ALINORA SUPPRESSED A SCREAM by stuffing her fist into her open mouth. She bit down on the knuckle hard enough to draw blood. Around her in the wagon, everyone reacted in similar ways. All down the road, those watching were shaken by the sight of a man standing still before a charging elephant until—
The great white bull elephant rammed straight into Drishya with all the strength and power it could muster.
And Drishya remained standing exactly where he was, unmoved. He did not budge an inch, not even when one of the elephant’s tusks struck his abdomen with a force enough to punch through a solid brick wall. Instead, the tusk itself broke off with a resounding crack that could be heard several streets away. People exclaimed with wonderment.
The elephant’s body shuddered at the moment of impact, as if it had indeed struck a brick wall, but one so thick that even its formidable weight and power in that headlong rush could not overcome it. The elephant uttered a bleating sound, almost like a dog’s yelp, and backed away, shaking its head and rolling its eyes. Nothing in its long life had prepared it for such an experience.
After a moment, it turned around, clearly too stunned to walk straight, then sat down on its hind legs and bleated again. The loss of its tusk had evidently caused it distress, for it kept rolling its head and waving its trunk, seeking out the missing tusk.
The tusk itself had snapped off cleanly almost at the point where the root emerged from the elephant’s body. Barely a few inches of its base were left on the animal. The entire length of it, all one dozen or more feet of ivory tusk as thick as a wrestler’s thigh, now lay in Drishya’s hands.
Drishya held the tusk up and waved it, showing the elephant that he now possessed a part of its body.
The elephant remained seated on its hind legs, resembling a dog that had received a sudden blow to the tip of its nose. Its eyes watered profusely, issuing a whitish gummy substance that Alinora thought might be musth or something similar.
Drishya stepped forward, walking over to where the elephant sat. Alinora held her breath as she watched. The elephant reacted at once: seeing its intended prey still alive, still hale and hearty, approaching, it rose up, shaking off the stupefaction that had overcome it, trumpeted once again—although nowhere near as confidently as before—and reared up on its hind legs, bringing the mighty forelegs and the weight of its upper body down on Drishya with bone-powdering force.
Drishya raised a hand and took the weight of one elephant foot entirely on that hand.
The foot bent and broke.
The sound was unmistakable, the sight distinct.
The elephant bleated in distress, then fell back at once, breathing heavily.
It hopped on three feet, trying to put the fourth foot down and whining at the pain.
Drishya looked up at the elephant and spoke. Alinora was too far away to hear what he said, but it sounded more like a gentle conversation than an angry threat. What could Drishya possibly be saying?
After a moment, the elephant trumpeted at Drishya, clearly rejecting his offer. It attempted to use its trunk to strike at him, then waved its head to try to stab him with its whole tusk. Drishya stood his ground, neither avoiding nor fending off the blows. This went on for several more moments, during which the elephant seemed to force itself to overcome the agony of the injured foot and stomped about on all four feet again, trying its best to smash, crush, and gore Drishya.