Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 628: Operation Polar Winds : Part Thirty-Three

Undeads were most bizarre creatures to begin with, the simple fact that an undead could just manifest out of the soil and not have been the remnants of something that had once been alive was difficult for many to wrap their head around.

But on top of many things that would be considered inconsistencies with their primal nature as cadavers, they were simply, and unequivocally, plainly odd beings.

The skeleton had no logical reason to be suspicious of anything, at all, and yet, he absolutely was, that portion of snow, identical to the rest that sprawled all over the immensity of this frozen flatland, had been within the range of his melded senses for a long while, and nothing happened that could justify a sudden need for offence against it, but in that instant, the skeleton simply took out his crossbow.

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Had the bolt heated to the maximum, and fired it with a most unholy precision, straight at what was hiding beneath the snow, a dull sound rang out and nothing else, like he had hit a slab of meat strung up as a target rather than a living being, there was no reaction, some snow melted and then everything stopped.

Returning to the previous stillness, all except for the fact that every undead in a few kilometers radius suddenly turned their attention to the unseen target of that bolt, and without a single question or second of hesitation, all that had a ranged weapon or method of striking from where they stood fired.

Before any could reach their destination however, something stood up, blasting all the snow away, it was still covered in much snow but the creature's features could still be made out, it was an odd thing for sure.

Its body was mostly carved out of ghost wood, but within the translucent material, bones were arranged together to form something similar to a humanoid skeleton, only that each and every one of those bones had come from wolves, certainly more than one as there was no way to accomplish something human-like with only those collected from one, and even then, there were as many of these bones packed into a single place as was possible, so although it appeared somewhat coherent at a glance, the false skeleton was much too dense and thick to be natural.

"That's weird" commented the zombie just before a hail of projectiles befell the strange being, snow was raised up and blasted in every direction, the transparent creature bursting out of the resulting cloud with an arm missing and hole in its chest, but seemingly undeterred, it began running away, out in the open field that was this cold plain, it was rather nimble and seemed to have an awareness to some extent, of the directions projectiles were coming from, but that attentiveness was limited, as either a water mage or sorcerer casted a spell, tendrils of water forming from beneath the runaway creature's feet, wrapping it up in place.

For all intents and purposes, that thing was not alive, but it was not undead either, as such, it was quickly apprehended and locked up, it put up a valiant effort to struggle against the watery tendrils but more restrictive spells were just cast atop of it in the next second, preventing even the smallest of movements as soldiers surrounded it.

"What did you refer to, when saying that something was weird?" asked the skeleton, feeling like they had spotted the same anomaly.

"The bolt you shot was nowhere to be seen when it stood up" responded the zombie, the two of them walking up to the place this unknown being had been hiding at, a few other of their brethren were already on site, searching for whatever clues or things that may have been lost behind.

Most notably, they were collecting all shards and bits that it had lost after enduring that volley of various projectiles, it was rather impressive for something to so easily survive such an onslaught, even if it hadn't been done by a proper firing squad and without much cohesion as the soldiers were dispersed in small groups collecting samples, it did not matter with orderly ranks connecting them all, when they acted, it was an united collective that had perfect knowledge of one another positions and intentions, some the projectiles had each been fired to maximise damage, whilst some were fired slightly off to catch the target if it attempted to move into any direction.

Not to mention that mages and sorcerers had gotten involved this time, a magical arrow and actual arrow only shared their name together, when it came to how they were fired and capabilities, it was an entirely different thing.

So the simple fact that it had been able to try and run, even at the cost of some damage, was impressive in of itself.

"It's gone" commented the skeleton, the bolt had simply vanished.

"Is it not that one?"

"No, I use a bit of my internal energy to activate the flame of pyromancy imbued in my bolts, none of these carry my energy…"

"...We both heard it, right? It sounded likeI struck something fleshy, not something made up of ghost wood and since the bolt disappeared, it is probably still with that fleshy thing"

"How did it vanish though?"

"I wouldn't want to be presumptuous in my assumption, but considering that this golem-like being emerged from the exact place I fired at, I feel like it took my initial target's position, like some sort of teleportation that requires switching places, I suppose" said the skeleton.

"That is indeed a pretty precise idea, but one that makes sense, at least" the zombie shrugged.

They shared their idea with the rest, and some undeads swept through the area in an attempt to detect traces of a spell or ability having been used, the former was much easier to detect than the latter in most cases, leaving no remnants or residues after casting a spell was impressive even for the simple ones, but few would bother to do so, the undead mages were fighters that fought in the open, there was no purpose in them learning such a skill, so it wasn't part of their training.

However, the thing made of flesh that had been there was a different case, as whatever means had been used for it to disappear after being struck by a searing bolt had left no traces at all.

So it was either a very skilled spellcasting that had taken place, which was impressive right after getting hit by such a powerful attack, or it could have been an innate ability that simply could not leave being evidence of its usage, of course, the amount of possibilities was about as large as there were ways of power, so basically endless.

Naturally, their leader was informed of this new development.