-Chapitre 190-

-Chapter 190-

-POV Cregan Snow-

"Good morning, Captain," I said, saluting the captain of my cohort with my fist pressed to my chest.

He nodded and said, "Cregan Snow, I will be absent for one, or perhaps several moons, as Baron Walton requires my counsel. In the meantime, the Wall is under your responsibility. No wildling must be allowed to cross it, is that understood?"

I nodded, without really feeling afraid, as I knew that since a large part of the wildlings had left Mance Rayder's side, they no longer posed a significant threat.

'We were more of a guarantee than anything else.'

"Mance Rayder and his loyal followers may be keeping a low profile, but they're still on the other side, waiting for a good excuse to rally the wildlings on this side of the Wall to destabilize the Empire," said Commander Steelshanks, one of Baron Walton Steelshanks' cousins.

'He was clever enough to place family members and old friends in command positions to ensure the loyalty of all his men,' I thought.

"We won't let them succeed," I said, trying to reassure the commander, who seemed anxious for reasons hard to understand.

'We have more than 20,000 soldiers on the Wall; what could possibly happen to us?' I thought.

Once the commander had given his final instructions, he rode off towards the Dreadfort.

---

-POV 3rd-

"Why is it us who have to do the night watch on the Wall?" said a legionnaire.

"And with a damn blizzard as our only company," added the second legionnaire.

"What could we possibly see in such a storm?" said the first legionnaire, rubbing his arms.

"Nothing, but that's not why we're here. We're here because we're being punished for daring to express an opinion about this bas…"

The second legionnaire's sentence was cut off as a sword of ice pierced his throat, splattering the face and helmet of the first legionnaire.

Before the latter could even utter a single cry of surprise, his head was separated from his body.

To the assailant's surprise, the sound of a horn echoed, and by the time he turned around, a team of four legionnaires was already attacking him.

---

-POV Cregan Snow-

Unable to sleep due to a lingering sense of unease, I decided to get up and walk through the courtyard to inspect the legionnaires on duty that night.

But as I walked through the courtyard, I heard the distant sound of a horn. The sound was muffled by the blizzard, but I could still hear it, though faintly.

'That can't be possible,' I thought, assuming it must be a mistake.

"No one would dare attack the Wall in such weather, as scaling the Wall in normal conditions is already a perilous task, but in a storm like this, it would be nothing short of madness."

I was about to go back to sleep, but just as I turned toward my quarters, something crashed to the ground a meter away from me. I squinted to see what it was, and when I recognized it, my first reaction was to take a step back in fear.

"Commander!" I heard the distant shouts of the legionnaires on duty, who had likely seen or heard the fall of the abomination now crawling toward me.

'Ravnar,' I thought, recognizing one of my greatest opponents within the legion, whose green eyes had been transformed into an icy blue.

'This can't be happening,' I thought, recalling a rumor I had heard many times from the higher-ups.

---

'We are here to fight the true enemy.'

---

The sound of another soldier falling from the top of the Wall, also transformed, snapped me back to reality.

"TO ARMS!" I shouted, suppressing my fear and drawing my weapon.

In the meantime, more and more 'people' were falling from the top of the Wall, and like Ravnar, none of them had died from the fall.

'Because they are already dead.'

I struck Ravnar's head with my steel sword, but he didn't flinch before slowly getting back up and charging at me.

I had fought him many times before, enough to know that the new strength he possessed was not normal.

As I fell on my back, my sword slipped from my hands, and just as he was about to drive his dagger into my throat, I grabbed my own and thrust it into the gaps of his leather-covered armor.

He let out a horrible sound before collapsing to the ground. I frowned, not understanding why he had died this time and not when I had struck his head with my sword, but as I looked at my dagger, I understood immediately.

'That's why the armory is filled with dragonglass weapons,' I thought, finally realizing why the Emperor had ordered the 11th and 12th legions to be fully equipped with dragonglass weapons.

"Commander, our own men are turning against us!" shouted one of my lieutenants, Bradford, arriving at my right, sword drawn, followed by a few legionnaires.

"Those aren't our soldiers," I quickly said, picking up my sword.

"What?!"

"I don't have time to explain, but spread the word that the only way to kill these creatures is with dragonglass."

"Commanda…"

"Execute!" I shouted before rushing toward my next target.

"Yes, Commander," he said, before running back to wake the entire barracks and relay my orders.

'There were about a hundred legionnaires on duty tonight on the Wall; there are about 1,000 of us in the barracks. If this thing manages to take down so many of our legionnaires so easily with these walking corpses, it won't take more than an hour for it to seize this fortress,' I thought, mentally trying to count the number of soldiers who had already fallen from the Wall, which had already exceeded twenty.

I ran toward one of the revenants, screaming. The creature took a defensive stance and then retaliated.

Faster and more agile than him, I easily dodged his attack before driving my dragonglass dagger into his throat.

I smiled in relief as I watched the corpse of one of my men fall completely, realizing I had quickly uncovered the weaknesses of these creatures.

Then I continued. The corpses were heavier than the legionnaires had been in life, which gave their blows more power and made them harder to push off if we were pressed by their weight. On the other hand, they were much slower.

'Not to mention the legionnaires' armor they wear, which slows them down even more. Stabbing them with a dagger is fairly easy if you have the right timing.'

I was about to search for another revenant to kill when suddenly a loud sound echoed.

I turned around in horror to see a gaunt creature whose hair and skin were as white as snow, and whose eyes shone like stars of icy blue in the darkness.

In less than a few seconds, all the stories the old women in the village where my mother had given birth to me had told me came rushing back, but I didn't let myself be distracted.

I raised my sword while holding my dagger in the other hand.

I looked around, and what I saw reassured me slightly: about two hundred legionnaires were standing by my side.

I could see they hadn't had time to fully equip themselves, but they were there, and that was the most important thing because it would give all our other brothers time to gear up and fight properly.

My heart pounding, I shouted, "SHIELD WALL!"

They all obeyed as one, more out of habit than clarity.

I could see in their eyes a terror masked by the confidence and faith they had in the legion, not by courage or a desire for glory, and that confidence was something we had forged over time during our training.

"We are the 11th Legion of the Empire!" I shouted to my men to motivate them.

"WE ARE THE 11th LEGION OF THE EMPIRE!" they shouted in unison, trying to reassure themselves and release the tension and terror that gripped them.

Through the gaps in the shields, I thought I saw a smile on the White Walker's face before it let out a piercing scream, ordering the revenants to charge our shield wall like madmen.

Without me even needing to give the order, the spears shot out from the gaps between the shields. But we were not fighting men; none of our enemies feared death anymore.

"Watch out!" I shouted as I saw one of the revenants using the other corpses as a stepping stone to climb over the shield wall and attack the throat of one of my men.

Before I had time to lunge at him and stab him to kill him with my dragonglass dagger, others did the same, and our entire formation quickly broke apart.

Hearing the screams of pain or terror from my men was torture for me, as all were ready to die for their families, but no one was prepared to fight in such an uneven battle.

I fought like a demon, but within minutes of our formation breaking, no more than a quarter of this brave group of legionnaires remained.

I frowned, and before I could say anything, I saw on my right the legionnaires who had been gearing up arriving in large numbers, surrounding the revenants.

I smiled, feeling the tide turn in our favor, knowing that I had... that we had perfectly played our role as bait.

'Although we suffered heavy losses, we managed to kill many of them,' I thought as I looked at the twenty or so revenants left around the White Walker.

"LEGIONNAIRES!"

"OUUUUUH!" all the legionnaires shouted, raising their shields and facing the remaining revenants.

About 700 legionnaires surrounded twenty revenants and a White Walker, but no one dared attack first.

So I took the lead, picked up a dragonglass spear from one of my men's corpses, and pierced the head of one of my former lieutenants, who had been in charge of leading the men guarding the Wall.

This act freed my men, who began trying by any means to take down one of the enemies.

Some broke formation and nearly lost their heads due to their recklessness, but in the end, none of them died, and within seconds, we were all surrounding the White Walker, who looked at us with a mocking smile.

Like an adult laughing at the foolishness of a child trying to lift a wooden sword while pretending to be a great warrior.

That laugh infuriated me and confirmed one thing: 'he is intelligent.'

Once I identified the White Walker as an intelligent creature, a second question arose: 'Since he possesses intelligence, why isn't he afraid?'

His gaze turned to me, and his smile widened as he raised his arms. I understood... everyone understood.

But it was too late, for in a second, all the legionnaires who had sacrificed themselves had already had time to kill one or more of their comrades, plunging our formation into chaos.