It was important to note that most of the livings, no matter which Undeviginti they followed, would dress normally and not wear any distinctive symbol or colour on themselves, the only exception being those who had high positions, those who worked in solar temples, basically the equivalent to priests or clerics in this realm, they would wear robes of some kind that were a dead giveaway of which sun was their patron deity.
And this dress code should allow one to easily identify the different ranks.
An Ersta'la was basically a priest, this rank was made up of those with good talent in channeling the vapour, but could not do it without a catalyst, they were the lowest and most common of the titled ranks.
Next were the Ersta'sol, which were basically high-priests, from this point onward, all needed to be capable of using vapour without a decorated weapon, they were the elite of the desert, each and every one of them powerful and highly respected.
Above that, were the Ersta'ra, which were basically popes, the requirement to be considered as one was kept secret by the Ersta'sol, so even the titled living Ir'Houwl had within reach did not know what it was, only that there were only three known Ersta'ra within the desert.
One for Prime Undeviginti, one for Watchful Undeviginti, and one for Illusory Undeviginti.
All were said to be residing in the very heart of the desert however, so running into them by chance was highly unlikely.
This information might not be critical, but it allowed Ir'Houwl to better understand what was different about Cleansing Undeviginti's followers thanks to that, the camp the scout had reported was indeed very small, less than ten livings were within it, the butchers of the desert were always on the move in small groups, seeking chances to slay and cleanse in the name of their solar star.
But all of them were dressed in white robes, and yet, only one carried a weapon, a crazed-looking woman that seemed like she could just start screaming or convulsing at any time, the rest did not seem nearly as maddened, but it wasn't to say that they did not seem off.
Clearly, the requirements to become a follower of the incandescent one were rather specific, and this made them more like a cult than a religion.
"Lord Ir'Houwl, those two do not bear weapons, but seem stronger than the rest…" one of her elites spoke in a low tone.
"You two will face them, the rest will gang up on the rest whilst I take care of her" she ordered, her words carrying to the troops despite the distance without alerting the living, and moments later, the undeads were descending the dunes that surrounded the camp.
The arm-bearer tilted her head sideways so much until her ear was pressed up against the shoulder, one eye opening wide, its pupil turning awfully small before she seemed to gather her bearings and turn completely serious without a single hint of the earlier madness.
"Come on man… That's not fair! You've got two swords and much longer reach than me, how am I supposed to stab you in your bits?" spoke the living, her sword dragging in the sand as she stepped forward.
"By getting closer" casually responded the minor lord, details about the arm-bearer were even more obvious from up-close than before, the woman's hair were odd-looking, and her fingers were strangely pale compared to the rest of her body, which was dark as that of all humans here.
Her weapon had a straight blade with two edges, but no point, marking it as an executioner's sword, and it seemed suitably heavy as it was lifted up from the ground.
"Oh my! My bad, I thought you were a gentleman, but you're actually a well-built lady! I am so jealous, I wish I could be so tall and have such broad shoulders too- Hey hey! You probably won't relate, but they almost never let women become front-line warriors, and I had to shoot a bow for so long! But there's nothing satisfying about launching an arrow and seeing your target just keel over… It's much better from up-close, you see them writhe and watch them slowly be drained of all life!"
"They can even beg for mercy, and you can listen and pretend that you will spare them, right before striking again!"
"I forgot what I wanted to say, how annoying!" she bit down on her own fingers, drawing blood immediately.
"Argh! Forget it, I'll cut down your leg so that we can speak eye to eye!" the living, which could be an Ersta'la or simple arm-bearer, manifested an incandescent white vapour, shoving it all into her sword, before repeatedly swinging at Ir'Houwl, doing so in a very bizarre way.
It was easy to tell that this woman was like a rabid beast, but there was a certain refinement to her mindless strikes, her posture seemed wrong and simply incorrect, but all of her attacks flowed nicely into one another, no matter how savage and inefficient they appeared on the surface.
Basically, there was a method to the madness, and definitely a target, as the majority of the swings were aimed at Ir'Houwl's knees, but she evaded everything, and manifesting a small amount of red sand into a sort of stick-like shape to block one strike, curious to see what the vapour stocked in the blade was going to do.
The blade hit, the living did not stop her attack as she simply could not, putting way too much momentum and strength into every hit to pause anything.
On impact, a surge of bright white vapour surged forward, going right through the dune behind and annihilated the sand it struck.
It might not be an exaggeration to claim that the followers of Cleansing Undeviginti had the most firepower out of the five faiths.
In the next instead however, the living's head was thrown back as Ir'Houwl's heel buried itself into her face, a nasty crunch ringing out as the arm-bearer's nose was crushed completely.
Meanwhile, the other worshippers were facing the minor lord's troops, two of her elites engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the two stronger followers, one of the livings attempted to a kick straight to the abdomen, only to have his leg grabbed, twisted at a most unfortunate angle before being snapped back into place, the living shouting in pain before being thrown to the ground.
The other was faring a little bit better, though not by much, as a right hook sent him spinning, setting him up for a rough follow-up attack as the undead tried to clap his hands, only that his opponent's head was in the middle.
Now totally disorientated, the follower had his head grabbed and then knocked by two knee strikes to the face in a row.
"Dear Undeviginti, what do you feed your boys, big girl? I have never seen my guys get destroyed like that"
The arm-bearer seemed unfazed by the direct blow and went on the offensive once more.