"A true undead has no need for sustenance, no need for rest, no need for fear, a pure undead needs nothing"
____________________
Loimos emerged into a field, paying no heed to his cracked skull, it would mend itself anyways.
In his haste, he went and retrieved a few more weapons that he had kept hidden away, his steps were nothing short of perfectly normal, his rate of movement decreased to a mere walk as he made his way toward a small group that had most certainly broken off from the larger mob.
The righteous deliverers of the unrefined rumble of the lowly people had broken into multiple pieces, small cliques had formed to cover more ground.
Small only in comparison to their total numbers however, there were still nine people gathered, they seemed to be debating the optics of searching this particular field, it was one filled with pumpkins after all.
It was a curious thing that they grew wheat and pumpkins during the same period, however, no one here was going to question it.
This was the norm for the locals and Loimos had no reason to wonder about such a thing, as he entered within their range of sight, he hid the weapon he was carrying behind his back and began taking a much more human disposition.
Gone were the oddly efficient steps, he acted as though the small differences in soil consistency and dirt mounds were actually surprising him as he walked in the dark.
A small man noticed him first and he waved his arm to make himself more noticeable, they could discern his shape but certainly not the more minute details of his appearance.
Were he able to talk, he probably would have said something too.
His acting was already well enough to fool those unwashed peasants, they didn't take him for a threat at all and began calling out to him.
The small man seemed to be taking steps toward him, intending on meeting Loimos halfway, he accelerated his steps subtly to avoid having to start his chain of kills in a bad position.
"Hey, did you find something-?" the man was allowed to complete his sentence, but not his life.
Loimos somewhat arched his body to the side, using the small man's own body to obstruct the others's sight of what Loimos was pulling from behind his back.
He didn't even see it coming as Loimos stabbed him in the chest with the sword of the bandit leader, he could barely even groan before Loimos decided to make use of the momentary confusion to advance upon the eight others.
They all stared directly at him rather than the corpse, it was a welcome attention to their situation, but they would have been better off acting out of line, from the depth of his hollow sockets, a dark but blinding purple light arose for a split second, blinding the fools.
He began with the biggest of them all, a man with huge hands which most certainly could have been of use, Loimos hacked right into his face, pulling the sword back to him, he sent the bloodied-up man tumbling into two others, his dead weight pinning them to the ground.
With another two slashes, he sliced right through two throats, two attacks were needed for the next one however, as he luckily raised his hand before the killing blow could reach its mark.
Almost cleaving his wrist right off, he probably didn't feel much luck as he soon joined the others on the grounds, fertilising the ground with their fresh blood.
Loimos's blinding flash was more effective than he had planned for, that or the peasants were too prone to panic, making them easy targets as they dropped both their weapons and guards to try and solve their lack of vision, absolutely not concerning themselves with the one that had inflicted this lack of sight upon them.
Apart from the few that managed to move at the right time, all of them only bore a single flesh wound, the great majority to the throat.
Loimos was aware that major blood vessels were also to be found in other areas such as the armpits, thighs and such.
Striking the heart, lungs and head directly were also options, however, not only were the neck and throat easily accessible, unprotected and tremendously easy to cut through, he couldn't help but also want to silence in the same move.
If he was accurate enough, blood would fill their throats and they would never be able to do more than gargle a bit.
Dealing with small, isolated groups was much more efficient than trying to go up against the whole mob.
He felt the death force within growing deeper as his prey's life force dissipated into the air.
Loimos would also have to do something about all of the plantations, but doing so without revealing his undeath wasn't within his reach at the moment.
He didn't want specialists of the undead hunt to come for him just yet, that would definitely end up in less living dead by the end of it than otherwise.
The skeleton moved away from the corpses and soon stepped onto a wide dirt path, the main road still bore the markings of the regular passage of carriages and caravans, even though the influx had recently dropped severely.
The sound of barking reached Loimos, he was certain that he had gotten rid of all the stray dogs, and also of all the ones domesticated by people, it had been a necessity since their keen sense of smell wasn't fooled by Loimos restricting his pungent fragrance of decay.
They had most probably been brought from within the city walls, and judging by the fact that they were rushing right toward him in spite of the darkness shrouding him, they were locked in on him.
They must have been given his scent, he had most likely lost a bit of his mask when was shot right in the skull.
He could easily beat them in a battle of stamina, and may even be able to match their speed if he decided to move like when he did back in the crawlspace of the dungeon, like a mad beast.
Though he doubted that his overall swiftness would be enough to prevent them from catching up.
Those hounds were rushing toward him without a shred of fear, they must have left their owner in the dust, he was simply going to take them out right here, if they could track his trail, they would be a problem he would have no choice but deal with anyways.
"A true undead knows no pain, A true undead suffers not"
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Loimos raised his blade, shifting the position of his feet, he prepared to cut right through the open maw of the first dog that got to him.
'...' he thought nothing but slashed at the air, he had noticed something coming but was way off in his attempt at deflecting it.
A first arrow lodged itself right in his chest, the tip digging into one of his ribs, he hadn't thought that anyone would be able to see him, much less aim for him at all, from his position, he couldn't even make out enough details to tell who was shooting at him.
Or rather, he couldn't make out the people planning to shoot him down, before he could do anything else, a flurry of arrows rained down upon him.
Going right through his clothing and rot, some leaving cracks in his bones.
'They are accurate' he noted, barely a few of the shots missed him, and not by much.
Dozens of shots struck him in the chest and abdomen area, a dozen others spread out between all of his limbs, he didn't release his grasp on his sword, even when arrows hit him in the skull, one right in his left socket, the tip protruding a slight bit from the back.
The impact of getting struck by so many arrows at once forced him back and somewhat off-balance, allowing the fastest hound to dig its fangs right into his ankle.
The animal stopped, wanting to recoil as the blighted blood splashed into its mouth, Loimos wasn't fazed by the extensive damage he just received, he stabbed down on the canine's nape, killing it instantly before sending its body away with a kick.
The rest of the dogs suddenly seemed hesitant to go after him, the undead jumped into the field to his left, opposite to the pumpkins were long lines of green beans, crouching down, his figure should be out of sight of everyone.
An arrow still somehow managed to land squarely on his back.
Loimos wasn't bothered much by getting shot, he could only wonder about who was aiming so distinctively, were he not an undead, he would have probably been killed by that first arrow.
In fact, most undeads wouldn't have been able to just move away after getting damaged so extensively.
____________
"Men! We give chase!" the captain of the guards lowered his bow, undid the string, and put everything back into a bag strapped to his back.
He said this, but he ran much faster than any of them, leaving them mostly in the dust.
'This is no reason to call for Sir Thomas' the captain couldn't have been certain before, but it had become clear that the sad faced man didn't hold a candle to anyone who actually knew what they were doing.
He could only prey on non-combatants and use surprise attacks, it was a good thing the mob was preoccupied with preventing their homes from burning to a crisp, otherwise the death toll may have ended up being much higher.
Whistling, the hounds broke out of their fearful daze and resumed the chase.
The captain had nothing in common with the men working under him, all were enrolled locals, they lacked much training and rarely ever encountered difficult situations, one look at the adventurers was enough to know that Throdqdmond was a peaceful place.
When the best were Eppie's team and the two brothers, it was to be expected that the most dangerous thing around wasn't anything much.
Even the mayor, he ruled the city but he had not even a drop of noble blood, he only had sufficient wealth.
Throdqdmond wasn't anything grand, still, the captain wasn't from around here.
He went right through the field without caring for the damage, managing to catch up to Loimos before any of the hounds or anyone else by cutting him off, bashing his shoulder into the undead as they neared the edge of the field.
'What a strange response!' the feeling he felt when he tackled the abhorrent murderer was odd to say the least.
The captain watched as Loimos was sent flying against a tree, they had found themselves in an orchard, the sound of water flowing could be heard in the distance.
he watched as Loimos stood back up immediately, seemingly unbothered and unharmed.
'I definitely felt his right arm being crushed and broken…' but it didn't appear as such at all, the mysterious man didn't even make a sound as he got back onto his feet, not to mention all of the arrows were still stuck in his body.
It was like he felt no pain whatsoever.
'He does seem to be breathing… What the hell is he? He has an arrow through the freaking head!' the captain unsheathed his sword, a slight blue glow seemed to encompass both his body and blade, but Loimos saw none of it, he only felt a slight change.
He prepared the rush forward, but Loimos threw his sword forward, aiming at the captain's midsection, making sure that he wouldn't be able to simply dodge and continue his movement as the undead took off in the opposite direction, weaving in between the trees.
He began running like a beast, making him much harder to follow, as well as surprisingly faster.
"No fucking way you are human!" the man shouted out as he deflected the thrown blade and began running, the captain was faster than Loimos was, but the undead had much more ease navigating the place.
Still, the captain was gaining ground, slowly approaching the sad faced man, raising his blade, he was nearly on the verge of reaching Loimos.
The sound of water flowing got louder and louder, the living soon realised what the killer was aiming for.
Loimos leapt into the waters below, the captain was forced to stop, the river wasn't at the same level as the two of them, it was deeper into some sort of ravine-like formation, the flowing of water was raging.
He wasn't going to let Loimos get away, however, even through the ambient darkness, the captain was still able to pinpoint his position as he was falling down.
Rising his sword above his head, grasping the handle with both hands, he sent it spinning through the air with lethal force.
Splitting the air, the center of the edge lodged itself straight into Loimos's skull, splitting it and his mask down to the upper jaw.
A splash sounded throughout the area, the captain steadied himself waiting for the feeling of XP flowing into his body, only relaxing when he felt the rush entering him.
'He is dead' he naturally and correctly concluded, they would only have to fish the body back up, show it to the people and everything would be good.
Hello, hello, you have reached the final free chapter, if you are planning on continuing from then on, do consider leaving a review to tell me your thoughts
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