Ram and a few other hunters began to look for Gurumapa's traces. They looked for any footprints or any traces that a Huge rakshasa like Gurumapa would leave.
After careful observations, They spotted unusual trails that definitely didn't belong to any ordinary animal. The hunters followed the trails and finally ended up at a huge cave.
The hunters carefully scouted the area before entering the cave. And, A repulsing sight greeted their eyes.
Bones of humans were lying on the ground as if they were worthless rubbish.
The hunters gritted their teeth with anger before setting up a trap. Raj along with 6 other hunters began to build various traps.
They set up nets, dug up holes and disguised them, and finally hung up huge logs as traps. The mechanism of these traps were simple but the fact that only 7 people could finish so many traps this fast showed their experience in setting up traps.
Meanwhile, Ram caught a big boar along with other 6 hunters to use as bait for the traps. They knocked the animal out and put it at the entrance of Gurumapa's cave.
Positioning it in such a way that It seemed like It was sleeping.
Finally, After setting up everything, all the hunters began readying their weapons. The Khukuri users began sharpening the blades.
Similarly, The archers began to arrange their arrows which had been laced with poison.
Finally, the hunters used rotten eggs to mask their smell from Gurumapa's sharp nose.
From the distance, Tejas and Vidur also start using. Although the horrible smell from the rotten eggs was disgusting,
Tejas saying while making disgusting face
I really hate the smell of rotten eggs I know why all hunter use this or other methods but I can't get over come of this horrible smells no matter how many time I use it."
I know that Tejas but endure it for now, or Gurumapa will come after us so just endure it just like you always do. vidur replied"
After all the preparations were done, It was now time to wait.
Luckily, The wait didn't last long as Gurumapa returned to its cave in just 10 minutes.
It walked towards the cave and spotted the big boar sleeping right at the entrance of the cave. Gurumapa walked towards the deer but suddenly stopped.
It started to smell its surroundings and felt that something horrible was around. Gurumapa couldn't pinpoint the exact source of this smell but became even more suspicious and threw a small rock towards the boar.
Suddenly, The net traps from before were activated.
"Tsk"
In one of the nearby bushes, Raj clicked his tongue. He looked towards the direction of Ram with a gaze that said 'Do I attack?'.
Ram who saw that gaze immediately looked at Raj and shook his head as if saying 'Not now'.
Meanwhile, Gurumapa was sure that some sneaky humans had come to fight it. Usually, It would've smelled their location with its trusted nose but Because of the pungent smell, It didn't even want to breathe.
"Hehehe, How useless"
Gurumapa said in a low voice while snickering. It knew that the humans were probably around but didn't care about them. In fact, Gurumapa strode towards the boar with great confidence.
Why?
Simple, Gurumapa knew that at that moment, It was the strongest being in the forest.
It put all the nets aside with a single wave of its hands. And just as it was about to grab the big boar, one of its legs suddenly got stuck in a hole.
At that instant, Ram suddenly jumped out of the bushes and shouted.
"Attack!!"
In the next instant, Raj and his team of hunters also jumped out of the bushes and charged at Gurumapa with their Khkukuris.
The bow users also began drawing their bows.
"Ahahahahaha! Come at me, You puny humans!!"
Gurumapa suddenly began laughing like a maniac and picked its club before swinging it at the hunters.
The large club swung down furiously at one of the nearest hunters But a heavy arrow from Ram's bow suddenly changed the trajectory of the club.
At the moment that Gurumapa couldn't swing the club properly, Raj charged in with no intentions of wasting this strategy. Raj also furiously swung his Khukuri at the stuck leg of Gurumapa.
(Clank! Clank!)
Gurumapa's skin seemed harder than anything that Raj had ever seen. Forget cutting, His sharp Khukuri only managed to leave a small mark.
Of course, The khukuri also bounced off pretty hard. Still, How could a veteran hunter like Raj be stopped just at this.
He immediately jumped on Gurumapa's shoulders before swinging his weapon down with the intent to pierce the skin at least.
(Clank! Clank!)
As if two stones were striking each other, Only sparks came out.
"That won't work on me, You stupid human!!"
Gurumapa started moving its upper body which caused Raj to jump off of its shoulder.
At the same time,
The archers began to rain down arrows on Gurumapa. They were pinning their hopes on the poisonous arrows, But How could mere arrows pierce through something a Khukuri couldn't?
All the arrows just broke on contact.
When the archers stopped to redraw their bows, Other hunters began to attack Gurumapa.
(Clank!)
(Clank!)
(Clank!)
Of course, This still was useless.
Finally, Gurumapa began fighting back. It swung its club again and while most hunters dodged the attacks, one of the hunters tripped on the same hole that Gurumapa's leg was in.
Gurumapa seized the opportunity and swung the club down,
(Bang!)
Along with the sound, The hunter stopped breathing. It was sudden but one of the total 14 hunters was down.
"You damn Bastard!!"
Raj cursed Gurumapa but He along with the other hunters retracted a few steps. Even if they were angered at the loss of their brother, As experienced hunters, They knew they couldn't lose control.
"Hahahaha, Why are you running you stupid humans?"
Gurumapa laughed like a maniac and just as it was about to start swinging the club again, Suddenly an Arrow hit its head.
Till now, every arrow that had hit it was completely useless. And this arrow also didn't do much harm to Gurumapa.
But, It did leave a small scratch on the head.
Ram, who was the person that shot the arrow suddenly shouted,
"Everyone, Attack Gurumapa's head. Avenge our fallen brother. Kill that bastard!"
Raj was the first to attack the head, and the rest followed suit. The hunters started striking Gurumapa's head while arrows also rained down at that same place.
The hunters attacked with extreme coordination. One hunter would strike the head with the Khukuri, Then another would either shoot at that same place or strike there.
Ram didn't shoot many arrows since He kept shooting at the club in Gurumapa's hand, Making sure that Gurumapa couldn't use the club properly.
Every attack wasn't that effective, But when all the hunters repeatedly attacked the same spot, again and again, The damage also stacked up.
Finally, The skin of Gurumapa which seemed impenetrable before was finally pierced. The collective attacks from all the hunters finally managed to injure Gurumapa.
Blood gushed out of that small injury as the hunters rejoiced in their hearts.
"AAAAAHH"
Gurumapa began shouting in pain. It let go of the club and began to wave its own arms like crazy. It didn't care about aiming, All it knew was that the injury hurt.
"Fall back!!"
Seeing that Gurumapa was about to rampage, Ram shouted at the hunters. Till now, He had managed to keep attacking Gurumapa's club whenever it was about to swing it.
But that was old possible because He was predicting who Gurumapa was going to hit before. Now? Gurumapa going into a complete rampage. Attacking recklessly like a true beast.
The hunters listened to Ram and immediately began to retreat, But how could they escape so fast? Gurumapa's big palms started to literally flatten the heads of the hunters.
Some were just flunged away from the impact but some weren't so lucky to just go flying.
Of course, The ones that had been sent flying also began shouting from pain.
Seeing this Raj, became angrier. He knew that he shouldn't lose control but if he didn't do something soon more of his brothers would die.
"You darned RAKSHASA !! Come at me!"
Raj charged at Gurumapa while shouting. He dodged the random fists flying and closed the distance between him and Gurumapa.
Finally, He decided to gamble by jumping and aiming to slash Gurumapa's head. Sadly, Lady luck seemed to be not fond of him, Since Raj lost the gamble.
Gurumapa saw Raj and immediately punched him towards his chest.
Raj saw the incoming fist and knowing full well that he couldn't dodge mid-air brought his hands before his chest to guard the fist.
(Crack)
A small cracking sound resounded but it was immediately replaced by a huge "Whoosh" as Raj's body was sent flying into a tree.
Raj hit the tree from his back and maybe even broke it, Plus considering that His bones had been surely broken, He was in a critical condition.
To make things worse, He also hit his head hard on the ground.
*cough!*cough!*
Raj was coughing blood from his mouth. He groaned in pain before finally getting knocked out.
Ram clicked his tongue knowing full well Why Raj decided to become the sacrifice.
It was obviously to buy time for other hunters to get away. Ram completely understood that decision as he himself would have done the same.
Yet, Anger rose in his heart at his stupid best friend.
Ram began shooting arrows like hellfire. He hit Gurumapa with a poison arrow right at the injury. Gurumapa shouted in pain again, But He didn't care.
Ram then hurriedly shot a fire arrow at Gurumapa. It didn't directly pierce the wound since Gurumapa was covering it with its hands, but Ram wasn't aiming at the wound only.
The fire arrow lit Gurumapa's hair on fire. It began screaming in agony again and jumped so hard that its foot which had been stuck inside the hole got out.
"Get Raj away from there!"
Ram ordered the hunters as he continued to fire at Gurumapa. Of course, Since Gurumapa was jumping like a madman, It was hard to even for Ram to hit its head with accuracy.
Suddenly, Gurumapa's speed decreased significantly. Seemed like the poison arrow that Ram shot earlier had started to kick in.
The other hunters rejoiced but Ram cursed in his heart.
'Damn it! That poison should be strong enough to kill a Lion within an hour. What's up with this monster just becoming slightly slow?! Are you kidding me?'
Ram was extremely annoyed but still didn't stop firing at Gurumapa. He kept firing at Gurumapa's head but couldn't hit it properly Because despite becoming slower than before, Gurumapa was covering its head with its hands.
Finally, He stopped to shoot but instead climbed the tree next to him. He needed high ground for better aim.
The other hunters managed to safely get Raj away but Gurumapa suddenly shouted.
Then, Along with the shout, Its speed also increased. It hurriedly went to pick up its club and Ram began cursing internally.
'What the hell?!?! Why did the poison last for less than a minute.'
It seemed like Gurumapa was extremely resistant to poison, So a lethal poison for normal animals was just something that made it feel slow and groggy.
And, After recovering from that grogginess, Gurumapa roared like a beast.
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