Lü Bu Crushes Snezhnaya
Five thousand iron cavalry of the Trapped Camp shattered the capital of Snezhnaya, and one hundred thousand Fatui soldiers were slaughtered in the snowfield.
As his Sky Piercer decapitated the Tsaritsa, Lü Bu let out a roar to the heavens:
"You insignificant ants—dare you stand in the way of the armies of the Nine Provinces?!"
The Frozen Throne collapsed with a thunderous crash. Standing atop the king's remains, he glared toward the north:
"Send word—within three days, not a living soul shall remain in Nordkalay!"
Snezhnaya City, a realm locked in eternal ice, had never heard such ferocious hoofbeats.
Not the howl of blizzards, nor the crack of shattering ice, but the shrill scream of battle halberds slicing through the air, and the deep rumble of heavy armor crushing solid ice. The five thousand men of the Trapped Camp, both riders and steeds clad in dark black heavy armor, surged forward like an iron tide of death, smashing unimpeded through Snezhnaya's proud glazed crystal outer walls. Snow and ice fragments mixed with warm, crimson blood erupted into the sky.
Within the city, horns wailed in alarm, only to be swiftly drowned out by the far more terrifying din of slaughter and clashing steel. Countless Fatui soldiers in frosty white and deep blue uniforms poured forth from streets, houses, and every battlement of the fortresses like a disturbed swarm of pale ants, attempting to bridge the chasm between quality and quantity with sheer numbers. They were the pride of Snezhnaya, famed elite across the continent—one hundred thousand strong, enough to crush any nation.
Unfortunately, they had not encountered just any foe this day.
Lü Bu charged at the forefront. His Red Hare left a trail of burning hoof prints upon the snow, and his Sky Piercer was no longer a mere weapon, but a blood-red thunderbolt warping space itself. Each sweep of the halberd cleaved more than a dozen Fatui soldiers in two like rotting wood; their thick ice armor proved no sturdier than cicada wings against its edge. He needed no refined techniques—only the simplest, most brutal chops, sweeps, thrusts, and slams, each strike carrying irresistible force, pulverizing flesh, ice, armor, and even souls into dust.
Gao Shun was not far to his side, silent as a moving reef. Every precise thrust of his long blade pierced the throat of a Fatui officer without fail. The five thousand cavalry of the Trapped Camp formed an arrowhead formation with the two men as its tip, leaving behind only a broad path of death paved with severed limbs and shattered ice armor wherever their hooves trod. The snow-white earth was quickly stained a murky crimson, and steaming heat rose from the blood-soaked ground, mixing with the blizzard to form a strange, gruesome red mist.
One hundred thousand Fatui? They crashed against the iron host like waves against rocks, either shattered outright or scattered in futile spray. Formations? Tactics? In the face of absolute power and speed, they became laughable suicide formations. The Trapped Camp cavalry did not even slow; they marched straight and unyielding over one hundred thousand corpses toward the very heart of the city—the towering palace constructed entirely of eternal black ice.
The ice-forged palace gates exploded into a skyful of crystal shards beneath the halberd. Lü Bu rode straight in, the Red Hare's hooves clicking sharply against the mirror-smooth ice, echoing through the vast, magnificent hall.
At the end of the hall, atop the massive Frozen Throne, the Tsaritsa of Snezhnaya rose slowly. She wore a crown of ice crystals and held a staff wreathed in extreme frost, her elegant face twisted with rage and disbelief. Beside the throne, the king in his royal robes paled, his body trembling slightly with terror.
"Demon from a foreign land—why do you invade my realm!" Her voice carried a biting chill, attempting to subdue the intruder with imperial authority.
Lü Bu reined in the Red Hare, his Sky Piercer tilted toward the ground. Scarlet blood dripped from its tip, blooming into small red flowers upon the ice. His gaze beneath the helmet swept over the Tsaritsa and the king as if staring at two long-cold corpses.
"Invade?" Lü Bu laughed, his voice echoing through the hall with unbridled contempt and arrogance. "Does this general need a reason to raze this land to the ground?"
He paused, then suddenly roared like thunder from the ninth heaven:
"If you truly demand one—you insignificant ants, dare you stand in the way of the armies of the Nine Provinces?!"
Before the words faded, the Red Hare neighed loudly and lunged toward the throne like a bolt of crimson lightning! The ice cracked inch by inch beneath its hooves!
The Tsaritsa shrieked. Her staff burst with blinding blue light, and countless sharp ice spikes materialized out of thin air, shooting toward Lü Bu with the power to tear through all things. The king also drew his sword, mustering his last courage and charging forward with a roar.
Faced with this ice storm capable of freezing souls and piercing metal, Lü Bu did not even bother to defend. He simply thrust his halberd forward and twisted!
BOOM!
The raging storm of ice spikes struck an invisible wall of destruction, instantly disintegrating and vaporizing without a single shard reaching him. The halberd's momentum did not waver in the slightest, cutting through the Tsaritsa's last ice shield as easily as a hot knife through butter.
Crimson light erupted.
The Tsaritsa's head, adorned with its magnificent crown and frozen in a look of horror, shot into the sky. Her headless body swayed and fell from the high throne.
"No!!!" The king's eyes nearly burst from their sockets as he slashed his sword toward Lü Bu.
Lü Bu did not even glance at him. He swung his halberd backward in a blunt strike—not a slice, but a smack, as if swatting an annoying fly.
CRUNCH!
A heavy, dull thud. The king, sword and all, was smashed into a bloody pulp by the irresistible force, embedded deep into the hard ice wall behind him, leaving only a vague, mangled human-shaped indentation.
Lü Bu reined his horse around, the Tsaritsa's head impaled on his Sky Piercer. He let out a wild roar to the sky, the shockwaves shaking the entire crystal palace, sending spiderweb cracks spreading across the dome.
"Haah—!!!"
Before the roar subsided, he hurled the head away. With a swing of his halberd toward the north, the massive Frozen Throne collapsed with a thunderous crash under the pressure of his overwhelming dominance, sending shards of ice flying in all directions.
Standing atop the king's unrecognizable remains, his gaze pierced through the palace walls as if seeing the distant northern fortress of Nordkalay, Snezhnaya's last stronghold.
"Send word—"
His voice was not loud, yet carried a harsh, metallic edge, reaching every soldier of the Trapped Camp outside the hall clearly. It also froze the last hope of any surviving Snezhnayan citizens hiding in terror like a layer of frost.
"Within three days, not a living soul shall remain in Nordkalay!"
Outside the hall, the blizzard seemed to stand still. Only the soldiers of the Trapped Camp silently raised their blood-drenched weapons, their cold armor reflecting the light of snow and blood, forming a silent response more terrifying than any battle cry.
Gao Shun wiped the blood spatter from his visor and stared northward, his expression unchanged—only absolute obedience, and the coming of even more complete destruction.
Lü Bu dug his heels into the Red Hare's flanks. The steed reared up, neighing shrilly to split the sky, carrying its master over the ruins and glory of the Snezhnayan royal family toward a new battlefield of slaughter.