The dead-end canyon echoed with the sounds of brutal combat. The four soldiers were heavily outnumbered, but they fought like cornered beasts, refusing to yield an inch to the Vyadhs.
Rudra was losing his fight. The hunter with the shattered jaw had him locked in a suffocating chokehold from behind. Rudra thrashes, gasping for air. Seeing an opening, the second hunter—the one with the broken ribs—gritted his teeth against the pain. He drew a short dagger from his waist, channeled his Origin Energy into the blade, and drove it deep into Rudra's stomach.
Agony ripped through Rudra. He tried to scream, but the chokehold crushed his windpipe.
Hiding behind a nearby boulder, Abhay watched Rudra dying. Panic squeezed his chest, but a sudden, desperate thought broke through the fear: I can't let him die.
Risking everything, Abhay crept out from his hiding spot. He grabbed the heaviest rock he could lift with his bare hands. He moved silently, approaching the choking hunter from behind.
The hunter with the dagger spotted the cloaked figure raising a rock. He opened his mouth to warn his partner, but he was too late.
CRACK.
Abhay smashed the heavy stone directly into the back of the choking Vyadh's skull with every ounce of strength he had. Bone crunched. The hunter instantly went limp, his grip releasing as he collapsed to the dirt.
Gasping for air, Rudra didn't waste a second. He grabbed the wrist of the dagger-wielding hunter and drove a brutal punch straight into the man's already broken ribs. The ribs shattered completely. The hunter's eyes rolled back, and he passed out from the sheer pain.
Breathing heavily, Rudra looked down at the dead hunter behind him. Blood pooled around the man's crushed skull. A single, blunt force strike to the head killed him instantly, Rudra thought, shocked.
He looked up at Abhay, offering a pained, bloody smile. "Good job, Abhay. You saved my life."
Abhay felt a brief surge of relief, but it vanished the second he looked across the battlefield. The others were still fighting for their lives.
A few yards away, Pratap was locked in a deadly dance with a swordsman and an archer. In his off-hand, Pratap gripped a sharp, throwing chakra that Samar had given him earlier.
The Vyadh swordsman unleashed a vicious horizontal slash. Pratap parried hard. Sparks flew as the Vyadh's blade was forced upward. Seeing an opening, Pratap prepared to smash the chakra into the man's chest, but he was forced to leap backward to dodge an incoming arrow.
This archer is a massive pain, Pratap cursed in his head. I have to kill him first, but this swordsman won't give me an opening.
Pratap made a split-second decision. He charged. The off-balance swordsman hastily fixed his footwork and raised his blade to block. At that exact moment, the archer released another arrow aimed straight at Pratap's back.
Just before the arrow hit, Pratap grabbed the swordsman by the armor and violently spun him around.
Shhhk. The arrow buried itself deep into the swordsman's back.
As the archer froze in shock at hitting his own partner, Pratap flooded his hand with Origin Energy. He hurled the chakra with terrifying speed. The archer tried to dodge, but the spinning blade slammed directly into his forehead. The archer dropped dead.
But the fight wasn't over.
Screaming through the pain of friendly fire, the wounded swordsman shoved Pratap back. With a desperate, final surge of strength, the Vyadh swung his blade horizontally.
The steel tore through Pratap's armor. It ripped a massive, deep gash from Pratap's chest all the way down to his lower stomach. Thick, dark blood sprayed across the rocks. Pratap staggered backward as his intestines began to spill from the horrific wound. He jammed his sword into the ground to keep himself standing, but his vision was already going black.
"Pratap!" Sur, Samar, and Rudra screamed in horror.
Blind with rage, Sur turned back to his own fight. The bola user swung his heavy iron weights. Sur raised his cracked shield to deflect it. The impact completely shattered the shield and snapped the bones in Sur's arm with a sickening crunch.
Ignoring his broken arm, Sur lunged forward and slashed his sword across the bola user's stomach, tearing him open. But a second later, another Vyadh attacked Sur from behind. Sur spun and blocked the strike, but his broken arm made him weak. The hunter easily pushed his blade back, overpowering him.
Seeing the squad falling apart, Rudra and Abhay scrambled forward to help.
But suddenly, Rudra stopped dead in his tracks. His face went pale.
A heavy, suffocating aura bled out from the dark, dense forest. It was moving toward them at an impossible speed. The air itself felt like it was crushing them.
Rudra violently shoved Abhay behind him. "Hide!" Rudra croaked, his voice trembling. "Something massive is coming..."
Sweat dripped down Abhay's face. He clutched the bloody rock in his hands, his heart hammering against his ribs. What kind of monster could terrify a powerhouse like Rudra?