Northern border of the Kingdom of Dawn.
Cold winds carried a putrid stench across the Herrick family's defensive line. Distant raging flames illuminated the exhausted faces of warriors near the fortress.
The flames and smoke from burning forests couldn't mask the foul odor brought by ice spirits. Everyone's faces looked somewhat twisted.
Chaotic roars and howling sounds constantly stimulated these soldiers' minds.
Fortunately, these terrifying ice spirits still feared fire. Under pressure from the mountain fires, they temporarily retreated, their sounds growing more distant.
"My lord!" Count Lucina Herrick walked along the castle walls as several soldiers hurriedly bowed respectfully.
Lucina Herrick waved her hand, but everyone could see her exhaustion.
"My lord, you should rest inside the castle!"
A burly deputy quickly approached her, saying with some concern: "Fighting those ice spirits has left you somewhat overtaxed..."
"Bullshit! Even if another wave like that comes, I can still win!" Lucina directly scolded, cutting off the deputy's words. Now wasn't the time for such talk.
But whether from speaking too loudly or not, she could clearly feel countless wounds under her armor aching faintly, some even starting to seep blood again.
"Really quite pathetic—I've never fought such a miserable battle in my life." Lucina looked around, the corner of her mouth twitching: "Those brainless bastards really are tough to fight! No wonder most of our family's collection focuses on dealing with these damn things!"
"You single-handedly lured most ice spirits into traps. These wounds... this predicament is proof of glory!" the deputy said solemnly.
"Save your flattery—I'm not interested!" Lucina looked at the sea of fire ahead: "This blaze won't hold those monsters for long. How's the civilian evacuation going?"
"Everyone's been moved to the rear, but transport to Winter Fort might take some more time." The deputy took a deep breath: "Also, Winter Fort sent word that their army is heading toward us at Herrick Fort."
"Heading to the watch wall, right?" Lucina took a deep breath: "We're not the only ones in trouble now. Can't pin our hopes on Winter Fort."
"But we're facing the most ice spirits..."
"But we're the strongest! We're the wolves of the north! Knight Bruno!" Lucina's tone was firm: "I'm the Wolf General of the north, Count Herrick! This is what we must face!"
Time ticked by second after second.
The forest that had stood on the ridge for countless years outside Herrick Fort had turned to scorched earth.
Countless massive trees had burned to ash.
But the putrid stench hadn't dissipated—instead it grew stronger.
About three hours after the open flames disappeared, those twisted, terrible, nightmare-like monsters appeared in view again.
"Get the catapults up here!" Lucina shouted loudly: "These large-area monsters need catapults to handle! You—quickly find all the magicians and prepare to activate the battle mage towers!"
She knew these monsters were coming!
And they'd move faster and faster!
When they caught the scent of living beings in the fortress, they'd go mad!
Indeed, it matched the information she'd gotten from ancestral documents.
Starting about three kilometers away, these ice spirits quickly shifted from their dazed state to excitement.
These terrible monsters roared madly and charged toward them, fearless of death!
Even more terrifying, some spellcasting individuals existed among these monsters—either corpses of human magicians transformed, or forest magical beasts.
These spellcaster ice spirits had begun gathering energy, seemingly preparing to hurl spells at them!
Perhaps this was the only good news they could see—ice spirit spellcasting also required time to 'chant'!
Countless stones were hurled by catapults.
Each shot scattered countless ice spirits, but soon many of these ice spirits would stand up again and charge once more, as if immortal!
The battle mage towers began emitting waves of magical beams.
Compared to catapults, these magical beams were much more effective.
Most monsters hit by magical beams seemed to die, unable to rise again... At least these monsters could really be killed.
The ice spirits' spells came!
Under the ice spirits' magic, the solid walls actually began showing corrosion.
Walls that had been incredibly sturdy just moments before now seemed fragile as sand, cracking and crumbling in the wind. Even areas not directly hit began growing somewhat fragile.
"Pollution!"
The word instantly appeared in Lucina's mind.
When enough ice spirits gathered, they'd begin polluting their surroundings.
She had great confidence in her fortress's thickness. Even with strong corrosive abilities, such ice spirit magic couldn't easily corrode the entire castle. But this would ultimately weaken the fortress, reduce overall strength, and... affect the coming battle!
"Stop those spellcasters! Prepare to release legion magic!"
Lucina cast spells attacking the distance while issuing orders.
Legion magic was actually a special magical formation that could connect several war mage towers to release attacks far exceeding individual towers—a good choice against these ranged magical units.
But once used, these towers might be unusable short-term, with severely depleted magic power.
But this wasn't the time to consider that. They had to quickly eliminate those ice spirit mages, or their castle would become incredibly fragile!
At her command, surrounding mage towers all glowed with intense red light. Soon these lights converged and shot skyward.
Boom!
With a tremendous roar, the skyward beam descended vertically from deep in the battlefield, completely vaporizing all ice spirits in the area.
Ranged attacks from supernatural beings, catapults, war crossbows and other ranged weapons finally resolved this chaotic battle. The assault of countless ice spirits was ultimately broken...
But the panic was just beginning.
Watching the distant ice spirit army disappear, Lucina walked steadily along the walls, but her expression had already turned cold as ice.
The solid fortress now showed a huge crack, and many soldiers on the castle had been polluted by ice spirits... Once polluted, there was only one choice—burn them to death before they became ice spirits!
What made her even more uneasy was that many magicians in the war mage towers had been drained dry—they wouldn't be able to fight for months.
If another wave came... "Damn! Did the watch wall collapse?! Where are the joint garrison forces?! Where are the watchtowers?!"
Lucina couldn't help thinking that if the watch wall really had major problems, this was just the beginning... She could only hope the problem wasn't serious, or just some local breach...
After a long time, Knight Bruno came to Lucina's side: "My lord, we've compiled casualty statistics for your review!"
Lucina nodded slightly and heavily picked up the report.
The watch wall had stood here for a thousand years, making many forget what ice spirits were like and how to fight them... This battle wasn't easily won—it was even somewhat painful to watch.
"Take it down and follow protocol—issue compensation to the fallen." Lucina irritably pushed the statistics back: "Distinguish whether the wounded are polluted. If they are, then..."
She didn't continue, knowing Knight Bruno understood her meaning.
But before she could finish speaking, unsettling sounds came again from the distant valley.
How could it be so fast?!
Lucina's face turned ashen, full of disbelief.
Family documents recorded that they needed at least several days to regroup. How could it be this quick?!
It was like... someone was controlling these ice spirits... No! How was that possible? What intelligent being in this world could control these monsters?! Absolutely impossible!!! Any living being was their target!