Kalingaveera Varunaputra Shrutayudha

The Third Battle of Kalinga

With the arrival of dawn , a wave of soldiers seemed to become visible across the horizon . The wave gathered numbers and soon turned into a sea in itself . The invading army in front of us seemed to be huge despite having lost its major fraction owing to our propaganda . Yet this army was not less than five akshouni in number when compared to our meagre one . The warriors were mostly from the Narayani sena trained by the Lord of the universe himself while a few battalions of remnants of their other allies boosted their numbers . The twin battles that this once mammoth army had encountered , had a severe impact on their psyche . However both battles had resulted in their victories and hence they had the momentum with themselves .

The army was led by the greatest warriors of the current era . In the forefront stood the Yadava siblings who were easily identifiable from their famously described appearance in folklores over ages . Towards the right of Krishna were five indomitable warriors of which the middle one was tall and bulky . Perhaps they were the Pandavas with Bheemasena in centre , flanked by twins on one side while his other two brothers closer to Krishna . On the left side of Balarama were two elderly warriors who were themselves flanked by two young males . The flag over the chariots of the veterans gave out their introduction as the wearied warriors were ready to lock horns with the sons of this soil .

Dwarka , Hastinapur , Madra , Panchal and Vidharbha were only representations that had managed to reach the final stage of the showdown . They had perhaps endured significant losses on their way and the victory here seemed the only thing that would salvage their reputation that had been badly bruised by the demons . I analysed the situation well and inferred that we had to go all out against them as we were still outnumbered . However a few plans seemed to form in my head quickly as the time to march forward arrived . Krishna had stopped the march of his army midway probably expecting an ambush that I had presented previously much to my amusement . Obeying their mentor the rest of the armies and their commanders too halted . They were waiting for a blow which was perhaps never going to land .

I had planned a different approach this time around . As the invaders halted midway , the gates of the fortress were opened to lure the opposition towards the kingdom . It was perhaps only Krishna who had got my ministrations from the past and wasn't willing to commit the mistakes which the previous warlords had performed . However , the same could not be said about his other allies . Even they shouldn't be blamed when his very own elder brother was desperate to fall in my trap and hence grumbling to proceed even without him . The Pandavas were mostly obedient barring the wrestler son of Kunti . While Drupada wasn't in a mood to risk anything after having lost his whole army , his angry war monger son was impulsive enough to go by his instincts . Shalya , the King of Madra was a seasoned warrior and hence was cautiously standing by his nephews , while the brother in law of Krishna , Rukmi was eager to prove his might enough to disregard the warnings of his brother in law .

The result of the conflicted views divided the opposition into two fragments . The first one belonged to that of Rukmi , Dhristadyumna and Bheemasena who were led by Balarama along with two akshouni army putting a deaf ear to the greatest war strategist of all times . This hot blooded group separated from the rest to plunge towards the entrance of the fortress . When they had moved away from the rest , we closed the gates all of a sudden surprising the aggressive party . The second lot who were staying back with Krishna too understood why he had halted abruptly . The confusion was cleared soon only to create an internal conflict among the allies .

I launched an arrow from the top of the fortress after stretching my bow to the maximum . The arrow carrying fire with itself landed closer to the separated fraction only to ignite the combustible substances planted underneath there feet resulting in a terrible explosion that shattered over half a million warriors into pieces altogether in moments  . The beholding party was numbed by the spectacle enough to be unable to react . Even Krishna had his eyes widened at this sudden display of explosive warfare that was much advanced compared to the existing era .  The explosion wasn't a single one as it was followed by a series of successive ones even drawing closer towards those who had halted behind that forced them to retreat . The fire spread wide on the path of laid gunpowder advancing onto the infantry of the opposition .

The sudden death of one's own infront of your own eyes is something that shatters even the stoic souls and Arjuna was one of them . He absolutely forgot the need of the hour and stood stunned only to be chided by his living cousin . Drupad was both scared and aggrieved at the loss of his son whom he had obtained from the Gods . Krishna however was infuriated at the death of his elder one and this triggered him to unleash his gigantic form in the battlefield. The Vishwaroopa of Krishna was a spectacle to behold and it somehow offered solace to the allies to hide behind the lord. But I had no time to waste as I had a territory to defend and hence needed to execute my next plans effectively .

I rode on an aerial chariot to rise up into the sky and shower arrows on the opposition who seemed baffled and distracted both due to their leader's ultimate form and the aerial warfare displayed by myself . Krishna defended his men by engaging with myself . He showered all his weapons one by one which was either ducked or countered by myself . I disappeared into the clouds and reappeared to retaliate at another zone killing thousands with razor sharp weapons . As Arjuna recovered from his shock he seemed to join forces . In the meanwhile as every eye was raised up into the sky , my next plan fell into place .

A battalion of soldiers had been hiding underground ever since the dawn break . With my signal of aerial battle they emerged from below killing many and surprising the rest who weren't probably ready for this underhand tactics . Krishna probably had enough as he decided to launch his favorite unstoppable discus which met its identical twin midway only to widen the eyes of the Preserver of the universe in realization . The Sudarshana Chakras summoned by both of us returned back without any major effect . The army though ambushed seemed to gain upper hand due to involvement of the Maharathis . This was the ideal moment for me to step up the battle as I summoned the Asurastra on the hapless invaders killing hundred of thousand soldiers .

The blow forced them behind into another zone of fire that was lit up again blowing half of the existing army along with the two senior warriors . Krishna summoned his bow after returning back to his original self with a motive to handle my onslaught . The remnant of army got ambushed once again as a troop of Kalinga soldiers silently attacked them from behind . I started using my energies and engaged both the twins of past life into a gruesome battle . The King Chitrangada of Kalinga in the meanwhile arrived with another battalion from the front to sandwich the invaders . 

Krishna and Arjuna were exemplary warriors and handling both of them together was an improbable task if I had been fighting like a common archer . I used sorcery and illusions to outwit Arjuna but Krishna was still giving myself a run for my money . Finally I resorted to the weapon that made even the lord helpless . The missile loaded with the chants of the name of his previous form proved itself to be bigger than even his very indomitable Incarnation as the once invincible lord was defeated by his own name . The lord of the universe found himself bound by the shackles of devotion that was created out of the name of the scion of Raghu .

With Krishna being disarmed , the job became terribly easy as one by one each of the Pandavas were despatched to the abode of the father of their eldest . Arjun was a tough cookie but his professional bow was no match for my divine one as I claimed him with an arrow of his own father . With the remnants of the invaders being cleared by the blazing patriots , the war came to an end as the Lord of the Universe joined the club founded by his unaware elder cousin . The citizens of Kalinga rejoiced over the greatest of its triumphs that paved the way for a new dawn in the history of the land .