Well, I have to admit that things are finally feeling a bit better after I have started fighting. I am not the kind of person who likes to remain passive while the enemy is at the doorstep. Until now they were annoyingly far from me, beyond the range of the water bolt formation.

That is one of the major disadvantages of being a formation mage if you want my opinion. To have all of your power focused in a single location gives the enemy a kind of freedom that I certainly do not want to give them.

Well, the enemy has entered the range of the formation. All four troop leaders are in front of me, trying to bait me into a melee. Maybe they assume that I would be easy to deal with in a melee. After all my last fight with them was not particularly. Shamon says that the snowlord can look through the eyes of a troop leader.

Still, they try to shoot what I can only call orbs of ice mana at me, the only problem being that their aim sucks. The ice balls have been hitting the wall at regular intervals barely causing any damage to the wall. the wall would have held against this wall even before the iron skin. The goal of the ice ball is to not cause physical damage but to cause its victims to freeze. Now, I need not worry about that anymore.

I have the advantage of a wall on my side. The ice beasts and their powers are more suited to fighting their enemies on the vast open field of the northern wastelands. If they were to climb to the wall, they would be fighting in an environment as favorable to me as it can get. While the normal grunt ice wolves do not seem to realize this, the troop leaders are certainly smarter than that.

That is why I am in this situation, where they are trying to lure me onto the field. Well, I can't let them do that all the while. The wall will be able to handle it but I cannot have drained iron skin against what are essentially cannon fodder. With any other defensive spell, I might have just let these guys keep bombarding the wall if only to test my handicraft.

Well, it is about time that I enter into the battle. I can already feel Shamon behind me giving me looks of death. He is a bit of a worrywart, isn't he? Those spells are not even hitting his soldiers.

Well, I begin to condense Strings of mana which go deep into the fortress in search of the formation core. The instant that the strings find the core, suddenly I can feel everything about the core. Honestly, it feels as if I have suddenly grown a third limb. It is such a freeing sensation that I feel like I can do anything.

I activate the water bolt formation, which begins to take in the mana from the formation base. I can feel the mana from the base being taken, passing into the rune and converting into a water bolt. All of this is happening in moments as the central formation fully awakens, which the enemy can also feel. They are already raising their shields, though I am faster.

This formation is kind of like guiding a troop of archers, every time I let go the water bolt will travel physically from the formation to wherever I want to target it. Such an approach does have disadvantages such as the range being lower and there being a slight delay in the process of releasing spells. It is countered with the benefit that I do not need to store the mana bolt in my mana core as is the process with formations like this. I need to create a specialized quiver to hold them, though that is a work for later.

The fully formed water bolt resembles an arrow as it flies true to its aim at the nearest ice beast. I almost succeeded in killing it instantly, but the creature's half-formed shield while not strong enough to block the magic, knocked it off course. What should have hit the enemy's heart hit it in its guts.

Ok, I seriously underestimated just how effective this spell was going to be. The remaining ice beasts make use of this spell to launch their ice balls at me. Naturally, those spells do not hit me as I jump to the side where three ice balls hit the place where I was just standing. Looks like I am not the only one trying to trick my enemies, as the ice balls have essentially frozen the spot that I was just standing in.

I can feel the chill in my body grow restless as if the proximity to this much ice mana is giving it strength( well, those ice balls are made up of ice mana compressed however many times.). Okay, I have seriously underestimated the deadliness of the chill. I do not have time to think as another set of ice balls is flying in my direction. Too late to dodge, which means that the only way to block the strike would be to shoot a water bolt at it.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

My aim is also true as three water bolts fly and deviate the spell from its path. Well, the fact that it can do that only is amazing. What I am doing is the equivalent of fighting a shark in the ocean. anyway, I can feel another water bolt formed, which I aim at another of the ice beasts. The beast uses its ranged attack to block that strike.

While all of that is going on, in the periphery of my vision I can see the ice beasts retreating taking the victim of my first strike with it. A bit more time and the creatures will pass the range of my water bolts. At the moment I am left with a dilemma. The retreating of the leader can be considered to be an achievement but I certainly will not get another opportunity to hurt them like this again.

They are already aware of the strength of the bolt after all. I can push them now and hope to get rid of the injured creature before they can complete their retreat. With the chill, this is going to be quite a bit of a gamble but this seems like a season of gambles for me.

Not thinking too much, I jump down the wall. I begin to circle all of the mana in my core along with siphoning a little of the mana from the formation, at least the little that I dare to channel into me. Let's hope that will be enough to counteract the chill. At the same time, I am running the formation to keep producing water bolts.

While all of that is happening, the beasts have reacted to my action by sending a leader to act as a distraction. I could try and chase after the injured one but even if I reach it, it is unlikely for me to kill it with two leaders acting as its guards anyway.

Preparing a water bolt, the cannon fodder leader has already reached me as it tries to force me into a melee. I can sense the ice mana in this creature's body gathering around its claws and its vitals, strengthening it. I almost am not able to react as the creature seems to have teleported to my side.

Thankfully, almost on instinct, I hit the creature in its snout, causing it to retreat, though what damage I might have done I don't know. Well, in my present situation, I am missing my old formations which would have given me quite the edge in this situation. I want my sword at the very least which is honestly at least half a continent away from me. My master can be a fucking idiot sometimes you know.

How in hell is this teaching me, he is fucking getting me killed. (well, I had forgotten that I was in the middle of a battlefield at the moment). Due to all of these thoughts, I am almost struck by the creature's claws. It is only twisting my body away from its claws that has managed to protect me. I am knocked off my feet though as the creature tackles me to the ground.

After that, I am stuck in an embarrassing tumble to the ground, in which I am trying to fight the chill which seems to have intensified, the creature that is trying to get a bite into me and the perspective shift from being tackled to the ground. In that period at the very least, I had not gotten bitten by the creature. I cannot even imagine what would have happened to me if I did get bitten again.

It must have been adrenaline or something as I plucked the creature and almost threw it away from me. I can feel my body shivering, but there is little that I can do about that. Regardless, I can sense the creature standing just a bit away from me, gauging out what move I want to make. Good, because I need this time to reorient myself. I enter into a defensive stance even if it were to attack.

Well, a water bolt at this distance there will be a lag before it can hit the enemy, a time in which the enemy can strike me quite easily. For now, I think that the wisest move I can make (of which I have been not making many) would be to distract the creature somehow before I end up dying while releasing a water bolt at the enemy.

Well, firstly I begin by releasing a water bolt. Thankfully, the other side does not seem to have noticed it, as I charge at the beast. Naturally, the beast focuses on the threat that it can notice which is me.

Well, at this close range, there is little I can do to keep the enemy at bay other than to block the enemy charge by focusing all of the mana into my arms. That is what I do, as I suddenly duck dodging the beast's mouth, but before I can retreat I am struck by the creature's claws.

I can feel the chill in my body grow stronger. Thankfully, in this period the water bolt has been traveling from the fort to here, delayed due to me splitting my focus on trying to keep this one in range at the very least. That is going to be a problem with this formation.

The bolt hits true to its aim or at the very least it would have if the opposite side did not suddenly jump back, cleanly dodging the water bolt. The water bolt does hit the creature but it is naturally not even enough to even keep the beasts running.

The creature's plan succeeds at the very least. It was attempting to distract me so that its allies could retreat from the range of the water bolt. While I was focussing on the creature, it was making sure that I did not throw any more water bolts at its escaping ally. Now, the ally had disappeared from the range of my water bolts, so the creature had also disappeared.

Well, it has been a victory regardless of what my present state suggests. I have to focus on healing myself though, one of these days regardless of how much of a waste of time it is. I might be a formation mage, but fighting at close range is something of an ace of mine, granted that was when I had my sword and armor at hand

Limping, which I am sure is going to hurt like hell as I return to base, well, when the hell did I even get hit that it is paining there? Well, I am going to have a miserable couple of days to say it simply. Fuck it, I cannot maintain this record anymore.