'The hell?' Bilistam did not fear these five restless, they were weak to him, he wouldn't struggle even if all of them surrounded him and attacked in unison, but the simple fact that they had somehow noticed his presence, all at the same time, was simply odd.
'Mmh… Does one actually possess a detection ability? But even then, they should be too weak to notice me, or the newbies for that matter…' the living rose up, analysed his surroundings and confirmed that there was a hidden sixth restless that could have alerted them.
"Remember what I said, kids" this didn't change anything, with an unnatural burst of swiftness, he bursted past the hound trio and appeared before the snake and bone mass, the former hoisted itself up, looming over the living as its rib-arms reached forward, its jaw unraveling itself wider, teeth glistening with a foul liquid that had been fermenting within them.
Meanwhile, the skeletal pile, with a deform, seemingly partly melted, skull sitting at the very top seemed to look down on Bilistam, as though it was an anteater, and the living its next meal, from its body, more segmented bones like the one that had been using to move around emerged, thin and well-articulated, they seemed to hover just above the dust like surgical tools, rubbing and striking against one another.
"Trying to intimidate me? Can't you see who's the weakling here?" the living mocked, both of the restless tilted their head to the side like a pair of cute puppies before looking at one another and…
"What the hell is wrong with those two?" Bilistam couldn't help but speak his thoughts aloud, although only the rustling of bones was emitted, it most definitely looked like they were laughing- Laughing at him that is.
In all his years, he had seen plenty of restless, many were weird or strange in looks, fewer in behaviour as that sort of things was only really noticeable when they could talk or were humanoid enough that their mannerisms was actually understandable, but two weaklings, not only clearly showing that they were comprehending his words, but making fun of him together was taking the cake as the weirdest thing he had witnessed the restless do.
'Well… I suppose they have always seemed to get the gist of what I was saying… But why are they laughing their asses off? They should know that I am way stronger than them… Is it a trick, or… Do they actually have a reason to not see me as a threat?'
Although the bone-creatures probably didn't experience fear, or other negative emotions as they always acted with rationality, no matter how warped their internal logic may be, they were well-aware that facing an opponent much stronger than themselves was a useless venture and that it was best to retreat and fight another day.
These two however, they neither turned tail and booked it, nor did they throw themselves at him, only a few seconds had passed at most since Bilistam had shown up before them, the newbies and hounds weren't going to clash before about ten more seconds too.
Such small intervals meant nothing to the deviant souls dwelling within these stolen bones however, they always reacted, took in information, and acted appropriately within an incredibly short window of time.
'Ah, to hell with it! I'll just kill them…' uncaring for the clear semantic contradiction he just made, he manifested his soul object from a small explosion of blue sparks, taking the form of a single-edged blade, or a nandao, to be accurate.
With another sudden burst of speed, he appeared mid-air, just in front of the skeletal abomination's malformed skull, with a single swing, the restless's head was cleanly taken over its shoulders, if the hip bones and whatever else that was below its skull could be called as such.
The thin bones that were emerging from the undead's chest all bent themselves toward the airborne living, piercing through the air.
'Of course…' once more, he moved away in the blink of an eye, his feet on the ground a distance away.
The abomination wasn't of the same sort of the canines or the snake, that while horrendous in some manner, did seem to follow some sort of theme with the body, which allowed one to clearly recognise what they had taken after, but some abomination were just meshed up atrocities and this, striking their head was not always effective, whether because they were too much a monstrosity to be felled by that, or because their actual head was elsewhere.
Bilistam looked at the newbies, they were faring well, as expected, the hounds weren't too keen on charging into a mass of enemies, and were instead biding their time in hope of catching one off guard and dragging them away from the group.
He himself could end his two opponents in the blink of an eye, but that would consume soul energy, and all good warriors knew not to expand it unless necessary, virtually, neither of the two restless could touch him, so although it might take a one to three minutes, Bilistam kept going as is, weaving through the thin, segmented bones, slicing them apart as the abomination sent more of them out.
Meanwhile, the snake buried one half of his rib-hands, and with a sudden fling, sent a curtain of sand-like dust at the living, the grains did not bother the abomination, who continued attacking like normal.
Bilistam clicked his tongue at the primitive tactics, turning his back to avoid being blinded, and still evading all attacks with ease, continuing to move closer to the abomination, before suddenly disappearing again.
The snake managed to follow the living despite the speed, but its pile-like colleague did not, and ended up sliced in half about where one might place its midsection.
Collapsing to the ground, the living could only admit that the abomination was resilient despite being of an order of strength on the same level as what Bilistam could destroy with a single kick, that was the advantage of not following a clear body structure, restless of this kind tended to have an advantage in a certain field, here being defence.
The snake launched itself at him, finally deciding to take a more active part in the battle.
"I guess that guy just got in the way, huh?" preparing to meet with the snake, knowing that a single strike would be enough for it.
However, the serpent weaved to the side toward the newbies.
Ignoring the still active, but immobilised abomination, the living, prepared to intercept the snake and show what happened to filthy cowards of its kind, but Bilistam's eyebrows instead shot up, before turning and parrying the strike of a sword.
A small cut manifested on his left forearm, something foul happening to the wound already, compelling Bilistam to hack away at his own flesh to remove the small portion before it spread, still, resulting in more severe bleeding.
Blue blood painted the dust.
"You… You're not a newbie…"
"Very astute observation"
The living felt a vein on his forehead bulge.
"Who the hell are you? I do not remember offending anyone in the last hundred century"
His attacker did not further engage in discussion and began walking forward.
"Very well… I'll make you traitor talk later"
Bilistam began walking forward as well.