Chapter 390 - The Battle Of Winterhold (7) : Aetherial Tribulation
A/n: Big Thanks to @Darius Thomas for the gift. And also @Greenboy676.
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From chaos to more chaos, that's how the Battle of Winterhold turned out to be. There were too many fronts now.
The first and the largest was at the gates of Winterhold, the attackers that swarmed in were all repelled back and Alina's plan was to devastate the power of the other dark clans to the extreme so that she can dismantle them later one by one with ease.
The second front was the War Mammoth Unit against the new reinforcements coming from the direction of Wayward pass. Alina's plot was to drag those ones in the back as reinforcements with false news. The entirety of [Team 0] was to focus all its resources on that to happen. The War Mammoth Unit was completely her idea and not a thing that Jon came with, maybe she drew some inspiration of Jon's devices but that idea couldn't be done if Jarl Skald of Dawnstar didn't drive the giants off towards Winterhold.
The Firemanes negotiated with the giants and reached an arrangement to buy the orphaned mammoths. For a mammoth to be orphaned is for its owner to die, a mammoth and a giant would stick together as partners for their whole lives and the Giant Bloodline in the Firemane also had the same quality with the Nine Guardian Totem Beasts rather than mammoths.
The orphaned mammoths were a great addition to the [Dare Corps] since no clan can reason with the Giants as good as the Firemanes.
Wulfur rode his mammoth and directed it to chase the deserters of the alliance's army. The reinforcements of the alliance crushed by half under the feet of the mammoths and got pincered between the defenders of Saarthal and the ones following the War Mammoth Unit. Now, everything was working well for Winterhold as it flexed all its military power to the extreme.
And now to the third front. At the northern shore of Winterhold, a band of 2'000 cavalrymen landed on the snowy shore with haste bearing the red banner of the wolf, the High Kings troop and Skyrim's first army, the Army of Solitude.
High King Torygg was personally at the forefront of his force charging directly towards Saarthal. On his right was his Housecarl Bolgeir Bearclaw, his Court Wizard wizard Sybille Stentor, his Thane Bryling and his Steward Falk Firebeard.
The ride was moving swiftly to the east wishing to catch a glimpse of Winterhold before it is too late.
"Ahoy! Riders coming ahead!" One of the scouts on the lead called.
"Don't tell me… deserters from Winterhold?" Torygg was ready for some bad news but that seemed like the worst.
The scout came back as fast as he could.
"Looks like trouble! They are hostiles!"
These words weren't assuring which side was this is. The soldiers of any defeated army would turn into monsters pillaging and raiding any travelers on their way for the sake of provisions and loot to escape further.
"Ready for clash!" Torygg readied his men to face some resistance hoping to capture one of those deserters and inquire about Winterhold.
A few seconds later, runners appeared on the end of vision with a cloud of fine snow chasing them, the grim appearance on their faces and their screams made the hearts of the men of Solitude sink. Something was clearly wrong.
Those who were swallowed by the cloud of fine snow gave off pitiful dying shrieks accompanied by loud stomps. The horses grew restless as it approached and the runners didn't even bother Winter Solitude's men.
To their surprise, the cloud of fine snow stopped in front of them and started to settle, the powerful Aura coming from it was surely something unnatural.
What the men saw first were large curved tusks bearing scary marks and armed with large blades each then a large trunk of a mammoth then a body of a full grown one.
The mammoth seemed to be in a foul mood yet it stood its ground and groaned at the riders. It clearly wasn't considering them friendly.
"Well, well, well. Who do we have here? If it isn't High King Torygg himself." A voice called out to the High King from the mammoth's back.
The idea was kinda unimaginable but as soon as the people raised their heads, they saw a large man sitting on top of the mammoth's head. He was holding a large war pike and looked down at them with cold murderous eyes.
"This is… Wulfur of Winterhold. Thane Jonhild's right hand." Falk Firebeard was well-informed with faces.
"Greetings. We are amidst a battle so didn't have the time to prepare a welcome parade. What brings the High King to our humble town?"
Wulfur's language provoked the king's men greatly.
Torygg didn't mind Wulfur's hostility and replied.
"We are here to aid Winterhold. 2000 Cavalrymen are with me."
Wulfur nodded.
"Jon said that we might have some unexpected allies but I didn't think Solitude would be one. This way."
Wulfur turned the mammoth the other way but his words echoed deep in the king's head.
"Jon said… Wait! You spoke with Thane Jonhild? Is he here?" Torygg rode forward right away.
"You will see soon enough."
The third front where High King Torygg came to reinforce Winterhold surprised Wulfur but the bigger surprise was on the king's side. Winterhold was faring much better than he ever expected.
Thane Jonhild Firemane may be officially the strongest man in Winterhold but that only if people ignored the forces supporting him. He had the full backing of the Firemane as their son and the Moonblades as their son-in-law and the College as a great asset. This sure puts a few powerhouses on Jon's side.
King Torygg's plan was to stop the bloodshed but that was already too late and anyone in the state of Winterhold won't hand over the victory they gained for negotiations. Right now, the best action was to calm down the vigor of Winterhold and get a grasp of how could they repel such an alliance away.
A king's first duty, after all, is to balance all the forces to keep the ship afloat.
South to King Torygg, the fourth front was much more active and bloody. Another unexpected reinforcements of another 2000 cavalrymen came all the way through the Wayward pass chasing the reinforcements of the Alliance then diverted their direction and met face to face with the Thalmor forces that didn't budge off its place.
Those riders were all Nordic Raiders carrying the blue banner of the bear under the lead of none other than the most charismatic leader in Skyrim, Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak.
"Send those Elves to Oblivion! Skyrim's for the Nords!"
"Sovngarde!"
Taking advantage of the high ground to empower their charge, the Nord Raiders descended on the Elves out of nowhere.
"Nords! Kill them."
"Filthy humans! Your kind will be eradicated!"
One had to hand it down for the High Elven warriors of Summer Set, each and everyone one of them was a fierce combatant with many years of experience. Unlike the humans who had the quantity, the high elves had the quality. They coped with the situation right away.
Shields, swords and spells were what the elves usually fought with all in light plate Elven Armor giving them the edge over all manners of battlefields. The Elves valued their life and always pursued immortality, their lives were what mattered above all else so when the Nords wore padded armor and reinforced armor with a little to do with plates, the elves were always fully equipped.
The shock charge of Ulfric Stormcloak was absorbed right away. Still, if there was someone who can deal with the Elves on every situation, this man should be none other than Ulfric Stormcloak.
"FUS RO DAH!" Jarl Ulfric shouted the Elves in his way making a large hole in their force and pushing the charge forward once again reaching another climax.
There was an old guide in cheap armor right behind Ulfric, this man had a katana blade to his side and kept his eyes narrowed as he checked through the Thalmor force. Once his eyes landed on a robed justiciar, he jumped off his horse and moved at a speed unimaginable to his age reaching the side of the justiciar in a second beheading him right away.
"Elvish dogs! They always die fast."
Ulfric's horse stopped beside the man and Ulfric looked at him smiling wryly.
"They die fast because you kill them like that, seems like age hasn't caught up to your touch at all, Fultheim the Fearless."
"Bah! Leave me to my killing lad and I'll leave you to yours. Didn't you have some grudge to settle?" Fultheim cussed at Ulfric and moved like a phantom once again.
"Aye!" Ulfric said as he looked deep into the Thalmor camp.
There were eleven exceptionally powerful auras behind the force yet in a certain tent, there were two one of them was very familiar to Ulfric.
"Elenwen! Roll over here!" Ulfric called for Elenwen with strong resentment.
Not long after, a beautiful high Elven mature woman appeared from a tent with a slightly mocking smile on her arrogant golden face.
"Oh, if it isn't dear Ulfric? What can I do for you, old friend?"
"Cut the crap woman and bright out your sword or axe or whatever you swing." Ulfric jumped down from his horse and throwing his spear down and pulled out his axe Rikvard.
Elenwen face was ever so passive and calm.
"Miss me already? It wasn't that long since we met last time if I remember. Still, how is yo…"
"Shut your trap, woman."
"My oh my, still the young boy I met all those years long ago. Can't get over me yet?"
Ulfric and Elenwen walked to each other and the two forces took cleared a place for their leaders to duel. Ulfric's Rikvard met Elenwen's Elven Exquisite Blade in a strong clash the pushed Elenwen away. Ulfric took a small breath and adjusted his lunges to a humming Aura of Fridging Frost around him.
A strong shockwave of power made the normal soldier stumble around him.
Elenwen didn't unleash an Aura or anything like that, her Magicka inside her boy started to burn and she cast [Empower] on herself. High Elves always looked down on the Art of the Battle-Spirit saying it is alien magic out of their motherland brought by the Akaviri hearsay. They never practiced any Aura.
The duel between Elenwen and Ulfric was swift and clean. The two seemed well aware of the other's skill set and countered the counters of each other.
Ulfric waved his axe in rounds trying to distract Elenwen who kept a safe distance and locked eyes with Ulfric. As he smirked and waved his axe by the right, his hands pulled a sword by the left.
Elenwen merely stepped out of range but Ulfric's Aura chased her as if the blades had auras of its own. She, however, merely cast a Ward to block it cleanly.
Ulfric's foot was dug in the snow and with a kick, the soft snow flew upwards towards Elenwen's face. Her expressions looked natural but Ulfric could detect her annoyance and urgency.
"As long as I keep you dogs away from Saarthal, there is no danger on the city as it seemed."
"Don't overestimate yourself, my dear, we don't need to march at Winterhold whatsoever."
"Oh really? You are here hunting those mammoth or something?"
"Heh heh! You seem as surprised as us. Winterhold has no actual power to speak of other than their advanced magical technology. In the face of ten Arch Wizards, do you think that will mean anything?"
"Ten?"
"Come on, dear. You know the drill. Let the Nords kill each other and the rest will be ours to scrap, isn't that what you people are good at?"
Ulfric seemed annoyed by the fact.
Ten Arch Wizards from the Dominion was something that he failed to foresee. Now there is some real trouble.
If it is him alone, he can face one Arch Wizard all for himself which is Elenwen. Calculating how many masters in Winterhold, only few can stop the rest of the nine.
"Hm… it seems that the Battle on Saarthal's gate is almost over too. Look at those Nords riding mammoths like the savages they are. Did they ever think that such petty creatures will stop the power of the arcane?"
As Elenwen said so, the nine Auras behind her started to move. They all rose in the air like immortals.
Ulfric frown grew uglier. He didn't think that the Thalmor would pull such a large force out. This can be said as 10% of the Thalmor fighting force all gathered in one place if one overlooked the whole Aldmeri Dominion.
"Elenwen, so this reaches nowhere again?"
"Exactly. You won't get your vengeance so get over it… but as a gesture of benevolence, we won't touch the Jarl of Eastmarch." She flew up in the air with the other Arch Wizards.
Ulfric was pissed to the max.
Such arrogance in front of him was something he expected from his old enemy Elenwen but to always end like this.
How many times he met her in arms and ended up being humiliated or so-called spared by their Elven benevolence.
He knew what they wanted and knew that they know him too well. They may be actually created him as the man he is today. Still, he can never help it.
His arrogance told him one thing and that when the time comes, he would crush every plot and plan the Elves put in his way no matter what.
Yet it always ends like this.
He never cornered them or paused as a threat.
They always let him to his devices whenever and provoke his pride more.
"Damn you!" Ulfric cussed as he picked a spear from the ground and intended to strike down those arrogantly flying Elves looking down on him.
But it was then when everything in the world stopped. Not by force but by their will.
The sky darkened, the air thinned.
The Mundus itself was angry.
'What is going on?' was on everyone's mind.
Not just on Ulfric's front as he and the Arch Wizards of the Thalmor were about to engage in another bloody conflict. It was on the third front where Wulfur was leading High King Torygg towards Saarthal, it was on the second front where the Firemanes chased off the alliance soldiers on the mammoth, it was on the first front where Alina and the others pushed back the attackers.
Alina looked to the south and her eyes opened wide as a large beam of light formed between heaven and earth.
*Tink*
*Tink*
*Tink*
A loud metallic smites of a hammer started to echo in the region and somehow the world itself reacted.
The Mundus cried hard.
It wasn't natural. It was against nature.
It was a violation of the rules.
A power beyond sense, a force beyond understanding.
Alina realized that Jon's was his own move now.
The ones who realized the nature of the change right after Alina were the High Elven Arch Wizards other than Elenwen who was of a younger generation.
Their expressions grew pale as they could tell what was that.
"Goodness! The Mundus itself, the binds of the Mundus are shaking."
"It can't be! How in the world can this happen here? Who has such power?"
"We ought to… we must stop that! Now!"
It was a phenomenon the Elves sought for through all their races and few managed to achieve such a height in the olden history.
A way not lost but unreachable.
That strong beam of energy was nothing other than a power falling from the heavens when something defies the heavenly order.
A phenomenon that can echo through the Heaven, Aetherius; the Earth, Nirn; and the Hell, Oblivion.
The Realm, Mundus, itself has many seals to stop such a phenomenon but when someone reaches a certain level of power, the Mundus retaliates for it was created to suppress that by none other than Lorkhan himself.
Whenever the [Aetherial Tribulations] appears, the world topple. Last time it was seen with the ALMSIVI, Dagoth Ur and the Nerevarine. Now it appears in Skyrim.
Just what is Jon up to?
The Nine High Elves charged towards the Beam of Light. Alina jumped off the wall. Jonrad, Tyr, Hilda and Sigurd intercepted their way. Tormund and Jenna joined. Nurina teleported to the base of the mountain.
The true Battle of Winterhold, the battle of the powerhouses was beginning.