3.1 The seer said:
3.2 “Now when he saw the army being slaughtered, Cikṣura, the great asura general, went forth in fury to battle with Ambikā.
3.3 He rained showers of arrows on the Devī in the combat, just as a raincloud showers the summit of Mount Meru.
3.4 But easily shattering his volley, the Devī killed his steeds and charioteer with Her arrows.
3.5 Like lightning, She slashed through his bow and highflying banner. Having destroyed his bow, She wounded him in the limbs with Her swift arrows.
3.6 With bow broken, chariot wrecked, and horses and charioteer slain, the asura, armed with sword and shield, rushed at the Devī.
3.7 First striking Her lion on the head with his sharp-edged sword, he violently struck the Devī’s left arm.
3.8 O king, as soon as the sword touched Her, it shattered. Then, the great asura, his eyes red with rage, seized his blazing lance
3.9 and flung it at Bhadrakālī, as though he were hurling the very sun from the sky.
3.10 Seeing it approach, the Devī released Her lance and shattered the great asura and his weapon into a hundred pieces.
3.11 When Mahiṣa’s mighty general lay slain, Cāmara, the afflictor of the gods, advanced, mounted on an elephant.
3.12 He dispatched his spear toward the Devī. Quickly Ambikā’s contemptuous outcry sent it hurtling powerless to the ground.
3.13 Seeing it fallen and shattered, the enraged Cāmara flung a lance, and that, too, She destroyed with Her arrows.
3.14 Her lion then leapt up and, astride the elephant’s forehead, engaged fiercely in direct combat with the enemy of the gods.
3.15 Struggling, the two fell from the elephant to the ground, still locked in dreadful combat.
3.16 In a flash the lion sprang skyward, then alighted and severed Cāmara’s head with a single blow of its paw.
3.17 In the fighting the Devī assailed the asura Udagra with rocks and trees; and biting, punching, and slapping Karāla, She felled him, too.
3.18 Enraged, the Devī crushed Uddhata to a pulp with the blows of Her mace. She killed Bāṣkala with Her javelin and Tāmra and Andhaka with Her arrows,
3.19 and with Her trident the supreme three-eyed Goddess slew Ugrāsya, Ugravīrya, and also Mahāhanu.
3.20 With Her sword She struck Biḍāla’s head from his body, and with Her arrows She dispatched both Durdhara and Durmukha to the abode of death.
3.21 While his army thus met destruction, Mahiṣāsura terrified the Devī’s hosts with his own buffalo form,
3.22 jostling some with his snout and pawing others with his hooves. Others he lashed with his tail and lacerated with his horns.
3.23 He toppled some of them to the ground with the unleashed force of his bellowing and wheeling about, and the blast of his breath brought still others down.
3.24 After destroying the great Goddess’s forces, Mahiṣāsura rushed forward to slay Her lion. At that, Ambikā became enraged.
3.25 But Mahiṣāsura, great in valor, struck the earth angrily with his hooves, flung mountains skyward with his horns, and bellowed frightfully.
3.26 Under his frenzied wheeling, the trampled earth broke apart. Lashed by his tail, the ocean overflowed all around.
3.27 Thrashed by his horns, the clouds fragmented and dispersed. Tossed about on his blasting breath, mountains by the hundreds fell from the sky.
3.28 When She saw the great asura approaching, inflated with rage, Caṇḍikā aroused Her wrath and prepared to slay him.
3.29 She threw Her noose over him and bound him. Fettered thus in the fierce battle, the great asura left his buffalo form
3.30 and assumed the shape of a lion. No sooner had Ambikā severed his head than he appeared as a man with sword in hand.
3.31 Instantly, with Her arrows the Devī cut him to shreds along with his sword and shield. Then he took the form of a great elephant
3.32 and dragged Her mighty lion along with his trunk, but while he trumpeted loudly, the Devī chopped off his trunk with Her sword.
3.33 Once more the great asura assumed his buffalo form and caused the three worlds, with all that is moving and unmoving, to tremble.
3.34 Angered, Caṇḍikā, the Mother of the worlds, drank a divine potion, and with eyes reddened She laughed again and again.
3.35 The asura bellowed in return, intoxicated with his own might and valor, and with his horns he hurled mountains at Caṇḍikā.
3.36 Her volley of arrows reduced them to dust. Her face flushed with inebriation from the divine drink, and She addressed him excitedly.
3.37 The Devī said:
garja garja kṣaṇaṁ mūḍha madhu yāvat pibāmy aham
mayā tvayi hate ‘traiva garjiṣyanty āśu devatāḥ
3.38 ‘Bellow, you fool, bellow for now while I drink this potion. After I have slain you, the gods will cheer in this very place.”’
3.39 The seer said:
3.40 “Having declared that, She leapt upon the great asura, pinned his neck down with Her foot, and pierced him through with Her spear.
3.41 Trapped there under the Devī’s foot and crushed by Her might, he emerged half-way in his true form from his buffalo mouth.
3.42 Half-revealed and fighting still, that great asura fell to the Devī, beheaded by Her great sword.
3.43 Then crying out in alarm, the whole demon army perished, and all the divine hosts exulted.
3.44 Together with the great heavenly seers the gods praised the Devī, the celestial musicians sang, and throngs of cloud-nymphs danced.”