Chapter Forty-Seven - Sea of Ghosts - 16th of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Berry
She didn't know whether it was the Divines that intervened, or if it was a matter of luck. What she knew was that she had been kneeling to gather some fresh snow to melt later in water, and in so doing she saw the hand before it could as much as break through the ice to grab hold of her wrist.
Berry lunged back as the clawed hand shattered the ice and a figure wet with salty water emerged, the water freezing and shattering near instantaneously as the vampire's eyes seemed to radiate hunger, and fury.
"I haven't fed in days," Babette snarled, her voice predatory, powerful and without a doubt showing her elongated canines. Her skin burned, and yet at the same time closed sharply, the fury on her face enhanced by the scowl and the hatred that her entire body seemed to radiate. "You thought you could run away from the Dark Brotherhood," she hissed, "You thought you could lead my Nibblekins astray," her claw-like fingers twitched. "You thought you could force me to hunt you both down and tear at my Nibblekins," Babette hiccuped, "But I was patient, and I waited." She smiled as she took a single step forward. "I waited, and now there is nothing you can do." She extended a hand upwards, spikes of ice erupting from the ground to surround them. "My Nibblekins deserves better than you," she giggled. "After you die, I'll break the spell you have enthralled him with."
"There's no spell like that!" Berry snapped, letting loose an arrow, and as it harmlessly impacted against the leather chest-piece of Babette, it shattered abruptly, leaving not even ashes behind.
"That won't work," Babette smiled, licking her lips. She plunged on Berry like a feral sabertooth tiger, her eyes ablaze.
"Fus Ro Dah!" Berry's thu'um shattered the icy prison as crystals sailed in all directions, the noise reverberating across the Sea of Ghosts as large chunks of ice began to crack and splinter, crafting icebergs that began to float away. Yet Babette stood unscathed, twin wards held in front of her. The vampire gritted her teeth only slightly, before breaking the ward and answering with a bolt of lightning, which shattered in half Berry's bow as it hit it right in the middle.
"Pathetic," Babette hissed, rushing forth once more. "I'll carve your face and bring it to the Night Mother!"
Berry watched with grim determination the claw that was just about to descend on her neck, and the next she rolled off her tongue the stream of fire that belonged to the Yol. The inferno of the Toor came next, and the finality of the deadly sun that was Shul. The flames burned straight through Babette, whose visage distorted into a wraith-like presence that still dug with its burning talons deep into Berry's chest, ripping her armor and sinking into her skin with ease.
She cried out in pain as she tried to wrestle her off, but the burning vampire refused to budge, her fingers trying to dig even further, straight for her heart.
"Shul!" she screamed even louder, the sun itself barging out of her throat in rays that slammed home into Babette's shoulder, ripping it off and allowing Berry to kick and crawl away from the burning undead, who yet refused to give up.
"He wouldn't want this!" Berry screamed, "He wouldn't want us to fight!"
"I don't care what he wants now!" Babette roared as she slowly came to stand, the burning of her skin dying out as cold, frozen winds seemed to snuff out the flames. Her missing limb regenerated, exploding out from her torn shoulder, lacking of armor as it was, the muscles beneath the leather were taut and wiry. Her skin healed itself as energy poured through her veins, the telltale signs of magicka being drained all around her. "Now it's time I get what I want," she laughed, her laughter maddening and echoing across the whiteness of the frozen sea. "And I want you dead."
Bolts of lightning arched out of her hands, only for them to hit a glittering green ward cast from Berry's left hand. The impact still sent her back, and as she wobbled to recover her step, Babette was on her once more. This time, the scream was music to Berry's ears. Her right hand had slammed straight into the vampire's neck with a silver knife. A silver butter knife. A silver, butter knife that the college of Winterhold had by the score.
Babette clutched at her neck with a gurgling scream, even as Berry snorted a half-broken chuckle. Her breathing returned as the restoration magic knitted her flesh to a close, sealing the bleeding wound, but not repairing the torn muscles, not yet. Her mind jumbled and tumbled, her throat constricting and widening as words came to her mind, words she could use, words tied to her knowledge, and beyond it. She felt the warmth spread out from within her stomach, emerging out of her mouth as sharp spears of sunlight.
"Fus Nah Shul." The furious force of sunlight slammed home into Babette's body, obliterating chunks of her flesh and leaving behind gaping holes that refused to heal. With wide eyes, Babette's mouth spluttered with blood. Her body slumped down on the fresh snow, her lower half missing a whole leg, her upper body having lost most of its stomach, and hanging by a thin thread to its lower half.
Berry coughed, blood spluttering out from her throat as she tried to swallow down the bile, pain lashing out at where the vampire had wounded her.
Babette simply laughed. She laughed as she slowly began to crawl forward, leaving a trail of blood on the ice. "Nibblekins...is mine," she gurgled. "I told you...Nibblekins..." she hissed, "is mine," she began to whine. "It's not fair," she cried out, a sob escaping her lips. "I did it all...all...all like he asked...Nibblekins..." she swallowed, "Don't leave me all alone again...I don't want to go...I don't want to go!" she screamed as her body began to flake, ashes slowly rising up in the air even as her fingers clawed against the ice.
Berry stumbled while she tried to walk away, giving her back to the dying vampire. In that moment, a chuckle left Babette's lips. Berry turned just in time to watch Babette's fangs sink deep into her neck, taking a deep gulp of her warm blood as Berry's body began to burn as if on fire, the fangs crushing through her bones as if they were crunchy bread-sticks. With a hoarse scream, the strength of the Dah pushed her off, sending her to sink past the shattered ice and into the cold waters deep below.
With the last vestiges of strength, Berry fell down on one knee as she poured what little Magicka she had left in closing the wound earned from Babette's bite.
Perhaps telling Umbra to split had been a mistake.
Hopefully, he was faring better than she was.
