Gavaksha and Adhinath continued their battle until, eventually, Gavaksha found the opening he had been waiting for. Adhinath lunged forward with another thrust, but Gavaksha shifted his body, caught the shaft of the spear with one hand, and swung his mace with the other. The weapon struck Adhinath squarely in the chest. The impact lifted him from the ground and sent him crashing several feet away. He landed heavily and did not move. His spear slipped from his hand as consciousness left him.
The soldiers surrounding the training ground stared at their fallen commander. Then they looked at one another. They had been ordered to fight Gavaksha, yet they had also just watched him defeat the man who stood above nearly all of them in skill. None seemed certain what they were supposed to do now.
Their hesitation lasted only a few moments before Karna's voice cut across the training ground.
"What are you doing? Attack."
The soldiers startled as though they had suddenly remembered where they were. They tightened their grips around their weapons and rushed forward from every direction.
Gavaksha's expression changed.
He roared.
The sound rolled across the training grounds, and his entire body seemed to respond to it. His muscles tightened and expanded, his shoulders becoming broader, his arms thickening until the mace in his hand looked almost small.
His frame grew rapidly, rising far above the warriors surrounding him. Within moments, the Vanara who had stood at roughly eight feet had transformed into a twelve-foot giant, his appearance becoming considerably more aggressive, resembling the formidable battle-form of the ancient Vanaras.
The soldiers barely had time to react.
Gavaksha lifted his foot and brought it down with tremendous force.
The ground shook.
The impact travelled through the earth in a violent wave, throwing warriors off their feet. Those who had been charging stumbled, fell, or were thrown sideways. Weapons slipped from their hands as the formation collapsed almost instantly.
When the dust settled, Gavaksha stood alone among the defeated warriors.
He slowly turned his head toward Karna.
"Maharaj?"
Karna began walking toward him.
As he approached, he raised one hand. The Sankalpa Shakti responded immediately, and a mace materialized in his grasp. It was an ordinary mace by the standards of the divine weapons Karna possessed, though still far superior to anything an ordinary warrior could carry.
Karna looked directly at Gavaksha.
"Come at me, Gavaksha."
Gavaksha's eyes sharpened.
He charged.
Each of his footsteps landed with enough force to make the earth tremble beneath him, and his enormous body accelerated with surprising speed. When he reached Karna, he leapt high into the air and raised his mace above his head, bringing it downward with all the force he could gather.
Karna tightened his grip.
He waited.
Only at the final moment did he move.
He stepped forward, slipping underneath Gavaksha's descending attack at precisely the right instant. The mace passed behind him and struck the ground where he had been standing. Before Gavaksha could recover from the missed strike, Karna turned his body and swung his own mace horizontally.
It struck Gavaksha in the abdomen.
"Gaah!"
Blood burst from Gavaksha's mouth as the force of the blow sent his enormous body flying backward. He crashed into the ground several metres away, rolled across the dirt and finally came to a stop. The mace fell from his hand somewhere along the way.
The soldiers stared.
Even Gavaksha himself remained still for several seconds.
Slowly, he pushed himself up.
As he rose, his enormous form began shrinking. His muscles relaxed, his height reduced and his body returned to its normal Vanara form. He stood with one hand against his abdomen and groaned from the pain.
Karna walked toward him.
With the ordinary mace still in his hand, which trembled slightly, he said calmly, "You will not be able to fight against me with this."
Gavaksha looked at him.
Karna then raised his other hand.
Something flashed through the air.
The divine mace that had been resting inside his chariot suddenly flew toward him with tremendous speed and landed directly in his waiting hand. Karna barely seemed to notice its weight. He turned toward Gavaksha and casually threw it.
"Here. Catch it."
Gavaksha caught the mace almost by reflex.
His eyes widened.
He had seen the weapon while travelling with Karna on the way back to Champa. It had been resting inside the divine chariot, and even then he had sensed that it was something extraordinary. But seeing a divine weapon and holding one were two entirely different experiences.
The moment his fingers closed around its handle, he felt the difference.
The weapon carried a weight that had nothing to do with its physical mass. A subtle divine force seemed to run through it, responding to the warrior who held it. Gavaksha stared at it in disbelief.
Even during the age when he had served Sugriva, when he had fought beside some of the greatest warriors of his time, he had never been given the opportunity to hold a mace like this.
A broad smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Maharaj..." He looked at Karna with unmistakable happiness. "I thank you."
Karna raised an eyebrow. "Do not celebrate yet. You have to earn my acknowledgment and my trust before this weapon becomes yours."
Gavaksha immediately shook his head. "I never intended to possess such a divine mace, Maharaj. I am only happy that you allowed me to hold it."
Karna studied him for a moment. "Then do not disappoint me, Gavaksha."
Something changed in Gavaksha's expression.
He tightened his fingers around the divine mace.
"Jai Shri Ram!"
His war cry echoed through the training ground once again, but this time there was something different behind it. The pain of his earlier defeat had not disappeared, but the divine weapon in his hands had awakened something within him, a renewed eagerness to test the limits of his strength.
He charged.
Karna did not move.
He simply waited for Gavaksha to come within striking distance.
The Vanara swung the divine mace with tremendous force.
Karna stepped sideways.
The weapon missed him by inches and crashed into the earth.
The instant it struck, Karna felt the vibration travel through the ground beneath his foot. His eyes narrowed. He immediately jumped backward.
A large section of the training ground had cracked around the point of impact.
Gavaksha pulled the mace free and turned.
He swung horizontally.
Karna ducked beneath it.
Gavaksha immediately adjusted his stance and attempted another strike, but Karna moved again, avoiding the weapon with a fraction of space between them. As Gavaksha's momentum carried him forward, Karna stepped inside his reach and drove the ordinary mace into his abdomen.
The impact pushed Gavaksha backward.
Karna lowered his weapon. "Based on what I have seen so far, you are too slow."
Gavaksha steadied himself.
"Strength is useless if it cannot land. Your strength works against ordinary warriors, but against capable ones, you will have difficulty."
Gavaksha wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Maharaj, I have not given my all."
Karna nodded.
"Very well. Go ahead, then."
Gavaksha charged once more.
This time, he became far more aggressive.
The battle continued across the training ground, the two warriors moving between the scattered soldiers and the cracks left in the earth. Gavaksha attacked repeatedly, changing the direction of his swings, attempting to use his greater reach and overwhelming strength to force Karna into a mistake.
But Karna continued to evade him.
Sometimes he stepped aside, sometimes ducked beneath the mace, sometimes retreated just beyond its reach, and whenever Gavaksha exposed an opening, Karna struck.
Minutes passed.
Gavaksha's breathing gradually became heavier.
Bruises appeared across his arms, shoulders, and torso. Dust covered his body, and sweat ran down his face. His grip on the divine mace remained firm, but his movements were beginning to lose the sharpness they had possessed at the beginning.
Karna, meanwhile, looked almost untouched.
Gavaksha attacked again.
Karna avoided the strike.
Another attack.
Again, Karna moved away.
Gavaksha growled and swung harder, but the mace passed through empty air.
Karna immediately jumped.
He rose above Gavaksha, turned in midair, and brought his mace down against the Vanara's back.
The impact drove Gavaksha violently into the ground.
The earth beneath him cracked.
Gavaksha groaned as his body struck the earth, and for several moments he remained there, struggling to push himself up. Around him, the soldiers watched in complete silence.