Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Bloody foam gathering from within, spreading out upon lips and face, Milo fell onto the ground, back first with a loud slam, his entire weight crashing down, reaching to pull the sword back out, Loimos was met with resistance as Griar was still not staying down. Your journey continues with My Virtual Library Empire

The last strike had trouble his breathing however, ignoring the banshee-like cry coming from the mages, Loimos kicked at the living's ankle, forcing Griar to lower himself, setting him up for a punch directly to the top of his head, throwing him face first into the ground.

A violent gust of wind crashed into the skeleton's face, the power might be greater, but it now lacked finesse, the force of the blow was enough to take him off the ground and send him away, but the blow was not focused or precise enough to inflict real damage.

This hadn't been the intent however, taking the two young men upon the back of gentle winds, and here she came, Loimos had no one around to act as a flesh barricade, the other mages did not act, now Loimos had to be careful.

Inexplicably, he rose one hand up in the air, this gesture bore no arts of any kind, it was unnecessary, and thus incredibly suspicious, Helena did not stop to question it however, up until now, Loimos had made certain to keep close to her allies, not even always using them to prevent spells from targeting him, it could be taken as him simply not being capable of always having people where he wanted them, but to her, it seemed more like Loimos only searched for the proximity.

Like he knew exactly what would happen otherwise, taking a deep breath, eyes focused on the undead, he assumed an actually meaningful stance, some sort of symbol flashed above his head for a brief instant, no doubt about it, he just knew it ahead of time.

"You guys have spies in our ranks?" she asked without expecting an answer, but Loimos saw an opening.

Slightly turning his head to look at the remaining champions specifically, targeting them with his next words.

"Ever since Ircron, I have been amidst your lot, next to your king" the thinly veiled threat intertwined with a revelation certainly sent them for a mental ride, Helena was not too concerned by this, but she was much too empathetic to not think about what this could mean beyond just the people she knew, if what he said was true, it meant that this monster, or at least a portion of him, was within.

'No… Even if he used to be, his fight with Sir Thanatok would have severed that connection, he can't even manifest a slightest bit of rot right now, so controlling a second body from so far away is impossible…' she narrowed her eyes.

'Did he use that revelation to empower his art? What a piece of shit' her mana circulating appropriately, foot firmly rooted upon the ground, covered in both blooms of rot and vigour, bearing the marks of the fight.

"Zone!" the raging storm took hold instantly, shrouding both the user and target amidst a raging tornado, the undead had leapt forward just before its apparition, but had been knocked right down by the slashes of winds all around.

Helena was nowhere near as proficient or talented as Rosemary was, she had to make a choice about her zone, and now that he had casted it, she was locked in place until it was dispelled, be it willfully or not.

The spell she had decided to imbue into her zone was a most simple slash of wind, but within here, it rained down indefinitely from all sides, stronger and incapable of missing, Loimos had no energy to fight back with.

She did not know what the Lithitree was, whether it was a domain ability, a zone or something greater, but Loimos could not unleash it again, he only had some death force left, and so far, he had not brought it out, keeping it safely inside.

If he could not use it, she would be able of withling him down, if he could, then she invited Loimos to do so.

'Go ahead, exhaust yourself' the skeleton had shrouded himself into an art to defend against the element of wind, coupled with his absurd defences, he was not taking nearly as much damage as she would have liked.

Helena was not skillful enough to focus fire on a particular area, the slashes struck everywhere equally, a thousand cuts were meaningless if they barely left a mark, but at least, the undead seemed incapable of moving forward.

For the next thirty seconds.

Slamming his fist into the soul, gashes forming upon his skull, one of his fangs finally breaking apart and breaking, he was slowly lifting himself up to his feet, but it was too slow, Loimos was well aware of this, even as he had analysed his enemies from up-close, finding a counterattack to a zone in his state was near impossible, the arts he knew that were meant to fight back were too demanding to be enacted at this instant, so he had instead settled on one to increase his defences against wind in exchange for other resistances.

Even then, he had been doing his best to prevent this from happening in the first place, Helena could not distinguish between enemies and foes, so she would not use her zone with anyone around.

The living was struggling to maintain her zone more than usual, it was a spell still, and proximity with Loimos's festering death was still harsh upon it, no matter however, she was going to keep it together long enough to inflict sufficient damage.

His attention fell upon the fallen fang, focusing upon it for an instant, the blade of winds began falling upon it, recognised as an integral part of him, focusing some more and the amount of blades increased in one place, as it decreased in another…

Bringing one hand up to his maw, breaking off the fangs adorning his lower jaw, before clicking the body part off entirely, throwing each individual tooth alongside with it in the air.

Loimos had always been able of 'tricking' the system, switching from his body to any remnant of himself, each individual piece of him, be it his rot or anything else held the potential to be him, to become his vessel, anything that held his death did.

Yet, despite all being himself, if he switched from one body to another, any vow that should clung to him for eternity would be made obsolete and forgotten, by simply pulling himself ever-so slightly toward each of those pieces, he made them targets of the zone as well, and as he pulled himself toward them, the less his actual body was considered one.

A handy trick that could only work because Helena was not a masterful zone user, her great spell was pretty much working on its own, she only had influence on the casting and dispelling of the zone.

His dark mantle was torn to shreds, leaving him only in his armour of black iron, covering in bents and gashes, his skull without protection, missing the lower jaw and a portion near his right socket, he rushed forward, Helena not quite understanding what was happening, she attempted to cast another spell on her own, using one arm to direct it, the mana soon to shoot out, only for the undead to swing his own head at her wrist.

Tackling into the amazonian-sized woman, lifting her off the ground, slamming her right back on the ground, letting punches rain down as he pinned her arms with his knees.

Helena wasn't nearly as easy to damage as the ones that came before however, maintaining a spell of augmentation while also having much tougher defences, not quite as tough as Milo's however.

Covering his fists and skull with blood, the zone came undone of its own.