Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The parties of invaders that ventured close the edge of the barrier were getting larger and more revolting by the days, strange mages that seemed to use stones or minerals as the foundation of their spells, warriors that carried an air of coldness and were capable of forcing their bodies to experience abhorrent mutations, repugnant creatures of pitch blackness that casted light from their faces, skilled combatants that seemed to excel at the usage of battle arts, martial artists that fought without weapons in most cases and could yield most bizarre energies…

There were also warriors that seemed to have the parts of other beings, wielders of flames, keen archers capable of seemingly impossible feats, and many others, the new troops brought into the realm were as diverse as they were numerous, they all had their own manners of fighting, but yet, all could cooperate with one another with a frightening cohesion, like they all shared one mind.

Those on the ground, who ventured out of the barrier to face them and eliminate the approaching groups of enemies could only encounter a few of them, and would typically move to take the threats out as swiftly as possible, so although many of these new soldiers had been encountered, it did not mean that their peculiar abilities were understood in the least.

It seemed obvious that the undeads were sending soldiers that were users of ways of power unknown to them, as a means to catch them off guard and force them to stay on their toes, with a lack of understanding of their enemies, they couldn't just rush in with full confidence.

But that went both ways, the practice of sun and beast worship were ways of power unique to the Emerald Realm, and the people were rather secretive about the inner workings…

Information was power, and so, someone had to focus on gathering as much of it as was possible, Toby with his special system could do so with remarkable accuracy, the soldiers had proven themselves resistance to the otherwolder's prying, presumably, they had been given something to make being appraised more difficult, so clearly, the undead knew exactly who the livings from Tamaris were, or at least, they knew some of them were without a doubt here, otherwise they never would have bothered defending the soldiers in white from such analysis.

Molc however, was merely using his eyes to gather intel, the talent holder when it came to handling a crossbow still bore the marks of his confrontation with the one that went by many names…

Deep scars littered his face and chest still, it was honestly a miracle that he had survived at all, if Minli had not tended to him when she did, he most certainly would have been casted into the eternal darkness of Oblivion, but he had lived, and was currently sitting on the high balcony of one of the towers where the sun worshippers took residence.

The elevation of those towers could get ridiculous, especially considering that it branched out equally to the sides, suspended in the air, the towers having a foundation that appeared feeble and much too small, yet, their towers seemed more resilient than anything else.

No matter how high into the sky they thrusted, no sign of structural weakness appeared.

Molc wasn't much of an architecture buff, so he really only enjoyed the sheer heights, which he found most conductive to the usage of his abilities, since coming to this realm, he had further refined his talent and developed many skills to make himself into what he believed was a man worthy of being a talent holder with the crossbow.

Right now, from within the safety provided by the barrier, he was observing the movements of the invading troops, following the small groups that would venture out with a keen eye, although being able to see small details from far away was incredible, it was an ability that was hindered by obstacles and the very curvature of the world, although the problem was less prevalent in the Emerald Realm as it was more-so one, huge island floating in a green void, the obstacles were still plentiful, many colourful forests and over elevated fields of tall, blue grass stood in the way.

By taking a high ground, Molc could view everything with much greater ease, in fact, the towers were so high that there was pretty much nothing in the way of his sight as long as what he wanted to see wasn't hiding in the forests.

'Those should be… I think they are those rock mages- What are they doing?' this was the sort of question he often asked himself when observing the living soldiers, since they were all dressed basically the same save for a few, guessing which group they belonged to could be tricky, and they would often partake in most obscure activities.

Often, Molc would end up realising that they were performing prayers to the undead, or maybe death, but sometimes, they would instead be putting together contraptions, what he assumed were some siege weapons or magical items.

They had established camps and tents out in the open now that they had greater numbers and were swarming about, but that wasn't a problem for the crossbowman, his sight went beyond just seeing from far away, being able to even peer through objects by focusing a bit.

'Huh… Is that a Tirtaptz?" they had managed to capture one of the wooly, three-horned rhinoceros-looking beasts of this realm, and the mages that always summoned a strange bright stone before casting spells were doing something to it.

Although the colour of the stone they manifested varied, Molc assumed that mana-blue ones were the basic kind, and likened them to regular magic stones despite the fact that something was clearly different about them- Said mana-blue stone were visibly growing upon the body of the beast, causing it to thrash around in its restraints, causing tears to appear upon them.

The Tirtaptz was most definitely going to break out any moments from now, and the mage soldiers noticed it as they stopped what they were doing to try and keep the creature under control, and it was then that lines of light linking Molc's crossbow to the neck of each of the soldiers manifested, and within mere second, bolts came soaring through the air, hitting their marks without fail.

Rupturing their jugulars and killing them nearly instantly.

The Tirtaptz was able to break free and caused much damage within the camp, eventually managing to escape with deep wounds thanks to the crossbowman's assistance.

Naturally, what Molc could see, he could strike, and it wasn't even that draining to fire from such distances, thanks to his innate talent, he had been able to develop incredible battle arts and techniques, the only tradeoff being that they could only be used effectively by him, anyone without the talent would struggle.

'Welp, that was another good day of work…' his line of thought stopped as he spotted something, further from the camp he had just rained hell upon, he spotted a figure dressed in white standing on a tree branch, staring directly at him.

There was no doubt about it, they were making eye contact.