The friendship between Lord Krishna and the Pandava Prince Arjuna has been an eternal edict flowing throughout the undulous waves of their fated lives. Their bond so deep that none could fathom the beginning nor the end.
And yet a diabolical twist...
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"Looking for someone Angaraja?"
Karna hissed as the arrow sliced through his forearm, barely missed the shell of his left ear and whizzed past him with such speed that it was nearly rendered invisible to the naked eye.
Even if the King of Anga would not have recognized that slightly humorous tilt in that ever familiar baritone then the dexterity of the shot would have announced the attacker with clear certainty.
He turned towards the other man and pointed his bow in a welcoming stance, his handsome face marred with the typical cruel smirk that had always been his trademark expression.
"You missed."
Karna shouted back through the din of the uproarious battle as the midday sun seemed to get enthused by the entry of his spiritual child, threatening to burn down everyone on its path. Grime and sweat rolled down both the armies' anticipatory faces as their beady eyes glittered alight with the promise of impending bloodshed.
"I never miss."
Arjuna smirked back, a hint of a strangely calculated sparkle in his sapphiric gaze which was as alien on the usually serene faced prince of thunder as is a stain in the pious waves of the Ganga.
Karna scowled as he noticed that Arjuna's arrow had effectively cut down the flagstaff of his golden chariot which now lay dusty on the red slicked ground beneath. The third Pandava tilted his head in a mock bow as if he was merely pleasing his rival with his undaunted prowess and was definitely not taunting him per se.
As expected it incensed the son of Surya and the glare of a sunburnt heat stung the dark skinned prince along his scarred arms which didn't quite seem to affect Kunti's youngest either way.
The air around them was charged electric.
"Came out of your hiding finally have you, Kuntiputra!", Karna jeered raucously, his amber eyes aglow in burning hatred.
"I have been on the field for days now Radheya. But where were you again? Sulking like a five year old back in the tents?", Arjuna replied nonchalantly like he was but asking about the weather.
"Sharp words won't save you from my arrows today Partha"
"Are you all bark no bite then, Vasusen? I seem to remember a different version of you back in Matsya. Pray tell, how is the chest wound?"
Savyasachi laughed as the next attack upon him wasn't one of the nature of words.
Yet none of Karna's familiarly gold tufted arrows could even cross the halfway mark before being cleanly severed into two.
It was a few minutes of pure chaos as the two warriors showered incessant missiles at each other. They had created such a thick curtain of metallic shards that not even their mounts were visible to the audience.
It was soon that Karna realised that Arjuna had tactical advantage on being atop a horse. The steed was astonishingly fast and somehow seemed to be reading his rider's mind like he could understand the archer's move before he even made it.
Karna's chariot was heavier and his charioteer took time to manoeuvre it according to his master's wishes and the opponent's attacks.
And Arjuna, true to form, didn't give either Karna or his charioteer the time to breathe, forget coordinating halfway into a rhythm to counter him.
Both the maharatha's were bleeding copiously and if someone were very conversant with the advanced methods of warfare, they would probably realise that Karna was currently having a slightly better form.
He was on an all out offensive.
He was magnificent.
Like a maddened bull ready to charge.
Arjuna as reputed countered brilliantly yet seemed either unable or rather unwilling to disarm the other man at the moment. He looked contended to just defend; appearing as breezy as if taking an evening stroll along the banks of a river and not engaged in combat against one of Bharatvarsha's deadliest archers.
It was probably his nearly icy and cavalier attitude which snapped Karna's patience at the end. None of his furious attacks was able to provoke the son of Indra into assuming an equally tense form. It had started to look more like a waste of time than a proper fight.
"Am I boring you Arjuna? Or is this a diversion?"
Karna snarled frustrated as Arjuna cut off the string of his bow for the umpteenth time but resisted from attacking immediately as the former tied it up in a lightning fast move.
"You always bore me Karna. And you are welcome to leave if you think it is a diversion. After all no one will find it surprising", Arjuna answered in a bored tone.
Karna let the taunt slide for once instead of transforming into a venom spitting hundred headed snake as usual and continued suspiciously.
"The Acharya means to capture Yudhishtira. I am certain you are well aware of this. Maybe this is just a plan to keep me away from the thick of the battle."
"Well then, you are keeping me away too, isn't it?"
Karna was forced to consider that possibility as well.
Without Arjuna by the side of the former Emperor of Indraprastha, the master of the Kurus will have much better odds to take him as a captive as per their King's orders.
"It is better if we take him as hostage. Alive, the paragon of virtue that my idiotic oldest cousin is, he won't let his brothers fight us for the release. Then according to the rules, they will be defeated."
Duryodhana had said rubbing his hands as if trying to dispel some unknown cold which had seemingly set in his bones since Bheeshma's fall.
"But we can just kill Yudhishtira off. Wouldn't that be easier?", Dusashana had asked perturbed, before Karna could have voiced the same.
"No. If Yudhishtira dies by our hand, Arjuna will kill us all", the oldest Gandharisuta had informed them, a deep frown marring his otherwise immaculate brow.
"Mitra, I am present in this battle now. He won't be able to make a single scratch on you", Karna had replied confidently but only for his best friend to shake his head. Duryodhana's brown eyes had been lost in the mire of past memories.
"Karna, you did not see him in battle today. I cannot risk so many lives. My men and then you all. Arjuna wields the weapons of the Gods. He has... too much power. And even I can see his tenuous control slipping. If he snaps... we are all doomed."
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