Well, I will have to admit that the chill is completely fucking with my plan. Right now I feel as if I am taking a bath in ice water for the last couple of days. I am sitting in my room, sleeping and feeling quite miserable if I am to be honest. It would have not been an issue if healing was the only thing that I had in mind. If I were to sit in meditation then I can completely remove all this ice mana from my body. I cannot do that though. After all, I did not risk my life and my property just to destroy three measly troops.
What that was meant to do was buy me time. any person who is fighting a formation master will not give him the time necessary to develop his formations. It then becomes the duty of the formation master to keep continuing his work regardless of what the enemy does. Once the formation works, it will become nearly impossible to take this place.
In this matter, I am at a pretty significant disadvantage for the simple reason that I happen to be the strongest person in this group. It is quite easy for the enemy to make sure that they do not let me continue my work. All they need to do is do what the troops were doing, to always have a force at the backend that will be ready to attack us the instant that I start my work. They can do this until we run out of food or the snowlords come into action. It is pretty unlikely that is going to happen any soon though, at least until the hunt goes on.
At that moment I did not have any offensive formations, which was something that I could not allow the enemy to realize. If they knew that, they would have attacked directly, killing me and destroying my formation before I could make use of them. There is a reason that I keep saying that formation masters do not belong on the battlefield.
Anyway, that is a weakness that I have finally managed to correct. I have finally begun to inscribe the water runes. Presently the formation that I am building, the most combat oriented spells that I have access to are the water formations.
The spell that I have inscribed into the formation is known as "water bolts". The spell is a very simple spell that compresses mana into a very compressed form and then releases it in a single instant as a pretty powerful bolt of mana. It is pretty mana efficient, is very hard to dodge and is hard to miss using this spell. The spell is one of the most practical spells that we have acquired from the druidic conquests.
The strength of the spell is decent, almost enough to breach the shield of a peak foundation mage but the key point of this spell is its speed. It is almost fast enough that I cannot be confident about dodging a water bolt.
Well, this inscription is something that I am very proud of since I have managed to inscribe a class 9 formation in nearly half a week at a time when I can barely move. Ideally, I should be describing the process of rune inscription someday though I am not sure if the head office will like me doing that. They are very protective of this kind of knowledge.
Anyway, to get back to the chill. I have been feeling the effects of this. it is kind of like trying to clean a particularly sticky piece of rubber. You pull and pull on it until you can feel it separating and you let go for a second and it is back where it is. The ice mana in this region is exactly like that. I can feel the mana flowing into me, entering into my mana channels. I can feel the mana entering into my mana channels, setting into blocks of ice completely restricting the flow of mana.
Even now, I can feel the ice mana in the surroundings trying to enter my body. Well, I have no real chance for me to get it out. My combat strength is going to be quite affected due to this, but then again I do not have much chance of fighting against the enemy with only my strength. The only thing that I can do is complete the class 8 formation. Just the three leaders working together would have been the cause of my death, you know. With the water bolts, I do not need to worry about that.
Well until the enemy makes a move, the only thing that I can do is hope that Shamon will be able to manage this stuff well, especially the stuff related to the morale of the soldiers. Now is certainly not the time for the soldiers to lose their morale. If that happens then we will lose before the enemy has even made a move.
(After almost ten minutes)
At the moment I am looking at Shamon who does not seem to have slept in the last couple of days. Well, I am thankful that I am not the only one who has been suffering in the last couple of days.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Shamon, have you found any of our enemies yet.", I begin,
"Well, we have found traces of ice beast activity but it is nothing concrete. Right now, there is little possibility that they will attack though.", shamon speaks. "By now the hunt should be in full swing. The commander will be entering into action soon enough. We might have at least a week of leeway."
"Well, if that were the case, I would be the first to celebrate with you, Shamon but for now it is better to assume that the enemy is coming to strike us any minute now." I ask him., "Well, that would be partially true. A better way of explaining it would be. Do you think we can hold off the snowlords because of the commander or because of the frozen peak?"
"That would be because of the frozen peak, otherwise we all would end up dead by now.", Shamon begins, as realization begins to strike him.
"Well, how do you think that the snowlords will react when we are so blatantly attempting to build another frozen peak in front of them.", I ask him again. "This frozen peak might have the durability of an eggshell, but a new base is a new base."
"But isn't that the reason that so many temporary forts were constructed, because the enemy forces will be divided.", Shamon speaks again, his face a familiar expression of pondering.
"Well, we did destroy the three troops that have come in to destroy us. That too in a single move rather than multiple skirmishes. Can you think of any other temporary fort that has made a similar level of move?" I ask him.
"No, that would be not the case with any other fort, captain", shamon begins. "Well, if that is the case why have you made such a move, captain? I cannot see how that will benefit us."
"Well, honestly speaking it was a bit of a gamble, but things are going my way for now. Right now, the enemy has most of the advantages in this battle. They own the terrain, they have the numbers and we do not have a very solid chance of reinforcement. Right now the thing is to make sure that the enemy does not have too much of a chance to set the pace of the battle. What I did just now was like striking at the enemy before the duel formalities are done, i am hoping that this will be enough to buy us some breathing room." " I speak again.
"Well, what about the enemy's retaliation", Shamon speaks. "We still are relatively safe for now but once the hunting party returns to the frozen peak, there is a chance that the enemy will react. In our previous attempts, we had to face multiple troops the way that we did after the retreat of the hunting party. They were not even this aggressive then. We might even have to face a snowlord attack the way that we are going on."
"Well, then all we can do is to hope that the formation is complete then. Well, all I would do is to suggest you stop thinking about things that you cannot help with. Anyway, right now all we need is one bad storm for this place to fall. I would be more worried about that" I say. "Anyway, the reason that I have called you is to get a grasp on the present strength of the troops. For now, let us just assume that the three troops are still out there. How would you normally deal with them."
"Well, normally we would make use of the fortress to hold them back. The strength of an ice beast is roughly equivalent to a soldier's, with the ice beast being just a bit weaker. Their coordination is better than ours in terms of group battles. Thus the only way we can hold them back is to Make use of the fort to maintain a siege." Shamon begins, "We could have held against the enemy for two months quite easily. We can do this for up to five troops, maybe even up to ten if our troops are experienced. Defensive battles are something of a specialty of mine. This is assuming we had more solid defenses."
"Well. Are our troops experienced then.", I ask.
"Well, that would be a no. Roughly half of our troop is fighting for the first time on a battlefield.", shamon says, with a bit of a grimace. "I can still use them to hold off the enemy for a while though."
"Well, there is nothing that we can do about that. For now, just ensure that the morale of the soldiers is not affected. You will also need to maintain communication with the other forts", I speak to him. "While I am not sure how likely they are to help. It would be a mistake not to try."
"That's all I can manage, but what about our strength now, captain? If we are about to be attacked the main threat that we will be facing would be the troop leaders. You need to be able to be able to handle them." Shamon asks.
"Well, as long as it is not more than five I should be able to hold my own against the enemy. You need not worry about that" I ask him "What about the soldiers injured in the mission, how are they doing."
"Well, the injury that they have faced is nothing serious but the chill has always been the main threat in this region. They will recover but the chill hinders them quite a bit. If there was any way for us to isolate them from ice mana this would be quite easy to deal with." " Shamon replies, leaving me with quite a bit of worry.
"Well, I do have certain methods, shamon but all of them will take too long to execute and that is not a distraction that we can afford for now. Environmental formations are not easy to make" " I say, "anyway, I will be getting a effect similar once the central formation has been built. With the pace at which we are going, I think we will be able to get it working in a month. The problematic parts of the formation are finally over."
After that, we continued to discuss the exact strength of our troops, something that I cannot keep on a log like this but our discussion went on for quite a bit of time, giving me enough information about our chances in this fight. It is not too great, but we do still have a couple of aces.