"Ang, ang, ang!"
In an instant, the world fell into a silence never heard before.
Aside from the dragon-worm roaring through its smoke–filled mouth, the sound from Big Black, the centaurs, and the Mother of Dragons Guard of Meereen all ceased.
The allied soldiers who had been running wildly and fleeing in terror stopped in their tracks and stared blankly in the direction of the dragon-worm. The despair in their eyes sparked again with a glimmer of hope.
"Victory to the Alliance! Meereen will fall!"Within the deathly stillness, shouts began to rise from the allied encampment, scattered at first and then gathering strength.
The sudden reappearance of the four dragon-worms not only pulled the Alliance back from the brink of defeat, it rebuilt the soldiers' shattered belief that victory was still possible. The firmness of that belief remained uncertain, but at least the Alliance managed to hold on long enough to win half the battle that afternoon.
This time, Jenny was prepared for the "pterosaur spears" from the sky. The dragon-worms continued to crawl out of the ground to attack the centaurs, but they never again left the range of their tunnels.
If small groups of pterosaurs hurled spears, the dragon-worms dodged swiftly with slippery movements. Spears falling from a height of four to five hundred meters took nearly ten seconds to hit the ground.
If the pterosaurs rained down spears in a wide spread, the dragon-worms below the surface immediately burrowed further, carving out pits. The ones above ground writhed only a few times and slipped back underground before the spears struck.
After wasting three thousand spears, Dany began lowering the throwing height—two hundred meters, one hundred and fifty, even one hundred. She held complete control of the skies anyway, so she could play however she wished.
Well, gravity still followed the laws of the universe, and she could not actually do whatever she wanted.
Lowering the height shortened the fall time, but it also reduced the kinetic energy when the spears struck.
During the first surprise attack, the two–meter steel spears pierced completely through the bodies of the dragon-worms, spraying blood several meters high.
Once the height dropped to a hundred meters, even when a spear struck a dragon-worm too late to burrow, only half the shaft sank beneath its scales.
It was like sticking a toothpick into a python.
If the attack did not hit a vital point, killing them became nearly impossible.
From midday until roughly three in the afternoon, the Meereen pterosaur legion wasted nearly ten thousand iron spears and only managed to kill one dragon-worm.
The efficiency was too low and the cost too high. Dany could only sound the retreat.
The Dragon Queen failed to break the Alliance in a single day. The Alliance barely held their ground, and avoiding defeat counted as victory.
Night fell over Meereen, and in the Royal Palace atop the Great Pyramid…
"Your Majesty," Big Crab spoke first, "we won a great victory at sea today. The docks outside the enemy encampment have been entirely destroyed, and we have sealed the surrounding waters."
"If nothing unexpected occurs, the Alliance will lose complete control of the sea."
His expression twisted into something odd, as though what he had seen made no sense.
"That is a good thing. Why does it sound like you see a problem?" Dany asked in confusion.
"Your Majesty, the enemy fleet should not have been so weak. The Alliance's Third Fleet fell apart far too easily, and their escort fleet reacted far too slowly. Could there be a trap here?" Big Crab Ilyse frowned.
The Third Fleet guarding the port was commanded by Xaro, and the escort fleet was led by Traegar. Both commanders were my spies. How could the Alliance not lose control of the sea?
"They saw me slaughtering from the sky. Wouldn't they be terrified?" Dany waved her hand dismissively and concluded, "A win is a win. What conspiracy could there be?"
"Morona," she turned to the captain of the shapeshifters, "how is Qyla?"
Morona nodded excitedly and laughed. "Congratulations, Your Majesty. Tolos has fallen back into your hands."
Indeed, today's great battle was not fought in Meereen alone. With two hundred thousand roaring warriors, the Dragon Queen could afford to divide her forces and launch multiple assaults.
At dawn, Qyla led a force of ten thousand soldiers toward Tolos, raising their battle horn almost at the same time as Dany.
"Excellent. The Alliance has now lost every port in Slaver's Bay."
At last, Dany turned to Old Barristan, her expression heavy. "Ser, how many did we lose today?"
"More than five thousand centaurs died in battle. Over eighty percent fell during the first wave of the dragon-worm assault.
We had ten thousand centaurs enter the Allied encampment, and the dragon-worms crawled out through the entrance, blocking every path of retreat.
If you had not prepared the pterosaur spears ahead of time, Your Majesty, and if they had not killed the first five dragon-worms, the entire force that entered the camp would have been wiped out."
Today's decisive battle gave the Dragon Queen supreme control of the skies. She single-handedly shattered the enemy's air force and seized complete air dominance.Barristan led five ten–thousand–strong centaur divisions to attack the encampment head-on.Galz Haetal, naturally gifted in dragon warfare, commanded the pterosaur legion, directing aerial spear strikes to kill the dragon-worms.
"We lost an entire ten-thousand–strong division," Dany murmured, pained.
"Ai, people plan but the heavens decide. I kept changing my plans. My original goal was to win without losing a single soldier."
Barristan replied in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, in a world war of this size, the idea of not sacrificing a single soldier is a burden—a shackle on the mind.
War means death.
We lost five thousand light cavalry today, but the enemy's losses are at least five times that number. We broke through half the length of their twenty–kilometer encampment, and burned supplies, food, and tents beyond counting.
This is a great victory. The death of five thousand centaurs was a worthy price.
Under normal circumstances, we have already won—truly won. Without food, the Alliance must collapse."
"You said it yourself, under normal circumstances. Do you call today normal?" Big Bear interjected sourly.
If Old Bear had arrived earlier, command of the centaurs would likely have gone to him.
Before he returned, Dany ran countless drills and war games.
In those exercises, Big Bear commanded the centaurs while the Bloodriders served as captains of the tens of thousands.
Yet today, Big Bear stood atop Meereen's wall watching the battle unfold for most of the day. Only after Dany summoned the pterosaurs did he fly out to throw a few hundred spears.
"However abnormal things may be, the allied army still has to eat!" Old Barristan said in a deep voice.
As he was speaking, an Unsullied suddenly came to deliver a report, saying that there was unusual movement in the allied army outside the city.
Dany instantly linked with her dragon sense and, through the eyes of the great black dragon in the sky, saw the changes in the allied camp. The allied forces were breaking camp and relocating.
Inside the camp, people swarmed everywhere, warhorses neighed, and the vanguard units had already begun advancing toward Meereen.
"Ser Barristan is right. The allied army also has to eat. Now that more than half of their camp has been destroyed and they have lost the docks, it is very difficult for grain to be transported in by sea. They cannot hold out for many days.
If they cannot quickly take Meereen, even a hundred giant dragons would not be able to stop a starving army from mutinying."
At this point, the corner of Dany's mouth could not help but curl into a cold, cruel smile.
The sunset was like blood, making this land already stained red with blood appear even more bleak and brutal.
The northern allied camp had been trampled by the Dothraki and riddled with countless holes dug by dragon worms, making it uninhabitable. After hastily salvaging the tents and supplies that had not been burned, tens of thousands of troops stepped into the evening glow and slowly moved in the direction of Meereen.
Mid- and high-ranking officers led the soldiers to build new barracks about five hundred meters from Meereen, while several of the allied leaders held a meeting with Priestess Jieni in the underground tunnels beneath the former camp.
There were not many people present, only Jieni, Grazdan, Sibellio, and the Long-Nosed King.
Speaking of the allied leaders' meeting, there should originally have been several naval commanders present. However, the battle that morning had been a disastrous defeat for the alliance. The docks were destroyed and the coastline blockaded. Kregg, Zaro, and the others were leading dozens of ships drifting on the open sea, and it was unlikely they could make it back.
Oh, and there was also the dwarf.
As Jieni's lover, he stood behind her, listening without speaking.
"Too惨了!" Sibellio's triangular face was almost stretched into an oval. "Including the logistics troops and cooks, we originally had 180,000 men.
But just in the battle this morning, nearly thirty thousand were killed or wounded, and another eighty thousand had already become deserters. Only after Meereen sounded the gong to end the battle did they slowly return to the ranks.
Obviously, these deserters cannot be relied upon. They can only fight easy, favorable battles.
Lady Jieni, we cannot afford to lose again."
"Not only must we avoid defeat, we must take Meereen as soon as possible. We lack food, and our soldiers have been under constant attack and are short on morale.
Inside Meereen, however, there are countless supplies of grain for us to eat, and vast treasures that will turn the mercenaries into ravenous wolves," said the God of War Kayun in a deep voice.
"Can we quickly break through Meereen's gates?" the triangular-faced man asked expectantly.
Jieni nodded. "Breaking the gates is not difficult. If 150,000 soldiers are willing to stake their lives, taking Meereen will be very easy.
But Meereen is only one of the three cities of Slaver's Bay. It is not even Daenerys's main base.
If she is not killed, this war is far from over."
Grazdan let out a breath of relief and said, "As long as we can see hope of victory, our mercenaries will be no different from the Dragon Queen's most loyal guards.
Once the gates are breached, they will certainly howl as they rush to occupy Meereen. As for Daenerys…"
"Sigh, we will take it one step at a time," the God of War said, a trace of despair appearing on his face. "Even wyverns cannot bite her to death. Trying to behead her is almost impossible."
The Long-Nosed King stroked his large nose and said, "The goal of the alliance is not to kill Daenerys. If she withdraws her oath to free slaves across the world, that counts as victory for us.
If we can first take Meereen, then seize Yunkai and Astapor, stripping her of the ability to liberate slaves, we also win."
"That is sound reasoning!" Grazdan nodded repeatedly. "We only want to defend slavery as the foundation of our survival. We bear no particular hatred toward the Dragon Queen herself.
Driving her away, or forcing her to swear to abandon the liberation of slaves, both count as victory."
Jieni frowned and said sternly, "Daenerys must be killed. That is my goal!"
She had no interest in freeing slaves or defending slavery. Her sole reason for joining the alliance was to seize the Dragon Queen's bloodline and destiny.
"I fear that will be very difficult," the God of War said, shaking his head in distress, then looking at Jieni with great expectation. "Unless the priestess still has some decisive trump card."
Jieni's gaze turned cold as she asked in return, "What kind of trump card do you think could take Daenerys's life?"
I have no idea?!
Grazdan complained inwardly, but also guessed that the Valyrian remnant was probably already at the end of her resources.
After frowning in thought for a moment, he asked, "In order to capture Aegon, Lady Jieni delayed matters for more than half a month.
During this long period, the dragon worms must have been digging tunnels nonstop.
How far have they dug by now?
If they can reach directly beneath Meereen, or even hollow out the foundation of the Great Pyramid so that it suddenly sinks into the ground at night, it really might be possible to bury Daenerys while she sleeps."
(End of chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09