The Draugr

"What's here?" The owner asked fearfully. "I don't know, but it's probably the trump card of the bokor. It came out much faster than I was expecting. I wonder if they're in a hurry to take over this town tonight?" Xan mused out loud.

Just as he finished speaking, a strange smoke floated through the doorway. The smoke began to condense and a dark blue human-like shape formed. It finished condensing and standing before them was a man with dark blue skin, wearing animal furs, a tunic, and red leather boots. A hunting life was strapped onto his hip. The creature's eyes were black and it smelled like it was rotting.

"A Draugr," Xan said worriedly. "That's Gramyr the Hunter! I haven't seen him in nearly thirty years," an old man said. Gramyr looked at the old man briefly, "You are Bevyu, a butler for the Dygon family." "Yes, sir, I was but I've been retired for nearly ten years," Bevyu said. "Still, a butler for the Dygons, I hate them, they stole my treasures. You can die first," it said. It pulled its knife out and threw it at the old man.

Poole intercepted the knife and knocked it away. Gramyr looked at Poole in anger. "Okay, you can die first," it said as it started to attack. Poole slashed at it with a sword he had taken from upstairs. The sword cut through its arm but the arm turned to smoke and reattached. He backed up and pulled out the revolver and shot at it. He used the original bullet for the gun and it seemed to work at first as the whole creature exploded but then it reformed. He fired a second-time bu this time, it just knocked Gramyr backward a few feet. It continued to dash toward Poole without pause.

"It's unkillable, the glasses have no solution for attacking it," Yahn the Healer said.

"I wasn't expecting a Draugr, they're very difficult to kill. Yahn, help Poole keep it busy. I need to rush upstairs and get a couple of things," Xan said. He looked at the Inn owner and spoke, "you people help attack it and keep it busy until I get back!" he commanded as he ran upstairs. Xan had proved he had some ability to deal with these creatures; it only seemed natural he would give orders.

The people hit it with weapons threw chairs at it or whatever they could get their hands on. Poole and Yahn were the only two who got close to it. They both armed themselves with a shield and hammers. Cutting it only resulted in it turning into smoke and reforming. When it was hit with a hammer it would get knocked back.

Xan ran upstairs into his room and gathered a few weapons he crafted and started piecing things together. He took off the door to his room and fit it into the makeshift frame he created from swords, spears, halberds, and wood.

He could hear the sound of battle coming from below. Draugrs were creatures with immense physical power. They were superhuman undead who could shapeshift and increase their size and weight. More developed Draugrs had additional abilities.

Working as fast as he can, Xan built a strange-looking device. He made a couple of other things. Only ten minutes had gone by downstairs but he occasionally heard screaming and the sounds of someone's last moment before dying. People were dying. He hoped Poole and Yahn were okay. He could only go so fast. His mind focused like a laser and he pushed himself to finish building the devices he needed. He collected everything except for the strange door and frame he created and placed them in his treasure ring. He couldn't place the door in his treasure ring because it was powering up and the unique energies it released wouldn't allow it to go into the treasure ring.

Xan picked up the door and made his move to go downstairs but couldn't fit the door device through the door into the hallway. He thought about blasting a hole in the floor and dropping down but that would risk killing someone. He decided to take out the wall to the outside and run around to the front. This was dangerous given all of the creatures surrounding the Inn, but what could he do? He had to hurry before everyone was killed by the Draugr.

The zombie hoard was stuck to the sticky field on the outside of the Inn. A distance away on a hill, Stanz and Barron Atticus along with a man dressed in tattered black clothes, chalk-white skin, and white hair. If he didn't look like a corpse he would look no older than twenty. This was the zombie bokor.

"It looks like your zombies are getting stuck on something," Barron Atticus said.

"From what I can tell, someone has set up a special array that keeps the zombies out and sticks them to the shield. It creates a double layer of protection. The energy shield and a wall of zombies," the Bokor said.

"Why'd you send the Draugr in? You couldn't overcome the shield any other way, Luas?" Stanz asked.

"Someone in there knows how to remove my zombie spell. He removed about eight of my zombies. I can't let him live, with that field and the ability to turn my zombies back to normal, we might lose the town tonight. I wanted to turn everyone in there as soon as possible," he said.

"How is it going inside," Barron Atticus asked.

"It's a standoff for now. The zombies close enough to see into the Inn can see the Draugr fighting with the people in there. There appear to be two who are particularly difficult to handle. One of them is probably the one who broke my connection with the zombies. If the Draugr can kill them I'm sure things will be easier," Luas the Bokor said.

An explosion lit up the evening and a clump of zombies stuck to the middle part of the Inn was sent flying through the air in broken pieces. A man flew out behind them carrying something slightly bigger than him. Luas defocussed his eyes and looked through the eyes of his zombies. He was shocked and panicked.

"Stanz, Barron Atticus, you need to send your subordinates right now to kill that guy!" Luas said in a rush.

"Why..." Stanz began to ask.

"He's got a Doomdoor, he's going to kill my Draugr. Hurry or I'll lose my Draugr!" he yelled. Stanz and Barron Atticus didn't ask any more questions and dispatched their servants to kill Xan. Xan saw them coming and held the Doomdoor over his head and ran around to the front of the Inn.

Xan held the Doomdoor with one hand and tossed a grenade at a group of werewolves running to him. The explosion lit up the night. The werewolves were blown to pieces. He took out another grenade and threw it at some Vampire Knights rushing to him. They were killed by the explosion.

"That's the human who killed one of my Fangs last night!" Stanz said in a rage.

"He just killed four of my knights, do you know how long it took me to raise those Knights?!" Barron Atticus yelled.

"We need to kill him before he gets that Doomdoor into the Inn and kills my Draugr," he said. The three ran down the hill toward the Inn to kill Xan. At the same time they were reacting, Xan was fighting his way through Fangs and Knights and some Zombies to try and get into the Inn. Grenades were exploding one after another. He shot the revolver a few times, but he mostly tossed grenades. He only used the revolver when the enemy got too close.

He reached the front of the Inn and was about to throw a grenade when he heard shouting.

"Stop, don't you dare throw that!" Luas yelled.

"Sorry, friends, no time to spare, why don't we meet for afternoon tea tomorrow," Xan said with a smile as he tossed the grenade into the mass of zombies blocking the entrance to the Inn. Right after the explosion, he dove into the Inn.