Flameheart soul of the frozen King

Fire in the Blizzard

Surrounded by two hundred blades, trust is the only armor that matters.

"Can you handle a line of heavy infantry?" Kaelen asked, her blue eyes scanning the ridge as dark armored figures began sliding down the snowy slopes.

"I can handle my side," Soren replied, pulling his stolen broadsword high. "You just make sure no one cuts off my back."

"Do not die on me, commoner," she muttered, her twin ice daggers flashing in the dim light. "I still need you to explain how you know my father's crest."

"Then stay close," Soren commanded.

A loud whistle pierced the air, followed by the savage barking of heavy war hounds. Four massive, iron-plated beasts tore through the snow drifts, their jaws dripping with foam, leading a squad of six heavy knights into the village square.

"Hounds first!" Kaelen called out, darting forward with terrifying speed. She spun past the first beast, her left dagger carving a deep line across its neck.

"Wait, Kaelen! Do not overextend!" Soren yelled.

Instead of retreating, she leaped toward the second hound, but a heavy knight stepped out from behind a burning beam, his massive iron tower shield slamming straight into her path.

"Get back!" Soren shouted, thrusting his stolen steel blade into the narrow gap beneath the knight's chest plate.

The iron knight let out a grunt of pain, his shield swinging wide. Kaelen used the opening instantly, sliding beneath the falling guard and driving her right ice dagger directly into his throat joint.

"Nice timing," she panted, turning her head toward him as the hound collapsed into the slush.

"Stop rushing into blindly," Soren said, stepping shoulder to shoulder with her as the remaining four knights formed a tight wall of shields around them. "Watch their footwork. Heavy armor means slow pivots. You draw their eyes high, I will break their balance low."

"I take orders from no one," Kaelen snapped, but as two knights stepped forward with raised spears, she dipped her posture low, feinting a high strike to the left.

The soldiers raised their shields toward her blades.

"Now!" Soren shouted.

Soren dropped to one knee, driving a sharp burst of raw dragon energy into the ground through his boot. The icy earth beneath the knights shattered into jagged spikes, sending three of the heavy armored men tumbling backward into the snow drifts. Kaelen moved like lightning, darting over Soren's shoulder to finish the fallen men before they could regain their footing.

"Your tactics actually work," Kaelen admitted, stepping back into position as fresh boots crunched through the snow.

"I told you," Soren said, his chest heaving as blood trickled from his reopened shoulder wound. "Listen to me and we might live through this."

Before she could answer, a violent howl of wind swept across the mountain pass. The blizzard intensified instantly, whipping up a blinding wall of white ice and thick gray ash that swallowed the entire valley in seconds.

"I cannot see!" Kaelen yelled, her voice almost buried by the roar of the storm. "Soren, where are they?"

"Stay still!" Soren called out, closing his eyes to rely on his ancient dragon senses. "Do not move an inch!"

In the blinding whiteout, visibility dropped to zero. Heavy metal plates clanked somewhere to their left, while the low growl of more war hounds vibrated through the snow to their right.

"They are closing the circle," Kaelen whispered, her back pressed hard against Soren's. "I hear at least ten men surrounding us in the dark."

"Three meters to your left, high strike!" Soren ordered suddenly.

Kaelen did not question the command. She thrust her left dagger into the dark snowstorm without looking. A heavy thud sounded, followed by an iron knight screaming as he fell into the snow.

"Two meters behind me, duck low!" Soren shouted, swinging his broadsword around his hip. His steel connected with a heavy iron spear shaft, snapping the weapon in half before the unseen soldier could drive it into Kaelen's side.

"You really can track them through the storm," Kaelen said, shock plain in her voice. "What kind of monster are you?"

"I am the man keeping you alive," Soren rasped, his lungs burning with every word. "Keep moving! We have to break through the southern tree line before their archers take the high ground!"

They fought their way through the whiteout step by bloody step. Kaelen's ice blades cut through leather straps while Soren's tactical strikes broke the heavy formations of the Iron Clan infantry. For the first time since her family fell, Kaelen found herself relying completely on another fighter's instincts.

"Up ahead!" Kaelen called out, squinting through the blowing ice. "The southern gate! It is blocked!"

Standing at the edge of the forest path was a squad of eight elite Iron Clan guards, their long pikes locked together in a double wall of steel. Behind them, the main road was completely sealed off by thick iron chains stretched across the gap.

"We cannot cut through that shield wall," Kaelen said, her voice tight with rising panic. "My ice blades will shatter against those heavy plates!"

"I will clear the path," Soren said, stepping in front of her.

"Soren, no!" Kaelen grabbed his arm. "Look at you! You are bleeding out! Your body cannot handle any more magic!"

"If we do not break through now, we die in this square," Soren replied, pulling his arm free from her grip. "When the wall breaks, run straight into the trees and do not stop."

"Wait!" she shouted.

Soren ignored her voice. He raised his right hand, ripping away the blood-stained bandage wrapped around his palm. The ancient royal mark blazed to life, casting a harsh, golden glow through the dark white blizzard.

"By the soul of the ancient fire," Soren chanted, his voice echoing with double authority that shook the very air around them.

"Look at his hand!" one of the elite guards yelled, raising his heavy shield higher. "Shoot him! Shoot the boy!"

Three iron crossbow bolts flew through the snowstorm, aiming straight for Soren's chest.

"Yield!" Soren roared the final ancient command, thrusting his open palm toward the double shield wall.

A massive pillar of gold and crimson dragon fire erupted from Soren's right hand, shooting through the blizzard like a solid beam of light. The blast slammed straight into the center of the elite guard formation, melting the heavy iron shields instantly and throwing all eight armored men thirty feet into the air.

The heavy wooden gate posts shattered into burning splinters, clearing a wide, open path straight into the safety of the dark forest.

"Path is clear," Soren gasped out, his voice reduced to a dry, bloody whisper.

Kaelen stared at the burning clearing in complete silence, her icy eyes wide with absolute awe. "That... that was high-tier dragon fire. How can a low-level tamer..."

"Move," Soren choked out, taking one heavy step toward the trees.

The golden light on his hand vanished instantly. A sharp, unbearable pain ripped through Soren's chest as his body's core completely collapsed. His damaged lungs gave out, his mana channels dried up, and his vision turned completely black.

"Soren!" Kaelen screamed, reaching out to catch him as his legs gave out.

Soren collapsed heavily into the cold snow at the edge of the forest, his face pale as death and blood spilling from his nose and lips. His body lay completely motionless in the white slush.

"Soren! Wake up!" Kaelen shouted, kneeling beside him and shaking his shoulders violently. "Do not do this right now! Get up!"

Before she could check his pulse, a low, deep vibration shook the frozen ground beneath her knees.

The trees at the forest edge bowed forward as something massive tore through the pine branches. Heavy wooden trunks snapped like dry twigs, and a dark, terrifying shadow blocked out the remaining grey light of the sky.

Kaelen slowly raised her head, her hand freezing on Soren's chest.

Breaking through the treeline was a massive, twenty-foot-tall war beast, completely covered in thick steel armor plates and carrying giant iron axes strapped to its heavy shoulders. Blood red steam poured from its snout as it locked its dark eyes onto the two young fighters lying in the snow.

"No," Kaelen whispered, pulling her daggers up with shaking hands as the massive beast took a heavy step forward, crushing a thick pine tree beneath its iron-bound foot.