The Time Traveler [Mahabharata]

4. Arjuna VS Karna

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***

For a moment, everything went quiet. All the applause had stopped. The air around felt awfully heavy, almost suffocating. Quiet whispers started breaking out both among the common folk and the royals in attendance. Aarohi witnessed it all.

People looked around for the voice that had dared to challenge a Kuru prince.

And there he was... the mighty warrior Karna, walking confidently right up to the middle of the arena.

"Who are you? You are challenging prince Arjun, lad! Don't you know that the Kalapradarshan is only for the the Kuru Princes'?" Guru Dron thundered, questioning the man who had the audacity to challenge his student's valour.

"It sure was, and until then... I was silent. But upon seeing a few stunts by Arjun your excitement soared so high, that you challenged the entire world?! You declared Arjun the best archer in the world?! I'm a part of that world too, Guru Dron! So the dignity of millions of archers of the world and the responsibility of preserving it rests on my shoulders. Now, either you must state that Arjuna is the best only among Kuru princes' or order your student to accept my challenge!" Karna reasoned.

To say that Aarohi was amused would be an understatement. In fact she was so invested that she carefully began to study the reactions of the people around her. Some people, much like her, found it very intriguing, but others like the royals, questioned the nerve of the man while the ministers and gurus looked completely restless, thinking that if Arjun lost the challenge to a common man, it would make Hastinapur look weak in front of everyone.

Duryodhan, Dushasan and Shakuni along with his son Vrikasura, who had made eyes at Aarohi throughout the whole event, wore matching smirks on their faces while the Pandavas were seething with anger and confusion towards the man who had challenged their brother. Aarohi couldn't help but roll her eyes, so typical.

After moments of silence that felt like years, one of the ministers declared that it was crucial to know the caste of the challenger since according to the norms of religion and traditions a royal could only fight another royal in a challenge.

Karna after pausing for a bit introduced himself. As expected, demeaning insults were thrown at him, for being a sutaputra, from people just like him! Aarohi scoffed at the irony of the situation, these people had that heard mentality, just following along with what others did.

'Do they not have a brain of their own with the ability to comprehend what they're doing? They're insulting Karna as if they're superior to him, but half of these people belong to the same caste! Ridiculous!'

Aarohi's logical mind just could not understand the mentally of the people here. They were accepting discrimination against their own caste! All this nonsense enraged her. She was absolutely against all this caste bullshit and believed one could only be superior for the skills they possessed. But it was good too see that all the comments still didn't seem to deter the self-assured Karna, who was a proud son of his parents. He wasn't ashamed of who he was.

"Listen to the audience, go back, no one wants you to fight. They all know a suta has no capabilities!" Bheem said out loud.

"You are not welcome here Karna! You don't possess the skills." Arjun spoke.

"It's really awful to assume about someone's skills before you've seen them, isn't that what you said to me prince Arjun?" Aarohi's loud voice echoed through the arena as she boldly questioned him. She'd had enough of the constant insults and the hypocrisy of the situation. It was just so wrong, especially since she knew the whole truth.