'This- This is-' the iron king's arms shook under the weight of the strikes, the soil rumbled under the weight of the revenant behind, instantly, as soon as the fight began, the living king was put on the backfoot, at least, that was he felt, attempting to parry a simple swing of the undead's war scythe told him that he should not even think about challenging Loimos in a contest of strength.
Sparks flew in the air, blades grazing one another, Fioldron Ferrcrona tried to close the distance in between them, otherwise, Loimos would retain the reach advantage, pulling his polearm back, the royal courier manifested a curved dagger on his free hand, rapidly swinging, his wrist snapping around to allow back and forth slashes.
The king's forearm ached as he used his vambrace to block the strikes, stabbing his blade at the guts of the undead.
'His mantle is tough!' the tip just slid to the side, he ran to the side, using his momentum to get away from the current position.
Loimos stomped his right foot down, the soil seemed to darken, a straight line as wide as Fioldron Ferrcrona shot out from the undead and well past the king, the ground became muddy, like quick sand, the living felt like he was sucked in, stabbing his sword into the untouched ground further, pulling himself out of here, bending backward just, almost having his nose cleanly shaved off.
Bending his knees, the iron king breathed in, the mana surged within his body, his armour, his sword, every nook and cranny were flooded with his mana, layers stacking atop one another until it could not go any further.
'Vertex…' the simplest application of the most supreme technique behind zone, although it was the most basic version and not quite an impressive one, using it simultaneously on body and all armaments without sacrificing any potency anywhere was a mark of great mastery.
His power increased by leaps and bounds, in an instant, he was upon Loimos, swinging to try and take the undead's head off his shoulders, twisting his body in grotesque manners, the butcher of the badlands brought the handle of his weapon to block the attack, the slash was stopped right in its track.
"Finally using reinforcement, are you?!"
Loimos did not respond, deflecting the attack, pushing the king back.
It was insulting, but Fioldron Ferrcrona could tell with ease that Loimos was not actually trying to kill him, at least, not in the way that would be fastest, he must have been told to try his best to make the iron king submit to King Nitok's will, thus, he was duelling the living using only what was enough to make his attacks feel completely useless, swinging in a way that made it seem like he could not care less, willfully adding unnecessary movements to twist the knife in the wound.
But Fioldron Ferrcrona was only seeing this as an opening that could perhaps allow him to land a decisive blow.
So eventually, Loimos went up a notch, the war scythe was soon to come slicing down, the iron king was ready to jump to the side, but his feet were suddenly held in place by a force he could not see, having sensed no arts or energy usage from Loimos, he did not know what to do about it immediately, attempting to break free by using mana, it failed, and he instead rose his blade to block the strike.
The scythe seemed to grow darker and heavier, it was going to hurt.
"Apex!" gritting his teeth, he went up a level, focusing it only on his sword, he may have achieved a great level of mastery with vertex, but that was only because he was pretty much stuck on this level, only capable of maintaining apex for a few seconds at most.
The severity of the situation allowed him to surpass his usual limit and maintain it for just a little bit longer, his arms loudly cracking under the weight of Loimos's attack, which wasn't even augmented, the gap in raw strength was simply gigantic.
Loimos's bones carried incredible force on their own, coupled with his mastery over the primeval rot, it was like he was wearing an enchanted suit that amplified his strength even further.
Fioldron Ferrcrona's arms were going to shatter under pressure, the sound of fighting resounded from behind the lines of the undeads, Loimos did not budge, the king could feel his shoulders being forcefully moved well out of place, his flesh and muscles would soon rupture.
There was only one way to make the damned undead let go, Fioldron Ferrcrona saw Loimos's head be blown off by a condensed bolt shot from afar, the skeleton did not falter.
The handle of his polearm was severed, but somehow, the weapon still bore down on him the same way, like the handle still remained in place, unseen, just as powerful.
Straining himself, a vein popped on the king's forehead, his teeth on the verge of breaking from his own gritting.
No, there was only one way to make Loimos let go, and it was my moving him off of here, before he knew it, Fioldron Ferrcrona was released from the horrifying pressure, just as his arms were about to come down, Loimos was thrown away, his physical body scrunching inward like a piece of paper being crumpled, finding himself back in his legs as he returned to his humanoid silhouette, all the damage done to him gone as though a produce of imagination.
Whoever or whatever had just slammed into him was already gone, having bounced back and forth until disappearing in the distance, then suddenly coming back, intent on hitting the undead again, the impact rose up a cloud of dust.
Clearing up, the undead was still standing in place, his attacker having seemingly missed and landed further behind, Loimos analysed the living, he did not recognise her in the least.
Neither had he ever heard of her, the look was hard to not remember, wearing only armour on her lower section, unlike Herlbe, she had no good reason for this, although her iron boots seemed exceptionally heavy.
Muscular enough to almost be considered absurd, her chest simply wrapped in bandages, long, droopy rabbit ears hanging lazily alongside her messy brown hair.
Loimos had definitely never been told about this rabbit woman, but it was to be expected that the living had some good warriors that the undeads had missed, although, not knowing about the rabbit girl that moves and attacks by doing nothing but dropkicks was certainly odd.
All this meant however, was that reinforcements had arrived, and still, there were no signs of the one thing Loimos was waiting for.
Alongside this jacked jumping rabbit, a death hunter landed gracefully behind him, this was a two on one, artillery spells were coming from above, about to rain down on the golems.
Loimos parried a a bolt of mana shot from afar, it was best to scratch the two on one, they had ranged support, whose attacks were fast enough to catch Loimos by surprise, now that he knew about it, the effectiveness would be reduced but it was not like the two opponents were easy ones.
The rabbit was fast and he recognised the death hunter as Latir-e-se, the ghoul huntress, Loimos was not her usual prey, but it was still best to assume that she wasn't here to fill in.
Luckily, King Nitok had no particular instructions concerning enemy combatants from Tamaris.
"Focus on the elemental champions, Herlbe, they will try to get their king back, make sure to get in the way" Loimos enacted Harbinger's Harvest, which simply meant that he was using a technique that utilised every single thing Loimos knew to the best effect.
Heeding his general's order, the revenant erupted with a bright pulse of strength, pushing the champions away, repositioning himself in between them and the iron king.
Weaving it in, Loimos shrouded the entire area in miasma.