As we walk into the dense forest of pine trees, I try to look for something familiar, anything I could recognize from the night before, but I don't. It's mostly just packed with trees, mossy rocks, roots and naked branches. It's a miracle I didn't trip last night, running in the dark!
Delphine speaks up. "So, we'll probably be having a battle soon, so we better prepare for it. Tell me what you remember; about him, about the area, his minions- think, our victory might depend on it, spare no detail."
"Hmm.." I say trying to remember as much as I can. "Well, the necromancer was somewhat young, mid-twenties I think. He was able to summon two skeletons out of thin air and-"
Delphine quickly interrupts me. "Wait, he summoned two of them, are you sure?"
I raise my eyebrows, wondering if that is rare. When I had played Skyrim before, I never bothered to level up my Conjuration skill, so I knew little about the subject.
Despite only knowing a little, I try to explain how I remembered it as best I could.
"Yes, I'm sure, his hand was emanating some kind of dark energy, and it was like he cast the energy on the ground, only he did it twice. And when he cast it, it was like a dark void appeared on the ground where he had cast it... And then they just walked out of the darkness... Does that make sense?"
Delphine chuckles at my child-like explanation. "Well, yes, that's more or less how conjuration spells work. Like I said, how to summon creatures, deadra or undead, never humans. Regardless, having two summons at the same time requires a great amount of skill, but... Skeletons?..."
Delphine is silent for a moment, thinking. "Hmmm.. Plain skeletons are among the weaker summons you can do, but due to his ability to double summon, we should assume that he's capable of summoning something worse."
I sigh. "Shit, are we in over our heads?... Should we get back-up after all? I'm not exactly trained for combat..."
Delphine seems lost in thought, rethinking the situation maybe? Finally she speaks up. "No, I don't think that'll be necessary... I've got a plan." she picks up a stick, and draws a square onto a patch of dirt on the forest floor with it.
"Alright, here's what we know. He is able to summon two skeletons at the same time, and if the blood we found by the road was human, he might already have a permanent zombie minion."
I interrupt Delphine. "Wait... what's a permanent minion?"
She explains. "It's probably not the correct term within the school of necromancy, but what I mean by a permanent minion is a minion where the necromancer has either trapped a soul or a deadric spirit within a dead body. The soul or spirit would empower the body, so it's possible for a necromancer to control many such creatures at the same time, which makes them both dangerous and terrifying."
I nod. "I see... And creatures that are summoned?"
Delphine continues explaining. "Conjuring something out of thin air however costs magicka, the more powerful ones demands more magicka used with both great focus and skill. There remains a link between the necromancer and the creature for as long as the summon is here, and that link needs to be properly maintained while subjecting whatever you summoned to your will, and that is why more than one at the same time is rare."
I raise my eyebrows at her. "Damn Delphine, you sure know a lot about necromancy! Have you... dabbled with it?..."
Delphine snorts. "Don't be ridiculous, I only understand the basics! Besides, conjuration magic to summon a creature doesn't bear that kind of stigma. Binding and abusing men or mer's souls on the other hand, that is an abomination!
Unfortunately, necromancy holds a vast and unsettling range of possibilities... some have even turned themselves into liches, powerful and free-willed undead, to keep researching those possibilities beyond what one can learn during in a normal lifetime."
She sighs. "Which is why I want to get rid of this guy quickly, before he can become powerful... Now let's return to my plan. So, let's say he is on his guard and has already summoned his two skeletons, that wouldn't be unreasonable to think since you escaped him and could have gone looking for help."
She points at the square she drew on the ground with her stick. "This is his camp." She draws a big "X" at the camp, and three smaller ones around it. "The big X is the necromancer, the smaller ones his minions.
I'll be dealing with the minions, hopefully taking down the first one before I'm noticed."
Delphine then draws two curved lines halfway around the camp, one on each side. "I'll circle his camp towards the right, drawing the necromancer's minions and his attention towards me. You however, circle his camp towards the left, get behind him and grab him!"
Delphine grabs me by my collar. "You grab him good, bring your blade up against his throat, and force him to unsummon his minions!.."
She tightens her grip and pulls me closer, until there's only inches between our faces. "If he doesn't, and I'm in a pinch, swear to me that you'll end him, right then and there. If you value his life above mine, we head back now!"
I swallow, sheesh! I can't remember Delphine being this intense in the game... "Sure, Delphine... You got it..."
She release my collar and straighten my shirt. "Good, then we understand each other." She hums gleefully. "With a plan like this, it doesn't matter how powerful his summons are, just do your job, and I'll do mine."
What if it actually comes to that? What if I'm forced to end him?... I shake my head, discarding the thought. No! He might be my only way home, this has to work! I'll just have to be intimidating enough to scare him into surrender. Besides, how hard can that be? If I already have a sword against his throat?
"Come on, let's go." Delphine says, her voice now having returned to normal. We continue walking deeper into the forest. "So, do you remember how far you ran last night? Or for how long?"
I try to remember, but realize that it probably won't be a reliable estimation. "Hmm... Well, I was running for my life, so it felt like forever, so maybe I was running for 10 minutes? Maybe?" I say, but it comes out sounding like a question.
Delphine gives me a blank stare. "And you're about as sure of that as you were sure you were in the river for a long time, right?"
I chuckle. "Yes, being terrified really has a way of distorting how we perceive time, huh?"
Delphine nods. "Yeah, I guess, but I don't think I've been scared like that since I was a little girl" she can't help but smirk.
"Yeah, me neither. I haven't been a little girl since yesterday." I jest.
This makes Delphine laugh, but she quickly turns serious. "Ok, we don't know how far you ran last night, so we'll have to be quiet from here on. We'll whisper if needed, but use sign language as best you can. Our entire plan relies on us getting the jump on this guy! Should both of us get spotted, then the plan is a failure, just get behind me and support me!"
I nod. "Understood! But we won't let it come to that!"
Delphine sighs. "Plans can always fail, there are always more factors involved than what we know beforehand, so be prepared for anything and adapt! Now, let's go."
I nod again.
We continue to make our way deeper into the forest, trying to be as quiet as we can be. We keep on looking ahead, but also being wary of our next step. The ground in this dense pine forest is littered with dead twigs and roots, one broken twig- one unseen root- is enough to give us away if we're not careful.
Our advance is slow, but silent. Delphine is clearly experienced in this type of work, so I do my best to follow in her footsteps, literally.
After about ten minutes of silent sneaking, not running, Delphine slowly crouch and carefully raise a fist. It seems my estimation about how far I ran last night was wrong again.
All her movements are slow now, she glance at me for a second, before looking ahead and point in the direction of a small group of leafless trees.
"What's she looking at?" I think to myself, seeing nothing. I squint my eyes while scanning in the direction she's pointing, but there is nothing, only small- no wait!... As the small, leafless trees are swayed by a gentle breeze, there is a hidden silhouette that isn't moving. I focus on it for a moment, trying to make out it's form. And there it is- ribs, boney arms- a skull... Holy shit, the necromancer had camouflaged one of his skeleton in the thicket! It's lack of flesh, blending in with the small branches and stems. It's crazy that Delphine had noticed it so quickly.
Delphine carefully draws her steel blade, almost soundlessly, but with the distance between us and the skeleton, something as silent as that wouldn't matter.
Delphine gives me a glance along with a serious expression, she lifts up her index finger and makes a firm, short motion, signaling me to stay put. Remaining in a low crouch, she begins to circle the skeleton cautiously, keeping her distance. Once she's slipped out of its line of sight, she comes to a halt.
Delphine picks up a small rock by her feet, studying it briefly, before looking towards the skeleton, she gives me a small glance and nod, signaling for me to get ready.
She then flings the rock up high, in the direction of her skeleton.
It flies over it before landing on it's other side. Immediately when the *thud* of the rock is heard, Delphine dash towards the skeleton, it however turns away in the direction of the rock, as planned.
Rushing quickly towards it, wary of every footing to avoid making noice, she quickly closes the gap.
Delphine ends her sprint with a leap, sword raised she comes crashing down with the blade against the skeleton's neck, killing it before it had even seen her. She proceeds to quickly take cover behind a nearby tree, waiting to see if her attack had been noticed.
It would have been better to take down the zombie first, the necromancer could just summon another skeleton when he notice that this one is down, but atleast he would have to spend more of his magicka on it, lessening his reserves.
Not long after, we hear someone approach to investigate the disturbance, luck is on our side, there was indeed a zombie, and he had probably been the closest one of the rest our enemies.
The zombie is only wielding a short sword, and his outfit is dyed red with blood, from the neck and down, it's throat had been slit.
It was easy to see that it had been a Nord, short blonde hair, mid thirties and pale skin. The garments indicate a traveler or a wandering merchant.
It would be fair to assume that this was the victim from last night, who's blood we had found on the road, his body still seemed somewhat fresh.
The zombie stomps closer to where it's skeletal ally had just been slain.
Even though it was my first time seeing a zombie, it was easy to tell that he was one. His movements were stiff, each step jerky and unnatural, but it didn't walk slow like one would think a classic zombie does.
It passes the tree that Delphine is hiding behind, then a few paces later it finds the remains of his former undead comrade, he stares at it.
Before it can make out what could have happened to it, Delphine swings a wide strike with her sword- decapitating the zombie in one blow.
I remember that conjured creatures disappear when you kill them in the game, but it didn't here, not in reality, probably an added effect to keep the player from farming loot from their own summons.
Then we hear commanding shouts approaching, Delphine hides behind her tree again and peaks out. There he is, the necromancer came running toward her location, again with two skeletons at his side.
Like she had planned, Delphine starts running to the right, making sure she's seen by our enemies.
"There she is, kill her!" The necromancer yell at his skeletons, they all turning to face her as she circles them.
"Alright, that's my cue!" I tell myself, I draw the iron sword Alvor had lent me, wanting to avoid having to draw it behind the necromancer, that could've possibly made enough noise for him to then notice me.
I start running, circling to the left to get behind our enemies unseen, not running as fast as Delphine, I definitely can't risk stepping on branches or anything similar that can give away my position.
As I make my way around, Delphine slows her pace, letting her adversaries lessen the distance between them.
We are almost on opposite sides of our enemies now.
The skeletons reach Delphine, the first one swings a downward strike with his blade, Delphine easily makes a quick step back to avoid it, and immediately after she steps in and kick it to the ground. Swiftly the second skeleton makes its move, this one perform a wide swing. Delphine however ducks beneath the blade, after it's swing has passed over her she quickly rise up and hits the skeleton hard in the skull with her backhand.
Delphine is clearly just buying time for me to get behind the necromancer, she could have ended both skeletons in those first moves. I understand what she meant when she called skeletons the weaker among conjured beings, she made it look easy, even though I know I would have struggled against them.
I was planning to take my time to carefully sneak up on the necromancer, as it seemed like Delphine had the situation under control, but the plan had to be changed quickly after a huge ice spike nearly pierced Delphine's face, she barely dodged it in time.
Shit, of course he had to have destruction magic as well! Realizing that I can't bide my time, my slow approach turns into a run, hopefully the necromancer is too busy to notice me.
He's only about 50 yards away, I run while planning what to do! I'll grab his robes from behind and throw him to the ground! Then hold my sword against his throat!
30 yards. Shit! Delphine is almost out of breath, dodging both blades and ice, but her movements becoming more dull.
20 yards, nearly there!-
crash!-
I'm tackled hard by someone and we crash down into the ground, the other person on top of me! I had been too focused on reaching the necromancer in time to notice anyone else, the tackle even made me lose my sword, which now lay several feet from me!
I turn to see me attacker, the first thing I notice is her dead eyes.
Shit! There had been another one?! A zombie, a smaller Nord woman. Her hair long and blonde, not to different from the male zombie, a relative?
Her clothes also were drenched in dry blood, the necromancer must have killed her as well last night!
Her milky eyes lock on mine, her once beautiful features now twisted in death. She doesn't carry any weapons, but she starts to hammer at me with her cold fists.
"Shit!!" I yell as I try to get her off me, she is much stronger than what her smaller physical size would make you believe.
As I fight to get her off me I hear laughter from behind me.
"Hahaha.. Wow, really?!.." The necromancer says spitefully. "So you've returned to me- looks like I'll be able to turn you into an undead after all! It's only fitting after you two killed my other one!"
Delphine shout while holding the two skeletons at bay. "Damn it, Ragnar! Get up!"
I grab both the zombie's hands, barely able to hold them but at least softening her punches.
"We don't owe anything! You're going to send me home, and then you're going to prison." I yell at the necromancer.
He walks over to me and spits in my face. "As if... I'll end you in a moment, after your friend here."
Then he looks at his zombie and speak to her. "I guess you can't really use your head much being undead, but damn it, if he has your hands, just bite him!" He gives the zombie a kick in the side, then turns around to fight Delphine along with his skeletons.
The zombie leans down and bites my neck, making me cry out it pain. I need to do something, but my sword isn't within my reach! I release her hands and start punching the zombie's head, she hardly budge, but now when her hands are free she stops biting and starts punching again.
Desperately, I headbutt her as hard as I can, that however did stagger her.
Her head and upper body falls back just enough for me to be able to give her a solid push and get her off me.
I scurry over to my sword and grab it, I cast a quick glance toward Delphine, looks like she's killed one of the skeletons, but also that one of them has been able to hit her with their sword as well, her off-hand arm bleeding.
The necromancer is still busy casting ice bolts towards her, making her fight much harder than it should've been.
I turn back to the zombie who is now up on her feet, driven by adrenaline and desperation I swing my sword at her. She blocks with her hand, but is staggered long enough for me to kick her in the waist, making her smaller frame fall to the ground.
Desperate to be able to help Delphine I swing my sword at the zombie's neck, but one swing wasn't enough.
I lost track of how many swings it took, but I hit over and over until her head came off, my brow was sweaty, my arms heavy, I felt sick to my stomach!
"Ragnar, look out!!" Delphine shouts.
Her voice made me duck on instinct.
*Whoosh*
An ice spike whizzes over my head, missing only by inches- I feel its chill graze the back of my neck as it flies over me. I duck low and scurry for cover behind a nearby tree.
*Crack*
An ice spike hits the tree I'm hiding behind with a loud crash.
"And stay there, you worthless coward!" the necromancer yells at me.
I can hear him starting to cast ice spikes at Delphine again.
"Damn it, I can't sit here like a coward!" I tell my self.
I peak out, trying to assess the situation, Delphine is visibly tired, having a hard time with the remaining skeleton!
If this keeps up she's going to die!
I decide to take my chance, I wait until I hear the next ice spike fired off.
*Whoosh*
I immediately rush at him, the gap between us isn't that big, he shouldn't be able to cast more than one or maybe two ice spikes before I reach him.
Seeing me rush at the necromancer, Delphine parries the skeleton and puts the last bit of energy she has into a last final blow. A wide, powerful strike drives her sword into the skull of the skeleton, cleaving it in two.
Delphine falls to the ground.
The necromancer must have been eager to take her down, because he didn't turn to check if I was coming after him.
Instead he charged his ice spike with more magicka than necessary, turning it into a long, massive spike. He was going to make sure he killed her with this shot!
I'm only a few yards from him, his ice spike is massive and spinning in front of his palms. Fearing for Delphine's life I put all my weight behind my sword and thrust, trying to reach him as soon as possible.
I drive my blade into his back and through his chest, the impact shifting his aim only slightly, the ice spike shoots forth from his palms much louder than his previous ones.
It flies towards Delphine, her life flashing before her eyes.
*Crash*
The ice spike had only grazed her, and it shattered into pieces upon hitting a big rock right behind her.
The necromancer falls to his knees, gasping for air, but I can't hear him draw breath.
He clutches the blade protruding out from his chest, blood seeping through his fingers.
His gaze loses focus, lips parting as if trying to speak- but no words come.
He suffers for a few seconds before tumbling over on his side.
His eyes still open, a few tears wet on his face.
Now it's easy to see, he was barely twenty years old, almost a kid. And I had just killed him.
I fall to my knees, speechless, I can't help but stare at the young man in front of me.
I feel sick, my hands are shaking, I can't hold back the tears starting to flow down my cheeks.
The quest hologram pops up before me eyes.
Quest complete:
"The necromancer"
Do you accept the reward?
I wave at the hologram with my hands, trying to push it away.
"Not now, it's not the fucking time!!" I wail at it. The hologram obeys, it quickly fades away.
My gaze falters to the ground again, and a few more tears escape my eyes.
This is it. I'm stuck here now.
This was my shot… my way home.