Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Any signs of aggressivity from our dear allies?" sitting upon an exquisite throne, the air rich with pure, unbridled death and miasma, King Nitok asked a question to his foremost advisor.

"None yet, although the general population of their continents seem to grow more and more displeased with us, the leaders are wise enough to know that they should take all the time that they have, wait for us to attack first before showing hostility… The people of Lefaux in particular were incensed when they learned that we had been trying to set foot into the elemental and spirit realms, but the king and queen knew what to do, and everything was resolved by just sitting down around a table" his tone laid back, Faraday was casually tapping his metallic fingers against one another, his chrome skull having never looked so reflective before.

Nitok placed his ancient skull against his bony palm.

"Ah… Shame that we were found out, I always wanted to visit these realms, they used to be all the rage during my time, mages claimed that they were the key toward total mastery of magic and transcendence into beings above the current shells they inhabited… Most of them work for the Empire now though, that mix of ancient, old and new ways of thinking really boosted our research department, didn't it?" King Nitok emitted a low chuckle, his bones so ancient that they seemed to produce dust on their own, he was such an old undead, that despite being human, some of his bones were visibly different in how they were made compared to the skeleton of modern humans who had joined the Empire.

Faraday rubbed his chin, scraping iron against iron.

"I don't understand much about their theories and findings, I may be a mage, but I only use magic for violence, I fear that I am unable to appreciate the chorus of countless minds from different eras working in accordance with one another…" as Faraday spoke words of death tongue, something occurred to draw the attention of the old corpses, both of them were seated upon a balcony, which gave sight onto an enormous arena down below.

A veritable colosseum that dwarfed all others in size and architectural beauty, if great giants were to build a colosseum, perhaps they might just build something larger.

The ground in the arena was made from white sand, and whenever a weight came pressing down upon the grains, they would turn a stark black instead, clearly indicating where someone was standing at all times, and making the usage of stealth-based capabilities much harder.

Two undeads entered from opposite sides into the arena, corpses who had mostly existed in obscurity until now, just undeads amidst an ocean of them.

The colosseum event was one that occurred at regular intervals, Nitok thought that it was a good idea to establish these sorts of things, as the population swelled, finding and picking out especially talented, or undeads with special traits became harder and harder, by organising events such as this one, it could help in finding diamonds in the rough, and it also served to help undeads who did not get to participate in much things, to actually practise and show what they were made of.

The previous fights had been as expected, based on the types of undeads participating, guessing who would win was not to complicated, the colosseum was not for all types of warriors today, there was a big emphasis on martial prowess, being able to wield a weapon with skill, and the likes, pure mages and assassins were at a great disadvantage, the way things were put together today, made it so the resistance to energies of the participants was turned up to eleven.

Effectively, magic dealt no damage whatsoever here, and could only be used supportively, in conjunction with martial arts and weaponry.

Of course, there were some smart ones who figured out the loopholes, but rather than strength, this demonstrated their cunning, which was another good trait.

Currently, the two undeads that stepped inside seemed ready to fight in a good old manner, on one side, a dried husk with a ghoulish maw and four arms stepped forward, wielding four identical curved blades, equipped with long arms that were not at all built like those of your average humanoid, undoubtedly, dealing with such an opponent from up-close was no easy task.

On the other side however, was where Faraday seemed most interested.

Dressed in stark black clothing, the garments so ample that the undead seemed to be floating inside of them.

Especially since that challenger was a skeleton, a squeaky, fresh-looking skeleton.

A skeleton with charcoal-black bones, horns protruding from his forehead, moving forward diagonally at first, before making a sharp turn and thrusting directly upward instead.

Most curious however, was his weapon of choice, a twinblade, a sort of staff-like weapons were both ends were equipped with sword-like blades, not exactly a common weapon for wielding such a thing efficiently required far more training that your typical sword or spear, not to mention that hitting yourself with such a thing was usually easier than hitting your opponent.

But there was no doubt to be had, the way this skeleton walked and the general impression he gave out, he was definitely capable of taking care of himself.

"You seem particularly interested, Faraday, do you know this undeadling?" asked Nitok.

"Not directly, but you see, he is part of that group- The Sons Of Loimos"

"Ah, I haven't heard of them in a while"

"They haven't been making waves recently, seems like they have nothing to say about the state of the Empire, and furthermore, they have been on cloud nine since Loimos defeated the golden one- This one is called Traquik, he is talented, probably aiming to get into the vanguard to get closer to his idol" explained Faraday as the fight began.

Traquik spun his weapon around once before beginning to march directly toward his opponent, one could tell the weight of each of his steps by how much white sand turned red beneath his feet.

There was little fanfare, the instant the two corpses got within striking distance, their weapons clashed, sparks flew through the air as within the next ten seconds, the four-armed husk lashed out with all of his blades at once, surely a believer that the best defence was a good offence, raining down strikes with stop.

But Traquik blocked and parried everything, the iron struck against one another, until everything stopped, and four distinct circles of red manifested around the two combatants, caused by the weight of the husk's fallen limbs.

Now, as an undead, the four-armed challenger could still fight as he wasn't harmed, only inconvenienced, but considering that he barely even understood how his arms came off, he raised his stumps.

"I forfeit"

King Nitok stood from his throne and leaned forward.

"Warrior, what is it that you desired by fighting here today?" he asked.

Traquik set his twinblade against the ground and kneeled his head low.

"Your Majesty, I fought here today for a chance to join the vanguard-"

'As expected'

"-And track down the foul escapees once and for all!"

"Is that so? You may join the vanguard, for anything further… You will have to refer to the higher-ups there" spoke Nitok, and the dark skeleton nodded.

"Thank you, Your Majesty"