The first step that I have to do now is to throw away my vine armour. That doesn't take long as I have already popped the thing in the ground in front of me.

What I have to do next is the hard part. You see, every formation has a protection against projection. It is a set of runes on the formation which physically prevent projection from occuring. the results of accidental projection are so terrible that these runes are particularly hard to find and destroy. To ensure that an idiot like me doesn't try and break them.

Right now my work is to find these protections and shatter them. Now while I am doing that I guess I should explain what even is projecting in the first place. Projecting is something that can be done when you have a working mana reservoir. You can make all of this mana from the reservoir flow towards a target.

The mana will flow towards the target unless there is an obstruction in the middle. The process is used rarely due to how inefficient it is as it wastes at least nine units from every ten units transported in this way.

You also cannot control just how much mana has to flow into the target too. Usually the reservoir ends up empty and all its mana is either lost to the world or it will end up overloading the target.

there are strict requirements on the target in this process. Firstly, it cannot be a living person. Secondly, the material has to be able to transmit mana and lastly the strength of the material has to be of the class nine at the very least.

So naturally the target of my projection this time is the vine armour. As for how that will help us. The vine armour is going to be overloaded and explode right in this place. The explosion will them collapse this cave and take the remaining part of the tunnel system with it and all the icebeasts in the process hopefully.

It is more than likely that I will lose my armour but there is little that can be done at the moment. Well, finding these runes is taking longer than I had expected it to take. After all I was the person that had inscribed those runes in the first place. I really should not be doing this here.

Well, there they are. Destroying a rune is quite a invested process. A rune in a formation is kind of like a construct of mana that uses the formation core like a anchor to exist. Destroying these runes works by pushing all of your mana into the rune. The goal is to literally pop the rune like a balloon by stuffing it full of mana.

It is a risky process. The popping runes could affect the stability of the surrounding runes. It could cause a cascade which could end up in the entire thing exploding in my face. With me in the enemies territory that is not a good thing to happen at all.

It is with this thought that I begin the process of rune destruction. Behind me I can hear the other soldiers struggling against the ice beasts. Right now the tunnels are forcing the ice beasts to split apart causing the beasts to lose their primary advantage against us. Still, this advantage will not hold against the enemies too long.

The soldiers must already be getting tired. Well, I guess that it might help me if I were to focus on the task at hand.

(After about a couple of minutes)

I can feel the rune collapse in my mana sense. The destruction of the rune could not have happen more perfectly as the surrounding runes are not even affected by this destruction. Well, it is not like these runes are going to be used in the future anyways.

Around me the sound of the battle has already begun to grow intense. even with my focus, I cannot ignore the sound of claw against sword. I am surprised that nobody has ended up dead in this process. It would have been a guarantee if one of the troop leaders was coming here.

Why that is not happening, I do not know. The only thing that I do know is the fact that the vine armour has begun to vibrate. any second now the metal mana from my reservoir will flow into the vine armour. What will happen then is something that even I do not know. All I know is that it is not going to be anything pleasant.

It is only my will that is preventing this resonance from happening. Well, I can already feel the metal mana flowing into the vine armour already causing something to change in the material of the formation. I can't say what it is, but it is nothing good. If shouldn't be happening this quickly.

“Retreat troop.“, I scream as I make my way to the exit. Now, I have to make sure that I remember the path correctly.

Behind me, the vine armour has begun to grow. The way that it is growing give me such a eerie vibe that I certainly do not want to be in the room when the mana will reach a critical value.

The exit that I have taken has two people, who would be shamon and entim. The three remaining soldiers are behind me, retreating while defending against the ice beasts. They cannot hold these creatures in these caves as well as they could in the tunnel.

I do not see their retreat as I focus on the ice beasts in front of me. I begin to channel quite a bit of my mana into my sword as I go on a killing spree. I am supported by the two soldiers who have already taken the role of supporting me as they weave behind me focussing on maiming and wounding the ice beasts so that I can kill them.

This takes about half a minute, but the mass of ice beasts have already been cleared. The only problem is that I have had to channel about a quarter of my mana in the process. With the prospect of the troop leaders appearing any second this is not a position that I want to be in.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Regardless, we begin to run away. I will need to focus on recollecting the path back to the entrance. That will require me to focus.

(After about five minutes.)

Well, I have to admit that I would have never thought that I would be happy looking at the bleak and lifeless sight of this place. Regardless, right now the land outside looks like a heaven.

Part of the reason is that the tunnels behind us have already begun to collapse. I can feel the concentration of metal mana behind me which has managed to finally destroy the cave behind us. Let's just say whatever is behind us is not a pretty sight.

The presence of the troop leader sticks out like a sore thumb even before I see it. It must be channeling its mana like crazy.

“There is a hostile at the exit. Assume it to be a troop leader.“, I speak. “Focus on escape and do not engage it in any manner. I will hold it back until you complete your retreat.“

Saying that I exit the tunnels into the plains beyond it. The troop behind me has already begun to run towards the fort. I am not doing so personally. I just focus on channeling my mana into my sword. I can't have it break on me at this moment.

It takes a moment for me to notice the troop leader against our surroundings. I expected it to look more intimidating than the average ice beast. The only thing that I can say about the creature is that it is a bit larger than the average beast.

Still, the creature has finally noticed me. Now the hope is that it will focus on just me. Can't have it run towards the troop now. In this environment, I can't even match pace with this creature.

I did not need to worry as the creature jumps at me, trying to claw me. I block it with my sword. I can feel the impact as I am nearly brought to the ground. The creatures are certainly stronger than their physique would suggest.

Well, I still manage to push the creature away from me physically. I can feel a dull ache in my arm though. Well, I do not get to think up a new strategy as the creature is already in front of me, trying to get a bite into me. I barely managed to dodge the creatures bite as I try to keep the creature facing me. Can't have it biting me on my ass.

It catches me by surprise when the creature suddenly opens it's mouth releasing some kind of an ice bolt right at my head. I can feel my sword shudder when I use it to block the bolt. I swing the sword again blocking another bolt that appeared on the top of its head again. This time from its forehead.

Things are going to go quite downhill if it actually manages to get a strike into me. The chill is not something that I want to be dealing with in the middle of an actual fight.

The creature also seems to have slowed down a bit. Right now the both of us are trying to predict the action that the other will be taking. At least that is what the creature in front of me is doing.

I am waiting for an opportunity. It should already have happen by now. For a few moments I am left wondering if my calculations were accurate or not. It also surprised me a bit when the tunnels behind me finally begins to collapse.

It is a pretty silent affair, but it must have had quite an impact on the creature as it just pauses for a second looking at the collapsing tunnel. The both of us are disoriented as the ground around us begins to shake due to the collapsing tunnel.

We both take a moment to regain our footing and this is where I finally find my moment of attacking. You see the creature was not expecting this and I did. This single point of awareness is enough for me to recover just a moment before the ice beast.

I do not waste this moment too as I concentrate most of my mana into my sword. Swinging the sword, it is so fast that I feel like the sword is leading me rather than me leading it. I can feel the fractures arising in my sword as it handles more mana than it is capable of handling. Even with the strengthening of my mana, it will become useless after this move.

My gambit is thankfully successful at the end as I feel the sword enter into the creatures mouth and exit through the creatures skull. The strike is fatal, though it did not kill the creature the instant it was struck.

It occurs almost in slow motion as the beasts mouth shuts right on my arm. I can feel the creatures teeth enter into me like a pair of daggers. It is so cold that it actually feels warm for a couple of seconds. Then it begins to spread in my body freezing me right to my bones. I begin to channel mana, feeling the cold retreat for a bit.

I quickly shake the damn corpse off me. I already have to channel a majority of my remaining mana trying to keep this damn chill from completely paralysing me. Right now I can only hope that the collapsing tunnels behind me will be enough to distract the remaining troop leaders from looking for me. I am certainly in no state to fight them off.

I can feel my thoughts slowing as I walk to the fort. I don't even remember how exactly I had made my way to the fort. I don't even remember who had helped me out of my clothes and put me in the medics room as the world around me began to grow black.