On the tenth day the Pandavas realized they could use Shikhandin against Bhishma: Shikhandin had been born a woman, and Bhishma would not fight a woman. So Shikhandin rode forward and, under Arjuna's protection, began shooting at Bhishma.

"I won't fight you, Shikhandin," Bhishma shouted.

"Fight or not," Shikhandin replied, "I will slay you today. I was born for this!"

Shikhandin continued firing, and Arjuna shot Bhishma too. The old warrior's body was pierced everywhere with arrows. When he fell, he didn't touch the ground. Instead, he rested on a bed of arrows.

Both sides stopped fighting when Bhishma fell.

Bhishma lay on the bed of arrows but did not die; he had the power to choose the moment of his death, and he chose to wait.

"I'm thirsty," he said, and Arjuna shot an arrow into the ground. Water burst forth; thus Bhishma's mother, Ganga, quenched his thirst.

Bhishma urged Duryodhana to seek peace with the Pandavas.

Karna was there too, and sought Bhishma's forgiveness. Again, Bhishma urged peace. "Listen, Karna: you are Kunti's son," he said. "End this war with your brothers."

But instead, Karna donned his armor, ready to fight now that Bhishma had left the battlefield.

The dawn before Karna joined the battle, Kunti came to see him.

"I know you are my mother," Karna said. "Krishna told me. But my love is for the mother and father who raised me, the charioteer and his wife. And for Duryodhana, who accepted me as I am, while you rejected me."

Kunti wept, and Karna pitied her in that moment. "I promise I will fight Arjuna only," he said. "I will spare your other sons. That way, when this war is over, either Arjuna will be dead, or I will be, and you will still have five sons."

Karna had another visitor that morning: the god Indra, who was worried for his son, Arjuna. Relying on Karna's generosity, Indra went to Karna disguised as an old man, begging Karna to give him a gift.

"What do you want?" Karna asked.

"Your earrings and armor," said the old man.

Without hesitation, Karna cut off the earrings and armor that had been part of his body since birth, giving them to the old man.

Astounded by Karna's complete generosity, Indra revealed himself. "Take this divine Shakti-spear," he said. "It never misses its mark, but you can use it only once."

Bhima had vowed he would kill the hundred sons of Gandhari. Each day, he prowled the battlefield in search of the Kaurava brothers, killing them one by one.

Then the day came when Bhima found himself face to face with Vikarna, the only one of Gandhari's sons who defied Duryodhana. Vikarna had even defended Draupadi in the gambling hall. But out of loyalty to his brothers, Vikarna was fighting on the Kaurava side.

Bhima killed Vikarna, and he wept when he did so.

Krishna, however, did not weep. "Dharma is what matters," Krishna told him. "Not family. Not friends. Dharma."

Duryodhana wanted to capture Yudhishthira alive. "Make that your priority!" he told Drona, now commander-in-chief. Duryodhana hoped to compel Yudhishthira to accept an invitation to gamble again, sending the Pandavas into another exile as a way to end the war.

Drona, however, failed to capture Yudhishthira. "Under Arjuna's watchful protection, there is no way to capture him," Drona protested.

"The fault is yours!" Duryodhana shouted. "You favor the Pandavas, despite being my commander-in-chief."

A band of Duryodhana's soldiers then took the samshaptaka oath, vowing to kill Arjuna or die trying. "Victory or death!" they cried as they rode into battle.

As Arjuna battled the suicide squadron, Drona arranged his army in a maze formation. Only Arjuna knew the counterattack.

Only Arjuna... and his son. "I learned this secret in the womb," said Abhimanyu. "I can break the maze; I just don't know how to get out."

"Don't worry!" Bhima assured him. "We'll be with you."

Abhimanyu broke through, but the Kaurava forces led by Jayadratha sealed the breach immediately, cutting Abhimanyu off from the Pandavas. He fought fiercely, even using his chariot wheel as a weapon, but the Kauravas overwhelmed him, and Abhimanyu died there, trapped inside the maze, alone.

When Arjuna learned Jayadratha had led the soldiers who killed his son, he vowed revenge. "Either I kill Jayadratha before sunset tomorrow, or I kill myself."

The Kauravas made every effort to protect Jayadratha so Arjuna would have to kill himself at sunset.

Krishna, however, intervened. As evening approached, he raised his divine discus and hid the sun from view. Thinking the sun had set, the Kauravas let down their guard, exposing Jayadratha. Krishna lowered his discus: the setting sun was still in the sky as Arjuna shot an arrow that decapitated Jayadratha.

Thus ended another day of the war.

The war continued day after day after day.

Each morning, Duryodhana would go to his mother and ask for her blessing. Gandhari's pious devotion gave her enormous power, so what she said always came true.

"Mother, please say 'May my sons win,'" Duryodhana would ask her.

Gandhari, however, would only say, "May the right side win."

Dhritarashtra protested. "Whether he's right or not, Duryodhana is our son."

But Gandhari repeated, "May the right side win," and all the while she grieved for her hundred sons as Bhima killed them, one by one by one.

Soon, there would be none left.

The next day, Bhima killed twelve more of Duryodhana's brothers. "I will kill them all," he thought to himself, "Duryodhana and all his brothers!"

Then when Bhima saw Karna, he turned his chariot to pursue him, but Karna shattered Bhima's bow, broke his mace, and killed Bhima's charioteer. Bhima then had to hide behind the carcasses of war-elephants that littered the battlefield.

"Go back into the forest where you belong!" Karna yelled.

But as he had promised Kunti, Karna did not kill Bhima. Arjuna was the only one of the Pandavas that Karna was going to fight in mortal combat.