The days dissolved into a merciless blur of snow, wind, and blood.
The column—once vast, now a ragged procession of ghosts—climbed ever higher along Blackwind Mountain's spine. The air thinned until each breath burned like inhaling shattered glass. The blue sun shrank overhead, its light pale and distant, as if the mountain itself devoured warmth. Somewhere beyond sight, the ghouls followed—patient, tireless, content to wait.
The ambush came in a ravine.
A sudden narrowing of the trail—sheer black stone rising on both sides like the jaws of a trap. The wind died. For half a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then—
AOOOOOOO—
Howls erupted from above and below, echoing through the ravine in a layered chorus. Ghouls poured down the slopes in coordinated waves, pale bodies sliding and leaping with unnatural grace. This time, they did not rush the servants alone.
They went for the guards.
A pack burst from hidden crevices, slamming into the flanks. Claws shrieked against armor. Two riders were ripped from their mounts, dragged screaming beneath a tangle of limbs and fangs. Human cries joined the inhuman shrieks.
Chaos exploded.
Spears thrust wildly. Torches spun, scattering firelight across black stone. Blood sprayed, freezing midair before striking the ground.
At the front, Cassian became a storm.
He vaulted from his rearing mount, boots striking snow-packed stone. His whip cracked—SHRAK!—coiling around a ghoul's throat, yanking it close enough for his blade to flash. Amber eyes burned with ruthless focus as he carved a path through the swarm, buying precious seconds for the guards to reform.
But the servants were trapped.
Bodies piled in the bottleneck—trampled, torn apart, crushed beneath panicked feet. Levi's group fought near the center of the slaughter.
Torin roared, swinging his spear in brutal arcs, driving back lunging forms. Mira crouched low, hands glowing faintly as she pressed warmth into torn flesh and shattered nerves. Levi jabbed with a scavenged blade, striking anything that came within reach.
Pain flared as claws raked his shoulder—fabric tearing, skin burning. Torin yanked him back and impaled the ghoul mid-lunge, black ichor splashing across the snow.
Mira's warmth flooded the wound—just enough.
Just enough to keep moving.
When the last ghoul fled into the rocks, dragging its wounded with it, silence crashed down harder than the storm ever had.
The ravine was a butcher's pit.
Snow churned into red slush. Black ichor steamed faintly where it had not yet frozen. Of the servants who had entered the ravine, barely a third staggered out.
Fewer than twenty remained.
Levi leaned heavily against Torin, lungs screaming, vision swimming. Mira bound fresh cuts without a word, her hands shaking from exhaustion. They had survived again.
But the mountain felt different now.
Awake.
Hungry.
The trail climbed out of the ravine onto a narrow ledge—barely wide enough for two to walk abreast. To one side, a sheer rock wall. To the other, a frozen abyss plunging thousands of feet into swirling mist. Wind screamed along the edge, fingers of air clawing for balance.
And blocking the only path forward—
Something vast.
Something coiled.
The Frost Venom Fang lay across the ledge like a living barricade.
Colossal. Its body stretched longer than the ravine itself, coils thick as siege towers. Blue-white scales gleamed like carved glacier ice. Its massive head rested atop the coils, regal and terrible.
Fangs the length of spears protruded from its closed jaws.
Venom dripped—glowing, luminous drops that hissed on contact with stone, flash-freezing rock into branching webs of frost.
For the first time, hesitation rippled through the guards.
Mounts snorted and stamped. Spears lowered uncertainly.
Cassian raised a fist.
"Hold," he commanded, voice cutting clean through the wind.
The cruel smile was gone.
"Cautious advance. Spears forward. We go around… or through."
The column crept closer.
Boots scraped ice-slick stone. Servants pressed themselves flat against the rock wall, whispering prayers that froze on their lips. Levi's group stayed tight—Mira's hand clenched in his sleeve, Torin's spear leveled.
The serpent stirred.
Slitted eyes snapped open—venom-green, pupils contracting to killing points.
A low rumble rolled from its throat, vibrating the ledge beneath their feet.
Coils shifted.
CRRRRRACK.
Like glaciers grinding together.
Then—
It struck.
The Fang lashed out with impossible speed, jaws unhinging in a thunderous roar. Snow cascaded from the cliffs above as its tail swept sideways—
WHAM!
Half a dozen servants were flung screaming into the abyss, bodies tumbling like broken dolls. Their cries vanished long before they did.
Venom sprayed in glittering arcs.
Where it touched flesh, frost bloomed instantly—skin turning blue-white, brittle, shattering like porcelain. A guard caught a splash across the chest; his armor froze solid as he toppled, rigid, into the void.
Panic detonated.
Servants trampled one another, slipping on the narrow ledge. One fell with a shriek, fingers clawing at empty air—dragging another with him.
"Behind the boulders!" Torin roared.
Levi, Mira, and Torin scrambled over loose scree, diving behind jagged rocks jutting from the cliff face. Mira pressed close, hands glowing faintly as she searched for venom burns.
Levi peered out, heart hammering.
Cassian stood at the forefront, whip snapping, guards forming a ragged spear wall against the thrashing colossus. The ledge trembled beneath each impact.
Above them, snow slid loose in ominous sheets.
The mountain groaned.
And the fight for passage had only just begun.