[BHMM!!]
The energy caused tremors in the air. Yaksh looked around, he was now at a decent distance away from Arav and the building’s location.
[TRRR]
A barrage of purple energy got fired at Yaksh, he moved at a rapid rate. Going at the back of the naga;
[SWOOP]
He shot another arrow to no effect,
“HSSSS…” The energy around the naga began dissipating, Yaksh’s eyes flinched as he finally managed to sense his energy. The true form of the naga was revealed, a purple body of a large complete snake with hard, seemingly impenetrable skin, standing tall several meters high.
‘Just…insane…his energy..it’s hundreds of times stronger than before..’ Yaksh thought while moving rapidly around the area, dodging the attacks from the naga.
[BOOM…CRASH]
***
{Fifteen minutes earlier}
“WHAT!!?!” Usha slammed her fist on the throne arm, while standing up in an instant;
A soldier stood in front of her, his head bowed down, with entire body trembling in fear.
“This..this can’t be….where is Digvijay?” Usha asked in a loud voice,
“Kunwar Digvijay has been missing since the morning..” The soldier replied in a low voice;
‘Vijay is also out of the city….I fear the worst.’
“TCH!...Send every warrior we can arrange, kill those attackers as painfully as possible! SHOW THEM WHAT IT MEANS TO ATTACK THE PADMA KINGDOM!!” Usha raised her hand towards the soldier, while ordering.
***
Arav stood near the collapsed building, the rubbles from his previous fight had not settled yet. He turned towards the man lying on the ground. The man had torn off half of his face skin and stayed flat on the ground with eyes popping out.
‘Nagas in human territory,..they are a relatively calm race and hate to meddle with others, dragons cursing the elves. Along all these peculiarities, me being reincarnated during this time.. Someone hidden is pulling these strings, and not attacking me means he isn’t expecting the return of the dragon lord.’ Arav kept thinking while staring at the corpse;
[TTAK..TTAK]
The sound of horses arriving caught his attention, he turned towards the direction and could only see shadows due to the darkness.
“HMPH! How dare a mere peasant create such ruckus!” A sound of a displeased warrior came from the front. Arav silently raised his arms,,
“HMPH!! As expected, when the elites of the Padma kingdom arrive, everyone loses their will to fight. But unfortunately, it’s too la…”
[SLASH…SPLURT…CLINK!]
Arav released powerful energy slashes while lowering his hand, dozens of soldiers fell victim to his attack and fell down, with their bodies cut perfectly in half. A few warriors managed to evade the attack and jumped out of the trajectory, while a few blocked it head on.
Arav smirked, as first time since he began his attack, it failed.
“HRAAAA!!’ Soon, his smirk disappeared, the man raised his sword and flames instantly surrounded it. The entire area got lit up, revealing the soldiers to Arav and him to the soldiers. Arav saw the man in the front, he had a large scar on his forehead with long white hair, accompanied by a beard on his face.
[BLAZE!!!]
The man attacked by sending a stream of blazing flames forward, Arav raised his right hand, creating a shield around him.
“HRAA!!!” The man roared again, causing the flames to intensify even more,
[CRACK!]
Arav noticed his shield slowly losing its strength.
‘He’s strong’
[BOOM]
The ground trembled, large chunks of debris got blown away by the explosion. The man smirked, causing his wrinkles to contract. With a satisfied expression, he lowered his weapon.
“Quite interesting…The life of enslaving and exploitation made you pretty strong..” Arav said from the center of the explosion, the man and his soldier’s faces went pale.
“Impossible..” The man whispered with his wide eyes reflecting the flames on the ground.
“Unfortunately for you,..Fire’s an old friend..”
[WOOSH…BLAZE..]
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Within moments, the flames began gathering in the center. To the utter disbelief of the warriors, Arav stood unharmed and was gathering the flames in his open palm. The flames gathered and formed a small dense sphere. Arav held it like a ball and glanced at them;
“I’m interested in how you will survive this..” Arav stretched his body backwards, while his second hand pointed at the warriors;
“BRACE FOR IMPACT!!” The man quickly raised his sword again, and began summoning flames.
[SOOOP….BOOM….BHMM!!!!]
Flames erupted meters high from the ground, illuminating the entire area.
Arav threw the sphere, it went with incredible speed and directly clashed with the warriors.
[BLAZE…BHOOO]
“Haaah…” Yaksh, with many wounds all over his body noticed the flames in his peripheral vision.
“SSS…Rat, It seems your companion is dead…” The naga mockingly stated;
[DRIP..DRIP..]
Yaksh’s skin had begun turning purple with eyes slightly bulging, he held his abdomen that had a large hole with purple liquid leaking out.
“Heh..”
“SSS…Still laughing?..You seem to have lost your mind.”
“[COUGH]...He..will survive..” Yaksh spoke while nocking an arrow with shaking hands,
“SSS…What makes you believe that?”
“Hooh..He..never…lies..”
[SWOOP..TRR]
The arrow shattered upon hitting the hard scales of the naga.
“HAHAHA!!..Your struggle is quite amusing, rat…now DIE!!”
[SWOOSH]
A stream of purple energy got released towards Yaksh, and directly collided with him. He got thrown several meters away and landed on the ground.
“HAHAHA..” The naga laughed, revealing its large mouth with huge fangs,
“SSS..Your body will rot in seconds, where is your previous confidence?”
Yaksh’s entire skin had turned purple with liquid leaking out of his mouth and eyes. His vision began getting blurry, with lungs refusing to breathe in any air. Yaksh tried his best to inhale, opened his mouth to breathe, struck his lungs, but nothing worked. The sense of suffocation impaired his sense, the fear of death engulfed his heart. But then, in that desperate moment, a certain conversation resurfaced.
‘One can’t improve, without knowing their limits..’ Arav’s voice echoed inside his head.
‘M..my limits….’
[HUM!]
“HUH?” The naga’s laugh stopped, he stared at the bright green light around Yaksh.
Yaksh began standing up, while supporting his body on the bow.
“SSS..Ho..how..”
Yaksh raised his bow and nocked another arrow,
“SSS…” The naga prepared another attack, his entire purple body shook with strength while eyes began leaking purple energy.
Yaksh’s hands shivered, still overwhelmed with pain, but a strange power fueled his strength. His mind began getting clear, ignoring the unbearable pain. His eyes got locked on the naga creating a sphere of purple energy in front of his mouth.
‘I…refuse to give up!..I..refuse to let them down!..I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!!’
“HAAAAA” Yaksh screamed, his entire body felt as if tearing apart. The air began getting heavy, the energy from his body intensified, and his hair began turning green, while the energy formed a figure of a dragon above Yaksh’s head, several meters high in the sky.
[WOOSH…CRACKLE….]
Energy condensed on the tip of his arrow,
“DIE!!!” They both exclaimed at the same moment, releasing terrifying attacks at each other.
[BOOM…]
The attacks collided with an incredible loud explosion, creating a large crater in the ground. The arrow from Yaksh tore through the naga’s attack and blew his entire head away. His lifeless body fell on the ground.
[THUD]
Yaksh fell on his back, with his bow falling off his hand. The sensation of the pain returned and his vision began getting darker, but right before his eyes closed, he saw the figure of a large dragon made by his energy, slowly dissipating right in front of him.
{Meanwhile near the statue}
Arav heard the powerful explosion, he looked in the direction of Yaksh and smirked. Hundreds of arrows made of yellow energy floated above him, with the man holding a sword standing in front, surrounded by hundreds of soldiers lying on the ground.
“How do you possess such power?...Who are you…?” The man asked with a pale face, while his wide eyes stared at Arav.
Arav suddenly turned his head to the left, he stared at the direction of the slums.
“....Old man, It seems our fight won’t meet its end..” Arav waved his hand down while turning towards Yaksh’s location.
“YOU’RE GOING NOWHERE!!!” The man once again summoned his flames and rushed at Arav.
“STOP” Arav’s voice vibrated, the man lost control of his limbs and froze at his location.
“Wh..what is this sorcery?..” He tried to move his limbs, but failed at every try.
Yaksh began moving towards Arav, while lying on yellow energy. Arav created a small platform below his feet and began floating towards the slums. Within moments, he arrived near the mountain opening he had once entered the city through.
He noticed footsteps on the dry soil on the ground, being illuminated by the moonlight. Arav looked at the sky;
‘Five and a half hour….What was that sudden rise in energy I felt?..’ He moved forward towards a small lake and placed down Yaksh on the ground. He entered the water and moved his fingers, creating ripples inside it.
“FORMATION..”
[GLIBL..]
The water moved and began floating above the lake, with a bright flash of white light, it created a form of a woman, soon turning into Ambu. She appeared while smiling, but the moment her eyes fell on Yaksh, her expression went serious. She moved towards him and summoned water in her hand, sending it to Yaksh’s unconscious self.
“This is terrible…” Ambu said in a concerned voice, while her white eyes kept glowing.
“Pretty much in the expections range after fighting against a naga..”
“WHAT?!!”
***
[TAK…TAK…TAK]
The sun had begun rising in the horizon, casting its first rays on the forest. Around twenty elves were running behind Drishti, their faces appearing pale with lips completely dry.
“Haah…Miss warrior…ho..how long..” A woman holding an infant in her hand asked, her eyes appeared dull with her blinking slowly,
“Hooh..Just a bit more…don’t stop..keep running…we’re almost home..” Drishti responded with a smile, but she herself was aware that the conditions of the elves were far worse than she had imagined. Their bellies were empty, hearts were scared. But they all ran with sheer willpower and determination for freedom.
“Huff..Miss warrior..Why was that man fighting with the humans?..” A young elf girl asked while trying to keep up with Drishti. She got surprised by the question, and began wondering how to answer;
“It..It’s a long story, but in short, you all managed to escap…”
[SWOOP..SWOOP..]
A barrage of arrows were shot at them, Drishti quickly summoned energy in her hands and negated the attack. The forest was still relatively dark around the trees. Drishti carefully scanned her surrounding;
[CLAP…CLAP…CLAP]
“What a marvelous act of bravery..” A golden haired man appeared in front of them, he had a wicked smile, accompanied with eyes that screamed for blood.
Drishti got goosebumps, as she instantly recognised the man;
“Pleasure meeting you once again, my lady..” The man slightly bowed down,
[SWOOP]
Drishti shot an arrow surrounded with green energy, but to her utter horror, the man caught it without looking up. The energy dissipated the moment he touched the arrow.
“Ho?..You are a fiery one..Just my type..” The man began slowly forwarding, while smiling at Drishti.
Drishti felt all of the other elves gazes at her, she tightened the grip on her bow.
“RUN!!”
[SWOOP]
She shot another arrow at the man, while the elves quickly began running. The arrow was stopped, so did the feet of other elves. Drishti turned her head, her eyes shivered, as she saw hundreds of soldiers surrounding the area.
“Pfft..HAHAHAHA!!!” The man laughed while facepalming, causing shivers to run down her spine.
[HUM!]
The man suddenly stopped laughing, he moved his hand and instantly hundreds of arrows made of yellow energy surrounded them.
“Now, my lady, if you pull that string again, my stock will suffer a huge damage..So, please, just..just put it down..and walk back a few steps, okay?” The man continuously moved his hand, signaling her to move back.
‘We should have followed his plan..’ This single thought kept repeating in her mind, as she bent down to place the bow. She moved a few steps back;
“Aaand…now the quiver..” The man pointed at the quiver at her back, Drishti clenched her fist, as she heard the sounds of elves crying in her back. She threw the quiver towards him, causing it to land right in front of him.
“Now..”
[HUM!]
A few arrows got shot and hit four elves, entering through their back, causing them to fall dead instantly;
“WHY?!!” Drishti exclaimed in anger;
“Now will I have to describe every step?..Remove the rest..”
[Chapter 12: END]