The man's cold voice echoed through the hall, leaving him stunned , he managed to look only to see the man holding up the seed, which was a blue crystalline ball . Fear was written all over his face staring at the man who just tossed the seed a few times before crushing it. " I expected something like this, so I sealed the place the moment you entered. There is no one wh…"
The man suddenly stopped talking, looking at his right hand with what he guessed to be shock. He turned back to Ash, who now had a confused expression on his face, but this time he was holding a blue crystal ball.
" I'm surprised that worked even more than you fell for it, " Ash said calmly, more specifically in a sarcastic way. Turns out that he had three of such crystal balls, and only one was the real seed. He had prepared them just in case of an emergency, and it turned out that he was right to do so.
Even with the advantage that he had made for himself, he was still very much far from victory, but the sight of the man groaning in pain was very much satisfying " you little bas….tard " the man cursed but Ash didn't have time to listen, running straight at him with the little dagger that he had in hand and couldn't use.
The man at this time was taking his glove off to see the strange coloration. He was quick to notice and threw a heavy kick at Ash, who luckily ducked, letting the kick fly directly over his head and going behind the man before thrusting the dagger into him, only for it to be deflected off his body , most likely an armor.
The man reacted instantly grabbing Ash by the collar and slamming him into the ground " You choose to fight the moment you heard the place was sealed , so naive do you really think I will say the truth to someone who I'm about to kill " the man said calmly as the affected hand suddenly changed back to the normal colors as if nothing ever happened.
It was at this moment that Ash realized that he had been played 'fair point , I'm such an idiot ' Ash thought as his world kept spinning due to the impact and then his body suddenly became weightless before crashing into a very hard surface followed by a sharp pain in his chest that caused great pain so much that he screamed all the air out of his lungs. He looked down at his chest, and an ink-black blade was holding him to the wall; his vision suddenly began to grow dim as he began to lose consciousness.
[ initiating resuscitation protocol : wound fatal]
[ initiating rewind sequence in 3....2.....1....0]
A voice that seemed familiar called out to Ash, who felt calm, or rather nothing at all, as if he was in a void space wandering aimlessly. He knew the voice like other things he was familiar with, but couldn't even remember what or who it was. One thing was certain, and that was it felt closer to home than anything.
'Watch out for the intent, remember the chants of the king,' a voice whispered to him in an ominous tone that made him comfortable, 'wait, something's not right. Ash thought only to open his eyes and see himself standing in the middle of the training ground.
He noticed his body was fine , even the hole on his chest made by the man's last attack was nowhere, making him even more confused. He was very much dying just a few seconds ago, and everything just somehow felt like it was his imagination, except it wasn't, and he knew that it wasn't a dream.
Just as he thought this he began to notice The strange feeling of the Hex trying to get a hold of him, all of this he felt was familiar with, then the feeling stopped overwhelmed by a new feeling much like his soul was being suppressed ' that's what he meant by intent ' Ash thought looking up to now see the man in a hood staring at him.
His thoughts raced to different parts, trying to answer questions that he knew he didn't have any answer to. The voice that saved him and brought him back was most likely not the other guy, most likely external, but who was it ?.
" going somewhere ?" the man's voice called out ot him while he was in the daze bringing him back to reality, he still had the weird aura around him which made his shivers run down his spine ' watch out for the intent 'those words sounded in his ears as if reminding him of something that he had forgotten about which he did but not came back.
"You are using oppressive intent, aren't you ? " Ash asked, noting the slight change in posture which showed confirmation, he couldn't see the face, but he knew that it would be that of surprise." You are a strange little child , how did you know ? " the man asked. Oppressive intent is the ability that the strong have to overpower people of a weaker soul than themselves.
He had learnt about it from Lily during one of their training sessions, and from what he was told, it was dangerous when used in the right or wrong hands, having a range of effects depending on the user, from instant suppression to lethal, non-negligible weakening, like what happened the first time he died.
Just the thought of it made him shiver. Dying a second time wasn't an option since he felt the pain full and fresh, so he had to do everything in his power to survive. Since he was under the effect of the suppressive intent, he would still lose against him unless he had an artifact that would shield his soul from the effect, which he didn't but he did have something he could use.