Well, I have to admit that I am quite groggy at this moment. The last couple of days have been draining, to say the least. Part of it is because I have been working overtime. I had to inscribe a conjuration spell into the formation in a matter of a week, after all.
Conjuration spells are very hard to inscribe. These spells have to be inscribed very precisely. If the runes are imprecise, then they can even cause the spells to backfire on you. I honestly don't know what will be created if the runes are inscribed imprecisely. Maybe the thing meant to be created will be ten times the size it is meant to be. Maybe it will be ten times smaller. Maybe it will be conjured upside down.
To create the ballista, there are two spells that I need to inscribe into the formation core.
The first is a pretty common formation. (at least among the druids). They call it the "standard ballista model type: strength". They have an entire series of these spells, each crafting different types of ballista. The model that I have chosen strengthens the force with which the spear will be leaving my ballista.
There are other such ballistas. Some increase the range of a shot, some increase the durability of the spears. For now, I think increasing the strength of the spears is the best way to go about it.
It is a pretty standard formation, so I have started my work on it first. I have spent the last week on this. With this ballista I don't need to throw the spears anymore.
The only problem is the string that we need to use for the ballista. You see, ballistas like this tend to make use of magical strings to throw the spells. Normal ballista string can be used but it doesn't give that extra strength to the spell. (Which these people don't have at hand anyway. So no use thinking about that.)
To create this magical string is the second spell that I need to inscribe. The druids have many magical spells for this, but none meet my requirement. The one that I want to make use of is something that my master has created for such a purpose.
The spell is known as the "string of water". The spell manifests a string of water mana that can be used to launch the water spears. It will also provide a decent speed boost to a water spear that is launched from it.
It is also very hard to craft. Much harder than the body of the ballista, if I am to be frank. I need to inscribe this spell into the formation soon, though. I am giving myself another week to do this. Building the ballista like this is stupid, but I have no option.
Well, I will be honest that I have one other option. I could have inscribed it in a matter of a week. I don't want to speak about it. Let's just call it a nasty little surprise.
I don't even know why I am doing this. I just think that I must keep this hidden. Something feels very wrong about how we are targeted. I have a feeling things are going to get worse. Anyway, I have committed to making the ballista. All I can do is just focus on the task at hand and make sure that I do not end up screwing this up.
I guess I should explain why I need to hurry so much. The hunt is going to end soon. Once that occurs, a majority of the nobles at the frozen peak are going to be returning to their homes.
I guess that I should explain to you what the hunt is. Every year at the start of winter, the commander conducts the hunt. Almost every force in the frozen peak goes out and hunts the icebeasts.
The hunt attracts quite a few of the younger nobles. It is supposed to be something of a competition for them. To see who will be able to hunt the most ice beasts. Without them, the frozen peaks simply won't have enough people to send out to hunt them on such a grand scale.
Once the hunt ends, the commoner soldiers are all going to retreat to the frozen peak. The frozen peak will then maintain a defensive line around the fort. The goal is to make sure that not too many icebeast troops enter the empire. Sadly, we are at what can be considered the outskirts of this safe zone. The frozen peak will be able to send us reinforcements, but it will be too late for it to be worth anything.
The enemy is going to have much more freedom to act with the hunt reaching its end. During the hunt is when most of the troops die, it seems. Even the snowlords never appear during the hunt. After all, if all their troops do end up dying, then being in the easy reach of the commander is the worst place for them to be.
At the moment, Shamon is even more worried about this than me. He has been acting like a ghost possessed him. That is the intensity with which he has been directing his soldiers. Their major work for now has been to break that ice spike and repair the damage to the walls. The man is completely sure that we will be dead if we don't do our best.
The soldiers have also been taking in the corpses of the ice beasts that they have killed. Their major focus has been to convert all of their meat into jerky as soon as possible. Well, they have been cutting up the beasts quite clinically. I am sure that they have left nothing to waste. The bones are now nails. Their hides have become clothes, and their flesh has become food. The brutality of the snowwinders almost makes me feel pity for the icebeasts.
Looking at the intensity of their preparations, though, is why I am pushing liking this as well. We have enough reserves to survive a few weeks at the very least without any problems. I mean, we are a bit far away from the peak, but it is not so far away that we won't be having supplies. It is a bit too cautious in my opinion.
Well, this is better than the soldiers losing their minds because they have nothing to do, I guess. This fort has been a pretty oppressive place lately. The worsening winter does not help with it.
Finally, I guess that I should talk about our enemy. Things have been very quiet on that front. The reason for that is that the icebeasts are overwhelmed. You see, every troop leader can control eighty beasts. This they do by making use of some kind of a magical ability. The problem with that is that they have to always keep them in control. With a troop leader dead, their control over their beasts is failing. The remaining leaders have to control the troops of the injured leaders.
I guess I should explain about this magic of the beasts a bit better. Trevor finally bothered to explain this to me. The ice beasts are controlled by the troop leader by some variant of mental magic.
Just like any magical method, such control is very limited. Each troop leader can perfectly control eighty such grunts. Beyond that, the troop leaders cannot control the grunts perfectly. They can still maintain some kind of control over the grunts. There is a chance that the beast might escape said control, though.
That means that at the moment, the troop leaders can barely control their troops. This is supposed to be the reason that they are being so passive right now. The troop leaders will only be able to direct these creatures to attack us in hordes.
The troop leaders are controlling the ice beasts out of their troops as well. By the way, there are at least four and a half of these troops attacking us. The ice spike that they created is possible only by having half a troop there to supply the leader with mana.
As for what this means for me. It means that they are not going to be able to show any of the fine strategies that they have shown till now. If that does occur, it will make things easier and tougher for my soldiers. The soldiers will be able to hold off the creatures at the wall if they do end up attacking in a horde like this.
The only problem will then be the fact that our casualties are not going to be low if a horde were to attack us. We are going to lose quite a few of our soldiers. Shamon expects to lose at least thirty soldiers if a full assault does happen. It is going to bring our numbers to a little more than half of our original numbers. That brings us to another issue.
Only a fool would hope to expect any reinforcement from the frozen peak after the hunt. (According to Shamon, at least.) The reason for that is quite simple. There are two major factions in the frozen peak. The first is the nobles, who have no interest in helping us out in any shape or form. Any reinforcement they send is essentially going to be to take over this fort.
If that happens, my work at the will be over. The nobles will then have to figure all of this mess out if they want to keep the fort. The problem with all of this is that the temporary fort is the commander's property. Before he gives any permission, any reinforcement sent to the fort will be considered to be "rude". I am sure that the commander has many ways of destroying "rude" nobles.
So the nobles won't be helping us at all. (The bastards are unlikely to stay beyond the hunt anyway.) As for the commoner faction, they are even less likely to help us out. It is through no fault of theirs, though. They are at the moment quite busy managing the hunt. The commoner soldiers are considered to be the backbone of the hunt.
They don't participate in it themselves. They work in the background, maintaining the ranking of the nobles in the hunt. (There is no official ranking in place. Without somebody neutral doing the counting, though, they will go to war with each other.) They are also charged with collecting and transporting the icebeasts back to the frozen peak. They process these corpses to make a bunch of stuff. (Much like what the soldiers here have done.)
The hunt would not exist without the work of these soldiers. (even if they are not actively participating in the battle.) Even if that was not the case, there is simply no possibility of them coming. Once the hunt ends, they are going to be even busier. They will have to maintain constant vigil to ensure no troops are sneaking through.
That means that we are going to have to figure out our reinforcements, or things will go bad pretty quickly. On that front, at least we have good news. You see, we are not the only temporary fort in the area. Shamon has already initiated communication with them. We are hoping to bargain with them for their soldiers. The fact that so many enemy troops attacked here means that the other forts were barely attacked. That means they have much fewer losses than us. They must have soldiers to spare.
There are a total of seven forts this year, including ours. If we were to get even five soldiers from each fort, we would manage to recoup our losses. I think it might even end up being better for us than that. The simple fact is that Shamon assumes the worst about everything.
If the man says we might lose thirty, he usually means that we might end up losing twenty. On this front also, I can't help this man. This type of bargaining requires a kind of personal touch with the leaders of those forts. Naturally I won't be able to provide that. All I can do is leave it to Shamon for now.
If I were a noble, things would have been quite easy for Shamon. After all, no commoner likes to even be near the place where a noble has died. The backlash of a noble's death will result in the death of every soldier here. It might end up implicating their villages too.
If I were a noble, I am sure all the troops of the seven forts would be here. The punishment for failing their defense might be better than facing the wrath of a noble. This is also an example of just how wide the gap between nobles and commoners has grown in this empire.