"I can help with that!" Jessica announced with a confident smile on her face.

"How?" Jamie asked, the note of doubt in his tone unmissable.

"Have you forgotten?" she replied, pointing a slim finger to her chest. "I'm a Paladin of Elihanna. By the way, did anyone see my weapon? Or at least have a warhammer?"

Maria hesitated. Jessica still looked drained from Theren's ritual. Her limbs trembled ever so slightly, and her skin was still a bit pallid. "Are you sure you're up for this? You still seem weak."

Jessica brushed off the concern with a lopsided grin. "Relax, this'll be simple. But," she added, turning to scan the surrounding group, "it might be best if everyone steps outside."

One soldier came forward, holding a warhammer with a long wooden handle and a steel head. "We've got this," he offered.

She hefted it in her hands, testing its weight for a moment. Though the hammer was imposing, she seemed comfortable with it.

Following Jessica's instructions, the others began to retreat from the cavern. Scurrying to the snowy clearing, a few steps outside. Their boots crunched through the snow. A cautious hush fell over them as they turned back to watch what the young paladin intended to do.

Jamie drew in a sharp breath, hearing the faint chanting Jessica began to recite.

[Gigantification]

Within seconds, the warhammer in Jessica's hands began to enlarge, radiating a soft glow. Its handle lengthened and thickened, the metal head ballooning to three times its size.

"I call upon the spirits of nature," she intoned, speaking in a rolling, musical language that sounded nothing like the common tongue. Yet somehow, the words translated themselves in Jamie's mind. "Mother Elihanna… [Quake]."

In a powerful sweeping motion, Jessica twisted her body and slammed the warhammer into the side of the cavern wall. The impact reverberated through the cavern, sending tremors coursing beneath her feet. Bits of stone and dust rained down in clouds, and with a resounding boom, a cascade began. Pillars cracked, one after another, each collapse followed by the snapping support columns and falling boulders. Until the cavern roof itself began caving in.

Jessica wasted no time. Even without seeing the result, she turned toward the entrance of the cave and began to sprint. As the collapse seemed about to catch up with her, she leapt, hurling herself out and landing in the snow covering the forest floor.

A deafening roar echoed behind her. The final support within the cavern gave way, forcing the remainder of the ceiling to collapse in on itself. In moments, the entrance was no more. There was only a giant mound of rubble, sealing away whatever still lingered inside.

Shaken but triumphant, Jessica scrambled to her feet. Maria, Jamie, and Serana, along with the remaining soldiers, gaped at the scene.

"Impressive," Maria remarked. "Well, even if they suspect its location, it'll take months, even years, to find the right spot again."

"That is, if it's even possible to do anything," Jamie added while thinking aloud. "They needed the remains of a god for that ritual. There's no telling if anything worthwhile is even left in there."

Maria exhaled a breath that was half relief. "True," she said, some measure of tension ebbing from her face.

Even after everything they'd been through, the trip back began quietly. The group walked snowy trails lit by the soft light of morning. Sometimes they came across small groups of orcs, scattered and few in number. Still, the soldiers seemed uneasy seeing them.

"Strange," one soldier remarked as he peered at a lone orc beyond a group of birch trees.

"What is?" Maria asked, her posture tense.

The soldier gestured with his spear. "Orcs rarely travel alone; they're pack creatures. It's odd seeing one stray like that."

Serana nodded.

"The others abandoned him?" Maria suggested.

"Or he fled his group," Jessica chimed in, still weary but more alert than earlier.

"Either way, it's rare. Very rare," the soldier muttered, gaze drifting toward the distant mountains that rose around Frosthell. "More likely he's running from something."

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"Another attack?" Serana pressed, eyes darkening with concern.

The soldier bobbed his head, an answer that made the group fall silent.

As they pressed onward, the signs of trouble continued to appear. Snow might have covered footprints, yet so many tracks crisscrossed the forest that entire patches of land were flattened. Scraped bark and toppled pines hinted at bands of creatures running toward the city from multiple directions.

"We should pick up the pace," Serana advised when yet another set of orc footprints crossed their path, deeper than the last. "There could be more of them up ahead."

Even though everyone agreed on the need to speed up, it simply wasn't possible. The snow reached up to Jamie's knees. He simply didn't have the stamina to keep pushing his body to the limit.

'Not to mention the new burden we're carrying,' he thought, watching a few soldiers pulling ropes tied to the five bodies.

Eventually, the familiar peaks surrounding Frosthell came into sight. Relief might have blossomed in any other moment, but unease flared instead. They could sense something wasn't right.

"Do you hear that?" a soldier murmured, voice low, as they paused among the trees.

Jamie strained to listen. Faintly, he could hear a distant thrum of drums and the jarring booms of what might be explosions. Beneath his boots, he felt a subtle tremor snaking through the frozen earth.

Jamie was the first to voice concern. "If there's an attack going on, should we be marching right down the main road?" He glanced at Maria and Serana, who both studied the distant skyline. Maria gave a solemn nod; Serana looked only more worried.

"It might be wiser to send someone ahead as a scout," Maria proposed. "Let us know exactly what's happening at the gates."

A lone soldier volunteered, stepping forward and breaking off into the forest at a quick sprint. The rest of the group left the beaten track, detouring into the woods to avoid detection.

Before long, the scout returned, breath steaming in ragged bursts. "If we head a few minutes farther," he explained in a hushed voice, "you'll see the mountain base and the city entrance. It's bad. Orcs, goblins, hobgoblins. They've gone into some kind of frenzy, hurling themselves mindlessly at the walls."

Maria, Jamie, and Serana shared troubled looks. The city was in dire need, but each had different concerns. Serana, eyes resolute, placed a hand on her staff. "I need to help Frosthell," she said, a determined edge in her voice.

"It's too risky to charge in from the rear with all the supplies and bodies we're dragging," Maria countered, her tone measured. "We'd lose too much speed, and the men carrying them are already weary."

Jamie offered another option. "We could wait it out, see if the defenders push the enemy back."

Serana shook her head. "What if they don't? We don't know how strong the city's defenses are. We're seeing enemy numbers that shouldn't exist. My brother and I have never encountered an army like this."

"Your sister has already fought them. You can ask her as well," Serana added.

Jamie knew that Jessica hadn't been in that body for long, but she should have access to its memories or at least to her guardian. He began watching her, waiting for some kind of sign.

A few seconds later, Jessica nodded.

"All right," Jamie relented. "But Maria's right. We're moving too slow hauling the dead. We can't afford to bring them to battle."

"Then some of us will stay back and watch over them," Serana suggested. "The rest of us will advance. I have enough mana left to freeze a few ranks of those creatures. It might be what we need to break their line and get inside."

Though he sighed, Jamie finally nodded. "Let's do it."

Four soldiers stayed behind to guard the makeshift sleds of fallen comrades, while the rest formed a compact strike team. Their plan was simple: wedge themselves straight through the horde of monsters and push toward the city walls. Despite their modest numbers, each member of the group walked with the determination of someone about to forge a path through chaos.

They soon crested a rocky slope, gazing down over the main road leading to Frosthell's gates. Thousands of orc, goblin, and hobgoblin clashed and clamored near the base of the city's fortified walls. The creatures piled atop one another in a frenzied attempt to scale the defenses.

"What in the hells is going on?" Jamie muttered, eyes roving over the mass of beasts.

Wasting no more time, the small band assumed a diamond-shaped formation and broke into a run. Arrows hissed overhead, loosed by the city's defenders, forcing the soldiers to keep their shields angled high to avoid being struck by their own allies' bolts. Others leveled their spears across the front line, bracing for impact.

When the wedge finally collided with the chaotic wave of orcs and hobgoblins, the force rippled through each of them. The initial thrust of their spears sank into green and gray flesh, drawing pained roars. The formation shifted to better fend off attacks from all sides. Shields rose and fell like steel shutters while swords darted out, hacking at flanks or hamstrings.

At the forefront stood Jessica and Jamie. Jessica wielded her warhammer with astonishing speed and control, the weapon swinging in wide arcs that crushed foes beneath its weight. Jamie, in contrast, fought with speed and precision. Blue-hued mana daggers flickered around him as he sliced through the swarming monsters.

"They have no idea what hit them," Jessica called out, breathless and exultant.

But Jamie's attention drifted upward to the high walls of Frosthell. A strange movement caught his eye. The soldiers stationed along the top battlements didn't appear as agitated as he would have expected, given the size of the onslaught.

Then he saw why.

A tall figure stood at the crest of the wall, rivers of torchlight flickering around his imposing silhouette. He bore a massive shield and a heavy sword. Although Jamie had never seen him like that, he still had Jay's memories. He knew that stance, that towering presence.

Jamie tightened his grip on his daggers before warning. "He's coming."

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