"Loose!"
The Unsullied phalanx below didn't panic at the sight of the diving Cannibal. Instead they showed a terrifying calm that no ordinary soldiers could match.
They drew bows in perfect unison, nocked arrows, and aimed straight for the dragons' eyes and the softer gaps at their throats—where the scales were weakest.
The arrowheads gleamed coldly, each one coated with the priceless Lysene poison known as the Strangler. A single scratch would kill a normal man in seconds.
A black cloud of poisoned shafts screamed upward, sealing off every angle of approach.
"Shit—evade!"
Logar slammed his palm against the Cannibal's neck. The black dragon surged upward at the last possible instant, barely clearing the deadly volley.
He knew charging straight into that rock-solid Unsullied formation head-on would be suicide.
But he had never planned to play fair.
From high above, Logar's cold violet eyes swept the scene below.
Right in front of the city hall stood a towering, majestic stone temple—massive columns, a heavy dome—the most prominent building in all of Lys.
It was the Temple of the Goddess of Love and Desire, the second-largest religious site in the city after the Red Temple of R'hllor. The whole structure radiated sacred sensuality.
Its soaring dome pierced the night sky, and its position sat perfectly between the Unsullied phalanx and the city hall.
In a single heartbeat, a plan clicked into place.
Logar shot Nettles a quick look—follow me—then deliberately dipped the Cannibal lower, feinting hard toward the left flank like he was about to smash straight through. He even let one wing flare for half a second, creating an obvious opening.
It was bait. Pure bait for the Unsullied commander.
And they took it.
A low, flat order rang out from below.
"All units—pivot left! Block the black dragon!"
The Unsullied moved like a single machine. The entire phalanx shifted and pressed forward to seal the gap, dragging most of their formation directly beneath the side of the great temple.
Now.
"Nettles—burn the pillars with me!" Logar's voice was ice. "Don't give them time to react!"
"Got it!"
Nettles was visibly tense facing the perfect shield wall, but she didn't hesitate. Sheepstealer dove like a brown thunderbolt, dragonfire roaring straight at the massive stone columns holding up the dome.
Flames licked hungrily up the ancient pillars. Stone that had stood for centuries cracked and exploded almost instantly.
At the same moment, Logar drove the Cannibal in hard. Sickly green fire slammed into another pillar with overwhelming force.
"No—!!"
The priests and worshippers inside the temple stared up in horror as the two dragons slammed into their sacred columns. They thought the end of the world had come.
Fire alone wasn't enough. The Cannibal's fortress-sized body rammed the structure head-on while his siege-engine tail whipped sideways like a wrecking ball.
The impact hit like a heavy bomb.
BOOM—!!
The thunderous crash shook the entire city.
The thick pillars snapped. The massive stone dome and walls, suddenly unsupported, came down like a collapsing mountain—straight onto the Unsullied phalanx trapped beneath.
Boulders, beams, and tons of shattered masonry rained hell.
"Temple's collapsing—!"
The Unsullied commander's eyes bulged. He had never imagined the dragonrider would ignore their formation entirely and pull something this dirty.
No matter how elite, how emotionless, how perfectly disciplined the Unsullied were, they couldn't stop a building from falling on their heads.
The airtight shield wall shattered. Formation collapsed. Soldiers were crushed under tons of rubble. The once-impenetrable line was ripped wide open, leaving a clear path straight to the city hall.
Logar had been waiting for exactly this.
"Cannibal—charge!"
He drove the black dragon through the fresh corridor of destruction like an arrow.
By the time the surviving Unsullied clawed out of the debris and tried to reform, the Cannibal had already smashed through every obstacle. His enormous shadow swallowed the entrance to the city hall.
Logar looked down at the terrified councilors and merchants scrambling inside and gave a cold, satisfied smirk.
"Archon Bambarro… your time's up."
Inside the hall, Bambarro Bazanne watched the dragons topple the temple and tear through his precious Unsullied phalanx. He felt the sky itself falling.
He had never expected the dragons' destructive power to be this insane. They had destroyed the temple's support columns in seconds, rendering his entire Unsullied formation and the priceless Strangler poison completely useless!
The Black dragonriders had never once dropped low enough to give his troops a clean shot. Instead they had circled from the flank, deliberately luring the Unsullied under the temple. The calculation was downright vicious.
Facing such ruthless tactics, Bambarro's scalp went numb. He had clearly picked a fight with an opponent far more dangerous than he'd realized.
"Those dragonriders refused to come down low enough for the Unsullied to close… the Strangler must have been leaked!"
The realization hit him like a slap. Only House Rogare and House Vhyss could have sold him out at a moment like this.
But anger would have to wait. He was out of time.
Logar had already landed the Cannibal directly on the roof of the city hall. Nettles hovered right behind him on Sheepstealer. The two dragons circled overhead like death itself, and every merchant and councilor inside lost their nerve.
"Guards—hold them back!"
In the chaos, Bambarro screamed his final order, then bolted for the rear exit with his personal guards.
One thought burned in his mind: grab Prince Viserys—his last bargaining chip—and run.
BOOM!
At that exact moment, the Cannibal crushed the ceremonial stone monument on the roof. Logar loomed above the panicked crowd below and called out in a voice that carried across the entire square.
"I, Logar, did not come to Lys to slaughter innocents!
Hand over Archon Bambarro Bazanne alive… and deliver Prince Viserys unharmed… and I will spare the rest of you!"
"He only wants the prince… and Bambarro's head?"
Several councilors exchanged glances, suddenly tempted.
The Unsullied formation they had counted on was already crushed. No one knew how to stop the dragons now.
If the dragonrider was promising not to kill everyone else… why not just give him Bambarro?
One man shouted immediately, "That bastard Bambarro already fled the hall! We don't know where the prince is—probably hidden in the Archon's private estate!"
Logar followed the man's pointing finger and spotted a group of richly dressed figures hurrying down a side street below.
His lips curled into a savage grin.
"Found you, Bambarro. Run all you want… let's see how far you get."
He patted the Cannibal's neck. The black dragon's wings thundered as he dove like a streak of black lightning straight toward the fleeing Archon.