Chapter 831 Chapter 830: Outpost Epsilon
Hearing the grumbling and groaning of the undead as they shuffled out of the various ruined buildings inside of the outpost, I reached for my Khopesh and exited the carriage first, taking a cursory look before nodding at the others, signaling for them to exit the carriage as well.
"That's a sizable number of undead for a mere outpost... Do you think some of the citizens escaped from Custodia and made their way here? To the other outposts as well, hoping for rescue and shelter?"
I shrugged as I looked over the approaching undead, their flesh a dried out, withered grey that belied the strength coursing through their scrawny bodies, their appearances deceiving to those that had never encountered the undead before.
Mana streamed through their rotting veins and kept them functional, even as the cartilage between their joints and the muscles connecting their body together rotted away, or how their flesh was pierced, cut, slashed and otherwise damaged to the point of being non functional; mana allowed such a heinous creature to continue operating in ways that shouldn't be possible, and it gave them more strength then they had in their life.
In this form of 'unlife', the new, putrid mana running through their Core and coursing throughout their body grants them a new strength, one that was locked behind their body's natural reluctance to utilize its entire strength, that was blocked by their Core not desiring to be emptied of mana and drained of all life.
So, what was shuffling around in front of us was a hideous monster that went against most of nature's set rules, and as such we needed to take it seriously... well, at least as seriously as we could manage against something as easily defeated as undead.
Much like the Ash Ghouls we were accustomed to killing over in Zhu'Rong Caverns, these undead would need to have their heads or their Cores destroyed to die, and they weren't the fastest or most coordinated enemies either.
"They might have been refugees, yes... Especially considering their attire; it seems far too casual for somewhere like this. Most would remain equipped with at least their leathers to have some protection just in case, yet they seem to have simple cloth... interesting. Well, not like it matters; they'll die all the same."
The Demons accompanying us got out of their carriages as well, unsheathing their weapons and approaching the outpost, with Satanya leading the way as the red skinned Demoness shot forwards with her serrated longsword, signaling for the rest of us to join in as more and more undead poured out of the broken buildings.
Dozens of undead began to make their way towards us, shuffling and groaning as they raised their taloned hands and rusted weapons, all while the scent of death and rot permeated the air around them, which only got stronger the closer they got to us.
Coating the edge of my Khopesh in a thick sheet of ice, I darted forwards as well and primed up my new favorite spell - the 'shotgun' of ice that resided in my palm, waiting to blast out into an unsuspecting victim and tear them apart - as I sped past the others and entered the midst of the undead horde, ready for a fight.
Turning my sword into a club with that ice, I swung it at the undead's head in front of me and smirked at the satisfying crunch of their skull shattering beneath the impact of my weapon, their frayed and thin black hair turning dirty red as their blood and brain matter burst out of their head.
The stench surrounding them doubled after their skull was turned into a dozen shards of bone across the ground, making my nose wrinkle unpleasantly as I moved onto the next undead, this time aiming my free hand at its chest and sending a blast of sharpened ice pellets straight into their torso, tearing through their withered flesh and weakened bones to shred the Core that rested inside, pulsing angrily with this decayed mana unique to the undead.
Letting out a grunt, the undead staggered backwards before falling to the ground as a second blast slammed into its chest, dozens of holes peppering its torso which leaked blood and liquified organs, though I had little time to appreciate the different 'style of art' that I was creating as I went on to the next, swinging my Khopesh and snapping its neck with the impact, nearly tearing its head off of its torso with just the force alone.
Groans and hisses sounded out around me as the others began to cut down the undead as well, redirecting some of the attention away from me as I began to push deeper, wading into the sea of walking corpses and finally stretching my body properly as I kept the Khopesh moving constantly, swinging it around without pause as I went from one undead to the next.
Bashing in the knee of one, I brought its face down to the level of my palm and blew off its head, all while my Khopesh was arcing up towards the chin of an undead beside me, cracking against the bone and destroying the jaw completely, sending splinters of bone and teeth straight into the undead's brain, though it needed another whack to fall down for good.
Beside me, Jahi went for utter destruction of the undead by coating her great sword in Light Mana before cleaving it through their bodies as swiftly as she could, bisecting them cleanly and stomping on their heads or chests to finish them off, should they have survived the initial attack.
Anput used a long, heavy headed spear to obliterate the skulls of the undead from afar, or to stab their Cores with precise thrusts, which kept her at range and away from the disgusting blood that poured from those wounds.
Meanwhile, Leone was taking this time to practice with her Estoc, the two handed blade singing through the air as its flame coated surface sliced through flesh and bone with ease, burning the undead and cauterize the wound, keeping the blood from ever being spilt.
Each of us took a unique route to the same end result, and we did so with the same amount of efficiency as well; what felt like a hundred, perhaps two hundred undead was whittled down to zilch in no time at all, corpses piling up around us as they finally died their final death, free from the corrupted mana and allowed to rest properly...
The horde died quickly, and we all looked at the hellish sight behind us with pursed lips and conflicted emotions... with the most common one being an annoyance at the sudden lack of enemies to fight.
But... this was merely the appetizer anyways, and now we were able to head out for that main meal...
The Terracotta Grottos.
This content is taken from free web nov𝒆l.com