"Bastard!" The man snarled, then took one step forward, bringing Konrad out of his state. All around them, men were dying, but that didn't mean much to the man, instead he focus on killing the brat that dared to attack before he died himself. "I am Goranero Nestelion," he shouted proudly like that meant anything.
"Konrad Arryn!" Konrad managed to shout his name too while at the same grabbing hold of his sword whom he had dropped a few moments ago.
In a way, the man stopping and screaming out his name helped Konrad more than he would ever admit, after all, all the fear he felt in that moment vanished when he saw the enemy stopping his movement and instead, he started boasting.
A second later Goranero screamed as the axe fell towards the young lord.
Thanks to his size, Konrad was able to roll underneath the man rather than try and defend himself with the sword as not only was the man a mass of muscle and was heavier than him , at the same time, Konrad doubt he would have been able to block the axe that was going to fall onto him, besides... for all the boasting the man did, he did wear some fine armor, no doubt of Westerosi origin as not many sell swords could afford mail armor in Essos. And sadly, for the young lord that meant that his sword was next to useless on the mail, however if he learned something from Bronn that was that the groin was always vulnerable and so as he rolled underneath the man, Konrad thrusted his sword upwards right under the skirt of the man's mail armor, up into his unarmored groin easily cutting into him and through him as the blood drenched the ship's floor behind him.
When Konrad turned, the man was staring at him, wide-eyed and mouth open, as the axe fell from his hand right in front of him. Unable to keep himself on his feet, the man fell on his knees, still watching the "squirt" closing the distance between them until he stopped in front of him.
"Any last words?"
"Fuc…"
But he didn't finish his words as Konrad shove his blade underneath the man's helmet killing him once and for all. It felt strangely easy, considering how close he had been to death just a few moments ago. Fortunately for Konrad, by the time Goranero stopped moving and Konrad made sure he was dead his ship was taken and his men had all been slaughtered. Still standing and looking down at the giant that almost killed him, Konrad didn't even notice when Gendel walked beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. "It was not much of a fight m'lord," But just as he was about to continue, Gendel stopped and looked down at his lord more closely. "Are you doing well lad?"
"I… I almost died because of my mistake…"
"Happens to the best of us. You are barely old enough to hold a sword, nevertheless to kill a man in battle and yet, look at you. You bested a man thrice your size. That takes more than just pure strength."
Konrad threw him a thankful look, before deciding to change the subject of their conversation to something that wasn't about himself.
"How are our loses?"
"A few of the bastards got weapons, but luckily for all of us, only the ones who boarded us had some skill in them,' Gendel said with a shrug. "But half of the crewmen got killed alongside seven of those white knights of yers."
Hearing that made the young lord flinch, after all losing men was not something easy. Each and every member of the order swore their lives to it and at the same to him, and watching them die was not easy. No doubt some people would not care at all about them, but for Konrad, that meant he would have to become a monster.
"Do we have any news about the rest of the fleet?"
Gendel shook his head in response. It was too early, that was true, but alas a boy can dream, right? With no enemy ship coming after them and with some minimal repair work that had to be done to both ships, Konrad alongside the Captain decided to first clear the ships of bodies, and of course keep the weapons and armors, before going to help where they might be needed.
It didn't take all that long to clear both ships of bodies and repair what little damage both ships sustained, but to everyone's surprise, most of the fighting ended not long after their own fight, which made Konrad think that once the realize they had slaughtered their company's leader, the sellswords decided to stop fighting a losing battle and instead surrender.
Unfortunately, from what he could see, not all of the ships in the fleet won their engagements. While only when they return will Konrad be able to count their loses, he could right now, count three less ships on their side than what they had at the beginning of this fight.
"My lord, what do you want to do with the ship exactly?"
"It won't hurt increasing our fleet, besides, I'd rather not leave a good ship floating around without a purpose."
"You want me to tow her while we sail into battle?" The captain asked puzzled, gesturing at the newly acquired ship.
Konrad nodded in response before he took command over the new ship before both of the ships rowed northwards towards where the fighting happened.
As the two ships made their way north, the sea air was thick with the tension of uncertainty. Konrad stood at the helm of his new command, his eyes scanning the horizon for the rest of his fleet. The rhythmic creak of wood and the slosh of water against the hulls were the only sounds accompanying the sailors' anxious breaths.
When they finally reached the rest of the fleet, the sight that greeted them was not the grim tally of losses Konrad had anticipated. Instead, the fleet was largely intact, the missing ships having been merely scattered rather than sunk. Flags of truce fluttered from the masts of former enemy vessels, and the water was calm, though, littered with debris and bodies but devoid of the chaos he expected to find.
Konrad's heart swelled with a mixture of relief and pride as he realized that his forces had not only survived but triumphed. The slave soldiers had indeed surrendered when their masters died, but judging by the way some of the ships had been positioned, Konrad knew the situation was all sunshine, otherwise why would almost ten of his ships surrounded only four medium sized ships?
The captain approached Konrad, a smile breaking through his weathered face. "It seems we all have underestimated our allies, my lord."
Konrad returned the smile, his gaze lingering on the horizon rather than at his fleet. "Indeed, we have, yet why does it feel like this was just the beginning of something bigger?"
"Because, my lord, this is a war that hadn't been seen in Essos since Braavos fought to destroy slavery. If we win and manage to put to the sword those good masters in the slaver's bay, then we will change Essos for good, my lord."
Nodding in response, Konrad closed his eyes for a few seconds before making up his mind.
"Let's deal with this aftermath for now. We can talk about how to gain naval supremacy at a later date when we are on land and no enemy is threatening to strike us any time soon."
As soon as the ship dropped its anchor near one of the ships surrounding the medium sized vessels, Konrad, alongside Gendel and a decently enough sized honor guard boarded their allied ship walking right towards the familiar figure of Brother Osmund.
When the young knight saw his lord, he quickly kneeled followed shortly by most of the men on the deck, only for the young lord to shake his head at their display. While it was normal for them to do that as he was their lord, Konrad would rather have such formalities postponed right now, as there was a small force of enemies still holding their ground on board of their ships.
"My lord."
Konrad smiled weakly at him before walking beside the young man. It was weird seeing a boy of barely ten name days leading men twice, thrice and so on, older than him into battle and earning their respect, but thankfully that didn't stopped Konrad from treating his men with respect too.
"Osmund, its good to see you."
"The pleasure is mine, my lord. We feared the worst when we didn't saw your ship amongst the rest of the fleet. Thankfully, before either one of us could do something stupid, one of the lookouts spotted your ship."
"We took a risk and it paid off. The leader of this sellsword company and most likely master of these slaves had fell in battle."
"The morale shock was greater to them, that's one of the few reasons we managed to win with fewer casualties than expected, thought we still lost good men and ships. Other than your ship, my lord, all of the larger sized ships in the fleet had been sunken along sized five of our small size ones. And while we had indeed captured half of the enemy fleet, numbering twenty odd ships of various sizes, that won't replace the lives we lost today."
It didn't become easier no matter how many times he heard it or how many times he tried to remind himself that this is the price he has to pay… but right now, Konrad couldn't show his feelings, not when his men were all looking at him, not when there were still enemies alive and apparently with no desire to surrender any time soon.
"Tell me about those survivors. Why haven't they surrendered like the rest of the slave soldiers or the sellswords?"
"Most of the sellswords had been slain, and only a hundred or so had surrender, while close to five hundred slaves had been freed once their masters had been killed, many of them begged to be killed for daring to raise hands at their shackle breakers. As for these last bastards… they are unsullied, my lord. Whoever is their designated master being on board of one of their ships."
"Attacking them would be costly, right?"
"It would be my lord. Some of the sailors tried and found that the hard way. I, alongside the rest of my brothers decided to put a stop on those suicidal attempts and instead encircle the ships, forcing them to wait. We can sink them with the ballistae, but some of the brothers are thinking of trying to save those poor souls."
Letting out a sigh, Konrad walked closer towards the edge of the ship and looked at the four ships. Just as Osmund had told him, most of the fighters on the decks of those ships were unsullied, thought he could see a few sellswords here and there. But what stood out to him was a man, only a head taller than he was holding some strange mace like thing made of gold shouting at the slave warriors and sellswords alike.
"Gendel! How good of a thrower are you?"
The chieftain looked at him with a puzzled expression until he noticed where his lord was looking before an almost savage smile spread on his face.
"Decent enough to pierce that short bastard for you, lad."
< Just change "3" with "e" Patr3on Link : https://patr3on.com/meatbunkun