Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

'It's alright… This is a public area in broad daylight, surely they won't dare to-' Griar stepped back, deflecting a swing at the same time.

Two cracked her neck, simply whistling, which brought out dozens of cloaked men, carrying farm tools, cleavers and simple swords with chunks missing from them, Griar was wrong, she was definitely willing to take this further even as people clearly noticed what was happening.

Indeed, the inhabitants, all rushed to hide, disappearing from view the instant the whistling occurred, the cloak servants all rushed to Milo instead of the young noble, surrounding him but not attacking just yet, simply applying pressure to try and keep him in check.

Looking around, both of them noticed that the blonde woman was nowhere to be found, and that something was soaring through the air, landing a distance behind Griar.

"Incredible, food delivers itself now!" Four chuckled, stretching her huge spider legs, carrying some sort of machete with a flat tip in her right hand, and copper-coloured wrist band tied to the left, a blade protruding from the band.

"It's your little cache that led them here, I knew it was a shitty idea"

"Well, if they were around to begin with, it's because our plan was crappy to begin with!"

"Hey, we got a few with this trick…"

"Hold on, so you are really collaborating with the undeads?" Griar cut into their conversations, clutching his weapon strongly.

"Nah"

"Our boss is just a necrophiliac…"

The noble bent his knees even lower than before, using his battle art to extend his dome far enough to swallow even the two members of Alizée, instantly making them go from relaxed to focus in an instant.

Slashes rained down upon two of them at first, Griar then charged toward Two, unlike Four, she had no additional limbs and seemed to be in about the same weight class as him, allowing him to shake her off her posture for a moment, thrusting at her unprotected neck.

She dodged by bending backward, stabbing her spear into the ground, she somehow raised her body from this uncomfortable position with enough force and speed, throwing out an upward kick that Griar was forced to dodge.

'Of course, it can't be that easy… Both are experienced fighters and-' he spun around, his blade empowered by his elemental mana and art, cutting a flying red slash into two, the remnant of the bright red energy crashing down without grazing the noble.

The attack having lost much power in its clash against the sabre, the copper weapon of the spider woman was still holding remnants of the ranged attack.

'Goddamnit… Without my art active, this would have hit me squarely in the back…' Griar was not very lucky with his opponents, Four was using an energy that was not mana, with how rare this was, he was obviously much less acquainted with sensing such attacks, especially when they were so fast and sudden.

The build-up for her slash was near instantaneous, and also, Two was charging up another sandstorm, which was also not great for him.

His personally created battle art was something he was very proud of, even if it was still in its infancy state, this was the first real battle that it would be used in, it focused on combating out the abilities of enemies, weakening attacks on contact and even dispelling them, as he had done earlier with the sandstorm.

It did not matter whether it was energy based, ability based or an art, everything was a prey to his creation, only that it struggled against anything that was perpetually activated, Two's sandstorm was not something she used once and would then remain in place until she dedicated otherwise or some sort of limit was reached, she maintained it of her own will.

So of course, cancelling these sorts of abilities was more difficult.

Augmenting his physical body and blade, Griar exchanged blows with both of them, debating whether he should attempt to use another portion of his art which was still a work in progress, Syklon was all for taking risks in the name of progress, but she probably would have preferred for him to test things out in a safe environment, she was not training criminals to serve as her blades anymore, but students that were going to go to war, and were highly prone to dying in it.

'Breath in, breathe out… Control your breathing and envision it, you have the foundation for it, it does not matter if I can't maintain it while moving… The effects will linger on for a few more seconds…' he ignored the cloaked servants being flung around in the distance, Milo was fully augmenting himself, pushing right through their rickety weapons and into their bodies.

Crushing their jaws and rib cages without mercy, they did not react to the pain, their nerves worn out by the drug, but even then, his hits were potent enough to make them lose consciousness when hitting the head, racking their brains against the inside of their skulls with enough strength to send them to an early slumber.

Blood and teeth flew through the air, eyes almost popped right out of their sockets, bodies flew up as their solar plexus was caved in, shards of metal, splintered wood riddled the ground, the goons were incapable of doing anything, Milo going on full offensive, stopping them from attack by defeating them in a single strike each.

'Always growing exponentially this one…' with confidence, Griar unleashed a dome of a glow darker than the previous ones, before either of his two opponents could charge up their attacks, they were cancelled, before they could even take form.

Not only this, but Griar had gone a step further into this one, even putting a halt to any sort of energy circulation, bridging Two and Four to a grinding stop, naturally taken aback and expecting an imminent counter attack.

Griar did not do as they expected, he rushed away, Milo got the message and they both retreated.

A few seconds were necessary for the two women to recover their energy circulation, but even then, having it forcefully halted in this way made the whole thing a bit shaky, they did not give chase.

"I swear, kids these days are fed something else"

"I wonder what that bigger one would have tasted like…"

Both were nonchalant however, a green blur went right past them, no reactions given, simply walking back toward the tower.

"One! We need to get moving!"

"You guys know that I can't do much with all that ambient life, we are going underground next time, let's pay a visit to mister puppet" the vampire felt like a fluffy animal during a heat-wave, she longed for the cold touch of her favourite skeleton.

The sound of a clash of swords resounded further away into the woods.