Page 271 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Kein’s sudden attack had terrified them all enough that they’d stopped fighting to take into account the state of their army, take in all the bodies surrounding them, and realize that they were all headed toward the inevitable unless they did something now. Kassein could see many of them weren’t willing to resume the battle, their eyes distraught or contemplating, horrified, the accumulated bodies around them.
It had taken a woman’s scream and a dragon’s attack, but suddenly, an eerie suspense settled over the rift as both armies regarded one another, hesitant.
Many of their leaders were dead, and the men didn’t seem eager to run headfirst into the same fate.
Then, a deafening crack echoed through the rift, breaking the tension.
Men on both sides looked around and up, trying to find the source of the sound. Then another crack was heard, louder, and all eyes shifted to one of the largest mountains overlooking the area. A block of snow had detached itself from somewhere under the tip of it.
At first, and with the distance, it only seemed like an inconsequential event, but the sound it had made upon detaching itself indicated it was going to be anything but. Every single fighter in the area was frozen in nervous anticipation, watching with growing horror as it slowly rolled down and more and more snow toppled, blowing thick clouds of white smoke in its wake. It was picking up speed, and more chunks of snow were detaching, adding to the white tidal wave.
“...That can’t be good,” Kiera swallowed.
Kassein was the first to snap his focus back to the battlefield. That avalanche was going to hit the rift. There was no way around it.
With the way that mountain was positioned, it was going to tumble straight toward them. It was coming down fast, growing larger by the second, and they probably had less than a minute before it struck.
The trajectory itself was hard to predict, but if he had to guess, Kassein estimated it was going to hit somewhere between where their armies met, and farther down, where he’d forced their opponent to come to them. The enemy would be the most impacted, but the men who’d followed him to the frontline were also at the forefront of the impending catastrophe, and there was no time to evacuate them. Kein wouldn’t be able to carry dozens of men to safety, and he couldn’t even predict how far that avalanche was going to reach.
Kassein began to frantically look for a solution, glancing at the mud-covered cliffs, the dozens of men standing there in petrified shock, and the jagged stone pillars scattered along the floor of the rift. His heart accelerated. They were massive. Sharp, towering like the fangs of some buried monster pointed toward the sky, and they were all standing in its open maw. He glanced up again at the avalanche, the looming wave of snow gathering speed and heading straight for them.
“...Kiera,” he called his sister with a hoarse voice.
“We don’t have time to evacuate,” she retorted with a tight jaw.
“No, we don’t.”
He turned to her as she approached, her eyes riveted on the impending catastrophe.
“Then what do we–”
“You have to use your water thing.”
His sister’s eyes snapped back to him, and after a second of taking in what he’d said, her jaw dropped. She let out a nervous laugh.
“You can’t be serious,” she muttered.
“You have to,” he insisted.
“Kassein, I haven’t-... I haven’t done it in years, and I’ve only succeeded twice!”
“It doesn’t matter,” he retorted. “It’s all ice and snow. Do it.”
“But–!”
He didn’t stay to listen to her protests. He vaguely heard his sister complain and maybe let out a couple of bad words, but he was already running, his eyes riveted on the incoming disaster.
“Sir, what do you want us to–”
“Run! Find cover!” he barked behind him.
He left his men, charging ahead. No one stopped him when he pushed past the enemy lines; most were frozen with fear, and those who weren’t had already begun to run. But the rift was too deep, and there was nowhere they could escape to before the avalanche reached them.
If they couldn’t stop it, they had to block it.
That was Kassein’s plan as he darted toward the largest spiked boulder he could find. It was half-buried in ice, the tallest of the jagged rock formations scattered through the rift, at least five or six times his height, but that didn’t stop him. He threw his sword to the ground and lunged at it, ignoring the shouted warnings from behind. His body slammed into the rock, shaking loose a shower of ice and, against all odds, triggering a sharp crack. His shoulder flared with pain, but he didn’t stop. He slammed it again, this time angling himself toward the weak spot he’d felt at chest height. He planted his boots in the mud and shoved with everything he had. Another crack. Another wave of pain.
Yells and chaos echoed around him, but all he registered was Kiki’s shriek above, Kiera urging her dragon into the air. Somewhere down the rift, a rock spire collapsed with a thunderous crash; Kein was doing the same. But Kassein was alone with this one. He gritted his teeth and slammed his shoulder once more. Blood hit his tongue, but he ignored it. The crack was growing. He dug in again, using his hands now. His palms bled against the stone, bronze scales beginning to creep along his fingers. He pushed harder. His boots slipped an inch, sweat running down his back, and the roar of the avalanche grew louder by the second.
