A frown creased my forehead, as I was looking down at the elvish army. I couldn’t believe that they would be this reckless and predictable, simply marching up the valley without taking any additional precautions. Sure, they had deployed a company of scouts, some of whom had been torn apart by the Wargs we had sent out, but that was it, at least that was all I could detect from afar. Trusting such a simple measure would be foolish beyond all belief and yet, they appeared to have done just that.

It reeked of a trap but none of us was able to detect where the trap was, so we had decided to take a few precautions of our own before springing it. The good thing about the remnant spirits was that they didn’t fear death. We didn’t even know whether they could die, so far the few experiments we had done indicated that they would likely return to the Nexus if their physical forms were destroyed but it would take some time. Either way, they didn’t really care, they enjoyed their corporeal form and were looking forward to fighting.

Looking to the horizon from my lofty perch, I could see the sun setting, the valley below quickly getting devoured by the twilight of the night, which meant things were starting now.

From beyond a ridge on the right flank of the elves, a flight of Nevermores came winging in, the latest model that was capable of raining down feathery Icicles, and before the elves could do much more than raise the alarm, a hail of Icicles started to hail down on them. The elves managed to avoid some of the damage, thanks to their armour, shields and magical equipment, but it threw their camp into chaos and destroyed some of their gear.

Having accomplished exactly what we had wanted to, the Nevermores retreated, as the elves launched retaliatory strikes, arcs of magic and streaks drawn by enchanted arrows adding a bit of colour to the nightly twilight. Some of the Nevermores got struck but from the looks of it, none was completely destroyed. They were damaged but managed to get away, only to circle around and make another attack in a few minutes.

But for now, the elves were in chaos, officers shouting around, trying to restore order amongst their troops. But all that shouting and chaos meant one thing, namely that nobody could pay full attention to the snowbank to their left, where well-hidden white shapes were padding through the snow, undetected by even the famed elvish ears and eyes.

Even for me, knowing where to look and what to look for, it was difficult to detect the Wargs on their approach. They had managed to blend into the snow near-perfectly, moving slowly and waiting for the Nevermores to throw the camp into chaos and now, they were making their move. The first indication the elves got that the attack wasn’t just from the air was the scent of blood spreading through the night, after the first pair of guards, distracted by the chaos, died without even managing to raise the alarm.

Just as planned, the wargs only tore into the camp for a few moments, not even trying to stick around and get into an actual fight. That wasn’t the plan, they managed to tear a few,, maybe a dozen or so, elves to pieces before trying to retreat back into the snow.

The elves tried to pursue, to pin the canine shapes down and bring their weapons to bear, only to hear the sounds of wings in the air and suffer another shower of icy feathers, pouring down from the returning Nevermores.

So far, the attack had gone exactly as planned but when I felt a surge of magic, I knew it wasn’t going to continue that way. One of the elves waved their hand before raising a pendant high above their head. From that, a green sheen of magic surged forth, banishing the Twilight and suddenly, massive vines sprung out from the ground, rapidly growing and entangling the wargs.

Nodding to myself, I tried to understand the magic, as the Wargs tried to break free, the vines entangling them keeping them pinned as the elves started to advance. By now, the Nevermores had completed their attack and been forced to retreat by the elvish attacks and this time, multiple Nevermores had taken critical damage, dropping into the snow. I wasn’t sure if they were completely destroyed or would recover in time, but it didn’t really matter, the elves would likely make sure they’d never fly again. Just like they were trying to destroy the pinned Wargs.

Knowing that my Wargs were about to get decimated after their greatest strength, their mobility and speed, was sealed I made a move of my own. With the power of the Nexus at my disposal, things that would have been utterly impossible just two weeks ago were now child’s play. Things like manipulating a large bank of snow, a few hundred metres above the elvish camp.

Before the attack, I had planned to keep my involvement to a minimum, in an attempt to obscure the nature and strength of our force but that didn’t mean I would let my Wargs die just like that. Their biggest advantage was their frozen Nature and while the blunt impact of an avalanche would hurt them, the Ice would also sustain and heal them, giving me confidence that they could dig themselves back out and return to the valley. But the elves? They would stay on this mountain forever, an eternal, frozen guard to my realm.

Humming to myself, I pulled power from the Nexus and a rumbling sound echoed through the mountains, heard far and wide, as hundreds of kilos of Snow started to move and quickly turned into tons of moving snow and ice. It looked quite interesting, first the slow movement as I artificially moved the snow, before gravity and momentum took over and the whole process sped up.

And then, the elves noticing the movement and panic sinking in, the order their officers had so painstakingly restored instantly shattered. One of them, the same one that had used the amulet earlier, was trying something similar, again that waving motion and again, plants started to grow, trying to form a wall. But even a wall of entangled thorns and vines wasn’t strong enough to withstand the impact of an avalanche.

I could watch as the snow crashed into their hastily created wall and for a moment, I felt a tugging, as if someone was trying to influence the snow, to divert it around the camp. Letting out a snort, I focused on that sensation and noticed a familiar magic. Someone amongst the elves was capable of Ice Magic. That realisation only made the smile on my face wider and I bore down on that sensation, crushing it with the entire power of the Nexus. The Avalance turned from a mix of ice and snow into something harder as large chunks of snow were infused with Astral Power and turned into razor-sharp Icicles, just as they were hitting the elvish camp.

The wall, only standing with the magical support, was ripped apart within a few seconds, the vines unable to withstand that amount of force and the spellcaster that had tried to influence the avalanche was likely now suffering, the magical force I had simply smacked into their connection to the Astral River nothing a mortal could casually withstand.

The rumbling sound passed and below, the camp was completely gone, with no elves, no tents, in sight. There was nothing but freshly churned ice and snow covering the area.

I was about to withdraw when I felt a disturbance in the air. Looking over, I flinched when the radiance of the Sun, which should have already vanished behind the horizon, hit me, blinding me for a moment. Moments later, as I was throwing up a wall of Ice to protect myself, I could faintly see a few flying forms in the air, winged and somewhat similar to the shape the Raven’s Shadow took. Valkyries, and powerful ones. They were all close together, forming an odd formation and from the middle of that formation was a ball of burning, radiant light.

Rays of burning fury hit the wall I had hastily set up and I could feel it melting rapidly, despite the amount of Astral Power I had imbued. Distance and my own physical body limited how much power I could channel and they were bringing some serious power to bear. Knowing that it would take them little more than seconds to burn through the wall, no matter how much I struggled, I changed my approach, throwing all power I could muster with my perfect magic control into a single, simple attack. It was a curse of madness, using the darkness of the night they had banished and the light of the moon above.

Just as I was finishing the curse, their light burned through the remainder of my wall and, moments later, burned away my presence on that mountain ridge.