New Challengers!
A shadow crept through Dawnstar, sneaking through the town with everyone unaware of its presence. While the Blood Moon had caused many to lose or simply refuse to sleep, many had decided to wait it out in the comfort of their homes, trusting the guards patrolling the city to keep them safe.
Unfortunately for them, these people would be safer awake and roaming the streets than sleeping soundly...
The shadow picklocks the door to a family's home and walks inside, the shadows unfurling from them and revealing it to be Erandur, the corrupted priest that now served Vaermina. The priest gives no expression, nor sigh of pity or any emotion at all as he approaches the teenage son of the family, the Skull of Corruption in hand.
He slowly brings the staff down and touches the boy's forehead with the skull topping it. Causing a dark red glow to emanate from it, enveloping both Erandur and the boy.
By the time Erandur stops the procedure, all that's left of the boy is a shrivelled husk. All of his lifeforce having been siphoned away by the staff. Then, Erandur moves to the next person, the wife...
This continues for an hour or so, until the town guard finally sound the alarm, one of them finding the corpses in their beds.
Feeling thoroughly powered up, Erandur leaves Dawnstar and begins making his way towards the Shrine of Mehrune's Dagon, the infamous statue was not that far away from his current position, making it the obvious choice.
Four hours later on horseback, Erandur finally spots the statue in the distance. He says nothing and begins to climb off of the horse, only to throw himself off in the opposite direction that he'd originally intended due to a robed figure jumping out from a nearby bush with Mehrune's Razor in hand.
*NEEEEIIIGH!*
The horse gives a hoarse whinny as it feels the blade slide across its side. It doesn't last long however as the effect of the dagger takes hold. The wound suddenly blackens, and the life in the horse's eyes flitters out, causing it to drop to the ground, dead.
"O-One blow... A-as he promised..." the Champion of Mehrune's Dagon mumbles, as he looks down in worship and obsession at the blade. Though, this gives Erandur time to mount a retaliation.
The former-priest picks himself from the ground and emotionlessly jabs the Skull of Corruption at Silus Vesuius, shooting him with a dark red blast. It doesn't do anything to him physically, but the red glow incapsulates his head and causes him to start screaming.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO MORE! NO MORE! NO MORE! NO MORE! WHY!?" he roars, letting Mehrune's Razor go as he drops to his knees, becoming completely defensively as he has a mental breakdown.
Erandur listens to the pitiful man for a couple moments before pushing the Skull of Corruption to the man's forehead, causing his red, watering eyes to go blank.
The priest doesn't touch Mehrune's Razor, instead, ordering his new servant to equip it.
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Over in Markarth, a large portion of the town had been evacuated to the Dwemer ruins beneath the Understone Keep. The city was still recovering from the attack by the lone Forsworn who'd been controlling Dwemer automatons, so Jarl Igmund wasn't willing to throw away the lives of yet more of his guards.
The presence of the Blood Moon, combined with the words of the priests in the city, along with the Forsworn vampire carrying one of Molag Bal's Daedric artifacts made it clear just how dire the situation was. Igmund was assured by many that this would all end as soon as morning came but, he was not confident in that at all...
A quarter of the city's guards had already been killed by that crazed lunatic, and they hadn't even seemed to slow him down. Calcelmo had explained that the mace was likely rejuvenating the vampire with every kill, add the egregious amount of blood it feasting on and you had a recipe for what could only be called an immortal warrior.
Luckily, this person didn't seem to have any intentions of actually attacking the Keep at all. Instead electing to guard a street in the centre of the city for some reason.
And then the scouts had reported yet another threat approaches... A group of Forsworn warriors numbering around a hundred or so strong had gathered outside the gates of Markarth, looking ready to assault the city... Which was a massive problem considering that all the guards, soldiers, and civilians were inside Understone Keep, leaving the place completely undefended...
Fortunately, the Forsworn weren't the only enemy approaching... 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.', was correct in this instance... As scouts reported that the heavily armoured orcish warrior attacked the Forsworn on sight as soon as he spotted them.
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The armoured orc raised a large glowing war hammer and charged the Forsworn, shrugging off the arrows, stones, and other projectiles launched at him. And, as soon as he made it to the Forsworn's front-lines... He struck.
*BOOOOM!*
The air breaks, and earth and dust are sent flying in all directions from the sheer force with which the weapon had exerted. The unlucky Forsworn man who was first hit literally disintegrated under the attack, turning into a bloody mist while his bones, weapons and metal fragments of his armour became akin to shrapnel from a grenade, shredding his companions to ribbons.
The orc cackles ferociously as he attacks again, this time striking the ground with his war hammer, causing the earth underneath the small army to rumble and crack, causing many to lose their footing or even fall into the small fissures created by the now unstable ground.
Another few Forsworn are evaporated from existence when the orc raises Volendrung and lets out a roar, "I AM UZGARUL! CHAMPION OF MALACATH! BRING ME YOUR STRONGEST! CHALLENGE ME! SHOW ME YOUR PITIFUL STRENGTH! YOU WILL ALL KNOW MY NAME BY THE TIME I AM FINISHED WITH THIS PATHETIC LAND!"