CHAPTER 294 A Druid's Wrath Unleashed
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CHAPTER 294 A Druid's Wrath Unleashed
297 AC
POV THIRD PERSON
Aermir was only going to give Toruin a slap on the wrist by taking him out of power until the end of the campaign by sending him to the Temple, but this guy didn't know when to stop. He truly believed he was so important in his clan and this army that he rebelled against Aermir.
Realizing the cancer growing inside his army, Aermir decided to take drastic action. Redsmiths had 400 men in the army, and he had to cut them off. In Earth's history, there was a reason people were hung in the town square in old times. He needed a public execution, but only killing Toruin wouldn't be enough deterrence for the future. He needed a Rains of Castamere that would be passed down to the next generations. He was going to make an example out of Redsmiths.
"I, the Druid of the Old Gods, cast Redsmiths out as oathbreakers! I forsake them to their fate. I do not take pity on you. Let the Old Gods decide your fate."
Aermir knew the clan didn't commit such a big crime, but if he only punished Toruin and his men, the rest of the clan would feel resentment since almost all of them were relatives. To cut off cancer, you had to cut off a little bit of healthy flesh, too.
He knew he was condemning all of the clan to ruin, but he had to make an example of them, as the Old Lion did. By killing them, he was saving tens of thousands who would come after them from making the same mistake.
He held Toruin by his long hair and started dragging him out of the camp as his men bowed and begged Aermir to take them back. Aermir was deaf to their plight. Some of the most loyal warriors among Toruin's men even attacked Aermir with the weapons and armor he provided them.
They were magical but not enough to pass Aermir's defense, as he was now. Even Valyrian Steel didn't have enough power to get past his defense in one shot, let alone these low-quality enchanted weapons. Because he had fought with them as a warrior without magic, some of them must forgotten the depths of his magic. His free palm glowed with flames and turned tens of men into charred corpses. Everyone with a normal enchanted weapon in Redsmiths was dead.
Now, he turned his attention to flawed prototype weapons carried by the normal soldiers of the Redsmiths. He pushed his mana toward the Redsmith camp like a great wave. As his mana passed over them, all the flawed weapons and armor started to react and explode like frag grenades.
Devastating the Redmist section of the camp. Screams of agony started to rise from the army since more than half of them were armed and ready to attack the castle upon Toruin's orders. Some lost an arm, and some got penetrated by many shrapnels. It was a hellscape; other clans started to pray to the Old Gods as they saw this sight. Aermir didn't let this change go to instill more fear into them.
"You dare and use the weapons and armor the Old Gods blessed against the Druid of Old Gods. Now! We can clearly see even the Old Gods forsaken your clan. You have no place in this holy army. Leave! I do not want to dirty my hand with your god-forsaken blood. Gods will give you the calamity you deserve. LEAVE!"
He turned to the rest of the army and shouted, "The rest of you get ready to march with the morning sun!"
...
The small number that didn't die when Aermir triggered the flawed enchanted weapons left the army, and they were a long way away from their village, and Aermir was going to make sure they were discovered by the Vale forces along the way. As for their village, he had pulled surveillance around it, but he didn't have it in him to pull Vale's attention to innocent children, women, and the elderly. So he decided to truly leave their fate to the gods. If they were discovered, they would most likely be decimated by the angry Vale houses.
...
As the mountain man army marched down, it was impossible for Aermir to conceal them without making it obvious the Druid was with them, so this gave House Belmore a day of preparations until the army reached the castle.
Within the walls of the castle, Lord Belmore and his advisors scrambled to organize their defense, knowing they faced overwhelming odds. They managed to collect a force of 2,000, but 1,500 of them were a mixture of new recruits and forced conscripts. One thousand of them were new recruits mustered with the orders of Lord Arryn, and they managed to do some forced conscription among the villagers who managed to run into the castle for safety.
As the enemy army drew nearer, panic gripped the surrounding villages. Only a fortunate few were able to seek refuge within the safety of the castle walls. The rest were left to fend for themselves against the merciless mountain men. Those villages who had the time got up and ran in the opposite direction, leaving everything behind.
Lord Belmore couldn't understand what was happening. All the information they had gathered showed the mountain men's army was marching towards the direction of Gulltown on the other side of the Vale, and Lord Arryn was on their tail in hot pursuit. They were waiting for good news from the ravens, but now, that army was marching towards his castle. All of his real soldiers were with his son, following Lord Arryn toward Gulltown, and all they had was the bare minimum for castle defenses.
...
As the mountain man army approached, the atmosphere within House Belmore's castle became tense and frantic. With only a day to prepare, they scrambled to ready the castle for a siege. The castle gates were secured, and the walls were reinforced with hastily constructed barricades. Lord Belmore rallied his men, instilling what courage he could muster as they prepared to face the onslaught.
As the sun almost dipped below the horizon, the mountain man army started to appear on the woodline, their presence looming like a dark cloud over the beleaguered castle. The army stayed just outside of their scorpion and ballista range and camped. As Lord Belmore inspected his men on the wall, all he could see in the eyes of those fresh recruits was fear. They were almost petrified with it.
He had to do something, and he got onto a ledge and started shouting what would happen if they didn't fight until the last men. What would the savages do to their loved ones if they didn't defend them? This fear had caused most of them to come to themselves, realizing they were the only thing between their families and death.