"KILL THE ENEMY!"

"KILL THE ENEMY!!"

The Stonefangs roared back, repeating the chants as they sliced down their enemies with eyes filled with endless rage.

This was their revenge.

Their answer to what these bastards had done to their people.

Morvain watched everything play out from above, for a few moments, it seemed like the plan worked.

While the Iron Wall they formed did falter for a moment, the troops seemed afraid after their first encounter, but the moment the Stonefangs charged through the enemy and began cutting them down, that changed.

The shields strengthened and the wall straightened.

The enemies that kept pouring through the gate were caught, shields stopped them, spears killed them, and Stonefangs started wiping them down from the sides.

Archers, Throwers and Pourers on the Wall continued to target anything still trying to climb, some took care of those that did climb.

The Flying Unit fought the battle above.

The Rimewoods and Shardpeaks helped them from below, pulling down any enemy that came into their range.

Everything worked in their favour.

And because of that, the first wave of enemies that came in died in dozens, the snow behind the Gate turned red.

The Alliance soldiers’ eyes ignited.

"Hold!"

"Push!"

"KILL THE ENEMY!"

"KILL THE ENEMY!!"

"KILL THE ENEMY!"

The chants returned, the lost courage rose again.

But then—

Then the enemy proved that courage alone was not enough.

More enemies came in.

Then more.

And more.

And more.

And even more.

Even after all the traps outside that killed so many, even after the arrows, stones and oils stopped so many—

The difference between the size of the enemy was apparent.

Kael’s plan had backfired.

And it had backfired badly.

The only reason he tried to lure an elite group of people away through the traitor’s message was so he could outplay them, if they fell for his trap, which they did, he planned to overwhelm them with numbers, making it so that they surrendered instead of fighting back, which, again, they did.

But then, that Stormcaller Leader teleported away—

That was where Kael’s plan deviated.

Originally, he had planned to capture the surrendered enemy, take them in as prisoners. Once he had these elites under his custody, significantly weakening the enemy side, he would then use this moment to show the Alliance’s Strength.

Strength which he would have then used to recruit more tribes to his side.

Then, finally, once he had the absolute advantage, once the Stormcallers knew they wouldn’t win—

He would then offer peace.

He had the necessary resources, after all, his Ants were more than capable of feeding the entirety of the Heights now that they had weeks to grow their food.

He also had Ants that could detect and mine minerals and other necessary resources, he could even bring in more, different kinds of Ants from the Wilds if he wanted—

Basically turning the Heights from a place with limited resources into a land where no being slept with an empty stomach.

Then, with the biggest issue now resolved, he would then push for peace, making it so the Heights turned from a cold, heartless land with constant wars over resources, into a peaceful independent island with enough resources to survive in any weather, without shedding any more blood.

That was the grand plan Kael had come up with.

That was the reason he used the Traitor and started all of this.

Was it naive?

Maybe.

Pushing for peace without blood was a fool’s dream, Kael knew that as well.

But he also knew unnecessary blood would only lead to more hatred.

He wasn’t unwilling to shed blood, but he wanted to avoid it if he could.

In his mind, his plan didn’t have any downsides.

Yes, the Wall would have been weakened, but that would have only been true for a few hours, which was nowhere near enough for the enemy to take advantage of it because not only would the enemy need to recruit all the tribes, that too, without a leading face, they would also need to convince these recruited tribes to march down and attack the wall.

And even if they did march, even if, in some absurd way, the enemy did manage to convince all the newly recruited tribes to march down—

An Army never marches at full speed.

They take ample rest, they make sure their beasts and men aren’t exhausted before the battle even begins—

Normally, a march that big would easily take up to 20 hours to a day.

At least...

That was what Kael believed.

But...

What Kael thought was impossible, actually happened.

Not only did the enemy somehow make all tribes move without so much as a formal message, they forced them to march at full speed, without rest, completing a march that would have normally taken twenty hours, in six.

And the most absurd part?

Even after marching at their highest speed, when the snow slowed them down and made their steps heavier, the enemy troops didn’t look exhausted.

Not one bit.

And with that—

Kael and the Wall were stuck in a position like this.

The enemy troops were not only stronger than the Alliance troops, because Kael had taken a significant amount of troops with him—

The enemy also outnumbered them.

And this difference in numbers became more and more apparent as the battle continued further.

The more the Alliance troops fought, the more enemies they took down, the more came, without an inch of fear or sense of pain.

A thin warrior with two arrows in his chest rammed himself into the shield-line, a beast with half its face burned slammed into the first row, ignoring the spears pierced into its chest, a rider whose arm had been cut off used his remaining hand to grab a shield, laughing as a spear entered his throat.

It was...

A nightmare.

But even in this nightmare—

"DO NOT FALTER!!!"

The Alliance did not give in.

"IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW MANY THEY ARE!!

WE KILL THEM ALL!!"

Morvain spoke as she raised her weapon. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Then—

She joined the War.

Not as the Matriarch of the Velmourns—

But as a Ninth Stage Warrior.