Clashes

Back in the Kashyapa Army Camp, inside the camp of Prince Shantanu.....

Prince Shantanu was standing before his chair and was looking at vice commander Medhavat who was standing right in front of him.

Prince Shantanu had a very grave expression on his face, he had just listened to everything that happened on the battlefield from vice commander including him being spellbound by some unknown expert.

"How's this possible?! There should be no expert like that in the Prayag Kingdom." He said while looking at his friend. "Did they have some hidden experts?"

"Your Highness, I don't think they have any hidden expert. If they had then Prayag King must have known about it and if that expert is hostile to him then he must have warned us in that letter." The vice commander was himself puzzled with the identity of the unknown expert. But what concerning him more was the allegiance of that unknown expert.

If the expert had just killed either the grand noble or advisor Aryamya then the allegiance would have been easy to guess but he didn't help Aryama when he was being killed, that showed he was not allied with the Prayag King and he made vice commander kill grand noble and that showed he was also not someone from the noble faction of Prayag Kingdom.

"Medhavat, do you think that any great clan is interfering or taking interest in this battle?" The Prince asked his vice commander. He was now speculating that some great clan was planning something and trying to interfere in the battle.

"Your Highness, the great clan nearest to the Prayag Kingdom is Shakya Clan."

"According to my speculation, they must be already busy thinking of how to get their prince and princess back. I don't think they would dare to make an enemy out of us considering the safety of their prince and princess."

"Did you see something strange or someone staring at vice commander?" Prince asked the person standing next to Medhavat.

He was the chauffeur of vice commander's chariot who was nervously standing on his spot with his head arched downwards looking towards his feet and not even daring to look up. It was not his first time standing so close to Prince Shantanu but it was his first time talking with the prince.

"N….no highn…Your Highness." He replied with a shuttering voice.

"Your Highness!" Just when the prince was about to further question the chauffeur, one of the soldiers who were guarding his camp outside came in.

"What?" A frustrated voice came out of prince Shantanu's mouth as he stared at the soldier.

"Your Highness, please forgive my incompetence but a soldier from the outer circle had come and reported that they saw hundreds of lights and heard some noises that seems like a large group is approaching towards our camp." The soldier reported while keeping his head down.

""What did you say?!"" Two astonishing voices overlapped each other.

Suddenly the prince's camp falls in a strange silence. Everyone present in the camp was staring at the soldier with their eyes wide open. They were just talking about an unknown expert and now a group of hundreds of people was approaching the camp.

"Your Highness, I think forefather finally arrived." Suddenly Vice commander broke the strange silence of the camp and reminded the prince of something.

"Ah!" A light flashed in Prince Shantanu's eyes as the frustration visible on his face vanished.

"Let's go and see." He said excitedly.

...…..

Outside the outer circle, a few miles away from the Kashyaya Army Camp

Under the moonlight, an entourage of at least hundreds of soldiers on their horses was moving in the direction of Prince Shantanu's army camp. In front of them were five chariots moving side by side except for the chariot in the middle, it was a little ahead from the chariots at its both side. Except for the chariot in the middle, all the chariots were shining like gold under the moonlight.

But the chariot in the middle looked like it was made of moonlight itself. Everything even the armor the man sitting inside the chariot was wearing was shining just like the chariot under the moonlight.

That chariot was moving a little ahead of other chariots. The chariot was of Kashyapa Clan's forefather, the forefather was silently sitting in his chariot while staring at the light he was seeing few miles away.

Right in his both side were the commanders of the main Kashyapa Army who themselves were sitting in their chariot while gazing towards the light that was few miles away from them.

The forefather's entourage was moving for days now without even resting for a moment. Since the time forefather had heard of Prince Shantanu's assassination attempt, his entire mind could think of was how to reach to his student as soon as possible, he kept on thinking of the promise he made to his father when he told him about leaving the clan.

He was worried about the safety of the Prince and terrified on thinking if something were to happen to Prince Shantanu then what he will do. Prince was not just carrying his father's hope but the hopes of forefather himself.

As for the commanders behind him, for them, it was a perfect chance to show their loyalty towards the future king and secure his goodwill.

....

Inside the Prayag Fort

Clang … Clang

Ah…. Ah…

Sound of swords clashing with each other and painful cries of soldiers could be heard.

The inside ground of fort had become the clash ground of soldiers of royal and noble faction. Soldiers of noble faction including many nobles themselves were clashing sword with royal soldiers.

In the middle of clash ground, an old man was surrounded by at least twenty men, everyone was wearing black robe from head to toe, the only part of the body visible were their eyes and hands. Some of those hands were carrying spear and rest were carrying a sword.

But these weapons, sword, and spear in their hands were attacking the old man in the middle and the old man like a veteran expert was dodging or rebounding every attack coming to him with his sword and shield. The ground next to surrounding was covered in bodies of soldiers both from the royal faction and noble faction.

"If you want to silence this old man then you should call all of your experts that you are hiding." While looking upwards towards a tower the old man Parakranta shouted in a mocking voice.

From high up inside a tower, the Prayag King was looking down on the ground where the clash was going on between the royal army and the noble faction soldiers.

Next to him were his trusted ministers including both of his advisors and Vangupta, the chief intelligence officer of the Prayag Kingdom as well as Rudha, the commander of Prayag Army.

"Vangupta, I think we greatly underestimated Parakranta, seems like your specially trained experts are nothing in front of that old monster." The Prayag kind said to the person standing left to him.

Vangupta had a solemn face as he was seeing his men's going down one by one. He had to accept what the king had said. He had really underestimated the old man.

"Your Majesty, shall we call out all the hidden experts?" The commander asked.

"No Rudha, I have a better plan. Vangupta come with me." After saying that, the Prayag King left. He went in the other direction, going away from the clashing ground and everyone else. The chief intelligence officer followed him.

After a while, the Prayag King came back but Vangupta was not with him. Everyone's mind was full of questions seeing that but no one dared to ask a thing, some even pitied for the life of the chief intelligence officer.