From Westeros to Essos : The Crusader King

Just as expected, Gendel's assault failed, but alas despite losing almost a hundred men and mayhaps just a little more than a hundred wounded, that gave them a lot of information about the enemy walls. Four boulders hit the walls and yet there was barely and scratch on the wood, making Konrad think that this was not exactly oak and might even be Ironwood, a type of wood that is known to be stronger than any other type of wood.

"Uncle Tyrek, what do you think about the walls?"

"I might not be able to read minds, my lord, but I'm more than sure that you are asking me if I've seen Ironwood before." Tyrek said with a smirk on his face. "And you are right to think so. While the exterior bark doesn't look like Ironwood, that's certainly not your common tree found in this bloody forest."

Looking back at the fortifications, Konrad didn't know how to proceed without sacrificing the lives of hundreds of men and women. Aye, they would win in the end, but at what cost?

"Do you think we could easily take down the gate or the walls?"

"Unfortunately, we will be here for a good while smashing rocks at the trees if that's your plan my lord. Not even burning one would help too much. We could use less honorable means to damage their morale and mayhaps even kill some of the defenders. Of course, if you are willing to implement such tactics."

For a second Konrad didn't knew what his mentor and uncle was talking about, but after thinking for a few seconds his eyes darted at the bodies of the slavers one of their patrols had slaughtered earlier that day.

"Bodies… you want to throw bodies at them."

"Aye, poison them, fill them to the brim before throwing them at the enemy. I've seen this tactic being used before… It's by far pretty but it does work wonders against a cornered enemy."

"Do what you must, uncle."

Wulf's anger did not diminish, rather, it swelled in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol he drank in the aftermath of the attack. As his kin, those who still lived, licked their wounds in camp he was joined by an equally angry brother and son, who both drunk as much as he did. They all witnessed the body of their chieftain being carried through the sprawling multitude of tents towards the medical tent to be healed up to health, but that… they charged like fools and paid the price for their stupidity.

Wulf, still in his helmet and armor, his red beard soaked with wine, charged right towards the little lordling tent where the pale boy and his men were preparing for tomorrow's assault.

"I am returning back to beyond the wall with all of my people!" shouted Wulf loudly enough for everyone around to hear. "I have seen my men slaughtered for no result and now I will take what remains of them back to where no one would make them kneel. You can have your dog back. We will no longer kneel to a southerner."

Tyrek moved to place himself between the young lord and the drunken wilding. The latter grabbing his axe almost as if he was ready to fight."

"Stand aside, you bloody fucker, unless you wish to feel how the wood is cut!"

"Uncle," Konrad's voice was heard as his knights closed around their grandmaster, "Let him through."

Ignoring the blonde knight, Wulf strode forward before stopping as the knights in white lowered their swords.

"Would you fight all my men alone, little lord?" Wulf taunted as he stood two meters away from Konrad.

"If it comes to that…I will, but not alone," Konrad said while looking at his loyal men. "I know that Gendel's pride killed many of your kin, but I made a promise and I plan to see it happen."

"Fuck your promise! We are free folk we don't kneel to you! I'd rather die than kneel to someone still searching for his mother teets!"

Hearing that response, Konrad assessed the situation carefully before replying.

"Let us discuss things in my tent rather than out in the open."

He ordered his men to lower their swords and held open the flap of the tent to invite the red-haired free folk inside. Truth be told, it took some restrain to not order the man's death, but that would deferential to what he was planning to achieve with the free folk of the Vale in the long run.

"Gendel insisted on leading an attack,' Konrad started calmly, "despite my protestations."

"We nearly broke through. All it would have taken is for you to have committed your men."

Konrad sighed as this matter was not exactly easy. "I could have done it, aye that much I agree with you, but if I were to commit all of our forces hundreds would have died for a small chance of breaking an Ironwood gate. Unlike some other people I wasn't ready to risk so many lives for a small chance."

"Fuck your chance! We could have won!"

Seeing and hearing the man's blunt disrespect, Konrad had enough of him. "How short is your memory? Did we fought and killed all of the slavers in the city? Did we not destroy any slaver fleet around? And now you wish to return home after losing one single battle?'

"What victory? If you haven't noticed your fucking highness, we still have to kill the enemy. I for one would rather stand and watch you die like a fool than risk my life for nothing."

"I would have expected more from someone of your standing Wulf the Brave,' Konrad warned the warrior, "Many a man with a tongue just as sharp as yours had lost their hands from their shoulders."

Before Konrad or anyone could react, Wulf raised his axe. "Then do it, if you have the guts, little lordling."

"Out now!"

Smirking to himself, Wulf walked outside pushing past two knights before taking a stance as he waited for the little one to come and die at his hands.

As Konrad was being helped wearing some light armor, Tyrek stood by his side with a worried expression on his face.

'My lord, are you certain of this? I'm more than happy to fight in your place if that's what it takes to make the wildlings behave."

"We need them to cooperate, uncle, and while I'm not a fool to think that it would be easy, despite being only nine name days old, I'm more than able to fight against an untrained free folk, not to mention that I don't plan to die before having children of my own running around the Eyrie."

"But…"

Rather than continuing with some grand speech that would surely not work, Konrad only gave his uncle a smile, one that even though it did not make the Lannister any less worried, it showed that his lord was not mad, a t least not entirely.

By now the entire camp heard that someone challenged the young lord to a fight to the death, and while many feared the worst will happen, no one step out to stop the fight. Most of them only heard about their lord ability with a sword and so they wanted to see for themselves if the pale falcon had what it takes to be a good fighter.

"Ha, the little freak greets us today with his presence. And here I thought he would run like a little girl."

Not wanting to give the young lord any chance to win, alas that was a wishful thought as Konrad began as he usually did when training with Tyrek or Jaq, running his opponent through some simple attacks, mostly slashes before evading the counterattack almost effortlessly. It did give Wulf the chance he desperately needed to see firsthand if there was all the young lord could, and to his horror the result was not pleasant for the wildling.

Truth be told for how big he was, Wulf was quick, with a good enough battle instinct to keep alive longer than most men would, but his defense was seriously lacking any of the finesse of a proper trained soldier, nevertheless a knight. Then again, with enough practice and some good drills could have got him over that.

But Konrad was not going to start teaching the wilding anything now that the man had shown his true intentions, instead he used what experience he had from his other life and kept Wulf in a false state of victory, making the kissed by fire looking wilding to think he was winning.

Angered that he was being used as a living training dummy by some wee lad from south of the wall, Wulf tried to turn the fight so that he led the attack, but despite being short and young, Konrad didn't let the wilding to what he desired. Once his brain managed to realize what was happening to him, it made Wulf flustered as start trying harder to gain control, ignoring some of the young lord's attacks, choosing to be injured just to gain the upper hand.

By now, the fight had already lasted for fifteen minutes as both the axe and sword were clashing rapidly, with neither side wanting to lose. For the men and women who followed Konrad in this campaign, this was the kind of fight they liked best with lots of restless attacks, without too much hesitation before each attack and none of the pointless talking between each and every clash. Both the brother and son of the wilding were looking with mix emotions on their faces seeing their kin being toyed in such a way by a small boy, alas both of them knew it was a lost cause the moment their kin decided to fight drunk.

As the fight went on and Konrad got used to Wulf's way of fighting, he begun to see what he had to do to remove the barriers keeping him from winning this fight. Almost in the blink of an eye, his fighting became less relaxed, or better said less flowery. Next to the Jaq, Tyrek looked at his liege with a smirk on his face knowing very well that once Konrad got bored enough, he will stop playing with his opponent and instead go in for the kill, something that no matter what they did would never change.

Konrad evaded another forceful slash, choosing to ignore the chance of inflicting some meaningless flesh wounds on the wilding, after all what was the point of injuring an enemy when you could simply kill him?

 Even the onlookers were silent when they saw how their lord was ignoring those chances on purpose. Upon seeing the faces of everyone, the wilding vision went red as madly slash everywhere, only for him to feel the tip of the little brat's sword cutting his stomach. Forcing the pain away, Wulf parried the slash away before it could cut him from one end to the other. Before Wulf could regain his bearings, Konrad came in slowly like a viper from his left, and when the wilding tried to parry the incoming blow, both the young lord and its sword duck underneath his arm and come from the right, piercing his throat.

At the same time, Wulf felt a sharp pain in his neck as he saw the sword emerging from the other side. He tried to scream, but only blood came out of his mouth making him look down at the young lord he foolishly challenged with wide eyes, unable to comprehend how the boy had bested him.

Not being someone who loved to prolong a man suffering, Konrad twisted the sword before pulling it out, letting Wulf's body slump to the ground. Wulf's last sight was the young lord's face, looking down at him with pity.

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