The sayas stood silently inside, hearing the screams of men, panicked neighs of horses of their enemies.

The poor fools, with just a day to amavashya, they thought they could do a lighting hit before the main army arrived and weaken the morale of the adumbarans and frankly they would have succeeded. Normally this kind of a day is an advantage for the invaders, especially in this forest and mountainous terrain. They can easily hide within the forest; under the cover of darkness to minimize their chance of being targets to the archers on the fort, whereas those on the ramparts could be easily spotted and fired upon as they are illuminated by the torches. But the adumbarans had excellent communication and espionage system; importantly they were well trained in guerilla warfare. They also had the advantage of better and unusual weaponary.

Vidhyunmala began to use the Shravyavyavardhaka in a three hit burst release sequence.

Visha looked at Asi and formed a hand signal; Asi then used her torch to convey her message to the ramparts.

"Douse the fire torches on the ramparts and light them at the midlevel; we begin infinite darkness maneuver as of now; use the enemy's lit torches to aim your rockets. Hold your fire for now" commanded Jaya. And then the whole fortress from the outside was plunged in to darkness.

"Sayas stand to attention! If the enemies have not fully yet congregated, we break formation and take them down" commanded asi.

Visha took a deep breath and slowly thought about her loved ones; her sister, brother, children, loyal aides, cousins, even asi was there in a corner; and as she removed them all, she gave them up, tears coursing on her cheeks; her last thought was surprisingly a fleeting picture of the astrologer standing in his house and then she was ready.

"Open the gate" ordered visha. She then turned towards the sayas,

"Sayas, today we fight to show the sungas that to attack adumbaras was a folly! Today we make them pay the price of their stupidity. Today they die!"

"hara hara mahadeva" "hara hara mahadeva" she shouted; and then the sayas rode to meet their foe.

Meanwhile, in the sunga camp..........

The sunga's were unable to control their horses and the damage caused by the spooked horses was heavy. Their formation was lost and their supply scattered and they had no time to regroup. Their torches were scattered here and there; many of the cavalry were thrown from their saddles and trampled upon by the mad horses, which seemed to be in an uncontrollable frenzy. The pack animals joined the madness and descended upon the infantry who were following the cavalry.

Many men were trampled upon, unable to run swiftly weighed down with their weapons and many were stampeded upon by the maddened animals mainly because they lost their vision due to the apparent lack of torches; and when the fortress plunged into darkness, they didn't know which way to turn especially when there was no moon to light the way this close to amavashya.

Charukesa, the commander of the advance forces was battling with his horse, when suddenly the horse became pliant; keeping a calming hand on the birdle, he looked around to assess the damage, but could see only chaos wherever the few torches lay in the ground burning. They had decimated more than half of the soldiers, without moving a finger.

The thick forests which provided cover now became death traps for the following sena, as they lost maneuverability. Amidst the chaos, it was fate's macabre hand that led the assistant commander Vishnu to find him.

"Commander, we must rally the troops and make a stand. If we could hold it for a few nazhigais, the main army will come...." began, Vishnu.

"You fool! Don't you see what's happening? The main army has elephants; what do you think will happen if the elephants went mad? Those damned bitches! Mansu must be dead. That fool, he was always a useless piece of shit".

"Vishnu, take this horse and warn the coming army of these women's witchery. Our only hope is that in his madness parahan kills them."

The pliant horse then flattened its ears and with a resounding neigh, reared its front hooves and kicked Vishnu with brutal force, that he was lifted in to the air and thrown few feet away; by the time charukesi reached Vishnu, the horse was long gone.

Vishnu lay still, as charu insistently shook him; charu looked around and luckily there was torch burning on the ground about a Rajju away. He ran quickly to fetch it and brought it towards Vishnu. Vishnu would never wake up again. His face was still frozen in an expression of astonishment; he had inadvertently fallen with force on a small parasu and it had cleaved his skull.

"What a waste!" thought charu. He began to move forward, collecting his troops. As he came near another group of cavalry men trying to calm a horse, he commanded them to let go. "Soldiers, abandon your horses. Don't hold them back; they are a liability now. Stay away from them, collect your weapons and regroup now."

"You, soldier on the right, spread the message and ask the soldiers to assemble here. If you find anyone with a conch shell, ask him to blow a collective."

And soon here and there the sungas began to congregate and began to gather around their commander, when again they began to hear hoof beats of horses.

"Soldiers draw your weapons and be ready." commanded charu.

As the horses came near, they could see that they carried no riders, and they relaxed.... Until they heard screams coming from afar.

It was too late for the sunga when they realized that the adumbarans were not on the saddles but clinging to the sides of the horses.

The sungas were no mean warriors; they adapted and formed a tight turtle formation with what few soldiers they had. The adumbarans were fewer still; charu guided his men, praying for the dawn.

A small burning sphere landed near the formation, as charu looked, it burst blowing half of the formation; men screamed as they were burnt alive. The substance stuck to men's bodies and would not be put out easily even when they rolled on the ground. The soldier next to him was safe, but three had lost their legs and their arterial blood sprayed as they fell dead.

The sungas moved over their dead comrades and closed their ranks. In the dying fire they could see only moving shadows. Swiftly the periphery soldiers were cut down; charu could hear the soft whisper of the sword cutting through flesh, clang of sword meeting sword and sound of falling bodies and then only three of them remained. As they stood near the burning torch, two huge shapes dressed in black with their faces covered stood with dripping swords.

The shorter of the two charged at the soldiers, while the large one moved to attack him; it was a clash of two people with immense strength and stature. The swords met and parried thrust for thrust and stroke for stroke, until the masked man drew his other sword. He was ambidextrous. Charu widened his stance and waited for the masked man to come to him, when instinct made him to twist, the khukuri missed his heart and caught him in the shoulder; an immense pain filled him, leaving his left arm useless. He moved sideways to bring both the opponents into his field of vision; the other two soldiers were dead.

"Don't interfere!" said the taller one, and moved to meet him. The shorter one moved to tackle anyone passing close by. Charu was a seasoned fighter, but his heavy sword was beginning to tire his arm; he was used to using both the arms. Thrust! Parry! Slice! Everywhere the man's swords were there. Charu couldn't find an opening and he knew the other was trying to fight honorably; giving him a fair chance..... Suddenly charu stopped stock still and saw two swords poking out of his abdomen.

His legs wouldn't support him anymore, he sat on his knees as the swords withdrew; "and here I thought you were fighting honorably" he said to the tall one.

The tall one looked at the short one and said in a soft fury filled voice "I said no interference and you do this? You call this honor?"

The short one replied with equal fury and dripping scorn "Tck... you men! You never understand that there is no honor in any war. We all fight for our beliefs, we die trying to save it or we live to savor it or if we lose we live to see it rubbed in our faces. You call destroying anything, sacking, killing and pillaging honor????? There is only survival."

As he sat dying looking at the crimson dawning sky, the voice of the short one made charu stare at her and knowing what his stare meant, asi removed her mask so that he could gaze at the one who had killed him.

With his dying breath charu said, "Survival ummm..... Warrior then, may you live to survive a broken heart."

The Ramsinga heralded the arrival of the sunga main army, breaking their silence.

"vrishaba our job is done let's leave." And they jumped on their horses, with a flick of the whip raced to join the sayas retreating back in to the fortress.

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Hi all, thanks soo much for your patience. The more I strive to be early, the later it becomes.

Please let me know how you feel about this chapter; if you like it then comment, vote and share.

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Ramsinga – ancient Indian trumpet. Origin tamilnadu and still in use in kerala known as kombu.

Charukesa – beautiful mane

Vishnu – god Vishnu

Sena – battle array, armed forces. Small army.

Parasu – axe

1 Rajju ~ 60 feet

the main picture is a close famiscile of the fortress of  Adumbaras that is without the moat.  The fortress in the story has a moat.

I've added a video of ramsinga/kombu being played. this sound is the closest to the herald.