Asrasya Chapter 4: Saviour

Ground started shaking suddenly. Everyone fell on the ground in the store and same was the case out of the store too. No one could maintain their balance on trembling ground.

"Earthquake!" one person in the store yelled.

All the glass jars started falling on the ground and grain sacks stacked on each other dropped on the ground spilling everything. Some people tried getting up by taking support from any object connected directly to the ground, but there was very little or no help at all.

"Run and take shelter under some objects to save yourself." another person in the store suggested.

Some tried to take shelter in the store by getting under the table. Some tried to get out of the store in open fields.

The ground started shaking violently this time. A person who was out of the store screamed at the top of his lungs pointing fingers at the something. Even his dog was unable to maintain his balance and fell on the ground. He picked up his dog in one hand and a grocery bag in another. He came out of the shop even with the unstable ground and saw in direction to look at what that man was pointing at.

Like a volcano, mountain started erupting, but instead of lava it was the rocks and stones. Stones and rocks were oozing from the mountain like blood from the fatal wound. The debris started flying from mountains and falling on the ground like rain. It was confirmed that this was not just like any ordinary earthquake. It was something else, and nothing like this was ever witnessed. Everyone was terrified as things were developing in no time. Everyone just stood frozen on their current ground.

To explain the geography of town, town was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the mountains from all sides. The only way to enter the town was through the valley pass. Two mountains stood as pillars of entrance to the town. Mountains were connected to each other making it like a crown, and town situated in the middle. His hut was on the opposite side mountains' foot, away from the town. The infected mountain was actually the one that acted as an entrance. Infected mountain started discharging rocks and stones, debris of the mountain fell on ground blocking the entrance of the town.

When he came out of the store, he noticed a huge chunk of rock was blown from the infected mountain, about to land on the ground. A less fortunate person was standing directly on the ground spot on which the rock was about to land. That man was unable to move anywhere; his legs were just frozen. As rock came near, that person's reflexes acted up. He crossed his hands, closed his eyes to stop the rock from hitting his face and screamed in panic. He felt something touch his waist and was swept away. When that man opened his eyes, he saw he was being held by the ominous creature and both were in the air. He was carrying the person in one hand and grocery bags and dog in another hand.

Both of them land away from the rock shower.

"Hold him and don't let anything happen to him or my bag." He said to the man handing him the puppy and his grocery bag.

Handing his puppy and bag, he leapt in air again. His leap was so high like a rocket reaching towards the never-ending space. He pulled his arm back making Thirty degree with the elbow. Closing his fingers, he made a fist, about to land it on a big rock speeding through air. A thin sheet of pure energy, little opaque and yellowish in colour, like a shield started forming around his fist. He hit the rock, even before his fist touched the rock, his energy shield touched it, causing cracks in the rock and eventually breaking it before it fell to the ground. He landed on the ground with broken pieces of the big rocks around him.

He leapt again towards another big rock falling from air. He pulled his arm back again, but instead of closing his fist, he opened his palm. He touched the rock in the air, more like catching it instead of just touching it. Pure energy shields started gathering around his palm again. With his might, he pushed the rock. Rock being deviated from its original path crashed into other rocks flowing through the sky, all about to rain down and throwing them out of their path to somewhere they wouldn't harm anyone. While landing on ground, he saw a big boulder rolling towards the town, he landed on it smashing it and instantly immobilizing it.

After landing on the ground, he started running towards people to move them to safety. Punching and kicking rocks and everything destroying them and stopping them from damaging anything further. He was too fast, yet too slow to move everyone out of the rock shower and also evacuate others from their home.

"Need to move fast."

Yet trying his best, with all his pace he kept moving each and everyone out of the path to safety. While running he saw a kid, standing terrified and crying, a little away from his path. There was a huge chunk of debris in the air about to fall on that kid. And another big boulder rolling towards the running people almost caught up with them. He was fast but only to save one section. Either kid or the people.

"Kid or People."

But fortunately he saw an empty bullock cart with no bullocks tied, in his path towards the people. He lifted his hand, opening his palm and forming an energy shield around it. He pulled his arm back again and pushed the cart's back towards the kid. Due to the extra force added, cart's wheels start moving too fast. Cart moved with speed, while its front end where bullocks are tied is being pushed by the cart touching the ground. The ground touching front part touches the kid and picks him up due to its extra speed. Speeding cart carries the kid away from the there, and the rock falls exactly on that same spot.

In the meantime, he reached people running. Instead of destroying boulders he moved people one by one out of harm's way, out of the rock shower's range, also saving the future's effort. Chaos was still not over, in fact it was far from over.

First mountain had totally lost its peak and was still collapsing, oozing rocks and stones all over the place. It was reduced to less than half. The depletion of the mountain was still continuing, while he was destroying the debris in air and boulders on ground. People were still struggling to run out of danger, as the ground was shaking all the time.

Suddenly, the ground stopped shaking and almost all of the debris and rubbles were cleared from the sky, stopping them from being dangerous to others. Everyone looked back to see what happened. The mountain had been depleted more than half but was stable now and also had stopped discharging rocks. Everyone finally left a sigh of relief.

"Seems like it finally stopped."

But as mentioned, it was far from over. A mild tremor was felt again on the ground. Everyone started sweating all over again. Second missile that hit the same mountain had started acting up, and the final reaction had been initiated. Ground started shaking violently again. Rocks and stones started moving from the already depleted mountain. The rubbles started erupting and falling on ground but the distance at debris were falling was less as the force was not too strong enough as the mountain was already greatly reduced. Ground was unstable again for people to move. Losing their balance again, people could not be steady on the ground. He was standing still, looking at people struggling and erupting mountains again and again. He started feeling weakness in his whole body. Like his super powers were draining everything from his body. It was a slow process, happening over the time he started using it and over exerting himself. He was still ignoring this weakness.

"How about stop the annihilation before it starts."

Thought rose like the sun, making the whole big picture clear as day. He looked at the mountain again, it was still shaking and the boulder were moving, but it had still not gained the required momentum to cause the damage. He looked back at people who were still struggling to run or even walk.

"Makes more sense."

Thin sheet of energy started forming again around his feet. He bent his legs a little on his knees. And leapt in air towards the infected mountain. The ground shook more as he exerted extra force to jump, breaking the sound barrier.

He landed on the mountain's foot on rolling rock crushing it, a big boulder was rolling down gaining the speed. He ran upside the mountain towards the pacing boulder, just when he was about to collide with the boulder. He jumped above the boulder, doing a somersault over the boulder. When his upper body was closer to the boulder while he was in mid air. He grabbed the boulder with both hands, while landing on his feet he threw the boulder towards another big rock rolling down. The boulder clashed with the other boulder, destroying both of them at once. He closed his fist, energy shield started forming again around his fist and his feet.

He started running upwards with high speed. Started punching and kicking each and every wreckage that mountain was throwing down while still running upwards. He didn't pay much attention to rubles falling down, it wasn't about to do much damage but boulder once gained the pace will still cause too much damage to everything.

"Why not just close the big opening?"

A huge piece of rock was floating through the air about to fall on the ground, he jumped upwards and grabbed it with only one hand. Aiming at the top of the mountain, which had a big kind of hole formed on atop and had become hollow from inside, he threw it towards the hole. The hole got covered by the rock blocking everything that mountain was throwing.

"Did it."

He was still hovering in the air way above the earth floor, using the force of energy formed around his feet using it as ground. Only issue remaining to be dealt with was the unstable ground. But since most fatal and immediate danger was nullified, there was no reason to take any more stress. But this happiness was short lived. Since everything bottled up inside the infected hollow mountain causing the ground to shake more violently. Rocks erupted but with much more force. Suddenly rocks blasted in air with force, he closed his hands in crossly manners to save his face. The rocks fell down in mid range, still away from the people.

But what came next was alarming, big rocks and boulders exploded out of the mountain with more pace. The boulders started rolling in speed, He jumped at one of the boulders rolling down, crushing the boulder. He started chasing already moving rocks and boulders downward, while rocks were still emerging from the mountain. Catching up and destroying the rocks in their path. His legs and arms were covered by the sheet of energy. Shield covering his arms till elbow and legs till knees, changed its colour being more opaque and dark orange in colour. While moving downwards, he was making dents in the mountain, to slow the speed of rolling rocks. This indeed helped by either stopping the rock or slowing down the speed of rock. The dark and opaque shield allowed him to move more swiftly and stealthily. More the energy became dark, the more the strength he consumed. Weakness was to the level that could not be ignored anymore. He was still pushing himself to the limits, destroying the rocks and stopping the damage.

Dents in mountain caused the pressure to be build up in the mountain as it was not giving space for rocks to move out smoothly or steadily. Suddenly a big boulder exploded from the core of the mountain due to high pressure. The rock was thrown too high with high velocity. The velocity was so high that it was sure that rock would land far away near the town. With still enough velocity remaining it would have rolled over everything in its path including the people struggling to run on unstable ground. He noticed the emergence of rock and shot high in the air. While rock was thrown in air high, he focused his energy on his legs and leapt to destroy the rock. He formed the same energy shield around his arms and more concentrated around his fist. Destroying this rock would have avoided all the damage and would have brought the town out of danger because there was nothing else left in the mountain that would have harmed or damaged anything. He had almost reached the rock, pulled his arm back making fist and about to punch the rock. His energy shield was formed with almost no transparency and about to make contact with the rock. But weakness finally took toll on his speed and his strength and he fell short. He fell down and rolled on the ground. Just after he fell on ground, even the rock fell on ground away from him and started rolling towards the town. Due to shaky ground, stone gained more speed. Big boulder rolling at full speed making terrifying noises and crushing the already broken walls was making its way towards people.

People who were already struggling to run for safety. When they heard the rolling noise, they turned to see what was approaching, they were stunned to see a behemoth rolling towards them while he was nowhere near the site to help them. They could not believe that the death was too close to them. So terrifying that they could not even run from it and not just because unstable ground also because they froze in horror. All they could do was have final prayer before they met with their final fate. They closed their eyes in acceptance of death. They could not see anything but the rolling noise was enough to scare all of them to half of death. The sound was getting high as it was getting nearer. Fate of everyone in Boulder's path was sealed. They could tell where the boulder had reached just by the monstrosity's sound.

When boulder was about to approach the people, the uproar stopped suddenly. It was more than a minute, the rolling rock's sound stopped and No screams were heard. Everyone opened their eyes to see him in front holding the boulder with both hands and his legs glued to the ground via the energy shield, which had now returned to its previous colour yellowish and little opaque but mostly transparent. Ground too stopped shaking now making it stable. Very few people were left on ground in danger while many of them had reached the safer place on high ground on the mountain on the other side. But that little number was still more than enough in count.

"Finally."

He was still holding the boulder while people stood still near him. Everyone was happy and cheerful about finally being saved. They started cheering about being alive as well as there was person among them who had immense and unbelievable power. They witnessed all the work he did to save them. He was worthy of that title 'Saviour'. After successfully saving everyone, he finally had a little smile on his face.

"Oh No!" One bystander yelled again.

Everyone saw the person, he was looking at the mountain. Mountain was now totally plain ground, depleted to nothing. Open field where once a mighty mountain stood.

"Access to the outer world would be much easier now."

But it wasn't the depleted mountain that shocked him. It was something small like a bird in the distance travelling slowly and steadily in the air. Everyone including him strained their eyes to look at it and figure out what it was. It was the third and final missile launched by Capt. Vivek. Everyone's eyes filled with horror again. Their faces became pale, instantly draining all the happiness. The missile had already crossed the recently reduced mountain and was moving towards the other mountain that stood across it. It was almost there, about to crash with the mountain. Everyone was again frozen in horror. Even he was scared now, he forgot he was still holding the rock. He was weak now, he could feel it in his body especially legs which were still using the energy force.

"Run."

He wanted to yell but could not, it was like he was using all his might still was not enough for words to come out. He was almost useless, could not think of anything, was just staring at the events happening in front of his eyes. Missile finally hit the mountain. Ground started shaking again uncontrollably without a split of seconds this time. This was because final reaction time required was spent mostly in air, all now required for the destruction was to just hit the ground. Not even the first small tremors were felt, direct ground shaking violently.

"Run" Someone finally yelled.

Everyone tried to run again, but was unable to due to loss of balance. Some of them tried to get up and run on their knees and hands. Some tried to crawl on ground in order to get away from the destruction zone. The Newly infected mountain again shook and started erupting like a volcano. Rocks and stones started oozing again from the mountains. Rubbles and debris blew up in the air and started falling around. But no one could actually run on unsteady ground.

Ground suddenly stopped shaking, it just became steady. Everyone could get up easily and walk again without losing the balance. Without thinking everyone started running to safety. One of them looked back out of curiosity, the mountain was still discharging the rocks and stones, blowing rubbles, and the mountain was still shaking.

"Then how did the ground stop shaking all of sudden?" One thought.

He looked little down, he saw that ominous creature was holding the ground. There were small pieces of rocks around him.

"But the rubbles and debris haven't reached here yet." Person thought.

Then the person realized he was holding the boulder when the ground became stable and started shaking violently again. The boulder had circumference of 2 people merged and he broke it in small pieces. And he was holding the ground with all his might with an energy shield that was almost transparent and was now semi opaque. His strength was so high that he held the uncontrollable shaky ground and stopped it from shaking further.

"How much power is required to punch or crush the boulder to reduce it to a small rock's size?" a person thought.

"What are you waiting for? Run to save your life." He yelled at the person.

This suddenly crashed the thoughts train and brought the person back to reality. He looked forward and started running to safety.

"So close."

The rubbles and debris finally surrounded him, rolling rocks and boulders caught up with him and were rolling past him. He looked up towards the sky, the sun was about to settle behind the mountain. Sky was yellowish and orangish like his force energy shield. He was still holding the ground steady, giving everyone a chance to save themselves.

Everyone finally reached the higher ground up on the nearest mountain. All they could see was the damage and destruction that took place over the course of the whole afternoon. The boulders and rocks have destroyed houses and everything in their path. Open field filled with nothing but debris of both mountains and houses. The rocks and boulders in the middle of town where the market stood. As the sun was setting, making it darker, light was still glowing in the middle of all the rocks and everything indicating he was still there. Suddenly the glowing light just vanished making it total darkness.

Few people gathered some resources like torches and went in to search their valuables in the debris, his dog were also with them. They even looked for him in all the mess, he was no where to be seen. Suddenly his dog started barking looking at woods and ran towards the wood disappearing in it.

Meanwhile Captain Vivek was watching all of this from far on safe site, finally was able to make contact with the control room.

"I just witnessed the most unbelievable and most incredible thing." There was wonder in Captain Vivek's words.

...To be continued