A great portion of the chrome floor was currently covered in a thin layer of black blood, exhibiting a particularly sticky properties, stretching and resisting to pulling force well enough, it wasn't good enough to hold Slotriig in place just yet, his excessive raw strength could get him moving still, however, Loimos wasn't playing planning on exchanging blows with the metal giant.
Flowing endlessly in cascade from his hollows sockets, the black blood wasn't merely an environmental hazard, he could still manipulate it.
Slithering along the floor like revolting worms, the rotten liquid converged wholly around Slotriig's feet and legs, the weight of the blood increased and the amount increased its special properties,Slotriig was starting to feel his movements being truly impaired.
So he reinforced his legs with mana, not the metal mana just yet, just regular for now, freeing himself from the hold of blood, during that time, Loimos didn't stay idle and grew a repulsive mass of rot around his body, melding into it and disappearing from sight as the rot expanded further, continuously oozing more black blood to slow down the metal skeleton's approach.
"This again?" Slotriig spoke to himself, his sword resting on his shoulder.
He had had the sword at hand for a few rounds now, his strikes could easily carve right through whatever Loimos's could pull, at the moment, he had achieved impressive control over his rot, blood and miasma, although he lacked much good usages of the miasma for now.
Being death miasma, Slotriig couldn't be blinded by it and he still had some work to do before swiftly converting it into anything else, as for the bone, he had yet to try much things with it, making Slotriig question whether it was because it would be ineffective, or if Loimos was just keeping it up his sleeve.
The armoured undead expected the rot to continue expanding into a multitude of directions, this trick was rather good, Loimos could travel through his rot much faster than he could move around otherwise, still, with regular a swing of his blade, Slotriig could stir up the winds and blow everything away.
He prepared to do just that, but unexpectedly, the rot converged into a single, bloated sphere, condensing further and stretching up in a few quick moments.
Slotriig stood still, he could have done something to stop this, but with the current restrictions he was putting on himself and the fact that this was all meant for the purpose of progressing in control and power, he waited to see what in tarnation this was all about.
The amount of subtle control needed for this was beyond what had been previously shown by Loimos, the armoured undead stood in a defensive position, noticing his footing changing somewhat, he realised that the blighted blood had switched properties, returning to a much more liquid state, quite slippery in fact.
The mass of rot seemingly exploded, blood and gore was flung everywhere.
"Oh?" Slotriig didn't miss the very outlandish approach chosen by Loimos, propelling himself with a blood explosion and sliding alongside the ground, the speed was impressive, but both Slotriig and Faraday had their gaze also attracted to some of the flesh debris flying through the air at the moment.
Augmented by death force, Loimos dropkicked Slotriig's left ankle with enough force to somewhat move him, thanks to the slippery floor, it wasn't very effective against the heavy undead, though, most people would rather dodge this than take it head on.
"Pause" Faraday called out, raising one hand up into the air.
The two stopped instantly mid-movements, whether or not Loimos would have ended up stuck to Slotriig's soles would be determined another time.
Faraday walked up to some of the fallen bits that had been flung all around by the corpse explosion.
"Now, this is something" the battle mage wasn't expecting this, it seemed like the intense condensation the rot had undergone for the purpose of launching Loimos had resulted in the rot transforming unexpectedly.
The skeleton in robes was holding a heart, it didn't even appear to be decaying, of course, it was packed with death and emanating the appropriate stench, but in appearance, it looked like a recently, surgically removed heart.
Imitating a body part wasn't what seized his attention however, but a small piece of fabric stuck amidst blood and pungent flesh.
Just like the heart, signs that it was in reality composed of rot couldn't be hidden, yet, the appearance, the texture, it was incredibly convincing.
"Continue" having confirmed it, Faraday returned to his seat, removing everything from the room for the two to resume, he didn't feel the need to tell Loimos about, he had proven to be well aware of what was happening with his rot, the fact that he hadn't even bothered to stop and question it was yet another proof that Loimos was somehow, wired like a mindless undead despite clearly not being one of such a piece.
The two undeads went into position once more.
_______________________
Deep within a forest of tall trees, a forest of now and frozen lakes, a forest of steep falls, mountains and deep caverns.
"Sir Audit? Once again, this region is filled with werebeasts, and not the nice kind that turn into people, why insist so much on going deeper and deeper?" a young man, his face obstructed by the equipment he was wearing spoke while shivering through the freezing winds and heavy falling of snow.
Large mounds of snow would sometimes come crashing down trees, threatening to bury one of the dozen of men Quideos had somehow convinced to come with him here.
They were all dressed to withstand the murderous cold, unlike Quideos, who was dressed the exact same as usual, in clerical robes.
His white hair was thrown around by the violent gusts, he stepped ahead through the snow, leaving the others in the dust as he stepped near a cliff, overlooking an immense lake, frozen to its deepest parts.
"My friends! The evil of the awakened one knows no bounds, his mere existence has begun infecting our world, not just the continent of Viridis, the whole world of Vivax is at risk of corruption! We must quell the largest of those buds ourselves, we must buy time for the heroes to rise again!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the distance and probably provoking some avalanches on the way.
"Inspired yet?" he asked whilst turning around, only to see that the snow had taken on a darker shade.