The blizzard did not relent.
It howled across the ledge like a living wall, a roaring veil of white that swallowed distance, sound, and sense alike. Snow churned violently, flaying exposed skin raw and stealing breath with every gust.
SFX: WOOOOOOOO—KRRRRR—WHUM
The first wave of ghouls finally recoiled under the guards' torches and spear wall, retreating into the storm with shrill, furious shrieks.
But they did not leave.
They circled.
Levi's back slammed against the frozen rock face, lungs burning as he sucked in ragged air. The jagged stone clenched in his hand was slick—black ichor freezing along its edges. Torin stood beside him like a wall, spear planted wide, boots dug deep into the snow. Blood ran steadily from the torn gash on his arm, Mira's shaking hands hovering over it as she fed warmth into the wound, her face pale with strain.
Three figures. Flickering torchlight. A fragile island amid collapsing order.
Then the howls changed.
They rose from behind.
From upslope.
From the blind angles no torch could reach.
SFX: HRAAAAAOWL—HRAAAOWL
The guards shouted in alarm as shapes burst from the drifting snowbanks above the ledge—ghouls launching themselves downward in long, bone-snapping bounds. Their timing was deliberate. Their hunger sharpened by blood.
The formation cracked.
A ghoul lunged low at Levi, claws slicing toward his legs.
He twisted away by instinct alone—but the servant beside him was slower.
Claws ripped across the man's throat.
SFX: SHRRRIP—GURK
Arterial red sprayed across the snow. The man gurgled once, eyes wide with stunned disbelief, then collapsed in a steaming heap.
Levi staggered back, boots skidding—
Strong hands seized his collar and hauled him upright.
"Stay close!" Torin roared over the gale. "Don't break!"
Another shriek split the air.
Two more servants—faces Levi recognized from shared trudging silence—were swallowed in seconds. A wiry youth vanished screaming into the whiteout, jaws locked into his shoulder. An older woman swung a broken spear shard wildly before claws tore her chest open, her body crumpling soundlessly.
The storm fed on their voices.
Cassian moved like a blade given flesh.
His whip cracked through the chaos, a silver arc flashing through the snowstorm.
SFX: CRAAACK—WHIP-SNAP
Necks snapped. Eyes burst. Ghouls tumbled shrieking into the drifts as the weapon coiled and uncoiled with unnatural precision. His amber eyes gleamed—not with fear, but exhilaration.
Still, it wasn't enough.
There were too many.
The blizzard made liars of distance and sight, masking each new charge until it was nearly upon them.
At last, the guards rallied—torches thrust forward as one, spears stabbing in tight, disciplined volleys. Fire kissed pale flesh. Steel found bone.
The ghouls fell back again, dragging wounded kin into the storm, their howls fading into mocking echoes.
Then—
Silence.
The blizzard eased as abruptly as it had arrived, snow settling into heavy drifts over shattered ground.
Only ragged breathing remained.
Dawn revealed the truth.
The blue sun rose pale and uncaring over a field of carnage.
Bodies lay half-buried in blood-streaked snow, limbs twisted at impossible angles, faces frozen mid-terror. Red blood mingled with black ichor, faint steam rising where warmth still clung stubbornly to flesh.
Less than half the servants remained.
The guards moved methodically, prodding survivors upright, finishing any ghoul that twitched. Cassian surveyed the slaughter from horseback, expression smooth as carved stone.
"Strip the dead," he said flatly.
"Boots. Cloth. Anything useful. The mountain gives nothing for free."
No one argued.
Hands shook as survivors bent to the task—prying frozen boots from stiff legs, tearing cloth from rigid bodies, scavenging spears and stones. Levi knelt beside a corpse, fingers numb as he worked at laces that resisted him stubbornly. Bile burned in his throat.
He swallowed it down.
Survival demanded desecration.
Nearby, Torin slumped against a rock, jaw clenched as Mira bound his torn arm. The wound was ugly—muscle laid open, edges ragged and dark. Levi held cloth steady as Mira's faint warmth seeped into the flesh, slowing the bleeding.
Torin hissed, then nodded. "Good enough. We keep moving."
No thanks needed.
They shared scavenged scraps in silence—boots traded, cloth redistributed, weapons passed hand to hand. In those quiet motions, something unspoken solidified.
They had endured.
Together.
The march resumed before the sun climbed high.
The trail behind them vanished beneath fresh snowfall, footprints erased as if the dead had never existed.
The next attack came without warning.
No blizzard.
No mercy.
As the blue sun dimmed toward evening, howls rose in chorus from the rear.
SFX: HRAAAOWL—HRAAAOWL—HRAAAOWL
Shapes burst from hidden gullies, striking deliberately at the stragglers.
Isolating. Cutting. Killing.
The column fractured.
Guards wheeled, but the ghouls harried the edges with cruel intelligence.
Levi, Mira, and Torin were cut off near the tail—five or six servants clustering in panic. They lasted seconds.
Screams. Blood. Dragged bodies.
"Circle!" Torin bellowed.
They obeyed instantly.
Back-to-back-to-back.
A ghoul charged Levi head-on, jaws yawning wide. He drove a jagged rock upward into its mouth.
SFX: CRUNCH
Teeth shattered. Bone cracked.
It reeled—Mira slammed into it from the side with desperate strength. Torin finished it, spear punching down through its skull.
Black ichor sprayed across the snow.
Their first kill together.
The corpse twitched at their feet.
There was no triumph.
Only survival.
Around them, more servants died—another dozen torn apart as the light faded. Their screams lingered long after the bodies were dragged away, stretched thin by distance and wind.
Cassian's whip sang again. Guards forced the ghouls back.
Night fell.
Fewer voices answered roll call.
Levi glanced at Mira and Torin—faces smeared with blood and grime, eyes hardened, unbroken.
The mountain was winnowing them without mercy.
But they still stood.
For now.