The single day that I took to rest worked wonders in ways that I had not expected. The next day, my thoughts were so light that I flew through my work. I managed to complete the spell in a few hours. (though it was a nervewracking process removing the faulty rune.)
This just might be my greatest achievement. The mana string is one of the harder conjuration spells out there. The string of water is considered to be a magic item, with runes of it own. To craft it, I have to inscribe runes within the runes. (Which is something that I struggle with.)
I haven't yet manifested the ballista, though. It is not effective when you have to use it against a large number of enemies. I can take out eighty or a hundred of these creatures, but it will waste all of my water spears in the process. (I need them for the Snowlords too.) It was not a waste to build the ballista, though. I just need to creative about how I plan to use it. I already have a plan forming in my head regarding it.
Let's just hope I have enough time to achieve what I plan to. Shamon was not doing it justice when he told me that the creatures were going to be dedicated. When he said that they would have no other thought in their head, I assumed them to be mindless drones.
Now, the creatures are anything but mindless. A bit dumb maybe, but certainly not mindless. The damn beasts are using the corpses of their fellow troops to create a pile of corpses right on the wall.
The first thing that they had done when they reached this place was to dig up the corpses of their fallen brethren. With the ice preserving their corpses, most of these bodies were intact.
I think the creatures were originally trying to break open the flaw in the southern walls. (left over from the ice spike.) The way they did it was pretty unique. They did it by launching the corpses at it. (It is kind of like the magic that they used for that ice spike. Instead of the spike, they launched the corpses.) With the ironskin, the gate can easily handle damage like that. (Even the ice spike, which had multiple troop leaders powering it did minimal damage to the wall.)
The pile grew larger from their multiple attempts. Once it became large enough, the damn beasts realized that they could simply climb onto the wall. Once the beasts began to climb it, there was no way to stop them anymore. All of this happened during the time that I was busy inscribing the spell. If I were there at the battlefield earlier, I would have been able to delay this pile from forming. (I do not know of any magic that would have obliterated a pile of corpses. Still, a formation mage always finds a way.)
By the time I had entered into the fray, the Ice Beasts had already begun to climb the walls. Thankfully, just in this process of climbing it many of these creatures slip and fall to the ground. Many do not even rise back up. They just get added to the corpse pile, which has completely covered the southern gate by now.
Here, I have understood the frenzy that these creatures can display. The instant that they are on the wall, they begin to bite and scratch at the soldiers. This they do even at the cost of their lives. An Ice Beast could have a spear in its heart, and still, it will keep trying to take down the man that has speared it.
Thankfully, at this time, only three to four of these creatures manage to make it on the wall at a time. My soldiers can hold them back for now. The number of the beasts on the wall has been growing steadily as more and more of my soldiers fall, though.
My soldiers have been facing pretty serious losses in this fight. I have stopped counting our losses, but we had dipped below fifty soldiers at the last count. At least we did not try and escape to the Frozen Peak. We would have been ripped apart on the plains. The frenzy of these creatures are brutal.
As for what I am doing at this moment, that would be two things. Physically, I am in the watch tower, slowly but steadily shifting the quiver. It is such an annoying job that I am cursing myself about it. Why did I need to set it up in the first place? I was certainly exaggerating a bit when I said that it would have taken me a week to shift it. Still, it is going to take me a better part of a day to complete this task. As for why I need to suddenly shift the quiver. Let's just say that I have plans for it.
Other than this, I have also been keeping an eye on the other three sides of the fort. After all, most of the soldiers have been concentrated on the southern wall. Rather than trying to help out in that crowded area, I am making sure that we don't end up being ambushed. To be backstabbed now would be quite disastrous.
The way that I am doing so is quite creative. I am linked with the formation core as I send control strings into the ironskin surrounding the fort. As long as a creature steps on the ironskin, I should be able to tell their presence. (At least theoretically.) It is a pretty advanced version of formation control, one that I have barely begun to practice. This is better than me purely using my mana sense. It is pretty exhausting mentally, but I should be able to do this for half a week more at least.
My warning system is not particularly precise, though. It should warn me of any large groups were to reach close to the wall. At the moment, this is all that I can do. The storm out there has already made my mana sense very unreliable. This is a proper storm by the way. This is to a stage that the ice mana in the area has begun to lose its stability. It is moving around with the storm, which makes looking outside with my mana sense very nauseating, to be honest.
The unstable ice mana makes keeping an eye on these creatures almost impossible purely with my mana sense. Mana sense is not particularly stable at the best of times. To rely on it now would be like wearing a blindfold in the middle of a storm.
As for the damage caused by the winds outside, the ironskin has been doing a very good job of handling it. There is not going to be any lasting damage due to this storm at least.
(Almost a day later.)
The situation has stabilized somewhat, though it is clear we are about to lose.
Most of the soldiers are still pretty active, but with the drowsiness of a person who has not slept for a week. (I would certainly know about that.) That means that the pressure on the soldiers has reduced quite a bit. The soldiers are resting in groups of five. They rest for a couple of hours, sleeping a sleep that could have rivaled mine at the beginning of this mess. Then they return to fight, regardless of how hopeless things get.
The losses on our side have been quite heavy. I am sure that we do not have more than forty soldiers now. The attacking horde needs to be destroyed. I don't think that we will be able to survive a day in this place otherwise.
I decided not to distract Shamon from the southern gate until now. It has been quite a brutal fight, based on what I have seen. After all, all of these soldiers are technically under my command. They will look to me for commands if I were to show myself. Commands that I am not capable of giving.
Still, it will not take me particularly long to reach him. He is presently resting in one of the rooms closer to the southern gate. Thankfully, the Ice Beasts have not tried an ambush from another location. I have to admit that I have been slacking in looking outside. (What, I am not skilled enough with formation control to pull of the ironskin thing properly yet.) Even If they were to attack, the only thing I could have done was warn Shamon. I do not have any way of killing them. After all, the ballista is not manifested yet, and the quiver is presently in a place where I can't use it.
By the way, I am already outside the man's room, just waiting for a moment before entering. Shamon is not in a very presentable state. (He is the soldierly type. They seem to be particular about looking orderly.) He has the look of a man who has reached the very edges of his ability to think. The last couple of days have been quite exhausting for this man. Not that I am surprised, I have never seen a fight this bloody.
He is at the moment sitting in the corner of the room, trying to meditate based on what I can tell. He is struggling with it, the way he is twitching about. It can happen when you have too many thoughts in your head. I twitch similarly while meditating when working on a particularly difficult formation to inscribe. (which is often, to be honest.)
"You are in quite a bind, aren't you, Shamon?" I speak, sitting next to him. That breaks his meditation in an instant.
"Captain, you are a sight for sore eyes. Regardless, I hope that you have a solution to our present problem. Otherwise, we are all dead. Even I am surprised that we have managed to hold against the beasts for so long." Shamon says. "If these creatures were a bit smarter about their suicidal charge, we would be dead. Hells, I tremble to think what our situation would be if one of the troop leaders were leading them right now."
"I have a solution, but it is going to be quite risky," I begin, skipping all the pleasantries. "I want to set a trap for the beasts."
"There is no place to set a trap in this region without them detecting it. Unless," Shamon speaks, his face lighting up in realisation.
"It is a bit of a risk, but right now, what other options do you have? Letting them in and killing them in here is infinitely easier than trying to hold out like this. The beasts might have slowed down due to exhaustion, but your soldiers are also one step from the grave. They are already being slaughtered by the dozen as we speak," I tell him.
"What about the troop leaders?" The man speaks. "I refuse to believe that the Snowlords are willing to sacrifice four perfectly fine troops without having a bunch of troop leaders nearby to support them."
"Have you seen any troop leaders out there. Do you think they will risk any more troop leaders at this fort. They already have commited too many troops here. These were your exact words. My trap will have a pretty good chance of working," I reply. "If we manage to take care of the troop. Even in the worst case, we would be able to run away from the fort. If it is only three troop leaders, I will be able to protect you all while retreating. Unless you want to sink with the ship?"
(This is a bit of a fib. I can fight the troop leaders, but to protect these people from them is beyond me.)
"That is not a problem, the fort can fall for all I care if we can live for another day. The problem is with the Ice Beasts. They are not particularly smart beasts, but they still tend to have very sharp instincts. If we were to suddenly open the gates after holding it closed for so long. They would feel something was wrong even if they are not able to specify what," He tells me.
"I can try and mimic a natural break of the gate. It would make sense with the number of corpses piled over it. Will that be enough to fool these beasts?" I ask him.
"I guess that could work. I honestly cannot predict their action with their leaders gone," Shamon speaks. "Regardless, how are you planning to trap these creatures? Is it one of your formations? Maybe that ballista of yours. I can't see how you would do that."
"There is a long tunnel near the east gate, which is meant to connect the armory to the living quarters," I say. "It should be close enough to the south gate so those creatures are likely to follow us if they were baited inside. That is where I plan to attack the creatures."
"We are reaching a state where we need desperate solutions. What you are asking is quite risky. To let the enemy into the fort will ensure that we will end up at their mercy if it doesn't work. It would be giving them the wall," he declares. "There is also the issue of all the creatures dying to the trap. How likely is that?"
"I have not thought that far ahead, to be frank. I will make sure that not one of these creatures will manage to leave that tunnel alive. You just worry about getting them into the tunnel," I reply.
"I think that might be possible, but it is still a big gamble," he speaks up. "If we do not end up killing them all, it is going to be a very difficult melee. Still, we might have a minor advantage in the tunnels. It is better than fighting them on the walls right now."
"Figure out a way to get these creatures inside while I prepare the trap. I will manage the part of killing them," I command him, feeling quite weird as I set the man's tasks. "As for the exact trap.....