Chapter 640 - Crisis In Solitude (3)
A/n: 13 Early Access Chapters on P4treon and MORE! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel ⬅️
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I have noticed that the comment and vote rate has dropped to a new low despite the fanfiction's all-time popularity as the second most followed book. Despite the effort, I hope you guys consider more voting even though I can't push more chapters as in the past. Some motivation may be just what I need.
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The Dragons attacked Solitude for the first time and in a very organized manner compared to what Jon ever expected.
"Didn't you say the attack would come from the Dock?" Jon asked Sybille.
"This is just the beginning. They have a small army down there." She replied.
"Fuck! I'll secure the Spiral Stairs. The Dragonborn will be here shortly." Jon said and charged into the city.
The guards could hold half of the city to the area where the market was but it seemed that the Cultists had rigged the place with magical traps and explosives.
Jon hunted a few cultists on the way so when he reached the market square, he was anticipated by the cultists holding the line of fire over there.
"Thane Jon."
"Thane Bryling."
Jon met with Thane Bryling who was leading the defense over that area.
"Can you deal with that Magic?" She asked.
"I can. But you need to leave the men and evacuate the people to the castle." Jon said.
"The other guards can." She said as she was eager to fight.
"No. It has to be you." Jon insisted and turned to the guards' captain, "Aldis, make sure to keep up."
"Yes, Thane Jon."
Jon immediately headed out of cover with a big ward being cast by his left hand that withstood all the magical attacks shot at him. With his right, he fried at the cultists with bolts of fire and lightning that devastated their lines. Behind him, the guards rushed out and cleaned up the remaining resistance.
Jon led the rush towards the city gate until he ran into the Imperial Guards holding the walls.
"General Tullius." Jon called.
"Thane Jon, you better tell me the Dragonborn is here." The General shouted back.
"The Dragonborn Comes… in a minute or so."
"Good. Those Dragons aren't attacking anyone on the ground but those on the walls, they snatch them easily. We need to hold on to the skirmish against the cultists down there or else the wall may be breached."
"Just get your men from the nearby posts here and hold the gates." Jon said, "Also, Sybille said that the main cult's force is landing by the Dockyard. I think it is already under their control."
"This is a goddamn siege. We're barely able to hold the gate." The General turned furious.
"I'll hold the Spiral Stairs leading to the dock and will try to bring some of my people to the situation here." Jon said.
"Godspeed, Thane Jon." General Tullius replied.
The political rivals from a minute ago are now holding the line together against a mutual enemy. Jon's plan may have diverged too far from its original course with the Dragon Cult involving itself but this situation solves many more problems all at the same time.
He was always worried about why the Dragons were laying low after the last open clash with the Dragon Cult but it seemed that they were focusing their attention on reigniting the war.
Somehow and despite all, it is a relief they were doing just that.
Either way, Jon had to focus on the siege battle and make sure things wouldn't get messed up. For that, he needed his Chief Strategist to be present in this place.
He immediately found a quiet place and took out an Enchanted Light Tablet from his Storage Cube. By using some of the spells stored on it, he managed to contact Alina.
Back in Winterhold's Saarthal, Alina was watching the city through the clear glass from the top of the Dare Tower as she submerged herself lazily in a hot tub.
She had a wine glass in her hand and was moaning slowly and breathing heavily as she touched her bare and bountiful chest.
She sensed Jon's signal and immediately projected it on the glass window with her staff.
"Hey, babe." (Jon)
"Hey." (Alina)
"What're you doing in there? It looks sexy."
"Just relaxing while you are away, babe."
"Awe! If the city here wasn't on fire, I would have thought this is me feeling horny."
"Well… you do you, hubby. I miss you so dearly, you know."
"I miss you so very much, babe. It is just the situation here in Solitude is… sheesh! I would really use your help right now."
"Okay. What's wrong with that burning house by the way? Wait! Is that a fight?" She asked as she looked closely at the glass.
"Ah!" Jon looked away for a second then sent Pride to kill the cultists and extinguish the fire before looking back, "Solved!"
"Looks like you don't need my help!" Alina smiled as she kept sipping her wine.
"Solitude's under siege." Jon said.
"WHAT?"
The one who said that just now was not Alina but someone who jumped out of the bathtub with a face that was probably submerged between Alina's thighs.
"Rude girl! Get back down there." Alina was immediately triggered at that girl and held her from her hair.
"Oh, hey. How are you fitting in the tower, Vittoria?" Jon greeted the latest resident in his house, Vittoria Vici.
"I am fine. Just…" Vittoria got her hair free from Alina's hands, "Just what is happening in Solitude? The Stormcloaks are attacking?"
"Nope. The Dragon Cult is. It seems your bloody wedding attracted all sorts of weirdos." Jon replied.
"So, how is the situation?" Alina managed to get a grip on Vittoria's nape and dragged her back next to her.
The two naked and beautiful women formed an image of extreme seduction which Jon resisted with a deep breath.
"The Cult attacked with Assassin and disturbed the surveillance of Sybille Stentor. After that, three Dragons appeared and alongside the Cultists, they started terrorizing the city with chaotic attacks to diverge the attention of the defenders as their main war band enters from the dock's spiral stairs." Jon said.
"Hmmm… alright…" Alina thought for a second, "Get the people to safety."
"Working on it."
"Don't let them all gather in one place. Use the castle, the temple, the palace, and the taverns as refugee centers. The Dragons are too proud to attack separate targets of small groups for too long. If you gather all the people in one place, they will get annihilated."
"Shit! Gotta hurry then."
"What you need to worry about is the secret phase of their plan. They made both their attack forces obvious. They should be doing something more sinister if they're acting so brazenly. In any case, no army can fully take control of Solitude before the Imperial Legion retreating through the Dragonbridge front and destroying them."
"So?"
"Use a variable they didn't account for, throw a wrench in their plans, crush their illusions and make their true intentions come to the surface. Can you hunt the Cult's Warband by yourself?"
"If I attack them, they'll run everywhere and it will be tiresome. Also, the Dragons would notice me. I need the Dare Corps on this one." Jon said.
"They are a few hundred miles away. Make your own Dare Corps." Alina said.
"I can't just… wait? Necromancy? Inside a City during a defense battle?" Jon said as his voice went down.
"What? You don't Dare?" Alina asked with a smirk on her face.
"Woman…" Jon stopped smiling, "You're really looking forward to that analysis experience, aren't you?"
"Hard pass!" Alina crossed her hands.
"Damn right, it's hard." Jon sneered but an idea clouded his judgement, "Can I just forget about Solitude and come home? You two look so damn peachy."
"Calm down, big boy." Alina replied seductively, "Don't forget what's at stake here."
"Blue balls?"
"Blue Skyrim." Alina said, "If the Dragon Cult is reigniting the Civil War by weakening one side, they are surely strengthening the other side."
"Tsk…"
"I'll send some people to investigate the Stormcloak army. I will see if I can teleport to Solitude with a force as well." Alina said and held Vittoria from her hair, directing her down, "Meanwhile, sit tight and survive the blue balls…"
"You're being ruthless."
"And you love me for it."
"Goddamn, I do."
"Bye Jon." (Vittoria waving)
"Bye Vittoria." (Jon waving)
Jon hung up the spell and put the tablet away. Sighing in his heart, he cracked all his joints and headed towards the spiral stairs leading down to the docks.
"Long night ahead."
***
If not for the efforts of the Legion Guards and the EEC Agents holding up in the East Empire storehouse under Solitude, the plan of the Dragon Cult wouldn't have been delayed like this.
The leader of the attack, Bites-on-Bones, the Argonian Dragon Cultist who venerates the great dragon Lotsovengein, stood in awe as he witnessed Solitude for the first time.
A city standing on a lying stone, isn't this just poetic?
Long ago, he witnessed the fall of the City of Vivec when the floating meteorite shattered it to Oblivion. There was also that floating city of Umbriel that terrorized the world a few decades ago.
Marvels just don't end in this world and Solitude is going to join those two marvels very soon.
But they had to breach that warehouse first in order for such a dream to come true.
"Lord Nahlot passed on the will of the great dragons to me. Tonight and before tomorrow's sun rises, the Great Cult shall offer Lord Alduin a city in ruin. ATTACK!" The Argonian shouted as he watched the cult's fanatics put their hearts into ramming down the gate of the warehouse.
Of course this wasn't just the followers of the Secret Dragon Horde. These warmonger fanatics were the followers of the War Dragon Horde and their Dragon Lord, Kungosvern.
A couple of years ago, these fanatics clashed with a famous Nord Warlord known as Jon Dare who killed their King and annihilated their forces. They were chased off their ancestral land and forced on the top of the mountains near Orsinium. If not for the Dragon that found them last year, these men wouldn't have made it back to Skyrim.
The Dragon Cult was built on the shoulders of many former Forsworn, Orcs, Pirates, and many Ruined Clans. That's what gathered this mighty Warband here under Solitude.
"Commander! Commander Bites-on-Bones! A large Werewolf is attacking our men." A cultist scout came towards Bites-on-Bones crying out loud.
"A Werewolf? Where?"
"On the side entrance to the city!"
The side entrance to the city, also known as the Spiral Stairs, the ones that lead up into the market of Solitude.
It is mainly used for resupply under a strict Imperial watch but a cultist unit attacked it in order to secure entry to the city to loot and pillage the city once they are done with their main objective in the warehouse. This unit is different from the one that is keeping the guards busy at the main city gate.
"Take a hundred men and slay that monster." The Argonian commander said angrily.
The moment he finished his words, his eyes followed the trail of a man flying in the sky. The man was a brute and seemed like a very strong warrior but something was wrong with him.
Men don't usually fly but when they do, they aren't that good at landing.
That man descended in the middle of the crowd with a terrifying sound indicating that his fall wasn't peaceful.
"Commander. That's… Ivan." The scout recognized the man who fell.
All those who were pushing against the warehouse saw the man that fell and looked in his direction. He obviously fell amongst them and crushed five combatants under him but as he was seen, those dead under him looked pretty much better than him.
He was literally torn from guts to the bone in a horrific manner then seemed as if it was fused together back as if the tissues were mutating.
Then…
*ROAAAAAR*
A deep roar of a beast that felt like carrying the stench of thousands of graves.
The cultists looked up and saw a werewolf that has no fur or skin but rather an abomination of walking flesh into the shape of a werewolf. Its roar made both the living and the dead shiver and the dead cultists and guards started to be filled with Necromantic power.
But what was more terrifying was the Shadowy Wolves that gathered around the Werewolf. Though few in number, they were the thing of nightmares.
The werewolf tore out a man's head with its mouth and some of its flesh seeped into the headless corpse.
They were all thinking about what kind of goddamn horror Oblivion would just decide to release on them but no one knew that Oblivion doesn't have that much creativity with its spawns.
That was Jon wearing Gluttony, Wrath using its undead authority, and Nefertiti summoning Shadow Atronachs to add numbers.
It was a small makeshift defense force but was enough to buy time. Until the Dragon Cult is put off its momentum, Jon has just something in store for them all.
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A/n: 13 Early Access Chapters on P4treon and MORE! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel ⬅️