As the twin shockwaves neared tearing Herlbe into a million particles, he too erupted with newfound power, a blast of pure death force which killed everything in a very limited zone around him.
The tsar had no time to assess what had just happened as dark shape expanded from the black whirlwind, traversing the distance to reach, and carved a deep gash through his head before he could even react, stumbling back in a deafening silence save from the tapping of his colossal legs, Pangea'Kalst's instincts were absolutely correct.
"Crap, my aim was off" the pale tongue slithering all around despite the environment as the revenant emerged from the cocoon of festering death, only that it wasn't the typical one gained when using Ierpalam, it held an odd, feral attribute as well.
Normally, Ierpalam could be used to restore oneself to their best condition as well as greatly empower themselves, the same remained true for Herlbe right now, however, the augmentation provided was several dozen times higher than normal, and most noticeably, his great cleaver had expanded to unwieldy proportions, to the point that he was able to land a strike against Pangea'Kalst's head from where he stood.
Propping it up against his shoulder, the minor lord's darkness awareness was pushed so far that he could clearly sense the tsar now, even taste the crab's wound as it managed to recover incredibly rapidly.
'That wound was inflicted by festering death force, and you can still regenerate? I guess it can't compare to General Loimos's if wielded by anyone else' latching the cleaver onto his chain, beginning to spin the gargantuan weapon around as it rapidly picked up speed, moving so fast that it would seem to slow down to most, but of course, the tsar wasn't so easily fooled, underwater, the subtle movements of the sea caused by it were like an open book for him to read, even the chaos caused by his earlier shockwaves and movements did not impair Pangea'Kalst's ability to sense every minute changes.
Now certain that the small attacker could threaten his life, he slowly circled around Herlbe, seemingly assessing the situation.
Not willing to get too close, the tsar snapped his pincers shut again, firing two more shockwaves at the minor lord, the undead was attentive, well aware that he had only gotten unscathed from the two point-blanks ones solely thanks to the explosive activation of Ierpalam, even his current durability would not allow for him to take even a single one of these head-on.
But although powerful, unlike the water jet from before, their direction wouldn't change no matter what, so Herlbe simply sliced through them with the enhanced cleaver, the festering death had no problem killing which was not alive, swinging his weapon around, the revenant kicked off the ground, forcing passage through the pressurised depth straight toward the tsar, who realised in this instant that retreat wouldn't be an option as not only was Herlbe rather fast, but his range was now no less than the monarch's pincer-legs themselves.
Especially since the chains wrapped around his arm and chest were currently also imbued with death, the way they moved were still bound to Herlbe's control of them but the tsar already knew that anything with that black matter oozing from them was bad news.
For the first time in many years, Pangea'Kalst actually tried hard to crush something else, the very sea seemed afraid, all oceanic life rushed further and further from the epicenter of the clash, the water beginning to boil as the tsar unleashed a series of shockwaves, the ease with which he could produce enough force to slay anything across kilometers was certainly frightening, but only made the revenant more excited as he willfully charged through the barrage, carving his way through with full knowledge that a single mistake would most probably result in instantaneous defeat.
'Mmh?' the tsar once again demonstrated frightening intelligence as he slightly opened one pincer, placing that empty space right in front of his other pincer before firing out another shockwave, this one being fired through a tight space ended up being thinner and somehow even faster than the rest, and of course, Pangea'Kalst didn't just create one of these shockwaves, he rapidly snapped his pincers shut repeatedly.
Not big on smart strategies, Herlbe just kept moving forward despite it all, as both the cleaver and chains were augmented to unbelievable proportions, so were the iron claws bolted to his left arm, the two blades expanding using festering death forth, allowing for the revenant to carve through the shockwaves, without actually bothering to pay attention to them.
As for the tsar, he was subtly moving backward with every step Herlbe took, making sure to remain outside the range of Herlbe's attacks, or at least it tried, as the revenant only needed to allow a bit more of his chain to unroll from him to land another hit.
Leaving a deep gash across both of Pangea'Kalst's eyes, the crab's reaction was once again rather lacking as he didn't seem to be experiencing much pain at all, instead, he slammed both pincers upon the okean's floor, causing a deep rumble to shake it whole before completely reversing his strategy and suddenly rushing right up to Herlbe, his legs spread wide to bring it's already healed face right in front of the tiny, yet great threat.
Putting himself in great danger as the revenant did not waste any time thinking about the why for this sudden shift in behaviour and swung his cleaver into a wide arc, wrapping the chain around a few of the monarch's left legs, his blade rapidly sinking into the tsar's side, one pull and the trapped legs would be torn apart as well.
Since this only required one arm, Herlbe also stabbed up Pangea'Kalst with his claws, the death force extension stabbing right through both heart and brain, yet, the tsar's life force did not waver much as he opened his maw wide.
The revenant was proven wrong as instead, he found himself no longer surrounded by water, the pale white radiance of the great star shining upon them both, reaching the depth of the okean for the first time ever.
"That was… Awfully quick" the revenant couldn't help but point out, he couldn't quite tell how far all water had vanished due to now being surrounded by light, but considering that he failed to find any darkness within his range, the sheer volume that had just popped out of existence was not something he could picture.
Although the swiftness seemed to indicate something extraordinary, Herlbe knew that Pangea'Kalst had done nothing but suck that water in.
Without waiting any more time, the minor lord wrenched his weapons away from the monarch, tearing holes and gashes, ripping off limbs without the object of said injuries caring about it as he instead focused on what he had just swallowed.
'Is he going to use the jets now?' although on a wholly different magnitude than before, in essence, Pangea'Kalst had just sucked water in like he had done previously, so it was only natural to expect something similar, but no, the tsar instead used that great amount of water to propel himself high in the air, water was already flowing back in with extreme force to fill the empty space.
Herlbe could only watch, half-dumbfounded half-fascinated, as the immense crab used the water he absorbed to somehow soar through the air, and like a boomerang, arc right back on where he had come from.
Doubtlessly, the impact would be something of legends, though, Herlne wasn't intending on letting that impressive plan come to fruition, pushing himself off the ground, there was no better moment to strike Pangea'Kalst than now.
Without taking the time to wonder if the tsar had already flown through the air before or if he had just figured it out now, the minor lord grabbed the handle of his cleaver with both hands.
It was high time to position himself as the mightiest amongst his peers.