Early the next morning, sunlight pierced the icy mist and illuminated the deathly still Silver Vein River.
The snowy plain on the eastern bank seemed to have festered overnight, countless purplish-red figures pouring down the towering embankment like pus and blood.
They were tens of thousands of "Ascended." Stark naked, they actually gave off steam in the bitter wind at forty below zero.
This army did not charge blindly. Instead, it deliberately avoided the flanking fields of fire covered by the Archon Bridge's defenders.
The ice groaned beneath tens of thousands of trampling feet, a sound that set teeth on edge. The tremors traveled across its surface all the way to the western bank.
Finally, the purplish-red tide stopped dead three hundred meters from the Ice Wall-just beyond the effective range of powerful bows and crossbows.
"They're here."
Berick's fingers, purple with cold, compulsively cut his deck of cards, which was missing one card. He gave a dry laugh. "Captain, this hand... the dealer's betting big. There are so damn many of them."
Alex struck his breastplate twice over his heart. His voice rang from beneath his visor, cold and hard as iron, drowning out the wind:
"Then flip the table and put these poor bastards out of their misery. Remember, cut off their heads and they'll die. This blood debt goes on Hector's account. Stay linked. Nobody dies before I do!"
Veylin lowered his binoculars, his expression grim.
He had seen them clearly.
Leading the advance were neither heavily armored knights nor orderly infantry formations, but a purplish-red formation over ten thousand strong.
They were "Ascended." Some clutched crude weapons, while others dragged hastily built siege ladders. Like livestock being driven forward, they stumbled toward the riverbank.
"A probing attack..." Veylin murmured. "Using 'expendables' to test our firepower deployment