Beast Gate

Beginning from where Sasha was at, the Barrier began to transform.

If it were a peaceful time, Sasha would have thought about hiding her power.

Right now, it is more important for people to be in awe of her than for them to underestimate her.

Every opponent she scared away from fighting with her is one more opponent she need not fight.

Dan may be oblivious to politics, Sasha was not. Dan's previous decision of allowing Snorcs into the Barrier has been very controversial.

Most of the winterland men have lost one or other family member to Snorcs. They could not be given access to the land the same way as winterland men, no matter how useful solving previous conflicts is.

Thus, Sasha decided to make that difference by herself.

Snorcs make a powerful fighting force. If they were not put to use, then they will go pillaging innocent civilians of Winterland. They will robb winterland civilians of the winter stores they have accumulated with sweat and tears over a long time.

That's akin to feeding your own flesh to keep your enemy alive.

Thus, Sasha intended to give a fight worth remembering.

The guard's ran to the elevator as the barrier changed underneath their feet. The rugged icy wall which was looking like a cliff was smoothed over like it's made of polished stone.

The parapets which were made of rough snow mound became perfect rectangles, with murderholes at just the right distance.

The Arrow towers, which were ugly downward leaning ice structures became perfectly even sized steps leading downwards to an oval, with a transparent floor, which displayed the situation underneath the tower all too clearly.

The defense machine which consisted of a roughly swinging great blade of five meters size was freed completely from ice, and the machine's base has become perfectly entrenched in ice once more, balancing it to the dot.

More than that, the blade gleamed at any willing to climb through clear ice.

In an area that does not get sweeped by the giant pendulum blade, icicles a feet long grew, all pointing downward. The sunlight glinting off their pointy edges could very well burn a sensitive eye.

Sasha is determined to spend all the winter elements stored inside the winterstar. The Barrier needed repairing, and she needed to find the entrance that could allow the beast tide to pass through the barrier.

As she searched for it, inadvertently she found the tunnels used for passage inside the barrier. These tunnels have long since stopped operating, some due to flooding, some due to collapse of the ice in the tunnels.

However, once repaired, these tunnels could more than allow giants with mammoth's to pass through.

Thus, Sasha focused on boosting the strength of Barrier's base, atop that, the tunnels. She has fixed the barrier's look a mile to the left and right of the first stop. Thus, even if any of the Snorcs attempted to climb above the wall, they wouldn't be able to make it to first stop easily.

Inwardly though, it's an entirely different matter. No matter how much she strengthens the foundation or fixes the tunnels, there's no one who could gauge her power, and be frightened of it. Thus, Sasha let go of all the constraints upon herself.

Then, she found them. A tower that could allow the beast tide to pass through, and a tunnel to thirteenth stop, which could house more than forty thousand men easily. More than that, it is self sufficient. As long as someone is willing to work, they will never starve inside the thirteenth stop.

Sasha fixed the castle of thirteenth stop as much as she could, and she created living spaces so more than sixty thousand could stay there if need be.

Beast tower is more subtle.

The idea is not just to let the beast tide pass through, but to make sure none of the ice sorceress's army make it through the beast tide.

Thus, while the beast tower just has a gate open, Sasha changed the route of the tunnel going out from the beast tower to pass through two elder trees.

She made walls on both sides to create icicles the size of finger nails spikes, so every beast would be scratched a little as long as it is passing through.

This way, if a beast is not a living being, she would know immediately, and sunshine who was acting on her behalf would kill the undead beast.

It's also better she does this at night, so this doesn't attract the attention of Snorcs and lords.

Sasha stopped her meditation after deciding on the course of action.

The parapet atop the barrier is repaired all the way till the beast tower, which is four stops after the first stop, in the direction of Fang island.

In the night, a side gate of First stop was opened, and sunshine the wolf joined the growing beast legion outside...

Sasha brought a dog sled of single person size, and set off towards the beast tower after the dinner.

If nothing else, she is sure Sunshine will inspire the entire beast army to walk towards the beast tower.

In the night, underneath the icy blue Barrier, thousands of tents made by Snorcs looked like grains thrown haphazardly on the ground.

Torches covered every ten feet around the Snorc settlement, while a group of warriors patrolled the perimeter. Seems the Snorcs could not rest easy with a beast tide in the making brewing right besides them.

At nine in the night, the wolves howled collectively, as if giving a signal. Then, with no other signal, All the wolf packs started running west.

The wild animals which all hid in the forest woke up at that moment.

As the wolves started running first, Auroch's followed. When the auroch's followed, reindeer started up in their wake.

When so many animals of prey moved, so did the predators.

The entire Snorc settlement is full of thudding sounds, as shadow cats followed reindeer, and earth boars followed shadow cats, and all the small animals rushed to join the parade. With that, wild Mammoth's trumpeted, signaling their own move to follow the tide.

The Mammoth's bound to the stakes tried pulling the stakes with all their might. No matter how the riding giants calmed them, they wouldn't calm down. Soon, another tide of animals joined up from the forest, full of evernight animals, which not even Snorcs get to see easily.

The Snorc settlement has long awakened, as even women and children rushed towards western perimeter to watch the rare sight of the beast tide.

One of the brave Snorc men mounted his horse, and followed alongside the beast tide, to see where it was going. The Snorcs' number is greater than frontier guard, but the tribes are not united.

All the leaders of the Snorc tribe tried to backpedal after they saw how Sasha changed the appearance of the barrier. The magic wielders are held in extremely high regard in the frontier. If possible, they don't even offend the everyday magic wielder capable of soul flight, much less an ice sorceress.

For that is what Sasha is, in the eyes of the Snorcs.

She wields the same power as the necromancer who is hell bent on killing them.

In the eyes of Snorc leaders, they ought to be the most numb skulled people to run from one ice sorceress, only to pick a fight with another. Thus, one tribe after another tried to hand over the honor being first in battle to the next tribe.

When that did not work, they tried calling each other cowards. When even that didn't work, they were about to go into bragging and brawling. The beast tide started right at this moment.

As the beasts ran away from them, so did their fighting spirit.

Even though about forty thousand of them gathered here, they had more than enough food. They carried all their winter stores with them, and due to the way beasts gathered, they were not without food as long as they were willing to hunt.

However, now, the beasts are running away.

That means, there is no food to be had other than their winter stores, and it is just not enough food to fight a war with frontier guards. They are always better equipped. More than that, frontier guard's supply routes could never be cut off, no matter how big an army they send.

This time, they were hopeful, because the Flayers are a greedy bunch. They will never come out to protect another person in the winterland. As long as a winterchild is not in command, they would stand a chance.

But now, the food they placed half their hopes on ran away. A being who is almost as powerful as the ice sorceress who could turn the entire frontier into land of ice is on the frontier guard's side.

Their position is like a person stuck between a rock and hard place.

When the single rider who left after the beast tide returned with information; the beast tide entered winterland through a gate in the barrier. The Snorcs hoped to breach it. It obviously must be better than trying to break through the first stop, right ?