36: Chapter 36 Offensive

The darkest moment before dawn. There was no light on the sea. The sky had no moon.

The fleet's trebuchets ignited simultaneously, and dozens of fireballs lit up on the decks, turning the seawater a deep crimson.

Grey Worm stood at the prow of the flagship, slamming his spear onto the deck. Clack.

Eight thousand Unsullied formed ranks on the shore. Three phalanxes. Spears like a forest. Shields like a wall.

No one spoke. No one coughed. Even their breathing was synchronized.

White Mane led two thousand Dothraki Cavalry to flank the west side.

She rode that black mare, her arakh slung over her right shoulder, the crossguard—fashioned from two valyrian steel daggers—gleaming coldly under the torchlight.

Her silver-white braids were tied back with a leather cord, revealing her smooth forehead and the white battle scar that ran from her brow, across her left eye, down to her chin. Her amber eyes were fixed on the direction of the city gate.

Beneath the bandage on the back of her neck, the brand was faintly warm. Very calm. He was nearby.

Daenerys stood at the prow of the ship. She had changed into battle attire. Not royal robes. It was armor—black.

Forged from a mixture of scales shed by Drogon and valyrian steel.

The plates fit snugly against her body, the waist cinched tight, outlining a curve that wasn't soft—it was resilient. Her silver-gold hair was tied into a high ponytail, revealing her smooth forehead and slender neck. Her violet eyes burned in the night. Not from the reflection of the torches. They were burning on their own.

She raised her golden whip. The whip reflected the firelight like a slender golden snake.

"For freedom! For those who are still in chains! For the liberation of dragons!"

Eight thousand spears slammed onto the ground in unison. The earth shuddered.

Two thousand cavalry let out a war cry, their hooves thundering like lightning. The roar in the dothraki language drowned out the waves.

The sky darkened for a moment.

It wasn't clouds obscuring the stars. Something larger than clouds was rising from behind the fleet.

A fifteen-meter wingspan. Black scales shimmered with dark gold patterns under the moonlight, and the newly grown bone spurs along the edges of the scales had not yet fully hardened, glowing with an eerie blue light.

Eerie blue flames burned within his dragon eyes—not pure red.

It was a new form after the fusion of the Ice Element. He swept over the fleet, the gale kicked up by his dragon wings pressing a groove into the surface of the sea, splitting the water into two walls of white. The flags on the masts were all blown flat against the poles, the canvas emitting the sound of tearing under the unbearable strain.

He flew over Daenerys's head. The wind whipped her high ponytail back, a few stray hairs brushing against her cheek. She looked up. He looked down. Dragon eyes and violet eyes met in the darkness.

He spoke. His dragon-form voice was low, carrying a resonance from his chest. Every word made the deck beneath her feet tremble slightly.

"Mother—no."

A pause. The eerie blue flames in his dragon eyes dimmed for an instant, then brightened again.

"Daenerys. Wait until I break the city gate. I will pave a road of gold for you to enter."

The corners of her mouth lifted. A smile she would only show to him.

"Don't burn the city to the ground. I still need to live there."

"I will try."

He beat his wings. Accelerated. The black dragon shadow tore through the night, pressing down toward the walls of Meereen. Before the sonic boom of his wings tearing through the air could arrive, the torches on the city walls had already been extinguished by the wing-gale.

The crossbowmen on the city walls were the first to see the black shadow. It was too fast. Nearly twice as fast as it had been at Yunkai. Before their arrows could be notched, the black shadow had already flown over their heads.

Then the dragon's mouth opened slightly.

Not red flames. Eerie blue ones. A stream of eerie blue Dragon Breath poured down from the dragon's mouth, like a river of stars flowing backward.

The moment the Dragon Breath fell, the air was torn apart—not the whooshing sound of combustion, but a sharp hiss where ice and fire existed simultaneously. It landed on the first bronze ballista on the city wall.

The ballista didn't explode. It didn't burn.

It was first ignited—the wooden structure burned fiercely in the blue flames, the fire climbing up the crossbow arms, engulfing the Great Masters Private Soldiers operating the ballista.

But at the same time, a thick shell of ice congealed on the surface. The metal parts shattered directly due to the alternation of extreme cold and extreme heat.

The bronze crossbow arm was scorched red, then frozen and cracked, snapping into two pieces with a snap. Before the fragments could hit the ground, they exploded into even smaller pieces in mid-air.

The Great Masters Private Soldiers swept by the Dragon Breath were even more miserable. Their bodies were frozen into ice sculptures while simultaneously burning.

A soldier had just raised his shield when the shield was struck by the Ice Fire—first scorched red, then frozen and cracked, and then his hand and the shield were frozen together. His face was sealed within a shell of ice, his expression frozen in the moment of screaming. His lips wide open...

Then the ice sculpture shattered. Not melting. Shattering. Breaking into a pile of ice shards. The ice shards were wrapped in charred bone fragments, clattering and rolling all over the ground.

The roar of flames and the sound of exploding ice crystals blended together. A symphony of hell.

System popup: "Killed Great Masters Private Soldiers × 127. Attribute Points + 254! Killed War Elephants × 3. Attribute Points + 90! Proficiency in Ice Element significantly increased!"

Malgo was in the command tower. The telescope slipped from his hand. The lens hit the ground, shattering into several pieces. He didn't pick it up. His mouth was open, his lips trembling. His fingers dug into the wood of the window sill, a fingernail breaking off. He felt nothing.

"Impossible. Dragon fire is red. Why is it blue? Why can it also freeze?"

Ice Scum stood behind him. A glimmer of excitement flashed in his eerie blue eyes. Not fear. It was the excitement of a hunter seeing prey react exactly as expected.

"Ice Fire... It really did absorb the fragments of Dragon Tooth Reef." His mouth split into a smile formed of ice crystals. "This is even better—its weakness is the conflict between ice and fire."

He raised his hand. His finger drew a rune in the void. An eerie blue trail of light remained at his fingertip, lingering in the air for a full three seconds before dissipating.

"Aim at the moment it changes the color of its Dragon Breath. That is the flaw where the elements clash within its body."