Chapter 84

Well, it still seemed like your Companion had things in Hand as the soon-to-be dead Men that actually made it through the Poison Clouds without liquifying their Organs attacking him were sent flying just like their Predecessors had been when things had first started. And while he was far more unbalanced than he usually was, the Changes in his Fighting Style had done nothing to diminish his oppressing Impression in your Eyes. For there were few People you knew of that could claim to hold the sheer Power required to wield such an imposing Warhammer with all their Strength, let alone wielding it after Hours of Battle with but a single Hand.

You genuinely couldn't understand why your Companion was having this much Trouble without looking troubled, or why his other Side had decided to retire from the Fight if he was still holding up as well as it looked from where you stood, it just didn't make any Sense. There was of course the Possibility that knowing the Plan of the Lannisters for the Vale was required to understand why your Companion was sent to take care of the Mountain Clan Leaders, and why he decided to do it the Way he did. But since more and more Reinforcements were still flooding in from the silent Darkness of the surrounding Woods, you couldn't understand why the Lannisters hadn't sent more of their black Knights if they had planned for such a Battle.

If they had enough of these Knights to form an Honour Guard out of them, you couldn't understand why sending two or three of them into the Vale would have brought any Disadvantages since your Companion wasn't exactly the stealthiest of Characters considering the Bloodbaths you witnessed on your Journey. Especially since the Rebels and Bandits you encountered on your Way out of the former Lands of the Reach just couldn't be considered a Threat requiring their Presence no matter how long you thought about it, one of them had been more than enough to force you to withdraw after all.

But be that as it may, the Facts that your Poisons obscured by the increasing Darkness as they were continued to take their Toll on the Enemy while your Companion Slaughter picked back up remained, thus you were honestly just annoyed with the lacking Speed instead of being disheartened by your Thoughts. After all, the both of you had raked up nearly two thousand Enemy Casualties so just short of two hundred slain Clansmen each passing Hour, and that without suffering any Losses on your own Side, it would take a Madman to seriously complain about that kind of Cost to Price Ratio.

Thus, after exhausting the last Remains of your befitting Poison Supply, you decide to close up the Shields of the Tower once more before you simply leave the Place to the still sleeping Archer. For as far as you could see there was no Point in sticking around as you were obviously quite sure that the Poisons and your Companion would be able to continue their work without your Presence. And besides, there were still thousands of Clansmen to deal with, since they had turned out to be nigh endless for all it's worth considering the sheer Number of arriving Reinforcements.

Though there was still a Piece of good News to be had as you overheard that the last of the requested Troops would arrive during the Night, so even if they decided to send out further Requests for Reinforcements Tomorrow, you were sure that they wouldn't manage to arrive anytime soon. For while the last Batches of arriving Troops needed only around half a Day, there was a massive difference between marching now, and marching once the Scouts of the Arryns managed to spot the massive Amount of Gaps your Companion had created by drawing them all towards him.

Mayhaps that had all been Part of the Plan, or perhaps you had simply read too much into it, since the two of you were still outnumbered by a bit over three thousand to one going by the Tents that had sprouted up around the Camp. But since your Companion had never ceased to be a Monster on the Battlefield even once, there was a decent Chance that the Plans of the Lannisters had just estimated your Companion's Strength as always sufficient, no matter how much Martial Prowess was actually required since that was quite hard to measure.

Yes, you supposed it made some Sense that the Lannisters wouldn't really care how much Time the two of you required to finish this Mission of theirs as long as things worked out in the long Term with how little they had invested. But you were naturally a bit less focused on the long Term Success since you had been quite bothered with the Set of Clothes that made up your Disguise since it had apparently been created for the cold Mountain Passes, much to your chagrin.

And honestly, you weren't naive enough to believe that Life would be kind enough to give you the Chance to refresh yourself outside the Camp, for while leaving the Camp wasn't really an Issue as your Disguise had been holding up till now, you knew that the Effort would just be a risky Waste. Simply because the Woods were naturally filled with at least three times the original Number of Scouts that had as far as you knew continued to search for the Traces of their Enemies uninterrupted. And seeing as they did so while most Escape Routes from the Region had still a good Number of Mountain Knights guarding them, you couldn't imagine that you would be overlooked even in Disguise.

So you once more supposed that you had to be satisfied with the Fact that you sped up the Process while you managed to get a nifty Achievement out of it which was pretty clearly a decent outcome, even if the last Stretch turned out to be a bit of a Pain. A Fact that managed to remind you of the absurdity of your Situation as you simply continued to ponder on the matter as you neared the Command Tent to see if you could speed things up a little further. Though before you could even be questioned by the barely standing Guards that quite clearly belonged to the exhausted Reinforcements, you were suddenly interrupted as both the Tent, the Ground, and everything else in the Camp turned red in an Instance.