Ash was fired up and ready to go, and Rishi took up a defensive position behind him, ready to support him with cover fire.
The tension in the air was palpable, as the thugs were confused. This man, who has no weapons, just proclaimed that his hands alone are enough. What they did not know, however, was that they were facing Ashwatthama, a legend in combat.
None of them wanted to open fire and kill a man in cold blood as Ash took a step towards them.
Then another.
Then another
And another.
Just his sheer presence in the alleyway, now turned into a battlefield, mounted immense pressure on the thugs, who were nervously backing away.
"Don't come closer, or we'll open fire!"
Ash still had a wide-mouthed grin on his face as he kept advancing, not slowing down his pace.
The men, now petrified of this monster in front of them, finally opened fire.
In a haze, Ash disappeared from their field of vision.
All of them started panicking even more.
"Where is he?" Screamed one of the men, with a torch in his hand.
"Find him! Now!"
"What happened to Zeish, who was taken!?"
Amidst this confusion, Rishi opened fire from cover, but the recoil was more than he was expecting, and he missed his shots.
"There! Open fire!" The men, now feeling cornered like wounded beasts, started emptying their magazines in the general direction of Rishi, who ducked back into cover.
The weather had quickly become inclement, and now signs of a thunderstorm were starting.
The men, now feeling somewhat safe with the emptying of their gun magazines, started heading towards Rishi, who had shot them.
Rishi lay there in terror and didn't peek out, assuming the worst had taken place. He believed that Ash was taken down by the gunfire, but he couldn't be further from the truth.
As the footsteps drew near, he mustered every last bit of courage left in him. It would be a foolish plan, but nevertheless, it is the only thing he can do. He was ready to end things if it meant they would end on his terms.
He took a small rock and threw it to his right. In the poorly lit alleyway with a crumbled building further obstructing light, the gunmen quickly turned to face that direction.
In that momentary diversion, he would get up and unleash hell on them with all the bullets he had remaining. He knew it wasn't a lot, but he would make every shot count.
That was assuming, of course, that he could aim. But he could not.
There was nothing else he could do, though; he could just point and fire in the general direction and hope the bullets hit their mark. A final spray and pray that his entire life depended upon.
He took aim and let it loose, causing everyone to duck into cover. Empowered by fear, he continued shooting until his magazine, too, ran empty.
He hit a couple of the men, but five of them were still standing. They were also out of bullets, and so was Rishi. He just stood there in shock, not knowing what to do as they pulled out knives from their pockets.
A rumble of thunder saturated the background as they made their way to Rishi. Rishi turned tail and started to run, with the men in pursuit.
He twisted and turned around the various alleyways, and when it seemed like he had lost them, he happened upon a dead end.
"Fuck." He mumbled to himself as he tried to scale the huge wall that was in front of him now. The guys behind hm were in hot pursuit.
As he struggled to climb up the side of the building, he felt a hand grab him by his leg and yank him down with a lot of force. The next thing he knew, he was facing the starry sky and a throbbing pain on his head, as four figures loomed around his head now.
He got a better look at his assailants now, and they had tied bandannas around their faces and mouths to conceal their identities.
"What do we do with him now?" One of them asked the other.
Rishi started to feel something warm beneath his neck. He reached for his head and touched it, and it felt all wet. He brought his hand to the front of his face, and all he could see was red in his hand.
He was bleeding out. At an alarming rate.
He tried to get up quickly, but he still felt dazed from the fall, and a surge of pain suddenly shot up through his leg. One of the men surrounding him had driven a dagger through his leg.
"The guy isn't the one we're after, though, is he? What should we do with him?"
"Protocol dictates that we kill him; the fewer people that know, the better."
A chill ran down Rishi's spine as he finally realized the scary prospect of his life ending right here, right now.
He wanted to go out with a bang, but not like this. This was cowardly and shameful.
He got up despite the fierce pain that was engulfing his leg, and with all his might, he punched one of the men in his nether regions.
In a swift response, the other three ganged up on him and started kicking and beating him.
"Do you dare to fight like that despite being outnumbered and already beaten badly like this?"
Rishi's vision started to haze up, and he felt calm despite the dire situation he was in.
"Aaaah, what is this feeling?"
The men stopped for a brief moment and were horrified at the fact that the guy who was just kicked in his balls wasn't there to be found.
"Where did Chris go?"
At that moment, all three of them made eye contact with an Ash who appeared at the end of the alleyway with blood in his hands.
One of the men's focus was suddenly broken by a drop of water falling from the sky.
It had started to rain, and the drizzle was picking up fast.
Even Rishi was confused and taken aback by this sudden change of demeanor from Ash. It felt like a totally different person. The tension in the air told everything the people present there needed to know.
Ash looked up into the sky and started to laugh.
"Bwahahahaahaha! Fools, mere mortals, kneel at my feet, and I may grant you forgiveness. Resist if you dare, and your lives shall be utterly forsaken."
The three men, armed with knives, lunged forward.
"Die, you self-proclaimed immortal! Oraaaaaaaaa!" Their cries of battle were in unison as all three of them charged at once.
Ash started muttering something under his breath and pulled out an iron rod from the rubble.
Rishi could only watch on as the three men dove in, and Ash stood there motionless.
"No, not now of all times." Rishi was too weak to really shout out to Ash to stop him, and he watched on in horror as the three men proceeded to stab their knives through Ash's torso, arm, and abdomen.
His heart raced as he witnessed the unfolding spectacle. Amidst the fight, he caught a glimpse of Ash's lips moving in an eerie dance, shaping the ancient words of an astra's summoning chant. Dread gripped Rishi as he realized the perilous power that Ash was about to unleash.