Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence - Chapter 706 - 397: Black Tide

Chapter 706: Chapter 397: Black Tide

The massive black iron gate was slowly lifted, snow fragments sliding down the threshold and falling into darkness.

A moment later, a metallic roar that shook the chest resounded.

The iron hooves of the Seventeenth Legion stepped out from the shadows.

No horns, no drums, no ceremony, only the deafening sound of trampling.

Thousands of heavily armored knights poured out from within the gates, as if the darkness itself had been cast into form.

They were clad in black steel plate armor, riveted with cold iron, with storm-branded swirls engraved on the shoulder guards.

Every knight seemed like a weapon forged from steel and fury, and the warhorses beneath them wore heavy half-body armor, exhaling white mist like ferocious wolves.

Ground shook beneath their feet, snow was torn, crushed, and splinters of ice were ground into powder under their heavy hooves.

On the vast snowfield, they were not a formation, but an entire moving wall of black iron.

Oppressive, cold, merciless.

When thousands of lances rose up in unison, the “clang—” of lance tails striking armor exploded like thunder, shaking the snow off distant mountainside spruce trees.

Ackman Greer rode at the forefront.

His black-scaled warhorse was as tall as a magical beast, its mane whipped up by the cold winds, cloaked in heavy armor, a cape snapping open in the snowstorm like a war flag about to ignite.

Behind, a serpentine dragon of black armor spanning several kilometers moved with him, iron hooves rolling, armor grinding, lances swaying, forming a soul-shaking oppression amid the wind and snow.

He felt his heartbeat being driven by this iron flow, the rhythm growing more insistent, urging him forward, ever forward.

This was power, this was his true confidence.

When they stepped onto the Glacier Plain, another iron flow appeared on the opposite end of the battlefield.

To the left, Fourteenth Legion·Iron Wall.

An array of heavy knights with disciplined formation like iron.

Their steps were steady and heavy, each advance together was like a city wall slowly pushing through the snow.

The wall of shields was so tight it was nearly seamless, the lance array appeared to have been measured to the exact size.

Snowflakes fell on the armor, leaving only a thin layer of frost that quickly shook off by the residual warmth and action of the knights, revealing the cold, hard black steel beneath.

To the right, Seventh Legion·Mad Wolves.

Their armor varied in style, yet retained the insignia and sequence of the Empire’s regular army.

Only on their shoulder guards and capes could be seen the spoils from the Northern Wilderness: whitened animal bones, dried manes, mottled magical beast leather.

These are not crude decorations but symbols left by conquered enemies, representing the Seventh Legion’s years of heroic battles against magical beasts on the border.

The three streams of knights slowly converged on the vast icefield.

When the sounds of iron hooves from the three armies overlapped, it was like the heavy thunder roared through the heavens and earth, even the wailing of the wind was suppressed, turning into whimpering.

Although the Fourteenth and Seventh Legions together had four thousand riders, in front of Ackman’s three thousand iron cavalry, they seemed restrained like two packs of hunting dogs surrounding a lion king.

During the march, the officers of the three sides completed a brief yet firm tactical confirmation in the wind and snow.

The Seventeenth Legion’s heavy cavalry would serve as the main hammer, directly hitting the gates and central defense line of Frost Halberd City.

The Fourteenth Legion’s Iron Wall formation was in charge of the left wing, forming a heavy shield wall in the snow to prevent any surprise attacks.

The Seventh Legion’s Mad Wolf knights were arranged to roam the right wing, responsible for cutting off any potential escape routes, especially those lords and escorts trying to sneak away through the hillside paths.

In the eyes of these three armies, this tactic didn’t even require complex simulation; they weren’t facing a fully fortified fortress, but a Northern Army crippled by years of war.

More importantly, it was a surprise attack, those Northern Lords at a meeting would never expect a sudden assault.

No one believed there would be fleeing soldiers, because in their logic, to have fleeing soldiers, there must at least be a proper battle.

And this time, it didn’t even count as a war.

In the eyes of these battle-hardened regular armies, Frost Halberd City was but a piece of meat placed on the cutting board, waiting to be sliced.

All they had to do was march forward along the established route, grinding everything into shattered snow under their iron hooves and lance tips.

……

Ackman rode at the vanguard, wind cutting like knives, striking his face but making him more awake, more excited.

He recalled both forces once more…

Seven thousand knights against a newly rebuilt city.

In the history of the Northern Territory, only during barbarian invasions had such large-scale battles occurred, yet this time, the initiator wasn’t the Barbarian Race, it was him, Ackman.

“Louis…” Ackman laughed darkly, “You can only blame your bad luck for encountering me in this special period.”

In Ackman’s intelligence, it was an overwhelmingly one-sided good news:

The main force of the Red Tide isn’t in Frost Halberd City; left in the city are only about two thousand assorted knights from various nobility.

The new defense works weren’t fully installed yet, the city walls just finished their last layer of protection, like semi-dry mud walls, unable to withstand a heavy cavalry charge.

This isn’t Frost Halberd City; once that impregnable fortress, now soft meat that crumbles underfoot.

Ackman could already envision the future, Frost Halberd City conquered, the Northern Lords under his control, the lifelines of steel and coal in his grasp. When royal power shifts, he would be the foremost hero.

Ackman Greer, Duke of the North!

Amidst the wind and snow, he raised his lance and pointed toward the northern city: “Haha! Forward!”