Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Mantling himself with brilliant flames, the ground beneath and around Irlke quickly drying up and cracking, as he used a pulse of heat to surge up in the air, all fire that he wielded increasing in power for a split instead, the hardened mud melting into bright orange goo, maintaining himself airborne through nothing but constant blasts of fire coming from the soles of his feet.

Appearing like nothing more than a blazing inferno, Combuscrus manifested a hail of flames, intense heat spreading everywhere, filling every ounce of space within the pyramidal barrier, limited to the warking's own senses, Loimos's own vision turned hazy, the air itself was heavy, like caught in a condensed, focused desert mirage.

Not only that but the air was beginning to catch fire as well, whatever the living was doing was not great for his opponent, although Loimos was not yet affected by arena-wide the burning, he was not at all unaware of what Combuscrus was up to.

Subtly, he opened his fang-filled jaw, showing that he had been preparing and forming an infernal orb within, like Irlke before, Loimos melded multiple types of flames he had cultivated his pyromantic fire to have access to, due to being a wielder of the primeval rot, having decayed away countless types of matters, and due to the fact that the fire within his chest had now become a part of him, he had been able to feed it anything and everything without even lifting a finger, for the very same reason, he could control the flame with ease.

In short, Loimos had completely cheated the way of power that was pyromancy by having created the starting flame from rot instead of from an actually natural mean, something that was not possible for many as the fire needed to a 'normal' one, not made from energy, a flame that would spread and be just like the one that a strike of lightning might start.

Producing such a thing from rot was incredibly easy for Loimos.

Which allowed for him to make progress in little to no time at all, and thus, unleash an intricate combination of pyromancies in a short amount of time, making good use of what he already knew thanks to Vespertillo and applying it to this new way of power, he fused the flames of countless beings first and foremost, then adding a toxic effect that was a result of multiple pyromancies being made into one as well, firing a potent stream of malignant flames.

Forcing Irlke Combuscrus to pause what he was doing to move away, the undead already soaring toward him like a reverse-meteor, thrusting his spear, giving it a twist and producing a vortex of black flames, all the while manifesting a fireball in his other hand, the angle at which he had chosen to stab at pretty much forced Combuscrus to make a split-second decision.

Loimos wielded his spear in his right hand, the way he had chosen to attack with it allowed for the living to evade it with ease he decided to move to the right of his opponent, the other way would only be putting him directly in the blade's way.

And already knowing that even at equal strength, he was completely left in the dust when it came to close-quarters, Loimos was already preparing for a pyromancy to burst out of the spear, Irlke could sense that it would cause a blade of fire to extent forward, meaning that backing off was not ideal either, moving upward again would push him too close to the roof of the barrier, and as for downward, he could see Loimos already kicking up at him.

So, for the warking, moving to the right seemed like the only option, as even if he turned into fire to quickly move away, the toxic flames Loimos had shown would severely affect him in this states, as poisonous and venomous pyromancies were always effective against a pyromancer assuming the form of a blaze.

Even if he was struck by that fireball, he could defend better as his self of flesh and blood.

At least, that's what he was capable of analysing in the spurn of the moment, his instincts pushed him to release a burst of flames and deport himself to the right, even as he realised that the precise effects of the fireball had been much better concealed than that of the pyromancy coursing through the spear.

Fire coursing his veins, Combuscrus braced for impact, expecting Loimos to slam it directly into his opponent, but the fireball turned out to merely be about the brilliance of flames, exploding with a blinding light, having been imbued that shine with an irritating effect to ensure that the warking would close his eyes, giving plenty of time for the undead to utilise the right combination of bursts to land a heavy kick right to the living's head.

Loimos's heel smashing right up against the top of Irlke's skull, taking him right out of the air, landing with a boom.

With another blast, the putrid skeleton fell like a comet, spear pointed downward.

'Shrewd bastard…' Irlke Combuscrus was genuinely surprised by just how far Loimos had mastered pyromancy, and clearly, seeing the way in which he was utilising it, he had not only perfectly dismantled the style of combat of the north and perfected it, but also implemented what the living assumed to be manners of casting spells and using energies that were learned outside of Belliste.

It was interesting, especially what had just ensured that Irlke could not just move out of the way after being brought back to the ground, Loimos had infused the soil with flames before taking off and made it so it would activate on its own, whether it had been set on a timer or based on if something came crashing down, was hard to tell.

But the fact was that he was demonstrating pyromancy under a novel light.

Of course, being an undead and having infallible control over both his physical and spiritual self helped in this regard…

Irlke was momentarily held in place as the hardened mud around him turned to solid magma, pinning down as the undead came flying down.

His eyes wandered off to the side, meeting the crowd, both his people and the undeads, apart from a blonde one that seemed like she was going to pass out, the dead were perfectly calm, utterly convinced that their leader would triumph.

'Not much of a worry…' he thought, had Irlke known even a little bit about Loimos's actual strength, he wouldn't have had even the shadow of a hope about winning, he is a monster, in more than a single way.

Most of all however, he met Hylop's confident gaze, she too should have realised that this duel would end in the north's subjugation, but as stated, it was all about preserving pyromancy and the flames, and clearly, Loimos had shown his great deal of interest in keeping it around.

Exchanging strikes and blows with the undead had made Combuscrus even more certain of it somehow.

The warking had first thought that using pyromancy, the north's combat style and downgrading his strength were ways for Loimos to humiliate him, but not anymore.

Freeing one arm from the magma's hold, freeing the second, he focused all of his power on manifesting a gauntlet of his own magma on his off-hand, the flamberge impacting heavily upon it, most definitely breaking the bones hidden beneath, but fuelled by intense flames, the living endured and kept pushing back, something else manifesting in the palm of his right hand.

The inside of the translucent pyramid was momentarily filled with dust, a savage explosion set-off.

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At the last second, the warlord had placed his palm upon the magma-covered arm, suddenly detonating a pyromancy far more powerful than it had first appeared to Loimos, as Combuscrus slowly rose to his feet, the dust cleared, revealing his opponent with ribs charred into what looked like charcoal, a portion of his skull also smeared with soot alongside a small part of it having been knocked right off.

"That reaction speed is just inhuman"

"It is the same as yours, I was merely fast reinforcing myself and erecting a wall" corrected Loimos, deciding to not call upon any healing flames.

"Huh…"

Irlke's left arm was no longer visible, used as fuel in the last attack he casted, indeed, pyromancy did possess its own form of sacrifices, after all, there was no greater offering for one's flame that their own body, something it normally was incapable of harming outside of when taken out to be kindled.

"One last thing then…"

The intense heat invaded the entirety of the barrier's inside once again, much more intensely this time.

Well, Loimos had been expecting this, the blast caused by the sacrifice of one arm had clearly been too weak, it was Irlke Combuscrus after all, the father of pyromancy and strongest pyromancer of the Northern Swamp, using an entire arm of his should have at least turned the area into a near-volcanic environment.

But no, he had kept most of the strength provided through this exchange to be capable of instantly activating what he had been interrupted from doing earlier.

Loimos supposed that he had already achieved this level even before he had received assistance, which spoke to the amount of talent he held.

Although there was no comparison to be made in between Rosemary's zone and his own in terms of sheer tyrannical power, achieving it through a nascent way of power that did not rely on any energy that was to be found in the air was impressive in its own rights.

Feeling that even his mantle of death-fed fire was not going to keep up for long, Loimos decided that it was time to end this duel.