Game of Thrones: Knight’s Honor
Chapter 380: Battle Reports and Tests

“Your Grace, these are the latest reports.”

Sam, currently overseeing affairs at Castle Black, placed the past two days’ battle reports on the table and looked toward Lynd, who had just returned from inspecting the eastern castles.

“The reinforcements from the south arrived yesterday. Lord Brynden Tully is leading them. Would you like to see him?”

“Let him come,” Lynd said as he picked up the reports and flipped through them quickly.

“Yes, Your Grace.” Sam bowed and turned to leave.

“Wait.”

Lynd called him back. “Still no news about Jon?”

Sam's expression turned somber. He shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

At that, Rickon, serving as Lynd’s attendant, lowered his head and gave a quiet sob.

During his time with the Night's Watch, it had been Jon who looked after him. With his family dead or missing and Bran entombed in ice, Jon had been the only one left who made him feel like he still had a home. Now that Jon was missing too, the sorrow overwhelmed him.

“What about the woman—Ygritte?” Lynd asked.

“She’s still being held in the cells at the front-line fortress,” Sam answered. “They plan to wait until Jon’s situation is clear before deciding her fate.”

Lynd considered for a moment.

“Send a message to Lord Commander Stannis. Tell him not to make things difficult for her.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Sam said, then left the room.

Lynd returned his attention to the reports. The battle between Stannis and the Free Folk beyond the Wall had entered its third day. Both sides had victories and losses, but overall, Stannis held a clear advantage. His victories were major strategic gains; his losses were only minor and isolated.

Mance Rayder, though talented—able to unite the wild tribes and earn their trust as King-Beyond-the-Wall—had never faced true warfare. In terms of military planning and battlefield control, he was no match for Stannis’s experience. The disparity in equipment between the two sides only widened that gap. The outcome, then, was no surprise.

The Free Folk alliance had now been pushed entirely out of the Haunted Forest. A small force had broken away and crossed the Antler River, retreating north. The bulk of the army had fallen back to the rugged terrain of Stoneknife Point, using it to evade pursuit.

According to intelligence from spies embedded in the Free Folk ranks, they had constructed over a hundred rafts at Hardhome, situated at the tip of Stoneknife Point. It looked like they intended to exploit the Miracle Fleet’s current deployment in Braavos—hoping to bypass the Wall using those rafts.

These developments clearly indicated outside help. Trapped beyond the Wall, the Free Folk shouldn’t have been able to seize the timing so precisely without someone aiding them from the outside.

But they were destined to fail.

Unbeknownst to them, Lynd had long since brought the wild tribes of Skagos under his rule and built a secret Miracle Fleet base there, housing a small fleet of fifty warships.

Though few in number, each ship was battle-ready—equipped with ballistae, catapults, and other siege weaponry—more than enough to control the waters off Hardhome.

So long as Stannis made no critical errors, the Free Folk's fate was sealed.

Lynd decided there was no need to travel to the front himself. His presence would only add pressure. Instead, his focus turned to the battle along the Frozen Shore.

This marked the first direct clash between Lynd’s elite forces and the White Walkers—and it also served as a live trial for a wide array of custom-designed anti-wight weaponry.

Over the years, under Lynd’s directive, the Black Cave, the Smithies, the Sphinx Academy, and the Silent Court had developed dozens of weapons tailored to fight the undead—ten types were already in mass production, and over fifty specialized prototypes had been completed.

Despite their promising designs, these weapons had yet to be tested in true battle. Now, the confrontation between the Silent Men, the Sisters of Redemption, and the advancing dead had become the perfect proving ground.

At Lynd’s order, a new report was delivered to Castle Black by hawk every half day, keeping him constantly updated on the battlefield’s developments.

Though the three-day conflict had brought a few unexpected turns, the overall outcome had exceeded expectations. The weapons designed specifically for the undead were proving effective.

On the first day, when facing a wight horde of at least six or seven thousand, the Silent Men deployed a specialized wildfire bomb.

While not as powerful as the original wildfire, it burned hotter than standard flames, with the advantage of long burn duration and resistance to low temperatures. Lynd had previously tested it with his ice-dragon runes, and found that only freezing the source directly could extinguish the flames completely.

Now, the wildfire bombs specifically designed against wights had proven unexpectedly effective. Just over sixty bombs were enough to annihilate an army of more than 7,000 wights without suffering a single casualty. The wights were like dry tinder—once touched by a spark, they instantly ignited and turned into blazing torches.

The Silent Men’s battle went smoothly, but things were more complicated for the Sisters of Redemption. Stationed on the western side of the Frostfang Mountains, they encountered a wight army numbering at least ten thousand. Like their counterparts, they used wildfire bombs to launch a large-scale assault.

The results against the wights were equally impressive—but hidden among them were more than a dozen human White Walkers. The slightly weaker wildfire bombs had little effect on the White Walkers. Highly intelligent, the White Walkers used the wights as cover, staying concealed until they were close enough to strike. Then they emerged from the burning chaos and launched a sudden assault.

The attack was swift and obscured by flames. Three sisters were unable to defend themselves in time and were wounded by the White Walkers’ ice blades. Thankfully, their armor was reinforced with dragonglass and dragonbone. While the ice blades pierced the defenses, the wounds were shallow.

Still, even a small wound was dangerous. All three sisters felt an unnatural force seeping into their bodies through the cuts. Under the protection of their comrades, they quickly retreated to the rear and began testing various potions prepared by the Black Cave.

They discovered that the divine elixir could suppress the invading energy, but what worked best was a cold-resistance remedy made from pungent spices. Whether applied externally or taken internally, it could neutralize the White Walker's influence entirely.

...

Once the counterattack began, the Sisters of Redemption responded quickly. Working in concert, they took the opportunity to test tactics and weapons specifically developed to combat White Walkers.

They found that the White Walkers possessed immense strength—each of their casual strikes was as powerful as a sister’s full-force blow. Their movement and attack speed far exceeded that of normal humans. It took four or five sisters working together to pin one down.

They also discovered that White Walkers had a certain resistance to dragonglass. While dragonglass weapons could harm them, they weren’t enough to guarantee a kill unless they struck a vital spot. The problem was, those vital spots varied: some were located at the crown of the head, others in the throat, and still others on the palm.

If a weak point couldn’t be found, the only option was to smash their joints with war hammers. Despite their power and magical nature, White Walkers still relied on physical structure. Once a joint was broken, they could barely move.

A crippled White Walker was nothing more than prey waiting to be butchered. They could be burned with wildfire, or slowly destroyed using dragonglass-infused weapons until their unnatural energy dispersed. Once that power was gone, their bodies would collapse into a shower of icy crystals.

Using this method, the Sisters of Redemption managed to capture five White Walkers alive. They severed their limbs and sealed them in containers etched with frozen dragon runes. Then, using coastal sled teams pulled by massive white dogs, they transported the captives to a nearby Walrus Coast tribe, where Malora had already established a temporary research base with help from the Black Cave and the Silent Court.

Over a thousand specially designed transport ships were also stationed there, each capable of carrying up to three hundred people. In the event of an emergency, they could evacuate everyone immediately.

...

In the following two days, the Sisters of Redemption and the Silent Men fought more than twenty engagements against the wight army. They destroyed over 100,000 wights, killed more than 100 human White Walkers, and captured over twenty more. No elven White Walkers were encountered.

They tested every weapon in their arsenal. The most effective included wildfire bombs, dragonglass-tipped arrows, dragonglass armor, and close-combat weapons. Others, like dragonglass powder mist and weapons made of magical metals, proved mostly ineffective.

Aside from one Silent Man who was fatally struck in a vital spot by a White Walker weapon, there were no significant casualties. All other injuries were fully healed using a combination of the spicy remedy and divine elixir.

There was no question—the Sisters of Redemption and the Silent Men had achieved an extraordinary victory. If their achievements were made public, it would undoubtedly boost morale across the entire human realm.

However, the best news for Lynd was that the White Walkers couldn’t cross the sea—not even by walking across the decks of a ship.

The very first test in Lynd’s experimental plan was to determine whether White Walkers could travel over water. So once a White Walker was captured, the walrus-folk base immediately began the experiment. As soon as a ship detached completely from the coast, losing all contact with land, the White Walker aboard shattered like glass—just as if it had been struck by a Valyrian steel sword. It was as if some invisible force inherent to the sea itself dispersed the power within it.

While the fact that White Walkers couldn't cross open water was undoubtedly good news, there was a downside: if any ice layer connected the sea to the land, the White Walkers could still cross.

Under normal conditions, such sea ice might be rare. But during the Long Night, when eternal winter descends, even the waters flanking the Wall—or those surrounding the southern Stepstones—could freeze solid. And with that, the White Walkers would have a direct path over barriers like the Wall. That, without question, was deeply troubling.

...

As Lynd reviewed the latest battle reports, a knock came at the door. Rickon, having regained his composure, walked over and opened it. Brynden Tully, the Blackfish, stepped inside and bowed.

“Your Grace.”

“No need for ceremony,” Lynd said, waving his hand. Then, with a focused tone, he asked, “How many reinforcements did you bring? How many are actual trained warriors, and how many are just conscripts?”

Brynden thought for a moment and replied, “Over five hundred knights and seven thousand soldiers, all drawn from various house garrisons. In addition, we have thirty-five thousand conscripted troops. We’re ready to move Beyond the Wall at any time.”

“In the current situation, sending your men Beyond the Wall is nothing but sending them to die,” Lynd said bluntly, cutting through Brynden’s confidence. Before Brynden could respond, Lynd handed him the reports from both battlefronts. “Read these. Then tell me what you think.”

Brynden hesitated, then took the two documents and began to read carefully. As he went through the pages, his expression shifted. When he read of how Stannis had cornered the Free Folk alliance step by step, he couldn’t help but utter a word of praise. Then, as he read how the combined force of the Silent Men and the Redemptive Sisters—numbering barely two thousand—had wiped out more than a hundred thousand wights and over a hundred White Walkers with only one casualty among them, a flicker of disbelief and even contempt crept across his face. Clearly, he thought the threat of the wights and White Walkers had been greatly exaggerated.

“Your Grace, I’ve finished reading.” Brynden closed the reports and was about to speak.

Still bent over his desk drafting the overall defense plan for the Wall, Lynd didn’t look up. “Read it again. More carefully this time. Don’t be fooled by what’s on the surface.”

Though puzzled, Brynden did as instructed. He reopened the documents and read from the beginning, this time with painstaking attention, examining every sentence.

Nearly an hour later, he finally looked up, his expression far more serious.

“Your Grace, the reinforcements I brought must be retrained and reorganized. They’re not ready to enter the battlefield.”

His change in tone was easy to understand. He now realized that the forces he’d brought—whether in terms of equipment or individual combat capability—were no match for what the Night’s Watch currently fielded under Stannis.

And compared to the Redemptive Sisters and the Silent Men, the difference was even more staggering.

He had once seen the Redemptive Sisters in action. A squad of ten Silent Men and Sisters had been en route north to the Wall when they encountered a disorderly militia of more than a thousand. The ten of them wiped out the entire group without suffering a single injury. For warriors of that caliber to need five people working together with custom-crafted anti-White Walker weapons to subdue a single White Walker... it was clear. If his men were to face one themselves, even a thousand might not be enough to bring it down.