GOT/ASOIAF: Ruler Beyond The Ice

Chapter 611 - 613: Stabbing the King

The King of the Iron Islands fell into the water, instantly submerged over his head by inertia and vanishing beneath the surface. Cold saltwater seeped through every gap in his clothing and pressed against his skin, immediately reminding him of the biting chill.

Furious and shocked, unable to open his mouth, Euron still wanted to laugh.

Unlike the cowards of the green lands, the Ironborn were always as fully armed as possible in naval battles. In the culture of the islands, those who died at sea could go directly to the Drowned God's watery halls to feast. Therefore, they feared losing a boarding battle after leaping onto an enemy ship more than drowning after falling into the sea because of heavy armor.

And Euron wore Valyrian steel armor.

Valyrian steel has only one-third the density of iron, yet its physical properties far surpass it. To achieve the same protection, it requires only half the thickness. Combined, these factors mean that Valyrian steel armor usually weighs only one-fourth to one-fifth as much as iron armor.

Although this was not exaggerated to the point of allowing the wearer to float, with the body's natural buoyancy and the air trapped between armor and clothing, he would not sink straight to the bottom like someone clad in iron.

Holding his breath, Euron threw away the battleaxe in his hand to reduce weight. Using all four limbs, he swam powerfully toward the surface like a frog.

His head had barely broken the surface before he could take a breath when the Invincible Ironborn behind him exploded.

The continuous cannon fire had made everyone on the battlefield almost accustomed to the booming sound, but this one was different. If the shock of cannon fire was distant thunder that made hearts tremble and bowels clench, then the explosion of powder kegs filling two holds was like a hammer striking directly beside the ear.

Across the vast mouth of the Blackwater, thousands of ships and tens of thousands of soldiers from the Seven Kingdoms, and from all over the world, were locked in chaotic combat, slaughtering each other or steering their ships to ram the enemy. Yet even the sailors of King Stannis's fleet, fighting desperately against the Unsullied two or three miles away, felt their ears go numb from the terrifying roar.

Countless people stopped what they were doing and looked toward the source of the sound. At the core of the Iron Fleet's first battle line, the Invincible Ironborn, surrounded and trapped by three large longships including the Serenity, erupted with two massive fireballs from its midsection. Under the force of the rapidly burning and expanding gas from the black powder, the thick wooden hull of this sea-dominating longship cracked and burst apart like an egg dropped on stone. Beneath the visible shockwave, the entire ship split into two sections. The stern was blasted more than a dozen meters away before rolling over and beginning to sink. The bow, because its ram had embedded itself into the Serenity's hull, remained attached and transferred the impact it absorbed onto the Serenity, as if initiating a second collision, tearing open another gap in the latter's blood-red hull with a crunch.

For those watching from a distance, no matter how deafening the sound or how enormous the fireball, it only made their eardrums ache and their eyes sting, leaving them stunned for a moment.

Those near the blast were not so fortunate. Euron felt as if he had been thrown into a spinning wooden barrel filled with water. The shockwave tore through sea and flesh alike, wrinkling and shoving the surrounding waters in all directions. Caught in it, the King of the Iron Islands felt the world spin. Freezing water slammed into his face and poured into his nose and mouth. He struggled and choked, unable to tell which way was up.

The extraordinary physical strength granted by the potion seemed insignificant before the immense force produced by such a massive explosion. In the chaos and terror, Euron relied on years of swimming experience and wisely abandoned resistance, letting the current carry him. After suffocating for half a minute, he finally broke the surface amid the gradually calming waves, spitting out water and gasping for air.

His hands flailed wildly until they seized a piece of wood that had struck his back. He clung to it as if it were his dearest treasure and stared ahead in disbelief.

This was not wildfire.

If it had been that strange substance, the sea here would already be aflame, and his lungs would have burned to charcoal the moment he surfaced.

The Invincible Ironborn, from which he had leaped moments earlier, no longer existed. The stern section was sinking tail-first dozens of meters away in a trail of bubbles, while the bow remained lodged against the Serenity, which had absorbed part of the blast. The weight dragged the latter's bow downward and lifted its stern.

Such a tilt would not normally doom a large ship like the Serenity, but its bow had already been torn open in a previous collision.

The weight of the Invincible Ironborn's half-bow pressed the gaping hole below the waterline. Seawater poured in, increasing the ship's draft and worsening the leak in a deadly cycle.

With a single glance, Euron knew it was only a matter of time before it sank.

Of the two nearby friendly warships, the Nightwalker, smaller and positioned broadside while attempting to board at the moment of the explosion, bore the brunt of the lateral shockwave and capsized. The Leviathan survived due to its larger size and slightly greater distance, though it had been pushed far away and still rocked violently.

Above the blast site, a column of smoke hundreds of feet high billowed into the sky like a pale tombstone erected for Victarion Greyjoy, long since devoured by dragons, and his flagship. After shaking the world with its explosion, it left behind a beacon, telling all which direction to look and announcing to everyone that the King of the Iron Islands had...

Fuck.

Euron felt a sudden chill of dread. He was not dead, but the Iron Fleet spread across miles of sea would not know that. They would only see the Serenity suffer a devastating explosion and begin to sink. He had to get back aboard a ship at once and signal the surrounding vessels, or this scattered pirate fleet would fall apart.

Fighting against the unsettled waves, he swam toward the nearest intact ship, the Leviathan. He had covered only a dozen meters when unusual ripples caught his eye. Turning his head, he saw someone swimming toward him.

At first he thought it was one of his surviving men, but he quickly realized that all the Serenity's soldiers wore full armor and could not be floating after falling into the sea. This was an assassin.

A cornered beast still fights. Surrounded and in danger, Euron's bloodlust flared again. His eyes wide, he roared and swam toward the nearest figure. "Want to kill me? Come and try!"

Perhaps out of fear, or perhaps knowing they were no match, the person he targeted turned and swam away without hesitation. The surface was littered with wreckage from the explosion. Euron chased single-mindedly and swiftly, so when someone approached from below and brushed his leg, he thought he had struck floating debris.

Only when the person seized his ankle and tried to drag him down did he understand.

Not just anyone could swim well enough to approach him from below in this freezing sea. It had to be his dear niece, Asha Greyjoy.

"Good timing!" he roared, plunging underwater and twisting toward his feet.

Asha swam slightly better than he did. Without heavy armor and with her lighter build, she was more agile in the sea. But no matter how skilled she was, if he caught her, he could snap her slender neck in half a second.

He reached to grab the arm clutching his leg, but instead of flesh, his hand found a thick rope tied around his ankle. The other end was fastened to something heavy, dragging him swiftly toward the depths.

Bastard.

Euron cursed in the murky water, releasing only a string of bubbles. His gloved hands could not untie a knot underwater. He immediately reached for his right boot, where his backup weapon was hidden, a light yet razor-sharp Valyrian steel dagger, perfect for cutting the rope.

What?

Where was it?

Had he lost it when he fell in?

It had been secured tightly.

Then he remembered kicking something strange moments earlier while swimming. It was that little bitch. She had taken the dagger in the chaos.

(To be continued.)

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