Chapter 42: Ambush
The convoy came to an abrupt halt.
The heavy wheels of the carriage sank slightly into the frozen road as ice cracked beneath the sudden weight shift. Disturbed by the stoppage, snow drifted in uneven spirals around the formation.
Inside the cabin, Maverick’s eyew narrowed immediately.
Outside, tension rose like a drawn blade...
"What is happening out there?" Goldric asked, his tone calm but carrying an authority that silenced hesitation.
A knight on a Frostmane steed approached the carriage window quickly. His breath came out in controlled white bursts as he reported.
"My Lord, there is an obstruction ahead. The men are clearing it now."
Goldric’s expression tightened slightly as he asked in his deep voice.
"What kind of obstruction could cause us to stop moving?"
The knight hesitated briefly before replying.
"It appears to be a gigantic frostwood tree that has fallen across the road, My Lord."
Hearing that, Maverick’s golden eyes narrowed slightly. "That doesn’t make sense."
Then he turned towards his father. "Frostwoods are generally known to be resilient. Besides, there hasn’t been any storm strong enough recently to bring down a tree of that size."
Goldric did not answer immediately as a brief silence fiked the cabin...
Then he spoke clearly. "I agree..." There was a slight pause before he continued. "It seems that something is wrong, then."
Maverick exhaled once and stood. "Shall I check it out?"
By the time he asked, he was already near the carriage door.
Goldric observed him briefly before nodding once. "If it is only a tree, leave it to the knights."
Then his golden eyes sharpened like a blade.
"But if it is something else... You know what to do."
Maverick nodded once. "Understood."
Then, he stepped out...
*****
The cold outside struck him immediately he came out of the carriage.
Unlike the comfortable warmth inside the cabin, the northern winds bit against exposed skin while snow drifted endlessly through the forest.
Maverick adjusted the fur mantle resting around his shoulders before walking calmly toward the front of the convoy...
As he walked by, the knights subtly parted...
At the front stood Commander Dren.
One of the senior knights of House Valehart. The man possessed the bulky frame of a veteran warrior hardened by countless battles.
His black beard was stained with frost and snow while old scars crossed portions of his face beneath the pale aurora light.
"Commander Dren." Maverick called out. "What is happening here?"
Dren turned immediately and dismounted from his Frostmane steed.
"Young Lord Maverick..."
He bowed his head respectfully before gesturing toward the road ahead.
"The men are attempting to move the obstruction blocking the road..."
Ahead, for armoured knights strained against a gigantic frostwood trunk laying across the ground. Snow had gathered heavily upon the trunk while the men tried to push it off the road.
Maverick observed the scene quietly, then his brows creased as he asked.
"Was the tree already here before the convoy arrived?"
Commander Dren shook his head. "No, Young Lord. The road was clear earlier."
There was a faint silence as Maverick looked around.
Towering frostwoods surrounded the convoy from every direction, their massive branches intertwining high above like the ribs of some ancient beast.
Snow drifted softly through the air while the auroras shimmered overhead. Everything was natural.
And yet... Something felt wrong.
The forest was too quiet. Too still. Like a predator waiting to pounce.
His instincts pressed uneasily against his mind as he looked around.
Commander Dren noticed the subtle shift in his expression and asked carefully. "Should we leave the tree and take another route, Young Lord?"
Even he could feel it. The atmosphere was tense as though something was about to happen any moment...
Maverick glanced at him briefly before shaking his head. "No... We can not delay any longer."
There was a brief pause before he continued.
"Tell the men to be quick. We follow the normal route."
Commander Dren nodded and proceeded to hurry the knights...
Then, Maverick turned toward the carriage once more. Even as he walked towards it, his golden eyes continued scanning the forest carefully...
He had barely taken five steps forward when... A shout suddenly split through the frozen night.
"ATTACK!"
Immediately after...
"AMBUSH! DEFENSIVE FORMATION!"
Instantly, the entire convoy erupted into motion.
Maverick turned sharply toward the source of the voice...
Through the drifting snow, he saw a knight dragging another across the frozen ground urgently. Blood stained the white snow beneath them in scarlet streaks while alertness spread through portions of the formation...
Maverick frowned deeply, then he turned again toward the surrounding frostwoods. His golden eyes gleamed for a few moments and finally... He saw them.
Figures crouched high upon the tallest branches of the frostwoods; silent and watching...
At first, they liked almost unreal... Like shadows given form beneath the aurora-lit skies.
Their bodies blended unnaturally well with the darkness surrounding the forest, making them difficult to notice unless one looked carefully.
Maverick’s eyes narrowed as he observed them further...
The figures wore cloaks so dark they seemed woven from the shadows of some ancient moonlit temple. The fabric shifted alongside the night itself, allowing them to merge almost seamlessly into the forest darkness.
Beneath the cloaks were fitted dark tunics reinforced with layered leather straps. Attacked to those straps were small metallic runic talismans that glimmered faintly whenever aurora light touched them.
Their forearms and hands were wrapped tightly with black cloth bindings. Their faces remained hidden beneath deep hoods and lower masks that concealed everything except their eyes.
Those eyes were cold, sharp, and predatory.
Their appearance reminded Maverick of stories from the eastern territories of Valoria; silent assassins who killed entire their enemies even realized danger had arrived.
"Assassins..." His gaze sharpened further. "...in the Frozen North."
There was only one organization in Valoria truly known for something like this.
The Shadow Shard.
It was an infamous organization of assassins, spies, infiltrators, and information brokers whose existence had long spread far across the kingdom.
They were ghosts that walked between noble houses; silent blades that are hired with gold and contracts.
And just like House Noctivane, they specialized in darkness. In fact, throughout Valoria, countless speculations existed that House Noctivane secretly controlled the Shadow Shard from behind the scenes.
However, those rumours were not entirely baseless. After all, among all the Great Houses, only House Noctivane possessed both the skills and the resources necessary to maintain such an organization.
They were the House of masters; masters of espionage, masters of concealment, and masters of assassination.
The pieces just fit too perfectly.
But House Noctivane had always vehemently denied every accusations. And honestly... Their argument made sense.
Shadow Shard was known to operate for wealth and contracts. Meanwhile, House Noctivane was already one of the Great Houses of Valoria.
Why would they risk becoming enemies of the entire kingdom for mere money?
That single argument had eventually caused the rumours to quiet down. But they never truly disappeared.
Now, standing amidst the frozen forest while staring at the shadowed figures surrounding the convoy... Maverick found himself genuinely surprised.
Then his thoughts deepened. And the more he thought about it... The colder his expression became.
If Shadow Shard truly stood here tonight, then it means that someone powerful had hired them. And that person was someone who knew House Valehart’s movement, and wanted Valehart blood spilled upon northern snow.
But just who would be daring enough?
Maverick hadn’t thought further when the assassins moved.
They jumped from the top of the frostwoods and landed silently and strategically around the convoy...
"Formation!" Commander Dren roared.
Instantly, Valehart knights reacted...
Soul Essences erupted across the frozen road as golden light burst outward and silver radiance illuminated the forest.
Weapons materialized in flashes of Aether...
Knights whose Soul Essences took the form of swords manifested gleaming Scimitars directly into their hands. Others drew physical longswords from the scabbard at their waists as runes ignited along the steel surfaces...
The steel armoured knights manifested Shields and within seconds... The convoy transformed from an escort formation into a battlefield.
There were a dozen knights escorting the carriage before but one of them was down already. Now, eleven knights remained standing against fifteen assassins...
Commander Dren stepped forward heavily, manifesting a massive rune-etched Greatsword glowing with a pale silver light.
"Protect the Young Lord!" He ordered.
Immediately, several knights shifted closer around Maverick; but he barely acknowledged them...
His attention remained fixed upon the assassins because now, they also manifested their own Soul Essences..
Some wielded dual Katanas, their curved bladed glowing faintly with compressed Aether. Others manifested twin Daggers shimmering with silver light.
Then... Aether surged through every weapon; the atmosphere tightened instantly as the cold sharpened and pressure spread outward.
And then... The first assassin vanished.
His body blurred into shadow so quickly that sight struggled to track his movements...
Instantly, he appeared before a Valehart Knight, dual Katanas crossing downward toward the man’s neck...
The knight did not see the strike, but his instincts screamed at him.
Years of brutal training and warfare had sharpened his reactions beyond thought and so... Almost immediately, he twisted sideways while snapping his shield upward diagonally.
CLANG!
Sword met Shield and sparks exploded outward...
Aether compressed violently at the point of impact before detonating into a circular shockwave that blasted snow across the battlefield...
The Knight’s arm trembled violently beneath the force... But the assassin was not done yet.
The moment his blades struck, he twisted his body fluidly into another slash aimed at the Knight’s exposed ribs...
But the knight reacted quickly as his sword swept sideways...
CLANG!
Steel collided again...
The assassin slid backward across the snow soundlessly.
After that short exchange, the knight was already breathing heavily but it seems like the assassin was just getting started... Because he disappeared again.
The knight’s pupils shrank as he scanned his surroundings...
His instincts screamed and he spun immediately, but too late...
A Dagger suddenly emerged from the knight’s blind spot, stabbing beneath his shoulder plate...
SHING!
Blood splashed across the snow as the knight staggered. Before he could recover, another assassin appeared beside him and twin Daggers flashed once more...
SHING!!
The knight collapsed lifelessly into the snow immediately...
The entire exchange wasn’t even up to five minutes before House Valehart lost a knight.
Elsewhere, another assassin engaged two knights simultaneously...
His twin Daggers danced like silver serpents beneath the auroras as he swung them.
One knight swung downward heavily...
But the assassin sidestepped smoothly.
The second knight took that opportunity and thrust forward immediately...
But the assassin bent backward unnaturally, narrowly avoiding the blade before kicking snow upward into the knight’s vision...
Then, he vanished into the shadows beneath the frostwoods.
The knights froze...
"Where did he...?"
The knight couldn’t complete his statement as there was a blur behind them...
But the other knight reacted instantly, spinning his Shield backward.
BOOM!
Aether exploded violently upon impact. The knight slid several meters backward across the snow, boots digging deep trenches into the frozen ground...
His arm was almost numb...
Just how strong were these killers?
The assassin tilted his head slightly... Then linger at him once more...
Twin Daggers flashed like streaks of silver lightning toward the Knight who blocked...
CLANG! CLANG!! CLANG!!!
Sparks exploded continuously as the assassin’s attacks intensified; every strike was targeted at a gap in the armour while every movement was one that sought death.
Finally, the assassin abruptly disappeared again...
The knight’s eyes widened... But it was too late.
A blade emerged from beneath his arm and then...
SHING!
The Dagger pierced through the gap beneath his breastplate... And the knight collapsed instantly.
With that, the battlefield rapidly devolved into a controlled chaos...
The Valehart knights fought with discipline and coordination... But it seems the assassins were overpowering as they fought with an even greater efficiency...
Every exchange became a struggle between instinct and execution as knights began falling and the formation started to show cracks...
"Hold the line!" Commander Dren roared.
His Greatsword swept violently outward before him...
WHOOSH!
A wave of condensed silver aether erupted from the blade, cleaving directly through an assassin attempting to flank him.
Blood sprayed across the snow...
But another assassin appeared instantly behind Dren, katanas descending toward his spine.
Dren reacted on instinct as he spun halfway while dragging the flat of the Greatsword backward...
CLANG!
Sparks erupted...
The force alone cracker the ice beneath his feet. Dren gritted his teeth and shoved forward violently, forcing the assassin backward.
But before he could pursue, another assassin struck from the side...
Then another... Until even Dren himself was being overwhelmed.
Maverick’s brows furrowed as he watched the battle. He noticed that the knights were losing; not because they were weak, but because it seems the assassins came more prepared for this battle.
The way he sees it, it was obvious that each assassin was...
He was still in his line of thought when an assassin broke through the knights’ collapsing formation and lunged at him.
Twin Daggers gleamed beneath the aurora light as they stabbed at him...
Commander Dren noticed immediately.
"Young Lord Maverick!" He shouted but he was too far away.
The assassin crossed the snow in a single step as Daggers descended toward Maverick’s throat...
Finally, Maverick moved as he exhaled softly. And then... A golden light erupted outward...
