Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 982 - 982: Display Of Strength

Over the next year, the emerald folks had to face several more attack by the undead, every time, the loss of life would increase, and the cost needed to hold them back until nightfall subtly increased, forcing them to employ greater means each time, Alkayne and Ir'Houwl were but appetisers in the grand scheme of things, agents dispatched by Lord Dracula for the simple fact that he trusted them the most to create a grand opening to this conflict, although it was important to demonstrate strong honour and emit an impression that made others want to respect the empire, even if begrudgingly, it was also important not to appear too weak, this was a war after all, and the livings of the Emerald Realm were natural-born warriors.

So after having two of the minor lords and their troops demonstrate a strict will to abide by the rules that had been set, it was time to send someone who could deal a lot of damage and was exceptionally aggressive to show the livings the strength of the empire, originally, Dracula had planned on having three minor lords perform the act of great honour, but unfortunately, Yuolrt was tied down in Verdoyante, having apparently uncovered things that required her direct presence at all times.

So in truth, he was missing one minor lord that he absolutely could have trusted with not slaughtering their opponent, in fact, the druid lich would have been the first to be sent if she had been available, a druid would have been great to show to the emerald folks who loved the natural wonders of their realm with a passion.

Alas, sometimes things could not go as intended, and the first third minor lord to be sent to the frontlines was Herlbe, he was definitely the physically strongest of the minor lords, his pure brawn was unmatched by a long shot, and although lesser in numbers, his troops were all heavy hitters as well, still, since massacring all of the living warriors would not exactly be conducive to the plan, Herlbe only brought with him a few forcoids from the realm he had conquered with him.

He would have loved to bring Pangea'Kalst to see just the amount of demolition the giant crab was capable of on dry land, but that too, would not be conducive to the plan, quite the opposite, in fact.

On that occasion, the living powerhouse who was made to lead the warriors outside of the barrier was Artazim, the bird-like Divine Dancing Priestess was about as tall as Herlbe when she was actually standing upright.

Just like before, the two leaders let their respective warriors fight each other as they instead took their distance from the battlefield.

Now, what exactly the revenant said to the priestess is unclear, but the confrontation that ensued was unlike those that had come before, Dracula had made it clear that Herlbe should not hold back too much, and simply refrain from using his great cleaver or Ierpalam, which was fine by him…

As a priestess that had transformed into a unique beast as a result of beast worship, and one of impressive stature at that, Artazim was no slouch in the raw strength department, coupled with her ability to fly with great agility, she could gather incredibly momentum in a short amount of time, using her strength and weight to deliver devastating blows without even having to use bestial energy, Herlbe was stalwart and resilient enough to endure such attacks without much problem, but the real problem was that she was actually very fast, especially when flying, Herlbe himself could not fly, he could only jump very high and swing his arms hard enough to launch himself in different directions in mid-air.

The first time he did that, and managed to land a pretty good hit with the claw weapon bolted onto his left arm, but after that, catching her off guard become much too difficult, not to mention that she immediately healed herself with bestial energy, stimulating the already impressive vitality within her to hasten the process of regeneration.

After this, the other minor lords, would have used their innate ability in a creative way or deployed another one of their skills or the likes, but Herlbe, whilst not an idiot, solved his problems with brute force, his innate abilities were to burst with devastating power and to restore himself through killing, there was nothing elaborate or versatile about them, and he himself only fought with his body and weapons, namely a claw that was literally inseparable from his arm, and chains wrapped around the other.

This was most certainly why Dracula had picked him instead of Prikrip to begin the second phase of the plan, Herlbe would simply provide a more impressive spectacle than Pirkrip, as the monstrous corvid was a pure slayer who would seek to take down his prey efficiently and not leave them room to struggle by using his rather numerous abilities and skills.

Herlbe also sought to crush his opponents, but he was far more limited in what he could do, and also, the many-headed goliath was absolutely going to allow his opponents to use their best attacks, for no other reason than the love of the game.

The vampire lord was correct in his assessment of Herlbe.

The giant in the vermillion cloak used brute strength and a sheer battle frenzy to fight, eventually, smashing his way through slews of bestial spells and rain of piercing feathers, forcing Artazim to also ramp up the pressure she dished out to keep up, as otherwise she surely would be defeated before nightfall.

As Dracula had thought, the leaders of this realm were indeed powerful, and they knew very well how to control their strength, as one could have very easily been convinced that their strength was far lesser than the truth, of course, with his mean weapon and Ierpalam not available to him, there was only so much that Herlbe could do before the day end and he was forced to retreat, feeling a bit dissatisfied in the end as he was able to tell that without using his own best cards, he had not been able to force the priestess to show the full extent of her power.

The goliath was left with even more admiration for General Loimos, the pure undead had managed to terrorise all of those priestesses and heralds alongside with their ancestors with his mere presence, even though it seemed probable that the Emerald Heralds and Divine Dancing Priestesses stood on at least the same level of power as the current minor lords overall.

This made the revenant wonder if the ancestors were actually on a level of strength similar to the gravelords, because if so, that would be rather bad, especially because of the light ancestor, that woman wielded light, if she was on the level of a gravelord, then the vampire lords would be in trouble against her if she could not be restrained like the Elven Light had been back then…