Chapter 10 - Making Progress - Part 2

(In the last Chapter)

This is what my status looks like after this period of time.

(Status sheet from the previous chapter)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Both me and Gwydion were on the training grounds of Jorrvaskr's yard.

I just finished my daily archery practice issued by Aela and was about to begin my workout routine. Gwydion was...well...after seeing my use of jiu-jitsu he said 'I'm gonna make my own martial art for cats!' I thought he would give up on the first day, but he still managed to pull it off.

Said martial art is not your usual fighting style, it just centers around moving swiftly and undetected through his enemies while using alteration magic to enlarge his claws with which he made massacres one after another.

Due to our capabilities at sneaking around undetected, be it night or day, the old man issued to us most of the targets and assassination missions of the companions. We were often paired with Aela, much to Abjorn's and Skjor's dislike. She knew about this and always laughed while telling me the looks on their faces whenever they heard we were having a mission together.

I and Aela held a teacher and student relationship and she kinda grew fond of me. But it was more similar to my relation with Ria in which she was like a big sister to me and Gwydion. Yet, even knowing this didn't stop Skjor from trying to intimidate me. I still remember that day with pleasure and joy.

(Flashback. 1 week ago)

I was currently at the hall with Ria drinking after a training session when Skjor appeared snd approached us. Seeing this everyone present went silent as they knew a good drama was coming. I spotted Aela on one corner looking at him with an annoyed face, it seems she knew what he was here for.

(Skjor): "Won't you look at that? It's the 'monster boy' in flesh and blood. Been a while since I last saw you, why don't we have a friendly spar? I heard you're a student of Aela so it shouldn't be anything holding you back against me right?" Everybody almost choked at his blatant provocation. C'mon dude, can't you do it a bit less obvious?

Ria wanted to stand up for me and say something, Gwydion informed me that he could smell the same scent in her as in Aela which confirmed to us that she became a member of the circle not too long ago. I stopped her from talking by placing my hand on her shoulder and standing up to look at Skjor eye-to-eye as we were both almost the same height, standing around 1.83m.

(Nero): "Sure, let's go. It's been a while since the last time I put my 'monster' side to the test anyway." While saying this I took off the bandage over my right arm, uncovering it for everyone to see.

I wasn't lying, as lately I refrained from using the abilities of my Devil Bringer to grow stronger without the need of using it all the time and growing dependent on it. I still trained with it from time to time to not become unused to it, as totally ceasing its use would be as bad as growing dependent on it. Skjor sneered at my words but before he could taunt me anymore I spoke towards no one in particular.

(Nero): "You should keep the leash of your dog more tightly. Something could happen to him after all." Everyone stared at me in confusion as they didn't understand at whom my words were directed until that person spoke.

(Aela): "I know...It seems I grew too soft, I'll have a talk with him afterward. In the meantime, why don't you show me how much you've learned under my tutelage, Nero?" When Skjor heard who it was and what she said, he became frightened, ashamed, and finally angry because Aela was siding with me.

(Skjor): "So you're gonna side with this boy? Then I'll break him apart and you won't have a little toy anymore to play around with." This made Aela smirk in confidence. She, along with Ria and Abjorn, was the one who knew my capabilities the best and it seems she's confident that I'll win this charade.

What Skjor didn't notice as we all approached the yard was my ear-to-ear grin that would even scare away a psychopath. Why was I grinning you would ask. Well, because the members of the circle are the strongest and toughest fighters of the companions. That means I just got a tenacious punching bag for me to play around with. Skjor is really strong but he's cocky as hell, that coupled with his lack of training believing that he doesn't need it, are the only reasons that stop him from being the strongest of the companions.

(Skjor): "Alright then why don't we begin our little spar and see what the little monster is capabl-" He abruptly stopped mid-sentence and sneakily threw a straight punch at my face.

Seeing this everyone was shocked. Just how pissed off could you be to be so cowardly as to attack your opponent like that? If it were a battle to the death it would be totally understandable, but this was supposedly just a 'friendly spar'...or was it?

I managed to dodge the attack but he followed that one with a punch to the stomach that sent me back a single step. When he began rushing at me again I took a proper stand and leaned my body to the right to dodge another one of his attacks, followed to my dodge, and using my body's momentum I kicked him right in the liver when his armor gaps allowed me to do so. He fell to the ground grunting in pain while I waited for him to get up. Don't get me wrong, if he was an enemy he would be already dead as I wouldn't allow him a single moment to even breathe. But he wasn't an enemy, just a cocky dude that I was going to humiliate in front of all the companions currently present in Jorrvaskr.

(Ria): "That's more like it! What're you going to do now, you coward pussy son of a bitch?" Wow, she was completely riled up it seems.

(Nero): "Get up. This is just starting." I had already planned how I will toss him around after all.

(Gwydion): 'It seems you're enjoying yourself. Wish I were in your place to kick his ass thrice as hard.' Let me tell you that, if I hated Skjor, then Gwydion despised his existence. I don't even want to think what he would do to the poor guy. Getting his 'rear guard' magically abused would be the least that could happen.

(Skjor): "You fuckin' bastard! I'm gonna kill you and make myself a new rug with that fuckin' cat. You littl-"

(Kodlak): "NO YOU WON'T! JUST WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE!?!?" Oh shit...the leader of the pack is here to educate some naughty pups it seems.

(Aela): "Don't even try to blame Nero for what happened, it was all Skjor's doing. If necessary, I'll take the blame for it as his teacher."

(Ria): "I vouch for that. I'm also the one teaching him unarmed combat so I can take the blame too with Aela."

Having two big sisters that are among the highest rankings in our group is certainly a good feeling. It also comes with some benefits as you can see, hehehehe.

(Kodlak/Skjor/Unknown and unnecessary side characters): "...." 'Just what the hell did he do to get these two lionesses on his side!?'

(Kodlak): "It seems we have much to talk about, Skjor. I want the four of you in my study in five minutes!" He said this referring to me, Aela, Ria, and the trash.

After going to the old man's study, with Gwydion laughing all the while in front of Skjor's face, each of us gave our point of view about what happened. Seeing that he had no one on his side, Skjor was forced to admit what he did. The old man prohibited him from staying at Jorrvaskr living quarters and told him that he was lucky for not being exiled of the companions. The now-empty room was given to Ria who was the only member of the circle that didn't have a room of her own yet. She removed everything that was owned by Skjor and replaced it with her furniture and belongings.

I and Gwydion were a little sad about not being able to break at least some of his limbs. But who knows, maybe Skjor will be attacked by 2 mysterious figures clad in black in the middle of the night? As for Aela, well... she kinda broke ties with Skjor, which surprised me a little but still made us happy. Abjorn above all of us, the guy was the embodiment of joy after hearing the news when he returned from his assigned mission with Farkas to enter the circle.

(End of flashback)

While remembering those good days one of the other rookies came to us saying that the old man was calling me and Gwydion to his study. We found this weird as he only does that when we're assigned a mission, but we had one just yesterday and he doesn't like overworking the members of the group. Still, we went along with it to see what that old man wants. Once inside, he started telling us the reason.

(Kodlak): "I know you're wondering why were you called here. Well, I wanted to inform you of the test mission that was issued to your duo to enter the circle. It will take place 2 days from now and it consists of clearing a bandit-filled fortress...by yourselves. You won't be going with any other member, it'll be just the 2 of you." He said this with a serious look on his face. I guess he was waiting to see our reactions.

Contrary to his expectations we both started smiling. Why? Well, there hasn't been too much to do lately. And when there is something it will likely be boring, so the idea of a bloodbath got us railed up.

(Kodlak): ".....I'm giving this mission to you with these restrictions because I know you two aren't a normal bunch. You have the highest potential out of this batch of rookies, along with your friend Abjorn. But I know that your growth is naturally different from his, as you're two peculiar, yet different existences. I'm eager to see the power growth spurt you'll both experience, soon I hope."

After a little more details we went to walk around the city before stopping under the Eldergleam and sitting on a bench. This was one of our favorite spots in the whole city because not many people walked around it since the change in the Eldergleam that stopped blooming flowers. There, we began discussing the mission.

(Nero): "So, what kind of approach should we do? Do we go for the fast and easy silent extermination? Or do we just storm the place with spells left and right?"

(Gwydion): "Nah, those are too common and unoriginal. Let's try to be creative with this one. What do you think?" I could see the expectation and excitement in his eyes.

(Nero): "Hmm, alright. What do you suggest we do? I think we could *Whispers*..."

(Gwydion): "OHHH. And then we can use that *Whisper*..."

(Nero/Gwydion): "Hehehehe..." Losing ourselves in our devilish plans, we gave shivers to the few people that were passing by.

.

.

.

(After 2 days of waiting. In the middle of a forest at midnight)

2 figures could be seen standing on top of a tree branch that was high up. They were a young man that had black clothing with red accents and a cat that was wearing a small back cloak that covered all of his body except for the face.

(Nero): 'That fortress is the one we're looking for. Alright, you already scouted for its crucial points so let's get to it. We'll take down the archers and sentinels first, after that we'll proceed with the runes.'

(Gwydion): 'Great! I'm all excited already. I'll take the south and the east, you take care of the north and west. As for the runes, you set the lightning ones and I'll put the ones based on fire.'

After reviewing the plan one last time, we started to take action. Suddenly you could see that there were fewer sentinels and archers by the second until not even one was left. It was all done too swiftly and silently for the other bandits to take notice of it.

When we confirmed that only the bandits at the center of the yard were left, we started preparing our attacks. Gwydion prepared his signature lighting bolts and a poison rune spell that he was going to set at the middle of the bandits gathered around a campfire, specifically to the one that was telling some kind of story while being drunk. I was waiting with my main card ready to be activated along with Dyrnwyn (longsword) in my right hand, Ebony (black dagger) in my left one, and Ivory (silver dagger) being held in my mouth. I adopted a style similar to Zoro's Santoryu, though I wasn't that proficient at it, hence why I'm using it now to gain experience with it. Also, Gwydion insisted on changing its name from Santoryu to 'Three-way Sealing Of Fate: Devil's Shed Tears', demonstrating once again his amazing talent for giving badass names...we named it like that btw.

Gwydion finished his spells and gave me a nod, after which he approached the bandits and casted the rune spell from behind one of them before taking distance from the area of effect. After the rune was activated and the poison mist began spreading around I rushed in while holding my breath to start slaying enemies. Gwydion's mastery wasn't destruction magic, so for now the poison generated by the rune can only affect someone if they breathe it.

Slashing through my enemies with Gwydion casting detect-life, to differ enemies from me as we had the same life signature, and lightning bolts, we massacred all the bandits that were outside of the fortress.

(Nero): 'We're done here, partner. Let's place the runes on the spots we agreed on earlier.'

(Gwydion): 'Hell yeah! I was waiting for this moment for 2 whole days!' He likes to play around whenever the situation isn't serious.

We went around placing rune after rune for a long while. When finished, we took distance from the place, I took a normal bow that was on a weapons rack and fired an arrow to a lightning rune that laid in the middle of the fortress's yard.

That single rune was responsible for firing lightning bolts towards the other ones surrounding it, which in turn did the same, activating even more runes until they reached the fire ones. These runes began exploding all at the same time on the crucial places we previously talked about. The whole fortress was leveled to the ground and we admired our magnificent work. A certain man would've said 'Art is an explosion!!!', and I think we can totally relate to that right now.

(Nero): "Holy fuck! That was amazing."

(Gwydion): "You're right! We should do this more often man." If others were to hear this conversation they will surely run away in terror screaming about a mad man and a mad cat addicted to explosions.

Finished with the show, we were preparing to head back to Whiterun, but an ice spike product of a spell almost pierced my head and ended up embedded on a tree when we were walking out of the forest. We looked in the direction it came from and saw 3 figures clad in black and red armor with red glowing eyes and skin colors that ranged from pale white to dark gray. They were vampires! And judging from their clothes, they weren't normal grunts.

(Gwydion): 'I suspect the 2 at the back to be Blooded Vampires and the one at the front is probably a Mistwalker.'

(Nero): 'There are 2 more trying to surround us with a third one up in that tree over there.'

(Gwydion): 'They're probably the same as the ones we got in front of us. Man, this night is getting better by the second. What do you say, do we take one group each?'

(Nero): 'Sure. Might as well bet something while we're at it. How about an item of his choosing for the winner, and the loser pays for it?'

(Gwydion): 'I like how that sounds. Then the first one to finish his group wins. It seems they're about to take action too, so let's start. 1...'

(Nero): '2...'

(Nero/Gwydion): "THREE!" Our enemies were slightly startled by our sudden shout that made no sense to them. The most experienced ones recovered from it and made some distance between us, but the 'young ones were either killed or seriously injured by my blades and Gwydion's spells.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Nero's POV)

I approached my two remaining targets and began a flurry of attacks against the Mistwalker Vampire, as the Blooded one was already injured and lying on the ground screaming after losing an arm and a leg. He could still use spells but it's not like that's going to work against me anyway, my practice with Gwydion to know how to fight a mage really paid off.

The Mistwalkers can use various spells: Frost Cloak, Ice Spike, Invisibility, Reanimate Corpse, and Vampiric Drain. This one decided to use Ice Spike and Vampiric Drain to fight me. I grew used to dodge blows and spells instead of blocking them while training with Aela, Ria, and Gwydion, so the Ice Spike wasn't a problem, yet the Vampiric Drain was, as it can be dodged but it's extremely hard to do so. I wanted to join the Dawnguard anyway so this will serve as a really good practice I guess.

We were both engaged in a heated battle where it proved to be hard for me to catch the fucker as he was always running while throwing spells, and with him draining my life force I knew a battle of attrition wasn't an option. I used my Devil Bringer's strength to throw Ebony at him and it struck him on his right shoulder, making him flinch and slow down for a single second, yet that was all I needed. When he noticed that running wasn't possible anymore he casted a Reanimate Corpse on the vampire that died at the beginning and shouted at the one remaining to give him support, I guess leaving him alive wasn't the best option in the end.

I pulled out one card from my deck that stored the Ice Spike spell and added my main card's effect. With these, my magic armor gained an extra resistance against frost that will prove useful in this situation.

With a new source of confidence, I lunged at my enemy to take him out before the other 2 could help. It all happened in a mere 3 seconds. His zombie never managed to reach me so it was useless. His companion casted an Ice Spike spell at my back. My target the Mistwalker was trying to retaliate after reanimating his dead companion but it was too late. I slashed at his left hand which was prepared for casting a spell before pulling him over to me and using his body as a meat shield against the Ice Spike that pierced his right chest. Of course, that wouldn't kill him and I knew it, so I made sure by cutting off his head and remaining limbs. 'If you somehow survive you'll be as useless as a certain pink-haired female ninja.'

The only one left was the half-crippled guy who was just looking at me in fear by now. Putting an end to his misery I turned to look at Gwydion who was standing on a tree branch lazily watching the fight take place.

(Nero): "...When did you finish?"

(Gwydion): "Before you started your game of tag with the Mistwalker" Wtf! That fucker finished his fight in mere seconds!? Just how did he...

My thought was interrupted by the sight of 3 completely burnt corpses laying on the ground.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Gwydion's POV)

(Useless bloodsucker): "So you managed to spot us even when we were hiding, the surprise of finding one of the rare Alfiq's just grew stronger with that. So, how abou-"

He couldn't finish his sentence as he stepped on a fire rune that I had placed while arranging the bet with Nero. My idiot partner never said something about when it started, so I made preparations. Just like in the fortress the rune activated a chain reaction that engulfed this part of the forest in a sea of raging fire. It wasn't even able to spread as it only left charcoal-colored trees around with a little addition of 3 vampire corpses. I turned away and began to go into Nero's fight direction. I can already imagine the look on his face, oh, it seems he's chasing the Mistwalker, looks like some game of cat and mouse...

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Back to Nero's POV)

(Nero): "....."

(Gwydion): "Well partner, I'll think about what I want when we reach home. It's been a fun night and we need to end it with food and drinks for it to be a great memory. We're also getting promoted so let's drink till we faint tonight!" He didn't drink alcohol, but he's used to drinking cat wine which is some sort of delicacy coming from Elsweyr that barely contains alcohol and makes cats feel something akin to being drunk/high.

(Nero): ".....Alright, let's go." We continued our travel back to Whiterun where the old man along with all of the circle's members were waiting for us to have the ceremony as the last formality before accepting us as official members of their inner group.

.

.

.

After waking up laying on the floor and noticing all the other members still asleep each in a position weirder than the previous one I realized that getting used to this sight was...unexpected, I guess? Anyways, remember when I talked about a plan for enchanting my gear? Well, I'm gonna do that today so let's get going.

(Nero): 'Hey bro, I'm gonna meet up with Farengar. You coming?'

(Gwydion): 'Ughh, Fuck, I feel like my brain melted. Just how much did I drink last night? If by meeting up you mean blackmailing him into doing something then I'll pass. I doubt my body has any functionality right now.' (Nero and Gwydion are currently in a relationship of kinda like brothers or best buddies)

After dropping him in our new private bedroom I headed towards Dragonsreach to meet my 'friend' Farengar. Well, it's more like one of our fun and pranking resources provider as the guy is so dedicated to his work that whenever he asked something of us, we would ask for favors as our reward and he always agreed. Lately, he's been cautious around us to not fall for our schemes anymore but the guy's brilliant mind is only related to magic and nothing else, meaning he lacks in any other department. Reaching his lab I made my presence known in my favorite way.

(Nero): "Hey Garen-Fart, when the fuck are you going to respect our deals!?!?" Every time either me or Gwydion came to ask something of him we would shout things that made him look bad in front of the Jarl's visitors just to have a laugh, Balgruuf even participated sometimes, he's a really chill guy.

(Farengar): "You!!! Arghhh, what do you want now!? Are you going to change my potions contents again?" Oh man, that was a good one. Seeing Nazeem ask for a cure disease potion just to have his tongue burned to ashes was absolutely hilarious and I'm sure it made many people joyous knowing that the guy couldn't talk anymore. Fuck you Nazeem, I visit the cloud district all the time!

(Nero): "Calm down, I'm not here to play with you today. You know very well how many things you owe me, so what would you think if I let you repay all of them by doing one simple thing?" I said this with a smile that would make the Devil himself proud of me...wait I'm a Devil, aren't I? Well, I'm proud of myself then

(Farengar): ".....You're not trying to scam me again, right? I still remember the last time I bought giant toes from you, just to find that they were potatoes altered with illusion magic the day after! I've even developed the habit of checking everything with alteration magic to detect any sort of trickery." Ohhh, another masterpiece orchestrated by Me and Gwydion. Even Irileth had to restraint a chuckle from escaping her mouth at that one.

(Nero): "Don't worry, I'm here to..." I explained to him my purpose for coming here and he eagerly accepted knowing that all the favors he owes me will be gone. Yet I didn't say anything about future ones, or what he owes to Gwydion for that matter, hehehehe.

When we got to it he asked me what enchantments I had in mind, and considering that his soul gems stock was depleting we had the options of 2 grand soul gems and 1 greater one, the others were all common and lesser. I entered into a dilemma. Do I enchant my 2 daggers with the best soul gems? Or maybe my sword and clothes? After deliberating for a while I reached the conclusion that my magic armor was enough for now, and my fighting style centered on all of my three weapons, so we ended up going with this configuration: Ebony & Ivory (Grand Soul Gems)/Dyrnwyn (Greater Soul Gem)/Clothes (Head, Chest, Bracers/Arms, Pants, boots. Seriously enchanting a whole mage robe with only one enchantment? Who was the genius behind that and what did he/she smoke to get that 'amazing' reasoning) (Common Soul Gems).

(He'll be able to upgrade these enchantments by using double of the originally required ingredients. For example: to upgrade Dyrnwyn he'll need 2 grand soul gems.)

The enchantments I decided to give them were the following ones: -Ebony & Ivory got the same. 25% chance of triggering Chaos Elemental Damage (Frost, Fire, and Lightning) and 25% chance of Stealing Life Force with every hit. (I got rid of the specific damage points along with Health and Stamina. The damage will depend on the wielder's strengths and capabilities.)

-Dyrnwyn got a 30% chance of triggering Fire Damage and a 10% chance of triggering Poison Damage. Farengar told me the last one was a lost enchantment that was recently rediscovered so he wasn't able to put too much force into it.

-My clothes got Minor Fortify Unarmed and One-Handed Weapons (Bracers/Arms), Minor Resistance against Magic and Poison (Chest and Pants), Minor Fortify Sneak, and Pickpocket (Boots), and lastly Minor Fortify Archery and Alchemy (Head).

With my new enchanted gear, I waved goodbye to Farengar, who just scoffed me off, and returned to Jorrvaskr to begin my daily routine. That way I spent the following days until the time for my detrimental status effect to be gone was over...

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter word count: 4571