When a siege battle occurs among the living, if the attacking side realizes that their assault cannot succeed in one strike, they will undoubtedly choose to withdraw their forces temporarily to avoid unnecessary casualties. They will rest and reflect, rework their attack plans, coordinate among different units, rotate out troops with heavy losses, and then try again.
But the wight army completely disregarded this logic.
Even though the defenders at Shadow Tower had brought out weapons that completely countered them, the tide of wights only slightly slowed in its assault—and even that was just an illusion, the result of the defenders gaining confidence. There was no sign that the wights would stop their suicidal charge. The fire in the first annihilation zone at the perimeter, composed of burning wood and pitch, had already been trampled to near extinction, and the proportion of undead crossing this zone to swarm the base of the Wall continued to grow. The wights surged forward relentlessly, like waves crashing against the defensive line of Wildfire and the towering Wall.
Although some scattered wights managed to climb onto the Wall, forcing defenders to use Dragonglass spears, they were still like drops of water on a hot iron plate, vanishing into smoke with a hiss. The living's defensive line held steady.
However, because the attack never paused, and under the combined effects of the "blind spot under the lamp" caused by the dazzling firelight and the urgency of the wights swarming beneath their noses, no one noticed the internal movement within the dark mass of the wight army—until the battle situation at the main gate changed again.
...
Because the gate had been breached, in order to strengthen this weak point and avoid a bottleneck, the defenders had deployed a great quantity of Wildfire and nearly all the Dragonglass bombs here, far more than on other sections of the Wall. The fires elsewhere were limited to the base of the Wall, burning the wights that had reached the Wall and begun to climb, but at the gate, a sea of fire more than ten meters wide had been created. To conserve Wildfire, the defenders even threw firewood into it to keep the flames alive.
Looking down from atop the Wall, this particularly bright blaze within the surrounding ring of fire looked like a pigeon egg-sized diamond set in a platinum ring, dazzling and brilliant. Forget ordinary wights—even if several more corpse elephants came charging, they would still be burned alive if they tried to break through that sea of fire.
The raging flames seemed to dispel the chill of winter. Inside the Shadow Tower walls, the temperature felt much warmer. The tension, which had once felt like the end of the world, had eased somewhat as large numbers of enemies were incinerated. Two ballistae had been moved into position inside the gate, adjusted and aimed at the opening. After the reserve line was formed with all available manpower, the once-taut nerves of the soldiers relaxed slightly. Some of the reserves clearing the scattered wights who managed to slip through the gate even began to worry about unrelated issues.
A reinforcement from Sentinel Tower asked, "Hey, tell me, won't the Wildfire soften the permafrost beneath the foundation and cause the Wall to tilt and fall forward?"
"Don't talk nonsense. We dug out the Wall's foundation ourselves last year. First we built fires to melt a section and dig it out. Thankfully, the weather wasn't as cold back then, so once the surface was cleared, the rest was easier. Under Ser Denys Mallister's personal supervision, whether Artisans, stewards, or those 'noble' Ranger Lords, all our brothers took turns laying a foundation four times the width of the Wall, with no shortcuts! Instead of worrying about the Wall collapsing, you should worry about the Wildfire melting the Wall and causing it to collapse southward and crush us both!"
The joke was grim, but perhaps to relieve the tension, the nearby soldiers burst out laughing. One of them, laughing as he drew his bow, casually shot a wight that had braved the inferno, crossed the barricades, and charged through the flaming gate.
Compared to the brothers on the Wall sweating under the intense heat of Wildfire while fending off the undead tide, the gate really was too comfortable.
Then, a cold wind blew. The flames on the surrounding torches suddenly flickered violently, and the snowflakes falling overhead became noticeably denser.
The few soldiers who had just been laughing instantly tensed, goosebumps rising. Just as they were about to start another round of chatter to ease the mood, a series of urgent shouts came from the Wall above, sending a chill down their spines.
"What? Why isn't the fire burning? Quick, more Wildfire! Still not working? Bombs! Where are the bombs?!"
---
The three Cold God Priests, sent by the Night King, arrived at the edge of the sea of fire under cover of Corpse Giants and Woolly Mammoths, and began casting cold magic at close range.
Because of the suppression field surrounding the Wall, casting standard spells outside Shadow Tower now required much closer range and significantly more magic. That was why the Night King had dispatched these three as a team. With their magic recovery rate suppressed to only one percent of normal, magic had become just as much a consumable resource as the bombs used by the defenders. They had never intended to reveal this trump card in the very first assault on the Wall.
After casting tonight's spells, these three Priests would either have to retreat to the north of the Great Gorge to restore their power, or serve as spectators for the next two or three critical days of battle. In either case, the Cold God would lose three active agents.
The price was steep, but the effect was clear and immediate. As their spells poured forth and magic was drained rapidly, the most radiant blaze in the ring of fire defending Shadow Tower—the brilliant centerpiece at the main gate—suddenly dimmed.
The three Priests worked together to lock down the airflow in that section of the gate. By suppressing air circulation, they cut off the oxygen fueling the fire. Once the flames were extinguished, they rapidly dropped the temperature. This snuffed out the critical defense at the already damaged gate and opened a gaping hole.
Corpse bears, corpse wolves... these specialized troops of the cold god, far faster than humanoid wights thanks to their four-legged forms, burst forth from the sea of corpses in that brief window when the flames died down. They surged into the dark gate opening.
The defenders atop the Wall, nerves already on edge, immediately used the reserve bombs sent from Sentinel Tower to seal the breach. Black powder contains its own oxidizer, so lack of oxygen couldn't prevent it from detonating. Amid the thunderous explosions, the charging wights were severely disrupted. But the limited Dragonglass fragments couldn't match the broad suppression of fire. And due to the natural agility of predatory animals, the fallen couldn't halt the advance of the corpse wolves and corpse bears behind them. Amid flying gore, even if only half of the fast-moving wights made it through the gate, they posed a continuous threat to the defenders.
"Loose arrows!"
The moment the first corpse wolf leapt through the gate, vaulted the barricade, and lunged at the defenders with bared fangs, the gate guard erupted with overwhelming firepower. Dense volleys of Dragonglass arrows gave the enemy nowhere to hide. Ballista bolts slammed forward with deep booms, often skewering multiple targets and pinning them to the gate walls like "wight kebabs."
For a moment, the sight was encouraging. It seemed that even these new types of wights couldn't breach the defense. But Night's Watch archers could not maintain constant volleys, and reloading the ballistae was slow. As the corpse wolves and corpse bears began to topple the barricades and tear through the makeshift defenses, and as the defenders quickly ran out of bombs, the explosions ceased, and the wave of enemies began pushing the front lines deeper into the fortress.
One hundred seventy seconds after the three Cold God Priests risked casting spells at close range to extinguish the fire at Shadow Tower's gate, the first corpse wolf rushed into the defenders' position behind the gate. Three soldiers with Dragonglass spears had to work together to slay it before it could attack the archers. Just over ten seconds later, another corpse bear, still undead with an arrow through its shoulder, lunged at a Night's Watchman hiding behind cover. Before it was killed by others, it bit off the unfortunate brother's head—marking the first casualty in the gate's defense.
...
In battles between the living, even if the enemy broke into the Gift, the defenders might still have a chance to repel them through a heroic struggle. But in this war between ice and fire, such outcomes were impossible. When the living fought the dead, there were only two results: nearly no casualties, or total annihilation. There was no middle ground.
When the defenders' firepower was greater than the speed of the enemy's advance, the wights, unable to fight at range or coordinate, could be wiped out with zero casualties—as long as the White Walkers did not intervene. But once firepower fell below the rate of the wights' surge, casualties would begin to mount and increase rapidly. Fewer men meant reduced firepower, and that created a vicious cycle that could only end in complete defeat. At most, the defenders could trade blood for blood until the very last man fell.
Amid screams and cries, the number of casualties quickly rose from 1 to 2, then to 3... 10... 20. Even so, the situation wasn't completely lost. Over two hundred soldiers were holding the gate. As one fell, another would step in. Support personnel could be called to join the fight at any time. But as the distance between friend and foe vanished and melee began, the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Even now, on the other areas of the Wall where the fires still burned, the wights' onslaught never ceased. The seven or eight hundred Night's Watch brothers on the Wall were too busy holding their own lines to even glance toward the situation at the gate, let alone descend to help reclaim it.
"My Lord, your life is more important to the Night's Watch! Please retreat up the stairs immediately. I'll take over command here!" Bane, holding the two Dragonsteel arrows meant for Deputy Commander Colin the Disfigured, shouted to Denys, urging him. "I'll stay. The moment a White Walker appears, I'll use Lightbringer to kill him!"
In stark contrast to earlier, when several people had to drag him away, this time, Denys Mallister did not resist. He nodded silently at Bane without a word and retreated toward the stairs behind Shadow Tower under guard.
He wasn't fleeing. He was going to carry out the darkest, cruelest, and coldest part of the Wall Defense Plan, a directive known only to the fortress commanders.
[If the fall of the fortress is inevitable, the Commander must destroy the stairs leading up the Wall at all costs, with highest priority.]
He had already assigned this task to Colin the Disfigured. That man had always been dependable. Even if something happened to him, if the defenders atop the Wall were alert, they could destroy the stairs from above in time. But after witnessing the terrifying magic of the White Walkers, Denys decided to act personally. He would create a triple layer of assurance with his Deputy Commander and the sentries on the Wall, to make absolutely certain that nothing would go wrong.
(To be continued.)