An entire day passed before Kayn sensed his first pursuer who must have caught a whiff of his trail somewhere along the way.
Mo the wendigo was right on top of Kayn's underground hiding spot sniffing around. The glowing red orbs for eyes he had were narrowed as he examined the earth upon which he stood. He reached to the belt on his waist that held a crystal he could use to communicate long distances. If he was too far away from his master Sevrin, the mental communication they shared wouldn't work, so they all carried around these crystals when they went on individual hunts.
Just as his gangly fingers were about to pull out the crystal from a small pouch, a massive hand of earth exploded from the ground and pulled him into it before returning to its previous appearance. If one looked, they wouldn't be able to tell that the wendigo was there only seconds earlier.
...
Kayn didn't give the wendigo even a second to think about the situation it was in, directly attacking it with earth spikes that emerged from the ground, walls, and ceiling as well as several bolts of lightning. Now that the commanders were all separated from each other, the fight would not go how they wanted it to.
The wendigo was quite quick and agile though, managing to dodge the majority of the earth spikes while having pieces of its bark-like armor blown off from the lightning. Only two spikes of earth managed to pierce through its armor to the fleshy part of his body.
Ever since being killed as a Devil and resurrected as a wendigo, Mo had felt hungry, and its digestive system contained the only organs that still functioned as they did when he was alive. He no longer had the weakness of flesh and blood, but when one of the earth spikes pierced into his stomach, he felt as if his hunger grew tenfold.
Going into a hunger induced rage, Mo released a horrific screech in the underground arena Kayn made before charging directly at the person he was supposed to catch for his master. Only now, he was going to eat them. Unfortunately for his master Sevrin, nothing would remain once his prey was within his grasp.
Kayn aptly dodged the amateurish attacks from the wendigo. It appeared as though it had lost part of its rationality upon being attacked so suddenly. Without the others complimenting the wendigo in the attack, this fight was like taking candy from a baby for Kayn.
As he continued dodging attack after attack, he began forming elemental spears and hitting the wendigo with them to see which were most effective against the undead monstrosity. The wendigo was weaker than Barabato, so he had the leisure to test out a few different things.
The claws of the wendigo were dangerous and could probably easily pierce his skin, but that wouldn't matter if he just dodged its attacks. Its movements were swift, but within an enclosed space there was only so much it could do, especially since it wasn't thinking clearly.
Ice and water were practically useless. Light caused the undead to sizzle and burn but overall wasn't very effective. Darkness decayed the armor and flesh but was far too slow of an effect to be useful. Lightning just blew bits and pieces away as did earth. Wind spears barely pierced through the armor.
It was fire that truly did the trick. Any time a spear of fire hit the wendigo, it would launch it further and further into its rage induced madness. Soon, the wendigo entered into a state of absolute fury and began to attack Kayn even more erratically, its feral nature finally coming to the surface.
Kayn marveled as the wendigo's speed increased by several fold and it began to use not only the walls but even the ceiling as supports to launch attacks from. Its claws were coated in a dark mana filled with death and decay and even being touched by the lingering mana from a slash would leave damage on Kayn's body.
Kayn decided to stop playing around at this point and turned the underground arena into a fiery inferno that left nothing untouched.
He considered using Extinction Flames, but his mana efficiency with void fusion elements still wasn't that great and he could eliminate this foe without needing to resort to it. Anytime he could kill an enemy without using Extinction elements would be the best choice he had as he would be able to stay in the fight longer if he didn't.
...
Mo's rationality came back in an instant as soon as he was engulfed in flames and the pain of burning alive overwhelmed his desire to satiate his hunger. Hoping that the opponent wouldn't be able to see him through the hellfire burning throughout the enclosed space, he retreated into a corner and tried to pull out his communication crystal once more.
Once it was finally in his hand, he activated the communication function as well as the location beacon before shouting, "HELP!"
"Not this time." A devilish voice resounded behind him and the next thing he knew, he was looking at his own body being separated into many pieces as his head fell to the side.
Mo's final words as he watched the pieces of his body turn to ash were simple, "Finally, I'm free."
...
Kayn watched as the last of the wendigo turned into floating embers and he quickly left the scene. He wasn't as talented at formations or arrays as someone like Sevrin who had several thousands of years of experience was, but Kayn remembered some of the more useful ones.
One such array was a sealing array that would seal communications within a 10-meter radius. Then another array that was able to be inscribed on top of any array and would boost the effect of the original array by approximately 5 times. Thus, Kayn's small underground arena was completed sealed off from outside communication.
It was his first time creating that combination of arrays and they would vanish after a couple of hours since they weren't formations meant to be permanent over a large area. Only small arrays could be placed permanently and needed an anchor, such as the one within his ring that equalized his weight as a mythical beast.
Now that Kayn knew the undead had separated from each other, he was going to take them all out individually until only he and Sevrin were left. If he could kill the other three before the lich found out or caught up to him, it would be his victory.
Kayn rushed off in search of another target, hoping that he would come across the banshee as she should be the weakest in one-on-one combat against him. As opposed to Earth's myths about banshees being weak to fire, in reality they were weak to water.
Also, while they didn't exactly have blood running through their bodies anymore, they did have a heart, and it was their greatest weakness aside from water. Kayn's plan was to weaken her with water spells before tearing her heart from her chest.
She may have surprised Kayn the last time with her sudden appearance near him, but this time he would be ready with his defenses already up and ready for her debilitating sound attacks made through the wind element. However, that was only if he found her before the other three.
If he ran into Sevrin first, he would be in trouble as he was sure that the lich could recall the other three to him without the use of a communication crystal. The draugr would be a tough, but doable, fight as it was one of the 6th stage undead by the lich's side.
Kayn wasn't sure what to make of the other creature though. It looked like a patchwork of different monsters and semi-intelligent species all thrown together as one abomination of grotesquery. He knew it was in the lower 6th stage as well, but he didn't know about its abilities nor its weaknesses.
If and when he ran into it, he would have to play it safe until he knew how to kill it before engaging it fully. It was either that or he would just have to go in full throttle using Extinction elements and the Tethers of the Void to try and get rid of it before it could truly show what it was capable of.
Kayn really wished he had a good sword to use as even though one wouldn't think it, his Sword Aura was one of his most powerful cards at the moment. This was doubly true if he used Sword Arts.
Even Kayn himself didn't properly realize how powerful Sword Aura and Sword Arts were for his constitution until he had to fight without a blade. It now made sense to him how he could fight a powerful knight like Griselda while being weaker than her.
If it was with a blade, his power was naturally increased by nature now. His every movement was brimming with Sword Aura, and if it was combined with an actual blade, he became a sharp weapon that could slice even the toughest of armor.
Kayn was powerful, overtly so when using nothing but spells and the Tethers, but without a blade in his hand, his overall strength was reduced by at least a third. From the records he read inside of Takemikazuchi's temple, he was nothing but an amateur at the sword who was gifted with a heaven-defying constitution through the grace of one of the best sword masters in the universe.
It wasn't for free of course and he risked his life to obtain it, but now that he had it, it was a boon that shouldn't be wasted. Once he mastered the sword, he would be able to utilize his Sword Aura and Sword Arts without having one in his hand, but alas, he wasn't at or even near that level yet.
He could only mourn for his destroyed Akikani while firming his resolve to find a blade worthy to be wielded with his Eternal Blade Constitution. With these thoughts in mind. He raced across the land in search of one of the three remaining commanders of the lich Sevrin.