Guorzo breathed in, his tense and aching muscles relaxing, he rose both hands up, even his mangled arm would have to do some work, sweat covered in body, his hair sticking to his face as he stared ahead at the loathsome undead.
The elites battle art of fire was off-limit for him at the moment, with his sword embedded in the ground, and all of his alcohol destroyed, he couldn't even utilise the more basic arts of his kit, as for the rest, it would cause his body to break for certain, he still had other battle arts, of course, as one of Lady Syklon's top dogs he had been allowed to get his hands on some of her stashed up arts.
Thinking of his lady, Guorzo could only steel his resolve, he had sworn to follow her, not only because she was beautiful, she was also the unrivalled master of battle arts, a genius capable of easily creating new arts, to modify existing ones and her own personal arts were enhanced through ways that the mediocre contemporaries couldn't even fathom, it was all about natural talent and understanding of the intricate weave of both combat and battle arts.
He did not understand why she bothered with all of those affairs when she had what it took to govern this country and to expand it, but he could never question her, Guorzo could only think about how disappointed she would be if he was defeated .
The undead hadn't used a single art during their entire fight! It was nothing but pure brawn and natural capabilities, the elite could tell, he wasn't just facing off against a powerful and crafty undead, something he couldn't quite comprehend was standing before him, something he could not quite fathom, just like his lady.
Smoke was rising up from Loimos's bones, dust sipping from his hollow sockets, the putrid skeleton he was, was nowhere to be seen, the rot that naturally grew from his filthy white bones was utterly gone, his body turned pitch black by soot and fire damage.
He had yet to experience this, to be struck with such a devastating blow, it had actually impacted his capabilities, he could not produce any rot or anything at the moment, his control over the existing puddles of dark blood was also weak and sluggish.
With most of his ribcage gone, he only had part of his natural body at his disposal, the bone claws and spikes were reduced to smithereens before he could even pull them out, that was unfortunate.
Reading the fear, apprehension, but also the determination in the living's eyes, Loimos reached down and picked something off from the embrace of ashes, a blade that had seen better days, but perfectly capable of cutting through his weakened opponents.
The two began walking toward one another, ignoring the small settlement that was burning to the ground around them, the two suns bearing down on them, their shadows slowly reduced in size as they got progressively closer to the point right beneath the twin stars.
Guorzo made the first move, pulling his strength together to stomp the ground, raising up the ash, Loimos slashed right through without hesitation, evading a punch aimed at his skull, missing his slash as the elite lowered his body, attempting to sweep the corpse's legs.
Rather than dodging, Loimos challenged his resolve and stabbed the katana into the ground, blade facing the incoming leg, Guorzo's groaned and hastily stopped his manoeuver, the undead didn't even bother getting the sword back, using the fact that the large warrior had deliberately reduced his height to kick up ash into his face.
The living refused to close his eyes, blocking a punch from Loimos with his wounded arm and pushing the skeleton away, the pain was unimaginable, but it helped him stay focused, the elite rushed forward, kicks and punches were quickly exchanged.
Loimos maintained his superiority in speed and evasion, landing multiple hits on Guorzo, yet the man was flinching, taking every hit and attempting to grab Loimos, or so it appeared, once more stomping the ground, this time with a minor battle art he had never bothered to train, the force was barely enough to make the cadaver's feet leave the ground for a split second.
Guorzo didn't miss this time, his unhurt fist striking the undead, though Loimos managed to shift his head so that only his lower jaw was crushed, it wasn't planned to get hit, but he saw a great occasion.
His feet landing on hard ground once more, he didn't move away and instead dug his upper teeth into the living's arm, running forward and leaving deep gashes at the cost of getting swept away once more.
The elite cursed, that trade wasn't worth it in the least, the undead wasn't bothered by the loss he faced, sure, he wouldn't be able of using his bite, but that wouldn't impact him negatively, Guorzo on the other hand, was bleeding profusely, his left arm wasn't damaged as extensively as the other but he couldn't cauterise the wound, ash was falling onto and into the injury.
Loimos picked up the sword from earlier, and arrows pierced through the air.
The living hadn't forgotten about the archers and readily activated the same battle art that had protected him from earlier, but the arrows were severely weaker than before, not escaping his notice, Guorzo was surprised at how quickly his brain was functioning right now.
He had never experienced such clarity before, it would be exhilarating in other circumstances.
'The archers are weak, he isn't using his abilities from earlier, and he hasn't made any move with those dark puddles that were everywhere earlier…'
It would seem like the archers were all actually just the undead himself, as if to confirm his thoughts, Guorzo taught sight of movement on the roof of a building that had yet to burn down, the archers were nothing more than piles of rot with skeletal arms attached onto them.
There was no time to gloat about his investigative skills, Loimos once again threw a sword straight at him, this time, launching it like a javelin, rushing forward himself.