Capítulo 11: CHAPTER 11 - Hunt finale.
1538, Fort Town Macherla, Golconda Sultanate.
Occasion: Holi.
In the courtyard of an outdoor pub in Macherla, the small crowd that was celebrating Holi, the festival of colours, quickly scattered when a dead body was found among them. Some people ran away with fear, while some went to inform the town's security. Some people even stayed to watch the drama that was about to happen.
A deep rumble was heard from afar, and the sound of thunder rolled across the sky, as the dark clouds gathered, becoming increasingly apparent that it was going to rain that day. The sound of a child crying could be heard, followed by the hushed whispers of their mother.
"Whoever did this better come out!" screamed Ezhilan as looked at the gathered crowd, holding his sword in his right hand. There were 20 to 25 people in the courtyard, not including the original customers who were at the pub.
The people were covered in colours, making it hard to visually distinguish them. But, something told Ezhilan that the killer was still here, waiting for a chance to also take a swipe at them.
A few minutes had passed since Paandu's murder was taken place and the crowd calmed down a lot since then, thanks in part to Ezhilan and Ranga whipping out their swords, scaring the people to calm down.
Ranga was going from person to person, checking if they had something incriminating, to connect them to the murder. So far nothing has been found, but Ezhilan has the confidence that the killer will soon be found out.
If they fail to find the murderer of Paandu before Macherla's security personnel arrive, they will lose their chance at revenge.
"Not you," Ranga said after he had searched a young woman more thoroughly than required. Seeing this Ezhilan wanted to bang his head against something. Their friend died, and that horndog had still not calmed down.
"Not you either," Ranga concluded after he searched an older man, likely related to the previous young woman, seeing how he was simmering with anger. It seemed that Ranga also noticed the anger from the older man, as he whipped the man with the back of his sword.
"What is that look?! You want to die?" Ranga questioned the older man, who quickly shook his head. Ezhilan was about to order Ranga to knock it off and move forward with the search when he noticed a movement from the young man who was next in line for the search.
"RANGA!! DODGE!" Ezhilan screamed, warning the only remaining member of his squad, as the young man raised a sword to attack the soldier.
As if using up all his luck at that moment, Ranga was able to dodge the attack, escaping with only a slight cut on his chest, from what should have been a decapitation, though he had fallen backwards while dodging.
Ezhilan surged forward to intercept their would-be assassin, swiftly closing the distance as the assailant attempted another assault on Ranga, recovering from the previous swing. With only a few determined strides, the captain closed in on the young man, launching an offensive with his drawn sword.
The captain's overhead slash met the young man's raised talwar in a clash of steel, the force of their collision echoing through the tense air. Following up with a calculated manoeuvre, Ezhilan delivered a swift kick aimed at the attacker's legs, forcing him to retreat and regain his balance.
The young man, his face half concealed by the vibrant colours from the previous celebration and the other half hidden beneath a bandana, retaliated with renewed vigour, launching an assault against Ezhilan.
A few people from the courtyard fled, no longer under the threat of Ezhilan and Ranga, and not wanting to be involved in the ongoing violence. Some of the people stayed, amazed by the sword fight, and started taking sides and cheering for their chosen champion.
Repelling the sideways slash from the young man with a parry, which caused him to backstep, Ezhilan retreated a few steps himself. He observed that Ranga had already recovered from the light damage he took from the initial assault of their attacker, and was looking for an opening to attack.
"Who sent you?!" Ezhilan shouted the attacker, who strangely responded with a chuckle and dashed forward to renew the attack once again. "Did Jeeva send you? He wants to steal our share of the job?" he asked as he defended against another strike.
Hearing nothing except muffled laughter from under the bandana of the attacking young man, Ezhilan's anger peaked. He attacked this time while putting all his weight behind the slash.
The clash of their talwars echoed through the courtyard, the resounding 'CLANG' marking the moment their blades locked in a fierce deadlock. Though the talwars excelled in slashing techniques, their design posed limitations in thrusting and precise duelling, a fact that became apparent during their struggle.
As both of the swords met, they got stuck in a sword lock, giving a perfect opportunity for Ranga who manoeuvred behind the young assassin. Ezhilan's last remaining squadmate quickly rushed forward, to finish off the attacker.
But it did seem like Ranga had exhausted all his luck while dodging the attack from earlier, as the assassin, displaying remarkable agility, dropped his weapon at the last instant, narrowly evading Ranga's anticipated strike.
At least now the young man was disarmed. Without a sword, dealing with him would be a lot easier. But as Ezhilan attacked again, the stranger removed something from his waist and threw it towards him.
Ezhilan initially thought it would be a dagger or a throwing knife, but he was completely unprepared for what it was. The stranger threw the colours used in Holi celebrations at him. This move completely disoriented him, because of how unexpected it was.
Some of the coloured dyes reached into Ezhilan's eyes, blinding him temporarily, While some reached into his nose and mouth, launching him into a coughing fit. Another rumble rolled through the sky, and thunder seemed to be a lot closer than when it struck the previous time, and the sound reverberated in his ears.
He expected the assassin to finish him off, but from the sounds it seemed he was occupied with Ranga, saving Ezhilan from a gruesome fate.
As he tried to recover from the blindness and the coughing fit, he heard sounds of the fight still going on. A clanging sound of metal hitting the floor reached his ears, making Ezhilan conclude that even Ranga was disarmed.
The sound of the fight continued as Ezhilan recovered from the coughing fit and tried to rub his eyes. Then the sound of flesh hitting a hard surface was heard, again and again.
"THUD!"
"THUD!"
"THUD!"
"THUD!"
As Ezhilan peeked at the situation with his still burning eyes, he found that the young assassin held Ranga from behind, and mashed the soldier's face into a wooden table.
"THUD!"
"THUD!"
The mashing finally stopped and the Captain of the squad concluded that his last soldier was also dead. Why is it that he was so unlucky? All the members of his squad, which he trained with for the last few years were dead. Only he was left alive.
"Who are you?" he asked the young assassin, a little resignation creeping into the voice of Ezhilan.
"Have you not guessed already? You sounded so sure of yourself the last time we met." The assassin spoke for the first time since appearing, his tone conveyed a sense of amusement and anger.
"Have lord Karana Deva sent you? Does he want to get rid of all the evidence of his plan?" Ezhilan asked, and the assassin quieted down, indicating to the captain that he was somewhere close to the truth.
Anger surged within Ezhilan. He knew lord Karana Deva, the king's brother for years. Doing all sorts of dirty tasks for him, expecting a reward that had never arrived till the Prince's job. And this is the reward for all the work?
Why couldn't he send this assassin after his nephew in the first place? Why waste the lives of all the soldiers of his squad for a task that could be completed by somebody professional?
The Assassin choose to remain quiet, took a couple of steps forward and grabbed the sword of the dead soldier Ranga, and pointed it at Ezhilan, motioning him to attack him. The captain was so overwhelmed with anger that he decided to agree to the request.
He rushed forward intending to tackle the assassin to the ground. Though some initial struggle was put up, Ezhilan succeeded and pushed the attacker through the table, on which Ranga was beaten. The assassin rolled on the table to the other side, to recover from the tackle and kneeled on the ground there coughing.
But before he could capitalize on it, and cross the table to the other side, the assassin recovered and blocked the slash from his talwar with the stolen weapon of Ranga. They both then circled each other, creating a gap between them.
Ezhilan, intending to use the tactic of the enemy, grabbed a small pot from a table closest to him and threw it at the assassin, who blocked it with the sword. But the pot broke apart from the impact and spilled all the kallu, a sort of palm wine which was stored in it on the attacker's face.
Taking this opportunity, Ezhilan tackled the assassin to the ground and gave him a headbutt. From this close position, the attacker's face was clearly visible to him. The Bandana covering the face of the young man had come loose during the fight. The face that Ezhilan identified shocked him to the core, and he crawled a few steps back in surprise.
Seeing the shocked face of the captain, the young man who was wearing the face of a dead man, started laughing. He sat up from the tackled position, rubbed a finger to his face, and licked it.
"You wasted good wine!" the young man lamented. "It did seem to wash away some of the dye though."
"You! You should be dead!! I watched you die!! I drove that sword into your heart!" Ezhilan screamed, his mind refusing to accept the situation in front of him.
'Maybe it's the dye on his face that is making it appear as the prince's face. Yes. that must be it. I was also thinking a lot about that night these days. I must be hallucinating' Ezhilan tried to delude himself, unable to comprehend what was happening in front of him.
As if to prove him wrong, it started raining the exact movement. It was cloudy since the start of the day, and nature chose a perfect moment to make it rain.
As more and more dye washed away from the face of the young man and from the surroundings, it quickly became apparent that Ezhilan's eyes were not deceiving him. The young man was indeed Rudra Deva, The prince of Dharanikota. A man who was killed by his own hands.
"How do I look? I know it has only been a few days since we parted, but don't I look 'shocking'?" the prince said as he spread his hands, presenting himself. If the face didn't convince Ezhilan, the bad attempt at a joke certainly would have.
But not all hope was lost to Ezhilan. Behind Rudra Deva, Ranga, who Ezhilan also thought was dead stood up. ' What is with the dead rising this day?' he thought to himself.
Still, there was a tiny chance that with the help of Ranga he can overwhelm the prince. The Prince did fight like a man possessed after his supposed death though. Ezhilan could have defeated the Prince before with little difficulty, that was the reason he fought Narappa, the prince's more skilled guard, while he sent Vereswaran to fight the prince.
But the hope of Ranga helping him was as quickly put down as a tiny ember when faced with a flood. A massive man, at least six foot eight to seven foot tall came from behind Ranga and lifted him while holding his neck with a single hand.
The Prince turned to see what was happening "You came to help me?" Rudra slowly said to the other man, performing some symbols with his hand that Ezhilan didn't understand.
The giant looked at his other unoccupied hand, looked back at the Prince, and used it to snap the neck of Ranga.
"CRACK!" The air was rent by a sickening crack, the sound of bone yielding to an unstoppable force. It was a sharp, snapping sound like a dry twig being broken in half with a forceful twist.
The few people who had remained in the courtyard only did so with morbid curiosity. There were two dead bodies in the courtyard of the pub, whose owner had fled when the fighting started.
"Aww! You shouldn't have! You had done that for me?" The prince spoke again to the giant man, doing those symbols with his hands again.
Ezhilan had lost all hope of surviving at this point. The prince was not even caring, distracted by talking to the new man. He decided to take a chance to bet it all and attack the prince one last time. Maybe he will be lucky and will kill him this time.
He stood up and ran across the courtyard in the rain, hoping to kill the prince by a last desperate attack. But the prince reacted before Ezhilan could reach him and threw a dagger at him.
The weapon struck true and embedded itself into the heart of Ezhilan, who was running at the prince. The attack caused him to falter and fall to his knees, the momentum sending the slowly dying body of Ezhilan, sliding on his knees on the wet floor to the foot of Rudra Deva.
Ezhilan died with a blade thrust into his heart, the same way Rudra died the second time. The last thing the dying captain saw was the cold, manic eyes of the prince of Dharanikota, Rudra Deva.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
GunpowderGundam
GunpowderGundam Arc 1 is finally complete. Now Rudra will travel back to his kingdom to get his crown back. Don't worry, It will not be stretched out as this arc. I can't wait to get to the juicy kingdom building.
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