Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Crouching low to the ground, the swordsman with a one-edged blade pointed the end of his sword at Loimos, who stood in place, surrounding by a puddle of black blood, although the undead could trace the man's movement's after the fact thanks to his residuals of life force, but his haste surpassed even his superior senses.

Disappearing from his spot once more, the skinny man in back appeared confident that his colleague would successfully deal with Loimos, only, he didn't reappear in his previous position as he did just before, his acceleration was cut off as he sank into the ground right in front of the masked cadaver.

Secretly, the skeleton had been finely controlling his corrosive blood to eat through the ground around him, forming pits just deeper enough compared to the beaten up road to catch the swordsman slipping.

His concentration whilst using his sword arts was dispelled, it was like accidentally going two or more steps down the staircase, this sudden feeling, like one was free falling and going to plummet to the ground like a disgracious bag of bricks.

The man was quick to gather himself however, ignoring the growing sense of numbness coming from the leg deep in the tar-like substance, he managed to swing his blade anyways by quickly sheathing it again to meet the requirements for another sword arts he specialised in, unleashed a dreadfully quick cleave at the undead's neck, chopping the head off and sending it rolling away.

"You had me worried for a moment there" the man in the back rubbed his weary forehead, for a moment, he felt like he saw the swordsman completely losing on such a puny trick and provocation.

"Come on now, just one mistake-" his speech was interrupted by the scrunch caused as two bone spikes went right through his skull.

Starting down from the chin, all the way up the top of his head, making a quick a passage through both of his eyes, the headless corpse had feinted stumbling back for a second, instead, it had just taken the win with a particularly nasty uppercut.

From where he stood, the skinny fellow couldn't quite tell what had just happened, after all, when decapitated, people were supposed to die, so surely, the two bloody tips protruding from his ally's head were naught but his imagination.

Busy in his own confusion, he was an easy target, Loimos retracted the murderous claws and placed his arm on top of the swordsman's head, whose body had yet to realise that it was deceased.

Using him as a crutch, the two bone weapons sprouted out from his fist once more, only this time, they were shot out at a reasonably high velocity, it wasn't anything to write home about but to shoot down a stationary target, it was more than enough.

Lacking in accuracy, only one of the two struck the target head-on, embedding itself in the man's neck, the other only grazing the jugular, still, rhythmically, as his heart beat, blood would spurt out from the wound.

He weakly bled to death on the ground as Loimos went to fetch his head, sticking it back on, he used rot to hold it place whilst also manifesting some miasma to accelerate the process of recovery, with his current death force mastery alongside his primeval rot, he could reattach lost limbs much quicker than before.

Recuperating one from scratch would still be an issue, but there were few ways that one could find their body parts annihilated in their entirety, he quickly cleaned up the mess, leaving on the hole he had left in the road as proof of his passage.

No one else showed up out of nowhere to slow him down, he encountered quite a few other carriages along the way, some more heavily defended than others, most seemed to be transporting young people like the first one he had encountered just before his little confrontation.

"Hey lone wanderer!" one of such youngsters thought it was a good idea to call out to the clearly suspicious man on the side of the road.

"My lady, it may not be wise to-" apart from the knights on horseback circling the carriage, there was another sitting opposite of the girl, and he seemed rather familiar with her for he seemed to already know exactly what she was up to.

"Calm your pants Gelter, this sir over there, doesn't he seem rather skilled to you?" she was leaning over the window of her transportation, Loimos could only make out her face and part of the uniform-like clothing she was wearing.

Clearly, she was no backwater peasant, her long, dark red hair and golden eyes were already enough for anyone to guess, but she was also dressed with some military get-up, a white uniform decorated with, frankly, too many golden and light blue ornaments.

"I suppose he does" Gelter could only tell the truth to his lady "although-"

He hadn't caught up on Loimos's true nature, but he could clearly tell as a seasoned knight that something was simply off about him, the undead was making a good job of putting up a 'lively' enough posture, even making unnecessary movements, sometimes slowing down or accelerating in his steps just in case someone was looking from far away.

It was all calculated to appear as natural as possible.

"I am Antieeld, one of the twelve recognised talent holders of this generation, where are you headed for?" she presented herself, by this point, both the carriage and Loimos had stopped.

There were no downsides to speaking the truth.

"Findpasser" he simply spoke, using the same trick as before, forming convincing vocal cords and all that was needed for a living to speak.

This made him sound like an old man with poor lungs, but he at least didn't inscribe the inevitability of death in the hearts of those listening.

"Hum" rubbing her chin, Antieeld threw him a piece of metal, some sort of emblem.

"You should come by Toordefer Academy, it's in the capital, Wanneckssa and ask for me, I'll be there for a while, the next five years at least" she bid him farewell just like that, not explaining the why or anything else.

However, Loimos did not bother with the antics of some living and just moved onto his way, though, he was aware that it was a rather big boon, to have access to the capital, he didn't know what this academy was about, but judging by Antieeld and her personal bodyguard, it ought to be a rather important place.