In the space of a few minutes while we had gathered before the gates, the daedra had somehow managed to batter their way through the outer doors and the two metal portcullises. With the fourth and last portion of the gatehouse remaining we all watched in growing trepidation as the wood of the interior doors began splintering, the metal structural supports bending inwards from the impacts. The daedric roars emanating from within the gatehouse were swelling in volume, the level of unmatched bloodlust from the creatures from Oblivion increasing and terrifying all of us with the savage intent.
Each impact that shook the gates caused the handful of Guards in the shield wall to shy away from the danger, and I found myself stomping back and forth along the thin ranks, bellowing for the men and women to stand firm. I couldn't help but feel pity for those standing at my back, but at that point it time I was somehow feeling disgust at their cowardice. The skin of my face was tightening and with the increasing hold of the vampire on my mind I could feel the hatred of such petty emotions such as fear grow. Where I should've been gibbering and trembling in the face of my potential death, instead my mind was clear and cold, my heart barely even increasing its beat as all concern, unease and terror simply sloughed away.
Buckling inwards, the gates gave way with a crash, chunks of wood and bent metal splattering onto the flagstones like hail as the daedra began pushing through. The cries of terror from behind was not lost to me, as even the vampire within my soul was taken aback at the sight of such creatures shouldering their way through the ruined gates.
Half as tall again as myself, the creatures seemed to be somewhat small to be capable of the damage they were wreaking. Their scaled hides seemed impervious to the hail of crossbow bolts and the burning flood of oil coating the interior of the gatehouse. Roaring and growling they ripped into the wooden planks and shattered it in an unthinking frenzy to open the way into the heart of the city. Like hunchbacked crocodilians, hands twisted into parodies of men with talons as long as shortswords they forced their way through the collapsing gates, revealing the sight of a gatehouse sheeted in flame and filled with the baying multitudes of Oblivion.
The enormous daedroth spread fear through the ranks of the defenders, the cries of alarm and gut-wrenching terror audible over the constant tolling of bells and the bellows of the scaled creatures. A handful of arrows and bolts snapped through the air from plucked bowstrings and nervous trigger fingers, but for the most part they simply twanged away or splintered on the thick hide of the daedric siege-beasts. Some lodged deep into their scaly bellies or the softer portions of their leathery jowls and the morale of the defenders was now hanging by a thread.
Crackling with ethereal energies Viconia roared and hurled a stone-scorching blast of lightning into the face of one of the daedroth, causing it to shriek and groan with the impact. Spitting a mixture of drowish curses and incantations she threw bolt after bolt of magicka at the brutes, slowing them and their advance long enough for me to realise that if they reached the shieldwall the guards would shatter and flee.
Roaring my own guttural battle cry that was incoherent and meaningless I threw myself forward, once again shuddering internally at how cold and unfeeling I was with the vampire's influence. Against a horde coughed forth from the darkest depths of oblivion I should have felt some form of fear but instead I found myself almost relishing the challenge of slaying such creatures.
A swipe of its enormous talons missed me by centimetres and Sunchild lashed out and grazed its palm, causing it to retract in pain and roar its displeasure at the minor wound. The beady reptilian eyes of the daedroth narrowed onto me as I dodged its clumsy attacks, feeling the wind from the blows buffering me but strangely enough I didn't find myself concerned with its presence. After facing down the raw speed and stone pulverising strength of a minotaur lord, fighting a daedric reptile only a metre taller than myself seemed somewhat insignificant.
It was proving far more resilient than the minotaur lord as its unnatural nature combined with the ebony like toughness of its hide ensured that most of my blows merely glanced off. For the moment at least it was being held back, blocking the hole in the ruined gates with its bulk while Azzan, Viconia and a handful of the other fighters and some of the mages assisted us. Standing tall over the shorter members of the city Guard, the black and silver robed Altmer who led the local Mages Guild strode forward with shimmers of light erupting from her fingers and eyes as she weaved intricate patterns in the air. Her skill was more focussed than Viconia's and infinitely subtler as her robes revealed her ability and rank a master illusionist. Despite lacking the raw destructive potential of most battle wizards, her abilities were no less effective.
Several times I rolled and dived aside to its powerful attacks, once feeling the pattering of stone chunks across my face and armour as it's claws dug enormous furrows through the road with horrifying ease. The magicka and the spells the Wizard cast were soon making themselves felt and not just in the building tension headache in the back of my skull. Every few moments the creature would stop in place, the powerful paralytic spells locking its limbs and allowing me a second or more to stab and hack almost fruitlessly against its armoured hide. Other times it would stop, blinking confusedly after its eyes rolled into the back of its skull from a blinding spell or resisting the encroaching will of the Mage as she attempted to gain control over the beast.
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The scales of the daedroth were impenetrable to direct attacks but with my increasing speed and agility I was beginning to get the upper hand with the magical assistance from the Mage. Overlapping and twisting with every movement the impervious nature of the scales was soon defeated as I began stabbing and slicing up and under them. Hunks of flesh soon hung from its frame, daedric gore spraying the ground and in a movement born of hubris and all too much showmanship I leapt upon its back. In doing so I was suddenly revealed to all the defenders as I rode its shoulders for a handful of pounding heartbeats, swaying aside from its groping claws as it shook and twisted in its attempts to dislodge me. Gripping onto a spiny protrusion I hauled myself up, relying on my vampiric grace for a moment as I twisted Sunchild, holding the hilt firmly with both hands and spearing it between a set of overlapping scales on the back of the skull.
Twitching, the daedroth smashed face first into the ruined cobblestones, Sunchild buried to the hilt in its tiny reptilian brain and leaving the crowd of onlookers astonished as I rose to my feet. The second creature had already been brought low by a combination of Viconia's prowess with a blade, the magical assault of a handful of Mages and Azzan's bone shattering hammer. Roaring with pain and anger the second daedroth had dropped to its knees as Azzan's Warhammer ignored its impenetrable hide to shatter the bones of its legs into powder. A short stab of Dragonbane into its open gullet and through the roof of its enormous jaws and it had died as quickly as mine, leaving the hundred plus force of defenders staring in shock at how relatively simple we had cut the siege-beasts down.
"Forward!" I roared, standing on top of the daedroth's armoured skull and thrusting my blood streaked sword toward the shattered gatehouse. The flames from the burning oil were dying now and was instead being filled with wall-to-wall daedra flesh. Scamps, the frilled lizards that I now knew as Clannfear and the usual assortment of dremora pushed forward through the last of the flames, stomping over the bodies of the fallen in the narrow passage with impunity. Rocks and crossbow bolts rained down through the arrow slits and murder holes in the roof, breaking bones, shattering skulls and impaling throats and faces with barbed tips.
The daedric press was struggling to advance through the piling dead of their kin. Corpses made slippery with gore were crushed underfoot and tripped many in the press and now they were faced with a wall of steel and blades that were no longer as terrified as they were minutes ago.
Strengthened at the sight of such terrifying creatures being brought low the guards and citizens of Anvil pushed forward, scraping their shields across the ground, thrusting forward with their polearms and firing crossbows at point blank range over the shoulders of the front ranks. Daedra died by the score as they tripped and slithered in the dead and wounded. Heads were cleaved, skulls crushed and limbs severed and despite the lack of training and ability the men and women of Anvil gave good accounts of themselves. In the suffocating confines of the gatehouse the guards, fighters, mages and ordinary citizens slaughtered and relieved all the fear, stress and horror of the previous weeks into the snarled visages of daedric horrors. All the hatred and sorrow that they had felt over the weeks since the destruction of Kvatch and the desecration of the Cathedral was now fuelling their limbs and lending strength to their hearts.
I fought slightly ahead of the amateur shieldwall, hacking and slicing my way through flesh and armour that was pathetically easier than the toughened hide of the daedroths. Viconia, Azzan, and a handful of Mages and Fighters led the way alongside me through the hordes attempting to gain entrance. It was not long until we began fighting into the gatehouse itself like a group of swimmers fighting their way against the current. The mages were of the greatest of assistance as the more powerful of their number unleashed every ability at their disposal. Between the guild head's ability with illusion magicka and one of her learned colleagues ability in the arts of conjuration, they confounded, paralysed, and turned daedra against each other or otherwise banished them and their corpses back to Oblivion. The creatures had to struggle over the mounds of their dead and dying kin, while the wizards and mages at our backs ensured that we simply strode across flagstones that were free of bodies. It was a potent combination that allowed the small number of us to counter attack through the gates and beyond the curtain walls.
The fight didn't go entirely all in our favour. Causalities were still high and every time I turned my head some member of the guild or the city guard was crippled or killed. I caught sight of one of the sword wielding guards being dragged from his place in the shieldwall, shrieking as a fanged clannfear flensed the skin from his face as it pulled him from the grasping hands of his comrades. Lost to the horde the man took a long time dying as we fought through to reach him but was too late to stop the creatures from worrying the flesh from his bones. Several defenders dropped shrieking as daedric blades chopped into flesh or maces shattered bones. Some were eviscerated by claws or teeth, others burned horribly from fireball hurling scamps or were simply pulled down into the morass of demons and ripped from limb to limb.
The outer buildings were aflame or otherwise destroyed, corpses of the dozens, if not hundreds who were outside the walls when the gate opened were scattered everywhere. Some would remain unidentifiable, others all too easily recognisable by the friends and family by the way the daedra had toyed and tortured them before they died. In the hour since the gate opened the death toll was high, but now with the cohort of guards reinforced with members of the city guilds and ordinary citizens, not only were the hordes being thrown back but the gate itself was soon assaulted.
Leading a motley band of individuals, Viconia and I directly assaulted the blazing Portal, hacking our way through the masses of creatures that spewed forth from its depths. Over a dozen of us entered, and while there were injuries nearly all of us made it back out alive. The young guard commander followed us every step of the way and while Viconia and I had managed to fight off a daedra lord like the one who I had fed on, he had managed to dislodge the burning Sigil Stone from its seat. Broken and severed, the fragile bonds connecting the two worlds ceased to exist and we were pulled into reality once more.
