Karna said: "I see all the venerable ones frightened, as if in turmoil, unwilling for battle and unsteady. If this is the king of the Matsyas, if Bibhatsu has come, I will hold him back, as the shore holds back the abode of sea-monsters. My arrows, loosed from the bow, with bent joints, once they go forth like gliding serpents, never return. Golden-feathered, sharp-tipped, released by my skilled hand, let my arrows cover Partha as locusts cover a tree. Let the sound of the bowstring, struck hard against the arrow-notches, be heard, and the sound of my palms, like two struck war-drums. Bibhatsu has been composed for thirteen years, and, his love of battle reawakened, he will clash with me. Let Kaunteya, become a worthy vessel like a virtuous brahmin, receive the thousands of streams of arrows I release. This great archer is renowned in the three worlds, but I too, best of the Kurus, am in no way inferior to Arjuna. Let the sky today, covered with golden arrows fledged with vulture feathers loosed from every side, be seen as if covered with fireflies."