When the burning explosive charges landed in the barbarian army's formation, some enemy soldiers caught the objects that looked like cloth bags, and some even dared to open them to see what they were. But soon, the ignorant and the reckless paid a heavy price for their actions.

Boom! Boom!

A series of incandescent flashes lit up the sky, followed by bursts of compressed flames. The shockwave from the massive explosion tore apart the densely packed barbarian Silver Ring Alliance forces at the breach in the city wall, scattering them like paper. The soft flesh and brittle bones inside their bodies were shattered into countless tiny fragments, which fell outside the city wall, forming blood-red circles thirty meters in diameter.

After a brief moment of disorientation, the Silver Ring Army collapsed first. The soldiers dropped their weapons, cried out, pushed and shoved each other, and cursed each other as they fled toward their own camp, which triggered an avalanche of the entire army.

Faced with an enemy who had lost the will to fight, the successor army effortlessly crushed the enemy that had breached the city walls.

The cavalry regiment commander shouted, "The commander has given the order: cavalry regiment, assemble! Open the city gates!"

The knights mounted their horses, the light cavalry drew their longswords, and the mounted archers took out their shortbows and prepared their quivers.

As the winch slowly turned, the city gate opened again.

This time, however, there were no war beasts; instead, there were the terrified and helpless eyes of the enemies and their unguarded backs.

"God bless the Holy Son! Charge!"

The knights charged once more. The heavy cavalry, equipped with heavy armor and wielding dragon lances, led the charge, breaking through the enemy's dense formation and crushing anything in their path. Light cavalry, clad in leather armor, followed closely behind the heavy cavalry, reaping the scattered lives with their longswords. Horse archers, on the other hand, bypassed the charge route, flanking the enemy and focusing their arrows on the soldiers who stubbornly resisted.

The inheritor sniper arrived at the arrow tower and, using his "Eagle Eye" and "Perception" abilities, sent an iron arrow from the crossbow into the head of the enemy squad leader.

A strange scene unfolded on the battlefield.

Less than three hundred cavalrymen pursued four thousand infantrymen. Without flag signals, drums, or messengers, they relied entirely on the "hive" parasites to transmit information, executing textbook-perfect infiltrations and splits at the most opportune moments and from the most fatal weaknesses.

Some of the barbarian warriors and veterans had just gathered a small group of their people, intending to launch a counterattack, but they were utterly routed by this 'surgical' attack.

The three-kilometer stretch from Beishi Fortress to the Allied camp became a veritable "blood road." Thousands of soldiers died in pursuit and trampling, their cries clearly audible even several kilometers away.

As evening fell, the first day of the defense of Northstone Fortress concluded with the return of the knights after a four-hour pursuit of the enemy. The Twilight Knights had lost 7 knights, 49 sergeants, and 132 combatants, along with 251 wounded, including the fortress commander, Haskins. The casualties of the barbarian and Silver Ring allied forces were impossible to ascertain precisely; nearly a thousand soldiers died on the battlefield, but many more fled the deadly terrain, with fewer than two thousand warriors ultimately returning to camp.

Over the next few days, the roles of the knights and the allied forces switched several times, and the war entered a stalemate.

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As the sun sets, its afterglow offers travelers on earth the last bit of warmth from the daytime.

At the foot of the Falling Star Mountains, there is a winding path that does not appear on any map, but is affectionately called the "White Frost Path" by countless herb-gathering monks and shepherds.

Brunhilde, riding her warhorse, gazed at the snow-capped mountains in the distance and listened to the cries of eagles circling the peaks. She stretched with a sense of exhilaration.

Upon spotting Cumberland talking to the guide, the Valkyrie spurred her horse and trotted a few steps to the old knight's side.

How much longer until we arrive?

Cumberland stopped talking, looked at Brunhilde, and laughed.

He understood that this was the woman's nature, and coupled with her long-term isolation from the world, she had always been straightforward in her words and actions.

Cumberland looked at the road ahead, which was widening, and said to her, "After crossing that mountain and following the river for another half a day, we'll see Silver Ring City. We might camp on the mountain tonight and let the Knights of the North Island prepare."

Brunhilde nodded and rode away from the old knight.

That night, the Knights of the North Island lit a campfire at the foot of a sheltered mountainside.

Golden, oily wild boars were skewered on sticks and placed on the fire, sizzling loudly.

The cheap, foamy ale was passed from the hands of the North Island warriors, accompanied by constant laughter and boasting.

Wrestling, arm wrestling, axe throwing—the various games played by the people of the North Island added a lively atmosphere to this cold night.

Sitting on the large rock, Cumberland quietly wiped the armor in his hands, watching everything the North Islanders did with a smile.

But his subordinates, the knights of the Twilight Knights, were not so good-natured. They knelt before the Bible, holding crosses, silently reciting prayers, and occasionally casting disgusted glances at these "noisy" fellows.

Holding a wine glass, Brunhilde walked up to Cumberland, placed a glass of wine in front of the old knight, and said to him, "We welcome you to join us."

Cumberland glanced back at his men, then smiled and declined the Valkyrie's offer: "Thank you for the invitation, but today is a day of fasting during Advent, and they have things to do."

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