Vedic Warriors

by Rituraj Sharma

  Not one to be intimidated by small flesh wounds, Mahayogishm carried on. Neither was he completely defenceless without his bow and axes, he was now more careful and started slicing the incoming arrows fired by Jairudh. Jairudh in turn kept Mahayogishm occupied, thus giving opportunity to another great warrior, ‘Oniata’. As Mahayogishm was competing with Jairudh, the undefeatable Oniata threw his heavy sword at Mahayogishm using all his power and force. Though Mahayogishm saw the incoming weapon, he was marginally late to react and blocked the heaviest sword with his thin sword, the impact broke Mahayogishm’s thin sword into pieces and pushed Mahayogishm back and made him fall to the ground. The collision was like a jolt to Mahayogishm but like a hero he stood back up on his feet, only to receive another assault. As he stood back on his feet, his helmet was smashed by Nismibh. The strong warrior by now had recovered and used his heavy mace for the assault. He looked really aggressive and violent and looked for revenge. Mahayogishm was in a vulnerable position, the smash made him bleed badly and he looked dizzy. Concurrently, Tung, without wasting any time jumped and struck his thin sword vertically into the opponent’s right shoulder, near the armour less neck region of Mahayogishm, thus making it penetrate into the left side of his chest through the shoulder. At that instance, Jairudh fired multiple arrows at Mahayogishm which penetrated his various body parts. He was supported by the energy balls of Vinashki which again depleted Mahayogishm’s energy. Oniata and Agastya were not far behind and were up close for a group fight. It seemed all over for Mahayogishm, he was attacked from all sides, he was outnumbered. He felt giddy, disoriented but he kept on fighting vigorously and was still on his feet.

  But this was not going to last for long, as Oniata using an opportunity pulled the two legs of Mahayogishm back making him fall flat on his face. As soon as Mahayogishm hit the ground, Nismibh battered the Avatar using his heavy mace. Mahayogishm was now in deathly pain, he tried to turn and as he did that Oniata pushed his sword in to the neck of Mahayogishm. It was over for the warrior, this was it, he was in the last stage of his life and this stage was shortened further by Nismibh who kept on battering the mighty Mahayogishm. He then pulled Mahayogishm by his legs and dragged him in anger, lifted him, spun him and threw him with force. He then again moved towards the warrior but was stopped by Jairudh, “Hey! That’s enough. He is dead.”

  The words made Nismibh stop, and now he felt his pain and sank down on to the ground clutching his wound inflicted by Mahayogishm.

  “Are you all right?” asked Jairudh.

  “I guess? I am used to such wounds. What to do with him?” replied Nismibh pointing at Mahayogishm.

  “We need to be sure he is dead. Oniata go and sever his head and keep it with you. We’ll gift it to Taraksh as a trophy along with the armour,” ordered Agastya.

  “Do we really have to this?” argued Jairudh.

  “Of Course! We have killed a god, the mighty Mahayogishm. It is my greatest accomplishment. I will flaunt it for the rest of my life,” replied Agastya.

  As per the order, Oniata went towards Mahayogishm, stood over him and sliced his head, lifted it and threw it towards Agastya. Agastya put his foot on the head and laughed loudly, “Surya….Ha..Ha…Ha…Ha.”

  After slaying the mighty Yogishm, the ‘Manuastra’ sat around the fire and meditated while Jairudh headed the ritual, after lot of meditation and mantra chanting, a figure emerged from the fire. It was the shadow of the sun god, he looked unhappy and angry but held the armour in his two hands. All the chosen warriors immediately bowed down to the reflection. Surya looked at all of them one by one, handed over the armour to Jairudh and then vanished back into the fire. As he vanished, the flame disappeared. The armour was with ‘Manuastra’ now.

  One by one, the warriors looked at the armour, they held it in their hands and though excited, were not exceedingly impressed as it seemed to be an ordinary gold armour, with no great powers.

  “I have heard that it has the ability to turn one into steel, nothing happened to me.” Exclaimed Oniata.

  “Only Shresthaha can make it work using his powers, he can activate the armour, otherwise it is ordinary,” answered Agastya, “Now give it back to me and let us head back to the city as two days from now we sail.”

  The six warriors then sat in the boat and rowed back to the cave and then back to Chandrajeet. The heir was surprised to see the group’ with the armour, “You defeated the Avatar of Surya! You are certainly divine! You truly represent the god of wrath, the thunder God – Indra,” exclaimed Chandrajeet. He was shocked and was not able to control himself and immediately fell at their feet.

  “You may rise and stand on your feet,” said Agastya, “I am bigger than the gods. I want you to build statues and temples in my name all around this island.”

  “Rightly said my lord, rightly said, it will be done!” replied Chandrajeet while still on ground.

  The heroes then moved back to the city. They took rest for some time and continued with libidinous activities. Surprisingly, Agastya gave strict instructions to his men not to plunder the city. This was uncharacteristic of him as Agastya was known to lead the pillage of the cities he conquered. However, in order to make his men happy, he allowed the warriors to collect ten percent of gold from each and every household of the city as protection money, thus ensuring safety of civilians.

  As the events unfolded here, back in Mahaverna, Taraksh looked troubled, his insanity was ever increasing. He sat with Ruahmah and discussed his problems, “I am going mad Ruahmah, he is looking at me with antagonism, he is furious at me, every day he asks me to kill you, but how can I do it? I love you so much…Look! He is looking at me.”

  “There is no one here but you and me. No one can harm you, you are the strongest. No one can hurt you,” replied Ruahmah trying to pacify Taraksh.

  Taraksh had an alter ego, since his childhood he used to talk to his reflection. In his mind his reflection was a different person, his master all along, talking back to him, guiding him and making him stronger.

  He had been obeying his reflection all along but recently he had been in turmoil as his reflection desired him to kill Ruahmah.

  He glanced at his reflection again and immediately looked back at Ruahmah, petrified, “No! He is there, he is very powerful, he will destroy me, finish me,” said Taraksh as he snuggled inside Ruahmah.

  “There is no one Taraksh, you are stronger than your reflection. Why don’t you throw the mirror away?” Ruahmah coaxed.

  “He is everywhere. I can see him everywhere, I am tired,” cried Taraksh.

  Ruahmah stood up, walked towards the mirror and turned the reflective surface away. She then quickly put out the lamps and made it completely dark, she then pulled Taraksh down, held him and said, “See now no one is looking at you, it’s only me and you and your son.”

  Taraksh wanted to speak, but instead Ruahmah leaned in and silenced his words with a kiss upon his lips.

  Simultaneously, at Xanubi, the twins were engaged in a meeting with seven of their key spies. These seven spies had multiple agents under them and kept the twins informed about each and every development in and around their kingdom. One of these spies had come with the information regarding the chosen warriors.

  “Taraksh has hand-picked a few great warriors from the tournament and has appointed them as commanders in his army. He has utilized this event well and his army definitely is stronger now. But what appears most extraordinary is that those best warriors chosen by Shresthaha himself are missing and are nowhere to be found in the empire, no one knows where they have gone,” informed the spy.

  Vedhas looked slightly concerned; he looked back at the spy and asked for the names of those who were missing.

  “There is an archer called Jairudh, an extremely powerful man called Nismibh, a mystic female warrior called Vinashki, an extremely agile warrior called Tung and then the two already famous ones, Agastya and Oniata,” replied the spy.

  Zekrar looked at his brother at this revelati
on and said, “Have they been sent together somewhere, but where? What do you think brother?”

  The brothers had no knowledge of the armour, they had no idea that it existed on earth and therefore they were confounded by this development, “Maybe they have been sent to invade some Kingdom. I don’t know?” responded Vedhas, he then looked back at the spy and asked for more clarifications, “These warriors have gone missing alone or there is some regiment missing as well.”

  “I have no idea, the army of Taraksh is huge with countless divisions,” replied the spy.

  “Try to get the more information, pay more bribes if required, but I need to know what’s cooking inside the sinister mind of Shreshtaha,” inquired Zekrar.

  “I have already done that but no one other than the senators seems to have knowledge about the six missing warriors,” confirmed the spy.

  “Then let us wait and watch, in the meantime try to find out more. I know….I can feel that Taraksh and Shresthaha are on to something, but what, I don’t know.

  You are my eyes my soldiers, you need to trace these six warriors one way or another. You may leave now but spread your network, I want more information at any cost, the meeting is dispersed,” stated Vedhas.

  Two days later, back at Rabocin, Agastya and the chosen warriors started preparing themselves for their journey back to their homeland. Agastya personally supervised the loading of the promised twenty five percent of Rabocin’s treasury in to the ships. He and his soldiers also checked the revenue collected from civilians and compared the same with their average earning; those found guilty of paying less were arrested.

  Oniata was asked to supervise the loading of food and wine, while Jivraj managed the repairs of the ships. Chandrajeet wanted the alien army to be happy and leave peacefully. Henceforth, he organized a grand farewell for the visitors and his brother-in-law, Agastya. A special golden chariot with wings attached to it belonging to Prahast was refurbished to escort Agastya to the ships. The royals and the people did not hate Agastya and his army, they in fact liked Agastya, he could have plundered the city but he did not. He did punish those who cheated but he could have done worse. The local prince also arranged for five hundred musicians and dancers to play music and dance respectively as the invaders walked toward their boats.

  Once all the preparation was complete, ‘Manuastra’ moved out of the palace for their departure, they were treated royally; rose petals were thrown before them as they walked towards their chariots. Leaving Agastya, the chariots of the ‘Manuastra’ were made of silver and were furnished with diamonds, while Agastya’s chariot in the centre was made of gold and embellished with diamonds. The treatment the victors got was quite splendid, with musicians beating drums and singers singing songs, dancers dancing and chariots being pulled by men dressed in silver and gold. The common people gathered in huge numbers and witnessed the procession. They all cheered for ‘Manuastra’ and especially for Agastya. His wife also accompanied him to the beach where the boats were anchored and kissed Agastya as he walked towards a bumboat. He left her behind, although he promised her that he would come back. The alien army then boarded the ships; they felt honoured by the treatment. Once everyone entered the ships, Jivraj gave the signal to sail back to ‘Mahaverna’.

  Chapter VIII

  Betrayal

  It was a long journey back to Mahaverna, the crew avoided the cliff island that belonged to the bird men and coursed through a longer route. The armour was safely placed under Agastya’s supervision and Agastya looked content; he knew that Taraksh would be pleased with his accomplishments. He was the leader of the group and had succeeded in getting the golden armour.

  Jairudh and Vinashki looked inseparable and definitely in love. Jairudh’s aloofness seemed to have vanished before Vinashki. Oniata seemed ruffled by their closeness and often commented on Jairudh & Vinashki, resulting in small scuffles.

  Few days later, they came across a region where the sea looked heavier and denser. There was a small cliff rising just ten feet above the sea level ahead. This cliff looked like the top of a volcano and steam could be seen rising from its crater. Jivraj commanded the ships to stay away from the crater and gave instructions to manoeuvre the ships away from the steam. The crew managed to evade the steam but the trouble was far from over as the ocean started looking darker and denser, the waves started rising up to six feet, a few up to nine feet and a few others up to fifteen feet. The next scene surprised everyone as suddenly the waves started rising higher and higher and started taking shapes. The six feet waves took the formation of transparent water soldiers, the nine feet waves turned into cavaliers and the fifteen feet waves transformed into water elephants. Then few waves rose even higher and became trebuchets. A leader made up of water stood poised right in front of the water army.

  These sea warriors were the deceased army of Agnidweep, which had submerged into the water. It was their last attempt to restrict the ‘Manuastra’ from taking the armour away. The crew stood still in awe hoping to navigate around the area, but it was not destined to happen, as the leader gave the signal and the trebuchet started firing water rock boulders. The impact of the water boulders was disastrous, one of them broke the sail of one of the ships and the initial attacks filled the ships with immense amount of water. The intentions were clear, sink the ships. The moment this happened the whole wave of soldiers, cavalry, and elephants charged at the ships. The first impact pushed the ships backwards, almost tumbling them down. In desperation, the ‘Manuastra’ and the army stared firing arrows at the water soldiers but it was of no avail. There was panic all round as with every attack the ships started filling with water. Soldiers rushed with buckets in their hands to throw the water out, but this was just not helping. Only Vinashki was able to stop a few water gushes, blocking them with her magnetic balls. Jivraj looked worried, he knew that the ships would not be able to survive another attack, he looked at Jairudh and said, “DO SOMETHING...USE YOUR DIVINE ARROWS. THE SHIPS WILL NOT ABLE TO SURVIVE THE NEXT ATTACK…WE WILL ALL DIE!”

  Jairudh acknowledged and took his bow in his hand from his shoulders, he then stretched his right hand forward and meditated for a few seconds and an arrow magically appeared in his hand. He aimed this special arrow towards the sea, at an angle of one hundred and twenty degrees, closed his eyes and fired the arrow. The arrow sliced the sea surface and went inside, cutting and making its way towards the sea floor. It struck the bottom of the ocean, triggering a massive quake which generated a Tsunami in the direction of the water warriors. Huge waves began sweeping aside the water warriors with its force. In few seconds, the water gush took the water warriors away, the shapes of which could be seen trying to get out of the trap created by seismic sea waves. The ships remained safe as they were on the opposite side of the Tsunami. Jairudh was proud of his accomplishment; he looked at Jivraj and then Vinashki and winked at her. The ships survived and sailed ahead back to Mahaverna.

  The journey continued peacefully after the incident, in no time the ships were inching closer to their destination. Jivraj declared that by next morning they would touch Mahaverna. Everyone celebrated, drank and enjoyed the last night together. Once everyone slept, after the long celebration, in the middle of the night, two shadows moved stealthily towards Agastya’s cabin. In the dark night, silently, like trained assassins, the shadows got rid of the two guards stationed outside Agastya’s compartment. They moved inside and walked towards the armour. It was placed in a metal box locked and tied with chains. Agastya drank heavily and hence slept profoundly. The shadows had knowledge of his condition, they moved forward and silently broke the chain, picked up the box and crept out of his compartment. They then boarded a landing boat and rowed towards Mahaverna at a much faster pace as compared to the ship. The armour was stolen.

  In the morning, when Agastya woke up, he was flabbergasted to see the chains broken and the armour stolen, he immediately called for the guards, but the guards stationed outside were unconscious. He immediately got up and
rushed to examine the broken chains and the door. He was surprised to see the unconscious guards outside the door. Agastya was horrified, he knew that the armour had been stolen and he knew that this might cost him his life at the hands of Taraksh. He ran towards the deck, looked around frantically in the hope to catch the thieves, but when no one was found, he started shouting and raised an alarm. The other soldiers and the ‘Manuastra’ rushed to the deck. All were present but for two members of the ‘Manuastra’, Jairudh and Nismibh.

  “Where is Jairudh? and where is Nismibh? go and check their compartments,” ordered Agastya.

  The guards rushed to their rooms but found no one. They hurried back and said, “They are not there.”

  “My God! They have stolen the armour. They were together the whole time,” exclaimed Agastya, he then looked at two of his lieutenants and ordered a hunt, “Shukra and Nagnath, take twenty men and the fastest horses, divide into groups of four. We are about to touch land and the moment we are in shallow water you jump off the ships and ride as fast as you can, look for them, and do whatever you can but they must not escape your eye. Three will stop them, one will report back to Oniata, who will be stationed on the beach with the army and the remaining ‘Manuastra’. I, on the other hand will face Taraksh.”