...Dragon Priests

The group finished another gear check before activating the levers which opened the metal grate covering the stairs down. Rictus was still a little confused why it was so simple to open these traps.

"I am still shocked how simple these sections are to open. You'd have thought the puzzles would be more complicated than this."

Anska was the one to reply much to Rictus's surprise.

"Apparently, these were made more as a way to stop the dead while letting the living easily open or close them. At least, that is what this one rich lord told me…I think his name was Bruno or something like that."

Rictus nodded his head after hearing the explanation. It made a lot of sense to him.

As the group made their way down the stairs, they entered into an area which looked very much like a catacomb. The hallway was wide enough to easily fit 2 people across. It was lined with many alcoves and most were filled with draugr or skeletons.

Rictus looked betwee the many draugr and his companions.

"….um. How do we know which ones will attack us and which ones are really dead?"

Everyone looked around at each other then looked back at Rictus. Ria was the first to speak.

"You are a mage. Can't you use some kind of magic to tell?"

Rictus scoffed at the thought he would be able to detect the undead. Before shutting down the magically inept Nord, Rictus decided to humor her and thought over his spells. Seeing as how he now had a detect Life and a detect magic spell, it would stand to reason he could detect the undead.

Rictus tried casting detect magic first. As he was looking at the draugr laying in the alcoves, he did start to notice how some seemed to have a slight glow coming off them. Deciding this magic energy was probably a good sign, Rictus looked over at the rest of the group.

"I may have a way to roughly tell which ones will come back. There are some with magical energies while others are inert."

Aela looked intent at the mage trying to decide how much this could be trusted. In the end, this was beyond her expertise so she went along with it.

"If that is the case, point them out to us or attack them before they have a chance to do anything."

A couple draugr at the upcoming corner would be the first test subjects for Rictus.

As they drew near, the two draugr began to stir. Before they could move too much, Rictus caused the stone to crash down and destroy their heads. Seeing how easy they were to destroy this way, Rictus couldn't help but smile. Being able to shape the earth while your enemies are underground and in a stone alcove really made things easier.

After destroying 4 more this way, the rest of the group began to relax a bit. Of course this was when things went wrong.

Ria absent mindedly kicked a small rock down the hallway. Unfortunately, this rock hit an urn, which then fell and rolled down the corridor. The urn then smashed itself into the wall causing a large noise. To make matters worse, it crashed right in front of one of the draugr. The draugr began to stir and let out a scream before Rictus could destroy it. This scream seemed to have a chain reaction as many more voices joined in.

After staring down an ashamed looking Ria, the rest of the group prepared themselves for close quarter combat with an unknown amount of enemies.

The hallway they were in had about 4 to 5 meters [15ft for the Americans] before coming to a sharp corner. It was tilted slightly down hill, but not enough to give the back line a good view without hitting those in front.

Thrull and Mathred took the front as the most armored and heavily armed. Between the 2 large Nords, not much would be able to make it past them. Bill the familiar was right in front of Mathred and would charge straight into the coming horde to try and slow them down at least a lite.. Ria stood behind them ready to assist however she could. The small confines were a blessing and a curse. It kept the enemy narrowed down, but it also did not allow the mages of the group a clear line of sight.

Rictus realized this fairly quickly and so raised a platform for the people in the back to stand on. This would let him and Anska cast spells farther down the corridor, and Aela could shoot her arrows and have a better view of the battle.

Surprisingly, no draugr had appeared yet. They could obviously hear them, but none had seemed to round the corner.

Rictus was just about to try and see if he could detect any of them, but before he could a form came around the corner.

It was a hulking abomination created entirely of ice with both of its arms ending in sharp spikes. Seeing the ice elemental, the party got a little more worried since only stronger draugr had the ability to cast such a creature.

As the creature started lumbering their way, a highly armored draugr also came around the corner flanked by a couple less armored draugr. Behind these 3, there were quite a number of draugr with more most likely hidden behind the corner.

The 3 more armored draugr cast a volley of ice spikes as the rest of the draugr flowed around them and followed the charging elemental. Thrull was able to deflect 2 of the ice shards while Billy the familiar took the other instead of it hitting Mathred. Before the elemental could get much further, Rictus had Billy charge into the coming horde to try and slow their momentum and maybe stall the elemental for a couple extra seconds.

The enemy was quickly approaching, but Billy had a couple seconds to pick up speed before he crashed head first into the abdomen of the elemental. There was a loud cracking sound as some of the ice making up the elemental splintered off from the contact. Billy was still pushed back, but it succeeded in slowing down the horde before it could reach the group.

Anska began casting her fireballs further back into the group trying to do as much damage as possible. Aela kept trying to snipe at the draugr scourge further down the hall to little success. As all this was happening, Rictus had began to raise up larger stone spikes in front of the group to stop the horde before it could reach their front line. It would also allow the melee warriors to have some additional cover and potentially cause some of the enemies to get impaled.

The ice elemental swung down its arms and completely obliterated poor Billy. Then the rest of the enemies were rushing into the stone spikes and trying to get at the mortals who dared trespass into their domain.

The front fighting was intense with Thrull taking up the larger gaps in the spikes and holding off countless draugr. Mathred was able to use his greatsword almost as a spear and keep pushing back the enemy before they could slip past the spikes and get too close. Ria continued to stay behind Thrull and take quick opportunity attacks when there was an opening. Anska kept casting fire ball, and Aela kept sniping.

Rictus knew the ice elemental was the biggest immediate threat to the group since it was so difficult to destroy. Instead of trying to destroy it outright, Rictus waited for it to get a little closer before acting. He knew telekinesis was strong enough to pick and throw himself, so figured it would work on the elemental.

Rictus quickly picked up the creature and threw it back into the continuous stream of enemies. This carved a large hole into the horde and took the pressure off the frontline fighters. The ice elemental was harmed, but no where near enough to take it out of the fight.

As the enemy regrouped, 2 armored draugr charged at the head of the horde with the ice elemental following behind them. As these 2 approached, Anska tried to hit them with a fireball, but one cast a frost shard and canceled the spell out. The other began casting frostbite at the frontline to damage them and slow them down.

The armored draugr crashed into Thrull and Mathred as they began a more desperate struggle with the stronger draugr, especially as more draugr continued trying to attack.

The battle dragged on for what seemed like hours instead of minutes. Rictus kept throwing the ice elemental over and over again since it kept it out of the battle and would greatly hinder all the other approaching enemies. Aela and Anska kept taking out the fat enemies while the rest held the line.

Eventually, Ria got a lucky hit to the leg on the armored draugr fighting Thrull which caused it to stagger. Thrull capitalized on its fault and quickly decapitated it before it could recover. Mathred had more luck with his opponent and was able to use his greatsword to impale it in the heart.

The draugr seemed to be coming more infrequently until there were only a few enemies left.

At the other end of the hallway, a draugr scourge was standing behind his battered ice elemental. There were only 3 other draugr with it. The group approached with the other 3 draugr leading followed by the ice elemental and draugr scourge. The 3 other draugr began casting frostbite to obscure themselves and protect them from arrows and fireballs.

Before the backing could properly attack, there was a loud scream coming from the draugr scourge. It sent out an unrelenting force which crashed into Anska and threw her down the hallway. The attack also staggered Aela and caused her to fall of her perch as well. Rictus picked up and threw the ice elemental at the scourge, but it was able to dodge it.

The frontliners used the stone spikes as a buffer from the frostbite cast by the approaching enemies. Soon they were locked into combat with one another.

The scrouge fired off ice spikes at Rictus who had to dodge for all he was worth in order to not get impaled. Still, Rictus kept picking up the ice elemental and trying to hit the scourge.

An ice shard ripped through the side of Rictus's clothing but thankfully only lightly grazed the mage. Rictus picked up the ice elemental one more time and threw it at his enemy. As the elemental was about to impact the scourge, it suddenly disappeared. The scourge was able to uncommon the creature right before it hit it.

Rictus stared unbelievably at his opponent.

"That's just not fair…"

The scourge was able to charge up 2 ice spikes while Rictus was distracted. Rictus realizing his folly, began moving to try and dodge the spikes.

Before the spikes were cast, an arrow suddenly pierced the draugr scourge through its eye socket and right into its brain, ending it immediately. Rictus looked behind him to see the recovered huntress standing proudly and giving him a little smirk.

Turning back around to the battle, Rictus was just in time to see the defeat of the remaining enemies. Rictus tried to detect any more enemies, but there were none in the area. After letting the group know, they all seemed to sag a bit after the intense fight.

Thankfully, Anska was unhurt and was able to make it back to the group by herself.

Rictus went to the warriors and began casting healing on them to fix up the many cuts and bruises. The spell wouldn't help their stamina, but still was able to fix up all their injuries.

Seeing everyone fixed up, Aela decided they should push on to the next room before they rested instead of waiting where they were.

Thankfully, the group didn't encounter any more enemies and were able to get out of the large catacomb area and enter a smaller sized room maybe 8 meters by 8 meters large.

The most interesting part of the room was a large soul gem on a pedestal.

Rictus seeing this as an obvious trap, checked the room for hidden draugr. He noticed 2 large magical auras hidden in two standing crypts. Before anything bad could happen, Rictus caused the stone to encompass the entire coffin making sure they were locked in there securely.

Rictus then made his way over to the soul gem. With the rest of the party tensely watching, Rictus removed the soul gem. There was a click, but nothing happened. Rictus looked and saw the trapped draugr seemed to be struggling, but they were trapped. Deciding not to take any chances, Rictus caused the stone to crush the entombed draugr and end them.

Seeing Rictus create a stone chair and sit down, the rest of the group let out a sigh and took a break. They were all weary from the extended battle with all those draugr. They were lucky there weren't more of the powerful draugr there or else it could have gone very differently.

The group eventually caught their breaths and continued on their way. Naturally with a freshly summoned goat familiar.

After exiting the room, they entered a wide long hallway. The walls were covered in various pictures and writings.

Anska took a look at some of them before addressing the group.

"This is a partial history of what happened here. I'm willing to bet this is the last hallway before we enter the throne room. Everyone should be prepared to face the dragon priest."

The group tensed up at hearing her words. No one doubted the threat a dragon priest would present.

The group approached the large doors leading into the hopefully the final part of their exploration. Everyone got ready for one more fight before they could truly rest.

As they pushed open the door, a loud boom could be heard followed by a scream. A lid to a coffin had flown off and the group got their first look at the dragon priest.

The creature was covered in decaying purple robes which seemed to have scales flowing up in a line on the front and ending in large spiked shoulder pads. It carried a staff with flames coming out of the end, while it's other bony hand was empty. The creature had no legs and seemed to float in the air. Its face was covered by a gray blue mask.

The room the group found themselves in was quite large, about half the size of a football field. There were 4 large stone pillars in the room and stairs leading up to the dragon priest.

As the team fully entered the room, the dragon priest cast a summoning spell. A creature made up of stones and lightning appeared beside the dragon priest.

At the same time, a huge draugr appeared. This one was covered in heavy armor and had a horned helmet. It also carried a large 2 handed sword which seemed to be made of ebony.

Seeing the many enemies, Aela quickly gave out orders.

"Anska, attack the elemental. Ria help cover her. Mathred and Rictus, destroy the overlord. Thrull, distract the priest. I will cover you."

As the group began to move against their targets, Rictus commanded Billy to charge and distract the dragon priest to help assist his companions.

Rictus began launching stone spears at the draugr overlord as Mathred charged the creature. The overlord was able to dodge most of the incoming projectiles but a couple still smashed into the creature to little obvious effect. As Mathred got closer, the overlord reared back and let out a Shout. The shout staggered Mathred. The draugr charged in with a powerful overhead attack.

Rictus quickly cast a strong burden spell upon the enemies sword. The draugr was quickly thrown off balance by the sudden weight of its weapon. Going from 10lbs to over 60lbs is a huge difference. Especially when the weapon is being held in a position for an overhead strike.

The draugr was unable to recover from the weight change. Its arms were pulled behind its head, and it dropped the sword behind it. Mathred had time to recover and started his attack.

Surprisingly, the draugr was able to fight Mathred equally without a weapon. It used its arm guards to block when it couldn't dodge, and its gauntlets were still formidable considering its strength.

With Mathred and the draugr being oso close to each other and moving so quickly, Rictus couldn't easily intervene. Instead, he quickly surveyed the rest of the battle.

Anska was continually throwing fireballs at the elemental while Ria would occasionally dart in and swipe at it with her sword. The elemental would respond by throwing lightning at whoever last landed a hit on it.

Thrull was using his shield to block fireballs being shot out of the Dragon priest's staff. He kept trying to close the distance, but the priest would just float away. Aela was constantly shooting arrows at the elusive dragon priest.

Rictus quickly pulled in the sword dropped by the draugr overlord. He then waited for the elemental to stay still for a second before shooting the sword at it. Not paying attention to if his attack landed, Rictus turned back to the fight before him.

Mathred landed a hit which bit into the right arm of the draugr and nearly tore it off. Unfortunately, the draugr was not fazed and landed a kick on Mathred's chest, throwing him back. It the reared back and Shouted at the slowly recovering Nord. Mathred was roughly thrown down the stairs by the shout.

Rictus used the time the draugr was Shouting to attack. Rictus made two stone spikes hit the draugr in the back of its knees. This caused the draugr's knees to buckle and fall down. As it was down, Rictus caused the stone to rise up and cover its body in large bands of stone, trapping it. He tried to use the stone to pierce its head, but the draugr's helmet was too strong. Rictus then quickly drew his battle axe and charged the trapped creature. The draugr struggled mightily and some of the stone began to crack Rictus quickly aimed his ax for the creatures neck. Rictus greatly increased the weight of his ax as he swung down to make sure it had enough power to decapitate his opponent.

The ax dug deeply into the stone sending the draugr overlord's head off into the distance.

Looking over at the rest of the battle, Rictus tried to plan his next move.

The elemental was destroyed, but Anska was laying against a stone pillar trying to heal her scorched body. Mathred was still slowly trying to recover from his fall. Ria was also hiding behind a pillar with one of her legs badly burned. Aela was still shooting at the Dragon priest , but the effect was minimal. Thrull was right in front of the priest trying to land a hit while using his shield to deflect the point blank fireballs.

After a particularly strong blast, Thrull's shield was blown to the side. Before he could recover, the dragon priest unexpectedly closed the distance. It then shoved the burning staff right into the open portion at the mouth of Thrull's helmet. A large fireball exploded right in his mouth. Thrull's body was blasted backwards and slammed into a stone pillar.

Aela screamed out and shot arrows even faster as she started to look more wolf like.

Rictus quickly charged the dragon priest as he cast dragonhide upon himself. Feeling scales cover his body, Rictus allowed a murderous smile to grow on his face almost as if the power of a dragon flowed through him. He was able to use the spell to cause his nails to grow into sharp talons since his ax was still embedded in the stone.

The dragon pries was distracted by Aela, but still noticed Rictus in time to cast a fireball at him. Instead of dodging, Rictus allowed the ffireball hit as he just kept running. The fire stung, but it was nothing serious.

The dragon priest tried to move away, but Rictus was too fast. Rictus was dove at the creature and tackled it to the ground. Rictua then used his talons to stab into the dragon priest repeatedly. As his hands continued to pummel it, the dragon priest let out one more large scream before it slowly disintegrated into ash, leaving behind only the staff and mask.

Rictus lay panting in the ashes of the powerful creature.

"That's hopefully the last time I ura ura ura a dragon priest to death. I am done with fighting undead creatures for awhile. I think I may just go to the College of Winterhold and just get some good books on magic."

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[A/N]: wow that was by far my longest chapter. Almost 1000 words more than the next longest. Hopefully it didn't drag on too much or feel too rushed at parts. I didn't really want to break this up more than I already did so I just did 1 really long chapter. If you have any comments or ideas on how to make those fight scenes better, please let me know.