Beneath the great feaster's feet, the soil condensed under his own weight, as an incredible force pushed from above, the oversized blade of red seemed to be increasing in strength every second, growing heavier and heavier, sharper as it ground up against Gartran's cleaver, sparks appeared as the living's arms began trembling under the pressure.
Nonetheless, he did not falter, managing to force the war scythe back up, staring straight into the slits of the undead's helm, teeth still gritted into a wide grin, eyes gleaming with intensity.
"Is that the best you can do?!" lifting the undead's weapon higher than before, Gartran landing a kick right to his opponent's stomach at the same occasion, limbs aching from the strain, all was being washed away as his body healed itself, rushing to catch up to the undead as he was flung through the air, getting ahead of the apocalypse knight, aiming to bisect him into two.
Stabbing his graven scythe into the ground, the great red blade vanishing as soon as the true metallic tip pierced the earth, not only stopping his momentum moments before being struck with destructive strength, but also channelling another technique of the aspect of war, manifested a singular, massive blade of red right where the living was standing.
The sharpness and speed at which the blade emerged made it so that unless one already knew what to expect ahead of time, evading this attack was nigh impossible, and indeed, Gartran did not dodge it, instinctively jumping up, cleaver poised defensively, causing the great blade of war to harmlessly launch him higher in the air.
Once again allowed his hand to slid right up against the beginning of the blade, the knight manifested the red alongside the holy once again, using the holy to better form the more powerful energy of war, quickly dispelling it once what he wished for was done, once again expanding the blade of his scythe, only that he barely widened it this time, instead turning it incredibly long, repeatedly thrusting at the airborne living.
'Unless you can manifest more than trollish traits-' as multiple attacks already reached the feaster, tearing into his flesh, punching holes right through his body, causing blasts of sparks to erupt as some struck the cleaver, flinging him around, subtle bits of iron flying from the zones of impact, condensing the red into precise thrusts coupled with the previous struggles were starting to cause damage upon Gartran's weapon.
Managing to get the cleaver out of the way, the apocalypse knight saw a clear opening right to the great feaster's forehead, whether or not he would be capable of surviving a wound to the brain thanks to his incredible vitality was unknown, but the undead knew that his opponent was not going to survive the wounds that would occur whilst he had to regenerate his brain.
The heart, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, all would be destroyed in that time span, in spite of whether or not Gartran lived to endure them, thrusting without wait, the living felt the searing blade of war cut right through his skin and and digging into his skull, the thick bone proved difficult even for the undead to pierce through for an instant.
Gartran realised that he was not going to dodge this strike, and when he was pierced, his brain severely damaged… He was well aware that this would not be enough to slay him in one go, his queen had ensured to turn him a nearly unkillable beast, capable of remaining perfectly conscious even as just a disembodied head, or on the opposite situation, even regenerative his head entirely even it had been turned to mush.
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But the brain was still important, it depended on what area was destroyed, but he was well aware that he would most certainly lose consciousness for at least a few seconds, the corpse would crush every vital organ for certain when he couldn't defend himself, and then, his lifeless body would hit the ground, sprawled like a roadkill.
As the red penetrated his skull, he sensed the final conclusion of his queen's battle, even if the nearby battlefield was covered with flames, he could feel it distinctively.
'She… Lost? Derdlim Maulerd? Our Queen?'
'Impossible! There is no one stronger than her on this continent!' as biassed as he might be, there was no denying that defeating the queen of feasters when assuming her most abominable form was an exploit only perhaps Irlke Combuscrus could accomplish if he weaved in his most destructive pyromancy, the likes of those that only knew arrows and blades could not hope to put her down, she was simply unkillable by such pedestrian means.
And yet… A mere little lieutenant had done it? In so little time at that?
The blade of red harmlessly slid across the living's face, skull suddenly healed and much too tough, without anything to take footing upon, Gartran grabbed the force of war directly, crushing it in between his molars, shattering the elongated blade utterly, stunning the knight with shock.
Never would have imagined a living to break the manifestation of an aspect of the apocalypse, it was an egregious thing to even think about, but the undead had no time to linger on upon this fact, Gartran, as if possessed by a devil from hell, landed upon the ground, shaking the area, his cleaver shining with the strength of war.
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'What is this sudden spike in power? I don't notice any increase in the quantity or purity of his life force… Does he truly have something other than troll within him?' the apocalypse knights were an elite caste, they were a knowledgeable bunch that was rather close to Loimos, no one could demonstrate the four aspects better than him, so they always vied to earn a bit of his insights, also often asking him what missions they may be put upon.
But as much as this undead had learned, he failed to distinguish what could cause such a sudden surge, sure, the living seemed incredibly furious and that was typically a good explanation for livings suddenly getting a bit stronger, but the increase was far too great for that to be simply the case.
'Something that uses anger as a power source perhaps?' that was not something that could easily go unnoticed, if such a creature existed in the region, the nightbirds would have already documented it, and the other feasters would have also consumed some of it, but only the second-in-command showed such signs.
'No matter… We'll figure it out when he is dead!' the undead had more pressing issues right now, namely, a beefed up feaster with all of his physical traits enhanced by more than double.
Covering himself with the red of war, extending his blade, he seemed to flash forward, instantly slashed right by Gartran's cleaver, but it was but a false image that repeated multiple times until the undead true body manifested, landing a blow that either left such a small wound that it was healed instantly, or dealt no damage whatsoever.
"You still got more tricks, huh?!" the feaster's roar rattled the undead's bones.
Obviously, it was the very manifestation of war as a force that would bring forth the apocalypse, one would need to be dense to think that it was limited to just a few techniques.
Still, the living quickly caught up, landing a blow, barely able of defending, the undead was sent flying, all parts of the armour upon his remaining arm either shattered or knocked right off.
Once more manifesting the great blade of red from the ground, Gartran completely saw it coming, but instead of preemptively moving out of the way, he did the same thing as before, only that he made sure to use the momentum to launch himself forward, only barely missing his target as the undead sped away, a clear cut appearing diagonally across his head anyways, the upper portion of the knight's head sliding right off.
His mastery was insufficient.
Blocking an overhead strike, the knight was forced to one knee, both energy and his scythe itself were cracking.
The undead was definitely not winning this fight, he would be the very first apocalypse knight to be sent back to The Graveyard, not a true defeat, but far from a victory as well.
Blood fell down.
Two white arrows struck right through the living's eyes, followed by a longsword covered with black blood, stabbed from the top of Gartran's head straight to the chin.
"Good job, knight" the currently headless lieutenant commented, neither of the two combatants had noticed him walking up from behind the feaster.
"Time to properly finish this conquest"