Dragon Tribulation of All Realms

Chapter 17: Common Specialties of Skyrim

Giant Frost Spider.

A person who discourages newbies.

It's not just its mouthparts that spray deadly poison and its massive claws that can pierce even steel that discourage players. It's also its car-sized body and ferocious, brutal pounces—countless newbies have suffered insect-type PTSD from encountering this terrifying behemoth in tombs. Consequently, mods that modify the Frost Spider's appearance are always popular.

Wu Chen wondered if the giant frost spider he was about to face had been beautified—he absolutely refused to let this massive Skyrim specialty get even ten meters away. Without a second thought, he raised his hand and a fireball gathered in his palm, launching it forward like a blazing meteor!
‘Boom——’

The thick fog suddenly exploded. An eight-clawed monster, more than twice as ferocious and hideous as the giant frost spider Wu Chen remembered, was completely blown up by the fireball. Shattered limbs flew across the sky above the swamp. Its dark blue compound eyes still glared fiercely at the creatures in the camp.

"Get up! Get up! Pour the oil! Light the fire!" Lazard roared, and the caravan's novice guards were suddenly awakened by his call. There wasn't just one attacker in the swamp. Behind the largest frost spider, there were many smaller ones, still as big as livestock and bison!
Some of them even raised their chelicerae high up, and the highly toxic mucus quickly gathered in the cavity.

"Puff—" The dull, unpleasant sound of slime hitting the magic shield was unpleasant. The viscous liquid fell to the ground, followed by a corrosive sound. The next moment, a sudden thunderbolt erupted from Wu Chen's palm!
Thunder chain technique.

Blue lightning swiftly crawled across the swamp. Even though the magical lightning wasn't real, it instantly crippled the mobility of dozens of frost spiders. The caravan guards, reacting quickly, roared, raised their crossbows, and fired repeatedly from behind the trench shields, killing several fallen frost spiders instantly. The next moment, another fireball exploded around these wild monsters, killing them all.

Something was wrong, completely wrong.

Something must have gone wrong with the sentinels heading towards the Scattered Bone Ridge. This fog and these monsters shouldn't be here at this time!

The fire started.

Vast quantities of grease were poured mercilessly into the makeshift trenches. A ring of fire ignited rapidly around the camp's perimeter. The wind whipped up by the heat wave dispersed the surrounding fog.

No, it wasn't the wind that dispersed them. It was the flames' influence. The fog that should have instantly engulfed the camp retreated dozens of meters under the blazing flames. And at the edge of the fog, scattered animal silhouettes suddenly appeared!
"Wolves! A pack of wolves!" a young man screamed hysterically. He pointed toward the caravan's path, the dark forests of the East, which they had successfully crossed in broad daylight. Dozens of dark shadows howled and swayed behind the wall of fog: wolves, bears, and even a faint, dark green, humanoid dryad!

The retreat is blocked.

But not necessarily.

Wu Chen's palms glowed with flames simultaneously. With his hands clasped together, a massive ball of fire gathered in front of him.

"Buzz——" a soft sound.

While the ancient Nords traditionally used staffs to aid spellcasting, later humans developed the ability to cast spells using both hands simultaneously. In Tamriel's magical theory, the area between the open thumb and index finger is the single point where magic energy converges outside the body. Because of this, only two enchanted rings can be worn, and spells can only be cast from either hand, rather than freely from any part of the body.

Casting with two hands was therefore more powerful than wielding a single staff, but the price was the expenditure of more mana. And amidst this surge of overloaded fireballs, Wu Chen finally felt the Dragon Priest Mask's endurance bottleneck for the first time.

But enough is enough.

"go."

A meteor of flame shot out, and the resulting fireball expanded and swirled in mid-air to the size of a bucket. It struck its target in an instant, and the next moment, there was a sudden explosion of air waves and boiling fire!
The explosion was deafening.

Large clumps of dirt and mud were flung away, along with the beast's mangled limbs. If the previous fireball technique had the power of a defensive grenade, this overloaded amplification technique possessed something approaching the power of a 75mm shrapnel round. A small mushroom cloud rose, and the fog that had obstructed the forest on its way here instantly dissipated.

The effect is remarkable.

But... it's not enough.

The path to the forest had been opened, but a thick fog still lingered within. More beasts roared and shrieked from the depths of the fog. The caravan had encountered so many beasts before, they could count them on one hand!

Wild animals fear death. They hunt for food, for survival. There's absolutely no need for them to risk their lives for no reason when facing an overwhelming foe.

unless--

"Lazard, do you know what this is?"

The tiger man shook his head, a gleam in his pale yellow eyes.

"Lazard has never seen anything like this, but he can guess. Bears and wolves can't coexist peacefully under normal circumstances, let alone those spiders in the swamp... It's the fog! The fog controls them! And we're blocking their way!"

The fog was still seething, the wall of fog that had been dispersed by the flames closing in slightly with the passage of time. From the distance came the sound of heavier footsteps, undoubtedly those that the caravan had deliberately avoided. The giants and mammoths in the wilderness camp were striding through the fog.

Gotta give it a try.

The tiger merchant captain turned his head sharply.

"Daxter, my friend. Cover me as I enter the fog. I will breathe it in. If the beasts don't attack Lazard, it will prove the effectiveness of the fog!"

The risk is huge, but someone has to do it. An organization can only function properly if the strong and the weak have a division of labor.

Wu Chen nodded gravely as he watched the tiger-man leap into the fog. He had already grasped a frost spell, ineffective against Skyrim's beasts but sufficient to restrict their movement. The next moment, the tiger-man touched the fog that had been cut off by the flames.

A giant spider was waving its claws at the tiger man.

The claws paused in the air just before striking.

An ice blast arrived, a vortex of cold wind that halted the movement of the giant spider and other beasts. Wu Chen, who was following the tiger man not far behind, had already dragged the dazed Lazadra back to the camp. As soon as the tiger man's feet touched the ground, he could sense it trying to break free from his grip.

"Lazard is going there... Lazard is going to the mountain..." His eyes widened, and he briefly shook them off in a struggle. He suddenly looked at Wu Chen and let out a painful roar. "Knock me out! My friend! It's the monster on the mountain. The monster on the mountain has released the confusing fog. It wants us... Ahhhhh!"

The struggle turned into a raging, mad attack that crept onto the tiger man's face. Wu Chen punched the tiger man in the head without hesitation. However, even after fainting, the tiger man continued to twist and twitch.

"Calm." The lowest-level spell of the Illusion Department was then released, and the pale green glow slightly soothed the tiger man's face. Wu Chen turned his head without hesitation and looked at the other bewildered people in the camp.

"Get a rope! Tie him up! Tie yourselves up, too. If you want to survive, do this!"

He made decisions quickly.

And these guards, these native Nords, are not stupid.

The grease will soon run out, and this camp won't last much longer. As long as we aren't controlled by the fog, we'll be besieged by the beasts that control it. The only way to survive is to let the fog control us, and then hope the monsters on Scattered Bone Ridge are swiftly eliminated!
They did so.

They bound Lazard tightly and tied each other tightly, while Wuchen pushed the heavy trade carts, using the goods and carts to protect them under the weight.

Until the flames die down.

Until the tide of fog rushed in.

(End of this chapter)