Chapter 03: Battle for the South

Countless conflicts followed my conversion. Everywhere the army marched, we shattered defenses and eliminated all resistance, raising the slaughtered to join our ranks. By the time we marched on the Wall, we were an even greater host. The Night King's plan worked perfectly, and he killed and turned a dragon to destroy the ice and enchantments of the Wall. When the Wall fell, we continued unhindered. Nothing could stop him.

We marched south-west from the Wall, reaching a main road. We didn't bother going north and attacking the central fortress of the Wall. The old fortification was of no concern any longer. Once we were upon the road, we followed it south, past a long lake and toward the rising plumes of smoke from a large city making preparations for war. Our King flew overhead on his dragon, circling and occasionally alighting on an outcropping of rock to watch his army pass.

When we reached the city, we found soldiers lined up side by side along the outer wall, their shields created a metal wall of their own above the stone and mortar of the city. So many were the troops gathered around it, the fortifications couldn't support them all. Thousands of black armored troops waited in the fields outside the walls, black shields in one hand and long spears in the other. Helmets hid their faces. It wasn't hard to guess who the black armored warriors belonged to as a white haired woman sat atop one of a pair of dragons behind the battle formation.

More soldiers than I could count stood with them. I noticed a few Crows amongst them. Different armors and banners showed the armies had been collected from everywhere in the south lands, but I didn't know from where. It didn't really matter as they'd end up serving my master one way or another.

The ranks of the dead began to assemble around the city. So many were our numbers, we surrounded the entire city with ranks half a hundred deep. Among our forces, there were many who were noticeably not from human origin, giants, artic bears, direwolves, and a host of snow colored spiders as large as the biggest hound. When the living saw our forces still coming down the road from the north, horns blew to signal the attack in the hopes of thinning our overall numbers before the defenders were even more outnumbered than they already were.

When the initial volleys of arrows were loosed upon us, we took no action, expecting to weather the attacks as we had before, but this was a mistake. As the arrows rained down upon us, every wight struck, even by a glancing blow, collapsed into pile of inanimate bones. The arrows hitting the White Walkers were equally devastating, turning them to ice before shattering them to fragments.

I knelt in the snow and picked up one of the arrows to find out what was so special about them. The metal tip was blackened and slightly shiny. I had seen it before during the memories of my master when he was turned into the Night King. Obsidian, also known as Dragonglass. Since it had been used to make him, it was now being used to unmake his followers.

One of the black tipped arrows struck against the chest of the Night King, but he pulled the implement out from where it had impaled him, apparently unharmed. Drawing the sword from across his back, the Night King raised his weapon up, and the dragon he rode took to the sky.

Blue fire was breathed by the dragon ridden by the Night King and red fire came from the two commanded by the white-haired woman, burning great sections of the battlefield and all who stood there to ashes. Because the woman had two dragons, and my King only possessed one, the destruction caused was clearly in favor of the defenders, but our ranks were ultimately unaffected because more of the dead coming down the road from the north continually added to our ranks while the casualties of the opposition were unable to be replaced.

Wights and armored soldiers clashed outside the walls with ringing collisions of swords and shields. Despite retaining no knowledge and skill from when they were alive, the wights made up for this through sheer weight of numbers. Any wight felled was quickly replaced by those behind them. Our numbers were sure to outlast the fighting strength of the defenders, so it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed.

Faster than a deer, the White Walkers rushed forward, drawing most of the enemy fire, but they were too quick for the majority of the archers, causing the defenders to waste precious resources and time. The wights followed at a shambling pace, their decayed limbs barely holding them up. Those who were freshly dead and mostly intact were able to hurry ahead of them and close the distance with the living.

White Walkers were more dangerous to the living than the wights. They kept an eye on the archers on the wall, occasionally grabbing an enemy soldier and using them for a shield against the airborne projectiles. With speed and agility impossible for a human, they tore through the enemy ranks, cutting a bloody swath through battle formations and quickly scaling the wall to engage the archers up close. Many White Walkers were turned to ice and shattered, but the attack continued unabated until the archers had either retreated or been struck down.  

The defense of the city was thrown into chaos when the spiders got involved. They scaled walls and pounced on terrified soldiers. Jumping down from the wall, they rushed upon the secondary ranks of the humans. Giants grabbed the portcullis and lifted it up to allow the artic bears and direwolves to sprint inside and join the carnage. It was clear the city would fall before half an hour had passed.

Everything changed when the white-haired woman stopped attacking us with her dragons. Her twin beasts shifted directions and sped straight toward the Night King. One dragon dodged an ice spear thrown toward it, the spear tearing into the wall when it lanced down from the sky and punched a fist sized hole through the stone. The dragon flown by the woman swooped up from underneath and caught the Night King's dragon in a talon lock. As the two beasts fought in a writhing mass of claws and scales, the first dragon joined the confrontation and landed a blow against the Night King, knocking him off the back of his mount and sending him tumbling to the ground.

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