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The routed Westerlands soldier beside Robb stared in shock at the clash between magically formed ice and flame nearby.
Without realizing it, his right hand loosened. The miniature wildfire jar he had been holding fell to the ground. Green liquid spilled from the shattered pottery and wound across the dirt.
Since Bloodwind had gained magic, his ice-crystal power had never failed.
Robb had been focused on the hissing contest between ice and fire, but the shattering wildfire jar beside him pulled his attention away.
'The wildfire no longer has its old sharp smell.'
'That means Bloodwind can no longer identify wildfire traps.'
'Bloodwind did not sense the ambush on the Goldroad either. It seems Tywin discovered part of the wolf's ability after the Battle of Riverrun.'
'The most important thing now is to get away from these living wildfire traps.'
After that quick realization, Robb drew the greatsword Ice from Bloodwind's body and leapt onto the direwolf's head.
He shouted at the routed Westerlands men before him, "Run! All of you, run back to your camp as fast as you can. Anyone at the rear will be killed by us!"
"Run!"
The routed men around Robb froze for a moment. Once they reacted, they turned and sprinted downhill toward the Westerlands camp.
Robb's words were quickly passed to the other routed men. More than four thousand of them began racing for their lives.
Some of the clever ones dropped whatever burdens they carried. A few even shed their old armor as they ran.
"Wyl, the Wolfguard will attack with me from the left. Gendry, take the cavalry and attack from the right."
After sending the thousands of living wildfire traps away, Robb quickly turned and gave orders to Wyl and Gendry.
"Yes."
"As you command."
Under Robb and Gendry's lead, the Wolfguard and the northern light cavalry split left and right, moving around the ice field formed by the tornado of icy mist and charging toward the woods beside the Goldroad.
As he passed the ice field in the middle of the Goldroad, Robb glanced sideways at the final result of the clash between ice and fire.
The flame frozen in amber-like ice went out only after its magic was exhausted. In the end, it still failed to melt completely through the ice formed by Bloodwind's mist, but it had melted more than half of the once-thick crystal.
Robb had just led the Wolfguard around the left side of the ice field when two orange-red balls of flame shot from the woods beside the Goldroad, clearly aimed at him.
This time, Robb did not have Bloodwind breathe the tornado mist. He stretched out his left hand.
White mist rapidly condensed and formed a thick shield of ice at least four inches thick in front of him.
Unlike the earlier orange-red flame, these two fireballs exploded violently the moment they touched Robb's ice shield.
The blasts did not shatter the thick shield, but the powerful shock wave blew Robb and the shield off Bloodwind's head.
"Your Grace!"
Wyl saw Robb fall during the charge and shouted in alarm, immediately turning his ice direwolf back to rescue him.
The other Wolfguard also abandoned the charge and turned toward Robb, who had fallen to the ground. To the Wolfguard, the king's safety outweighed everything.
In the end, only Bloodwind, who had received Robb's thought, continued charging alone toward the woods from the left.
On the right side of the ice field, Gendry's cavalry had only just come into view when three or four hundred Lannister archers rushed out of the woods beside the Goldroad. As soon as they emerged, they drew and loosed on a low line.
Hundreds of arrows covered the front ranks of the northern cavalry, cutting down a large swath as if scything wheat.
"We are not far from them. They can loose at most one more volley. Brothers, keep charging!"
Gendry, no longer a battlefield novice, was fortunate enough not to be hit. After judging the distance to the enemy archers, he raised his longsword and roared.
Just as he predicted, the enemy archers fired a second volley and immediately retreated into the woods. Gendry and more than four thousand northern riders were almost at the tree line.
An orange-red flame shot from the woods.
It did not strike Gendry's cavalry. Instead, it hit the ground directly ahead of them.
A violent explosion sounded. Green wildfire burned sideways from the blast point. In the blink of an eye, a ditch of wildfire like a moat appeared before the woods.
The horse beneath Gendry, charging at the very front, was wounded by the wildfire explosion. It gave a shrill neigh and fell straight down. The green fire fed on its flesh and spread outward.
Because Robb had stressed the danger of wildfire again and again, northern officers and soldiers had long been taught about it.
So when Gendry crashed heavily to the ground and saw wildfire on his horse, he did not even try to stand first. He rolled several times to the side, putting distance between himself and the horse that no longer screamed, only burned silently.
Not every rider in the front line was as lucky.
Some unfortunate men were splashed by the exploding wildfire. They screamed and rolled on the ground, trying desperately to put out the green flames on their bodies.
It was only a useless death struggle.
Within moments, the green wildfire turned them into human torches. Their corpses charred quickly in the terrible heat.
On the ground, Gendry suddenly noticed his horse's shoes softening into liquid metal in the green flame.
He struggled to stand and looked around. Every northern rider burned to death by the wildfire had armor that was melting into liquid metal.
'This wildfire... is completely different from before.'
While Gendry was blocked by the blazing green wildfire ditch, Bloodwind also arrived before the same ditch as it spread from right to left.
With his extraordinary intelligence, Bloodwind was not going to be stopped by a ditch of wildfire.
He breathed a tornado of icy mist from his mouth, and the left section of the wildfire ditch was instantly swallowed by white frost.
When the violent mist dispersed, a clear crystal bridge had appeared.
Not only was the green wildfire in the ditch frozen inside the bridge, but even the tree trunks and other fuel within the ditch were frozen with it.
As Bloodwind leapt across the ice bridge, he heard a faint hiss. The green flames around the bridge kept burning against the ice.
'It seems this wildfire has been strengthened by some mysterious means. It still cannot overcome Bloodwind's ice magic, but to borrow a term from the games of my previous life, it can at least pierce the defense now.'
After crossing the wildfire ditch, Bloodwind rushed into the woods beside the Goldroad.
In his vision, he fixed on the strange man whose limbs were burning with fierce flame.
In the woods, Moqorro saw the terrifying giant wolf as well. With one look, he felt the immense pressure the beast brought.
That pressure was not merely the threat of a huge predator. More than that, it came from the intelligence in the giant wolf's eyes.
After meeting Bloodwind's gaze, Moqorro was certain this was no oversized direwolf. It was very likely one of the Great Other's demon minions.
Facing such a formidable demon minion for the first time, Moqorro did not dare hold anything back. He began praying loudly at once.
"My lord R'hllor, evil is shrouding your faithful slave. I beg your light to shine upon me!"
As Moqorro prayed, the flame tattoos on his cheeks and forehead turned vivid red, as if coming alive.
The orange-red flames on his limbs changed with them, transforming from blazing fire into dozens, then nearly a hundred, floating arrows of flame around his body.
"Go."
The moment Moqorro felt his spell complete, he pointed two fingers of his right hand toward Bloodwind, who was closing in. The fire arrows around him began firing like a repeating crossbow.
The arrows flew like true shafts loosed from a bow, shrieking through the air toward Bloodwind.
Bloodwind was enormous, yet startlingly agile. Fire arrows missed him again and again, striking the surrounding tree trunks instead.
Any tree struck by a fire arrow first had a deep hole burned into it. Then, as if bursting open, flame swept up and swallowed the entire tree.
More and more trees were ignited by the arrows. Flames rose through the woods like a forest fire.
Moqorro did not panic as the arrows kept missing. He continued firing without pause.
To block Bloodwind, he even used fire arrows to ignite trees directly in front of the direwolf and force him to change direction.
Bloodwind, who had been moving in a straight line, was forced to weave left and right toward Moqorro.
Although Bloodwind was highly intelligent and knew how to avoid danger, he did not notice that while he dodged the fire arrows, Moqorro was gradually guiding him toward a trap.
When Bloodwind reached a point seven or eight yards to Moqorro's front right, one fire arrow shot straight into the ground ahead.
A violent wildfire explosion erupted, swallowing Bloodwind in the blast.
"Moqorro, careful!"
Moqorro was staring intently at the smoke and dust thrown up by the wildfire explosion, trying to see Bloodwind's condition, when a Lannister soldier guarding him shouted.
As he shouted the warning, the soldier raised his shield and stepped in front of Moqorro.
A crystal spear shot from ahead with unstoppable force, punching through the shield and piercing the soldier's body.
As the brave Lannister soldier fell, Moqorro saw more than a dozen enemies suddenly appear ahead, each riding a giant direwolf.
'He must be the demon servant Tywin Lannister spoke of: Robb Stark.'
'As expected, an ominous, icy aura surrounds him.'
When Moqorro saw the young man who still held the pose from his throw, white mist rising around his body, instinct told him that this was the Lord of Light's enemy.
"Retreat according to the plan."
This ambush had been meant to test the target and confirm what he was. Having achieved that goal, Moqorro gave the order to the Lannister soldiers around him.
"Yes."
At the order, more than one hundred Lannister soldiers arranged in advance began throwing wildfire jars to cover the retreat.
Moqorro, escorted by more than two hundred other Lannister soldiers, withdrew toward the Westerlands camp below the mountain.
Just as Moqorro reached with his left hand for the reins a Lannister soldier offered him, the warhorse suddenly startled and lurched forward with a neigh.
A smaller gray shape leapt from behind the horse and flashed past Moqorro's outstretched left hand with a tearing sound.
Moqorro screamed.
Only then did the surrounding Lannister soldiers see what had happened.
Moqorro's left arm had been severed at the elbow. Red flesh and white bone were exposed. The gray shape was a normal-sized gray wolf, and in its mouth was his missing left forearm.
Pain drove orange-red flame up around Moqorro's body again. The Lannister soldiers drew weapons, preparing to kill the gray wolf.
Whether because it sensed danger or for some other reason, the gray wolf carried Moqorro's left forearm into the woods and vanished.
"Go. Back to the camp, quickly!"
Moqorro turned and ordered the Lannister soldiers beside him. With their help, he mounted the horse.
On horseback, Moqorro looked at his bleeding left arm and clenched his teeth. With a thought, a blossom of orange-red flame drifted to the wound and began to burn it shut.
A shrill scream rang through the woods.
Then the more than two hundred Lannister soldiers mounted and rode toward the Westerlands camp below the mountain.
Robb, riding Nymeria, cut down a Lannister soldier with Ice just in time to see Bloodwind return, reduced by Control to the size of an ordinary gray wolf, with a severed left forearm in his mouth.
Through the thought transmission, Robb learned that it belonged to the fire sorcerer who had attacked them.
A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Since the man had dared join Tywin's camp and ambush him, this could be considered the first payment on the debt he owed.
"I am going ahead to see the situation. Wyl, do not kill everyone here. Leave more alive for questioning."
After instructing Wyl beside him, Robb rode Nymeria and took Bloodwind in pursuit along the direction Moqorro had fled.
Today, in the first collision between the supernatural powers of ice and fire, Robb's side had gained a slight advantage.
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