Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Dirt was roused, withered trees and pale growths were torn apart under the ferocity of Prikrip's attacks, poised to perfection, always in the right spot at the right time, the young fighters of life were slowly crumbling into dust, even when working together, even when focusing on evading, they were slowly being pushed to the brink, and by now, it seemed certain that the minor lord's decomposing dust had eaten right through their safe line.

The very complex spell casted upon them by their fiery teacher was unlikely to still be whole, and with this sort of advanced magic, any sort of damage meant the failure in the casting, after all, it was a burning spell meant to take them well away from here, taking its roots in spatial magic, none of them could even fathom the first thing about this.

Neither of them could even get close to him, the effects of the dust was even greater when struck directly by the sword, in fact, he had ditched ranged slashes altogether, suppressing them with naught but his sheer skill and power, Milo dreaded the return of Alkayne, although a good hit, the farm boy was well aware that this wasn't enough to put the zombie out of commission, he could come back at any time and like Prikrip, demonstrate his dominance over them.

Antieeld had noticed it too, somehow, the undeads were trying to kill them, but also simultaneously holding back, her well-honed instincts as a strategist were telling her that at least two of them should have fallen already, but they had not.

The same idea that had been born inside of Fioldron Ferrcrona's mind arose in hers as well, the undeads were deliberately lengthening their stay, the conquest of Ircron, the very fights they were in, they were clearly waiting for something, or rather, expecting something that happen, apparently wanting it to happen as they were caught in a struggle. Experience tales at empire

'This has to be to lure someone or something out, showing that part of their forces are busy somewhere else? But the zombie and this bird were confirmed by Toby to not be on the level to be gravelords, they call themselves minor lords as well… Who would be drawn out by this?

Clearly the strongest fighters are still lying in wait…' she could not untangle whatever thinking process it was that had led to all of this, was it just a random act to confuse them?

"Dammit, Griar, Milo, do it!" she stepped in between them and Prikrip, assuming the best defence reinforcement and defence art she knew, an upward slash from the undead destroyed her sabre and left a cut right across her face, half of it crumbling to dust, the enemy did not know what the two men were up to, he prepared to cut them down with a dust slash.

Antieeld was not done for, still holding onto the hilt of her blade, she threw it in a clumsy arc, aiming toward the part of the skull that was shattered, Prikrip deflected the attack in spite of its lack of power, the young commandant was in luck, this master warrior was especially careful of this spot.

His slash was delayed enough, Milo grabbed Griar, and with a sudden burst of golden energy, threw the noble right over the tree line, shrouded in his battle art, and this distance, the flying dust slashes would be ineffective, and there were still two livings right up to him, the bulky one already charging at him like a madman.

Distorted words of death tongue washed over the area, Helena noticed the druidic skeleton react to it, part of the animal and monster spirits surrounding her rushed off into another direction.

Unlike the others, Helena was only suffering from minor injuries, Yuolrt did not possess an innate ability, she was instead a learned druid, to this end, it was nature energy that fueled her attacks, mana was only a supplement, in this pseudo-domain, nature was overwhelming and no other energies were allowed,

Helena could not detect nature energy with nearly the same finesse as mana and to top it all off, with mana absent from the surroundings, her mana sense was restricted, she had to hover above ground and keep bursts of air at the ready to be able of avoiding the attacks.

Which mostly consisted of roots and briar alongside the many spirits trying to distract her, at least, an advantage was that her enemy did not have sure ways of hitting, the druid made movements to cast her spells.

Yuolrt's bony hands were almost touching, straight and flat, her palms seemed to shape tree roots forming in between them, twisting around one another before hardening, lengthening and spinning at high speed, shooting out towards Helena's abdomen.

The living dodge to the side, but casting a series of unseen wind blades forth, the quantity was obscene, and her proficiency at concealing them was to be praised about, Yuolrt summoned a tree around herself to block any possible slash, not willing to bet and get hit even once.

She had not moved from this position at all since the start of this, the skeleton was more a traditional caster, and was not very big on the whole hand-to-hand combat thing, rather focusing on either preventing attacks from being launched at her, or having the power to block them entirely.

The green crystal in the middle of her split skull shined for an instant, still paying close attention to everything happening outside of the tree, as a druid, she had access to a variety of spells that could be considered odd for a traditional mage, especially since some of them barely consumed any energy, appearing more akin to abilities than spells.

Even without expanding her pseudo-zone, the druid could see and sense through vegetation far around her, her awareness of the battle field, as well as the situation on the other side, all was known to her, waiting until the slashes stopped and some more, she waited for her earlier spell to continue its course.

Helena only noticed it tad bit too late, moving out of the way, but still getting part of her side pierced as the intertwined roots from earlier had looped right around, having been made not to track a target, but instead come back to its caster, retaining influence over it, Yuolrt made certain to aim for the living's back.

The druid had hoped to hit the spine and end this fight right there but Helena extended her winds a fair distance around her, allowing her to notice the projectile and evade the victory blow.

Calling the protective tree off, the skeleton was no longer inside, somehow emerging from the ground, a pretty, pink flower growing from where she had been standing moments prior, directly beneath Helena, Yuolrt twisted her fingers into a hand sign.

"Bloodcreep vines" bursting from below, tentacle-like dark red vines instantly locked in on the bleeding living.

Sharp winds rained down, but the sheer quantity of vines forced Helena to fly higher, they just kept on emerging pushing the earlier sprouts higher up, faster.

'A shame to use this little plant, but it should get her occupied-'

"Prikrip! Put up your guard!" Yuolrt slammed her bone hands together, antlers glowing with antique runes, crystal flaring bright, flames burning up into her sockets as she called forth for two trees, one to defend herself, another to defend Prikrip.

A faint whistle rippled throughout the pseudo-domain, the druid felt the very fabric of nature energy splitting, followed by a rumbling and crashing.