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Seeing that nearly half his soldiers had already died or been wounded in such a short time, Jaime, who had been watching Bloodwind the entire time, knew he could not wait any longer.
He chose the exact moment when the wolf opened his mouth to tear off a soldier's head and charged in from the direwolf's right side, sword in hand.
The beast's front and hindquarters were perfectly protected. His sharp claws and limbs, longer than swords, covered those areas with lethal reach.
By comparison, against attacks coming from the sides of his body, the giant wolf could only respond with his bite.
Taking advantage of that, Jaime moved in along his right side and delivered a heavy blow against the riveted joint of the metal armor.
But the smiths of Winterfell had done excellent work. Even with all of Jaime's strength, the blow only left a deep mark. The rivets did not come loose.
Feeling the attack on his right flank, the beast released the soldier's head from his mouth and immediately turned to bite Jaime.
Jaime, however, was extremely agile on his feet. He stayed pressed close to the wolf's right flank, near the hind leg, moving with the beast's body.
Bloodwind's neck did not have enough angle to reach him, and his long limbs could not strike him from there either.
This was the blind spot Jaime had found at the cost of half his men.
The strike he had delivered earlier, after entering that angle, had also shown him something else. His idea of cutting through and tearing off the beast's metal armor so the soldiers could attack him directly had failed.
When he saw the wolf's enormous head turn back to the front, Jaime leaned his body slightly to the right, raised his sword, and prepared a reverse strike aimed at the right hind leg, an area the armor did not cover.
Suddenly, however, a massive shadow fell over him.
The direwolf tilted his entire body to the right and came crashing down like a mountain of metal, trying to crush him beneath his weight.
The body of nearly nine hundred kilos, carrying enormous momentum, slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash.
He had not been knocked down. It had been an intentional roll, done precisely to crush Jaime.
The beast felt something pinned beneath his body. Taking advantage of the motion, he rolled once across the ground, lay there for a brief instant, then pushed himself back up with the strength of his paws.
On the ground, exactly where he had rolled, two soldiers who had failed to escape lay sprawled out, blood streaming from all seven openings of their faces. Their chests had been compressed and completely caved in.
But Jaime had reacted far too quickly.
The instant the wolf began to fall, he threw himself forward and to the left, passing beneath the beast's belly and escaping by a hair's breadth.
As soon as Bloodwind was back on his feet, he resumed the massacre of the soldiers.
Seeing the number of men dwindling further and further, Jaime made an extreme decision. He ran to one of the passage exits and opened a wooden crate placed beside it.
Inside were rows of fist-sized glass flasks, all filled with green liquid.
That was also wildfire brought from the Alchemists' Guild. Unlike what he had used in the larger trap, these flasks were small, meant to be carried or thrown.
Jaime took one of them. A strip of cloth had been fitted into the mouth of the flask, something he had ordered the alchemists to improvise so it could be lit and thrown.
Earlier, while his soldiers had still surrounded the monster in great numbers, Jaime had not dared to use them.
Now, with almost all his men already dead at the wolf's claws, he no longer had many concerns left.
He took a flint from beside the crate, lit the strip of cloth, and after running two steps, hurled the flask at the wolf.
Ever since Jaime had found his blind spot and attacked him, Bloodwind had been watching every movement of that irritating human.
Seeing him throw a strange object, he immediately broke off the slaughter and leapt forward.
The flask shattered against the ground. The green liquid spread in every direction, and the burning cloth ignited it in the same instant.
A small burst of green flame rose from the exact spot where he had been standing a second earlier.
"Ah! Aaaah!"
A Gold Cloak who had already been knocked down and lay on the ground covered in blood was caught by the green flames.
That wildfire, burning as if it clung to the bones, fed on the man's mail and flesh, turning him into a human torch.
In little more than ten seconds, he stopped screaming and collapsed motionless as the flames slowly consumed him.
Bloodwind already disliked fire by instinct. This terrifying green fire, which he had seen before, repulsed him even more.
Turning to look at the flames, he began scraping the ground with his right paw, clearly irritated and agitated.
Jaime threw another flask.
Bloodwind dodged it with frightening speed.
Staring at the hateful human who insisted on throwing green fire, the wolf looked toward the now unguarded passage and made his decision.
Abandoning the slaughter of the few men who still remained, the direwolf turned his body and shot through the passage.
When that battle, which had seemed so long, finally ended, the soldiers on the other side of the square hurried over.
"Listen! Listen!"
"Kill that thing! Kill it!"
...
"Hurry, get them out of here!"
Midday light entered through the narrow, high windows of the Red Keep's first dungeon level, leaving the place brightly lit. Inside the crowded cells, all kinds of criminals shouted without stopping.
Shhk!
Eddard Karstark and Beric Dondarrion, both holding ordinary swords in their hands, cut down the last jailer who had failed to escape.
With all the killing that day, Robb's blood pact points had risen considerably. They had already passed fifty, drawing closer and closer to the limit that could make him lose control.
Because of that, now that Eddard and Beric could fight in his place, Robb remained behind, beside Sansa and several nobles who had been imprisoned on the second level.
Looking at the prison's first level, packed completely full of inmates, Robb nodded slightly.
Just as he had imagined, during the search for him, the Gold Cloaks must also have taken the chance to arrest all sorts of suspicious people.
And at that moment, those disposable criminals would be the best possible shield to help them escape the Red Keep.
"The jailers who fled must have gone to call for reinforcements by now. Eddard, release every criminal on this level. Quickly!"
Without taking his eyes off Eddard, Robb shouted the order as soon as the two of them finished off the jailers.
"Yes, Lord Robb!"
Turning his bloodied face toward him, Eddard nodded and immediately began searching the bodies for the keys, preparing to free the prisoners.
A few minutes later, almost a hundred criminals had been released.
And, as was inevitable, among so many people, there would always be a few brainless fools.
Three middle-aged men, with repulsive faces and wretched expressions, clearly having been imprisoned for a long time, fixed their eyes on Sansa, the only truly beautiful woman there, the moment they left their cell.
It did not matter that the young man beside her was holding an intimidating giant two-handed sword.
Lust had already gone to their heads. Their lower half was doing the thinking now.
After picking up a sword that had fallen from a dead jailer, the three approached Robb. The man leading the trio licked his lips with his filthy tongue and said:
"What a pretty woman... Boy, if you want to live, hand her over to us."
Ice flashed like lightning and swept past the man at knee height.
He did not even realize what had happened. He only suddenly felt himself become shorter.
"AAAAH! My legs!"
When the violent pain struck him, the man fell to the ground. Both legs had been cut off at the knees, and blood gushed out in torrents as he screamed, clutching the stumps.
After letting Ice speak first, Robb turned to the other two, who had now gone pale with pure terror, and said:
"Since he can't control what's between his legs, then he doesn't need it anymore.
You two will start cutting from his knees upward. If he dies before you reach the third leg, then the two of you will share the same fate."
"AH! What are you doing? Aaaah!"
The screams from that side had already drawn the attention of all the other criminals.
Seeing Robb's cold cruelty and oppressive strength, everyone began murmuring among themselves.
"I won't waste time on nonsense. By now, there are likely dozens of Gold Cloaks gathered outside the prison. Anyone who wants to leave the Red Keep alive, pick up a weapon and follow me."
After saying that, Robb pulled Sansa, who had covered her face with one hand and no longer dared to speak, and walked toward the exit of the dungeons.
The criminals silently opened a path.
Eddard and Beric followed right behind him.
Creeeak.
When the prison doors opened, Robb immediately saw dozens of Gold Cloaks outside, lined up with spears and swords in hand.
The jailers who had escaped were among them as well.
"Advance!"
Without wasting any time, Robb raised his sword and shouted.
The two groups roared at the same time and charged at each other, and the fight erupted in full.
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