There was a dried tree in front of him. The tree was losing vitality at a rapid rate and there was no sign of any fruit on the tree. What does this mean? It means that someone came here earlier, plucked all the berries and escaped quietly right under his nose.

“Roar!”

The Rakshasa had a gloomy expression on his face. He was angry, he feels aggravated, there was a chilly expression on his face. He spent a hundred years patiently waiting for the berries to ripe. Now, when his patient bore fruit and he was ready to harvest it, someone stole it away just like that. Rage consumed his mind and he began to laugh hysterically. He stormed out of the cave while stomping his feet heavily on the ground. The ground was trembling and cracking from his heavy footsteps His skin began turned dark red and smoke began to rise from his body as his anger rose to its peak.

His only way to recover faster was stolen and the only ones capable of doing such a thing were those puny humans from that village. Today he will slaughter all these pesky insects and bathe in their blood to calm down his fury. He brandished a huge battle-axe from his den. 

The axe was as tall as pillars, there was a long cylindrical metal rod with a huge blade at its end to slice the enemies. The other end had a huge hammer to bash his foes. The end of the metal rod was pointed like a spear to stab the guts of his foe. The entire axe was shining with a red hue of dried blood. This axe was his prized possession cast from the netherworld metal and crafted personally by the blacksmith of the Underworld. The previous Rakshasa Raj rewarded it to him for his meritorious deeds in the war against humans.

Countless humans had been slain under its blade and it had tasted their blood to gain more power. As he clutched the handle tightly, a baleful aura was released from his body. He roared furiously and charged towards the village. As he was charging furiously, unrest grew among the nearby birds and animals. The deathly silence of the Forest of Death was broken as all of the nearby animals began to flee away.

Meanwhile, the village was bustling with people running errands here and there unaware of the approaching danger. The village guards were dozing off, as peace was prevalent in the atmosphere. Suddenly, the ground began to tremble as flocks of bird chirped unceasingly and flew away. Sound of heavy footsteps could be heard as a gigantic Rakshasa brandishing a huge battle-axe appeared in their vision.

The guards broke from their daze and were startled to see the movements of birds and animals. Soon, realization dawned on them as one of them ran towards the lodgings of the Village head. The other guard took a deep breath and with a stiff expression faced the huge Rakshasa as he tightly clutched on his spear. The guard ran towards the Rakshasa in an attempt to stop it from intruding in the village and to try to negotiate with it to stop its rampage.

The Rakshasa blinded by its fury paid no heed to the approaching guard and swung the huge battle-axe directly chopping the guard in half. Before his death, the guard had an unwilling expression on his face, as he wasn’t even provided with a chance to utter a single word. The Rakshasa furiously barged inside the village directly destroying the entrance and crushing houses and gulping down whoever came his way.

The Rakshasa opened his mouth and launched one of his inherent spells. A huge vortex of fire began to spin in his mouth as he spat a large column of fire like a flamethrower. Many huts nearby caught fire as various people were burned alive. The Rakshasa raised his battle-axe high in the air as it began to shine with dark red energy, after charging up his attack for a while, he slammed it down on the ground creating fissures on the ground as a huge earthquake hit the village. Some people were swallowed by the ground and others were crushed by the falling debris. The eyes of the Rakshasa turned blood-red as he roared. The eardrums of villagers burst as blood began to leak from their orifices.

Many people fainted from this roar and some village guards slumped weakly on the ground, as they lost the courage to face this Rakshasa. Soon, the battalion of guards arrived armed with bows, swords, sabres and spears. The archers aimed their arrows at the huge Rakshasa and fired the arrows. The arrows hit the body of the Rakshasa and clanking sound of metal hitting metal echoed in their ears. They aimed their arrows again, this time towards the huge eyes of the Rakshasa. As a huge volley of arrows was fired towards its eyes, the Rakshasa swung his large hands and flicked away the entire volley of arrows like swatting a fly. The soldiers with swords, sabres and spears charged toward the feet of the Rakshasa and began to stab them relentlessly into its skin. The Rakshasa felt pain in his feet like the pricking of needles as many tiny holes appeared on the surface of his skin and small amounts of blood began to leak from them.

The Rakshasa roared and rose his foot up to stomp these pesky insects to death. Sensing the danger, the soldiers hurriedly fled away from the Rakshasa. Whereas the archers continued firing volley after volley of arrows towards the eyes of the Rakshasa. The Rakshasa was annoyed as its anger began to rise again. It opened its mouths wider and began to charge another vortex of fire. After enough charging, he spat the vortex of fire and a huge column of fire appeared again and burned many soldiers alive.

The news of the rampage of the Rakshasa reached the ears of the village head. The Village head became furious. They provided everything the Rakshasa required for the offerings and yet it still broke his promise and attacked the village. 

‘Wait a minute!’ Did everything regarding the Rakshasa spare the life of the fat merchant’s son was a huge lie? Looking at that scheming merchant and his deeds in the village it might be true. This damn merchant has embroiled the entire village in a mess. Previously, I had been ignoring his deeds due to the benefits he provided to my family; but this time it is different.’

The village chief was aware of the all dirty schemes and methods of the fat merchant. But since the merchant would provide enough benefits to his family and it was under his bottom-line. The exploitation and misery of some Sudras wasn’t a huge concern for the propagation of hierarchy in the village. He would only interrupt in the matter when the interest of Kshatriyas and Brahmanas was involved.

Taking a huge breath, he walked towards the wall. There was a large spear hung on the wall. He tightly clutched the spear and waved it a few times. He was the only Ashvarohi of his village, it was because of this reason that he was able to become the Village head. But his power alone wasn’t enough to slay the Rakshasa. He may be able to wound the Rakshasa but landing a decisive blow was impossible for him. He required the help of four other Ashvarohis to combat and kill the Rakshasa easily without and sacrifices. If the odds were against his favour, he was fully capable of retreating safely from the onslaught of Rakshasa without getting hurt.

But such things were against the Kshatriyas’ code of conduct. When you are facing an enemy you can combat it would be considered an act of cowardice if you turned your back and ran like a coward when your comrades and soldiers are sacrificing themselves. He calmed his nerves down and strode out of his house to face that Rakshasa. He sat on his horse with one hand holding reins and the other hand tightly clutching his spear.

He arrived on the spot to see chaos and destruction everywhere and the Rakshasa rampaging around the village. He grabbed a spare spear from the sack satchel on the horse and threw it with his full strength towards the Rakshasa.

The Rakshasa sensed danger and around only to see a spear approaching in a very fast speed towards his heart. The Rakshasa side-stepped and barely avoided the fatal blow on his heart as the spear lodged onto the right side of his chest. A large fountain of blood began to leak from the Rakshasa’s chest as the Rakshasa growled painfully. 

The nearby foot soldiers cheered upon seeing their Village head valiantly arriving on the scene and seriously injuring the Rakshasa.

The anger of Rakshasa roused up a notch as this puny human was able to hurt him and make him bleed. He stared at the human before him with a serious expression.

The Village chief also stared at the Rakshasa with a serious expression as the confrontation between the two began.