Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Stomping down his foot, shaking the holy city, Thanatok Ynigós evaded and punched an assaulting arm of Loimos, following with a hook to the undead's face, with was avoided as his neck extended using a serpentine spine, reeling back, swinging his own cranium like a glorified flail, a technique the likes of an abomination would use, but unlike them, it was fully by choice on the skeleton's part.

His very helm, moulded from his rot, twisting into a bestial, monstruous maw, lunging for bites as it was swung with intent to bludgeon, all the while, the rest of Loimos was not standing idle, clawing with the tips of his fingers, punching and slicing with bone claws that erupted from his knuckles.

Each swing of the latter tore the landscape apart, reaching much too far before breaking off into shards, said shards floating up and being shot at the living's back, this tactic did not go unnoticed, the pieces of bone vanquished as Thanatok Ynigós did the same as Loimos earlier, and allowed his life force to overflow, forming a natural protective coat.

Managing to grab a hold of the freakish spine, it erupted with spikes, stabbing into his hands, detaching itself at the base without requiring him to exert any strength, skull exploding into a shower of freezing mist.

Frostbite instantly took in, put failing to encumber Ynigós, landing a kick squarely into the undead champion's chest, portion touched by life crumbled away instantly, the best bursting open with awfully long ribs, closing in on the living's leg, uncaring of the pain, The First Death Hunter instead shielded his eyes.

From within, a blinding light had been building up, signature move of the ghoul lord, Vwoldtnir, just as he protected his eyes, knowing full well how devastating it could be at such a close range, Loimos's presence and signature melted away.

"Trying to slip away again-?" rudely interrupted as Loimos did not, in fact, slip away at all, not even repositioning himself at all, just regenerating and landing a hit right in his enemies jaw, the bone claws that exploded outward shattered against the thought defences, still digging into the flesh and scraping into the bones full of vigour.

Following with a palm strike to the solar plexus, dripping with acidic black blood, its burning touch enhanced by the sanguine powers of all the vampire lords, intended to knock the air out of his lungs, it evidently failed completely, Thanatok Ynigós was a tough nut to crack.

He ceased protecting his eyes the very moment the blinding light receded, Loimos shifting his fighting style right there and then as well, bones creaking as his entire body structure shifted, taking on a more wild stature, dropping to the ground, he rushed to the side, lunging.

Rising his foot high, Thanatok stomped down, narrowly missing the corpse, clawing at his midsection, leaving gashes, still just as ineffective as all previous hits, it was healed in no time.

Loimos constantly shifted in between various beasts, monsters and chimeric abominations, his fighting style constantly flowing, ironic for a scion of rot, this way, he could prevent the living from getting used to his style and pace, for his style and pace were never set in stone, enhancing strikes with different things all the times, the death hunter was well aware that Loimos was building up to a decisive strike that would use everything all at once, trying to keep the living guessing.

The audience of living was focusing, leaning forward without realising, Thanatok Ynigós was a true monolith, his strikes all held the potential to defeat Loimos, and his defences held remarkably well, he had a clear advantage in terms of pure power, his life force manipulation and mastery over his primeval vigour were all focused onto his pure physique and body.

Meanwhile, Loimos was more-so a jack of all trades, his death force manipulation was not nearly as refined, and his primeval rot was specialised in creation, only enhancing his strength because he coated himself in layers upon layers of it.

The undead was also dabbling into everything this world had to offer for one to become more powerful, his usage was masterful, his spells were easily all transcends, his mastery over Nosferatu's stack helping greatly, his influence over the battle arts was honestly godly in Syklon's eyes, simply unnatural.

He said nothing, made no particular movements, sacrificed nothing and could manifest their effects from seemingly anywhere, she did not recognise this as art deeply ingrained into the body or soul, he was just pulling anything he wanted without any drawbacks.

"This bastard has to be abusing a loophole, somehow…" she muttered.

Still, it seemed like Loimos's battle style was truly never ending, he had yet to repeat any single move or form of his body as of yet, and he was switching through them, multiple every seconds, four-legged, two-legged, unarmed, weapons of all sorts, duel-wielding, magic, arts, each and every sub-category was being used, Rosemary could feel that sigils and circles were in use, even as he did not manifest them in the least.

"How the hell can he do this? Finding loopholes is important, but this is just… Wrong…" she was flabbergasted as well.

Pierre-Ornée refrained from voicing out his thought, as he might accidentally praise the undead's wide array of combat skills, Loimos was pulling weapons after weapons, all mastered to a high degree in a traditional manner, as well as in ways only the skeleton could, battle styles flowing and mixing without any clash.

Even impractical weaponry, such as weapons meant to be operated by multiple soldiers, or like ballistas were incorporated, utilising the environment and weapons widely considered as lesser and failures, he was making everything work out somehow. Stay updated through My Virtual Library Empire

Yet.

"You think you can trick me like this? Put your back into it!"

Thanatok Ynigós was not quite as technical, not nearly as versatile, he relied on brawn and his life force alone, even when blessed with special attributes like Loimos was, the undead had a dead soul, he had a living one and so on, things that should be neither were given life and death within them.

The skeleton had decided to take advantage of this, of the fact that he was created to be versatile and simply held talent in everything, spreading him thin.

The human could not have cared less for all of those gifts, he only wished for his fists, his body to destroy and crush his enemies, he had honed his life force martial arts in the midst of the first war, ignoring all of his other talents, he focused solely on this.

With a precise strike, he pinned Loimos right to the ground, his instincts successfully predicting where to attack, devouring life force seeped into the rot, right down the middle and in great quantity, reaching far with just this punch, forcing the undead to detonate himself as a whole, sending untouched pieces of him in every direction, all of them holding the potential to suddenly reform into the skeleton just as he was moments prior.

The living stood still, waiting for Loimos to reveal himself.

Alas, he did not require to be whole to attack, the ground below fell in, as a worm-like creation of rot burst from below, extending high into the sky with Ynigós taken in its jaw.

Taking the initiative, the worm destroyed itself with an explosion, sending steaming, putrid flesh in every direction, pieces as large as two carriages for the most part, ruining Millipolo even further as they landed all over the holy city.

Once again taken into the air, The First Death Hunter scanned his surroundings, Loimos was rather skillful had concealing himself, but not good enough, without turning, the human deflecting a bone spear aimed at the back of his neck, forming a solid platform from life, putting his foot up against it, preparing to charge right through the corpse.

A big smile covering his face, it was a good fight so far, but could it get even better?

The answer was simple.

The vibrant green of Thanatok's eyes shined brighter than ever, meeting the deep purple glow coming from Loimos's hollow sockets, this complete indifference, this undead stoicism, what would it be like if it was broken?

Loimos seemed about to shoot himself at his foe as well.

And yet, one of them was hit before either did so.