Ram's first arrow left his bow, and from the other side, he could see the pointy tip of Ravan's rushing towards him, aimed for the middle of his forehead, right in between his eyes. As they flew towards each other, everything seemed to slow down. 

The gentle breeze stopped breezing. The mountains stopped looming. The shadows receded into their sources. From Heaven, Indra held his breath.

The first weapons of the final war collided into each other furiously, creating a splash of sparks in the dewey dawn air. Ram exhaled, his jaw unclenching, and he stepped back. So it had begun. The final battle of Ram and Ravan. The final battle of the war. The final battle of good and evil. And for one of them, the final battle they would ever fight, the last opponent they would ever see, the ultimate judgment between life and death. If the Gods had even looked their way for any year of his life, then Ram was certain. He would win.

Humphing, mildly annoyed but not entirely surprised, Ravan lifted a multiplying arrow from his quiver. "Let's see if you match this," he challenged. 

Ram lifted his chin slightly, but didn't answer, Ravan rolled his eyes before letting go of the bowstring, watching with a small amount of pride as the arrow cut through the wind and rushed through the heavy morning fog, multiplying into two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, then sixty-four, then-you know the drill if you've memorized the times tables.

His army of even-numbered missiles was unbeatable. Until a single arrow of Ram's made them all combust in mid-air. "What?" Ravan angrily shouted. "That doesn't make any sense mathematically! Even is unbeatable! Multiples of two always end the enemy, because a friend always makes an arrow stronger. Odds are nothing compared to evens. So how could one of your arrows beat 2048 of mine? It's impossible."

Ram delicately notched another arrow into his bow, waiting until the last of the embers fluttered to the ground before speaking. "It seems that along with dharma, you also haven't even understood mathematics, Ravan. Remember that odds can always divide evens, but evens can never divide odds." 

Ram stepped one foot back. "But you didn't need any math to return Sita. Only a little bit of decency. Why don't you possess that?"

Ram shot his arrow, but Ravan quickly deflected it out of the air and into the ground next to him. "Ravan does what he wants." Ravan boasted, puffing his hideous chest out (really, no one wants to see all that weird chest hair).

"I am not scared of any dev, danav, and certainly not a mortal like you. I take what I want. There is no law, no integrity, no conscience that can restrict me. I am all powerful! I can do what I wish and I face no consequences, for there is no superior being on this planet than me."

Standing completely rigid, lean muscles rippling, jaw clenched in such a way that could reduce diamonds to worthless shards, Ram simmered. "You say words like that and pretend you're superior to everyone else? Sitting on a high throne your golden Sigiriya, built off of other's blood, with riches that have been spun from righteous lives?" 

Ram stepped forward once, yet it felt as if he had become Vaman with his enormous pace. As if he had cornered Ravan in his own chariot, walked up to his face with his burning eyes, and stared at him with the might of the whole world behind him.

"We've wasted three arrows on this useless exchange of dialogue." Ram murmured. He stepped forward, and Ravan nervously picked up an arrow. "You can put that down, Ravan, I am not like you. I don't attack unprepared enemies, no matter how despicable they may be. You haven't reconsidered, and I certainly am not scared by your words. If we continue to delay a worthy battle, then even the Gods will be angry. Mochi's readers will be angry. And Lakshman will be extremely angry, which you don't want."

"It'll be disrespectful to the time that we've been granted. And if you don't respect time, time will never respect you."

He raised his icy blue eyes to the sky before staring Ravan dead in his beady rat-like pupils. "Let's start the real battle, Ravan."

-----O------

"I'm back!" Hanuman laughed, almost childishly as he came jumping back from the battlefield as if he hadn't just probably massacred an entire generation of rakshasas. Behind him, Nal wheezed, barely able to run, and Angad was busy lifting Neel up in a bridal-carry while the vanar groaned. Sugriv was limping slightly, making sure all of his vanar soldiers were herded back to their safegrounds near the tents.

Hanuman beamed at Lakshman, who was standing at the front, peering at the distant Ram and Ravan battle interestedly. "And I fulfilled my promise to Shri Ram as well. Not a single vanar lost to the enemy. See?" 

Lakshman turned around and silently watched as each monkey filed into their respective order. Not a single missing vanar, except-

"Who was supposed to be there?" Lakshman asked nonchalantly, pointing to an empty gap in Legion 5. Hanuman rapidly paled, standing up straight, and the whites of his eyes were visible from all sides. Every vanar eye was turned towards the empty spot.

"Uh-"

"I got him!" Mainda shouted, half-dragging a whiny vanar. "This punk wanted to make sure all of the demons were properly finished off. Every vanar is accounted for! We haven't lost anybody." Everyone watched as the final vanar sheepishly took his empty spot in Legion 5, and just like that, every vanar was in place.

Hanuman exhaled, and Lakshman scratched his chin. "Well, technically, you didn't return before Ravan's first arrow-" Hanuman turned rice-white again in a second. "But the battle hadn't officially started. They were just exchanging their normal hero villain dialogue. So your promise to bhaiyya is completed."

Hanuman exhaled again, breath heaving, and plopped down on a straw mat next to Vibhishan to watch the battle with interest. "I can't believe we're finally at the end." he pondered. "After so many lives, so many battles, so many conflicts, we're finally here. Everything seems so small compared to this battle." He perked up as two large astras crushed each other and evaporated between the two men.

Lakshman breathed in sharply as an astra seemed dangerously close to reaching Ram, but the other quickly dodged it. "Of course." he replied, not daring to look away as he spoke. "Everything is trivial in front of these two." 

He had to stop himself from smiling as Ram disabled one of Ravan's rear chariot wheels with his arrow as Ravan was countering another one. "You've never really seen bhaiyya fight before, have you Hanuman? Well, it's really fun."

The whole camp became silent, watching with bated breaths.

-----O-----

Ravan stumbled back as his chariot rolled back slightly until it came to rest on the broken wheel. "What just happened?" he roared at his poor charioteer. Without waiting for an answer, he looked over the edge of his chariot, eyes widening as he saw the missing wheel. "How could you let that happen?" he shouted at his (weaponless) charioteer. He looked up again only to see five arrows racing towards him.

Quick as flashing lightning, with the anger of booming thunder, Ravan strung five arrows at once and they went flying to meet Ram's in an Earth-shaking roar. Ravan's chariot didn't shake, but Ram had to steady himself on the quaking ground. 

Ravan laughed and Ram looked up from his feet as he heard the telltale sound of a shrill bowstring. A large silver and blue arrow raced towards him. Varunastra.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ram sent another Varunastra flying towards Ravan. The two weapons flew past each other. Ravan's baan embedded itself into the ground next to Ram, where a small stream of water began to flow from the Earth. Meanwhile, Ram's removed the roof of Ravan's chariot and sent it flying towards Lanka, where it embedded itself as a decoration on the city's walls.

Not bothering to look back to watch the weapon fly, Ravan snarled and sent three agni baans flying towards Ram, who quickly sent three water arrows to counter. Fifty silver arrows were met with fifty silver, a hundred gold with a hundred gold. 

They were both fighting at the speed of light, blurs in the distance, arming and rearming themselves without thinking until the sky between them was teeming with arrows, as if clouds were raining weapons over both of them.

Every arrow of Ravan's was matched with its equal; every ploy of the demon's was outsmarted. Neither of them had yet injured the other, neither had yet come up with a plan that the other couldn't predict. It seemed, for a second, that neither of them could beat the other. Both Ram and Ravan had been educated since infancy on the art of battle, how to wield each divine astra, and how to win a war.

"You must think very highly of yourself," Ravan barked as Ram set his arrows on fire in the air. "You must think that maybe you've proved yourself equally as good as the Maharaj Ravan. But many so-called righteous challengers like you have come and gone, and yet each time, only I have stayed. I'm going so easy on you hermit, but from here, I can see that you're sweating already. I'm barely straining myself, and you're already struggling!"

Ram didn't reply, just narrowed his eyes as he focused on clearing the sky of the arrows that rushed towards him. Ravan chuckled lightly, content in sitting back and feeling good about himself. He had, with one of the boons he received, been able to simply blow all of Ram's arrows away. Proudly, he watched Ram still fight off his arrows.

Suddenly, he got an idea. Smiling to himself, Ravan stood and lifted up a sharp spear from the side arsenal of his chariot, throwing it towards his enemy.

Ram didn't seem to have noticed the weapon, only continued countering Ravan's arrows that seemed to be coming towards him from all sides. The spear raced closer and closer, flying purposefully between the two, but seeming scared itself to dare hurt Ram. Yet it neared, neared, neared, aided by the breeze that flew against Raghunandan's lean body, speeding up. Still, Ram didn't see it.

Ravan's charioteer covered his eyes as the spear came a few inches away from Ram's chest, but Ravan continued to watch, a hand placed on his raised thigh pompously. "The end of Ram," he cackled softly to himself. "What was Mandodari so scared for?"

Ram squinted his eyes in the glaring sun as his bow angled upwards. Finally crushing Ravan's last arrow into splinters, seeing the blue sky after many minutes, Ram looked straight ahead, seeing the spear that threatened to take his life at long last.

But it was right in front of him, ready to strike him down.

A dark hand wrapped around the handle and stopped it from impaling him when the point was a mere centimeter away from his heart. Ram threw Ravan's weapon to the ground and broke it in half by merely placing his foot on top.

-----O------

Vibhishan fumbled with his tumbler, and it dropped to the ground. Lakshman glanced down at the spilling green tea, then at Vibhishan. "In all my years, I've seen Ravan fight many times." Vibhishan muttered. "He's famed for being the fastest warrior on Earth. When you're countering one of his arrows, he'll have sent a thousand more towards you. He fights battles quickly, and he wins them quickly."

"I'm seeing them both today, and I'm seeing not one blur, but two. Shri Ram is just as fast as him. In fact, it seems like he's taking his time." 

What happened in many minutes for Ram happened in mere seconds for them. They watched the spear fly from Ravan's chariot, and they watched Ram catch it as it was a hairbreadth away from his body.

Lakshman exhaled, before smiling proudly. "In all of my years, I've seen Ram bhaiyya fight many times. Whatever fastest warrior on Earth legends you've been telling amongst yourselves, you can stop. This is bhaiyya going slowly."

Neel quickly handed Vibhishan another green tea, which he sipped delicately before replying. "Your bhaiyya is heaven sent. He is the man to defeat Ravan, there can be no other. It must have been your purpose to come here. It must have been my purpose to help."

Lakshman grinned at him. "That's what I've been telling everyone since I was a kid! Ram bhaiyya is a God." he turned forward, squinting at the unfolding battle as the sun shone brightly on the two warriors. "Ravan has been so used to fighting with people below his level that his own so-called abilities have diminished as well."

"After all, war is a perishable skill." Lakshman shrugged. "Just like he is."

-----O------

From Heaven, the Gods watched as the events they had foreseen began to take place. They had gathered in the meeting room (don't question it), even Shiv and Parvati, who had taken the long trek from Kailash. Ganesh had placed a small pillow on his rat, where he watched the whole thing intently with a small bag of popcorn. Saraswati had brought jhalmuri and chanachur, but none of them could eat.

"Vishnu-I mean, Raghunandan Ram, is fighting very well," Indra muttered, chewing on his nail in a godly way as he sat on Airavat.

"Indeed he is," Saraswati agreed. "But of course he would. He's been trained with our weapons since he was a little child, and he's remained devoted to us. He's channeling the strength he has from our blessings. Besides, he's also Vishnu's incarnation. Strength is a given. We should start a book club about him."

"That was a great tactic," Kaartikeya pointed out, taking a kernel of popcorn from Ganesh but crushing it in his fist instead of eating it. "That's right! Get Ravan!"

Everyone hummed, and the heavens went silent.

"I think-" Brahma began, and everyone looked towards him, for it was rare that Brahma spoke without something wise to say. "That Raghunandan is at a disadvantage. Each time their weapons collide, Bhoomi Devi begins to shake in fear, and he's on the ground without a mount. He's a mortal after all; he may stumble, and Ravan won't allow him to get back up without attacking him while he's vulnerable."

"How about Sheshnag?" Narad began, before staring at the battlefield. "Wait. Nevermind."

"Having Rajkumar Lakshman turning into a thousand headed snake at this instant would be a little distracting for Raghunandan." Parvati sighed. "He doesn't know that he's Vishnu's incarnation. Plus he would most likely get extremely agitated and worried about his missing brother and forget about the battle entirely to search for him."

"And I don't think it's generally possible either," Saraswati intervened. Everyone went silent again.

"We can send one of our mounts," Ganesh offered.

But Shiv shook his head slowly. "It is impossible. That would seem like our direct aid of Ram. Sending one of our mounts would be too obvious."

Indra sat up excitedly. "Well that's no matter at all! I can send my charioteer! Matali! He is fighting to rid the world of evil, so that our devotees are safe. Let us give him whatever favors we can so that he can reduce adharm to ashes."

"We have sent a savior for Earth from the heavens!" Shiv boomed, standing up. "Let us make sure he looks like it!"

A/N: After half a month of procrastinating, I wrote this chapter in two days. 2600+ words. The title is from the song Shivam from Baahubali. Great song, amazing lyrics. I can't make any more predictions for Ram and Ravan's fight. Maybe one more chapter. Maybe three. I think two, but who knows? If I talk about Lakshman the entire time, it'll be five, so...

I wasn't sure whether to do the whole Matali thing or not, but I wanted to write about the Gods who were watching Ram fight, so in the end, Matali gets to be part of the action too.

You may have noticed that I wrote Raghunandan here a lot. It felt repetitive to continuously write Ram, Ram, Ram, so I thought some synonyms might help.

See you in half a month!