I didn't resort to she` hai or the thu'um even with the situation like this because otherwise this fight served no purpose. Yngol's shade was strong sure but nothing so threatening that I absolutely needed either of those powers. I was also not in a hurry to finish the fight either and chose instead to handicap myself slightly in order to truly make the most of the experience. That said there was in fact a pretty solid threat of death here. The fact the shade was wielding an ebony blade made this true.-
Ancient and unused or not ebony was among the highest mortal metals ever made into weaponry. The metal was formed when literal blood from a god was spilt and crystalized. It was BARELY considered a mortal metal because it didn't really hold any of the innate power of a metal beyond mortal means. No extra magic, no unique phenomena, nothing but dead metal. Weapons made of the stuff also didn't corrode or break unless used against other ebony or higher weaponry. What this meant was while the shade was swinging that blade with pure instinct the blade itself was still a massively dangerous thing to be on the receiving end of.-
My own blade was basically cleaved through in a single clash from being just that far below the black blades quality. When the blade struck the stone pillar that I dodged away from it barely even slowed down. It left a smooth slash in the stones face. Aela sent another two arrows into the shade that finally annoyed it enough that it chose to change it's target. The woman was no slouch in the martial field either and kept a healthy distance between her and that black blade after seeing my own almost get cut through. -
Her kiting only infuriated the shade more though as it roared and chased her. I used the opportunity to finish healing myself and grimaced as I looked at my blades state. In the middle of it was a deep triangular gap going all the way to the spine of the blade that started at it's center. I was pretty sure it was only due to the sheer density of my blade and it having took the properties of all those metals I'd fed it so far that it wasn't flat out cleaved through in that initial clash. -
I knew it wouldn't be much use in this fight and chose to send it back into my soul lest I find out what happens if it is actually broken into two pieces. I clenched my right hand and opened it as I cast a spell that I learned but frankly didn't thing I'd be getting much use out of [bound sword]. a bright purple glow illuminated the chamber as a rip in space opened and a ghostly purple transparent blade appeared in my grip. The blade was curved and single edged with serrations on it that made it clear it was made to hurt when it cut.-
The spell was not exactly unique but what it did was fairly interesting as it had a reason for working the way it did. See spell both did and didn't summon and actual weapon. How this worked was that the weapon summoned was a sort of "echo" of the real weapon. The details of how that worked I couldn't tell you because no one knew but that was the way of it. The echoed weapon in this case was one that could match ebony, a daedric blade. -
Daedric weapons were both highly coveted and feared because of a single reason, they could only be made by trapping daedric essence within the metal. In the game when crafting daedric items the player would use a daedra's heart for this process. There was a lore reason for this, the hearts of daedra were sources dense in the essence of the ones they were taken from. Using a heart provided this essence to be infused into the metal but came with the unfortunate downside of thoroughly enraging the daedra it belongs to for one simple reason, it caused them massive amounts of pain.-
And of course it would since they were basically beings of pure essence and thus when you used their hearts you literally ripped out a chunk of it. Not lethal since they were immortal but painful in ways that are next to impossible to describe. With the echo blade in hand and my wound healed I charged over to the shade that was busy trying to murder the slippery loach that was Aela. I didn't hold back at all and used both hands to cleave down my ghostly blade as the shade tried to block with a weak single handed block. -
There was no way that a single hand was stopping a swing of mine with both hands though and the black blade only slowed my blade down a little before the sheer force pressed my blades tip into the spectral shoulder of the shades armor and rent out a gouge. Not a grievous wound for a shade but I wasn't aiming for one. the force of the attack pushed the shade off balance and into a wild stumble backwards. Before it could try to recover I twist my wrist and stabbed out at the knee joint of the shade.-
My ghostly blade pierced through the spectral hide between metal pieces and sank into the flesh and then bone of the shades leg. With a vicious spartan kick to the chest I ripped out the reverse barbed blade taking that leg off entirely. The shade screamed in rage and agony from being crippled but Aela didn't hesitate to put an end it that with three rapid arrows sent through the eyes and mouth of the shade.-
"You alright?" she asked eyeing the blood soaked hole in my shirt.
I took off the now ruined fabric item and tossed it to the side.
"I fixed the damage but still need to reinforce the scar tissue to prevent a weak point in my defenses from appearing." I said rubbing the nasty looking scar.
"About that. Why did your skin spark when the blade went to stab you?" she asked with a frown.
"Perks of being soul bound with a draconic hybrid. My skin that was already like hard leather is now nearly as tough as iron. Getting stabbed was literally like striking an iron block." I explained honestly.
"I almost feel bad for anyone who fights you without something like this." she said as she picked up the black blade that had fallen to the ground once the shade was defeated and vanished.
"To be honest I only got hurt by that damned shade because I was careless. I have no experience fighting someone with an ebony weapon and didn't realize the stuff could cleave apart my normal blade so easily. I thought I'd be able to clash without issue and paid for it in blade and pain." I said with a sigh.