Ari looked at the naval lieutenant who had disappeared and a few minutes later appeared out of nowhere. The young man blinked and looked around. He really needed to get their names and onboard them into his unit. But right now, it didn’t seem like the right time. Especially when one of the man’s arms was growing bluish white and he was looking at it like a dumb goat.
“Son?”
The lieutenant didn’t respond.
“Water!”
The LT straightened and looked at him “Yes sir?”
“What did Whizwo give you?”
“A shard sir. A concept one. It’s called purity. It will work with my water shard to produce effects that would sanitise the wounds from the dead.”
Ari nodded “Good. We need a medic.”
“I thought so too commander. I mean colonel, sir.”
Ari waved his hand dismissively. That had been happening more and more. People were calling each other with their chosen names. And all of his men had defaulted into calling him Commander Ari once or twice by now.
“What’s your name son?”
“Nameer sir. Lieutenant Nameer Muhammad but just Nameer now.”
“Nameer, well done.” Ari clapped the man on his shoulder and turned to the Wind shard LT “You can go in now. And remember, that guy is fishing for information on us. I would usually say no to that but right now, it is the only currency we have. Just don’t reveal anything sensitive.”
The wind lieutenant nodded, closed his eyes and faded out of existence.
Nameer shivered looking at the transition and then added “The snake man didn’t seem that bad, sir. He only asked me about the creatures we were fighting. I think he was a bit disappointed that we hadn’t seen anything other than the enthralled. He just gave me a shard and sent me on my way.”
Ari looked at the man, no, the boy and shook his head.
Singh thankfully walked to him at that moment and barked “What are you standing here for, fish lover?”
The lieutenant looked at Singh with wide eyes “Sir?”
“You are some sort of medic, right? The doctor and the captain have been fighting for hours now. Fix their wounds boy.” Singh punctuated the last sentence slowly and forcefully.
“Yes sir!” Nameer saluted instinctively and ran off.
Ari sighed “They are all so young.”
Singh shook his head “No sir, they are so dumb.”
“Singh.” Ari chided but when Singh took out all the side arms he had collected.
Singh whispered “Arivarsaan. This is madness. And only know of one man who can guide us out of madness.”
“Me?”
“No. General Shaiketh. But since he is dead. You will do.”
Ari gave his old friend a look and then chuckled “Really, you old goat?”
Singh smiled and handed Ari a chocolate bar from his camo pant “Hey, He trained both of us. And you always won in the wargames. I need that man who beat all odds now. Not the semi retired colonel transferred to the army for a desk duty. I need the Inspector Genral who made terrorist piss in their pants.”
“I am not that man anymore Singh. I am too old, and too broken to be that man.”
Singh snorted “No, you are not that man but something new. You are our commander. I need Ari. These kids need you. You hear me? So, drop the niceness and unleash the beast. Sir.”
Ari stiffened “You told me never to do that again or you would not work with me ever again.”
“I stopped you to save you, not the enemy.” Singh snarled “To the dirt with those civilian bullying bastards. I would have executed them too. I stopped you, to save your soul. You are the best man I know but what we need right now is not the best man but the best weapon. So, take these guns, do whatever you have to do and get us out of this place.”
Ari raised his eyebrows and smiled “Is that an order major?”
Singh grinned back “Yes sir, it is.”
The lieutenant who had just disappeared suddenly appeared and stirred. He blinked rapidly.
“Now sir, I will take care of the new meat, sir. Let’s see if we can get them to some sort of a standard. You go ahead.” Singh pointed Ari towards the temple altar.
Ari watched his old friend grab the hand of the young man and drag him away. He stood there for a moment remembering the old days. He wasn’t proud of what he had done in jungles. But when he had returned to the village, they had been operating from to see five of his men dead and a village full of civilians tortured, raped and murdered, he had lost it.
He had set up an ambush after ambush. When he and his men had caught up to the main body of the bandits, he had captured them and then burnt all but two of them alive. Just so that they could run and tell all those who were left, what happened when you messed with the commandos. He expected to be dismissed for his actions. However, the higher ups had been pleased. They had covered up the incident and then given him the command role.
To his chagrin, the command was right. His actions had worked. The bandit presence in the area had disappeared almost overnight and the area had now become a peaceful tourist destination with its wildlife and waterfalls.
Ari shook himself out of his thoughts and nodded. He wasn’t that man anymore, but he could be something else. He walked to the corner and picked up the jacket they had turned into a rough pouch to hold all their useless guns. He stopped next to a wall and slid down it.
There was something about the guns he was missing. He opened the pouch and looked in.
Scrap metal found. 4.25 Kgs
Impurities found
Discard?
Ari pulled the weapons out one by one and looked at them. He closed his eyes and thought about the knowledge in his head. It told him that he needed to push potentiality into the metal shard in his chest. He followed its direction and felt something change. His blood flow pulsed and churned, and he shut it off.
It wasn’t painful but strange. For a moment there he felt, well he did not know how to put it. It felt as if his blood was seeping into his skin and doing something.
He looked at the window that had popped into the side of his vision.
Potentiality.
498/500
He kept looking at it for a second and saw it increase by one.
Ari licked his lips and steadied himself. This wasn’t the time to contemplate things. On the other side of the room his men were holding back the enthralled and he needed to join the fight as soon as possible.
He started again. He felt the strange sense of his blood churning and feeding something into his body. He took a moment to get used to the feeling and then his fingers moved. They dug into the metal. As he got comfortable, he used his palms to need the metal which acted like play dough in his hands. As he worked, flakes flew out of the metal and grease slipped out. He watched the metal in his hands slowly turn from a black metal to a lustrous a dark silvery grey. He let his instincts take over and his hands moved on their own and his thoughts began guiding his action. Soon he tore the dark metal creating five perfect balls which he rolled into his palms.
Ari stopped and looked at his hands. Had he done that? Then he looked at the window.
Potentiality
330/500
Ari heard a whistle and looked up to see Abesh looking at him impressed.
“Nice job boss. Are we going to throw those things at the enemy?”
Ari rolled his eyes and smiled “Abesh, sometimes you can be really smart. Other times, you are denser than this ball of iron.”
Singh scoffed “Most times commander. Most times he is denser than one of your balls. And not the one you are holding up.”
Abesh gave Singh a displeased look and then in a huff shot a jet of fire out into the enthralled.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Ari looked back down and at the balls. An hour ago, it wouldn’t have been possible but as he concentrated his mind, his senses, and his hands something told him that what he wanted was pretty simple and easy. All he needed to do was create a harmony in between his metal shard and the quicksilver shard just below it.
He looked sideways and the window that showed him the visual representation of his body. It was bisected in the middle with a line. The line showed eight spots. Three of which were filled. The top one was glowing bluish white with his neuro shard. There were two empty spots below it and then came the metal shard. And finally, there was his quicksilver shard.
He read the description of his shards.
Neuro Shard.
Passive Effect - Increases comprehension by 3%.
Active Effect - Increases all mental processes by 20%.
Metal Shard
Passive Effect - Helps you understand the quality of anything metallic.
Active Effect - Gives you the ability to mold metal.
Quicksilver
Passive Effect - Increases stamina by 4%.
Active Effect - Increases agility and dexterity 11%.
Ari took the balls and rolled them into his hands slowly using his metal shard. He kept doing it until he had thin cylindrical tubes. Wherever he touched the metal softened on the other side it hardened until it could not be moved. The feeling was eerie, but he continued and then finally with his fingers he flattened the tubes into flat surfaces.
He looked at the five metal strips in front of him with a sense of triumph. Then a new pop up blocked his vision.
Entering Creator Mode.
Would you like to take smithing as a profession?
Yes/No?
Ari blinked as in his mind visions of knives appeared which were soon replaced by swords, and then clubs.
What was wrong with this place? Why did everything revert back to mediaeval weapons?
In disgust he hit no.
Another pop up popped up to replace the first one.
Would you like to take up sculpting as a profession?
He hit no, again.
And before another one could pop up, he mentally focused on what he wanted.
An image popped into his mind.
Create a Gauntlet?
“No.” Ari said sternly.
A disgusted frown crossed his face. Why was whatever this thing inside him was, so obsessed with melee weapons from the Middle Ages?
And what kind of idiot would wear a gauntlet in the present era? Those things were nasty. They had no range of movement, barely protected the wearer and usually led to broken hands.
No, he needed something else. Then as he looked at the gauntlet spinning around in one of the windows, he realised that he could use the skeleton of the design. With that in mind, he took the nearest strip and put it aside. He would use that as tape.
He followed the knowledge buzzing around in his head and streamed some of the potentiality into his quicksilver shard. A chiming sound was added to the humming of his metal shard.
His palms that were buzzing earlier became nimbler with the harmony of the quicksilver and his palms began to glow. That glow seeped into the metal and the dull metal became reflective like silver.
“Not, too big. Not too small, and not too fancy. Just something that works.” He muttered to the strip in his hand.
He pinched one side of it and began to roll the first strip back and forth across his left hand. He covered his palm, his knuckles and three fourth of his fingers. When he felt the strip becoming loose or running out p, he used the strip he had put aside like tape. Soon he had one of his hands covered like a boxer.
He stopped and looked at the window on the side.
Potentiality
150/500
He took in a deep breath and the potentiality in his meter increased by two. Ari’s eyebrows rose in thought. Was he breathing in the potentiality? Was it in the air?
He shook his head. This was no time for idle thoughts, but he could not continue. What he had done to his hand was cover it in a spring that was compressed like suspension of lory underweight. If he let the pressure release the whole thing spring out shredding out his hand.
“Something wrong commander?”
Ari looked up and saw the boy captain looking at him. None of them who were in his squad used the captain’s real name. His name was Abesh which literally translated into someone who has complete control, and yet the boy was the most impetuous person he had ever met. And somehow, even this computer system could not change the way they thought about him.
Ari smiled “Abesh.”
Abesh turned and looked at him with worry in his eyes.
“Sir? Is something… Can I… What do you need sir?”
“Relax boy. I just need to tape my hands. The best-case scenario, I will tape my hands with metal. The worst-case scenario, I will crush them into stubs and have metal stubs to beat the enemy back.”
Abesh eyes widened “Umm… I think I should get the major, sir.”
“Good idea captain. Do that.”
Ari watched the boy captain jog off and concentrated on his breathing. Every breath increased his potentiality by one or two, so he closed his eyes and relaxed.
Soon after a handful of meditative moments his potentiality was up to four hundred.
He grabbed the third strip. He had used the first two on his left hand, the third and fourth were going to go on his right. He began wrapping the rubbery metal around his wrist and palms proceeding upwards. Soon head his hand covered with one of the strips but that’s when he ran into problems.
Earlier, when he was wrapping his left hand, he could use his right hand to hold the strip and reach for more strips and tape. Now with his left hand taped up in metal, he had limited mobility. Also, he was right-handed.
He tried holding the end of the strip with his pinky finger and reached for the tape strip with his left. He fumbled and missed. Then his pinky finger began to slip as the metal stiffened without his left-hand pushing potentiality into it.
Ari’s eyes widened. This was bad. He knew how the metal would react. What he had created with his manipulation was a spring to help him punch a wall and compress under pressure. As soon as it would come loose, it would release all its tension, leaving his hand in the middle of a blender.
Before Ari could do anything, someone handed him the strip. Ari quickly tore off a chunk of the strip, turned it into tape and tied the metal strip off. He quickly reached for the second strip and started rolling it over his rights hand until he felt things settle down.
Finally, Ari looked up and saw Abesh looking at him with a confused look on his face.
“Is everything okay, sir?”
Ari sighed in relief “Yes, but it was a close one Abesh.”
“Just came back to tell you that the Major just went to the Whiswo's shop. Looks like I came back right on time.”
“Yes, you did Abesh. Now help me get the rest of this stuff done.”
Abesh nodded and began to assist him. With four hands the process became much easier. It also gave them some time to have a little discussion.
“Sir.” Abesh started “I need to know what my chain of command is now?”
Ari looked at Abesh for a moment and Abesh began to clarify.
“You are the commander, sir. That is a fact, and it feels right. But Singh and I do not have any rank…”
Ari rolled his eyes. He knew where this was going, and he let Abesh talk while he tied off the strip with his tape. He lifted the leftover tape strip and rolled them around on his fingertips. Using his metal shard he created eight spikes. One by one he added them to his knuckles, digging them in until they were firmly in place.
He looked at his taped hands and nodded in appreciation and tuned Abesh back in.
“All I am saying is that since we both don’t have rank, he shouldn’t speak to me like the way he has been. And I am not going to listen to anyone who insults me, much less take orders from them.”
Ari looked at the boy captain and chuckled “Are you done boy wonder?”
Abesh popped his mouth close and nodded.
“You want to tell Singh that you both are equal in rank? Go ahead, do that. I won’t step in between you and the whopping you are going to get.”
Abesh stiffened and then asked “Sit, why does he hate me?”
Ari exhaled “He doesn’t hate you. He is just disappointed with you. You had potential kid. You had everything we wished we could have had when we were younger. And you went to some brothel and brought back an autoimmune disease. Then you got discharged. It broke his heart. I can look beyond that fact, but Singh? He trained you.”
Abesh chewed his upper lip “What if I can beat it? What if I can be better both physically and magically?”
Ari looked at him “What do you mean?”
Abesh jutted his chin towards the strange statue “It gave me a quest. It doesn’t go against our mission and the reward would be healing and a spell. The doctor has already accepted a similar one, but I wanted to run it through you first.”
Ari looked at Abesh “What do you mean that the doctor has accepted a mission?”
“Not a mission, sir. A quest.”
“Who gave him the permission to do that?”
“Uh…Sir, he is a civilian and not under your command.”
Ari took in a sharp breath “I will discuss that with him later. You will not take a mission. I cannot have divided loyalties, captain. Is that clear?”
“Now help me up.” Ari extended a hand and Abesh pulled him to his feet.
Ari looked at his wraps and smiled. He wasn’t much of a blade man like Singh or a sniper like Abesh, but he used to be an army boxer and a damn good one. And with what he could do with metal he was going to make these enthralled screams. But he could not do that while having an unknown factor behind his back.
His eyes drifted to the strange statue. The seven-armed marble man with the cracked skin looked down at Ari imperiously.
He stood up and faced the statue. It’s golden eyes with flickering red firelight.
“It’s eyes. Did they always do that?”
“No commander. They started doing that when we started pushing the enthralled away.”
“I see.”
“Okay chap. What do you want?” Ari muttered in a low tone.
In response a notification popped into his mind.
Quest Received
Take out the trash.
Clear the Enthralled off the Temple Grounds
Rewards
Class 1 Healing from Yaksha Agni
Fire blessed shards
Accept Quest?
Yes / No
Ari stumbled backwards and looked at the statue in shock.
“You got one too? That’s good, commander. Now you can judge it on your own.” Abesh smiled and added “See? We can get healed.”
Ari stood there speechless for a moment. It was tempting. He could be free of his cancer just like that. It was tempting. So tempting that he did not know how Abesh hadn’t agreed to it instantly. But nothing came just like that.
“I don’t think that is how it would work, Abesh. Also, it is a statue of a Yaksha. If I remember my mythology, they weren’t always the nice benevolent gods.”
“Not exactly.” An echoing voice drifted into their conversation.
Ari turned sharply. There was something eerie about the voice. He relaxed slightly when he saw Doctor Joshi smiling at him.
“I know. My voice changed. It’s because my blood has fire in it.”
Ari looked at the doctor for a minute and then asked “What do you mean by not exactly, doctor?”
“I mean Yaksha and Yaksini in my recollections were mostly benevolent. Sure, if you anger any of our mythology, they will smite you in an instant.” The doctor gave Nameer an apologetic look and continued “I mean the Hindu mythology.”
“Where is my apologetic look doctor?” Singh appeared out of nowhere and asked while walking towards them.
Ari smiled with relief after his old friend walked up to him and said “Took you long enough.”
“Well, you know sir. Had to meet the locals. Discuss a few things with them.” Singh stated cryptically and then continued “So, why were we talking about mythology, why?”
“Look at the statue for a second.” Abesh responded.
Singh squinted at the boy and then looked at the statue. He jerked back.
“What in the…”
“Yes.” Doctor Joshi responded.
“Does that mean…” Singh muttered
“That the gods are real?” Doctor tapped his chin and shrugged.
“No!” Singh responded in a chiding tone “I mean does that mean that we are stuck in a crazy world where a seven-armed man can exist?”
Joshi scowled “Not a man. A yaksha.”
Singh sighed “And here we are. Without our weapons. And without our gear.”
“Uh…” Doctor Joshi’s hollow voice rang out of him “Your hypothesis is flawed. Who says we are in a world? Do you see the moon out of the windows?”
Ari and his squad looked at the windows. The doctor was right, there was no moon.
“Then where is the light coming from?” Nameer asked
“From a nebula.”
“What does that mean doctor?” Ari asked.
“We are somewhere else. Far away from anything or anyone we know.” The doctor sighed.
“Nice one, doctor. And with that spooky hollow voice too.” Singh shook his head “So we are in a Hindu mythology something and we should shit our pants? Not going to happen.”
Everybody looked at Singh.
“Gents, you can’t tell me your mythology is all hippy peace and love. Honestly the first time I looked at a statue of Kali, I was eight and I couldn’t sleep for a week.” Singh shot back.
“Singh.” Ari muttered.
Singh continued “Commander, honestly, the Hindu mythology makes the Norse look like amateurs. And the Greeks look like teenagers with nerf guns.”
“Singh!” Ari shot out in a stern voice.
Singh raised his palms “I am just saying, if someone expects us to fight monsters out of your mythology, shouldn’t we have rocket launchers?”
“Technically, Agni is not a god. He is a Deva.” Abesh added.
Nameer looked around at the frowns and then the other two lieutenants who were keeping their distance. He gave up and finally asked.
“Sirs. I don’t mean to butt in but what is the difference? They are all gods right.”
Abesh sighed “No. A deva is a divine being. Not a god. There is a difference of scale in their beings.”
“And here he is referred to as a yaksha? What are yakshas?” Ari asked.
Joshi smiled “Mostly formless spirits. But they can become as powerful as demigods and gods. Agni is one of the yakshas that defines the universe. How powerful do you think he is?”
Ari looked from the doctor to the statue with glowing eyes and asked “So, we are in a temple of a god, and it can exert its will, in this world?”
Joshi sighed “Once again, this is not a world. It’s what the notification said. It's a trial.” Doctor Joshi muttered in his strange echoing voice.
“Okay. I have had it. Doctor Joshi, what is wrong with your vocal cords?” Singh clapped the doctor on the shoulder and asked.
“I had radiation poisoning and then I looked at the statue. It looked back and liked what it saw.” Doctor Joshi smiled.
Everyone gave Doctor Joshi a look.
He grinned “Don’t worry, he doesn’t mean us any harm. He is actually quite pleased with us. We are fighting the enthralled and he likes that. But if we annoy him. Then we are in trouble. He mostly wants us to do a job for him.”
“How do you know that doctor?” Ari asked
“He told me.”
Singh backed away. His hand drifted to his empty holster and then to his knives.
Ari stepped forward and in a calm voice asked “Doctor. Are you saying that the statue over there spoke to you?”
Doctor Joshi smiled “Of course not. It’s a statue.”
Everyone relaxed slightly.
Joshi looked at the statue and continued “But, then I prayed to it. That is when I heard his voice in my head.”
“Shit? Commander?” Singh asked.
Ari exhaled “As eloquent as always Singh.”
“This is no time for jokes, commander.”
Ari just smiled and then looked at everyone.
They were all looking at Joshi in trepidation. Ari could imagine what was going through everyone’s mind. Had he lost his mind? Has the stress of being in warzone broken him? Had he sold out to some unknown power? Was he a ticking time bomb?
Ari shook his head “Doctor. There are no such things as gods. But it does not matter. We have to clear out the temple one way or another. We need to make a safe fallback position. Also, we have two civilians out there. We need to find them and bring them back to safety. This place is as safe as any out there. And if the intimidating strange statue wants to heal us to make this place safe, I am going to take its deal. But we will not take any shards that come with any strings attached.”
Joshi looked distracted for a second and then said “Good. Lord Agni says, almost all of the Nishachars have left to fight a bigger threat. Leaving their soulless enthralled behind. We should begin before they come back.”
Abesh smiled “So, the god wants to give us gifts to do our job? I say we smile and take it.”
Singh scowled at Abesh and shook his head.
Ari looked at Singh and shook his head slightly, stopping him before he could start.
Ari looked at the doctor “The statue wants us to kill bad guys. We want to kill bad guys. I don’t see harm in that. Anything more, we are not going to take.”
Ari stepped back and walked to the wooden barrier. After a minute Singh caught up to him.
“Commander. Ari. If this turns out to be like Assam…”
“Oh come on Singh. Nothing can be as messed up as Assam.”
“Remember what you said over there. It’s just a little ambush.”
“It was just a little ambush.”
“There were twenty of them sir. And one had a rocket launcher.”
Ari chuckled “Yeah. Little ambush.”
“Then our allies sold out to the Chinese. And attacked us from behind.”
“We expected that.”
Singh looked at Ari with pleading eyes.
“Come on, Singh. It’s just going to be like old times.”
Singh sighed “Yeah, I know sir. And that is what I am afraid of.”