The Ebony Renegades (Skyrim)

chapter sixty nine

Reeling back from shock the Thalmor Justicer stumbled back and before he could react his vision was met by Gentu pointing the barrel directly at his head and pulling the trigger at point blank range as the metal ball went clean through leaving a hole where his face was or rather what was left of it.

As the dominion enforcer collapsed to his knees and slumping limply to the ground as Gentu stepped on the Dominion enforcers corpse before addressing the other high elf supremacists. "Hope you all enjoyed the demonstration, because none of you will be leaving here alive, attack!" Gentu ordered as Zed rapid fired arrows from zephyr wiping out two of Thalmor soldier grunts in rapid succession like a trained sharp shooter leaving five grunts, the one in the light elven armor, and the one in the glass armor. "Those worthless excuses, they bring shame to Dominion for their weakness!" The Thalmor in the glass armor shouted as he pulled skullcrusher off of his back as the one in the light elven armor pulls the light of day off her hip igniting a spell in her other hand. Zed put zephyr back on his back before pulling out his two circular dwarven war axes.

In rapid effective precision Zed single-handedly went toe to toe with the light elven armored Thalmor rapidly slashing at her abdomen with his axes as the thalmar in the light elven armor attempted to smash the small mace against Zed's head only for the ladder of the two to embed the blade of the war axe into the knee of the Thalmor soldier causing her knee to buckle as he brought the other axe down right between her eyes as his dwarven mail helmet was stained red from the blood splatter. Meanwhile Gentu was going toe to toe with the Thalmor in the glass armor who was wielding skullcrusher as the two exchanged blows from the hammers as Lianya, Vladbram, and Bowen engaged the grunts making sure none of them escaped with their lives. Lianya as the grunts backed up into the water a smile crept up on her face as she put her hand on the surface of the water before freezing it trapping their feet in the water preventing them from escaping as the ice slowly crept up their bodies freezing them solid as both Bowen and Vladbram walked over with their war hammers and begin smashing taking a sick satisfaction at the breaking glass sound they made when they shattered them. Gentu in order to throw the glass armored high elf off slammed the head of the Warhammer he had gotten from inside the ruin on the ground causing the hammer to ignite another powerful explosion of fire causing the high elf to stumble backwards as Gentu twirled the hammer in his hands turning around using the momentum from the spin before bringing the hammer upwards in a upward strike hitting the high elf on the chin with such force that it tore right through his skull leaving a hollow channel of flesh and brain matter in its wake as the corpse slumped to the ground with a sickening thud. Going through and retrieving the Warhammer skullcrusher and the mace light of day they loaded up there finds in the back of Gentu's dwarven horses trailer. After locking the trailer into place and closing it off the four mounted their horses and got ready to return back to the base before Gentu spoke back to Zed. "You want to join up with us old friend?" The dwarven armored breton asked his old friend since many of the group met him back in The Pale so it wasn't as if he was inviting a total stranger coming home with him. Zed looked up at his old friend before nodding in agreement since he didn't have a horse anymore he climbed into the back of the trailer behind Gentu's dwarven horse this way he had full visibility of the surroundings around them and could also provide cover fire if necessary. As the group of now five ride back towards the base on their horses with Zed riding in the trailer while Vladbram and Bowen ride on either side of the trailer and Lianya brought up the rear. "Hey is it really okay for me to follow you back to your base?" Zed asked which Vladbram spoke up afterwards having the same thought. "Yeah how come he gets to follow us home when we needed to meet the boss?" Vladbram asked curiously as Gentu spoke up. "Because Zed has worked with us before and he has the groups trust." Gentu said as they soon arrive at the base at the same time Sabrina, Tully, and Serana were arriving although Sabrina had a solemn look on her face. After they arrived inside of the base Zed followed close behind as they put their horses in the subterranean meadow and entered the base. As they entered Sabrina broke off from the group walking into her room but for closing the door behind her while the group of five accompanied by Serena and Tully entered the dining room where the rest of the group was all seated waiting for dinner as the smell of elegantly smoked meat was coming from the kitchen. "Hey boss look who we ran into at the dwarven ruin." Gentu said as Ebon-shi lifted his head as Zed waved which Ebon-shi rises to his feet using the walking stick and not as much but was still using it to maintain his balance as his limp was much better but he was still a little wobbly as he moved. "It's good to see you again Zed thank you for assisting them at the dwarven ruin you have my thanks." Ebon-shi said as he shook the hand of the dwarven mail armored redguard who took his helmet off as a sign of respect. "Gentu asked if I wanted to join up with you all and I would be honored if you all would have me, as he will tell you and as a few others of your group will tell you that I can more than pull my own weight in a fight, of course I don't expect you to take my word for it so allow me to prove it with my actions going forward." Zed said lowering his eyes out of respect which Ebon-shi place his hand on his shoulder. "Come on in, dinner is just about done and after we eat everyone can give their reports on the chain of events that occurred." Ebon-shi said with a gentle nod as Shadow-step went into the kitchen to let Gila know that there was another person joining them so it didn't come as a surprise. Zed took his seat next to Gentu and Lianya but decided to make themselves useful by going out and bringing stuff in from the trailer that they found in the dwarven ruins they were just in. After putting the boxes upon boxes by the door to present them to the group in the meeting after they eat and also put the weapons they uncovered down by the boxes to show along with the other stuff they found. As they returned to the table Gila brought out the large pot made from the leftover beef from the night before making sure none of the food went to waste. Zed rushed over to help carry the pot of food in and setting it on the table carefully. "Thanks, hey while you are up would you mind running in and grabbing the bowls please?" Gila asked pointing to a cabinet on the inside of the door to the kitchen on the left hand side which Zed nodded grabbing as many bowls as needed along with cups bringing them all back to the table setting them down and helping Gila pass food and drinks out. After an hour or so of eating and enjoying the camaraderie among them and all the bowls were empty Ebon-shi spoke up. "So how was everyone's respective tasks? Anything to report?" He asked in a gentle manner while taking a sip of Gila's homemade mead gently setting the glass down and crossing his fingers with his elbows on the table resting his chin on his hands. "Well we have now The White Phial in our possession courtesy of the new owner of the alchemy shop in Windhelm." Sabrina said in a solemn manner as she gently put the pure white bottle on the table. "The new owner? What happened to the elderly high elf we met?" Gentu asked as Sabrina took a few moments to compose herself before looking up to face him. "After me and his apprentice finished making the concoction needed to repair the white phial we took it up to show him and he gave a final smile before he passed away so the apprentice took over ownership of the shop and gave the white phial to me with his regards." Sabrina summarized carefully taking the white potion bottle off of the table and putting it in her bag for safekeeping as Ebon-shi along with the other members about their heads in solemn paying their respects sitting silently for a moment of silence before continuing. "Gentu how when things on your end? Did you take care of the vampire problem and did you find anything of interest in that dwarven ruin?" Asadelf asked looking up crossing her arms as Gentu started to give his report. "We made contact with the vampire coven and wiped them all out except the leader, but unlike other vampires that have that snooty attitude aside from Tully and Serana she was almost antagonistically teasing for lack of a better term then, she turned into a vampire form in the likes of which we've never seen before." This seemed to catch Serana's attention as she lifted her head looking up with a serious expression. "What did this new form look like? Was it white with wings but the arms and legs remained separate limbs?" Serena asked with a serious look in her eye as Vladbram spoke up. "Indeed that's right even I was surprised in all my years of being a vampire hunter I never seen one so powerful before." Vladbram explained as Asadelf spoke up. "Why do you ask Serana? Do you have a lead on where such power came from?" Asadelf asked before Serena went silent before speaking up again quietly. "I may have a hunch but I'll need to do some reading to be certain." Serana said as Gentu and Zedd walked over pulling the boxes over and taking out a few of the scrolls and books laying them on the table along with the weapons and other unique items they managed to retrieve the group's eyes glazing over each of them before stopping on the Arquebus. "We discovered a library of ancient dwemer knowledge including the prototype weapon that they were developing there, we also came across a new type of dwarven automaton that fires these metal balls instead of ballista bolts I think I can reverse engineer it and turn this to our advantage but for the time being I will confide myself into my workshop so I can read through them all and get to work on my other projects, I also retrieved the arm of one of the arquebus dwarven spheres so I can upgrade my dwarven arm to make it more efficient. But on our way out of the ruin we ran into a couple Thalmor two of them were wielding two more rare weapons from Morrowind, light of day, and skullcrusher" Gentu reported as the group nodded before finishing their meeting and going about doing their own separate thing. Zed followed Gentu and Yamma into the smithing room to get his dwarven mail and weapons upgraded taking off his dwarven mail revealing the face of a rather handsome redguard as Gentu and Yamma worked on the weapons and armor Zed walked into the vault and put the unique weapons inside the display cases for safekeeping carefully applying himself to make sure they were all comfortably snug in their respective places before walking out of the vault and closing the door as Gentu passed him his weapons and armor. He then led him over to Asadelf who was at her enchanting table to get his weapons and armor enchanted along with a gold ring and necklace. Asadelf carefully took his two war axes and armor before getting to work demonstrating her mastery for the enchanting art. On his dwarven mail helmet he had it enchanted with fortify archery and fortify alteration, his chest armor was enchanted with fortify stamina and fortify light armor, his gauntlets were enchanted with fortify archery and fortify one hand, his boots were enchanted with fortified carry weight and fortify stamina regeneration, and finally his gold necklace was enchanted with fortify archery and fortify one hand the same applied to the gold ring. After retrieving his items from Asadelf he gratefully thanked her for her masterful work as he had one of his twin war axes enchanted with absorb stamina and shock damage, while the other one was enchanted with soul trap and also shock damage. After that Gentu LED Zed to his new room before bidding him good night as he laid down in his new bed he put his armor and weapons on the provided mannequin and weapon racks before laying down.