The fires of battle blazed around Gendry as he swung his spiked warhammer and charged into the Second Sons.
Gendry was a tall, powerful knight, as were the knights of the Wolf Pack Company behind him, just as people imagined warriors from the North. He was simply fiercer and stronger. He was a descendant of the storm, and he would bring its greetings.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The Cat Company had never expected the Wolf Pack Company to launch such a savage frontal assault at dawn. After a moment of confusion, they unleashed a swift, forceful volley of arrows, but it failed to slow the Wolf Pack Company. Bloodbeard was cruel, but he had plenty of battle experience.
"Long live the Wolf Pack!" The knights of the Wolf Pack Company gathered beneath the Wolf Pack Banner, each clad in black or grey-white plate or plated scale armor. Such equipment might have been reserved for House Stark in the North, but in the wealthy Disputed Lands, the Wolf Pack Company had forged an armored iron fist.
Amid the mournful calls of war horns, the arrowhead formation led by Gendry and Long Spear proved unstoppable, cutting cleanly through the Second Sons' lines.
Crash! The warhammer in Gendry's hands struck with tremendous force, whether he was defending or attacking. Along his path, it brought nothing but death. Knights of the Second Sons who blocked his way often had their heads smashed apart or their chests caved in, their ribs and hearts shattered.
Gendry crushed every knight who dared resist. He sought only to kill. He struck heads, hearts, throats, and spines. Every swing landed just where it should, as though he had rehearsed it hundreds or thousands of times. It was like forging iron. Unfortunately, men were not steel and could not withstand his blows.
His horse was a fine Dornish steed; its rider was a warrior of the storm. Sweeping strikes, crushing blows, blocks, guards, counters-every attack the Stag made was simple and direct, yet held the essence of a warrior's craft. He was simply faster, taller, stronger, and more powerful than others.
Talent mattered in every human pursuit, and so did training. Steady practice could produce a first-rate expert, but surpassing that level required a little talent. Gendry possessed exceptional talent for combat, along with countless hours of training. He had the potential to become a shining example among warriors.
"Long live the Wolf Pack!" The Wolf Pack knights reveled in the slaughter, and the Second Sons had already broken and scattered. Their equipment was terrible, with nothing to distinguish it.
At the sight of those savage Wolf Pack knights, the knights of the Second Sons began scattering for their lives. They might have been poor at fighting head-on, but they were quite skilled at running away.
"Form up! Form a defensive line!" Mero, captain of the Second Sons, shouted while sending men to seek the Cat Company's protection.
"Useless! A pack of useless fools!" The broken-sword banner fluttered wildly in the wind as the Second Sons' riders fled with it in disarray. Their defensive line teetered on the brink of collapse, while shield-wielding Wolf Pack infantry pushed out of the Firepowder Herb Estate, followed by Free Army soldiers forming up behind them.
Bloodbeard finally made up his mind. He could not watch the Second Sons be destroyed; it would shake the army's morale. Unfortunately, the Long Spear Company could not be deployed.
"Go rescue the Second Sons. I want them alive!" Bloodbeard sent a hundred and fifty riders and several hundred free mercenaries to reinforce them.
"The rest of the cavalry and infantry, advance with me! Once the Unsullied form their tortoise-shell shield formation, we're all finished. Push forward and smash their front line. Those few hundred horsemen may beat the Second Sons, but they'll still lose everything."
Mero, the Titan's Bastard, watched the Second Sons fleeing or falling apart. This was an army of slick operators, failures, and liars, but it was also his hope.
Mero shouted and yelled, desperately begging for aid.
But the mail-clad Titan's Bastard had drawn someone's attention. Mero came from Braavos. He was tall, with pale green eyes and a thick red-gold beard that reached his waist.
Long Spear charged over, bringing a whirlwind of death as he thrust at the captain of the Second Sons.
"Damn it, where's the Cat Company? That bastard Bloodbeard!" Furious, Mero drew his steel sword and shouted. He raised his shield to fend off Long Spear's relentless thrusts. Yet despite blocking left and right, he took a strike beneath his right armpit, and blood immediately poured out.
"Bastard!" The Titan's Bastard struggled with the pain, slowing slightly. But Long Spear's weapon kept whistling toward him.
Mero raised his shield, but Long Spear nimbly shifted his angle and tore a piece of flesh from his throat. Terrified, the Titan's Bastard prepared to flee to the Cat Company in the center.
But a black steed had somehow blocked Mero's escape. Beneath his crude iron mask, the alpha wolf swung his spiked hammer down with unstoppable force.
The wounded Mero endured the pain and blocked the first blow, but its sheer force knocked his sword from his hand. Gendry followed with several crushing blows, each harder than the first. His warhammer smashed through Mero's helmet and shattered his skull. Blood, brains, and bone fragments flew, and Mero fell like a little mountain.
"The Titan's Bastard is dead!"
"The Titan's Bastard is dead!"
The Cat Company's knights and the free knights arriving to help saw the bloody scene and dared not advance. They could only help gather the survivors. When the Second Sons finally re-formed their defensive line, the Wolf Pack knights abruptly changed direction and charged toward Myr's Three Daughters.
The Wolf Pack Company's heavily armored knights swept like a gale through the Second Sons, free mercenaries, and slave soldiers guarding the Three Daughters' Trebuchets.
"We surrender!" "We surrender!" The slaves shouted and began turning their weapons on the Second Sons and the free mercenaries.
The Wolf Pack Company's knights howled through like a storm, easily routing the Trebuchets' guards. They used chains to drag down the Wolfslayer, while the slave soldiers willingly toppled the Glory of Myr and the Lady of Myr.
The free mercenaries scattered and fled, while the Second Sons' sellswords followed another man's lead and surrendered to Gendry alongside the runaway slaves.
The sellsword leading the Second Sons had a broad face, brown skin, a broken nose, thick grey hair, and large black almond-shaped eyes inherited from his Dothraki mother. Wrinkles creased their corners.
"We surrender to the great Liberator, the alpha wolf, Commander-in-Chief of the Wolf Pack Company and the Free Army!"
"Who are you?" Gendry asked.
"Ben Plumm, at your service, an unworthy member of the Second Sons. My comrades hold me in esteem and have asked me to surrender to the Wolf King on their behalf!"
"Good. Mero is dead. Gather your banners and attack the Cat Company with me. You're fairly good at running away, but now I want you to attack!" Gendry pointed his hammer at Brown Ben.
"Rest assured, Wolf King. The Second Sons always stand with the victors," Brown Ben called.
Everyone spurred their horses into a gallop toward the rear of the Cat Company and the free mercenaries ahead. The fires of battle burned ever fiercer.
Mournful horns sounded, and the warriors' voices thundered. To the west, the longbowmen and shield bearers unleashed a rain of arrows under the Arrow Maker's direction. To the east, the shield formation was complete, and its spears pressed irresistibly toward Bloodbeard.
Then there were the Three Daughters. The fall of the three Trebuchets dealt a devastating blow to the Myrmen's morale. Many free mercenaries had already broken free of the Myrish overseers' control and scattered for their lives.
"Useless!" "Useless!" Bloodbeard's eyes were bloodshot, and he raged furiously.
"The Trebuchets fell just like that! Are the Second Sons, those free mercenaries, and the slave soldiers all useless?" Bloodbeard shouted. He felt his formation nearing collapse. Now it was the Cat Company facing annihilation.
"The Second Sons have turned on us! They're cutting off our retreat from behind with the Wolf Pack and the slave soldiers!"
"Captain, the Long Spear-the Long Spear Company has started attacking us too!"
Bloodbeard's vision darkened. He had known these men could not be trusted. He should have waited. Waited for the stronger Windblown or the Golden Company.
"Captain, let's retreat!"
"The men are wavering. At this rate, we'll all die here!"
"Retreat!" Bloodbeard gritted his teeth. Running was better than losing his entire army.
"Bad news! Bad news! The scouts in the rear have spotted banners-the Golden Company's! They've brought elephants too!"
"What?" Bloodbeard hurriedly looked back. This news was even more devastating.
The skull-bearing banners fluttered high, and the massive elephants grew clearer in Bloodbeard's sight.
The Golden Company had refused to join the Myrmen's attack and instead embraced the Wolf Pack.
It's over. It's all over! Bloodbeard trembled.
Chapter 52: The Wolf Pack and the Golden Company
Beneath the Golden Company's banners, its knights charged furiously into battle, striking Bloodbeard's Cat Company and the free mercenaries led by the Myrmen from behind. The Golden Company's elephants proved especially effective.
Bloodbeard and the Myrmen's offensive collapsed, and the free mercenaries fled heedlessly. Both the Long Spear Company and the Second Sons had surrendered to the Wolf Pack Company's side and were attacking the Cat Company and the Myrmen.
On a small hill, the Golden Company's senior commanders gathered to watch the battle shift. Their arrival had sealed the Cat Company's doom.
A gilded skull crowned every spear around them. One skull was especially large and misshapen, while the head beneath it was only the size of a child's fist: Maelys the Monstrous and his nameless brother. The other skulls had few distinguishing features, though some had been cracked by fatal hammer blows, and another had neat rows of sharp teeth.
"They've won beautifully! The Wolf Pack Company's elite troops are formidable. They have that northern spirit. I never expected them to train runaway slaves so well," said Gorys Edoryen, the Golden Company's Volantene paymaster.
Lansono Marr, their Lysene spymaster, added, "Bloodbeard may be crude and bloodthirsty, but he's no fool. This boy knows a thing or two about war. His harassment, flanking maneuvers, and use of cavalry are all excellent. Even without our help, Bloodbeard would have been hard-pressed to escape death. He's capable enough to work with us."
"Your ideas are too risky!" Their homeless Commander-in-Chief, Harry, sighed. He was the Golden Company's captain, but he feared war. Homeless Harry did not look like a warrior. He was fat, with a large round head, pale grey eyes, and thinning hair combed over his bald scalp. "When the Liberator's-when this boy's enemies, the slave masters and governors, descend on him from every direction, what use will a handful of slaves be?"
"We have no choice, Harry! The butter and cheese merchants of the Free Cities can give us money, but they won't provide any other help!" Franklin Flowers argued.
"Helping the Wolf Pack means offending all our major clients! If the Liberator and the Wolf Pack Company's game of freeing slaves fails, he'll be ruined before we reach Westeros." Harry looked dejected.
"Stick to the plan!" Harry cleared his throat.
"What plan? Yours or the fat man's? We've had enough of wandering. Maelys Blackfyre crossed the sea with the help of the other Copper Kings, and we can too. The Wolf Pack fights well, and these slaves are an endless supply of soldiers. Once the Liberator takes the Disputed Lands and Myr, he can help us cross the sea as well."
"Robert Baratheon won the Iron Throne without dragons. We can do it too. Even if things go wrong and the people refuse to rise, we can still retreat across the Narrow Sea, just as Bittersteel and the others did."
Harry shook his head. "The risks involved-"
"--aren't that great. We haven't broken a contract or signed any agreement with the Myrmen. We've merely shown the Liberator some goodwill and crushed Bloodbeard. Sellsword companies attack each other all the time. The Myrmen are certain to suffer a disastrous defeat in this battle, and the Cat Company will be destroyed. If the Liberator seizes the opportunity to crush the Three Daughters, we'll formally cooperate with him. If his luck turns and the Three Daughters want to crush him, they'll have to rely on us even more and court our favor. We'll get more gold. It's a win-win. We come out ahead either way!"
"So now we need to charge!" Franklin Flowers laughed loudly. "Let's all work together and do the Liberator a small favor first. The boy has courage. He's a real man!"
Then Peake said, "I'd rather die in Westeros than grow old and die in the Disputed Lands, leaving my children to keep wandering." Marco Mandak chuckled in reply, "As for me, I'd rather live happily, enjoying rich estates and a great castle."
Franklin Flowers slapped his sword hilt and cried, "Let's help the Wolf King first. I still want to kill a few rotten Fossoway apples!"
Their captain looked as though someone had slapped him. "You've all lost your minds!"
One after another, the Golden Company's officers raised their arms and charged downhill. The last to do so was their captain, Homeless Harry.
Defeat swept through the army like a landslide. Bloodbeard saw the Wolf Pack Company's formations advancing: its heavily armored infantry and the Free Army's lightly armored foot soldiers. He saw wandering sellswords throw away their armor and weapons and flee into the surrounding woods and fields.
Even Bloodbeard's elite vanguard was collapsing. The shield formation of the Wolf Pack Company and the Free Army opened out, and cheering soldiers surged forward beneath grey-white Wolf Pack Banners. Axes, warhammers, greatswords, and spears raised death's smile.
"It worked!" Gendry breathed a sigh of relief. The Free Army soldiers' formation was, at best, a lesser version of the Unsullied's. Producing Unsullied was far too inhumane and enormously expensive. That was why he needed the Wolf Pack cavalry and infantry to strike first, giving the others time to form up.
Nearby, the longbowmen unleashed volley after volley under the Arrow Maker's command, their arrows falling like rain.
"Long live the Wolf Pack!"
"Long live the Liberator!" Steel Fist led the Wolf Pack infantry, while Grey Wolf led the Free Army. Their formations surged like a flood, and the Cat Company and Myrish sellswords who tried to resist were quickly swallowed by the slaughter.
Bloodbeard seethed. I've lost this battle, but I still have a chance. I'll return to Myr, recruit more men, and take my revenge.
Bloodbeard galloped toward the rear, but his appearance was far too conspicuous. He was a loud, savage brute, tall and broad-shouldered, with a thick beard, fiery red whiskers, and a long braid.
Bloodbeard and Gendry met beside a small river, with the fierce fires of battle burning around them.
"Boy, you've ruined me. Now I'll ruin you!" Bloodbeard shouted.
Bloodbeard drew his longsword, turning it into a blur of menacing shadows. His blade was swift and vicious.
Gendry raised his warhammer and swiftly met him. He countered first, then feinted before swinging a savage blow at Bloodbeard from the other side. Bloodbeard slashed at his face, but Gendry dodged with a cat's agility.
The warhammer drove toward Bloodbeard's heart, heavy and brutal. Bloodbeard hastily dodged, but it struck his ribs, nearly overwhelming him. He endured the pain and slashed with his longsword. Gendry evaded the first strike, blocked the second, then parried the third thrust aimed at his center. They moved so quickly that onlookers could barely follow.
Crack! The warhammer whistled terribly and struck Bloodbeard's ribs on the other side. Bones broke, and his plate armor caved in. Fighting through the pain, Bloodbeard twisted hard and drew another curved blade from his saddle, dark and patterned—a Valyria steel arakh. He slashed at Gendry's face.
"Die!" Gendry evaded the slash. Bloodbeard had slowed. Gendry's warhammer struck his temple, leaving a deep dent in his helmet. Bloodbeard fell to the ground, bloody bubbles rising from his mouth.
Gendry picked up Bloodbeard's arakh. The long blade was dark as black smoke. The Windblown supposedly had one too. This was an unexpected prize.
But why had Bloodbeard not used the arakh from the start? Perhaps he preferred his longsword. After all, the Dothraki were the best at wielding arakhs. Or perhaps he had underestimated Gendry and saved it as his killing trump card.
The cavalry continued their thundering charge, swallowing Bloodbeard's corpse beneath hooves, sharp blades, and fury.
"Fine steel indeed!" The Golden Company's knights rode up to Gendry and praised him. They had witnessed the swift, savage duel that had reduced Bloodbeard to ruined flesh on the ground.
Chapter 53: Sweeping Through the Disputed Lands
The wedge-shaped column led by Gendry pierced the enemy formation like a sharp spearhead. Gendry had killed Bloodbeard, and the knights of the Second Sons, the Long Spear Company, and the Golden Company joined his slaughter. Iron armor and steel fists-this was a storm of knights.
"Long live the Wolf Pack!"
"Long live the Free Army!"
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