Chapter 639 - Crisis In Solitude (2)
A/n: 13 Early Access Chapters on P4treon and MORE! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel ⬅️
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the ashes of the assassins scattered on the floor, the group walked ahead and saw the destruction that Jon caused.
"We needed to capture them alive." General Tullius said.
"You'll have plenty of opportunities." Jon replied and as he finished his words, the sound of broken glass was heard.
"Help! Killers! Help!"
A young palace maid came out from a deep hall from within the palace as she seemed to be scared of something but just as she stepped near the ground, a bolt of Magicka descended on her head from a ceiling rune and blasted it to Oblivion.
"Thane Jon! Is that…"
The scene was horrifying since a teenage girl was just shot by Jon's spell, however, when the girl's body fell on the floor, a knife slid down from her sleeve and a mask flew off her blasted head.
"A Dragon Priest Mask." Jon saw the mask and frowned.
Jon didn't notice it but when he looked at the three assassins earlier, he noticed that they have some sort of Dragon Priest mask as well.
Something's off!
The Dragon Cult has a handful of masks that indicate authority as the Priest becomes the ruler at a Dragon's behest. If that's the case then why are there four of this precious item in just one place?
Jon had to put those ideas aside for now as the palace was already swarming with assassins as the surprise strategies seemed to be a failure.
From the northern wing, almost thirty assassins showed up and the same from the southern wing.
And they all rushed in without making a single sound.
"DEFEND YOURSELVES!" Falk Firebeard put up his shield and axe ahead of him before talking on an assassin, bashing him to the ground, then planting the axe into his skull.
Brina Merilis, General Tullius, Thane Bryling, and Legate Rikke all carried swords and shields and started fighting back to back against their enemies.
Jon commanded the runes and sent out waves upon waves of flaming magical binds that held on to any random assassin and dragged them away from the allies fighting back to back.
Jon himself was exposed as he needed to focus on the spell thus he left his personal defense to 4 Frost Atronachs that covered him from all directions.
The death rate among the assassins was accelerating at an unanticipated speed and their limbs littered the ground. General Tullius alone displayed incredible martial prowess as he cut down one assassin after another in a flurry of maneuvers. The man was a textbook for dirty and strategic fighting.
Meanwhile, Legate Rikke and Thane Bryling were slicing and dicing their opponents while covering the flanks behind General Tullius and leaving Falk Firebeard and Brina Merilis to take care of the rear.
"Something is wrong with those people! They are trying to rush us with numbers." Falk Firebeard shouted.
"Focus on killing and guarding the flanks. If we become sloppy for a second, they'll break our defense." General Tullius replied.
"Incoming!" Jon shouted as he felt that a new wave of enemies entered the scene.
This time, it was no mindless chargers rushing in but rather a tactical strike with Magical Spells. Many masked Mages started teleporting in through various rifts and cast "Lightning Binds" at everyone present.
This spell would cause a chain of electricity to emerge and tie the target to the mage in a very unjust game of tug of war. The caster can just pull the target anywhere they want and the target can only physically resist.
Falk Firebeard was caught by his feet and Brina Merilis got her sword hand disarmed. Three mages managed to occupy General Tullius and the rest were struggling to keep up. As for Jon, half of the mages present were trying to hold him still but somehow, he corrupted their spells and caused it to blow up in their hands.
"You're trying to go against me with just this?" Jon sneered before vaporizing the skin and flesh of these casters with acidic spells.
And before the mages get to dominate the fight, Jon was already massacring them down one by one with his innovative magic. The moment any of them die, they would drop the masks on their faces and lie down motionless.
The clean-up process is surely going to be messy as so many dead were put down but Jon wasn't one to care for his enemies.
The last of the mages was cornered by Jon and General Tullius. The General cleanly shaved off both of the man's legs by a sneak attack as Jon rammed the man's head into a wall causing both the head and the dragon priest mask on it to shatter.
"Phew!" Jon jolted his hands to shake off the blood and brain matter off it before looking to the people around, "Everyone alive?"
"Yeah… just! This is so tiring." Falk Firebeard replied.
"Thane Bryling?"
"Just a flesh wound! I'll live." She replied.
"Good. Let's get to…" Jon wanted to get the people out of here but he was interrupted by Bryling.
"Where is Lady Sybille?" She asked.
Jon and the rest paused for a bit.
"I think she went back to her office before the attack." Legate Rikke replied.
"I'll go check on her." Jon said before turning to General Tullius, "Get those people out of here."
The General felt clearly offended as Jon felt like he was giving him an order but that was an emergency and the most capable one is clearly Jon. He just has to wait until things settle down before he can give Jon an earful.
Jon immediately moved off the throne room towards the hallway leading to Sybille's room but there, he ran into more assassins that were heading deeper inside the palace.
"Hey, boys."
Jon diverted their attention and as they turned to him, they all unsheathed their blades with frenzied eyes.
"Alright. Nice and easy, one by one… Or we can play it fair, the whole lot of you versus the whole lot of me."
The first assassin ran at Jon. Jon held the man's arm, flung him against the wall, and then shattered his spine with a knee attack. The second jumped trying to stab Jon in the face but Jon received him, rotated around the man, and planted his head to the ground to let the brain jump out as the skull exploded. The third came at Jon from the back but Jon kicked the man with a horse kick that threw him at the fourth and the fifth. The sixth was a large man so Jon launched a palm to the man's shoulder, then a punch to his nose, then a fingers-stab to the chest cavity, then grabbed the man through the ribs, a knee to the abdomen causing the garbled ribcage to deform up before launching a power punch to the heart area that caused the back of the man to deform against where he was hit from the front.
"Fatality!"
Jon advanced as he eliminated all those who came across him in close-quarter combat since the hallway was tight and it was fun.
As he reached Sybille's room, he acted like a gentleman and knocked on the door a few times.
"Lady Sybille, this is Jon Dare, I am afraid we're under attack. Will you come out, please?"
No response was heard from Sybille so he knocked once again.
"My Lady, I hope you are in decent shape." Jon then proceeded to open the door but what he saw in there made him question his sanity and close the door again, "I guess not!"
The sound of rummaging and fighting came from inside Sybille's room this time clearer than before and the voice of Sybille ran through his head.
{Help me out!}
"Oh, God!"
Jon rolled his eyes backward and opened the door again to see that two women were fighting each other with long claws and sharp fangs on a stage of blood and gore.
On one hand, there was Sybille Stentor whose clothes were all but torn and her body seemed to have undergone some hideous transformation as she stood completely naked with each limb extending a foot further from what they usually are and a skin that looked all grotesque and bloody. Her eyes were scarily focused on her enemy and her hair was messy and grizzly.
On the other hand, a pale Hag floated by with the mask of a dragon priest covering her face same as the assassins but she was very light and ethereal. The problem with becoming ethereal is that if your clothes are light and you are floating, everything will be easily seen through and Jon wasn't a fan of a Hag's body type.
"Do any of you, ladies, know what is the opposite of having a boner?" Jon said and walked in trying not to look.
The Hag didn't seem to appreciate Jon's presence but she was occupied with Sybille at the moment. He, on the other hand, was fast to notice that in this room, there were four Dremora Churls casting a barrier around Sybille which was isolating her inside.
In her Vampiric form, Sybille was trying to break the barrier from inside but the Hag would use her Ethereal form to pass through the barrier, attack Sybille, then escape the barrier again.
The problem with being ethereal is that one can't attack in that form so they have to become corporeal to attack then become ethereal again to escape. Sybille was able to attack the Hag the moment the Hag would attack her but if she tried to focus on dispelling the barrier, the Hag would take the opportunity and deliver a fatal blow.
There where Jon had to come in. Using Pride, he started to cast his spells at a rapid pace.
"Dispel! Banish! Banish! Banish! Aaaaand Banish!"
In full speed, Jon eliminated all the bothersome enemies that were hindering Sybille except for the Hag. The moment the barrier collapsed, the Hag immediately looked between Jon and Sybille then decided to retreat. As she is ethereal, she can just phase through the wall and run away.
But…
"Nope! Not this way!" Jon said as he put his hand on the wall which seemed to have imbued it with his Magicka, causing it to prevent the Hag from escaping.
The Hag tried the ceiling, the floor, the other walls, and the window but it seemed that Jon turned the tables on her. So in a final attempt of escaping, the Hag rushed at Jon attempting to either attack him or phase through.
"Venus!"
With Jon's call, a third naked figure appeared in the room. However, this one was breathtakingly beautiful and divine. The embodiment of Lust, Venus, would take the form which would stimulate anyone's feelings.
But aside from being a strong mental influence, one of the strengths Venus has is the ability to channel Jon's Energy even with its ethereal status.
In other words, Venus can attack what is ethereal as she is ethereal herself, and the punching power she delivers is like Jon punching someone in an incorporeal body.
It was safe to say that the Hag wasn't going to survive this if not for Jon keeping Lust from going overboard. Just from that blow, the Hag was put down unconscious with her mask shattered and her face completely disfigured.
Meanwhile, Sybille Stentor kept her frenzied eyes on Jon but gradually calmed down and returned to her normal form. With a flick of her fingers, she pulled the sheet of the broken bed nearby and it fashioned itself into a dress that covered her middle-aged body.
"It is called a Reverse Boner." She said, replying to Jon's first question.
"Goodness. That sounds unhealthy." Jon shivered in fear.
"Your Boner's wellbeing aside… "Hey!" … Solitude is under attack!" She said with Jon refuting her first line.
"The Dragon Cult won't back down now." Jon said, "They must have targeted you to keep information from reaching the Legion."
Sybille immediately walked past Jon to the hallway as she saw the bodies which Jon left behind.
"Are any of the Leaders hurt?" She asked.
"They are with Tullius." Jon replied.
"Then we should get some men and defend the Docks. The Cult's Army is coming from there." She revealed the Cult's movement to him.
"Useful scrying for the first time?" Jon asked.
"Even I am surprised." She replied and lifted up one of the still-living cultists before draining his blood with her fangs.
Jon and Sybille Stentor rushed towards the entrance of the palace and they were greeted with a sight not seen since the Dragon Wars.
Dragons in the sky.
Fires eating the buildings.
Warriors on the roofs shooting arrows.
And the Dragon Cult's fanatics are killing their way into the peaceful city.
"Welp… one Dragonborn coming right up!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/n: 13 Early Access Chapters on P4treon and MORE! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel ⬅️