Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

With a loud thud, Jarl landed upon a thin layer of ice, freezing waters splashing in every direction as he attempted to keep his bearings, confused would be a light word to express what the great accursed had just experienced, it was like his body had been reduced to particles before being dragged through time and space at an impossible velocity.

Looking down at his mutated hands, they were fine, the only injuries he bore were the ones inflicted by the volley and short confrontation against the knight trio, apart from being transported away, Jarl had not been subjected to any attack.

He saw black feathers falling all around himself, their appearance unlike that of regular birds, slick and shiny, looking up as he believed them to be falling from above, his gaze encountered a small figure about ten meters or so away from him, graciously standing atop a thin ghost tree, only one foot resting down, perched upon the very end of their toes, that figure seemed small and non-threatening, but he knew better.

What looked like a small woman wrapped in a cloak of feathers actually bore the stench of death and danger, poising for a fight, suspicious as to what she may be holding, as the entirety of both her arms was hidden beneath that strangely, stiff-looking cloak of hers.

"Who… What… Are… You?" struggling to piece a sentence together due to the mutations that had happened to his throat, it should work to his advantage, people that did not know would assume that he was having trouble because the curse had taken a toll on his mind instead.

But Jarl wouldn't count on the fact that this odd girl would assume so.

The wind howled softly, punctuating the deafening silence as the two parties just looked at one another, the closest thing to a response the short woman offered was her pulling her arms out from beyond the cloak and unsheathing a short blade the accursed did not recognise as anything he had ever seen or heard of before.

Spears, harpoons and hunting knives were most popular here, swords were only owned by a whole two people in this realm.

As such, Jarl naturally did not know what a tanto was as he didn't even know that Tochi was a thing that existed, so their traditional weaponry might have been made by people living in the stars for all he was aware of.

Taking a closer look at her, it was rather obvious that she was an undead, although Jarl did not know much about such beings, he had observed them for a long time, although not all were obvious as to their nature, many were clearly corpses, rotten or skeletal, it left little room for doubt, the same was true for the perched girl before him, she did not breath and had no pulse.

Nothing but a frozen corpse.

Seeing the reflection of light against the blade, Jarl focused, his opponent may appear unimpressive at a glance, but she had suddenly taken him far away from where he had been standing, clearly, there were forces he did not understand at play here…

Cecili shifted, barely a twitch, but from a still figure such as hers, the accursed instantly noticed and perked up to react, having already fallen for her trick, as the nightbird did not budge and instead, something slammed into his back, with enough for to force even a great accursed like himself, who had once served as paladin directly by Pope Janus's side, to fall forward, pain radiated from his necrosed right hand as the wound came into contact with the freezing waters, but that was nothing compared to what was happening to his back.

Indeed, more necrosis, only that it wasn't delivered in the same fashion as what had happened to his hand, the black lightning, true to its moniker, was lightning and did bear its effects, the necrosis did not replace that aspect.

The same was true for the sneak attack he had just endured, the necrosis only came after what felt like acid rampaged through his thick layer of clothing and ate through his flesh, muscles and tendons were already damaged extensively, so the addition of a necrotic effect as well really didn't matter much when the initial blow was already devastating.

A most foul stench assaulted Jarl's nostrils, understanding coursing through him as he didn't even bother to stand back up, and instead crawled away like a beast, uncaring for the suffering pulling on his damaged back brought to him, swiftly turning around, he could indeed confirm the identity of his attacker.

'I should have noticed sooner…' with clear thoughts, he could only chastise himself… Where else did one find water only covered by such a thin layer of ice? Indeed, he should have known as he had once attempted to snatch a heissbloom for himself before becoming a paladin, and once that was accomplished, he had no longer been able to to try.

The Schneebiest stood tall, not quite as tall as the accursed, but its primal, bestial ferocity made up for this.

Indeed, the undead girl had set him up to be stricken right in the back by the guardian creature's vile projectile attack.

Despite being rumoured as immortal, the Schneebiest had fallen prey to undeath, its body covered by traces of necrosis.

Ignoring the agony this atrocious injury brought him, he snapped his neck toward where the nightbird had been finding nothing there before feeling his legs give in, two slashes appeared where his achilles tendon should be, he brought his hand down, trying to pin down the swift shadow but only broke ice.

Watching in awe as Cecili moved about with dreadful speed, soaring through the air- No, that was not it, he could hardly believe it but his eyes weren't deceiving him, she was swimming through the air, turning and twisting around with illogical grace, finding footing to kick off of where there was clearly nothing but empty air.

After all, not all birds could fly.

Jarl was gobsmacked, he had no idea, not a single clue how to possibly read her trajectory, she could weave around as she saw fit, seeing her home back in on him, he once more tried to slap her out of the air, but then, she stopped swimming, and just stepped on the air like solid ground was here, narrowly evaded his strike and slashed once, slicing the tendons in his wrist, rendering another limb useless before speeding away like a penguin leaping into the ocean.

At the same time, the Schneebiest was rushing him down, its two, large paws being brought together as though intended on clapping, except that Jarl's head was in the middle of it all.

'Pope Janus- I am so-' a red mist exploded, like a dandelion being blown upon, the crimson particles spread out and were taken away by the polar winds.