The battlefield froze for only a heartbeat after the riders abandoned Muddock's side. Then everything exploded at once.
The monastery knights tightened formation immediately, shields locking together beneath the cold night wind. Torches burned across the shoreline while the sea crashed violently behind them. Horses stomped against the frozen earth, restless beneath the rising tension.
Muddock's face twisted with fury. The fifty men who crossed over to Kelvin now stood behind the monastery line with lowered heads, gripping their weapons tightly as if expecting death from either side.
Muddock slowly raised his sword toward them. "Traitors." The word came low, and deadly.
Then he turned sharply toward his remaining army and lifted the blade high into the air. "Attack!" His horse surged forward instantly.
The Green City army roared behind him and thundered across the field like a breaking wave. Tywin's voice rose at the same moment.
"In the name of Odin and Freya, the old gods, hold your lines!" The monastery shield wall tightened.
Spears lowered. Then both armies collided. The impact shook the battlefield violently.
Steel slammed against shields with deafening force while horses screamed and crashed into the front lines. Men shouted prayers, curses, and battle cries beneath the chaos as the first bodies fell into the snow.
The Green City soldiers pushed hard immediately. They had numbers, weight, and momentum.
Their first assault nearly bent the monastery formation backward. Tywin stood near the center of the shield wall, his sword rising and falling methodically. Every strike he delivered dropped another man. Blood splashed across his armor while arrows hissed overhead into the darkness.
"Hold!"
His voice cut through the chaos again. The monastery knights obeyed. Their formation remained solid.
But the mercenary warriors Kelvin had hired were not trained like the monastery brothers. Fear spread quickly among them once the real slaughter began.
One man dropped his spear and tried to flee before a Green City soldier hacked him down from behind. Another lost control of his shield after taking a sword strike to the face. The front line staggered briefly.
Muddock saw it immediately. A cruel smile spread across his face as he carved through another mercenary. "Let us see how long your holy wall survives now!"
His soldiers roared louder and pressed harder. The shield wall groaned beneath the pressure.
Meanwhile, deep beneath Green City, Newton moved silently through the tunnel passages beneath the castle.
The air underground smelled damp and old. Water dripped slowly from the stone ceiling while torchlight flickered against the narrow walls. The green soldier's armor still covered him completely, the hood hiding most of his face beneath shadow.
His footsteps remained measured, and controlled.
He followed the directions Kelvin described carefully, counting the turns beneath his breath while one hand rested near the hilt of his sword.
Then a voice suddenly echoed ahead. "Halt!" Newton stopped instantly. A soldier stepped forward from the darkness near an iron gate.
The man's hand already rested on his weapon. "Who are you?"
Newton lowered his head slightly, forcing his breathing to remain calm. "I was posted here by the Warden."
The guard frowned immediately.."That is strange." He stepped closer. "The Warden does not assign men beneath the western tunnels without consulting me first."
Newton kept his composure steady. "You may ask him yourself if you doubt me."
The soldier stared at him silently. Something about Newton unsettled him. Maybe the accent, maybe the posture, or maybe just pure instinct.
The guard's expression hardened. "Remove your helmet."
The command lingered heavily between them. Newton remained still for one second too long.
The guard noticed.
His hand tightened around the sword hilt immediately. "Take. Off. Your helmet."
Slowly, Newton obeyed. He pulled the helmet free and allowed the torchlight to fall across his face.
The guard studied him carefully. His eyes narrowed. "You look like a Northerner."
Newton said nothing. The guard took another step forward now. "Who sent you here?"
"I am one of the soldiers purchased by the Warden."
The guard laughed immediately. Not amused laughter, but suspicious laughter. "I personally recruit soldiers for the Warden," he said coldly. "And I do not remember you."
Silence.
Then the guard's expression changed completely. "Intruder!"
Newton moved before the second shout could leave the man's throat. His sword flashed through the tunnel darkness.
Steel crashed against steel as the guard barely blocked the first strike. The impact drove him backward into the stone wall. He tried shouting again, but Newton lunged harder, forcing him completely off balance.
The fight lasted only seconds. Newton slipped beneath the guard's next swing and drove the sword through his chest.
The man gasped violently. Then collapsed. But the shout had already echoed through the tunnels.
Footsteps thundered from deeper inside. Newton ripped the keys from the dead guard's belt just as more soldiers rushed around the corner.
Three this time. No hesitation remained now. Newton attacked first.
The narrow tunnel worked against the soldiers immediately. They could not surround him properly. The first man died before fully raising his sword. Newton twisted sharply and blocked another strike before smashing his elbow into the second soldier's face hard enough to break his nose.
The third man tried to retreat and shout for reinforcements. Newton cut him down from behind.
More footsteps approached. Newton did not wait. He sprinted deeper into the tunnels, cutting through every soldier who appeared before him. Steel rang endlessly against stone while blood spread across the narrow floor beneath his boots.
One soldier lunged from a side corridor. Newton parried the attack and slashed across the man's throat without slowing.
Another tried to block the passage with a spear. Newton seized the shaft, yanked the man forward violently, and buried the sword into his stomach.
The deeper he moved, the louder the castle above became.
Distant horns, shouting.
War.
Tywin was keeping them distracted. Finally Newton reached the dungeon chambers. Iron bars stretched across both sides of the underground corridor while exhausted prisoners lifted their heads weakly at the sound of approaching battle.
Kelvin's loyal men. Newton unlocked the nearest gate quickly. "I was sent by Kelvin Ezion."
The prisoners stared at him for half a heartbeat. Then everything changed. Hope exploded across their faces. Kelvin's name still held power here.
Newton tossed swords from the fallen guards toward them. "Arm yourselves and follow me." No one questioned him.
Men rushed from the cells immediately, grabbing weapons from dead guards sprawled across the floor. Some looked starved. Others bruised and beaten. But rage burned inside all of them now.
One prisoner gripped a sword so tightly his knuckles whitened. "The Warden lives?"
Newton nodded once. "That is enough," the man growled. More guards stormed into the dungeon corridor.
This time the prisoners met them head-on. The fighting turned savage immediately.
The imprisoned soldiers fought like men clawing themselves back from death. They overwhelmed the guards brutally, taking weapons from every fallen body until nearly every freed prisoner stood armed.
Then Newton led them upward. They surged through the castle corridors like a flood.
Servants screamed and fled. Castle guards tried forming defensive lines inside the stairways, but Newton and the freed soldiers smashed through them repeatedly. The fighting spread from hallway to hallway while bells rang throughout Green City. Bodies littered the stone floors behind them.
Outside the city walls, the battle at the shoreline worsened. The monastery shield wall still held, but barely.
The mercenary warriors continued dying faster than the trained knights beside them. Every time one fell, the Green City soldiers pressed harder against the opening.
Tywin fought at the front without pause, his armor soaked dark with blood. Still the enemy kept coming.
Muddock rode behind his lines now, shouting orders while watching the monastery formation weaken piece by piece.
Victory was close. He could feel it.
Then suddenly another sound rolled across the battlefield.
Horses were approaching fast.
Many horses.
Muddock turned sharply toward the city. At first he saw only torchlight moving through the gates. Then riders burst from the darkness.
Dozens at first, then hundreds.
Kelvin's imprisoned soldiers. And at the front rode Newton. Blood covered his sword and armor as his force thundered directly toward the rear of Muddock's army.
Muddock's composure shattered instantly. "Rear formation!" he roared desperately. "Wall on both sides!"
Too late.
Panic had already begun. His soldiers spun around in confusion as Newton's force crashed into them from behind. The battlefield split apart immediately.
Now they fought enemies on both sides. The monastery knights pressed forward from the front while Newton carved through the rear ranks like a blade driven into exposed flesh.
Green City soldiers stumbled over one another trying to reposition. Their formation collapsed.
Fear spread fast after that. Newton cut through man after man as he forced deeper into the battlefield. Kelvin's loyal soldiers followed behind him, roaring their former Warden's name into the night.
The divine army surged forward harder now that the pressure against the shield wall weakened. Tywin saw the opening instantly.
"Advance!"
The monastery knights slammed forward together. Muddock's army broke apart between both assaults.
The battle turned into slaughter. Muddock gritted his teeth violently as he watched soldiers flee in every direction.
Then his eyes found Newton. The Northerner. The one destroying everything. Hatred twisted across Muddock's face.
Without hesitation, he drove his horse straight toward him.
Newton barely turned in time before Muddock's sword came crashing downward. Steel exploded against steel.
The force nearly tore the weapon from Newton's hand.
Muddock attacked again immediately. Unlike the other soldiers, the Warden fought with terrifying strength. Years of war experience showed in every movement. Heavy. Precise. Ruthless.
Newton blocked another strike and staggered backward.
Muddock pressed harder. "You should have stayed in your monastery, boy!"
Their swords clashed violently again. Newton tried countering, but Muddock's shield smashed into his chest before the strike landed properly. The impact knocked the breath from him instantly.
Newton stumbled backward across the blood-soaked ground.
Muddock advanced without mercy. His sword swung again. Newton barely dodged in time, but the edge still tore across part of his shoulder armor.
Pain exploded through his arm. Then Muddock slammed the shield directly into Newton's face.
Everything vanished. Newton crashed onto the frozen ground hard. A sharp ringing filled his ears. The battlefield became distant suddenly.
Muted, and blurry.
He tried rising, but the world tilted violently around him.
Above him, Muddock lifted his sword for the killing strike.
Newton's vision struggled to focus. Then something hissed through the night air.
An arrow.
It struck Muddock deep in the side. The Warden jerked violently. Shock spread across his face as he staggered backward.
Newton blinked hard and looked past him. Kelvin sat atop his horse several yards away holding a bow.
The dwarf smiled faintly.
Muddock slowly turned toward him. Blood spread rapidly across his armor. For one final second, hatred burned in his eyes.
Then the strength left his body. He collapsed from the saddle and struck the frozen ground heavily, and died.