Chapter 26 - Adventures in the North 23.

[Chapter Size: 3003 Words.]

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JON POV

Northern Kingdom, north of the Glovers' territory, 290DC, in the same predawn.

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Looking at the camp, Jon and the others quickly gathered.

"So, what can we do, what's the plan?" William asked, they were in a strategic position without alerting the wild camp.

"We could launch a direct attack, but that would compromise the hostages, which are our objectives here." Ducken reasoned.

"I just want to get this over with, I haven't slept in days..." The young blacksmith couldn't help but complain.

"Let's settle this tonight; tomorrow, we'll rest as long as needed." Jon said, and the men nodded with the giants around him.

"I'm thinking we can infiltrate without alerting them, am I wrong, Ducken?" Jon turned to the experienced man, and he responded.

"We can do that; we have to eliminate all the scouts. What are their numbers?" He asked, wanting to know the exact information before acting, and he knew Jon was a warg who could fully analyze the wild camp, even at night, with his owls.

"They have 183 members, losing at least 2 dozen since they arrived, at least 12 lookouts. They have a warg, and it's sleeping, not noticing me all this way since I avoided it, and I'm stronger than him." Jon reasoned.

"Stronger than him? Jon doesn't know that beyond the Wall, no Warg can even do a tenth of what you do." Seryna's strangely feminine and loud voice spoke for the first time, and Jon shrugged.

She communicated with him frequently in the common language after learning it, despite a bit of difficulty with pronunciations. She was by far the fastest to learn to speak with Jon and understand what he said to other humans with him.

"Anyway, what do you think, Ducken? Do you have something in mind?" Jon ignored Seryna and turned his attention back to Ducken.

"We can infiltrate and silently take down all the lookouts on their shifts, grab the hostages, and initiate a full-force attack on the camp. Infiltration will have to be done by us alone, without the giants, but I'd like you to stay... you're just a child, Jon, I believe William and I can handle this and get the hostages out." He said, and Jon nodded.

"I may be 9 namedays old, but I've killed before and seen a lot of cruelty. I can handle these wildlings." Jon said sincerely. He wouldn't refrain from participating, even if Ducken had some weight in his words.

*Sigh*

"Okay, but be careful and keep in mind for your animals to act at any sign of danger, Wallyk, be ready to act at any moment if Jon is in danger, along with the other giants. I'm sure the animals will alert about it, and Seryna, no, you can't go with Jon into the camp to protect him." Ducken spoke, cutting off any protest from the giant who would follow as soon as Jon went to the enemy camp alone.

"..." Seryna was extremely dissatisfied, but Jon silenced her with a glance.

At the end of the meeting, Jon, Ducken, and a nervous William prepared to infiltrate the place as the rescue team. The rest, giants and animals, would be the attack team, trampling the camp and mercilessly massacring everyone in it.

After carefully looking at the dark sky, Jon led them to the blindest spot in the area, entering from the west, where the lookout seemed to be asleep and a little distant.

Once the three men drank a potion prepared by Jon earlier, which would increase their speed with some side effects, like intense pain the next day, but necessary for such a dangerous task.

Jon and Ducken approached the guard sitting in front of a campfire. When the duo was at a point in their good sight, Ducken raised his hand as a signal to William a little distance away.

The young blacksmith raised a bow made of a special wood that Jon created and put an arrow on the string. After aiming in a moment of silence, the arrow flew directly at the almost sleeping lookout, embedding an arrow in his skull without screaming or realizing how he died. William had become very good with the bow in the last few fights. He wasn't one of the best in the Seven Kingdoms, but he had good accuracy at short and medium distances.

With a small noise upon impact, muffled by the flames of the campfires, he fell to the ground dead. Jon and Ducken quickly emerged from their hiding spots and approached the body, while William approached.

Grabbing the body at each end, the duo moved it away, leaving only drops of blood in its place.

Once they hid out of sight of the others, William joined them.

"The first lookout is dead, and our entry into the place is secured." Ducken said, and they nodded to proceed.

"Tyrbon! Hm?! Tyrbon, where are you? I need to change shifts!" The trio froze at this new voice; another wildling came out of one of the nearby tents.

The man approached, calling for his friend but stopped when he saw blood on the ground in front of the campfire.

"Blood?!" He muttered.

Jon thought his plans were lost the moment this wildling started announcing that there were intruders in the camp, waking everyone up and forcing Jon to opt for a direct attack, even with the hostages.

However, the boy felt the air cut with a small, silent whistle, and an arrow was shot from behind him. Jon opened his stunned eyes when he saw the arrow pierce the man in his throat.

"HM!? HMMMMMMMMMMM!!!" He groaned as he clutched his neck with intense sudden pain and died without being able to speak.

Jon and Ducken turned their faces backward and saw William with the bow in hand, making the duo sigh in relief and silently thank the young blacksmith for acting so quickly.

"It seems this man didn't attract much attention..." Jon said, seeing that the camp hadn't changed much in its movements with his eyes in the sky, even though this man was shouting a moment ago.

Now with the camp's opening, Jon handed a paper with a drawing of the place and the positions of the lookouts to the two adult men. Then, each of them started going in a specific direction afterward, trying to eliminate all the men.

During this time, Jon chose solitary individuals, approached from behind, and cut their throats without them being able to react. This made him get three more of them and hide their bodies with some difficulty, as he was still a boy.

With the path clear while more and more lookouts fell into the hands of Ducken and William, Jon entered the largest tent located in the middle of the camp, hoping to be with the hostages. But what he found was a bed with a wild woman sleeping with two other men. Finding it strange, he quickly left to search for the captives elsewhere.

He silently searched two more large tents, seeing that only wildlings were boasting these tents. But it was in the third tent that he found the hostages. There were two guards in place, looking closer, he could see the child with clothes better than a commoner should wear in one corner and women chained in another place, many of them lying with signs of abuse.

Jon couldn't help but feel his blood heat and cool with this. All the animals felt his anger at this moment, outside the camp and in the sky, with most of them preparing to launch their attack and relieve their master's rage. But Jon held his connections but remained calm, feeling their emotions. He didn't want to ruin everything in a moment of anger.

He breathed and thought about how he could get past these guards. Jon silently approached them. The women were asleep, and the guards were quite drowsy, wanting to sleep. They didn't expect a surprise attack coming from inside the camp, so they weren't very vigilant, just making sure no hostage escaped.

As the boy approached, it was easy to put the sword to the throat of the first, who only groaned in surprise. Jon quickly threw a dagger, hitting the eye of the second. He missed the blow to the skull, making the man have a muffled scream, but it was enough to throw him backward. He wondered what was happening before Jon jumped on his neck to finish him.

The hostages woke up with the sudden commotion, and Jon turned to them with pleading eyes. Without making noise, he asked for silence with his hand. These women were stunned, seeing a child killing two adult wildlings, but they couldn't help but express gratitude. As the boy went to them, starting to untie them.

Ducken entered the tent at this moment with a fair amount of blood on his armor. He had killed the sleeping warg with his eagle in the tent that Jon instructed, along with 5 guards before coming here in a bit of a hurry. With a glance, Jon knew he was eager to speed things up, as they would soon notice the abnormality in the place, and the scream of the last man Jon killed didn't help. Some nearby must be waking up at this moment.

Jon freed the last hostage, with Ducken in front of the tent as his lookout. Some women lying on the ground were dead, and he looked sad about it. He saw the girl in a corner still very scared by the sudden events and reached out. Despite trembling, Jon stroked her head, offering his hand to comfort her.

"It's okay, and it will get even better. I'll take you to your family. Can you be brave and follow me out of here?" he said solemnly.

The girl looked at him and nodded, a bit shy but still frightened and shaky. He took her hand and signaled for Ducken to proceed.

When the man exited the tent, he saw a wildling falling dead with an arrow the next moment. Someone woke up with the noise of the guard's scream that Jon killed and was killed by William as soon as he saw the alert wildling.

Following the path quickly, the much larger group than initially went straight west, where they had entered as a more vulnerable area. But in the middle of the way, as they passed by some tents, a wildling came out of one, hitting a village woman, who screamed in fright in the middle of the night camp.

The man was startled too, but when he saw the group heading towards the exit, he quickly understood.

"Intruders, they're taking the hostages!!" The man shouted quickly and grabbed the woman tightly.

"Hm?! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!" He didn't hold her for long as William, coming from behind, stabbed him with a short sword quickly.

"Go ahead, run to this side, we'll catch up with them later!" Jon said in his childlike voice to the hostages and prepared for the attack, with Ducken at his side and William stepping back for long-range support with his bow.

"JON, GET OUT OF HERE!" Ducken said quickly.

"I'm not going anywhere! We just need to hold them until our other attack comes!" Jon protested.

"You, southerners! You took our prisoners and killed our men! I'll skin all of you!" A wildling appeared with his group coming out of various tents in the camp.

"Kuyt, take a group and go after the hostages. Let's have some fun with these 3 southerners!" He said with a sadistic smile as the trio was confronted with various wild men and women.

Jon quickly grabbed a red potion from his small bag and drank it in front of these enemies. Seeing this, the wildlings couldn't help but laugh, finding it funny that the child pointed his short sword at them without fear after drinking that strange drink.

But their mockery seemed to have stopped the moment they had a bad feeling. At their feet, small rocks seemed to vibrate, making all those men look down.

"The ground is shaking..." One of them murmured.

"What is this?!"

*Hoooooooooooooooooooooooowl*

A wolf's howl made them quickly look into the darkness outside the camp.

*Hoooooooooooooooooooooooowl*

*Hoooooooooooooooooooooooowl*

*Hoooooooooooooooooooooooowl*

*Hoooooooooooooooooooooooowl*

More howls of wolves, which sounded like monsters, echoed through the area, leaving everyone nervous.

"WHAT IS THIS?!"

"THE GROUND IS STARTING TO TREMBLE!"

They shouted, feeling heavy footsteps on the ground much more intensely than seeing little stones vibrating.

"Look! GIANTS!" One of them shouted, alerting all the others.

"I didn't know there were giants on this side of the wall!"

On one side of the camp, 5 adult giants emerged from the darkness, crushing everything in their path and wielding the largest swords they had ever seen. They were like monsters ready to kill them here.

Jon seized the moment of shock and launched himself against that man. Before he could react, he struck the man.

Before the companions could react, he had already fallen dead. Thus, they quickly tried to kill Jon to deal with the giants coming and killing everyone on that edge of the camp, who seemed to be cutting through their men like butter with their weapons as they swung them.

Ducken quickly rushed to help Jon, but the boy had already parried the wild blades, and with the strength gained from the potion, he managed to match and surpass an adult in the next moment.

Jon's perspective changed; he felt the world as he did while sharing his mind with his wolves, making him wilder, faster, and stronger like his own giant wolves. The boy seemed unfazed by the 30 men in front of him and launched himself, pulling another short blade with his other hand, attacking them with EldenMetal's dual blades. The effects of that potion seemed even more intensified, and he growled as he headed towards the next opponent.

"Someone kill this child quickly; we need to get the women and deal with the giants!" one of them said angrily and desperate. Jon just smiled at them and prepared to enter the real state of the potion he consumed. Its effect would last only 20 minutes, but it would be more than enough to deal with them. They might think they would be at an advantage with almost two hundred people in the camp, but the boy knew they would be disappointed in the next few minutes.

Jon advanced towards the enemy group, with the camp now turning into chaos. All the wildlings were being crushed without retaliating in the other corner. Meanwhile, giant wolves, bears, and shadow cats attacked from all sides, leaving them even more shocked. Jon entered a more deeply animalistic state; his world view slowed down. The full effects of the potion began to emerge at this moment, and Jon craved blood. All instincts were screaming throughout his body, and few of the men who remained in front of Jon were now motionless, watching unbelievably as their comrades were torn apart by the teeth of giant animals that emerged from the darkness or cut in half like paper by three-meter swords with giants in their armor.

They didn't even see the boy coming at an inhuman speed, and the next moment, he was already slicing through enemies like paper. His strength, speed, and instincts multiplied several times because of that liquid. With the slight transformation into a kind of wolf in human skin, Jon used his short swords like his own claws, like a bloodthirsty animal. Jon had already killed five without them being able to retaliate and was running for his sixth, seventh, and eighth victims. The men who witnessed this and tried to retaliate couldn't believe that a child was running at them like a madman, killing and slaughtering their people without them being able to react to his strength and speed.

"The child is a monster!" They shouted, very scared at this moment, saying the boy was a demon. The wildlings panicked, and their morale collapsed. Seeing the chaotic scene on all sides, they knew there was no place for them to escape. On one side, they were being massacred by giant animals, and on the other, giants who never stopped swinging their swords as they advanced without a single being brought down, as those armors protected them from any weapon of the free folk.

They could say the two individuals plus the distant archer were the best option to escape, but not an easy one, as the boy looked more like a death reaper than a 10-nameday child. In the next 10 minutes, Jon and Ducken attacked the group, while William shot at them from a distance with proficiency in the bow. The giants attacked from the south, and the animals were in the east and north of the camp.

After that time, the camp only had blood and bodies scattered on the ground with no losses for Jon, besides some cuts on the animals. Thirty of the enemies were alive here but subdued; 20 wildlings managed to escape. Jon saw through the eyes of the owls where they were fleeing in many scattered directions and ordered an attack with his animals in better conditions to hunt them down since the animals couldn't bring them back, and they would only cause trouble to the northern villages and the free folk.

Jon looked around the camp, the massacre of the wildlings on all sides. It wasn't a sight a child should see. He wasn't bothered by it thanks to the potion's effect. When he was organizing the injured animals and Ducken taking care of the prisoners and hostages, Jon's effects wore off, and he fell to the ground, vomiting like never before. Everything he had eaten from the last four meals, with unbearable pain from taking the potions, as expected for having taken something before and during the attack. The last thing he remembers is falling unconscious with Ducken, William, and Seryna going to him before passing out.

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