Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter forty-five, Crypt-ick: Deceased.

-Catacombs, Flamberge-

I would one day be bigger than this minotaur Draugr! Sadly this was definitely not that day.

After it turned away from my brother, it charged me and swung. I dropped to the floor on my back while spreading my wings and blasted it with fire again.

The fire burned it for a second, before it started putting it out with a hand and several loud smacks. I rolled back onto my feet, hearing my brother’s words I took to the air and fired several blasts of fire that the minotaur draugr dodged.

It spun around and swung it’s blade at the air and I felt as if my wings were wrenched from their sockets when I was hit with a blasts of concussive that sent my sailing into the wall behind me. This kind of hit would have crippled a pegasus, good thing I’m made of sterner stuff and this was merely an inconvenience at best.

I slid from the wall to flop onto the floor groaning, with little time to think I quickly rolled to the left and the axe buried itself into the floor next to the wall.

I surged to my feet and swung several time, it easily pulled the axe from the floor and dodged my swings. I got in a decent hit on its left arm at the last second burning up a good portion of its left bicep and shoulder.

Its glowing green eyes were staring at me dispassionately as it smacked its right arm over its left to put out the fire. It wasn’t immune to fire, but it was pretty resilient as far as undead bull monsters go.

It raised its axe to swing at me from my right, the speed at which the axe moved was hard for me to comprehend as I tried to back away out of range of the charging monster’s swing.

In the midst of dodging backwards I felt an excruciating pain, no time to worry about that right now as…

The blunt end of the long axe rammed into my skull with a skull rattling force that knocked me off my feet and sent my ever burning sword clattering to the floor away from me.

Landing on my wings didn’t feel too good and neither did my head, Gene always said my head was thick enough to survive a ballista bolt. I felt like I was hit by one from that last blow as I rolled onto my stomach and turned to the Draugr raising its long axe high for a swing as it stepped forward.

As it brought its axe around for a fatal blow, I ran forward on all four limbs to roll under its downward swing. The bottom edge of the axe clipping my right shoulder as I passed beneath the blade. The injury was worth it as I went between the minotaur’s legs and was now behind it.

The less said about seeing what was under the tattered, barely existent, loin cloth was going to be in my nightmares for some time to come.

Sliding up to my sword of endless flames and taking it into my claws, I rose and quickly swung upwards into the minotaur Draugr’s left arm where I had previously burned it.

The arm severed from the Draugr and burned away in seconds, the minotaur suddenly started to struggle to pull the axe free with one arm.

After the axe got stuck in the floor and having managed to get the Draugr’s left arm off, I finally took up my sword in both claws and leapt for its back.

I dug my toes into the rotted leather of its upper back that once had supple flesh. Using my wings to balance myself, I carried my momentum forward and kicked off with my right foot.

With a mighty swing, I separated the Draugr’s thick neck from its body with one solid spinning motion.

My twirl ended, I landed on the floor and felt a twinge of pain shoot up one of my legs from my almost graceful landing. The now burning body was far less graceful than I as it fell over onto the stone floor.

I dealt the Draugr a fatal blow, but only because it refused to let go of the long axe even when it was… heh… disarmed.

A mighty warrior this minotaur must have once been to have been capable of injuring a dragon like me, were he alive I’m pretty sure he could have even killed me if he were as intelligent as this false shadow of him.

His soul finally free from its torturous prison, I wished him well in the afterlife and that he can meet his family with his head held high.

Despite my victory, I was not without my injuries. I had a deep wound in my left side that I clutched at and my right shoulder was bleeding from where that Draugr clipped me, I blew some light flames to cauterize the bleeding wound on my shoulder and then I pressed the flat of the blade in my right hand into my left side.

I hissed as I rolled the flat of my sword and its flames over the wound in my side, I had to carefully cauterize it shut instead of doing a quick flame spit like I did for my shoulder. Deeper wounds were more problematic than a shallow one.

The jagged tear in my scales would heal with time, but the scar would always be a reminder of this battle. The pain was bearable, but I was probably in need of serious medical attention or a healer.

Afterwards I rubbed at my badly bruise face and tried to sooth the pulled muscles in my right leg, I was going to be limping for a while.

“Brother, are you still among the living!” My wings were also aching, so I kept them folded at my back as I resettled my pack. That powerful blast of air from the long axe almost blew out my wings.

I stumbled towards the destroyed bridge and saw the flames of the dying torch still tied to Fortitude’s left horn there wasn’t much left of it. There was still ninety percent of the torch left when I last saw it and now it was barely nothing at all, the torch shouldn’t have burned down that quickly.

“I am fine brother!” He was, but his shield most certainly wasn’t. In the light of the tiny flame I could see wood that looked like it was starting to rot, the small metal bands were rusted beyond their time and the many arrows sticking out of it weren’t helping the damage it went through in this one encounter.

“What happened to the Draugr dragon, your shield looks like it has seen better days!” I think the claymore he held looked fine, hard to tell in this light really.

“The guardian came to my aid, I think they were trying to save me by killing me before the dragon’s eroding fog could!” What, he actually saw the guardian of the catacombs and they tried to kill him?! “Instead they cleaved the Draugr dragon in half, let us meet at the exit downstairs!”

Looking down from the bridge I saw the corpse of the dragon, it had been cut cleanly in half. It is said only a magical silver weapon can cause that kind of damage to a Draugr, such a weapon would work half as well against a living being.

I noted the purple fog was slowly fading away and is likely draining into the cesspits. Making my way to the exit, I saw my brother waiting patiently for me and he looked concerned about my wellbeing.

“How did you survive the dragon’s breathe? Your shield couldn’t have held off that fog alone and its looking a bit eroded there brother!” I asked as I limped over to him.

“You know how you and brother always make light of Fortitude’s fantastic fragrance?” Fortitude smiled a bit. “It is actually really quite fantastic as I am finding out!”

“Seriously, your stench saved your life?!” I just stared at my brother and he grinned back at me. “You know, we always said you had a fog layer unto yourself that could wake and then kill the dead in the same moment!”

“And I am glad to be proving you quite right!” He said as he took up the claymore and used it to swipe the arrows off his badly battered shield. It was still functional and wasn’t beaten yet, but it wouldn’t stay that way for much longer. “Fantastic fragrance is keeping deadly dragon’s breathe at bay, while the force of it was held back by my shield.”

“I am glad you’re alright brother Fortitude.” I patted the big lug’s side and moved for the staircase while raising the flaming sword ahead of me.

He threw his front left leg around my back and hugged me, I held the sword away from him as I didn’t want to die in a fiery explosion should his horrid smell set off a chain reaction. His smell was oddly selective about when it was highly explosive or flammable.

“I am being glad that you are fine as well brother Flamberge, we need to find a spot to rest and consume our provisions! You are not looking to fine… you are cauterizing two bad wounds.” Fortitude was right, I was a bit of a mess and the blood loss from the wound to my side and all the moving around I did afterwards was making me feel dizzy. He helped me stay off my right leg as we moved down the stairs. “Stop, I am needing new torch.”

Tossing the remains of the old one on the floor, Fortitude lit up and tied a new torch to his left horn. We continued down the stairs led by the light of my sword, we would be bringing the source of the Draugr to its end.

-???-

I waited patiently for them to arrive.

A dragon and a yak, both strong and young.

They would show me their resolve or they would go no further beyond this point.

If their resolve proves lacking, then they would not pass me here.

I would fight them to the death.

-Fortitude-

We came to a large open circular room leading into a corridor full of impaled bodies and walls full of spikes. Various Draugr limbs, bodies and even random piles of bones were impaled throughout the hallway walls lined with spikes from what we could see by torch or the flames of my brother’s ever burning sword.

Whatever mechanisms the spike traps ran on, they were most certainly broken by now what with the walls being liberally coated in Draugr bits. Many of the spikes look like they were bent in this direction from the Draugr dragon’s passing, the walls were far enough apart that we could easily walk down this corridor without fear of being impaled.

At the other end of the hallway was too lit torches and a figure standing underneath them, two red glowing orbs staring at us. The figure was unnaturally still and unmoving.

I could not make out what the guardian was at this distance, but I could make out their weapon. A gleaming silver axe, the head was large and the handle was somewhat small.

“I think we should make camp in this room, before we test the corridor and the guardian awaiting us.” I moved off to the side and sat down on the floor and pulled my supplies from my back.

The bag was slightly rotted. Upon looking inside it, the supplies were still good. We ate some of our meager amounts of food and hoped we would not be stuck down here longer than two days, dragons burned through a lot of calories and yaks needed a lot of food to stay strong in these conditions.

“Are we just going to ignore that it, whatever ‘it’ is, is just staring right at us and likely wants us dead?!” My brother is worrying too much and needs rest, I doubt the guardian actually means us ill will.

“Yes, you need rest, I will watch out for you.” Turning to my brother, I raised my brow and looked him in the eyes. “Do you trust me to protect you while you sleep?”

“Yes, what kind of question is that, always!” Even injured his voice is strong and loud, he laid down a curled up to rest his head on his tail. “It’s that thing that I don’t trust!”

Even so Flamberge had set himself up against the wall and laid his sword against it, I turned to look at the red eyes continuing to stare at us with no hint of emotion.

-Thirty minutes later-

I was sure my brother was asleep, I got up and moved towards the hallway lined with spikes and looked at the figure waiting and staring at me.

I took a deep breath and began to approach them, only I stopped to look back. My brother was still safe and sound.

I made my way back and lit up two lights above the entrance we came from, making this room before the treacherous corridor brighter. I could now look back at any time and know that my brother was safe.

Nodding, I walked towards the pair of red orbs staring at me from beneath the two torches. Upon getting closer, the being coalesced into the figure of an earth pony.

Her fur was a pristine white. Her mane and tail were not grey, but a shiny bright silver. Her eyes were unnaturally red and they looked upon me blankly as I approached, yet I did not fear them.

I still looked back to make sure my brother was okay, assured in the fact that the guardian would not strike me down at this moment.

Turning back to her, I moved slightly closer. She looked like a completely normal, average sized, pony.

“Will you protect us both if I get some rest as well?” The mare simply stared at me unblinking, it was quite unnerving and something was very unnatural about her.

I was about to ask again when I saw the faintest of movements, she tilted her head at me and then it was back upright like it had never been tilted.

She calmly nodded.

Lifting her silver axe covered in strange runes, she pointed it at a nearby bisected Draugr.

I did not know what she was other than a guardian, but I trusted that she had our best interests at heart.

Turning around, I went back to rest with my brother.

-???-

Get rest ponderous warrior, I would aid you in your time of recuperation.

After that however…

-Later, Flamberge-

“I can’t believe we’re still alive!” I muttered to fortitude as we approached those red orbs, there were now two Draugr griffons impaled upon the walls by spikes through their eyes beneath the lights.

Between them was that indistinct being still staring at us as if they had never moved, we got closer to this supposed earth pony mare.

Her visage became much clearer to me as we approached, it wasn’t as Fortitude had described her at all.

She was not a beautiful maiden, she was something else entirely.

“Fortitude… that’s not an immortal maiden…” I stared at the fleshless skull with glowing red orbs hovering in the eye sockets. “It’s a skeleton!”

The pony skeleton brandished her axe.

Author's Note:

There's the reason why 'The Guardian' was not affected by the Draugr Dragon's rot breathe.

Comments

[WARGAMES]

I don’t get it is this morrowind?

[Booster Spice]

With all the high level Draugr, the source is Overlord?

I mean, this Guardian doesnt want the source to be cleansed, otherwise why waste the partys resources beforehand, should be helping, unless they are controlled too close?