Late Merethic Era
More than 4,500 years before the birth of the Last Dragonborn
Falmereth / Skyrim
Three Weeks Later
Feator Kaslana
Like every major clusterfuck, this one arrived completely without warning.
And, unfortunately, not even my reincarnator’s foreknowledge helped me prevent it or soften the blow.
Quite simply, I hadn’t known when it would happen.
Even as the First Sword, I hadn’t received the information in time, leaving me unable to voice my objections—or persuade the Archbishop to do so instead.
After all, I couldn’t exactly walk up to the king and say, Please don’t slaughter that human settlement because it’s wrong.
Besides, they’ll come back for revenge later and wipe us all out.
Who wouldn’t laugh at the words of a youth who supposedly knew nothing about life and had only just begun walking the path of a warrior?
That would have been true even among humans, let alone the long-lived and notoriously arrogant Elves…
The bishops had probably known about that rotten little scheme brewing at the royal court.
I simply never had the chance to ask them.
I’d been on the other side of Tamriel, carrying out a mission for the Temple.
For once, my diligence and sense of duty had come back to haunt me.
***
“I’m starting to quietly hate spriggans,” I hissed, launching another firebolt into one of the blasted creatures.
Hey, command.
Just because I’m better than most with fire magic doesn’t mean I want to deal with an entire pack of these things.
They’re fast, nimble, and can even turn invisible.
Sure, they burn well enough, but first you have to hit them, and fire isn’t nearly as fast as lightning—or even ice.
Not to mention the fact that these Daedra-cursed piles of lumber loved taking control of every animal in the area and sending them after their enemies.
They even strengthened them, making the task of killing those bears, wolves, and even deer and rabbits anything but easy.
“Stop complaining.
At least you have a way to set them on fire,” Vaisy said from beside me as she froze a charging bear to its very bones.
The crazed beast was highly resistant to cold, especially while empowered by the spriggans’ nature magic, but Vaisy was simply too skilled a mage for that to matter.
“Yeah, yeah.
The smell of burnt fur and meat is exactly what I want to enjoy every single day,” I replied with open irritation and sarcasm, catching a spriggan’s slashing claws with my flamberge.
Green venom dripped from them.
Though it looked more like acid than poison.
Driving back the largest of the forest spirits with a volley of five firebolts, I pivoted in the very next instant and slashed at a second spriggan that had tried to attack me from behind.
It let out a shrill shriek as its branch-like arm was nearly severed before hastily retreating.
Annoying little bastards.
If the game versions simply regenerated their health, the real things could actually regrow and restore their entire bodies.
In practice…
well, it was basically a second life for them, provided you didn’t destroy their core—known as the taproot—first.
“Shadow to the east!” Vaisy called out as she simultaneously hacked the antlers off a crazed stag.
East…
east…
Ah, there you are, you half-charred pile of firewood.
Bursting forward at full speed, I slashed diagonally through the faint distortion in the air, and almost immediately the forest creature revealed itself, trying to unleash a swarm of poisonous insects at me.
I had been expecting that little trick—I hadn’t learned from fools, after all—so a moment later the monster was frantically trying to beat the flames off its head, while the fire conveniently incinerated every buzzing pest around it.
This time I didn’t give it the chance to recover, driving my blade straight into its core with a precise thrust.
The spriggan dissolved in a flash of green light, leaving behind nothing but its damaged heart-core.
“Oh, give me a break!” I muttered irritably as I narrowly avoided having my throat and chin sliced open.
Twisting aside, I drove my foot into the giant spirit’s chest, right where another core was hidden.
Not being stupid, the wooden monstrosity immediately retreated, giving me enough room to turn around.
This time, the flames from my left hand weren’t aimed at my opponent but at my flamberge, wreathing the blade in fire and allowing me to engage in close combat without fear.
After all, the venom coating a spriggan’s claws burned away easily under magical fire.
“Feator!” Vaisy shouted, and I instantly sprang backward, avoiding the torrent of frost she hurled at my opponent.
Slowed by the freezing blast, the creature could no longer dodge.
Its attempt to block my flame-wreathed blade ended in complete failure—the flamberge cleaved through its arm, incinerating it as it went before smashing into the core itself, shattering its structure and ending the forest spirit’s life.
With some effort, I pulled my sword free and let out a relieved breath, rolling my slightly injured shoulder.
Earlier, I’d slammed it into a tree while dodging the lunge of an enchanted wolf that had stubbornly refused to die even after its heart had been destroyed.
Yeah…
not the most pleasant opponents.
Especially in a forest.
And especially when I was trying to train my own skills instead of relying on the time magic Auriel had granted me.
Just because I didn’t mind using it didn’t mean I was an idiot who intended to depend on it for everything.
“Finally dealt with them,” I muttered, rolling my shoulder again as I set the spirits’ corpses ablaze just to be safe.
“Tch…” I rubbed my collarbone next, where I’d taken another hit—this one from a spriggan.
Not from its poisonous claws, thankfully, just a solid blow that left a bruise, but it still wasn’t exactly pleasant.
“And he kept insisting there couldn’t possibly be any forest spirits here.
Too few trees, blah, blah, blah…
Magical energy’s too weak, blah, blah, blah…”
“He has already paid for his unwavering overconfidence,” Vaisy replied coldly as she slid her rapier back into its scabbard and glanced toward the body of our guide.
May Auri-El watch over your path, and may your support keep this tale alive.