Chapter 168: The Dragon's Roar, Ironoaks Submits
The Vale, Ironoaks
"Loose arrows..."
"Fire..."
Along the corridors surrounding the castle square of Ironoaks, the knights of House Waynwood let out angry roars. Their shouts echoed through the air, sounding like a call to battle drums.
Following these deafening cries, countless arrows poured down like a torrential rain, aimed directly at Jon and his troop of dragon riders.
Although Jon's sudden appearance had instantly disrupted the formation of House Waynwood's defenders, led by several hedge knights, the soldiers armed with crossbows and longbows suppressed the fear in their hearts and launched their attack.
These arrows, like messengers of the Grim Reaper, carried the whistling sound of the wind as they shot toward Jon and his men in a swarm, attempting to drown them in this relentless rain of metal.
However, Jon and his warriors were not unprepared. They seemed to have long anticipated this wave of fierce attacks. Before the battle even began, they had quickly raised their shields, forming an impenetrable shield wall.
The dragon riders following Jon were all elites he had carefully selected from the Holy Knights. It could be said that even if Jon hadn't come, they would have been able to organize a solid defense on their own.
Though the arrows were dense, they were effectively blocked by the shield wall, helplessly striking the hard shields or falling powerlessly to the cold ground, unable to cause any harm to Jon and his men.
At the same time, the charging Drakons were also subjected to the baptism of the arrow rain. Their hides were thick and tough, and the scales on their bodies were as hard as bedrock.
These terrifying magical creatures were barriers in their own right. Having lost the ability to fly and breathe Dragonfire, all their power was concentrated into their scales.
To them, the arrows were nothing more than a trivial itch, completely unable to penetrate their scales, let alone cause them any damage.
At this moment, Jon and his dragon riders stood in the center of the castle square. From here, the only way up was via the spiral staircases on their rear left and right sides; other areas were servant quarters and kennels.
Despite the House Waynwood soldiers holding the high ground and being able to attack from above, Jon was not about to sit and wait for death.
These people had clearly underestimated the power of the Drakons and Jon, and they were destined to pay the price for that assumption.
"Roar..."
At that moment, hearing Jon's command, the black Drakon let out a direct roar of fury. Immediately after, the terrifying monster began to crawl up the spiral staircase behind it.
Its speed was incredibly fast. In just a few seconds, it reached the main gates. These were iron-banded oak doors leading into the interior of Ironoaks' castle, doors that required a mechanical mechanism to open.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Having received the order, the black Drakon began to attack the gates directly. Its massive head slammed into the giant iron-reinforced doors one strike after another, terrifying the soldiers behind the gate so much they dared not move.
"Drop the portcullis!"
Crack...
Just then, the soldiers who had been observing from the gatehouse finally noticed the commotion at the wooden keep. Seeing the Mountain Clans warriors armed with exquisite equipment slaughtering everyone in their path, the hedge knights watching from the gatehouse finally understood the enemy's plan.
After the initial panic and confusion, the castle guards responsible for the drawbridge and portcullis finally regained their senses and began to operate the mechanisms bit by bit.
The soldiers who had been watching the battle from within the castle also fixed their gazes on the slowly rising drawbridge, an indescribable sense of relief surging in their hearts.
They could almost hear the sound of their own heartbeats—a longing for the safety that was about to arrive and the anticipation of having escaped a disaster.
The corners of some knights' mouths even began to turn up, ready to cheer for this moment of victory. Of course, this was only the victory they imagined.
Howl...!
However, at the very moment this joy was about to burst forth, a series of low, savage wolf howls pierced through the din of the battlefield. They did not come from afar, but from right beside them.
That sound was full of wildness and threat, like the whisper of the Grim Reaper, causing the hearts of the defending soldiers to sink to the bottom of an abyss.
At this moment, the eyes of the castle guards widened, filled with fear and confusion. Then, they witnessed a scene that made their blood run cold.
Over a dozen dark gray figures, like ghosts, suddenly lunged out from the shadows of the wooden keep. Their forms looked exceptionally ferocious under the moonlight.
Timot, the burly werewolf, was the first to leap out from the keep, a cold light flashing in his eyes.
Under his leadership, the Wolf Guards also displayed the same astonishing agility. They did not choose a frontal assault but instead used the chains of the drawbridge, climbing up rapidly and skillfully like they were scaling vines.
Timot's goal was very clear: the gatehouse. As long as they could seize this high point, Timot could lead his Mountain Clans warriors to capture this fortified castle in one fell swoop.
"What is that!?"
"More monsters are coming..."
"Seven Gods save me, Seven Gods save me!"
...Amidst the cries of the defending soldiers, these terrifying monsters rushed directly into the gatehouse. Their speed was so swift that the soldiers inside had no time to react.
Puchi...
Having suddenly burst into the gatehouse, Timot attacked the first soldier near him. Under his horrific strikes and bites, the soldier quickly became a mangled corpse.
"I'll kill you..."
"He killed Lemon!"
"Kill him..."
...Timot's terrifying attack instantly froze many soldiers in place with fear, but some were instead enraged by this bloodthirsty scene. They shouted and rushed forward, seemingly prepared to use swarm tactics to beat Timot to death.
Awooo...!
But before these soldiers could even begin their encirclement, several more werewolves lunged out from the surrounding vents. They howled as they charged into the crowd, quickly biting to death several soldiers who attempted to resist.
Ha!
Bang... Shrrrk...
Despite the chaotic scene, a few hedge knights who prided themselves on their bravery managed to reach Timot. Unfortunately, as they swung their longswords, they could only leave a few shallow scratches on Timot's lupine body.
"Mortals cannot fight the incarnations of the gods!"
Although the hedge knights' attacks didn't wound Timot, the dull pain of being struck by heavy objects still reached his senses.
Thus, the giant werewolf roared and charged toward even more House Waynwood defenders. Though the space in the gatehouse was somewhat narrow, the speed and strength of these men were immense.
The castle guards, unable to form an infantry phalanx, were soon hunted to exhaustion by Timot and his Wolf Guards. With the fall of the gatehouse, the drawbridge and portcullis also fell under Timot's control.
"Charge!"
"This castle is ours!"
"Long live Lord Aegon!"
...As the drawbridge was lowered and the portcullis raised, the Mountain Clans warriors, who had long been waiting impatiently, rushed in with wild howls.
The murder holes, which could have caused massive damage to the attackers, were now blocked by the corpses of the House Waynwood warriors. With Timot's power suppressing them, the defenses of the entire gatehouse were completely nullified.
The reason Timot had been able to capture the gatehouse so easily was entirely because the defenders had all run off to reinforce the Great Hall. By the time Timot and his men began climbing the drawbridge chains, the knights remaining in the castle had already sensed something was wrong.
In a final effort, after a brief discussion, several knights led more than half the remaining troops to the position of the main hall's entrance.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At this time, the main gates of Ironoaks were suffering the terrifying battering-ram-like attacks of the Drakon. Behind these gates lay the Great Hall of House Waynwood.
The hedge knights and defenders belonging to House Waynwood were already at the point of exhaustion, yet they continued to grit their teeth and hold on.
Until their lady gave the order to surrender, these knights and soldiers could only fight to the death. This was because they had always viewed the enemy as those terrifying Mountain Clans warriors; if they gave up, they might end up being killed by those fearsome savages anyway.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Shrrrk...
The battering continued. It seemed the door could still hold for a long time, but some sharp-eyed individuals had already noticed something was wrong.
Gulp...
Because the hall was so silent, the sound of many soldiers swallowing was clearly audible to everyone, and this situation only intensified their fear.
They all knew very well that once that giant monster outside broke into the hall, they would have no recourse and would only be killed one by one.
Boom! Crack!
Roar...!
With one final, violent strike, a hideous black dragon head appeared directly before the eyes of the soldiers. After letting out a hiss and roar at them, the terrifying monster pulled its head back out.
"Prepare..."
"Enough! Surrender!"
Amidst the shout of a hedge knight acting as a temporary commander, all the soldiers present subconsciously tightened their grip on their weapons.
However, a somewhat weary voice soon reached everyone's ears, coming from the high gallery above the hall.
Hearing this voice, everyone quickly looked toward its source. There, they saw Lady Anya Waynwood, dressed in a magnificent noblewoman's gown, holding a rainbow flag.
The inverted triangular rainbow flag dropped directly from the high platform. It looked wrinkled and worn, as if it hadn't been used in many years. When this flag appeared, it meant House Waynwood wanted to negotiate—or more plainly, their house was surrendering.
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