Notes - Chapter 32

#gow/idea #gow/notes #gow/volume1

Kratos declares that he has nothing left to teach Murugan.
Murugan is incredulous:
- Kratos declares that it has been nearly three weeks since they have gotten together and discussed their learning.
- "You are able to carry forward on your own," Kratos states. "At this point, all that is left for you to do is to apply in practise."
First Murugan is a little embarassed and guilty for his absence. Although it was only partly because of him getting used to his new duties as a husband, he was also able to formulate and handle his daily training regiment on his own. Yet, Murugan is still unable to believe it. After a moment of deep thought, he requests Kratos for a second round. To replicate the first fight they had.
- Kratos recollects the way the fight turned out and declines, "I nearly killed you."****
- Murugan agrees and states, "That would be a perfect gauge of progress, then. I should strive to not be reduced to that state again."
- Kratos added, "I cannot die. How do you decide when the bout is complete?"
- "Since you cannot die, Guruji. If I can kill you, it would be my victory," Murugan declared. "Though I doubt that it would be possible."
After some back and forth, Kratos relented. Murugan hurriedly called for a Gana to fetch his brother and prepared for the fight. Kratos in turn put aside the head and called the axe.
- "Most disciples wouldn't so freely talk about killing their Gurus," the head commented. "You and the boy sure have an interesting relationship."
- "Today, that relationship will be complete," Kratos stated.
- "Do you think the boy can win?" The head asked.
- "He will," Kratos responded. "There really is nothing left for me to teach him. He is just averse to change, and refuses to realise this fact."
- "You know," the head said in thought. "If you go easy on him, he won't accept the victory. And you know just how stubborn he is. He won't leave you alone. And given that he doesn't want you to leave, don't you think he will go easy on you?"
- "That will not happen," Kratos said.
Murugan was stretching his muscles. He turned to stretch his back, and by the time he straightened his waist, he was shocked to see his Guru right in front of him. He barely had enough time to react before his Guru's palms wrapped around his neck and started to collapse like a vice grip.;
Murugan's eyeballs started to pop out of his socket as the life was literally being squeezed out of him. But his expression did not revert to helplessness, confusion, or betrayal. In fact, he had already anticipated this.
- Summoning up the last bit of air within his constricted pipes, he spat out a mouthful of saliva straight onto his Guru's face. The momentary flinch from Kratos was enough for the boy to swing his leg and strike the man square in his genitals.
- Kratos was momentarily blinded by the attack, but he could feel the kick coming and managed to hope back in time to evade the catastrophic strike.
- But this was also enough of an opening for the boy to extricate himself.
Murugan descended into a hacking, coughing fit. But his attention did not deviate from his Guru, who brought up a piece of cloth and cleaned his face.
- Kratos stated factually. "Do not think of slackening your attacks, boy, because that will be the last mistake you will ever make. I will squeeze the life out of you with my bare hands. I do not mean that figuratively, or even metaphorically. I will watch as your neck collapses within my grip and your eyes redden with broken blood vessels as they pop out of your skull. I neither fear your father, nor your mother. In fact if they can grant me the sweet release of death, they would be doing me a favour. I care not of any punishment or torture they can inflict upon me. I have faced thing far worse that anything you can every fathom. And this time, not even your brother can stop me from finishing you."
Murugan shivered for a fraction of a second. His Guru's words were straightforward and plainly spoken. It wasn't even a threat, but a statement of eventuality. It was as though the man was expressing his agenda for the day. And Murugan did not doubt his Guru's resolve even for a second. He was certain that had he not managed to extricate himself earlier, he would have died.
With a nod in affirmation, Murugan pressed the attack.
Murugan's fighting style had evolved. As he dodged a spear jab, Kratos recollected the boy he'd fought when he first stepped on the peak of Kailasha.
- Before, the boy's attacks were rigid and straightforward. It wasn't weak in any way, but it was predictable.
- But now, the boy preferred the highly flexible form of his spear.
The jab that was about to strike Kratos' chest swerved and struck towards his right bicep, which immediately transitioned into a rotating low-sweep.
Kratos dropped his foot in time to catch the weapon mid-sweep, but leapt back immediately before Murugan detonated the weapon causing a cloud of dust and dirt to rise.
"Devious!" The head guffawed with excitement.
Before the dust cleared, Murugan burst through and covered the distance with his spear in a reverse grip.
Kratos grabbed the spear shaft as it jabbed for his throat, stopping it merely a few centimetres away from his skin. But he realised too late that it was a feint, Murugan released his grip on the weapon and spun low. His leg swept Kratos' knee as a targeted joint-breaking strike. He simultaneously, drove a hardened palm-heel strike towards Kratos' liver.
It was a barrage of techniques meant to catch the opponent in a bind. To block the leg, Kratos would expose his torso. If he tossed the spear he would have to sacrifice his balance. If he blocked the palm strike, the spear was sure to explode on his face.
- It was a no-win scenario. In which case, the solution was to take the path of least resistance.
- Kratos tossed the spear and bodied Murugan's attacks. He shifted his abdomen slightly such that the liver shot grazed past his ribs.
- He couldn't protect his knee, though. And the ensuing imbalance caused Kratos to collapse into his knee.
But he did not let the fall go to waste. Utilising the momentum granted by gravity, he grabbed Murugan's leg by his thighs and rotated his body.
The boy was immediately flipped like a ragdoll into a painful leglock that place the entire load on the off axis of his right ankle.
Kratos increased the pressure, and the boy bellowed in pain as his joint creaked in agony.
- In the fleeting moment of clarity between arms of shooting pain, Murugan puckered his lips and let out a shrill whistle.
- In a flash, a colourful and vibrant shadow descended on Kratos.
- Sharp talons scratched Kratos in a frenzy, forcing him to release the boy from the leglock.
- The peacock screeched, scratched and pecked at Kratos.
Caught off-guard, Kratos curled his body to protect his vitals. The large bird's talons dug into his flesh and his blood tainted his ashen skin. It hurt, but not enough to incapacitate him. Kratos waited patiently for a beat in the bird's attack pattern - an opening he could take advantage of. And at the exact moment the bird transitioned from a slash to a peck, Kratos headbutted the creature.
The bird's head approached with the momentum of its attack, but was immediately opposed by Kratos' attack causing it to get discombobulated.
It shook its head and swiftly spread its wing and took off. As it was still recovering from the disorientation, its flight-path dipped and deviated oddly.
Kratos called the axe and threw it at the flying bird. The axe hurtled precariously and with uncanny accuracy. As it was about to embed itself squarely into the bird's skull, a spear collided against it an pushed it off course.
Murugan let out a shaky breath as he wiped the sweat pooling on his forehead. He was thankful for his impeccable aim otherwise he was certain his mount would have breathed his last today.
- It was clear now that his Guru wasn't lying. His wasn't going to let anyone stop him from killing Murugan. Not even his beloved mount. And although his Guru's detached ruthlessness should have angered him, he just couldn't bring himself to feel that way.
- His Guru had been truthful from the start, after all.
As he lowered his gaze to track his Guru, he was shocked to see the very man running towards him like a pale juggernaut. He had barely enough to time to react before his Guru snatched him up with a bear hug, locking both his arms in against his abdomen.
Murugan tried to free himself his sense of the world was rocked as he was rammed straight through a tree, turning it into a mist of splinters.
Once the state of discombobulation dissipated, Murugan tried once again but was similarly disoriented as his Guru ran him through another tree. This repeated itself three more times before the lack of air and the repeated head trauma cause Murugan to nearly faint.
His Guru was unrelenting. He continued to increase the pressure of his squeeze.
As his gaze faded, Murugan looked down and met his Guru's gaze. The man was expressionless and stared back at him. There was a sense of chilling detachment in those eyes that unnerved Murugan. And for a moment, Murugan was overwhelmed with the feel of impending demise. But his inherent stubbornness and unyielding mentality halted these negative thoughts. For a moment, Murugan thought back to the first time he fought his Guru. Back then, if he were placed in this exact situation, he wouldn't have known what to do. He would have certainly perished with his heart filled with unwillingness and despair. But he was different now. Because now, honour and propriety didn't matter to him as much as his own survival.
Murugan opened his mouth wide and bit down right into his Guru' jugular.
A loud bellow escaped Kratos. The human teeth aren't really meant for tearing into flesh. The incisors and molars the dominate the human dental landscape are designed for a plant-based diet, and are adapted for cutting and grinding as opposed to tearing. And although there are four canines, they are barely sharp and long enough to cut through flesh. So it went without saying that as the Murugan's jaws pressed down, Kratos was overwhelmed with the pain caused by the inefficient cutting and grinding of his flesh.
Interestingly enough he was already expecting this attack. After all, he had cornered Murugan and left him with very few options of retaliation. Kratos' purpose with this exercise was to gauge the extent to which Murugan would bend his inherent sense of righteousness in pursuit of victory. If Murugan hadn't resorted to using the magical explosive ability of his weapon, if he hadn't resorted to using his mount as an interference to create space for himself, if he hadn't dropped all modicum of fair-play and bit down on his Guru's throat, Kratos would have been thoroughly disappointed. All his lessons would have been for nothing.
Yet even though he expected it, the pain was still real. Kratos released Murugan from the vice-like hug. However, contrary to his expectation, Murugan did not release him in turn.
The boy wrapped his arms and legs around Kratos and pull his head back. A squelching tear resounded as a large chunk of flesh was liberated form Kratos' neck, causing a fountain of crimson blood to gush out.
Before Kratos could even react, Murugan brought his red-painted face and bit down into the exposed muscle and blood-vessels.
As Kratos tried to pull the boy away with his strength, but this just caused the boy to struggle and thrash his head around like a wolf trying to tear away manageable chunks of meat off of a carcass.
With a mighty toss, Kratos heaved the boy away. He brought his left arm and pressed the mauled area to staunch the bleeding.
The boy landed on all fours like a cat. He was thoroughly drenched in red. Two plain-white orbs looked through his crimson form and locked on to Kratos. The boy's pupils were shrunken into tiny dots and his chest heaved rapidly.
This was Kratos' first time seeing the boy like this, as he generally carried himself with propriety and grace. An although Murugan's current appearance was unfamiliar, Kratos was familiar with the aura the boy was inhabiting. In fact, he was thoroughly intimated with it. Kratos could feel the rage billowing out of the boy's crouched form. It was intoxicating, and equally shocking.
"Boy-" Kratos said in a calm yet apprehensive tone. But Murugan did not allow him to even start. The boy let out a primal scream and rushed Kratos. He maintained his crouched form as he scurried towards Kratos, but transitioned from all fours to just his feet as his spear materialised in his grasp once again.
As he was an arm's length away from Kratos, he leapt up and stabbed at Kratos from an off angle. As Kratos deflected the attack, the boy had already abandoned the spear and proceeded with another off-angle attack.
Kratos tried to block this new attack, but the spear that was dropping from the previous block exploded simultaneously. Kratos succeeded in deflecting the strike, but a dagger weaved through and caught him in his mangled jugular.
Murugan had adjusted his attack strategy. The boy was taking full advantage of his weapon's multiplicity and explosive capacity to pepper Kratos with distractions, while simultaneously attacking with the detached sharpened tip of his spear as a makeshift dagger.
With each attack, the boy grew more aggressive and faster... and more rageful. It got to a point that Kratos could physically see a baleful mist of rage steaming off of the boy's skin. And maybe it was because of the blood caked all over him, but the mist was drenched crimson.
Seeing as the boy wasn't calming down at all, Kratos deemed it necessary to end the fight before the boy lost himself in the overwhelming emotion.
Kratos reached deep. Not physically, but emotionally. He delved into the orifices of his heart that he hadn't touched in very long time since he'd come to Kailasha. The rage. It was there. Just where he'd left it.
Surprisingly, it hadn't grown. But no matter, it was enough for his purpose.
Kratos expelled his rage outwards and a booming shout emanated out of his diaphram and burst outwards with a minor shockwave. A baleful aura of rage, ten times more potent than the one emanating out of the boy, spread outwards.
The pressure caused the boy to flinch, and for a moment a spark of sanity flashed across his pupil. But it was immediately doused with rage. The boy did not think twice and attacked.
Kratos effortlessly swatted away the attack and jammed his forehead forward, catching the boy square in his chest. As Murugan reeled from the attack, Kratos grabbed him by his neck and pulled him into a chokehold.
Murugan tried to thrash his way out again, but Kratos collapsed backwards and locked the boy's lower limbs with his own.
Then, slowly, he started to restrict the air reaching the boy's lungs by constricting the hold.
But to his shock, the boy did not let out. In fact, he struggled even harder. A sharp pain blossomed from Kratos' forearm as the boy bit down onto his muscle.
Kratos bore through the pain and continued the submission, but it only caused the boy's rage to heighten. The boy freed one hand and started to stab Kratos' lower abdomen with his spear and immediately induced it to detonate. The attack devastated Kratos and mulched half of his stomach and internal organs. But Kratos did not let go.
It was at this moment that Kratos realised a shocking fact. The boy's rage wasn't subsiding, but his was. For the first time, Kratos found himself short of an emotion that had defined his entire divinity.
The accumulating damage had taken its toll on Kratos, and he found himself losing consciousness rapidly. Right as he lost all strength in his arms, Kratos saw an ethereal mandala forming above him.