Trials by Pedro Urvi Page B

back to the wounded Norghanian, who withstood three more attacks before falling dead.
    These Invincibles are unique fighters. The rumors were true, they’re going to cut us to pieces .
    Feeling his heart sink at this horrible prospect, he went to help his comrades.
    The fight above the walls became fiercer amid cries and the sound of metal on metal.
    The Invincibles of the Ice were easily managing to kill the Rogdonian soldiers in single combat, so the defenders grouped together in threes to confront them. Each Norghanian who reached the top of the wall was set on by three defenders who threw themselves on him and brought him down with savage thrusts and strokes. Lomar was fighting above the gate beside the veteran Jonas on his right and Elis the archer on his left. A new enemy appeared near the great cauldron and the three lunged on him with no time to think or react. Even so, the invader wounded Jonas in the left shoulder before he died.
    A massive impact told Lomar a battering ram had reached the gate. Looking down, he was able to confirm the fact.
    “The cauldron! Swing the cauldron!” he yelled at his two comrades.
    The three hurried to the enormous container filled with boiling oil, and Lomar pushed the lever to topple it.
    The oil rained down over the ram, burning all the men around it.
    “Incendiary arrows!” Lomar cried to the men waiting by the cauldron.
    At once twenty archers raised their heads above the gate and a volley of burning arrows flew against the ram. The siege machine began to burn, with the men around it going up in flames as they screamed in desperation. The Invincibles of the Ice, as cold as their name, killed their own burning comrades to spare them the horrible suffering.
    Lomar watched the scene and his spirits rose. Soon the whole battering ram would have gone up in smoke and the gate would hold. He had done his duty.
    Suddenly something completely unexpected happened.
    The men at the back of the ram parted to create a path in the center of the swarm of warriors. At the end of this corridor, about two hundred paces away, Lomar could make out two giant rectangular shields, apparently metallic, which completely hid the bearers. This caught his attention immediately. What on earth was this?
    The two shields parted two hand-spans, and to Lomar’s overwhelming surprise a white bolt shot along the open corridor towards the burning ram.
    What the…?
    The bolt reached the ram and covered it with a layer of frost, putting out the flames which were consuming the robust wooden structure as it did so. The battering ram was soon covered with ice and the fire totally extinguished.
    Damn!
    That could only mean one thing: the Norghanians had brought their famed Ice Mages.
    “Archers, shoot at the shields! Shoot!” he ordered with the hope of hitting the Mage who was hidden beneath them.
    The defenders’ arrows struck the enormous shields. These parted and the bolt was seen again, this time aimed at them, the archers above the gate.
    “Look out!” Lomar cried when he realized what was happening.
    But it was already too late.
    The bolt hit the first archers, who were still shooting, and on contact with the ice they were frozen alive on the spot. The bolt swept the battlements around the cauldron, freezing everything it came in contact with: human, metal or granite. The unwary archers died without a word, their bodies frozen as though the coldest winter ever seen had come upon them without warning.
    The bolt reached Lomar, who jumped backwards, dragging Jonas and Elis with him as he fell. Lying there on the floor they avoided the bolt, seeing it pass over their heads not a hand’s-breadth above them.
    “This is getting nasty!” Lomar cried. “Really nasty…”
     
     
    Count Longor was defending the eastern section of the wall like the master swordsman he was. He dispatched the Invincible he was fighting against and went for the next, who was climbing one of the ladders. Those soldiers were very