Thuck.
Choi Ha-neul drives his blade into the back of the last remaining soldier.
The female Dragonborn, Choi Ha-neul, had previously favored the axe, but the Blades Sword she received from Delphine fit her grip perfectly, so she had made it her primary weapon.
"Haa..."
She looked as though she still felt a lingering distaste for killing humans rather than bandits or monsters.
However, this was a battlefield. They had attacked us first; there was no other choice.
The soldiers were more troublesome than bandits, likely due to their formal training, but they were still no match for us.
"Let's head in."
I patted Ha-neul on the shoulder to lift her spirits.
"Yes..."
I cast Necromancy on one of the corpses. I didn't intend to take full control; I left just enough consciousness to squeeze out some information.
According to the reanimated soldier, the scouting party had successfully reached the inner depths of Korvanjund, but the ancient ruins were so dilapidated that a tunnel had collapsed, blocking the central passage. They had been occupying the ruins while waiting for a mining team to arrive.
A good idea struck me.
We stripped the dead Stormcloaks and donned their uniforms to infiltrate the site.
The plan was to pose as that very mining team. Conveniently, I already had pickaxes in my backpack.
If we didn't have to fight, it would be safer and save us a lot of time.
After scrubbing off as much blood as possible from the uniforms, we cautiously entered the ruins.
Inside, we encountered Stormcloaks patrolling the corridors. Spotting our approach, they questioned us.
"Are you here for the shift change?"
"We're the mining team. We've got all the digging gear here in our packs," I replied.
"Got here faster than expected. The exploration was delayed because of that cave-in."
Fortunately, they didn't suspect a thing. We managed to reach the inner depths without shedding a single drop of blood.
The collapse had occurred right in front of the puzzle door that required the Ebony Claw.
However, the scale of the debris was larger than I'd anticipated. It looked like it would take all day to dig through with just pickaxes.
"What should we do, Mister?"
"Not much else to do. We dig."
Eloise, who absolutely despised manual labor, looked devastated. Since we only had two pickaxes, I summoned a skeleton and conjured a Bound Pickaxe for myself.
The skeleton clawed at the wall with its bare hands while the other two rotated shifts using the physical pickaxes.
After about an hour of digging—
"Urgh—I can't. I can't do this anymore!"
Drenched in sweat, Eloise shouted as she collapsed onto the floor. Ha-neul looked at her with blatant disapproval.
"Hey. It hasn't even been five minutes since I took over for you."
"You and I have different levels of strength!"
"Well, I guess that's true."
In contrast, Lydia and I worked hard without a single complaint. Having labored for nearly an hour, we were naturally exhausted, but we pushed through with persistence.
"Shall we take a quick break?"
Just as Lydia and I were about to rest our weary bodies—
CRASH!
The section Lydia was hammering finally gave way, revealing a small hole leading to the other side.
"Nice one, Sister!"
"Woohoo! Labor's over!"
Eloise and Ha-neul were the first to celebrate. Naturally, I was relieved as well.
But the moment we prepared to go deeper to claim the Jagged Crown, the sound of clapping echoed from behind us.
Clap, clap, clap.
"I should really thank you for digging that tunnel on our behalf. Imperial spies."
A Stormcloak Officer stood there, flanked by about ten soldiers.
"How did you know?" I asked.
The officer answered calmly. She had been suspicious because our physical descriptions didn't match the mining team she had been briefed on. The faint scent of blood lingering on us had confirmed her suspicions.
She could have drawn her sword and fought us right then and there, but the officer had played it smart. She decided to let us finish the excavation, letting us open the path and drain our stamina simultaneously.
She had played us perfectly. Rebels blocked the path behind us, and the rubble prevented any swift escape forward.
In short, we were completely surrounded.
"Surrender peacefully, and I might let you live."
The Stormcloak Officer tried to sway us with honeyed words, but we weren't the type to fall for such obvious lies.
Eloise quickly cast buffs on our frontline, Lydia and Ha-neul. I summoned a Flame Atronach.
The soldiers' fur-lined armor would catch fire easily.
As we took our combat stances, the officer pointed her sword at us, and the soldiers charged all at once.
"RAAAAAAGH!"
They rushed in with a deafening war cry. They probably expected a massacre since they had the numbers, but we had a Dragonborn.
"Fus Ro Dah!"
"GUAAAAARGH!"
With a single Shout from Ha-neul, the soldiers were blown back like bowling pins.
"What?! You can use the Thu'um?"
The officer was shell-shocked; she had never imagined she was facing the Dragonborn. The soldiers who took the Shout head-on were still dazed. It was our turn to strike.
"Hyaaah!"
Between Ha-neul's blade and the Flame Atronach's magic, the soldiers sprawled on the ground were set ablaze. I summoned a Bound Bow and picked them off one by one.
Sensing the crisis, the officer screamed.
"Get it together! Reform the line and fight back!"
Unfortunately for her, the orders didn't reach her men in time. With their formation shattered by the Shout, they were being cut down unilaterally by Lydia and Ha-neul. Their numbers dwindled rapidly.
Two soldiers swung a battleaxe and a one-handed sword at Ha-neul. She dodged the sword with a light step and caught the heavy battleaxe mid-swing with one hand.
She yanked the axe, pulling the wielder off balance, and drove her blade through his neck. The soldier with the sword was dropped by one of my arrows.
Only four remained, including the officer. If it wasn't for the Shout and our magic, we wouldn't have won this easily.
"You should surrender. Then maybe I'll let you live?"
I mocked her using her own words. But the officer barked back at her men.
"Don't fall for his tricks!"
Desperate, the remaining soldiers charged us anyway.
"Sovngarde awaits us!"
Two rushed Lydia, one came for me, and the officer lunged at Ha-neul.
Lydia smashed her shield into the face of the first man, breaking his nose and sending him backward. The other man slammed a mace into her side, but she shrugged off the blow with her incredible toughness and thrust her sword into his solar plexus.
Meanwhile, I was facing a warrior woman wielding a greatsword. As we sized each other up, I realized I was at a disadvantage due to my shorter reach, so I struck first.
I lunged for her left breast, aiming to pierce the artery and neutralize her instantly.
However, she parried my sword with her heavy blade, sending my summoned weapon flying into the distance.
With me unarmed, she raised her greatsword high over her head, intending to cleave me in two.
CLANG!
But I summoned a Bound Shield with blinding speed, catching her strike.
"Urgh."
I blocked it, but the force was so immense that my left arm went numb. She tried to follow up with a diagonal slash without giving me a moment to breathe, but—
"Think again!"
Ha-neul, having finished off the officer, arrived and stabbed the woman through the back.
"Whew—is everyone alright?"
Everyone nodded in response to Ha-neul's question. Thanks to the narrow ruins and the Dragon Shout, we had secured the win without major casualties.
After widening the collapsed section further, we created enough space for a person to pass. We moved forward cautiously, careful not to trigger another collapse.
"Wait, this looks familiar," Ha-neul said, looking at the puzzle ahead.
In front of us was a door with three rotating rings and three carvings: a Bear, an Owl, and a Moth. It was the same type of puzzle we encountered during the Golden Claw quest. You just match the symbols and insert the claw.
I inserted the Ebony Claw and turned it clockwise. The gateway groaned and vibrated as the stone doors slid open. Of course, I didn't forget to take the Ebony Claw back—it was worth a fair bit of gold.
We pushed through a few Draugr and traps without much trouble and finally arrived at the chamber housing the crown.
At the center of the room was a throne, flanked by two upright stone sarcophagi. Sitting on the throne was a Draugr Death Overlord, wearing the Jagged Crown as it slumbered.
"That thing on its head is the Jagged Crown."
"Should I just go grab it?"
The moment we touched it, it would surely wake up. I commanded one of the reanimated Stormcloak corpses to fetch the crown instead.
The moment the walking corpse touched the crown, the sarcophagi on both sides violently shook, and two Spectral Draugr burst out.
The zombie soldier tried to at least pull the crown away, but the Draugr Death Overlord grabbed both of its arms and bit into its neck. The zombie disintegrated into a pile of glowing ash.
I immediately summoned dual-wielding Skeleton Warriors. Since the Draugr were wearing heavy armor, I summoned a mace for myself—it was the most effective tool for crushing plate.
I wasn't as proficient with it as I was with a sword, but I could swing it well enough.
While my summons and I dealt with the Spectral Draugr, Ha-neul used a Shout to knock the Death Overlord back, buying us a moment. She and Lydia used that time to carve through the other Spectral Draugr.
"Krllkh..."
The Spectral Draugr were sturdy and strong, but they were slow. In an instant, their bodies were covered in wounds, and they collapsed in a tattered heap.
The Overlord, having recovered from the Shout, stood up. It approached us, dragging its Ancient Nordic Greatsword along the floor with a screeching sound.
"Aab Dilon!"
The Draugr spat out words in the ancient tongue, sounding furious. Likely because Ha-neul had sent it flying earlier.
With an eerie blue light glowing in its eye sockets, the creature took a deep breath—
"Fus Ro Dah!"
It used a Shout.
"Kyaaah!"
As if intent on repaying the debt, it aimed the Shout directly at Ha-neul. She was blasted into the air by the powerful sonic wave.
As she slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, Eloise rushed over to provide healing.
Lydia immediately charged the Draugr, and having just finished the Spectral Draugr myself, I joined her in the fray.
Me, Lydia, and my skeleton warriors—we all closed in for the final stand against the Draugr Death Overlord.
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