Breedom

To Michael's surprise, Saeko joins the group and begins living in the Spire, seemingly dropping the subject of getting together with him completely... Or at least, that's how she was presenting herself.

Without the sudden bout of fighting between her and Tiffania, the two began doing many things together. Saeko even beginning to teach Tiffania about things from her homeland, cooking, traditions, even basic etiquette. Sure, they verbally sparred occasionally, but those times were complete outliers...

Saeko also got on well with the Eredar in Winterhold, her sense of honour matching with theirs without much issue. Not to mention her many stories of Hammerfell that the alien-folk liked to listen to, trading their own after each one.

Michael actually got the opportunity to spar with her relatively often, the duo comparing their combat styles against one another... He was victorious most of the time of course, as even with her rather broken abilities with the sword he was simply too versatile.

The only times he truly lost were when he limited himself to swordsmanship, for sure, she was above the basic swordsmanship master tier. Additionally, she had never used her Shehai against him, or indeed, used it at all after facing the dragon.

She said it was more a matter of will to summon it than anything else, but Michael was pretty sure she was just saying that to save her from the embarrassment.

A couple weeks had passed since the revelation of the Dragonborn, and news about him had spread all over Skyrim. Every available Hold had sent letters to invite him to their service, offering huge payments to have him protect their lands from the dragon threat that'd destroyed Dawnstar not that long ago.

From what Michael could tell, the Dragonborn had ignored most of these, instead electing to journey to the Greybeards to learn how to utilise his talents. A smart idea considering the fact that Saeko had to do most of the damage to the last dragon he'd faced.

He probably wouldn't meet Paarthurnax or Illococoo anytime soon, but it was definitely something to think about. Whether or not the Dragonborn would be against Paarthurnax, or would feel the need to kill Illococoo because of her race.

The dragons themselves hadn't been idle, a few working in concert had massacred some Imperial reinforcements that'd tried coming over the border, drastically reducing the amount of men the Legion could muster... The dragons might have accidentally pushed Ulfric into a position to win, which, when take into account the Dragonborn's Stormcloak affiliation, makes everything seem like a giant clusterfuck.

Michael himself had continued to work on figuring out the Skeleton Key with Shadow Shaman's help... Not that he'd made much progress on that front, while the connection to Nocturnal was heavily reduced, she was still linked to her artifact to some degree, making any attempts to actually use it practically suicide... There was also the risk of her unlocking a pathway into Tamriel with it, which could technically bypass Akatosh's Veil completely.

With that avenue of research not leading anywhere any time soon, he'd instead starting searching for Clavicus Vile's artifacts... Unfortunately, he'd found little to nothing in the way of information. The only thing of note was some gambling house in Cyrodil that had a golden statue of Clavicus Vile prominently standing in the centre of it.

This wouldn't be all that strange since many places had similar shrines, if it weren't for the fact that this gambling house in particular had all chance lean in favour of the house... Or, those who possessed jewellery dedicated to Clavicus.

He'd need more information on it of course, but he was seventy percent sure that he'd found one of the artifacts he was looking for, but he'd leave it for now... Going venturing in Cyrodil while dragons are tearing shit up would be a dumb idea...

*Crreeaaa*

Michael looks towards the door from the bean bag is was laying in, spotting a blood-covered Saeko making her way to the bathroom... "Er, what?" he asks, wondering what this girl had done now?

Saeko shrugs, "A group of Imperials and Dunmer decided they didn't like our home. I decided I didn't like them." she casually remarks.

...

"Again? How many desperate fucking Conjurers are there!?" Michael grouses while rubbing his forehead. This was the third attack since the Spire had been built, and he was still expecting many more to come.

Saeko goes to clean herself off, leaving Michael to laze about playing the single-player games he'd acquired. Boredom quickly making itself a nuisance.

"Michael, are you even trying?" Megumin asks after she kills his afk character in the fighting game.

...

"Fuck it! Let's go kill some dragons, I'm bored enough as it is!" he exclaims, grabbing the explosion girl, the freshly cleaned Saeko, and Tiffania before heading out towards the nearest mountain range that may or may not have a dragon atop it.

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"This is what, the fifth mountain we've checked?... Can we go home yet?" Megumin asks under her layers of fur clothing.

Michael shakes his head, "No, not until we've killed some dragons..."

...

"But-"

"No buts!"

...

Three hours and two more mountains later, the group finally stumbles across something... Or somethings to be precise. Over in they could see two dragons sitting by one another, seemingly having an ordinary everyday discussion... Which was made unordinary since they were both big flying lizards.

"Finally!... Alright, you guys know the drill. Megumin, Tiff, start casting your spells. Me and Saeko will head in after."

The group nods, and not long after two explosions echo out around the region, one much larger than the other.

Michael and Saeko run in next, quickly noting that one dragon had already been obliterated, having been struck by both Megumi and Tiffania's spells simultaneously. The other dragon was still alive, albeit blacked with soot.

"HOW YOU DARE, INSECTS!" the dragon roars in a rage but isn't able to continue its rant as Michael and Saeko dart to each of its sides before beginning their attack...