Approximately a month before Milo and Helena were traversing this beaten up road, the sun was barely transforming into his twin-drop form and the days were still relatively cool, the multiple bandit groups prowling the hills and forests were idle as per usual.
Well, calling them bandits was no longer very accurate, their camps resembled settlements ready to become villages and maybe even small-sized towns in the future, their criminal acts were closer to a small toll to pay for passage, they had their own crops and livestocks.
Having begun to exploit the natural resources of the nearby mountains and woods, it was likely that the former bandit groups would soon disappear altogether, nevertheless, despite their dwelling places being filled with non-combat-ables, women and children, the men that used to rob entire caravans were still here and well.
One of them was standing at the entrance of a small cave, leaning against a rocky wall, he wasn't taking his surveillance duty very seriously, inside, sheeps had been gathered recently, they waited to be let out again into a verdoyant meadow until a predator problem was solved.
There was no need to explain that this former bandit would have preferred not standing there, one hand resting on the hilt a weary sword, he found himself nearly dozing off when the sound of a falling rock attracted his attention.
"Hmm?" his expression changed for the worst as he thought of the possibility of a cave-in, without thinking much, he rushed inside, it didn't take him long to reach the place where the sheeps were kept, all of them uncharacteristically huddled together in a corner, sticking to the walls as if the plague was standing opposite to them.
The man's eyes landed on a portion of the wall in front of him, he was able to quickly discover what the sound had been, a rock lodge in the wall had fallen into the enclosure, this was probably what had frightened the cattle.
Taking a few steps closer, he noticed that the space behind the fallen stone wasn't filled, it actually opened up into a larger cave system.
Unexpectedly, this little cave was actually linked to the wider Elephant Cave System, though, that wasn't on the bandit's mind as his attention was drawn to his chest, a dark blade protruding from where his heart was.
A hand garbed his white quickly covering up his mouth as the sword was pushed further in and twisted, sentencing him for good.
Loimos noticed no one other than this man was heading into the cave, so he turned his attention to the sheeps, which were all rightfully terrified of him, animals had better instincts than the humans, one look at him was enough for them to know that he shouldn't be approached, they had no way to run however and seemed to be hoping that staying perfectly still and silent would get them through this.
The undead advanced upon them and they all began bleating for their dear lives.
The cave wasn't far from the main camp, everyone currently in heard it clearly, but as quickly as it started it was over, Loimos was already stepping out of the cave by the time people showed up to see what was the matter.
The man, the sheep and everything else within grasp had been converted into a compressed mass of rot, which was floating up by the undead's side, his amount of tricks and control over the primeval rot had significantly increased under Faraday's training and amount of killing he had committed, Loimos had learned that the rot converted from things that hadn't first come from him was especially malleable and potent.
With a swing of his arm, he struck the ball of fresh decay, sending it hurling toward the wooden wall of the camp, the rot quickly spread over it, sealing off the exit and forming a layer of miasma around itself.
This camp was rather simple, it was built near a cliffside, which allowed the people here to not to build a wall surrounding their whole camp, the natural terrain served as one already for the greater portion.
It didn't take him long to block off the escape routes, but multiple people were already surrounding him, probably not quite realising what he had just done, their equipments were lesser than that of the death hunters Loimos had previously faced in every way, they were less trained, less skilled, they were simply weaker in every sense of the terms, be it in natural body or in powers granted by the system.
Without knowing that he was an undead, they attacked him, despite all of this, unlike the death hunters, Loimos was facing them alone, and it turned out that they could coordinate their attacks well.
The fastest one went in for a thrust, his chipped blade grazed Loimos's side as he basically threw himself on the man, the death hunter attire handled the damage from a slash aimed at his back wonderfully.
Manifested black blood in his palm, Loimos grabbed the man's face, making sure the liquid got into contact with his eyes, the skin on his face was burnt away, revealing the sanguine sight hidden beneath, paying no heed to his scream of suffering, he went behind him and grabbed his hair, swinging the pained and helpless man around, preventing his allies from attacking in unison.
From there, it all went downhill for them, the former bandits had never met significant opposition, none at all in recent years in fact, although their teamwork was good, they had no clue what to do the second Loimos got himself a meatshield, swinging his blade coated in his blighted blood, the shallowest of cuts were significant.
'Only six weapon carriers, others must be out' Loimos had been preparing for a much harder confrontation, no matter how weak, groups of enemies were always a dangerous bunch, he would know since this was a tactic of the undead.
Soon enough, he dealt with the non-combatants and with his rot, erased any proof that this entire camp full of people had even existed, he left the premises without waiting for the supposedly remaining bandits, he wasn't out there specifically for them.
He was trying to find out where the resting place of the undead king was situated, however, no one here had been willing to give him an answer, perhaps he should have used his little rot trick to produce a voice instead of speaking with the pale tongue, or perhaps he should have approached them without killing someone first, not that he could have passed of as a normal person after crawling out of the caves.