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Clatter, clatter, clatter!
The defenders at Casterly Rock's two side gates received Daven's order. Each gate kept fifty men behind, and a total of six hundred defenders began gathering at the wall by the main gate.
With these fresh troops joining in good condition, the northern soldiers' faint signs of reaching the top were instantly suppressed.
Screams, blood, severed limbs, and corpses were the eternal themes of war.
Less than an hour had passed since the siege began. The nearly nine hundred soldiers of House Ryswell and House Dustin whom Robb had deliberately placed at the very front had basically been killed or wounded to the last.
After them came the infantry of House Umber and House Karstark, who had volunteered to serve as the vanguard in the assault to atone for their failure in the pursuit at Lannisport.
Seeing that the siege of Casterly Rock was unfolding exactly as he had planned, Robb, mounted on Bloodwind, slowly appeared within sight of the defenders on the main gate wall.
Because tonight's action would take place in darkness, Bloodwind's wolf armor was too conspicuous. At this moment, he wore no armor, and Robb sat on his furry back, gripping the wolf fur at his neck tightly.
Awooo!
At a thought from Robb, Bloodwind carried him swiftly to the now-empty watchtower. Facing the crescent moon hanging in the middle of the sky, the direwolf raised his head and howled.
That penetrating wolf howl could be heard not only across Casterly Rock, but even vaguely from Lannisport.
Hearing the howl, all the northern soldiers attacking Casterly Rock saw their morale suddenly rise sharply. Fearless of death, they threw themselves at the wall.
The defenders could clearly feel that these northern soldiers were different from those before, in spirit and in their powerful bodies.
Many northern soldiers who fought their way to the top were drenched in boiling oil the moment they stood on the battlements.
But instead of screaming and falling backward, they screamed and lunged forward at the servants or Lannister defenders in front of them.
Many unprepared defenders and servants were counter-killed by these badly wounded northern soldiers.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The northern army's archers, who had remained silent until now, heard the wolf howl and ran into range. They immediately launched covering fire toward Casterly Rock's walls and the castle interior.
Among the arrows they loosed were ordinary iron-headed arrows and specially prepared fire arrows.
The messenger beside Daven was struck in the left cheek by a stray arrow. The iron arrow pierced through his cheek, lost its force, and simply hung there from his face.
Listening to his screams and seeing his miserable state startled Daven badly.
He turned and saw wagons and debris inside the castle being set alight by fire arrows. He hurriedly pointed at the former castellan of Casterly Rock. "You take charge of defending the wall. I will gather men to put out the fires."
After saying this, he did not wait for the castellan's reply. He hurried down from the wall alone.
"These northern barbarians are mad. They attack like they do not want to live. This is nothing like the war books I read."
Daven muttered to himself as he quickly walked toward Casterly Rock's inner wall.
"I should go back to the castle. Even if the outer wall falls, there is still the inner wall as a second line of defense."
He walked a little farther and reached the defensive tower on the far left side of Casterly Rock, a necessary path toward the inner wall.
Suddenly, the door of this defensive tower, now unmanned because the soldiers had been transferred to the main gate, slowly opened from within.
Daven stared, dumbfounded, at the ironborn inside the tower, whose appearance was unmistakable. Once he reacted, he immediately opened his mouth to shout.
A sharp arrow shot out from inside the tower door and flew straight into Daven's open mouth, silencing his shout forever.
Theon walked out of the tower holding a wooden bow. He glanced at Daven's corpse on the ground, then immediately led a dozen ironborn forward, sneaking toward Casterly Rock's left side gate.
Robb rode Bloodwind from the watchtower on the left toward Casterly Rock's left gate.
The road to the left gate was rugged and difficult, completely different from what Robb had seen on television in his previous life. So he had brought no northern soldiers, only one man and one wolf moving quietly.
Robb did not use a torch for light. To Bloodwind, who could see at night, darkness was no different from day.
The wolf carried Robb and moved nimbly along the edge of the cliff. The Lannister defenders on the wall had their attention drawn entirely by the fierce northern soldiers. How could they notice the giant wolf hidden in the dark?
"Careful. Something is running over there!"
When Bloodwind passed the narrow, broken road and drew close to the left gate, the defenders above the wall, aided by the light of the burning braziers, caught a glimpse of a huge gray shadow flashing through the darkness.
Awooo!
Seeing that he had drawn attention, Robb simply had Bloodwind move a little closer and give short howls as he ran swiftly.
The soldiers on the left gate wall immediately grew nervous and drew their bows into the darkness. But how could they possibly hit Bloodwind, who was running back and forth at great speed and constantly changing position?
Whoosh, whoosh!
The defenders on Casterly Rock's left gate wall were fully drawn by Bloodwind outside the castle. Their eyes widened as they searched for the gray shadow in the dark, loosing arrows again and again.
Bang, bang!
Below them, two gate guards were struck by arrows fired from the darkness and died cleanly where they stood.
Hearing Bloodwind's short howls outside the wall, Theon led a dozen ironborn and rushed toward the gate.
One defender on the wall heard movement below and turned to look. Theon, who had been watching the situation above as he ran, put an arrow through his eye socket. The man screamed and fell from the wall.
That movement instantly threw the defenders on the wall into chaos. They immediately turned and tried to deal with Theon and his men.
By then, however, Theon and the others had already reached the gate below the wall, vanishing from sight and making it impossible to attack them.
Creak, creak!
As the defenders on the wall hurried down the stone steps, Theon and seven or eight ironborn seized the thick, long gate bar together and heaved it upward with all their strength.
Screech!
The bar was thrown heavily to the ground. They immediately pulled open the two thick oak doors and raised the iron portcullis in front of them.
More than twenty Lannister defenders came down the wall stairs. But below the wall, the gate area had become strangely quiet.
That obviously wrong silence made them stop.
The defenders in the rear pushed the two men at the front, signaling for them to keep moving.
The two looked at each other, swallowed, tightened their grips on sword and shield, and summoned the courage to move toward the gate together.
They kept close to the wall and reached the corner by the gate. One defender gathered his courage and stuck his head out to look.
The instant he did, a huge gray shadow flashed before him, and he fell into eternal darkness.
Hiss, hiss!
The other soldier behind him reached up and touched the warm blood on his face. He stared blankly at the headless corpse before him as blood still spurted from it.
The huge gray shadow stopped not far ahead. It was a terrifying giant wolf with gray fur, a dripping human head held in its mouth.
"Monster! Monster!"
The defender whose face was covered in blood was so frightened by Bloodwind that his mind nearly broke. He began shouting again and again.
But he shut his mouth immediately.
Robb stepped out from the gate with Ice in hand. The greatsword wheeled once in his grip and directly beheaded the shouting defender.
Awooo!
Acting with Robb, Bloodwind spat out the head in his mouth, launched himself forward on all four legs, and charged into the defenders caught between advancing and retreating, beginning a merciless slaughter.
Surges of red mist rose. Robb and Bloodwind, one man and one wolf, were simply unstoppable. These defenders could not withstand them at all.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Theon and the others quickly followed behind Robb. After running out through the gate, they immediately turned and looked upward, firing arrows at the wall to cover them.
In only a few minutes, Robb and Bloodwind killed all twenty-plus defenders. Before the giant wolf, they did not even have a chance to flee.
Robb added the newly gained blood pact points to Bloodwind's Magic attribute, then had the wolf climb the stone steps to the wall and deal with the defenders above.
"Ah! Ah!"
After a burst of shrill screams, endless red mist rose from the wall and entered Robb's body.
Awooo!
Once all the defenders at the left gate were dealt with, Bloodwind received Robb's thought, stood amid a pile of corpses, blood, and severed limbs, and raised his head in a long howl.
At Casterly Rock's main gate, a group of northern soldiers heard the wolf howl, lit torches, and followed the rugged path toward the left gate.
But their torchlit group was far too obvious.
The archers on Casterly Rock's wall saw their chance and loosed a volley. The northern soldiers suffered no small number of casualties and found it difficult to continue forward through the arrow rain.
"Theon, hold this place. Bloodwind and I will see whether there is a chance to open the main gate."
Plans could not keep up with changes. After waiting a long time without reinforcements, Robb thought briefly and spoke to Theon.
"Mm. Robb, be careful."
"Do not worry. Bloodwind can use magic now."
Robb replied meaningfully. When Bloodwind came to him and crouched, he turned and climbed onto the wolf's furry back.
Theon paid no attention to what he thought was a joke and watched Robb vanish around the corner on Bloodwind.
Clang, clang, clang!
At Casterly Rock's main gate, in addition to the many scaling ladders, more than a dozen northern soldiers were carrying a solid wooden battering ram, striking again and again at the iron portcullis outside the oak doors.
The portcullis clanged under the blows, but in reality, they had little effect.
For a strong castle gate like Casterly Rock's, unless the attackers had a proper wheeled battering ram, a crude self-made ram like this could strike as long as it wanted and still be unlikely to shake the gate at all.
What they did not know was that Bloodwind, carrying Robb, was approaching the main gate along the shadowed part of the wall where the firelight did not reach.
On the main gate wall, under the orderly command of Casterly Rock's castellan, the defenders were locked in a tug-of-war of flesh and blood with the northern soldiers.
The battle was fierce and close. As time passed, the balance of the siege had already begun tilting toward the defenders of Casterly Rock.
After all, the attackers' losses in a siege would certainly be higher than the defenders'.
Below the main gate, four defenders stared only at the gate being struck again and again, ignoring what lay behind them.
A huge gray shadow swiftly arrived behind them. Bloodwind's two sharp claws and terrifying jaws could only handle three enemies.
At the same time, Robb leapt down from Bloodwind just as the wolf steadied himself. Ice in his hands chopped diagonally at the final defender.
"Enemy attack!"
But this last defender reacted extremely quickly and shouted at once. Robb landed, and his greatsword cut him diagonally in two, but that final shout had already alerted the soldiers on the wall above.
Casterly Rock's main gate likewise had sturdy oak doors, and behind them was a wooden bar far thicker and longer than the one at the side gate.
Robb tried it. Even with his great strength, it was difficult for him to move the bar.
Fortunately, Bloodwind was beside him. At a thought, he immediately had the direwolf try.
Bloodwind hooked upward nimbly with his forepaws. The sharp claws on both paws dug deep into the wooden bar, and his strength, already beyond human comparison, directly flipped the heavy bar hard to the ground.
Creak!
Still with Bloodwind's help, Robb opened the two heavy oak doors.
But when he saw the iron portcullis outside the oak doors, he froze.
The iron portcullis at Casterly Rock's main gate was controlled by a finely made iron lock embedded inside the gate. It required a key to open.
'Gods. Even if Bloodwind's claws are sharp, they cannot tear through a lump of iron like this.'
Just as Robb found himself at a loss, he suddenly remembered an old film from his previous life. In it, even a steel-boned Terminator could not withstand liquid nitrogen.
The material of this fine iron lock certainly could not compare to the alloy from that film.
The low temperature produced by Bloodwind's magic-like ice breath should be fully enough.
'It is worth trying.'
Robb nodded inwardly, pointed directly at the middle of the iron lock, and ordered, "Bloodwind, use ice breath here."
Bloodwind immediately drew a deep breath, opened his jaws toward the lock, and breathed out white ice mist.
Crack, crack, crack!
His current Magic attribute of three points was clearly far stronger than the single point he had before. The fine iron lock was instantly frozen into a block of ice.
At the same time, as white mist continued flowing from Bloodwind's mouth, the ice spread outward as if alive.
"He is opening the gate! Stop him!"
The castellan on the main gate wall had come down with dozens of defenders to check the situation. When he saw the oak doors already open and Robb standing before the portcullis, he immediately shouted in alarm to the soldiers beside him.
At that moment, Bloodwind's magic was exhausted. Robb suddenly raised Ice with both hands and brought it down with all his strength at the middle of the fine iron lock, now a great lump of ice.
Crack!
The fine iron lock shattered beneath Robb's blow as easily as brittle pastry.
"The gate is open! Charge into the castle!"
"Hurry! I want the first merit!"
"Charge, charge, charge!"
The northern soldiers outside saw the portcullis open, abandoned the wooden battering ram, and swarmed into Casterly Rock.
'It is over.'
Watching the ant-like northern soldiers pour constantly into Casterly Rock, the castellan stood frozen in place.
Rip!
The "swarm of ants" instantly drowned him, and sharp swords stabbed him into a torn sack.
The more than one thousand defenders on the wall saw that the gate had fallen and no longer had the heart to keep fighting the northern soldiers.
One after another, they rushed toward the inner wall on the left, trying to rely on the castle's second line of defense.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The northern reinforcements from the left, led by Theon, directly blocked them from the wall at the left gate, cutting off their retreat.
A wolf before them and a tiger behind.
Clang!
The Lannister defenders lost all will to fight. They threw down their weapons one after another and knelt to surrender.
The siege of Casterly Rock had, without anyone noticing, lasted from the deep night before dawn until first light of the next day.
When the sun rose from the sea, the roaring lion banner atop Casterly Rock was cut down.
Immediately afterward, the direwolf banner was raised, fluttering in the sea wind.
It meant that this stone castle, founded before the Age of Heroes and never once taken, had suffered its humiliating first fall.
It also meant that the old balance of power in Westeros had been broken, and a new situation would bring earth-shaking change.
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