NOVEL NEXT Chapter 134: Chapter 134
Varrus was basking in the midday sun, enjoying the cool breeze, the love of his wife, and the sight of two Orcs trying to murder one another. In the background his mother was busy closing the tears into Oblivion caused by Murozond, and the massive pool of mana that was the Sunwell shimmered peacefully nearby.
He felt like some ancient Roman emperor watching a gladiatorial fight between ancient Heroes. The only thing missing was a snack, like some grapes, or something savory.
Varrus ran a hand through Syra's hair, and smiled. However, his smile was quick to turn into a flat line as he heard that damned Daedra masquerading as a deranged Scotsman once again.
"Aye laddie, are ya just gon'ta sit 'round fondlin your wife? I offer you cheese, free cheese in good faith, and ya spit on my dignity, and my honor as a guest! Tsk. Tsk. Ya shouldn't ah done that laddie." Sheogorath's voice chided from one of the portals.
A second later, a massive, familiar pale form pushed its way out of one of the Oblivion gates.
It was a creature familiar to everyone who had played the game: Elder Scroll Oblivion.
It was the creature responsible for guarding the entrance to the Shivering Isles.
The Gatekeeper.
A being crafted from the flesh of Sheogorath's fallen foes, it served as a nearly insurmountable enemy in the game, and was only weak to weapons crafted from its own bones, and the tears of its mother.
Otherwise, it should have an incredibly tough exterior, and very fast regenerative properties.
As it dropped down from its portal, Varrus tried to get a read on it with his Mana Sight, to determine if it was Hero, or Demigod tier. Yet no matter how he strained his eyes, he couldn't place how powerful the thing was.
Syra didn't care about such things, and jumped up to meet the Gatekeeper as it fell. She was so quick, her figure darted past his defense, and the slab of metal she called a sword swung into the creature's chest.
An explosion of Holy Void energy followed up the slice, creating a vast golden-purple explosion.
However, the Daedric monster remained unharmed, and barely shifted in place from Syra's strike.
Instead, it roared, and reached down with its sword-arm to pierce her through the chest.
Syra parried aside the blade, and was pushed back by an incredible force. She was sent flying towards the ground, and Varrus thought he would have to make a Drop Zone to catch her. However, a pair of translucent energy wings spread from her back, and she halted her rapid descent with a flap of her wings.
Seeing this, Varrus sighed in relief. He then turned his attention back to the 10ft tall, eyeless, pale monster falling down right on top of him.
Blinking to the side right when its legs were about to collide with the crown of his head, Varrus wanted to test just how durable this thing was.
He started things off with his number one single target spell, Apocalypse.
Casting the master tier Destruction spell with the 300% power boost, Varrus dropped a jet of flames, ice, and electricity on top of the Gatekeeper from all directions.
A loud cacophony of light and explosions tickled Varrus's senses as he dropped the spell two more times.
It was such a strong outburst of energy, Varrus had to shade his eyes.
"Damn it's tough." Varrus felt his eyebrow twitch as he saw the Gatekeeper walk out of the spell's radius like it was nothing.
This creature was so calm and composed, it reminded Varrus of a machine, like the terminator tanking a hail of bullets.
It seemed to ignore him, as if he were no more important than a particularly annoying fly to be swatted at, yet not chased after.
The Gatekeeper advanced in a direction opposite him, as it had another destination in mind.
'The Sunwell!' Varrus internally shouted and panicked when he saw where it was going.
Could this thing be trying to use the vast pool of energy to summon Sheogorath onto Azeroth?!
At its current pace, it would reach the font of nearly unlimited power within 10 minutes!
Cursing to himself, Varrus shouted the words to Slow Time, and started throwing out dozens of Raise Wall in front of the Gatekeeper to stall as he desperately came up with a plan.
'Syra couldn't even leave a scratch, and one of my most powerful spells was about as effective at harming the Gatekeeper as water pouring from a shower head. What else, what else?' Varrus panicked as he searched his spell and perk library.
The beast took about three seconds to break each wall in its path. Additionally, Syra wasn't trying to match strength with strength, and was harrying the beast as best she could.
Varrus saw that she was hitting it at the joints on the back of the knee repeatedly with super fast strikes. A line had appeared, and the Gatekeeper was already starting to stumble. However, its rapid regeneration was making her task of cutting off its leg almost impossible. At most, she had added 2 minutes to its descent towards the Sunwell.
Varrus felt an unexpected sense of urgency grip his heart. He had fought against the big bad Dragon, what was this bonus boss battle doing here at the end of his marathon sprint?!
Feeling exasperated, he went through his list of abilities in a frenzied hurry. Whilst doing so, it struck him.
Bound Weapons.
He had a whole host of anti-Daedric perks in the Conjuration tree that he never had a use for until today!
In fact, he had four perks that might just help him defeat this pale monstrosity!
Mystic Binding - Bound Weapon spells now summon Mystic Weapons which deal more damage.
Hollow Binding - Bound weapons cut through flesh and spirit, reducing magic resistance by 30% for 5 seconds.
Rend From This World - Bound weapons banish conjured Daedra, turn reanimated undead and deal 100 extra damage to non-conjured Daedra.
Covenant of Coldharbour - Hollow Binding reduces magic resistance by an additional 30% if you control a summoned Daedra or other non-undead minion.
A mad plan began to form in his mind, and he cast all the supporting buffs he had from the Illusion tree, adding to his crit chance, and weapon damage. Thanks to the 300% boost to spells that the Sunwell granted when he was within proximity of it, the normal boost of 125% had now become a 425% damage modifier on all of his weapons.
He then cast Conjure Bow.
Purple light flashed, and an ethereal, Mystic Bow appeared out of a portal. Gripping it in his hand, Varrus took a second to admire it, then he cloaked himself in Shroudwalk, turning himself invisible.
Crouching down, and seeing that his stealth meter indicated he was completely hidden, Varrus took a deep breath, and took aim.
His Archery skill, which he had trained way back for the Vandercross gala, was sitting at 85, whilst his Sneak was at 100.
A whole host of perks activated as his vision zoomed in on the target, and time slowed.
Out of all the Archery abilities, one was worth mentioning above all others: Hawkeye.
Hawkeye - Grants the "Hawkeye" power. Once a day, slow time and focus on your foes for 10 seconds, looking for opportunities for a killing shot. Finding their vulnerability takes 1 second per 125 Health. Once you do, you may shoot them for an instant kill.
Focusing for 10 seconds in a state of slowed time, Varrus saw little pinpoints light up on the Gatekeeper where its weak spots were.
Unfortunately, it seemed to have more than 1,500 hp, meaning he couldn't go for the instant kill. However, the fact that it had weak points at all was encouraging!
Once the 10 seconds had passed, and he released his arrows, the perks activated, and his damage boost was a total of 600%, each and every hit a critical strike thanks to the effects of Hawkeye.
In fact, the multiple perks affected his draw speed as well, and thanks to the slowed time, and his enhanced low-tier Heroic speed, he was able to launch dozens of pale-blue, ethereal arrows in those 10 seconds.
The air whooshed, and the fabric of reality seemed to bend sideways. Any small Oblivion gates that they passed by instantly closed, and the state of the plane returned to a state of stability when they moved by.
Moving with the swiftness of speeding bullets, they were no match for Syra's speed, but when aimed at a target that had its back turned, they proved sufficient.
As a result of the Daedra's ignorance, every arrow hit its mark.
One moment, the Gatekeeper was swatting at Syra like a gnat, and clobbering its way through piles of stone. The next, it was shredded into a pile of meat paste as the swarm of arrows tore it asunder.
Breaking his invisibility, Varrus looked down at his bow in wonder. It seemed that no matter how far a Skyrim player deviated, he would always return to the stealth-archer build.
Marveling at the destruction, Varrus figured if he ever got his hands on adamantium, he would have to make himself a bow. While he still thought magic was the way, he couldn't deny the effectiveness of a good old-fashioned stealth kill.
"Cheater! You angered the wrong God, laddie! I told you Haskill, they need to face something tougher, like peanut butter and marmalade!" Sheogorath's voice sounded from one of the few remaining portals.
"But sir, the gates aren't wide enough, forcing them any more, and you'll enter a weakened state!" Haskill entreated.
"So be it, my faithful servant. So be it! The only one who disrespects me, is me! And if I can't even stand me, then who are they to disrespect me, the Mad God!" The sound of Sheogorath slamming his throne resounded.
Varrus, however, was ignoring all of this, and didn't want to suffer a single second longer interacting with this annoyance.
Aiming his bow, he shot a swarm of arrows at each and every tear in reality. The bigger the hole, the more arrows it required, but that didn't concern Varrus as he had crafted thousands of arrows for his troops, and like any good Skyrim player, had a large stockpile in his inventory.
Oblivion gate after Oblivion gate closed, until only one remained.
Right when he was about to close it, a peanut butter sandwich was about to fly out. Unlike the Gatekeeper, Varrus could see the mana radiating off of it, and he wanted no part in fighting some demented sandwich!
"Fucking Mad God." Varrus muttered to himself.
He then copied one of the only bow spells he had learnt from Lor'Themar, the Arcane Arrow, and channeled all his mana into one, overwhelming shot.
The 300% boost to spells from the Sunwell took effect, and his arrow collided with the sandwich monster as it was about to enter Azeroth.
His attack exploded on impact, and severed the portal as the monster was mid summon, cutting it in half.
Varrus felt surreal as half of a lifeless, half eaten sandwich with bite marks dropped to his feet.
"Let's this be a reward for your hard efforts, and entertainment. I can't wait to kill you next time!" Sheogorath's cheerful voice sounded from the last portal before it closed forever.
"My reward is a sandwich? Not even the Wabbajack or something cool?" Varrus muttered to himself, unimpressed.
Placing the item in his inventory, Varrus read the item's description.
[Sandwich of the Mad God: Contains a Daedric Prince's salivary essence. Consume: ???]
'Yeah, never eating that. Although who knew when a Daedric Prince's essence could come in handy?' Varrus thought to himself.
"Varrus!" Syra shouted his name, and collided with his chest like a cannonball.
"Varrus! Varrus! Varrus!" Syra repeated his name, and grabbed him by the forearms with the strength of a gorilla.
"No, you can't have the sandwich." Varrus joked.
Syra rolled her eyes, and planted a wet kiss on his lips to stifle anymore smarmy replies.
Varrus held his wife, and soothingly stroked her hair. "It's alright, I'm not going anywhere."
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Nightsong drawing the scene on a pad of paper. He smiled at her and shifted his eyes at her in the universal 'we should talk later' motion. Varrus had a lot of questions for her, about her past, and about her unique brand of magic!
While he exchanged a look with her, he also saw Rho'dan coming down over the hill with a prisoner in hand. It would seem his erstwhile bodyguard had been successful.
Very nice.
Blowing a strand of hair out of the way, Varrus allowed himself a grin, and looked up towards the sky.
'Please no more surprises for today. Just let me enjoy the win.' Varrus silently prayed as he enjoyed the gentle breeze, and the sound of the Sunwell's pool of water shifting lazily like a slow moving river or pond.
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AN: Read up to chapter 164 (that's 30 ch ahead) at: patreon.com/KarpQQ