Chapter 7 - The Mountain Pass Ambush
The journey into the Western Mountains was brutal. Thick snow drifts made the narrow mountain passes treacherous, and the freezing winds howled like dying wolves.
Nathaniel led the royal vanguard, flanked by fifty of his elite warriors. Grace rode beside him, wearing thick leather riding armor lined with wolf fur, a satchel containing her grandmother’s alchemy instruments slung across her saddle.
As they entered the narrow throat of Frostbite Gorge, the giant black wolf running beside Nathaniel’s horse suddenly stopped, its ears pinning back, a low rumble shaking its chest.
"Halt!" Nathaniel shouted, raising his hand.
The soldiers instantly drew their weapons, forming a defensive circle around Grace.
Above them, on the high cliffs of the gorge, dozens of figures emerged from the snowstorms. They were dressed in black iron armor, bearing the shattered crest of House Pike.
"Nathaniel!" a rogue commander shouted down from the rocks. "You brought your little Omega out into the wild! A terrible mistake!"
"Surrender your arms, and you will be granted a quick trial!" Nathaniel bellowed back.
"We don't bow to usurpers or silver-marked witches!" the commander yelled. "ARCHERS! FIRE!"
A rain of flaming arrows descended into the gorge.
"Shields up!" Nathaniel commanded, vaulting off his horse and drawing his broadsword.
The battle erupted into chaos. Rogue soldiers slid down ropes from the high cliffs, swinging their heavy axes into the royal guard. The narrow space made cavalry useless, turning the gorge into a brutal, close-quarters bloodbath.
Nathaniel fought like a man possessed, his sword cutting down enemy after enemy, his powerful wolf aura terrifying the attackers.
Grace pulled a small glass vial from her satchel—a potent sleeping powder she had prepared before leaving the palace. As three rogue soldiers rushed toward her horse, she threw the vial onto the stone ground at their feet. It exploded in a cloud of purple smoke. The three men inhaled the mist, staggered, and collapsed unconscious into the snow.
Suddenly, a massive rogue warrior jumped down from a ledge above, slamming into Grace's horse. The horse panicked, rearing up and throwing Grace onto the icy ground.
Grace scrambled backward as the giant warrior stepped toward her, a heavy iron mace raised above his head.
"The Baroness sends her regards," the man sneered, swinging the heavy weapon downward.
"GRACE!" Nathaniel screamed from across the battlefield.
Grace raised her hands instinctively, her eyes blazing with raw, blinding silver light.
BOOM!
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A shockwave of pure silver energy erupted from Grace's body, slamming into the warrior. The force was so immense that it shattered his iron armor and threw him thirty feet backward, crashing into the rock wall of the gorge.
The remaining rogue soldiers froze in absolute terror, staring at the glowing Omega surrounded by an swirling aura of silver mist.
