Chapter 43

Torabell faced the same challenge as Krayden, but his was complicated by the fact that he had two individuals he needed to bring down.

"If I want to catch even one, I must be willing to take damage," Torabell thought as he saw a Dothraki charging towards him.

Shielding a part of his body he could afford to injure, Torabell took a hit to his left shoulder. At that moment, he dismounted the older of the two bloodriders.

"Let's have some fun, old man," Torabell said decisively, striking the aged Dothraki with his sword.

Kohollo knew the blade poised above his head was lethal. However, he refused to close his eyes in the face of the beast, and instead, defiantly smirked at Torabell.

SWISH

"That was marvelous..." Kohollo thought, as visions of his oath of allegiance to the infant Drogo flashed before him. There they were, fleeing into the Dothraki Sea, and there he was, teaching the boy everything he knew. "I know you'll manage... my khal."

After which, Kohollo saw no more, while Torabell smiled triumphantly, having finally eliminated the irritating barbarians.

"At last," Torabell thought with relief.

Haggo, seeing the death of his blood kin, initially couldn't believe what had just happened. For him, Kohollo was almost a father figure, and it was profoundly hard to accept what had transpired.

"Nakhat!"

But death is death, and it waits for no one's words. Moments later, having accepted Kohollo's demise, Haggo stared murderously at Torabell. The monster merely taunted him with a challenging glare that said, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

"AAAHH!" Haggo roared, urging his horse toward Torabell.

"I WILL KILL! DESTROY! ERADICATE!" These thoughts consumed Haggo as he charged at Torabell.

The monster simply waited, knowing a foe who had lost his cool was easy to handle.

"Yes, hate. And I will allow you to join that damned savage," Torabell thought, preparing for the impending strike. "A downward right strike."

Indeed, Torabell saw the slow horizontal swing of the Dothraki's arakh.

CLANG

"Hahaha, is that all?" Torabell mocked Haggo.

From his expression, the Dothraki clearly understood what the cultist had just said. Following this, he attacked fiercely, again and again. Torabell, seeing how the Dothraki was exhausting himself, simply grinned maliciously. And in a moment during another clash, the monster threw Haggo from his saddle.

BAM

The Dothraki's body landed at a considerable distance from his horse.

"Khaah!" Haggo exclaimed, clutching his chest where he had been hit.

"I need to change the blade," Torabell thought, annoyed that his sword occasionally didn't reach his enemies.

Seeing Torabell approaching, Haggo quickly regained his composure. Although he had significantly lost his combat ability, it was something he had to acknowledge. Torabell understood this too and thus closed the distance leisurely. The cultist clearly relished the thought of killing another savage, in his view.

"And how shall I kill him? Perhaps tear off all his limbs? Or make him watch as I torment his allies? I hear the Dothraki khalasar carries women, elders, and children," Torabell thought about his sadistic pleasures.

Haggo, catching his breath, glared at Torabell and said:

"Go to hell."

"Hahahahaha…" Torabell laughed hysterically at the Dothraki's accent and even relaxed a bit. "My dear friend... We're going to have a great time together."

As Torabell contemplated how to deal with Haggo, the clouds gathering in the sky seemed to mourn.

"Hmm... I've decided," Torabell smiled and continued. "I'll indeed tear off a couple of limbs and toss them into the cauldron to boil."

SWISH

Unnoticed by Torabell, who was moving towards Haggo, a rather young lad swiftly beheaded the monster.

"Huh?" was all Torabell could utter as he began to see his body reverting to human form. "N-no…"

"Andal?" Haggo asked in surprise, looking at the young man.

"What kind of Andal am I?" the lad replied irritably. "I'd rather you call me a Valyrian. Actually, I am one of the First Men."

The Andals first landed on the Fingers, and their initial conquest was the Vale of Arryn. At that time, the Vale was home to several sparsely populated and fragmented kingdoms of the First Men, who not only failed to repel the invaders but even facilitated the transport of their armies across the Narrow Sea, hoping to use the eastern warriors against each other. However, the Andals preferred to seize lands in the Vale and establish their own kingdoms there.

Over the next few centuries, the Andals conquered the other kingdoms, about a hundred at that time. They also invaded the Iron Islands, destroying the ruling Greyiron dynasty, though the islanders at a moot chose a new king from the Hoare line.

Not everywhere did the Andals need to assert themselves through force. The Hightowers of Oldtown, a very ancient line of the First Men who were kings before the Andal conquest, offered no resistance to the invaders.

The Andal expansion northward was halted at the Neck. The northern armies at Moat Cailin, a robust system of fortifications built by the First Men, repelled all the numerous attempts by the Andals to conquer the North. The invasion from the sea was thwarted by the King in the North, Theon Stark, who defeated the invading Andal conquerors and then organized a retaliatory invasion into the Andal lands in the Fingers and Essos. The prow of the flagship of the Hungry Wolf was adorned with the corpse of the Andal leader, Argos Seven Stars.

In the conquered lands, the Andals aggressively spread their religion—the Faith of the Seven—and combated the faith in the Old Gods, destroying weirwoods or cutting faces from them, and slaughtering the Children of the Forest. Many Andal traditions, such as trial by combat and its more elaborate form, the Trial of Seven, have survived to the present day.

Given that faith in the Old Gods persisted in the North, it can indeed be said that the Andal expansion was a failure.

"Do I also carry Andal blood? Certainly on my father's side," thought Daeron.

POV Drogo

My deadly dance with the monster near the walls of Qohor had lasted far too long, and with each moment, I felt my strength waning. Meanwhile, the power of the blood mage only grew.

Another dodge from the black poison that had decimated much of my khalasar. Witnessing its effect on both people and horses, I had to also consider his palms, where the poison was concealed.

"Tiring, aren't you?" the monster asked in Valyrian. "I see you are weary; worry not, soon you will rest plenty." With that, he raised his sword for another strike.

"From the left, from above!" Drogo thought, and at the last moment, he managed to parry the blow, observing a deep gash it left in the ground. But there was no time to think or reflect, so I had to respond with attack after attack.

CLANG

Again, my strike did not hit his body... I had to dodge even faster and change my attack point.

CLANG

Once more, my blow was met by his blade, and again, using his size and agility, he shifted position. Soon, this dance around the goat started to bear fruit, and the first strike hit his back.

"Khah!" Krayden growled, then laughing, he said, "Just kidding."

BAM

At the last moment, relying purely on instinct, I managed to position my arakh. If I hadn't, the khal would have been lying there, half his body gone.

"I WILL DESTROY!" Rage filled me at the thought of some goat-like monster having knocked me from my saddle, and from the fact that I couldn't kill him.

"Come on, attack!"

Once again, the monster and I fell into a deadly dance, where there was no one else for either of us but the other.

POV Daeron

The Dothraki understood somewhat what I said, but not fully, so he stared at me in confusion.

"Ah..." I sighed, then, looking him straight in the eye, continued, "Since it's unlikely we'll find common ground, and you seem important to the khal of this herd, I should probably just knock you out."

Closing the distance quickly, I slammed the blood rider's head against a hard surface. Fatigue must have taken its toll on him as he didn't put up much resistance.

"Hmm... What about those two?" I thought, shifting my perspective.

I saw how the muscular Dothraki struggled with the goat-like beast. It was clear that the human found it extremely difficult. Around them lay hundreds and thousands of dead bodies, all corroded by poison.

"Is Tun ready?"

"Just a little more time."

"I guess I'll have to intervene in the battle between these two."

As the beast's power seemed to grow—as if slipping away from my grasp—was he improving his command of his power? Or had something else happened?

Looking around, I tried to understand why the monster was getting stronger.

"Could it be that with each kill, he grows stronger? Apart from the increasing number of victims on this battlefield, nothing else has changed." With such thoughts, I decisively closed the distance between myself and these two non-humans.

As I didn't hold back my magic to achieve top speed, I reached them just as quickly.

"Did they not notice me?" I thought, observing that there was no reaction to my presence.

Indeed, engrossed in battle, these two seemed to have lost all awareness of the outside world. This, however, was advantageous for me as they wouldn't expect a third party to join the fight.

Thinking whether it was right to intervene in the battle, since the monster was about to kill the Dothraki, I swiftly flew into the monster's back, aiming for his neck, but he dodged at the last moment as if he had a third eye on his back.

"Tsk. Missed."

"Who are you?" the beast asked me.

"Heh, you don't need to know."

"Indeed, since you attacked me, you're just another walking corpse," the monster replied with a smirk, and then his sword flew towards me.

SWISH

I had no desire to receive it like the Dothraki, so I sped up and dodged the blow. Meanwhile, the Dothraki dodged another blast of black sludge that shot from the beast's palm.

"So, do you have nipples on your palms?" I said, dodging yet another blow.

In response, I only received hatred from the goat, but the odd thing was that the emotion didn't seem to belong to him. It was as if there were three other personalities inside him, each with their own emotions.

"What are you? A goat-man or a man-goat?"

"Maybe you'll find out?" he retorted sharply.

Feeling the anticipation of impending events in his emotions made me even more cautious.

WHOOSH

A mass of black venom shot past me at a decent speed.

"Why are you spitting? Didn't your mother teach you manners? Oh, wait..." he mused, pausing. "If your mother mated with a goat... Oh, God..."

"ARGH!!!" - my last words were clearly unnecessary, judging by the monster's reaction.

And indeed, the proof that I had spoken too much was the chaotic attacks aimed solely at me, ignoring the Dothraki who was also shocked by my presence.

"Ha!" - another dodge from the cultist's numerous attacks. "Missed!"

Keeping up with the tempo of his attacks was relatively easy since I maintained a cool head and anticipated his moves... I could position my body in advance so that he would miss. Fortunately, his rage did not help him devise any tactics or strategy for the fight.

BAM

"There he goes, missing again."

HAAAH ... HAAAH - the creature breathed heavily, tired, but this was short-lived given how quickly it recovered its stamina. The window for attack was very small, but...

WHOOSH

Thanks to the reach of my katana, I managed to strike.

"AAAAAH!!!" - the creature screamed, clutching its cult.

"Damn... Missed the neck, he dodged just in time."

CRASH

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Chapter 59 has already been published