Now, obviously their reaction was fueled by sheer instinct and terror, it didn't take long for some of them to regret their decision of leaving their comrades and friends behind , but upon turning back, their spirits ignited by a desire to save fellow livings, they could only see that the dead did not hesitate, the wounded had already been torn apart by the recently reformed undeads.
On the hill, a figure unlike all of the others spoke an incomprehensible word, it was like an insidious whisper and an impossibly loud roar at the same time, utilising their moment of weakness caused by fear and guilt, the corpse leading the desert's cadavers petrified them all for a few instants, simultaneously, undead charged down the hill, some of them appearing armed with bows and arrows, javelins and various others ranged weapons.
The sole mage amidst the group of living conjured up wall of sandstone hastily, blocking a great deal of projectiles, many of those that had still been standing were struck down after having failed to break free of the death tongue's dread, still targets were killed swiftly, some of them turned into bloody porcupines.
Some that had managed to get their bodies moving were still hurt by the volley, the accuracy of the dead was not to be underestimated, they did not tremble, need to breathe and their vision couldn't be impaired easily, those lucky enough to come out unscathed of this ordeal resumed their escape without any thoughts given to one another.
The sand trembled, all of the living knew what this was, some cursed their rotten luck, others, including the mage dared to hope that the arrival of a member of the infamous monsters of the desert would instead aid them survive, it simply depended on which of the two party that sand crawler would target first.
Bursting out from beneath the sand, a large creature clacked its worn-out mandibles, it's insectoid maw flowing with sand as it emitted a shrill, nearly otherworldly cry, the mage paled as he turned to the beast, it's exoskeleton was missing parts, its flesh was dry and covered by sand, holes dug into its flesh by time and allowing the living to gaze upon the hollow insides of the monster.
"Ah, what sins have we committed to deserve such a-" his words were cut short, the sand crawler swung its head like a battle axe, bisecting the fleeing adventurers in two, knowing that there was nothing that could be done, the mage unconsciously let go of his control over his sandstone wall, allowing an approaching undead to split his skull with a single strike of a curved blade.
Loimos overlooked the bloodied sand, decorated with the recently deceased corpses of the adventurers, their bodies still bleeding, some of even still twitching, rather than decaying the remains as he usually did, the undead allowed another skeleton wearing a simple robe, its jaw devoid of any teeth, the lower portion hanging down loosely and its skull filled to the brim with sand like many other of the desert cadavers.
It uttered a single word in the death tongue, the most it could manage before raising its bony hands up in the air, performing a special art it had been taught by the rulers of the desert long ago, Loimos participated in the action, furnishing the fellow skeleton with death force that was sent out toward the corpses, forcefully raising them as mindless undeads, necromancy wasn't a simple practice, very few could perform such a thing with just magic, even amidst the dead themselves.
Loimos himself was only able to allow the dormant undeads of the desert to awoken by using his miasma infused with death force, but that was an entirely different matter, he was merely giving them what was necessary for them to rise once again.
He had spent quite some time excavating his fellows, going around and digging into the sand to recover their bones and body parts, with some assistance from some that had already been wandering the surface, he had managed to awake the robed skeleton, he was only a lesser spell caster possessed no particular affinities, but he had been taught a necromantic art.
By having him around, Loimos wasn't going to have to wander around aimlessly in search a sign of the buried ruins, the other mindless undeads couldn't quite comprehend what he wanted them to show him, it was dubious whether they were even as ancient as the mage either way, people dying and their corpses being covered up by the sand wasn't an uncommon occurrence in Pezerx.
Gathering up more forces as they went, the mage was leading the way toward a lost bastion of the undead armies, encountering many corpses that either Loimos could reawaken, or that the mage could use the art to raise a undeads, this included the desert crawler, a large and long centipede-like monster that travelled beneath the sand to ambush preys, but preys weren't exactly common place, so they mostly partook in cannibalism.
Taking notice that the presence of adventurers must mean that a city, or at least a settlement was close, it wasn't visible however.
The oases weren't present during the rule of the dead over the desert either, such blossoming life would have never been tolerated, so the mage couldn't pinpoint the locations of cities and such.
The ancient fortresses and their surroundings weren't exactly conductive to lush environments, so they didn't encounter any of the areas where the people of Pezerx lived, finding themselves in front of an inconspicuous area, a flat piece of sandy land much like everything else in this empire, but Loimos could definitely sense the massive amount of death force hidden below.
Loimos was fully prepared to dig his way to the entrance and to force it open, but the caster stepped forward, spread his arms, raising them up until his body formed the shape of the letter Y.
He spoke one word at a time, his gesture combined with the spoken words seemed to activate something, the buried structure rose out from the sand, the entrance opening with ease despite having clearly been sealed from the outside before.
The rulers of the desert had installed some nice functions on their strongholds.