BATTLE OF LOVE (completed)

CHAPTER 4

Dharani's POV:

Round 1:

I pulled out my sword and kept reminding myself that I needed to be careful. I didn't start attacking but Arjun did. In fact, he began his attack the moment the start bell rang. His attack was very furious and spontaneous. He began advancing forward trying every move he had ever learned. Determined to win,  I used every piece of my knowledge to effectively protect myself.  Soon we had a long fight with neither of us winning. It was at this moment that I accidentally cut his shoulder.

"Ouch!" he said clutching onto the small cut as a thin line of blood flowed out of it. Bewildered at what had happened, I lowered my sword and moved forward to help him. However, he didn't want help. He immediately used his sword to knock mine. 

"I won Princess," he said with a vicious smile. "You see enemies wouldn't bother appreciating your goodness in the middle of a war," he added.

"We have two rounds left," I replied sternly pissed off at him for taking advantage of my concern. However, deep down I knew he wasn't wrong. I needed to look beyond concern and all the good stuff in order to win, at least for the time being.

Round 2:

This time I was determined to win. Hence I went from defense mode to attack mode. We were both attacking each other. Our swords were moving so swiftly that sparks were generated everytime they touched each other. After, about what seemed like forever, I finally knocked his sword down after successfully distracting him and changing my move at the last minute.

"This is interesting, " he smiled. But this time the smile was not of happiness. It carried a fire with it challenging me to win the next round."All the best for the final round."

"You too."

Round 3:

This time both of us were determined to win. We were continuously moving our swords, occasionally hurting each other. But none of us played attention to us. We were so engrossed that we completely lost sense of the surrounding world. It was as if all we care about are each other's swords. 

"What is going on here? Who is she Arjun?" I heard an unfamiliar voice that brought us out of our world. It was King Indra. He looked like an older version of Arjun except for looking less aggressive.

"She is our princess," Acharya replied while staring at me in amusement. This is the level of skill he was expecting from me since ages and I finally did it, although under not so great circumstances. My father and mother were beside him looking at me with an equally bewildered look.

"Wow, princess. I've heard about you. I knew you are a great person, but I just realized you are a great warrior as well," King Indra said as he looked at his son. "You are the first one to defeat Arjun."

"She didn't defeat me, father,"  Arjun said in defense.

"I mean she did defeat me once, so did I. So now it's the deciding round and...."

"Too bad it had to be canceled." interrupted King Indra.

Shocked at the statement I turned towards the open window. So did Arjun and we were shocked to see the sunset. According to the rules, no war should take place after sunset.

"I'll call the nurse to dress up your wounds kids, " said King Indra as he silently looked at our hands. I had around four cuts, three on my right hand and one on my left while Arjun had two cuts on either of his hands. I felt guilty looking at his wounds. I never wanted to hurt him. However, he wasn't guilty at all.

The nurse came and dressed our wounds. There weren't any deep cuts and would probably heal in a couple of days. After that dressing, Arjun went back to his practice room and I left for Mitra with my family hoping to never meet him again.

Father was very happy with whatever happened today and couldn't praise me enough. He always wanted to see me as a warrior and today was like his dream come true.

"Dev was right. Arjun did manage to make you ruthless," he said as he smiled proudly.

"It just happened in the heat of the moment father," I replied slightly embarrassed and attempted to change the topic.

"So what was it about the land?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Nothing decided as of now, but king Indra wanted to ask your hand for marriage to his son Arjun."

My heart skipped a beat. Arjun, no way! 

"Nothing to worry dear, it was just a proposal. We are yet to think about it. Whatever decision we make will be in the best of your interests. Just tell me one thing, you've been with Arjun all afternoon. What do you think of him? Is he a good person?"

I didn't know what to answer. I could listen to my heart and lie that he is a bad person, but I knew he isn't. I noticed him treating his workers with respect. He treated Dev like his own brother and was polite to me or should I say politely aggressive to me. Except for being aggressive and having the constant desire to punish the wrongdoers, there is nothing bad about him and those two qualities aren't strong enough to classify him as a bad person.

"What happened, dear? my father asked concerned, "Did he do something inappropriate?"

"No father," I quickly replied, "Arjun is not that kind of person. He is a good person except for being aggressive, which is a quality that brings him down."

"Do you still want us to decide about the marriage?"

I don't what I was thinking at that moment but I nodded. Maybe I wanted to prove that he cannot influence me maybe I was just plain stupid or maybe I wanted to influence Arjun. Only  God would know what the hell I was thinking at that moment.

(  Hey guys, so that next chapter is from Arjun's point of view and will roughly cover what Arjun thinks about all these incidents. It will be published on 22 October 2018. So stay tuned and don't forget to vote and comment.Also@Macho100 the first chapter is dedicated to you, dear. Thank you for being the first one to support me.)