The battle was over... but the war was yet to be concluded. He was pacing rapidly towards the world tree, to bring it down, to tear apart any sentinel life form and to end this war once and for all. Just when he entered the Sentinel town, weird sounds hit his ears, as if someone whispered something. And when he saw that familiar piece of wood, whole scene reappeared in front of his eyes. Standing in front of him, were great sentinels Purist Thunderwrath, Rylai, Mangix and Furion. He had pleaded in front of them to accept him in their brotherhood, the Sentinels; he wanted to show that trolls are the greatest fighters in the world. But Mangix and Furion emphasized that he was too young and too aggressive, who cannot control his maddening rage once he gets into it. All that happened beneath the world tree. Jah'rakal was shattered then; with scarlet eyes he pledged that he would shred that proud lumber to make it look like a heap of hay. Somebody again whispered into his ears and Jah'rakal came in present, and to senses. He needed to finish it, but carefully. Although the last battle had claimed lives of seven out of ten mighty warriors, there were still two sentinel champions somewhere near. And he was alone for all his scourge companions laid dead in the Altar and yet to be resurrected. That battle was great, but he did not have time to think of that now.
Just when he stepped ahead, his hide started burning. Like someone had put a sun right next to him. But Jah’rakal knew that someone wielding the Radiance was looming around. And it took just to moment to realize that mighty Mangix was right behind him. Before he could move a muscle, the barkeep swung his bamboo furiously, his body moved on its own, troll warlord somehow escaped and quickly moved to face the gargantuan figure.
As he stood, Mangix was glowing with the brilliance of that enchanted sword, and had a pinkish heart. Troll recognized the Heart of Tarrasque which provided great strength. With a wine barrel in the right and the great punishing bamboo stick in left hand, panda was breathing alcohol vapors. His vanguard shone bright and he was wearing the ‘Assault Cuirass’. “Why did you not take me”, he yelled “see what I have become”. Panda scanned him; Jah’rakal had completely changed since he last saw him. Although he was fully drunk, he could capture every detail. The gleeful face of a young troll had changed into a ruthless, blood-thirsty monster’s. His scarred body was covered with a variety of artifacts. Attached to his waistband was the blade ‘butterfly’ which was said to induce agility of a butterfly into the one who wields it. On the other side was ‘Buriza-do-kyanon’, known for increasing the damage manifold every now and then. Troll’s hands were strapped to two axes which were looking as menacing as troll himself. All in all Jah’rakal was the devil personified in green.
Almost simultaneously, both champions attacked each other and missed. Troll was surprised to see the drunkard evading his axes. Panda smiled wryly and stomped the earth, which shook and sent severe shivers in troll’s body. Now that he was furious, Jah’rakal went into a battle trance, almost half conscious. With wristbands glowing red, and a sudden rage engulfing him, he attacked the panda. Axe after axe, he was peeling the panda skin. Mangix was ready and crashed a wine bottle on troll’s head, and started his own impeccable bamboo-martial-art. Being hit more, troll stared hard at him, making panda half blind. Now there were two warriors, a huge fat panda, drunken and half blind; and an enraged troll warlord, still under the effect of a bottle crashed over his head. They were missing on their attacks more than they could hit. The cuirass on Mangix had diminished Jah’rakal’s armor and his attacking speed, but with every hit, troll was regaining it.
After coming back to senses both realized that each was gaining health with every blow landed onto other. Amidst all this fighting, troll sensed someone looming very near to him, but he could not see him. But ignoring that, he was busy in the fistfight which was turning fiercer with every passing moment. Every now and then, panda and troll were landing critical blows to each other. Suddenly, one troll axe hit panda so hard that he got stunned, immobile as a statue. Although low on health, troll sniffed his victory, went into battle trance, and was hitting panda with maddening speed now. Just when he was about to go down in battle, panda came to life and signaled someone somewhere. Suddenly a grayish smoke surrounded him, and he could not see anything but a faint blue shadowlike figure. Troll knew he was in mortal peril. Unable to move freely through the smoke, he made a final attempt to run. But three strokes, two panda hits and one sword scythed through his back from the blue figure ended his retort. All he could hear was a loud, dry and hollow laughter before falling to the ground.
“I was following him all along”, said Rikimaru, now emerging through the smoke which was still clearing. “but why didn’t you split into the primal forms”. “No, I couldn’t. I recently used the ultimate power to take out nevermore and terrorblade” Panda was still there panting badly. He said “he almost got me. I was lucky that you were there. These wounds will heal but will take some time” he said in meek tone. “And I won’t give that to you” a familiar voice emerged off smoke which was now cleared completely. And when both of them looked there, two axes came whirling towards Mangix. One broke his vanguard, but the other, fiercer one struck his neck. And in a moment that giant fell on earth, his body smeared in blood and liquor in equal proportions.
Rikimaru was dumbstruck, for he did not know that troll had the aegis of immortal. And in that moment of carelessness, troll had resurrected and struck fatal blow to the panda. Although he was invisible, rikimaru was thoroughly intimidated by the look on troll’s face. On the other side, Jah’rakal was furious now, searching for that blue shadow-esque figure. But, he realized that he had more important task of destroying the world tree, so he marched forward.
Moving towards troll with quiet feet, he was thinking about his chances of winning a one on one battle, and the chances were meager. His only weapon was the invisibility. With all his courage, riki now decided to punish troll with all his might and agility. And before troll could understand what hit him, riki had struck him twice in the back. Howling with pain and agony, troll looked back to see who he was but in vain. Troll understood that an invisible being was following him. He just stood there, took out a pouch with some sand like dust and sprinkled it on the ground. Unaware of what had happened, rikimaru again jumped onto the troll. But to his horror, troll swayed out of the way; leaving rikimaru aghast. Troll laid eyes on the blue satyr. Rikimaru was tiny; tinier than himself. He was holding something in his right hand, which looked more like a scythe than a sword. The left hand was bare, but troll could identify the symbol of magical twin-blade “sange and yasha” on its palm. He was wearing a locket in his neck, an offering from Vladimir. Attached to waist belt were butterfly; and monkey king’s bar which was said to be descended directly from the skies and would never let any attack miss.
“So it was you whom they took in my place”, he said. The satyr did not utter a word for he was aware of troll’s alacrity. Troll continued “now I will show them who the greatest warrior is”. As soon as he finished, Jah’rakal hurled an axe towards riki. He was ready for that and easily moved away. Quite magically, axe reappeared in troll’s hand and this time he threw two axes at once. With great amount of agility, rikimaru evaded one, but the other one brushed his arm. Blood ran down his body and rikimaru moaned a little. When he stood up, troll was right behind, axes strapped onto his hands and ready for a melee fight. But rikimaru had other plans. Adept at striking at the prey’s back, he disappeared and reappeared at troll’s back landing an absolutely lethal blow. Troll was surprised by this clever attack. In a moment he turned and started hitting him frantically. Rikimaru quite smartly produced the gray smoke screen to instill panic in troll’s mind. Jah’rakal was annoyed for sure and a bit frustrated, since his majority of attacks were missing rikimaru. He had not given up but now things were getting worse. The effect of dust had started to wear out and rikimaru was not more than a blur. Moreover, he was very low on life, just a few blows away from death. Smoke had faded and rikimaru thought this was the time to finish it off. Just then, troll hit him on the chest with fearsome fury and rikimaru got stunned. Without giving anymore time or chance, troll unleashed the beast within and absolutely ripped riki apart. With blood gushing out like a river, rikimaru knew the end was near. So he gave up and took a final sigh. His helpless body hit the ground. It disappeared immediately and troll limped aside. The Scourge had punished the guardians, the Sentinels.
Jah’rakal was sitting on a rock, panting heavily. Amidst all the blood dripping off his wounds, few drops of tears too strolled down his cheek. He had shown his mantle, but he had to kill his favorite warrior in the process. As time passed by, he regained his strength; and leaving all behind he had to move along. He had some unfinished business to attend to………
