I saw a blurred image in my vision as I gained consciousness.
"Ugh, why is my head spinning?" I muttered out as I came to my senses.
My balance wobbled for a moment as I suddenly tripped over something and slammed my forehead against a metallic surface.
"Ugh, now it pains as well." Clutching my forehead, I felt a sticky liquid on my palms.
I was bleeding from the forehead. Opening my eyes, I felt an excruciating pain tear at my vision as everything turned white around me.
I crouched on the ground and leaned against the metallic surface, still holding onto my head.
I sat on what I assumed to be soft ground. My feet touched something.
It feels like a...human.
Squinting my eyes with a great effort, I looked in front of me through hazy eyes. It took me a moment to clear my blurry vision.
Then I saw it. And I think...I regret that I saw it.
A man lay on his back, a dagger pinned to his throat, his neck completely broken as his hollow eyes looked at me.
They were still. But accusing.
Full of betrayal.
He was dead and blood covered him and the ground beneath him.
Almost immediately I puked beside me laying flat on my belly as I bared out my stomach on the ground.
"Oh? You didn't die?" A curious voice came from behind me. "I thought that striking a damn rod on your head would be enough to kill you. Seems you got more than that."
Panicking I looked behind me. A bulky figure loomed over me. More than a human has any right to be. Standing at what looked like more than 8 feet tall, he assessed me.
"Who are you...?" I asked in an unsteady voice.
"Did you hit your head? Or course I am your to be murderer." Then tapping his chin in contemplation, he laughed.
"Oh right, you actually hit your head. By a rod. By me."
Meanwhile, I was trembling with fear. Stress. Anxiety.
A primal survival Instinct gripped me that shouted at my body to run, to escape this madness I was thrust into.
To escape the man in front of me.
I glanced behind me. The metallic surface I knocked myself against moments ago was in fact an once lustrous carriage, now tainted by sprayed blood. And it's surface dented by marks of heavy weapons.
In front of me, there was the assailant who was watching me with a wicked smile. Around him were dead bodies, some with a similar uniform like the dead man I had tripped upon.
The others wore clothes that seemed light weighted travelling clothes. Useful in combat. Like the ones the grinning maniac was wearing.
I closed my eyes and cast my head down.
This wasn't the time to panic. I need to get out of here.
I can't die. I can't.
The darkness...I can't live through it again.
"Focus." I mumbled, loud enough for the man to hear.
"Focus? On what...your death?" He came forward, his steps stopping in front of me.
"Don't worry your death shall be easy. Just give up." He said. I hardly registered any of his words as I mentally counted down the seconds, looking for the perfect moment.
He leaned down. His hands coming for my neck.
'Just a little more.'
He came down more, his hands gripping my neck in a staunch hold.
'Perfect.' He tried twisting my neck.
But I didn't give him the chance. Through my hazardous breathing, I lifted up my hands fast.
And in a rapid flow threw the stone in my palm straight into his right eye.
"Ekkk--" The man screamed as he released his hold on me.
"Not today, I won't die today." I shouted in a frenzy as I kicked the man on his chest, making him tumble over.
Standing up quickly, I scanned the surroundings. The way in front of me was clear. But the man was already rising up while grunting out inaudible curses.
The problem was...he was between me and the road.
'Shit...not possible.'
I turned backwards as I saw the carriage blocking my view. And without thinking anything else, I ran.
But the moment I got behind the carriage, my steps automatically halted.
I looked behind me. The man was pushing off the carriage sideways as he looked at me. Grinning. Like he had already won.
And...he was right.
Because what I hadn't realised was that the carriage had been standing at the edge of a cliff.
The edge where I was currently standing.
"As I said don't worry, I shall give you an easy death. No personal grudges, okay?" Even as he spoke, his grin never faltered and he stepped toward me with a bloody knife in his hand.
He lunged forward, tha sharp knife reflecting in the sunlight as it streaked towards me.
I could only stand there with my mind in a mess. A tornado of dissatisfaction. Of pure rage.
And yet I couldn't move, watching my own death approach.
To claim me for the second time.
The tip of the knife touched me at the chest but to my pure surprise, the knife paused. I looked up and I saw the man pause as well. His eyes had suddenly turned blank, his irises focussing on nowhere. And as I looked around me, I understood.
The world has suddenly halted, as if holding its breath.
[Fatal strike detected]
[Activating Seed of Life]
Then as if time itself rewound, I saw the knife touching me move backwards, following the same trajectory it had followed.
I felt my body move on it's own, no longer in my control.
Every direction, every single twitch of my muscles, every single movement retracked itself.
My eyes which could still see...saw the blank eyes of my assailant. It almost looked as if he was unaware of the things... happening around him.
'Seed of life...?' I was shocked when I saw time retracking itself even further than my own movements...I saw the blood lying around the man with those "accusing" eyes now flowing back into his body, his wounds closing and healing like they never existed.
Then suddenly everything escalated backwards into a torrent of movements.
"What is happening?"