Khasekhemwy raised his hands like before, approaching the undead with measured steps, he did not know what the red sand was capable of, but to him, it was an anomaly, such sand did not exist, or at least, it wasn't supposed to exist.
The sand was determined by the ruling Undeviginti, that was how it was supposed to be, this was how it had always been as far as their civilisation went back to, so for an unknown being that lacked the ability to wield vapour, to be capable of manifesting and controlling their own sand was simply ludicrous.
Sand manipulation was an aspect of wielding vapour, but that could only be done if one's patron Undeviginti was sovereign, and it was rarely very efficient, but still, that was how it should work, whatever Ir'Houwl was doing looked like the realm's equivalent to black magic in the eyes of the two livings.
Moreover, there was something sinister about the red sand…
'I better not let a single of these grains touch me…' a bolt of watchful vapour whistled past his ear as he made a sudden acceleration, stepping past a swing of one of the blades, red sand crawled from what appeared to be the inside of the scimitar and attempted to launch themselves at him, only to be stopped by the protective cocoon of vapour and then pushed away.
He feinted a punch, but instead, a radiant blade formed over his hand, which he sliced right at the minor lord's midsection, the attack was blocked by the other scimitar, but before a counter attack could come his way, Khasekhemwy undid the blade and threw himself to the side, rolling over the solid vapour keeping him airborne.
A slew of pale blue projectiles came all at once, forcing Ir'Houwl to step away from the bearded living to evade some, but they were so densely packed that she eventually opted to raise a wall of red sand instead, but this innate ability of hers wasn't exactly suited for purely defensive work, especially since she could not have it drain any vapour just yet.
The barrier was pierced in some areas, and the Prime Ersta'ra was already swinging it at her again, his body suddenly erupting with intensely dense vapour as he manifested two curved blades in each of his hands, the swords of pure energy clashing against those of black stone.
Neither of the two seemed to have a clear edge over the other in terms of pure strength, but slashes of energy when being hurled from the blades constantly, adding to the apparent strength of the living, Ir'Houwl replied in kind with compressed slashes of red sand, but the protective layer of energy was messing with that.
Thus was the issue of her innate ability creating a fully physical and tangible matter instead of an energy, it struggled against pure energy.
Another volley of projectiles came from Ny-Hor, but at last moment, Ir'Houwl suddenly seemed to fall, the red sand propping her up to their elevation simply lowered itself, throwing the clash off balance as the pale blue attacks flew over her head.
'Ah crap-' Khasekhemwy was dragged forward as the resistance from his opponent drastically lessened in an instant, and with ease, she repositioned herself lower and at a different angle, the sand she stood upon bending and weaving to her will to utter perfection.
Concentrating his vapour onto his chest, the elder was struck by both blades, but resisted being carved right through the sharp edge of the stone weapons, and created a pulse of vapour to threw him back whilst pushing Ir'Houwl off of her sand, the undead landed on the desert ground whilst he landed back on solidified vapour.
"That was a beginner's mistake there" commented Ny-Hor as he moved next to his fellow.
"Well, then perhaps you could have, you know, told me about it?"
"I could have, but she would have just switched strategy if I had said anything, so I trusted you to realise the trap yourself…"
"It's a minor mistake anyways, you don't think I can be felled by just a single attack, do you?" spoke the Prime Ersta'ra, the bloody cuts on his chest vanishing with a flood of radiant vapour, even his robes were fixed back up like nothing happened.
The two old men looked down at the minor lord, who was just staring up at them in utter silence and stillness.
"That woman is unreadable and beyond creepy, she does not seem very disturbed by our little strategy either" he then added, stroking his beard.
"She's not prone to distraction, she easily keeps an eye on me whilst fighting you, we are going to need to both get in on this one" Ny-Hor cracked his knuckles as he flared up with watchful vapour, his only visible shining with a sharp glint.
"That woman has definitely been hiding a good portion of her capabilities though"
"So have we, let's skip the probing around and just go for it, like the good old days!"
"Hey… Are you actually looking forward to this? I swear…"
Both of the elders rushed forward, leaving brilliant trails of vapour behind them as they closed in on the minor lord, that speed was definitely much higher than before, they really were just going for it, which meant that she had to do the same immediately.
Manifesting a sphere of red sand all around herself, the attacks from both the livings tore right through it, but failed to reach her, as she instead emerged from beneath the Watchful Ersta'ra, the man pushing himself away with blast of energy before both his feet could be pierced at once.
Rather than following him, she instead emerged and rushed toward Khasekhemwy who was doing same, exchanging rapid blows as Ny-Hor swiftly moved in from behind, although both were clearly capable of manifested weapons and firing powerful projectiles, they seemed to strictly prefer fighting with their very own bodies from up-close.
Ny-Hor landed a strike to the minor lord's thigh, forcing her to move whilst Khasekhemwy attempted to sweep at her other leg, but she stomped down on his leg and thrusted downward, only for her scimitar to stop as he slammed both of his palms onto its sides.
Her other blade moved to take the weight of his head off his shoulders, but the Watchful Ersta'ra grabbed onto her arm, keeping it from moving any further.
'Indeed, very strong!' her sockets ignited with dark red flames, manifested red sand all around them whilst neither of them three could properly move, but their bubbles of vapour was just too good at repelling her grains, it got in between each of them and prevented her from shaping her sand into any shape capable of piercing through all of the way, never getting far enough before before pulled apart and pushed away.
"General Loimos truly is a luminary, how from just a mere passage he was able to determine that you were a bad match-up against me is simply incredible!" the two livings felt a sharp pain in their heads at the mere mention of the champion's name, but did not weaken for even a split second.
In response, Ny-Hor merely pointed his palm toward her face.
In the next instant, the area was blasted by a powerful explosion of watchful vapour, and the two livings, stepped away shoulder to shoulder.
Soon enough, they got their answer, but regardless, the fight was not over.