'Little fool…' Alkayne was quick to realise what was happening, this entire time, Griar and Antieeld had been put on the defensive against Prikrip, amongst the minor lords, he was without the shadow of a doubt, the most annoying to go up against, the corvid undead kept on jumping and leaping around, and despite lacking in wings, he was very much capable of remaining airborne for an ungodly amount of time.
Anyone without the capabilities to deny him the air superiority was doomed to do nothing but dodge and defend against his relentless barrage of dust slashes, no matter how many knights and troops the young commandant summoned, her and the noble could not pressure him into abandoning this advantage or submerge him with enough targets to allow for more room of movements.
Griar, thanks to his battle art, was exceptionally suited to block attacks from the avian corpse however, although the dust itself was not considered an ability that could be cancelled, taken as a physical thing existing of its own, the slashes were considered a viable target, the two livings simply needed to move around to avoid the dust clouds, waiting for them to fall to the ground and lose their powers.
Unfortunately, they could not just play this game forever, they would both be exhausted and drained , fighting an undead meant that playing the long game was mostly an idiotic idea, Prikrip could keep doing this forever and ever.
Antieeld attempted an army slash, at the same time as Griar also casted slashes using his sword element, but it was no use, he could dodge it all with ease, seeing them coming from a kilometer away.
"Milo is in difficulty over there" Antieeld remarked, neither distressed nor uncaring.
"The zombie's necrosis might have actually destroyed the spell supposed to take him away, I'll try to get the bird's attention, but brace yourself, it's unlikely that I'll manage to" she calmly told him, gripping her sabre intensely, frowning as she stared directly into the corvid's empty, large eye sockets.
Until now, Antieeld had only used her family art, army slash, and magic to summon knights, neither had shown results, weaving in a spell, she casted a temporary enchantment on her blade, rapidly swinging and trusting at the air, each of them followed by slash of simple mana, each of them were rather weak, but they made up for it in speed.
As she did that, Griar rushed closer to Alkayne and Milo, both were now shrouded in a brutal miniature storm, the undead's halberd still planted in the ground a distance away, bending his knees, breathing in, the noble youth focused, expanding his art, and then sending it forward into a line, where it entered in contact with the foot of the zombie, his innate ability was potent, and finely trained, as he exerted it in a powerful technique, cancelling it was not simple, but Griar did not let up, focusing as deeply as he thought.
Until the storm ceased, Griar rushed forth the instant the coast was clear, ignoring the sensation of something slashing his back, dust seeping into the wound, part of his skin and flesh crumbling into dust, as he had been told, Prikrip could not simply be overwhelmed, and amidst the dodging in the air, he found an occasion to land an attack, his art focused in one direction, he was only capable of partly blocking the slash with his art.
He did stop however, maintaining his art mostly focused on the zombie, he ran up to him, landing a thrust to his vulnerable face, the helm of the undead without any visor, caught in the midst of the noble's battle art, Alkayne could not call onto more lightning and summon freezing winds, but he still had plenty of necrotic lightning coating him, in fact, he was brimming with it so much at the moment that even without touching the living, Griar was still finding his skin turning dark.
His blade affected as well, more slashes of dust were coming his way, the zombie reaching for him as well, Alkayne had something else to worry about as well, Milo was looking half-dead and half-frozen, but not put down already, he rose to his two feet, bringing his right fist back, focusing his golden mana into hit, solely putting toward offence, pinning Alkayne right in the center of his chestplate once again, this time, caving the armour in, gold exploding outward.
Taking the zombie's feet off the ground, golden mana rippled through his body, fighting against the necrotic lightning.
This was like what Nosferatu would sometime describe when explaining his stack technique, that it was originally something that people did unconsciously at odd times, completely without meaning it, judging by the strength at which Alkayne was being thrown back, blasting through withered trees and bloody vegetations, this was what had just happened, still affected by Griar battle art, he could not call winds to slow himself, rolling against the ground and out of Yuolrt's pseudo-zone, landing amidst some golems.
'That was unexpected' he was mostly fine, even with part of his body underneath his armour shredded, he could still fight as per usual, it was just the golden mana clinging to him that was a problem, preventing his energy circulation and stopping him from activating his ability even as the effects of Griar's art crumbled.
Looking around, he could see the elemental champions struggling against Herlbe, the iron king seemingly out of commission, kneeling on the ground, and his general, standing next to the king, currently regrowing his head and lost limb, finally restoring his control over his powers.
Loimos acknowledged Alkayne's presence, and gave him a nod to tell him that he was handling everything, no need to bother, a whisper of death tongue washed over the zombie, giving him clear orders, a bit of death force coming alongside it, clearing the minor lord of the invasive mana and restoring him to as good as new.
Trusting fully in his general, Alkayne did not question anything, there were things that only Loimos had clearance to know after all.
Meanwhile, the three students were now facing Prikrip, the corvid undead had finally landed on solid ground again, staring in the direction his fellow had been ejected, as though understanding many things just from this, he turned to the tree livings, none were unhurt at this moment.
It was a mystery how Milo was even still standing, shining a bright gold as he attempted to heal necrosis and frostbites, two ailments that were vastly more difficult to mend than simple cuts, the numbness in his muscles was also something that was not easily overcome.
As for the other two, Griar had also suffered from some necrosis, but it was mostly the dust slashes that had damaged Antieeld and the noble, received when they had moved to help Milo, they had gotten out lightly enough, both had managed to avoid grievous injuries by either somewhat breaking down the attack, or by focusing their mana augmentation at in the right spot.
Needless to say, being turned to dust was even harder to heal than anything shown before, and no one here could heal themselves except for Milo, Antieeld could use some healing on others, but it was wholly ineffective in this circumstance.
"He actually came down…"
"It must mean that he is feeling more dangerous on the ground"
"But we can't touch him up here, what the hell is more dangerous than this?" Milo coughed a bit, cracking his neck, feeling awfully energised right now, that hit he had just landed had been more than just a strong punch, it had felt enlightening somehow.
Although he did not quite understand what it was that he had received enlightenment about.
The three of them got ready, honestly not quite certain how they should tackle an opponent like Prikrip, unlike Alkayne, the corvid monster was wholly different to them, his fighting style was alien.