Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 1248: From The Smoke

"Don't attack his nerves! He is growing stronger through the pain!"

Griar shouted what he knew to the other two, causing the undead to turn his attention toward him in particular–Probably surprised that his abilities had been figured out so quickly… The living could swear that he caught a glimpse of a glowing, yellow eye hiding amidst the darkness within the helm.

The three livings coordinated without needing to exchange any words, quickly surrounding the undead from different directions, but the Pseudo grew more erratic, manifesting an absurd amount of nerves, whipping them all around himself as they emerged from all over his body.

They attacked, but more importantly, their presence served as a shield–Unless they wanted to risk empowering him, they couldn't slash through them, and were instead forced to run around as more nerves surged from the ground below.

"Griar. That blue circle art of yours. I would like you to use it against this guy"

"Aunty Antieeld, I don't think I can get close enough…"

"Of course you can. Cutting the nerves strengthens him, but so what? Barrel straight at him, shut him down, I'll immobilise him, and Lizi can take care of the final blow while he is exposed"

"I can finish him off, but is it really wise to discuss our plan right in front of his face…?"

"Now… What can a single little undead whose existence depends wholly on someone else's do about it? Can he even walk straight if his beloved idol decides to start walking in diagonals only?"

The Pseudo of Agony did not say anything, but his next action was to summon objects made out of bone, which he violently threw at the livings using his countless tendrils. Unlike the nerves, those could be slashed and shattered to pieces without risking strengthening the undead.

The corpse increased the cadence, bundling nerves together that were sprouting from his back, making them resemble spider legs–He was going to try and hoist himself upward to prevent Griar from getting to him, but the cadaver had misinterpreted the finer details of Antieeld's plan, or perhaps he had simply underestimated just how she herself was underestimating him.

She didn't wait until Griar was close to make an aggressive move. With rapid slashes, she sent several Army Slashes right through the mass of nerves. Some of the green slashes burst into several, smaller slashes, bringing utter ruin to the nerves the undead had manifested so far.

Without mercy, she cut down his spider-like legs, opening the way for Griar to surge right up to the Pseudo's face with a burst of wind. Reacting with clarity, the undead grounded himself, manifesting a heavy bone blade in one hand, swinging straight for the living's skull–But the battle art emerged faster than he could swing, as the blue glow engulfed him, he felt his abilities grow unresponsive and distant, his swing came short as the bone weapon dissipated from his grasp before he could strike Griar down.

His next move was to immediately throw himself to the side and duck down to avoid the commandant's attack, but it was useless–He had time to move, but couldn't make enough distance as Antieeld threw a literal grid of Army Slashes directly at him, leaving him no chance to evade what was coming.

Curiously, the blade did not cut his physical body, passing right through as if he were incorporeal. Unfortunately for him, they did not leave him unscathed. The blades cut right through his very soul.

He was no Loimos, having something like this diced up in an instant was definitely going to have an effect–But what really made this terrible was the fact that Army Slashes had been imbued with the potent, ambient life force, making the destruction of his soul truly abhorrent as it was like a jolt when through his body, making him go stiff. He was left paralysed, unable to act as Lizi quickly approached him.

The young woman's sword lashed out with speed and accuracy the likes of which he had rarely witnessed. His body endured the same punishment as his soul, only for it to get worse as the slashes spread to even the untouched parts of him. In the blink of an eye, he was slashed into minuscule pieces.

Griar and Lizi stood in place after the fact, the latter tilting her head slightly before turning to Antieeld.

"Huh… Aunty Antieeld? I don't feel any stream of experience… Even though the others aren't defeated, they still give a little bit, so does it mean…?"

"Indeed, it seems like he is somehow holding on despite the brutal damage he endured… I suppose his relationship to Agony and his ability to feel pain are to blame. The burst of pain he endured strengthened him enough not to be banished immediately. Alas, there isn't much he can do now"

Antieeld drew a small pattern into the ground, resembling some sort of rune or sigil, upon which she stepped, causing the ambient life force in the area to be activated through a battle art, turning it actively hostile to what remained of the undead, sending him back to where he came from for good this time.

"It seems like no other undeads are coming for us, but stay careful nonetheless. Let's get back to chopping those trees"

The three went through the encounter without much problem, but they weren't the only ones dealing with interference from the invading force. A distance away, another group of three had been deployed–Three Death Hunters.

Rummy, Abraham, and Tappduur were together on this one. Rather than brute force, they made use of contraptions once widely used by many Death Hunters. These had been upgraded since their arrival in the Peaceful Realm.

As such, the two vampire hunters were currently wielding a kind of machine capable of spewing a flaming liquid. With this, they were burning down the fungal forest… As for Tappduur? He was merely using his flaming, demonic breath to do the job. The particles of fungus trying to make their way into his mouth or nostrils all burnt away before they could even get in.

All around them, the artificial forest was going up into flames, manifesting a thick, black smoke that obstructed vision. It is from this smoke that undeads emerged. Rank and Files for the most part, but the demon was soon besieged by a corpse even taller than he was, an undead wearing a large cloak and wielding two cleaver-like greatswords.

Tappduur blocked strikes using his hammer. He couldn't really count on his allies, right now. While he was dealing with this big one, they were dealing with dozens of Rank and Files–And that number was growing.

The undeads were willfully isolating Tappduur because he could swing wide and hard enough to blast his way through the weaker undeads without problem, something the vampire hunters couldn't do… Though they were far from helpless. Rummy and Abraham were fully capable of handling themselves against so many undeads, so the demon was not worried.

He focused on the cadaver in front of him. The corpse may be garbed in a cloak, but his face was clearly visible. He wasn't too badly rotten, but his scalp had been removed, revealing a cracked-open skull and brain festering with putrefaction.

The undead screamed like a barbarian, throwing himself directly at the living, swinging his swords wildly, but not without skill. Every motion was deliberate. Tappduur couldn't allow himself to fall for it and consider his opponent a feral savage without any sense of martial arts.

The demon deflected one of the blades and stopped the other by grabbing the undead's wrist. Tappduur intended to follow with a kick to the abdomen, aiming to damage the corpse's spine and throw his sense of balance off, but he stopped himself in the nick of time as he noticed the cloak bulging up–It soon tore apart as two more arms emerged, reaching for the demon.

The Death Hunter was able to step back before they got hold of him. The living narrowed his eyes.

"Nifty little trick you tried to pull on me just now. You wouldn't happen to have more hidden arms, would you? I get the feeling that you do have more. Just a heads-up, but I won't fall for this again, so you might as well bring them out now"

The undead grunted and grinned. The cloak was quickly torn apart, revealing that the invader had eight arms, all of which had somehow been wrapped around his body so well that they hadn't been noticeable in the least.

"You are a funny one, Death Hunter. Show me what you can do"

"...That's obviously bait. They definitely didn't send a weakling like you, thinking that you were going to kill me. You're just here to collect information so that someone stronger can show up and kick my ass with prior knowledge! I know I looked dumb, but I am not actually stupid, alright?"

The undead stared.

"Mmh… I get it. People think I look dumb as well. The visibly rotten brain does give this impression, does it not? Anyway… I still need to fight you. I can't just slack off in my duties"

Tappduur readied his hammer.

"Ready when you are…"