"THANATOS YOU LIAR!"

Emma rounded on the spirit knight, her eyes alight with anger. She stomped towards him until her face was right in front of his.

"You didn't make a mistake when you chose this direction. You do know this place. You also knew the draugr would go after us, after Sam. Why did you do this?"

Thanatos' voice was impassive as he replied, "I played my part in the great destiny of Valor."

A growl escaped Emma's mouth. She slammed her staff onto the ground, causing Silver sparks to shoot out of the bottom where it made contact. "DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT DESTINY! Why did you let them take Sam?"

"His destiny is to die at the hands of Aulfric, the Draugr Deathlord. Samuel will not be joining you and your brother in the final battle."

Emma had had enough. Stepping back, she thrust her hand out at Thanatos. "Et securos vos faciemus aliis formis non subsistentibus, spiritus!" she screamed.

The knight's body flew back into the wall, and the torch Emma had lit before blew out. In the dark, Thanatos' form crumbled to dust, which scattered in the underground wind.

Emma lowered her hand, the fire in her eyes fading. She then whipped around and headed back down the hallway into the darkness. No draugr lord was going to kill her friend, not when she could kill him. This Aulfric, whoever he used to be, was no match for her. Especially when she was angry.

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The draugr dragged Sam through the darkness. They tore at his clothes, their nails cut his skin, and they were dragging him so fast that he could barely stand. He couldn't see anything, but he could definitely smell the thousands of rotting dead around him.

Sam was pulled and tugged and scratched and nearly passed out five times before they reached their destination. It was a large, circular room, where the center was lowered and the walls were made up of a thousand seats.

It's a stadium, thought the hybrid.

He was dragged through an aisle that led to the center of the room by two draugr while the rest took their seats. The aisle led down the stairs until he reached the center of the room. The draugr threw him in before stepping back, and what once as stairs now became a wall. Sam was trapped inside.

Suddenly, the draugr erupted into what sounded like a thousand knives scratching rocks fast and consistently. When Sam looked ahead of him, he realized the sound was a cheer.

A draugr larger than any of the others Sam had seen stepped out into the center of the room from a door on the opposite wall. On his head (or what was left of it), a crown made of human finger bones sat proudly. The draugr still had one eye on the side of his face that was bone, while the other half was still rotting skin. On that half, the place where his other eye should've been was a large battle scar and an empty, bloody, mangled socket.

Sam resisted the urge to puke.

The draugr smiled, showing his blackened and missing teeth. There were only ten or so left. "Samuel," said he, his voice like fingernails scratching wood, "So nice of you to join us."

"I didn't come willingly," Sam retorted. "Your men dragged me here!"

The draugr threw his head back and laughed, causing Sam to cover his ears. He couldn't bear this sound, it too gruesome, too terrible. It was worse than the other draugr's cheer. When he looked up, the undead had stepped closer.

"Samuel, do you know who I am?" it asked.

The hybrid shook his head.

"I am Aulfric One-Eye, the Draugr Deathlord! I have conquered many does and razed many civilizations to the ground. People tremble at the mention of my name. I was killed many years ago by your ancestor, Emrys Gladiator. Although, he did not have your gift." Aulfric's eye trailed to Sam's ears. "I live again to fulfill my duty to the great destiny of Valor. Your duty, Samuel, is to die by my hand. You will not make it to the final battle, I am afraid."

He paused, giving Sam a moment to take all this in. Great destiny of Valor? What did that even mean? Also, he had known his family had a strange past, but to have an ancestor who had killed a Norse king? He hadn't known that, and he certainly wasn't expecting that information.

"However," said Aulfric, snapping Sam out of his thoughts, "I am a fair man. We will battle in hand-to-hand, on-on-one combat. If you win, I will set you free. If you lose, I will kill you. Now stand, Samuel Gladiator, and fight me!"

Sam struggled to his feet. "But, I don't have a weapon," he said. It was true. He had dropped his spear as the draugr dragged him away.

Aulfric scanned the crowd above them. "Did someone pick up his weapon?"

A draugr to Sam's left threw his spear into the arena. It clattered to the ground in front of Sam.

"A spear," said Aulfric, his one eye wide with adrenaline. "My dear Gladiator, what an interesting choice. I shall choose the same."

The draugr lord ripped off one of his own bones, which as he extended his hand became a twenty foot long bone spear topped with an iron point. The handle was ringed with rat skulls.

"That is not fair," muttered Sam.

But the fight had begun. Aulfric lowered his spear so it was level with Sam's eyes before he charged, causing Sam to roll out of the way before he got skewered. Sam ran around the edge of the arena, struggling to keep upright. Aulfric' stench was even worse than the other draugr's, giving Sam a hard time concentrating.

This wasn't fair. Aulfric was dead and healthy, while Sam had just been dragged against his will to this horrible place. He was tired, beaten, and bruised. There was no way he could win this fight.

That was made true when Aulfric did skewer him, just not as bad as Sam was expecting. The bunny boy had let his guard down, giving the draugr the perfect chance to strike Sam's stomach. The wound caused Sam to cry out, dropping to his knees.

This was it. He was going to die.

But then Aulfric shouted, "Take him away!" and two draugr came forward and dragged Sam by his arms through the door Aulfric had come through. The pulled him through the hallway before stopping at a cell.

Not again, Sam thought.

The draugr opened the door and threw Sam into the cell, locking him inside. The hybrid collapsed onto the cold, hard ground, one hand over his wound.

Aulfric appeared at the door. He was not smiling as before, but looked ready to kill. "Look at you, you pathetic rabbit," he said in a quiet but harsh tone. "I know what you're thinking, Samuel, but no, I'm not going to kill you yet. I'm going to make you suffer for your heritage. Then, when you beg for death, I will be merciful and cut those little ears of yours clean off. I imagine they'd make a fine addition to my other spoils of war." The draugr chuckled darkly. "I hope you're ready to feel pain, Samuel Gladiator."

Then Aulfric turned away, laughing loud and cruel as he stalked back down the hallway.

~A/N: this whole thing was totally not semi-based in Skyrim. Definitely not. Shhh you can't prove anything. Although, I also took inspiration from The Blackwell Pages, if any of you know what that is.~