Asrasya Chapter 7: MUHAI

He was hanging in mid air with his fingers forming the punch. He was trying his best to move his body but it was like someone was restricting his movements. All he could do was look in horror and shock. He could not believe that someone else has abilities too. Wicked grin flashed on the agent's face. Who was hoping for this moment for a long time. Agent was holding him with just his left hand.

Agent pulled his arm back with this motion; he was also pulled towards the agent by an invisible force. While he was being pulled by the agent, the agent closed his right hand’s fist. When he came close enough, the agent punched him in the face. The punch was so powerful that it penetrated the aura shield around his body and hit him. He coughed blood immediately, he rolled his eyes back and was smashed hard into the ground. The Aura shield caused the crack in the ground. It looked like he wouldn't be able to recover from the punch very soon.

“Game over, so soon?” Agent thought to himself. “Had my hopes high, you disappointed me.”

He tried getting up from the ground using his arms for support.

“I was wondering where that unleashed wild beast is?” Agent pointed at him. “There it is trying helplessly to get up.”

He looked up still trying to get up using hands to support and was on his knees. His eyes locked with Agent’s eyes. Out of nowhere he just jumped towards the agent. He pumped the force on his leg and moved forward leaping towards the agent. The leap was so powerful that it cracked the ground again and his speed was so high that he vanished and appeared in front of the agent's face. He grabbed the agent by his neck and lifted him up while he was still in the air with his left hand. While they both were in the air, he started hammering the agent's face with constant punches. When he was about to hit the ground, he threw the agent on the ground and landed beside him. He kept hammering on the agent's face in the ground. He picked the agent up and threw him towards the mountain’s feet, causing him to crash in the mountain. He was standing there for a while looking for some movements, but there were none for some time. His aura shield faded away and started walking back towards his injured dog who was now passed out due to pain.

“That was a great series of punches. But still nowhere near what I imagined about your powers. You still disappoint me.” Agent taunted while trying to come out of a crack from the mountain where he was shoved.

These words alerted him. His aura formed again all over him within no time.

“Can I give you advice, never ever let your guard down. Especially when I’m around you. I forgive you for committing that mistake. I had many opportunities, where I could have taken you down for good.”

The taunt made him more angry, he charged towards the agent like a bull towards a red flag.

“Also another piece of advice, think before making your move. Don’t just run blindly, it allows the opponent to use you against yourself.”

While running in mid way, he leapt towards the agent. In mid air, he pulled both of his arms back which were now covered in his aura shield and were already dark.

“What is your plan over here, you are going to punch me with both of your hands. It’s like you are not even listening to me, you are open to attack.”

Before he can close his both hands on the agent. Agent grabbed him by his neck and pinned him to the ground as he was already in motion. To add more injury, the agent kneed him in his face while he was on the ground. Agent again punched him twice or thrice more while he was on the ground. Agent picked him up with his neck and tossed him hard on the other side. He tried to get up.

“Do yourself a favor, don’t get up. You might save yourself.”

He still tried to get up.

“Oh, come on.” Agent rubbed his forehead in pettiness.

He was trembling and struggling to stand properly. His aura was fading and regenerating again. It was fluctuating in a manner. His wounds were bleeding all over, though his injuries were healing slowly. Agent started running towards him, in the middle of the way the agent just disappeared and appeared all of sudden in front of him, about to punch him. In defense, he crossed his hands trying to stop the agent's punch from touching his face. But it didn’t stop the powerful punch heading towards him. His punch hit both of his hands and managed to open the cross hands and the punch still carried the power that it hit him hard in the face. Power of the punch still gave enough damage that he coughed blood again. He collapsed on the ground. His aura was fading without regenerating now.

“I don’t know, why can’t I keep my calm posture with you around.” Agent grabbed him by his leg and dragged him, while he continued. ”Your face is making me angrier.”

“But good for me, I don’t have to watch your disfigured face for long”. Agent looked up at the sky, though it was night, dark clouds could easily be seen. “You think it is going to rain tonight?” He was dragging him towards all the vehicles that were destroyed earlier.

Aura shield started generating around his arm again, he was gaining a little consciousness. Aura was emitting a little bit of light, Agent noticed it out of the corner of his eye.

“Don’t do that, don’t do that again. You’ll end up hurting yourself again.” But the aura was regenerating around him slowly yet steadily even though the aura was very light. Agent was trying his best to ignore it. But it’s regeneration was annoying the Agent. He still hasn't gained even half of his consciousness, it was just his body’s reflection acting up.

“Told you to knock it off.” Agent yelled in anger and threw him towards the destroyed vehicles that were piled together. He crashed hard into the cars and fell down on the ground unconscious and bleeding. Car which was already on his side, after he smashed into the car, it turned upside down.

“Not going to lie, it was a little helpful in calming me down. Especially you crashing into the car noise, that was like a melody to my ears.” Agent said while walking towards the car crash site. He had gained back his straight and calm composure. He looked up and dark clouds were still hovering above them. Reaching him, the agent looked back at the mountain on which Capt. Stonehead and his colleagues were watching from.

“You know, we got an audience tonight. Bummer you couldn't put up a show for them.”

Agent finally reached him, he was gasping for breath. Agent held one of his legs again with one hand and threw him on the turned car’s side damaging his back and denting the car upto level of about wrecking it into 2 parts, he coughed blood again. Agent tapped his foot on the ground and all of a sudden a chair formed out of stones and sand on the ground to sit on. He was lying on his back unconscious and bleeding heavily. His body was still trying to heal itself but it was not able to keep up with the damage it was receiving already. Agent sat on the chair formed on the ground and put his legs on the car on which he was lying.

“Do you know why I get angry every time I see you? Do you know who I am?” Agent complaint. 

“How would you know who I am? you never met me.”

“But you are the reason, I am the way I am.”

“Remember, you were standing on the edge of the wall after destroying the whole mammoth unit and infrastructure of the facility. It was me who fired an actual bullet instead of the tranquilizer. A bullet that hit you and paved a path to your freedom.”

“Everyone thought you were dead, and everyone pointed at me and blamed me for it. All I did was my job, stopping a subject from getting out of the walls alive. I was put in your place. They searched for your body for months, but couldn’t find it, not even a small part of your body. No report from any shore about a body afloat. That is how they knew, you were still alive somewhere on this earth, they looked around every corner but still found nothing.”

“I had family outside of those walls, you know. I had a beautiful wife, and I had good friends too. We were going to plan a baby together, have a little happy kingdom of our own. I was assigned to this facility for just 2 years. Last 6 months were remaining for this assignment to be over, but you had to cause a ruckus there. You had to jam all the radio signals, you had to appear in front of me. They told my family, I was killed in an incident. That thing right there broke my only chance of a good life, my happy kingdom ruined before we could lay the founding stone.”

“You were subjected to experiments from your childhood. They made me catch up to your level at a late stage. They experimented on me all day and night. I was tortured day in and day out without any rest.”

As the agent was expressing his thoughts, sudden anger was overcoming on his face. He was getting red in rage about the missed future and past haunted torture. He tapped his foot again on the ground, dismantling the assembled chair. He grabbed his legs again and threw him with all the force towards the mountain. He crashed into a mountain cracking it. Agent again started walking towards him.

“There were times when I thought of giving up and letting my breath die. But then I remember why I am in this mess? It's because of you. I had to live just to see you go through all the torture they made me go through or even worse than that.“

He suddenly vanished while walking towards him and crashed into him with greater speed causing more damage. Agent backed off a little, and he collapsed on the ground. Agent again ran and kneed him in his face. Agent again started hammering him in his face. He was now totally unconscious, his body was bleeding overall, the aura shield halted its regeneration. It looked like he was almost dead, just breathing through all the beatings he received.

“But before I could make you go through your personal hell, we needed to find you. An opportunity presented itself, you had to be the show man, you had to demonstrate your powers, you had to expose yourself to the world. Now it’s not just me chasing you, there are a number of people in the field now to get to you. Hell, even I made a deal with the devil, and you just destroyed the whole deal within minutes.”

Agent snatched both of his legs, spunned him a little and threw him with great force. While he was in mid air, the agent ran towards him and jumped. The agent appeared just above him and hit him with his elbow on the head. The momentum that was gained by the agent spinning him was stopped altogether by the sudden strike and he fell down on ground. Agent was also in speed and momentum that he couldn’t control and moved away from where he fell. As soon as agent landed on the ground, he ran backwards and jumped again in his direction and when he was about to land on him, agent formed a fist and punched him further into the ground. Agent was bombarding him with the punches.

“The feeling of you being helpless, lying motionless does make me feel better. Wrath in me is cooling little by little.” Agent looked at him, he was still motionless breathing slowly, still covered in blood, eyes were open, his aura was generating no more. “Hey you didn’t die yet, did you? Don’t die on me yet, I still have to tell you many things. Come on, night is still young, and you still have to dance with me.”

“Ah! This is frustrating holding all this information, let me have some fun, let me give you some of it. Have you ever thought about the barcode tattoo on your arm? Every subject is brought into the facility just after their birth if they show some kind of trait, not every newborn shows the trait. After examining the child for nearly 3 years by conducting a series of research and experiments. A child has to go through an intense regiment of exercises to find out their actual powers and levels. Once their actual levels and powers are deduced they are assigned the name and that name is tattooed on the subject’s arm in the form of barcode. The tattoo is not a simple tattoo that can be removed. Want to know what does your barcode tattoo translate to? What is your name? What does it mean?”

The gathered dark clouds in the night sky had started to make a thunderous noise. Whole area was surrounded by the mountains, so it was echoing too much.

“Your barcode tattoo translates to ‘ASRASYA’ which means ‘One that burns everything that comes in it’s path’. Which is true in its sense, I just lingered in your path by mistake and you burned down all of my future. But you know what, I’ll try to be the bigger man and try to forgive you.”

Agent grabbed Asrasya by his neck and raised him up looking at his bleeding face.

“Nah, I don't think I can ever forgive you even after I’ve disfigured your face and damaged you beyond repair.” Agent threw Asrasya in the air, while Asrasya was falling down Agent punched him way too hard, that Asrasya landed far away from the Agent.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you even I have the barcode tattooed on my arm.”

Agent stretched his arm, folding his sleeves back to reveal the tattoo.

“It translates to ‘MUHAI’, which literally means ‘Undefeated’ in japanese. And you think you stood a chance against me.”

Muhai was walking slowly towards Asrasya knowing he was now totally defeated.

“You know, I talked to upper officials this morning. They asked for or rather they requested to bring you alive. But hey you know the accidents do happen. You were being wild, all this destruction is the witness and in a moment everyone lost control.”

Muhai while walking towards Asrasya he extended his hand towards the ground and ground started shaking. He walked ahead but his hand still fixated on the same position and a huge chunk of ground in the form of rock flew and stuck to his hand.

“And the accident is about to happen.”

Muhai started running towards Asrasya with a huge rock. He again sprang towards Asrasya and smashed the rock on his face so hard that the rock broke. Captain’s all colleagues were shocked with what just happened? But the Captain was still calm.

“What is wrong with him?” Lt. FourEyes exclaimed.

“Don’t panic, calm down a little. It may help you.” Captain replied.

“Why shouldn’t we panic, he just kicked our deal out of the window.”

“Because, he just confirmed there are more where he came from.”

“But still, that guy was impressive.”

“And that guy currently in front of us is more than impressive. I think this ‘Muhai’ can be used against him too.” 

“Will he work for us?”

Captain looked at her and just smirked at her.

Muhai was walking away from Asrasya, he took out his cell phone and called his superiors.

“What is the status?” Superiors inquired.

“Bad news for you guys, I think” Muhai replied

“We talked about it, you were to bring him alive.”

“Things escalated within no time and everything went out of hand. So I had to take care of it.”

“Bring his body back.”

“I have a deal with someone too and I have to handover the body to them.”

“Them?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll sort it out once I come back.”

Muhai disconnected his cellphone and looked at the mountain where Captain and his colleagues were observing from. He looked up in the night sky, dark clouds gathered lumintating, making loud noises. Muhai was still walking away towards the Captain.

“And where do you think you are going?” a strange voice penetrated Muhai’s ear. The strange voice alerted everyone present there including the Captain and his colleagues.

“I thought we had a score to even?”

Muhai turned back in disbelief to find out the source of that voice. Muhai’s eyes and jaws were wide open equally. Asrasya was standing unharmed, not a single wound on his face or on his body.

“How come you are standing there like nothing happened? I just beat the hell out of you a few minutes ago. You were on the verge of death, you were gasping for breath.”

“My body heals itself if I give it a proper rest.”

“Your body stopped generating some kind of shield to protect you.”

“And that thing eats most of my energy. To conserve all the energy needed my body stopped generating shield and focused more on the healing part.”

“So you’ll give the audience the show they deserved.”

“It’s going to be pretty one sided.”

“I think you weren’t paying attention a few minutes ago when I was showing you the living hell.”

“That was me tired, exhausted and sleep deprived, this is me well rested and ready to kick your butt.”

Muhai just showed a wicked smile and started running towards Asrasya, meanwhile Asrasya too started running towards him.

“Oh this is going to be fun.” Captain exclaimed.

Muhai and Asrasya leapt towards each other with fist closed elbow stretch back to punch. Both met in mid air and both of them punched each other in the face. Asrasya fell on his back while Muhai landed properly on his feet. Muhai turned back as soon as he could and ran towards Asrasya meanwhile he was still getting up. Muhai in his top speed seemed to have vanished and appeared in front of him about to punch him. In the middle of getting up, Asrasya countered the punch with a punch of his own. The impact of the punch was so huge that it shattered everything near them from trees to already crashed vehicles even Asrasya was thrown out of balance and he fell back.

Muhai tried punching him again and Asrasya countered him again. It was more powerful and faster than before and that too without the shielding aura. Puzzled by how he was keeping it all up after all the thrashing.

“Wow you still look baffled even after I explained everything just now. You must be slow.”

Those words were angering Muhai the most and now he was charging like a blind bull. He was now throwing punches in the air without looking and Asrasya was dodging them. Few of them hit on the spot but even they didn’t make any impact. Meanwhile Asrasya gained his balance and threw a full fledged punch at Muhai, he was not in any condition to block or dodge the punch. Punch hit Muhai way too hard that he flipped away back. Asrasya also leapt towards him to hit him more, seeing him coming his way, Muhai touched the ground and a huge wall formed out of the ground. But that wall was shattered from the other side and Asrasya emerged from it with his fist covered in his aura shield. As soon as Asrasya came near him, Muhai threw another punch at him, but he blocked the punch with one hand and elbowed Muhai with the other hand with a shield around his elbow. Muhai tried to get up, but Asrasya kicked him with all his might with an aura formed around his foot throwing him further back.

Asrasya rushed towards Muhai and jumped to punch him again, but he stopped him in mid air again with his hand gesture and pushed him back in mid air. Asrasya was not even back enough that Muhai pulled him with great force towards him with his hand gesture in mid air. When Asrasya was near him, he punched Asrasya so hard that he flew away.

Muhai extended his hand at the mountain and a huge chunk came right at him and got stuck to his extended hand while running towards him. As soon as he held the rock he threw the punch with the same hand with the rock still stuck. Asrasya to counter it, threw another punch with an aura formed around his fist. Both punches collided and the rock shattered, but Muhai threw another punc with another hand and stuck him in the face and he fell on ground. Muhai extended both his arms in opposite directions and pulled all rocks and sands from ground and made them stick to Asrasya all around, making a live coffin burying him alive in the ground. Asrasya emerged from all the rock and everything with a shield around his whole body, he was half out and half still on the ground. Muhai tried to kick him, but he caught it and punched him in the guts, Muhai fell back.

It gave him a little time, and he burst out of the ground making it shattered rock and stone rain. Both ran towards each other again and threw punches once both were in range, but this time they punched each other in face. Asrasya protected his face by blocking the punch with a shield and covered his fist with an aura that hit Muhai hard that he glided way back. Muhai motioned his both hands towards walking Asrasya, and all the rocks and stones started flying towards him. Asrasya was protected by his shield and all the rocks and everything were shattered just touching his shield.

“It’s all worthless, no matter how hard you try, you cannot defeat me."

"Why the hell did you come out? Why did you reveal yourself now?"

"It was you, who found me and bombed the town just to smoke me out. I was a very happy small worker before all of this nonsense show."

Muhai was confused and this was also being displayed as an expression on his face.

“What are you talking about?” Muhai tried to inquire.

“You wanted me, you could have got me. You didn’t have to destroy the lives of villagers and especially my Dog. Just be grateful, I’m not pounding the hell out of you. He is still alive, if anything happens to him?”

“You are going to do what?”

This small question enraged Asrasya more, he literally ran and snatched him by his neck and flew high in the dark sky, which was now throwing thunder on the ground randomly. He started hammering his face unstoppable.

“You do not threaten my dog, not now and never.”

He was still hammering Muhai’s face. When they were at high enough altitude, he threw Muhai on the mountain top with full force. And then jumped on him with aura shielding his legs, wounding him more and cracking more cracks on the mountain ground. Asrasya got up, lifted him up.

“Now go and don’t come after me again.” saying this he tossed him hard away. Muhai fell near the edge of the mountain. Muhai got up, dusted his dress, looked down the edge, a river was flowing with full force.

“You think they'll stop coming after you, once they know you are still alive?”

Asrasya started walking away from him.

“They will always come after you. And now that I know your biggest weakness, I’ll exploit it no matter what.”

Asrasya was still ignoring him and kept on walking.

“I’m an animal lover but there is no way…”

Asrasya turned back and gave him an angry look.

“Don’t you dare.” Asrasya warned him.

“Or else what? I’ll kill it if that drives you to insanity.”

This statement provoked Asrasya beyond the point. He generated his shield aura that too with the darkest color. His aura was so dark that Asrasya was not visible inside it.

“I’m driving you insane already? Wait till I tell you what I can do to that poor, helpless, little creature.”

Asrasya started running towards him.

“And that too just because he was associated with you. A great price to pay just because you love him.”

Asrasya literally caught the thunder striking near him while he was covered in dark aura and threw the lightning directing it towards Muhai. Unable to move at time, lightning struck Muhai.

“Told you not to say anything about my dog.” Asrasya cried while throwing lightning at him.

 A great intensity light was generated with big noise, even the captain covered his eyes. When the light faded, Muhai was not present in his place nor was his body seen anywhere near. Asrasya ran towards where Muhai was standing earlier, he looked down the edge of the mountain and there was a ripple in the river's flow.

Asrasya’s shield vanished while he was still looking down the mountain to spot him. But there was no hint of him there anywhere. Asrasya too vanished from the field.

Captain spoke on radio, “Anyone present on the ground near the creature’s house?”

“Yes Sir, I’m observing his house. There is no movement here.”

“Is his dog still there?”

“Yes Sir, he is unconsciously lying on the ground. Should I pick him up and take to the hospital or something?”

“Keep an eye on him. That creature has vanished, he’ll come for the dog.”

“Yes, my eyes are still on him.”

A sudden gust of wind whooshed in on the location and the dog lying on ground was not there anymore.

“Sir, the dog is not on the ground anymore. It was just here a second before.” Soldier started panicking. “Should we go look for him?”

“No need, you won’t be able to catch him. Come back to the camp.” he disconnected the radio.

Next Day:

Lt. FourEyes and Stonehead were sitting again in the waiting room. The receptionist came near them.

“Captain, they are ready for you.”

Captain nodded at her in confirmation and looked at Lt.

“I’ll handle it, don’t worry.” he assured her.

Captain followed the receptionist to the office. Receptionist knocked on the door, “Sir, Captain is here.”

“Please send him in.”

Captain entered the room, where the same General was sitting on his chair with his higher up colleagues. But this time the people sitting in the dark were missing.

“Yes Captain, so what do you have for us?”

“What I have is a very incredible power source and many others if we investigate properly.”

“I have read the report, are you right that everything was authentic and genuine that was mentioned in it? Nothing was fake or forged?”

“No Sir, why would I fake something so strange and weird. And why would I forget something when it comes to taking him down. We are going to need every big gun we can gather to bring him down.”

“Hey, I forgot to congratulate you on the success of your missile testing. Heard there were some glitches, hope you’ll do your best to fix it.”

“Yes Sir, work has already started. We won’t disappoint you.”

Suddenly, Lt. ForEyes came running in, out of breath.

“Lt, you are overstepping the boundaries.” Captain ordered.

“I’m sorry Sir, but Asrasya has been spotted in a train. Do we order it to stop?”

“Do it, do it now.”

“Stop the train and be careful he is way too dangerous.” Lt. ordered on her cell phone.

Two soldiers entered the freight compartment, but he was not there.

“M’am he is not here. We are searching the train thoroughly.” Soldier reported to her in cell phone.

“We lost him, sorry.” She said to the officer.

“Wait, he must have flown in hurry, he left his bag in here.”

“Bring it in.” She ordered and disconnected the call.

“He left the bag there, soldiers are bringing it in. Thank you.” She said to the officials and left the office.

    “Wake up, wake up.” some familiar voice alerted his ears.

    He opened his eyes to see something very familiar, he was in the lab.

    “You didn’t think, we’d let you die now, did you?” Superior official said with laughter.

    “I lost the fight, I’m no longer undefeated.”

“You lost the battle, but the war is far from over and you will come up as undefeated ‘Muhai’.”

“Why didn’t you just let me die in peace?”

    “Because we still need to perfect you and this time no excuses you will bring Asrasya alive or there will be serious consequences.”