Knowledge and Divinity Book 1 : Knowledge

Bloodshed

     It took us three hours to get to the southern end of the konkan coastline, after which we followed the beach to the north, searching for him. Moonscales was nowhere to be seen, probably because her flying speed was a lot less than ours. It would have taken us less than an hour, but we had to stop periodically to catch our breath and eat something to replenish our energy.

     After about half an hour of searching, we finally saw him. He wasn't exactly hiding, just curled on the sand. Seeing him in person seemed different than my dreams. The blood red colour had a more matt-like finish, like it depicted the exact opposite of "bright". Yet, his skin wasn't dull, it seemed elegant in it's own evil way.

    Without a moment of thought, Sakhi lunged at him, her sword materialised mid-way into her hand. But Bloodshed extended his wings, pushing her away. Before she could recover from the attack, Bloodshed was flying and had caught her in his talons.

    "No!", I yelled, ane went towards her. I somehow forgot to slow down time, and Bloodshed threw her towards me. Both of us fell into the shallow water near the beach.

     Before I could get up, Bloodshed had his tail near Sakhi's throat, which had a pointy spike on it that I hadn't noticed before. He flexed his tail, an unmistakable gesture that he was going to pierce her neck.

     "NO!", I yelled. I remembered that I could slow down time, which didn't happen instinctively anymore now that I was trained. Time slowed down just before the spike was about to hit her, and I shot a shockwave towards Sakhi. Big mistake. The force knocked her out of Bloodshed's aim, but she landed 50 metres away, and just lied there, probably unconscious. I flew with my spear towards him, and was about to kill him, but before I could, I heard Moonscales in my mind.

     "Don't do it, Aman". Wait a second, I was in hyperspeed, and had increased brain function. So from Moonscales' point of view, I should have killed him in just half a second after throwing that shockwave. This could only mean that Moonscales had faster brain function, too. Another strange thing was that I figured all of that out in just less than one tenth of a second in normal time.

     I realised what Moonscales meant, and shifted my trajectory so that I flew over him, but then I collided with Sakhi, who also had hyperspeed. She didn't see me comming to kill him, and had got up and shot herself towerds him. I was supposed to be the one as strong as the Gods, but so far I had only come in between. I got snapped back into normal time.

     For the second time in less than three seconds, we fell on the beach. Now, I decided not to interfere. Bloodshed was hovering above us before we could get up, and had his talons curled to reach down and grab her, but she summoned her sword and slashed one of his nails out. She flew up to his level, and was just about to cut off his head, but he snapped on her arm, and bit her shoulder. She yelped, and blood started dripping off her shoulder.

     Bloodshed looked at me, and said "Do you know why they call me 'Bloodshed', Aman Shah? I never kill my victims in one stroke. I make them bleed, and make them regret the day they saw me. I hang them with the wound facing upwards, so that they lose blood slowly, just fast enough to kill them. And they don't die easily"

     Sakhi was too dazed in pain to move. He dug his talons into the wound, which made Sakhi scream in pain. He was about to fly away. I had to do something. I threw my spear towards him. Not exactly threw, but I willed it to go there. You can say that I gave it kinetic energy. The spear hit the leg which was carrying Sakhi, and it went right through. Bloodshed roared in pain, and dropped her into the water. He shot me a murderous look, and flew away.

    I dived into the sea, and brought her back to the shore. The wound on her shoulder looked very bad, and the colour started to drain from her face. This wasn't happening. Our first fight was a disaster, and we were nowhere close to killing the king. But of course, we didn't have to kill the king, but still somehow figure out a way to stop him.

     Moonscales was hovering just above us. She would land in seconds. I realised that I hadn't read Sakhi's destiny, and from what happened today, it became important for me to know what Moonscales was talking about before comming here. Also, if I read her while she is unconscious, she wouldn't be able to know my secret. I made time slow down again, and started reading her destiny, what it was meant to be after killing Night.

    Sakhi had tortured Night and made him tell that Bloodshed was meeting the Knight in the himalayas five days ago, and she was meant to go there, if she hadn't been in the goblin market with us. The Knight flies away as soon as he sees her, and she kills Bloodshed. She tracks the Knight down, and in his lair, finds and slays Misery and pain-striker. Today, she was supposed to kill Fury, Razor and Death strike. She killed (or will kill, whatever) the Knight tomorrow, and finally the king in four days. I noticed that this wasn't the actual destiny made my the Gods, as in the Gods' version, the Knight didn't have to find the trap. But this was the destiny if I hadn't met her. This was the one that mattered, as if I tried to manipulate her destiny to be like this one, then we would kill the king without me dieing. As in her original destiny I wasn't meant to live, we didn't need that one.

     So we had to kill Bloodshed, Misery, Pain-striker, Fury, Razor, Death strike and the Knight by tomorrow, and the King in four days. No, not kill, stop the king in four days. I had no idea how we were going to do that.

     Moonscales landed next to me, and I healed her shoulder. The colour returned to her face.

"How is she?", Moonscales asked.

"She is fine, but weak. I am tired too, due to the healing. We can't fly"

"I know that you must be feeling depressed, but don't lose hope. We will figure out something."

     I really wished to believe her, but I couldn't see any hope. Killing Bloodshed, or better yet, making him talk about the Knight's lair today was our only shot at getting the king. We flew on Moonscales, and reached the sahyadris at about four in the evening. After resting Sakhi on her bed, I collapsed on mine. Today was a disaster. And it was all because of me.

~*~

Uh oh, so the mission's ruined? Read on.

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