章節 7: Chapter 7
The Mountain Clans were not so easily discouraged from the chance to fight a nine-year-old child for the opportunity to gain a great wealth of steel, and a new challenger stepped up even after witnessing the brutal end to the last one.
But since Chad was no longer compelled to torture people, he ended the fight immediately to leave little doubt of the chance to survive such a decision. Gripping his hammer like a baseball bat, Chad swung for the bleachers and punted the warrior back into the crowd ten metres away.
The man's broken, unmoving body, left no doubt to his condition of health, and what the next challenger faced. Still, the Burned Men Clan was not known for making smart decisions considering their health, and a member of the Clan stepped forward only to join the last challenger pulped on the ground.
That seemed to be enough for the savage warriors, and they roared their approval for either Chad's martial prowess or the might of his weapon. The death of three men was apparently something to celebrate about.
Since Chad was ripping of the Knights Templar name, he may as well go all out and add the Excalibur legend. After seeing the giant Warhammer in action, the clansmen were keen to once again try and claim ownership over it.
Chad offered them another chance, but only if they were more orderly about it. Death was promised to anyone that skipped the line. What followed was a couple of hours of grunting and groaning in their fruitless attempts to lift the mighty hammer.
When everyone had failed, Chad once again picked up Retribution and swung it around like it was weightless. A show of dominance that even the most retarded man present could understand.
"The Old Gods have chosen me to be their voice of displeasure for how far our people have fallen. The sins that the Andals have committed against them are many, they are also the reason that Weirwoods are now rare in Westeros. Although they will accept converts from the Faith of the Seven, they hold a deep hatred for those that kneel to the foreign church.
"You all know that the Old Gods are only there to guide us, not wipe our arses for us, but their anger has become too much for them to remain silent. Thus, they have chosen me to be the instrument of retribution for their wrath and blessed me with the ability to fulfil their righteous mission. Do not mistake my age or size as a liability, for they have given me many gifts to overcome any obstacle.
"You are gathered here for the chance to obtain God-given weapons and armour, steel that will put to shame anything your enemies wield. But if you have come here today to get them for free, then you may as well return now. Only those that swear an oath of fealty to me and the Old Gods will be allowed to receive their blessing.
"These blessings are not for cheap, they are only for those that fight in the crusade against the Andal menace. I will also personally reward the faithful, for if you give me ten years of loyal service, you will receive a parcel of land large enough to keep a large family comfortably fed.
"I am not here to try and tempt you with lavish rewards and sweet lies, that is not what the Old Gods are about. Hard work for fair and just payment. If you give an oath, you will be expected to keep it. Only the foolish would swear to the Old Gods in front of a Weirwood tree and hope to live if their vow is broken."
As Chad finished his speech, there was a lot of grumbling. An open-ended mission and the need to follow a child was a lot to swallow. Especially for ten years!
But so was six thousand years of hatred. When the Andals invaded, those that didn't kneel in submission, escaped to the mountains and suffered an existence barely surviving ever since.
Without proper weapons, and plagued with constant hunger, it was extremely difficult to change their situation. Although they managed a successful raid every now and then, the number of warriors that didn't return took a toll.
Then along came a boy claiming to be sent by the Old Gods. He promised them revenge, magical weapons and armour to do so. While he may not have offered them the Vale back, new land was still a tempting reward.
In the end, out of over three thousand men, nearly four-hundred decided to take the risk. Most were still sceptical of either Chad's age, leadership, ability to succeed in his counter-invasion, or just didn't want to answer to someone else. Freedom was why they were in the mountains in the first place, after all.
It was a lot less than what Chad had expected to sign up, since Tyrion Lannister had recruited thousands, but his employment offer was also not temporary. Still, in the end, the lower number of recruits was probably a good thing since it was more than he could currently equip and keep fed.
Now that they would be under his command, he was responsible for their wellbeing and would need to supply them out of his own pocket. Creating four hundred sets of weapons and armour would also take a significant amount of time, especially considering it would only be temporary since he didn't have any metal on hand to make them with.
You would think that in a massive mountain range, there was bound to be a few iron deposits to mine, but according to the Clans, not a single one was ever found. Chad wasn't about to go looking for them, and since the Point-me spell only pointed north, he couldn't just magically find them.
It was times like this he missed the overpowered existence of house-elves.
Not wanting to have to do everything again once he had iron on hand, Chad picked ten of the biggest and meanest looking warriors amongst those that had been sworn into his new order of Knights.
After explaining the situation of the lack of resources and temporary lifespan of the god-given artifacts, it was much easier to create ten sets to appease any anger, than to make all of them multiple times.
Although there were a few arguments about not fulfilling his side of the oath, Chad assured everyone that he had the coin needed to purchase the necessary resources, and just needed to locate a buyer.
Any residual resentment at not immediately receiving magical arms bled away when the ten that did started experimenting with theirs. Since there was no need for shields with full plate armour, every Knight received a two-handed weapon.
The Mountain Clans had little to no experience with horse riding, so Chad planned to set them up as infantry. Each person had a choice of either a polearm or a greatsword, choosing between a Bardiche, a Glaive, or a Halberd for the polearm.
These weapons did not have a Featherweight Charm on them since their weight was important for damage. It would be way too much work to duplicate the spells on his hammer for every single weapon of his men.
That being said, since he needed a backup weapon for his men, he decided on a thrust oriented longsword with a featherweight charm on it. It was a simple sword with a two-handed grip, a blade one hundred and forty centimetres long, made for thrusting, and was sharpened on both sides.
A lighter sword was just as deadly as a heavier one, and although they wouldn't be able to batter plate-armoured foes to death, swords and axes weren't designed for that in the first place. Slashing weapons were for unarmoured opponents, only able to cut through mail at best.
Which was why he extended the blade length. Since the sword was indestructible and weighed nothing thanks to magic, it would be as rigid as an Estoc and capable of puncturing through mail. At the same time, it could be used for cutting down unarmoured peasants.
Chad didn't include any Warhammer variants in the weapon choices, wanting to be the only one with a blunt instrument of death to promote his legend. Plus, it was terrible enough making everything in the first place, adding his hammer's features to every weapon would triple his working time.
Their helmets were also of a different style to his. Because they would be wearing them all the time and didn't have spells to mitigate heat and breathing problems like Chad, he gave them an unadorned Greek Corinthian helmet.
With the formation of his Knights Templar, Chad was now ready to set off and gain a legitimate excuse to go do his own thing. Sure, he could just go on his merry way now with little consequence, but having a reason to do so would make things easier down the track.
The North was seen by the southern kingdoms as barbarian heretics because they worshipped the Old Gods, and the Vale was no different. So if Chad rocked up to the Gate of the Bloody Moon with four hundred clansmen, people they had an unreconcilable hatred with, things were not going to be polite.
Any attack against the son of the Lord Paramount of the North by Arryn forces would be a major political blunder and give Chad all the leverage he would need in the future.
His father would no doubt smooth over any fallout between the two kingdoms, but Chad would have all the reason he needed to not foster at the Eyrie.
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