34 chapter 33 : The Night King.

Hours later, Qhorin and the others proceeded to load the ships with the wildlings and their belongings.

Jeor had taken the giants with him and several other wildlings on foot to the gate at Eastwatch-by-the-sea while those with more business and families boarded the boats.

The vast majority of them wanted to follow Mance with Jon but the rest chose to stay in Hardhome because of Loboda who convinced them that it was a trap by the crows to exterminate them.

Jon resigned himself and accepted the fact that they were fools who nevertheless saw Mance and the other leaders return alive. He wasn't going to force anyone, survival is a personal initiative.

 Tens of thousands, that was a significant number of people leaving with their belongings and loading them onto the ships was going to take time not to mention the return trips from Hardhome to Eastwatch-by-the-sea.

The elders had accompanied the first travelers by boat to reassure themselves and see if they were threatened on the other side of the wall but they were quite surprised when the opposite was true.

 The Night's Watch and the surviving wildlings from the Wall battles had begun to organize and make large encampments to welcome the arriving wildlings.

They were in terrible shock seeing their people and their opponents still working together like this.

Karsi who had accompanied his daughters and several others inquired, their brothers simply admitted to them that the crows had treated their wounds and fed them without showing an ounce of hostility.

Even though Jon had only upgraded the honorary volunteers, everyone in the Night's Watch had their nanites in each and he imposed a conciliation protocol on the most reluctant in their brains.

They had the impression of acting fully on their own with complete will and understanding (Kotoamatsukami by Shisui).

 Karsi returned to Hardhome with several other elders who recounted what they had seen there, and several other wildlings were seduced by this chance.

It took two days to evacuate almost all the volunteers with their personal belongings. By the morning of the third day, of the 83,000 wildlings at the start, 71,000 had already crossed the wall and joined the others by sea but mainly by land.

 [ Ambient music (required) The witcher 3 – Heart of stone theme]

 12,000 wildlings had chosen to stay, they were the most resentful and suspicious. Jon had carried out the last loadings of the ships when an intense cold set in, it was already cold but the air became much more chilling.

They all felt this, a white mist accompanied by ominous sounds was seen at the top of the cliff above the village and Jon requested that all Wildlings outside the walls enter, he also requested that the ships be loaded be done faster even if the Wildlings leave their stuff behind.

 "It's them, they're here..." Mance said to Jon who was in charge and faced with extreme fear, the wildlings who had decided to refuse the offer began to board the boats, Karsi who helped them favored the loading of women and children.

 Jon kept his calm and organized his troops, he had brought in nearly 400 sworn brothers a day ago not only to help with the transport but especially because he had seen Hardhome being attacked two days ago in an abstract vision.

He didn't know how to explain what he had seen but all he did was stare into the flames of the hearth in the great elders' cabin where they were staying at Hardhome (R'hllor had given him his support) .

 Nearly 7,000 people outside the gates were rushing in when an army of the undead began attacking them from the rear and killing large numbers of people.

Loboda saw this, understood the danger and asked his men to close the door when Jon and the Sworn Brothers intervened.

 " STEP ASIDE ! WE WILL ALL DIE IF WE DON'T SHUT THE DOORS NOW ." Loboda said to Jon while carrying his axe.

 The Thenns wanted to close the door, much to the despair of the people outside who began to cry out for pity. In a split second, the sworn brothers sent the Thenns flying away from the gates and left a path for the people.

Unfortunately, the dead were not slow, stiff corpses, they killed nearly 4,000 people outside in no time and when the last people who could be saved came through the door, three sworn brothers threw wildfire at the dead people rushing towards them. 

 Jon had prepared quite well for this type of eventuality and had asked the maesters of the guard to make small vials of molotov containing wildfire, knowing that the wildfire of the Night's Watch was not only more stable but also more powerful, the three Flasks thrown by the sworn brothers exploded in large green flames so hot that they spread like flu among the wights.

 "Arrange the fuels for the flame barricades my brothers, time is running out…" Jon gave the order and the hundreds of sworn brothers sprung into action to break the huts with their superhuman strength and with the wood they made several lines of barrage under several layers around the pier where the wildlings were desperately trying.

 The wights began to chip away at the structure of the Great Gate Barrier and the brothers of the Night's Watch ignited it to burn all along the barrier with Wildfire.

Jon looked at the fire and couldn't help but praise the ingenuity of its designers, this terrifying fire was hot enough to burn stone like wood and lasted for a long time, the wights outside the village weren't going to come in for a while.

 Jon was giving orders and organizing the boarding and defense when he noticed that Thormund, Mance, Ygritte, Harma, Karsi and several other Wildlings had drawn their weapons to prepare for battle.

 Jon: What do you think you're doing here ?

 Loboda: We have to fight and slow down as much as possible.

 Mance: I have to protect my people.

 Thormund: We may be less strong than the crows today, but we know how to fight and we are not afraid of these things.

 Jon: Get on board, this is not your fight yet my friends. The Night's Watch was created to protect the living from these creatures. You are not yet ready to fight with us against them and we are on very bad ground. LEAVE, my brothers and I are doing our duty and you risk embarrassing us.

 Mance: Out of the question…

 Jarl: Let us help you.

 Loboda: We are not children who must be protected.

 "HOW WILL YOUR PEOPLE REACT IF THEIR LEADERS DIE HERE ? NOW LEAVE" Jon screamed as the dead managed to get around the barriers of fire and many more jumped from the top of the cliff like a waterfall.

The wights fell by the score and the sworn brothers were immediately reactive by throwing molotovs at the foot of the cliff as well as on the first layer of the wooden barrier.

 Jon: (to the wildling leaders) You must leave...NOW !

 Mance looked at him for a while before nodding and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you, thank you for everything you have done for us. I hope we will meet again. » Mance said before leaving.

 Thormund: Are we going to abandon them like cowards when they saved our people ?

 Mance: We will only hinder them and they will do their duty. I have made their oath and I know what it truly entails, they are the shield that protects the human realm. Our people need us...

 They said nothing more and left as Loboda took a long look at Jon, he realized that he had been wrong and that this young man was about to give his life to give them a chance of survival . As they left, a heavy presence was felt from the cliff.

 Jon looked to the top of the cliff to see the Night King on his rotting horse, the creature was looking at him with deadly calm and they made some eye contact when suddenly, three White Walkers walked through the green flames which seemed to die out upon contact.

 "Kill them" Jon said and three of his men walked towards the three white walkers drawing their dragonsteel swords.

Each of them had two short swords. They had a certain fear because they were facing nightmarish creatures, monsters that they had been told about in the legends of their childhood.

 They moved forward, gathering their courage, one of them began to recite his vows and the others repeated the same vows.

The White Walkers attacked first and the Sworn Brothers were surprised at their slowness before reacting, two chose to dodge the attacks while the third parried the blow with his black sword.

 *GLANK*

 With shock visible on his face, the White Walker saw his enchanted ice sword being stopped, a sword that usually destroys normal weapons at the slightest contact was stopped in its tracks.

The other two White Walkers also looked towards their direction just like the Night King and their gazes were fixed on that black sword.

 "Do you like the color ? Same for us..." The sworn brother who owned the sword said in amusement before plunging his other blade into the White Walker's stomach which immediately collapsed into small icicles.

The two other sworn brothers did not delay and beheaded their opponents whose attention had been attracted by the parade earlier.

Just like that, the night you had just lost 3 White Walkers .

 It was subtle, it was very light but with his bionic vision Jon saw the Night King frown. He was upset, a long time ago the men had hardly been able to repel him but now they were strong enough to pose a real danger, they were strong enough to worry him albeit slightly.

 Jon saw his men celebrating their victory and interrupted them.

 Jon: You have defeated three White Walkers, now you have an idea of ​​the gift the old gods have given you.

Now, don't get too proud because there were only three of them and we are not here for a battle but to ensure an evacuation. The wights are coming and the fire won't hold them back for long. Get out your wildfire vials...

 They all concentrated, pulling out their molotovs as the Wildlings hurried away, several ships had closed in and many tried their luck at swimming in the icy water.

Jon watched the wildfire burn with just as much intensity on the barrier as well as at the foot of the cliff and realized that he had really underestimated this fire, even the Night King had stopped his Wight.

 The Night King was not a stupid iceman, he knew that the humans had won this round even if he had still increased his army by a few thousand new soldiers.

Only, he was not quick to give up. With a wave of his hand, the Wights began to grab snow with their hands to throw it at the wildfire, tens of thousands of Wights jumped into action and the fire began to die out.

 "This monster is not devoid of intelligence! (to his men) PREPARE TO RAIN FIRE ON THEM, I WANT SETS OF 20 JETS AT MY SIGNAL. WE ARE AT A DISADVANTAGE HERE, NO NEED TO TAKE UNNECESSARY RISKS..." Jon ordered as the Wights ran past the wall towards them, he waited a bit before giving the signal.

 " PULL !" He gave the signal and 20 vials were thrown at the approaching wights, the explosion of a single vial was powerful and covered 5 meters around with extremely hot green flames.

 "SHOOT AGAIN AND AIM AT THOSE IN FRONT, MAKE ME ROAST THESE FUNDS…" He ordered again and the men complied, wights also came from the sides and even without orders, they threw the molotovs.

The wildfire was truly a fiendishly powerful fire, coupled with the wights' natural fear of fire being able to wipe them out, Jon and his brothers they kept the dead at bay for a while.

 Finally, the last Wildlings boarded and Jon began to herd his men away little by little. He asked them to swim to the ships and they did the task without asking a single question, they had absolute faith in their captain commander and boundless obedience thanks to the nanites.

With the rest of his men, they burned the last wooden lines of defense while throwing the remaining wilfire flasks at the Wights before also jumping into the water and swimming to the nearest ships.

Jon was responsible for the lives of each of his men and was not going to lose them in a pointless fight, they aimed to delay them and that is what they succeeded in doing.

 Far away on the boat, he looked at the Night King who had seemingly descended from the cliff and was calmly walking through the severely fading green flames nearby.

The Night King stood on the pontoon and all the sworn brothers looked at him when a violent blizzard blew around him to extinguish the flames in a few seconds, he had just summoned this violent and extremely cold wind without even moving or opening his mouth but just watched Jon walk away.

 The sworn brothers:…

 Jon: He could do that...he could put out our fire that easily from the start...?!! 

 "Then why did he wait so long to make him Captain Commander ? We burned several of his soldiers before his eyes…" One of his men came to ask him.

 Jon: It's been 8,000 years since he and his rots retreated to the lands of always winter, but now that he's back, he couldn't just attack at random. It's quite easy now to understand his actions, he came to Hardhome to kill the free folk and increase his army but we were faster than him and more organized. After 8000 years, he no longer knew what his enemy was capable of so...

 Man: So he tested us...

 Jon: That's right, he couldn't increase his ranks any further so he might as well gain some information on the capabilities of his enemies after 8000 years of absence. Under this frozen and cold face there is a certain intelligence.

 Man: Intelligence ? He lost a lot of soldiers...

 Jon: They were nothing to him. Do you know what is in the lands of always winter ?

 Man: Apart from the intense cold, nothing that I know of.

 Jon: Our information stops here but he knows what kind of creatures there have been able to join his ranks in 8000 years and if he can bring the dead back to life, ask yourself in 8000 years how many giants, wildlings or other creatures were buried or buried somewhere without being burned?! 8000 years! He will gather the most terrible army there is for years to come before he decides to march towards us permanently.

 Man: How do you know that ?

 Jon: Because that's what I would have done, he waited for 8000 years so far so he'll be patient for a few more years of gatherings before attacking, this guy is coming with problems for us and big problems, he knows we have weapons to stop him and he will certainly prepare for it. However, our crowned icicle thinks he knows what we are really capable of with this small sample and he will certainly imagine it on a large scale but they are wrong because we will do much more than what he has seen.

"CAPTAIN COMMANDER, LOOK...SKAGOS ISLAND" 

Jon looked urgently in the direction of the island to see it filled with a huge fog of frost. With his superhuman hearing, he heard the sounds and cries of the island's inhabitants from far away and understood that the Night King had been playing with them. 

" We made a mistake, he played us..." Jon said in frustration clenching his fists . 

Sworn brother : He attacked the island of Skagos while we were focused on the wildlings. 

Jon : That's right, he actually watched us the same way we were watching him and knew we were going to try to save the free folks. 

Sworn Brother: But how he got his soldiers across those waters. 

Jon : Wights don't need to breathe, only the old gods know how this magic monster did this but one thing is for sure, we underestimated his intelligence. It won't happen again. 

Sworn brother :... 

Jon : Don't worry, he's not going to attack now. If he's as smart as he's shown it to be, he knows we're on our guard with what he's just shown us, and he's not done assembling his army yet. I've seen Daenerys Targaryen's dragons and I'm sure the ice dragons of old legends exist as well. He's not going to make the same mistake he made 8000 years ago and he's going to prepare himself properly But we will also make our preparations. The long night is coming , brothers. 

 The man: We will follow you to the end, Majesty .

 Jon: You're from the night guard, we don't have a king there so there's no point calling me that. Do you feel any cold after our swim in these icy waters ?

 Man: No, on the contrary I feel things inside me which warm my body. As you told us, the gift of the gods is far beyond the feats of our imagination.

 "Let the ships set sail for Eastwatch, we have much to do and the ancient gods will help us." Jon said as they gave the signal and the great fleet set off for the great harbor of Eastwatch. Jon once had plans for the Night's Watch but now he had plans for the North and he had to start by driving out the invaders from the South.