The troop leaders are presently hiding on the battlefield. They have hidden themselves among their underlings. Before you blame me for not knowing their exact location, the reason they can hide is due to the Ice Beast's Innate ability.
The Ice Beasts can control any ice mana in the surroundings. That includes their vital mana, which is basically ice mana. Turns out that they are capable of using this ability to regulate their mana output. (This basically means that they can mask their mana presence.) I won't be able to use my mana sense to detect them anymore. (Which is what I was relying on to find the creatures till now.)
I might still have been able to find them if they were the only creatures on the battlefield. Differentiating between their minions and them is basically proving impossible. They are naturally a bit larger than their underlings, but it is hard to see that from up here on the walls.
This ability of theirs does come with a disadvantage. No living being can truly stop their mana cycle. (If you don't count the exceptions, of course.) Just slowing it down can have costs that you can't bear. Even now, the creatures are not able to use their Ice Bolts at all. If this state of their persists for long then their organs will begin to fail and they will die.
Even now, they are only a threat if they manage to sneak up on me. I want them to do exactly that. While I don't know their exact location, I have a vague idea of where they are. (I even see them once in a while like a mosquito that is buzzing around you.) This is enough for me to set up an ambush for them if they make any movements towards me.
As for why we are not attacking them already. That is because we need to figure out what exactly these guys are planning. They are certainly planning something. After all, compared to their previous plan this seems almost stupid. That was an ambush that might have actually killed me.
They had managed to hide a troop leader from our knowledge. Even Shamon had only suspected that something is wrong. The fourth hidden leader could have actually killed me. A creature of instinct, like the beast would have known this intuitively. Whatever Snowlord possessed that troop leader, must have panicked which led to the creature attacking us. (which ended up revealing its presence to us.)
Compared to that, their present plan seems to be a fools errand. Speaking of Shamon, the man is still suspicious of the Snowlords. Too suspicious, if I am being honest. Well, his paranoia is really not helping me at all. The man has begun to see ambushes and traps in every direction. He has tried to get a group of soldiers to act as my guard at all times. It took me getting irritated to get him to drop this matter. (Even then, there is a group of soldiers stationed on the wall with me, that have no reason to be here.)
To return to the topic of the leaders. Now would be the ideal time to study them. The creatures have been sneaking into the battlefield for the last couple of days. First, they would dip into the battlefield cautiously, ready to escape in an instant. Then they began to make their way closer to the fort. Now, they are almost part of the group that is reaching the wall and trying to breach it.
That means that I have been able to study the creatures to my satisfaction. The more that I learn, the easier that they will be to manage. It is not much of a task as well. They are barely able to tell my location. In that case, even being able to vaguely tell their position is enough for me to handle them.
They are not trying to ambush me at every corner, as Shamon seems to think that they are. They had plenty of opportunities to do that already. (They certainly cannot tell that I am able to sense them. My mana sense is significantly stronger than theirs.)
Still, it will be wise to be cautious. Its not like I have achieved much by coming to the wall. I have just been attacking a few of the creatures that had managed to reach up here. Even then, the attacks are only strong enough to push the creatures out of the wall. Then the fall is usually enough to kill the creatures. It is not much, but it is better than nothing.
All I can claim to have done in the last couple of days is reduce a bit of the pressure on the soldiers. I can't even claim to have been very good at that task. After all, two more soldiers have died yesterday.
They were two of the soldiers who were infected with the chill. Have you seen anybody die from chill. The freezing process start from deep inside of the body. The very first thing to freeze is your bones. The body tries to fight this, with the person entering into a feverish state. The frozen bones then begin to the freeze the person's muscles. The last thing to freeze is the person skin, as every hair on their skin is frozen. They become a statue of ice, accurate down to each individual hair.
The victim is supposedly able to feel every bit of this freezing. That is part of the reason why I am suddenly helping out the soldiers after staying out of their way for so long. The death of the two soldiers has been particularly demotivating to us all. I do not know how I could have helped them. Just yesterday, these soldiers were fine. I would go so far as to say that they were hearty even.
To see them fall like that is not a pleasant sight. Let's just say that at this moment, it is not only the soldiers who are suffering from a case of low morale. Still, I don't know how long I can stay away from that room. Delaying my work like this is dangerous. We are already begun to lose people.
The only reason that I can even come out of the storeroom with so much work is the chill, or more importantly my successes against it. I have managed to push out nine-tenths of the chill from my body. The last little bit I can get rid of easily enough tonight.
Until then, I can't even inscribe that well with the chill. Half a day of inscription under the chill will not have much of an impact. At least not enough for me to justify starting the work on the ballista.
Inscribing a spell requires a certain freshness of mind. All of this work has left me exhausted. I also need to relax my mind. That would certainly not be happening if I were to stay cooped up in the storehouse. Being stuck in that small room is torture enough already. The injured soldiers present there that could die any second don't help with that.
Speaking of the storehouse reminds me. I had managed to complete the quiver formation yesterday. It took me about half a week to do this. That is a very good thing. That means that I will be able to now use the formations without fear of my mana core becoming fully empty.
It is not all bad news. The organization of the Ice Beasts has begun to falter. Some holes are being formed in the creature's ranks during the assault. Shamon has been doing a good job of targeting these flaws to inflict losses on their army. I have to admit that I have not been able to find all of these flaws myself. I do recognize a few, but I certainly would not have been able to exploit them if I were in command.
Part of the reason for this, I have to assume, is the fact that nobody is present among these beasts to lead them. Before, the troop leaders would always be present at the edge of the battlefield directing them. Now they are hidden among the rank and file. They are more worried about not being caught, than leading their underlings.
With that, I have completed much of my report today. The only thing that I have left is what I have learned about the enemy from Shamon and his bunch of soldiers. (People tend to forget that a mage has ears. One that can hear much of what you are speaking, even if you are whispering across the room). I guess that I should begin to talk about the enemy that we are fighting. Most of what I have learned has come from the soldiers here, most of whom were nothing more than farmers before becoming soldiers.
The enemy that the Snowwinders are facing are known as the the Snow Tribes. The Snowlords and their hordes are considered to be their vanguards. Most of the tales that I have heard in this fort is about the Snowlords. There are very few stories about the tribe itself. (After all, nobody can go into the Frozen Wastelands to find out about them.)
Based on what I have heard, the Snow Tribes are a collection of tribes that live in the Frozen Wastelands. As you must know, the mana desert is going to be even worse than the border region we are in. Even the Snowwinders will freeze to death in the mana of that place. The only folks that can survive there are the Snow Tribes.
There is very little that is known about this land. I don't find out anything other than the fact that the mana that is flowing here is supposed to be very chaotic. The mana flows are so deadly that they make the storms here look like a breeze. (I can't really imagine what that would look like.)
The only thing that the folks here know are about the Snowlords and the hordes that travel with them. The Snowlords are supposed to be at the Second circle in terms of cultivation and at the third circle in combat strength due to their innate ability. The Snowlords share the same ability as the creatures that they command over. Only, in their case, their ability is considered to be significantly stronger than their underlings.
The snowlords are supposed to be masters of manipulating the mana of this land. This is to the point that they are also called storm bringers. Most of the snowstorms of this season are supposedly the fault of the Snowlords. (at least according to the soldiers.) There might be an element of truth here, but it is mostly exaggeration.
After all, weather magic is considered to be one of the most esoteric branches of magic out there. To control the weather in a place like this is something that even my master woud struggle to do. He is the strongest man that I know off.
Other than that, the Snowlords are supposed to have bodies that are equivalent to iron. I have heard tales where swords and arrows break to pieces on hitting the body of a Snowlord.
Abilities like this do tend to get quite exaggerated as well. I will still take it as the truth for now. I would rather blow a Snowlord to smithereens than to have my strikes not affect them. (They are going to be tough opponents already.)
I have already spoken about their ability to possess their underlings already. (though I refuse to believe that it is true possession.) Nobody really likes to talk about it. The little I have learnt about the ability comes from my own observations of the creatures and a few horror stories told in the middle of the night. (You would be surprised just how much these guys gossip.)
I still have to make the point that all of this is purely speculation on my side. I have read enough records to know that being completely sure about these stories can always backfire. After all, there might be an element of truth to the stories, but as long as you can't find that element, it is all a load of bullshit.
I will have to adjust with the little that I am getting. After all, I don't think that anybody has fought with these creatures more than the Snowwinders. Scratch that, The Legion has certainly fought more of the Snow Tribes than anybody else. Of all the tribes, the tribes of the north have the worst relation with the Legion after all. They have waged entire wars with the Legion.
If I could get my hands on their records of the tribes, I am sure that I will be ready for anything that the creatures can pull off. The only problem is that there is no way that I am getting my hands on those. They are trade secrets of the Legion after all. There is no way that they are sharing any of those with me.
I am getting tired of maintaining this record. I will send in the next record when the damn troop leaders end up attacking us again. Until then, the only thing that I will have are complaints, which will end up benefiting nobody. (not even me.)