Building an Empire in Game of Thrones (REWORKED VERSION)-Chapter 89: The Wildlings Move South

"Form a shield wall!" Mormont shouted; sword drawn. "Archers, light those arrows!"

The front ranks of the Watch braced on the slope. They had the high ground. That was their only advantage as the fire arrows flew into the sky, trailing flame. A few dead men dropped, twitching. Most didn't even flinch as they dropped.

Then the cold hit. A wave of it, unnatural and bone-deep, crashing over the Fist like a curse. Torches flickered. Fires died. One of the cookfires turned to frost in an instant, freezing the stew solidly mid-boil. Men started to shake, not from fear, but because their blood no longer felt warm.

Qhorin's second, Ser Ottyn Wythers, rode along the ridge shouting orders, until a spear of ice took him through the neck. His body fell backward, vanishing into the snow.

The first wave of wights slammed into the Night's Watch lines. Sam Tarly swung blindly with his dagger, tripping over a corpse that rose behind him. Grenn turned just in time, driving his sword through the thing's throat. It didn't die. It kept moving.

"Burn them!" someone yelled. "Only fire kills them!"

But fire was scarce. The torches failed. Oil froze. Mormont's men fought bravely, but the truth became clear within minutes: they were outnumbered, outmatched, and out of time.

A White Walker stepped onto the hill. It walked with inhuman grace, its armor shining like frost-covered glass, its sword long and curved, glowing faintly blue. Every step it took froze the earth beneath it. It didn't speak a single word.

A ranger charged it, brave and nameless. The White Walker parried and shattered the steel blade like it was nothing. One swipe and the ranger's head were separated from his body.

"Back!" Mormont bellowed. "Pull back to the crest!"

He could see men dying all around him. Eddison Tollett dragging a wounded brother. Bowen Marsh screaming as a corpse bit into his leg. Pypar went down with an axe in his gut.

Then came the second wave.

More wights poured out of the trees, limbs jerking, mouths slack. One of them wore a black cloak. One of the lost Rangers.

The battle turned into a route. Rangers broke ranks, trying to flee up the hill toward the horses. Some slipped. Some didn't get up. But the dead didn't tire. They just kept climbing, dragging, and biting.

Mormont fought like a bear, roaring, cleaving, rallying those who could still stand. He lost count of how many he'd killed. His sword arm was numb as he got on his horse and led the retreat back to Castor's Keep.

All of this happened a few days after Rollo visited the Free Folk camp. Now the same thing that happened at the Fist of the First Men was about to happen to the Free Folk.

The Night King had planned this attack on both the Night's Watch and Free Folk to force the two in conflict so that he could raise more men for his army. He heard about the strange men who built a town on the coasts and were dangerous for Wights and White Walkers, so he planned to deal with them personally before his march to the wall.

At the Free Folk camp, one of the scouts had reported about the large number of the dead approaching their location. Now more than ever, the Free Folk were anxious, so Mance ordered that they have to flee south and hide behind the wall in order for them to be safe from the Night King and his army.

The camp consisted of nearly 110,000 Free Folk which would take some time to get this massive number of people moving. As 2 days passed, several thousand had decided to flee to the safety of New Valhalla where they knew they would be safe from the undead and wouldn't have to try and fight the Night's Watch on the wall.

Follow current novels on freewebnσvel.cѳm.

There was nothing Mance could do about these desertions, so he just pressed on south. However, some of the clans such as the Thenn's were not happy with this predicament and wanted to force others to fight against the Night's Watch. Many of them started to chase the people, fleeing to force them to fight.

———

This news had already reached Maximus's ears as the Shadowhand were monitoring the movement of the Free Folk.

Sitting at his temporary office in Storm's End, he was going over the rewards that he got from taking the Stormlands. It was nothing too great as he only received 100,000 system points, 20,000 Elven Spearmen, and 10,000 Elven Archers. Instead of bringing new troops from across the sea, he decided to use these new summons to reinforce the Wall.

Walking into his office, Eonwe took a seat across from him. "I want you to lead 30,000 troops to the wall and repel the attack from the Wildlings, while also subjugating them. You may have to make an example out of a few of them before they submit to you, but make sure that they are subjugated after they get defeated."

Eonwe nodded his head understanding what his mission was. "I guess those Wildlings have finally decided to move on the wall. I expected it to happen sometime soon, I just wished they took our warnings seriously or joined us as we suggested. But I guess some people just don't think about their future and just linger on the past."

Maximus agreed with him on this matter. They had offered the Wildlings a good deal which would benefit both parties involved, but them being the Wildlings, they most of the rejected the deal. Some of them accepted, which is why New Valhalla was established, but majority of the clans remained relatively hostile or neutral.

"That's why we left them alone for the past 2 years. But now that they are going to jeopardize the integrity of the wall, we will have to finally make our move and subjugate them. Also, I'll send some Wyvern riders and Dragon Knights to help you man the walls and start making preparations against the Night King."

"You think the Wildlings will cause us much trouble?" asked Eonwe.

"No," Maximus replied. "I know they'll cause you less than you expect. But this deployment will be for next 5 years to see the end of the Night King and the post war re-construction"

Eonwe nodded as they talked about a few things. Mainly how cold it was going to be and how they could counteract that. Eonwe requested some Witches to be sent as well as rune inscribed heaters and equipment to provide better heating for the soldiers. Maximus agreed as the cold would cause morale to go down, but with the addition of witches and rune inscribed equipment they could counteract this.

A day later and Eonwe was en route to the Wall onboard an airship accompanied by several other airships carrying the other 30,000 soldiers. Accompanying them were 6 Wyvern riders, 100 Dragon Knights, and 50 Witches. The rune equipment would arrive several days later as it had to be created and transported from Heaven's Reach directly.