The Mountain of Ice and Fire

A wave of icy cold instantly froze Jon Snow. The Valyrian steel sword Longclaw in his hand made a blocking motion, but it was already too late.

Jon maintained his blocking posture, his hand holding the sword just raising Longclaw, his body frozen to the ground, his heart already pierced. The protective leather he wore was as fragile as parchment under the ice spider's attack. The ice spider's leg blade withdrew, and blood spurted out like a bloody arrow, but he did not fall.

The shadow of the ice spider had already disappeared from Jon's horrified eyes.

The translucent ice spider, its eight blue eyes on its head casting a blue light, *poof poof poof*, its leg blades were as sharp and hard as an Other's ice sword. In the blink of an eye, the snow was covered with bloodstains, and the screams of the ranger brothers rose and fell.

In an instant, seven brothers fell!

No one could withstand a single blow from the ice spider. Its speed of advance and retreat was like the wind, and each strike of its leg blade was precise. The person struck cried out but before they could fall, the ice spider was already gone, its leg blade already piercing the body of the second person.

"Surround it!" First Ranger Boswell commanded, his voice trembling. The magical creature was too terrifying, the ice spider too large, the speed and slaughter too horrifying. Those eight blue eyes inspired an involuntary fear in his heart, but he drew his dragonglass dagger, did not retreat, but advanced. "Surround it, surround it, surround it, kill it."

More than forty brothers drew their dragonglass weapons: dragonglass daggers and dragonglass short swords.

Dragonglass weapons were the bane of ice spiders. Just a touch to the ice spider's body would cause it to explode into a pile of ice shards.

This was a battle-hardened elite ranger unit. It was the first time they had faced this terrifying magical ice spider. The brothers suppressed the urge to turn and flee, and surrounded it from all sides. With the ice spider's speed, fleeing would only cause them to die faster. Their only chance was to surround it and kill it with their numerical advantage.

*Poof poof poof!*

*Ah ah ah!*

Another three brothers fell, struck by the blade, blood spurting out. The snow was already covered with bloodstains, a shocking sight.

The ice spider was too fast. Before the rangers could complete the encirclement, another three had fallen.

"Close ranks, form a line!" Boswell shouted. He threw himself forward, waving his dragonglass dagger at the ice spider. The ice spider's leg blade came stabbing at his face, aiming for his forehead. Boswell did not dodge or evade, his whole body surging with hot blood, his hand slamming the dagger against the leg blade of the ice spider stabbing at his forehead. A coldness like a needle pierced into Boswell's forehead, Boswell's heart went cold. "Long live the Night's Watch!" he shouted, his hand suddenly empty, the ice spider in front of him gone, the needle-like coldness on his forehead also disappearing instantly.

At the critical moment, Boswell's dragonglass dagger forced the ice spider back.

The ice spider could have pierced his skull, but Boswell's forward momentum would have slammed the dragonglass dagger into the ice spider's leg blade. Anywhere on the ice spider's body, a single blow from a dragonglass weapon would be fatal.

"It fears dragonglass!" Boswell exclaimed, both shocked and afraid, covered in cold sweat, shouting hoarsely.

*Swish swish swish!*

Several dragonglass daggers shot towards the retreating ice spider.

*Poof poof poof!*

The daggers stuck into the snow, each time missing the ice spider by just a little.

"Archers on the outside, close-quarters attacks on the inside. If it doesn't die, we will! Don't block or dodge, go for mutual destruction!" Boswell commanded again.

Just now, he had risked his life to force back the ice spider, giving him the confidence to kill it.

Faced with the surrounding array attack, the ice spider did not attack head-on. It retreated constantly, its eight leg blades alternating, dazzling the eye. It made a *squeak squeak squeak* sound, its eight blue eyes blinking, shining brightly, extremely eerie.

The brothers on the outside drew their bows and nocked their arrows, *咻咻咻*, obsidian arrows shot out, the ice spider was extremely agile, the arrows always landed in front of it and beside it, unable to hit it. More brothers put away their bows and arrows, the ice spider made a chilling sound, a loud *squeak*, and then it fled sideways, quickly disappearing without a trace, no longer visible.

The brothers stood there in a daze, unable to believe that they had forced back that terrible monster they had never seen before.

Boswell, panting, walked towards Jon Snow. The Lord Commander was still frozen in place, white frost appearing on his face, hair, and clothes. The blood on his chest had congealed, redder and more shocking under the white frost.

A brother blew a melodious iron whistle—this was a new military technology invented by the Mountain and brought to the Wall by the captive Jaime—using the iron whistle instead of human shouts. From the forest, two well-trained packhorses ran out, pulling a black carriage.

Bran Stark was not inside the carriage. The carriage was loaded with bundles of dragonglass arrows. To confuse the Others, when Jon Snow led his troops out of the city, no one carried bows or dragonglass arrows. They all wore black cloaks and carried ordinary longswords. The dragonglass arrows and bows were hidden in the carriage. When they reached the ambush site, the brothers took out their bows and arrows and set up an ambush on three sides, launching a beautiful ambush.

The brothers placed Lord Commander Jon Snow on the carriage, along with the other ten brothers. With a command from Boswell, everyone returned to Hearthstone.

*

Hearthstone South Gate, late at night.

On the watchtower, a soldier saw a carriage slowly approaching in the night from the east, with no one in front, behind, or beside it. The soldier was suspicious and reported the situation to the centurion, who was equally suspicious. He quickly came to the city wall and saw the carriage slowly approaching, the curtain of the carriage already raised, revealing a carriage full of black figures lying down. The carriage finally stopped at the city gate. The two packhorses gave a low whinny.

"Open the city gate, it's Lord Commander Jon Snow's team's carriage," the centurion ordered. His heart was ice cold.

The carriage returned with the motionless Night's Watch brothers, with no living person accompanying it in front, behind, or beside it.

Lord Commander Jon Snow's team was all gone?

The Others were going to pursue the ranger team led by Jon Snow!

The city gate slowly opened, and the centurion led his troops out. A bloody smell hit them in the face. The two packhorses were covered in blood, the blood already dried, but the bloody smell was still pungent. Looking at the two packhorses, there were no signs of injury. It was very strange, as if someone had deliberately smeared blood on the horses.

The soldiers were suspicious. The centurion raised a torch and looked closely. He saw Jon Snow's face, already covered with frost, and the corpses of the other ten brothers also covered with a layer of white frost.

A total of eleven corpses were arranged on the carriage. The blood on the corpses was dry, and the wounds on some of the brothers' bodies were huge, too horrible to look at, not like they died from swords.

Then, what about the other forty ranger brothers? Were they all killed in battle?

"Lord Commander Jon Snow is dead, quickly report to Lord Eddard Stark," the centurion said in surprise, shouting to a soldier. His voice seemed to tremble in the night wind.

Eddard Stark was the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces, in charge of the Night's Watch Corps, the Northern Army, Shireen's Army, and the Free Folk warriors.

"Yes, sir," the soldier turned and ran away.

*

The next day at dawn, in the Hearthstone Hall, Eddard Stark, Queen Shireen, Dowager Queen Selyse Florent, Onion Knight Davos Seaworth, Bran Stark, Rattleshirt, Skinchanger Varamyr, Tormund Giantsbane, Doghead, Giant Chieftain Mag, and others gathered, everyone's faces were grim, and the atmosphere was heavy.

The hall was filled with corpses.

Some of the corpses were already broken fragments, severed hands and feet, and corpses with open stomachs were everywhere.

A total of two hundred and fifty corpses.

The first team of fifty elite rangers led by Jon Snow, who went in the direction of the Last River, were all killed in battle. The second team of mixed legion soldiers were all killed in battle. The third team of one hundred men, mainly from the Northern Army, led by Greatjon, were all killed in battle.

The three teams pretending to escort Bran Stark to Winterfell were all killed by an ice spider from the Land of Always Winter.

More than thirty corpses were cut in half at the waist by the ice spider's leg blades, and many people's faces were gnawed by the ice spider, revealing white facial bones.

The corpses of Jon Snow and Greatjon Umber were arranged in front.

Rattleshirt said in a deep voice: "Bran Stark, you are a Green Prophet, all three of your feigned escape plans have failed. Before this, couldn't you see such a result?"

Bran Stark was silent.

Meera Reed beside him tightly grasped Bran's wheelchair, her beautiful eyes fixed on Bran's calm face. She and Bran had escaped for thousands of miles, and she and her younger brother Jojen Reed had escorted Bran to find Bloodraven Brynden Rivers, whom they had met many times in their dreams, and finally helped Bran become the Green Prophet of the human race as they wished.

The missions of Meera Reed and Jojen Reed had been completed.

The girl had developed feelings for Bran, but Bran was indifferent to her, no longer caring for her or caring about her. After Bran escaped from the tree cave where Bloodraven Brynden Rivers lived, he seemed to have become a different person. The Bran of today gave Meera Reed the feeling of a human-shaped piece of ice. He was no longer the sentimental, kind-hearted teenager who had fled from Winterfell, who would cry for Hodor's departure. He was already the Three-Eyed Raven, Brynden Rivers, the latest generation of Green Prophet of the human race.

"Rattleshirt, Bran is a Green Prophet, but not a god," Onion Knight Davos Seaworth said. He was a humble but upright man, and his words came from the heart.

"The Long Night is dark and full of terrors, and the Red God is the only true God in the world. The ice spider of the Others cannot be defeated by human power, only by the power of the Lord of Light," Selyse Florent stood up and said as if singing, "My lords, we only need to sacrifice twelve lives to the Lord of Light..."

"I will not allow you to burn anyone else to death. Lady Selyse Florent," Eddard Stark coldly interrupted Selyse's words. He stared at Selyse, his face as cold and hard as frozen earth. Selyse's shriveled mouth opened, but in the end she said nothing more. She angrily flicked her sleeves and left.

"If I can't leave, that ice spider will come again," Bran Stark said, staring at a spot on the ceiling. "The ice spider is not invincible. Although it killed three teams, it did not launch a frontal attack on any team. It appeared suddenly, and by the time the warriors discovered it, drew their swords, and surrounded it, it had already killed several people and fled far away. It is good at hiding in the snow. Before its attack, neither the warriors nor the warhorses could detect it."

"How do we deal with it?"

"The whole city is on alert, send more people. I don't think it will actively attack patrol teams, its target is me. Dragonglass weapons are its bane. I have formulated a new plan. As long as several suicide soldiers surround it, using a mutual destruction tactic, they can kill it with dragonglass weapons. Any blocking or dodging is useless, it will only be a waste of life."

"Only a mutual destruction counterattack?" Doghead said evilly.

"Yes, I watched the battle of Jon's team, and I believe this is the only way. Who is willing to guard me, I need seven suicide soldiers!" Bran Stark raised his voice.

"I am willing to be your suicide soldier," a woman's voice said from outside the corridor of the hall.

Red-haired Ygritte, with a bow and arrows on her back, appeared at the entrance of the hall: "Bran, please allow me to be your suicide soldier." When the news came that the corpse of her lover Jon Snow had returned, Ygritte rushed over and hugged Jon's body, refusing to let go.

"Count me in," Tormund Giantsbane said.

"I'll come too," Doghead said fiercely. She was a woman, but stronger than a man, and her gaze was like an ice pick.

"Wouldn't seven people be too few?" Eddard Stark said slowly.

"Father, seven people are the most suitable, just ambush around me. If there are too many people, the ice spider will not have the opportunity to attack, and will most likely attack other places, causing chaos throughout the city."

"Lord Eddard," Red-haired Ygritte said, "I beg you, can you let me spend more time with Jon Snow, and burn him in a day?"

"Ygritte, if all the corpses are not burned in time, I'm afraid they will turn into wights tomorrow night," Rattleshirt said.

"It's already dawn," Ygritte said coldly, "If Jon Snow turns into a wight, I will burn him myself."

"Girl, the altar has been set up, and now, the remains of all the warriors must be burned," Eddard Stark said slowly, "Girl, let Jon Snow rest in peace."

Ygritte and Eddard looked at each other for a while, and she decided to take a step back and no longer insist, "Lord Eddard, I hope to personally send Jon off."

Eddard Stark looked at Red-haired Ygritte, and he nodded.

Ygritte placed her right fist on her left chest and saluted Eddard, then bent down and picked up Jon Snow's remains, striding out. In the courtyard outside, the seven-story fire altar had been set up, and the bottom of the altar was filled with kerosene, and the wood was also soaked with kerosene.

Eddard ordered the one hundred and fifty remains in the hall to be carried out and placed on the fire altar.

The crowd and the guards worked together, and in half an hour, all one hundred and fifty corpses were placed. Ygritte held a torch in her hand and stood in front of Jon Snow, her eyes falling on Jon's face. Jon's face, after being washed and dressed, was peaceful, as if he were asleep.

Thank you [沧澜御宇] for the reward, thank you, Happy New Year!