As evening approached, the snow had soaked through Maha's boots. With each step, she could feel the icy water squeezing from heel to toe, like a skinning knife scraping across the soles of her feet.

The other soldiers were not happy to walk fifteen miles downhill in waist-deep snow. But the legionnaires at the front of the column were as if nothing had happened. They had been in a majestic gait since the morning, and their vigilant eyes were fixed on the horizon.

Probably their boots are better than ours, Maha thought to himself. The Trivary Legion is indeed powerful, but no matter how powerful it is, it will not be able to be like that if it were wearing the standard boots.

"Hey," Zart whispered, "it's okay"

Zart was the only Minotaur in the warband, taller, stronger, and older than the others. His sturdy hooves ploughed a deep furrow in the snow. Maha was jealous of this. "I wish I didn't feel my feet either," she said. "If I don't have long legs, no one can force me to march."

"The last time I hit Winter's Claws, I saw a man's feet frozen into ice lumps," said Zart, "and his toes shattered when he wore his boots." So General Darius chopped it off in one fell swoop. ”

Maha set his sights on the mountain. In the distance, at the bend of the road, the hand of Darius himself, Noxus, can be seen, the embodiment of force. A great axe glittered on his back.

"You're lucky now," said Zart to her, "and Darius knows the road better than anyone." Because the road was built in his time at Darkwell. We can help him reclaim the road. There was a hint of anger in Zart's eyes. Winter's Claws, damn it"

The mountain road built by Darius was lined with steep cliffs. Maha looked up and could see some soldiers at the top of the cliff. "Scouts never rest, do they?" she asked.

"What"

She pointed her finger over. "The scouts."

"What scout," Zalter asked.

Then he looked up as well.

I don't know what swear words he sweared, but they were all covered by an avalanche anyway.

Two huge white carpets shook off the cliffs on either side of their heads, filling the mountain path almost instantly. Huge and chunky chunks of snow poured down in the middle of the Noxus marching column, engulfing rows of soldiers. Maha shrunk up, but it still felt like he had been knocked over directly by a charging dragon lizard. First the roaring terror, the terrible weightlessness and then the darkness, pressed down with the bitter winter.

Someone lifted Maha out of the snow. "Get up," the man commanded, his voice as sonorous as the clashing of swords. "Digging people"

She shook the snow off her body and began to dig. Then she realized that she was digging snow next to the general himself.

Darius saw an artiodactyl foot in the snow. "Zart," Maha shouted, helping the general to carry the minotaur out.

Maha looked back at the snowy slope behind him: at the top of the slope in the distance, the warriors of Winterclaw were picking among the scattered corpses of the Noxians. There's no way back, Maha thought.

Darius is counting men. "Non-commissioned officer," he shouted. Two men came running. "Report casualties. There is a river over the mountain. We're stationed there. Darius looked at the newly battered Noxus team, and the suppressed anger distorted his face. If you can't walk, crawl over. ”

As the sun loomed below the horizon, the guerrilla warriors of Winterclaw's claws followed the ranks of the Noxus Legion to the frozen river, harassing them with barbed arrows. However, the well-trained Trevary's legion kept moving. Maha tried his best to keep up with them and began to gasp for air.

The frozen river was wide and flat, enough to make Winterclaw afraid to rush directly. The Noxians knew that as long as they kept an eye on the riverbank, the only possible direction for the enemy to attack was in the nearby woods. Although cold arrows were fired in the shadow of the pine forest from time to time, Darius ordered his soldiers to forcibly dig two parallel trenches in the snow along the riverbank. The soldiers used their shields as shovels, and Maha saw Darius doing the same.

"Remember," said Zart, "you saw the Hand of Noxus digging a trench with the minions. ”

Then they began to sharpen the long wooden poles of the outer ring trench. Darius checked the line along the way, but stopped in front of Zart. "You look familiar." He said.

"I fought in the First Battle of Freljord, General," Zard nodded to Maha, "I told this young man that it was even more tragic than it is now. ”

Darius looked at Maha, "You're the first time you've been in the operation," he said.

Maha wondered how he saw it. "Yes, General."

"Don't waste your time afraid," he told her, "focus on the enemy in front of you, on wiping their necks with your sword." ”

Maha didn't know what to say. "Ugh"

Sou. Something cut through the air between the two men, and a javelin stuck into the snow wall of the trench.

Maha looked into the woods. The branches swayed, the shadows glistened with the light of a knife, and the polished bone armor chilled in the moonlight.

"Meet the enemy," Darius yelled.

Another round of javelins flew out of the woods, forcing the Noxian soldiers to scramble for cover. Maha saw a soldier stumble as a three-foot-long rough wooden pole came out of his chest.

Darius shoved Maha and Zart away, and the arrow struck him on the blade of the axe in his back. "It's coming. They will soon charge. "There was a blazing battle intent burning in his eyes." That's when we fight back. ”

As he spoke, a roar came from the direction of the woods. A herd of cat-like Six-Legged Shadows burst out of the Shadows, domesticated claws, and pounced on the throats of the Noxian soldiers.

The Man of Winter's Claws followed.

The Trifali legion climbed out of the trench to meet them, and Maha drew his sword. She saw Darius' tomahawk fall like a guillotine guillotine. She straightened up as well, ready to meet the battle, when Zalte fell beside her.

A javelin stuck in his shoulder.

"Go," he said with difficulty, but Maha didn't. In the blink of an eye, the Man of Winterclaw pounced on him with a short-handled axe. With her uninjured hand, Zart unleashed a skull-cutting slash that tripped over the attacking enemy, but instead of making up for the last blow, she returned to Zart's side.

She could save him. He must be saved

She pushed Zalt off the battlefield and in the direction of the river, slipping step by step onto the ice behind the Noxian Front. Zart fell to his knees, gasping for air with difficulty, and Maha suddenly felt the urge to flee with him to the other side of the river.

"Don't" Zalte knew what she was thinking. "Noxians never run away."

Maha's heart was beating wildly. She opened her mouth to argue with Zalt that I was a Noxian, but I was, but she couldn't say a word.

Zart's eyes widened, and a heavy palm landed on Maha's shoulder. She didn't need to look back to know who it was.

"Face the enemy." Darius roared.

"Me"

"You're facing back." With a flick of his arm, Darius turned her around. "If the Noxians want to escape, they will die." He said.

Death is in your hands, Maha knows it in his heart. Die under that axe. In her gaze, Darius raised the battle axe in his hand, and at that moment Maha thought to himself, it turned out to be my death sentence like this.

But that moment never came. A rain of arrows bounced off the side of the axe's blade, falling limply around them. Darius lowered his tomahawk. "Noxians never run away. We're going to win," he yelled, "we're going to make them pay, we're going to have them torn to pieces." ”

Suddenly, Maha felt anger at Winterclaw, but also at herself, fear of herself. She shoved Zart aside with her frozen arms. She heard him groan as he fell on the ice, but she ignored it, and neither did Darius. She followed in Darius's footsteps and rushed with him into the whirlwind of Noxian steel.

The blade flickered, and Maha swung the sword in her hand until her muscles burned and her palms were sore from the collision again and again. With each all-out attack, she was reminding herself: live. To win. Tear them to pieces.

By sunrise, Winter's Claws had collapsed.

When they returned, Darius and Maha found Zart by the river, with arrows stuck in his chest. It's dead.

Maha felt empty in his heart. She kept telling herself that maybe he had assembled with the army. Maybe he went to war too. But he died in the same place where they had left.

"I want to protect him," she told Darius, "he's a good soldier." I want to protect him. ”

Darius paused. "It's not a good decision." He said.

Maha was shocked, "Sir, you mean"

"You should fight alongside the soldiers who still have a chance to live." He turned to look at Maha. She shuddered, his eyes as steel. "Old Zart is ready to die. And you should be ready to fight now. ”

"Yes, yes," she stammered, "I will, sir. ”

Darius looked to the north, and the morning sun illuminated the high slopes of the Winterthorn Mountains. Maha could see a bonfire burning on it. Smoke rises through the canopy.

It's the Claws of Winter, and they're waiting.

"Then hurry up." Darius said