Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 817 - 817: Lieutenant

'Crap-' with his momentum, Milo had no time to react and endured a direct strike directly to the face, cancelling all of his acceleration and throwing him back.

'Is this-?!' he pushed his lower jaw up, which was half the way to falling off, the damage healing itself at a visible pace as the attacker's hand grasp both sides of the portal, and which naught but sheer, brute force, widened the entrance before making their entrance, a single boot striking the ground at first, the strength enough to make the area quake.

'No… It's not him' Milo stood up and raised his guard, even if it wasn't Loimos, it was clear that the point of no return had been reached.

The undead that stepped out of the portal looked like a soldier of sorts, head covered by a veil of chainmail, dressed in a dark attire and armour, bearing a representation of the Lithitree upon the chestplate, and a dark sun upon the long cape.

The undead looked straight ahead, crossed their arms and then raised their chin.

"Ahahah! Would you look at that, did I arrive just in the nick of time? My timing has never been better, the stars must favour me today- No! The stars, moon and suns all together have decided that today was the day!"

Milo tilted his head, having honestly not been expecting the first undead to actually be capable of walking within the realm to be so boisterous and expressive.

"Who is that I see right before me? Is that the Golden Boy of legends? The farm boy blessed with an elemental affinity unbetting of his simple existence? What was your name again? Oh, I am jesting, my superior undead memory allows me to retain much more information than a living brain, Milo! I wasn't expecting to have to face an enemy such as you first thing upon my arrival, but so be it"

Milo frowned.

"Does your boss not want to kill me himself?"

"Boss? Oh, you mean General Loimos, do not attribute such petty reasoning to one such as him, surely, you don't think that he was aggravated by your escape and survival? Such things are quite literally impossible for him to experience… I mean, if he was anything like you or I, do you really think that he would just not give a damn when a thousand pretty girls want to please him?"

"What?"

"Ah, I forget that you lack knowledge of the empire, just ignore what I just said, all that you need to realise, is that General Loimos operates on completely different realm than everyone else- Anyways, raise your fists, boy"

"I am Frenand, Lieutenant of the Vanguard, army created, and headed by General Loimos, Champion of the empire, and now, an officer that is to take part in the conquest of the Emerald Realm" Frenand presented himself, and his presence suddenly grew as he channeled his inner energies to reinforced himself.

'That was just his raw strength before? That guy is definitely an expert in close-quarter, unarmed combat…' it was probably for the best, at least it wasn't an undead with tricky abilities or spells that had come out, but a straightforward martial artist, even if that meant that the corpse's possessed monstrous physical capabilities, it was the better alternative.

"Are you not going to wait for more of your friends to come out?"

"They are already on their way- Oh hey, aren't those the General's daughters? How are you doing, girls? Killing some people?" the air of severity that had settled in after he presented himself vanished in an instant as Frenand acted like a distant uncle that didn't really understand the younger generation toward the Soror.

"...Are you the one who roughed them up?"

"Yes"

"This displeases me"

And in the next instant, the undead vanished from where he stood.

'Above!' Milo was able to follow, but the sheer speed still surprised him, he expected to sense a spark of energy as he pushed himself off the ground, but the cadaver merely used his brute force for that, his channelling of energy prior was a misdirection.

A foot came crashing down, sending cracks throughout the ground as he did enhance his strength for the impact.

Milo exploded with golden mana as the undead was already right before him, both exchanged straightforward punches, neither backing off, leading to their fists colliding multiple times.

'What is he the corpse of?' the living couldn't help but wonder, Frenand didn't seem to be of a beastfolk species as he lacked any tail, so he was probably the remains of a human, but the strength contained within those bones was simply too dire for that to be the case.

'Frenand… That's not a name I have ever heard of… Is he a natural born undead? Since when did those get so powerful or were intelligent enough to speak?' realising that the empire might be even more powerful than he had imagined, Milo gritted his teeth and circulated his mana, continuing to exchange blows with the undead.

Milo managed to grapple, his opponent, but his grasp was broken, and he was grappled in turn, fling up toward the ceiling, which he bounced against into the wall, and then onto the floor, where he immediately rolled as the lieutenant's foot came crashing down, a moment later, and Milo might have had his head crushed under the undead's boot.

Frenand stepped forward again, and so did Milo.

The portal flickered and trembled, indicative that at least one other undead was trying to come in.

And soon, a knight in armour resembling countless hands grasping at one another emerged, wielding a large, executioner's sword.

"Erestel! Why don't you come and give me a hand?"

"That joke is used and tired, Frenand, is that the Golden Boy? He grew a nice beard, might have to call him Golden Man instead"

He raised his free hand, and made the motion of grabbing onto something, Milo immediately dodging to the right as he sensed something approaching, something he could not see.

The one called Erestel might not have the same firepower as Frenand, but he clearly had more tools to his disposal that could easily make him worse to deal with, nevermind the fact that they would work together to take him down.

And to make things worse, the portal did not stop trembling, and a third undead emerged.

A knightness in silver armour and wielding two straight swords.

"What a mess this place is, I feel like we neared a disaster" she said, instantly launching a slash of unknown energy at Milo, who managed to block it with his golden mana.

The portal was still trembling.

Taking everything into account, Milo channelled every ounce of mana he possibly could, and kicked off the ground- Toward the exit.