sidharth who had used all his strength, trying to cut through the wall of roots was now kneeling in front of it hopeless and exasperated. His clothes wet, sweat dripping from his shaggy hair, watering the dry soil.
But sidharth wasn't ready to lose. Mantriks possession or not this wasn't in hi Nature to accept defeat so soon, not from a dam wall of wood, not when his friend might need his help. He gathered the last bit of his strength and somehow he managed to get up. he raised his axe for another round of 'reck the wall' but before he could strike, the wall suddenly vanished. disappearing without a trace like it never been there. he hardly had time to recover from his shock when a figure stepped out of the shadows. To his relief it was Rajveer and to a greater relief still in one piece. But for some weird reason sidharth didn't know, rajveer had put off his sweater and was now only in his black t shirt.
'rajveer' sidharth called, gingerly stepping toward him. Something in hi gaze was making sidharth very nervous. a crooked grinn was spreading slowly across rajveer's face.
And to no one's shock he lunged with his ktaar, barely missing sidharth chest as he dodged to one side instinctively.
sidharth face showed no expression of fear or disbelief. he might had been expecting it all along.
Rajveer turned to him, looking really unpleased as if to say 'couldn't you just stand still so I might kill you quickly you disgusting human' his eyes gleamed wildly as they both encircled each other, their weapons raised. and the next moment rajveer, jumped. a jump impossibly long and high to be performed by any human. he just simply leaped into the air and even after sidharth trying to back up rajveer landed on top of sidharth shoulders with his knees. sidharth being about a 15 kg lesser succumbed under his weight and got sandwiched between the corner and rajveer's knees. Dazed Sidharth tried to collect his wits, he focused and saw rajveer raising his kattar over his head. sidharth heart gave a jolt, his life, his pretty life was about to end. just one thrust of rajveers kattar and everything's gonna end. For that moment all his fearlessness flue of. his eyes suddenly lost the confident gleam of them, his his facial muscles relexed for a second, his eyelids got heavier as if he'd been just woken up from a good nap. then as if just realizing what he was into, he yelled and started to shook violently, trying to free himself but the effort was hopeless. rajveer's literally got him cornered. Rajveer laughed monstrously like a series of very hoarse coughs. then with a jolt rajveer seized sidharth hair with his shield hand pulled them backwards, raising his kattar higher. sidharth wailed
'rajveer... rajveer' he cried desperately. 'rajveer please.. don't' he chocked. and then the scene seemed to be shifted into slow-motion. he closed his eyes as he saw the tip of blade coming toward him. he thought in a microsecond how painful it would be, how bad it would feel and how long he will have to endure the suffering before he will die.
a heartbeat passed dhak-dhak, then another dhak-dhak. nothing happened he felt no sharp object soaring into his skin. he squinted. rajveer had stopped his kattar just inch above sidharth's face.
sidharth gulped. clearly shocked
'rajveer' he managed.
rajveer dismounted from sidharth's chest, staggering backwards as if someone pulling him. sidharth got to his feet his mouth wide open. rajveer was shaking now he put a step forward then again took it back. then he threw his head backwards made a harsh sound down in his throat. and quickly disarmed himself. he watched him awestruck for a second then regained his posture. 'quick' he gestured sidharth to his weapons. Sidharth who had put on his confident face again understood. he ran toward him. its seemed rajveer was trying hard to control his body. he was literally fighting himself. when sidharth came he managed to back off a few steps. Carefully sidharth crouched to pick the kattar from rajveer's right. he had just got the grip when something hit his chest with the force of a baseball bat. he staggered back and bumped with the wall. rajveer now again seemed to be in full control of vishal but so was sidharth.
rajveer had retrieved his shield already. but now at least both of the sharp weapons were in sidharth's possession though it was heardly any relief. he couldn't harm rajveer even if he had them plus he had seen vishal's spirit pull some very nasty tricks already. he doubted that he would actually need that kattar to finish him. the only reason he was alive to think all that was his friend's strong will. rajveer had held himself from killing sidharth by his sheer will power, and against such a strong force like vishal. the big guy wasn't only strong in looks, he rather had a strong heart also.
Rajveer not wasting any more time spun and threw his small shield spinning at him. but sidharth ducked. shield hit the wall behind with such force it stuck where it hit, where a moment ago was sidharth's neck. sidharth moved aside just in time to avoid a thrust kick, and faced rajveer as he pulled free his shield out of the gash. he wore it again as he beared his teath at sidharth like a nasty wolf.
after that what happened was a blur even for sidharth he dived and dodged a fury of violent shield attacks kicks and punches. Captain America style but this version of chris evens look rather skinny compare to the real person but mostly he fought like a person seriously overdosed with cafine. Rajveer's increased strength and endless stemina plus his skill in Martialarts were unbeatable. sidharth was no match even with the mantrik's control. sidharth managed to dodge rajveer's attack very gracefully for almost two minutes. then rajveer faked a hook and let go a spinning back fist with his shield hand and it caught sidharth's chest and chin. sidharth's feet left the ground as his back hit the ground with a remarkable 'thug' And there lay sidharth again near to his doom. rajveer grinned broadly. he gave a sudden jolt to his neck first left then right and kattar and axe which where still hi sidharths hand skidding far away in either direction, out of sidharth's reach. Then he put his shoe to his neck the grinn on his face turned to gritting of his teeth. he pressed hard against his neck trying to crush sidharth's windpipe. sidharth gagged he tried to shake the foot off from his neck. he tried to slip aside but every attempt was hopeless. now second time he was being choked by vishal. yet before him in his dream an old man had tried to choke him, if he had been himself he might had been laughing on this that why everybody was so eager to get their hands on his neck or you could say foot on his neck. there could be loads of other ways to kill one person other than strangulating.
sidharth thrashed his legs about, wildly. he wasn't able to breathe and soon he felt his body giving up. he fluttered a last few times as his eyes started to close but before everything could go black, he heard someone, someone yelling. then suddenly pressure lifted from sidharth's neck. a relief spread throughout his body. air came rustling in his lungs like water through a hose. he sat up bolt right, he took several large breaths before coming to understand the situation. he saw Aditya dragging rajveer by his shoulders in very dim flash light and then setting him with the wall, his head was lolling unconsciously. Aditya was badly soacked, his clothes all wet. then he looked at sidharth and came running.
'are you all right' he panted
sidharth nodded
'good. look' he showed sidharth something, while wearing a look of pride on his face. it was something small completely covered with mud and roots. Aditya looked sidharth's puzzled expression and cleaned the mud and roots of it. then what left, was looking suspiciously, like a very old and rusty wrist watch.
'the watch you saw in the vision you explained, you found it'
'wasn't easy' he sighed 'now if just he recognize it. we might be able to cool him down a bit' then he glanced at rajveer
'he got possessed by him'
'yeah and in meantime twice managed to almost kill me' sneered sidharth, he didn't need to ask Aditya how he overpowered him, a few feet away was laying Aditya's bag along with the bottle of gangajal and Aditya's weapons chakram and the short sword. he had used the gangajal.
Aditya saw sidharth's sour expression and said 'he is fine, perhaps used to much of his energy'
'indeed' sidharth replied without bothering to glance over rajveer laying motionless.
then once again the tunnel started to rumble. they got up quickly and then the wind started to blow, harder than ever, pushing them backwards toward the pond, they crouched putting one hand covering their faces. their mobile lights once again flickered and dimmed. then Aditya notice something had just gone shot past them towards the pond. it was the bottle then he noticed his bag and weapons had vanished too. he could only wish they didn't fell in the pond he had no wish to go diving in that smelly water ever again. then he thought about rajveer who was laying unconscious he glanced where he was and gulped. he wasn't there. he turned in a circle but he was nowhere to be seen. he had seen him chocking sidharth with just one foot. so he had a pretty good idea how lethal could be his Martialartist friend with vishals powers. but he knew what to should be happening, there was no point wasting time. if there were any chances to stop vishal with that watch, it was the perfect time to try.
'vishal' he shouted 'please listen to us for once, your friend sanjay, he didn't cheated you, it.. ' the winds stopped very abruptly that both aditya and sidharth shared nervous glances. Aditya's tried to continue but instead of words what Came out was more of a squike, rajveer/vishal was meterialised in front of them.
'liars...' hissed rajveer/vishal and seized both of their necks in each hand and lifted them into the air. they thrashed their legs both of their hands instinctively gripped rajveer's arms to support their necks. 'ha..ow do you know him..' rajveer/vishal contined in same hissing voice. forcing every word out as if the words didn't actually want to come out.
'did.. he... sent you?'
'no..' Aditya's croaked 'we came here for the same purpose you guys came years ago, trying to find the temple. he.. Sanjay, he wasn't laying to you he was having those dreams. this boy' he gestured to sidharth 'he was having the same dreams. somehow, I.. don't know how but I knew everything happened to you guys. believe me sanjay never betrayed you' on this note rajveer who was gritting his Teeth all along and increasing the pressure on their windpipes with every second. loosen his grip a bit his expression changed as if Aditya had just emphasized a suspicion he was having from a long time but was afraid to believe it. Aditya felt that too and contined more energeticly 'he didn't kill you that thing did' he gestured his one hand toward the far end of the tunnel where the carcus of chlawa was laying 'chlawa, it was a illusion it showed you. it was chlawa disguised as sanjay who killed you not sanjay.' still pointing towards the thing 'sanjay never left the tunnel alive, that chlawa killed him after he killed you. here' he pulled his other hand forward in which he was clutching the rusty old wrist watch. 'I am sure you remember this, the watch you gifted to your best friend, i just retreaved it from the pond.'
as soon as he looked at the watch Rajveer left them both, their knees hit the ground. they both were coughing hard now but Aditya's one hand was still outstretched. 'he was a true friend of yours vishal, he was.' rajveer took the watch from rajveer's hands with shaking hands and pressed it with his chest close to his heart. then as Aditya and sidharth was getting up rajveer fell to his knees his eyes closed, tears were now trickling down on his cheeks. in the dim blueish light aditya noticed that a kind of black fume was raising from rajveer's body. after a moment it stopped and now his whole body started to glow faint white. then the glow started to gather into a kind of ball near his chest, shinning brighter than ever. rajveer gasped as it left his body and started to hover beside him, whereas he fell face first into the ground, unconscious. the orb of light then grew itno a human figure.
sidharth and aditya were watching curiosily.
when the brightness subsided a little, standing in front of them was a pretty boy, about 17 still glowing but rather faintly. he had long hairs quite like rajveer but there wasn't any other resemblance between them the boy was quite scrawny and pale, he hardly had any facial hair either. Aditya could easily see now what the teacher would have liked in him, his cute, innocent, childlike face. even after being so scrawny he was able to pull off those long hairs better than rajveer.
then the boy smiled. 'thank you my friends' he said his a very calm voice but it was echoing as if coming from very far end of the tunnel. 'you freed me from my misery, you cleansed my soul. now as all the weight of hatred and sorrows I was toting all these years has lifted I might be able to pass to the other side and perhaps will meet her and Sanjay someday. thank you very much, I wish you fellows succeed in your mission. all three of you are also my friends from now on if you ever need any help I can do, just call my name while holding this watch I'll come for your aid.'
he smiled once again and with a blinding flash of light, he disappeared.