A blade of wind tore right through where the undead's neck had been moments ago, swiftly evaded by arching back the spine.
"Now, I haven't even introduced myself yet… My name is Ilyad, and I am a lieutenant of the vanguard, I prefer when the people I dismember know my name, makes us closer in a sense, don't you think? Knowing each other's names is halfway to us being friends, right?" raising both arms up, the three livings just stared at her and looked around, making the blueish-skinned undead frown.
"I didn't bring anyone else with me, no need to worry like that, I just want to test whether or not you actually matter in this war, or if we should just consider you slightly annoying civilians" Ilyad smiled, the temperature seeming to drop in the surroundings are as shards of red ice began to form around the undead, her pale ponytail fluttered from sides to sides as the ambient energy fluctuated, torn between the unnatural cold and natural warmth.
"Should we…?" Defoim'nocle didn't need to complete her sentence.
"I doubt we can actually show our backs to this one and not get riddled with holes for it" Hoffnu rose her sword, mana coursing through her body, reinforcing the skin, granting greater power to the muscles and flowing as deeply as the marrow, and like it was a part of the flesh, the mana extended to the sword in the same manner.
"So let's fight a little bit, it's just one blue woman with a questionable fashion sense, we can kick her ass" the swordswoman smiled, spikes of red ice lunging forth at the livings, covered in sharp edges, each of them cutting through the air and creating whistling noises.
Ilona channelled fire mana throughout her body and weapon, the flow between herself and items was much different compared to the talented swordswoman, the last copper knight wasn't one with her weapon, but it was sufficient, stepping forward with explosive speed, her halberd was like a catalyst, seamlessly allowing her to weave the mana coursing through its body into spells, raising walls of flames to block projectiles, or reinforcing its durability before striking other spell of blood ice down.
By forcefully injecting the fiery mana into the undead's spell, she not only destroyed the physical manifestation, but also tore apart the spell construct itself, still, some shards managed to escape and were rapidly redirected toward the legs of the two livings rushing toward Ilyad.
It only took a few seconds before Hoffnu and Ilona arrived within range, the former swinging her blade from left to right in an attempt to cleave the corpse apart completely, whilst the latter used the spear point of her halberd, and channelled a fire spell, repeatedly thrusting forward at countless spots, each strike extending beyond the natural reach of the weapon with a potent coalescence of flames.
Ilona did not only target the undead herself, but also deliberately targeted empty space right besides the target, if Ilyad tried to dodge, she was likely to just run right into an attack, the cadaver already had her own mana running through her cold, dead flesh and bones.
The blood ice element was not a composite element in the strictest of senses, as she did not achieve it by fusing the blood and ice elements together, it was a whole element of its own, but it did definitely possess aspects of both blood and ice, so by focusing on one side of it, she could pull out the qualities of ice when reinforcing her body, and right now, by pouring mana into the parts of her body responsible for perceiving the world, everything seemed much slower, a trick that wouldn't be very useful to most, if not an outright self-inflicted curse, as they wouldn't be able to react and move at the same speed as their viewed things, and they would just get to experience getting cut and killed for much longer than normal.
But Ilyad was an undead, so she waited at the last possible moments, and activated a spell, rising a solid spike of red ice from the ground, right as Hoffnu's blade neared her body, the sword was knocked upward with great force, though not enough make the swordswoman drop her blade, or even lessen her grip, it was merely a momentary setback, even though Ilyad had caused arms to be completely dislocated with this little trick when the one on the end of it refused to just let their weapon go.
'She isn't the talent holder of swordsmanship for nothing, I suppose' using this small moment however, the undead began to move evading a flaming thrust, the fire licking her sleeve, she arrived right in front of Ilona, the zombie had been planning on manifesting a dagger from blood ice and stab the living in the face, but Ilona was already reacting to her approach, and channelling a spell combining fire and wind that would envelop them both in a raging pillar of fire.
It was very swift, and Ilyad had to admit that she had not believed the otherworlder to be skilled enough at magic to pull this off so swiftly and without even hesitating at all, it only brought a smile to the undead's face however, as she instead sent mana to her right elbow, physical augmentation spells were always the quickest to channel and cast.
Lowering herself, she struck Ilona right in the stomach, pushing the young woman away and thus, putting herself out of the spell's range.
Hoffnu was already upon her again, sword whistling past Ilyad's head and actually managing to leave a nick in her ear before she could fully get out of the way.
Both sides stepped back to where they had started, the undead touching the cut, and Hoffnu remaining in place to make sure Ilona hadn't been hurt too badly.
"Damn, I think it's actually the first time I was damaged against actual enemies, until now, I had only gotten beaten up in sparring and training" she smiled broadly, the vampire fangs she had added to body coming in full display.
"Magnificent! Great! Incredible! Grandiose! So that's what it feels like to be damaged by livings? Ah, it's nothing like the simulations… The life force that lingers is so… So revolting! So disgusting… Nothing in common with the one kept in canisters for resistance training… This one is so aggressive, so unruly… Lacking obedience!"
'Toby, did you manage to get something on her? She's starting to act weird…'
'Hold on a few more moments'
"Aah… This feeling is… Oh, I knew I wasn't anywhere as pure as General Loimos, but this-! This is very not undead-like, this is not what is meant through the aspect… But… Am I allowed to indulge? Can I express it? Oh, General Loimos, may I have a sign, you who is so close to Death? What does Death believe I should do?" she began to talk in death tongue, but at least she wasn't attacking.
Nothing happened, and yet…
"Oh, I can? I really can?! Yes, that is right, I am an undead, I seek the expansion of the empire of King Nitok's dominion! I am impure, but that is alright, I merely need to not lose sight of what is right…"
She cleared her throat, which was unnecessary.