I have been meditating for a week to get rid of the ice mana that is stuck inside me. Well, I have little else to do anyway. Turns out that if the chill gets extreme enough, paralysis is also possible. Right now I can't move my body at all.

  For a couple of days, I have been feeling the chill in its full glory. I can claim to understand how it feels to freeze from the inside out. Honestly, this cold is better than how it was just a week ago. Then I could feel nothing other than a weird sense of warmth. My body has gotten so cold that it overloaded my ability to feel cold. Still, that warmth is something that I don't want to feel in my life again. I swear that I could feel my life slip away from me.

  The move used on me by the giant turned out to be one of the favorite methods of attack for the snowlords. Called the "snow drive", this is something that even the weakest warrior stationed here knows about. After all, this move is a favorite of theirs in bringing down the fortress walls.

  This spell of theirs is not supposed to be easy. They only use the spell when there are at least two snowlords in the area it seems. The reason for that could be the fact that casting the spell leaves the snowlord casting it stuck In a statue of ice.

  Well, I don't know much about the spell beyond this. The soldiers are careful in not letting any of the details be leaked. The little that I have learned about the spell comes from boasting of the soldiers of this fort to the reinforcements.

  It will be better if I speak about the reinforcements. I can at least speak more about them. The reinforcements to the fort are a troop of about sixty nonmage soldiers and three mages. Normally, I would be trying to go up and meet them. (It is always important for a formation mage to have an idea of the people that can backstab him.)

  At the moment I am not able to move out of this room. I don't only mean that physically. At the moment, If I were to get out of this room, I would just turn into a frozen statue.

  The mana barrier of this room is the only thing that is ensuring that I don't have that fate. It is keeping me away from all of the ice mana of the area. If I were to leave the barrier, all the surrounding ice mana would flow into me much like it flowed into the giant that caused my present state. Only, in my case I won't have runic tattoos to control the flow of that mana.

  Shamon claims that much ice mana this far from the frozen peak would have frozen even a mage of the second circle. Don't ask me how the man knows that, but I don't dare to challenge that theory of his.

  Well, I guess that I have complained about that enough. It would do me better to speak about the reinforcements. Our reinforcements are three mages from some noble family. A family capable of commanding the commander.

  I have been feeling the mana that they have been emitting in the place. While my mana sense is pretty sensitive to be able to feel it that. Let's just say that they are emitting a shit ton of mana at this moment.

  They are easily at the top of the foundation stage and might even be in the stage beyond. (Their strength is why I have been able to focus on pushing out the ice mana so much.) maybe that is why they are so reluctant to meet up with me. If the scholars were to learn of their identities, the scholars would have files on them within the week.

  Other than that they also have their worries. The giant and the female snowlord have disappeared. There is no way of knowing how or when they will attack us.

  The third snowlord is dead though. The soldiers literally ripped through the man. Right now he is at the bottom of the pile of corpses that have been thrown into the pit formed near the walls.

  The walls of the fort are intact (there the ironskin took the brunt of the damage.) but the buildings of the place have been wrecked.

  The reinforcements need to set up a proper defensive line and make sure that they won't end up being ambushed. They need to fix the fort and put the soldiers somewhere until they manage to fix the place. In short, they must have a lot of work as well. I am not surprised that they have yet to come down.

  At the moment the fort is the least of my concerns. After all, the fort is now the property of whichever noble family has taken over the place and is sending in the reinforcements. My world is at the moment stuck to the formation core and the room it is in. I don't need to worry about anything else.

  The only good thing about the nobles coming here is that it can be said that I have finally been given the time to relax my mind. After all, the nobles would certainly not like to be dependent on another mage. The bastards are going to be sending me back to the frozen peak one way or another. It is just a matter of when.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I have been quite busy the last couple of months. I am starting to see why meditation appeals so much to people. It is a pretty good way to unwind. It also helps out your cultivation quite a bit.

  (After God knows how long.)

  I don't know how long I have been down here, but I can finally move my limbs. It is still nothing to boast about, just jerky spasms that are closer to shivering than actual movement. Still, it gives me something to do other than just stare at the ceiling and meditate.

  More importantly, I have regained my ability to speak which is going to be quite crucial, especially with what is about to happen here. At the moment one of the new sources of mana is coming down here. I do not know who it is, but I will certainly need to keep my game face on. (Especially with the way that I must look at the moment. Let's just say intimidation is off the table.)

  Even as the man comes down, I can feel the plans form in my mind. Different methods of attacking, none of which are feasible. I am actually in a pretty good position if you were to ignore the fact that I am barely able to move. If the other party is coming down to kill me (well, it is unlikely but it is known to happen.) my paralysis is going to cause me quite a problem. Otherwise, with the formation, I would have been able to easily fight one of them and certainly survive against all three as well.

  As I make these unlikely plans, I finally get to see the man. He is at the moment being directed by Shamon, who leaves the room almost as quickly as he enters it. The thing that I find of interest about the man is the fact that he is wearing a coat, which seems to be some kind of animal leather. (To those not of the region, while animal fur is quite common here the process of tanning it to leather seems to be quite an expensive endeavor up here. Thus it is something meant only for the nobles.)

  He is a young man, roughly about ten years older than me. That instantly makes me wish that I could record the man's face. The only way that such a young man could have achieved such a level of strength is if he is one of the young masters of the Snowwind empire. Not much is known about them other than the fact that they are meant to be powerful.

  "I would presume that you are Captain Antonio, of the black mountain.", the man spoke first bending down to match my eyeline. He certainly looks quite ordinary. You can hear the arrogance in his tone though. This is a man who thinks quite heavily of himself.

  "That would be the truth, my friend. Though I do not think that I know your name.", I reply.

  "I am Captain Ankon Starfall, of the Snowwind army", he speaks, he doesn't like to be called my friend. "specifically, of the construction corps."

  "That is nice, though I would have to enquire you of your exact purpose. I am not in a state of greeting you, I fear.", I speak.

  "Well, I have to intrude on your healing. It relates to the repair of the fort above. We have not worked with formations like yours." He speaks, finally sitting down next to me. "I need the design of your formations, captain. You will not be able to repair these formations and we need them working yesterday."

  "Well, the formation that I have put into the core behind me is quite flexible. Complete your repairs to the fort and I will do all the necessary repairs to the formation down here. I will just have to ask for a couple of days though since I need to recover from my present state." I reply, trying to hold back a grin. The bastard seems to think that I am a fool.

  "The chances of the snowlords attacking are quite high, Antonio. It would be wise to return to a combat-ready state as quickly as possible.", he speaks. The lack of honorifics is a clear attempt to prove his strength. "The repairs to the fort will be done within half a day. Right now it would be stupid to wait for even a couple of days. We are at risk of being attacked."

  "Well, it is a job that requires precision, Ankon. I am sure that you are a fine mage but I would say that it is better if I pull this off. You say it will take you half a day to repair the damage to the fort. I will recover by them to repair the fortress. You focus on repairing the fort. I will look after the formation.", I speak. "Now, I would request that you leave. I will need to meditate to pull this off."

  "Well, is there any chance of completing it earlier than this? It would be quite helpful in case of an attack happening during the final repairs to the fort.", he tries again. He certainly seems to be quite inexperienced at this. Maybe this is the reason that they are kept so far away from the nobles. The scholars would eat up the man.

  "I could try, but with the way you are distracting me, it would be quite hard. Your people must not have much better experience with what I am going through. Formation magic is not something that can be done half-heartedly. The result of rushing this work can be disastrous." I reply. "I am sure that you don't won't suddenly swell like a balloon then. That could happen if I were to make a mistake with the formation."

  "I shall take my leave then, Antonio.", the man speaks getting up and leaving the room quite abruptly.

  Well, as I shift myself to mediate more effectively. This is not going to be an easy task. Well, to start with the formation is not damaged. At least it is not damaged in a significant way. I will be able to repair it in a few minutes.

  I did not lie about the work though. It is a work that requires a lot of precision and screwing it up can have some pretty shitty things happen. The only thing is the chance of screwing up is one in a million.

  That naturally doesn't mean that things are easy for me. I will still need to expel quite a bit of ice mana if I am supposed to be able to repair the damn formation. Once I do that though, it is five minutes of work. I am going to have to go all out if I have to meet that deadline it looks like.