The Inseparable Princes

100. The Ultimate Duel - The End of the End

Silence. Nobody knew how to react to that. A head had practically reappeared after it had been chopped off. What on earth did that mean? What were they supposed to do next?

Rama watched, his lotus eyes narrowed into slivers as Ravana came back to his original form. Alive, thriving, laughing. That was Ravana. What was this about? Rama didn't quite know how this was supposed to work. The head got chopped off his head, it fell to the ground, it stayed there, but another one reappeared? What? How did that happen? 

But the archer knew that he couldn't delve deep into this. He needed to be swift. And Rama was swift, very swift. He shot another arrow, another crescent shaped one, which went and chopped off Ravana's second head. However, once again, a head cropped up. Rama narrowed his eyes even more, gritting his teeth, as he took another arrow, a stronger one this time, and launched it towards the demon's neck again. But once again, it fell and another grew. Another. And then another. The same thing kept happening. 

Rama figured that it was quite disturbing to see a head growing out of the chopped part of neck of a person repeatedly, and so, he let it go. Obviously, there were other ways. He discharged thousands of arrows towards Ravana's chest, but Ravana shot his own arrows to counter the ones that were coming at him. Suddenly, the morale of the Vanaras wasn't as high as it had been earlier. The demons grinned and cheered, and so did the vanaras, but the latter weren't as happy as they would've liked. Ravana, himself, was truly high on confidence and was thoroughly satisfied with the fact that he had perturbed his enemy. 

Rama wasn't perturbed though. His army was, yes, but Rama knew better. He knew how the demons either fought with their boons, or with their illusions. There were very few demons who actually fought using their skills, their strengths. He knew that there was no point in getting worried about it. He would find a way, he knew it. He had to, for there was no time to waste at this point. His attacks couldn't stop. He would have to keep going. 

Arrows blocked any light from coming through. Ravana released missile after missile towards Rama, who unleashed his own arrows to counter those. Nobody had the upper hand. The battle was too balanced for anyone to predict a victor. It was enthralling. A sight to behold. Rama launched blazing arrows towards Ravana, who would shoot arrows of equal brilliance, and all of them would collide, explode, and then burn out. It had happened with nearly every single arrow. 

Some arrows reached the opponent, wounding them. Rama shot ten arrows towards Ravana's left arm, most of which Ravana countered, but one of them went right through. He winced, but pulled out the arrow soon and flung it across the battlefield, enraged. In turn, Ravana shot an arrow which embedded itself in Rama's thigh. Rama shut his eyes for a moment because of the stinging pain. And in that one moment, Ravana, who suddenly performed so much better than his past self with his confidence high, shot an arrow at Rama's neck. 

Lakshmana's world stopped, and all he could see was the arrow and his brother. To him everything looked slow. He knew his brother would counter it. He would have to. For him. But the arrow was too close to Rama for him to discharge an arrow towards it. He couldn't just get out of its way either for he was in a limited space, a chariot. Besides, the arrow was perfect aimed even in case of movement, for it had a rather wide crescent head. Lakshamana watched, his face bereft of any emotion, and his mind blank. All he wanted to see was the answer to this from his brother. 

And his brother didn't have an arrow to counter that. It had come too close, just as Lakshmana had figured, and he couldn't counter it anymore. Ravana laughed as the arrow got closer and closer to the Son of Kaushalya. But Rama wasn't worried. He watched the arrow with as much concentration as one could possibly have, and he caught it with his right hand just before it could get to his neck. Lakshamana sighed, Hanuman grinned, and Ravana turned into an angry tomato.