Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Without wait, Herlbe jumped upon the tsar's pincer leg, grabbing hold of one of the many dark orange spikes protruding from its carapace, immediately swinging down upon the surface, the cleaver digging in, barely leaving a dent, failing to reach the flesh hidden below as the tough natural armour began healing at an extraordinary pace whilst the weapon was still cutting in.

In the next instant, like trying to swat an insect off, Pangea'Kalst swung his pincer-leg, a simple action that caused Herlbe to be swung across hundreds of kilometers in a mere second, his body swung about as the air currents caused by the motions threatened to hack as deep as his bones, but the revenant did not allow for the mere wind to slash him, holding on with one arm as he brought his cleaver down again, and again, and again.

Everytime with the same result, only by repeating this action as quickly as he could with his maximum strength every single time did he manage to get a slight bit deeper than on his first attempt, but that was meaningless, he still wasn't reaching the flesh and anyways, all was regenerating, the blink of an eye could make one miss the rapid recovery.

It wouldn't be surprising if the tsar's potent regeneration had already rendered him technically everlasting, his body subjected to eternal youth.

"How pitiful, to be cursed like this!" of course, there was no point trying to converse with the tsar, for he did not understand language, nor could he grasp the superiority of death over life, as a being of bestial intelligence, life had seeped as deeply as it could into its instincts.

Continuing to hack away, the minor lord prepared to make use of his innate ability to enhance his next series of strikes, only to stop himself as he sensed the tsar also deciding to change his strategy, something coursing through his continental body.

"Oi…" if it was possible, a lunatic's smile would have crept upon the revenant's scarred visage, it was rough, it was animalistic, but the tsar was stirring the energies within his body for a clear purpose, incapable of grasping the difference between the countless types of forces that dwelled within his body, invisible to the naked eyes, Pangea'Kalst just moved them all together as one, an impressive feat as even the rarest of energies were present in great volumes within the monarch of the okean.

Whilst the movement of all energies as one was a product of ignorance, the effect he sought to produce wasn't, this was no mere physical augmentation, Herlbe could feel his hold upon the spike loosening as it grew slippery, that wasn't just energy manipulation driven by instinct, there was a certain finesse and understanding here.

'Ah, I see… So it wasn't all about brute force, huh?' Herlbe was almost disappointed as the tsar swung again, successfully shaking the revenant off this time before swinging down upon him using his other pincer-leg, striking the undead with precision and launching him right down to the bottom of the okean in a single strike.

Rather than turning his attention to the tsarina, Pangea'Kalst stood still, legs shifting, pincers twitching, crack had run through the area used to hit the minor lord, denoting an impressive resilience.

'Did he get tougher since then? Mmh…' Hartracite glanced at the spot where Herlbe had been sunk, the sheer amount of unrest it had caused across the surface was indescribable, it was honestly impressive that anything could endure a head-on strike from Pangea'Kalst, even if that energy manipulation had not been geared toward enhancing power, normally, a casual movement from tsar could render anything to mist.

With a smile, she straightened the index and thumb of both hands, joining them together whilst closing one eye, one of the tsar's legs being the focus of her attention, specifically, a joint upon one of said limbs.

She hadn't experimented much with her powers since becoming undead, but it was clear that the strain that would normally bear upon her mind and brain by manifesting complicated things and concepts was pretty much gone, one thing she had struggled with was using her ability over long-distances, as she needed to calculate the precise zone and volume she wanted to affect, the precise size and weights of objects she manifested… It wasn't an ability that any dimwit could make use of, in fact, in the hands of a fool, it would be an ability certain to kill its user as whilst one could not directly affect the bodies of others, the user's was free game.

So if one made the mistake of imagining their own death or defeat whilst using the ability, it would be over.

The tsarina knew no such weakness however, and now, her mind could handle all of her complex thoughts and calculations with remarkable ease, allowing for her to strike the tsar from this distance by causing the air around his joint to suddenly fall way below freezing temperatures.

A layer of frost manifested and instantly shattered as she reversed the process in the next instant and instead had the heat go above boiling temperature, the tsar seemed to momentarily throw off balance, but it was just a small twitch of surprise, even that failed to breach his thick carapace.

All that mattered was that Pangea'Kalst acknowledged her presence and tried swinging at her, even with the distance she had taken after Herlbe leapt away, she was still within range, as if you were capable of seeing the tsar, then you were within the tsar's sphere of influence.

Turning into her true form to avoid that attack, whether or not the great crab was questioning why a woman had turned into a small animal was unknown as nothing could be read upon his crustacean face.

Pangea'Kalst was preparing to swing again, when the still tumultuous waters below suddenly exploded, a vermillion figure soaring straight for one of his eyes, bringing one claw in defence, the cleaver was blocked by one of the numerous spikes, only cutting a quarter through it.

Without hesitation, the tsar circulated his energies, this time to strike even harder than before, launching the undead right back to the depth, but somehow, the revenant was back just as quickly, pummelled repeatedly by Pangea'Kalst, it was doubtlessly effective as cold flesh was torn apart and limps sent flying in pieces, but Herlbe kept breaking through the surface of the water whole.

As the tsar kept striking, it was undeniable that he felt like the target seemed to be getting tougher as the cracks that manifested upon his carapace were growing deeper and wider.

The strength of his strikes on the other hand, did not seem to be growing stronger however.

As for speed- It had stayed constant, but by design.

Herlbe emerged again like a cannonball after being propelled to the bottom of the okean, this time, heading for one of the tsar's legs with superior speed, in a vacuum, definitely not fast enough to catch Pangea'Kalst by surprise, but the difference between every other instances and this was large enough for the crab to narrowly miss his strike, allowing for the revenant to latch upon the leg and begin ascending by spiraling across the spikes, resembling a maddened ape.

Yet, the revenant's mind was stone cold like his body for once, it was much too obvious that as things were- He would not be defeating the tsar, his might was lacking even when wielding a supreme weapon crafted by General Loimos, activating Ierpalam wouldn't change anything.

He could only try to think about a solution, but unfortunately, there was a reason why Herlbe was all brute strength, he did not have the capabilities to properly wield energies, even if it would suit his style, he was incapable of using Lord Nosferatu's stack, he could only count on the small odds of it naturally occurring on a random strike and that was simply an unacceptable way of fighting, to rely on luck and fortune to do the heavy lifting.

Herlbe only had his own body, the tools he had been granted, and the words of wisdom the champion had told him.

The first two he knew very well, or so he believed, as such, he could only fall back on Loimos's words, surely there was something he had missed in them, Herlbe had never seen the general be mistaken, if he believed that Herlbe could go further than minor lord, then it had to be a fact.

The only obstacle was the revenant himself.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, as though stricken by a bolt of lightning, he tensed up.

"Of course… I must be a fool to not have realised…"

Hitting himself with his own cleaver, he was suddenly thrown away like the first time as the tsar's body was made slippery, this time however, he was launched directly into another leg, his back impaled upon one of the many spikes.

Instantly wrenching himself out, Herlbe continued ascending despite everything being incredibly difficult to grab onto, prompting Pangea'Kalst to switch strategy and bend his legs, letting himself be submerged by water once again.

Meanwhile, Herlbe was focusing.