Descent Into the Foothills

Many more hazards appeared while descending the mountains. Everyone was exhausted after the long climb up. Most of the civilians prematurely lowered their guards and assumed that the worst was over. That would prove to be a mistake.

The expedition spent the first several days of travel down the mountains bogged down by awful weather. Blizzards raged nearly every day. The snow storms turned into powerful thunderstorms and rain the further they went down.

After weeks had passed, they had almost arrived at the foothills below the mountains. The expedition had finished their crossing just in time. The mountains behind them were consumed by major storms almost every day.

They had crossed through the eastern most section of the Glacier Mountains, which was right next to the Ural Bay. Right now, storm season was in full swing across the bay. Storms were often blown in from the east. These storms rampaged across the foothills, and had basically closed up the pass for the season.

Serious magic would be required to get through. No one should get through for months. The refugees should be safe from their enemies, for now. Even the mercenaries began to relax a bit. Most of the journey was behind them.

Unfortunately, the expedition came to a grinding halt for one simple reason: they ran out of food. Wagons of food were lost due to the weather, accidents and magical beast attacks. Extra food was handed out to fight off malnutrition and hunger related weakness.

The leaders had no choice but to stop the expedition and set up a temporary settlement. They would resupply by hunting and foraging in the surrounding area. After resting for a few more weeks, the group would attempt the final leg to the most remote major city of the nation: Craigmyle Point.

The convoy stopped early that evening so people could begin to set up more permanent lodging. Parts of a crude wall emerged from the earth as make-shift houses were cobbled together from tents, tree branches and earth magic.

Later that evening, the camp was quiet as people huddled in their remaining blankets to get some sleep. The long journey had taken the lives of nearly one third of the refugees' lives. The mercenaries fared a little better with only about a twenty percent loss of life.

The Nafriton students huddled in their cluster of ramshackle houses. Four crude houses with mud walls and branches covering the roof were crammed together. Tents were set up inside the houses for extra warmth. The horses were stabled inside the huts to shield them from the wind.

Aayla crawled into her blankets as the other girls whispered around her. The ladies stayed together all in one hut. It was a bit crammed, so a couple of horses were placed in another house. However, at this point they were glad to have something over their heads.

Their chat went deep into the night. They couldn't contain their excitement of almost reaching civilization again. Aayla fell asleep sometime during their talk, only to be shaken awake sometime in the early morning.

"What's going on?" Aayla mumbled.

"Glacial ice wolves are attacking the camp! It looks like a wolf king might have arrived. Even the stronger mercenaries are a bit unnerved. Get ready for a fight."

She rubbed her eyes as the news sunk in. Just great. The wolves had been silent and merely watching from behind the group ever since they left the mountains. Aayla thought that the matter was over. They must have been plotting for a larger attack.

The students hurriedly pulled on their clothes and armor before heading out of their temporary homes. Even normal civilians had armed themselves with pitchforks, hoes and whatever else they could find. The Nafriton students stuck together as they were told where to go.

Several students sucked in their breath as they saw hundreds of eyes staring back at them out of the darkness. They could hear the low snarls and howls as they wolves crept around the walls. Packs of wolves had ambushed the expedition before, but nothing on this level.

"This… isn't this way too many for us to handle?"

"The mercenaries should have some trump card up their sleeves. They handled that flying beast on the way up perfectly fine."

"Keep your eyes on the wolves! Let's add some thickness and height to the wall before the fight gets started."

The standoff lasted for what seemed like hours. The wolves continued to prowl, seemingly unconcerned that the humans discovered their attack. Finally, a deep roar pushed the wolves into action. They began to swarm the walls and lunge at the defenders.

The mercenaries and civilian fighters worked together to keep the wolves at bay. The first wave struck like lightning and retreated just as suddenly. After another roar, the wolves pulled back. Clearly, their king was just probing the enemy.

Then he became serious as he issued a serious of barks and howls. The wolves fiercely attacked the walls. They concentrated on the weakest links, namely the students and civilians. No tactic was off limits. Even if one wolf went down, two more even hungrier than the last would take their fallen companion's place.

The Nafriton students held their own. The third- and fourth-years commanded the battle as the first- and second-years simply tried not to die. Aayla just kept the New Moon Bracelet in the bow form and firing at the pack swarming the walls.

She couldn't miss even if she wanted to. With the supercooled mana that Aayla managed to pick up in the mountains, each mana arrow froze the ground solid and created spikes of ice whenever they hit the ground. Soon the entire area was covered in frost spikes and wolves slid all over the place like drunk ice skaters.

While the wolves grew to slightly fear the students, the same could not be said about the civilian fighters. They had little combat and magical skills. After realizing their weakness, the wolves focused on them even more. People were constantly pounced on and dragged off of the walls.

Screams echoed across the walls as wolves began to break through the defensive line. The mysterious wolf king continued to command his troops with cunning and guile. The defenders were already exhausted from their trip. With their lacking numbers, they began to lose the battle.

The infiltrators gleefully ran around the camp causing chaos. They loved to snap at the backs of the defenders or find soft prey hiding in their homes. Defenseless civilians and farm animals had nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. Walls were died red with blood as they tried to fight back.

The leaders decided to take a risk. They would track down the wolf king and kill him. At the very least they would keep him distracted until the wolf packs were repelled. A group of the highest ranked mercenaries flew into the darkness to strike down the enemy leader.

The wolf king was no pushover. He quickly covered his tracks and ordered his followers to push on with the assault. His pursuers relentlessly followed in a game of cat and mouse. The identity of the actual hunter was unclear as explosions rippled through the darkness.

After the assault intensified, so to did the casualties and the breakdown of the walls. The remaining mercenaries changed tactics. They forcefully raised parts of the walls up by several feet using magic. Only a few spots remained for the wolves to break through.

With many of the wizards now too exhausted, swords, axes and spears became the main battlefield weapons. Wolves pawed at the walls and attacked the lower sections. The defenders barely managed to hold on now that the attack was concentrated on fewer sections.

Several mercenaries were even spared to clean up their backyard. Most of the civilians were thankful, but the rumblings of discontentment began to form. A few blamed the mercenaries for not caring about the regular people and skimping on their work.

They were the mercenaries' employers! They shouldn't have been forced to fight at all. Lives and precious cargo had been lost in the mountains, and there wasn't even enough food. Some experts these idiots turned out to be, those dissatisfied civilians scoffed. They didn't dare to voice these grievances out loud though.

As the orders from the wolf king turned into howls of fury, the wolf horde slowly unraveled. Fewer and fewer wolves infiltrated the camp. The more cowardly ones turned around and ran off into the night. Eventually other pack leaders recalled the troops to cut their losses.

The camp stayed alert the entire night. Cleanup didn't begin until the next morning. The wolves hadn't appeared again in several hours when the high-ranking mercenaries came back. Scowls formed on their faces. The wolf king managed to escape.

They had no doubts that he would pay them another visit soon. In the meantime, they would fix up camp and harvest the fruits of their labor. Wolf meat was now on the menu, and wolf pelt clothing was suddenly in style.