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Seventeenth Canto: Taraka is slain

Taraka engages the principal gods and defeats them with magic weapons. When they are relieved by Kumara, the demon turns to the youthful god of war, and advises him to retire from the battle.

  Stripling, you are the only son
    Of Shiva and of Parvati.
  Go safe and live! Why should you run
    On certain death? Why fight with me?
  Withdraw! Let sire and mother blest
  Clasp living son to joyful breast.

  Flee, son of Shiva, flee the host
    Of Indra drowning in the sea
  That soon shall close upon his boast
    In choking waves of misery.
  For Indra is a ship of stone;
  Withdraw, and let him sink alone.

Kumara answers with modest firmness.

  The words you utter in your pride,
    O demon-prince, are only fit;
  Yet I am minded to abide
    The fight, and see the end of it.
  The tight-strung bow and brandished sword
  Decide, and not the spoken word.

And with this the duel begins. When Taraka finds his arrows parried by Kumara, he employs the magic weapon of the god of wind. When this too is parried, he uses the magic weapon of the god of fire, which Kumara neutralises with the weapon of the god of water. As they fight on, Kumara finds an opening, and slays Taraka with his lance, to the unbounded delight of the universe.