Wolf-Fight

Inside the Crypt the duo ran into many more vampires. It seemed that the ones Saeko killed earlier were messengers or something along those lines, as they'd already begun setting up defences inside the place.

They were defeated pretty easily however, even without Saeko present to slaughter the unfortunate blood-suckers, Michael was able to handily defeat these creatures even when he'd just arrived in Tamriel... Now it wasn't even a fair fight, their unnatural speed looked like slow-motion in his eyes, and their spells only served to feed Derflinger.

The only negative to all of this was the fact that he couldn't absorb any souls from them since Molag Bal held them tightly. Still, his experience gain was another matter entirely, an army of vampires granted far more than an army of mortals.

The raid might have been more difficult if the vampires could summon being from Oblivion but, the Veil of Akatosh prevented any notion of that.

A couple hundred thralls, lesser and higher vampires later Michael and Saeko finally stepped out into a large cavern overlooking the area where Serana's tomb should be.

"Head's up, vampires below us." Saeko states, gesturing to the platform below them where a group of the red-eyed creatures seemed to be discussing something.

"I'm telling you, Vivente! The lock won't accept anyone with the gift of Molag Bal!" a vampire growls as he throws his hands up in exasperation.

"Then drag a mortal here at once!"

"We tried that already! They have to give their blood willingly and uncoerced! Even our thralls are unable to open it! Lady Valerica has clearly planned this thoroughly!"

"Then what is your recommendation then, Thaleric?"

"Draw the vampire hunters here and have them stumble into it! That would surely work! I suggest we burn that Hall of the Vigilant and await their arrival!"

...

"Very well, go forth and-"

*SLIIIICK!*

The vampire's words are cut off as his head drops to the floor independently of his body. "Go forth and prosper!" Michael jokes as he kicks the corpse over and readies Derflinger.

"What kind of battle cry is that, partner!? We're killing them, not wishing them well!" the sentient sword confusedly exclaims.

He shrugs, "Semantics, they're vampires, killing them is wishing them well."

"HOW DARE YOU-" Thaleric the now headless vampire starts as Saeko appears behind him. Yeah, these vampire's stood no chance.

"That all of them deal with?" he inquires and she nods.

"Maybe we should move to another world? Other than the Dragons and Daedric Princes I think we're running out of opponents..." she offers.

"Nah... I've put too much work into making this place livable, maybe we'll visit some place for a vacation, but not permanently." he says before making his way across the bridge and towards the blood-covered pedestal.

"So... You put your hand there and a spike comes out?"

Michael nods, "Yeah, let's just hope the vampire that used it before didn't have Herpes or something... If I can even contract diseases anymore...?"

*Shiik!*

The spike pierces his hand and the pedestal glows brightly, signalling its activation. A stupidly easy puzzle later, and Serana's tomb was rising from the ground. Its lid lowered, revealing the pale-skinned beauty within, along with the Elder Scroll on her back.

"Ugh..." she groans and palms her face as she awakens from her 'rather long' nap.

Michael extends his hand and telekinetically wrenches the Elder Scroll from her back, the powerful golden artifact slipping into his grasp as Serana scrambles to recover from her stasis. "I'll be keeping hold of this for now." he states and is somewhat surprised as it slides into his inventory with no problems.

From what he knew, these things were essentially the 'Akashic Records' of Aurbis, though, this was only a personal conjecture from everything he'd learned thus far. His ability to store it meant that either they weren't as powerful as he thought, or the Dead God was far stronger than expected.

Serana shakes her head before grabbing the side of her tomb and pulling herself out, stumbling towards Michael with a fierce glare, "Give that back, NOW!"

"Give what back?" he asks, raising his hands to show his empty palms.

"... The scroll, it's not yours to take! Give. It. Back!" she growls and attempts to grab Michael but has her wrist locked in place by Saeko.

"Speaking of touching what's not yours... Keep your hands off of my man." she threatens.

"Your man? Pretty sure we haven't sealed the deal yet..." Michael teases and takes great satisfaction in her struggling not to react.

Serana ignores the byplay however, "You don't understand! You need to give it back!" she growls as spells light up in her hands.

Saeko readies her own weapon, "Try it."

"Serana, yes I know your name, we're actually here to help, so why don't you calm your tits so we can discuss your evil-bat-daddy?"

"Don't speak of him like that!" she exclaims, firing a lightning bolt at him, which he deftly intercepts with Derflinger.

"That's it, that arm, I'm taking!" Saeko states as she dashes forwards with Sukue, slashing down on Serana's extended hand.

*SLICE!*

The arm is cut from her mid-bicep and flies off somewhere as Serana lets out a shriek of pain, and in retaliation, she fires yet another lightning bolt, this time at Saeko.

*CRAC-KOW!*

"Shunt!" Saeko intones, slashes her blade to the side which causes the spell to hit the ground some distance away. When she looks back up however she spots Serana's rapidly regrowing arm... "What...?" none of the other vampires were able to do that!?

Serana transforms into a flock of bats and reappears on the other side of the platform to gain some distance from Saeko. She then casts some Conjuration spells at the floor to summon some minions to draw the swordsman's attention... Only to pause at nothing happening. "W-what?"

"Ah, sorry I forgot to mention! Conjuration is worthless now!" Michael shouts over to her, wondering if he should stop the battle or not... Eh, no self-respecting man would ever stop a catfight, right? All he needed now was bikinis and a shit ton of mud.