a mound of corpses
It is the first time Sasha has seen real battle in play.
For a girl who lived through two of the bloodiest battles in history, crossed the country right through the middle of one of those battle fields, it's amazing she hasn't seen a battle till today.
She never imagined how much the blood stank.
She did not know the smell of shit is as common as the scent of blood in battle.
She has never seen men go so mad, that they keep doing the same thing despite knowing it's futile.
The bulwark that constricted Snorcs to the little five meter square in front of the southside gate collapsed.
What opened up in front of them is not the yard of Castle one, but an icy arena created by Sasha.
The snorc army rushed through halfway to the middle before they even noticed the strangeness of the terrain.
Every entrance to the castle is closed with ice, so much so, not even a hint of the tell tale black wood could be seen.
"Knotch" a familiar voice rang, breaking the mystery of empty area.
The sound of strings startled them.
It's only then they were able to realize what's happening.
However, by the time they reacted and threw anything and everything they have in their possession towards the archers on the walls, its too late.
Some of the Snorcs immediately used another person as a shield to protect themselves from the arrows.
As archers knocked another arrow, bridges formed from pedestals to the icy wall. The archers and pedestals retreated with all their arrows to the wall.
The snorc warriors hacking at the base of the pedestal with their ice picks stopped their work , to chase them to the wall.
The battlefield is in chaos.
Snorcs had no sense of camaraderie. It has always been one for all, and all for one.
Though they lived in bands, their command rarely extends past hundred, as only the hunters ever clash. Even those hunters are always in small groups.
In a pitched battle with an experienced commander, and wildly brave Snorc warriors, the numerical advantage is nullified.
However, there are far too many Snorcs.
Far too little Frontier guards, and far too green at that.
They have no aim of any kind, but they were able to hit a target due to how crowded the snorcs are.
By the time the second volley of arrows is finished, Snorcs warrior corpses piled up in the yard.
The veteran Snorc warriors are physically intimidating, and possess great strength.
One of them picked up a burning corpse of his fellow snorc, and threw it up like a rock from ballista.
The corpse knocked aside a barrel filled with Tar, lighting up a platform.
The archer next to the tar barrel shouted, and in his panic, fell off the platform.
The moment he fell into the crowd below, Snorc warriors literally ripped him into pieces.
Their hungry bloody faces looked up at the platform as they started digging at the wall, to make indents in the wall to climb up.
Sasha formed stairs next to every archer on the wall.
"Retreat." Dan shouted, as he went up the platform.
The moment they did, the icy stairs vanished.
The icy indents made by the Snorc warriors closed up as they were climbing through .
More arrows rained down on them.
More corpses piled up.
"Kill the witch!" One of the men among the Snorcs screamed.
Sasha was half way up the wall, in the highest tower of castle one.
Even so, all the snorc warriors turned to the ice covering castle entrances rather than focusing on the arena, from which arrows were raining down at them.
Dan's hands and feet cooled at their shout.
His eyes immediately fell on Sasha, standing in the tallest balustrade protruding out from snow.
With her red hair, and white marble like skin, and gray gown, she couldn't be more conspicuous.
"Kill the witch"
"Kill the witch"
"Kill the witch"
The snorcs have taken up the chanting.
More and more of them rushed into the yard, the entire yard is now more like a lake of blood.
All the snorc warriors strung up a corpse of a comrade to protect themselves from the arrows.
Ice arrows formed besides the archers on the wall once more.
They stared in shock at Sasha, for she is still looking down at the battle with no expression on her face.
The ice covering the castle is not as thick as ice covering the outer wall of the yard, which was part of the barrier.
She concentrated on creating stairs and arrows for the men under Dan, at the same time, concentrating on creating a tunnel from top of the barrier to just above castle level.
As she manipulated ice magic more and more, Sasha realized not even all of the Barrier is not conductive to her magic explosively.
There were spots of concentration for ice magic, which made manipulating ice extremely easy. It did not even take much from her, save for a mere thought.
At the same time, there are places where there is strange resistance.
It was the same on the sea. Past a certain point, it's like all her maic needs is a stray thought to condense an castle, while in other places, she struggled to even make a small ice dagger for herself.
All in all her magic has limitations. She understood that.
At another time, she would have experimented with the magic carefully to discover where it is strong and where it is weak, but there is a battle now.
If she is off by a second, it will be her that dies here today, not the Snorcs.
"Kill the witch"
" Kill the witch"
The fervor among snorcs is only increasing by the minute.
They moved faster and faster as they broke the ice using everything at their disposal, even burning bodies of their comrades struck with tar.
PLUNK!
The sound rang unnaturally loud in the lull between two shouts calling for killing the witch.
The Snorcs broke through the barrier.
Dan's shouts from the other side of the yard failed to reach Sasha's ears.
Her complete concentration is on calming down her heart, and she concentrated her entire being on creating a staircase for the warriors on the top of the barrier to come down to the lower level.
There are only a few workers and the veteran warriors who came down in the first two trips of the elevator.
They fought bravely, but Snorc warriors are not just overwhelming in numbers, but also in quality.
The ones who served the trial of blood outside are the most vicious, sly and ruthless men of the Snorcs.
While the guards are by no means slouches, when one side is both experienced and has numbers, it is impossible for otherside to win easily.
At this time, a black clothed man entered the yard.
Dan was startled looking at the man.
It's the one they call reaper.
He held a horn in one hand, and a shaministic staff in another.
Once more, he blew the horn in his hands.
Sasha felt the bombardment of magic more keenly than before.
However, she withstood the attack of the horn once before. Even so, her head felt like someone had hit it repeatedly with a heavy hammer.
She felt dizzy, and completely out of focus.
In that moment, her control over the ice shield covering castle entrances, which she was repairing once more , collapsed.
In a moment, Snorcs made the hole that could barely fit a man increase to the size a cavalry could ride through.
But Sasha was able to succeed in creating the staircase from the top of the barrier to the top most place of castle one.
Only problem is that the spiral staircase she created opens up on the opposite side of the yard, where Dan was standing.
Even so, a man came running through the spiral staircase the moment it finished taking shape.
The guard relieved the nearest newbie whose hands were shaking, then took an arrow, shot it into the head of one of the Snorc warriors downstairs.
It's only Dan who noticed the horn blown by the reaper has affected Sasha way too much.
He aimed an arrow towards the head of the man, released it.
The arrow pierced right through the neck of the reaper.
However, the damage is already done.
Sunshine, who was guarding Sasha's side, is affected, along with Sasha.
As the wolf swayed on it's legs, the sounds of fighting reverberated in the air.
Dan couldn't take it any more.
The snorc army rushed into castle one, and Dan jumped down from his perch on the icy wall.
He landed knee deep in blood and guts, and rolled on the mound of corpses.
He could not allow the men to reach Sasha.
Like a possessed man, he started killing from the rear.
Before he even realized, the ten Snorcs are dead by his hand.
The sword in his hand sang with force, and everywhere it passed, blood rained.
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