The Ebony Renegades (Skyrim)

chapter fifty six

Once we exited from the door on the other side of the section that we were in we found it let out to a large mess of bridges like an atrium. We could see enemies all over including a dwarven centurion on the bridge to our left. A swift crossbow bolt from me brought the centurion to its knees snuffing it as we proceeded forward taking out any Scrapheirs and automatons that got in our way. Carefully crossing our way through the bridges we ended up getting into a intense firefight across the bridges as the Scrapheirs were relentlessly pelting us with fire, frost, and shock magic all at once even for spellbreaker it was getting hard to repel all this magic at once. Gila went to work quickly firing four bone arrows attempting to thin the line of enemies assaulting us with arcane magic. While Gila focused on the ones across the bridge Shadow-step focused on the ones below us firing ebony arrows from his nightingale bow attempting to take out the opposition so we weren't sandwiched. " Gentu cover me!" Gila yelled as I nodded rushing out as Sabrina and Suvvan cover as I used spellbreaker to block the magic from Gila as she started shifting into her werewolf form. I mentally shivered hearing her bones crack as they elongated and shifted followed by the feral snarl that she let out and then trembled at the fierce roar she let out before she in an amazing display of speed and agility ran on all fours around the corner drawing their attention on her while me and Shadow-step fired at them with our weapons causing them to have to divide their forces. Taking the opportunity and the opening Suvvan and Sabrina rushed to give Gila back up rushing with their weapons drawn to catch up with her rounding the corner as Gila mauled the commander of the Scrapheirs just as one was about to strike her with an ebony mace Sabrina's ebony war axe embedded in their chest causing them to fly backwards as Gila ripped his head off and throwing it at the oncoming horde of Scrapheirs and tossing the ebony war axe back to Sabrina who caught it holstering it under her lower back using it as a pirates boarding axe primarily. Suvvan rushed past Gila impaling three Scrapheirs through their chests and shoving them off the bridge causing them to fall to their deaths before ducking underneath an elven battle axe using the momentum from crouching he turned around and brought his claymore up in an upward swing cleaving the altmer from his groin to the tip of his head causing him to split like a log in a lumber mill. As me and Shadow-step rushed to catch up with them I drew dawnbreaker while Shadow-step pulled out his nightingale blade and an ebony dagger in his left hand in a back-handed grip as we joined the fight on the bridge. Even though this wasn't even half of our full might of the group we were giving these Scrapheirs a run for their money as we made quick work of them as an ebony mace was thrown clocking Gila across the face as she let out a feral snarl at the poor fool who did that. I mentally winced almost feeling bad for the poor fool but he should have ran while he had the chance. Gila eyes the Scrapheir as she extended her claws before scraping them across the wall and then flashing them in the light with a feral snarl that looked more like a evil smirk than anything.

Without warning Gila rushed forward grabbing him by his head and then grabbing him by his lower half before ripping him clean in half and then flinging his severed body in separate directions leaving him to die a very painful death. As she let out a loud roar she continued rushing forward which me and the other three rushed to keep up only to find what was left of her massacre on the ground level. Bodies of both automatons and Scrapheirs were littered on the ground butchered in many different ways. One had his spine ripped out, another seemed to have been beaten with their comrades spine, another appear to have his throat ripped out, but yet another had a giant hole through his chest like someone drove there hand in and ripped out their heart. I shook my head I knew Gila was vicious when she was pissed but this was on a whole nother level and I mentally hope that she didn't completely go feral otherwise we would be in even more trouble because if there's one thing we were not equipped to deal with right now, it was an angry werewolf. As we rushed to catch up with her we found what was left of the captain after she had dismembered him and was currently eating him while he was still alive and to make things even worse for the poor fool, she was eating him from the feet up. We walked around her does she looked up staring at us with her golden eyes I carefully put my hands up as a sign that we were not trying to take her prey as we went around her if there was one thing I learned from my time with the group especially involving Gila, you never separate a predator from their kill otherwise you're going to be the one on the menu. I walked up to the frost junction and activated it as the pipes rumbled and hissed before we waited for Gila to finish. After she was done she looked back to get us before letting out a whimper before carefully changing back as Sabrina walked over carefully putting her arm around Gila's back and Gila's arm over her shoulder to help her walk knowing how much her lycanthropy transformations took a strain on her. "I didn't hurt any of you did I?" Gila asked as we shook our heads no. "No you didn't, but while you were eating the captain over there you looked at us like you wanted to eat us so I made a sign to you letting you know that we weren't trying to take your prey and we went around you like you instructed us to do if you ever did that." I told Gila as she nodded taking a sigh of relief before carefully walking with Sabrina as we made our way out the way we came and on our way to the final room which was the fire junction which would probably be the most 'temperamental' of the three. I said to myself before mentally cringing at my own terrible pun making a mental note just smack myself later. We headed through the hallway and Into the scorchworks and I was right about my suspicion because as we turned the corner we saw a bonfire burning which made the place feel like an oven. We quickly dispatched the few Scrapheirs that were there as we proceeded through the tunnel. I could see multiple more pipes as we continued through the circular tubes we eventually came into a bridge overlooking a large lava lake directly beneath us which spelled instant and guaranteed death if we were to fall i looked back at the other four who looked like they were about to collapse from overheating. "Okay you four stay here I'll take care of it I'll be right back." I said before rushing forward running up the bridge overlooking the lava lake which almost reminded me of when I was in the aetherium forge under the ruins of bthalft. That's when my eyes widened as I had an idea I reached back pulling off my aetherium staff used it summoning a dwarven sphere to distract the Scrapheirs as I ran up from behind them quickly using 'the forge' smashing the captain with the large hammer and sending him flying into his two subordinates causing them to go flying off the overhang and down into the lava. I quickly activated the fire Junction and attempted to get off the platform before it started hissing and rumbling only to be too late as I nearly lost my footing as I was running. I quickly stumbled back to my feet before rushing back to the others. We gave a unified nod which meant we all agreed about the same thing, get the heck out of here before one of us has a heat stroke specifically one of us who has fur in all places. As we walked through we came into a room where a single copper beam in the middle with another Scrapheir with a dwarven centurion standing behind him. Me and Suvvan both rushed forward I used the forge to take down the dwarven centurion while Suvvan focused on the Scrapheir and quickly cleaved him in half with his claymore then in one fluid motion sheathed it back on his back. Once we made our way through the next door finding ourselves back in the storm works we were once again ambushed by another Scrapheir and a dwarven centurion. This time Gila and Sabrina took care of them Sabrina quickly decapitated the Scrapheir as Gila jumped onto the centurions back and using her brute strength ripped out it's dynamo core causing it to stutter before collapsing. Giving each other a reaffirming nod we made our way out of the tunnel and back into the main room where the vault was we took a few moments to crouch down and rub some snow on us to cool ourselves off. The cold snow felt divine on us after we were done cooling off we headed back up to where the vault was and to my delight, the three orbs that adorned the vault door were glowing. "All right everyone step back." I said as I pushed the button directly in front of the vault as the entire cave system rumbled as the vault door circled once before moving back and sliding out of sight to the left. I gave the four behind me a nod before moving forward into the tunnel opened by the vault door inside we saw the apparent leader of the Scrapheirs and just like the others he had a dwarven centurion for backup we quickly came up with a plan staying out of sight and we decided on a tactic that we used once before. Gila and Shadow-step would take care of the centurion while me Sabrina and Suvvan and take care of the leader. Nodding and telling the others to wait for my signal as I walked into his line of sight he looked up at me before drawing his weapon and charging at me just as the centurion started walking towards me it was quickly taken down by two precise arrows launched from the two archers behind me. I noticed that he was armed with only a sword I held my hand up gesturing for the other two to stand down I wanted to take this one on my own. Drawing dawnbreaker off of my hip we circled each other he seemed to be taking great interest in my artificial arm as we last he surprised me by asking about it. "That's quite a feat of engineering, you must have taken inspiration from Yagrum, the last living dwemer in Tamrielic history who wrote Tamrielic lore." He said as he attempted a backwards swipe as I blocked with the hilt of Dawnbreaker before embedding my boot into his abdomen. "That's right, while he used to the legs of a dwarven centurion spider, I utilized parts from a dwarven sphere and a dwarven spider." I explained as we locked swords again. "That is very incredible, I will make sure I take it as a trophy once I kill you!" The leader declared as he launched forward attempting to stab my throat as I let off the breath of Nchuack hitting him with a scalding blast of steam in his face from my dwarven helmet as I drove dawnbreaker straight through his dwarven armor and into his heart. As he went limp I carefully laid him down on the ground and pulling dawnbreaker out of him. I began to search his body before noticing his dwarven sword let off an unusual aura.  "Mhuvnak's Theorem." I didn't know how I knew the weapons name, I just did it was like the weapon whispered its name to me as I carefully put it on my side next to dawnbreaker. As I looked around after seeing the deeper vault. I looked for whatever mechanism there was to open it.