There was no roar, no dragonfire, and no flight. The faint magical glow on the bones enhanced its defenses. With its massive size, the bone dragon charged directly into the wight horde and began attacking.
With each step, dozens of wights were deeply crushed into the mud. Dragon wings and the tail swept through, turning large groups of wights into dust. The dragon's jaws opened, and any wight that couldn't escape was torn to pieces.
The bone dragon had no flesh, and the wights' bites, even if they broke its teeth, had no effect. They could only cling to it, trying to use their weight to slow its movements. The wights' magic had little effect on the bone dragon, another undead creature.
"We'll help!" Ashara, Robb, and the mage knights charged forward.
With the bone dragon, a dozen necromancer apprentices wielding giant skeletal minions, and everyone's assistance, they managed to hold back the wight army from the ice road.
As the human army on the ice road began to retreat, Robb, leading the rear guard, continued to fight while retreating until they were safely on the ice road.
The wights couldn't drown, but they also couldn't climb the floating ice. On the ten-meter-wide ice road, a small group of elite knights managed to fend off the wight army's attacks.
"Ashara! Quickly, use your magic to cut off the road!" Robb shouted.
"Why the rush? I haven't had enough fun yet!" Ashara asked, but without hesitation, she switched the lightning on her twin swords, Dawn and Dark Sister, to flames.
She swung her twin swords, and the flames shot out like two long whips across the ice, cutting the ice road in two.
The defensive formation began to retreat along the ice road. Ashara swung again, and a knight with a spear immediately pushed the broken section of ice road farther away.
Several minutes later, the bone dragon was still fighting, but the wights had already swarmed every part of its skeleton.
The magic power from the summoning spell had nearly drained away, and the massive dragon bones began to scatter, flashing with purple light as they returned to the place they had been summoned from.
The end of the summoning spell marked Qyburn's death. The famous mage from the Seven Kingdoms made a grand exit among the wights, his body still standing with his hands gripping his staff.
Blocked by the bone dragon and witnessing the nearby human army fleeing across the ice, the enraged Night King ordered the wight army to tear Qyburn's body into pieces. The staff fell into the hands of one of the wights.
On the lake's shore, the mountains were filled with wights standing and watching the humans on the ice road.
"We're safe! Haha!"
"We're safe!"
The group standing on the broken ice road cheered.
Only six of the fourteen apprentices Qyburn brought survived. They destroyed the souls of their fallen comrades to prevent the Night King from resurrecting them.
The six survivors were cheered and surrounded by the knights, no longer feared for their skeletal bodies or their strange appearances. The necromancers had earned the respect of everyone with their lives.
The six kept looking back at a particular wight. After a brief exchange, they vowed that if they survived, they would retrieve Qyburn's staff.
"Robb, why did you cut off the ice road?" Before Robb could answer, Ashara asked again.
"Look up there!" Robb pointed toward the high shore.
The group looked up, and they saw the Night King riding an ice spider on the hillside outside Harrenhal, watching the lake.
The ice spider moved swiftly, and soon it brought the Night King to the lake's shore.
The Night King stepped to the water's edge, bending down to reach into the water.
White mist swirled, and blocks of pure white floating ice began to appear on the lake's surface, centered around the Night King.
"Stop cheering, run!"
"Damn it, that ghost thing learned your trick!" Ashara cursed loudly, grabbing Robb's arm and turning to flee with the others.
Robb quickly pushed her away. "Don't worry about me! Keep cutting off the ice road! We can't let the Night King connect it!"
The living on the ice road hadn't recovered, the wights were numerous and tireless, and with the Night King present, facing them again would mean certain death.
The ice road was chopped into pieces by Ashara, the floating ice drifted away, and the group gradually moved farther from the Night King.
However, the Night King did not continue to freeze the lake surface. He mounted his ice spider again and turned his gaze south. The human army had split into two retreating routes, with half still traveling by land.
From the vampires, he had learned that there was only one lonely island in the lake. The humans who had fled there would eventually be surrounded and killed by him. He wasn't in a hurry.
The wight army began moving again, charging towards the south of Harrenhal.
---
When Robb gave the order to split the retreat into two routes, the entire army was divided into two groups. The armies from different regions had not yet assembled and were still mixed together.
The retreating army to the south was mainly composed of the first to exit the battlefield, the forces from the Riverlands and Stormlands.
The Riverlands, the largest and best-equipped, had long enjoyed peace. Duke Tyrell rarely allowed his army to participate in any small-scale wars, and his new recruits had almost no battle experience. After the Battle of Harrenhal, they had lost half their forces, and the troops marched with low morale.
The similarly wealthy Stormlands, due to their busy maritime trade, had initially sent men to eradicate bandits and pirates under Renly's command. Later, nearly every noble house participated, and their military strength was second only to the wild men of the Westerlands.
When they had arrived, their banners had been proudly flying. Now, on the march, many Riverlands family banners had already fallen, and a few Stormlands houses had been completely wiped out. Only the banners from the Westerlands remained intact.
Willas Tyrell, who had taken command from his father, was deeply troubled. The large number of casualties among the conscripted soldiers weighed heavily on him. If they lost the battle, it would be fine — everyone would die together.
But if the humans won, with such large-scale casualties, he would have to come up with an excuse to avoid a rebellion and prevent House Tyrell from being ousted from the position of Warden.
Willas pulled his cloak over his back to wipe the stains from his breastplate, polishing the rose family crest to a shine. He urged his warhorse to quicken its pace and soon spotted a noble knight from the Tyrosh in the crowd.
The Tyrosh army had few horses, and during the retreat, the officers' warhorses were also requisitioned to pull supply carts. This knight and his guards were sitting together in the cart's cargo bed.
Unlike the Tyrosh soldiers who wielded battle axes, this knight carried a magnificent longsword at his waist. His green cloak had been reduced to half after the battle, and his light gold armor had a few scratches and dents. It was high-quality, top-tier gear, with a beautiful mermaid engraving on the chest.
"Are you Lord Theon of Myr?" Willas asked uncertainly.
Hearing his name called, the knight turned around from the cart. "Ah! Ser Willas!"
Although they didn't know each other, Theon often saw Willas's younger brother, Garlan, in Tyrosh. Willas had also sat at the head of the table during the previous war council as the commander of the Riverlands, and Theon immediately recognized him.
"No need for formalities!" Willas saw Theon start to stand up and waved to stop him.
Formalities? Theon stared wide-eyed at Willas's words, unconsciously clenching his right fist and placing it against his mouth, then running a hand through his hair and giving an awkward smile.
In the Tyrosh army, when soldiers entered battle, they didn't need to salute officers, as such formalities had been abolished since the army's formation. To ease the awkwardness, Theon bent down and tossed a waterskin to Willas from the cart.
"Though my lands are close to Myr, they are technically part of the direct holdings of the Tyrosh."
Anyone promoted by Lord Wright was trustworthy, and Willas accepted the waterskin, opened it, and drank. The water was a little salty, with a faint fruity flavor. "The expansion of Lord Wright's lands has been too rapid in recent years. The maps sent back to the Seven Kingdoms almost change every year, and many people can't keep up."
Willas explained to himself, tossing the waterskin back to Theon. "Theon, do you think we can win this battle?"