"Are they zigzagging? Wait, no, those are all different groups… They have different elites- How did they all get there without anyone noticing?" William, as he often was when it came to the undead, was extremely confused, at this point, he had little doubt that at least half of what the corpses did was just pure nonsense meant to make them question pointless things, because what he was seeing looked like theatre piece, and certainly not like a group formation.
Undeads would emerged from behind trees, only to walk directly behind the cover of another, and immediately, another group in a completely different place would do the same thing, in such a way that only a single bunch would be visible at anytime, and if not for the varying elites leading the way, William would have not known that it wasn't just the same ones that were somehow warping around.
The blond otherworlder heard finger snapping beside him, his outlook partner pointed at the scene.
"Oh, hey, hey! I know that one, I used to do that prank when I was little, the caretakers would take us kids into the woods as a field trip, and at night, I would slip away, call out the names of some people and when they looked over I would do that to scare the crap out of them, oh, good times"
"Ilazan, so do you know how they managed to get where they are without seeing them position themselves?" William smiled without realising, quite enjoying it when the green sun battlemonk would start rambling about something she was passionate about, which often ended up being pranks and jokes.
"No clue, I could do it because my little child self was a prodigy and I could use the moonlight to teleport around, the adults had no idea I could do that, I gave them quite a few scares by disappearing and reappearing hours later… But I have the feeling that undeads are also pulling a prank on us" she said as she leaned against the railing, William instinctively preparing to catch her if she fell forward.
"Ilazan… I don't think the undeads are the kind to pull-off that sort of things, at least not without intent for it to help them murder people down the line"
"Just because you are a monster that only exists to spread death and misery, it doesn't mean that you can't have a good laugh messing with people for no reason"
"Pretty sure it does"
"Though, it might not be for the funny factor here, I think they are just trying to distract us somehow, I just can't tell what it is that they are pulling attention from, I don't sense anything through the sunlight, but now that I have been looking at them for a while, it seems like the undeads that move only to disappear again never step back out again for some reason…" William could almost see the gears turning inside of her head as she frowned and thought about things.
'She's getting serious' that was a rare sight, the last time this happened was when he accidentally overexerted his mana and fell over like a rock.
"Mmh… At first, I thought that they had secretly placed things that allowed them to teleport away in the same way that we sun worshippers can travel through light, but some of those spots aren't away from sunlight, and I see nothing, there is always a pocket of darkness nearby where the undeads themselves could have hidden themselves, but something is off…" she rubbed her chin, pupils and irises shifting shape to triangles.
"...Ambient spirit life always interacts strangely with the undeads, so it isn't immediately noticeable, but usually, there is a slight chaos to the interaction, something unpredictable, different every time it happens, but right now? It is definitely abnormal, but much more stable, like what we are currently watching move from one place to another aren't undeads at all- But that isn't how spirit life would interact with livings either" she tilted her head to the side.
William placed himself right next to Ilazan.
"They could be golems then, or other similar constructs"
"...What is a golem?"
"Basically an inanimate object that can be given a semblance of life through a variety of means, usually, that means magic as most often, they are create from the ground-up by a spell caster, but they can be built more mundane first and then animated with magic, a core, or anything like that… They can be made in many, many different ways, but essentially, they are neither alive or dead, so maybe that could be what we are looking at?"
"But I really don't see the point, if they are golems, it could explain how they are just disappearing, they can certainly be more easily transported from one place to another than undeads, or even just dispelled to make it seem like they went away, though, what are the undeads gaining from this?" the otherworlder and green sun battlemonk both had rather sharp senses, one with mana, the other with the very light of this realm, so they should be able to notice if anything else was going on.
They did not however.
Many others ended up noticing the discrepancy, but in the end, nothing was discovered, it really just seemed like the corpses were messing with them, trying to get under their skin as there was always the possibility that they were just missing what their enemies were trying to accomplish.
Eventually however, the emerald sun set, and left room for the emerald moon, who continued to cast light upon the world in the solar star's stead, William and Ilazan had done nothing but speak that day, everyone had tried to take shots at the moving figures, but the window of opportunity to strike at them was not only small, but they just didn't care about it.
The supposed golems also seemed to have been fashioned from pungent rot, so visually speaking, it wasn't possible to tell whether that was a genuine undead or not.
"Welp, I guess our shift is over for now" William straightened up after leaning over the railing for hours, unlike previous days, he had barely used any mana at all, and was still full of vigour, so he doubted that he would sleep as easily.
"Ilazan, I'll see you-" she grabbed her shoulder and grinned at him.
"How long have we known each other, William?"
'That must be a trick question, somehow…'
"Seven years? Almost eight perhaps?"
"Almost a decade, time passes really quickly, especially since we Emerald Folks are rather long-lived… Though, I don't remember anyone else who remained so attentive to my pranks and jokes for so long"
"Can you raise your hand?"
He did so without really thinking about it, expecting another tomfoolery.
"Now spread your fingers apart a bit"
William continued to listen.
Instead of a jest however, she grabbed his hand and interlocked fingers with him, her grin growing more sassy than ever.
"Now that I've got you captured, why don't I show you my room? I need some help to make my bed… Would you mind helping me?"