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"Not King's Landing, Your Grace? Then what is our target?"
"Heh. With my usual temper, even if I did not take King's Landing directly, I would seize Harrenhal and pull out Tywin's last nail in the Riverlands.
"But the way Tywin and the mysterious force behind him are determined to take Highgarden reeks of danger.
"Except for the Vale and the Riverlands, every major power has gathered around Highgarden. How could a war of this scale be missing the North?
"We continue north to Lannisport. Then we take ship and circle around to Highgarden."
Robb looked excited as he answered Crey. It was clear that he was looking forward to the battle about to begin at Highgarden.
Most of the army he led consisted of cavalry. Under a hard forced march, they needed only one day to reach Lannisport and join Theon, Lord Rickard, and the others waiting there.
At the council that night, Robb decided to board the longships of Theon's Iron Fleet first and head for Highgarden.
To guard against accidents, the northern fleet, made up of slower large oared warships, would cruise near the mouth of the Mander and serve as cover for a retreat.
Because they would be traveling up the Mander to Highgarden, even the Iron Fleet could use only small and midsized longships. Those ships were not suited for transporting horses, and with the number of longships available, they could carry at most about twenty-five thousand men.
After careful thought, Robb chose his force.
First, the ten thousand ironborn led by Theon, Asha, and the others had to go. Sailing and water fighting both depended on them.
For the remaining fifteen thousand, he chose ten thousand elite northern infantry under Lord Rickard, as well as the mixed force Crey and Ramsay had brought from Cornfield.
This time, Robb did not bring a single northern cavalryman, even though he had always treated the cavalry as one of his greatest strengths.
War should be fought according to the ground and situation. One did not need to bring archers, infantry, and cavalry in full every time.
After the decision was made, Robb led the twenty-five thousand men aboard at dawn the next morning.
They had departed two or three days later than the Redwyne fleet, but sailing north to south along the Sunset Sea put the Iron Fleet's longships with both wind and current. Then, once they entered the calm Mander, the mobility of the ironborn longships became even more obvious.
The Iron Fleet and the Redwyne fleet reached Highgarden one after the other.
When Robb saw the Redwyne and Hightower fleets tangled in battle at the harbor, he immediately ordered the Iron Fleet to support the Redwynes, who were clearly at a disadvantage.
Robb did not know that Lord Paxter had struggled over whether to support House Tyrell or House Lannister. But at the mouth of the Mander, the large Redwyne ships had taken the initiative to clear the channel for them. That was enough to show friend from foe.
Theon reported that too many ships blocked the harbor and the ironborn could not close in. Robb immediately scanned the river's flow and judged the distance between his own position and the harbor.
'The magic should be enough.'
"Bloodwind, we go."
Robb nodded to himself and called to Bloodwind, whose body had been compressed by Control. He walked straight toward the bow of the midsized longship.
The Mander's surface was calm, so even with Robb and Bloodwind standing at the bow, the ship remained steady.
After conveying his intent to Bloodwind, Robb stretched both hands diagonally toward the river and said in a low voice, "Domain."
Two white streams of icy mist as thick as barrels shot from Robb's hands and Bloodwind's jaws, striking the Mander.
The blue-green river surface froze where the mist touched it. Then the freezing spread outward at an exaggerated speed.
On the longship, Robb and Bloodwind continued releasing white mist without pause. This use was unlike any before. The output was so dense and constant that from a little distance it would not seem like mist at all, but like white pillars of ice.
This was a variation of Ice Spike Domain. It abandoned the creation of a wide field of ice spikes to kill enemies and focused instead on expanding and condensing a frozen surface.
Since gaining supernatural power through Link, Robb had added several hours of magic practice to his daily sword training. Because his own power was limited by Bloodwind's Magic, Robb, who had seen countless films and animations in his previous life, had always been trying to improve the efficiency of his magic and find new ways to use it.
This method of freezing only the river's surface was merely a basic application.
When Bloodwind's Magic attribute fell like a stone to single digits, Robb sent him the thought to stop.
By then, hundreds of yards of the Mander had been frozen. The once-rippling river looked like a vast sheet of green glass.
Robb looked across the vast frozen surface, pride filling him. In his previous life, how could he ever have imagined possessing such power?
He bent his legs and jumped fiercely from the bow.
The thick ice held under the impact. Bloodwind jumped lightly after him.
"The ice is solid enough. Everyone disembark. We walk across the Mander."
At Robb's order, the twenty-five thousand northern soldiers and ironborn, still shocked by the frozen river before them, jumped down onto the ice with excited faces.
"Crey, signal Garlan and Loras's Tyrell cavalry. Theon, you and Asha take the ironborn to assist House Redwyne.
"Lord Rickard, you and I will take the other soldiers and seize Highgarden's west gate."
Robb could move freely on the ice through magic or with Bloodwind, and the Wolfguard could do the same. But the ordinary soldiers could at most walk quickly across it. With Bloodwind's magic nearly spent, Robb now prepared to fulfill the duty of a king: command the battle.
"I will handle it at once."
"Yes!"
"As you command!"
Crey and the others accepted their orders.
After giving them, Robb's gaze happened to meet that of a handsome young commander on a midsized Hightower warship in the harbor.
'That looks like an important Hightower.'
The thought flashed through him. Robb freed his left hand and used the magic close to exhaustion to condense an ice spear.
When Ser Baelor saw an ice spear appear from nothing in Robb's hand, a sense of disaster surged through him. He had not expected that one extra glance would draw death.
Without hesitation, Baelor threw himself flat onto the deck and rolled aside.
His danger sense saved his life. Just after he dropped and rolled away, the beautiful ice spear pierced the thick deck from below and stabbed into the place where he had stood.
Robb did not check whether the spear had struck. After bringing his army near the harbor, the northern soldiers and ironborn split cleanly into two forces, each going toward its own target.
In the harbor, with ironborn support, the Redwynes immediately reversed their earlier disadvantage and counterattacked fiercely.
Lord Paxter, relieved by the reinforcements, felt deeply complicated. He had never imagined a day when he would fight side by side with ironborn.
On the other side of the harbor, Robb and Lord Rickard led the northern army around the blocked ships across the ice and successfully landed beside the west gate.
The three hundred Hightower soldiers Garth had left behind saw at once the northern army in northern mail, carrying direwolf banners. They cried out and rushed back inside the gate, trying to close the west gate that had been left open for Ser Baelor's army.
"Will, take the Wolfguard and seize that gate."
"Yes, Your Grace!"
Will urged the blood-bound direwolf beneath him into a sprint. The other twelve Wolfguard followed close behind.
The west gate was not far from the harbor. Under the full speed of the powerful blood-bound direwolves, the Hightower soldiers had only just closed the heavy gate and had not yet dropped more than a few thick bars when a violent explosion blew it open.
The Wolfguard, each with pouches of ring-shaped fruits at his waist, were an elite force beyond anything Westeros usually saw. The three hundred Hightower soldiers had no chance of stopping them.
Thirteen blood-bound direwolves charged through the west gate blasted open by explosive fruits and raised a bloody storm of severed limbs.
By the time Robb and Lord Rickard reached the west gate, more than half the Hightower soldiers had been slaughtered by the Wolfguard. Their morale collapsed, and one after another they threw down weapons and knelt.
After easily taking Highgarden's west gate, Robb immediately climbed the wall to survey the battle.
At the south gate of Highgarden's first wall, black smoke still rose. Around the smoke in the sky, a bird that looked like a hawk circled constantly.
Robb could also faintly hear fighting from that direction. The battle there seemed to be continuing.
At the north gate, by contrast, there was silence. A familiar green flame was burning fiercely before the second wall. At the same time, clearer battle cries came from the north side of the second wall. The situation was clearly critical.
A low rumble came from behind him. Robb turned and saw a large mass of black dots on the Ocean Road west of the castle.
That was the force of Garlan and Loras, which had hidden nearby while waiting for the signal.
The two brothers had indeed kept their promise to Robb. Even after Highgarden's first wall fell, they had resisted the urge to send troops on their own.
"Crey, you and Ramsay stay here and wait for Garlan and Loras's cavalry. Once they arrive, take them to strike the enemy outside the south gate.
"Compared with the north gate, where the enemy has already broken through to the second wall, the many Tyrell cavalry will do far more damage to the army still outside the south gate."
After judging quickly, Robb gave Crey his order. Then he looked at the hedge maze beneath the west wall.
"Lord Rickard and I will take troops to support Highgarden's north side.
"The road from the west gate has been blocked by obstacles, so we can only pass through the hedge maze to approach the second wall. But with the map Margaery drew beforehand, we should move through it quickly."
"Your Grace, if we divide our forces this way, you will have only ten thousand northern soldiers beside you. According to our agents, the north gate is the main attack of House Martell and House Lannister. They have more than thirty thousand men.
"I fear..."
As always, Crey first considered the worst outcome.
"Crey, I knew you would say that." Robb smiled and patted his shoulder. "Do not worry. We do not need to fight them to the death.
"We only have to hold them. The faster you finish the south gate battle, the faster you can come and complete the encirclement with us.
"Besides, if I want to retreat, do you think anyone can stop me and Bloodwind?"
"That is true. Even if our side loses, it would be difficult for them to keep Your Grace inside Highgarden. After all... Your Grace has experience entering King's Landing alone."
"Exactly. Wait, Crey. That sounds a little wrong."
After joking with Crey to ease the atmosphere, Robb led the northern army into the hedge maze below the west gate according to Margaery's map.
Garlan and Loras arrived first at the west gate with thirty thousand Tyrell cavalry. Crey and Ramsay joined them and led the cavalry around toward the south gate to attack the coalition army commanded by Ser Bonifer.
In the harbor, the Hightower fleet was gradually being compressed under the joint assault of the Redwynes and ironborn. From above, it looked as if House Hightower was about to be boxed in completely.
In this battle for Highgarden, the coalition army that had originally held absolute advantage saw the whole situation reversed the moment Robb joined the fight with the northern army and ironborn.
When Robb led the northern army through the hedge maze and reached the north gate of the second wall, he happened to see soldiers wearing the tall tower of House Hightower break through Highgarden's second north gate.
Behind them, many soldiers bearing the Martell sun-and-spear sigil were streaming out of the maze.
The northern army appeared in a long, single-file column and was immediately spotted.
Both sides recognized friend from foe almost at once and quickly began forming ranks for battle.
Before the second wall's north gate, green wildfire burned steadily, using the wooden barriers as fuel. Two great powers, each with too many men for the open ground before the wall, began their first collision.
Robb saw at once the unruly, strangely charming middle-aged man in the enemy formation. Inwardly, he sent a thought to Bloodwind.
'Bloodwind, release Control. So many blood pact points have delivered themselves to us.'
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