was murmuring something repeatedly, Jon couldn't tell what was that at the beginning but he soon analyzed the energy flow around the dragon and a cold shiver ran through his spine.

"Is it even possible to use shouts like that?" Jon froze at his place from the shock.

This was something he never thought would be possible through shouting. Jon, who thought himself to be a genius at the science of the Dragon Shouts was about to witness a whole new realm of using the Thu'um he never got to imagine in a mere videogame.

A Cluster of Stalked Shouts.

"YOL TOOR SHUL!"

The Dragon didn't just use a shout but he added an echo to it, an echo that can repeat the shout's effect. If a normal shout was a bullet, then what Jon is up against is a shotgun shell and only one thing was within his power.

Brace for impact.

***

Are you fucking kidding me?

*Cough* *Cough*

The fucking monster! He can make his echo into more shouts. What's next? A sniper shout? Nope… let's not jinx it.

I barely pulled myself out of this crater I was in. Damn! It almost snapped a rib in that explosion.

A shout that explodes… it is worse than what I thought. Dragons are scary, man! Shouldn't have pissed it off that much.

As I walked out staggering of that cloud of dust, I started hearing distant shouts from some direction that should be where the watchtower is. I was dizzy and my senses were jumbled after this explosion. Didn't feel this shitty in a long time.

"Dragon… I'm still alive, you flying scaly-ass lizard!"

No matter what, I can't let Mirmulnir kill anyone or this will be Sovngarde for them. Not the right time at the moment to be swallowed by the World Eater.

Sadly, the dragon didn't hear my insults and was bombarding the watchtower instead.

"Nefertiti… be my eyes."

"Alright."

I needed to see through the shadows with my senses this jumbled. I also needed to fight more seriously than this. I could equip some of the gear I have but going full-geared will be against the plan else my unique artifacts will be recognized instantly especially the Ebony Blade with Irileth around.

All I could bring now was a spear with a Glass head and an Illusion Curse enchantment. This will do.

Nefertiti was done possessing my eyes and I could see the world as if it was made of shadows, what's more interesting was how I saw the dragon Mirmulnir and could spot the magic flow in his wings.

Dragons use magic to fly. Their wings are big and strong but to reach the unreachable heights, Dragons use Magicka to fly better and I can see some of the energy channels in the wings. This is a great weakness for someone like me.

"Okay, motherfucker. You screwed me once, I screw you back… I know I started it but whatever… Now, let's flip your senses."

I had a great study of Illusions the past year to perfect my weakest school of magic and I've got to admit that I regret not learning Illusion until late, this school has some cool applications like this…

I launched the spear with the Illusion Curse but I added a rune on the spearhead to modify the effect just a little bit and with Nefertiti's aim assist, the spear struck the wing not strong enough to damage it but accurate enough to make contact with the energy channels and bring the Illusion Curse to it.

"Make a Barrel Roll, bitch."

It was said that the simplest spells can be the most effective and this was just a simple spell that disturbs the senses for a second. It makes up bottom and left right, you get the gist.

Mirmulnir, who was trying to fly up, flipped on its back and flipped his wings down.

*CRASH!*

*ROOOAAAAR*

The fucker crashed down like dumb chicken that can't fly. Serves him right.

"Mortal! What have you done to me?" Mirmulnir shouted angrily.

"Wyrm! I know people are supposed to fight your kind heroically or some nonsense but this raises a question, have you dragons ever been to a dirty brawl?" I replied.

"Faazrot! You fight with no honor!" The wyrm struggled up to fix his embarrassing posture and started calling me names.

"Honor? Find that with someone of your size, you asshole."

As I insulted him more, he was already shooting at me.

"YOL TOOR SHUL!"

"Not a chance!"

This time, I retaliated faster than letting him shout. Casting [Telekinesis] on a large rock under his head, I raised it as fast as I could to hit his lower chin.

Interrupting his shout was successful as it was diverted to the sky instead. Not wasting a second, I cast [Bound Warhammer] and charged at him with my Aura being channeled through the Secret Tattoos under my armor.

"TAKE THIS!"

I put my mightiest swing in a single attack and hit that head that is larger than me by two times. I could see the dragon's head turning around from the impact but that was it… it just turned around. My hands were numb from the attack but that fucker only reacted to the attack, nothing else… he was even looking down on me.

"My bad!"

I was about to politely explain things to him when his tail struck me out of my spot. It felt like being hit by a wrecking ball but the worst part was the crash that left a long trail on the ground.

"Joor! (Mortal) you are resilient but with no honor, I will kill you and offer your hide to Thuri (my Lord)."

Yeah, I shouldn't have downloaded that Talkative Dragons mod. Well, this guy has a glib mouth for a face that only his mother can love. I stood up and faced the arrogant Wyrm.

"I don't care about your Honor but I'll play dirty like it or not. You have messed with the wrong motherfucker, motherfucker!"

And that's how it started, Me vs Mirmulnir. A full-fledged Dragon with God knows what shouts and shouting methods under his sleeves against Yours Truly with all the accomplishments under my belt.

And from the horizon, an army coming from Whiterun to my aid.

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