The battle cries tore through the night sky, shaking loose the snow piled atop the towers.
Along the wall, bowstrings thrummed without pause as the Crabb Longbowmen poured wave after wave of arrows down upon the Wildlings below like a black storm.
The fur-wrapped shields were densely studded with arrows, like enormous hedgehogs.
The wounded Wildlings fell one after another, yet some, even with several arrows buried in their bodies, still brandished their weapons and charged forward with roaring cries.
"Fire!"
With every command from the officers, the Crabb Longbowmen above repeated the same motions—nock, draw, loose.
Each volley of arrows felled a swath of enemies below, but the besieging Wildlings seemed to have forgotten fear entirely.
The corpses beneath the wall piled ever higher, gradually forming a slope built from flesh and blood.
Fearless of death, the Wildlings raised fur-wrapped siege ladders through the rain of arrows and pressed them tightly against the wall, while those behind them screeched and began to climb.
"Push!!"
On the wall, the roar of a Crabb Centurion, Ser Varg, ripped through the clamor of battle.
At his shout, one siege ladder crashed over. The dozen or so Wildlings climbing it screamed as they plummeted heavily to the ground, bursting into sprays of blood.
"Pour the oil!!"
Replies rang out in succession as boiling black oil cascaded down the ladders. Screams instantly erupted below, and the wave-like assault fell into chaos and stalled.
Before the defending soldiers could catch their breath, enormous fireballs hurled by catapults beyond the wall tore through the night sky and smashed into the fortifications.
Burning tar splattered everywhere, and soldiers unable to dodge let out heart-rending screams.
Boom—
The impact of a tar jar thrown by a catapult was tremendous. Tyrion, who had just climbed the tower, instinctively