The first wave of monsters hit the ridgeline like a storm tide crashing against a cliff.
I felt it more than saw it—the impact that traveled through the stone, through the frozen earth, through the very air itself. The sound was a roar, a thousand screams woven into one, a cacophony of hunger and rage that seemed to shake the world to its foundations.
And through it all, the shield wall held.
I had heard stories of the northern shield wall, had trained to stand within it, and had watched the warriors practice their formations until the movements were etched into their bones. But seeing it now, in the grey light of dawn, with the darkness crashing against it like a living thing—it was something I could never have imagined.
