Indra watched the occupants as they left his office one by one, then the old guard followed his orders and took the prisoner with him, closing the door as he left. Indra was now alone in his office, with his guards and his thoughts.

  "That prisoner was very foul-mouthed, wasn't she?", Indra said to himself quite loudly. He was going through some files and records for almost an hour now.

  Kumarsen, one of the guards of Indra, looked at his companion, Vajrabahu, he was acting a little strange tonight. Kumarsen watched Indra scribbling something on the paper, signing it and stamping the paper with royal stamp. He stood there without moving a muscle as Indra tidied his workbench and went through the signed document last time. Then he placed that document in a folder and stood up to leave. After the king leaves his office, an attendant will dampen the lights in the office. It was all a routine, Kumarsen though, just like puppets following their instructions.

  As Indra rose from his chair, Kumarsen heard a slight 'cling'. He looked at direction of the sound and saw metal claws, extending the gloves of the armor of Vajrabahu. Vajrabahu swung the claws towards Indra, but Kumarsen swiftly pulled Indra towards him.

  "What are you doing Vajra?", shouted Kumarsen as he pulled his shield to protect the king. Both of them started to retreat towards the door.

  In a quick leap, Vajarabahu covered the distance between himself and his companion who was shielding his target. Vajrabahu attacked again with his claws, Kumarsen blocked the blow again with his shield, other hand keeping the king at the safe distance. Both of them were slowly retreating towards the door.

  After a couple of blows, claws finally broke the shield. Kumarsen now drew his sword and started to parry the attacks of his companion. With his prey in sight, Vajrabahu started attacking more viciously. After parrying several blows, Kumarsen finally got a slight opening. He attacked Vajrabahu's elbow, which was a lightly guarded part of armor to accommodate the movement. His sword hit the right spot but to his surprise, that part was armored with small chains. It defied the design of traditional 'King's Guard' armor. Indra drew his sword and aimed for the neck, another part or armor lightly guarded from front to accommodate movement. To both of their surprise, this part was also armored with small chains.

  Vajrabahu again attacked with his claws, aiming for Kumarsen rather than Indra. Kumarsen was too slow to parry the attack this time. The claws cut through the armor like it was made up of paper, piercing deeper into Kumarsen's abdomen.

  Kumarsen shrieked in pain, blood was flowing out of his wound. He still held his sword tightly and effectively placed himself between Indra and the beast which was once his friend, his companion.

  The door was still a few steps away, stone walls made sure that no sound escapes the room.

  "Don't you think we deserve a better king, Kumar? One that actually listens the complaints of ordinary public? someone like Lord Ravan?", said Vajrabahu, walking towards them menacingly.

  "TRAITOR!!!", roared Kumarsen as he ran towards Vajrabahu swinging his sword ferociously. Vajrabahu dodged a few blows, took a few blows directly on his armor. His armor was extraordinarily strong. Vajrabahu caught Kumarsen's blow in his claws and twisted it, which broke the sword. With light steps Kumarsen backed off from Vajrabahu dodging his attack along the way.

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  Indra took advantage of this distraction and slammed a wooden chair on Vajra's back. This sudden attack stumbled Vajrabahu as he lost his balance and fell with a loud thud.

  Indra rushed towards Kumarsen who was struggling to stand his ground, standing in pool of his own blood.

  "You must leave, majesty, I will stop him until then", urged Kumarsen as he drew his dagger. Well, there was some truth in his words, Indra can come back with more guards to handle this monster. So Indra started to rush towards the door.

  It took some time for Vajrabahu to stand up again, the armor although strong, was pretty heavy. He saw Indra running and threw his dagger which narrowly escaped Indra's thighs, but still left a deep cut as it flew by. Indra screamed in agony and fell on the ground.

  Watching his king fall, Kumarsen's blood boiled with anger. His sole duty was to protect the majesty and he is clearly failing to do that. Ignoring the pain he ran towards Vajrabahu, roaring like a lion he jumped, using a sofa to elevate the height of leap to match the height of Vajrabahu, he landed a powerful blow on Vajrabahu's helmet, ignoring the pain in his broken fingers. What's pain to man who accepted his death.

  Vajra's helmet flew away leaving his face unprotected. Landing on his feet, Kumarsen threw the dagger, aiming for his face. The dagger pierced Vajrabahu's left eye, he instinctively pulled the dagger from his eye socket leading to fountain of blood sprinkling from the hole where once was an eye.

  Indra was slowly limping towards the door but Vajrabahu decided to deal with his 'pet' first and moved his concentration from Indra to Kumarsen, who was now out of weapons, barely standing his ground by taking support of cupboard. Vajrabahu strode towards Kumarsen, cussing. Kumarsen was standing there without resisting or trying to back off, his eyes beaming with determination and relief. Determined to buy as much time as possible to let his majesty escape this monster, relieved by the fact that he will be remembered as a hero who completed his duty even in death.

  Kumarsen first met Vajrabahu in cadet camp, they used to share same tent, making them friends. There was something different about Vajrabahu, Kumarsen just wasn't able to pinpoint it. They both topped the cadet exam, sharing the first spot. They both got selected into the army and got placed in same battalion. Their friendship grew over time, they fought battles together, climbed the ranks together. Over time, they got tag of dynamic duo. This dynamic duo then successfully carried out most dangerous missions, the ones no one dared to participate in. There was still something different about Vajrabahu, Kumarsen still wasn't able to pinpoint it, but they always got each other's back so Kumarsen stopped giving it a thought. When they qualified for the 'King's Guard' position, they partied all night in local tavern.

  But tonight, what he saw in the eye of Vajrabahu helped him pinpoint the 'difference', one was driven by glory and other was driven by bag.

  Grabbing his throat, Vajrabahu lifted Kumarsen. Indra watched in terror as another pair of claws came out from gloves of Vajrabahu. Indra screamed for help as Vajrabahu impaled Kumarsen on his claws and started to run towards door. Vajrabahu quickly grabbed a chair and threw it towards Indra who was now inches away from the door. The chair hit Indra on his head, his head started spinning and he felt darkness surrounding him. His grip on door handle loosened as he fell backwards on his head, pulling the door with him. He screamed again "HELP!!!!", uniting all his might, after that everything went dark.

  "No one is coming to save you, Indra", said Vajrabahu as he dragged Indra back towards his work desk.

  The door swung wide open, Vajrabahu looked back in surprise and saw the prisoner and the old guard standing in the doorway.