Guards P.O.V
Both the bound guards and the bandits stared at the fallen man in shock. His blood started to pool right in front of the man who he was just about to cut down, who was just as baffled at what just happened that prevented his entrance into sovngarde.
"Boss! What in the- what did you do!?"
"How the hell would I know!? He just died with a hole through his neck!"
The bandits all unsheathed their weapons, keen on finding the attacker. They looked towards the entrance of the dungeon, fully prepared to combat a single or group of people, however they had never considered the possibility that their assailants had actually exited from the underground of this cursed place.
That was their undoing.
"ZUN HAAL VIIK!"
Before the bandits even realized what was going on, their weapons flew from their hands and clattered to the floor, far from their reach.
They responded quickly, attempting to pull out their secondary weapons. Most of them pulled out small axes or daggers, while some attempted to retrieve their weapons.
"They're Imperials! Kill them!"
The guards watched wordlessly as at least a dozen extremely heavily armed soldiers entered the ruins from the basement, brandishing unknown weapons before clashing with the bandits.
"By the nine divines…"
Bandits were getting ragdolled across the air like they weighed nothing. It may have looked like a slaughter from the outside, but it was clear that none of them were dying. They may have had cracked ribs, spinal injuries, maybe a cracked skull but they were (mostly) alive.
The imperials that had just shown up were nothing like the ones they had seen before. They raced past the bandits and slammed into them, bashing them with their shields and sword pommels. Many of them were too quick, too agile to get hit and the ones that did get hit just shrugged it off, the weapons of the bandits not even denting their armor.
They wore unfamiliar armor, all colors of blue and black. Especially the one at the front in the black armor, slamming each one with minimal effort into the wall, knocking them out in one hit. One of the bandits crashed next to the guards, with their nose notably broken and not in good shape.
"S-save me!"
Needless to say the guards knocked him out for good.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles P.O.V
"Alright, ready?"
Charles looked towards his soldiers who had hid behind various things. Some behind the pillars, some behind larger rocks. He got nods of confirmation from them, with their weapons readied.
"Try not to kill them. I know they're bandits but we'll leave them to the guards to take back to Whiterun, maybe as a form of goodwill."
In all honesty, Charles didn't care whether the bandits lived or died. A few of them would definitely die from their attack, even if they held back. They were undead and excessively strong at that, there was no way no deaths occured.
Charles readied Spellbreaker and his Ebony blade, before peeking at the situation. The bandit, who Charles was assuming was the leader, was in an extremely vulnerable position. He had his sword raised high up while in an open area, clearly ready to execute one of the prisoners.
In response, Charles raised his hand in an open palm before clenching it into a fist. The skeleton with the bow subsequently fired the bow, the arrow acting more like a bullet than an arrow and piercing the man's throat and tearing it outwards.
The reaction was instantaneous. All of the skeletons dashed forwards from their hiding spots, weapons already drawn as they towered over the bandits.
"Kralse, shout!"
Without a beat, Kralse immediately let out a booming shout.
"ZUN HAAL VIIK!"
He heard the clattering of weapons, flying out of their owners hands harmlessly onto the ground as their owners stared at it in shock. Without giving them any time to recover, Charles crashed into the first bandit he saw.
"Imperial scum!"
He didn't hear the rest of it, bashing his shoulder into the bandit's face. The bandit recoiled back in shock as he pressed a hand to his nose, confirming that it was very broken. He let out a guttural yell while lashing out at him with a dagger, something that couldn't even hope to leave a scratch on daedric armor.
"Do you not realize you are outmatched when you see it?" Charles smiled, not in a kind way as he stared down the confused bandit.
Grabbing him by the neck, he lifted the struggling man back up and launched him across the room and into the wall right next to the guards before glancing around.
His soldiers were making quick work of the surprised bandits, after becoming undead none of them were afraid of flesh wounds which caused them to dash without fear towards their enemies.
Bashing at their armor with maces or the back of their swords, most of the bandits were unconscious before they even had the chance to attack with their weapons. Their morale was falling.
Kralse was swinging around the flat end of his axe, effectively using a hammer to knock out groups of bandits while they screamed for mercy. One of the bandits fell onto the ground, looking back towards the guards pleadingly, though they had been so close to killing them before their roles had now switched.
"Someone save us, these guys are monsters! By the-"
"Save it"
Before he could pray to any of the gods, Kralse slammed the wooden handle of his axe against the bandits helmet, cracking it and knocking the man out cold.
Charles nodded approvingly. Clearly draugr's were more than the mindless monsters he thought them to be. It made him think how dangerous a draugr not bound by oath would be, an unfeeling vessel that had the strength of a nord warrior.
Alright, let's just not think of that. This will get confusing.
He looked left and right at the carnage. Though he had told them to keep them alive, it might have been less messy if he didn't as they just understood that as "smack them" and that left bodies strewn about everywhere. No bandits were left standing, though he wasn't sure how many were actually alive. The skeletons, still in full armor, sheathed their weapons once they saw the threat as gone.
He sheathed the ebony blade, he never had to use it to begin with anyways. He reached into his bag and pulled out a length of rope, enough to tie all the bandits up.
"Take their weapons and tie them up, we'll let the guards decide what to do with them"
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guards P.O.V
"Captain, what do we do now?"
The guard, Anya, whispered to her captain as the imperial soldiers finally finished their one-sided beatdown of the bandits.
None of them could see who they were since their faces were more or less hidden by their large helms, but also because they were facing the opposite direction as them.
"I don't think they're bandits, but what would the legion be doing here?"
She received two shrugs from her fellow guards, holding their breath in anticipation at what was going to happen.
And that was when they saw it. Behind the dozen or so soldiers that had assembled and were now tying up the bandits while tossing their remaining weapons to the side, the hulking gray-skinned, mummified figure equipped with heavy nordic armor and a giant axe with glowing blue eyes.
"DRAUGR! Turn around you idiots!"
Either the imperials didn't hear her or had a death wish because the Draugr approached the figures that were hard at work, nearing one of the men who was gathering the weapons.
"Damn!"
Without even thinking about it, the captain jumped up from where they were sitting and ran towards the draugr, with his hands still bound.
"Goddamn deaf imperials!!"
He was running at full speed, but it was too late. The draugr reached the soldier before the captain could reach them.
The soldier turned around with an armful of weapons,
And handed them to the draugr.
"Take it to the entrance, the others will take in back into the tomb"
The draugr nodded and responded in some kind of gibberish before walking, quite steadily, back to the entrance of the spiral staircase that even the bandits had been reluctant to approach.
The man spoke coherently, yet there was quite a notable rasp from the person. The captain froze in place as the man continued to work, seemingly ignoring their presence.
The captain quickly retreated back to his fellow guards, now extremely confused and unnerved.
"What was that!? Are they necromancers or something?"
One of the younger guards questioned, only for them to be hit over the head.
"Have you seen a necromancer commanding a draugr? Especially what looks like a Deathlord!? No, something is extremely wrong."
Then, the one in black armor approached them. It was hard to see under his helmet since, despite it having an area open for them to breathe, they couldn't see anything below his pale white chin.
Wait
"Undead!"
The guards, once again cowered against the wall but this time not because of bandits. At their outburst, the rest of the "imperial" soldiers turned around, at which point they all noticed that none of them were alive, at least not anymore.
"By the divines, are they gonna eat us or perform some ritual or something!? Captain, this is worse than the bandits!"
The skeleton in black armor continued to advance, despite their outburst. All of their hands were bound and weapons out of reach, this seemed to be the real end for them now.
"Calm down. We're not gonna eat you"
"IT TALKED!"
Its voice a great deal smoother and gentler than the other undead, it unsheathed a long, foreign blade strapped at its hip. It managed to move behind the guards at such a speed, despite his armor, that they didn't even have the chance to turn around before Anya felt him grasp her bindings.
The sounds of a single cut down onto the rope was all she heard before she fell forwards as her bindings were cut. A few more seconds later, the other guards were also released from their ropes.
Once they were released, the skeleton sheathed his sword. Joining back with other ones, who bowed slightly as he neared. Meanwhile, the guards dusted themselves off the ground as they got up, still thoroughly confused at what was transpiring in front of them.
A few skeletons approached them, which caused the guards to recoil at the possibility of an attack. But all they did was extend their hands and offer the guards their swords, the ones the bandits had taken, back which they took hesitantly.
"I have no clue what's happening anymore…is there a necromancer controlling them?"
"Have you seen skeletons talk before? Clearly there's some type of dark magic at work here, they're much too powerful. We must leave before they decide to change their mind and kill us-"
"Good, that's what we planned on doing as well."
The captain was cut off as the one in dark armor, seemingly the leader, came back and handed them one end of a rope.
"Are..are you telling me to hang myself."
If skeletons could look incredulous then that would be it, because this skeleton was somehow making a face with just bones.
"What!? No! The prisoners are awake and unarmed, just bring them back to Whiterun and your Jarl will surely appreciate it. Just- take it and leave, we have somewhere else to be as well."
The other skeletons had indeed all begun to file out of the room, moving their way out into the snowy mountains and valleys of Skyrim.
The black armored skeleton moved as well, while the guards finally got up and looked at him clearly. There was no malice, no feeling of death, almost like it was just a normal person just in skeleton form.
Before reaching for the door, he turned back one more time.
"I know guards aren't looters, but just so you know the draugr's under my command don't take too kindly to stealing. I encourage you to leave as soon as you can"
He smiled slightly at the terrified guards, maybe he was just a little bit sadistic after all.
"It's a joke, a joke. No but seriously, leave here as soon as you can."
At that, he opened the large stone doors and for the first time, made his way out into Skyrim.