Chapter 156 - Troubled Times (3) : Necromantic Skirmish
It was nights and all the lights died in the surrounding area. Even Kynesgrove itself felt quiet.
The truth was definitely the opposite. The Firemanes have made a lot of preparations for the party yet to come.
Jon was surveying the land from above, using his magic to detect all sorts of life and death signals while dimming the radiance of the Flame Atronach Hawks that he was leading.
On the other Flame Atronach Hawks were three more beauties. Jullanar was holding her lever-action crossbow while preparing her mentality for the blood show, Nurina was checking her last few edits on her personal spells the things she wants to try, Alina was holding a 'Telepathy' scroll and contacting the Firemane reinforcements.
"61 tangos confirmed! Mostly necromancers and archers
"Senior, what are tangos?"
"When he says tangos, he means 'targets'."
"Ah! I see."
"The plan is simple, we lure the enemy out and kill them."
"That sounds like an effortless way of thinking."
The simple plan was made by Nurina and the party descended between the trees where the enemies only left three Necromancers to cover the area. Once the three were spotted, Jullanar put a bolt in each's head.
"Nice shooting! Now move out, I want everyone in their location ASAP."
With Jon's encouragement, Alina and Jull nodded and ran together into the forest.
"Seems like you have two girls that will do anything for you without questioning."
Nurina was looking at Jon and watching his expressions.
"I can understand Jull's feelings but Alina seems to be trying to put extra effort."
"Is it for nothing?"
"Hm? No, I find her adorable, especially when she tries to reveal her face around me more often now."
"Fufu! I am sure you are happy about it but don't you dare make a move on her as you did on Jull. She is a fine girl and my student after all."
"... When did you… No, never mind!"
Jon was taken aback with Nurina's knowledge about the development of his relationship with Jullanar. It was kinda annoying for him to not be able to hide a thing from her.
"Can we please focus on what we have now. I will conjure around a hundr… damn!"
While he was speaking, Nurina had already summoned around twenty Undead in one go. She cast one more time and twenty more appeared. They were all the high tier undead from the Soul Cairn, the Wraithmen.
"Sigh! Give me a break." Jon was a bit disheartened from Nurina's ridiculous skill and started to summon his undead too. Compared to her, his best was to form two layers of the same spell on each other and summon two undead creatures in one go. It still was cumbersome for him too. He was well aware of what kind of a monster his adoptive mother is.
After some time, he used half of his Magicka and summoned 80 Bonemen archers in 40 casts. Nurina was done in around 5 casts and summoned 100 Wraithmen.
"Didn't you get way too overpowered lately?"
"It is nothing to brag about." Nurina said while making a proud pose.
Jon wasn't feeling well anyway and decided to bully the next victim to get rid of his frustration.
A while later, a message arrived through Nurina's telepathic link.
{Jon, the convoy is about a hundred meters away and the enemies are fully focused on it.}
"Perfect! The exact location?"
{Seventy meters away on your seven o'clock. They are making a road blockage and hiding behind some rocks, the rear blockage will be mine.}
"Okay, I better get into the mood too." Jon prepared himself and moved his undead team right to its position north of the Blackrock troops. Meanwhile, Nurina's undead were hiding between the trees, Alina summoned some Mistmen and Jullanar was hiding on a tree.
"Now we have four teams, which means four code names…" (Jon)
{Sigh! Here he goes again!} (Jull)
{This is actually my favorite part.} (Alina)
"It is pretty simple, ladies. Team Alpha is Nurina's, Team Bravo is me, Team Charlie is Alina, and Unit Delta is Jull."
{This is getting confusing!} (Nurina)
"Just stick to the plan, ladies. We will swoop these bastards and they won't see it coming."
While Jon was bragging with his modern warfare knowledge, his undead got discovered.
"Kalf! Do you see these strange things?"
"I don't know, Hott. It is too dark… Hey, don't go near that…"
"Don't worry, I won't…"
*Swoosh*
"ENEMY ATTACK!"
Jon saw the situation through his familiar in the sky and felt disappointed. He could also hear some giggles through the telepathic link.
"Ladies, we have good news and bad news. Bad news is… we have been discovered. Good news is… it's all according to the plan."
{{{.....}}}
"Team Bravo, moving out."
Once he gave the signal, tens of arrows brock through the air and mowed down on the Blackrock troops.
"Watch out! We are being ambushed."
"Team Charlie, pin them down."
The whole ambush team of the Blackrock Clan went into chaos and tried to retreat behind cover but from the cover, Frost Magic attacks came raining down.
"Team Alpha, Team Delta…"
On Jullanar's side, she started sniping the Blackrock clansmen that were positioned to block the retreating path for the coming Firemane reinforcements convoy. They were a few in number and couldn't see where the attacks were coming from.
On Nurina's side, her small horde of Wraithmen started advancing in and attacked the Blackrocks from the only way left for them to retreat.
In the ambush area, a man stood in the middle watching the situation in bewilderment. His name Gils Blackrock and he is one of the Blackrock's main family.
"What in Oblivion is that?" He asked the men around him while trying to calm himself down in this situation.
A young man came running to him and shouted.
"Father! Father! It's an ambush… A sort of Undead all dyed in black. They killed Hott."
"Black?"
He didn't understand what his son, Kalf said. Undead were mostly either ghosts, corpses, or bones. Black undead are somewhat unusual even to a clan that calls itself the Blackrock.
"Dammit! We can't stay like this anymore… summon the undead."
The Blackrocks necromancers didn't wait anymore and summoned their undead who go conjured in the same fashion as Jon's and Nurina's undead.
Through the familiars in the sky, Jon and Nurina saw that.
"Did you just see that? They can summon undead too?" Jon didn't expect to see this one coming.
Summoning the undead wasn't something common at all. It needed the mage to be aware of the existence of the Soul Cairn and possess the right amount of talent to summon the black undead of the Soul Cairn. Else, the Ideal Masters who rule the Soul Cairn will snatch the soul of the mage.
Still, these mages from some hidden clan could achieve a huge feat such as summoning the undead.
"Hmm! It is interesting indeed! It was a good decision to come here after all." Nurina was also analyzing what she just saw.
"Look, kid! Do you see their undead clearly?"
"Yes."
"What do you think?" Nurina asked.
Jon focused on the undead battle that started between the black undead and the Blackrock's undead and tilted his head.
"Aren't those… plain normal undead?"
"Right."
"Huh? Why would it… wait wait wait! Did you just see that?"
"See what?"
"One of your undead just smashed a skeleton and its remained!"
"Oh, you also noticed."
"What is going on?"
According to the rules of conjuration, conjured creatures should return back to their realm once they got destroyed. For the remains of the still remain in the realm they got conjured to is illogical. These creatures have their souls bound to the realm they came from after all and they don't really die even if their bodies are destroyed as they get new bodies later on.
To Jon, that didn't make any sense but Nurina has already figured out some theories.
"Let's finish them off and analyze the situation afterward."
To Nurina's words, Jon nodded and conveyed the orders to the other two to prepare for the final assault.
Once everything was set, the four joined the attack at the Blackrock ambushers.
The Blackrock people were not expecting the assailants to show themselves and as necromancers, they knew that the best way to finish this quickly is to cut the head of the snake first.
As the one with the biggest body and visible red hair, Jon was assumed to be a Firemane at once and faced the first wave of attacks.
"Humph! You think I, your old daddy will be threatened by such weaklings. PISS OFF!"
A loud 'War Cry' sounded from Jon and the necromancers around him lost their marbles and panicked right away. Their undead seized to function as the summoners were in a state of shock and didn't put one ounce of control in their undead as they started running away.
"Eight, Nine, Ten…" Jullanar was counting the kills as she was shooting down any living target she finds.
"Take this!" Alina made a small tornado and sent it right into the middle of the Blackrocks' necromancers.
"Humph!" Nurina snorted as she waved her hand and spray of spectral arrows chased down the necromancers. Her spell was called 'Bound Arrows' as he didn't use 'Bound Bow' yet she bounded the arrows to shoot directly as being shot with Magicka.
The one who saw the scene vividly was Gils Blackrock who was hiding behind his high-quality undead while searching for a path to escape.
He decided to make use of his undead and push forward through the black undead creatures that were shooting magic from the back and run into the forest but his plans went all into disarray when he found that every route was blocked tightly.
He looked around him and only saw his fifteen white skeletons and some of his surviving clansmen that backed down to get some protection besides their leader. His son was one of them.
"Who are you, people? How come there are Necromancers as fearsome as you?"
Gils shouted his voice out and wished that the fight would stop and that was as it is. Jon stopped and looked right into Gils's eyes. The rest also stopped as they are were following Jon's lead from the start.
Gils recognized Jon as the leading figure of the assault. He also recognized him as a Firemane and a young one.
"You, who are you?"
"Who's asking?"
"... I am the one asking! Don't answer my question with a question."
"I'll answer however I like, Fatso! You are the fucker that is hanging around our territory with his goons."
"Falsehood!"
"Fuck off! You ain't walking out of here alive."
"Just who in Oblivion are you? A necromancer with black skeletons like you should be known… Or maybe it is one of those women."
"None of your goddamn business! Now, mind telling me who are you and which address should I send your head to?"
"You don't dare!"
The atmosphere around Jon froze in a second. Nurina shook her head and Jullanar sighed. Only Alina was oblivious to Jon's major bad habit.
"Let's see, that little piglet hiding behind you seems to be blood-related to you… I'll start with him."
Jon cast a strong 'Lightning Strike' spell and targeted Kalf son of Gils Blackrock.
Gils reacted as fast as he could and put all his Magicka in a Ward that barely blocked the spell Jon casted. Gils could feel his head becoming light and his face becoming pale from the sheer energy that the spell carried. He also felt a sweet taste in his mouth.
"Oh! So you managed to block that? I am impressed, we can exchange names then…"
Gils Blackrock didn't expect that Jon's spell would be this strong and saw Jon in a new light.
"My name is Jon Dare."
Just by hearing the name, Gils's head felt more light than before and almost staggered.
The information was clear…
Jon Dare, the Thane of Winterhold and a student of an Arch-Mage who defeated Alina Moonblade, the most talented girl in her generation, and conquered all Winterhold after turning its Jarl into his servant. The Ultimate target of this campaign and the one to be avoided at all costs by the small fries.
He himself didn't think too much about it but the strike he took just now needed to be reported that the threat is not just at a small level. This is a major problem for the Alliance of the Blackrocks and the Bloodsails.
"I am Gils Blackrock. I wish to hear the names of the fellow necromancers as well."
Gils wanted to buy time as much as possible for him to use his hidden trump card and put pressure on Jon.
"Jullanar of household Dare."
"Nurina Aren."
"Alina of Clan Moonblade."
Gils was delighted to hear the women talking but soon he realized what sort of shit situation he was in.
This are not just some normal names. They were all mentioned in the Winterhold report. Three of the major key figures of new ruling faction in Winterhold with the overlord of Winterhold himself. This is just too unlucky to be accepted.
There is only one solution out of this mess and it is to run away.
He decided to gamble on his trump card that he was so sure to buy him a minute or two now.
As he made his mind, he opened his mouth and talked.
"My name is Gils Blackrock…"
Just as he said his name, he took out a scroll and with swift hand movements, he opened and cast the spell on it.
Jon clicked his tongue and in dissatisfaction and decided to blow up whatever Gils come up with.
Still, it seemed that Gils summoned something and by the looks of it, the void of the summoning is a little bit too big.
What came out from the void made even Nurina open her eyes wide in amazement.
"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! Isn't this undead a little bit too big?"