บท 11: The battle at the Blackwater
Lyonel POV
It was three days since the war council meeting, in a few hours Stannis will arrive, and in a few hours sun will go down. I know what his plan is, in the dark, it will be harder for us to fight, while he will be able to see us because the wall is lit up, it will be harder to see his troops. That why I have to kill more of his men in the night and take advantage of our walls.
"Tell the men to rest, for now, eat a light meal and take a shit, because at the sunset the battle will begin," I order Sandor.
"It is a good plan, nephew, I don't know from where you got the wildfire, but if it works it will take most of Stannis men." Tyrion comes to me trying to calm me down.
"I have my sources, let's hope, we can only hope to defend the Mud Gate and the King's gate with the forces we have," I inform him. "So see that his ships are trapped in the right position. Ser Jaime, you and Sandor will defend the King's gate."
"Your Grace, I should be by your side." He insists.
"You should be where you were ordered to be, ser Jaime," I reply with a cold voice. "Besides I will have ser Barristan and ser Arys, by my side."
"Very well, your grace." Jaime reluctantly replies.
"Have you need be so harsh with him?" Tyrion asks feeling offended for his brother.
"No, but he needs to learn how to follow orders and if he starts to question me in front of the men, they will start to lose faith in me," I explain my reasoning.
"I see, I will see to trebuchets and scorpions. I do not believe, I will be any use to you here" He replies and goes to his position.
"Go sharpen your blades and fasten your armor, we have limited men, and I won't lose anyone because his sword was dull or his armor was too loose," I yell at the men that are gathered there.
It will be a long night and it seems the stars won't be keeping me company, what a bad day to die. I think and look around, at least half of those men will not survive tonight. I check my armor, fasten my gauntlets, put a round shield on my back, take my Valyrian steel knife and put it on the right side of my hip, and put my saber with a longsword at my the left side.
…
It has begun, I can see the ships sailing to the river, damn it, Stannis sends the sellsword first. So be it, as they pass the towers, I see the fire rocks flying over my head, some hitting the ships, but I do not expect them to do much damage, they are only there to lit up our enemies. I order the scorpions to fire, each bolt has a pack of oil on them. As they start shooting Stannis ships past the towers, I order for fire arrows to lose and see some ships catch on fire.
"Give the signal, let the green ships go," I order and watch as my small boats travel into Stannis formation and then they ram at his ships.
The explosion was devastating, the green light was blinding but it was not enough to truly defeat Stannis, he only lost about a third of his forces in all of that. It has to be enough, for now, they will have no choice but to land by the Mud gate. I look at the beach, men swimming and ships crashing to the land. The disorder will follow soon and that will be the best moment to strike them.
"I know you afraid, I am afraid too, but will you let those fanatics that worship the red god, invade our city? Look behind you, behind your back is your home, your families, and your loved ones. Look at the front, there lays an enemy that will take it away, will you just stand here and let them?" I ask in the loudest voice I could muster, when I hear thunderous "no" I ride in front of my men. "Then lets us fight, lets us face our fears, together we will smash the red god more fallow back to where they come back!"
I start riding my beloved mare Noblelight and I can hear five hundred more horses, Stannis men didn't have time to set any kind of formation when we struck. The lance broke a man's chest as he was send flying. I took my saber and started to turn my horse as I cut through the men, the screams are deafening, but I never stopped moving as I clear out of the enemy lines to the Mud Gate, look behind me and see that most of my men are fine, the first line of about one and half thousand of the sellsword are lying on the ground.
I drop my saber who has become dull after cutting into armor and order the gates to close as I see my men are already inside. I go to the top of the wall and see that most of the ships that have survived the fire are on the land and the men are disembarking in orderly formation. My efforts did have some results as all I can count is about eight=nine thousand men on the beach.
Now the siege will begin, even though Stannis still has two times more men than me, but my men had tasted victory and blood, but his men only tasted defeat and death at my hands. Let's hope it will be enough to hold them for the night.
…
Even if it went by plan, it was still only the start of the battle, now on the land, the enemy forces are relentless taking two to three arrows to take one man. Dropping oil on the battering ram and then setting it on the fire only give me that much time. I kick off the ladder of the wall while blocking the arrow with my shield, dodging the coming sword I stab at the enemy's throat. It was like that for a couple of hours already, taking a look around I see that we are losing the wall. I can already see the gates won't hold any longer so run towards it.
When the new battering ram almost breaks the gates, I drop my shield and sheath my sword, I pick up a barrel of oil and throw it over the wall to the gates and battering ram. I feel as a few arrows hit my arms and legs, still, with adrenaline running through my body I pick a torch and drop it at the oil, I hear the screams as the people start burning.
Ser Barristan grabs me and drags me at the back of the lines, the gates will be blocked for about an hour by the fire. So when I relax, the pain shoots through my body like a raging fire, the armor feels too heavy so I felt relieved when my kingsguard set's me against the wall.
"You need be more careful your grace, any one of these arrows could have cost your life and the battle would be lost." He reprimands me.
"I apologize, I was lost in the heat." I say and patch myself "I will rest for a moment here to go back to the walls and lead our men."
"Very well, ser Arys will stay by your side. Your stunt bought us some leeway." He agrees with me and goes to the front lines again.
"Ser Arys, how is the King's gate doing?" I ask hoping for good news.
"It was not hit as bad as the Mud's gate, your grace it still stands and will stand for some time." He informs me.
"How many men to we have left at the walls?" I trying to fish out more information.
"About one thousand and a half, at the Mud's gate, your grace" He answers me.
"Shit, gather five hundred men and horses, once the gate burns we will hit them," I order him.
"But your grace, it is too dangerous and you already are injured." Ser Arys complains about my plan.
"How many men does Stannis have left?" Instead, I ask.
"About three thousand at the Mud's gate and about two thousand at the King's gate." That gives me an idea.
"Send a messenger to ser Jaime to send half of his men to us and prepare the horses, we will still strike Stannis," I order him and give him no room to object to me.
While I still have a moment to breathe, I check my armor, bandage my cuts and take a new shield. I look at the sky and realize if we don't do anything we will not last the night.
Jaime POV
The King's gate holds, for now, concentrating our forces to two gates gave us a fighting chance. But even though Lyonel reduced Stannis man by almost half at the beginning of the battle they still have more men than us. When the order to send half of my men to the Mud's gate was given to me, I have realized that we won't hold for much longer, if we don't do anything. That why I have gathered half men of what I have left with.
I will strike Stannis with those men, if I can cut him down we will win the battle. I look at the men they are exhausted from the long hours of fighting, they will die, so will I probably, but it has to happen. I have not been a good kingsguard, but Lyonel will be a better king than the last two could ever be.
"Listen, men, I know you are tired, but we still need to fight, our king fights for us at the Mud's gate, so where most of the enemy forces are. Most of you are from the flea bottom, you're were nothing but a pest to the city, you know it too. But our king gives you a purpose, he made you lot into soldiers, defenders of the city, will you let it fall? Will you let your king down, he who had given you a life worth?" I proclaim to them, when they raise heads to look at me I continue. "The King is still fighting against red god worshipers, even though he is outnumbered and injured. Will you let him fight alone? I say no, we strike the one who has brought these men here, I say we will strike Stannis and be over with it."
Looking at them again I can count about three hundred men, who have decided to fight to the end, we will die, even if we are successful, but it does not matter. When we gathered at the gates I look at the Hound and tell him of my plan, he looked frustrated but still agreed to it. So I ordered for the gates to open and readied my sword.
Once the gates opened the enemy forces rushed us, I easily cut them down as they were coming at me. Beheading one and then moving to another blocking his sword I kick him to the ground, I did not finish him, I just moved forward. We managed to push them back a little, but it seems my plan was a foolish one, there just too many of them, about two thousand men rushing toward us, I knew we going to die.
That why I was surprised, when about a half thousand horses rammed at their backs, cutting and splitting them. I immediately figured out who was leading the horsed men and with new vigor, we started to fight a new. Dodging to the side and stabbing one man in the gut, cutting another arm off, blocking one sword while kicking another man to the side. It was over fast those that were left alive started to run for the ships.
Lyonel POV
The attack on the forces at the King's gate was more effective than I could have imagined, they have not seen us at all. Even though going from the Mud gate cost me about a hundred men, the surprise attack worked. When they started to flee, I realize why we were unseen. Ser Jaime stood here with two hundred men fighting in front. It seems we can still win this battle.
"Ser Jaime, you did well distracting the enemy, but the battle is not over, the Mud gate has fallen and we need to go there now before Stannis takes it over completely, so gather your men, and let's go." I quickly explain the situation and give orders.
There no time to celebrate, we need to go back and strike Stannis remaining men. When we rode back, the enemy was ready for us, I had to strike the shield wall I barely got through the first line when my horse was struck and I went down to the ground. Giving a good look around I see that we have managed to break Stannis's force.
I started to defend myself more than push them over, as I have heard ser Barristan with all the men we have left start attacking too. Seeing as Stannis forces are retreating, I see no reason to try and kill more men. At least that was before I saw Stannis, if he flees too, he will become a problem for the future.
"Stannis! Where are you going? Did you not want to fight me, to kill me?" I yell with as much strength as I could muster. "Then come, I am right there"
He looks at me and stops, now turning around with a dozen of the men he runs towards me. His eyes are filled with hatred and anger as he got closer, I saw ser Jaime come to my side, and together with a couple of our men we break our swords against each other.
I block Stannis's strike, with my tired arms, I would have kicked his legs already, but I just simply did not have any strength left to do it, so I just deflected and blocked his attacks, waiting for a moment to finish him. As he got close to me and we crossed swords together he leans towards me.
"You will die today monster." He says with grinding teeth and a voice full of hatred.
"No, it will be you who will die today," I answer him and then headbutt him.
He takes a step back, and I use that moment to cut him across the chest, I was about to finish him when I saw him smile at me, and I felt chill at my back. It was pure instinct that saved my life, I just twisted my body and a shadow blade ran through my right shoulder I dropped my sword. And seeing Stannis stepping forward towards me. With my left arm, I drew my Valyrian knife and turn around stabbing at the shadow that was behind me, but it was already too late to defend myself against the approaching sword, so I dropped to the ground as he was about to stab me, a sword emerges through his left chest.
When I finally see Stannis breathing his last and Ser Jaime standing above him, I could relax. I could hear the swords being dropped, and feel someone move to my side. I have won, that was the last thought before I could feel any more.
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Ironwolf852
Ironwolf852 Spend the whole day on it, but still didn't come out as I wanted. Leave a comment about what you liked and disliked, maybe I will rewrite this one, someday.
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