Ghostrider0002
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-Chapter 212-
🕑 Added 2024-12-04 00:42:33 +0000 UTC-Chapter 212-
-POV Benjen Stark-
"Ned," I said, grabbing my older brother in my arms, relieved to finally see him there.
'It was no longer possible to hold on with just the legionnaires,' I thought, happy to finally see the Lannister troops and Ned arrive.
"How are you?" he asked me.
I was about to answer, but I saw that he hadn’t come alone.
'Robb,' I thought, seeing the eldest of my nephews staring at me calmly.
'A cold look for such a young age,' I thought, understanding that he must have had his fair share of trials in life.
'The rebellion of Roose Bolton and the Greyjoys, no doubt, but this is the kind of look we need to fight the monsters that were still just stories for us all a few years ago,' I thought before finally answering my brother.
"I'm exhausted, as are my men, we all are," I said, as it was the plain truth. From the beginning, we had lost nearly three-quarters of the forces we had stationed here.
"How are you holding up?" my brother asked before adding, "You look awful."
I smiled sadly, truly exhausted, and said:
"What keeps us all awake and ready to fight at any moment is the horror we all feel at the thought of ending up as one of them, one of those monsters."
"So, he was right," Ned said, closing his eyes.
'What did you expect, brother?' I thought, slightly amused by his reaction.
"It was all true," I said, letting out a weary sigh, nearly despairing at the thought of having to fight those creatures again, before adding:
"The White Walkers, the dead that walk, the Night King, the giant spiders, it was all true."
"How did you manage to survive?" he asked me, looking at the few soldiers who remained in the fort.
"Luck, probably," I said, thinking back to all the soldiers who had left us.
'Men who sacrificed themselves for a cause far greater than their small lives,' I thought.
"But it’s largely thanks to the weapons, the Wildfire, and… of course, this," I added, touching the hilt of Dark Sister.
Ned nodded with a smile, then asked me:
"Is the Wildfire really that effective?"
I nodded quickly and said, "As soon as we use it, we prevent the army of the dead from throwing themselves at the Wall."
"Why?" Ned asked before adding, "Are they afraid of that fire?"
I shrugged, then said, "I don’t know if they’re afraid of it, but what I know is that it prevents most of the climbers from properly clinging to the walls because the ice they hold onto melts and crumbles, and they fall on their own."
"Then we’ll keep using it, and with our reinforcements, we will hold the Wall as long as needed," Ned said confidently.
I stifled a laugh in my throat, then said:
"Yes, but we won’t be able to keep wasting pots of Wildfire endlessly. In less than three weeks, we’ll be out."
"Aegon will send more pots," Ned said.
"I know, but he won’t be able to produce enough, we will inevitably have a deficit at some point," I said.
"Let’s not think about that for now, Aegon is fighting to end this war quickly. We will hold this wall as long as needed; we don’t have a choice anyway," Ned said.
"You’re right, brother," I said, nodding.
'With reinforcements, we’ll be able to hold for one, maybe two moons, even if we run out of Wildfire,' I thought.
Ned nodded and patted my shoulder.
As I was about to address my nephew, a young blond man, wearing red armor with lion ornaments on his breastplate, spoke from atop his horse:
"Where are my quarters?"
"Ser Lancel Lannister, if I remember correctly," I said, smiling at the young man who was leading thousands of Lannister soldiers.
The young man slightly raised his chin, proud to be recognized, and said:
"I was mandated by the mother of the crown prince of the Empire."
"Give my thanks to Cersei when you see her," I said, sincerely grateful.
Even though I suspected that Cersei would manage to leverage her aid in the future and gain considerably from it, even with Aegon, I was also fully aware of how bold it had been to show so much faith.
'Helping the "northern barbarians" repel an invasion that even Aegon fears, at the risk of losing her entire army, is audacious,' I thought.
"Follow me, I’ll show you your room," I said, deciding not to offend the young man who was only seeking a bit of recognition.
'There's no point in frustrating him, the dead will take care of that tonight,' I thought, indicating the path to him.
---
-POV Samwell Tarly-
I watched the sun begin to decline, a sign that the afternoon had started, and said as I heard the cries of the wounded being escorted to the quarters that had been turned into an infirmary:
"It will be over soon."
"I counted at least 3,000 wounded soldiers this morning, with 1,000 just in the last hour," Corian said, worrying about the growing number of wounded.
'At least 4,000 wounded soldiers, and 1,500 men in the last hour,' I thought, observing a soldier carried by four men hired in the city as stretcher bearers.
"If my calculations are correct and the number of our dead is about the same, we will undoubtedly lose our dominant position by the end of the day," Corian said.
'Surely not. My father may not be the ideal father, but he will hold until the end of the day,' I thought, keeping my thoughts to myself and listening instead to what everyone else had to say.
"And even if we lose the Wall?" Jonothor said, glaring defiantly at Corian.
'Oh no, not again,' I thought, seeing the two of them prepare once more for a cockfight.
"By the end of today, even if we lose the Wall, we will still defeat them."
"And how are you going to do that, smartass?" Corian said, trying to provoke Jonothor.
"Each of the legionnaires is worth at least ten of their men," Jonothor said, greatly exaggerating the strength of our men, as always.
Corian rolled his eyes, as we all did, then said with sarcasm:
"Yes, and you’re worth a hundred men."
"Do not insult me," Jonothor said, seriously annoyed, tensing all of us, before adding, shouting: "I’m worth at least a thousand of them!"
We all burst out laughing, even Corian, but I noticed that Trystan was elsewhere. He said:
"But if they entered the city, would it really be that bad?"
"What are you thinking?" I asked Trystan, as he was Aegon’s right hand.
'Too ambitious to be named in my place,' I thought, because I was aware that Aegon had made me commander-in-chief not only because of my lineage but also for my loyalty.
'He knows I would never take a position he didn’t give me,' I thought to myself.
"Of the lost siege tactic number seven," Trystan said.
I frowned, searching my memory, because it was one of the very first combat tactics we had learned with Aemon.
"The one with street fighting?" I asked.
"Exactly," Trystan said.
"It’s an old tactic we don’t use anymore. Our men aren’t familiar with it," Elric said, frowning.
"They don’t need to be, as long as the officers are," Trystan replied.
'And they are,' I thought, for most of the officers were former gold cloaks.
'The original army at the root of it all, the pillars of the Empire,' I thought, proud to be part of this army and of what my brothers in arms and I had accomplished.
"It’s risky and requires preparation," I said. Even if we managed to perfectly execute the plan put in place in this scenario, it didn’t necessarily mean we would win.
"But in case of victory…" Jordy said without finishing his sentence.
I nodded, then said, recognizing that it was perhaps a better idea than the one I had had:
"But in case of victory, we will manage to trap them in a deadly ambush, costing them half of their forces before they even fully enter the city."
"And that’s not all," Trystan said, building on my words.
"Go on," I said, curious about what he wanted to add.
Trystan took a deep breath and laid out his plan:
"If we manage to lock down an area near each gate where a legion would wait in ambush, while we position archers on rooftops and at windows, and then finish them off with a cavalry charge to plunge the enemy lines into chaos…"
'Hmm, quite similar to what I had imagined,' I thought, our ideas aligning.
"Hmm, I see where you’re going with this," I said thoughtfully.
"What do you think?" he asked me.
"It’s very risky, but with our advantage, we have a chance to put an end to the Free Cities' greedy ambitions," I said.
---
-POV Aegor Velaryon-
"ENEMY FLEET IN SIGHT, CAPTAIN!" yelled one of my men, watching the horizon from the top of the main mast.
'I have eyes,' I thought, seeing the smoke in the distance and the flames illuminating the dark late afternoon.
"To the oars!!!" I shouted, spotting a small group of ships trying to escape from this inferno of flames on the water.
Without hesitation, my men quickly moved to the bars, and once ready, they all looked at me, waiting for my command.
"Ready?"
"READY!!!" they all shouted in unison.
"Pull!!!" I shouted.
"PULL!!!" my men yelled back, pushing the bars forward and pulling them back.
DRUM SOUNDS
---
-POV Sardanorio Typaria-
'We absolutely need to break through this hell of flames, or we'll all be finished,' I thought, observing our proud fleet, once over 2,000 ships, now reduced to a mass of smoking ashes.
'Only half of our ships are left, we're scattered, and on top of that, we're out of projectiles. We’re sitting ducks now,' I thought.
DRAGON ROAR
The brown dragon swooped down on us, igniting another ten ships before ascending back into the clouds.
I looked at the sky and realized that the green dragon's rider, likely the Emperor of Westeros, must be exhausted after spending so much time on his dragon, as he hadn't descended from the sky for a while now.
"Captain!!" yelled a man I didn't know, as I had been rescued by this crew whose captain had been killed by a scorpion bolt fired from an allied ship.
'Fortunately, the projectile didn’t hit the mast but only shattered part of the upper deck, allowing us to still make our way out,' I thought.
"What is it?" I shouted.
The man gestured for me to look ahead, to the left, and that’s when I understood.
'He stopped attacking once we ran out of projectiles because he wanted to let his men finish us off once we were scattered and without command.'
I signaled to the captains of the other ships in our small fleet, now reduced to a mere fifteen warships, to look at what was coming.
'Just when I thought we had a glimmer of hope to escape,' I thought, utterly defeated, wondering why I had agreed to fight against the Dragon Emperor of Westeros.
'What madness.'
DRUM SOUNDS
"White flag," I said as I heard the drum sounds of the opposing fleet.
"What?" said my second-in-command, disbelief evident in his voice.
"RAISE THE WHITE FLAG!" I shouted, faced with the wide-eyed and stunned expressions of my men.
"But captain, we can't! We're still numerous, we outnumber them," my second-in-command said.
'Are you really that foolish?' I thought internally as I studied them properly.
"It’s pointless. We're scattered in this fiery inferno, and the smoke hides us from one another. We must surrender if we want to live," I said, utterly defeated and exhausted.
'There’s absolutely no point in continuing to fight when we have no hope of succeeding,' I thought.
My new crew frowned, but eventually, they nodded, and moments later, a white flag was hoisted, signaling our surrender.
'How can you defeat such gods of destruction?' I wondered, watching the dragon descend from the skies once again to unleash its destructive breath on ships trapped in the flames.
