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To the Bosmer Rangers I was little more than a rank amateur, a child who had only taken their first hesitant steps from the cities and towns with little to no knowledge at all. |
They were incredible, invisible and utterly perfect in every movement and step. Between their natural skill and years, if not decades of experience and the enchantments woven into their armour and equipment there was no hope for any outsider to match them. Not a branch or leaf moved in their passage, spiders webs were... |
If I had been just a man, I would have lost them and would have been unable to follow within metres of leaving the campsite in the gorge. Only with my vampiric senses was I able to have the slightest chance of keeping on their trail, but the sheer effort to do so left my pulse thundering in my ears and my head throbbi... |
Using my limited experience and skill with magicka, and the senses of a vampire I was able to follow their progress through the wilds as they moved towards their quarry. The faintest of tingles and the hint of a headache in the back of the skull allowed me to travel in their rough direction. My vampiric senses though ... |
One of the only real saving graces was that they were not moving quickly towards their quarry. They were moving no quicker than a normal hunter or tracker in the wild, instead moving carefully and sliding their way between trees and through shrubs as moving quickly would have disrupted the vegetation. Enchantments or ... |
Within a second of fading into the forest, Malulain was gone. His skills eclipsed those under his command, and unlike the others there wasn’t even an "empty space’ for me to follow. In fact, as midnight approached I hadn’t seen or felt his presence until he appeared at my shoulder. |
"Your skills do you proud." |
My face was taut under my hood and mask, but his sudden appearance made me jump and nearly fall backwards in surprise. He stood there, impassively, but with an obvious grin behind his mask as I struggled to calm my nerves with a series of increasingly vile expletives. |
"Is giving people heart attacks another way you kill them?" I spluttered, rising from my crouch and feeling the tautness of my face fading. |
"It would be if it was efficient." The humour in his voice left me grinning despite the way my heart was beating its way through my ribcage. |
With a gesture, five other Rangers peeled themselves out of the shadows and I found myself standing in a circle with them. Each of the Rangers had incredibly detailed armour that were far superior in comparison to the one who had originally ambushed me, but none were as detailed as Malulain’s. |
"We are close." One muttered, his words rolling across my ears and barely discernible from the light breeze in the air. "The ruin is nearby and they are there." |
Like a branch of a tree, a glove of spider’s web and scales appeared from within the folds of a cloak, spearing a pair of daggers into the earth at his feet. Even from a few meters away, I could see that the two daggers were identical to the one that I had pulled from the chest of the dead Redguard, complete with thei... |
"Have they camped for the night?" Malulain’s voice was cold and matched the darkness of the night that wrapped around us. |
"No father. From the reports from my scouts I believe they are attempting the ritual again." |
The unease that washed over them was obvious and I felt a similar chill course up my spine. |
"We must stop it, but we must not let them get away a second time." Steel crept further into his voice as the commander of the Rangers looked between his subordinates. "We cannot allow a repeat of Narind. They escaped then, but they will not escape now." |
With a boundless energy he stabbed his fingers at each of other Rangers, pointing and gesturing to emphasise his words. "Angudis, Siilyn, Glaromlallor, take your Warsmers and surround the ruins. Nimrdil, I want your Rangers with me in the main assault." |
There was collection of nods and the rustle of movement as each Ranger covered their mouths with their gloved hands in a salute. Malulain locked eyes with the fifth Ranger standing closest to me. She was shorter, but I was surprised to see that she was not carrying any weapons at all. What was even more unusual was th... |
"Wylweneth, is the chorus ready?" |
The vine covered Ranger nodded, carefully and succinctly. "The Druid circle and Nature stands ready Father." |
Malulain’s return nod was sombre and he turned to me, seeing my look of confusion and the question I was yearning to ask. |
"Where do you want me?" I said simply. |
"You have made it this far and have proven yourself capable." He replied. "I will have you by my side in the main assault." |
Carefully, I unstrung my bow, unfolded its travelling case and placed it inside. "Keep them from putting an arrow in my eye and I’ll do what I can." |
Six sets of eyes, hidden in the depths of their hoods and glinting from within the ash-blackened sockets watched as I drew Sunchild. None of them had anything resembling a blade like those I had strapped to my spine, and even their longest swords were little more than lengthened daggers. If their corrupted brethren we... |
"They must not be successful in completing the ritual and awakening the armour. If it costs us our lives, then it will be a fair payment to stop such evil." |
The hardened gazes of the Circle of Rangers swept across each other and I found myself gripping Sunchild tightly in my gloved fist. I had no intention of dying and while I couldn’t rely on my vampiric abilities I had enough confidence in my own skill. Also, as long as I didn’t get shot in the face I had the utmost con... |
As quickly as it had formed, the circle broke up and the group moved away. All around me I could sense the absences that revealed how many Malulain had under his overall command. Before the groups moved and faded into the forest and hills around us I was able to count over forty hidden Bosmer, and I would have bet a c... |
"What is the ritual you mentioned?" I asked Malulain as we moved and joined a small group of rangers hidden behind their magicka. |
"A terrible one." The hesitation in his voice was enough to tell me that it was possible even worse than that. "the ritual we managed to stop in the ancient city of Narind came very close to succeeding. Eregor had sacrificed a handful of his followers, and was going to offer up one of the sacred artefacts of the Bosme... |
"How do we stop it?" |
There was a chuckle from under his hood. "We kill them all. Failing that, we retrieve at least a piece of the armour. Unless it is complete it is useless." |
"Understood." |
The Rangers spread across the hills and moved through the trees and swaying grasses like spilled ink across polished obsidian. Most were hidden within their enchantments but as we moved over the slight rise and beheld the ruins I could sense their unease and the building pre-battle nervousness. |
I too felt uneasy, which wasn’t difficult as the night had been one surprise after another and I was becoming increasingly certain that this would have to be some form of intense fever dream instead of reality. To find myself fighting side by side a group of Bosmer Rangers against a collection of their corrupted breth... |
The corrupted Bosmer had set themselves up in a tiny collection of Ayleid ruins no larger than the grounds of a coaching inn or messenger post along the highways. Heavily covered in moss, grasses and shrubs, they had gone to considerable amount of effort to clear away a large area in the centre of the ruins. A handful... |
Malulain’s Rangers had done their job of picking off the sentries and it allowed us to creep forward to the very edge of the forest and ruins, and see with our own eyes exactly what their corrupted brethren were attempting. There was no doubt in any of our minds as were lurked on the very edge of the forest and vegeta... |
Shadowed figures lurked in a circle around the altar, some standing behind the crucified individuals glowing as they fed enough restoration magicka into the sacrifices to keep them alive. Others lay prostrated on their faces, kneeling and chanting a dark tongue that crawled over my flesh like I had been bathed in magg... |
"The ritual has started." Malulain’s hiss reached my ear as we crouched in the shadows. I was the only being in his group that wasn’t hidden behind enchantments and his voice was the only sign that he was anywhere near me. "We do not have much time." |
I nodded in the darkness, knowing that he could see me even though I couldn’t see or detect him. "What do you want me to do." |
A chuckle came from the shadow at my side as the Ranger commander removed his enchantments and became visible. "I have no doubt in your skill at arms, but as your stealth isn’t as good as ours initially you will be little more than a distraction." |
The flutter of fear in my belly made itself felt and I chew on my lip. "I can play decoy easy enough." |
If Malulain was able to discern my nervousness he made no show of it, instead pointing to the figure leading the others in the chant. "Lariel is Eregor’s second in command and his mate. She is the one enacting the ritual and to have any chance she needs to die first." |
Sunchild was a solid comfort in my grip and I rolled my shoulders and stretched my arms for the coming fight. |
"Just... Beware her Xivilai bodyguards." He continued softly. "You have slain daedra before but I’m unsure of whether you have faced ones such as those." |
"Xivilai?" I muttered, turning to face him. "What the hell are Xivilai?" |
Malulain was gone as quickly as he had appeared and there wasn’t the slightest trace that he had even been there. All around me the empty spaces revealing the presences of the other Rangers began moving and I found myself bitterly cursing them and their stealthy natures. |
Pushing aside all my unease and nervousness, feeling the pounding of my heart in my chest I rose to my full height and began casually striding towards the ruins and its infestation of daedra worshippers. It reminded me all too much of the time in Vvardenfell that the detachment of Legionaries I was supporting dealt wi... |
Eschewing stealth, I simply moved forward without the slightest attempt at hiding. I knew that Malulain’s Rangers were all around, moving slowly and carefully through the knee high grasses and bushes but my walking pace was faster than what they could manage. I was going to be the decoy and hopefully allow the rest of... |
The closer I got, the more I could see of their ritual. The more I saw, the less I wanted to and I could feel my stomach rebelling against me as I saw the fate of those chosen as sacrifices. Their organs were spread out, the blood and other fluids used to draw ancient symbols of hideous power around the altar. The air... |
Only a handful of sentries were placed around the outer edges of the ruins, and those few were not paying enough attention. Their trust and faith in the skill of the few slain by Malulain’s party was their undoing and while they quickly spotted me advancing upon them to reacted with confusion and uncertainty. They wer... |
Cries of alarm all around the edge of the ruins were stopped in mid breath and those few who reached for weapons were cut down without warning. Arrows flickered out of the darkness to rip them from where they stood, and the two standing before me died instantly. One slumped onto his face with an arrow in the heart, th... |
Chaos erupted all around us, the ritual being undertaken suddenly breaking in mid chant as a large portion of the cultists were felled by arrows or reacted to our presence. I had seen kwama nests react with less singlemindedness than these daedric cultists did, as most reached for their arms, but a significant number ... |
We were outnumbered though, even with the Rangers that Malulain had brought with him to Cyrodiil and after months of hunting and picking at Eregor’s forces, he still commanded a significant number of Bosmer. Our only saving grace was that most of those Eregor had at his command were not Rangers. A huge majority of his... |
The ruins were lit with a combination of Braziers, lit torches and the building light illuminating the Armoured figure standing on top of the altar. Shadows danced and cavorted about in the light as the mass of loyal Rangers clashed with the surge of resistance. There were dozens of them in the expansive area within t... |
Several dozen Bosmer had crowded the ruins and even as the Rangers swarmed through the gaps in the pillars, hacking and slashing with their daggers and blades they reacted. Some were almost entirely naked, covered only in strips of foul braids and daubed in horrific runes drawn with blood and other liquids. Those that... |
Eregor and his followers had been limited in the number of their Ranger Cadre, but these handful of individuals stood with their backs to the altar and the individuals upon it, facing outwards and gripping their weapons tightly. They were mirrored images of Malulain and his kin, but images that had been distorted and ... |
To my surprise none of them wielded their bows or used them at all. Only blades and daggers were visible in the last surviving Rangers of Eregor’s clan and while Malulain’s group loosed arrows in their direction I didn’t see a single on felled or hit at all. As I pushed through the press, hacking, stabbing and slicing... |
Malulain shouted an eerie battle cry a couple of metres away. He and a handful of his veterans were stabbing and hacking at the press around us and while they were extremely proficient with their bows and stealth, they were not the greatest of swordsmen. |
I found myself wishing for a dozen Legionaries as I cut and danced my way through the cultists attacking me. None of them were fighters worth a rusty septim and with all of them wielding little more than daggers I had an enormous advantage in reach. Sunchild’s length and make made a complete mockery of their daggers a... |
"Damn this all to Oblivion!" my shout came out mostly incoherent but the dozen rangers following Malulain heard it and followed me as I stepped forward, dragging Sunchild from a shrieking Bosmer’s chest. For a second she clawed at my legs with fury, breaking fingernails on the metal plates protecting my thighs even as... |
I went on the offensive, as did the rangers behind me as they rushed forward with their single edged shortswords and double edged daggers. The few daggers that were thrown were also affected by the strange properties of the air and with a crunch both the loyal and tainted groups slammed together to fight to the death.... |
Cutting my own way through the press and using every trick and skill I had learned, as well as a considerable amount of anger. Blades thirsting for a taste of my own blood and flesh were turned aside before their owners were left dying on the ground from ripostes. Others simply had their defences battered through by m... |
A good number of the Bosmer continued with their chanting, keeping themselves pressed to the floor even as knives and blades sank into flesh and took their lives. One of their number pouring restoration magicka into one of the crucified sacrifices dropped to his knees with the open mouthed look of agony on his face as... |
"It is about time you arrived brother!" Called out a booming voice, one that cut through the sounds of fighting and the shrieks of the dying. |
Standing above the swirling, hate filled violence consuming the ruins, the figure on the altar stood as still as the marble of the altar itself. In the chaos I had seen how the arrows that had been loosed at the armoured figure had either curved away or shattered on the air as though it was rock. Little of the figure ... |
The braids were of his hair were threaded with sinew and smeared with blood, bile and other substances I didn’t want to identify. Hand carved effigies of a reptilian monstrosity of horns, fangs and claws jingled in the air with every movement he made, and as he turned to face us I could see the strange protrusions of ... |
"Have you finally decided to stop skulking in the shadows?" Even over the sounds of fighting all around, he didn’t seem to have to shout and I could feel my skin crawling at the sound of his voice. |
Malulain was deep in the press of the fighting and I only caught glances of the veteran Ranger as he stabbed one of the toga wearing Bosmer to death. His arm was wet to the elbow in gore already and the mask has slipped down to reveal his face, but in the midst of the brawl he was unable to answer. |
"You’re too late. The sacrifices have been made! The blood toll is paid! Now that you have arrived your deaths will empower the armour once more!" Another arrow shattered on the air a metre away from his head but he didn’t twitch or move in the slightest. Those loyal Rangers who were free of the melee were firing arro... |
Surrounded by the last of his own Rangers and veritable sea of death and fighting Eregor seemed stately and serene as he glanced over us. the Altar was only a couple of metres wide, and he stood there alone and dressed in the cursed, dread armour that he had killed so many for. His cultists were dying by droves all ar... |
"Graithlan!" Shrieked the female Bosmer standing right at the base of the Altar behind the ring of fallen Rangers. "Collect your bones long since dust! Gather your limbs separated by eternity! Shake the soil of Aetherius from your flesh!" |
Her arms raised to the heavens, hands streaked with the blood and gore of cutting open the sacrifices and the look on her face was of utter devotion to the man standing before her. The pulsating energies throbbed like the heart of a skooma addict, the waves of energy being felt as physical impacts against our bodies t... |
Even as we pushed forward we all knew that there was nothing we could do as Eregor lifted the last piece of the armour he held in his hand, the helmet carved into the snarling maw of some monster I had never seen before. With complete and utter reverence and in time to the chanting calls of "arise!’ from his mate and ... |
The pulsating energies ceased as though they had never existed but I had the momentary sensation of them being sucked into the central altar and the armoured being standing atop it. All fighting died away as the cultists dropped to their knees or otherwise prostrated themselves towards the armoured figure standing tri... |
Eregor stood proudly, looking out from the depths of the roaring skull helm from between its fanged jaws but as one second turned into two and time slowly passed it was obvious that nothing was happening. There was no discernible change that any of us could detect in him, and after the first few seconds of nothingness... |
Some of the cultists lifted their heads in confusion, looking at their leader dressed in the massive suit of armour that I could now see more of the details. Especially now that I wasn’t fighting for my life against a group of insane wood elves. The armour itself was obviously too large for Eregor and had made for som... |
Silence descended upon the ruins, broken only by the groans, cries and moans of the wounded and dying. From their positions beside their mistress, a pair of towering daedra rose to their feet while looking about at the mortals before them with something akin to confusion on their features. The daedra were dressed in l... |
"You failed!" Shrieked Eregor, twisting and pointing a gauntleted finger carved into a bony talon at his startled mistress. "I will crush your pretty face and the mudcrabs will feed upon your corpse! I will-" |
The sound of splintering bone was audible over his hate-filled rant and it cut him off in mid breath, stopping him entirely in mid motion and making everyone who heard it jump. The expression of agony that consumed his features was as terrible as it was sudden and there was a second snap as he dropped to his knees. De... |
His body began to writhe and shift in a combination of pain and spasms and I winced as I saw and heard how his left arm straightened out, folded back onto itself before twisting back into shape once more. The armour gripped around him, squeezing as the seizure held him tight and his limbs contorted in impossible ways.... |
Without a single word or gesture Malulain, myself and all of the other Rangers surged forward instinctively as the leader of the cult screamed incessantly. The cultists for the most part remained on their faces or kneeling, not resisting as we cut and stabbed our way through their number with little hesitation and no ... |
Clad in their corrupted and defiled armours, covered with foul wrappings of flesh and hair twine that signified their new master they were easily identifiable in the sudden brutal melee. As Eregor’s elite they had given themelves over to Molag Bal entirely, dressing themselves in symbols of their allegiance but also h... |
My own charge forward stopped in mid pace as I recoiled from the hideous form of my attacker, slicing upwards clumsily with Sunchild and feeling the blow jar up my entire arm. Their armour at least proved to be of no match for a weapon of Sunchild’s make and while my opponent hissed in agony I speared it in the throat... |
Dressed in his detailed armour, one of higher ranked Rangers shrieked in agony and the sound felt as though it had been delivered to my brain with a point of a sword. One who had spent most of the battle so far fighting by my side, fell quickly under the corrupted blades of the brethren. Even as I deflected a thrust w... |
Three of them quickly turned to face me, hissing and spitting bile and daedric curses even as they danced just outside of my reach with fresh blood covering their foul armour and faces. They looked like an amalgamation of daedra and mer, loathsome and evil but the smell emanating from them was another thing entirely. ... |
The battle in the ruins raged anew, but now it was Ranger versus corrupted Ranger and both sides were paying a heavy toll in blood. Double edged bone daggers and single edged swords of ivory cut through leather, silk, cloth and flesh and the brutality of the kills were something that only the vampire within me could m... |
One of my own foes screamed painfully as it dropped to the floor gurgling blood and with as its organs looped out of the massive gash in its belly. The stonework under my feet suddenly turned slippery in the wash of blackened blood. Everything about this Ranger clan had been totally and utterly corrupted, and even thr... |
I smashed my way through the inexperienced guard of the second Bosmer facing me, not even using any finesse as I took its hand off at the wrist in a spray of ichor and bile. It screamed, the mask it was wearing slipping down and revealing a face so twisted with hatred and evil that it stopped me in my tracks even as I... |
An eye burst under the hammer blow, the first of three that I delivered that left it weeping with pain. Even with the will and gifts of its dark master pushing through from the void into its soul it had been mortally wounded. Its face was now nothing more than a mess of flesh with blackened bone poking through, a maw ... |
Malulain had been attacked by a handful of the fallen Rangers and had been left bleeding from several minor cuts and gashes even as he duelled with a surviving pair. He was no swordsman but his natural skill and grace made him a deadly adversary that had allowed him to hold his own in such a riot of a battle. There wa... |
With my own adversaries dead or dying, I rushed to the Ranger’s aid. So focused on killing Malulain, the two corrupted Rangers didn’t notice my presence until it was far too late. The dagger spun as I shifted my grip, holding it by the blade and hurling it with sickening force into the back of a skull with a crack of ... |
The dying Ranger dropped to my feet in a messy pile of shredded flesh and armour, clawing and my feet even as I stomped on its head with a crunch of bone. Very few of Eregor’s clan were left alive, but the glance around the slaughter showed that the same was of Malulain’s force. Easily two out of every three Rangers h... |
On top of the altar, hunched over on his hands and knees, Eregor’s screams changed and all eyes were drawn to him. The agonising contortions were slowing, his body forcing itself back into shape centimetre by centimetre but it wasn’t the cause for the change of the screams being ripped from his throat. The roaring bon... |
Other than Lariel, her pair of daedric bodyguards and Eregor himself, none of his clan were left standing. The rest were dead or dying at our feet. Dozens of bodies were scattered about, piled three or four deep in places and it was this sea of death that the armoured figure rose to his feet and cast its burning gaze ... |
The helm was still shut tight, the interlocking fangs of the mask locking together like a knight’s visor and hiding the face but the eyes burned with fury. A darkness was now dwelling within the armour. One that had not been present before. What I also immediately noticed was the way that he was standing. No longer di... |
"We’re in deep shit." I muttered, just loud enough for Malulain to hear and to nod in agreement. |
With the sound of snapping bone, the helm snapped open once more, the yawning mouth returning to frame the face of the elf within. However, Eregor was no longer the being who stared out upon the ruins. It was an elven face, high boned and almost chiselled with an almost avian like structure, but it was no Bosmer. A pa... |
Sounding like million tombs closing deep within the earth, the reincarnated Ayleid’s laugh rolled over us and I felt my guts turn to ice. "We’re in really deep shit..." |
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