"Well, well! A lone traveller, how atypical, empty your pockets, whatever is inside shall be the price you pay for your life" it went without saying, but Loimos had been approached with such demands a whole lot more ever since he had begun entering the mountain range surrounding Tamaris, the population of bandits and other low-lives varmints was rather dense, in two ways actually.
Ranging from incomprehensible blabber to rather sophisticated demands such as the one that was in the process of happening, the diversity in highway folks population was surprising, they were much like goblins, everywhere, adaptive, group-oriented, generally lacking in advanced thought process and not exactly pleasant to look at.
"Did you not hear him? Give us your valuables, lone wanderer!"
"Now that I think about it, it really is very uncommon for people to be alone in this part…"
"He is carrying a sword too"
"And that mask is a bit creepy"
"How come no one else intercepted him before us anyways? They would have jumped on a solitary traveller"
The well-spoken bandits started looking at one another, and then back at Loimos, who had taken a step forward when they weren't paying attention.
"I must admit, maybe we were a bit too impetuous, now that we are up-close, this fellow looks very much unpleasant as a robbing victim" their leader stepped back and the others followed, they all sunk down into the ground, nearly down to their knees as the black blood bubbled.
The refined bandits didn't even have time given to them to try and bargain as the blighted liquid engulfed them all, silencing and digesting them in little time.
That was the big mistake of those bandits, they always tried threats and intimidation first, they would have much more success if they shot their targets in the legs, stole everything and just killed them.
Being civilised was their mistake, also a lack of proper spatial awareness, leaving a big hole in the middle of the way, Loimos walked past it and went on his way, the road, which could barely be referred as such, was leading him upwards as he would have to traverse the sharp and tall mountains serving as a natural defence for the country.
From there on out, he shouldn't encounter any more bandits, for this place was home to some monsters, vindictively territorial ones at that, the sort that you could anger without meaning to, or fail to provoke even by trying, rather unpredictable lot.
Oddly enough, despite the deathly heat still bearing down upon the soil below, Loimos soon found himself with snow piling on his shoulders, and waist down in powdered snow, good thing he had no eyes and couldn't be blinded, the reflections of the sun were so bad, it could actually be considered as an of pure evil.
Unfettered by such a mundane thing as thermal shock, Loimos continued on his way, simultaneously freezing and being warmed up until he managed to find a spot that wasn't nearly as flooded with snow, or rather, an area where the snow wasn't so soft, not losing track of the direction he was supposed to go in, he came across many caverns on the sides of high portions of the mountains, sharp rock flying up into the sky, piercing and dividing the clouds far in the distance.
More importantly, the caves were inhabited, small masses of white fur came running out with much hastiness after one of them shouted out upon noticing Loimos, who dressed in black, stood out a pretty big deal.
Screaming and hollering in one anothers faces, the small creatures started throwing rocks at Loimos, with good accuracy but reprehensibly low strength, even when hit straight in the face, his head barely moved in response.
He rose a wall of soft rot in front of him, the singular force of one rock was poor, but there were a lot more rocks coming, expanding his rot forward, he immersed himself in and using the speed boost moving through his own creation granted him, he soon found himself in front of one of the small ball of fluff.
Grabbing it by it heads and popping it like a rotten orange, with his enhanced strength from much murder, absorbing of death force and decaying of many things, it was awfully simple to kill these feeble creatures, although it turns they packed quite the weight for their size, stacking up on much fat.
After crushing one skull, stomping on one and exploding another with a kick to the stomach, the hairy horde scattered back in the caves, probably not finding this activity worth it, however, going into the caverns wasn't the wisest move, the undead easily sealed the entrance off with some rot and then unleashed miasma directly inside, suffocating them all to them all the while continued on walking forward.
But of course, the screams of the little one's attracted other dwellers of the snowy mountain, another hairy creature decided to show up, this one had its ugly maw visible for all to see, which was a dark blue colour and possessing an oversized nose, probably to counteract the fact that air was scarce up there, not brawny but thin and with long arms that it used much like a gorilla would.
Its stomach area was similarly uncovered of fur and hollowed out, letting out a howl, Loimos scanned the surroundings for more guy, but he turned out to be all by himself, a lonely monkey man of sorts.
Rushing forward with wild abandon for no discernible reason, the monster leapt up in the air, swinging both fists down on the skeleton's head.
In response, the undead took one step to the left, raised one fist up, and hit the monster squarely in the jaw, rattling its brain around in its skull just as it landed down on nothing, sending it stumbling away like it had just drank a whole barrel of booze.
Walking up to the defenceless aggressor, he grabbed both sides of his head, giving it a good twist, breaking the ape-like creature's neck.