Day 4
Bhishma commands the Kaurava Army to move on the offensive. When the Kauravas form a chakravyuha, Abhimanyu enters it but is surrounded and attacked by Kaurava princes. Arjuna joins to help him. Bhima appears and attacks the Kauravas. Duryodhana sends a huge force of war elephants at Bhima, who leaves his chariot and attacks them singlehandedly with his iron mace. The elephants scatter and stampede into the Kaurava forces. Duryodhana orders an all-out attack on Bhima, who kills eight of Duryodhana's brothers before being struck by an arrow from Dushasana, the second-eldest Kaurava, in the chest and sits down in his chariot dazed.
At the end of the fourth day, Duryodhana goes to Bhisma and asks him how could the Pandavas, facing a superior force against them, have the upper hand. Bhishma says that the Pandavas have justice on their side and advises Duryodhana to seek peace.
Day 13
Drona's goal remains to capture Yudhishthira. Among the Pandavas, only Arjuna and Krishna knew how to penetrate this formation, and to prevent them from doing so, the Samsaptakas led by Susharma challenge Arjuna and keep him busy at a remote part of the battlefield the whole day.
On the other side of the battlefield, the remaining four Pandavas and their allies find it impossible to break Drona's chakra formation. Yudhishthira instructed Abhimanyu to break the chakra/padma formation. Abhimanyu knows how to enter the chakra formation, but not know how to exit, so the Pandava follow to protect him from any potential danger. As soon as Abhimanyu enters the formation, Jayadratha stops them with help from a boon obtained from Shiva, and defeats Bhima and Satyaki.
Inside the chakra/kamala formation, Abhimanyu kills many warriors, including Vrihadvala (the king of Kosala); the king of Asmaka, Martikavata (the son of Kritavarma); Rukmaratha (the son of Shalya); and Shalya's younger brother, Lakshmana (the son of Duryodhana) and Dushasana's second son, Dushmanara.
The Kaurava commanders devise a strategy to prevent Abhimanyu from causing further damage to their force. Following Drona's instructions, six warriors attacks Abhimanyu and deprived him of his chariot, bow, sword, and shield. Abhimanyu picks up a mace; smashes Ashwatthma's chariot (upon which the latter fled); and slays one of Shakuni's brothers and numerous troops and elephants before being killed by the son of Dushasana in a mace-fight.
Upon learning of the death of his son, Arjuna vows to kill Jayadratha.
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