Chapter 232: Chapter 230: Trail To Follow... Hanuman Vs Vajrakeshin...
(A/N):
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Nishithanetra who had finished his examination rose to his feet.
His expression remained unreadable.
"So... A capable hunter."
He slowly lifted his long black bow.
The weapon seemed almost alive as ancient runes ignited one after another.
Yogic energy flowed through his body.
It gathered around the bowstring, spiraling into existence like a miniature cyclone.
Unlike Devaratha’s Astras, this one carried no destructive aura.
Instead...
Its energy felt remarkably refined.
The gathered light began taking shape.
Feathers.
Talons.
A sharp beak.
With a final pulse of Yogic energy...
The Astra transformed into a magnificent golden eagle.
The construct beat its enormous wings once before taking to the sky.
It circled above Nishithanetra.
The general looked up calmly.
"Find him."
"The one who slew Mahodanta."
The eagle released a piercing cry.
SKREEEE!
Unlike ordinary creatures, the Astra-born eagle was not confused by the unnatural mist.
It was linked directly to the Yogic energy that had created it.
The dense fog concealed the battlefield from mortal senses...
But it could not hide the lingering signature left behind by the divine Astras Devaratha had unleashed.
The eagle tilted its head.
It had found the trail.
Without hesitation, it flew deeper into the white sea blanketing Malikavana.
Nishithanetra watched it disappear.
Then he stepped back onto his chariot.
The black wolves immediately surged forward.
He neither hurried nor hesitated.
Absolute confidence radiated from him.
Mahodanta had relied upon instinct.
Nishithanetra would rely upon skill.
High above the battlefield...
The golden eagle continued gliding through the fog, faithfully following the fading traces of Devaratha’s Yogic energy.
Far ahead...
The Vajravyaghra Rath continued its relentless advance, utterly unaware that another of Pushpasura’s most dangerous generals had begun hunting him.
Meanwhile high above the battlefield...
Hanuman continued dancing through the heavens.
The Rakshasa aerial corps had long abandoned any hope of maintaining proper formations.
Every attempt to regroup ended the same way.
Either the divine projection of Vasuki crashed through their ranks like an emerald tempest...
Or Hanuman himself arrived with a smile on his face and a swing of his Gada.
Another armored Rakshasa lunged toward him.
Hanuman casually sidestepped, allowing the warrior to fly past before lightly tapping him with the end of his Gada.
The touch looked almost gentle.
Yet the Rakshasa vanished into the clouds like a stone launched from a catapult.
Hanuman scratched the side of his head.
"...I really should learn what ’holding back’ means."
Then...
Something caught his attention.
His cheerful smile faded.
He looked through a gap in the clouds toward the battlefield below.
Unlike the ground, where Devaratha’s fog concealed nearly everything, the sky above remained largely unobstructed.
From his vantage point, Hanuman could observe vast portions of the battlefield.
His sharp eyes settled upon a section where even the Rakshasas seemed reluctant to gather.
There...
A gigantic figure marched through the mist.
Each step shook the earth.
Resting upon one shoulder was a colossal war hammer whose head alone was larger than an ordinary chariot.
The Rakshasa wielding it resembled a walking fortress.
His body was wrapped in layers of black iron armor, each plate covered with deep dents and scars earned over countless battles.
His long crimson mane flowed wildly behind him.
He did not slow. He did not hesitate.
Without warning...
He swung the massive hammer.
BOOOOOOOM!!
The ground exploded.
The sheer force of the impact sent rocks, shattered weapons, and bodies flying in every direction.
Several Pushkarnya soldiers were crushed instantly.
Others were thrown dozens of meters through the air.
Yet...
They were not the only victims.
A group of Rakshasas that had been advancing toward the allied line were caught within the blast as well.
Their bones shattered under the shockwave.
Some were hurled into nearby boulders.
Others disappeared beneath collapsing earth.
The giant never spared them a glance.
Instead...
He raised the hammer again.
Another swing.
BOOOOOOOM!!
Once more, humans and Rakshasas alike were swept away by the devastating shockwave.
The surviving Rakshasas hurriedly scrambled out of his path, terror evident even on their monstrous faces.
One unfortunate captain failed to move quickly enough.
The edge of the hammer struck him along with several human soldiers.
His armored body burst apart before it even touched the ground.
Watching from the sky, Hanuman’s golden eyes narrowed.
"So..."
"So that’s how you fight."
The giant paid no attention to the casualties among his own army.
To him...
Every Rakshasa standing nearby was expendable if their deaths allowed him to crush a greater number of enemies.
Compassion.
Discipline.
Responsibility.
None of those things existed within his methods.
He was destruction given form.
One of the surviving Rakshasas cried out in fear.
"General! Your own men!"
The enormous warrior didn’t even bother looking toward the voice.
"If they were too weak to survive..."
"They deserved to die."
His deep voice rumbled like distant thunder.
"Weakness has no place in Lord Pushpasura’s army."
He lifted the colossal war hammer once more.
The weapon crackled with dark Yogic energy.
The surrounding earth trembled in anticipation of another devastating strike.
Hanuman quietly watched him for several moments.
Then recognition flickered across his face.
"Vajrakeshin..."
One of Pushpasura’s Twelve Battle Generals.
The commander whose overwhelming physical strength rivaled that of a siege weapon, and whose utter disregard for friend and foe alike had earned him a fearsome reputation even among the Rakshasas.
Hanuman rested his Gada upon his shoulder.
His playful smile disappeared completely.
Below him, Vajrakeshin was less a commander than a natural disaster, carving a path of devastation without the slightest concern for whose blood stained his hammer.
Hanuman let out a slow breath.
"If I leave him alone..."
"...he’ll kill as many of his own as ours."
His grip around the Gada tightened.
The clouds beneath his feet rippled.
Then, with a single powerful step...
Hanuman dropped from the sky.
Like a golden meteor descending toward the battlefield.
His destination...
The towering figure of Vajrakeshin.
Hanuman descended from the heavens like a blazing golden meteor.
The moment his feet broke through the cloud layer, countless soldiers looked up instinctively.
Even amidst the deafening sounds of war, his arrival announced itself with a thunderous sonic boom that echoed across the battlefield.
Vajrakeshin had just raised his enormous war hammer for another devastating strike when his battle instincts screamed.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Rakshasa General abandoned his attack and turned toward the sky.
All he saw was a streak of gold rapidly growing larger.
His eyes widened.
"So fast...!"
He barely managed to bring his colossal hammer across his body.
The next instant...
Hanuman’s foot crashed into it.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The collision unleashed a violent shockwave that swept across the battlefield like a raging storm.
Dust, broken weapons and shattered shields were blown away in every direction.
Soldiers from both armies instinctively stumbled backwards as the ground beneath them trembled.
Vajrakeshin gritted his teeth.
The tremendous force behind Hanuman’s kick travelled through the shaft of his hammer, into his arms and then through his entire body.
His feet dug deep trenches into the earth as he was pushed backwards several dozen feet before finally bringing himself to a halt.
The ground beneath him had cracked apart.
His arms tingled.
For the first time since the battle had begun...
Someone had pushed him back through sheer physical strength.
The dust slowly settled.
Hanuman landed gracefully upon the battlefield, resting his Gada across one shoulder as though he had merely taken a leisurely stroll instead of descending from the sky.
The soldiers nearby instinctively moved away.
Not because either of them ordered it...
But because everyone understood that what was about to happen was no longer a battle between ordinary warriors.
It was a clash between monsters.
Vajrakeshin slowly rolled his shoulders before letting out a booming laugh.
"So..."
"So Vanara himself has come down from the sky."
His crimson eyes slowly travelled across Hanuman’s lean frame before a cruel smile spread across his face.
"I expected someone... bigger."
He planted the head of his hammer against the ground.
The impact alone caused another tremor.
"I’ve heard countless stories about you. From the mortal who I had captured in this war."
"The mighty Vanara."
"The servant of Rama. Some insolent king..."
"The hero worshipped by mortals."
He leaned forward, baring his enormous fangs.
"When I’m finished..."
"...there won’t be enough of you left for them to worship."
His smile widened further.
"I’ll pound every bone in your body into dust..."
"...tear apart every muscle..."
"...and turn you into nothing more than a lump of mangled flesh beneath my hammer."
Several Rakshasas laughed loudly behind their general.
Hanuman simply smiled.
There was no anger upon his face.
Only a quiet amusement.
But when he heard him insult his lord his face turned cold.
"You certainly speak with confidence."
Vajrakeshin snorted hearing the words not taking it seriously.
"Confidence?"
"No."
He slowly lifted the gigantic hammer onto his shoulder.
"Experience."
Without another word, the Rakshasa General disappeared.
Despite his enormous size, his first step was astonishingly fast.
The battlefield exploded beneath his feet as he charged straight toward Hanuman.
With a deafening roar, he swung the massive war hammer downward.
The weapon tore through the air with enough force to distort it.
Hanuman calmly stepped forward.
His own Gada rose to meet the descending hammer.
KRAAAAAAANG!!
The clash echoed across the battlefield like two mountains colliding.
A circular shockwave burst outward from the point of impact.
Nearby soldiers from both armies were thrown from their feet.
Several chariots overturned.
Even warriors fighting dozens of meters away instinctively stopped and looked toward the source of the tremendous sound.
For a brief moment...
Neither weapon moved.
Hanuman’s Gada held the gigantic hammer firmly in place.
The two warriors stared directly into each other’s eyes.
Then...
Hanuman’s expression changed.
A faint crease appeared between his brows.
"...Hmm?"
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
The strength he had poured into that clash...
Had simply disappeared.
It wasn’t that Vajrakeshin was physically stronger.
Hanuman had fought beings whose strength could shake the heavens themselves.
This felt...
Different.
As the weapons remained locked together, Hanuman could feel a strange vibration passing from the Rakshasa’s war hammer into his own Gada.
It was subtle.
Almost impossible to notice.
Yet unmistakable.
The hammer was absorbing part of the force behind his strike.
Not completely.
But enough to significantly reduce the overwhelming advantage his divine strength should have created.
Hanuman’s golden eyes briefly shifted toward the weapon.
The black metal covering its head was etched with ancient runes that glowed faintly with every clash.
"So that’s your trick..."
he thought.
The hammer wasn’t an ordinary weapon.
It had been crafted with a peculiar ability.
Rather than meeting brute force with brute force...
It siphoned away a portion of the opponent’s strength at the moment of impact, dispersing it throughout its own structure before returning only the remaining force.
An ordinary warrior would never have noticed.
Hanuman did.
At the same time...
He couldn’t help but acknowledge something else.
Vajrakeshin’s grip never wavered.
His stance remained perfectly rooted despite the tremendous forces involved.
His feet, shoulders, hips and arms formed a flawless chain of balance.
Every ounce of strength travelled efficiently through his body into the weapon.
This wasn’t merely a berserker swinging a heavy hammer.
The Rakshasa possessed an exceptionally solid foundation in weapon mastery.
Centuries of relentless training were evident in every movement.
Hanuman smiled again.
This time...
There was a hint of approval in his eyes.
"So..."
"You aren’t relying solely on your weapon."
"You actually know how to use it."
Vajrakeshin’s grin became even wider.
-Grin!
"I would have been disappointed if it had taken the great Hanuman any longer to notice."
With a violent twist of his wrists, the Rakshasa attempted to force Hanuman’s Gada aside.
The battle between two masters...
Had only just begun.
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(Author note:)
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