The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Volantis Suffers a Setback

The unicorn turned and slowly walked to the tiger's side. The tiger let out one last weak sound before collapsing with a crash.

The Hound leaned over the unicorn's back and drew his longsword.

He raised his sword to the soldiers, who roared their approval, a wave of cheers rising like a tidal surge.

Eddard Stark looked grim. The Hound had killed their tiger, and things might get tricky.

"Prepare for battle!" Eddard Stark commanded.

Boom, boom, boom. The infantry and cavalry formed battle lines.

The enemy had come with a legion and tigers to harass the horses. This was no friendly welcoming ceremony.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The Tiger Party leader, Joff, blew his whistle, but his young tiger would never stand again.

Gurgling blood stained the bridge.

Joff kept four tigers at home. This one that died was the eldest child of the tiger parents, and it had a younger sister at home.

This young tiger was Joff's favorite. He took the tiger with him when he went to town, to the Hall of Governance, on patrols, and to train the soldiers in formation.

The tiger and the man had become family, connected by blood.

When the tiger fell and could no longer respond to Joff's calls, Joff's face turned pale.

He squeezed his legs and spurred his horse forward.

Behind him, two thousand cavalrymen urged their horses to follow Joff closely.

From afar, Joff saw his child lying in a pool of blood.

His heart ached as if a knife had been stabbed into it.

Joff, who raised tigers, was like Daenerys, who raised dragons, both regarding their tigers and dragons as their own children.

Joff saw the murderer, the one holding a blood-stained sword, wearing a dog-headed helmet, riding a unicorn-like beast. The beast exuded a terrifying aura, making Joff's horse refuse to move forward. Joff shouted and whipped the horse, but the horse neighed and turned back, running away.

The unicorn's breath made the horses, which had never seen a unicorn before, equally afraid. This fear was an innate terror, not subject to Joff's will.

Joff was furious. He drew a dagger and stabbed it into the horse's neck. The horse cried out, reared up, and threw Joff to the ground.

The sound of hooves thundered as Joff's guards and cavalry arrived. With their numbers and strength, they managed to restrain the horses' panic, but it was extremely difficult to get those horses to approach again.

Eddard Stark mounted a guard's horse and slowly approached with the Hound: "Are you Lord Joff?"

The Volantene nobles were divided into the Elephant Party and the Tiger Party. The Tiger Party raised tigers, and the Elephant Party raised elephants. Tigers were war tigers, and elephants were war elephants. The person who came brought a tiger, and the flag also had a tiger pattern, so he was naturally a noble of the Tiger Party. The Tiger Party was Volantis's most important armed force, surpassing the Elephant Party in combat.

Joff also climbed onto a guard's horse, forcibly pulling the reins and turning the horse's neck to the side: "I am Joff, who are you?"

This was a rhetorical question.

Both sides had exchanged information about important figures through messengers beforehand, so even if Joff guessed, he would know that the leading speaker should be Eddard Stark.

"Greetings, Lord Joff. I am Eddard Stark."

"Lord Eddard?"

"Yes."

"I can't believe it!"

"Oh?"

"I heard that Lord Eddard Stark is a true knight, fair and just, abiding by the law, and regarding honor as life."

"Rumors are mostly empty words," Eddard said modestly.

"Indeed, it seems that rumors are always unreliable. If you are really Eddard Stark, then you are truly unworthy of the name."

The Northern knights could no longer bear it. Some shouted, some booed loudly, and Smalljon directly cursed: "You are just a defeated person who came to surrender, how dare you satirize and humiliate our commander, Duke Eddard Stark? Are you tired of living?" Earl Smalljon rode out, twirling his spear in a flourish. He was only sixteen years old but over two meters tall, burly and strong, with a dignified appearance.

"Is there any knight on the other side who dares to fight me?" Smalljon shouted.

Behind him, a thousand warriors immediately let out a deafening roar!

Joff said coldly: "Lord Eddard, did King Gregor and Queen Daenerys order you to destroy my Volantis?"

"His Majesty ordered us to accept your surrender," Eddard said calmly.

"Accept our surrender? But I received a report from the scouts that you lowered the bodies and heads of criminals on the bridge and cremated them. Why is that? Is this part of the surrender?"

"My lord, criminals are also people. Since they have been subjected to capital punishment, their bodies should be collected and cremated."

Joff laughed: "Give criminals cremation? In your country, don't you have the situation of beheading criminals and displaying their heads?"

"We do."

"Since your country also has the situation of displaying criminals, why did you lower the bodies of our city-state's criminals and cremate them? We hung the criminals on the bridge to deter other criminals from obeying the law. You lowered the bodies of the criminals on display and cremated them. This is an insult and trampling on the sacred laws of Volantis. This is not conducive to reaching a friendly agreement between Volantis and the King of Westeros."

"Is that so? As far as I know, the corpses and heads hanging on the bridge are all slaves who dared to resist the nobles. They were killed and displayed, but it is just the nobles here carrying out brutal persecution to maintain their bloody and cruel slave system..."

"Heh heh heh!" Joff sneered, interrupting Eddard's words: "Lord Eddard, you don't understand Volantis and have no right to say anything about Volantis's laws and affairs. You are also a great noble, but you listen to the words of the commoners in the Eastern City, which is truly stupid and ridiculous."

The Hound could no longer bear it: "Joff, are you surrendering or not?"

"Who are you?"

"I am Sandor Clegane."

"You killed my tiger?"

"Yes, I killed your tiger!"

"My tiger is my child. A life for a life, the same goes for killing a tiger," Joff said coldly.

"Oh? You want to kill me?" The Hound pushed up his mask, revealing his hideous and terrifying face.

The Hound's right half of his face was haggard, with sharp cheekbones and thick eyebrows and gray eyes. In the very center was a hooked nose. The left half of his face was a mass of burns: the entire left ear was eroded, leaving only a black hole. Although the left eye was not blind, it was surrounded by large, twisted scars, the smooth black skin as hard as leather and shimmering, covered with pockmarks and pits, and reddish cracks. His left jaw was charred black, vaguely revealing bone.

Joff and his soldiers had never seen such a terrifying person, and they all gasped.

Joff took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and regained his arrogance: "Lord Eddard, your general killed my tiger. I want justice for this matter."

"My lord, your tiger came to attack us. If General Sandor hadn't acted, the tiger would have killed us. My horse was frightened away by the tiger and has not been found yet."

The Hound's anger flared up. How dare a mere surrenderer be so long-winded and rude? He shouted: "Joff, you bastard, you talk too much nonsense. Are you surrendering or are you going to war?"

The anger in Joff's heart burned fiercely, but he still feared the dragons and retained the last bit of restraint: "We only surrender to King Gregor Clegane and Queen Daenerys Targaryen. The others are too crude, ignorant of the law, do not understand respect, and are arrogant and barbaric. We will not surrender to such people."

"Then let's fight!" Smalljon shouted, "You talk so much nonsense."

Joff did not draw his sword. He was Volantis's most fiery general, highly skilled in martial arts, with amazing swordsmanship. His family had a tradition of raising tigers, and his character was like a tiger, but as the Archon said, at critical moments, he could maintain the overall situation and sense of propriety.

"Lord Eddard, please tell King Gregor and Queen Daenerys Targaryen that we will not surrender to anyone other than them. Please also tell the King and Queen what you have done. On the Long Bridge, you privately lowered the corpses of criminals and cremated them. One of you, a beast-like freak, brazenly killed my son when we came to welcome you. I hope the King and Queen know about these two things. We are loyal to the King and Queen but will not surrender to such shameless, ignorant, and incompetent people like you."

"You damn bastard, go to hell!" Smalljon shouted, riding forward, his spear shaking, heading straight for Joff.

Joff remained unmoved. Beside him, the guards rushed out, forming a shield wall.

A horn sounded in the opposing cavalry, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, a sharp sound rang out, the Hound and Eddard's faces changed, the Hound hurriedly put down his mask, and Eddard shouted: "Defense, defense!"

The sound of the air being torn apart was loud, and hard arrows fell from the sky, densely packed, as if a heavy rain was about to fall.

"Shield defense!" Eddard roared.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Smalljon, who was rushing to the front, barely reached Joff before being shot by several long arrows. Both the horse and he were hit by several arrows. Fortunately, the opposing guards and generals did not rush out to take the opportunity to attack when they saw Smalljon hit by arrows.

The Hound squeezed his legs, the unicorn rushed out, roaring, the opposing cavalry horses were frightened, in a moment of chaos, the Hound swung his longsword and shield, rushed to Smalljon's side, Joff saw that the unicorn was too evil, the cavalry horses dodged one after another, no horse dared to come forward to engage, he quickly retreated into the formation under the protection of the guards.

More arrows rained down, the Hound held up his shield, blocking in front of Smalljon: "Go back!" he shouted.

In a short period of time, Smalljon was hit by several more arrows. The opponent came prepared, a thousand bow cavalry were behind the spear cavalry firing arrows, one volley was a thousand arrows, although he was unwilling, he could only pull the horse's head and retreat.

Puff, puff, puff!

The unicorn was hit by three arrows in a row.

The Hound's shield protected the vital points, following behind Smalljon, protecting him as they retreated together.

Eddard also gathered the team, wrapped together in the middle, shields raised, forming a tight tortoise shell formation. But the rain of arrows poured down, and even the tightest defense had loopholes, and warriors kept falling down after being hit by arrows.

The opposite side sounded the horn again, the rain of arrows stopped, the spear cavalry came out, a thousand spear cavalry, lined up in a tight square formation, spears forward, like a black wall formed by a forest of spears.

"Lord Eddard, please go back. The arrow just now was a last resort, your general wanted to charge the formation, we had to defend. I will also write about the matter in a letter and report to the King and Queen. The state has state laws, and the family has family rules. You come to Volantis to do things improperly, I hope the King and Queen can give us a fair answer. That beast killed my son, this matter also needs a fair handling from the King and Queen."

In the shouts, Joff's two thousand cavalry: a thousand spear cavalry, a thousand bow cavalry, slowly retreated. The bow cavalry retreated first, and the spear cavalry guarded the rear.

Eddard painfully pulled out the arrow from his shoulder and threw it on the ground, shouting: "How many casualties? Each centurion counts the manpower."

Eddard's cavalry also had bow cavalry, but they were caught off guard and completely suppressed by the opponent's arrow rain.

In this round of arrow rain, almost every general was hit by an arrow, either the person was hit by an arrow, or the horse was hit by an arrow.

The Hound was lucky, several arrows were stuck in the shield, he was fine, but the unicorn was hit by a total of five arrows. It was hit by three arrows when saving Smalljon, and two more arrows when retreating.

In this battle, Eddard's army was given a setback, and they hardly fought back.

The opponent shot and killed dozens of soldiers, injured almost all the generals, and retreated completely with the dead tiger.

*

Night, Eastern City.

The generals' arms and bodies were wrapped in bandages, sitting around in the central army tent. Eddard Stark sat in the middle. He was shot in the shoulder and also took off his armor, revealing his arm, and wrapped the arrow wound with a white bandage.

Earl Smalljon was hit by nearly ten arrows and was resting in his tent and did not come to the meeting.

"I've decided, I'm going to the Western City to see the Archon of the Elephant Party, and I will apologize to them," Eddard Stark said.

The generals were all stunned, and the Hound snorted heavily.

"We moved their criminals' bodies..."

"That's just an excuse, my lord. If they sincerely surrender, they won't make trouble with us because of this matter," a Northern general stood up and said loudly, "Those are all dead slaves, burning them is fine. We are here to accept their surrender, can't we lower the criminals' bodies and cremate them? What kind of surrender is that? Who exactly is Volantis going to listen to?"

"I know it's an excuse, but since they made this excuse, I'll go and apologize and block the excuse."

"Lord Eddard, he said I killed his son, are you going to tie me up and give him my life in return for his son?" The Hound slammed the wine glass on the table heavily, making a loud bang, and wine splashed everywhere. He got up and strode out.

The central army tent was silent!

"Why don't we break through the Western City? We have warships, and the warships have cannons. Although the Black Walls cannot be broken by manpower, they will be frightened into surrendering when the cannons fire," a general said.

"His Majesty does not want us to start a war in Volantis. He hopes to peacefully accept these places and has promised that these places will still be governed by the Elephant Party and the Tiger Party, as long as they kneel and swear allegiance to His Majesty," Eddard said.

The generals were silent again.

"I will go to the Western City tomorrow to meet their Archon, with courtesy first and force later. Maester, send a letter to His Majesty, reporting the situation here. How many ravens are left with the army?"

"Twelve."

Release four of them, ensuring His Majesty receives the message as quickly as possible.