Game of Thrones: Second Son of House Targaryen

Chapter 193: Kraken and the Dragon Egg

The Firewyrm, its body covered in rough, gray scales, continued to wreak havoc. Although it had no eyes, it accurately located the mute sailors, as if it could do more than simply spit fire. With a flick of its massive tail, it smashed into the ground like a cannonball. A dull thud reverberated through the air as countless stones, large and small, splattered in all directions.

Euron, who had been hiding, watched the destruction with excitement. The ruins of the Doom were even more thrilling than he had imagined.

Euron's eyes rolled back in his head, and Viserys found himself staring up at the head of a mute sailor. Euron was manipulating the unfortunate man like a puppet, shouting and jumping about like a madman who had escaped from an asylum. He was trying to attract the Firewyrm’s attention, hoping to draw it away from his own body. His total disregard for human life proved disturbingly effective.

The Firewyrm soon turned its attention to the thrashing puppet. The creature, as thick as a water tank, slithered across the ground like a massive snake. Every so often, it would bend its body and propel itself forward in a single bound, covering ten meters in an instant. On second thought, it made sense: after all, this beast had been 'drilling' underground for years. If its body couldn't generate enough thrust, it wouldn’t have survived.

Now that it was on the surface, the Firewyrm could use its full strength to propel itself forward. A human on two legs had no chance of outrunning this monster.

The Dragon Dreams vision shifted again, and Viserys was back in his own head. He knew that the Firewyrm could swallow rocks and metal without a problem—let alone ordinary flesh and blood. In the creature’s maw, humans would be no harder to chew than pudding.

In less than ten seconds, the massive worm began to search for its next target. Not far away, a mute sailor engulfed in flames caught its attention. The Firewyrm flicked its tail and leapt toward the man, ending his life in a single, brutal motion.

The Firewyrm could pinpoint the location of each person with terrifying accuracy. Judging by the situation, Euron might have to pay the price here. For Viserys, this outcome wasn’t entirely unacceptable.

Just as Viserys was considering how to respond, Euron made a sudden dash. His target was the Dragon Horn he had just discarded.

'What's the point of picking that up now? Does he even know how to use it?' Viserys thought, judging that Euron must have been desperate. 

The Dragon Horn's usefulness was uncertain, but Euron likely figured it was his only chance at survival. If he used it, he might live; if he didn’t, he’d be devoured sooner or later.

Sure enough, Euron's frantic movements caught the Firewyrm’s attention, and it began to crawl toward him with alarming speed. Gritting his teeth, Euron pushed himself to his limits, running as fast as he could. When the Firewyrm was just ten meters away, he grabbed the Dragon Horn that he had previously discarded.

The horn was massive—over a meter long and nearly two meters in total—and far too large for Euron to lift easily. Instead, he dropped to the ground, aiming his mouth at the horn's mouthpiece. Whether he could produce a sound or not, Euron took a deep breath, puffed up his cheeks, and blew with all his might, as if his life depended on it.

His face turned crimson from the effort, and his eye patch slipped off in the process. Unlike the high-pitched blast of an ordinary horn, the sound that emerged was more like the howl of a mad wind rushing through a cavern, sending chills down the spine of anyone who heard it. It was as if a thousand souls were crying out from the afterlife.

From his first-person perspective, Viserys observed that as Euron blew the horn, the golden runes etched into it began to glow. Looking up, he could clearly see the Firewyrm’s rock-like skin, and the remnants of shredded flesh and clothing clinging to it.

As the horn emitted its eerie, indescribable sound, the Firewyrm’s terrifying mouth stopped just three or four feet above Euron's head. In the next moment, the worm seemed to recoil in fear, plunging into the hard ground to escape. To be safe, Euron blew the horn again. The vibrations from beneath the earth grew fainter, and the creature’s presence receded farther and farther away.

'Is it safe?' Viserys wondered, surveying the area. The surviving mute sailors peeked out from their hiding spots, and seeing that the fire-breathing monster had finally departed, they collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

Viserys then turned his gaze to Euron, who had blown the horn twice. He noticed white smoke steadily streaming from the man's mouth. 'Ah, right,' Viserys thought. 'This thing has this effect—it causes the person who blows the horn to self-ignite.' And that was exactly what was happening to Euron now. He was seriously injured.

But what would become of Euron in this weakened state?

Before Viserys could contemplate further, his perspective shifted, and he watched as Euron controlled a mute sailor to approach his own body. Euron's consciousness then returned to his physical form, and he began performing blood magic...

These mute sailors weren’t just pawns used to scout the path; they were also his mobile “blood bags.” After draining two of them, Euron’s strength returned. He moved to where he had earlier found the Valyrian armor, stripped it from the fallen Dragonlord, and donned it himself.

Finally, Euron commanded his mute sailors to carry the Dragon Horn away.

At that moment, a sailor with a blackened face approached, kneeling before Euron and holding a blue dragon egg above his head, like a hunting dog presenting its prize to its master. Euron was overjoyed at the sight of the dragon egg, and Viserys couldn’t help but share in the excitement. This egg was Euron's prize!

The mute sailor pointed toward the skeleton of a dragon not far away, indicating that he had found the egg there. Euron quickly gathered the remaining dozen or so sailors, instructing them to continue searching in hopes of finding more. However, as the sun began to set, their search yielded only a few fragments of dragon eggs of various colors, leaving them disappointed.

But considering the circumstances, it made sense. The dragon had fallen from a great height, and dragon eggs aren’t particularly resistant to impact. It was a miracle that even one “sole survivor” remained intact.

Concerned about encountering other monsters, Euron decided to retreat to a safer location. Meanwhile, as soon as Viserys awoke from his Dragon Dreams, he hurried to write down the runic symbols he had seen on the Dragon Horn. Among the symbols was a line in the ancient language of Valyria, which Viserys managed to decipher: “I am the Dragonbinder. No mortal shall sound me and live. Blood for fire, fire for blood!”

What a revelation! Viserys couldn't make sense of the rest of the runic symbols, so he sent them to Shiera via his messenger raven, hoping she could “translate” them for him. He remembered that after leaving the Doom Ruins, Euron had journeyed to Qarth. There, Euron had used the “magic immunity” of Valyrian armor to capture several Warlocks and force them to teach him black magic. But that had been long ago, and at this moment, Euron was not yet a “complete being.”

Viserys decided to lead a fleet of at least five warships to take him out. Five warships against one—he clearly had the advantage!

However, Viserys soon reconsidered. As he was ordering the fleet to prepare, Shiera’s reply arrived. She informed Viserys that the runes were actually two spells that needed to be cast while blowing the horn. Each spell could be both “cast” and “uncast.” The first spell, when cast through the horn, confuses the mind and causes a person to harm themselves. Shiera thoughtfully included the “uncast” spell in her reply.

The second spell is used to control a dragon, enabling the user to dominate the creature by blowing the horn. Shiera also knew the spell to “uncast” this one, but it too could only be performed when the horn was sounded.

When Viserys read the first half of Shiera’s message, he realized why Euron had claimed that others fled at the sight of his ship. It was clear now—Euron had used the spell on the Dragon Horn to manipulate the minds of other pirates, driving them to injure themselves or even kill each other.

With the Dragonhorn, Euron was like a sea monster incarnate, terrifying anyone who crossed his path. As for the second spell—the one that allowed control over dragons—Viserys hadn’t taken it seriously. After all, the dragon hadn’t hatched yet; how could anyone control an egg? Even if he could command a Firewyrm, there was no way to bring such a creature to Westeros.

However, a few days later, Viserys experienced a Dragon Dream that shattered his previous assumptions and opened his eyes to a whole new realm of possibilities.

In the vision, Euron had reached the Smoking Sea and had already chosen his target. The Dragonhorn was enormous, as thick as a man’s thigh and over a meter and a half long. He had constructed a special shelf-like structure on his ship to hold it. A short, stocky sailor stood before the horn, clearly prepared to blow it for Euron.

The sailor accepted his fate with a calm expression, and as he blew the horn, Euron began chanting the spell. This time, the horn’s sound was different—a cacophony of roaring beasts, all mixed into one terrifying noise.

After about a minute, the short sailor collapsed, white smoke pouring from his mouth. At that very moment, a massive tentacle climbed onto the hull of the Silence. A giant sea monster, nearly 30 meters long, emerged from the depths, its ten thick tentacles gripping the ship.

The creature had a dark, single eye as large as a carriage wheel, and each tentacle was thicker than an adult's waist. Viserys estimated that a Kraken of this size could easily drag a battleship into the sea. Ordinary soldiers wouldn’t stand a chance against such a monstrosity. Its opponent should be something as powerful as Ultraman!

To Viserys' surprise, none of the mute sailors aboard the Silence cowered in fear or fainted. Instead, they wore expressions of adoration and ecstasy, as if they were in the presence of a holy deity. Their faith was clearly misplaced, but unwavering.

Euron, meanwhile, locked eyes with the Kraken’s dark, singular eye, silently communicating with the beast. At Euron’s signal, the Kraken’s thick tentacles reached out, wrapping around a sailor dressed in a seal-skin cloak and dragging him into the water.

Euron watched the sea calm with a satisfied smile, certain that he had mastered the Kraken. This realization struck Viserys hard—he understood that his initial plan to defeat Euron with just five or six warships was hopelessly inadequate. To stand a chance, he would need at least twenty warships, and he’d have to prepare some of them as "explosives" to take out both Euron and the monster simultaneously.

And that was assuming Euron couldn’t control more than one Kraken.