"You need to wake up!! Lanius, wake up!"
The young man felt dizzy. His vision was blurry with a teal shade, being able to only distinguish outlines. He could hear his heart beat frantically, along with a female voice in his head, telling him to wake up...
Was he awake!? Was this another dream? For a long time, he was in a dark, endless room, with her being the only one that kept him company.
"Her" name... Freida wasn't it? What was she? Lanius couldn't remember what relationship he had with her. Lately, he begun having dreams of the past, his family, the tribe...and then?
He woke up... or so he thought...then the pain in his eye...then anger, then the feeling of being in a trance like state, the mind fogging up. And now he was starring at these two shadow like creatures with Freida telling him to wake up.
These shadows,they looked bizarre. One had a greenish color and the other had a navy blue shade with two light blue shinning eyes. Lanius tried to concentrate on them. The green shadow was leaning forward in a combat stance. The blue had a more straightened stance.
Lanius lost concentration, as his mind became hazy once more.
"What... Is this another dream?" Lanius thought. Am I ever going to get free from this trance-like state? "
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"I see..." Akali said, looking towards the young man. "It's as if he has two souls in him. The teal one has some gold veins on it."
"Correct, these engravings you saw, they are a sort of binding curse." Shen replied. "It looks like the smaller one holds more power, that's why it's the cursed one."
"What about his right eye? It's spiritual form is also teal."
"It probably has a connection with the teal spirit."
"So what do we do now?" Akali then asked, looking at the young man. "Do we leave him like this? Do we undo the curse?"
"If we want to free him from the curse, we would need to approach him slowly. He is currently in a fight or flight situation now, and judging by these ice gauntlets in his hands, he will pick fight." Shen now said.
"Why should we free him?" Akali questioned with a puzzled tone, turning towards her master's way.
"We need to restore nature's circle. We can't live without the winter." he replied.
Akali opened her mouth to respond, when somebody spoke from the young man's way.
"No...xus..."
Akali turned, the young man's head had now tilted sideways. He was directly starring at her. Shen now slowly approached the young man. He barely reacted by simply flinching and clenching his fists. The rogue assassin couldn't stand watching her master approach the demonised boy.
She wanted to pull him away, as all of her senses screamed at her to book it out of there. Shen finally made his way towards the young man, and pulled two seals from within his clothes.
Akali then realised that she was shaking from the cold. She sheathed her kama and began to violently rub her upper arms, trying to warm herself.
Judging by the two seals, one would go on the front and one on the back. Shen muttered something that Akali couldn't hear due to the wind. The seals lit up and he went to place the first one onto the young mans chest, right above the heart.
The young man's head flew back and he stubbled as soon as the seal sat on skin. His mouth opened and a scream parted his lips.
Shen dashed back with the other seal still in his hands.
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"UAAAAGH! " Lanius felt a sharp pain on his chest. It the instantly changed into a burning sensation that engulfed his whole torso. Whatever the one with the blue soul placed on him, it wasn't good. What a vile dream...
How he wished that he'd wake up.
He suddenly panicked, as he realised that Freida also screamed with him. That thing...it could hurt spirits. Lanius had to stop this... So he reeled his right fist back and the lunged it at the blue shadow.
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Shen was caught off guard by the right jab. He didn't expect that the winter would react so violently.
He was able to raise his hands and block the punch at the last second. The punch pushed him back two meters and made his hands sting for an instant.
He stepped back again prior to inspecting his hands and discovering that a thin layer of ice had formed on them, giving him said sharp, stinging feeling.
He shook them, getting the ice off and then drew his blade from his back. He went for a protective stance, when he noticed that his former apprentice was rushing towards them.
"Akali, don't!" he tried to warn her, but he was cut off by another collision. The Winter dashed forward, slamming his fist once more at him, this time at his blade. The metal clancked as it collided with the ice. Shen was pushed once more.
The Winter, after roaring again, started to deliver a set of punches towards Shen, who tried to deflect them with his sword. Small lines of ice began forming on the blade. The ice made the sword heavier, not allowing the Kinkou master to deflect properly. A thought of the sword snapping from a punch made him jump back a few meters and swipe the ice off the sword.
The Winter went towards him again... Shen braced for the next fist, when something unexpected happened.