"ALWAYS A GIANT? DON'T YOU KNOW NOTHING ELSE?" Ram asked.
Veera ignored him.
Ram chuckled and transformed himself into a giant that was even bigger than Veera and clashed against him.
They locked each others arms, neither of them moving an inch.
Ram arms started to ache. He ignored it, gritting his teeth, he pushed harder. Veera pushed his back.
Ram didn't know how long they tried to push each other, but he couldn't keep it any longer.
He was pushed back by Veera.
He stumbled and fell down.
Veera used this chance to turn around and go in search of the White Room.
Ram was not going to let him reach there.
Ram increased his size even more, straightened himself and flew towards Veera and they resumed testing their strength.
Veera was not at all winded, but Ram was sweating all over. The pain at his wrists became even more.
Veera grinned at Ram, increased pressure and pushed him back even more.
Ram increased his size in return but he still got pushed back.
Veera smirked. "As I have already said, I have more experience than you. I know how to increase my—" He stopped. "Why am I explaining all of this to you. It's just a waste of time. Once I get what I want, I will just kill you away."
Ram screamed. "I am not going to let you reach the White Room," he said, becoming even bigger.
When that didn't help, Ram added two more arms to him and sent a punch at Veera.
Veera was momentarily surprised and one of the punch landed on his cheek. He was pushed back and for a moment, both of them stopped fighting and stared at each other. When the second punch was about to land on Veera's other cheek, he summoned two arms of his own and pushed it away.
Veera came at Ram with 4 arms.
Ram struggled to defend himself against Veera, so he increased himself to 8 arms.
10 arms.
12 arms.
Soon, it was a battle of arms that was so fierce and fast that Ram couldn't even see his own arms fighting against Veera's.
Ram couldn't keep up anymore and all the arms disappeared.
He was gasping for breath while Ram still looked as if they hadn't battled just now. Ram was frustrated. There has to be some way that Veera was not getting fatigued. Veera had experience while Ram didn't.
Ram wished he knew what that was, but he couldn't stumble upon it suddenly without Em's help, whose life was in danger if he didn't stop Veera, who used Ram's moment of contemplation to it's full advantage. He kept the barrage of punches and every one of them landed on Ram.
Ram doubled over, curled himself till his knees reached his knees, with his arms around them, hoping it would protect his body. But he couldn't.
Veera chuckled. "This is the real power that I was talking about. How about it. Amazing, isn't it?" he asked.
Enraged by this, Veera summoned spikes all over his body, where Veera was beating him.
Veera couldn't stop himself from hitting and the spikes pierced Veera's numerous hands. He let out a scream so loud for the first time that Ram was satisfied.
Veera dispersed all of his arms as he glared at Ram. "I am surprised at how quickly you are adapting into your powers. If you were to learn my powers, god only knows how much of a difficult of an opponent you would have becoming. I have to take you down quickly," he said.
Ram glared right back. "I don't think so. I will do whatever it takes to prevent you from reaching the White Room," he said.
Veera chuckled. "You see, this is where you are wrong. I am already way ahead of you," he said.
Ram frowned at him.
"Confused aren't you. Let me see whether this makes things clear or not," Veera said and …
There was another Veera in front of Ram.
Ram stared at the two copies of Veera, then ahead of them and back at them in horror. "No. No. No. I can't let this happen," Ram said, getting himself up and tried to get past the two Veera's.
They stopped him.
When Ram ducked and tried to go to their left, another Veera appeared.
Soon Ram was surrounded by so many copies of Veera's and Ram didn't know what he was supposed to do.
All the Veera's started to speak at the same time and it was very disorienting. "Amazing isn't it? While I kept you busy fighting, I was already making my way towards The White Room. In what way are you preventing me from reaching there?"
Ram was too worried for Em to reply to Veera.
What should he do? Endless copies of Veera were increasing every moment and the way it looked, he couldn't …
Ram grinned. This was Ram's Mind World. He has complete authority over there. Other than throwing Veera out of here, Ram could do anything he wanted. He could transform himself into anything he wanted. All he had to do was to replicate himself just like Veera.
And that was what Ram did.
He replicated himself into 2. Then 4, then 8 then soon, Ram overpowered Veera.
The Veera's clown shook their head and continued to attack, increasing their numbers.
It was an endless battle.
A huge waste of time.
Ram had to get away from them.
Every moment he wasted here would be dangerous. He had to find a way.
A clone of Veera punched him and the force made the blood on Veera's wound flew in the air.
The copies of Veera ignored drop of blood.
That's it.
Ram's eyes glinted. When one Veera punched him again, he transformed himself into a drop of blood and flew away.
While still maintaining other copies of himself, Ram traveled past the copies of Veera undetected.
He felt so smug about it that he started to laugh. But since he was a drop of blood now and couldn't produce any sound.
He sighed and once he was far away From all the copies of Veera, he transformed himself into a humming bird.
He heard it was the fastest bird when it comes to flight. He had already lost so much time. He need to take any advantage he can gate.
Ram believed that Veera would not be worried about him, still thinking that he had already dealt with him.
Ram had to make use of this the most.
He flew towards the endless corridor that, Ram built in his own mind.
Why had he built so many corridors?
He hadn't realized so many existed till now.
Wait! Every time Ram entered this Mind World, he did so with the help of Em.
Did they always existed or she had built this recently?
Ram remembered Veera telling him about hurdles that Em had built to stop Veera and Veera had been taking them down. Or rather making his way over them, moving closer towards the White Room.
Was the endless corridors the hurdles?
It might be the case.
As Ram thought more about it, he realized that since this was his Mind World, he could enter go anyplace inside this world with a thought.
And just like that, he arrived in front of Veera.
Veera was shocked to see Ram arrive so suddenly that he froze. After he composed himself, he chuckled. "I should have known that you would get used to this soon. It's a waste of time to play cheap tricks with you," he said.
Ram felt the endless versions of Veera that were fighting with him disappeared suddenly.
After a moment, Ram also dispersed various versions of himself.
"Why don't we make it easy for both of us and exit my Mind World?" Ram asked.
Veera shook his head. "Not even in your dreams. I will get to the White Room one way or another," he said.
Ram shook his head. Then imagined both of them at a far away place from the White Room.
Veera gasped. He stared at Ram in disbelief. "I should have killed you when I got the chance. But this damned world will collapse once you die," he said.
Ram grinned at Veera and brought even farther away from the White Room.
Veera grit his teeth, veins bulging at his forehead and he stepped towards Ram.
"I. Will. Make. You. Wish. You. Were. Dead." Veera said each word with each step he took towards Ram.
When he stood in front of Ram, Veera created endless copies of giant versions of himself.
Ram groaned. Can't he do something more creative? Always creating endless copies of himself or giants?
Didn't he know what an imagination looks like?
Ram shook his head. Well. Whatever. Now that he had power, he will make sure that Veera will never get towards White Room.
Ram created various copies of himself, some a giant version of himself. Some with spikes all over his body. Some with horns, some with blades as arms. Some with blades as hair, some with huge arms….
On and on.
Soon, he was evenly matched with Veera.
He could feel Veera losing consciousness and Ram grinned.
Veera was losing.
Ram was winning.
There was no way that Veera was going to reach the White Room.
No sooner he thought that, they were at the White Room, with one of the copies of Veera reaching for the seal that locked the White Room.
Ram stared in horror as Veera smirked at him, then broke the seal.
He found where Em was and also probably The Bead of The Institute.