Dua's gaze bored into Carl and his men with a cold and calculated focus, like an animal with its prey...at least, in the eyes of Carl and the others; he looked absolutely menacing, and the corpses surrounding him only adding to the feeling of dread he was emanating to them.
From the duo of heads severed from their belonging bodies to the other couple of fresh corpses that were marking the ground as their forever burial grounds with the nauseating amount of blood that was leaking out of them all, the remaining eight were questioning if their goal was even worth it now with this overall picture in front of them.
Ixa, despite the enemy's hesitation and apparent apprehension, was not confident in himself, just the cost alone from clashing his intent with all of theirs, and the following rejection of it from multiple receiving ends created an ๐๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ dullness in his mind, it felt sickening, but he forcefully pushed all of it to the furthest reaches of his mind with that practice he did before with obtaining his skill's 'will', as there were still 8 left.
The exhaustion from everything was kicking his mind awake anew with pain, even as he shoved it into the furthest reaches his mind can allow, strangely his body felt fine, it was only his head...well, whatever was his head in this root body of his.
To explain what he did before in the most basic manner, he essentially just told their bodies to ๐๐ข๐, he directed his intent not at them, as in their mind to communicate, but at the whole, as in their body, which was something he wasn't even sure was possible, but it was...
It was quite effective in stalling them as he wanted, however, each one of their wills, their intents, well, more so their "bodies" natural intent, conflicted with his own, Ixa was only doing it to give Dua a chance to attack, and by spreading his intent throughout the whole 12 of them, it was spread too thin to overcome theirs.
What they felt in their bodies was an intruding will, trying to forcefully end their bodies will to work, to keep them alive, which naturally caused them to be stunned in place... of course, they don't understand that's what actually happened, they only felt something extremely odious in their bodies that made them stop in their tracks, only their bodies actually understood what was happening, that an unnatural will was suppressing them, trying to overpower them.
But the cost of doing that was hefty, as when the struggle of wills was over and his intent was finally rejected, it was like multiple rubber balls were bouncing back with full force to whoever threw it, which in this case, was Ixa...
His dulled mind was the necessary cost, but he will have to deal with it at another time.
Panic was flowing freely through Ixa's mind in the pain's place.
'What do I do! What-Do-I-Do?!'.
But, before it could take root, he felt it again, that instinctual pull that was
'... I need to... get them close to the corpses?'
He was unsure at what this ability was going to do to solve his current predicament, but it was all that he got left.
'Back up'
He communicated his intent to Dua, and he listened, Ixa & him backed off, and Carl's group noticed immediately, you could almost see their heads bop up in exclamation, all that was missing was the lightbulb and their finger going up in realization.
"Is he tired?...! We must take advantage and end him now!"
"Hold on, he may have a trick up his sleeve, didn't you see what he did to those two? He may have another ability that he is trying to bait us into."
"Well, we can't just do nothing, he can't escape as long as we guard the exit, but he'll recover and whatever happened before will happen again!"
They argued amongst themselves, they weren't united, they were a bunch of criminals of the town Dua was from, they were going to be executed, but the Mayor gave all of them pardons, claiming their 'talent' shouldn't be wasted, they became his 'guards', more accurately, his killers, his 'trump card', ready to off anyone he wishes, however, the only thing that really mattered to them was that they were allowed to do as they pleased to their victims, be it torture, brutally ravaging them, or even worse things; the only thing that kept them together was their shared passion of killing, however, there was something a few of them valued more than murdering or working as a team... their own lives.
Carl was appointed by them as the makeshift leader, as he was found to be the longest on the run from the law, making him their 'senior', with more experience in handling things such as this.
A dangerous thought passed through his mind as he stared at Dua, then the rabbit, and finally, the weird root thing that stood fixed between the two, which was reflected in the glint of his eyes, before eventually setting his gaze back on his fellow murderers.
"Half of us want to rush him, while the other 4 want a different approach, yes?ย So, why not give both?"
The others gave him a confused look.
"The four rush him, while the rest of use follow from the sides, spreading out to corner him, that way, if he does have some trick to save his life, we won't be down and out, and the rest of us will take him from the other sides, no matter what, his life will end here, put down in the dirt, sound like a plan?"
To a normal person, they definitely wouldn't play the game of being a possible scapegoat with their lives at stake, but for the four that wanted to rush Dua, they smiled crazily.
They were all a sort of crazy, in one way or another, with those four under the idea that their own ideas could never fail, no matter how nuts it may sound to others, even if they would be injured or heck, gravely wounded, the absolutely insane would just say, "Hey, it worked, didn't it?".
The other 4, Carl included, were more preservative in their drive of insanity, so they were absolutely comfortable with the idea of sacrificing the four in front of them, that's how they understood the plan...well... not Carl.
He wanted the biggest prize after all, whatever that root is...
'It's ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐.'
By the time Dua and Ixa backed up, side by side to his rooted body, they had already initiated the plan, the four brash loonies made an animalistic dash towards him, with a truly mad look in their eyes, while duos of two dashed at the outer reaches of the open field, bordering the dead trees.
As Dua reaffirmed his grip on his sword, both with fear and the determination to make it out this alive, Ixa reassured him.
'Wait.'
The four made it pass the second one who died.
'Wait.'
The duos were closing in from both sides of his vision, soon to be at his side, ready to end his life...
'Wait...'
They have abandoned the edges of the open field and were now making a straight dash towards him, both from the left and right, with the four approaching rapidly from the middle.
Collectively, they already passed the third and fourth who died.
The group of crazies now just pasted the first who died, with the duos of twos from the sides, he was nearly boxed in, he would be completely cornered and have no way to escape if he didn't move right then and there...
'๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐! ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ & ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐! ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐'๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.'
Dua resolved himself and made his own mad dash, straight at the group of four in the middle, unyielding.
'Even if I lose an arm or a leg, hell, if I even lose them both, I ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ see my wife and daughter again, I swear this, upon my life and soul...'
The four lunatics were startled by his sudden direct approach, but the one at the head of them laughed in response.
"So, you are just as insane as us, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐... I wa-."
Dua didn't even let him finish as his speed abruptly shot up, becoming a blur, their eyes couldn't follow him as he flew like a cannonball, ready to smash them all to smithereens, like he didn't even care for his own well-being, as he focused wholly on moving forward.
The one who just laughed at Dua paled when he realized that this wasn't him being crazy, it was his steel will to get out of this alive, despite all these odds, he still firmly held on to the belief he could- no, would!ย He would get out of here alive!
Even if he is faced with a chop to the legs, or arms, he was not about to freeze up on the honest chance of losing a part of himself here... the goon had to admit...
"You are a rare one, rock-face; you're the type to remain silent when one's legs are broken or in the face of being waterboarded, but, at the same time..."
The other three separated, holding their daggers and swords in the air, ready to slash down, while the one speaking drew his blade back, holding it horizontally, it burned in a glow of hazy, fiery, bright crimson, and with the light resting on parts of the right side of his face, shadows covering the other half, and the cruel light reflecting in both his eyes, he spoke, with a straight face that was just begging to grin its widest grin...
"๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐..."
They all swung their blades down in a myriad of orange, red, and violet as Dua barreled past them.
Something fell to the ground with the momentum he was carrying as Dua himself slowed to a halt past the corpses, he felt lighter and that he was missing something.
Blood flowed freely to the ground, both from the armless stump where his right arm used to be, and the hacked off arm itself.
There were other grievous wounds covering his body, a wide gash to the chest, a deep flesh wound to one of the sides of the abdomen, and a few lighter, but equally serious injuries to the rest of his appendages, but the missing arm was the most notable one.
Dua struggled not to scream from the pain, forcing his mouth closed by clenching his teeth with all of his strength; his body was just not having it as he wasn't allowing any outlet to the pain, it vibrated violently to the pure feeling of agony radiating from his injuries & the arm that was no longer there.
He fell to his knees as he unconsciously stabbed his blade into the ground with his left hand as support, covered in his own blood, unable to handle the onslaught of pain, the group of four smiled, the head of the previous four smiling the widest as the others gathered back up.
"So, he didn't have any more secret weapons to try against us?", the one running with Carl spoke with uncertainty.
"Guess we didn't have to be so worried...", a bulky man with a mace said softly, part of the other duo group.
"Betting anything that before, it was just a fluke that he managed to off the others.", a tall man, who accompanied the three rushing down the middle bolstered.
"Yeah right, all of that was just a miracle of luck.", a short stubby woman said sarcastically as she smacked the one who said that in the back of the neck.
They talked and laughed casually as they walked over to Dua, not even caring about the corpses of their previous friends.
'Get as far away as you can from the corpses.'
Dua gritted his teeth, and, with effort, pulled out his sword from the blood-soaked ground quickly, and used both his legs to push forward, stabbing the sword into the ground again mostly out of exhaustion, like this, he slowly crawled away, a trail of blood following, his body was too tired and injured to try and run or walk, so this had to do.
"Dua, you should know better that you can't escape, now give up, and just maybe we'll go a tad easy on you..."
Carl gave a smile that would have made the devil proud, as the group of eight strolled through the midst of the corpses as they weren't even registered to them anymore...
That was the nail in the coffin for them...
๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
Ixa didn't even think twice before allowing the instinct of
A gentle glow of a dull, dead red emanated from the bead on his actual body, only Dua saw this as he turned to face his foes, somewhat giving up, yet holding the hope that whatever Ixa had in plan will solve this situation.
In that instant, as the eight killers were in the midst of the four corpses, first beheaded without even being able to be aware of it, second stabbed in the throat mercilessly, and the third and fourth also beheaded, without their weapons, drenched in fear, and unable to react, those said corpses suddenly shined with red energy.
~๐๐๐๐๐๐๐~
The eyes of the corpses, for a split second, took on the look the bunny's that Ixa was possessing had, sunken in their sockets, filled with the void of light, before that same dead but bright red color completely filled the holes, before breaking off into crackles of energy throughout the body.
This happened in less than a second, and before they could even think-
~๐๐๐๐~
They each exploded, completely consuming the eight in smoke, flesh, viscera, and bone.
Before the explosion, Ixa was seeing something different, for some reason, his vision was covered by a hand of light reaching down, and a hand of darkness reaching up, with the bodies where they met, he absently thought...
'By using my ability to allow the soul to move on to the indefinite void, along with pushing the elements of death and life the corpses naturally have into an "excitable" state to the mix, it causes the three to meet in collision; with the road the soul creates moving on to the great beyond serving as a solvent and container for the volatile reaction, the moment the soul moves on and the solvent/container is gone, an explosion results by the forceful 'shoving' of the elements into the body.'
Once the smoke cleared up, all eight of them were lying on the floor, ๐๐๐๐, with various holes throughout the body, some were missing chunks of their head, body, arms, legs, etc, not to even mention how covered they were in various parts of the human anatomy, some even missing large parts of their body, like Carl missing the entirety of his upper head, cut off above the lower lip by something circular.
[You have ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ grasped one of the many uses of
Unexpectedly, his
| Name: Ixa | Species: Fallen Treant
| Stats
STR: 0
AGI: N/A
VIT: ?
INT: 7
| Skills & Abilities
{1 of '???' met for skill growth}
'What?'
Before he could delve further into the matter, he remembered Dua and the state he was in.
'Oh frick.'
He immediately hopped over to him, and thankfully, he was still alive, his 'radar' still reporting that he was not dead yet, however, there was a trickling feeling to his fleeting life & greeting death, which was not good.
Luckily enough, he had got just far enough to not be affected by the explosion or the shrapnel, he was even spared of any flesh, but the previous injuries and exhaustion have taken their toll, and he has lost a lot of blood through those mortal wounds, only coming to a slowed pace thanks to him being just conscious enough to tie a small rag he had on him over the stump, restricting him from losing any more, however...
'He's losing too much blood and getting too close to death's doors.... okay, okay, I can control death, ๐๐ง๐ life, so I just need to find a way to heal him, no biggy, I just made a bunch of lifeless corpses explode from nothing, so I'm sure I have some ability to heal, heck, considering I can allow death to pass, maybe I can hold it back a tad, so I should be better at it, no?'
He was talking to himself in a bit of a panic, but it seemed System thought otherwise.
[Actually, the system has got a better read on that specific bit when it comes to the skill
"I wasn't expecting that, but I am so glad you answered me, okay, tell me, what exactly do you mean, as I have no clue what to do..."
[At its core, you can directly use life to heal life, like a transaction; using things that are or were just living to heal living things, while offensively, you can use death to cause dea-]
"I don't need the entire explanation right now! Right now, just explain how to use it, I already have an idea, and he doesn't have the time."
Dua's face was starting to go pale, he didn't have long unless something was done.
[Feel for both the life and death in your surroundings, and think of them like a in-between liquid-solid molding clay, just rouse them to loosen them from their affixed place and use them for whatever you wish.]
"Alright, here goes nothing..."
He focused how he felt for the positions of the guards before, their life, and how he made sure all of them were dead, the consuming feeling of nothingness where something living once was, death, then...
'Excite both of the elements in their body a little to "rouse" and loosen them.', this came from his own interpretation to how to 'rouse' them, plus the feeling he got when he made those corpses explode, and he had, luckily, thought correct.
The dull red bead glowed again, but this time, the color was slowly changing, from its center to the furthest edge, a color of grey took over, and following that new color, the glow changed from a dull red to a light grey, only this time, it was much stronger, but gentler, spreading to the hole-filled corpses and over Dua himself.
'A reaper's duty is to allow the dead to pass on to the great beyond, but...I'm not just a reaper in the sense of the word, I'm also a life-giver.'
While he hadn't felt as much of a wisp of responsibility, much less the 'duty' of a 'Grim Reaper', as he only existed for roughly an hour now, based on how the System described it, it actually sounded like a somewhat pleasant job, allowing those who's time as come to peacefully pass on, while ripping it away from those who cling too desperately, something about it just felt right.
As for the whole idea of a life-giver, he had not the faintest clue, but he'll understand it, he just needed time to grasp it.
Once the light settled on the corpses and the various bits & pieces of flesh and bone, they were slowly dissipating, no, that's not right, they were slowly becoming something along the lines of dust, but instead of just settling on the ground, it flew into the air like a conscious stream of water.
At the same time, a more ghostly, liquid bright grey filled the center of these "streams", and it was strangely easy to guess what this was to Ixa.
'Their souls...'
~๐๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐๐ก๐ก~
~๐๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐๐ก๐ก~
~๐๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐๐ก๐ก~
Multiple voices sounded together like a soft chorus as the influxes of this 'dust' flowed into the air, coming together to form a large floating body of dust, with an oval core of light grey liquid.
It sounded like there was actual music behind the chorus, together, it was serene, peaceful, and even...
'Beautiful...'
As he gently nudged it towards Dua, it started to flow like a downstream river, with him at its end, the music started to approach a crescendo as it closed the distance.
As it played, the 'dust' that arrived at its destination, it formed a circle around Dua, not completely solid though as little particles of dust kept separating from one another to form space between each other, the flow paused for a brief moment.
With a soft grey light taking residence in the small circle, the inside of it looked... there were no words to describe it, the dust particles that made up the somewhat cocoon-like shape slowly rotated around Dua's bloody figure while the bright light of grey inside it looked heavenly.
Dua's severed arm also became dust, but it kept the relative shape of an arm as it flowed over to Dua himself.
It took its place where the arm used to be, before the flux of dust started to course once again, this time, entering the dome and filling in the arm, and the injuries...
The last & brightest of the dust cloud, the souls, flowed into each of the injuries, filing in the rest of them completely till they were solid; the crescendo of the chorus of music and voices finally arrived as it made the entire scene a sight that was much more memorable than before.
His mind was empty in pure peace as the process finished itself, with some of the dust that made up the cocoon was filtered to the last crevices of the injuries, which were then completely filled, and these dust-filled injuries slowly transitioned into to the color tone of his skin.
The dust, from flesh, returned to flesh... Dua's.
This marked the finishing touches of the healing process.
The remaining dust making up the dome flowed over to Ixa, and then, did something peculiar...
It floated around the ovular bead and was absorbed into it.
More exactly, it lached onto it like flakes, then melded into the core, flowing like streams of grey light in the bead towards the center..
With this, the shining light dimmed slowly until it was no more, and the bead returned to its normal red, however, there was a speck of that gray at the center of it, invisible to the naked eye unless someone were to put their eyeball on the bead itself or just look at the right angle, but soon, it too reverted to the dead red.
'What... just happened?'