Chapter 127 - Artican Trade in Westeros 54 (Oldtown 04).
[Chapter Size: 3000 Words.]
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Pessoa Thrid POV
Westeros, 295 AC.
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There was nothing left there, everyone was dead, while the archers at the top of the room had been killed after numerous cuts, experiencing terrible terror as soon as they raised their crossbows against the Articans and didn't even have time to release their bolts.
Jon and his group started to leave the room after that, they still had an entire city to conquer. As they began to pass through the corridors of the place, they quickly started descending, with some guards reacting and clearing the way.
They passed by servants and other maesters hidden in various corners looking at the Artican soldiers in fear while trembling in some of the corners. Jon ignored them and asked his men to head outside, while they were heading for the entrance. Passing by a few more people, they finally emerged in the middle of the courtyard while their men were surrounded by at least 2,000 men with the other side shouting orders to the soldiers of Oldtown.
The presence of Jon emerging with his cloak covered in blood was quickly noticed as the enemy soldiers saw him approaching his men with his guards. Seizing the moment, he took off his cloak while finally revealing his hidden armor.
"Everyone at my signal!!!" Jon shouted, concentrating a bit of magic in his throat, as his voice echoed across the courtyard.
"Attention!!" The commanders of the Artican groups exclaimed as all the soldiers made a synchronized movement, emitting a sound of footsteps and metal clashing against their shields and armors.
'Had they killed all the maesters and septons?!' The man at the front of his soldiers looked at Jon with a furrowed brow as his soldiers came out in large numbers from the citadel, bathed in blood, shivering at the thought of what had happened inside. His gaze went upward as thousands of birds flew over the citadel, making him even more terrified of the Artican king being really the sorcerer of the rumors. He soon resumed his posture and began shouting at his men.
"Prepare to attack, prepare to attack!!!" The enemy commander exclaimed immediately as the soldiers readied themselves, a bit nervous, after all, they were not as heavily armored as the hundreds of soldiers in front of them, mostly wearing only leather armors, regardless of whether they could win this battle, they knew many of them would be killed.
What they hadn't imagined was how wrong they would be in their misery, because Jon didn't just count on these soldiers. The people of the city soon began to realize that something was wrong.
"The city is under attack!!" Common people began to scream in the middle of the streets, running, while others also frightened started to run as well, knowing that something wasn't right there.
This began to spread like fire. "The savages killed the maesters and septons!!!"
"Run!!"
"We have to get out of the city!!"
"They're going to kill us!!"
The people as one continued running trying to protect themselves while the rumors of what had happened in the citadel quickly spread.
"Quick!! Send a raven to Highgarden!!" The brother of Lord Hightower exclaimed, he had a tone of urgency, as he began to hear the screams of the city with people shouting at that moment.
'It wasn't supposed to happen like this!!' He exclaimed internally, seeing that the situation was not good for them. Wondering what had happened in the citadel, after all, he still had no idea that his trap had backfired and numerous bodies were scattered in that room.
While at the port, the screams arrived, and the soldiers a bit away from the Artican ships heard all that shouting. "My lord... what should we do?!" A soldier sought guidance from the commander of those troops, as he furrowed his brow at that.
"Prepare the troops!! We're going to fight the enemies from the port!! The order is to eliminate everyone, hear me!!" He exclaimed confidently, before aiding the troops in the citadel, he had to eliminate the Artican boats, and he was confident with 2,000 men with him, scattered across the areas, as they began to gather.
"It seems they finally came..." A warg started to command and the soldiers began to make a front to the ships. "They are going to launch fire arrows to try to destroy our ships, dwarfs, prepare the Dwindlers!" The captain shouted, as the dwarfs prepared some strange equipment on the deck of the ship, the giants began to move forward, being the first barrier against the enemies with their spears and shields.
The port began to become the stage for two groups as one prepared to fight the other, while the men of Oldtown began to surround them with people running from there to avoid getting caught in the heavy conflict, a wall of giants had started to stand between the ships.
For the Oldtown soldiers, it was 5,000 soldiers against 500 Articans, with 2,000 of them facing the group in front of the citadel, another 2,000 were at the port, while the last thousand were scattered throughout the city, but most began to concentrate at the main gate, after all, there was a group of a thousand Articans preparing to attack them from that side.
Everything seemed fine for the soldiers, with a victory in sight, while no real movement had yet begun on all sides of the city, but something began to change now, as a man on top of a building looked scared towards the sea.
"Lord Commander!!! A fleet of ships is emerging from the sea!!!" He exclaimed in fright as the horizon line began to be filled with countless ships, starting to appear as small dots and becoming larger.
"What?! Are they coming to the city?!" The commander furrowed his brow as he saw that the situation was not good, since he had no idea how the ships were coming here at this exact moment.
"We have to eliminate them before the ships reach the port, archers!!" He exclaimed urgently, as hundreds of archers began to prepare arrows with flames at the tip, to burn the ships before they fought against that wall of giants.
"Ready!!" He exclaimed as they quickly prepared, pointing their bows upwards with the tips of their arrows burning.
"Prepare the Dwindlers!!" The royal guard, who was responsible for commanding that force, exclaimed, while all 10 Artican ships had at least 10 Dwindlers each, with the dwarves preparing to launch them, being an equipment exclusive to the race prepared in Artica.
"Fire!!!" The commander of the Oldtown forces exclaimed, and a line of arrows was launched into the sky while burning. They passed the wall of giants with ease, as they were launched towards the ships.
The dwarves adjusted the Dwindlers and did not even need a command to activate the device, which launched a spinning line of steel into the air. It was at least 5 meters wide, advancing towards the rain of arrows.
"What is that?!" The enemy commander looked at it, surprised, not knowing exactly what it was.
But the next moment, they knew, because that spinning thing in the air, collided with the arrows and quickly destroyed them with the collision, at least 98% of the hundreds of arrows were destroyed by 50 of those spinning things in the air.
This is a defensive device used to intercept arrows, but also an offensive weapon, after all, its blades continued spinning as they began to fall and could shred anything they touched.
"It's coming this way!!!" The commander felt fear in his heart seeing those 50 things starting to cover them.
"Take cover!!!" He shouted, hoping that the soldiers would raise shields while some ran into houses.
In the next moment, chaos began as the soldiers barely had time to react with those things falling on top of them, shredding them as they exploded on the ground, the shields were of no use, with them being split by the steel blades and people being cut into several pieces and dismembered.
It was a scene of terror for the men of Oldtown, seeing at least hundreds of soldiers being killed in such a horrible way or even the houses and buildings being practically destroyed around them with those things hitting the place.
The giants saw the whole scene of death there, but remained stationary while they continued protecting the ships.
"Well... it's time to start..." Jon murmured seeing the situation at the port, he had 200 soldiers there and 300 with him, so it was time to face the 2,000 soldiers in front of him.
"Prepare for combat!!" Jon exclaimed while the enemy commander looked towards the sound of destruction coming from the port, not knowing exactly what was happening there and had to prepare to face the Artican soldiers there.
At the same instant, the sounds of explosions of debris from the port were heard by the soldiers on the wall preparing to protect the ships from those men, it was a thousand against a thousand, with them having the advantage as they were on the defensive.
"What's happening there..." murmured one of the soldiers at the front of the wall.
"Sir...! Look at the soldiers, they're making some movement!" A soldier pointed towards the outside of the city, the soldiers had not yet started to advance, but saw some war equipment being brought to the front of the group.
"What is that? Some kind of catapult?" murmured the knight who was the commander protecting the gate, not having a very good feeling about this.
"Prepare to launch and blow up the gate!" the commander spoke as the giants prepared arrows with wildfire to destroy the gate, without the men above the wall knowing exactly what was happening there.
"But first, let's eliminate those men on top of the wall." He spoke as Eldric and other archers skilled in handling Artican bows began to march forward, reaching at least 200 meters from the walls, still out of range of the soldiers there.
"Hey, why do they think we're going to receive their arrows?" The knight wondered, looking at the strange behavior of these enemies. He looked at his soldiers and also gave an order.
"Prepare arrows, fire!" He shouted as at least 400 archers above those walls launched their arrows, which fell far short of the Artican archers.
"Prepare arrows!" It was Eldric who shouted, after all, the commander would be with the giants tens of meters behind, while the archers prepared their Weirwood bows, aiming upwards. "Fire!" A much louder explosive sound than that of the archers on the walls echoed through the area as the arrows flew to a point and began to descend.
"Wait!!! How is that possible?!" The knight above the wall exclaimed, already calculating the trajectory of those arrows falling on them in the next moment.
The arrows quickly began to pierce the soldiers with leather armors as they tried to protect themselves, there were not only archers there, so at least 200 Artican arrows managed to hit mostly those men. Not all could protect themselves among the masonry of the battlements on the wall.
"This..." The knight saw many of his men dying around him as he managed to protect himself. "Get most off the wall, keep only a number that can protect themselves from the arrows!" He exclaimed, frightened by the range of those soldiers.
"Aim!!!" The royal guard gave the order as the giant soldiers prepared devices with cylinders of wildfire.
"FIRE!!!!" He shouted and numerous harpoons exploded from there, passing the carts left by the merchants and exploding against the wood of the wall, spreading a blue liquid, being the version 2 wildfire created by Jon.
"What is this thing?! Why are they launching this?!" The knight was increasingly lost with the actions of that group, wondering what it was, after all, no one there knew what wildfire was.
In another moment, Eldric launched a fire arrow, colliding with the blue liquid, causing a huge explosion that not only covered the gate, but the wall itself, and the carts of people who had left them there, destroying everything in the next moment in highly explosive and expansive green fire.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!
The sound of explosions with debris being rapidly destroyed echoed to the entire city with the fire rising. The soldiers of Oldtown, both from the port, in front of the citadel, and others scattered throughout the city, looked towards that side at that moment, with the flames being seen and the people of the city becoming even more panicked everywhere.
"This-This!!" Lord Hightower's brother trembled, stuttering as he saw the explosion happening there. His gaze also went to the sea, while the ships began to emerge on the horizon.
"My lord... I fear the city will not withstand..." The equally trembling maester said, stuttering as he saw the city being invaded from all sides. "The news has arrived that the savages have killed all the maesters and septons, they are going to eliminate us all!!!" The maester exclaimed after just hearing about the massacre that had happened in the citadel, he never imagined hearing something like this in his life.
"Let's try to negotiate... it's our only choice, the letter I sent won't arrive in time for them to do something... the city will be taken over much before that..." He admitted, defeated... Not knowing that his raven was already in the claws of one of Jon's eagles at that moment.
Jon looked satisfied at the explosion; it wouldn't take long for them to finish off the city's resistance, but he wanted to minimize the number of Articans injured in this fight. 'It's time to start...' Jon murmured internally, and his eyes began to glow.
All the animals, whether in the city or in the sky, began to move strangely, groups of dogs ran from their dens, rats came out of their sewers, and even cats left the rooftops of houses starting to follow the crowd of animals, while they ignored the common people running. The birds began to move downward, the commander soon noticed this and widened his eyes. "Prepare for those things!" he shouted.
As the soldiers began to prepare for the sorcerer's attack, the men in the rear felt something large approaching and as they turned to see what it was, they exclaimed with a scream of terror at the next scene with countless animals jumping on them, with dogs piercing their skin with teeth where no armor protected their bodies.
"AHHHH!!!"
"Help!!"
"Get these animals off me!!"
The soldiers soon realized the event happening behind them and they turned alarmed, while part of the rear was being infested by attacking animals.
"May the Seven have mercy on us..." The commander exclaimed as soon as he realized what was happening behind them, with the sun quickly darkening in front of him, as he turned his gaze to thousands of wings descending at that moment on them.
Chaos just began there as all 2,000 soldiers began to scream in despair, "Advance, clear the path!!" Jon immediately ordered while his soldiers began to march toward the chaotic and disorganized crowd.
Not far from there, Sarella Sand stood at a safe distance, but trembling with what she was seeing, her anger at Jon Artica turned into fear, wondering what would happen in Dorne if he had done the same thing there. He was no longer the man who was negotiating with the Martells, even with the snakes dominating Sunspear, Jon was intent on killing anyone in that city who tried to stop him.
She saw the first giants with giant swords cutting through the first line of soldiers trying to remove the crows from them, and a line of blood spurted as they were cut in half. 'What is this, how can anyone fight against these monsters!' She thought, trembling and frightened, watching each movement of the giants, reaping at least half a dozen lives.
The events with animals were not something exclusive happening in the citadel, because at the port the soldiers still recovering from the chaos were surprised with animals attacking them mercilessly from behind, while the giants began to move with their shields and spears, starting to pierce the soldiers in the front lines in the streets as they passed by the dismembered bodies from the dwarf's attack.
At the city's main gate, the Articans continued launching arrows at the wall, with that little opening allowing a group of soldiers to begin moving into the city, the archers prevented them from launching a force against the line of Artican soldiers on the still intact walls, the wildfire had diminished, and the gate's wall was in ruins along with it, but that didn't stop the soldiers from beginning to cross over the debris as they started to invade.
The soldiers there, largely destroyed, with flames spreading through those streets, looked in fear as animals also began to attack them from behind at that moment. It didn't take long for the first Articans to pass through the destroyed wall and advance against that force.
The already frightened people retreated further from the conflicts occurring at three points in the city, as smoke rose in various parts and the noble Hightower tried to control the unfavorable situation for them, while the city was beginning to be destroyed.
"They are already starting!!" A dwarf exclaimed from one of the ships looking at the city at various points having clouds of smoke...
"Yes... what did you expect, it's a pity I'm not among those soldiers..." Another dwarf spoke beside him.
"Stop complaining... you'll soon join our king and our men." The Artican soldier spoke.
As the ships approached the port at high speed, many that were docked began to leave there, fleeing from the city that seemed lost, after all, 6,000 Artican soldiers were about to fill the place.
No one in Westeros knew the desperation the inhabitants of that city were experiencing at that moment, but as soon as all the kingdoms heard news about this, they would have another opinion about this group that emerged beyond the wall.
Raccoon Here:
I know these are some intense scenes that I'm writing, but I believe it's quite realistic, especially when you have spinning steel cables in the middle of a crowd.
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🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I hope you are enjoying this adventure and that it gives you everything I always wanted in a good story!
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