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A melodious song in the True Tongue rose. Leaf's eyes filled with fierce green, and some unknown power in the air was pried loose by her voice.
The small stones on the ground around them began trembling nonstop. A low, muffled rumble came faintly from the land where the two sides fought, as if something was brewing beneath it.
In the True Tongue, children of the forest meant those who sang praise to the earth. They did not call themselves that without reason.
On the surface, whether it was the greenseers of old raising the sea level and shattering the Arm of Dorne, or calling up a great wave at Moat Cailin to strike the Neck, it seemed to show that the magic of the children of the forest was related to the power of the sea.
But anyone with even the most basic learning from Robb's previous life would know that the main cause of a terrifying tsunami was the power of the earth moving.
Feeling that her magic had completed, Leaf's eyes faded from green. She raised a hand and pointed at the pack of ice direwolves about to reach Thorn.
Rumble! Crack, crack, crack!
A tremendous roar sounded along with a tremor in the ground. The land in front of the ice direwolves was torn open by an invisible force. A crack roughly three yards wide and eight or nine yards long suddenly appeared.
Because the crack appeared too suddenly and too close to the pack, most of the ice direwolves, unable to stop in time, fell straight into it. Only the two wolves at the very rear barely halted before the split.
Thorn, who had sensed the prelude to Leaf's magic and prepared in advance, used the sudden tremor to knock the two panicked Wolfguard off their ice direwolves.
After freeing herself from their entanglement, she immediately turned and ran toward Leaf and Vine.
Thorn quickly approached Will's group. She threw away the longsword in her hand, stretched both hands forward, and leapt.
Moo-ooom!
In midair, Thorn changed into a writhing mass of soft clay. The moment she landed, she rapidly expanded and set into the shape of a long-haired mammoth roaring at the sky.
One Wolfguard relatively close to Thorn rode his black-furred ice direwolf away from the melee, intending to attack her from the side while she had just finished skinchanging.
But Thorn turned her head and swung. Her trunk, as thick as a small tree, lashed with shocking flexibility against the black-furred ice direwolf and knocked both rider and wolf tumbling to the ground.
"Harwyn!"
Seeing his brother and the man's ice direwolf roll to the ground, Will shouted in concern. He immediately told the other Wolfguard attacking Vine and Leaf, "Retreat. Do not force a fight with them. We only need to follow them and wait for the others to rescue their ice direwolves."
"Mm!"
The other Wolfguard nodded, then withdrew from the fight with Will. They hung behind Leaf's group from left and right.
Seeing the two Wolfguard sensibly leave, Thorn rejoined Vine and Leaf, then immediately released her true skinchanging and flipped nimbly onto Vine's back.
Perhaps because of the range of the magic, Leaf did not faint after casting this time. Her face was merely pale as paper, and her bright golden eyes had dimmed somewhat.
Sensing that Thorn had climbed onto her back as well, Vine immediately drove all four legs forward and rushed toward the dense Wolfswood beside Long Lake.
Not far behind them, Will and the other two followed closely. Behind them came the Wolfguard Thorn had shaken off earlier.
As for the other eight Wolfguard approaching on horseback, six rode to the six- or seven-yard-deep crack and tried to rescue the ice direwolves that had fallen in. The remaining two went toward the injured Harwyn and his direwolf.
Seeing the Wolfswood draw nearer, its leaves stirring in the breeze, Vine, who had been imprisoned for more than two months, felt overwhelming joy. She knew that as long as the three of them entered it, they could return to their home in the north and live with their people again.
After all, they were children of the forest.
When they were only a dozen yards from the dense woods, Vine suddenly leaned back in wolf form and drove all four legs hard into the ground, stopping urgently.
Whoosh! Crack, crack, crack!
A white spiral of icy mist as thick as a bucket shot from the shadows of the Wolfswood and struck the ground in front of Vine. The extremely cold mist swiftly froze that patch of earth and continued spreading outward.
The freezing did not stop until it had spread into a circle roughly five yards across.
At that moment, the ground had become a flat sheet of ice. The clear, delicate weeds frozen within the ice actually held a strange beauty.
When the freezing spread, Thorn had already retreated several yards. Leaf, on her back, bit her lip with a grave expression and looked toward the Wolfswood ahead.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
The sound of two horses came from the shadows. Robb rode out calmly on Bloodwind, while Crey and Gendry followed on horseback.
"Leaf, unless I remember wrongly, it has not even been a year."
Stopping on the other side of the frozen ground, Robb smiled and spoke to Leaf.
"Since you were waiting here ahead of us, it means you knew long ago that we were preparing to flee.
"But you did not stop us directly. You let us escape smoothly because you wanted to use us to train your ice direwolf squad?
"You began calculating against us very early, didn't you? Humans are truly too cunning."
Leaf was indeed very intelligent. In the short time after seeing Robb appear, she understood his purpose.
"Very clever. But the premise of all these calculations is that you broke your promise to work for me for one year and fled without permission.
"As for me, I kept my promise from beginning to end.
"Even while fighting you, even when you attacked with magic, the Wolfguard did not use explosive fruits or ice crystal fruits against you, did they?"
Hearing Leaf's words, Robb stared straight at her and admitted his calculation openly. Then he stated that he had not broken his promise.
Leaf seemed to understand from Robb's eyes that this matter could not be settled easily.
She reached into the small pouch at her waist with her right hand, took out a handful of materials, then looked toward the dense forest behind Robb and murmured, "We only wanted... to go home."
Although Thorn could not understand Leaf and Robb's conversation, once she saw the singer's movement, she immediately understood that the two sides were about to fight.
She pressed down Leaf's right hand, the one holding the materials, and spoke firmly in the True Tongue. "Leaf, you just used 'Firefly' and 'Earth's Roar' one after another. If you force yourself to use 'Whisper of the Forest' now, the magic will certainly backlash against you.
"Let me stay and delay them. You and Vine take the chance to escape."
Vine naturally heard Thorn's words as well. As a close friend who had lived beside her for more than a hundred years, she turned her wolf head and gave a low growl that clearly meant refusal.
"No. We left home together, so of course we return together."
Leaf shook her head and spoke to Thorn.
"Good. Then let us do our best and return home together."
Seeing their decision, warmth flowed through Thorn's heart. She leapt from Vine's back and shouted encouragement.
Behind Leaf's group, four wolf riders saw Thorn move and split into two teams, preparing to outflank them from left and right.
"Will, this was your first battle, and your performance was acceptable. But you still made many mistakes. Reflect on them properly. Leave the rest to me."
Seeing the movement of Will and the others, Robb first shook his head at them, then spoke.
Robb jumped down from Bloodwind and said to Leaf's group, "Leaf, thank you for working for me for nearly two months. I will give you a chance.
"None of them will move. Only Bloodwind and I will face the three of you. If even one of you breaks through our blockade and reaches the Wolfswood behind me, I will let all three of you return beyond the Wall."
Zing!
He turned and drew Ice from Gendry, who had stepped forward, then continued with a smile. "In the ancient tales, wood dancers were legendary warriors able to fully control their own bodies.
"I did not have the chance to experience that last time. My body has grown quite a bit stronger recently, and my hands are itching.
"Leaf, translate for Thorn. Let the two of us fight alone."
"Good."
After hearing Leaf's translation, Thorn, who knew the strength of her own body, nodded at this human bold enough to challenge her and readily agreed.
She had experienced Bloodwind's terror firsthand, but as for humans, she only felt they were numerous. No matter how strong a human was, he was still nothing before a wood dancer.
The moment she nodded in the True Tongue, she had already decided that she would seize Robb and use his life to threaten the other humans. As for the other words Leaf had translated from this cunning human, she did not believe them.
"Will, give her a longsword."
Seeing Thorn empty-handed, Robb called loudly to Will behind her.
Will immediately unfastened his longsword and threw it toward Thorn. Hearing the wind behind her, she did not even turn her head. Thorn simply stretched out her left hand and caught the sword precisely.
After receiving Will's longsword, Thorn had no intention of drawing it. She swung it a few times with the scabbard still on, using it like a club. She had done the same before, because the children of the forest did not use steel longswords.
After slightly familiarizing herself with the weight of Will's longsword, Thorn nodded and lightly jumped onto the frozen ground. Her whole body swayed slightly, then stood steadily on the smooth, flat ice.
'Interesting.'
Seeing Thorn's astonishing balance, Robb held Ice and jumped onto the ice.
Crack!
Countless cracks spread from Robb's landing point across the ice. He certainly could not move on ice as though on flat ground, so he simply broke skill with force.
Thorn's feet, each with three sharp nails, slid across the ice like skates as she charged toward Robb.
Watching Thorn rush in, Robb tightened his grip with both hands and drew Ice in a half-moon, chopping from right to left toward her upper body.
Facing the heavy, head-on strike, Thorn's leg muscles tensed. She bent backward into a bridge, letting Ice pass over her.
Relying on her momentum, Thorn continued forward and smashed the sheathed longsword in her right hand toward Robb's right knee.
After Ice struck empty, even greater strength surged through Robb's hands. He forcibly changed the horizontal chop into a sharp hooked return slash down toward the lower right.
Ice collided heavily with the sheathed longsword, producing a loud metallic ring.
'This human is strong!'
The tremendous force surging from Ice nearly knocked the sheathed longsword out of Thorn's hand.
Forcing herself to grip the sword tightly, she planted it hard against the ground and used it to push herself up from the bridge posture.
After one exchange, Robb and Thorn were both standing as before. The only difference was that Thorn had moved from directly in front of him to behind him.
Rip!
While Robb and Thorn had been fighting, Bloodwind and Vine had silently circled around the frozen ground and begun battling not far away.
But with size, strength, and speed all suppressed, Vine had three bloody wounds torn into her right foreleg the moment they clashed.
Before the fight began, Vine had placed Leaf at the edge of the field. The singer now gripped spellcasting materials in her hand, searching for a good opportunity to attack Bloodwind with magic.
During one collision, the much smaller Vine was sent flying. Leaf seized the chance, threw green powder toward Bloodwind, and chanted in the True Tongue.
The green powder ignited completely, and the sky full of sparks from the Firefly magic instantly enveloped Bloodwind's huge body.
Hiss, hiss!
Before the sparks reached him, Bloodwind stirred the magic inside his body, and thick white mist rose from him. The moment the sparks touched the white mist, they hissed, and steam billowed up.
Watching Bloodwind be covered by steam, Leaf nodded inwardly. Of course she knew Firefly could not harm Bloodwind. She was only buying time for Vine.
Moo-ooom!
A long-haired mammoth's furious roar sounded. Vine changed from ice direwolf form into mammoth form.
Although Vine's ice direwolf form was completely suppressed by Bloodwind, it was at least agile and nimble. The mammoth form had greater size and strength, but it was slow and cumbersome. To the giant wolf, it was little more than a living target.
However, they were not fighting one-on-one. With Leaf assisting from the side, Bloodwind truly could not take Vine down in a short time.
Clang, clang, clang!
On the frozen ice, Thorn slid rapidly back and forth, attacking Robb with her longsword from all angles.
From above, she looked like a high-speed spinning top constantly striking Robb at the center.
Standing in the middle, unmoving as a mountain, Robb calmly blocked Thorn's attacks with Ice.
Seeing that Thorn's offensive seemed likely to continue for a long time, he frowned. Robb had challenged a wood dancer alone to test his own combat strength, not to play children's games.
After blocking Thorn's attack again, Robb suddenly drew a deep breath. Then he raised Ice high with both hands and leaned backward until the blade nearly touched his back.
Shhh-crack-crack-crack!
Robb suddenly swung Ice down fiercely toward Thorn's position. Carrying tremendous force, Ice smashed into the ice, and a huge crack like a poisonous snake raced across the surface toward her.
At the same time, Robb, who had not moved until now, pushed off with both feet and charged toward Thorn along the broken ice, dragging Ice one-handed in his right hand.
Thorn threw away the cumbersome longsword. With a beautiful series of backflips, she avoided the rapidly shattering ice and landed on the grass behind her. The moment she steadied herself, Robb had already rushed to a spot not far in front of her, dragging Ice behind him.
In fact, Robb's strength had long been enough to use Ice one-handed. It was only because of the sword's length that he, lacking the Mountain's giant build, found it more flexible and convenient to use with both hands.
This time, the muscles in Robb's right arm tightened. Ice, dragged along the ground, swept diagonally upward toward Thorn's belly.
'Hah. Impressive. A master contortionist.'
Seeing Thorn's movement defy the limits of a human body, Robb inwardly praised her.
Praise was praise, but Robb's attack did not stop. He continued stepping forward, gripped his right hand with his left after the old force was spent, and held Ice with both hands again, chopping left and right at Thorn without pause.
This master contortionist dodged left and right through Robb's storm-like slashes. When he occasionally forced her into a dead end, she avoided Ice with inhuman movements.
Robb watched Thorn's dodging closely. During one slash to the left, he suddenly released Ice with both hands.
The massive sword left his hands with a whistling sound and shot toward the right side of Thorn's body. She instinctively stepped left to avoid it.
But this time, just as she turned aside and dodged the greatsword, a huge figure suddenly appeared in her vision.
A right hand like an iron hoop accurately seized Thorn's slender neck and easily lifted her entire body into the air.
Ghk, ghk!
Choked until she could hardly breathe, Thorn kicked and struck at Robb with both hands and feet like someone brawling in the street. But the short arms and legs of a child of the forest could not reach him at all.
Annoyed by this shameless assault, Robb's free left hand slapped Thorn across the face with a crisp sound.
His slap was not light. Thorn's attack stopped at once, and blood flowed down from the corner of her mouth.
Seeing her quiet down, Robb loosened his right hand slightly, then turned toward the battle not far away.
Vine had somehow changed back into ice direwolf form. Her body was covered in claw marks left by Bloodwind. Around the giant wolf, white icy mist swirled, and the ground where he stood was marked by bowl-sized cracks.
Those cracks had all been created by Leaf's magic to restrict Bloodwind's movement. Although she controlled her magic output with great delicacy, using magic continuously had left her face pale as paper.
'Bloodwind, stop playing.'
Seeing that his own fight had already ended while Bloodwind, whose magic had recently increased greatly, had not yet finished, Robb sent the thought directly to him.
At that moment, Leaf also seemed to make up her mind. She threw a large handful of green powder toward Bloodwind with her right hand and chanted in the True Tongue.
This Firefly, whether in coverage or flame temperature, was clearly stronger than before.
Pfft! Boom!
Leaf, who had forced herself to overdraw her body to cast this final spell, spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed unconscious.
Vine had been looking at Bloodwind, who was completely enveloped by magical fire. Hearing the sound beside her and seeing Leaf fall, she immediately tried to go check on her.
A white figure burst straight out of the flames filling the air and slammed into Vine.
In the corner of her wolf's eye, Vine saw only a flash of white before she felt herself struck by something impossibly hard and sent flying.
Already covered in wounds, Vine spat out a large mouthful of blood in midair from the violent impact. She fell to the ground and could not move at all. Only then did she see clearly what had struck her.
It was still Bloodwind.
Only now, his entire body was wrapped in huge white diamond-shaped ice crystals. Layer upon layer of white crystal resembled an incredibly hard coat of scale armor, protecting him firmly.
Some magical flames had clung to the ice crystal scales when Bloodwind forced his way through, but their heat could not melt the armor at all.
Ice Armor.
It had formed from his own condensed icy mist after Bloodwind's Magic attribute reached thirty points. Judging from the current situation, Ice Armor offered powerful physical and magical defense.
Not far away, Robb looked at Bloodwind wrapped in the highly defensive and strikingly shaped Ice Armor and nodded inwardly.
At least it had not disappointed him after he had spent nearly two months sending letters to every castle in the North, asking each castle to send local criminals so he could obtain blood pact points.
Robb pointed Thorn, who was held in his right hand, toward Bloodwind and Vine. In an indifferent voice, he said, "Since you made a mistake, you must pay the price.
"Your life was saved because Leaf made a promise. Now that she has broken that promise herself, I will take your life back.
"Although you certainly cannot understand what I am saying, do you have any last words?"
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