House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Two weeks had passed since Maekar and Corlys’s meeting.

At that moment, a naval battle could be seen being waged in the waters of the Narrow Sea. The two fleets stood arrayed in two gigantic lines, facing one another. Wooden planks linked the allied ships together, forming a true wall of ships.

Without the advent of cannons, only the catapults mounted on the warships could fire upon the enemy ships.

And that was exactly what happened. Fireballs the size of basketballs flew up into the sky and came down in a beautiful arc through the air. Some missed, falling into the water; others struck the ships dead on, killing some unlucky soul and starting a fire, which was soon after quickly put out by the other sailors.

Fifty-two warships bearing sails with the crests of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh. It was the Triarchy, or the commonly called kingdom of the Three Whores. Of course, calling the Triarchy a kingdom was an insult to the word. They were three cities entirely independent of one another.

The three cities still contested the Disputed Lands among themselves, even though they were officially considered a kingdom in the eyes of the world.

They had joined the war not because of the burned merchant ships but also because of the Sealord’s promise that they would receive support in claiming the Disputed Lands. With Braavos’s backing, they found the courage to face Volantis once again.

In the past, Aegon, Lord of Dragonstone, had joined the Triarchy and fought against Volantis, burning the city-state’s fleet of ships. However, the Triarchy was now an enemy of House Targaryen.

On the other side, Corlys’s fleet of ships consisted of fifty-one warships, counting the ones brought by the noble houses of the Crownlands.

Ships were burning, bodies floated on the water, and the air smelled of flaming oil and burnt wood.

Corlys, wearing his silver armor, tore open the throat of a Lysene sailor with a blow of his sword and, before the body could fall, threw it into the sea.

"KILL THEM ALL!!!" Corlys shouted as he advanced on another sailor who had dared to set foot on his ship, the Sea Snake. Just as the rumors said, he was a great warrior. His armor was stained with blood, as was his face.

Suddenly, catching a glimpse of a fireball at the corner of his eye, Corlys’s expression changed, and, without any hesitation, he ducked down. A moment later, he felt an enormous heat pass over him and strike a Velaryon soldier behind him, sending the poor man flying and falling into the sea.

"Damn it, do these bastards have an endless supply of oil?" Corlys could not help but curse as he ran at an enemy and drove his sword into his heart. Pulling the sword from the man’s body, he tossed the corpse aside and breathed heavily.

Thirty minutes had already passed since the battle began, and the Triarchy had not stopped firing their trebuchets. This left Corlys rather puzzled. Were the three Free Cities using their entire supply of oil in this one battle?

At the same time, carrying a large quantity of oil aboard the ships was an enormous danger. No one in their right mind would bring such a large amount of oil into a battle.

How could Corlys have understood that the Triarchy wanted to end the battle as quickly as possible? They knew the danger, but still preferred to take the risk rather than draw out the battle and be burned by the flames of House Targaryen’s dragon.

Then, just as Corlys was about to shout more orders, a loud, thunderous sound rang out across the sea battlefield. Right after came a gigantic explosion, blowing apart a Tyroshi ship and hurling pieces of wood and men in every direction.

Corlys looked at the fireball rising into the sky and showed a cold smile. Using trebuchets aboard a ship was not exactly a safe thing to do, especially in a naval war, where any mistake could set off the oil supply.

With the destruction of the warship, the ships around it were thrown backward and sideways by the waves of the sea, colliding with other ships. This tore open an enormous gap in the Triarchy’s formation.

Seeing this, Corlys showed an excited look and ordered his own fleet to advance. Unlike land warfare, where you can simply advance or retreat to rebuild a battle formation, it was slow and extremely difficult to organize a naval battle formation.

Ships, besides being enormous, were nearly impossible to control as precisely as the human body.

In a short time, the Triarchy’s fleet was split in two and driven back by the Velaryon Fleet. This also marked the Triarchy’s retreat. The ships scattered in every direction.

Seeing this, Corlys showed a cold smile. He did not hesitate to order the enemy pursued. How could he pass up such a good chance? Not to mention that most of them were heading toward the Stepstones, where they would likely return to Tyrosh.

As for the rest, Corlys looked at them as they fled and showed no intention of splitting his fleet in two to give chase on two fronts. Doing so would be asking for trouble he did not want.

Besides, they were heading toward Pentos, which lay close to Dragonstone. With Maekar patrolling the area every day, Corlys could well imagine the fate awaiting those few fleeing ships.

"Raise the sails!!! Let us pursue them!!!" Corlys shouted as he sheathed his sword. He personally took hold of the halyard.

The ship’s sails, turned against the wind, filled out, and the ship seemed abruptly pulled forward, rocking for a moment, but it quickly gained speed and gave chase to the enemy, cutting brutally through the waters. The rest of the fleet followed behind, pursuing the remnants of the Triarchy.

On the other side, at Dragonstone.

Maekar could be seen on a cliff, in one of the volcano’s large hollows, riding Bahamut. The red saddle stood in sharp contrast against the platinum scales of the dragon beneath him.

The salty wind stirred his hair as the prince’s violet eyes stared out at the sea, which was gradually growing stormy. A storm was coming, as abruptly as the very waves of the sea.

Honestly, after being ambushed once in a storm, Maekar had grown more cautious and no longer flew on rainy days. Unfortunately, he needed to patrol the sea for enemies every two hours.

"Sovegon, Bahamut," Maekar said in High Valyrian. The platinum dragon opened his golden eyes and lifted his enormous body from the rock. He took a few steps and dropped off the cliff. He spread his wings and quickly gained altitude.

As soon as he was in the air, Maekar looked south, surprised, and saw a few columns of smoke rising on the horizon. Thinking something over, the prince changed course and made Bahamut head toward the distant columns of smoke.

The dragon glided through the air, his golden eyes fixed on the columns of smoke. With every beat of his wings, the dragon propelled himself forward.

After some time, Maekar finally saw the source of the smoke. It was ten warships; some of them were giving off smoke, which was the source of what he had seen earlier. Others had some damage but appeared relatively intact.

As he circled the warships, Maekar noticed gigantic ballistae mounted on the ships’ bows. He narrowed his eyes and recognized the weapons used to kill dragons.

The sailors had certainly spotted the dragon and began shouting, throwing the ships into chaos.

The gigantic ballistae began to be operated and took aim at the dragon circling in the air hundreds of meters away. Unfortunately, the swell of the sea made aiming the Scorpions a complete mess, making it hard to keep a steady lock on the target.

(Note: Sometimes I think these scorpions have heat radar to hit such a distant target with such precision. Rhaegal’s death was so absurd that I found myself wondering how a ballista could have such precision aboard a warship at sea.)

Maekar noticed this and showed a cold, equally cautious look. Bahamut was an extremely large adult dragon; a scorpion bolt could not pierce the dragon’s powerful muscles. But Bahamut did have weak points. Chief among them, the eyes.

Meraxes, who had been Queen Rhaenys I’s dragon, had died because of a scorpion bolt to the eye. Maekar did not want to take such a risk so lightly. However, they were experts at devising their own solutions to their own problems.

Bahamut, sensing his rider’s intentions, showed a cautious look and did not advance immediately. The dragon was already gaining experience from this war.

Maekar made Bahamut close in relatively close to the warships and gave the order in a calm tone.

"Dracarys."

Bahamut did not hesitate, and flames poured from the dragon’s mouth in the shape of a cone, covering an area thirty meters long.

The sailors of Myr were shocked and terrified; they fired at Bahamut. However, the dragon had already covered a greater distance, and the gigantic bolts only struck the sea.

The Scorpion’s reload time was not fast.

Seeing this, Maekar showed a cold look and knew this was his chance.

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Note: For those who were complaining that there wasn’t enough action, there will now be plenty of episodes filled with war, death, and conspiracies.

Read the advanced Chapters on my Patreon!

/GOTSW

Read my other books:

House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos

Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.

Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard