Asrasya Chapter 6: CORNERED

He held the vibrating ground while the rocks and boulders were rolling past him and many of them were yet to reach him. He was exhausted and drained out of all his power. The aura or shield that covered his arm had started to fade off. The dark color was becoming lighter and lighter as every second pass. Every villager was someplace safe. His eyes were fixated on the setting sun and the orangish-yellowish colour of the sky near the sun. His eyes were starting to close on its own. He was using every ounce of his power to keep his eyes from closing off. But after realising everyone is safe and the ground is not vibrating anymore he let go of the ground. The shield that surrounded his hand also disappeared. He finally collapsed, due to exhaustion.

Suddenly his ears picked something up, it was the villager that had come to search for their valuables. They had his dog with them not tied or on leash, he was with them, searching for his master trying to pick up his scent. It was dark already, couldn't tell if it was midnight or not. He could tell, they were still miles away from his current location. He pulled all his remaining power together, tried to stand up. He stood up but his legs were still trembling. He started moving away from there. He tried to use his swift feet to vanish instantly. Swift feet didn’t teleport him, but he moved at a very fast speed that creates the illusion that he is teleporting from one place to another. Though he could not move at the speed at which he was moving earlier but still in that situation he was moving at very pretty speed.

He knew if he stayed there, many people would come looking for him. Villagers and others. So he had to get out of there before anyone could locate him. Since the town was in a remote location with no connection with the outside world, surrounded by the mountains and forest. He fled into the forest. When the villager reached the location, he was nowhere to be found. They tried to look for him, even tried to move the debris but didn’t find the body. The dog started barking looking towards the forest. In a split second, his dog ran in the forest following his scent's trail. Villager tried following the dog and his barking, but suddenly the dog’s barking stopped.

He knew it was going to be chaotic next day onwards. And he was right, from the next day the town was the center of attention for the media, national security guard and secret agencies. Government didn’t know what to say, so they tried to spin it as an earthquake. Everyone present there on location was looking for the Legend or the Myth villagers were talking about. Even though it may just be a rumour, everyone wanted the juicy gossip. He was observing the area from miles away looking for an opportunity to go to his house for all his belongings. But his house was heavily surveilled at that moment, it was like a mouse trap. All he had to do was walk in for the cheese and get caught. He was using time to rest and gain all his power back. He finally saw an opportunity when there was a guard shift rotation. There was a 1 minute window, where the already fielded guards moved and new guards took over. It was getting dark outside, visibility was getting lower and lower. He used this to his advantage, and moved fast in house with his dog to gather all his belongings.

While he was gathering all his things, his dog was with him, the dog was continuously barking making too much noise. This caught the attention of the guards who was coming for their shift to survey the house. One guard gestured to others that he would fire a tranquilizer shot at him. Others nodded in agreement. Guard stealthily loaded his gun with the tranquilizer dart and shot the dart at him. Not being fully attentive to the surrounding, he didn’t pick up the noise and dart hit him. The tranquilizer dose was too concentrated, making him unconscious at the spot, while his dog was barking looking at him. Meanwhile the guard alerted the superior of the incident. His dog was still barking. Meanwhile their superior was in a tent having discussion with Capt. Stonehead and his colleague.

“Okay, let him have some good night sleep in his house. Till then you set up a perimeter around his house. Alert other guards as well. I’m coming with more backup. We are going to need it. Well done soldier.” Superior disconnected the line.

He turned to Capt. Stonehead, “We found him.”

Capt. Stonehead nodded at the agent, and started moving out of the tent trying to connect with his superior asking for backup and powerful units. Because he was still unaware of the capabilities of the subject.

Soldiers started assembling near the house, taking the offensive position, aiming the gun at the house's door, ready to fire on command. The Soldiers were the first line of defense, they were backed up by the superior and his special officers. They were all sitting in the black cars that were behind the soldiers. Soldiers consist of the army and Capt. Stonehead’s backup. Meanwhile Stonehead and his deputy were observing everything from far as he was advised to not get caught in crossfire.

He was still lying unconscious in his house while his dog was trying to wake him up. The tranquilizer’s effect was getting worn off. He started moving a little bit, though he got some rest he wanted. He was regaining his power back, but not to its full extent as he hasn’t eaten anything since last day. He was slowly regaining his consciousness. He opened his eyes slowly to look, his dog was licking his face.

“Stop it, you are tickling me.” He tried to say it but wasn't able to say it properly.

 He suddenly realized why he was in the house and lying on the floor unconscious. He tried getting up, taking support of his arm but failed and fell on his face. He tried multiple times, before getting up. Even after that he was unable to stand properly. He could hear all the chattering going outside the house. The bright light was coming from other side of the closed door. He tried walking towards the door limping a little. He Opened the door to see the source of light, it was big halogens pointing at the door and below them were soldiers aiming weapons at him. His dog followed him barking at the soldiers. Sensing he cannot move fast with his dog still on ground, he lifted his hand trying to surrender. He walked little ahead dragging his sleeping foot, few soldiers came ahead to arrest him. The dog was still behind barking and growling at the soldier. Not knowing his abilities and powers, they handcuffed him made of normal iron. While handcuffing, they made him kneel by pushing him down. Seeing the brutality towards his master, the dog from behind lept on one of the soldiers biting him on his wrist. Soldier due to sudden rush fell down, and another soldier panicked and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the dog in his leg, and the dog started groaning in pain.

He saw his dog getting hit by a bullet, dog falling down on ground, spattering blood all over the ground. His mind processed everything slowly from the soldier pulling the trigger to the bullet getting out of the gun to the bullet hitting the dog, and the dog falling on ground groaning in pain. He could not fathom what just happened in front of his eyes. He was just stunned, with a shocked face. He wanted to yell at the top of his lungs, but he was not able to mutter a single word. Expression of rage started forming on his face. An aura and shield started forming around his whole body. He was surrounded . But unlike before his shield was darker from the start, and was getting more darker by time. His shirt caught fire and even the flame looked mild in front of his aura, even his pants caught fire. The angrier he got, the darker his aura became. The iron handcuff melted and evaporated instantly by the intensity of his shield. This made every soldier present there panicked.

They were already told to bring the guy either alive or dead. It was his power, secret agencies were interested in. So they were instructed to shoot the guy if needed to. They were not holding back. 

Commander present there ordered, “Shoot.”

Every soldier opened the fire, the bullets rushed towards him at greater speed. Bullet shells started raining on the ground. But his aura was impenetrable, none of the bullets could touch him. The bullet that entered his aura, just evaporated instantly.

“And the beast is now loose.” Secret agent head said, sitting in the car.

They emptied the bullets from the gun on him. Before they could reload it. He vanished from his position. They could not believe how a man could vanish in front of them. They were still reloading their gun, in case they needed it.

The Secret Agent head, knew reloading the gun won't help them. He was still sitting in the car, and that too in the last row of the cars. Layers were like, 3-4 rows of armed soldiers. Rows of black jeeps modified to bear arms to fire at the enemy. And in the end, in the last row was his car. A black sedan with tinted windows.

He was still sitting in his car in the back seat, hearing the sound of soldiers crying in pain. Animal likw roar every now and then. Jeeps firing the weapons at the target. Jeeps were being pounded and threw around like the toys. Weapons were destroyed. No one got time even to react to what happened. Agent was now getting anxious hearing all these terrifying noises. Agent saw all the lines of defense including the jeeps were thrown in the air. And suddenly out of nowhere he appeared in front of him, standing in front of his car, topless with muscles flexing and half of his pant already burn. His aura was still darker blackish red in colour. Even with his dark aura, the agent could see his eyes, flaming red. He still had an expression of rage on his face.

“And the beast finally reveals himself to me.”

He picked up his hand, closed all his fingers forming the fist. His fist was already surrounded by the dark aura. He leaned a little closer and punched the front of the car. The speed was too high to know what was happening. Even the agent was not processing the whole image properly. The punch was so powerful that, car’s front struck the ground and the back instantly rose up. To save himself, Agent broke the back window and came out of the car. Car hit the ground again and the agent fell beside the car. He was still holding his fist, and punched the agent hard. Agent flew in the air for a split second parallel to the ground and hit the ground rolling back. He finally stopped rolling backwards, the agent was lying on his back on the ground trying to get up. Meanwhile he started running forward and leapt high in the air. He was still holding his punch, he pulled his arm back and was about to land the punch on the agent. Agent got up on his knees fast and made some gesture with his hand like someone shows a palm trying to stop the car rushing towards that persone. And interestingly he was hanging in the air still holding the punch. He tried to move, but it was like something was holding him. Agent stopped him in mid air by one of his powers, telekinesis. Shock and surprise were the only 2 emotions on his face.

“This sure got wildly interesting.” Captain Stonehead said to himself while he was observing everything from the far.