Right now I am sitting in the control room of my ship, trying to get the ship to be as slow as it is possible. We are hugging the tree line, which is the lowest that I dare to go beyond which we will end up in the trees again. This time I cannot take a risk with the trees. This is not my master's formation to be able to take a beating. This will break in five minutes I assure you.

Right now we are trying to sneak the ship closer to the city. It is not going as well I hoped it would.

We are producing too much mana for us to pass through the area undetected.

With the mana the ship is emitting we will be able to handle a uncommitted sweep, but any person looking for a serious mana signature should be able to still find us. It is is not like I can reduce the mana being emitted anymore. That would be dangerous. Already the ship is slow enough that what should have taken us two days in now taking us almost a week.

Doing This is not an easy task also. Ships like this are not meant to be runned slowly like I am doing. I have to actively ensure that the ship is going as slowly as possible. Sadly this task is so monotonous that is hard not to get sleepy or annoyed.

The only good thing is that my formation control is being trained like never before. Who knows, I might finally have breakthrough. That is the only thing that I can tell to myself to console me.

At the moment I can sense Trevor making his way to my room. (I have missed being able to do that. My mana sight has been healing, even though It is my first time noticing this.). Most likely to discuss about the ship and it's mana output. The man must be able to sense this even with his weaker senses.

As I think this, the man has opened the door to his room and has stood next to me. Whatever negative you have to say about this man, you must admit that he is a confident bastard.

"Captain, how goes our journey.", he asks.

"Well, how else do you think, bumpy and slow.", I reply, feeling a twinge of annoyance. "Is such a precaution really that necessary. It is not like the enemy won't be able to detect us even this much amount of mana being emitted."

"Well, then can you try and reduce the amount of mana that you are emitting?", he asks.

"Well, I can do that and you guys will be choking to death. The major mana emitter at the moment is the cell. Should I deactivate it.", I reply. What, the man is trying to move in stealth in a ship with a cell. It is a wonder that I am not laughing at him.

Well, the reason becomes evident in the next moment as the ship begins to accelerate. Focusing, I slow the ship down again.

"Do you have anything important to say, this is not as easy as it looks.", I ask the man.

"Well, I need to discuss with you the options that we will have once we succeed on the transportation of the ship.", he replies.

"Like what exactly.", I speak.

"Well, firstly about what we shall do regarding the inner keep.", he replies. "We cannot be sure of what we shall find in there."

"Well, you need to worry about entering into the place. I havent yet to see this barrier, but what makes you sure that i would be able to break it.", I reply. "Defensive magic is always very hard to breach."

"Well, it is a gamble that we will have to take.", he replies. "We are betting everything on the mayfires."

"Well, then what is it you want to talk about, I am sure you do not want to be hearing about the specifics of why this formation is going to be hard to breach.", I reply.

"Well, I want to discuss about what we shall be encountering in there. As I see it, there are three possibilities that might occur.", he begins to speaks. "Firstly and least optimistically, we might have to face a legion of the converted mayfires. If this occurs then the only thing that we can do is run."

"Well, it is unlikely right.", I reply. "Otherwise why would the barrier still be there in the first place."

"True, still it would be wiser to know about the mayfires, don't you think.", he speaks. "They might be one of the powerhouses of this region, they still did manage to outlast all of the above mentioned powerhouses. The main reason that they have managed is their magic."

"Some kind of a fire magic, based on my understanding.", I speak. I promptly shut up. The man does not like to be disturbed and his information is important.

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"Well, it is a kind of combination of of plant magic and fire magic. The intricacies of the magic you will have to ask the mayfires themselves, but their magic allows them to create constructs of extremely intense flames.", Trevor speaks. "Most conjure items, but a few of the beings are able to even mimic creatures with their flames. Even a legion might struggle against their full might."

(A legion is a group of a hundred captains and their leader, the major. )

"Well, how are we supposed to be escaping from them then.", I reply.

"Well, I would have to assume that their power is seriously compromised. They have abandoned the outer keep. Nobody does that unless they have faced a large amount of losses. That like cutting the fruit bearing tree to light a fire. You might survive the night but in the next month your death is not pleasant. Anyway, That leads to the second possibility.", he speaks. "This would be the best case scenario. The vampires have been penned in the castle. The mayfires are getting rid of them before the removal of their shields."

"Well, how likely is that going to be.", I ask.

"Not very likely, captain. If things were going well, there wouldnt be such need to drag things. Fighting a vampire is just going to grow harder with time.", Trevor replies.

"So what is the third case?", I ask him.

"Well that would be a combination of the two. The battle must still be undergoing in the inner keep. The mayfires fighting the possessed captains.", he replies. "If that is the case we might be able to actually make a difference. We reinforce the mayfires and it just might be enough."

"Well, just how much of a help will I actually be. Being capable of fighting the mayfires means that they must atleast be in the third stage of cultivation, whose name I don't even know.", I reply.

"Well, your abilities as a formation mage would be more useful in this case. If you could rig up a communication array and pass the messages to the head office, things could work out well.", he speaks.

"Now that is going to be a challenge, Trevor. This is mental magic we are dealing with. You know I can barely use the thought loggers.", I reply, there are actually a couple of tricks that I could try but better to be practical.

"Well, there are certain things that I could try, but it is a tricky magic to manage especially in formations.", I reply. " Basically, I can try but there are no guarantees of success."

"Well, it is not like we have any other moves to make. Even if we fail in doing all of this, things are still going to be safer in the inner keep.", he replies. "If fighting them is not an option, we just need survive until the head office notices that something is rare here."

"How long would that be now.", I reply. "The head office can be pretty lax if they want to be."

"Well, if our luck is bad, it might even take a couple of months.", Trevor speaks "the head office really do not tend focus in this area much. If they could maintain even a legion for patrolling this area. It will be cleaned up in a matter of a decade."

"Well, thinking too much about such stuff will drive you mad.", I speak.

"Still, the inner keep is the only option we have. The only other option is the organisation and your life not a favour that you want to owe the organisation.", he replies.

"What is it about the organisation, you speak as if you are scared of them but you have been working so closely with them.", I ask him, the doubt in my mind since the beginning.

"Well, at the moment they are the closest thing we have to an ally. Our goals aligned for the moment then. They have gotten what they wanted and now I cannot predict their actions now.", Trevor speaks. "They could sell us to blood heart gang if it means making a quick buck. That is why they are not related to this particular mission of ours."

"If that is the case, where are we going?", I ask him. I had assumed the organisation was directing him till now.

"Well, there is a cave that I found in the trek to the fort. Decently sized and quite closed. It might be able to barely fit the ship.", Trevor replies.

"When did you even do that?", I ask him, as I rack my mind trying to recall it.

"Well, it was right of the path. I am surprised that you have not remembered that place.", Trevor replies.

"Well, as long as you know the location.", I reply, though I still cannot the remember the place he is speaking of.

Speaking this completes our conversation, as the man just sits in the room. Before it can get awkward though, the man leaves.

(After almost a day of traveling.)

One of the funny things about airships is that they are such easy things to detect. Most ships going at full speeds tend to output such a large amount of mana that a man with a sensitive enough mana sense can detect it from very faraway too, if he was ready to put his mind at risk.

My senses are still not upto that mark, but I have formations boosting my mana sense (hey, it is still better than the average cultivator.) to levels even beyond my normal limit. Boosted, my senses can reach even till the hexmountain. That would mean my head would literally blow up though.

Running the sensory formation for this purpose is risky. Even now, I only dare to use it in intervals of half an hour, only for a minute each time.(all that information in my head, a lesser being would have a brain stroke and collapse to death.) Even this has been more painful than I expected and something that I had no need to do but my talk with the old man has somewhat rattled me.

Now I can feel myself returning to my previous state of overthinking about everything. Fuck, (my head is killing me.) let me get back to topic. I have detected a ship that is roughly about a day behind me. It will catch up to us by tomorrow. From this far I can only tell that airships are present.

How many of them are there and their exact forces I have no idea. All I know is that there is going to be a fight. One that I have little more than a day to get ready for. Well, at the very least this time I won't be surprised like the last time. That was actually kind of embarassing, to be ambushed like that.

I might be no sage, but my mana sense should still be strong enough to detect the mana of a ship when it is close by.