|
I had probably the most memorable battle in any video game I've ever played, especially since it was unscripted.
Coming down the shear slopes of High Hrothgar towards Whiterun, having just seen the Greybeards for the first time, out of nowhere the first dragon I've directly encountered since the opening scene rears up over the rocks. ****ing Ice Dragon.
I'm playing it on Master, and I'm completely unprepared to fight this thing. But I'm half down the mountain - way too steep to run back up; certain death to run down. So I sprint and jump along the rocks laterally, trying to heal as I go, but taking tons of damage. I make it a fair distance, but the thing swirls up around beside me. No time to heal. I'm gonna die.
But I'm not the target! Hajvarr Iron-Hand, some bad-ass dude camping out alone on this precarious little outcropping, is shooting arrows at the dragon and he's its target. But then it flies away for awhile and he starts coming after me! Bastard AI, WTF! So he and I fight, but then the damn dragon comes back and hits both of us.
I don't want to kill Hajvarr, because he can soak the dragon's damage while I shoot it. But he and Dragon still go after me too. For 3 days and nights in-game, we play a 3-way game of cat-and-mouse on the cliffs overlooking Whiterun: healing, fighting each other, taking turns going 2-on-1. Took me almost 2 hours, because Dragon refuses to land.
Finally, Hajvarr dies, but Dragon is badly wounded. He swoops down to the plains and I follow. Finally, he lands. Two guards run out and Dragon starts fighting them. I'm far away, but I can see his life getting really low. So I sprint, ignoring my low health, trying to move in for the kill.
Then Dragon inexplicably turns to me, somehow realizing I was coming, and rears up, about to frost-breath me FTW. I pause the game, trying to think of something I can do. No potions left. Healing spells are too slow. Whirlwind Sprint, the shout I'd learned 2 hours ago! I equip, unpause, shout it, and smash him with Molag Bal's mace before he can kill me. I'll see you in hell, Dragon.
Unforgettable. It's too early to say Skyrim has supplanted Morrowind as my favorite game of all time. But it's well on its ****ing way.
|