Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Griar, Milo, Helena and Antieeld, the four of them against three minor lords, their teacher had went into some sort of half sphere with the fourth one, leaving them to challenge these powerful undeads on their own, the red-haired commandant stylishly unsheathed her sabre, bring it up to her face.

One art first washed over them with this movement, shrouding them into a thin layer of their own life force, a few other arbitrary movements came soon after, augmenting the students in various aspects.

Griar tensed up, even if perfectly healed, he could still remember the pain of the slashes he had just recently endured, he was itching to use his battle art on real opponents again, but perhaps this was a bit much, neither of those three seemed like a fun time, at all.

Milo eyed the one that seemed like a spell caster, aiming to take this skeleton with a burst-open skull down first things first, she had already shown to be able to buff others, circulating his golden mana, he was expecting to get messed up really soon, but he could not let that happen too quickly, as he would be swiftly transported away by the spell casted upon him by Rosemary, this spell was good, but it wasn't all-mighty, if they got killed in one hit, they would not be able of being brought back.

Helena was charging up a spell, reading the mana circulation of the three minor lords intently, only the one with antlers was moving her mana in a way that suggested a spell, the others simply stirring their energy to reinforce themselves.

Taking a step forward, Alkayne pointed his halberd slightly forward, speaking words in the death tongue.

"Glory to eternity!" it was an art, further strengthening his allies, but not himself, the zombie instead agitated cold winds, calling forth a bleak lightning, Antieeld was paying close attention to the zombie, the design of his armour reminiscent of that of the plague knight.

The third lord did not do anything just yet, but he was still the most worrying of the trio, he was much larger than the rest, and very much thin, garbed in torn fabric, his frail body armoured with custom made pieces, half mummified, half skeletal, he sported a small trail of petrified feathers, his corvid-like skull partly missing, revealing bright crystals within, hushed whispers and cries coming from within.

Leaning on a runed greatsword made from molten dark iron and stone, he seemed on the verge of leaping forward at every instant, forcing all to pay close attention to him, standing at odds with one another, the two groups were going to clash any moment from now.

Dust escaped the beak, sparks of lightning danced against armour and weapon, the pale green crystal shone, igniting hollow sockets with flames of the same shade, antlers brightening, revealing symbols carved upon them, so thinly, so exquisitely that none had noticed until this instant.

The minor lords held a special position, each were undeads chosen by King Nitok or gravelords, they were treated with the same reverence by soldiers and warriors of the eternal army as the lords themselves, for King Nitok hoped for them to one day achieved the rank of gravelord themselves.

None were close to it just yet, but they had received training from the best, Yuolrt was not a typical spell caster, she was originally a druid, she channelled the energy of nature as her main source of power, not mana.

Which was an energy type closely tied to one's understanding and acceptance of nature, an exceptionally difficult energy to detect, so even as she gathered a great amount of it, the livings only noticed it once she used all of it to cast a spell.

Spreading her arms wide, forming a V shape, she spoke the words in death tongue.

"Pseudo-Zone" an imitation lacking in the strongest component of this supreme technique, but close enough to bear its name, even if it would be scorned by some.

A roughly thirty meters area all around the druid suddenly bloomed with nature of death, pales trees and bloody blooms, nature energy pushed out all others, even if not Yuolrt's own, it was effective in disarming her opponents of purely external manipulation, forcing all mana to originate from them, and preventing any sort of energy recovery by absorption.

From the bustling soil, spirits of monsters and animals began appearing, the spell this pseudo-zone was based on, it could not be changed, and she only had this one available when casting this attempt at a zone.

Carried by the cold winds, Alkayne raced through the dead woods, covered in his strange lightning, striking Griar, who used his battle art, to cancel the zombie's special ability, unfortunately, his ability was to call upon the lightning, it was a most physical thing that became separate once it had come, a portion of the bleak lightning touched the noble's sleeves, a bit of his skin underneath suffering from the effects, necrosis. Continue reading at empire

Not only was it inflicting necrosis rather strongly, but it also carried lesser effects of regular lightning, numbing his limb and jolting him, infusing his sabre with his sword mana, he managed to deflect a swing of the halberd, Alkayne swinging it with only one arm, his free attempting to grab Griar.

Helena unleashed a strong gust and series of wind slashes, not hesitating to go all in against the zombie, whose disposition clearly suggested a rather high defence, the sparks of lighting still dancing on him seemed to affect her mana as well, he was pushed back toward Milo, who kicked him in the back, his golden mana managing to withstand a lick of the undead's power.

Bursting above the tree line, Prikrip swung in mid-air, definitely defying the laws of physics, as it allowed him to move upward some more, avoiding Antieeld's army slash, the corvid corpse's own slash were dust, throwing multiple of them in quick succession, moving around in the air like attacking allowed him to push off of something.

Until finally, he threw himself amidst the living, landing with consecutive spins, his runed greatsword leaving a trail of dust.

As Griar soon discovered, this was also the work of an innate ability that created something physical, the dust had for effect of rendering what it touched to dust as well, the one that was left hanging in the air was probably weaker than if you were pinned with one of those slashes, but no one was willing to test it out.

Standing on his hind legs, his body shape awkward and odd, Prikrip's swings came out with the ferocity of a wild beast, but with the intent and finesse of a master swordsman as well, the postures he assumed with his misshapen silhouette still radiated the poise of a true master.

Stepping from behind a tree, Yuolrt knew the position of everyone already, a useful thing of expanding her pseudo-zone, she gave the order to the spirits to attack, having kept them at bay as they stacked up, the rate of apparition was set in stone.

She summoned pale roots from the soil, pitting herself against Helena, Prikrip and Alkayne were in a duo against the remaining tree.

The zombie reactivated his ability a distance away from Griar, shrouding himself in much more lightning than before, it seemed like his ability was mostly meant to allow for the calling of this necrotic power, the manipulation was not covered by it.

Both of the corpses tapped weapons, a sign of camaraderie and wish of good luck, they were used to working together, the smaller of the two standing in front of the larger, moving as one.

Stirring cold winds again, presumably another, or part of the same ability as the necrosis, cyclones of winds intertwined with sparks were sent out at the trio, their approach compromised by the corvid undead and his wide reach.

Antieeld summoned knights forged out of mana, the golems inhabited by created spirits, three of them took form, circling around the minor lords.

"Griar, do you remember where it was?"

"I do"

This short exchange was all that was needed, the livings went on the move, and the undeads completely discarded their little formation at once, putting the zombie up against Milo, and the corvid up against the other two.

True to his face, but not to his clear lack of bird-limbs, the larger undead leapt in the air, completely out of reach, slashes raining down.