Stars twinkled in the night sky, and the battlefield was filled with the sounds of killing.
Viserys's soldiers numbered about a hundred, while the local Andal bandits were four or five times their number.
However, the brutality of the siege warfare and the hammer-and-anvil tactics designed by Viserys had greatly reduced the enemy's numerical advantage.
Not to mention, the garrison of Westeros Fort also had Viserys and Roland, two formally trained knights, leading a number of knight apprentices, forming a wedge formation like a hammerhead.
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
Dozens of cavalrymen charged out of the darkness, full of murderous intent, like wolves and tigers.
Viserys wielded his long spear, leveraging the horse's power. His black steed was tall and strong, a fine breed among Dothraki horses.
They had the best horses and the best armor, and they proved to be as effective as razors.
The black scale armor had a certain weight, as did the long spear itself; only on horseback could a knight unleash his maximum lethality.
Viserys's long spear, imbued with furious power, directly unseated the enemy in front of him, then the next.
Efficient, swift killing – this was the way of war. This kind of war, with its hacking and slashing, was not the Water Dancer's path of an assassin.
Viserys had originally thought that knights were invented by the Andals, and those remaining in their homeland wouldn't be too bad, but after engaging in battle, he realized he had overestimated these remaining Andals.
Now it seemed that with the large-scale migration of the Andals, the level of civilization here had greatly diminished.
"The Warrior has arrived!" an Andal man with a seven-pointed star painted on his face let out a pained roar, then was pierced through the chest and abdomen by a long spear.
The Faith of the Seven originated in the land of Andas, even though most Andals had crossed the sea to Westeros.
But the local Andals still adhered to the Faith of the Seven, and the Warrior was the most trusted deity of the bandits.
The Andal bandits' strength was still relatively weak; not many had full sets of armor, and even those were rusty and mismatched.
Most of their horses were nags, and they had very few.
The Andals were tied down by Viserys's simplified "hammer-and-anvil tactics," first losing a great deal of vitality.
When they were exhausted from climbing hills and attacking the fort, Viserys's most powerful cavalry struck like an iron fist.
"Devils, devils of war!" the Andals cried out, seeing only a tall knight in full black armor, with crimson dragon wings glowing with red fire.
"It's cavalry, it's knights! How is this possible?" The local Andal bandits were startled.
Bright black and red Red Dragon banners fluttered, and the armored cavalry pounded the Andal lines again and again.
Under the cavalry's charge, the enemy's formation began to collapse, leaving them bewildered. The enemy had considered how to win, but not that it would be a crushing defeat.
"Follow me!" Viserys roared, brandishing his long spear. A foolish Andal, wielding a battle-axe, charged forward but was struck in the chest by Viserys's spear. This Andal was only half-armored.
The long spear pierced through his chest, penetrating armor, leather, muscle, and lung, killing the Andal instantly.
"Fight for King Viserys!" Ser Roland Lake swung the silver meteor hammer in his hand, and the whistling warhammer smashed into an enemy's forehead, spraying blood, bone fragments, and brain tissue simultaneously.
This was the taste of blood, and also the taste of victory, which Roland Lake had not savored for a long time.
After the Battle of the Trident, he thought the death knell had rung for him.
"Fight for King Viserys!" The infantry inside the fort also cheered and charged forward. The shield wall opened, and the soldiers, armed with pitchforks, flails, long spears, axes, and hammers, began their assault.
"King Viserys, who is that?" The Andals were somewhat confused.
The war became a bloody cacophony of human wails, cries, and roars.
Viserys ignored the attacks that struck the surface of his armor; full plate armor in close combat was like a safe iron can, with vulnerable points only at the connecting joints.
Unless the armor-piercing knight was also a very skilled knight, or had a Valyrian steel weapon.
Clearly, these Andal bandits did not have excellent equipment, nor did they have excellent training.
Thrusting, parrying, dodging, seeking weaknesses.
Strength, speed, and resilience – a knight's battlefield was destined to be more physically demanding than a Water Dancer's duel, and it required more strength and endurance. Viserys's various attributes were well-balanced, all reaching the level of a first-class warrior.
Viserys felt his war experience slowly increasing, coupled with the effects of heavy armor and a good horse. Viserys was the most dangerous knight; wherever his long spear passed, it brought death and slaughter.
"Run!"
"We can't escape," an Andal looking back said with a sob.
They had suffered heavy losses from the logs and stones earlier, and with the small number of cavalry, this wave of attrition meant that as mere infantry, they were completely at the mercy of others.
"Kill the one with the dragon-head helmet, he's their leader."
"Kill their leader, and we still have hope." The Andal bandit gang quickly realized that the black-armored vanguard knight, sharp as a razor, was the overall commander of this fort.
These attacking Andals had suffered heavy losses; in this battle on the hills, they had already lost most of their elites, and being charged by cavalry, they had reached a point of no return.
They could only make a desperate stand, to see if they could recover their losses.
"Come at me!" A one-eyed Andal chieftain gritted his teeth. His chainmail was relatively new, indicating he was among the upper echelon of the Andal bandit gang.
"Die!" the one-eyed Andal roared as he charged into the fray, directly at Viserys. The battlefield instantly narrowed to a close-quarters engagement.
Viserys saw a one-eyed Andal cavalryman, with a seven-pointed star painted on his face, holding a long spear and thrusting it towards his chest.
Viserys reined in his horse and turned sideways, dodging the long spear's attack.
The one-eyed Andal was startled; the enemy's agility was astonishing.
Two ashwood long spears clashed in mid-air. This one-eyed Andal was considered one of the more skilled among the Andal bandits.
Viserys aimed at the chainmail, and his long spear pierced into the Andal's body with force, but because the distance was too close, the impact was relatively small, and the long spear became stuck in the one-eyed man's chest.
"You..." The one-eyed Andal clutched the long spear in his chest, wincing in pain. The immense agony of his torn body began to slow his movements.
"Die!" Viserys ignored his stuck ashwood long spear, and a brightly gleaming sword flashed past the one-eyed Andal's face with a whistle.
"Crunch." The one-eyed man clutched his throat, blood gushing out like a spring. The one-eyed man tried to speak, then his body went limp, bouncing with his startled horse, and finally, his corpse fell to the ground.
"The One-Eyed is dead!"
"The One-Eyed is dead!" The Andals let out cries of terror. Among these men, the One-Eyed's prestige seemed quite high.
Seeing their commander die beneath a horse, this night-raiding army completely fell into a general rout.
"Surrender, we surrender!"
More and more people chose to drop their weapons, and the rout spread like a wave, engulfing the entire battlefield.
The war horn of Viserys's army sounded again. Viserys rode his warhorse, surrounded by his cavalry. Light gleamed on their spear tips, and the black and red Red Dragon banner flew above their heads.
The enemy forces were utterly defeated, like shattered glass. Everywhere Viserys passed, local Andals knelt.
The army of Westeros Fort pursued and rounded up, firmly seizing victory.
"Are you a Septon?" Viserys noticed a middle-aged man kneeling before him. His face also bore the seven-pointed star emblem, but he didn't look like a killer.
"Yes, my lord. You were like the Warrior himself today."
Yearly access offer 50 percent and monthly offer 25 percent
Ãdvåñçé çhàptêr àvàilàble óñ pàtreøn (Gk31)