At the last possible moment, laying amidst the rubbles of the pillar had just crashed into, Milo raised his arms defensively, focusing his golden mana defensively onto his right forearm, the muscles bulging up as the very marrow within was ignited with gold, as the living had hoped, the undead's fist came crashing down right in this exact spot.
And it was then that Milo truly understood just how powerful one ranked as a lieutenant truly was, as the force of the impact spread throughout his whole body, shaking his entire skeleton and inner organs with force far greater to anything he had ever endured before, the shock so great that even after travelling through the resilient body of Milo, it still spread through the pillar, shattering it completely into small pieces.
Milo felt like his heart wanted to stop for a moment under the strength of the impact, but he willed it to keep on beating, adrenaline flooding him as he did not allow the demonstration of power to shake him, swiftly grabbing onto the undead's arm, and swiftly throwing him right across the room, giving him enough time to heal back up.
Frenand's cape fluttered chaotically, as he was launched through the air, but nonetheless, he landed on his feet, totally upright as he crossed his arms, the veil of chainmail clinging against itself.
"Good, I expected no less from the one who was able to escape the general more than once"
For a few seconds, neither side moved, total silence throughout the replica throne room.
Milo was still low on mana from fighting through undeads, and he doubted that he would get many occasions to recover any here, moreover, Frenand was far more powerful than he had believed, when he had first ran into the lieutenant in the underground, their exchange had been brief, but it had not showcased even close to an ounce of the tyrannical strength this undead wielded, just now, Milo truly thought that his forearm would just break and that Frenand would punch a hole right through him.
His strikes were powerful enough that even a block attack had held the potential to bring about a swift death.
This was beyond concerning, they knew that the lieutenants serving under Loimos had to be formidable enemies, but it was plenty clear that what they had seen until now had been but a fraction of what they were capable of, in short, Milo was confident that their first brushes against the undeads of this rank had been acts, deliberate manoeuvres to skew their idea of what a lieutenant's strength was supposed to be.
'Always tricks with them…' Milo clenched his fists, breathing in and out, he had gotten a fairly good grasp of the undead's speed, he was fast, and most importantly, he could move in any direction he wanted even with that much momentum, meaning that he could be attacking from any angle.
Frenand moved once more, even without blinking, Milo could barely even see the direction he had taken, but the living was already finding it more manageable now that he had a better grasp of things, he stepped to the side, evading a punched aiming for the top of his head, the very instant Frenand could see that his attack would not connect, he stopped right in his track, only to begin a new action, swiping his hand like a blade at Milo, who replied by punch at the corpse's wrist, a shockwave spread out from the impact, shattering the glass windows in the room, the undead was momentarily pushed back, and Milo reeled back in pain as he felt his phalanges cracking from the blow.
Trusting that his healing could keep up however, he stomped the ground to stop himself from stepping back following the strike, and surged toward the undead, who was quicker than him at regaining his balance.
Milo went for a straight punch with his right, with was diverted by a palm, but he followed with a liver shot, the point of that strike was mostly lost on an undead that had no care for such an organ, but all that mattered was that the strike landed, and it did, unfortunately, that was by the target's design.
Frenand used his arm to lock Milo's arm in place, and reeled back his other fist, punching the living right in the jaw, not once, not twice, but thrice in rapid succession before Milo could do anything, instead of defending however, Milo focused his mana into his fist, and struck Frenand right in the center of his chest, pushing the corpse backward with a deep indent in his armour.
Milo spit out a mouthful of blood and much too many teeth, all would be back in just a matter of seconds, but it wasn't a good sign when just three punches could knock so many out.
Much to his misfortune, the living watched as the indent in Frenand's armour fixed itself, though, the undead did not instantly move back in to attack.
'Mmh… Here I thought that would blast his lower jaw right off… It's almost like his defences increase proportionally to the strength of the attack he is enduring' the undead did not quite understand how the golden mana worked, it was much different from other magical elements, and from what he could tell, it seemed to be capable of acting on its own.
"You know, Golden One, the more powerful a living becomes, the longer they live and retain their youth? In most cases anyways… Those such as you and your beloved will certainly at least leave for a few centuries, two or three hundred years, I would say…"
"Why are you speaking now? Feeling like you can't win with your fists?"
"Ahahah, you are very funny- No, I just wanted to bring attention to a certain fact, adversity is what allows for true power to flourish, those without that will never be able to become their best self- So what I am getting at, is that you'll live for far longer than your own children, isn't that a bit sad? Undeath does not have that problem, but you know, that's just food for thought!" the undead exploded forward, tackling right into Milo, but the living was not shaken by the attempt at affecting his morale and managed to keep his foothold.
Grabbing the undead, lifting him up and letting himself fall backward, Milo slammed Frenand right into the ground, sending deep and long cracks right through the ground, a loud boom resonating across the large throne room.
"For the last time, there is no convincing me"