Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"...Where the hell am I? Griar? Louizon? Unbelievable, I just got there and I already lost the little siblings… Mom would be so mad if she knew that…" Lizi rubbed the bridge of her nose, she had appeared in some sort of small clearing, surrounded from all sides by crooked trees lacking in many leaves, the only sound she was hearing was the distant cawing of crows and the squeaking of branches being bent under the winds.

Not exactly a reassuring place to find oneself in, but the eldest daughter seemed unperturbed, quickly leaping up on a tree, jumping from tree top to tree top like an agile monkey, until she reached what looked like part of a small town.

And instantly, the locals came to greet her.

"Herejak!" they shouted, and since there was no one else around, Lizi raised one hand and waved at them.

Those people were rather numerous and seemed to be just standing or wandering around with any goal, their faces were haggard, eyes dull like those of a dead fish, bodies pale…

Their vocal cords seemed to be just fine however.

"Herejak!" they kept shouting the same word that Lizi had no clue what it could possibly mean, and honestly, she did not care much.

The townspeople were immediately aggressive toward her, as though they could sense that she lacked something, and that this lack of something marked her as an intruder and threat, Lizi smiled and stepped off the tree she was standing upon, landing softly upon the ground.

Her short, light brown hair fluttering slightly in the wind alongside the waist cloak tied around her hips, the exposed veins and lean muscles on her forearms bulged as she unsheathed a sword from its sheath, as indeed, she was carrying multiple swords on her person, because you never knew when you might need more than one!

The blade she took out was a double-edged longsword with a sleek blade, crafted by resident blacksmith bear-man, Poho, the craftsmanship was of very good quality and so were the materials used, the Peaceful Realm was rather abundant in nice resources like iron.

Lizi spun the blade in her hand for a moment as the townspeople approached, one of them, who appeared to be a middle-aged man, reeled his arm back and launched his hatched at her, a commendable effort, but the young woman just grabbed it out of the air before it could reach its mark.

"Excuse, but I think you dropped this-" being a well educated girl, returning lost items was like second nature to Lizi, so she gave it back to the man, embedding the blade through the middle of his face.

He collapsed backwards and grew still instantly.

"Not even going to say thanks? How impolite…" she had almost been hoping that what Griar had described would happen, and that black tendrils would shout out from the defeated man, showing his full glory as a corrupted monster wearing the skin of a man, who she was sure, used to be a good, upstanding citizen.

Or maybe not, maybe he had actually been a big piece of garbage, but insulting the dead was greatly impolite, except if they were undead, of course, then you could go ham.

The other townspeople did not react to the death of one of their fellow, only continuing to move forward, a woman began to accelerate as she got within five meters of Lizi, brandishing a cleaver that had clearly seen much usage with how bloody it was.

Breathing like Antieeld had taught her, Lizi stepped forward, that first motion was not quick at all, but it was smooth and unexpected, in one swift, and fabulously awesome, attack, the woman's arms and heads were separated from the rest of the body, and from there, Lizi exploded with harrowing swiftness, maintaining her momentum and she carved up the enemies around her, switching from target to target without a clear pattern in who she decided to strike down, it almost looked like she was dancing, evading savage attacks and gracefully counterattacking.

In just under a minute, the townspeople that attacked her were all reduced to precisely chopped chunks of meat, each swing had been perfect, the cuts were so straight and neat, that some might entertain the idea that you could just stitch them back on without problem.

With an unnecessary –but very satisfying– twirl, Lizi took some distance from the people she just dismembered, her place sliced through their clothes, flesh and bones like it was all butter.

Moving away proved to be a good decision, as the woman she unburdened of both arms and head began to twitch back to life, filthy tendrils bursting out from the gashes, manifesting a most foul being into existence, tendrils from the arms formed thin pincers of sorts, whilst from the head, emerged emerged a hand-like limb formed out of stagnant waters, in the center of the palm being an eye.

"Oh wow, Griar was right, that thing is nasty" Lizi smiled as she looked at the abomination, observing it for a few moments, before springing back into action, the limbs formed out of stagnant water were flexible and swift, but Lizi was faster, without hesitation or fear, moved in close, dodging the pincers as she went right past the transformed woman.

And as she passed by, she shortened the woman's left leg a bit, making the enemy lose balance.

In that instant of weakness, Lizi went behind the townsperson's back and chopped off the two arms completely this time, leaving only stumps at the shoulders.

The two pincers attempted to lash out even as they were separated from their host, but Lizi just kicked the armless woman in the way, leading to her being bisected by the pincers.

And then, the swordswoman just stepped back.

The enemy could no longer move, and it seemed like once the stagnant waters manifested in a certain way, that it could no longer do anything else, the two pincers and hand-like protuberance were all that was available.

And after a little while of flailing around, the stagnant water just lost its shape and came splashing down onto the ground.

"Welp… That's taken care of, I guess… Now, where in damnation am I? And where are Griar and Louizon?! I guess Louizon is fine, I didn't hear any explosions just yet, so she probably didn't encounter any danger… Still! Why did we have to be separated like that? Talk about annoying…" the young woman cleaned the blood off her sword and sheathed it back, casually walking through the street, leaving behind a pile of dismembered limbs.

To find them, she could only look everywhere she could.