WILOW-Ch.355: Wyvern Rider - II
Near Riverrun Castle, Riverlands
POV of Thistle
Thistle put the mirror back in her pocket and slapped the Shadow Wing's back a few times.
Shadow Wing tilted its head.
"LORD BOLTON TOLD US TO BEGIN!!!" she shouted.
The whooshing of the air made it hard for them to communicate, but it was nothing that good old shouting could not solve.
Shadow Wing tilted its head up and down in a nod and then turned toward the castle in the distance.
It didn't even take them a minute before they were out of the forest.
She saw a large number of red-colored tents scattered around the riverbank and knew what she had to do. And so did her husband.
He took her to the center of the camp.
Some of the men guarding the camp saw the two wyverns and started shouting, but it was already too late.
They reached the center of the camp where the large tents were located, and Shadow Wing tilted its back.
And she slid the large barrel off its back.
She watched in perfect silence as the barrel descended on top of those tents and then…
-BOOOOMMM!!!
The sound and the size of the explosion made her heart stop for a moment. It engulfed a large area, covering the entire center area of the camp and then some.
A large plume of smoke rose from the ground, and she knew that she had killed more men in that second than she and her husband had in their entire lives.
The wyvern flying behind her didn't think that it was enough and dropped its barrel as well.
-BDAAMMMM!!!
This explosion was larger, and the wildfire splashed everywhere, burning men and tents alike.
Her throat went dry, and she felt like puking. She had killed men before… but this…
Thistle knew what war meant. In war, showing mercy to the enemy would be cruelty to oneself. It was either the enemy or them.
Lord Bolton had told them what the Lannister army had done after entering these lands so that they wouldn't feel bad.
At the time, she hadn't understood why Lord Bolton had dwelled on this so much.
But now she understood perfectly. And frankly, she was grateful to Lord Bolton for telling them what kind of people the Lannisters were.
Otherwise, she didn't think she could drop any more bombs.
But when the enemy was someone who enjoyed plundering innocent villages and killing women and children for pleasure, dropping bombs on them didn't seem so difficult.
Moreover, Lord Bolton had said that if everything went well, they wouldn't have to repeat this. Frankly, Thistle would be grateful for that.
The men started coming out of their tents, and she could see the giants and the Bolton army coming out of the woods.
Shadow Wing tilted its wings and turned around for another round over the Lannister camps.
She could hear the shouts and screams as some men tried to douse the fire while others haphazardly prepared for the army coming at them.
The giants smashed through their lines without any problem, and the heavy infantry created a blockade around the Lannister camp.
The crossbowmen took their position behind the man-made blockade and started raining down bolts upon bolts on the Lannister men.
Shadow Wing shook a bit, and she was brought back to herself. The wyvern turned its head and gave her a look.
She looked back in confusion before she suddenly realized where she was.
And what her role was.
She looked at the large explosion at the center of the Lannister camp. Some of those men were still screaming in pain as wildfire ate them bit by bit.
She held the bile in her throat but nodded back at her husband. She might not like this, but she had a duty to perform.
Her hands reached inside the bottomless pouch, and when it came out, she was holding a mudball filled with wildfire.
She dropped it on the Lannister army below her.
It dropped to the ground and splashed, then caught fire and burned everything around it.
She took a few deep breaths before steeling her heart.
Then her hand reached inside the bottomless pouch once again and came out with two mudballs.
She promptly dropped them and reached for another.
She spent the next few minutes in autopilot. Taking out the balls that were filled with wildfire, aiming, and then dropping them at the enemy.
She continued to do so until her Shadow Wing shook and brought her out of her thoughts.
She blinked a few times and looked at the Lannister camp properly.
Most of the tents had caught fire.
A lot of corpses were still burning in the middle of the fire.
A lot more corpses were lying around the giants in the impenetrable armor and the heavy infantry.
A lot of corpses had bolts sticking out of them, and a fair number of the Lannister soldiers had thrown their weapons and surrendered, while the others had jumped into the river in a bid to escape.
She looked at the other battlefields.
The Lannister army in the Southern-East, where Lord Bolton led the attack, was in a rout. The Dothraki General and his horse archers were chasing and picking off the escapees.
The Lannister army in the Southern-West still held, but the few that remained were surrounded by the Bolton army and the Riverlanders who had sallied out of the castle. They fell in short order as well.
And that was that.
They had destroyed an army twice the size of their own and had won a great victory for themselves.
If that was truly the case, then why did she feel so empty?
Then he remembered Lord Bolton's last words before leaving.
'I won't say your task is a good one. I don't think any sane person would enjoy doing this. But remember this: thanks to the work you are doing here today, innocent children will not have to die. Desperate mothers will not have to throw themselves in front of soldiers to protect their children. They will live, and that will be thanks to you.'
At least those words would allow her to rest her head on the pillow peacefully at night.
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.356: Victory Celebration
Ch.357: Deciding the Next Course of Action
Ch.358: All Mine!