From the information he had collected, he came to understand that the pseudo-cores were nothing but an image, more of an illusion than an actual functioning core. He was uncertain why the necromancer would do that, but at least he understood the creatures this much more.
After he was done confirming this conclusion with the remaining undead, he began turning their remains into pulp, to make them easier to hide away.
However as he was doing that, he heard something move behind him.
He swung around, still on high alert from the battle he had been in just a few moments ago.
It was the owl-humanoid he had driven into the ground earlier. Its body was beginning to contort, creating make-shift limbs as they rearranged themselves.
~So they come back even after you've eliminated them?~ Lucius thought to himself.
Perhaps that would've seemed obvious to anyone else, after all, these were undead creatures. However, Lucius could recall from the war he had fought the month prior that once enough damage was dealt they would effectively be dead again.
The only variable between that time and now was the decay that covered the ground. It seemed it acted as more than just a poison.
With that in mind, he used Kumulipo to inject energy into the rearranging corpse to determine how it was interacting with the ground.
And he had been right. It was drawing energy from the ground to recreate its pseudo-core, whilst simultaneously regenerating itself.
~Interesting,~ Lucius thought to himself. The applications he had studied today would no doubt prove fruitful for him when he could create a light zone similar to this decay zone.
But for now, he was satisfied with mangling the creature's body beyond recognition, before smashing it into a slimy pile.
Once he was done doing the same for all the other intact remains -ensuring that they would not be able to reform themselves- he began digging small ditches with his tail and burying the pulpy remains.
~ There are a few more groups approaching,~ he thought to himself as he took a rest. ~I have to start moving,~ he thought in between deep-labored breaths. However as the seconds trickled by, and his mind began to calm down, the fatigue from fighting began to weigh down on him even more.
Eventually, he could no longer see in the dark, and his body ached in all the areas he had received damage.
Even though Kumulipo's drain spell had healed him, the pain was still apparent, even its mind-cooling effect was gone.
"Huh? Wait, what?" Lucius whispered to himself. It wasn't as if he couldn't remember what he had done, but rather he was confused about the methods he had employed whilst doing it.
Although his fighting had been just as efficient, if not even more than it usually was, it had been more savage than usual. Sure he didn't care for the undead, but the things he had wanted to do to them. It was like he hated them... like he hated their very existence.
~Kumulipo,~ he realized. That was its side effect. Where the solar crux burned your mind if you used it too much, the Kumulipo brought out the worst in you. And in Lucius's case, it was the mind of a war criminal.
~Still, it's not like I care how I treat these creatures. But perhaps I should avoid using it whilst fighting the natives of the forest,~ he thought to himself. Lest the creatures band together against him, thinking that he was some sort of tyrant.
He could still hear the hoards of undead approaching from all around. And even with Kumulipo, his body was at its limit. Anymore fighting would just result in damage... damage he was not sure he would be able to repair.
"Then I suppose I'll have to do this," he whispered, before running in the opposite direction from the sound of the hoards.
Once he had moved a good distance away, he took a deep breath before letting out a loud shriek. The ear-piercing sound traveled quickly through the forest, no doubt attracting the attention of any wandering undead nearby.
"A shriek? That's the sound my species makes?" Lucius thought to himself in slight disappointment, already running away from that spot.
*
By the time he got back to Avankor and the chief, he was completely out of breath and required quite a bit of effort to even move a limb.
"Was that you?" Avankor asked, visibly relaxing as he recognized that it was Lucius approaching them.
"Ye-yes," Lucius replied in between labored breaths.
"A might battle cry," Avankor commented, to which the chief nodded his head in agreement as well.
"The... the entrance, where is it?" Lucius strained to say, before Avankor stepped closer to the bank of the river, and released a white fluid from his palms into the water.
Lucius stared in confusion at this, before noticing a blue light shining from a spot deep within the river.
"There is an entrance over there," Avankor replied, before diving into the water. He used his tail to help him propel against the current as he dove deeper toward the seemingly blue portal.
For a moment, he disappeared from view, before returning a few seconds later with four other Zeldraves.
Once all of them got back up to the river bank, the Zeldraves began greeting their King. It seemed that Avankor only had time to gesture for them to follow him whilst he was down there.
"We thought those Chames had done something to you," one of them commented once they had finished with their greetings.
"Do not speak ill of them, Shavak has treated me well. In these times, it's the best we can do to treat them as close allies," Avankor replied, before looking toward Lucius.
"My warriors, this is Havon. Ever since he has awoken, there has been great hope for the future. Treat him as you would me, if not even higher," Avankor said, to which the Zeldrave warriors immediately bowed.
Unlike their king, the average Zeldrave was around the same height as Lucius's current form. Which he supposed was the reason they treated him with more courtesy than the Chames during their first interaction.
That or the respect Avankor had garnered among his people was more absolute than that of Shavak's among his.
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