Chapter 2

"Archers!" the captain called out.

Before any soldier could pull back their bows, the black dragon landed on the keep and blew fire at the general.

Then all Sovngarde broke loose.

Citizens screamed and ran for cover, either in their houses or in the keeps. The imperial army shot arrow after arrow and threw fireball after fireball, but all of what seemed to be in vain. The rest of them—the prisoners—broke out in all directions like a line of ants being disrupted.

Skillfully dodging running bodies left and right, Justin made a break for the closest keep, which was now left unguarded. His HUD faded into view and at the bottom right of his peripheral vision, a green bar showed his stamina steadily depleting as he ran. The keep's door was closed, but Justin didn't slow down. Closing his eyes, he lunged back first. With a satisfying BANG! the door flew open and Justin sprinted for the top.

Quickly reaching the trapdoor, he flung his fists up like a volleyball player and slammed it open. Slowly, he lifted his head to see a soldier near the edge, completely focused on the dragon in the air that was still raining fire on the town. Justin saw a wooden table and a chair with an iron dagger and a full loaf of bread on it with a silver plate. Without a second thought, he stood on the keep, ran at the guard, and body slammed him with his shoulder.

"Whoa... whoa!"

Dropping his bow and arrow, he tried to grab on to anything as he stumbled, but the effort was too little and too late. The soldier tumbled over, yelling as he fell, and Justin could hear his voice submerging into the pandemonium below.

Justin truly felt bad for having to kill a human like that—even if it was a NPC—but he couldn't think of anything better. Turning his attention back on survival, he approached the table with the dagger and leaned down. He grabbed ahold of the hilt with his mouth and swung it at the ropes. With what seemed like no effort, the ropes split off and fell onto the floor.

Stage two, he the dagger from his mouth to his right hand, he flew down the cobblestone stairs. He ran out of stamina halfway down, giving him the feeling of pain in his sides along with heavy breathing, but continued to jog down. Other NPC prisoners and the redguard female were taking shelter at the bottom of the keep. The girl called out to him to stop as he went past her, but he continued to run until he was outside.

Justin analyzed his surroundings in surprise. He was worried that one of the other seven players would take the loot of his kill, but numerous dead bodies from mages to warriors littered the floor. Justin reached out to the closest dead imperial near him, but as he heard an ear-bursting roar from above, he made a one-eighty and sprinted back into the keep as a meteor crashed onto the body he was about to loot, sending it flying into one of the burning houses.

Justin ran back in and shut the door behind him with his stamina bar completely empty. The redguard female walked up to him and growled. She had bright red and short hair spiraling to her left, so Justin assumed this was her real image. Her fists trembled as her eyes burned with fire in them. "I told you to stop! I had good reasons!"

It barely registered to Justin that he was huffing and puffing as he spoke. "Sorry… about that. I just… had… a game plan set up… and I was following through." He took a moment to breathe. "Do you know if there where there that many dead bodies in the old version?"

She sighed as a way of saying how did I end up with this fool? "Justin, was it?" She had a very irritated and annoyed tone. "Remember the forum said there were going to be some major changes?... Yeah, some friendly advice? I wouldn't try going off of what it used to be."

Justin was going to tell her his plan, but after that comment, he decided to keep it to himself. "Ok, then I'll improvise, but first order of business should be getting some armor."

"I've tried already, but it isn't that easy." She opened the door and looked up at the sky. "The same thing keeps happening: every time I'm outside, even along the walls out of Alduin's view, meteors flies down. And big ones, too."

Justin nodded and looked out the door with her. "Then we just improvise my improvisation."

She turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. "Got a new plan?"

"It's still in development," he said as he looked around. From the keep he was in, two burning houses were to the left, the keep Alduin had stood on was about a five-second sprint away, the barracks about a twenty-second sprint away, and the inn (which was still intact, unlike in the old version) about a four. Justin looked back to the NPC prisoners. "The question is how to mobilize them."

She looked at the NPCs as well. "Mobilize… sacrifices?"

"Distractions." He walked up to them as they were panicking amongst themselves. "The legends... the old fairy tales," one of them said to themselves, "... they... they... this can't be!"

"Legends don't burn down villages," Justin said.

The NPCs looked up as if they just noticed his presence. Then another one of them stood up. "What do you suppose we do, then? It's a dragon! Of the end times!"

"First, we need to move," said the redguard. "Like, now."

"That dragon knows we're in here," Justin continued. "If we stay, the whole keep will fall on top of us."

As if to prove his point, Alduin roared and the keep shook. Tiny pieces of rubble fell swiftly from above.

Nobody argued.

"But where in Oblivion can we go?" one of with a heavy voice asked. "That damn dragon will kill us if it sees us out in the open."

I'm glad you asked, Jason thought. "See that building across the way?" Justin pointed out the door towards the barracks and everyone followed his finger. "I overheard that there's an underground escape route in there from one of the soldiers. If we can make it in there by moving quickly, I bet we can get out of here."

"All the way over there?" a female soldier asked. "That dragon will kill us before we can even get halfway!"

"And it will kill us, period, if we stay here!" the redguard argued back.

The NPCs murmured to themselves as the redguard slowly leaned towards Justin's ear. "You sure this is a good idea?"

Alduin roared again and the keep shook even harder than before. This time, an entire stone fell from above. Sunlight now shined through from up top.

"No," he admitted, "but it's the only plan I got and we're pressed for time."

"He's right," a prisoner with the deep voice finally said. "If we stay here, this will be our tomb." He turned to Justin. "You were one of the outsiders who tried to cross the border, right? We're sorry for getting you mixed up in all of this, but when we make out alive, you should make your way to Yarl Ulfric in Windhelm."

Justin wasn't too sure of the "we" part-the chances of either of them dying were high-but he nodded. "Keep your eyes on the sky at all times! Move out!"

Justin began to run straight for the barracks with everyone else behind him. Just as he heard a roar, he made an immediate ninety-degree turn and ran for the nearest body. Please let my theory be right, please let my theory be right.

Justin looked up to see several meteors fall from the sky. He knelt down to loot a soldier as meteors rained down on where he would have been had he kept running towards the keep. (A/N: meteors calculate the target's speed and direction from their spawn point. Although the time-gap is small, there's just enough time to evade).

As he touched the corpse, a list of equipped items appeared. He quickly scanned the list of objects. He thought of what he wanted to take-the full imperial light armor set, the imperial sword, a sweet roll, and a book titled 'The Masters'-and instantly, Justin's inventory filled up.

He got up and sprinted. As he selected the armor to equip, a timer spawned for each item. (A/N: the game developers have calculated the average time for people to normally put on each kind of clothing and incorporated it into the game). He looked around to see a timer above the redguard woman as well, who was in front of her and the rest of the NPCs running for the keep.

From above came another lurid roar as Justin hurdled over burning rubble of a house. "Heads up!" the redguard yelled.

Most of them did look up and moved around to avoid more meteors. One, however, ignored the warning. As a male stormcloak soldier jumped over a pile of rocks from a fallen keep, a meteor landed right at his feet as he landed. The soldier flew into the sky and slammed against the top of the town wall along with other small rocks and dirt. He limply fell to the ground with a loud THUD and didn't move an inch afterwards.

Jason cursed, but he kept on moving.

After a few more seconds, his tunic was replaced with the imperial armor as the timer above him reset itself. The redguard was now in her body armor and also had a timer above her. He assumed she had the same equipment as him and took note of it.

As Jason's stamina bar was reaching empty, the group reached the doors. The blond male soldier who was in front of all of them roared and shoulder-charged the door. The double doors swung open and the NPCs fled in. The redguard went from a sprint to a jog, breathing heavily as Jason ran past her. Before either of them could reach the doors, Alduin roared again.

With the rest of his stamina, Jason dove to the right, managing to dodge the fatal blow. But with no stamina left, the redguard couldn't dodge hers. A small meteor, about the size of a basketball, crashed into the ground on the right of her and she toppled over, rolling across the dirt until she hit the keep. While looking at her, a bar popped up at the top of his HUD with a miniscule amount of red left. Even though she was still conscious, she didn't get up. In her eyes was a dazed look and Justin knew instantly she must've gotten a concussion.

"Hurry up!" shouted the male stormcloak. "I'm closing the doors when I hear it roar!"

The redguard sluggishly looked up, looking Slander in the eyes. Help me, her eyes told her.

Justin wanted to help her. He truly did. But he figured there was nothing he could no with zero stamina. For all he knew, it probably costed stamina to help carry her and that was something he didn't have.

With a heavy heart, he jogged up the stairs, unable to meet her gaze. Just as he moved in, Alduin roared. The soldier slammed the doors shut and held them together as they heard the redguard scream just before they felt the impact of the meteorites.

"Do not commit to anyone," he whispered.