The chaos had reached its peak. Glimmers of azure blade light would occasionally flash at extremely close range. Lita could only rely on instinct to fend off attacks from all directions, leaving a few insignificant scratches on the Wild Hunt with her sword. As a greatsword swing that Lita had no time to deflect came down, Pearl’s head was instantly sent flying. Immediately after, her legs gave way and she crashed to the ground.
This fall was no joke, but fortunately, Cecilia in her arms was not injured. Lita had tried her best to protect her entire body, but she was still thrown off by the inertia of the horse collapsing.
“Cecilia!” Rosalia immediately tried to turn her horse around, but a nearby Wild Hunt knight blocked her with a swing of its sword. Several more Wild Hunt swarmed in, forcibly preventing Rosalia from turning back, forcing her to continue forward.
“Brownie!” Rosalia shouted again, loudly commanding her personal knight. But it was useless. In the corner of her eye, she saw that a Wild Hunt with far more elaborate armor and a much bulkier frame than the others had already engaged Brownie, leaving him no room to focus. Rosalia had never seen this Wild Hunt before.
But after Rosalia’s intentions were twice interrupted, it was already too late to do anything else. Her horse had carried her hundreds of meters away, and the distance was still growing. At this point, turning back to save Cecilia was already too late. All she could do was trust that Lita could bring Cecilia out of danger, though under the encirclement and pursuit of a horde of Wild Hunt, it was nearly impossible.
“This really is a bit troublesome!” Lita shouted to herself. Then, with one hand, she unfastened her cloak and tightly tied it around Cecilia’s waist, binding her to her front. While swinging her sword to block the attacks of the Wild Hunt closing in, she tied a slipknot with one hand. Though the knot was a bit crude, at least she could free the arm that had been holding Cecilia.
But the cost of doing so was obvious. The screeching sound of ice blades scraping the ground almost exploded against Lita’s eardrums. Lita twisted sharply to dodge, and the Silver Sword arced through the air, barely parrying a spear thrust aimed at her. The impact numbed her tiger’s mouth, and the sharp pain almost made her lose her grip on the sword, but she managed to hold on tightly at the last moment.
Pfft. Another rapier-like ice spike pierced straight through Lita’s shoulder. No blood gushed out, but a thin layer of ice formed over the wound.
“Hn…” Lita grunted, rolling several times on the snow with Cecilia in her arms, awkwardly escaping the Wild Hunt’s attack range. The forcibly withdrawn rapier left a wound on Lita’s clothes and shoulder, and the girl’s frozen-red shoulder was immediately exposed to the cold wind.
“It’s alright, Lady Cecilia.” Lita gently patted Cecilia’s back with her hand, but the shoulder injury made her movements extremely clumsy, so much so that when she tried to lower her hand, the pain made her tightly clutch the cloak binding Cecilia.
Lita felt that Cecilia in her arms seemed to want to say something, but in the end, no sound came out. Instead, she curled up even tighter.
A few more bone horses emerged from the surging White Frost with silent steps, forming a triangular formation as they closed in on Lita. The blue flames burning in their hollow eye sockets flickered as if assessing Lita’s condition, and combined with their skull-like helmets and heavy armor, they looked even more ghastly.
They didn’t seem to be in a hurry to attack fiercely, only continuously advancing, silently pressing and probing, occasionally launching an extremely tricky strike to chip away at Lita’s meager stamina. This couldn’t go on. Just being inside the White Frost, each breath made Lita feel as if she were inhaling a mouthful of ice shards, pulling painfully at her trachea and lungs.
Even the flu isn’t this terrible! Well, compared to the Wild Hunt, the Wild Hunt is indeed scarier. No matter, as long as she could still complain about something like this, she could still hold on.
Although Lita tried her best to comfort herself like this, the sweet, coppery taste of blood in her throat and the silvery flashes before her eyes—whether they were ice particles or stars—reminded her that her condition was already very bad. Lita could barely see the Wild Hunt’s specific movements now, only relying on her instincts to fend off their attacks.
She was somewhat grateful that the instinctual fighting style she had previously tried so hard to avoid had now come in handy, and could help her hold on a little longer.
Ding. Lita deflected an ice scimitar trying to stab into her embrace, but another attack followed immediately. All Lita could do was twist her body as much as possible to prevent that sword from hitting Cecilia. Sure enough, she couldn’t dodge this one either. The ice blade grazed her side, cutting a wound, and quickly froze the surrounding skin into a patch of gray.
Sharp pain made Lita’s vision go dark and her knees buckle, nearly sending her to the ground. No, she couldn’t fall here, otherwise Cecilia would be finished too. Lita bit down hard on her own tongue; the stabbing pain and the metallic taste of fresh blood forcibly pulled back her fading consciousness. Her hazy, unfocused eyes once again showed a sharp glint.
“Get away!” A faint golden halo coalesced on her blade, and she swung a horizontal slash with almost no technique, forcing back the nearest Wild Hunt. It clashed with the ice flames burning on the Wild Hunt’s sword, canceling each other out. The recoil made Lita’s throat churn again, as if something was about to come up from her stomach, but she forced it down.
Lita now fully understood why the Wild Hunt were so notorious. Teamwork, the cover of the White Frost, and decent individual strength—they could indeed achieve a whole greater than the sum of its parts. If she went all out, she could kill one or two, but the cost was too great. Her goal wasn’t to kill them, but to escape from here and return to the Royal Capital with Cecilia.
And now her strength was almost spent, her body riddled with wounds. The cold and injuries were constantly draining what little energy she had left. Time was running out. However, a considerable number of the Wild Hunt had gone after Rosalia, so she didn’t have as many opponents to face. So, there was still a way to solve this.
Lita rolled to her feet, using an attack to drive back a Wild Hunt that was about to charge at her, then looked toward the edge of the White Frost. The White Frost was a phenomenon that followed the Wild Hunt, but it wasn’t endless. As long as she could rush toward the faintly visible horizon, there was still a chance to survive.
“Lady Cecilia, hold on tight, and don’t let go.” Lita said in a low voice to Cecilia, not even realizing how hoarse and broken her own voice had become.
Lita poured all her strength into her legs, and the moment she deflected the next attack from a Wild Hunt, she burst forward, sprinting toward that thin chance of survival. When it came to speed, she might not lose. But the sound of hooves behind her suddenly grew intense, mixed with the shriek of ice spikes. The Wild Hunt had realized what Lita was trying to do and began to block her.