Satyaki
and Alamvusha were having a spirited face off in the battlefield. But
today Satyaki was unbeatable. All the duals that he had faced had
only two outcomes – either the person who faced him was killed
mercilessly or they retreated from battle. The battle with Alamvusha
was no different either. Satyaki killed the four horses of Alamvusha
and angrily pushed passed Alamvusha, and that was when Satyaki met
Dusshasana. And Dusshasana was not alone. Dusshasana’s entire
division tried to attack Satyaki in the hopes of containing the man.
They
might have as well tried containing a hurricane for all the effect it
had.....
Satyaki
ploughed through Dusshasana’s division like it was nothing and
killed four of Dusshasana’s horses and drove from there....towards
Arjuna and Krishna.
As
Satyaki was approaching the two Krishnas, he was intercepted by
Bhurisravas. Arjuna saw this when Krishna spoke. ‘Partha!’ It was
the Dark Lord. ‘Satyaki is here!’ was all Krishna told Arjuna.
But
then both Arjuna and Krishna knew what that meant and that was not
good at all....
‘How
could Yudhishtara do this?’ Arjuna asked grimly. ‘How could
Satyaki do this? I have Satyaki and Bhima here with me inside the
Vyugha!’
Krishna
said nothing as Arjuna was getting more and more angry. ‘Yudhishtara
is all alone! Bhurisravas is going to attack Satyaki and I have not
yet reached Jayadratha!’ Arjuna watched the sun furiously. ‘And I
have precious few hours of the day remaining!’ Arjuna looked
at Krishna. ‘What should I do, Krishna!’
**********
The
way the battle between Karna and Bhima was going, it seemed almost
certain that Kunti could have only five sons alive by the time the
battle was over.
But
Bhima had already run out of his weapons. So he did the next best
thing – He almost challenged Karna to a fist fight. But there was a
huge problem with that – Bhima was so strong that Karna could never
survive a fist fight with Bhima. And Bhima remembering that Arjuan
had vowed to kill this man, refrained from challenging Karna to a
dual.
And
so Karna had set his arrow on the practically unarmed Bhima and let
his arrow go....
The
arrow shot through and pierced Bhima and Bhima nearly fell
unconscious.
Furiously,
Karna remembered the promise that he had made to Kunti and angrily
decided not to kill Bhima.
Instead
of letting his arrow fly, Karna came close to Bhima and hit Bhima on
the head with the horn of his bow. But that apparently was the wrong
thing to do....Because Bhima was so angry with Karna that Bhima
snatched Karna’s bow and hit Karna on the head with Karna’s own
bow.
Karna
was shocked and shouted angrily at Bhima. ‘Glutton fool! You have
no weapons and nothing to me fight with! You have lived in the forest
and that is your place. A battlefield is not a place for a person
like you. You have no skills to fight in battle!’ Karna sneered
angrily. Karna again pushed Bhima back with his bow. ‘You should
fight others! Not with someone like me!’ Karna told Bhima angrily.
‘Go and the two Krishnas would protect you!’
Bhima
actually had the audacity to laugh at Karna. There was not a shred of
fear in Bhima’s eyes as he watched Karna. ‘How many times have
you been defeated by me now, Karna?’ Bhima asked Karna softly. ‘And
if you are really so desperate, why don’t you just fight with me
with your bare hands!’ Bhima said his eyes nearly glowing with
hatred. ‘Do you know Keechaka?’ Bhima finished. ‘After him...’
Bhima watched Karna almost with smiling insane eyes. ‘.....You.....I
will just rip you apart as all these people watch!’ Bhima finished.
And
that was when the two Krishnas came.
And
it looked like Arjuna had really heard what Karna had been taunting
Bhima with. Arjuna gave no respite to Karna and relentlessly fired
into Karna.
Karna
fell back and fell back hard.....
In
fact Arjuna was so impossibly ferocious that Karna really did not
have a choice and fled from the scene leaving Bhima.
Bhima
nodded his thanks to his brother and he got on inside the craft of
Satyaki who had also reached the place.
But
Arjuna was not done with Karna. Not by a long way. Arjuna pulled his
bow and fired at Karna, however, the arrow was again cut off by
Ashwattama.
Snarling
with anger, Arjuna saw Karna move away from the place and turned his
attention to Ashwattama.
Having
got the attention of Arjuna, Ashwattama now entered the division of
the Kaurava army with plenty of elephants and chariots....As if that
was going to stop the charging Arjuna....
I am a huge fan of your writings. The
ReplyDeleteGurus of Hastinapur' chapter had been a compelling read...difficult for any reader to stop. Request you to please complete this chapter before starting any new ones. I have been waiting for a very long time to read the complete story.