Apocalypse XIV - Retrospection

All of a sudden, there is a strong blow to me on my thigh. I fall down completely as Dharmendra got up in pain. He summoned his hammer which was lying behind me and I am now basically immobilized. He took his Gadha in his hand and slammed it on my right thigh. I scream in anguish! This guy has a lot of guts doing this. He says, "You don't know for how long I have waited to do this to you! Revenge is quite sweet!"

Adi is about to shoot an arrow at him when Bhishma says, "This is their fight. Not yours"

Adi screams in anger, "Last time, Karthik said the same thing and Dharmendra came out of it maimed and dismembered. IT might repeat again!"

Bhishma says with a heavy voice, "They got into a battle to the death. I shall only intervene when one of them is completely dead. No sooner than that!"

Dharmendra is smug on hearing that! He tells me, "No one can save you from imminent death! This is your punishment!"

He hammers me in the heart. My HP is slowly reducing. My heart is burning with pain. I can't keep my eyes open in this searing heat. My limbs are going numb. My ears are deafened y the loud sound of my heart getting beaten to hell. My nostrils are flaring in pain. Is this how I am going to die? Is this my fate? Being hammered to death by a fire monster? Is this what my gaming life sums up to?! Am I nothing but a murderer?! No! I do not accept this! I am not a murderer! I am not a bloody ruthless murderer!

"NOT TODAY!!" I raise my swords and block Dharmendra's Gadha. I pull them apart ad roll aside and get up. Me and Dharmendra walk around each other in a spiral. I rush at him and slash at his neck. He ducks and hammers my hand. I scream in agony. I turn around and try to slash at his torso. He sidesteps it and slams my midsection. I cough out my blood as I reel back in pain. I look up at his smug face as he says, "Why? Are you scared? You better be, Bloody Azure! I want to look at your frightened face as I rip you apart. I want to see your bloodied face as you die!"

I snort and say, "And you call me a bloody murderer!"

I slash his face and his torso which he ducks again sidesteps and hits my chin with his Gadha. He then hits my stomach with his Gadha. He hits my face again. My body is racking with pain at this moment. I will most likely lose. Is he right? He probably is. That's why he is fighting with a confidence which comes when you believe that you hold the moral high ground. The faces of all my victims are popping up in my mind right now. Do I look like them while Dharmendra is bashing my body apart? Do I have that same frightened expression as they do when they face the full brunt of my anger and frustration? They probably gave up all hopes upon seeing my lightning coated armour. I always enjoyed that kind of thing. Many people called me a sadist. I just chalked it up to people being jealous of me. But now, I feel that they were probably right. Once again I am on the ground and once again I shall roll over and let him destroy the terrain. It might do me some good as well. I grin as I get up because I shall let him ruefully outdo himself and get so tired that he can't fight anymore. He brings his hammer down onto me and I sidestep it again. I bring one sword on his hammer and stab him in the gut with the other one. He lifts his hammer and hits my hand with it again. I close the distance between the two of us and slash at his midsection. He grins as he back-steps it. I get closer to him and slash at him again and again but he moves backward but once he just ducks and hammers me in the guts but I take the chance to stab him in the shoulder. He screams in pain as he backs up again. He rushes at me and I rush at him as well. He tries to hammer me but I block his hammer with my sword. He takes his hammer back and hits my face with it and this time around, my right eye pays the price. I wince in the sheer pain of it. I am down on the ground again. This time- I am half blind. True, it will heal, but as of now I can't do anything. I am bleeding from all the cuts and hits I recieved. My HP is lower than it was ever before in more than an year. I close both my eyes as I am ready to accept defeat. All of a sudden, I am in a vision. My son who is barely five years old is by my side. He is calling out to me to get up. My wife is on the other side in all her beauty. She touches my cheek in a loving manner. She tells me, "It's not time yet. You cannot die. You need to come back to us." She removes her hand from my cheek and places it on my chest and says, "Our son is feeling so bored without you. As a matter of fact so am I. Come back to us. Don't die away from us where we can no longer find you. You can't leave us. Not right now. Not ever!" I bolt back to consciousness. I get up to him but he continues to batter my right eye. I can barely keep up anymore. He slams his hammer into my cheek once more putting me down. I pant as the wind is leaving my lungs.

I remember the silhouette of my wife telling me that I cannot die. I tell myself, "I cannot die. I need to GO BACK!" I lose all form of control as I go wild on him slashing at every chance I get. He responds in kind my trying to hammer me apart at every blow. I slash is right eye out of existence. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind but I am damn sure as hell that the world would rather be blind than dead. Dharmendra knees my midsection as I stab him.. Using my swordstabbed in him as leverage, I jump up and knee is face and stab my other sword into his heart and push him back down on the ground. I remove my swords from his body. Blood starts flowing out of him. I tell him, "I may be a cold blooded ruthless killer. I may have been a guy who killed for fun. I may have been a bloody murderer. But I tell you this, call me brother today and I shall not disappoint. Get up. We were friends in the beginning. Let's end this as friends. You find out a lot about yourself when you fight. I found out that I was a guy who was a bug hypocrite and I am willing to change that. What about you?"

[Mythological titbits: Last time around we left it with Arjuna's story about how he became Drona's favorite student. Today, we shall see the story of Ekalavya. Ekalavya was the son of Hiranyadhanu who was the leader of the Nishidha tribe and the commander of king Jarasandha's army. Ekalavya was very interested in archery. He was in the same forest as Drona was. He went to Drona and asked him to teach him archery but he was rejected by Drona. He didn't stop his pursuit of archery there. He built a statue of Drona and considered the statue itself to be Drona. He would look at Drona's lessons from afar and learn them all by himself only by what he saw and bby hearing what Drona tol the other children. His skills in archery grew immensely. One day when Drona and Arjuna were going in the forest with their dog, their dog tarted barking all of a sudden. Ekalavya, who was nearby heard the dog's barking. He assumed that it was a wild dog and shot arrows in the direction of the dog which went and hit it in the mouth. Drona and Arjuna were surprised by this and went in the direction from which the arrows came and found Ekalavya. Upon learning that Ekalavya was the one who shot the arrows they were immensely surprised as Ekalavya had shot the arrows just based on where the sound came from and Arjuna had not mastered that yet. So he became jealous of Ekalavya. Drona asked him who his teacher was. Ekalavya replied Drona was his teacher. Upon learning this Arjuna was very unhappy and angry. He asked Drona why he was teaching someone else when he had promised to make Arjuna the greatest archer. Drona asked Ekalavya how he learnt it as Drona was sure he had not taught Ekalavya. Ekalavya told him his story and Drona was perplexed to hear that. He was bound to Arjuna by his promise. He did not like what he was about to do but nevertheless told Ekalavya that since Drona was his teacher, Ekalavya must pay him fees for teaching. Ekalavya said that he would happily give whatever Drona wanted. Drona asked him the thumb of his shooting hand. Ekalavya happily agreed to this and cut off his thumb instantly and gave it to Drona. Drona was surprised at this and looked at Ekalavya with deep guilt and regret for he had ruined the career of a fine archer just so that he could keep up his promise to Arjuna. He went back sad hearted but Ekalavya didn't stop learning. Some scriptures claim that eventually Ekalavya adapted to having to shoot without his thumb. Some others claim that Drona didn't ask for the thumb but for Ekalavya to not take any sides during war and that Ekalavya said that it was the equivalent of cutting his thumb off as what use were his skills if he couldn't use them.

I promised you the story of Karna's curse as well but we will have to do that the next time. See you all in the next chapter.]