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Arc 8 Chapter CXXXIV: Unrelenting Advance
🕑 Added 2025-05-24 20:02:28 +0000 UTCAn: Added an entire scene to the last chapter (at the beginning) to expand on things a bit.
Quick reminder that we also have a discord server if you feel like yapping at some point or another (if it doesn't automatically give you a role yeet a message at me on patreon so I can correct that)
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General Tolindir of the Aldmeri Dominion was truly feeling his years as he was once more treated to the sight of an approaching imperial legion cresting the horizon, their prompt cadence and swaying banners like thunder in his ears.
A fact he did his utmost to conceal from any who may be watching.
"General" His replacement aide greeted "The reinforcements from your mainland have settled in well. Khajiit was told by the Justiciars to forward their compliments on your preparations."
"Thank you, Val'fiq, you are dismissed." He waved him off without facing him, the cat man stalking away as he was told a hesitant moment later "Why are you still he-"
The Altmer stopped in his tracks, feeling his disquiet growing, he scanned the tent only to find that he was completely alone. He let out a harsh exhale 'Ja'razir would have stayed' He rationalized to himself 'I am just far too used to it, must be.'
Damn it, but he missed his best friend.
Not even all the odd respect and praise heaped upon him by his superiors seemed to be able to quench that particular wound. Oblivion, it only served to make it worse!
And his growing paranoia did not help matters at all.
What had he done but flee twice over? Only delaying his enemy and buying time, hoping against hope that the other fronts might see some progress as they were not fighting literal dragons while he scurried away like a damned coward.
He shook his head and straightened his back, there was no use in wallowing in his failings. He had stood his ground when the move was wise, made the enemy pay in blood despite his defeat, and retreated to preserve their lives when standing his ground proved foolish.
He scoffed "Yes, how valiant!" He chuckled as he looked down from his tower atop the city of Corinthe "Reduced to thanking my lucky stars that I have any army remaining at all."
Images flashed through his mind, of all the glories of the previous war, of following his predecessor and learning from her as she cut through the plans of the rotten Tamriel and won victory after victory for their people...
What would she think of him now?
'Not much I suspect, given her state' Tolindir curled his fingers angrily 'Murdered by some coward in the heart of Alinor itself. So much for a happy retirement...'
He stared out to the desert that gave way to the savannah of Elsweyr's south for a while longer, observing patiently as the legion rose walls around their encampment and the foul dragons found roosts on each hill and outcropping of rock they could find.
Once more rendering any kind of offensive utterly useless.
"No" He whispered, and that whisper carried more will than any of his orders in the past month "No." He repeated "I refuse to let fear and despair rule me. I am a General of Alinor! And we have weathered far worse than this mere setback!"
-----
Minthara Septim lounged atop the back of the big cat she had 'borrowed' from her disgruntled Battlemage, sipping on a mug of mead as her officers bickered amongst each other on how to best assault the penultimate bastion of Dominion influence in Elsweyr.
Their previous successes had, counter to her expectations, not endeared themselves greatly in the hearts of most of her officers, as the eternal thirst for glory in most men was left untempered by great loss.
This left the trio of imperial generals under her feeling rather disgruntled with their personal lack of accomplishments.
Not a terribly logical thing, of that much she was certain, but emotions rarely conformed to logic anyways.
General Julius was currently trying to halfway sneakily petition that she hold back in the upcoming battle, desiring glory for his men, while on the other end was the newly promoted General Rikke, ever focused on doing her job to the best of her ability, and thus calling for a proven and methodical approach.
A downright antithetical situation for the usual dynamic between Nords and their southern cousins, but such was the discipline of Solitude's own legend.
"Our enemy has gathered the last of their strength atop those walls" The Nord woman declared "Your desire to 'show our dominance' is a-" She visibly forced herself from telling him exactly what was on her mind and settled on a more mild "We need to preserve our strength for when the enemy inevitably makes their move. Or have you forgotten that even if Dagoth cleans up Valenwood with no issue, we still need to actually invade Alinor?"
"Please do not misunderstand, my fair lady" Julius Gracchus nearly gulped under her stern glare "I wish to throw our men to their deaths no more than you or anyone else, but neither do I wish to have them chase after the enemy when we could put them down here and now."
'A bit of an adaptation from his previous argument' Minthara mused internally, keeping her emerging smirk from showing 'Best go with that before they start truly bitching at me' "I find myself in agreement with Julius."
Her sudden statement seemed to surprise both the Imperials and the Nord most of all "Your Highness, I-" Rikke began with a frown but Minthara's raised hand stopped her.
"I know you prefer caution to unnecessary risks, but think on the merits of Julius' plan" She stood up from her seat, the big cat glaring at her back even as it still refused to show its claws "We outnumber the enemy nearly two to one, and their mages are unable to truly challenge me or my dragons. They are all gathered in one place, and for once they have no convenient retreat path pre-prepared waiting for them."
"I would not rely on that overmuch." General Commodus interjected "Our enemy has shown himself to be a wily one, and while our victories are unquestioned, we have still bled thousands of casualties." He grunted "An inspiring number, all things considered, but a considerable one non the less."
"An inevitability on this scale of conflict." Minthara pointed out, wisely discarding the thoughts on those fallen in her name that sprung up "But I do not speak on a whim." She went on "Esbern, inform the good soldiers what you learned from Delphine, if you will?"
The aged Blade stepped out of one of the tent's corners, bowed, and cleared his throat "As you are all aware, my colleague infiltrated the city days before our approach, she was able to contact me only a few hours back but what she found was promising."
All the Generals felt their curiosity grow.
"General Tolindir, as we know, is a wise and seasoned soldier" Esbern explained "But his constant retreats have cost the Thalmor too much, and they have sent a full legion from Alinor to replenish his numbers, alongside a considerable detachment of Khajiit from Senchal."
"Do get to the point, Blade" General Darius grumbled "We are well aware of the enemy's strengths."
The old man directed the officer with an offended glare but seeing the others also looking at him expectantly, he acquiesced "The Thalmor agents sent to 'support' our foe have been singing his praises openly for everyone to hear, declaring his unwillingness to keep retreating without so much as bothering to attend a strategy meeting. Something that is understandably placing many expectations on him."
"They seek to make him stand his ground and bleed us." Julius smirked "How utterly devious of them."
"Bastard snakes, one and all" Rikke scoffed "The least they could do is not dishonor their own as they do others but I guess that is what you can expect from Thalmor."
"Whether the Thalmor are bastards or not is not the point" Minthara chose to speak up again "We are already well aware of the answer to that question" Cue agreeing noises "The actual point of this information is that the enemy is going to be digging in and finally facing us in truth."
"And how will this help us?" Darius pressed.
Holding back a frown, Minthara patiently answered "Oh it will probably make things a lot more difficult for us, but it will also mean they will not be fleeing on the first sign of defeat."
"Meaning we can finally deal the decisive blow we have all been waiting for!" Julius spread his arms in elation "Taking the rest of Elsweyr will be but a stroll."
"Exactly" Minthara nodded and stepped up to the war table "Which is why I have come up with a plan to ensure none of them will be able to flee."
------
(Three days later)
The city crumbled and burned around her as she smashed her hammer through the Altmer's ward, the spell detonating with immense force as the ancient mage attempted to flee, only to falter as her dragon aspect enhanced gauntlet slipped around his neck.
He barely had the time to let out a panicked yelp as she crushed his spine, and activated one of Vahlok's scrolls to sever the soul's connection with its pseudo-phylactery back on Alinor, granting the screaming elf a permanent death and ignoring his suicide attack like it was nothing.
Speaking of the Jailor of old, she turned to find him pulling out the daedric sword he had claimed by right of conquest from the neck of another elder mage, each and every twitch of his desiccated hand ensuring as much blood as possible was spilled by the execution.
That he did it to both honor her and his foe by turning them into a proper sacrifice was almost flattering, in a supremely morbid kind of way.
The bellow of "Sovengarde!" from one of her bannermen swiftly drew her back to the battlefield, just in time to see the greataxe wielding Nord crash into the elven formation guarding the way to the city palace-
Or what was left of it after her own fight with the Thalmor mages at least.
-completely ignoring all the magic they threw at him and butchering half a dozen of them before Skirnir and the rest of her guard reached him, saving him from a death by a hundred cuts even as the fool grinned widely as his foe broke before him.
"Bloody madmen" Minthara shook her head, but failed to keep a similar expression from overtaking her own face as she walked up to the brotherhood of warriors, all of whom immediately cheered her victory.
"We can break out the mead later!" She called out and faced the final bastion of the foe "First we finish this."
Before she could continue, her instincts suddenly screamed at her, the warning coming just in time for her to command the stone surrounding her to protect her as dozens of ballistae bolts ripped through the nearby buildings, joined immediately by a cascading explosion below her.
-
Tolindir glared at the cloud of dust his rallied soldiers stood against, tired thoughts racing as he prepared for what was to come.
He had done his utmost to stop the unrelenting advance of the Empire but even with reinforcements, his brave soldiers were still outnumbered and outmatched.
Whether it be through outmaneuvering, superior artillery, superior champions, or even as hard as it was to admit, superior mages, his subordinates were always inevitably ground to dust as the imperial command almost seemed to read each other's minds and send reinforcements to any position that faltered before it could be exploited.
And that was without mentioning the fatigue building up on his side of the battlefield. No matter how many of the humans lay slain on the battlefield, they only seemed to grow more and more determined to end as many elves and Khajiit as possible, the Nords and Imperials merely contenting themselves with simple killing while the Redguards seemed to compete amongst each other on who could commit a greater affront to the gods with the bodies of the fallen.
Still, Tolindir found that he still felt some satisfaction, he had after all orchestrated the slaying of nearly an entire legion during the siege, and could face his ancestors with pride 'The enemy is led by a demigod after all.' He reminded himself 'One I will now have to face.'
The moment the thought occurred to him, he felt the familiar weight settle on the world around him, his bravest soldiers simply falling lifelessly onto the ground as a jumbled string of words came from the dust cloud and drained them of their very lifeforce.
Tolindir's armor protected him from instant death, but his men were nowhere near as lucky, as he swiftly realized he was well and truly alone among the living.
A chill went down his spine as he saw the cloud of dust clear up.
-
"Died once" Minthara heard behind her "Not doing it again."
She gave Skirnir a quizzical look but the Stormcloak merely kept grumbling without noticing her gaze, contenting himself with checking for the dead and dying amongst the bannermen she had just healed.
Shaking her head, she directed her gaze away from the pile of groaning warriors, and ignored the mightily irritated Vahlok who was uselessly smoothing out his singed robes, and towards the orchestrator of her ambush.
"General Tolindir, I presume?" She spoke out as she approached the elf "You've led us all on a rather merry little chase, haven't you?"
The elf unsheathed his sword "You will fall, Septim. One way or another."
"Oh please" She chuckled, summoning back her hammer "Not even you believe that."
He took a stance "We shall see."
"Not going to try and surrender?" She tilted her head "Your cat friend told me you were wiser than that."
"He lives then?" The elf asked, voice somehow even more resolved than before "Good."
The future Empress merely stood and waited.
General Tolindir faltered, but only for a moment "I've had enough of running." He declared, and took a step forward.
"Honorable." Minthara nodded "Foolish, but honorable."
And in a blink, the crumbling stones of the plaza were painted red.
------
The air within the conquered palace was dour as the officers of the legion gave their reports, listing through the thousands of casualties in both dead and crippled that their army had suffered in the offensive.
Twenty two thousand soldiers from all four legions and auxiliary troops.
Just over a full fifth of their initial strength...
A downright paltry number when compared by the sheer number of enemies they had slain and captured, but still far too many to truly consider.
Minthara found the usual pride she held in her victories had abandoned her as she felt her kin hunt down any Dominion soldier that fled the city, the dragons hungrily devouring any of the elves and cat men that had potentially had a hand in their felling throughout the campaign as they covered every potential retreat path.
She practically ignored Julius as he directed his Quartermaster to begin listing the damages to the city's infrastructure and the time it would take for the legion to recover and be ready to march out again as one.
Not that they would need to move in force anytime soon for Elsweyr lay broken below their feet with no doubters left to declare otherwise.
If only her victory was not so marred by the truth of warfare...
She almost ripped the artifact to pieces as she felt her Orbβ’ pulsate with the telltale aura of a message, grabbing onto it for dear life and thanking her divine parent for the distraction
She barely managed to contain a snort as she saw yet another example of Reyvin's ridiculous naming sense.
Could it be that this was how he coped with so much death? She wondered.
[Tamriel 2 Reunification Boogaloo]
[Restitutor Orbis: We have a situation.]
...That Titus actually bothered using his own Orbβ’ made her sense of relief curl up and die in a corner.
Reyvin's response came a moment later.
[Big D: What is it? Please don't tell me the fuckers bullrushed Anvil.]
[Restitutor Orbis: ...I will have to send word to have that checked as well, but no. It would appear your information on the Maormer is outdated.]
[Big D: ...]
[Big D: Don't fucking tell me-]
[Restitutor Orbis: They just sacked Leyawiin and are halfway to Bravil.]
[Big D: .....]
[Big D: MOTHER FUCKER!]
Despite the situation, and all its implications, Minthara couldn't help but let out a very unladylike snort at that.
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An: I wanted to push both the fall of Elsweyr and the fleet burning into this one but the yap got me while I was writing the intro and I felt like giving Tolindir a fitting finale as I've grown to like the knife eared fuck.
Rest in pieces, you poor golden boi.
I also didn't want to go too deep into the action between Minnie and her band against the enemy elites as I've already showcased that quite thoroughly in Riverhold.
For that we are going to have to wait for what I have cooking over in Valenwood.
Also, I do hope I am not overdoing it with the flashbacks, am I?
Comments
Hakkira
Thank you kindly for the chapter π
StarlightGhoul
Marvelous. Simply Marvelous. Thank you for the chapters!
