The Gift of Akatosh - Part 6

 So I was gonna be done with Bleak Falls Barrow in this chapter, but the length got a bit out of hand. And they still don't have it. Well, next chapter will be the actual final part of Bleak Falls. Enjoy the Boss fight.

Riku stood on his tiptoes and reached up. Martin felt something settle on his head. It felt like some sort of a crown or a circlet.

“You can open your eyes now,” Riku said, stepping back a little.

Martin did and reached up to touch the thing. It definitely seemed like a circlet. He took it off just to look at it and was not surprised to, indeed, find a circlet. What did surprise him was how finely it was crafted as well as the fact it was made from ebony. One of the rarest metals on Nirn.

“Do you like it?” Riku asked.

“You know what? Yes, I do,” Martin answered and placed the circlet back onto his head.

“Should we continue?” He then nodded toward the passage where the natural cavern again changed into a man-made structure.

Riku nodded and they started walking again. It only took them two turns to reach a bigger hall. There was a lot of rubble on the ground and a pillar seemed to have fallen over. On the other side of the chamber was a doorway guarded by a Draugr that hasn’t noticed them yet.

Martin motioned for Riku to be quiet and Riku nodded, spotting the Draugr too.

Slowly, they crept forward until they reached a spot they could comfortably shoot from without being seen right away.

“You take the first shot, my bound bow is a bit too visible,” Martin whispered.

Riku nodded and nocked an arrow. Then he took aim and let it fly. It didn’t hit exactly the way Riku wanted but it was still a good solid shot to the upper torso. The Draugr staggered and let out a howl of pain. While it was distracted, Martin summoned his weapon and fired a shot of his own. This one nailed the Draugr in the neck. If it were a living being, it would have been dead on the spot, but unfortunately, the Draugr survived still. At least it was in even more pain than before. 

They both took aim again and let their arrows fly. This time, they both hit the Draugr in the head, killing it. Not even the undead can survive when the brain is destroyed.

Riku tried to retrieve his arrows, but they were both no longer usable. He hoped to find more soon. He was starting to run low on them.

 

They continued on through the doorway and found themselves in a long hallway with engravings on all the walls. To Martin, it seemed like ancient history was written there. Unfortunately, most of the engravings were destroyed by the passage of time.

An ornate door awaited them on the other side of the hallway. It was made of stone with three consecutive rings that looked like they could be turned. In the middle was a fourth ring, more of a circle really, that was made from a different material. Upon closer inspection, it looked like gold. Possibly mixed with something else. There were also three weird looking holes in the gold circle.

“Any idea on how to open it?” Riku asked.

“Hm…” Martin mused, still looking at the door.

“Are you even listening?” Riku complained.

“Of course I am,” Martin answered, ruffling his hair. “I think this is the puzzle door the bandit’s journal talked about. Do you still have that golden claw we took from him?”

“Yeah…” Riku took it out of his satchel, confused.

“May I?” Martin reached for it.

“Sure,” Riku handed it over.

Martin studied it closely, looking between the claw and the door several times.

“I think I got it,” he said after a while.

Then he started to turn the rings on the door.

“See these?” He pointed to the small engravings on the stone rings.

Riku nodded.

“They correspond to the pictures on the inside of the golden claw,” Martin explained. “We just have to turn the rings to get the correct combination and then…”

Martin turned the last ring to the correct picture – the Owl – and then inserted the claw into the middle ring. He turned it and then stepped back as the rings turned several times on their own. Then settled on a new combination and the whole doorway started to slowly sink into the ground.

 

“Shal we?” Martin motioned forward when the doorway was finished sinking.

“Yeah, hopefully, the Dragonstone will be there,” Riku agreed and they stepped forward.

The structure again changed from man-made to mostly natural. Though still with some marks left by humans or humanoids. Martin and Riku crossed a small bridge over a stream and walked up several steps to a sarcophagus and a giant chest.

While Martin was inspecting those, Riku found himself drawn toward a wall off to the side. As he got closer, his head started pounding, yet he found himself unable to stop. He reached the wall and fell to his knees. He must have blacked out for a second because Martin was suddenly yelling at him to move. Then several things happened at once.

First was the sound of stone breaking. The second was him suddenly knowing that FUS meant force. Whatever that was supposed to be. The third was the sound of Martin’s fire spell and the fourth and last was a sensation of being weightless. Then immense pain as his body slammed into stone.

 

Martin watched in horror as Riku slammed into a stone wall and gone completely limp. He knew what the Draugr did. The action unlocking something in his brain. Ancient knowledge, something that must have been done by Akatosh himself. Yet, he didn’t pay it much mind besides the fact that he needed to end this fight as fast as possible and then see to Riku.

He switched the Magnetic Flux into his left hand and drew his sword. Pouring even more Magicka into his spell, he managed to stagger the Draugr who was now focused on him instead of the unmoving form of Riku. Martin drew his sword and sprinted toward the enemy. He dodged the Draugr’s sword swing and gripped his own with both hands, channeling the spell through it. Just like Riku did with his arrows. Then he brought the weapon down in a powerful strike.

The Draugr managed to dodge most of the blow, but Martin was sporting satisfied smirk as one of the Draugr’s arms hit the floor, completely severed from the body. Unfortunately, it was not the arm holding the sword and Martin was forced to quickly get out of the way of another swing. This time, the Draugr managed to draw blood, inflicting a small wound on his upper arm.

Martin winced but worked through the pain.  And then he saw the Draugr taking a deep breath. Knowing what was coming, he dived out of the way and thanked whatever deity was listening, that Riku was on the other side and therefore out of the line of fire.

“Don’t thank me, no need,” he got an answer. From Akatosh, who else. “Just don’t use the ability you now know you have before the kid does it for the very first time. Or I get scolded big time! You weren’t supposed to know yet.”

Martin smiled and charged the Draugr again. Not wasting the precious seconds when the Draugr’s throat recuperated. Gripping his sword with both hands, Martin changed his spellcasting. His left hand still held the Magnetic Flux but his right now had a Lightning Storm. A spell that, for some reason, the Hero had a hard time mastering. And yet, Martin got it within an hour. Maybe because the Hero loved ice spells?

With both spells dancing across the blade, he twisted around the Draugr’s blade as it tried to impale Martin. Then he spun around and while the Draugr was off-balance, performed a powerful downward strike, hitting the skull and splitting it in two.

The two spells created a powerful mixture together and reduced what was left of the Draugr to ash before it even hit the floor.

For several seconds Martin just stood there, panting and feeling completely drained. Then he remembered Riku and quickly made his way to him. There was some blood pooling underneath him, but surprisingly, it wasn’t nearly as much as Martin feared. But Martin was also certain that Riku’s back would be bruised beyond belief. Hopefully, nothing would be broken.

Knowing his Magicka levels were too low right now to be of any help, Martin quickly searched through his satchel and found a small blue potion. He was sure it wouldn’t be enough, but then he also remembered that Riku should have at least two healing potions on him right now.

He took Riku’s satchel and opened it. Looking through the contents, he found what he was looking for and more. He took two out of the three potions the kid had on him and opened the first one. Gently, he tilted the kid’s head and poured some in his mouth. He then forced him to swallow it and then repeated the process until both vials were empty.

But as these were rather simple potions, he knew it wouldn’t be enough. Not even if he used the third. So instead, he uncapped the magicka potion and downed it in several large gulps. Thankfully, this one was one of the stronger ones. And Martin could feel most of his power restored.

Immediately, he let the power flow through him and activated one of the two strongest healing spells he knew. The Grand Healing. And he would have loved to have a chat with whoever came up with those names. At least Magnetic Flux sounded cool.

He channeled the healing energy to Riku and as it did its job, he could feel all the wounds closing. Soon, though, his magicka was running low again. Thankfully, the spell seemed to have done its job as Riku finally opened his eyes.

“What happened?” he asked as Martin gently helped him sit up.

“The Draugr surprised us with an ability neither of us expected him to have,” Martin explained.

“What ability? And what does FUS mean?” Riku continued to ask questions.

“Thu’um, or Dragon shouting, if you want,” Martin said. “It’s an ability to use Dovahzul, the dragon language, to unleash immense power. Like FUS, for example. You already know it means force. But, if you say it with intimate knowledge of the word and with intent to fling someone, or something, through the air, it will happen. You would unleash a shockwave that would at the very least stagger anyone in your path.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Apparently, witnessing the Thu’um for the first time from a non-dragon entity is what unlocked the knowledge. Knowledge that has been in my mind all this time, just hidden.”

“Akatosh?” Riku uttered the name with a hint of a grin.

“Yeah. Sometimes I wonder what his endgame is…” Martin replied.

“Do you think he’s possibly spending too much time with Sheogorath? The Daedric Princ of Madness?” Riku wondered.

“Possible. Or Sanguine drank him under the table and he’s still hungover.” Martin had a wide grin on his face when he said that only for it to change to wince as he felt invisible fingers pinch his cheek.

Okay, okay, I’m sorry, he told the Dragon God and heard a chuckle in response.

“Talk to you later,” Akatosh said and with a soft caress, his presence disappeared.

“What did Akatosh say?” Riku asked.

“He doesn’t like us insinuating he has a drinking problem,” Martin smiled.

“So,” Riku said with a sudden purpose. “Should we go and check out that gigantic chest? See if the stone is there?”

“Yes, we should,” Martin nodded and rose to his feet. Then he offered Riku a hand and when he took it, he pulled the kid to his feet.

 

They walked over to the chest and Riku eagerly opened it. Then he peered inside and gasped.

“Awesome!” he grinned and started to pull the loot out.

First, he tossed a huge soul gem to Martin, who caught it with no problem and stored it in his pouch. And then pulled out two finely crafted bows. One was inlaid with dark blue sapphires while the other had diamonds in it. And it glowed with an aura of an enchantment of some kind. Riku didn’t know which one though.

Martin took the enchanted bow to examine it. He took an arrow from Riku’s quiver and nocked it. Then experimentally, he pulled the string back to get the feel of the weapon. And, incidentally, the enchantment. From what he could glean from his experiment, the bow was enchanted with a soul trapping spell, but that wasn’t all. There was one more enchantment on the bow, but Martin just couldn’t tell what it was. Only that it was an offensive enchantment.

“You should keep it,” Riku said as he looked up from inspecting the other bow. “I think it suits you.”

“Are you sure you don’t want it?” Martin had to ask.

“I think I prefer this one, he tapped the Sapphire bow. And if I want to enchant it later, I’m sure you would be willing to show me how. Right?” Riku answered and then took his old bow and placed it in the now empty chest.

“Alright,” Martin conceded and slung the bow on his back. “But now I’ll have to get some arrows…”

“Or you could tweak that bow spell of yours, summon only the arrows?” Riku suggested.

“Worth a try, but not something I want to experiment with right now. I’ll stick to the bound bow until I can find enough arrows for myself,” Martin decided.

“And we still don’t have that rock…” Riku suddenly grumbled.

Martin looked into the chest, but there was nothing else in there, only the longbow Riku placed in there. He looked around for possible other hiding places and his eyes landed on the sarcophagus the Draugr rose out of.

“Let’s try looking there,” he pointed to it and they both moved to see if there was anything in there.