Chapter 170

As it turned out, Lord Bolton needed no help from him at all and he and his men had already dealt with the surprise night raid by the time they came to help him.

"Cave Dwellers." Lord Bolton explained as he pointed at the corpses on the snowy ground, making him feel a slight nausea at the sight and smell. Oh god the smell.

If Lord Bolton noticed how uncomfortable he felt around so many dead bodies, he didn't comment on it. Something he was grateful for.

"Some five hundred of them attacked us at night. Hoping to take us by the surprise in the darkness." Lord Bolton said and stabbed a man in the back who shuddered one more time before going still. "Our wargs saw them coming from miles away. These fools never stood a chance. I would pity them if they had not managed to kill a dozen of my men."

A dozen of men in exchange for 500 of the enemies. He wondered how well trained the Bolton men were to sustain such a low number of causalities.

Taking a proper look at the corpses, he noticed that they were dressed in crudely made furs that looked like it had not been washed for decades and held stone weapons.

He looked around and noticed that only a few of the cave dwellers even had any proper weapon. None had any armor. He was not surprised that they were decimated against the Bolton army which was well trained and well armored.

Though he was sure that they story would be slightly different if the warg had not noticed the attackers. Wargs truly did made for excellent scouts.

Maybe he should stop listening to his mother's continous warnings and ask one of Lord Bolton's warg to teach them the art of warging.

"Didn't the cave dwellers lived a 100 miles to the west?" he asked, wondering if he had read the map incorrectly.

"128 miles West-North from here in the Frozen mountains. Yes. You have good memory Robb Stark." Lord Bolton said and he felt his chest swell in pride even if Lord Bolton was able to recall the exact location of the Cave Dwellers from their present location. "I did not expect to see them here, let alone get attacked by them when they were so outnumbered. They must be desperate."

He looked at their lack or armor and proper weapon and frowned "Why would they attack us when we not only outnumber them but also have better weapons and armor?" Though even as he asked that, he was ashamed that he was only wearing a leather gambeson as he wearing the steel armor would take a lot of time.

Lord Bolton on the other hand was wearing his strange armor which covered him from head to toe. Covered with the blood of the fallen foes along with a sword that was equally covered with blood, he made for quite a sight in the moonlight.

He wondered if Lord Bolton slept with his armor on and if he should do the same.

"They're ignorant. Never leaving the safety of their caves and venturing out in the world. They probably saw our steel and were overcome by greed. Or perhaps it was our food and warm clothes. Take heed Robb. Sometimes an ignorant foe who doesn't know or fear you can be much more dangerous than a wise enemy who knows when to stay away." Lord Bolton stabbed another Cave Dweller on the back but this one was already dead.

"Plus. No one ever accused the cave dwellers of being very smart." Lord Bolton said as he casually stepped over the corpse and went looking for any survivor like so many other Bolton men were doing around them. "People say that centuries of living in the same caves and having incest with their mother, sister and daughters have dulled their brain. You'll not hear me arguing with those people."

Even if he could not see Lord Bolton's face, he could feel him smile from underneath his helmet.