The first step that I make to destroy this tunnel is to throw away the vine armor to the ground. The vine armor is going to be destroyed if what I plan to do works here. I don't even feel regret at having to do this. The vine armour has been pretty useless if I am honest.

  What I have to do next is the hard part. You see, every formation has protections in place against projection. This takes the form of a set of runes on the formation which physically prevent projection from occuring. Well, these are put in because the results of accidental projection are quite terrible. That is why they tend to make the protection runes so hard to find. To ensure that an idiot like me doesn't try and break them. I am only confident in finding them because my master has been training me in the art of formation design.

  Right now my work is to find these runes and shatter them. Now while I am doing that I guess I should explain what even is projecting in the first place. Projecting is something that can be done when you have a working mana reservoir. Projection is essentially a process where we create a resonance between a reservoir of mana and a target.

  The mana will flow towards the target from the reservoir once this resonance is achieved. The process is used very rarely due to how inefficient it is. It wastes nine units of mana to transfer one unit of mana.

  You also cannot control just how much mana will flow into the target. I mean you could try to control it. Certain formations try to do exactly that, but I haven't heard of anything that has ended up working.

  There are strict requirements on the target in this process. Firstly, it cannot be a living person. Secondly, the material has to be able to hold mana and lastly, the strength of the material has to be of the class nine at the very least. The only thing that can meet such requirements are formation cores.

  This means that the target of my projection this time is the vine armor. As for how that will help us. The vine armor is going to be overloaded and explode. The explosion will then collapse this cave and take the remaining part of the tunnel system with it and all the icebeasts in the process hopefully. Well, even if a few manage to survive, I am sure that the troop will be able to manage it without any problem.

  Well, finding these runes is taking longer than I had expected it to take. After all, I was the person who had inscribed those runes in the first place. I really should not be doing this here.

  Well, there they are. I guess that I should speak about what destroying a rune is. Every formation is created by inscribing runes into it. Every rune has a specific purpose and a combination of runes make a spell.

  Destroying a rune is quite an invested and risky process. An inscribed rune makes use of your formation core as an anchor to exist. Destroying these runes is quite easy in theory. You are just pushing all of your mana into the rune. The inflow of mana will cause the rune to destabilize and destroy itself.

  It is a risky process. The popping runes could affect the stability of the surrounding runes. It could cause a cascade which could end up in the entire thing exploding in my face. With me in the enemy's territory that is not a good thing to happen at all. It would also mean that I won't be able to destroy the cave system.

  It is with this thought that I begin the process of rune destruction. Behind me, I can hear the other soldiers struggling against the ice beasts. Right now the tunnels are forcing the ice beasts to split apart causing the beasts to lose their primary advantage against us. Still, this advantage will not hold against the enemies for too long.

  The soldiers must already be getting tired. Well, I guess that it might help me if I were to focus on the task at hand.

  (After about a couple of minutes)

  I can feel the rune collapse in my mana sense. The destruction of the rune could not have happened more perfectly as the surrounding runes are not even affected by this destruction. Well, it is not like these runes are going to be used in the future anyway.

  Even as the runes are destroyed, I begin to grasp the mana in the air to form a new set of runes. These runes will essentially force a resonation between the iron skin at the fort and this formation.

  Around me, the sound of the battle has already begun to grow intense. Even with my focus, I cannot ignore the sound of claw against sword as I wait for the resonation to start. I am surprised that nobody has ended up dead in this process. The troop leaders should already have been here. I don't know why they are not.

  My thoughts are interrupted as the vine armor begins to vibrate. Any second now the metal mana from my reservoir will flow into the vine armour. What will happen then is something that even I do not know. All I know is that the result is going to be pretty explosive.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  It is only my will that is preventing this resonance from happening right now. With each passing second it is becoming harder and harder to pull it off. Well, I can already feel the metal mana flowing into the vine armor causing something to change in the material of the formation. I can't say what it is, but it is nothing good. It shouldn't be happening this quickly. I must have miscalculated something.

  "Retreat troop.“, I scream as I make my way to the exit. Now, I have to make sure that I remember the path correctly.

  Behind me, the vine armor has begun to grow. The way that it is growing give me such an eerie vibe that I certainly do not want to be in the room when the mana will reach a critical value. We need to escape from the place. The ice beasts pouring out of the cave have different ideas though.

  The troop is behind me, retreating while defending me against the ice beasts. With the ice beasts attacking them, they can barely hold me back. It is time for me to get serious as I push my mana into my sword.

  (After a couple of minutes.)

  The mass of ice beasts has already been cleared. The only problem is that I have had to channel about a quarter of my mana in the process. With the prospect of the troop leaders appearing any second, this is not a position that I want to be in.

  Regardless, we begin to run away. I will need to focus on recollecting the path back to the entrance. That will require me to focus. I will meet you in a bit.

  (After about five minutes.)

  Well, I have to admit that I would have never thought that I would be happy looking at the bleak and lifeless sight of this plain. Regardless, right now the plains outside look like heaven.

  I can feel the concentration of metal mana behind me has finally begun to destroy the cave behind us. Let's just say whatever is behind us is not a pretty sight. The thing is a few moments from collapsing.

  The presence of the troop leader sticks out like a sore thumb even before I see it. It must be channeling its mana like crazy. (It is embarrassing to admit that my mana sight is hard to use in this land of a single element.)

  “There is a hostile at the exit. Assume it to be a troop leader.“, I speak. “Focus on escape and do not engage it in any manner. I will attract its attention. Make use of that time to escape.“

  Right now my main main focus is to attract the creature's attention. Killing it with the troop will give me a better chance of getting rid of it, but right now escape is the priority.

  It takes a moment for me to notice the troop leader against the surroundings. I expected it to look more intimidating than the average ice beast. The only thing that I can say about the creature is that it is a bit larger than the average beast.

  The creature has finally noticed me. Now the hope is that it will focus on just me. Can't have it run towards the troop now. In this environment, I can't even match pace with this creature.

  I did not need to worry as the creature charged at me, trying to claw me. I block it with my sword. I can feel the impact as I am nearly brought to the ground. The creature is certainly stronger than its physique would suggest.

  Well, I still manage to push the creature away from me physically. I can feel a dull ache in my arm though. Well, I do not get to think up a new strategy as the creature is already in front of me, trying to get a bite into me. I barely managed to dodge the creature's bite as I tried to keep the creature facing me. Can't have it biting me on my ass now, can I?

  It catches me by surprise when the creature suddenly opens its mouth releasing some kind of an ice bolt right at my head. I can feel my sword shudder when I use it to block the bolt. I swing the sword again blocking another bolt that appeared on the top of its head again. This time from its forehead.

  Things are going to go quite downhill if it manages to get a bite into me. The chill is not something that I want to be dealing with in the middle of an actual fight.

  The creature also seems to have slowed down a bit. Right now both of us are trying to predict the action that the other will be taking. At least that is what the creature in front of me is doing.

  I am waiting for an opportunity. It should already have happened by now. For a few moments, I was left wondering if my calculations were accurate or not. It also surprised me a bit when the tunnels behind me finally began to collapse.

  It is a pretty silent affair, but it must have had quite an impact on the creature as it just pauses for a second looking at the collapsing tunnel. There is something weird about the way the creature reacted to the collapse. The both of us are disoriented as the ground around us begins to shake due to the collapsing tunnel.

  We both take a moment to regain our footing and this is where I finally find my moment of attacking. You see the creature was not expecting this and I did. This single point of awareness is enough for me to recover just a moment before the ice beast. There is something off about the way that the

  I do not waste this moment too as I concentrate most of my mana into my sword. Swinging the sword, it is so fast that I feel like the sword is leading me rather than me leading it. I can feel the fractures arising in my sword as it handles more mana than it is capable of handling. Even with the strengthening of my mana, it will become useless after this move.

  My gambit is successful at the end as I feel the sword enter into the creature's mouth and exit through the creature's skull. The strike is fatal, though it did not kill the creature the instant it was struck.

  It occurs almost in slow motion as the beast's mouth shuts right on my arm. I can feel the creature's teeth enter into me like a pair of daggers. It is so cold that it feels warm for a couple of seconds. Then it begins to spread in my body freezing me right to my bones. I begin to channel mana, feeling the cold retreat for a bit.

  I quickly shake the damn corpse off me. I already have to channel a majority of my remaining mana trying to keep this damn chill from completely paralyzing me. Right now I can only hope that the collapsing tunnels behind me will be enough to distract the remaining troop leaders from looking for me. I am certainly in no state to fight them off.

  I can feel my thoughts slowing as I walk to the fort. I don't even remember how exactly I had made my way to the fort. I don't even remember who helped me out of my clothes and put me in the medics room as the world around me began to grow black.