"To counter my arrows like that. You've really improved, Dhruva." Yashvi praised me while peeking from the cover of a tree in the middle forest region of our inter-Gurukul league arena.
"Reverse engineering has its merits. You have no idea how thoroughly I have studied and modified your skill to make arrows for my friends. On top of that, I got some excellent mentors." I walked toward her out in the open, my body surrounded by several fogs that can take up various forms depending on my will and the situation I was facing.
I willed one of the fogs to change shape into a thin spear and launched it at the tree she was hiding behind.
On impact, the spear burst like a grenade, thanks to the new knowledge we gained from Angiras' team, shooting out shrapnel in all directions and leaving a huge hole in the trunk of its target.
Yashvi sped away like a nimble fawn, taking cover behind the Surakshak of her team.
With a simple command, I retrieved the remnant energy of the spear, which floated back to my side like a semi-condensed cloud you often see in hill stations.
I knew she was being humble when she had mentioned that there were many more students who were better than her. To bag a position in the Gurukul team is no small feat.
In my case, I simply got lucky since the best candidates from our Gurukul had high levels, forcing them to invite a low-level Rakshak instead.
A volley of innumerable low-energy arrows appeared from behind the Surakshak that bounced off my hexagonal Kundalini shield, transformed from a nearby fog.
Being the creator of these fogs, I didn't require authentication beads like the others. But still, without the gem I got as a reward, manipulating six Kundalini fogs constantly would have been impossible.
I kept checking the team messages, constantly moving my eyes to the side. It felt like watching a movie with subtitles.
After we won four out of six matches and tied in another, after accidentally destroying the whole arena along with our and the opponent's Fort Chakras, this was just a consolation match where Jay and I got to participate directly.
My Gurukul's seniors were dangerous. Especially Sobith. When coupled with a scheme that allowed us to destroy whole-ass forts while also creating a sand screen with low visibility, Sobith became invincible. His stealth game was top-notch.
I have been hounding him to share the techniques behind his short-range teleportation, but he always managed to dodge me.
The second place was taken by Angiras themselves, who upped their explosive game after losing to us and managed to create some impressive mushroom clouds in the last three days.
They still had two losses, one more than us, in case we lose today's game for some reason.
Yashvi's team was in the third, with two losses at the beginning and a draw, so even if they win this one, they'll be of no threat to us. They took a while to pop off, destroying any chance of coming out on top of the leaderboard.
There have been quite a few games that were interesting in contrast to our unga bunga playstyle. When you have the means, why won't you blow up everything? Massive explosions are pretty romantic... Me, Jay, and the members of Angiras had a similar mindset on that front. When I get some time after this, I must go through the videos of other matches, if I really want to take learnings and valuable experiences back to share with my friends.
Just when I got the message from Archit of our successful fort infiltration, I fell back to defend our own with Jay and Sobith.
For this match, we decided not to use the spike explosions and play following standard procedures.
Coming up with the new and advanced form of my previous puny spike explosion would have been impossible without Jay's help.
He and I went to the Angiras guys and learned the inner chain reactions of bombs properly. It's no surprise that our combined tech managed to bag us first and second positions.
Our rivalry had ended after the first match since we wouldn't be meeting in that arena again for the rest of the league. We both did our parts and ensured no one could get better points than us, who were in a temporary truce.
Internally, we both wanted the other to lose a few more matches to make sure it served our self-interests.
Is this what they meant by keeping our enemies closer? Maybe not...
Before Archit and our Surakshak could find out where the opponent's Fort Chakra was located, mayhem erupted in the stands surrounding the arena. Everyone was looking up for some reason.
Two Daityas, thirty feet in height and rocking a yellow complexion because of their Kundalini skin, tore open a dimensional crack in the sky and jumped down, landing on the terrace of the cuboid void we were in, shattering it like a glass house in the process.
It totally seemed like a scene from a movie where the hero makes an appearance by breaking through a glass roof, surprising both the heroine and the villains.
The heroine would be safe from the glass for some reason, yet the villains would be attacked by those very same sharp, coincidental weapons.
Maybe villains become villains for their bad luck. If everything had worked out well for them, they wouldn't need to take such a path anyway.
But the problem now was the shards of dimensional void tumbling down at me in a breakneck speed.
I summoned all six energy fogs over my head, changing them to thick energy barriers.
Four of them were utterly destroyed, including the mini Tethers that allowed me to hold authority over the released Kundalini.
They escaped my grasp and dissipated, making me lose two days' worth of internal energy.
Among the falling shards, I saw the majestic, muscular silhouettes of the two giants, looking down at us as if we were mere insects. The gold-plated Armor covering their bodies and the doubled-bladed axes they carried were clear symbols of their advanced warrior status.
They were no mere Asuras. That much was confirmed.
"Take this, bastards!" I heard Jay's shout from within our now dilapidated fort as he launched two blossoming spears made from 40 points using Kundalini from all three: 8 from me and him each plus 24 from the gem. We had a few of those in our inventory.
They blasted the bodies of the invaders to bits after breaching through their unicolored energy skin, obliterating the head and left shoulder of one giant and the waist of another.
The pieces of their bodies landed like heavy concrete blocks being dropped from a three-storied building. You could feel the tremor traveling up your skeletal structure from the impact.
Within seconds, their bodies regained balance and started rapidly regenerating to perform quite a gross demonstration of biological sciences from a different dimension.
"This will take time..." Jay pulled me away from the scene as we escaped the arena together with Sobith. I have no idea about the condition my other team members were in.
Yashvi and her Surakshak friend had also followed us since they too were in the forest.
"Open up your Divyastra Utsav stream." Yashvi suggested in a bit of panic.
"It's showing static." I replied after checking it once. "My friends must be in trouble. This is just a distraction to keep the reinforcements busy."
"Don't mention the obvious like that CID officer." Jay said in a sarcastic, flat tone, "Let's leave this to my batchmates. If things look beyond us, we can always ask for more help. For now, we'll simply scout the situation in your section."
While the Rakshaks engaged the Daityas, we ran to the center of the Seventh-grade section of Ashrama, grabbing hold of a sage who was hurrying towards ground zero.
"Send us five to the fifth standard section. We'll make sure our juniors are okay. In case something goes wrong, we'll let you know." Jay took the initiative and made decisive choices in split seconds.
As lightning tendrils appeared over my body in response to the sage's chants, I started strategizing the series of subsequent steps I should take right after returning.
I have to do whatever it takes to keep my friends safe.
The sound of an arrow being released above welcomed us as soon as we got back our vision from the momentary darkness of dimensional transfer.
The sage had traced back my jump spot, transferring us into my room in the boy's dormitory.
"It looks totally the same as we've heard." The female Surakshak accompanying Yashvi checked her surroundings.
"Sshh," Sobith warned through whispers. "I sense a weird aura above us. It's not from a Rakshak."
"They must have sensed us already." Yashvi noted, "Jay and Dhruva, your techniques work the best in situations with a lot of variables. Leave the guy above to us. The MVP of this tournament will be enough for them with our support." She gave Sobith a teasing side-eye.
"Wait. How come you two aren't getting any shocks from being in the boys' section?" I whispered, pointing at the two older sisters.
Yashvi and the Surakshak grinned. "It's only applicable to the boys."
"Don't get surprised at every little thing. There will be no end to it. The world is never fair!" Jay pulled me away from the scene, discussing what we should do.
"I'll come meet you guys when this is resolved." Yashvi's Surakshak teammate, Kriti, waved at us.
Another arrow was released from the terrace just as we exited the dormitory.
We set our sights on a massive dome of water looming over the southern region following the path of the released arrow.
"What the hell..." I gasped, marveling at the Skill's design.
"Let's hurry!" Jay and I nodded at each other while taking in a deep breath, preparing to face whatever that was beyond the wall imprisoning my friends.
For a second, right after reaching the dome, the world seemed to turn upside down. My heart had somehow crawled up right behind my ear drums.
The sights I was seeing through my left eye had changed, while the right eye kept watching the water dome.
Placing a hand over my right eye to block the present, I saw the smoldering remains of what was once Divyastra Utsaav Arena, the area beyond the dome of water.
A deep gorge divided the western side horizontally, separating it into north and south sections, and the eastern side, along with the boundary of the western region, had become a dried, cracked wasteland. As if a bulldozer had run through it multiple times, scooping up chunks of land in random places.
Hundreds of Rakshaks lay dead among the ruins of the western region, grouped together along the boundary of an impact region. And there I was, standing alone in the midst of it all, witnessing the destruction with an expression I never thought I could give.
The vision ended, and so did the gradual decrement of my Prana value. Out of 24 points, I now had 12 left.
Jay seemed to be analyzing the dome of water by the time I returned to my senses.
"The guy who erected the barrier clearly wasn't thinking properly. We can still turn this around in our favor." Jay smiled at me.
Pushing down the feeling of dread that was creeping up my stomach, I brought out my treasured gem and started making contraptions that would be required by my friends real soon.
I wanted to immediately jump into action by stepping inside the arena, but I somehow stopped myself.
That's not my style. I'll take care of them in one fell swoop instead. I just needed a little more time.
Watching my friends inside the dome through a blue filter, all I could do was move my hands faster and pray that they remained safe until my preparations were completed.
I trust that they are strong enough to do that.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"Jhanvi, step back and take some rest. I'll support them from now on." Anik's envious gaze directed at my bow lingered for a few milliseconds before he turned and aimed at the heavily wounded amethyst snake, causing mayhem among our ranks.
"How much energy do you have left?" Esha asked in a worried tone, "That was an ungodly amount of Kundalini arrows you used."
"I'm doing fine... To think only a bit of fatigue is making me this light-headed... I've still got a long way to go." I squatted down and gasped for air, wondering whether I should ask Dhruva to give me some tips on building mental fortitude.
Concentrating on my target, while also taking note of the movements of friendly units and coordinating with them... Left the blood vessels in my temples throbbing in pain.
One versus three had turned to three plus a snake versus free participation for all Rakshaks... Still, we were nowhere close to even making our opponents feel a bit threatened.
The insects around us were still thriving, but their numbers had significantly lessened. Good job, other Rakshaks, and our Surakshaks!
Getting a moment of respite, I turned to check out the other end of the Arena.
On the eastern side, a massive 30-foot fiery skeleton from Patala had risen from a portal on the ground and was currently wreaking absolute havoc. With one swipe of its hand, a few of the protector sages went tumbling into the air. They seemed to be stalling for time until the sages behind them got ready. Even their Kavach seemed to be burning away after coming in contact with the red hellfire emanating from the giant skeleton.
The sages conducting the ritual were still focused on that, now leaving only two sages as their final line of defense.
They completed their chants within a few seconds and summoned a green cylindrical barrier, imprisoning the skeleton.
Right after I saw the flames surrounding the skeleton unnaturally snuffing out in a poof, the cylinder got crushed from above and its sides, reminding me of a time my sister and I were flattening cans of Coca-Cola with our feet.
They probably used the concepts of vacuum and atmospheric pressure to take out the skeleton.
Green and dark red streaks of energy snaked through the eastern skies within the dome, exploding like multi-colored fireworks as they countered one another.
A flash of lightning soon followed, parting the swirly wall of the dome above and giving us a momentary view of the scenery outside. It soon regenerated, covering the little hole that had appeared.
I looked down at the bow I was holding, wondering whether it sucked up some Prana or not since I got the very same faint sensation for a few seconds.
The thunder from the strike disrupted my thoughts, arriving where we currently were, but it was soon followed by the haunting screams of Pishachas, who looked like they were wearing human skin directly over their bones. Dozens and dozens of them appeared from a small portal behind the young invader, and they leaped towards the couple of sages like a herd of human-sized stick bugs.
Anik had told me how they fought Pishachas during the teleportation event. It's already bad luck enough to meet an entity like Vritra on your first interdimensional excursion. But also to fight against a bunch of Pishachas in a swampy area... It's a miracle that they managed to come back instead of becoming Forgotten.
"Another arrow is coming." Esha warned. "It's now targeting the Chosen Vaidya."
I wonder what she is seeing to predict things like this. If only I could share her vision... I could have managed to neutralize the arrow that was aimed at us at the very beginning of the fight against the sniper. I had that much confidence, at least.
Still, why not try again? If I had given up at the very first instance of failure, I wouldn't have been able to learn archery in the first place.
My bow sucked up more life energy from my body on command. Deep breaths.
Why did I miss the last time? By how many centimeters was it off my target? I visualized in my mind the trajectories of the two arrows.
They indeed intersect. That means one of the arrows passed through earlier than the other.
I cannot wait to shoot my arrow until I hear the sound of the sniper's bow. It will be too late by then.
Just a few milliseconds before. But how would I do that?
Most of the lifeless bodies around us have been from the sniper's arrows, the snake, and the insects summoned by their Vaidya. Many Rakshaks who had gotten overwhelmed and drowned in a heap of insects never came out again.
Esha, Dweep, and Aditi had been taking down those disgusting things, but their arms were now much slower from the fatigue.
I kept staring at the location where the arrows were coming from. Should I just help my friends kill the insects? Anyhow, I can't solve this dilemma until I have something like a sixth sense that will tell me a few seconds beforehand when the arrow will be released.
The crackle of lightning and thunder kept reaching us from the east. How long has it even been?
"The energy from the sniper is flickering... It's increasing and reducing. What the hell?" Esha looked confused. She might have been following a pattern in the Kundalini Emission process of the sniper that allowed her to foretell the release of an arrow. She'll probably let me know if she sees that pattern again.
Padmaka's Ayudhapurusha changed its color as scheduled, turning black in contrast to its amethyst hue. The Rakshaks on the battlefield became quiet and started communicating through Kalpayaal to avoid making a sound that might trigger the snake's hypnosis of self-deletion.
I confirmed from the timer in KalpaYaal that only nine minutes had passed from the time the invaders managed to escape from their chains. How long do we even need to keep this up?
There must be sages outside, right? Will they even arrive as reinforcements? Are there more invaders outside who are currently engaging them?
Just when I was thinking about this, time seemed to slow down. Sounds stopped reaching my ears, creating a sensation of a vacuum inside my brain.
My intuition told me that the God Calling Ritual had concluded successfully.
The clouds parted, bringing down divine golden light from above. It was so bright that they lit up even the insides of the imprisoning dome we were in, bent in different directions because of the water's nature. As if passing through a prism and breaking down into the seven elementary colors, the divine light bathed different Rakshaks in the arena, covering them in a flaring Kundalini aura that danced around wildly like an unbuttoned coat on a windy day.
Around me, Esha got a dark green aura, Anik got a blue aura, and... That was all.
Feelings of failure and disappointment crushed my heart.
"Get ready, Jhanvi!!" Esha's voice snapped me back to the present. Her eyes were now glowing in a color that had surrounded her a few seconds ago. "The sniper will be shooting anytime now."
I calmed down my heavy heart and tried to focus. Not now... Please. I pleaded my eyes that were tearing up.
Did this happen because I did not kill as many insects as Esha? But the damage I dealt to the snake and the invaders was much more than Anik in the last few minutes. If nothing related to our achievements mattered, why did we even have to go through the trials at the Utsaav? And here I was, thinking of surprising my parents and sister with some good news.
No... This is not a direction my thoughts should be going in. I'll get more chances... But something more important requires my attention right now.
Unbeknownst to me, a small teardrop had already raced down my cheek by then, leaving an uncomfortable streak on my skin.
Calm your mind, take a deep breath, and hold it- I remembered my sister's teachings during my archery classes.
Something I used to do so easily, never had felt so challenging before.
Recollect the calculations you did a few minutes before. The trajectory from the boy's dorms. The height at which the arrows have been hitting us till now...
There's still time. If I do something impressive, I might still get a boon.
I took another deep breath and held it.
"Now!" Esha exclaimed, prompting me to release my arrow.
Just a few milliseconds later, the vibration from the sniper's bow reached my ears. The two Kundalini arrows collided mid-air near the invaders, and their snake riddled with arrows, sending out a violent shockwave traveling outwards from their meeting point.
Even though my heart felt sad, it grew warm and bubbly for a moment after I recreated one of the scenes I had heard a lot about in history. Two Dhanurdhars duking it out, their arrows clashing against each other. I used to laugh at its absurdity before, but having trained my basics rigorously, I too was able to do it.
The explosion startled the invaders and plucked out a lot of scales from the snake, exposing its red gouged-out flesh. Since the enemies weren't expecting it at all, our Yoddhas got a sudden chance to finally put pressure on the invaders and successfully managed to push them back.
The Chosen Yoddhas of our side were still somehow holding on with the help of newer additions from the other groups of Rakshaks. After the snake arrived on the battlefield, it was clear that those Chosen Three would not be enough to defend us anymore.
Also, seeing many of the Dhanurdhars supporting them, encouraged the Kshatriya blood within the Yoddhas to also participate in the battle.
This fight that continued for more than ten minutes by now had left the Three weak, tired, and with trembling arms. Their bodies were breaking down. The shockwaves from the invaders' attacks dealt significant internal damage to them.
The snake too, was a menace. It alternated between purple and black snake skins, one used to billow poison and the other for hypnosis. I wondered how powerful the actual snake would be.
Every swipe and slam of its tail left deep gorges on the ground. The purple aura around it killed every small weed and grass in the vicinity.
The wounds on the Rakshaks started festering from the poisonous air, converting them to slow and sluggish warriors who seemed not to have done any training for years.
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Saiyan and Shreya kept dodging attacks from both the snake and Divya as if their life depended on it. Well, it actually did. Their glowing swords left deep slash wounds on the snake's body whenever they got the chance to attack, which was quite the feat since the scales had managed to easily deter most of the arrows sent by the Dhanurdhars till now.
With the addition of Blessings on the field, the Rakshaks seemed to get more powerful. Their previous attempts, which brought forth no fruits, were now devastating for the enemy.
Multiple powers were at play in the field, most of which I had no idea about. Still, the effects seemed to entail either energy requirement reduction, energy multiplying abilities, penetration, or blunt damage augmentation to the projectiles and weapons.
The headless Surakshak, who had collapsed before, slowly got up, with the skin over his face muscles still regenerating. He looked like a zombie from that one movie I had watched with my sister some years ago.
Somewhere behind him must be a Rakshak who had unknowingly lost a life that was used to revive him.
The Blessed and unblessed Rakshaks all started supporting the main damage dealers now that they had a bigger target. The Surakshaks kept blocking the snake's attacks, be it from the fangs or tail, and the Dhanurdhars now seemed to get through the monster's defense. The Vaidyas supported the Surakshaks, healing their crushed bones or dislocated joints whenever the requirement arose.
It now seemed as if all the pieces had fallen into place, and the Rakshaks were like one single body serving a multitude of functions.
"Jhanvi, the sniper was making arrows for a rapid-fire use. That's why they have been inactive for a while. With the Surakshaks engaging Padmaka, the Rakshaks at the back are too vulnerable right now." Esha realized the intentions of the sniper. "I'll guide you. Follow my instructions carefully."
Anik, who had been quiet till now, aimed one energy arrow at the sole invader controlling the tree-staff. The blue energy it pulsed targeted only the invaders for either healing or energy resuscitation.
The tree-shaped staff had created a protective Kavach around the Vaidya, while the snake and the other two invaders kept us distracted.
Whatever damage they accumulated recovered within a few seconds using the blue energy of the staff.
Even the deep gashes on the snake were slowly healing.
The scales didn't regenerate for some reason, but its tough flesh stitched together like those leaves some ants love to make a nest in.
A blue swirling aura had culminated at the tip of Anik's arrowhead. His form reminded me of the illustrations accompanying the stories of Kshatriya princes.
He let it out while exhaling his breath. The arrow cut through the air like a hot knife slicing butter, its tip rotating like the pointed end of a drilling machine. I could see white air streaks getting left behind in the path the arrow had followed.
It broke through the defense mechanism of the tree-shaped staff, impaling the Vaidya in his ribcage.
Blood burst out like water from a weak garden hose, forcing the Vaidya on the enemy team to fall on his knees. The gauntlet user, who was engaging four or five Blessed Yoddhas, stepped back and turned toward us in a swift motion, slamming his right arm on the ground.
Dweep sprang into action, holding his shield over our heads right after I got a glimpse of the ominous, smoky fist crashing down on us.
Aditi stepped forward and covered Dweep's unguarded body with her shield.
"Jhanvi. Focus!!" Esha cried out, "It's coming for Dweep's hand sticking out above Aditi's shield! I thought she couldn't see what was going on inside!"
Giving a quick glance at the kneeling enemy, aka the Vaidya, who was busy healing himself while coughing up blood, I adjusted my arrow accordingly. Esha moved my arm by half a centimeter, pulling it upwards.
"Now!!"
Twang~
twanggg-
The sounds of two bowstrings were followed by a loud crackle, signaling a successful hit.
The explosion from the colliding energy-arrows pushed Aditi backward, which unfortunately happened before her shield. She bumped into Dweep, making him lose his balance while he was holding back the massive fist that was threatening to crush us.
Anik and I jumped away to safety while Esha, Dweep, and Aditi tumbled down like a pack of dominos.
Before the smoky grey-colored fist could crush them to a pulp, Dweep crouched and got up halfway on his knees, apologizing profusely, holding his shield over his shoulder. His neck tilted at a sharp, unusual angle, getting crushed under the massive weight from above.
"Jhanvi..." I could hear Esha's weak voice as she called out to me. Her leg was crushed under Dweep's knee, but she persisted. "Now..." She whispered, unable to get the words out properly.
It's too late. I can't aim right now. She didn't even tell me where the next target was.
I still took aim at the direction where the arrows were coming from and decided to blindly release it just for Esha's sake.
But it seemed like my services were no longer required...
A familiar deep blue colored arrow flew over from the dorms, piercing through the Kavach surrounding the female invader.
It burst out like a lotus flower, dissipating the poisonous energy and impaling the invader's back with multiple spikes.
This arrow... It's Yashvi's!!
Another blue arrow bolted inside the dome of water, but the gauntlet user used his free hand to create a new spherical Kavach around the now-injured female invader.
The arrow erupted, destroying the Kavach again, but the female invader turned around in the nick of time and defended her body from the spikes with her greatsword.
Dweep kept gritting his teeth in pain as he tried his best to keep himself and Esha safe from the heavy fist that threatened to flatten them. Anik attempted to push the shield up from below with my help, but considering our thin bodies based on agility, it might be impossible for us to help.
I took hold of Aditi's arm instead and tried to pull her out of her current predicament. She squeezed her body and untangled herself, kneeling to support Dweep. She used her shoulders to lift the shield by a few centimeters, giving him enough space to free his neck from its precarious position.
Multiple arrows from the crowds behind struck the energy fist, and some even blasted the last few remaining insects gathering around our team.
I don't know what they thought while helping us, but the fist was unrelenting. The unblessed Dhanurdhars, who were already low in their Reserves, virtually did no damage to it.
Only an arrow created with eight or more points of energy can put a dent on this skill, and considering my zero Kundalini and single-digit Prana, it will be impossible for me to create.
Then I heard another sound, something that I have heard multiple times from the few Siddhi matches I often find myself going back to.
The sound from a click of fingers.
Huge Kundalini spikes that I have grown to fear jutted upwards, emerging from Dweep's shield and destroying the energy fist in an instant.
More flowers with massive petal spikes blossomed over the multi-layered Kavach surrounding the invaders, cracking and annihilating their barriers like fish bowls being dropped from a considerable height.
The snake, on the other hand, didn't stand a chance. The same devastating flowers blossomed precisely at the points on its body devoid of scales, cleaving the snake into multiple bloody wiggling sections. As if undergoing a shock, the snake's scales turned black, signaling the activation of its hypnosis stage.
The spikes had also gone through the invader's bodies, which they turned and twisted at the last moment to avoid damaging their vital points.
Experiencing all of this in an instant, the bleeding invaders found themselves bewildered from the sudden lethal attack, wondering who had antagonized them out of nowhere.
"Come inside, you coward!" The invader Vaidya, who was struck by Anik's arrow in his side, shouted while coughing out blood from his mouth from the new injuries he got. Even though he was constantly covered in a healing aura, along with his colleagues, it didn't seem to work properly. Especially for him. Did Anik's Blessed Arrow have an extra recovery effect reduction option?
Wait. I suddenly remembered after watching the black snake writhing in pain.
I quickly opened my messages to warn Dhruva not to make a sound, but I was a bit too late.
"You might be an idiot, but I'm not. Who the hell sets up a barrier like this? You never thought this through, huh? I don't even need to come inside to take care of your guys." Dhruva's insult appeared from the other side of the water wall.
The enemy Vaidya, started laughing. "Thanks for responding. Padmaka will take care of the rest."
Both Dweep and Anik flinched after realizing what had happened right now. I felt my heart sinking down to my stomach after remembering how the girl who had answered a question last time took her own life after getting enchanted by the snake.
"Come back after your broken and soggy spaghetti gets bigger. Or maybe this is the best mental attack you can manage with your current capabilities?" Dhruva's voice was now calm yet terrifying. He must have already shifted to his 'eradicate all enemies without further conversation' mode.
Saiyan and Shreya took the chance, wounding both the melee invaders and falling backward, getting a momentary respite from their situation. Saiyan's grimacing face now had a slight smile.
"Another one's ready." Anik whispered, taking aim with another blue swirling arrow at the gauntlet user. It pierced through his Kavach and struck his waist, starting a lethal damage over time attack.
A cute little glowing doll was now attached to Dweep's neck, healing it rapidly. Same with Esha's leg and my palm that was riddled with holes from using my bow... Whoa, when did they appear?
The bleeding and wounded invaders realized their predicament as they inspected each others' injured bodies and already-destroyed Kavach.
While they were already getting pushed back after the Rakshaks got their Blessings, the arrival of Dhruva cemented their apparent defeat.
They fell back, running towards their other team member on the west side. The gauntlet user put up a hastily created barrier behind their backs, protecting them from several arrows our side sent towards their retreating frames.
Even the female Chosen Dhanurdhar sent out multiple arrows one after another, which bounced off, leaving significant cracks, but they were still unable to shatter the disc-shaped shield.
Red healing auras appeared around Saiyan and Shreya, recovering the wounds they had sustained during the defensive fight against Divya, the greatsword user.
The greenish hue surrounding the wounds they had, was also getting their actual skin color back.
It's been almost thirteen minutes since the fight had started, but it felt like an eternity had passed.
I couldn't even function properly for a solid fifteen minutes. Using my Prana charged arrows in quick succession had also left me light-headed. I had no choice other than using them. My normal Kundalini ones would have been simply eaten up by the sniper's arrows or wouldn't have damaged the snake at all. How much do I still need to train my body?
On second thought, Yashvi and Dhruva must have taken care of the sniper a while ago. Or did more seventh graders come to assist us?
The invaders met up a little to the east from the center of the arena and gathered around.
The sages who had completed the Blessing Ritual and joined the fight were now helplessly bound in place by chains made of bones that glowed with the same black-red aura.
How is the younger invader even more powerful than our sages? What is happening?
A crystal-shaped golden Kavach appeared around them as the invader soloing the sages till now started chanting in a devilish gargling tone.
On a closer inspection, the young invader looked much worse than the average human being. It felt like all his Prana had been sucked away, and the mysterious loan shark was sucking up the marrow within his bones next as interest. His eyes and nose were bleeding profusely, but he kept continuing the chant without a change in his tone, making sure that the letters attained the proper vibration required for whatever spell he was channeling right now.
Thousands of glitching letters appeared in the air in front of the western wall of our imprisoning dome, merging and colliding against the fabric of this dimension.
"Jay! Kriti! We'll need something huge!!" I saw Dhruva and two other seniors shouting and rushing into the arena. Having entered the Arena, their fates too, got tied up with ours. Whatever's coming from the other side of the dimensional distortion will now be faced by us together.
Esha, while getting healed by a Recovery doll, scrambled behind Dweep, who was sitting with an empty look on his face.
"Something awful is going to happen." She kept murmuring over and over.
"What about the sages?" The male senior who had entered the arena with Dhruva asked. He had a face that reminded me of celebrities in the newspapers.
The female Surakshak, named Kriti, went straight for her juniors with a similar role, who were defending the Yoddhas from the attacks of the snake and the invaders till now.
"They probably have much more lives than us, while many here have only one. If the sages can't break out of it themselves, we surely can't help them right now with our current capabilities." Dhruva and the senior kept chattering among themselves like friends.
"Surakshaks, line up!!" The guy whom Dhruva had called Jay shouted. "Those guys are summoning something nasty. Follow the instructions of your senior sister and act accordingly. We need whatever barriers you guys can create. Anything is better than nothing at this point."
Dweep got up, cracked his healed neck, and walked towards the Chosen Surakshak, who had been coordinating the Surakshaks till now after getting revived. They nodded at each other and stood side by side. More and more Surakshaks, including Aditi, appeared from the crowd and created a human wall before us. In the meantime, the Rakshaks, who also got blessed, cleared up the remaining insects in the arena.
I wasn't focusing on it while trying to take out the sniper's arrows, but they had done quite a great job in killing those pests.
The air where the letters were merging started rippling, opening up like The Destroyer's third eye, revealing a scene even more fantastical than our current scenery.
It was night on the other side, but the golden lights from a floating city up among the clouds lit up the dark sky around it like a halo.
My Kundalini had already hit zero. My Prana was in single digits. I had no skills that could help me from whatever that was going to come from the other side.
The disappointment from not getting a Blessing came back to haunt me. If only I had a blessing... Feelings of frustration and helplessness clawed at my heart, creating an uncomfortable sensation within my ribcage.
Anik completed creating and shot another of his swirly arrows at the golden Kavach surrounding the four invaders. It bounced off without even leaving a scratch.
How could the difference between the Kavach of two individuals be this different? The gauntlet guy's Kavach got easily penetrated, but another Kavach by a younger guy seemed way beyond our current levels.
Yashvi's blossoming arrow also appeared from beyond the dome and failed to breach the barrier.
"Everybody!! Keep shooting the dome!" The female Chosen Dhanurdhar ordered as dozens and dozens of energy arrows assaulted the protective barrier of our enemies in vain. People still have energy left?
I stared at Dhruva, whose hands stretched out in two opposite directions—one toward the crowd of Rakshaks and one toward the wall of Surakshaks.
I have gotten a bit sensitive towards external Kundalini by now, which was slightly different from the aura people exude for body augmentation or manifestation of skills. I could somehow feel that he was handling an enormous amount of energy right now, with the help of almost invisible threads that carried energies from one point to another.
"He's..." Esha laughed nervously, taking a glance at him. "Let's go. All we can do is provide our energy to him right now."
"Hey." Dhruva gave a slight smile as he saw us approaching. "Can you hold this in front of me?"
He summoned the opening of his dimensional box, out of which a black colored disc-shaped gem fell out.
Esha caught it mid-air and held it as instructed.
"Vaidyas!! Pour your energies into this the same way you use healing on your friends!" He shouted out.
Without a second thought, Vaidyas who were still alive, gathered around the gem, pouring their energies into it, gradually changing its color.
"Are you absorbing their Kundalini or Prana?" I asked, worried that I had already used up all the Prana beforehand, leaving nothing for him to work with.
Hearing me ask this, his expression changed to a somber one.
"It's Kundalini. You sure you want to know about it?"
"It's okay then. I only wanted to make sure you weren't using Prana since I absorbed most of it."
"Your bow?" He asked with a slight teasing smile.
"Yeah..."
"That bow is a blessing in itself." He laughed, pointing at the disc in Esha's hand, "I got that orb instead. It's pretty helpful."
Hearing that healed a part of my aching heart. The bow... If I consider it a blessing, maybe I won't feel bad anymore. How many people had a bow like mine at this moment?
The crack in the sky on the other hand, was getting wider and wider, revealing more of the golden city floating in the skies belonging to a different dimension.
"All of you are going down!!" The staff user among the invaders cackled out like a maniac.
The sages looked up at the city with panic in their faces and struggled to break free of their binds.
"Dhanurdhars, stop wasting your energy trying to breach that barrier." Jay suggested, "Fill that gem up instead if you have some energy emission skill."
"Tsk, it's taking too long." Dhruva kept checking out the crack in the air and his color-changing gem alternatively.
Suddenly, the Rakshaks around us started dropping like flies.
Panic and disorder swept across the group of Rakshaks as they tried to discover the source of this sudden anomaly.
Anik and Esha, who had been constantly using their Blessings, also collapsed.
"My Prana. It's currently at one..." Esha, who was too weak to speak, mustered the last bits of her energy and whispered.
Bringing out my status screen, I saw my Prana currently sitting at five when It should have been at least 8 or 9...
And, it dropped to four right in front of my eyes.
"Something is sucking up our Prana. People are losing consciousness because they are hitting that limiter you talked about." I communicated my findings to Dhruva and the Vaidyas standing around the gem. Someone else was holding it after Esha collapsed.
But before we could use that information, a world-shattering humming sound assaulted our ears.
"It's coming." Murmurs spread as we all stared at the portal in the sky with a look of helplessness.
"Yeah, I can also see that! You guys, push everything you have into that gem!! Fast!!" Dhruva commanded anxiously.
"Go go go!! Surakshaks, bring out your barriers!!" Jay shouted, taking command over the whole fifth grade. "Keep your skills activated. Stack them up one after another!! We will make sure you have enough energy to do that!"
"I will create a primary barrier. Follow its surface as a reference to where you should summon your shields!" The female Surakshak named Kriti announced, erecting a curved energy shield separating the west and east. It totally looked like those trendy television sets with rounded screens in advertisements.
A star twinkled in the lower part of the floating city, summoning an intense pressure of death over us.
The star grew larger, morphing into a spherical shape that swallowed up the night sky inside the dimensional crack. A thin membrane over the opening broke away, allowing the ray of energy to invade our dimension.
The devastating yellow light spread out, flooding the arena's west side and engulfing the chained-up sages. The fertile soil hardened and cracked, breaking away and disintegrating under the enormous force of the ray. Rolling over the Kavach that protected the invaders, the yellow tsunami soon reached the first level of our barriers.
There were now hundreds of them, generated from our Surakshaks, stacked on top of each other, as well as side by side above Kriti's barrier.
But they broke away as if made out of paper, allowing the ray of light to make its way through each stack without much difficulty.
Dhruva looked around desperately after glancing at the incoming ray of death.
"Jay! Take over my Tethers. The orb is finally ready. I told you not to use up all the energy stored within the orb to take out the invaders! Shit always devolves to the worst-case scenario." He called for the senior coordinating with Kriti to ensure the barriers were set up correctly.
Beyond our shields, the dark red aura around the severely wounded youngest invader slowly dissipated away, resulting in the eye-shaped portal closing up as if it were merely going back to sleep.
The ray became narrower but more concentrated, breaking through more and more of our barriers. The point where the two energies collided seemed to be from a scene you often see in welding shops: a stream of metallic fire that almost blinds your sight.
If the crack had been fully open for a few more seconds, we could have been wiped out like the sages. Or we still can be... Since it was closing up too slowly. The energy from the ray itself was breaking through the dimensional wall that was trying its best to repair itself.
I mulled over the situation's absurdity, watching the colliding ray filling my vision with a yellow-white hue.
What kind of a binding was it, that even rendered those powerful sages unable to use their skills and energies? How did someone so young even have a skill like that?
What kind of a city shoots laser beams across dimensions? How long can our shields even hold on... Questions kept bubbling up to the surface of my consciousness.
The Surakshaks, who were standing and still had a little bit of Prana left in them, kept their skills in running mode. Their barriers kept regenerating after getting destroyed, but the tsunami of energy kept inching toward us like an unstoppable force of nature.
After Jay took Dhruva's place, he stood in the same way as Dhruva, stretching out his hands in Titanic style.
Meanwhile, Dhruva stepped back giving him space, and started absorbing the energy from his gem, which was now humming with energy. It had also turned white from its previous obsidian black color.
"This is a good time for you to show what you're supposed to do." He said in a serious tone to nobody in particular. Is he talking to motivate himself?
Dhruva, after creating small blobs of energy with high-speed complicated hand gestures and kneading techniques, chucked them toward the energy ray with his full might.
Then something really interesting happened.
With slight movements of his fingers, those blobs floated in the air, following his instructions and attaching themselves to Kriti's layer of shield nearest to us. All the other shields were being summoned on the other side of that base barrier.
Those condensed energy beads reminded me of a spiderweb that refracted sunlight after catching the early dew of dawn.
They expanded, leaving a thin trail behind, making sure the main bodies that were converging in the middle were the thickest.
"Don't stray to the sides! Group together in the middle!!" Jay again shouted, grimacing under the weight of the Kundalini transfer network from the dead Rakshaks behind to the Surakshaks in front.
To think Dhruva came up with a skill similar to my bow, when faced with despair.
I remembered what Dhruva had been doing with Vihaan's corpse in that tunnel and the last proper conversation we had.
His actions, which didn't conform to the moralities I had cultivated in life, were ultimately the same ones I carried out with my bow just a few minutes ago.
I gave a long drawn-out sigh, stealing Dhruva's attention for a second. But he kept stretching both of his hands out upwards, toward the shield he was creating, as he continuously mumbled something over and over again.
With a massive shattering sound, Kriti's final barrier also broke, exposing Dhruva's last-ditch effort shield to the incoming ray.
The convex shield parted the ray into thousands of thinner strands that crawled along the surface of his shield, ultimately reaching and obliterating the ground on our two sides but somehow still managing to keep an island of safe space in between.
Within seconds, massive cracks also started appearing on it as the Surakshaks standing in a line till now moved over to individual teams following Jay's orders.
All the remaining groups of Rakshaks carried the ones who were unconscious and stood along the edge of the safe island, as close as possible to the destruction still going on beyond it, putting up domes of Kavach around themselves.
"Dhruva!!" I saw Dweep beckoning Dhruva over while carrying Anik like a traveling rucksack, reminding me to look around for Aditi. She too, was waving at me from a position she had booked on our left while facing the ray coming in from the east. I picked up Esha and placed her on my shoulder.
"Sorry... A 64-point shield might have held out a bit longer. This is the most I could do." Dhruva apologized with a disappointed face. "Aditi will keep you three safe."
'Stay safe.' I too wanted to tell him, but after the last few weeks of him actively avoiding me, I couldn't. Considering my overreaction back at the dungeon when he was only trying his best to protect us, I won't blame him for still holding a grudge.
Witnessing him cutting up Vihaan's body in that tunnel was too much for me. Only later did I realize what he was trying to do. But by then, the fear and disgust I had felt for him made me react in ways I can't take back anymore. And now, I myself have done the same thing for the sake of keeping my friends safe.
From next time, I vowed not to ever judge people's actions from my perspective alone.
We went on different ways to our teams' Surakshaks, trying to weather the incoming blast under their protection.
Dhruva squeezed himself inside Dweep's Kavach, squabbling with Jay, who was standing outside their barrier about something.
Jay desperately ran back to Kriti and took shelter inside her Kavach.
"You okay?" Shreya asked me after hearing me sigh at their comedy.
"Hopefully, we all will stay okay after what's coming." I gave her a dry smile. "Don't die, or you know what will happen."
I knew my words would hurt her a bit since the only life I had lost was because of Kalpa's system that allowed the Chosen to steal lives from the people positionally closer to them.
"Yeah, I know." She mumbled softly.
The final shield above us broke into pieces, bathing us all in the yellow light.
While the scenery outside disappeared, the intense humming and vibrating sounds as the ground in the middle disintegrated, kept hammering the insides of my ear drums.
Gravel and soil kept bombarding our Kavach like hail, leaving small cracks on its surface from their impacts. They kept getting bigger and bigger as they merged and spread out like the distributaries of a river.
Then, it suddenly stopped.
The light slowly faded away, revealing a huge golden shield covering the portal in the sky from the other side. With the destructive ray no longer passing through it, the fabric of this dimension healed itself, closing up and disappearing like it never existed.
I saw Yashvi entering the dome with four more sages, who kept concentrating hard on their barrier until the hole closed up fully.
As Aditi removed the barrier, I stood up straight from my kneeling position, looking at the remnants of the disaster.
The green, fertile soil had turned into a dry and dead river bed. A deep ravine in the middle now separated the Rakshaks in the arena, and the cracks left by the blast were smoldering with a radioactive yellow glow.
Glancing behind westward, I saw the bodies of dead Rakshaks still intact but without their heads.
I instinctively felt that something was very, very wrong.
If Esha was still conscious, she could have pinpointed the problem. I could sense a bizarre alien energy surrounding my body but couldn't put a finger on the feeling.
The sages who came with Yashvi started attacking the golden crystal Kavach of the invaders mercilessly, which finally started leaving numerous scratches on its surface.
As if they didn't just try to cause a massacre, the invaders inside started having a heated discussion about something.
After a few seconds, the guy with gauntlets handed them to his staff-using-colleague and turned his back to the youngest invader with a determined look.
Within seconds, he disintegrated to dust, leaving behind a swirling ball of energy: his chakra.
The enemy Vaidya touched it with his twirly staff, which had turned back to its non-tree form, and waved it, pointing towards our direction.
Multiple portals opened up below the dead bodies that had lost their heads, swallowing them up in an instant before we could even do something.
Once their job was done, the youngest invader opened up a blood-red portal inside their golden Kavach and disappeared into it, with the other two following him.
Just as suddenly as they had arrived, they also disappeared as if this place was a mere playground for them.
Silence descended on the battlefield after the terrorists went back. At first, I had reservations about calling them that, but after they even stole the bodies of Rakshaks who had died, I didn't need to think twice about it.
I examined my surroundings to find the Rakshaks helping each other. Many groups had their Kavach destroyed during the plan's final phase, causing their members to lose parts of their bodies.
The Vaidyas got into action, trying to keep them alive until more sages arrived.
I made my way toward Yashvi and the other seniors who were grouping up together to discuss something. They were watching some video stream on one of their status screens.
Yashvi found me and gave a quick hug, "Thank God you are safe. See what I got!!" She brought out a beautifully carved ivory bow with multiple strings from her dimensional room.
"This... The spoils from the sniper! Nice work!!" I was genuinely excited seeing her wonderful smile.
"You guys should go back and help your batchmates as soon as the sages lift this barrier. We'll take care of the rest." Dhruva interrupted our wonderful reunion, prompting me to glare at him while pouting.
"Okay okay, got it. Take your time. Who am I to interfere between an idol and her fan." He teased me with a slight smile. But there was a certain darkness and disappointment underneath.
I'll think about that later. Let's show Yashvi my bow first. I have told her about my weapon but she never got to see it in person.
As I brought out my bow and proceeded to hand it over to her, a voice snapped inside my brain.
"Little child. Don't even think about allowing a third party to come in contact with my noble being. I'll suck up all their essence!" The voice of an old grandma rattled my brain.
"Sorry. The Prana suckers are a bit dangerous. They only recognize me..." I gave my best to look disappointed.
"Ohh, don't worry, I understand. I've heard about this before; specific weapons can recognize who their owners are. It seems like your bow has the seed of an Ayudhapurusha. Try your best to germinate it." Her eyes twinkled with interest.
"You know how to go about doing that?" I asked for more information.
Does the voice inside my brain already signify that the weapon's sentience has germinated?
"I think it requires a bit of divinity. Most Ayudhapurushas are born from the essence of divine beings. Your bow most probably was made from the materials extracted from such a living form." She described. "But they still will remain in a dormant state until you find a catalyst. Many weapons don't get lucky enough to move on to the next stage."
That clicked something in my brain. Did my bow devour the Blessing I was supposed to get? Or was the Blessing targeted at my bow since my results in the Utsaav were basically derived from its abilities?
All in all, I now had a nascent Ayudhapurusha that I'd need to take care of. I wonder what form it will take in its expression stage.
That invader girl's weapon gave birth to a giant snake... I can't wait for mine to grow up too.
"It will not be that easy. Aren't you getting a little too optimistic?" The granny's voice registered from no particular direction. It was a weird sensation.
The four sages, by that time, had completed setting up a vast Chitram in the middle of the arena.
"We will be collecting the leftover Kundalini from the attack that obliterated this place and use it to break open the water dome. Protect yourselves since we don't know what kind of reaction it will have." The sages announced.
"My Kavach will be enough to take care of you all." Kriti confidently declared, surrounding herself, me, Yashvi, Jay, and Jhanvi within her silver spherical barrier.
A brilliant ray of light emerged from the Chitram, shooting upwards and piercing through the dome of water.
Like a washing machine that alternates its rotation every few seconds, the white light mixed with the dome's energy and created beautiful spiral patterns.
I felt a familiar tugging sensation of my Prana getting absorbed as the dome kept trying to regenerate itself.
Something instinctively told me that it won't stop until everybody's Prana hit the limiter. It was only a matter of time.
What I understood was that barriers can be broken from the side where constraints are placed. Since it allows everything inside, we can't break it from outside.
To break it, we need an obstruction that will only be provided by the barrier when things from inside are trying to go out.
I opened my status and watched my Prana lowering down to 2 points. My body was already feeling heavy and stiff. This will probably be my first time touching the limiter. Will surely be an experience...
People in their domes were also collapsing one after another. It was now the unblessed ones' turn to hit their thresholds who didn't get to use their Prana to activate their blessings.
Before my eyes became heavy, inviting sleep, I saw Yashvi supporting me with a caring smile.
"Don't lose your own consciousness while trying to take care of someone else." I heard Dhruva's faint voice talking with Yashvi. "Like this guy."
I only saw a glimpse of Jay slumped like a doll in Dhruva's arms before blacking out.