Agnidaanav screeched with an unpleasant vengeful fury.
It swirled sideways and in a circular motion as though sliding off as if caught up on a spring action movement. The Formations reached halfway out, then snapped off together, gone, and disappeared in the thin air.
Celina's stomach tightened, and her pulse raced with nervousness, but she was as prepared as possible to this point. There was a war to be broken out shortly. The world was strung on a leash, only waiting for Celina to break the cord. At that moment when she gazed up at the creature, she remembered Doctor. She remembered the training they had together before they fought Almourah. His teachings and his unspoken love towards her. She swallowed a lump and mentally shook her head, on visualizing the people dying and suffering because of this new horrendous clan. They were her people, and that made her feel ready to surmount any peril for the country's sake.
Nazira took a long breath. She bent her head low and closed her eyes, seemingly relaxing or perhaps concentrating.
The sky thundered. Small portions of clouds huddled together and darkened, forming a mass of deceptive material. The artificial downpour now turned into a sluicing rain. Water flooded from the sky, beating a tattoo on Agnidaanav's body. The creature screeched and flew faster, showing signs of abatement. Nazira looked at Celina and gave a single nod. This was the cue. Hardik opened outstretching rather stiffly and lay flat on the ground inviting Celina.
Before she stepped up on it, Nazira took a step upfront and touched her arm. "Creature has a mind of its own. Please do not..."
Celina raised a hand, warding her silence. "I know. I don't need any more of your assistance."
Ignoring Nazira's worried expression, Celina stepped over the carpet and squatted down, fists tightly held against the smooth silky fur of the carpet. Heart racing, eyes glued on the creature, she quickly formulated the techniques to bring down the massive opponent. Hardik jerked, lifting itself slowly, hovering in the air for a second or two, then whooshed into the sky. They are like crocodiles, Celina thought about Nazira's suggestion again and again, go for the eye.
Hardik was discomforted at first - falling and rising, falling and raising in the heady downpour- the cadence however turned a flat line once it grasped the rhythm and withstood the beating rain. It had its own style of escaping other smaller creatures. Celina hissed and shivered, getting drenched wet. She quickly found her balance and sat up on her knee, comfortable. Hardik began taking laps around Agnidaanav either waiting for Celina's nerves to buzz or seeking the creature's attention.
Below Nazira was the only audience who looked like a tiny dot from the distance. She stood at the same spot, outside the cave at the foot of the mountain. While above, the smaller creatures scattered further away, the mad rain forcing them to be out of range.
This is going to be one memorable fight, Celina thought. The two eyes of the creature, one on each face were blackened and charred, while the good ones stared at her, angry plumes escaping from its nose. Sharp gusts of wind began swirling around Celina's hand. "Hardik," she said, "Please do not let me down. Let's go, get the damn creature."
The carpet swished forward. Agnidaanav flapped its gigantic wings, piercing gust of wind slightly knocked the carpet back. Celina caught Hardik's fur in a tight fist for balance and hung on. She got back up, created a sword-like windy weapon, and hurled it straight toward its eye. Despite the rain and being moderately knocked by Hayden and Leena, the creature was still commendably strong. It darted aside and blasted off the fire.
Hardik jerked, swishing and swooshing, and glid from above the flames, slanted slightly, having its chauffeur balance at her best. The creature screeched, as Celina got closer. She created weapons, one after the other, and hurled continuously at the creature. The technique did not work. No surprise there.
The creature turned around and flicked its tail. "Hardik, watch out!" Celina yelled. Too late. The tail hit the carpet. Together they plummeted down. A shock-filled scream escaped Celina's throat. Thankfully Hardik regained its balance and glided towards her at a tremendous speed. Before she crashed to the ground, the carpet got hold of her. Celina's stomach roiled, vomit surged in her throat, and the feeling of the sudden stoppage of a roller coaster took a toll on her.
Hardik gently landed on the ground. They both needed a minute to breathe and come out of the shock of rapid freefall.
Nazira came running towards them and crouched, torrential rain beating down on her but she remained undeterred. She hesitated to speak, and Celina guessed if she was laughing in her mind. A lifetime of humiliation rattled her bones.
"You wipe that damn smirk out of your face," Celina yelled.
Nazira chuckled, touched her hand, and said sweetly, "Leena told me you're the strongest among the five, why are you proving her wrong?"
Celina clenched her jaw. "Thanks for kicking me while I'm down."
"Please. You have to listen to me," Nazira said, pleading. "Take me to Agnidaanav. Let me distract it for you."
With an egoistic nerve throbbing with alarming intensity, Celina refrained from replying. She wasn't too willing to oblige to go further along Nazira's path. Quietly, she lurched forward and sat back up on Hardik, pretending not to give heed to Nazira's proposal. Nazira hung her head down, sprang up, and stepped sideways, lending them space. The carpet lifted itself slightly, hovering just above the ground and Celina assumed it was readying itself before it sped up.
A moment later, Hardik took off with the speed of a jet.
Agnidaanav had been flying around the cave, assumingly in dire need to get back inside Selvyn Hill and take up its position as a guard to the Molten Vault. Hardik, reading Celina's nerves flew towards it, cutting through the susurration of freezing rain.
Before the creature figured out the way, Celina commanded her stone and created a windshield the half size of the mountain. The creature screeched and blew out the fire. Damn it! Celina gritted her teeth. The impact of wind and fire bombarded a portion of the mountain.
The sound of the explosion was terrifying but that did not hinder Hardik's momentum. It twisted and turned in its way, ingeniously escaping the tumbling flying rocks. Celina made up her mind, she could not risk her Formation colliding with the flames anymore.
The creature flew up against the slope of the mountain, as swift as an arrow. Rain smashing. Snow plummeting. Trees blowing about. Celina's brain was in a speed mode and she braced herself for what was coming. Hardik folded itself from the backside, creating a chair-like provision for the sake of Celina's comfort. It slanted itself, front skywards, and flew behind the creature, matching its speed.
The sound of the turbulent wet-windy atmosphere buzzed in her ears. Breath rasped in her chest. The feeling of falling off the cliff, although in reality, they were jetting slantingly upward. The chase of the cat and mouse began- the rush of Hardik's flight to cross off the creature's speed and to allow Celina attack from the front. The zipping-zapping, turbulent-filled ride gave her the most exhilarating and strenuous experience, involving a lot of high-risk caveats. The lining of her nose became irritated and inflamed on getting exposed in such inclement weather, but she had her mind concentrated on the stone, also focusing on the need to strengthen her in-air maneuvering. The creature was somehow flying up, and upwards only, taking no diversion whatsoever. Was it trying to escape into the clouds and the rain? Now she knew why Nazira had explicitly mentioned not to insult the creature's intelligence.
There were folded ridges on its dorsal surface. Its large body was protected by a sheen of red-golden plate, the texture was so steel-like, so vivid. Now that Hardik was right behind it, Celina studied, quickly figuring out the place best to attack. Its body was out of the question. Go for the eye. Its tail was straight and unmoving. Go for the eye. The wings pointed downwards. Go for the...wait a second. The skin on its wings was thin and light, certainly allowing it to fly effortlessly. Celina created an airy sword. Ridiculously hurling the weapons had been a tactful blunder the first time. She waited, thinking deeply and requesting Hardik to speed furthermore.
Hardik responded, efficiently zooming ahead. Celina's heart backflipped when she flew shoulder-to-shoulder with the country's legendary creature. She readied herself and letting out a yell of rage, she swung the sword as fastly as she could.
A blood-curdling screech of the creature made Hardik tumble. Ah! Celina gasped and tightly held onto the fur. The speed of the creature was reduced. It flapped its wings, hitting Hardik once again. However, Hardik took a sharp turn and Celina's mind whizzed with the carpet's sudden motion. For a second she thought the fatigue would kill her.
"No! Do not retreat. Fly around!" she yelled, forgetting that Hardik read and understood human nerves only. "Go! Go! Go!"
The hit on its wings must have been sorely impactful. The creature took a sudden U-turn and glided down. The dive was so quick and steep that Celina for once lost her vision. She lost sight of the creature for a few beats. Hardik had the orders to follow through and it took the sudden swift downward. She felt her insides rattling and churning as though being in a cannibal's cauldron. The wind screamed once again like a banshee's wail, whipping sharply at her face. She gripped on tighter, her teeth clenched. The air, the element she was the master of, was making her lose vision more and more. She held her hand up and commanded her stone. The pressure of the wind hitting her face reduced, but Hardik's speed increased immeasurably more. It was easy to dive down, and Hardik was terrific at it.
She saw the ground, they were almost there. The creature did not show any sign of changing its direction. She remained calm though, and made sure her nerves did not confuse Hardik's mechanism. The ground invited them to her destruction. She held on and waited. It's about time- she warned herself. Almost there. Are you listening? Prepare yourself!
The creature knew that they were following it, and it was a fool to think that that would trick Celina into losing the game. The creature held on, and so did Celina. The ground was right there. Celina prepared for the impact. A distance between the ground and the creature was now over a length of a full-grown man, when Celina yelled, "Constellia Formation!"
Boom! Vrishabha heaved into vie. While keeping her feet on the ground, she did not appear in her usual standstill position. She had come with a sword of her own, body posture as if ready to attack. Celina smiled. The face of the ox twisted into a devilish contort. And with a force of a hurricane, she drew the sword up straight into the creature's one good eye.
The quick rush of the bull would take anyone surprise, whether or not an intelligent creature. Agnidaanav screeched as loud as it shook the expanse of the forest mountain. It was demonic, much louder than the moment it had appeared first in front of Celina. Her nerves frazzled and Hardik slowed down, and upturned, now flying just above the ground.
The black smoke rampaged at the foot of the mountain. The smoke Celina was well aware of, was coming out of the creature's extremities. This clan was somehow associated with this bellowing mass of the mistlike substance. At first, Celina thought it was due to the stringent stab in the eye that had caused the creature to expel the incredulous amount of smoke. Hardik then brought her closer to Vrishabha hidden amidst the blackness. On getting slowly cleared up, Celina's heart missed several beats when she realized that the creature had released fire with a great rush trapping Vrishabha in it.
"No!" Celina gasped, sitting bolt upright on Hardik on a whim. "Vrishabha, retreat!"
The Constellia could not heed the warning. It was too late. The creature turned around in a jiffy and smashed Vrishabha with its tail. The Constellia was propelled, toppling away towards the other side of the mountain and allegedly collided with a bedrock of the mountain.
Screeching, the creature flew away once again locating the entrance to the Molten Vault. Celina commanded her stone and a spiral of fast-moving air encircled the creature keeping it from getting back inside the mountain.
The indecisiveness troubled her with a dilemma. Creature or her Constellia - who she should focus on first? Hardik, however, made the quick decision. It jittered for a moment before bringing her down and landing beside Constellia who was slightly writhing with pain. From the corner of her eye, she saw Nazira rushing over with a look of fear on her face. She collapsed on her knees beside the blackened Vrishabha and began checking on her.
"I'm alright, milady," Vrishabha said.
Celina leaned backward, frowning and her heart sinking with disappointment. All of Constellia's attention was on Nazira, only on Nazira, as if Celina wasn't present besides her showing respects. Vrishabha trusted Nazira and the trust in her was clearly superior to what she had in her own master. There was a time when Celina had been unable to overcome her murderous rage, and Vrishabha was terribly let down by her master's defaming choices. Was it still somehow disappointed in her? What is it about this witch that makes every Constellia her devotee and I'm not able to see why?
The smaller creatures above in the sky rapidly crescendoed to a hysterical chorus. Celina blinked, all frantic and wanting to get back to Agnidaanav before it found the way to go back up the hill.
Nazira gave a quick glance at Celina, heavy droplets splattering against her drenched face and hair. Her lips moved, and she said something but the communication did not pass along well. All of a sudden, within a snap, Nazira's position was changed. She turned up sitting right beside Celina. In her hand were the leaves of Vrindahina.
"Whoa!" Celina cried, shrinking back like a startled cat. She quickly held Nazira's hand and forced her to pay attention. "What...how did you do that?"
"Do what?" Nazira asked.
"You were there a second ago," she said, pointing at the earlier spot. "And now here." She pointed at her. "How?"
Nazira swallowed. "Don't ask."
Her magic to Celina began to seem like a wonder past any man-made splendor. "Girl, you're scaring me! Not even Almourah had the audacity to scare me like that."
"I know. I scare myself. Now help me, please."
Celina watched Nazira for a few seconds, the way she spread all the leaves over the bruised Constellia, her eyes full of concern and care. Celina's insides burned, not with anger this time but with her consciousness splitting into various conflicted and emotionally charged states of mind. Despite the rain, she felt the peculiar burning moisture in her eyes which she blinked away in startlement.
"I'd rather love and be betrayed, rather than hate and find myself guilty," she remembered Hayden repeating his father's words. And it struck her with the keenest force. "Not asking you to love her, but...there's nothing wrong in giving someone a chance, is there? After all, guilt is worse than jail."
"You go," Nazira said, her touch bringing Celina back from the reverie, "We may not get a chance like this. Take care of the creature, and I'll take care of Vrishabha...that is if you're okay with it. Otherwise, sit right here as long as your want and waste time. Your choice." Sarcasm did seem to be her strong suit.
Celina started fidgeting at the spot, unable to manage the internal conflict tearing through her mind. A brave and brash girl like her, should not be feeling such discomfort, right? She was strong and independent, and such girls should be unafraid of expressing their views. Differentiating right from wrong should be a piece of cake for her. She was obsessed with so many should-haves, damn why so many rules? Did she really have to follow all of them?
"What's the matter?" Nazira asked, aghast, her big eyes tempered with affection.
Celina then realized that she had been shedding and wiping her tears. Her throat felt like it had been scraped with a sharp metal instrument. "You were right. Everyone makes mistakes. And the solution to it doesn't lie in the past but in the future..."
"What are you trying to say?"
Celina still couldn't speak her mind. She couldn't say that she was ready to move on, that she would rather love and be betrayed if necessary. She could handle that but she would not burden herself with the guilt of making wrong choices anymore. She wiped her tear, sniffed, and then said, "Werent you saying something about distracting Agnidaanav for me? Would you like to give your way a shot?"
-x-