Thus addressed, the righteous Yudhishthira, true to his word, rebuked the rakshasa in anger: "This shall not be." Then mighty-armed Bhima swiftly tore up a tree ten fathoms tall and stripped it of its leaves. In an instant Arjuna the Victorious strung Gandiva, heavy as the crash of a thunderbolt, but Bhima stopped him and, rushing at the dreadful rakshasa, cried: "Stand! Stand!" Having said this, the enraged Pandava tightened his belt, and, clenching fist against fist and biting his lips, the mighty Bhima, armed with his tree, charged swiftly at Kirmira. He brought that tree, like the rod of Yama, crashing down upon the rakshasa's head with the force of Indra hurling a thunderbolt. But the rakshasa stood unshaken in the fight and hurled back a blazing firebrand, like a burning bolt of lightning. Bhima, best of strikers, kicked aside the flung firebrand with his left foot and advanced again upon his foe. Kirmira too suddenly tore up a tree and, raging like the wielder of the rod of death, fought back in battle. Thus began a battle of trees that destroyed the forest's giants, like the ancient battle of the brothers Vali and Sugriva, who both longed for royal fortune. Trees, falling upon their heads, shattered into many pieces, like lotuses upon two rutting elephants; many trunks there were crushed like munja grass and lay scattered through the great forest like torn rags. Long did that battle of trees continue, O lord of men, between the foremost of rakshasas and the best of men.