Sharv's world turned dark. A suffocating pressure descended on his soul. There was smoke every where in his vision. Then he felt a strange power. It was familiar yet unknown.
'So it's inspecting soul, huh. Guess that's it.' Sharv could feel the smoke clearing and pressure moving away. Then he heard Sujay talking.
" I think you are right. I was worried without..." Sujay was speaking but suddenly the atmosphere seemed to calm down. The air itself had gone silent. He turned to look towards Sharv.
'Right... let PRÁNÀ rise through Chàkràs.' Sharva instructed himself. Following this Crimson Red, Ocean Blue, Yellow, Silver and Void Black luminescence glowed one after another from his pelvis, lower abdomen, upper abdomen, heart and neck respectively.
All bright, in darker shades of their respective colors. Even the wild animals had gone silent at this point. The knights took a step back, reading themselves for the imminent fight.
'I don't think I fight well while holding back.' Sharv thought.
"Five Mastered Chàkràs! At such a young age!" Sujay uttered with surprise, "He definitely is a KEEPER."
His worries only intensified when Vijay spoke, "That is not the problem. Don't you see the VOID chains are breaking apart. He is not a Voidheart!!!"
"Right…..but how is this possible? His soul is clearly not that of a normal human." Sujay mused with a deep frown.
As they were talking the shackles binding Sharv broke with a hissing sound. The knights panicked and looked towards their commanders.
Sharv, meanwhile, felt another humming sound from the sheath around his waist. As he pulled the sword out, he felt an immediate connection with it.
'Krantak, you too are eager for a battle?' He mused, as the humming of the sword got more intense. As he imbued the sword with his Prana, it immediately aligned with Space Chakra. A void black aura surrounded it as the blue runes glowed brightly.
"That's not a good sign."
"Brother, now that it is confirmed he is not a Voidheart, should we just kill him?" Vijay frowned in confusion.
"Let's first see what he can do." Sujay spoke. Sharv looked at the knights as if they were already dead.
"Last Chance." He spoke in a deep voice, rumbling the air and space, "Flee now or die."
"Attack." The knight with the shield commanded without talking to him. As the knights moved forward, Sharv moved too. But none of them could see him. Sharv slashed a knight who parried with his mace. But Krantak (literally means cutter), true to its name, first cut the mace then the knight in half.
As Sharv moved it, Kràntàk seemed to cut the air itself leaving a black streak behind in its path. It seemed to sing a lullaby to the knights by the way it hummed when swung by Sharv.
" If you dare, fight us, leave the rest." The shield knight shouted, accompanied by his two partners, after seeing the havoc Sharv had caused
" GLADLY." Sharv muttered. But before the knight could completely register his words, Sharv was already in front of him. His right hand lifted straight in the air, Krantak adorning it. The knight raised his shield in desperation, reinforcing it with all his Prana.
But when Sharv brought his sword down it didn't matter. Kràntàk divided the shield in two along with the knight wielding it. His corpse fell face first, split cleanly down the spine. The knight with the longsword hacked at Sharv's shoulder, who didn't care to move. The long sword bend after hitting him, leaving just a scratch behind.
"Bring out your bow, Vijay." Sujay said with a grin on his face, "Its time we truly incapacitate him."
"Incapacitate him?" Vijay was surprised.
"Yes, his soul is too powerful. We will sacrifice him and other alive knights to increase our power." Sujay answered, his eyes turning completely pitch black.
"It's a great chance, indeed." Vijay followed, his eyes also turning pitch black. He brought out a bow from his spatial pocket. It was a normal bow with two horns on each end. But as he poured his PRĀNÀ into it, it turned ominous, emitting shadowy smoke. He brought an arrow from the spatial bag, emitting the same smoke.
"HELL ARROW: HUNDRED DROPS OF FIRE"
Vijay enchanted as he knocked the arrow on the bow. Yellowish red flames engulfed both the bow and arrow. Hundred flames filled the sky around him as his upper abdomen glowed yellow. Then his pelvis glowed red and black arrows came out of these flames.
" CURSED TECHNIQUE: UNDEFINED VESSEL"
Sujay enchanted as he touched Vijay's right shoulder. Now black smoke came out from all the hundred arrows. The scene looked ominous, with black arrows on fire, alongside black smoke.
All this happened in less than two seconds, and Sharv had already finished the two knights in front of him. He now noticed the danger looming above his head. But before he could act, Vijay loosed the arrow.
'They were the Voidhearts present here,' was the last thought in his mind before all hell was let loose. The seemingly normal arrows hit the ground like thunderbolts, each arrow as powerful as a hundred lightning strikes. Thunderous explosions trembled the land. Tremors, one after another, were felt by the whole forest.. Black smoke and dust clouds rose from the ground.
The harmony of the forest was disrupted. The trees under the radius of a hundred meters from the epicenter were uprooted, under fifty meters they were burnt and charred. A cacophony of cries erupted from the forest, caused by animals and birds, from lions to elephants, from peacocks to eagles.
"Do you think we went a little overboard?" Vijay asked.
"No, I think he might still be able to fight." Sujay answered without moving his eyes away from where Sharv was.
As the dust settled, it first revealed the broken shield Kant was inside of. An arrow had gone through it and landed a few meters away, leaving a few feet deep crater. Kant's left hand and leg were slightly scorched from the explosion.
Then an area of twenty meter radius was revealed which was the center of the explosion. It was filled with charred corpses and small craters. A big crater was at the center, deeper and blacker than any other part of the circle.
Sharv stood in the middle of it, more than ten arrows piercing his upper body and some, his legs.
"Encircle him." Sujay's voice echoed. Twenty five more knights came out of the forest and encircled the crater.
'This is how a real battle is. Nothing like the training.' Sharv thought, his neck hung loose, all Chakras flickering like lamps about to die out. But his hands still held the sword.
'Oh, so they had used the cursed technique.' He noticed after trying to heal himself. 'Let's see... How my breathing technique works.'
Sharv inhaled deeply. The air was stirred. It moved to him, sucked in with pressure.
The flickering of his Chakras intensified.
"PRĀNÀ ÈKATVÀ"
(ONENESS OF PRÁNÀ)