Ch 77 Invincible Skill Part 1

Inside the spacious cabin of his new ship, the White Wolf, Jon was sitting cross-legged on his bed.

His hands were on his thighs in front of his stomach, his back leaning against the wall, and his eyes, while wide open, had no pupils inside them, showing two scary unseeing eyes to the outside world.

Ever since Jon had mastered the art of conscious warging, he rarely went into the state of deep warging with Frost, his ice eagle, where his main body became completely defenceless and unaware of his surroundings.

However, whenever the distance becomes particularly large or if he has to cross a special monument like The Wall, Jon is forced to send his consciousness deep inside Frost to be able to see things clearly.

Today, happened to be the day of his weekly check-up on how things were coming along with his business partners beyond the wall.

And usually, he did these surveys during the night when there was less risk to his vulnerable human body.

But he sent Frost during the day this time for two reasons, firstly, his fleet of ships was just about to reach the city of Braavos, meaning that there was little chance of a pirate attack disturbing his concentration.

And secondly, like anyone who's ever seen a map of Essos and Westeros knows, Braavos was one of the cities closest to North in Essos, which meant that with her speed, Frost had more than enough time to make a round trip before their ships even reached the port.

Speaking of which, at that moment, Jon finally saw through his friend's eyes as the majestic wonder known as the Wall appeared in his sight.

No matter how many times Jon saw it, he was always amazed by it and could not comprehend the sheer tenacity the Northerners in history must have had to create a marvel like this.

While taking in the beauty of the Wall, he caught sight of the little black structure embedded against the foot of the wall, commonly known as Castle black.

With Frost's keen eyes, Jon could easily make out the hundreds of black brothers moving to and fro with enthusiasm in their steps... one would have been hard-pressed to find such energy in anyone in this miserable place just a few years ago.

Everywhere he looked, he could see men with wooden planks and hammers in their hands going about repairing every room, stairs, and structure that needed it, and their diligence was already showing signs as the castle looked sturdier than it had been in a century.

One could find many reasons for this sudden emergence of vitality on the wall, such as the North as a whole becoming richer, resulting in the Lords getting more taxes and becoming more generous in their donations to the Wall, or the continued absence of any prominent Wildling or Iron Born attack in such a long time had left most men with too much free time on their hands.

But no matter from which angle you looked at it, all the changes always pointed to Jon as their source. And everyone in the North was well aware of it...

Because, after all, his sailors under the command of Dacey Mormont were still regularly sending supplies to the wall, with no strings attached.

These weekly supplies meant that not only were the Men in this dreary place better fed but that they also had enough timber, nails and other things to work with, leaving them with no excuse not to work on repairs, and since it was still 'summer' at its peak, even at the wall, the work was happening at a fast pace.

Even a treacherous place such as the top of the Wall was bustling with men moving up and down using the newly repaired lift.

Frost was thankfully hundreds of feet higher than even the tallest portion of the Wall, so there was no chance of any of Night's Watch members catching sight of her.

A few seconds later, they finally flew past the Wall, and the moment Frost crossed over it, Jon felt his connection with her abruptly become muffled... it felt as if he was passing through a field that kept interfering with their bond.

Fortunately, the obstruction did not last long, and barely a hundred meters away from the wall, as if they had passed some sort of check, the connection again became as clear as it was before.

Jon's heart beat furiously every time he experienced this, but he was never too worried about Frost during their separation because he knew that there was nothing in the sky that could even remotely come close to hurting his friend. 

After all, birds like ravens or eagles could not even survive the cold winds that occupied the heights that Frost flew at, so it did not matter if they lost contact for a few minutes.

With the connection stable once again, Jon finally caught sight of the breathtaking view of the untamed wilderness known as the True North.

The barren landscape filled with untouched mountains, rivers, and forests, with each of them covered in a thick blanket of snow, took over his entire view.

The sheer beauty of it was mesmerizing to him, no matter how many times Jon saw it. There was just something awe-inspiring about nature that had not been sullied by humans.

Even the few wildlings who acted as informants for the Night's Watch and lived relatively closer to the wall, such as Caster and his 'wives', had either been taken care of, or been quietly moved away by Mance, leaving the place almost completely devoid of humans.

And while he saw a few rangers here and there, they were few and far between.

The lack of any hostility from the wildlings had left them completely blind, and while it did unsettle the commander, the same could not be said about his subordinates, as they were more than happy to forget about their sworn enemies and leave them to their devices, especially with all the work on their hands.

A short while later, Jon crossed an absurdly massive mountain rang,e and the moment he did, he caught sight of the valley where the King-Beyond-The-Wall had decided to set up his kingdom.

Tents upon tents made of animal hides, furs and scavenged wood were scattered haphazardly as far as the eye could see. Smoke from dozens of fires curled into the sky, mingling with the crisp northern air.

Men, Women, children, and even giants roamed freely, covered in their weathered but thick clothes.

Animals of all kinds, such as goats, sheep, horses, and large shaggy dogs, prowled between the tents, growling and mewing at all passersby. There were even a few Mammoths skirting at the edges being cared for by the friendly giants.

All these different clans of freefolk, who would have been at each other's throats a few years ago, were now going about their jobs with hardly any fights (as they don't consider it a proper fight until someone loses a limb or two)

Some were skinning animals, some sharpening their weapon, and others were making arrows; there was hardly anyone sitting idly by.

From what Jon could notice, the population of this sprawling wildling camp had increased once again since the time he had last seen it, which meant that Mance had probably managed to persuade a few more of the neighbouring tribes.

Enough time had passed by now that even the more stubborn tribes, who had been reluctant to join them, could see that all the promises that Mance had made were kept and that not only was he providing a safe shelter to everyone, but everyone who came under his camp was being provided with enough food for them and their families to survive.

In the dreary future of their people that was once shrouded in the darkest of nights, Mance Rayder presented the faint light of hope for them to escape their destiny.

At the very end of the camp, just before the forest cover started, lay the biggest and most 'luxurious' tent of all.

A few guards vigilantly patrolled the outside of this tent. Though if anyone dared to call them 'guards' would get their ass handed to them, because they were, after all, not guards but free men who were here by their own will to protect their king.

Frost flew circles above the tent while slowly lowering her height towards warmer air.

It took a few minutes, but eventually, one of the wildling guards happened to catch sight of her majestic form from the corner of his eye, and his reaction, while extreme, was expected.

His mouth opened in a soundless scream as he fell onto his butt while pointing a shaky finger towards the sky, with his mouth opening and closing as if unable to believe what he was seeing.

It did not take long for the others to take notice of this anomaly, and almost simultaneously, they raised their weapons while vigilantly searching the sky for the source of danger.

Thankfully, one of the older guards, who had followed Mance for a long time, had seen Frost on one of her previous trips and knew what she represented, so he immediately lowered his bow in relief before making the others do the same.

After barking an order at a nearby wildling who immediately went into the tent, he turned to his fellow freefolk and scoffed at their scared expression.

He then began smugly berating them for being cowards who were getting terrified of a simple bird, as if he hadn't reacted the same when he saw the deadly visage of Frost for the first time.

The commotion outside the King's tent had attracted the attention of nearby wildlings, who began gathering in droves to find out what the clamour was about, and the moment they caught sight of the lofty queen of sky flying above their heads, gasps rang through the crowd as they finally got to see the mythical bird that they had only heard rumours about.

Fortunately, before the panic could fully set in amongst them and cause something like a stampede, Mance Rayder burst out of the tent with a flustered expression on his face.

Following behind him were the Men and Women whom Jon recognised as the leaders of various Freefolk tribes, such as Styr, the Magnar of Thenn, Harma Dogshead, Mother Mole, and of course, Tormund Giantsbane.

From the looks of it, the King-Beyond-The-Wall had been in an important meeting with his fellow leaders when he was disturbed by the strange news of the arrival of Jon's flying friend.

But even though Mance was a little surprised by Jon's unexpected visit during the day, instead of at night, he was not caught too off guard, as he had already prepared all the reports he needed to send with Jon this time.

These so-called reports were just parchments upon parchments filled with the list of all the goods that they had managed to extract from the North in this period of time, whether they be furs, wood, rare herbs or the bags of low-quality silver that they had managed to excavate from their new mine.

In addition to these, the parchments also contained the number of various supplies that the wildling camp needed delivered when the next shipment arrived, these included various basic necessities such as grains, animal feeds, salt, and of course, good quality steel tools.

This information exchange was very necessary because Dacey and her fleet were most of the time too busy with matters in Reach to visit the true North themselves.

So they used Val and the small crew that she had assembled from the Wildlings as an intermediary, and depending on the quantity of goods exchanged during that period, Dacey had to add or reduce the number of ships loaned to Val during that supply run.

And, even though in the beginning they had worked based on a rough barter system, things were a lot cleaner now.

Jon had Dacey keep a proper record of everything they had procured from the True North, how much they sold it for in the South, how much their own costs were, and after subtracting a hefty profit from the sum, the rest was used to buy the goods for the Wildlings, so it was no longer a charity in any sense.

And any excess gold left after all that was held by Jon in the name of Mance Rayder and the Wildlings as a collective, because as the wildling leader once said to him, the Freefolk had little use for these soft metals while struggling against the bitter cold of the True North.

The parchment of course, also contained any news that Mance felt was necessary for Jon to know, things such as the current wildling population, the names of the various tribes who were still resisting the call to gather, the current state of the task Jon gave him of searching for a pregnant direwolf mother, and of course, if there were any sighting of their... true enemy.

It took a while, but Mance eventually stopped gawking at the sky and turned towards the crowd of wildlings, who were still murmuring and pointing towards the sky like dumb monkeys. He opened his mouth and let out a fierce bellow in the Old Tongue, calling them to calm down.

His shout awoke his guards, who immediately went to work and began pushing the reluctant wildlings away from the tent.

Slowly but surely, a large enough space was cleared in front of the tent with the crowd of wildlings silently looking on without having any intention to leave.

While all this was happening, Mance had gone inside his tent to bring out a thick roll of parchment, and then, after a quick look towards the sky, he slowly walked towards the centre of the clearing and placed the parchments on the ground before backing away.

Frost circled the sky a few more times as if enjoying the looks of awe in the eyes of these two-legged savages, before she finally lowered herself and decided to land, precisely on the ground beside a roll of parchment.

Even with her wings tucked beside her and standing on her claws, Frost was still taller than any of the men or women standing in the field, that is, of course, not counting the giants.

By this time, quite a large crowd had gathered, and every single one of them had their eyes glued to the majestic creature standing in front of them, unconsciously holding their breath.

Some looked at her reverently as if she were a god, while others looked at her with trepidation, their instincts screaming at them that the being in front of them was a deadly predator capable of taking their lives in an instant.

The reason Jon took the risk of having Frost land amidst this crowd of rough wildlings, with a bow or a spear in every other hand, was not because he was arrogant enough to think that Frost was somehow invincible and that she would not be hurt even if they shot hundreds of arrows at her, because that would be stupid as there was nothing in this world that was unbeatable, not even dragons.

But he still did it because only after seeing Frost with their own eyes, would these wildlings be able to verify that the rumours were actually true that there really was a legendary Southerner named Jon who commanded a legion of beasts and birds, one of which was The Kraken, god of sea, who had toyed with Rattleshirt as if he was a child.

It would make things easier for Mance in the future, as even the unruliest of wildlings weren't able to keep their legs from trembling when Frost's eyes passed over them, and he was sure that they would all be very willing to follow their king's order from now on and work hard to earn their keep instead of lazing around.

But it was nonetheless true that there was a lot of danger involved in letting Frost come out here in front of all of them, and in fact, Jon would not have even considered doing this if his friend hadn't recently acquired a trump card that would make mob attacks almost useless against her.

It had happened barely a few weeks ago when Frost was out hunting a small bear in an unnamed Forest in the North.

She had, of course, been very successful in her ambush and had managed to turn the little bear's brain into mush with a single peck of her deadly beak. But trouble arrived in the form of a fierce roar just as she was about to fly away with the game in her claws.

She immediately looked up only to find a much, much larger bear barreling towards her with the fury of a winter storm.

Now, while Frost was supremely confident in her speed and knew that she could easily get away long before the bear even arrived near her, the same could not be said if she also had to carry her hard-earned (not that hard actually) prize with her as the heavy burden would slow her down too much, even with her wing size.

So she had to make a quick decision, on whether to give up her game, and fly away like a coward in defeat or to stand her ground spread her wings, raise her claws to fight and hope that the big angry bear gets scared away because she knew that if it came to battle, she would not be able to win, at least not easily, what with the beast's massive size.

One wouldn't be able to guess from her normal interactions with Jon, but Frost was a very prideful being who considered herself the mightiest creature alive in this world and looked down on other beasts, including the two-legged, as lesser beings.

So being forced to give up her prey and flee in fear because of a dumb bear made her feel incredibly humiliated.

In her panic and frustration at her inability to come up with a good enough solution, Frost became increasingly agitated.

And then, when the Bear was barely a few meters away from her, and when her rage was at its peak, she felt like something was bubbling up inside her as if all of her pent-up aggression wanted to blast out of her...

And in the end, she did not restrict it and instead, she let go...

And it all came bursting out of her in the form of a primal piercing cry.

This cry was very different from her normal shrieks, which she used to intimidate and establish her dominance over other animals. It was a more brutal, more ancient kind of cry that had not been heard in this world for centuries.

In her anger and frustration, Frost had somehow managed to unearth an ancestral survival skill that had been hidden deep inside her genes until now.

The cry did not last very long, but it still left Frost very winded and when she eventually closed her beak and looked at the scene in front of her, she was bewildered to find that her enemy, the black bear, had for some reason crashed into the ground.

For a few moments, she just stood there with a confused look in her eyes, wondering why the stupid bear was just lying there, twitching.

At first, she assumed that it was some kind of a trick to get her to lower her guard, but then the stupid bear suddenly began bleeding from its eyes, nose, and its ears, scaring the shit out of her.

Very much unnerved by the strange happenings now, Frost immediately decided to call upon Jon, her two-legged friend, as she knew that he was a very smart man and that he would be able to come up with some kind of explanation for her.

When a perplexed Jon eventually arrived and learned the gist of the situation from Frost, through images and feelings, he, too, at first, was taken aback by the strange phenomena of the bear's abrupt death.

But then he began to look at the surroundings closely and almost immediately he noticed that the bear was not the only casualty here, as many small critters in the nearby vicinity, such as a squirrel, a snake and even a bird, were showing the exact same symptoms of twitching bodies and bleeding orifices.

At that very moment, a strange hypothesis began to arise in his mind.

It felt too much like a wild fantasy to be the truth, but that was the only way that Jon could make sense of the situation in front of him.

Now, more than a little excited about the prospects of Frost's strange new skill, Jon immediately urged his good friend to change their location and to try her cry once again.

Frost was a bit reluctant at first, as this ability had an incredibly tiring effect on her body, but she couldn't resist Jon's persuasion for too long and had to follow his request.

And the result was... everything that Jon had hoped for.

They did three distinct tests in different environments on all kinds of creatures, and the conclusion was that not a single one of them, whether they be a deer, a boar, a bird, or even a fucking pack of wolves, could survive her piercing cry.

In his excitement, Jon wanted to continue until they had tested it on all the animals present in that forest, but the three cries left Frost so exhausted that she even had trouble flying, so he had to reluctantly put a stop to his experiments.

But it did not matter too much in the end, because Jon was already very sure that his buddy, his best friend, his one-of-a-kind magical eagle, had somehow miraculously managed to acquire a legendary Area of Effect ability.

It was an ability that felt as if it came straight out of the wet dream of a game developer from his previous world.

While there were some cons, such as the range of its effects not being very large, the power of the attack decreasing exponentially as the distance increased, and Frost not being able to use it too many times, they were all very minor.

One would be hard-pressed to deny that it was a skill that could make one almost invincible, especially in this low-tier magic world.

And while this cry attack had not been tested on humans yet, Jon could not think of any reason why it wouldn't work, because, after all, humans were, in the end, nothing more than large monkeys.

This incidental discovery was the main reason behind Jon's confidence in having Frost land in the midst of Wildling camp without worrying as he knew that a single attack from her would leave all of her assailants regretting their life choices.

Thankfully, though, none of the wildlings were stupid enough to try anything, and Frost was able to safely take away the roll of parchment left by Mance on the ground.

After a quick nod at Mance, Jon had Frost take off and start back her journey towards the South under the awe-filled eyes of the Wildlings.

But just as Frost passed the Wall and Jon was wondering if he had enough time for a quick visit to Winterfell for a reunion, his main body suddenly heard a knock on the door of his cabin.

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