It has been a week since we have been stuck in this stalemate. The ironskin spell has been active for all this while. These few days, the spell has accumulated quite a bit of metal mana. (Though, it is not really visible spread across the entire fort.) I am going to need that soon enough if I am to pull off what I plan to do.
I have to admit that my present plan is a desperate one. The problem is, I barely managed to complete the ironskin as it is and the enemy troop leaders have begun to pop up near the wall. Inscribing anymore is going to be a danger that I cannot afford. Every moment of inscribing just this one spell has been a nightmare. Now that they are alert to it, it will be impossible.
I plan to get rid of these Ice Beasts before proceeding with the formation base. This plan is why I am here at the southern gate of the fort with all these people. They are all the people with any cultivation in this place. They will be able to survive outside of the fort without their coats. (The coats make our presence obvious to our enemies, especially outside in the snowy plains.)
I won't speak of the plan for now. The only part of the plan that I am comfortable sharing is that we plan to infiltrate the enemy's base. The best way we will be reaching the place is to sneak through the plains outside.
I have to admit that I am gambling quite a bit with this plan. I am not sure if we will safely reach the enemy base without being detected. Even if we do end up reaching the place, there are just too many uncertainties. We are literally going into the enemy's place of power.
I don't even have a weapon of my own here. Even the sword I have, I had to borrow from the troop. I could have bought a sword from the Frozen Peak. Plenty of the shops there had pretty decent swords. I did not expect to be sent here then though.
At least then things would not have been this embarrassing. (You ask one of your underlings for a weapon and see how it feels.) There is little that I can do about it now other than regret it. As for why I would need a sword when I have the "Thalion's vine". I'm going to need it for something else soon enough.
On top of that there is still a dull throb in my arm and my chest. Handling the pain is going to be easy. I am just not sure if putting too much force on my injuries is going to open them or not. (I would not have this worry if I had my sword with me at this moment.)
To speak about the sword given to me. It is a pretty standard design for a sword. It is something that is issued to every soldier of the Frozen Peak. The quality of the sword is decent at the very least. It is going to survive a fight between mages. (I wouldn't push the sword, though)
I swing the sword a few times, trying to get used to its weight and balance. The sword is about the correct size for me to use all of my stances at the very least. That means that I will be able to fight properly for as long as the sword doesn't break on me.
(After about five minutes of me playing around with the sword.)
In front of me are the five people who are going to go with me on this present mission. They are all new soldiers (except Shamon), though I have to admit that they are well-trained. To give you an idea of their strength, I would need my sword to defeat them all at once. (Though, I can still take care of them if they are separated.)
The people of note here are Shamon and Entim. Shamon has barely entered into the first circle. The man can barely compare to to me in terms of the mana he has. (and I have barely any.) Still, there is an edge to the man that makes it clear that he is not going to be easy to fight. There is an authority to his movement that makes it clear that he is the leader of this bunch.
Entim, on the other hand, is halfway through the process of breaking through into the second circle. At least that's what Shamon tells me. I have to rely on the man's judgment because I still don't understand the draconian magic path that well. I can say the man has enough mana to put me to shame. (I can defeat him easily in a duel, though.)
I would say that Entim is roughly about my age by looks. He might be a few years older. (That means that there is a good chance that he can breakthrough into the stage beyond.) He is technically the strongest person here. It is a surprise that the man is not trying to challenge my authority.
Well, all five of them look ready to leave at this moment. I just need to do something before leaving. I begin to focus on controlling my vital mana. I have to push all of my mana back into the mana core. I don't struggle much with this normally. (We formation mages require perfect control over mana, but that is over external mana.) Ever since I have come here, though, I have formed a habit of circulating my vital mana, resisting the cold.
It takes a few embarrassing moments for all of my mana to return to my core. Instantly, I can feel my body grow heavier. I can feel the world grow blurrier as my senses degrade to the level of a normal mortal. I feel like my body has become sluggish, and moving is becoming harder. Well, I will get used to this soon enough. Thankfully, my mana sense remains as it is.
"It is time for us to leave," I command, which the soldiers listen to dutifully. They are a silent bunch, these Snowwinders.
Right now, we are standing in the safety of the southern gate of the fort. (and the environmental formation it is behind.) Once we step out, we will be completely at the mercy of the weather outside. I am thinking too much about all of this. We don't have time to waste. Every second wasted is another moment that the enemy can use to find us.
I step out into the frigid wasteland. The winds battering me feel like blades of ice that are cutting into my body. I walk on leading the soldiers behind me. They are walking through this weather like it is nothing. (I can't show them weakness now. I take care to keep my expression steady.)
I grit my teeth as we begin our trek. None of us even dares to strengthen our bodies for fear of being caught. The only mana that I dare to use is to reinforce my sword.
Even for that, I am pushing my mana control to its limits to make sure I use as little mana as possible. I am making the sword just strong enough that a sudden swing will not break it. I can assure you that no Ice Beast will be able to detect that. Granted, I have never met the creatures so I can't tell how sensitive to mana these creatures actually are. (They have no mana sense, though. I am sure of that.)
(After about five minutes.)
We have finally reached the enemy's base. Now comes the tricky part. What I am calling our enemy's base is a series of tunnels dug by the Ice Beasts in the snow. The troop leaders have to use their abilities extensively to keep the place stable. (it is not the nature of snow and ice to remain stable once somebody makes a hole in it.) We hope that this is enough to keep them busy. We can fight them, but then we wouldn't be able to pull off what we came here to do.
There are already so many things that can go wrong. For one thing, we have a pretty rudimentary map of the place. We can thank my mana echolocation for even this. The only problem is I am no master of this dwarven art. (To be honest, this is not something that the dwarves will teach to the other races. All their forts are underground.)
We absolutely cannot get lost in there, especially with what I plan to do to this place. That is why I am still standing here. In front of me is a breathing hole for the tunnels below us. We will be able to enter the place if we are ready to squeeze a bit. (The hole is considered minuscule compared to the size of an Ice Beast.) Once I enter the tunnels, there is no going back. This is the only chance to retreat that I have.
As I am thinking this, I throw my sword right into the throat of an Ice Beast. I had almost missed the creature in my mana sense. (I am getting better at detecting them, though.) It has just popped out of one of the nearly invisible breathing holes in the ground and would have discovered us soon enough.
We have spent enough time outside. I gesture to the soldiers to follow me. Jumping into the hole, I end up in a massive tunnel. If there is going to be a fight, then we are going to be fighting quite comfortably here.
That is both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time, as it also applies to our enemies. They must have built a place so large just to fight comfortably. I wonder for a second if they knew this fight would happen. There is no use obsessing over it. I gesture towards a tunnel to the left. Based on my map, that should lead toward the center of this tunnel system.
I can't say for certain, but the center is in that rough direction. It will not take long for the map that I had built to become useless. Still, we had accounted for that. What we need is a direction to walk towards. We manage to walk for a few moments as I feel a concentration of ice mana behind me. My sword flashes behind me, right into the eye of an Ice Beast. The creature struggles for a few moments before dying. I guess now would be a good time to mention that the Ice Beasts do look like wolves.
The only thing that could be considered different would be their faces. Their faces and mouths are more like snakes than wolves. Even now, I can see the neck of the creature curve into its slit-like mouth. I can see the serpentine tongues flick in our directions.
Fuck, what in the hells am I doing. The fucking creatures are ambushing us. There is no point in maintaining stealth.
"Screw it. Troop, enter into a defensive position. We will charge towards the target," I command them. The soldiers follow my command as they quickly enter into a box-like formation as they flair their mana. It would mean that we are abandoning stealth. Let's just hope that the troop leaders are not too active. I don't want to face them now.
I begin to run, while the soldiers behind me keep up with me as well as they can. Any creature ambushing us now would be in the easy reach of at least two soldiers. It does not take us particularly long to get lost as we run through the caves. The entire thing is a confusing mess of tunnels. Thankfully, we are still going in the correct direction.
Also, I have been remembering every turn that we have taken. When it is time to go away, we can't get lost. If I mess this up while leaving, the Ice Beasts will be the least of my worries.
As I am thinking about this, we finally reach the center of these caves. It is like a massive cave inside the ground. It is large enough for an airship to enter. Shamon tells me that these centers always exist. He explained something about this place acting as the foundation of the entire cave system. (I don't really get it.)
Collapsing this centre will collapse the entire thing. (I am relying on Shamon for this judgement, again.) I am surprised that there is no troop leader here. After all, with such a massive weakness, I would have assumed that a troop leader would always be here to guard it.
It makes sense, I guess. It would take a massive amount of force to destabilize this place. The minute the troop leaders detect any foreign mana, they will come running to this place. (I am counting on that.) That is why I need to hurry with my work. I need to be ready before they reach here.
As for what I am doing. I am going to be projecting the mana from the ironskin at the fort to this place. I am sure that many of you do not know what projecting is, but it would be stupid to explain it now when I have so much work and so little time.
More importantly, this cave has two entries. Enemies will be pouring in from both. Before I even command them, the five soldiers have already begun to cover these positions. Shamon and Entim cover one entrance, with the other three covering the other. They have good teamwork, so I am sure that they will manage to hold the enemy for a while. Now I have to make use of these few minutes to do my work. I have delayed this enough. Time to get to work.