Seventh Moon of 269
Pyke - Pyke
The Hour of the Hound (2 A.M.)
"Pull me up!" Steffon shouted, his voice muffled by the helm.
The three obey without thinking, bringing the Lord of Storm's End over the parapet, who throws himself onto the ground and leans against the pillar. Opening the visor of his helm, Steffon huffs and says:
"Almost! I knew this armor would make it harder, but not this much."
"Lord Baratheon! It is an honor to have you in my presence, but what are you doing here?" Lyonel asked, showing all the respect necessary for a Lord Paramount and a known childhood friend of King Aerys and of his liege lord, Tywin Lannister. "I thought you would be commanding the army."
"I was, but the battle was going nowhere," Steffon explained as he stood up. "With the high ground, they cancel our martial superiority, and with the stair being too narrow for an army, they cancel our numerical superiority. At the same time... Grab him!" Steffon interrupts himself to pull a hand that grabbed the parapet.
Bringing the hanging man over the parapet with Lyonel's help, Steffon continues, "At the same time, they keep raining down on us. So, when I saw you climbing to the upper floor, I decided to take a small group to join you, leaving Gerold Hightower in command. Another!"
While Lyonel helped Steffon Baratheon pull another man up, Alaric and Andrey look down, finding eight men still waiting to climb.
"Send two at once," Alaric tells them, and they look up and nod.
"I also sent another group to the other side," Steffon adds. "We will take them on both flanks."
Looking to his right toward the left pillar, Alaric, Andrey, and Lyonel find a man hidden behind it pulling another up. Two minutes later, everyone who remained had climbed up, making fourteen people who had to squeeze together to fit behind the pillar.
"When we move out, we will form a shield wall instantly. It must have an L-shape to cover both the front and our left flank so we are not hit by arrows from the other side, understood?" Steffon explained, receiving verbal and non-verbal confirmations from his men.
Looking toward the pillar on the other side, which had ten men behind it, he whistles to draw their attention. With their heads turned toward him, Steffon raises three fingers. Then, he lowers one, leaving two. Lowering another, leaving only one. Finally, lowering it as well, he raises his thumb and points toward the pillar while shouting to the men around him.
"Now, go, go!"
With his command, they begin leaving the pillar one by one, forming a shield wall. On the other side, the same happens. The iron archers, unaware of their presence until then, are surprised and begin firing arrows at them, stopping their fire at the men below.
Even under the impact of several projectiles, Steffon's shield wall does not stop advancing, pushing the archers back. Meanwhile, the archers on the lower floor, now free to shoot without worrying about the superior number of archers above, begin firing at the Ironborn more frequently, with some hitting the archers who retreated, catching them distracted. The same happens on the side of the left pillar.
An important detail of the battlefield was that, after climbing the stair to the next floor, one would find only a long corridor—a corridor that led to the Seastone Chair but which, at that moment, was almost entirely filled with Ironborn. Ironborn who saw what was happening and advanced, placing the archers behind them.
Facing the first resistance, Steffon did not falter and made that clear.
"Do not stop advancing! One step and one thrust at a time, and we will reach there!"
The "there" he referred to was a little beyond the end of the stair, which was where he had said they would stop and hold until the others reached them.
With the advantage of the high ground no longer existing, and the numerical advantage of the Ironborn useless in the narrow area of the parapet, the forces of continental Westeros quickly managed to cut down and push back the Ironborn who stood in their way until they reached there.
"Good work, boys! Now we only need to hold our position. And look at that." He looks back toward the pillar where people were coming out from behind it. "Reinforcements have arrived!"
Also looking back, Alaric sees people not only carrying spears and swords who came to join and maintain the formation, but also archers who began firing upon the crowd of Ironborn, many of whom had no shields to raise above their heads.
The group advancing on the other side found more difficulty moving forward than Alaric's group, but they quickly began progressing when they also received reinforcements and the Ironborn they fought were struck by arrows from the other side.
With all three fronts of the continental forces putting pressure on the Ironborn, their line slowly advanced, pushing the Ironborn away from the stair and joining with the lateral forces.
With the three now aligned, Steffon raises his voice, declaring the charge.
"Push! Push as if your lives depend on it. Push, corner them, and slaughter them like the animals they are!"
With roars that made it unclear who the real animals were, the continental forces began a fierce charge against the rebel Greyjoy forces, who were slowly pushed down the corridor. They had no chance to strike back. And they knew it.
After several minutes grinding down anyone who opposed the war machine that the unified shield wall had become, the door at the end of the corridor opens and a horn is sounded from inside the throne room, its hoarse sound echoing through the corridor walls until it reaches the ears of the squids, who begin shouting about retreat.
With constant commands to retreat, more than one hundred Ironborn turn and begin running toward the gate, stepping over each other if necessary.
The continental forces do not immediately pursue them, only watching the Ironborn who trampled one another to death. That changes when an important voice rises.
"Do not let them escape. Kill them all!" Leaving the protection of four members of the Kingsguard and stepping in front of the continental forces, Aerys shouts, pointing the tip of his sword toward the fleeing Ironborn.
But the fact was this: no one had given the order to pursue before the king, not Steffon nor Gerold Hightower, not out of respect but out of pragmatism, because no one wanted to throw themselves deep into enemy territory, especially when it was obvious that more would be waiting for them beyond that gate. But since the command came from the king, no one dared disobey him, especially in front of so many of his subjects.
Following the command of their king, everyone began running after the Ironborn, and the shield wall broke apart in the process. And because of the chaos of the Ironborn retreat, many were left behind and caught by the king's forces, fulfilling the king's wishes.
Unfortunately, fulfilling the king's wishes was not a fair trade for what happened in the next moment.
Reaching the newly opened gate at the end of the pursuit, the remaining Ironborn threw themselves to the left and right as soon as they passed through it, giving the vanguard of the continental force a clear view of the ballistae waiting for them, with one of them facing the corridor.
Giving little time to process the scene, the ballista in front of them was fired, launching the bolt toward the vanguard, which included the leaders of the army. Tywin, being closer to the left wall, did not need to move, unlike Aerys and Steffon.
Fortunately, the Kingsguard, always alert, were quick and pushed their king toward the wall near Tywin before the bolt struck him. Unfortunately, one of the members of the Kingsguard could not move out of the bolt's path in time.
The same could almost be said for Steffon, who, seeing the bolt flying toward him in slow motion, tried to throw himself toward the right wall; but with the armor weighing him down, he was too slow, and the bolt was about to strike him and the member of the Kingsguard.
At the last moment before the impact, he felt a hand grabbing his right arm and pulling him, moving him just enough for the bolt to scrape the left side of the breastplate of his armor, but still enough to push him backward.
Unfortunately, the member of the Kingsguard was not lucky enough to have someone pulling him and was struck directly by the bolt, almost splitting him in half and throwing him into the crowd behind him.
Falling to the ground and a little dizzy from the force with which he had been pushed, Steffon first looked to where the bolt had cut, finding a wide opening in his left flank large enough to fit two fingers. Then, looking forward, wanting to see who his savior was, he found Alaric staring back at him.
Bared teeth showing, Alaric pulled the dizzy Steffon up, lifting him, and shouted into his ear.
"They are reloading the ballista! And there are several others! What are the orders?"
Fighting the dizziness, Steffon looked at the chaotic scene in the corridor, with several people trying to run back through the corridor and trampling the guts spilled on the ground from the member of the Kingsguard, whose upper half was face down while the lower half was turned upward.
"This is not the time to retreat! We must stay… and fight!" Steffon shouted. "Keep your backs turned and you will only make their job easier. The reload is slow and the shot is easy to avoid when you know it is coming. Just duck, you idiots! Why do you think ballistae are not really used against people? Look! Look!" He pointed toward the ballista, which was still being reloaded by desperate Ironborn. "These ballistae are big and slow! Not only do they take time to load, but the others cannot even be moved to shoot at us standing here!"
The more he raised his voice and spoke, the more people looked at him; and the more people looked at him, the more he raised his voice and spoke.
"I do not know about you, but I am not afraid, and I will not give up because we were caught off guard in a battle that until now was going in our favor! I have come too far, and even more have died so that I can spit on their sacrifice and stop here! And I say more. As soon as that ballista fires again, I will advance to it and kill those bastards!" He pointed toward the Ironborn operating the ballista, who looked at him when they were mentioned.
"Go! Fire!" Steffon shouted, walking toward them and opening his arms.
With his hands free of any shield or sword, he presented himself completely unprotected to the Ironborn. Seeing that scene, several men of the continental forces began to watch him even more closely and silently, completely captured by his actions.
Approaching him from behind, Alaric offered him his longsword, which had fallen from his hand when he was struck by the bolt. And, even when Steffon took the sword from his hands and pointed it toward the Ironborn, Alaric did not step back but stayed there at his left side.
"When they fire, pull me down. This armor makes me very slow," Steffon whispered to him.
As if the gods were waiting for him to say that, the Ironborn finally fired the ballista.
Paying attention to the movements of the Ironborn, Steffon saw it coming and shouted "Down" before he even began to crouch, before the bolt was launched. Even so, the bolt was much faster than him, and it was very clear to him that it would still hit him, perhaps in the head or neck. Fortunately, Alaric was again quick enough to save him from danger, making the bolt pass over his head.
If Steffon had not been wearing a helm, he would have felt the air pushed by the bolt passing over his scalp.
Now, with the bolt gone, it was time to fulfill his words. Without looking back to see if the others had also avoided the bolt this time, Steffon shouted, "Now! Advance! No shield wall. Spread out and kill!" and rushed forward, holding the longsword with both hands.
At the same moment he shouted, Alaric also shouted, calling the names of Andrey and Lyonel, and then followed Steffon with his shield raised at his left.
Witnessing the scene, several men of the continental forces followed the example and began advancing again with war cries.
Being called, Andrey and Lyonel advanced ahead of the others, with Andrey staying to the right of Steffon, protecting his right flank with his shield.
Finally passing through the gate, Steffon, Alaric, Andrey, and Lyonel could see the Ironborn they had been chasing in the corridor on both flanks, waiting for them to enter the hall. And, if the continental forces had lost their courage and not followed them, the Ironborn would have drowned them in their numbers.
And now, on a more open battlefield where the side with greater numbers had more advantage, the continental forces had far greater advantage.
This became clear when the Ironborn tried to form a shield wall but had their plans frustrated by the enemies who, following the command to spread out and kill, forced their way through any opening between the shields and attacked the Ironborn directly.
The scene resembled how rainwater drips through any hole in a roof, no matter how small, until it floods the house.
Completely overwhelmed, the Ironborn had their formation broken in seconds. And, from that moment on, the fights were mostly decided in single combat.
This kind of battle, which always brought many casualties even to the victor, was always avoided; but with the ballistae ready to grind them apart while the Ironborn held them with their shield wall, Steffon knew he had no choice but to give that order.
Steffon managed to reach the ballista without being stopped by any ironman along the way. But when he reached it, there was no one left to kill. Alaric had arrived before them.
That happened seconds earlier when Alaric saw that Steffon, under the protection of Andrey, Lyonel, and several others, no longer needed him. He quickened his steps and reached the two Ironborn behind the ballista before everyone else, killing them in seconds.
This was only possible because he had cast another *Enhance Ability* on himself, increasing his dexterity by two, raising it to sixteen. He did this after the first bolt had been fired, taking advantage of the fact that no one would notice him making strange sounds with his mouth.
And with a high sixteen dexterity, Alaric managed without problem to dodge the attacks launched by the Ironborn along the way and reach the men behind the ballista. And the first thing he did was throw his spear into the chest of one before he could attack him with his sword, killing him; then, parrying the attack of the other with his shield and giving him a quick sweep, knocking him down, but in the process stealing the sword from his hand and driving it into his neck before he could stand up, extinguishing the light in his eyes.
All of this was done in seconds and was only possible thanks to his new, but temporary, speed and agility.
Seeing Steffon approaching, Alaric pulled his spear from the first man and looked at him calmly, knowing he would not be reprimanded for feeling inspired by his words.
And just as he expected, Steffon did not reprimand him.
"Good work, boy. Dangerous. But good. But the battle is not over; there are still many to kill," Steffon said, greeting him with genuine surprise in his eyes.
Behind him, the same could be said for Andrey and Lyonel, with Andrey wearing a smile while Lyonel also hid something more in his eyes and in his raised nose.
"With me, boy!"
"Yes, my lord."
And so, both returned to fighting side by side, cutting down their enemies one by one.
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