[Edit:12/21/2018- The army of Hastinapura does not arrive at the end of chapter 23.]
Dharmendra's POV,
I just finished fighting off Ayush and was a little fatigued from fighting him. I go around to pick up his mace. There were at least twelve million soldiers remaining. I am quite sure that we haven't even made a dent in their numbers. Yes, we could have used MKS's and have gotten done with it but where's the fun in that? I pick up my mace and feel the wonderful sensation of fire flowing through my veins once more. My hammer is basically a fire hammer so whoever wields has fire running through their veins. For a non-fire warrior, that would be catastrophic but for me, it's child's play. I search for any form of conscious human life in my vicinity only to see what is left of Karthik's warpath. There are bloodied and dismembered bodies everywhere for almost a mile where past which I can see a blue streak of light pass through. This blue streak of light is also leaving behind loads of red. Karthik is a fighter who sheds the blood of his enemy whenever he faces one, so much so that even when he is trying not to kill them, there are gallons of blood being spilt very minute. No wonder he is called the bloody azure! With the amount of blood he is spilling, he might as well be a vampire. Hell! Vampires would bow their heads down to him in shame and respect! I rush at his direction to tag team players with him. We meet each other about a mile and a half away from my original position. I ask him, "Why can't you go slower?"
He answers, "Cheetahs don't slow down in the chase for deer!" He continues his onslaught paying little attention to me. I figure that I might as well join in the fray. I like to point out that we make a brilliant team, I slam people his side and he cuts them apart, while somehow managing to keep them alive. We keep continuing this until we reach the fort once more. Except the fact that all players are charging towards the east while we reached the south gates of the city. I groan in disappointment. I ask him, "Don't you ever feel that your legs have had enough? Have you not post enough attack power? How are you still able to run like you are?!!"
He chuckles and says, "To answer your question, you choose to lose speed when you lose attack power. I chose to lose strength. The longer I fight, the weaker I become while still retaining my speed. You who loses speed, become slower over time in a battle while retaining your strength. I am able to run just as fast, you are able to strike just as hard. Secondly, if we, who have had moment's like this to rest feel fatigued, just imagine Adi's position. He is where everyone is running to. He has to continually fight off these guys without rest. So, Let's run!"
We ran for a while before reaching the forest players or the last, depending on where you count from. The players here beside the fort are desperately trying to rush towards Adi. Trying is an exaggeration. Waiting in line is more apt.
I look at the sky. When we arrived here, the time was approximately nine in the night. Now around almost two hours have passed while we were beating down other players.
Karthik screams at the sad guys, "Hey players, who wants a piece of the Bloody Azure?" alerting all the players to our existence. They all rush at us. Ohh, they never saw what hitt them!
We cleared out way across the mighty army at top speed. The army is gigantic. We are sticking to the wall of the city and yet it takes us five and a half hours to reach Aditya. When In reaching there, I probably used up all of my available potions. Nevertheless, when I reach there, I'll swear I was as slow as a snail and Karthik is only able to cut people because his sword his too goddamn sharp for it's own good. I see that Aditya is worse for the wear. We go and do the most sensible thing- put ourselves in his line of attack.
Meanwhile, Adi's POV,
I have been firing arrows for the past six hours. I chose to lose strength over time like Charles. That is why I bought fifteen million high end arrows which would be capable of piercing my armor. If it can piece mine, it can pierce anyone else's. So while my sis don't go as far right now- hell they travel five feet at best, I still am capable of getting five arrows a second. After I started using four quivers each with a thousand arrows, I haven't had to waste time to reload my arrows. I finish using one quiver, set it to auto reload, by the time I have to use it again it is completely reloaded. As the battle forged ahead, I recieved the occasional support from Bhisma, Karma and Arjuna. But as time forged ahead, I lost health and attack power bit by bit. The only reason my arrows are even going five feet is cause I am firing it at 45°. In the beginning, I could fire it at my shoulder level and it would travel at least 50 metres before starting to fall down, in the worst case scenario. Now, I am lucky if it goes five feet. My arm muscles are aching with pain. There is a lot of lactic acid accumulating there. The last time I fought such a long battle with this much trouble was the Mahabharata event in the first year when NPCs took part to help boost morale. Then, NPCs level want much lower than ours. We were level forty. They were thirty. It was within a few weeks after the game began. I had fought for seven hours without break. Of course I was allowed to kill then but now since I am not allowed to kill it's almost the same. Even in the last Mahabharata war, I could use long range weapons to get myself some breathing space. That option is unavailable now. My golden armor has lost its shine and is stained with blood. If my case is like this, I can't imagine Charles's armor. Must be saturated with blood!
Think of the devil, and here he is! Charles and Dharmendra comes and stand in front of me! The hell with him! "You're blocking me, you idiots!"
Charles's armor is saturated with blood after all. He clears some players gives me some breathing space. I take out a potion and drink it. Dharmendra who is gasping for breath most likely because of Charles's speed. Dharmendra loses speed over time so it would have been difficult for him to keep up.
When I drink a potion, he looks at me with surprise. He asks, "You have potions remaining?" I chuckle and give him one. They must have run here from wherever they were. He drinks one and regains composure. Charles returns and asks me, "Give me a potion. I know you have them!" "You've got to be kidding me! Is that how you ask for something that saves your life?!!" I ask him in mock horror as I toss a potion at him. We get ready for one more day of war as the sun rises from the east.
TPP,
The sun's rays fall on the doors of Hastinapura's East gate. The gate opens and from the gate, come through Drona ad Yudhishthira. Behind them is the army of Hatinapura. The forces of Hastinapura flow out of the city forcing the players back.
The forces of Hastinapura arrived at the outer fort. Once they all reached outsid, Yudhishthira took out a large war horn and blew into it. The sound of the war horn filled the outskirts of Hastinapura. He blew another horn and all the cavalrymen came ahead. The infantry right behind them. The archers stood behind the infantry. Several chariots lined the front of the army. All of the soldiers were draped in shining silver and gold armors. The loud noise of trumpeting elephants came from the back of the army. The Hastinapura army was a majestic sight to behold! Upon seeing from the air, they were in the form of a trident.
Upon hearing the war horn of Hastinapura, the players all had a glint of fear in their eyes. Notonly were the Hastinapura forces comprised of soldiers with an average of level 300 but also many many named NPCs who were all Maharathis who were of an average of 20 levels higher than the highest level rathi or lower player at all times. The strongest of them like Bhima and Duryodhan were rumored to have their levels in the four hundreds. Add to that the additional bonus of Maharathi status that makes them much more powerful, the army of players was bound to be destroyed.
Besides the Hastinapura forces were comprised of elite warriors who were equipped with the finest items for their levels and that they had been working together as a unit for many years prior, the player army which was forced into an alliance and filled with people who either hated each other's guts or didn't care about each other was never going to a unit as cohesive as the Hastinapura army. So upon seeing the army Hastinapura arrive the players all probably soiled themselves.
Drona blew into another horn, raised his arm upwards and action'd the forces to attack. He told, "Do not kill these people! They will only revive! Death is but an easy way out for them!"
[Drona doesn't know about the soul destruction thing yet so he says that death is an escape.]
[Mythological Titbits: After escaping the lacquer house, the lakshagraha, in the tunnel, they reached the other side which opened to the Ganga. They caught a ferry and croosed the Ganga. Then, the Pandavas walked for a long time and finally after wlaking from morning to sun set they all slept. All of them except Bhima. Bhima stayed awake to keep watch over the others. In the same forest lived two rakshasas named Hidimba and Hidimbi. Hidimaba was the strongest being in the forsest. Upon seeing Bhima and the Pandavas, he sent his sister Hidimbi to go kill them so that he could eat them. But Hidimbi was enchanted by Bhima. She fell in love with him upon seeing him. Instead of killing him as she was told, she offered to take them to safety. Bhima refused saying that he would not wake up his mother and brothers and that he would take of her brother if he came. Hidimba came and claimed that he would kill all of them and eat them if his sister who was now entranced by Bhima wouldn't do it. Bhima and Hidimba started fighting each other. They were fighting very loudly like two enraged elephants. The others were woken up by noise. They asked Hidimba who was waiting in fear of what might happen, who she was. She explained everything to the Pandavas. Soon Bhima defeated Hidimba. Hidimbi asked Kunti and the other Pandavas to let her marry Bhima. Bhima was also not against it. The two of them got married in the forest and they had a child whom they named Ghatotkacha. Ghatotkacha who was half rakshasa had both his father's strength of 1000 elephants and the ability to shape shift and change his sight, and even become invisible. Ghatotkacha would eventually become one of the greatest warriors in the Mahabharatha.
After Bhima and Hidimbi had Ghatotkacha the Pandavas would move out of the forest. They moved into a village where they disguised themselves a Brahmins so as to not bring any suspiscion. Meanwhile, Vidhura whom the ferryman had told about the Pandavs' survival was patiently waiting for their arrival.]