Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Above ground, Janus's right hand, Jir, faced much too many undead elites at once, yet, none of the two sides had yet to make a move, just staring one another down.

The paladin did not favour victory, but he could surely inflict some damage and block the way for a little while, from beneath his ample cloak, he pulled a harpoon taller than himself, how such a lengthy weapon had remained undetected until now, was a mystery.

The harpoon was made entirely out of cold iron, mere contact could cause someone to end with a part of their flesh dying as it was frozen, it's head had a single hook protruding from the side, no doubt that those stabbed with it would find it difficult to take out, and would most certainly not want for it to be ripped away once it was embedded into their body.

"I think some of us are going to have to say hello to The Graveyard…" the bloated zombie casually stated, speaking in death tongue however, only the other undeads understood him.

"You keep it silent, we have the numerical advantage, we have archers, mages and elite knights as well, even if that guy is twice as powerful as the strongest of us, we still have the advantage" the skeleton with gash in his skull responded, his heavy crossbow ready to fire, and he wasn't alone, when it came to ranged options, Alkayne had not been frugal, a good portion of the crossbow, bow and projectile types available in the empire were to be found amidst his personal ranks.

Although not everyone was here, and not everyone could fight at once, as even though the hall was wide, it wasn't quite large enough to accommodate everyone at once.

In the meanwhile, Jir gripped his harpoon with both hands, trying to get a read on his enemies, indeed, it was doubtful that he would last for long, he could always unleash his divine body, but whilst it would make him stronger and more dangerous, he knew that he would actually get slower for a while, especially due to where they were fighting, moreover, it would render his armour useless by exposing his flesh, only making him more susceptible to their searing bolts and arrows, indeed, he would be better off staying as he was to last longer against this tide of undeads.

Choosing this option, he most worried about the three knights that stood at the forefront, their armour design and colouration was not an exact match of Alkayne, but it was close, one was carrying a two-handed heavy axe, another a warhammer, and the last a sword and rather large kite shield, this was a most devious line-up for the paladin to go up against, two of them carried weapons that were capable of inflicting damage through his suit of heavy armour, and the third had exactly what was needed to prevent him from taking out either of them.

That went without mentioning the dozens of ranged combatants that were carrying things ranging from a simple bow and arrow to what looked like part of a pillar, Jir had never even seen something as simple as a crossbow until now.

Still, without fear, he stomped forward, his harpoon lashing out first, clashing against the kite shield instantly.

'That was fast…' he had been aiming for the one with the warhammer, but as though they shared one mind, his original target was already swinging like he had known that his colleague would move in in that exact manner, at that precise timing.

Stepping back, the paladin used his cloak to cover the detail of his next strike, making it appear like he would be targeting the axe-wielder, only to focus on the shield bearer, using the hook on his harpoon to try and pull the shield away from its holder, but it the knight's grasp was too firm, and Jir ended up slightly pulling the undead as whole forward.

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He moved back again, the axe and hammer coming dangerously close to hitting his wrist and head respectively, spinning his weapon around, the speed at which he did this caused some of the frost that permeated the steel to linger behind and form a sort of frosty fog.

A hasty decision as he saw the undeads in the back getting ready to fire, he was confident in his defences, but the fact that their projectiles were literally shining from how hot they were was making him question just how many volleys he might be capable of enduring before his armour began feeling the strain of having to take on objects that stood on the opposite spectrum of temperature.

So he created this freezing mist to put their aim in jeopardy and prepared to evade as much of them as possible, those shot from bows were the easiest to avoid, in theory, but Jir did not know of the existence of battle arts, and as crafty as the undeads were, a few soldiers used some in the midst, some arrows that seemed to be utter misses took sharp turns, some directly homed in on him, whilst some that he believed to have already dodged turned right around to hit him in the back, not to mention that some arrows didn't even actually exist at all to add to the confusion.

Still, the most problematic were the pillar-like objects, as it turns out, massive bolts were hidden within that mass and the speed they packed was nothing like the rest, the first one took the paladin by surprise and force him to block it, diverting it course toward the ceiling, where it left a hole.

That action revealed his exact position within the chilly mist, and the knight with the hammer raised his weapon high, striking the ground, the packed snow was forced to break under that assault, forcing even the undead's allies to involuntarily hop in the air from the sheer force held in that blow.

Still, the knight with the axe, put his foot down and cleaved through the mist and at Jir by the same occasion, pushing the paladin back as his harpoon vibrated, with the mist blown away, all projectiles concentrated on him.

Like a mad lancer, the holy knight swung his harpoon the deflected as much as he could, but too many still struck him, bouncing against his armour for some, others pushing him back and for the strongest, leaving bruises even through the cold steel.

His cloak was torn apart and set ablaze by the searing projectiles, the instant that lengthy volley ended, he would be weaker than at the start, and the three knights would have a much easier time finishing him off.

'I can't even count on those guys running out of ammunition and using the divine body then, can I?' the undeads didn't seem like they were even halfway through their reserves, and not all of them could shoot at once anyways, if they did, they would just switch.

'So that's what actual soldiers look like…' as well-trained and strong Jir might be, he had never faced anything stronger than a rocky bear in combat, so he naturally fell short.

In fact, he doubted he was capable of defeating even one of the three knights in combat, it might seem possible now, but their current strategy was to all work together to make things as smooth as possible with the least possible chance of a snafu, a single one of these undeads would adopt a completely different strategy had this been a duel.

Watching as one of those heavy bolts made its way straight for his head, he braced for impact, his harpoon hardly reliable as he just deflected another powerful attack.

However, instead of getting hit, Jir saw the ceiling collapsing and a massive shadow falling in front of him.

A most haunting, chilling laughter that sounded more like a sob filled the area.