1.32 — Ruckus With A Rakshas v1.0

The person I can be?

Was she telling the truth?

Was that even possible?

Taking hold of the square pill from her thin fingers, I stared at it. Could this tiny pill really help me? Can this really make me strong?

To be honest, if this were any other time, I would’ve dismissed it as some bullshit.

Infact, I am dismissing it as some bullshit right now. Yet there’s this small part of me that’s, for some reason…

For some reason, it’s really pushing me to believe her.

No, it was more like I wanted to believe her now. To take my chances with her. To trust her.

And while I would love to just stand here in our own personal time dilation zone, chit-chatting, discussing what the pill does, its side effects, etc—I couldn’t come up with more examples, though this is a time-sensitive event so give me a break—but the screams and destruction happening around and above us kinda made me hurry up.

I mean, honestly, I’m surprised the Rakshas hadn’t yet captured the pair and eaten them already. Well, yeah, also I’m glad for that but…you know.

Popping the pill in my mouth and ingesting it dry—I hate gulping down pills without water—I shot off towards the now half-destroyed building and tried to think of my game plan which went more or less along the lines of—

‘Okay, Aarav, what’s your plan here…Do I shout and tell the mother-son pair to come towards me? Nah, between all this destruction, I doubt they’ll be able to hear me. Or even have the courage to move. Maybe I can gain the attention of the Rakshas towards me, get it away from the pair and instead let me fight with him. Now that could work, but chances of me surviving that are kinda slim…’

Seeing the stairs I figured I’ll just take them and climb higher. Go to the scene rather than bring the scene to me.

And yeah, I do get that’s a bit of a long way up but in a way, this was just me trying to prolong the time before I started the fight.

Why? Well, a number of reasons, to be honest. Maybe giving the pill enough time for its effects to start showing up. Maybe warming up my body before getting into the strenuous fight and not dying because I had cramps suddenly.

Or maybe it was just that. To give me more time to be, well, alive. Who knows how long this re-found heroism would last.

Just because I was on the receiving end of a pep talk and happened to consume a—what I imagine from Reizumi’s words to be some sort of a—magical steroid pill, doesn’t mean I instantly developed fearlessness mixed with boldness and courage sprinkled on the top.

Courage and boldness aside. I was shit scared when I took the pill.

Infact, I was shit scared even now.

My heart was beating at a rate it had never beat before and the reason for that wasn’t the high-intensity cardio I was doing at the moment

...It was fear, if the answer wasn’t obvious. Sure, the cardio helped too but it was mostly fear.

Actually, the run-up wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be.

Like sure, it was just six floors but still, I barely felt any tiredness in my body or sweat laminating my skin.

Was it the pill?

The colours around me did seem bright. My body felt light but also powerful.

It reminded me of yesterday. The moment I first did the magic and managed to land my first hit on Quadro.

Maybe Reizumi was right.

Maybe I really could save them.

Reaching the final floor, I scanned for my target, my reason for being here.

No, not the Rakshas. That beast was hard to miss who was wreaking havoc trying to find the dead pair.

Speaking of whom, I found them behind a half-broken wall. They had crouched behind it, trying to hide among the debris.

They were my reason for being here.

This was, afterall, a rescue mission.

At best, a stalling mission until the real heroes arrived.

The Rakshas stopped in its track and made no motion. Did it notice me?

Shit in a bucket! All the confidence I’ve been building up while climbing up suddenly drained away in an instant. Guess I’m lucky that I didn’t drink a lot of water today.

Thankfully though, it turned out that the beast had not noticed me.

It had simply stopped its movement to crane its long neck up in the air so that its nose was at the highest point.

The memory of Quadro sniffing me came up. I could be wrong but they probably hunted through their sense of smell, I think.

And from the looks of it, the demon had caught the pair’s deathly scent.

Without wasting a moment, the Rakshas ran towards the pair.

And so did I.

My legs felt like a tightly pressed spring just waiting to be released. Filled with energy just waiting to be used. I had never felt this energised before!

It was at that moment that I saw them. Little specks of golden light shaped like a ball with four small wings sprouting off of them.

Within a second, they were everywhere—covering the floor, the walls, and the sky outside. They sneaked out of the dark shadows between bricks and stones, they sprouted into existence out of the red-bricked walls.

Were they always here? How could I have missed them?

It’s like one moment it was a dark room and somehow someone just turned the switch on that made these little balls of light visible.

Something about them seemed really...familiar.

I wondered if they were the Ruh those Grimmers talked about before?

The ones that seemingly loved me.

Somehow I got to the pair of mother and son faster than the Rakshas. The pair looked up in my direction and readied themselves for another attacker.

Although, without wasting any of my momentum, I jumped over them and kept my pace as I dashed towards the monster.

The ghosts didn’t know who I was or what I was here for. And neither did the Rakshas. I barely do.

Surprised to see someone other than its prey standing in front of it, the Rakshas faltered in its step for a moment but resumed its run.

But that moment of surprise was all that I needed.

I kicked myself in the air, towards the beast, and pulled my arm back. My fists were tight and balled up, ready to attack.

For some reason, I knew I had to do it. I knew I had to try it out once again. With thirty unsuccessful attempts, I should have hated even trying it out again.

But I just couldn’t bring myself to hate it.

Infact, I loved it, actually. The feeling of invincibility that I held within me for barely a few minutes…I was obsessed with it. Yearned for it.

I wanted to feel that strength again.

And this time, after what was barely twenty hours but felt like a lifetime, I felt it again.

I saw it more clearly this time.

In the giant light covered space, the Ruh created a way for me, like an ocean of golden light just parting to show me the way, giving me a clear view of the beast.

Few of the golden globes split away from the ocean towards me. They swarmed my arm instantly as if that was what they were waiting for. For my permission to let them love and embrace me.

Not gonna lie, it was a weird...feeling. In a good way.

Their forms changed from a golden airy light to a golden thick liquid to eventually a golden hard material encasing my arm.

It wasn’t really heavy. Like, while it did feel like a lightweight was suddenly being added on my arm, it still felt…well, light. Natural. As if it had been a part of my body since birth.

Without any form of hesitation, I pushed my fists out front and punched the air.

And as if a trigger was pressed on the gun, the giant golden gauntlet flew off of my hand like a high-speed bullet and hit the beast right onto its screaming open-jawed face.