Dragonborn Saga

Chapter 728: Sloth (2)

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Was Jon ready to face this one? He can't really say there is anything ever ready… for THAT.

That was a new kind of insanity even for him.

He faced dragons and many monsters and mortals that could do things unbelievable but nothing was anywhere close to this one. It was simply too one-sided at this point.

But despite everything, Jon felt something he couldn't feel in a long time.

He was exhilarated!

This fight was everything he wished for.

Jon Dare and the Six Sins against one of the strongest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Karstaag.

***

The day began with Jon taking a map and walking from the Skaal Village to the northern wastes of Solstheim. He was searching for a certain cave which he had to call many familiars in order to find. It was a certain glacial cave filled with all manner of Rieklings, the snow goblinoids that inhabit Solstheim.

Once Jon found the cave, he raided it with a few Flame Atronachs along with the one he was riding and as he cleared it, he found a great skull of a Frost Giant fixed to the icy wall of the cave in what seemed to be a ceremonial location for the Rieklings to worship the owner of that great skull.

"Damn!" Jon exclaimed at the sheer size of the skull.

His memories weren't wrong about the thing's location but its size was a completely different matter altogether. The skull of a giant may indeed be gigantic compared to a human skull but Karstaag's ancient skull was the size of a human on its own. Its height alone can be measured to be 1.8 meters (6 ft in American) and its horns looked sharp and menacing.

Jon was supposed to haul that from this cave to the place he needs it to be in order to get along with his current project. For that, he had to use five Frost Atronachs to transport this skull safely.

As he took the skull with him and walked back up the mountain north of Solstheim, he started preparing all the Sin Artifacts for the big fight ahead.

He had the staff Pride in his left hand all the time and had the Wrath morphing into appearance into that of a bone saber alongside the sword Bloodskal which was dangling on his hip ready to be used any time. He was wearing Greed like a cloak and Gluttony like a sash while envy was in its minimized skull mode floating at behind and casting magic at any minor enemies. As for Lust, she was just humming and singing without doing much.

And as mentioned earlier, Jon had the sword Bloodskal on him. He was wearing his Dragonborn Helm and his armor was the Lord's Mail while wearing the reinforced Boots of the Apostle and his custom-made Mammoth Anchors as his arm bracers. As for his accessory, he was wearing his favorite Ahzidal's Ring of the Necromancy as well as Nurina's Elder Ring, the Bond of Matrimony, and the Cube all as rings. Last but not least, he was wearing Kyne's Greater token and had the Old Man's Coin in his pocket.

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So far, Jon hadn't had his entire getup in most of his recent fights including the fight against the elder vampire lord, the Nightmarshal of the Night Legion. He looked like he was about to go to fight for his life and that statement wasn't any bit wrong. In the game and in all the records of history, the mention of Karstaag and Karstaag-men was only a thing that would come in the tales of Atmoran horror.

Jon's next destination was the Castle of Karstaag, a sturdy structure built with large ice walls and unique power. This castle stood tall and gave off a great deal of might on its own accord. Jon chose to skip the caverns which led to the castle and flew right into the main courtyard.

Among the castles one may encounter, Karstaag's castle is the simplest. Four high walls, a gate, and a throne. Nothing could beat that in simplicity. The trick here is that everything is made of Ice that is apparently as eternal as the Stalhrim ice. This sort of material can't be found anywhere else on Nirn, it can't be damaged since it was built by the Karstaag-men, and it can't be replicated.

This is the sort of arena Jon has just stepped into.

At first, he met some resistance from the local Riekling, who were making themselves at home. Somehow, they defended the castle with fury and zeal but their mundane weapons wouldn't even pierce Jon's skin let alone drive him away. A spell here and another there and those pesky things were driven off quite easily.

As for the main course, Jon made sure to bring the skull with him all the way to the great throne at the end of the castle. Once he puts that skull on the throne right next to the bones that are also the remains of the giant Karstaag, Karstaag's spirit will be summoned and it is not any less dangerous than what he was at his prime.

"Wrath, hide somewhere close. Greed and Gluttony, hide in the flanks. Envy, stay back. Pride and Lust, stay close to me."

With his sins in position, Jon lifted the heavy skull and put it on the throne.

"…"

At first, it was quite… oddly quiet.

Jon made sure that the skull is resting in place but as soon as he tried to get an inch closer to it, he felt some cold feeling.

"LUST!"

It was out of nowhere when a storm struck out of nowhere and tens of Ice Wraiths emerged and tried to bite Jon off. Venus of Lust immediately created multiple illusions of Jon in many places as she phased him back a few meters.

Still, those illusions couldn't survive a second and since Jon was now a long distance in the back, he saw the full picture he was missing.

"Mother…fucker!"

The reason why the summoning of Karstaag was delayed a little bit was that it wasn't delayed at all. Karstaag was there the moment his skull was put on the throne, the problem was Karstaag is a ghost with a Swift presence and casts no shadow thus it was incredibly hard to notice when it was standing right above Jon.

Jon gulped and his thoughts started to accelerate but Karstaag's appearance wasn't giving him an easy time acting let alone thinking.

It was a towering giant, a giant among giants, his head was abnormally larger than it should have been in the game and he was a bit chunkier too. [A/n: Bloodmoon canon!]

With a single stomp, a frost storm would brew and it would naturally cause Ice Wraiths to form due to the cold temperature. If Jon wasn't a Nord and had less protective equipment than the ones he's wearing, he'd be in serious trouble.

Jon's first action was to retreat more and chug on an entire flask of Frost Resistance potion, something he hasn't done in a really long while. Once he did that, Karstaag started approaching.

Aside from the terrible size, Karstaag was a menace to look at. His large head had four eyes lined together in two lines of eye sockets and had two great terrible horns with an abnormally high forehead and skull top. Each of its fingers had a sharp claw on its end that could easily make the mountain stones turn to dust when struck against. On top of it all, it had a club made of ice.

And while Karstaag was still a ghost, he didn't feel like an Undead but rather a force of nature. The ghost was fully made of Frost energy rather than being a normal ghastly undead. Jon could explain the reason behind that right away but he had no time to confirm it as a club strike was coming at him.

"Wrath!" Jon called and made his move.

From the sidelines, Odokuro of Wrath, the giant Bone Goliath waved its bone blade as it materialized from the place of its hiding and attempted to slash off Karstaag's arm that was holding the club.

However, and in a display of total control, the upside-down club swing switched its trajectory and struck wrath diagonally. Wrath was completely overwhelmed by that one attack and flew in a crash course towards the wall.

Karstaag may have wasted the attack opportunity that was aimed at Jon but the target was still the target and with the club on a wrong trajectory, Karstaag decided to stomp the ground with his mighty feet.

"Greed!"

Just as Karstaag raised his leg up, a black blur rushed out of nowhere and rammed itself against Karstaag. Sleipnir of Greed in its eight-legged horse form rammed Karstaag with a serious amount of speed that sent Karstaag off balance and made him stagger… almost.

But it was the opening Jon needed.

"Pride!"

On its own, the staff flew near the leg Karstaag was standing on and cast "Grease" on the surface where he stood and Jon immediately zoomed past Karstaag and threw the chains of his Mammoth Anchors at the Giants catching him from his shoulders. Jon then turned his back to Karstaag's back and…

"WULD NAH KEST!"

The Whirlwind Speed shout echoed in the castle court and the towering figure of Karstaag was no longer on its feet. Karstaag crashed down with this simple coordination between Jon and his Sin Artifacts.

"Kitty Cat, hold him down!" Jon shouted with excitement as he finally was able to put Karstaag down.

All that is left now is to go all out beating the fallen Karstaag while Nefertiti binds him by her shadows.

From beneath Karstaag, four great pillars of shadow rose from the ground and turned into four black cat paws which started to entangle the giant right away. It was a very satisfying scene for Jon as he dual-wielded Bloodskal and readied his aura intensively.

But…

"Hooman!"

"Oh boy!"

The ghost of Karstaag wasn't bound by the shadows. In fact, he simply phased through it.

Jon wasn't given time to breathe as Karstaag even dissipated from his location and turned into a storm of sleeting frost.

"Shit! Envy!"

Jon called upon Potema of Envy who was on standby. Her innate ability to deal with ghosts was top tier but that only applies to a ghost that is weaker than her. Her other use is Magicka manipulation.

With a fast spell that caused an echo wave to form, the storm of Karstaag was dispelled and the giant showed itself once again.

This time, it was right behind Jon with his club raised in the air.

Jon looked back and up…

"Goddamn, you're so broken!"

And the club struck.

…

…

…

The sight of the sky was mighty amazing this high. Jon could even see the curvature of planet Nirn at this point.

? Who can say where the road goes? ?

? Where the day flows? ?

? Only time! ?

? And who can say if your love grows? ?

? As your heart chose? ?

? Only time! ?

[ A/n: Only Time by Enya. ]

Historians recorded that this is what Jon heard up there in Heaven.

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