Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Once Loimos claimed his first life however, the tension inevitably rose, and a tear was formed in their formation- Using his foot, Loimos threw Hoffnu's sword into his own hands, halfswording it to block a strike from Menhirel and then strike her in the face with the pommel, but swiftly ran off as spells rained down from above, crystals sprouted from the ground, walls and pillars of earth tried to launch him on the air or to hit him head-on.

Gusts and blades of winds attempted to destabilised and dismember the undead, streams of powerful flames were also launched at him, despite his rather serious injury, Alosfit was not done fighting, same for Forven, they could no longer fight in close-quarters due to their wounds, but they still had plenty of mana left.

Water and snow worked together, to try and freeze him in place… Whilst countless swords and bolts were constantly soaring through the air, several of them actually managing to chip away at the undead from time to time, of course, since he could not afford to be trapped or endure the more powerful spells, Loimos had no other choice but to let himself be struck by some of these instead to ensure that he evaded the rest.

Marl had switched from casting spells of holy energy to focusing on healing the injured, being the most capable of the living's present in that regard, so essentially, Loimos had managed to push two of the elemental champions who could fight in close combat to only casting spells, killed the swordswoman who was the biggest threat up-close, shoved a caster into healing duties, and the shieldbearer no longer had any shield as well…

Still, everything was not great, the assault of the living's continued, and the death of one of their companion had the most annoying effect of angering them, their hearts were beating faster, pumping blood quicker through their veins, adrenaline was coursing throughout their body in greater amounts too, truly a most bizarre thing.

Even with ample knowledge of how the livings functioned, most undeads would be somewhat stumped by such odd reactions, after all, whilst it made some amount of sense that livings weren't that glad about dying, despite how idiotic that belief was, it was always a fact that living's cared most about their own life compared to that of others, so why did they always get so mad when they witnessed death?

Loimos deflected a bolt, continuing to dodge using various different kinds of footworks in unison, holding a sword and with the strength to use another powerful move, the only question was which move to use and when, there was also the option of seeking to slay another one of the livings to drain them as well, that would enable for Loimos to do something rather interesting, but would he be able to do that without getting hit by gold enough for the effort to only bring him back the point he currently was at?

He dodged two greatswords of mana, jumping in between them before they could strike down at him, then stabbing the sword into the ground to prevent his momentum from getting him to roll right into a stream of water that would inevitably be frozen by snow if he were to have even a single toe inside of it.

Unexpectedly however, a crystal golem suddenly sprouted from the ground behind him, the champion of crystal must have been working on it for a while and had been carefully concealing its presence to catch the undead off guard- Loimos used the sword to block a blade of wind cast by Merno, only to have his skull nicked by a blade of wind manifested by Forven instead, in that slight instead, Menhirel rushed down, kicking Loimos right into the crushing embrace of the golem, the undead contorted to avoid being fully restrained, the magical construct instead only managing to get a hold of his left arm.

All of the livings close to him backed off, and everyone capable of casting spells manifested one, all at once, doing something they must have practised as they seamlessly merged all of their elements together, even those that opposed one another, manifesting a ball of pure destruction that was certain to leave a huge crater wherever it landed.

The golem's grip was not lessening, Loimos could only swing the sword at the parts that were holding his arm captive, some cracks formed, and bits of crystals fell off, but not quite enough to free his arm, Loimos would be able to escape right there and then if he could just, even slightly, change the properties of his arm to be more flexible.

The shine of several elemental manas merged together soon engulfed the undead, the livings only seeing him continuing to hammer away at the crystals before they completely lost sight of him, even Merno, with his advance mana senses, could not tell anything of what was happening as the different kinds of mana ran wild for several seconds.

"Did anyone feel that he was destroyed?!" Alosfit shouted, naturally referring to the steam of experience that should accompany the destruction of an enemy.

"Who knows if he is like the other undeads and doesn't give anything?" Defoim'nocle shouted back, everyone remained tense, having no idea whether Loimos had been wiped away by the blast or not…

A scream of agony surged through the air, and everyone turned to where Molc had been positioned, only to see him with a sword piercing right through his back, Loimos stepping on the crossbowman's nape with one foot.

"Shit, of course he isn't done for…" Filiusorci cursed as he witnessed another comrade lose their life and be drained of everything the undead could take.

However, Loimos did not look good at all right now, his skull had been scorched nearly completely black by burns and was marred with cracks, his lower jaw was gone entirely, his dark mantle was barely hanging on, only the portion from the waist and below still remaining, even if in tatters.

The armour below wasn't looking much better however, part of his ribcage was revealed to the outside, his right arm was nearly completely uncovered, leaving only the bone coloured charcoal, even the bits of rot usually clinging to him were nowhere to be seen.

His left arm might look better off at a glance, but although the armour was still present, it hung loosely, it seemed like to free himself from the golem, Loimos had broken his own arm down into several pieces so as to allow himself to wiggle it out of the crystal grasp.

The dead and the livings stayed still for a few seconds.

Until the former made the first move.