A Slave who became Emperor Chapter 67

Pinaka's army stood their ground . . as Zaffar and his men approached . . the hooves of the horses were thundering on the ground . . Pinaka shouted . . 'engage! ' the soldiers shouted'Jai Bhavani! ', the first row of infantry were bearing spears . . as the enemy approached Pinaka said, 'now, ' the spear bearers moved forward and striked the horses in the approaching cavalry lines of Zaffar, this made the horses lose control and throw their ryders down . . once the men fell down, Pinaka's men striked the men . . the first line of Zaffar's cavalry fell . . Samyukta shouted, 'retreat' the spear bearers went back . . Zaffar was shaken . . but he said, 'go . . engage . . 'then came Pinaka's line of cavalry . . the first line of them were holding swords and shields . . they got engaged with Zaffar's men in close combat . .

Zaffar was fierce to the extreme . . he went inside the enemy lines and started fighting . . he was being engaged by some soldier continuously and after few moments, the soldier was moving away . . Pinaka was looking at Zaffar and smiling teasingly . . he was placed at the center . . Zaffar was getting frustrated . . he was advancing towards Pinaka . . but no soldier was engaging him in fierce battle . . after exchanging few blows each soldier was moving away from his position . . Zaffar was getting exhausted . . he stopped paying attention to his surroundings . .

All other men of Zaffar were engaged fiercely in battle . . Samyukta killed two of Zaffar's generals . . General Rudra Verma (Magadhan General) killed a dozen men . . he seemed to be everywhere . . his swordsmanship was flawless . . Prince Deepak and Surya (Samyukta's brothers) were engaged in battle and each one of them killed half a dozen men each . .

Zaffar's generals and his men were looking for Zaffar . . but they couldn't find him . . one of the generals saw Zaffar approaching Pinaka . . meanwhile he was also engaged by Samyukta . . 'this woman' . . he thought . . he never saw a woman who was such a fierce warrior . . she was fighting on and on . . killing each man and breaking enemy lines . . while she was driving everything forward Pinaka was standing in the middle without moving . . this was something which no one thought about . . why was the husband happy to sit cozily while the wife was moving forward striking down Zaffar's men?

Zaffar moved forward, he was completely exhausted . . . he exhanged blows with almost sixty men . . he was frustrated . . . that teasing smile on Pinaka's face was growing bigger . . he kept moving forward . . finally he approached Pinaka . . and was about to strike him . . suddenly there was a drum roll and Pinaka shouted . . 'in' all the soldiers who engaged Zaffar for so long turned inwards . .

Zaffar was utterly shocked . . what happened . . what was going on . . was he being lured inside . . Pinaka shouted, 'Zaffar is caught . . cease fire . . ' the battle stopped . . everyone stopped fighting . . Zaffar's men got perplexed . . what happened . . how was it possible . . Samyukta looked at Pinaka and smiled, she said to herself, 'finally he accomplished the Chakravyuha . . he was so obsessed with it . . '

Chakravyuha or Padmavyuha was a multi tiered defensive formation . This was impossible to decipher on field . . once someone enters it, it's next to impossible to escape . . the soldiers were arranged in increasing order of their strength . . as the enemy advances inside, the strength and the skill of the warriors he faced increases . . the warriors keep engaging the enemy briefly and keep drawing the enemy inside . . and move in a concentric circle . . each soldier is placed at two arms length from the other . . . once the enemy reaches the center of the formation, signal is given by the last soldier, then all the warriors present in the concentric layers face inside . . only then the enemy realises that he is trapped . .

Zaffar got trapped . . !

Chapter end