I am right now running towards the watchtower. I have already wasted enough time regaining consciousness after fighting the lady. Well, when I regained my consciousness the lady was not there.

  Well, there is no use thinking of her. Even if she has survived she is too injured to make any difference in this fight. Finally, I reached it. I push open the door and naturally Shamon is standing there. How exactly the man plans to help me I don't know. At least he does not disturb me as he stays out of my way.

  It doesn't take very long for the snowlords to reach the wall. Thankfully, my stunt with the spear at least managed to get one of them. Fighting all three would be impossible. Even going all out, I can barely fight two of them at the same time.

  The moment that I feel the giant's presence in my mana sense, I activate the ballista. Instantly I feel a spear from the quiver appear on the ballista. I just need to aim it and let loose to hit the target. Well, I will not likely have much success with the ballista but I don't want to use the nasty surprise if possible. I won't have any tricks left in the bag after that.

  Fuck, I can feel them properly now. The giant has all of his tattoos activated. I can sense the amount of mana that is flowing into his tattoos. It is like a whirlpool, dragging in every bit of mana surrounding him and all of that mana is focused on his body.

  He is running towards the wall right now, each step matching a hundred of my own. I don't even want to imagine him colliding with the wall. He would shatter it. Thankfully, I don't need to. I aim and shoot the spear. The spear flies true to its aim hitting the giant right in his ankle. The force of the spear is enough to cause a small cut on his leg and more importantly, trip him to the ground. The force of his fall is enough to cause a small pit to be formed on the ground. That thing is deep enough for us to put all the corpses of the ice beasts in. (That is how deep the fucking thing is.)

  The other snowlord is not visible anywhere right now. I guess that I should also keep an eye out for him, but the giant is already so terrifying. There is no way that I will be able to focus on both of them. Right now, the giant can wreck the fort. Bringing him under control is more important. Anyways, the formation core is well protected. All of the troop is stationed there. (speaking about that, the man behind me is also supposed to be there.)

  In there the soldiers should be able to make use of their numbers to overwhelm the snowlord. (They will be able to buy some time at least.) These creatures might be of the second circle but cut off from their mana. (what, I will activate the formation the moment that the soldiers are attacked.) they should have the strength of a first-circle mage. Thirty soldiers all ganging up on him will be enough to get rid of at least that one snowlord. Especially if I am there to help after dealing with this giant. If possible I don't want it to happen. That would kill all the soldiers.

  Already the giant is getting up. I take out another of the spears and shoot at his throat. This time he is more ready for my presence. His hand flashes out like a hawk as he grasps it in his hand. All he needs to do is flex his hand for the spear to break into two.

  Well, this pushes things to dangerous levels. Well, I have one final trick left before things get desperate. As the giant has reached the wall, I begin to send my mana into the ballista. I can feel the ballista crumble under me.

  I have to do it carefully to ensure that the damage does not spread to the top of the ballista. If that happens, the ballista will become useless. I cannot even recreate the ballista. All of my earth mana is needed for the barrier. It would also attract the giant's attention. There is no way that the man will allow me to make the ballista.

  What I am going to be doing is going to damage the formation conjuring the ballista. The problem is I will be dead within the minute if the damn giant manages to catch me. I must be mobile. I will repair any damage that has occurred to the formation after the battle. If I cannot, well it is the problem of whichever person that comes after me. Let them suffer.

  Right now what I am doing is breaking the support to the ballista so that I can hold it in my hand. The ballista is like an oversized crossbow in my arm. It is clunky to wield, but it is surprisingly light to hold.

  It takes about a quarter of my mana reserves but I manage to finally remove the ballista. It is pretty light in my hands. After that is done, I quickly grasp as many of the spears as I can. The instant that they are out of the quiver I can feel the mana in it dissipate.

  Well, these spears are not going to be lasting the hour in my hand though that is not a worry. After all, I will either have won this match or will be dead by the end of this hour. As I am lost in this train of thought, the giant punching the wall forces me to return to focus.

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  Leaving Shamon in the tower I disappear into the fort below. Right now this might be the safest room in the building anyway. You see, the fort is a confusing mess of tunnels and pathways, just like any fort on the continent. It is a simple strategy to deter any invaders. (It took me a month to get used to the routes in this place.)

  I hope to make use of these confusing paths to try and ambush the giant. A well-timed shot should hurt the man seriously. Maybe enough that I don't even need the nasty surprise to kill him. As I think this, I can feel the wall vibrate as the man has managed to punch through the wall.

  I am approximately able to tell his position due to the mana that he is emitting. (He is like a bonfire in my vision.) Let's hope that this is enough for this fight. Enhancing my mana sense would be too dangerous right now.

  (After about three to four minutes.)

  Well, I wish that I could have recorded the fight with the damn bastard. The damn ballista was too clunky for me to split my focus recording. To describe it in short, I almost managed to get the man a couple of times. He has almost managed to get me more than a couple of times. Even now he has managed to shatter my left arm, though I did manage to escape him.

  Right now I am huddling to try and catch my breath while hiding from him. I don't even know from which tunnel the man will be making his move. After all, even though I am vaguely able to tell his position it is in no way enough to tell his precise position.

  He has also made my knowledge of the layout of the fort useless as well. After all, he is charging through the walls like a blind bull. Thankfully, his mana sense is not as sensitive as mine or I would already be dead.

  I have completely exhausted my spears as well. So I have no way of striking the giant at this moment. Most of my strikes were misses with only three getting anywhere near the target.

  The first time he got hit was the only time I managed to injure him meaningfully. The man is not exactly the quietest. I did not even need to aim for this shot. Still, that shot nearly took the head of the giant though as bad luck would have it he blocked it with his hand. I assume quite a bit of damage was done to his hand though.

  The second shot was still fine, this shot was taken from a tunnel that ends in a turn. I released the shot the moment that he was taking the turn. I had assumed it would catch him off guard and it did. This time it hit his chest, though his tattoos seem to have done something to block that strike. It grew bright enough for spots to appear in my eyes. Making things that bright is being wasteful with your mana if you ask me, though I don't think it is a problem with them in this land. Even now, I can feel the man sucking all the ice mana in the area.

  The third shot was the most disastrous, with the shot ready and primed to ambush the man, as he pops up in front of me. He punched through the fucking wall and grasped me by the hand. I dropped my ballista as I jumped back trying to dodge. The pang of pain that I feel is enough to cause my head to blank out. Still, the shot does get fired striking the man in the back.

  The suddenness of the shot is the only thing that saves me as he drops me. I disappear into the fort as the man recovers. That ballista has been completely broken though in this process. That leaves me with no way to strike him. Well, I don't want to use the nasty surprise if possible. Right now, that is the only option left.

  I guess I should start making my way to the formation core already. I can activate the formation from anywhere in the fort, but it would be best to do it from a bit closer. I will move once I can confirm that the man is not anywhere nearby. Other than the nasty surprise, the barrier might just reduce the ice mana in the region. If not anything else, it will make the snowlords weaker.

  With that, I begin to make my way into the fort which is not a prospect that I am enjoying. I can see why the snowwinders have struggled to build any new forts. the snowlords are experts at demolishing stuff. I can see the holes in the wall, extending till beyond where my eye can see as if the man was simply running through these walls.

  If they are given free rein, they will be able to bring down the entire place quite easily in half a day, iron skin or not. Well, I and my formation are here to prevent that exactly from happening, which is ready to be activated any second.

  As I am thinking this, the world explodes on me. I temporarily stop feeling the pull of gravity as I fly in the air. It takes me a moment to blink back tears (I landed on my left hand.) but I finally notice the cause of my flight. The bulky bastard has finally found me and in a single hit broken at least a couple of bones I think. I can feel a throbbing in my chest that is nothing good, I assure you. I begin to push mana into it to relieve the pain.

  Fuck, I did not want to meet the bastard but I finally manage to get a look at the man and the damage that I have done to him. He is moving his arm gingerly, though his other arm is still big enough to single-handedly wrap around my throat. His skin looks to have been cut in places where the explosion of water mana from my third arrow seems to have struck.

  Somehow the damage that I have done to the man seems negligible compared to the size of the man and already healing based on what I can tell. I could not see it until now, but this man is massive, almost double my height and triple my width. His tattoos seem to also have the ability to cause his body to grow in size. How in the hells am I supposed to fight the man? While I am looking at him, the man is also looking at me. I don't know how, but the man has managed to somehow express surprise without moving an inch of his face. How he did it, I don't know but I suddenly feel a twinge of annoyance. What is he doing going about acting surprised like that?

  It is a bit risky to activate a formation from this far away, but I am pretty confident that I will be able to pull it off. I don't need to think also as I extend the strings of my mana into the ground, towards the formation core. Time to properly start this fight.