Right now I have a water spear in my hand. I am preparing to throw it while explaining to the man next to me why I cannot manifest spears to my hands like I could the last time the formation was active.

“Shamon, I would appreciate if you were standing a bit farther away from me.“, I begin to speak. “As for your previous question, the water spear formation has to have a location at which it will be able to manifest the spear. It does this with the help of a rune which presents it in the correct location. Before the rune was aimed at my hand, now it is aimed at my quiver. I cannot just keep changing the rune so flippantly.“

“Why can't you repeat that then, captain.“, shamon begins, trying to cut me off. “It would be wise that you have some way of protecting yourself when you get close to the enemy.“

“Well, with the quiver there is no reason to do that. I could do as you say and I would lose out on more spears that I could use. I can hold only so many spears.“, I reply to the man as I aim the spear. “Anyway, it is not like I will try and fight these creatures from the ground again.“

Returning to the target, I have three targets to choose from. The troop leaders are attacking from the north, East and the west. Each is targetting the wall. Well, all three of them are doing pretty equal damage to the wall so I can strike anybody. It is not like being split apart like this they will be able to damage the wall significantly.

I target the one that is closest to me. Throwing spears is something that I have learnt very long ago, so I have to admit that I am pretty rusty. Well it is not like I need to aim them anyways. The goal is to grant the spears with enough force that they can fly at the target. I can aim using formation control.

Well, I finally decide on my target as I throw my spear into the air. The beast in the east is the closest so that is where my spear travels. this spear is much faster than the one that I threw the last time. It still is not fast enough to actually hit the creature.

The spear punches into the ground right next to where it was a couple of moments ago. If only the creature was not moving about so much. Well, I do not get long to regret it as I grasp the next spear from the quiver. The creature was prevented from gathering mana to strike at the wall. Right now that is enough for me.

Now how am I supposed to describe the quiver. The best description that I can think for it is that it is a hole in the iron skin. Inside the hole are all the water spears that are being produced by the formation. There are not many water spears, only a hundred or so. I have been using the spears almost as quickly as they are being produced especially with this attack.

Well, Calling the quiver a hole in the ground would be wrong. The quiver is a formation that makes use of iron skin as the base to build on top of which is the quiver. It can be placed anywhere the iron skin exists. I would have to make sure that you know that this is not a spatial formation. such a formation would be class six at the very least.

Water spears are constructs of water mana, so it would be accurate to claim that right now they are being stored in the iron skin. The iron skin is ensuring that the water mana present in the spear is not dissipating.

Regardless of how the quiver works and looks like, I grasp another spear from it and aim it. (grasp would be the wrong word. It would be more accurate to call it willed to my hand.) not that I need to but it still takes mana to redirect the spear and it wastes time on top of that. I already give them too much time to react to my spear. If I manage to kill one of them, dealing with the remaining would certainly get much easier.

I am right now standing in the tallest tower of this fort roughly equidistant from all the walls. It is a watch tower that is meant to keep a lookout for the enemy. It is not useful, since these creatures are almost impossible to notice in this white plain. I have retrofitted the place to act as the launch station for my ballista whenever I build it.

Since I have yet to inscribe the spells related to the ballista, right now the place has only my quiver. Instead of the ballista I am taking over the work of launching the spears. It is not a perfect system but it is working for now.

As I am speaking, I have launched three more spears each targetting a different beast. Only one of those spears is a success as it grazes the leg of one of the creatures. It is not a heavy injury but these injuries tend to accumulate.

With the quiver formation, at the very least the water mana is not going to a waste. Every few moments the elemental node grants enough mana to make a water spear. That is enough for me to throw a water spear every ten seconds or so. The earth mana is still going to a waste though.

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Due to the water spear, I have managed to fight off the creatures even when they are split up like this. As for why they have decided to suddenly attack this morning, that is something that only the beasts will be able to tell. Maybe they didn't find the ideal time to ambush me and were growing impatient. According to shamon it is an old strategy of theirs.

The creatures like to sneak into the fortress and assassinate the leader. This is to a point that when the creatures began to sneak closer to the wall, he ended up assigning a five men team to guard me while I am sleeping. It is a creepy experience to have people stare at you while you are sleeping.

Maybe the patrol worked or my mana sense scared the beasts aways, they did not attempt anything like that. Well, I don't dare to think much about it, but things are going pretty well. The troop leaders are only a threat to the wall when they are separated like this but I have managed to tie them down with the water spears.

With an elemental node powering the formation, it can run almost indefinitely so there is not threat of running out as well. The only threat that we are facing is the threat of the troop itself. That reminds me I had to actually ask the man why that was so.

“Shamon, I would assume that at the moment that you should be down below commanding the soldiers. Why are you up here?“, I ask the man.

“Well, captain. I am trying to figure out what the creatures are trying to do.“, he speaks. “Anyway, with the troop leaders entering into the fray, the creatures are not going to be giving us any surprises.“

“Still, wouldn't it be wiser to just be down there?“, I ask.

“I guess, but this place does present the best vantage. Not everybody has the same sight as you, captain.“, the man speaks. “Right now, I want to know why the troop leaders are joing into the fray.“

“Well, isn't that obvious Shamon. The water spear would be able to decimate the enemy forces.“, I reply.

“I wouldn't be so sure captain. You would be able to take out ten, maybe twenty but the creatures are not fools. They would be able to dodge those strikes quite easily.“, he replies. “I would say two to three of yours bolts will manage to take out one of theirs. They are creatures of very accurate instincts.“

“Wouldn't it be easier to strike them. I will have literally have hundreds of targets to aim at.“, I speak, pointing at the obvious.

“It would be more accurate to say that you have a hundred locations to strike, captain. If you were to try and hit all of them, it would take hours. They could boost their shields and barely survive that strike too so even a hit isn't guaranteed to kill them.“, he replies. “You could try and focus on one icebeast, but that is just telling the creature to prepare to dodge. They might not be the smartest creatures, but they have very good instincts.“

“So all in all, you tell me that this formation won't work against the troop. How in the hells is it that I have managed to hold the troop leaders if they are so good at dodging it? They would be better at dodging, wouldn't they?“, I ask the man.

“Are you completely sure that you are the one tying them down. From where I am standing it appears to be the opposite.“, he answers, entering into contemplation. “they are holding you down, though I can't figure out the reason for it. Unless they have something up their sleeves ultimately they will end up facing serious losses. If not among the leaders, then among the underlings.“

I consider things from his perspective for a few moments. I begin to understand his dillema.

“Do you think that the enemies are getting any reinforcements, then? That would be the only thing that would be worth such a tactic.“, I ask the man.

“Well, it won't be a troop at the very least. I am surprised that we don't have bounty hunters here already.“, he replies. “even one more troop would be enough for that nobles to come, I am sure. At least until the hunt ends there won't be anymore troops.“

“Then for what are they waiting for then, a snowlord?“, I ask.

“That is even more unlikely. The commander or his direct underlings will end up here if that occurs. Regardless, a snowlord would have more direct signs of his presence. You would not be able to miss a snowlord. If they were hiding more troops, it would still make sense, But all of their troops are accounted for“, he replies. “That is the problem, captain. What exactly are we supposed to be looking out for.“

“Well, we will figure it out when it occurs. It is not like we have been doing particularly badly.“, I reply. “Even if another troop were here, I would not be worried.“

“Captain, I certainly hope for things to be that simple.“, replies the man. “The snowlords do not like to waste their troops like this. Somehow I am finding it hard that the snowlords would approve of such waste. It is not like we are leaving anyways. They could wait for the end of the hunt quite easily. They have a plan.“

“Well, maybe they fear the formation growing much stronger.“, I reply.

“Well, do you think that you will be able to make the formation strong enough to handle a snowlord.“, I reply.

“Maybe if I can complete the formation. Even then I won't be completely sure.“, I reply. “That is going to take a lot of time. I haven't even completed the class nine spell inscription.“

“Well, it could be as you say. Formations like this are quite new to us. Maybe it is the same for them.“, he replies.

“You don't know if they have formation magic?“ I ask the man, clearly surprised.

“Well, we have little idea of their magic. It is too.....“

The man is not able to complete his statement as a massive spike of mana so strong that even the man in front of me can notice it. I don't even need to activate my mana sense to look at the massive spike of ice that is penetrating into our southern wall.