Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"What do you think, Hoffnu? This guy actually looks pretty strong, and the fact that he is just wandering alone in an open field is plenty suspicious" hidden in some bushes, Merno and Hoffnu were watching a rather impressive-looking knight, wearing a bucket helm similar to those of crusaders, wearing full plate armour and wearing a white cloak over his shoulders.

Currently, these knight, who was without a doubt a living soldier in service of the undead empire, was simply alone in a field, and had just finished picking a flower, currently admiring it, the scene of a rugged-looking knight appreciating the beauty of a bloom would almost be cute if not for the fact that his armour was covered in blood after he had gotten into a fight with a beast of the Emerald Realm and won without drawing his sword.

He had faced a Zaltaiir, which was not the most powerful beast offensively, but was still a rather difficult one to deal with due to the fact that it was covered in thick hair that it could control with great precision and could be made to stick to what they touched, not to mention that it greatly resembled a horse, but with a facial structure closer to that of a dog, which made it look terrifying.

This knight had grabbed its neck and suffocated the beast to death, one might argue that he had been lucky to find the right angle to grab the Zaltaiir on the first attempt, but that was beside the point, this man clearly had an ample amount of strength, was decked in a full suit of armour, and was just suspicious in general.

Merno, talent holder as a mage, was feeling like the two of them should just back off for now and at least wait for a better opportunity to ambush this enemy, in an open field, they would be noticed before they could do anything meaningful.

"Perhaps, but as you said, he is strong, this is the first living soldier spotted that actually wields a high amount of power and isn't just a footsoldiers, they are beginning to send what could be called elites into the realm, can you imagine if a group of knights like this showed up? We should just kill that one right now, or else he might just go back to wherever he came from and we'll miss the opportunity to get him alone" Hoffnu was more of the opinion to just brute force their way to victory, as the talent holder in swordsmanship, she wasn't afraid to get physical with another sword user.

Merno turned his head toward her, a useless action since he had lost both of his eyes and used mana to sense his surroundings, but he still performed such motions nonetheless so as to not put people off.

"If it's an ambush, go right back to me and I'll fly us out of here" he did not try to argue, by now, he knew how she was, he would just butt heads with her once they were back inside of the barrier.

He put on hand on her shoulder to cast a few augmentative spells before the battle began, feeling her muscles tense with excitement.

"Did you get more buff since last time?"

"Does it feel different?"

"It does"

"Nice, means I am getting stronger! Are you done casting your spells?"

"Mmh? Ah yes"

With this, Hoffnu rose up with a focus glint in her eyes, bursting forward right at the knight, not making a sound despite roughly kicking into the ground, although most recognised for his control over the four main elements, Merno had dwelled plentily upon all sorts of spells, with the guidance and advices from Rosemary still fresh in his mind, he had devised many different spells.

And he had found himself rather good at casting spells of augmentation upon others, as well as debilitating adversaries.

Acting in tandem with the swordswoman, he rose up from his hiding spot and focused intently, somehow, having his eyes turned into goop by Loimos had ended making Merno into a greater mage, having to constantly extend his mana sense meant that he constantly had a grasp on the ambient mana now, so he was able to use external manipulation to cast a spell on the knight, using the mana all around him, making it impossible for the enemy to dodge it even if they sensed it, and hard to defend against as the spell literally manifested barely a few millimeters away.

The living soldier noticed Hoffnu rushing him down, but for a split second, he froze in place, the effects of Merno's spell had deliberately been made as short as was viable so as to instead redirect more effectiveness toward making sure the knight was truly rendered immobile via a condition.

Hoffnu weaved around, and stabbed right at his armpit, beyond the plate armour, the knight was also garbed with chainmail and gambeson, but her target could not step away to lessen the blow, and a thrust from the one holding the talent of swordsmanship was destructive.

Focusing her own mana into the tip of her sword, further aided by the augmentations from Merno, she stabbed right through and punctured one of his lungs, right as he regained control of his body and moved away, unsheathing his own sword without hesitation, showing no signs of weakness.

His swing was just as the two denizens of the realm had expected, incredibly powerful and oozing with skill, making it hard to believe that he had been trained in the same time span as the other soldiers, it felt like the sort of skill that required years of diligent training and plenty of combats in real situations.

Hoffnu evaded the first strike, and took hold of her sword into a half-swording stance, ready to use the guard and pommel as a mace.

The invader moved forward again, but was overtaken by weightless as the soil beneath his feet had turned into mud, which rapidly hardened once he had sunk down to his ankles, he glanced at Merno, who really knew how to make himself as small as possible, the waves of the mana he weaved and the sparks of the creation of his spells were imperceptible to the knight's senses, and moreover, he was just plainly hiding behind Hoffnu.

The pommel hit right against his helm, carrying force enough to kill a bear, but the invader endured it and still attempted to cut the swordswoman in half before even trying to get out of the ground, but she just stepped back, letting Merno do his thing.

Namely, he used both earth and wind magic to create small bits of dirt, and fling them right into the living soldier's visor, sending so much that it went beyond just trying to blind him, Merno was straight up attempting to suffocate the man by stacking dirt inside of the helm.

With no other choice, the knight pounded at the ground to free himself, but his strikes weren't met with any resistance, as it turned back into mud as tendrils of earth grasped at his ankles, pulling him deeper.

But neither the dirt nor mud got to him, as Hoffnu just used the occasion to the repeatedly bash him in the head until death ensued.

"See? It wasn't that hard with the two of us! And it wasn't a trap either"

"Honestly, it's stranger that it is not an ambush"

Then both of them looked at the knight's corpse, who was currently bloating up far beyond conventional proportions.

"Huh…"

"Ah, so it's that sort of trap!"

The corpse exploded before it turned into spirit life.