Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 698 - Burning Soul
698: Burning Soul
698: Burning Soul
‘It isn’t looking too great… Xaros is fighting on his back leg and is forced to constantly retreat, whilst Xator seems to have been pushed to increase the pace of his attacks… When he fires his stagnant energy with such force, he loses part of it, if it goes on for too long, he could actually get in trouble…’
As for Xaltar himself, his opponent had yet to land a hit on him, and had currently been flung through about five empty wooden houses after being struck by a blast created from compressed gas, still, despite the heavy blow that had hit him from point-blank, Aliocen rose from the ashes still as eager to fight as before.
His zhanmadao slashed through the air, splitting another pillar of flames sent his way, the living simply refusing to dodge anything, rushing in a straight line tower the restless despite how poorly it had gone the time before.
‘Impatient he said… His sword didn’t transform but his strength and resilience shot through the roof, is it a berserker ability?
Will he get stronger if I beat him up some more?
Or is the first step merely an enormous boost without any actual special ability?
That would explain the impressive power-up’ out of all the restless, Xaltar was the one who had faced livings the most, having turned to crisps many groups, as well as lone wolves who had deluded themselves into thinking that no restless could touch them anymore after achieving the second step.
As such, he had seen plenty of abilities, binders and manifestators both had fallen to him, each was unique, but there were categories that they tended to fall into more often than not, the first step tended to grant an ability if no transformation occurred, if a transformation did occur, then instead of an ability the pure boost provided would generally be greater.
However, the elites that the woman whomst the king of all restless held in high regard were unlikely to be run of the mill livings, even from there, he could tell that all of them had received enormous boosts regardless of whether or not they earned an ability from using their steps.
Xaltar remained on his guard, and focused the gas produced from the holes in his hands into a compressed ball, before forcing it into the shape of a cone, the gaseous soul substance wanted nothing more than to burst forth, but the restless only allowed it once Aliocen was close enough, snapping his claws together, a blue spark ignited it all as it rushed out, the pure blast sending the living well away again and through another series of buildings before the flames washed over.
His refusal to even try to dodge was truly suspicious, surely, a stupid meathead wouldn’t be allowed to join the elite, but not only did he not attempt to evade, he didn’t even seem to consider it at all, as though his ability to dodge was non-existent and that such a concept simply couldn’t be understood by the likes of him.
‘A sort of vow ability?
His first step restricts his ability to avoid damage and in exchange grants absurd resistance? ƒгeewёbnovel.com
He is indeed much less damaged than he should be… His soul energy is refusing to ignite and even preventing his clothes from being completely scorched…’ the restless stared ahead as his opponent rose up again after being thrown like a ragdoll.
“So unamusing, I much prefer when your kind writhe in pain, what is so funny in a punching ball that does not sing for me?” the provocation fell on deaf ears as Aliocen was barely even listening anyways, but the elite’s eyes sparkled with something as Xaltar raised his hand up, and pointed it to the side instead of forward.
Launching a twisting pillar of blue flames through the city, reducing many of the lesser living warriors to cinders as he made sure that it would reach far, aiming precisely for the flames to strike both of the other two elites and provide some aid to his fellows.
The result of this action was hard to judge beyond the effects on the living Xaltar was facing himself, Aliocen understood what was happening and once again rushed forth, aiming to make use of the fact the restless had decided to bring one of his hands away from him and land a strike, the zhanmadao falling heavily upon Xaltar.
Immediately ceasing to feed the flaming blue pillar, the undead general stepped to the side with much grace, circling around the living without putting any real distance in between them, neither going out of range, nor moving too close to render the blade hardly usable, he only moved to get at uncomfortable angles and dodged as Aliocen swung his blade like it was a stick he had found on the ground, without care for whatever was in the way.
The lack of finesse in his swordsmanship was appalling, especially and he left deep gashes in the ground with most of his swings, he just attacked like nothing could possibly stop him, never stopping or slowing down to consider anything, simply striking and striking again without further thoughts until it worked somehow.
He certainly embodied the name of his first step very well, Xaltar almost expected the speed or strength of each strike to grow with every miss, but it stayed the same, the only thing of note was that the living wasn’t growing tired of it, even as the restless basically danced around every attempt made to hit him.
“No longer firing attacks?!
Have your feet gone cold or something?!” Aliocen taunted, his greatsword falling down upon the ground and splitting it well beyond the reaches of the blade itself.
“You said your name was Aliocen, right?
Well, you very well might be second only to Alistel in terms of pure brawn, but if I may ask, where do you land on the scale of intellect?”
“Trying to provoke me?
You can try again!
I don’t give a shit that I am an idiot, because you’ll be an even bigger one for losing to me!”
“Is that so?
I suppose that you’ve always brute forced your way through things, you rely on your striking power and ability to take hits to just shrug off anything sent your way… So you’ve never bothered to dodge or learn to recognise more refined attacks”
“Huh?” as Aliocen heard the words of the undead, he suddenly noticed that his vision was wavy.
“I do commend your resilience, but it would seem that you are too resistant for your own good, and also too stupid to suspect anything even when it is right in your face”
It was only then that the living realised that Xaltar had not just been dodging, but constantly releasing his gas, so much that it had now filled a wide area all around them, normally, those stuck and fighting within an area filled with it would lose consciousness and be unable to properly breath, but Aliocen could simply power through it without noticing that it was even happening, it should be a blessing.
But when dealing with the dead, blessings could turn to curses, and curses could turn to blessings.
Snapping his thumb and index claws together, Xaltar ignited it all, and for a second, there was only silence, as though the world held its breath, before bellowing with all of its might as an infernal ball of blue flames engulfed a wide area of the city, the pure heat emanating from it causing buildings outside of its reach to catch fire, and many warriors lost consciousness as the wave of heat struck them unexpectedly, as for the rest, the sound of it all deafened them for a few moments, disorienting and leading plenty to death as the restless could not care less and just kept on fighting.
