"PRĀNÀ ÈKATVÀ"
(ONENESS OF PRÁNÀ)
Energy itself seemed to move towards him, which in this case was the Prana of the world. His hair flowed gently and upwards with air.
With another breath, all Chakras activated one after another, from Earth to Space. A silver hue covered his body, creating almost a thin transparent shell around him. This shell was made of pure Prana.
"He can still fight?" Sujay muttered with utter shock.
"How can he use Chakrà after we used the cursed technique?" Vijay echoed him.
Sharv gently started floating and then moved upwards in the air. Hovering above the ground, he looked back at Kant. 'He seems pretty much alright.' He thought, 'But this breathing technique is too far from being perfect.'
"PRĀNÀ SPANDAN"
(PRÁNÀ PULSE)
The shell around him pulsed just as he commanded. The Prana around him seemed to pulsing through its movement. But the real effect was on his wounds.
Apparently his body started healing from inside to out. The arrows slowly ejected themselves leaving behind no mark.
If one would focus then he would notice Prana moving into his body from the shell. The world Prana recreated the shell by moving towards it, endlessly in a loop.
Dread consumed all the knights surrounding him. They looked like they had seen death itself. But there were two people, more anxious than them.
"WHAT IS THAT?" Vijay was perplexed. "How can he heal like that?"
'It took more than half of my Prana.' Sharv thought, 'Good thing it is replenished by the world PRĀNÀ. But the technique is far from perfect.'
He then gripped his sword with both hands and raised it straight above his head. "Kràntàk, let's show them what my name means."
"So he is the son of that Shyam we hunted."
Murmured a cloaked figure, stood atop a tree about a half kilometre tall, with amusement. He was witnessing this ridiculous battle through a binocular matching his black attire. 'And he is somehow with someone from that organization.'
While the battle amused the mysterious man, the knights involved couldn't have been more terrified than they were now. "We are doomed," one knight muttered, seeing Sharv in a fighting stance.
"Yeah... how can we fight that monster?" another spoke. Faces pale, shoulders shaking, they were afraid to their core.
"The sole purpose of our lives is to protect people from Voidhearts." A knight with a massive shield stepped forward. Another also came forward, wielding a spear.
"Fight with all your might. Leave everything else to the commanders." Four such knights came forward, extended their Prana, and put up an earthen shield by channeling Earth Chakra in front of them. All the other knights followed.
"It… won't.. matter," Sharv uttered every word separately.
"PÀVÀN ĀKĀSH SÀNYOJÀNÀM"
(AIR SPACE ALIGNMENT)
His Air and Space Chakras pulsed, emanating silver and black lights.
"Should we run away, Brother?" Vijay asked.
"I think we should. We don't have the power needed to defeat him," Sujay said, already on the move.
"VĀYAVÍYÀ ĀKĀSH ÀSÌ"
(AIRY ETHEREAL SPACE BLADE)
Sharv's deep voice stirred both his sword and the air around him. Kràntàk hummed and then rotated in his hands multiple times. Twenty-five ethereal blades came into existence out of thin air. Shaped similarly to Kràntàk and made of pure silver air, their edges had a black shine.
Each of their tips locked onto one knight, and their hilts connected to Sharv with a silver thread linked to the shell surrounding him.
"May your souls find peace." Sharv brought his sword down faster than any of the knights could see, cutting the threads binding the blades. With another pulse of Prana, the silver blades rained down on the knights, each locked on its target.
Shields crumbled, followed by their bodies. Five to ten-foot-deep gashes were created on the ground by the impact, filled with blood, flesh, and split corpses.
Sharv didn't care to look at the aftermath. Instead, he looked into the distance, in the direction of a certain tree which towered over every other tree in the forest, even though it couldn't be seen from there.
'I should kill those two first.' Thinking this, he followed the commanders with great speed, the air seemingly carrying him, induced by PRĀNÀ, boosting his speed beyond normal.
'Did he just sense me, from two miles away?' the mysterious man questioned himself, putting his binoculars away under his cloak.
'Those two are bound to die, it seems. I should inform the City Magistrate.' Thinking this, he jumped off the tree and flew south, towards the city. In under half a minute, Sharv traveled more than five kilometers, catching up to them. He flew in front of them, blocking their paths.
"You can't run away. Answer my questions quickly, and I might let you live," Sharv offered. But they unleashed their Chakras.
Sujay had three and Vijay had four Chakras awakened, but the color of their Chakras was normal, unlike Sharv's changed colors, and the intensity of their Chakras was nowhere near Sharv's. But they boasted nonetheless.
"We are Voidhearts. We choose death over weakness!" Vijay shouted, shooting a volley of arrows. The arrows were carried by winds and were burning red.
"Yes, you shouldn't have followed us," Sujay boasted, as he brought out another bow and shot his own arrows. But his arrows were coated with ice and were ice-blue, the air itself seeming to freeze after touching them.
'Are they for real?' Sharv was amused. 'Fear is written all over their faces, and they ran from the fight.' His face remained emotionless. But this didn't mean he was doing nothing.
A red earthen armor covered his body, leaving only his head exposed. Arrows rained left and right, some hitting, some missing. But not a single arrow was able to penetrate his armor, though it was covered with ice in some places after the attack.
'They boasted about this level of power,' he thought to himself.
'What is this monster?' Sujay thought. 'What kind of dumb assessment ranked him as an Adept?'
'Fuck!' Vijay cursed himself. 'This guy... I have used all my power but haven't noticed even a single change in his expression from the very beginning.' Only if he knew that Sharv was simply unable to show emotions unless he actively tried to. Maybe he would not have been so disappointed in himself.
Sharv, without knowing what they thought, simply moved towards Vijay, who shot volley after volley of arrows. The arrows that missed Sharv and hit the ground exploded, leaving behind craters deep enough for a burial.
But Sharv moved without even flinching, tanking all of them. The fight happening in the air would have seemed like a rain of red and blue firecrackers, if not for the shockwaves uprooting trees after every exchange.
The devastation brought upon the forest due to the battle was massive, as most of the trees in, more or less, a one-mile radius were affected by it in some way. It was as if autumn had arrived with celebratory crackers whose explosions had left the trees without leaves and with shaking branches.
'I am out of PRĀNÀ,' Vijay thought, and with that thought came his doom. His flight was disrupted as he fell without any control. He was about to shout something. But his voice didn't come out.
Sharv had caught up and removed his body from his head with a swift slash. The head fell down and was blasted apart like a watermelon.
All this time, Sujay had drawn out a straight sword and was chanting some unclear incantations.
"It won't be easy for you now!" he shouted, his face twisted with anger. Armor made of frozen ice and earth had covered him. He lunged towards Sharv and attacked with all his might. Sharv blocked his sword with bare hands then counter-slashed, cutting off Sujay's other hand.
Screams of agony echoed in the forest. But before Sujay could come back to his senses, Sharv moved again without a care and slashed all four of his limbs, letting him free-fall. He caught Sujay before his torso hit the ground, then laid him down.
"Your armor was cold but sadly, your death will be warm, in a pool of your own blood." Sharv spoke neutrally, deactivating his Chakras and armor.