Chapter 61.

PART 1.

James and Hatori are experimenting with a vehicle yantra, they are trying to make it move it by itself, and dodge the obstacles in its way while driving. So far, they are not getting the results they want. “Maybe the reflection-based array has a problem.” Said James, looking at the schematics.

“Maybe using something like the Radar spell would help?” suggested Hatori. “Though I’m not sure how to implement that. The current set of runes is not enough for that.”

“How unfortunate.” Said James.

James has learned one thing during this time. Hatori is a great source of ideas, and he usually knows what he’s talking about when it comes to practical implementation of the ideas, whether they be his own, or coming from someone else. James, on the other hand, has trouble understanding and implementing ideas of someone else, but he can prepare and find mistakes in the schematics. But through Hatori, he is slowly improving on the practical side as well.

Truly, their team is most wonderful. Which is why, it is so unfortunate that their work is interrupted so harshly. For their experiments, James and Hatori have taken over an empty room, which seems to be not in use for a long time. Adults don’t frequent this part of the castle as well, so that is a bonus. But now, the door is suddenly thrown open, and an army of yantras marches inside, trampling over their work.

“Victory is ours!” declared Avinash, and the army attacked.

Hatori tries to fight off the army, but even with the support of James, they fail to defeat the yantras; plus, they also have to deal with Avinash and his two friends. Realizing that they won’t get anywhere by fighting here, James and Hatori bale out of their makeshift lab. Hatori clears the path, while James runs outside, carrying their schematics. Once James is in the clear, Hatori also runs away, though he left a pile of sliced and in some cases smoking yantras in his wake.

Standing in the middle of the empty room, Avinash declares his victory. “Victory is ours!” His friends cheered him on. “Hatori Eagle is now an outlaw. Anyone who helps him is the enemy of the state!”

“Don’t you think that’s going too far?” asked Akshat.

“Nonsense!” He dismisses the objection. “I’m the king, so I make the rules.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it works like that.” said Sagar.

The argument continues for a long time.

PART 2.

Hatori and James tell the entire incident to Josh, Raven and Shin. Both of them were miffed that their place was taken away like that, not to mention all the work which got trampled by that army in the process.

“I want revenge.” Declared Hatori. “I’ll be happy to get the room back if not for revenge.”

“Both of them are tied together.” Said Shin drily.

“Until you don’t have a solution to the numbers problem, you’re not taking back your lab.” Said Raven.

“Interesting that you mention it.” said Hatori.

James smiled. “I still do have all those basic combat yantras in my room.”

“I thought you dismantled them.” Said Josh. “Weren’t you getting yelled at by everyone because of them last time?”

“Zeko didn’t care. So, I hid a few of them.” said Hatori.

“I will never dismantle something which I created.” Said James, showing more emotion than usual.

“Well, if we do have an army of our own, it only means we can counter the army of Avinash.” Said Raven. “We still do need to take care of those three.”

“Easy.” Said Hatori. “I can easily take two of them on.”

“Woah now, no need to jump in the fire like that, even though you have some protection against it.” Said Josh. Someone needs to bring Hatori down a peg or two.

He’s getting overconfident in his combat skills. Unless he receives a beating from someone around their age, he won’t come down. ‘I won’t volunteer, of course; I have more important things to do than puncture his ego.’

“Okay,” Hatori calms down a little. “But we still outnumber them.”

“True.” Said Raven.” Tell you what, put the yantras under my command, and I’ll clear the path to Avinash. Then you can take him out.”

“Don’t we need to map out the location or something?” asked Shin.

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“It’s a room.” Said Raven. “There’s not much mapping you can do beyond that. Similarly, Avinash won’t have much of a defense there anyway. He has only that army to guard the door.”

Done planning, all five of them march to the room, and as Raven engages the army with his own, Hatori kicks open the door. Fierce combat breaks out from both sides, culminating in a duel between Avinash and Hatori, since he was the only one remaining from his side. He didn’t want to win this duel; he just wished to escape like his friends did.

Fortunately for him, he gets a chance to do that. evading the yantras after him sent by Raven, he runs away.

“Cool.” Said Josh. “Look at these new schematics.”

“Give it here.” Said James, snatching the papers away. “Looks like they were planning to improve their army.” He said after taking a look.

“Well, we can’t let that happen.” Said Hatori. “We must improve our army as well!”

“Right. And we’ll help you so you won’t create another rogue army. You guys have a habit of doing that.” said Shin.

“If only they would fight with the same ferocity when they are in and under our control…” lamented Hatori and James.

PART 3.

On the run, Akshit and Sagar ask Avinash what he is going to do next. “Why, retaliate of course! It won’t do if the king just admitted the defeat, now, would it?”

Stopping in his running, he nearly collides with a girl. “Oy! Watch where you’re going!” she orders.

“Oh yeah? This is my castle. I can go wherever I want!” said Avinash in return.

“But I heard you were giving up or something.” Said the girl.

“No.” said Avinash. “You know, I never gave up, Maria.”

“What happened?” After Maria hears the entire incident, and having a long laugh, she says, “I’ll help you. You’ll need someone like me to counter Raven.”

“Is that so?” asked Sagar.

“Yes. Don’t underestimate him. That entire assault was planned by him, and the rest of them just followed that plan.” Said Maria.

“Welcome aboard.” Said Avinash with a smile.

PART 4.

Several days of wars later, the matter reaches the court. “Your majesty, you must stop this children’s game. This castle is no place for such games.” said the petitioner.

“I don’t see any problems. If they can’t play here, where can they?” asked Porus. “Anyway, what did they do which caused you to come here with a petition?”

“They took several visiting young family members as hostages for their silly game!” said the man, unable to express his incredulity at such an absurd event.

“So, you’re telling me, that several older mages were taken hostage by a bunch of kids?” asked Porus. “Remind me, how did they graduate from the Academy? Maybe I should talk to Corvus and inform him that the quality of his graduates is slipping.”

Everyone suddenly sported horrified looks on the court. “Amarnath, has their game disrupted normal operations?” asked Porus.

“No, your majesty.” Said Amarnath. “The children stay away from the court, and people who are involved in it. They don’t even bother the castle’s workers, only other kids, or in their opinion, “Adults who are not serving any purpose in this castle””

Chuckling at the description of what the children think, Porus speaks. “I repeat, this goes to show that older mages are getting softer. Your petition is denied. It is very shameful to complain here when you’re unable to defend yourselves.” The petitioner walks away in disappointment. Unusually for the court, they support Porus by one-hundred percent in his decision for a change. “Next item in the list?”

PART 5.

The war got intense, as both sides took hostages at one time. Maria joined Avinash’s side for a while, and she even dueled with Hatori once. But then she had to leave with her father, and Avinash was facing Hatori’s group with his own outnumbered group again.

This war actually proved to be beneficial for Hatori. Not only did he get tons of combat experience, but he even started to use the fire element in fights, producing flames to burn things. Sadly, still no fireballs or fiery explosions.

However, this comes to an end, as the children have to leave for their second year in the Academy. As they boarded the ships, (Avinash and Hatori’s group boarded different ships) people in the castles ringed bells, banged drums, and sang in happiness.

Finally, their lives in the castle can return to normal.

(End.)