Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 873 - 873: Demonic Inferno

As the undead and living met, fists of steel crashed against a warhammer, vibrations spreading through both objects on impact, the punch was powerful, but the demon held his ground and pushed back against it, ignoring the shaking weapon sending tremors straight into his bones, and immediately counter attacked, the corpse blocking the attack with his elbow.

Rapidly pushing the hammer away, the skeleton immediately fired back with a series of consecutive punches, all of which Tappduur was able to intercept in the same as he did the first, whilst backing off to mitigate the amount of force that could be exerted with each of them.

"Nice, very good! It's been a while since I got to have a fight like this!" the death hunter blocked a kick that the undead attempted to sneak in, channelling his inner mana in a burst, the demon pushed the heavy corpse away, who, without delay, tried to rush right back in, only to encounter an issue as something wrapped around his ankle.

The whip-like sword of Latir-e-se was tightly tied, brimming with life force that was attempting to ate through his bone, that was actually quite surprising to the undead, the ghoul huntress had stopped him right in track by herself, he had not expected this small and puny woman to have so much strength.

Before the skeleton could pull back against her however, Tappduur was already in action, as though he had already known that his ally would do that, landing an uppercut against his opponent using his warhammer, tilting the corpse's skull right toward the sky with a loud clang.

'Tough bastard' the demon grinned, evading backward as the undead didn't even bother to bring his head back down or take care of his trapped ankle before striking back, bringing both fist down were the living's head had been a moment ago, with such force that the collision of both of his fists was even louder than the hit he just endured.

He then pulled his leg forward, but found no resistance as Latir-e-se did not bother to try and challenge him in contest of brute force, instead, Échalas and Abraham both pulled out the same sort of crossbow, the weapons had been compressed so much mere moments ago that it was hard to imagine how it was even possible that the small objects could unravel like this.

Without hesitation, they fired, the crossbow firing small pellets in rapid succession, each of them stashed with a common magical element accompanied by a healthy dose of life mist, most of which crashed right into the big target that was the skeleton of steel.

The death hunters had had to ask for the assistance of the mages to create their ammunitions, so the strength of each elemental pellet was a reflection of who had furnished the mana, elements which no one was really proficient in were the weakest, whilst the strongest ones were all of the wind element.

"We should have asked her to stash them with a spell meant to eroding steel"

"Why would he have done that? Corpses made out of steel are the minority"

The two rapidly exchanged a few words, moments before the skeleton bursted out of the resulting cloud of white mist, trying to reach them, but the demon did not allow for it, slamming the enemy right in the ribcage and pushing him away.

He had visibly endured some damage as a result of the hail, but not nearly enough to bring him down, the corpse did not say anything and merely brought back his focus upon the demon, performing a chopping motion at Tappduur, mana travelled throughout the steely marrow, and when the skeletal hand reached the warhammer, sparks erupted en masse, and without stop, the edge of his palm had not only turned sharp, but was constantly moving as well.

The constant force being applied on top of that of the undead trying to force the demon back prevented Tappduur from deflecting as quickly as he did before, allowing the undead to knee the living right in the guts, bending in the death hunter's armour.

Tappduur did not budge however, maintaining his resistance and soon managed to push the corpse to the side, the undead did not allow for the living to gain much time however, and was nearly instantly back on the offensive, thrusting one arm forward like spear, which the demon sidestepped, only to receive a punch directly to the jaw, knocking out a teeth.

Still, Tappduur did not seem impressed, and altogether dropped his warhammer, grabbed the skeleton by his ribcage, and lifted him off the ground, even as the sharp chop came falling upon the top of his head, as a demon, he was operating under very different rules than humans, and since one's strength was greatly based upon the base attributes one possessed naturally, his flesh and bones were far more resilient than typical.

So even as the undead drew blood, Tappduur did not feel panicked, and without practised brutally, slammed the cadaver into the ground, right in time for Rummy to finish what she had been preparing this entire time, somehow, the tricky wonders of the death hunters had managed to make a heavy crossbow fit into one's back pocket.

And here, heavy crossbow referred to the model that barely even resembled a crossbow to begin with, looking more like some sort of wooden pillar.

"Alright, don't move" she whispered in a low tone, launching a pellet the size of a person's fist, right at the grounded skeleton, who was quick to move away, but could not get out of the projectiles area of effect, resulting in him being caught into a wide field of life mist that had been diligently compressed and nurtured both by Rummy's own efforts, and with some assistance from Spula, the alchemist.

Caught right into his bane, the undead sought to slam his palms together to disperse the mist directly around him, but Tappduur slammed into him before that could happen, elbow the skeleton right the face, with the demon striking with great force, and the integrity of the undead's bones of steel compromised by the mist, his skull caved in a slight bit.

Still far from helpless however, and without bearing even an ounce of worry, the undead reached out and grasped one of the demon's thunderbolt-shaped horns, not letting go as he began to pummel Tappduur repeatedly, even as they both struck one another in turn, it was clear that the undead would win in the long run.

Even when in life mist, an undead simply could not lose a battle of attrition, however, the death hunter wasn't fighting alone, and as after landing another strike that ruptured part of the demon's face, his arm was seized by Latir-e-se's whip-sword.

The ghoul huntress turned red as she did everything she could to hold the skeleton back from striking again.

At the same time, all three vampire hunters moved in as well, all of them striking at the back of their opponent's left knee, trying to force a split instant of imbalance.

A moment Tappduur capitalised upon without hesitation, grabbing the skeletal hand that was upon his horn, he snapped his own horn off, therefor removing the only hold the corpse had upon him and once gain grasped the ribcage, throwing the corpse into the air as Latir-e-se let go with her whip at the last possible moment.

The skeleton thought that the demon would try to throw him into the void, but that would definitely not be happening as the distance from the edge was too great.

At least, it was too great from a simple throw.

Turning around, Tappduur moved like he was taking air into his lungs, and sprew a concentrated stream of demonic flames straight at the currently airborne skeleton.

The blaze slamming into him with much force, enough to send him right over the edge, falling right in the emerald void.

"Heh, idiot never stood a chance!"

"Are you trying to get a curse to fall onto us or something?"