CHAPTER 13 PRIDE VS RESPONSIBILITY

Damon slowly released a golden aura from his body. That Aura covered all the undead present in Group-one. Damon was trying to control the undead with his suppressive ability over all beasts. Then he was the king of the beast, it was natural for all the beasts to feel suppressed in his presence.

The white black flames of all undead except Jatayu started to turn golden. The control of Damon over undead was almost done, but Damon felt a forceful presence behind group -one. He failed. The presence he felt was of Yama. Yama noticed that someone tried to control his undead, but due to his superior authority over the dead than of the Damon over beast. Resulting in Damon's failure.

"Who is the person behind you?" Damon asked.

Jatayu replied, "we are the undead brought back to life by master Yama. We exist for the sole purpose to serve our mighty lo…! Wait! Why am I telling you all this? You don't deserve to know his majesty's name." Jatayu didn't tell Om's name to Damon because he remembered not to cause any trouble to natives of the forest, to Om, and stay away from trouble.

To show his might, Jatayu started to increase his size and said in menacing voice, "I am ordered to not cause any trouble to natives of the forest. And If I did cause any trouble, it will trouble the one I serve. So please stay out of our way. You want to avoid angering me and the ones behind me."

Damon felt humiliated, in humiliation he thought, "Regardless of who they are, who do they serve? I Damon the king of beasts and ruler of 'Aranyani forest', without my permission how dare they do as they please, like this forest is their territory?"

Enraged of this humiliation, Damon now just wanted to destroy the undead in front of him. He now wasn't concerned with the aftermath. The water was then above his head. His pride as king doesn't allow him to bow to anyone. In the battle of pride and responsibilities, pride won.

The colour of his aura and his body started to turn into a dark shade of black and gold. The colour of his eyes turned from green to red. Jatayu was witnessing all the changes happening to Damon. Damon raised his head and his menacing gaze directly faced the eyes of Jatayu. Damon vanished from the site of Jatayu and reappeared back to his place. Jatayu's eyes expanded as he felt a strong impact on his abdomen.

Jatayu thought, "He is fast". Due to impact, he was blown back a little. The reason, Jatayu increased his size previously, to show his superiority over Damon. But Damon took Advantage of Jatayu's massive size and slow reflexes.

To match the speed of Damon, Jatayu also decreased his size. Now, Damon was waiting for Jatayu to get ready. Jatayu shrunk to the same size as Damon. Damon was waiting without attacking because he wanted a fair battle between two kings. He wanted Jatayu to know who was superior without any excuses. Looking into each other's eyes, both understood each other's intentions.

Damon in his black, golden form. Released a massive amount of aura as challenge. The attack he previously did was to show Jatayu that he was worthy to do anything he wanted to do without anyone's permission inside his forest. The one who needed to ask for permission was Jatayu, not him.

"Are you done?" he asked Jatayu.

In response, Jatayu also release his Aura. The undead birds that were present with Jatayu returned towards the graveyard. Both looked in each other's eyes. Wind stopped flowing. Everything around them became still and silent. The surrounding Aura of their bodies vanished.

Both disappeared.

Beasts that were living in the forest below them began to feel, vibrations from the air. Not just from a single direction, but from everywhere around them. Trees were blown away, land was cracking, wind stormed, and even in the clear sky, without clouds thunders roared. Natives of the forest were unable to understand the situation because a few moments ago they were resting at their home, and now they are running for their lives without knowing where to run.

Every time Jatayu and Damon collide, their collision created sparks and winds stormed. Anything they touch instantly destroyed.

Jatayu felt pressured due to his all out attacks were ineffective on Damon. He roared at Damon yet nothing happened. Sarcastically, Damon laughed, "You call this roar. Let me show you what real roar is like."

Damon took a deep breath, and roared. The impact from the roar blew Jatayu miles away. He crashed in the forest. Some bones of Jatayu's wings, face, and legs were destroyed. He was unable to stand. Quickly, Damon appeared in front of Jatayu. He was in his humanoid form.

Damon pitied Jatayu's appearance, "Poor king, I already warned you. Yet, you ignored my warning and kept on with your shallow attitude. You came back to life as an undead. You had a chance to live again, but you wasted it. Now perish."

Damon again took a long, deep breath. His chest expanded. As he was about to kill Jatayu, Damon felt pain in his chest, he was unable to breathe. Blood came out of his mouth. All the air he inhaled was coming out from the chest with spray of blood. Damon was confused, "what is going on, who attacked me. He is lying in front of me, there is no one besides us. I didn't feel any presence until now."

He faltered two steps back. He noticed that his chest was pierced by a long bone. Not only that, but he put his hands on the bone to remove it. But was unable to do it. He was continuously loosing strength. Finally, He fell.

As soon as Damon fall, Jatayu started to float. All the Bone that were removed before now attaching themselves. All broken bones self-healing themselves.

Jatayu stood back, only missing one bone from his left wing. The bone that was pierced in Damon's chest started to vibrate. The bone lifted itself and Damon in the air, brutally removed itself and attached itself back to Jatayu's wing. Damon again fell on the ground.

Tables have turned. Now, Jatayu pitied on Damon, "beast king, you are more powerful than me. I knew from the beginning that no matter how much I try, I will never be able to defeat you. I sent back my people so that they didn't become your prey. If your choice was your responsibility over your pride, you would not have lost. Always think about the outcome before, or else you suffer together with your people. Your rage destroyed many homes today."

Damon became unconscious. Jatayu raised his wings. The colour of his flames turned green. Those flames engulfed the unconscious Damon. Instead of burning Damon, those flames healed Damon's chest. After healing Damon, Jatayu left that place. He returned to the graveyard.

The Group that was led by Om was covering a grass land near a pond. The pond was an exact-mirrored copy of the pond that was present in the graveyard.

Om activated his skill 'divine eyes'. All the vegetation that was present there appeared in list form. The Herbs that were poisonous were highlighted in purple colour while the edibles herbs were in yellow. Respectively, many more herbs name were categorized in different colours.

Om commanded his subjects to collect herbs as soon as possible and leave that place. Everyone began to collect rewards. He monitored everything from a distance. Still, he was curious about the pond. He asked himself, "why the pond looks exactly similar to the pond that was present in the graveyard." he began to walk towards it. As he got closer to it. A flickering light started to glow inside the pond. The moment he reached the pond, a big pillar of light descented from the deep of the pond.

"Anyone of you who is familiar of this pond, please come forward." Om asked all the undead. A deer came forward.

"My lord, I'm familiar with this pond. When I was alive, I used to live here with my tribe." Dear said.

Om was still looking on the pillar of light. He asked the deer, "do you know anything about this pillar of light."

The deer replied, "this is the first time I'm in this pillar. My tribe lived here for around a hundred of year, yet we never saw anything like this. My lord, it was a taboo for my tribe that never go inside the pond. We only drank water from it, yet we never allowed anyone to enter in it."

Om asked, "why?".

Dear spoke, "there was a legend in our tribe, this forest is known as the 'Aranyani forest'. Aranyani is the goddess of Forest and also a guardian of a divine treasure. She has hidden that treasure inside this pond."

"If there is a treasure inside this pond, why nobody is guarding it. Moreover, since no one is guarding it, why no one attempted to acquire it." Om said.