When Lita saw the snow dust billowing from afar approaching the Great Wall, she really felt like dying. Although she thought it wouldn’t be too hard to protect herself in such a formation, she also didn’t want Shirley to die in the tide of wights.
But now the situation was indeed adding insult to injury.
“Wait a minute, the shape of that snow mist is a cavalry, and not a small one… This is different from the Wild Hunt I know, which gallops like ghosts.” Shirley’s pupils, which had shrunk to almost pinpoints, suddenly widened as she saw the rising snow mist.
On the way there, Shirley had explained to Lita what the Wild Hunt was—a cavalry composed entirely of White Walkers, often appearing with white frost and possessing calamitous destructive power. The Rangers of the North were an elite squad modeled after the Wild Hunt.
“Also, they’re well-disciplined. Unless the White Walkers have gathered a new army, these aren’t White Walkers. They’re humans.” Since Shirley said that, it proved the approaching force was likely not White Walkers.
“Hmph.” The burly White Walker sitting on the back of a giant mammoth snorted coldly, raised the huge battle axe in his hand, and turned his head to look at the swirling snow mist.
From within the snow mist, a gray warhorse charged out first. The young man on horseback, wearing a fur cloak, swung his long-handled axe straight at the leading White Walker. Close behind the man were several black-clad knights, their attire exactly like the Rangers Lita had seen. Judging by the number, most of the Rangers of the North had probably gathered here.
“Mm!” The White Walker raised his battle axe and grunted in a deep voice. The wights on both sides immediately turned and charged toward the cavalry that had raised the snow mist.
“Big brother?!” Shirley exclaimed, then quickly called Lita, “Quick, charge over! Joining my brother is much safer than relying on the Great Wall!”
This meant crossing the entire wight formation to reunite. But since Shirley dared to charge, Lita had nothing to fear. Nodding to Shirley, the two immediately began their counter-charge. At the same time, the main force behind City Lord Brandon and his Rangers also charged out, led by Brandon, meeting the wights head-on.
“Roar!” The giant White Walker who was slamming the wall turned back and let out a deafening roar. The mere sound waves rippled through the snow, churning layers of snow like ripples. This roar seemed like a summons; the giants swinging bone hammers also turned around and strode toward the army outside the Great Wall.
The battle situation immediately became more chaotic.
Wights were charging, soldiers were charging, Lita and Shirley were also charging. Everyone knew only to fight, tearing apart any creature on a different side with their weapons or claws.
Brandon had already engaged the giant White Walker. Both were axe users: the White Walker’s giant axe glowed with icy blue light, while Brandon’s long-handled axe blazed with a flame-like aura. They exchanged several blows, and for a moment, the fight was evenly matched. The Rangers were locked in combat with the giants, having already downed two of them without taking any damage themselves, raising Lita’s already high opinion of them even further.
But how long would this battle last? Until the cost became unbearable for one side? Until one side was completely annihilated? As long as the problem could be solved with force, just give up thinking and fight until it ended. That was how it should be. Lita didn’t know, but thinking wasn’t her strong suit anyway.
When Lita spotted a figure, she immediately grew uneasy. Honestly, Lita didn’t recognize this enemy; it looked completely ordinary. A tattered large robe covered its body, making it seem like some refugee, and its only weapon was a small bone mallet, showing no special features at all.
But that wight could precisely shatter a soldier’s skull with every strike, then blend back into the crowd and keep moving. Yes, it was just like her—even its destination seemed the same.
Destination? Lita’s destination was Brandon, so that meant the enemy’s target was also…
“Shirley, clear a path for me!”
“Huh?”
“No time to explain!”
Though Shirley didn’t understand Lita, she knew Lita wouldn’t lose her mind for no reason at this moment. Without a second thought, she threw a full-powered punch forward. The massive wind pressure from her fist blew away a swath of wights, leaving enough space for Lita to advance.
The commotion also caught the attention of many on the battlefield. As soon as a gap appeared, more wights surged in to block it. Even those wights that hadn’t completely lost mobility crawled toward Lita.
What worried Lita most wasn’t the wights converging on her, but the wight that had caught her attention earlier. It was still advancing slowly, smashing soldiers’ skulls one by one with its bone mallet. In such a chaotic battlefield, Lita couldn’t single out that inconspicuous wight to warn her allies, so she could only push forward against the tide of wights.
Perhaps in a single-player game, holding back your skills for a critical moment could be useful, and pulling off a last-minute counterattack looked cool. But this was a battlefield, not a place where Lita could leisurely think of strategy. If she was going to fight, she had to go all out.
A dazzling golden light rose in the snowy night, like a miniature sun that stole everyone’s gaze. The crest formed by a heart and wings returned to Lita’s body. Gold fell amid the silver-white, and the burst of light waves instantly engulfed a large number of wights. The wights evaporated in agonized howls as gold spread across the battlefield.
“An Emblem Knight… I completely didn’t see that coming.” Shirley muttered, crushing a wight’s head with her hand.
Lita should have been happy to have eliminated so many wights at once. But she couldn’t be happy at all. The wight she had been watching had ducked into the crowd while she was attacking, completely disappearing.
Hurry. Find that thing.
As she advanced, Lita tore apart enemies blocking her way with claws made of golden mist.
Found it! But Lita felt not surprise but shock. The wight had somehow crept up behind Brandon, who was still fighting the axe-wielding White Walker.
Lita stamped her foot and launched herself forward. Brandon was also startled by Lita’s movement, nearly turning to swing his axe at her. But when he saw Shirley standing not far behind Lita, his swinging axe changed direction and struck back at the White Walker he was dueling.
In that moment, many things happened, and Lita couldn’t recount them all. But she knew very well what she was facing.
Her claws and sword landed on the bone mallet at the same time. If she had been even a fraction slower, the mallet would have struck Brandon’s shoulder—yet Brandon, a battle-hardened warrior, had been completely unaware of the fatal blow. Not just Brandon, but no one on the entire battlefield had noticed. This wasn’t a matter of carelessness; it was that the enemy had hidden itself too well.
The moment Lita blocked the bone mallet’s attack, even though she had prepared herself mentally, her body still sank, as if both arms had lost all feeling under the blow.
Crack—
A crack split open on the bone mallet in front of Lita’s sword, and this hair-thin fissure instantly spread across the entire mallet. But what shattered the mallet wasn’t Lita; it was the wight’s suddenly clenched hand.
Pale, slender, as if carved entirely from ice and snow, with dark blood vessels where blood had stopped flowing visible beneath the skin. Just from seeing this hand extend from under the tattered cloak, Lita couldn’t mistake it for those dirty wights. With a slight tightening of the fingers, the bone mallet peeled off like a brittle shell. That hand still gripped something.
In that moment, so many things happened. But only the word “danger” remained in Lita’s mind. At the same time, a spurt of blood burst from Lita’s shoulder.
“You dodged it.” A young girl’s voice sounded.
Yes, Lita had dodged. By instinct, she had avoided the blow that could have taken off her head. But even so, her shoulder was grazed, leaving a wound neither deep nor shallow, and blood soaked the cloak on Lita’s shoulder. What had struck Lita was a giant sword—a pitch-black greatsword that seemed to be a single piece, with a faint blue light flowing along the blade.
“Tch.” Lita clicked her tongue. “Hit me.”
Thud.
The tattered cloak fell away, revealing black hair beneath, matched with black heavy armor. On the chest of the heavy armor, a deep sword scar was carved, but it didn’t seem to have actually touched the girl at all. The pitch-black armor stood out starkly against the pale snow. Then the girl’s torn cloak split in two and fell onto the snow.
This thing was no wight. It was a White Walker—and a famous breed among White Walkers: a Death Knight. Not just White Walkers; anyone familiar with fantasy games would know that name.
“You’re the first to leave a scar on my armor.” The Death Knight girl raised her palm, her fingers gently stroking the scar on her armor, and looked at Lita with eyes that seemed to burn with icy blue flames. “So, are you ready to atone with your life?”
A troublesome opponent. This Death Knight was definitely stronger than the White Walker that had been fighting Brandon for so long. Her goal wasn’t hard to guess: kill Brandon in one blow. Simple as that. Whether assassination was despicable or not aside, the fact that a White Walker, and such a powerful one, was willing to use assassination to eliminate the leader of the North was terrifying in both determination and ambition.
If I kill this one, I can naturally become Lady Cecilia’s personal knight, right? But only if I can actually win. Thinking of the powerful White Walker that Liana mentioned, who had united several White Walker armies, Lita couldn’t imagine it being anyone other than the Death Knight before her.
But running away never crossed Lita’s mind. Against an opponent of this level, fleeing probably wasn’t an option. So bring it on!
“ROOOOAR!”
The giant’s roar shattered the tension between Lita and the Death Knight girl. Then came a violent tremor that seemed to shake the entire snowfield, flinging up all the snow on the ground and knocking many wights straight off their feet.
A 50-meter-tall giant fell to the ground with a roar, a claw mark visible down to the bone appearing on its chest.
Gold. Again, gold.
A wolf’s head woven from gold slowly emerged in the cold wind and darkness.