Sentinels - Face Off

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Sentinels - Face-off of the Undead

Another interesting battle scene to add to my "Sentinel" series.
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As I climbed a mountain to raid a Dragon's lair (I think it was Rannveig's Fast), a pair of ancient sentinels spotted me and attacked.

One, an ethereal ghost adventurer warrior, specializing in melee attacks with an enchanted mace.
The other, a skeleton mage, specializing in ranged frost attacks.

But the skeletal mage was no ordinary skeletal undead -- he could fly!!

Or rather float quickly, like I've seen the deadly dragon priests and necro-liches do!

Surprised at being ambushed by two advanced foes, I quickly summoned my own floating sentinel, my eternal bodyguard golem, the powerful Flame Atronach. I fondly call her: Scorch. :-)

Floating golem versus floating undead!
And myself (blood-n-bones adventurer) with shield-n-sword, against the mace-wielding ghost warrior-adventurer. :-)

As Scorch floated around and countered the skeletal mage's freezing ice-bolts with her explosive fire-bolts, I did my own dance of death with the undead ghost warrior.

While I could block most of his melee charges with my banded-iron shield, a couple of his mace attacks almost knocked my helm-n-head off my shoulders. To enrage and unbalance him, I mocked him with a bloody grin as I staggered him repetitively with shield bashes every time I managed to side-step his smashing attacks. Keeping a cautious eye and rolling away to avoid his strong power attacks, I watched the ice-versus-fire elemental battle unfold between Scorch & the Skeletal Mage, from the corner of my eyes.

But the skeletal mage was very powerful, and with a sudden fusillade of ice-bolts, he banished my dear Flame Atronach and then turned his glowing, unblinking, hollow-as-hell eyes towards me.

Suddenly, the tables were turned, and the cheeky grin had been wiped off my face.

I quickly shot some fire runes and fire-bolts to keep the skeletal mage at bay, while I backpedaled hastily to get myself away from the enraged ghost knight.

Now I had to fend off both melee and ranged attacks, while my mana hadn't yet replenished enough to summon Scorch again.

Using my bow and arrow at such close quarters against two agile opponents was out of the question.

My magical defense skills and armor-smithing abilities just hadn't improved high enough to protect me from both melee and magical attacks at the same time. Neither could I wield my shield forever against the strong warrior while avoiding the ice bolts being shot at me by the adept skeletal mage, nor could I hold up a magical ward against the frost attacks while blocking the smashing mace attacks by the onrushing ghost warrior.

And then the bloody grin was back on my face, as I got an impromptu and crazy idea that might just save my dratted life.

Maneuvering and wheeling to keep the ghost warrior always in line-of-sight between the skeletal mage and me, and staggering him into the best possible direction, I used him as a human (albeit ethereal-human) shield to avoid the incoming frost attacks from the undead skeleton.

As the ethereal ghost warrior's translucent armor got pierced with shining translucent ice-bolts, he got furious, turned around, and totally forgot about me!

He instead charged at the skeletal mage, and in that brief moment of respite, I healed myself and quickly summoned my Flame Atronach again, just in case.

As the skeletal mage floated all over the place shooting ice-bolts at his marauding friend-turned-foe, and as more fire-bolts were pelted at both of them by Scorch, the burning skeleton forgot his magic attacks and finally turned to melee defense with an axe, but it was too late.

The ghost warrior made short work of the skeleton mage (at close quarters, his melee power attacks easily overpowered the skeleton mage's pitiful melee skills), and I later dispatched the ghost warrior too with a final stab with my enchanted silver sword.

(Yeah, any adventurer worth his/her salt would tell you that silver weapons are the best bet against ghosts, undead and werewolves.)

As I surprisingly emerged victorious from the unbelievable battle, all the while, I had been laughing at the whole battle scene. And I think I almost saw a smirk on the fiery face of my Flame Atronach too.

Adventuring in Skyrim can be deadly yet hilarious at the same time.

;-)