Chapter 343 - The Four Disasters Of The Battle Of Kolskeggr Bridge
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"YOL TOOR SHUL!" (Fire, Inferno, Sun)
Jon's shout echoed once again in the Reach. He was saving the Shout for this kind of situation.
The Forsworn could be in no worse position. Going through a mine tunnel which went straight in, Jon standing on the end and shouted the [Fire Breath] Shout at them, the Forsworn having no way to avoid the destructive force of the Thu'um in their straight line formation.
It was just a spectacle.
Jon's [Fire Breath] killed everyone inside the tunnel rendering them to ash.
In the heart of the formation was Alaric. Half of the Forsworn were ahead of him and the other half was behind him. He was about to step into the cave once Jon shouted but his aid was there for him. The man pushed him from harm's way and took the Shout head-on in Alaric's stead.
"NOO!"
"Hahahaha!"
Jon's frenzied laugh and Alaric's mournful cry overlapped. Jon was happy to see those savages burn and Alaric was heartbroken for his people.
Alaric looked at the mine with anger while holding [Bloodskal], he was going to make sure that this Nord never shouts again after this time.
The Forsworn knew the fatal weakness of the Thu'um, its long cooldown duration. If the Nord can shout now then the Hag's curse was broken but that Nord should be still weakened. The Soul Shackling Vines are not anything a Mortal can get rid of.
'Now is the time!'
Alaric jumped towards the cave but just an inch away from turning into the tunnel, it happened again.
"FUS RO DAH!" (Force, Balance, Push)
Another shout was unleashed just a few seconds after the first.
Alaric survived by a hair's width as the shout's effect stormed through the mine's entrance and attacked the group of Forsworn that was trying to group behind Alaric.
"Impossible!"
Alaric was shocked senseless as he fell on his ass while trying to back away.
Two shouts at the same minute. No, with only a few seconds apart!
"That's shouldn't be real!"
Alaric thought he witnessed the impossible when he fought Jon for the first time. Jon first shouted Grosh away then shouted fire at the Leshen but there was considerable time between the shouts. Not a few seconds.
"COME! ALL OF YOU!"
This was not the time to hold back anymore. Alaric needed everyone and everything he got.
From the hills around the mine, a Horde of Forsworn appeared. They were as large as the horde that came to hunt Wulfur once. This time, they were sure that Jon is weakened. Their informant in Markarth has found Jon and was keeping an eye on him. This was the right time to strike the weakened beast but it seems that the beast was saving up his strength too.
This is going to be tough, Alaric has no idea what a cornered cat like Jon can do. He needed to use all the Force he has to get done with it and kill that Nord.
Both Jon and Alaric had the same idea in their head. Under Aetherius on Nirn, only one of them can live. Their people are forever enemies and between them is bad blood that can never be resolved.
The Forsworn were all waiting for a single silhouette of Jon to appear but before they know it, the man himself was standing in front of the mine's entrance with blood covering him.
"SHOOT EVERYTHING!" Alaric shouted.
Arrows, stones, rocks, spears, javelins, flame, frost, lightning and even poison bombs. A barrage of projectiles and spells targeted Jon. No one can survive that.
"VEN GAAR NOS!" (Wind, Unleash, Strike)
A third shout echoed in the Reach.
Three shouts thus far!
A Cyclone of wind formed in front of Jon. It enveloped everything ahead of him. All the arrows, spells and bombs were swallowed by that Cyclone that didn't stand in its place but advanced towards the Forsworn.
Chaos and panic took over. All the spells were negated by the Wind Element which can suppress any other element and all the projectile were deflected by the force of the Cyclone. The Cyclone carved a bloody line in the lines of the Forsworn but not only that, all the projectiles that targeted Jon started flying randomly along with people and limbs.
It was a disaster. A man can cause a tornado to happen.
What are the chances against such a thing?
The Forsworn knew this was not the time to retreat.
"ATTACK BEFORE HE SHOUTS!" Someone cried.
The Forsworn couldn't wait any longer. A few Briarheart Warriors led the charge at Jon but he was waiting for them with a grin. He was already preparing for the next shout.
"GOL VUS MOTAAD!" (Earth, Nirn, Quake)
The chargers heard the words and so did Nirn itself. A sense of disaster struck everything around Jon and the creatures started to escape. All the birds in a mile around Jon abandoned their nest and escaped away.
The Forsworn were on the wrong end of the cannon and the center of the disaster.
The Earth beneath their feet shook. No, it moved like water.
It was an Earthquake. A small scale but a real one.
Stalagmites came from the ground and skewered the unlucky ones, the Earth started to swallow and entomb others, the luckiest ones fill on the ground and lost the sense of the world enduring the weight of their comrades falling on them.
The shouts from a while ago where nothing compared to this [Earthquake] shout and the [Cyclone]. These were disasters.
An idea came into the head of one of the Forsworn and it spread like a plague.
"Run… RUN!"
Despite the turmoil, he stood up and ran away yet failing to find a proper foothold, he would fall only to stand up again and repeat.
"No no no, you are not running."
Jon didn't like what he saw.
The mayhem can't end here, he wasn't satisfied yet.
For a month, he was waiting for the day when the Forsworn come to find him. He'd always go out and wreak havoc trying to kill as many as he can while looking for a clue but this is not enough yet. The few hundred Forsworn ahead of him are not enough to satisfy his bloodlust.
The past month he meditated very hard not to Cultivate Essence Energy but to prepare for when he can use the Thu'um once again. He created a few new shouts by all the knowledge he accumulated all those years.
He was still not done. Another shout was on the tip of his tongue.
"STRUN BAH QO!" (Storm, Wrath, Lightning)
The Forsworn heard one more shout and their hearts sank. The sky above them darkened and the clouds moved in a very weird motion.
*Rumble* *Rumble* *Rain*
This was just too much already.
First was the Wind, second was the Earth, and now the Sky itself pouring Lightning on them.
*Crackle* *Rumble* *Crackle*
"NO!"
"HELP!"
"PRINCE! HELP US!"
The Forsworn kept retreating and dying. Alaric was being dragged by his men and saw how the scene unfold.
He was crying tears of blood for the people that were getting killed.
It was too much! As the leader of his people, this was too much to bear!
"UNFORGIVABLE! NORD, THE GODS WON'T LET HAVE PEACE FOR THIS!"
Jon, who was watching the scene was a wide sadistic smile, heard Alaric.
"My name is Jon Dare. Remember it as it is the name of the man who will eradicate your kind." Jon replied at the far away Alaric.
The Men dragging Alaric away reached the road and started to cross the Karth River to escape from Jon. Alaric was reluctant to withdraw but he had no choice.
The horde of hundreds that came after Jon got ravaged by him alone. A single man putting down an army with his voice.
Who can stop that?
Alaric now lost two hordes to Jon. One at the day Jon was captured and he lost 80% of his men going after Jon here in Kolskeggr Crossing.
The lightning from the sky kept hunting down the men on a slow rate but kept eating away their morale like a black hole.
Still, Jon was not satisfied.
He wanted Alaric!
Jon chased after the retreating remnants of the Forsworn horde as they were crossing the bridge and a demonic idea came to his mind. A shout that he learned from his mother Hilda, the shout his clansmen learn.
"LOM RIIN KRAN!" (Water, Wave, Tide)
The world rumbled once again. This time, it was not the Wind, not the Earth or the Lightning of the Sky. This time, it was the water, the very River, the Water Under the Bridge no one ever thought to face.
Karth River moved as if it was a living being and rose for the call of Jon. The water retreated back for a short while then charged forward at the bridge in a sight that no one ever saw.
The fourth disaster struck.
The old stone bridge was washed clean. All the Forsworn that were running for their lives got annihilated.
Not entirely every Forsworn.
The few that survived were clinging to life on the bank of the River.
Alaric miraculously survived for the sixth time this day.
"The damn cockroach!" Jon was stupefied of the heavenly luck that Forsworn possessed.
He was about to step forward but he felt something and halted his steps.
Alaric dragged his body up and saw Jon on the other side of the river standing there looking at him.
*Rain* *Rain*
The blowing of the cold wind, the thudding of the falling rocks, the crackling of the storm and dripping of the raindrops, the flowing of the river. The very world itself started to scare Alaric.
He was terrified.
The one he was up against is not the one he faced before. He thought by killing that Nord called Jon, he can be qualified to kill the enemy of his people, Ulfric Stormcloak. But Just now, Alaric realized that Ulfric is not even a threat compared to the dragon whose reverse scale was touched.
There was one thing he can do.
Turn his tail and run. There is no surviving for him and his people if they are found.
'Run!' He shouted to his body and it did follow his will.
He ran without looking back.
On the other side of the river, Jon was still frozen.
(You fucking idiot!) Shadow was cursing at him yet he had no power to even reply in his mind.
The vines around his body assaulted him with all its might.
Jon used his Essence Energy to stimulate his Thu'um and be able to Shout faster than even his usual.
This was a mistake.
*Puke!*
Jon, who exhausted himself, started puking blood and fell on the ground powerlessly while holding his guts in pain.
He finally got a taste of the power he used to wield before but his reckless action backfired on him.
He will survive but he needs time to recover. No! He needs a real cure for this thing around him. He always rejected a certain solution in his mind but this was unbearable.
He needs his power back and whatever the cost, he will do it. Jon dragged his body up and started walking back to Markarth where things should have gone in a certain way a long time ago.
Still, one thing was clear.
The whole Reach heard those shouts and only one person in Skyrim under High Hrothgar can shout like that.
Jon Dare's voice reached not only the Reach but echoed around Skyrim. The Battle of Kolskeggr Bridge and the Four Disasters that Jon conjured are merely the ringing bell marking the beginning of the chaos.