Well, I would like to begin by clarifying that inscription is a very exhausting process. You have to understand, that I normally have never attempted to create formations this quickly. That too a formation with conjuration spells in it. Until the moment that it happened even I had not realized just how deep my sleep had been.

  Now to begin my log. What I am presenting here is the reconstruction of the log that I had somehow recorded in a state of half-sleep. Even I am curious what the fuck had happened here. How the hell did I even manage it? For most logs, I fail to start the logger even at my full focus. All I know is that I have done something very curious here.

  This log of mine begins in a dream, which I barely remember. At the moment I can't even be sure that I have not imagined it into existence now. Anyway, here it goes.

  Subconscious- wake up, Antonio something is wrong.

  Me- well, can we do it later, look at the pretty sheep.

  Subconscious- something is wrong, get up. It is important.

  Me- the pretty sheep are important too you know. Look they are flying into that horrible creature's mouth. What is that?

  Subconscious- you are being attacked, you idiot. Move, you fucker.

  It was sheer luck and a lot of daring that I managed to survive the attack that followed. I took the sword under my pillow (every sane soldier will have one under his pillow), and stuck it right into the mouth of the opposing creature. Don't ask me how. All I can say is that it was purely my instinct.

  As I was doing this, I had already taken note of the three beings that were here at the formation core with me. I could not predict their strength but they seemed to be the troop leaders. The one that had taken my sword was already injured and my sword had struck a major vessel, which I could tell due to the almost ginger way in which it was moving. It moves with the sensitivity of a man trying to keep his guts in place after his stomach has been opened.

  It was almost on the verge of death and would not be a worry. It was the other two that were the problem. I don't know how they managed to sneak into this place. That was not the moment for such questions. If I was fully awake, I would have frozen in place thinking these exact thoughts. I could already feel the two creatures beginning to charge up their ice mana preparing to attack.

  That would be enough to bring Shamon and the patrolling troop down here. Even a group of five soldiers along with me is enough to take care of them and Shamon had way more troops than that. These two creatures had taken a great risk to come here and were going to win if I did something really stupid.

  While these thoughts were going on in my head, I could feel the two creatures tense up. I use this moment to extract my sword from the corpse of the creature that had stopped moving about a few moments ago. Getting into a defensive stance I charge at the two creatures. The legion's sword arts are ideal for fighting multiple opponents.

  They were not expecting such a fierce retaliation. One of the creatures had begun a charge at me at the same time, while the other almost seemed to jump back in panic. Using my sword I blocked the attacking wolf kicking the creature right in its chest. I don't know how much force I put in it (what can I say, my leg is still hurting) but it was enough to push the creature across the room.

  I don't stop as I charge towards the retreating ice beast. I had an advantage here that I could lose. If the two creature regained their coordination I am dead. The sword pierces into the head of the creature as I think these thoughts.

  It is at this moment that I did something stupid, that I would have never done if I were fully awake but I did it at that moment. I let go of my sword as the last ice beast's claws cut through the fabric of my shirt. I think I can still feel the sting of that strike all over my back. An inch here and an inch there and I would have a majority of my insides on the outside.

  After this, what happened I needed to learn from Shamon. The man claims that it was quite terrifying. He burst into the scene almost ten seconds from this particular instance. The creature was trying to claw me but did not seem to reach me. Its mouth was inches from my face but I seemed to be like jelly, disappearing wherever it was trying to strike me. This is a perfect example of the legion's wrestling arts.

  At this moment, I want to be clear that wrestling is something that I barely know. I have only ever done it against humans and I have never been particularly stellar with it. I was so bad at it that I was the first person in my group to be given a sword. The only thing that I am worse at can be considered to be mental magic.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Regardless, the moment that Shamon felt the presence of ice mana in the fort. He led a troop of twenty soldiers down here. Shamon had the brilliant idea of dousing me with a bucket of water to wake me up. It seems to be a precaution these bunch have for when their enemies tend to try to use mental magic to make us sleep. (Well, I did not know what else I was supposed to do with the excess water mana. I just condensed it into a tank these people had. Better than it going to waste.)

  It was pretty effective too, if one can ignore the being soaked in such a fucking cold place. You want me to be honest, I am missing the chill. At the very least it did not seem to enter into places where I certainly would not want to feel cold in.

  Regardless, now that I am capable enough to talk again I will have to talk to Shamon who is very confused about what is happening here. Well, I am in a similar state here too, You know.

  (About five minutes later.)

  "Captain, are you fine.", shamon begins with an expression I can't place.

  I think the man has taken my injury quite personally with the vigor with which he is acting. He has been setting up our defenses to ensure that nobody will be sneaking in,

  "Well, I am in a tiptop condition, Shamon. It's your luck that I tend to be prepared for such events and my luck that my plans work.", I say, fibbing a bit. As my father says, the best time to project confidence is when you least feel like it. Well, let's hope the other side can't hear the crack in my voice which I won't be rid of any time soon. "Why wasn't I informed that the ice beasts can sneak into our bases."

  "Well, I had assumed that they wouldn't be doing it after the weeks they wasted already. Only the troop leaders can do it and they cannot use their powers in this state. It is a more extreme version of what they did to spy on you. The only thing they have is the element of surprise and that means that they can only really assassinate one person or a small group of people. Not one such attack has resulted in any loss on our side." Shamon begins.

  "How do they do it, I assume it is not any kind of cloaking magic since they seem to become seriously weak while doing it. My sword was not powered with mana when I killed that one. No matter how injured it is, it should have been able to shatter my sword with a bite.", I ask, wondering about the mechanics of such a thing. Don't blame me, you can never really sate a formation master's hunger for new spells.

  "Well, the present theory is that they somehow crack their mana cores, leaking out all their mana. Their mana then is equivalent to the ambient mana of this place." Shamon replies simply, "We can't verify it though, we don't dare to leave a fully powered troop leader to experiment on. Anyways, the creatures have failed. You are fine and I assume that the mana core is safe. I at least did not see any damage."

  "The core is safe and finally functional enough. With the next formation, I would have been able to take care of the troop leaders quite safely anyway." I say to him. "You can say the embryo of the formation is complete with the next inscription.“

  “I wouldn't be so sure, Shamon.“, I reply, feeling the cold penetrate my heart as a thought pops up in my head. “How likely do you think that the snowlords were looking through the eyes of their creatures.“

  “I would say that there is a very strong likelihood that it has occurred, captain. No troop leader would be willing to pull off something like this if their masters were not actively commanding them to do so. This will more than likely end in its death.“, he replies. "Well, how does it matter? I am sure that the creatures have seen nothing of importance."

  “The snowlords are going to be hitting us with their full power then.“ I tell the man. "Be ready for them to throw everything at you."

  “Why is that captain?“ He asks as he begins to realize the scope of my fuck up.

  “The arts that I have used here belong to a group that is known as the legion, shamon.“, I reply. “the snow tribe has sworn to destroy us, in every form and every shape. They have sworn to destroy us from the memories of every man. That also includes every single practitioner of the legions arts.“

  "Well, just how much of a threat can they be.", the man replies, his expression getting more and more serious. "The legion anyways seem to be focusing their attention on us."

  "Well, when I say that they have sworn to annihilate us, I do mean they have sworn to annihilate us.", I reply. "I am sure that the snowlords will be appearing personally soon enough. Shore up all our defenses and be ready for any trick they can play."

  "Captain, It would do you good to calm down. Panicking will do you no good.", he replies.

  “you don't understand what this revelation will mean for us. Well, do you want to know what the last documented case of an interaction between the snow tribe and legion was.“, I reply, as my voice begins to crack. “well, there was a soldier of the legion hiding in a quaint little village near the hexmountain. Seven hundred and thirty-two people were living in that village. We do not know how or why the snow tribe was there, just that they came looking for this legion soldier.“

  "Did they kill him?", Shamon asks.

  "No, we at the legion are trained to hide from our enemies. We are not so easy to catch.", I reply. "Since they couldn't find the man, they began to freeze every person they could find. Slowly and steadily, first, their bones froze, then their flesh froze and finally, their skin froze. The soldiers did it in such a way that the villagers could feel their bodies freeze as they died. The soldier stationed there could not bear to hide himself after this. He gave himself up at the thirteenth person."

  "Did they kill him?", shamon asks.

  "No they were under the belief that there were more legioners in the place.", I reply, feeling the chill crawl up my spine as I continue. "So they kept freezing the villagers, all seven hundred and thirty-two, to get the man to admit the identity of the other legioner. Finally, they killed him too."

  “Well, I will quickly go and set up a patrol then.“, Shamon replies, an appropriate expression of panic appearing on his face.