Chapter 252.
PART 1.
Garuda is walking to the gate of their home on the magical dimension. His siblings Daphne Junior and Sushima are watching from inside the house from a window. They have already beaten their first elemental spirits. Daphne has beaten her second one, and Sushima has just dealt with the third one. He will face the final spirit the next year. It is Garuda's turn to face his first elemental spirit.
They want to see how their unshakeable younger brother handles this challenge. Right when he is about to take his final few steps to the house's door, a gorilla appears in a woosh of flames.
"So, you're the one." He said, getting ready to face the spirit. "Let's get it done."
The spirit responded by bombarding the young mage with fireballs. How dare he act so lofty in front of him? Not even his father was so arrogant. Garuda brings up a water shield and then attacks the spirit with the same water.
The water suppressed the fire of the spirit quickly. No matter what he tries, the flames will not come out. The spirit disappears into smoke, and Garuda walks to the door. Every step he takes makes a sound of sloshing, as the entire area has been filled with the water he has conjured to beat that spirit.
"What're you looking at?" He asked, looking at his older brother and sister. "Ahim is waiting. Stop looking at me with open mouths."
"Sure." They snap out of the shock, and they follow him. First, they will get a shower, and after that, they will play with their youngest sibling.
They are surprised at how quickly Garuda dispatched his first spirit. But soon enough, Sushima is over his shock. "You do know what will happen to you now?" He asked him.
"I know. I'll get a stronger response from the module running in this house." Replied Garuda. "Don't you worry, I will face it, just like I face everything."
"I meant I can duel with you with my full strength." Said Sushima.
"Right. Just like you did last time. You needed Daphne's help, if I recall correctly." Replied Garuda without missing a beat.
"I was sick! And that moron of a professor forced me to duel you!" Retorted Sushima.
"Didn't he get fired or something?" Asked Daphne.
"Oh yeah. You weren't in the hall then. Headmaster Dhiraj laid into him in front of everyone."
As Sushima continued to recount the entire incident, Garuda relaxed. Leaving them to talk, he goes to his room and enters the bathroom. He likes his life the way it is. And if anyone tries to disrupt it, he'll deal with them.
'I hope you are doing good father.' He thinks to himself. Though he won't say it out loud, he misses Hatori. However, confessing such a thing in front of someone like Sushima will impact his cool credentials, so he remains quiet.
PART 2.
Once more, Hatori is sensing the time fragments while floating in this void. One is already with them, and he is carrying it in the seal present on his wrist. One is nearby, towards which they are approaching rapidly. But the most distant one has gotten closer. Hatori remembered that he sensed this fragment moving earlier. What is even stranger is that it seems to be moving along with another fragment. This could mean only one thing.
'Someone is carrying one fragment, and they already have another one.' Before he could share his thoughts with others, they arrived at the period where their second fragment was located. They land in a thick forest, and Munshi notes how he does not sense any humans at all.
"Do you sense the fragment?" Asked Josh to Hatori. Before h
e could answer that, they heard something. It is a sound the likes of which they have never heard before. It rattles their bones and leaves them with a feeling of dread. This deep vibrating sound, no animal in their knowledge makes such a sound. "The fragment is coming our way." Answered Hatori.
"What?" Even though his brain has not caught up with the problem yet, Josh scatters along with everyone, as a huge blast turns their former location into a crater.
Once the dust clears, they see the huge beast. It is at least fifteen meters long and six meters tall. It has two pillar-like hind legs supporting the huge body, while the arms are a bit shorter. Hatori saw the banana-sized sharp teeth within the mouth of this monster, and then the fragment which is their goal attracted his attention. It is stuck in the crown-like crest on its head.
The monster did not wait for them to regain their feet. It breathed once more and bombarded them with more fire attacks. "Homing spells? This is interesting." Said Hatori, batting several spells away, where they landed in the bushes but did not cause a huge fire. 'Interesting.'
James attacked it with various spells, and Hatori did the same. This time, Hatori is not finding things to be that interesting. "Magic resistance?" He conjures up several iron spikes and sends those flying to the monster, but they fail to pierce its skin. Hatori tried to target its mouth or eyes, but it appeared that the beast was smarter than he thought at first. "Shielding?"
'Alright. Time for drastic measures.' Once the constant blasts of a military spell stop, Hatori motions Raven to get back. "Tom, Shin, with me!"
Both of them appear by his side. Tom and Hatori cast fire spells, and Shin enhanced those with his wind. A firestorm is created on the spot, and the monster is engulfed in the towering flames. This time, the trees do catch fire. But Hatori is not happy.
"Did that do it?" Asked Josh.
"No, it didn't." Said Munshi, having sensed what Hatori had sensed as well.
Hatori prepares to attack the monster with a lightning spell, deciding to use positive lightning just for good measure. But several flaming trees came his way, and the monster sent him flying by using one of those flaming trees. His spell fizzles out, and others scatter in different directions.
PART 3.
Hatori lands in a river. That beast got him good. 'Never thought I would end up meeting a T-Rex like this.' He thought to himself.
When he surfaced from the water, he looked at the maw of another beast. It does not take him long to recognize it as some kind of prehistoric crocodile. "I have taken one beating for today, thank you." He said to the beast, as lightning started to buzz around him. "I am not going to take another."
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The blast of lightning stunned the beast, and then Hatori sent it flying. "Nostalgia. Too bad that Elephant and Snake are both dead." Said Hatori to himself. Apparently, despite his modifications and their advanced use of magic, they still ended up dying. Granted, they both died in a battle. But still.
From the bank of the river, he surveys the surroundings. It is a prehistoric area with dense forest which would make any property developer drool. They cannot tolerate any form of greenery. His father fought against them a lot and ranted about them until his death.
Hatori shakes his head to clear the distracting thoughts. 'Looks like I was hit harder than I thought.' It is a period many kids fantasize about. But none of them understand the real danger of this time. Everything is stronger and bigger than him. And most important of all, they all want to kill him.
'I can't interpret their mind signals like I do with animals of my time.' Thinks Hatori, rising in the air. He crossed his legs and started to go towards the location where he was sensing his friends. He stays in the air to avoid the dangers on land. He is certain he won't encounter any big predators in the sky.
'Of course, it won't work. It would be like going back in time and reading the first few bits of Fortran or Lisp code. Prehistoric Lisp or Fortran code.' Not that Hatori has much time to play with programming, what with spending time with his kids, fighting terrorists, and keeping on top of political idiots.
PART 4.
Josh, along with Munshi and Kalicharan went in the other direction, while Raven, James, Shin, and Tom went somewhere else. Their group was smaller, so the beast targeted Josh and his group first. They can still not harm this beast. Just when Josh was considering splitting further, the three of them were nearly killed by the stomp of the beast which caused a huge fissure to appear which nearly swallowed them.
"We can't keep splitting up, this thing will kill us all!" He said to Munshi and Kalicharan when they finally got a break.
"You're right. But how are we going to join?" Asked Munshi. Josh looks at the reason for their current break.
Tom and Raven had a brilliant idea to attack the monster from behind. But Raven is hammered by its tail, and just like Hatori, he took flight. Luckily for him, James caught him and took him away from the battle. Tom nearly survived being cleaved in half by the blade of energy which extended from the powerful tail of this monster, while Shin is looking from far helplessly.
Josh blanched in fear when he looked at the massive blast of fire in the mouth of this monster, aimed right at the location of James and Raven. Deciding that he can't let his friends die, he brings a huge wave of water. He would prefer to have a river nearby, but for the time being, this conjured water will do. The wave hits the monster and fails to shake it. But it accomplished its intended purpose of distracting it. Now, it focuses on Josh, who is pelting it with large blasts of water. Soon enough, the entire area starts to flood due to the water conjured by Josh. The hot water didn't have much of an effect. So, Josh started to use increasingly colder water. This appears to slow down the monster. Taking advantage of this, Josh freezes it, turning it into a huge ice statue.
Unfortunately, it is not enough. The raw power of the monster is enough to break out of the ice. Shin, who is watching this battle, decides to test out a theory he has been thinking about, ever since he heard the growl of this monster for the first time.
He starts to play a melody to confuse and disorient an opponent. He didn't have to amplify it. Even from this distance, the animal can hear it. It tries to turn around and silence this pesky noise, but the ground has turned soft, and due to the cold bath, its large size, and Shin's music, it is unable to turn around quickly. Josh takes advantage of this, and once again froze it solid. This time, it is unable to break out of the ice. A flying Hatori appears and takes the fragment from the crest of the monster. Hatori had to go up in the air to avoid the headbutt that the T-Rex tried to give him. He has no interest in getting hit by the reptile once again.
Having collected their prize, they all quickly huddle together. James levitated the injured Raven, and the spell to leave this era and appear in the middle of the void between periods is cast. As the beast watches them, they all disappear just like they appeared.
He breaks out of the ice covering his body. The cold is unforgiving. He has never experienced something like this before. Not even during the winter and rainy seasons. He starts to run the fire magic throughout his body to warm himself. While he is in the middle of this, several smaller creatures show up. With a contemptible grumble, he swiped them away with its thick tail. Those strangers with two legs may have gotten the better of him today, but these small flies will not. He is still the king of this region and will remain so until he dies.
PART 5.
Garuda is playing with Ahim. He is six months old and has started to walk already. He hates it when anyone picks him up, which he lets them know by loudly crying and wiggling to get out of their grip.
"He is just like his father and grandfather in that way." Remarked Daphne.
"Not surprised." Said Ravina. "Though which grandfather are you referring to?"
David and Karan, after they met, hit it off nicely. The man seems to have found a magical counterpart of himself. Those two were the only ones who could stop Hatori, and make him reconsider his actions, apart from Daphne and Ravina without violence. Zeko was the only one who could do that, but after their death, these two women were the only ones who could stop him. Not even his friends and the king could stop him when he decided to take action.
"I think he has the traits of both. Too bad they are not here to see him." Said Daphne, missing her father.
"Do you think Hatori would resurrect their souls if we ask him to?" Asked Ravina.
"The better question is, should we even ask him?" Asked Daphne in return.
"True. Stupid idea."