Well, I have to admit that I have been given a pretty interesting challenge here. First I guess that I should speak about the place that I am defending. The fire altar is supposed to be one of the most protected regions in the inner keep.

  It is supposed to be the place in which they are supposed to bury their ancestors. It is also the place where they come to worship their ancestors.

  I would say that they have not spared any money in the defense of this place. Just a mana-isolating barrier would have a cost equal to the mayfire castle. Even the other defenses that they have here are not that much cheaper. Well, the place doesn't have a defensive line in the usual sense.

  The mana isolation barrier would make the maintenance of said formations a pain in the ass. These formations would have to be taken out of the fire altar every time that they need to be maintained. Also, you can never tell how these formations would behave inside the barrier.

  That is why all the formations defending the place have been placed outside the fire altar. The fire altar is a place that is pretty easy to defend, all things considered. It was built with defense in mind after all. I think that even the legion would also have struggled here. Well, I am surprised that I have been given so much access to the place.

  I might be the only person of the black mountain that has been given such access to this place. After all, this is an emergency plan for the Mayfires. They wouldn't want even their closest allies to know of this place.

  There are only three paths in and out of the place. Any person attacking will have to attack through these paths only. The walls here are strong. The walls are thick enough that I am sure that even the void would not be able to breach the place in that way.

  To speak of the paths in. One is the main path to the place. It is the largest tunnel to the fire altar and is meant to be used to enter the fire crypt. It is the path most likely to be attacked and thus it has the most defenses as well.

  There are three barriers, in this path. While they are not as strong as the barrier in the fire altar. They are certainly capable of holding against a few assaults. The barriers use mana from inside the fire altar. I would like to activate them to test out how strong they are, but that would tip off the enemies. Still, they should be able to last a decent time against the enemy. At least that is the hope.

  The most important defense in the area is a class nine formation, a little spell called fire vines. It is laced throughout the tunnel, activated whenever I want it. It will conjure vines made of fire, that will wrap around a person and burn them to death. I don't know how successful that will be against the vampires, but it will still work well to bind them.

  It is a simple spell, but one that I can see myself using in many ways. I am using it to build a little trap. If it works well, it will be used quite differently from how it was intended to be used.

  Incidentally, this is the path through which we have entered into the fire altar. I didn't notice the traps at all. This means that the formations are pretty well hidden. Though if I was actively looking for them I would have found them.

  The next point of entry is the servant's tunnel. There are no magical defenses because it is meant for servants to use. Thus the place can only be defended in a fashion.

  The servant tunnel is narrow and there is barely enough place for one person to move through the place. While it does open up into the fire altar, the room is separate from the actual location and easily held. The person holding the room will be able to hold against an army trying to break through. The only problem is that it will be a problem to defend the area should this room be lost.

  This particular area I will have to leave to Trevor or Alfred. I know how to use traps to defend a place. I have been studying it since childhood after all. I don't know how to do it without a defensive belt to help me out. The battlefield is not the place to learn such things now.

  It is the third tunnel though that is the main problem right now. They call it the burial path. Based on their explanation, it is some kind of ceremonial path for the family.

  Due to its ceremonial nature, there are no defenses present here. The only thing that is present is a set of alarms that will do little to inform me that we are being infiltrated.

  The main problem with this path is that, unlike the servant tunnel, this opens up right into the crypt. As you can guess, that is a pretty risky place to hold against the enemy. If they somehow manage to take the crypt then they take the main tunnel pretty easily as well. If that were to happen, we won't be able to hold against the enemy for long.

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  Another problem is that I can't station any soldiers in that tunnel. The only time that you are supposed to enter that tunnel is when somebody in your family is dead. I could maybe threaten a few of the soldiers to enter the place should things get bad. Until then the only option that I have left is to station soldiers at the crypt. Even that is something that the people here are very superstitious about. I will also have to make use of my troop to scout the place.

  The only benefit of this path is that it is supposed to be hidden. If the enemy were to look for it, they would find it eventually though.

  Well, I am pretty sure that I will be able to manage something about it. At least the people assigned to me this time are strong this time. I can focus purely on my work now.

  In terms of manpower, I have been assigned all the young masters of the Mayfire family. There are about thirty people, the weakest of whom has a stronger cultivation base than me. Their combat strength is nothing worth writing about though. Their magic is too costly for them to sustain it for long and another problem is that they have not seen much of combat.

  There are about five or six people with a combat capability that is approaching my level. Among them though, I have to keep an eye out for two people especially.

  The first is Alfred Mayfire. The man is supposed to be the strongest in this generation of the Mayfire family. He is supposed to be a genius at flame conjuration, which is the art that these people are the strongest in.

  I am not too worried about the man himself though. Alfred Mayfire is somebody that we have quite a bit of information on. In terms of combat capabilities, he is somebody that can be considered to be quite elite even in the legion.

  Making the man listen to me will be hard. He won't go against the command of the patriarch, but the man will be doing his own thing. I can't expect him to not cause problems. After all, this would have been his position if I was not there.

  It is the second person that I am worried about. Her name is Amelia Mayfire. She is supposed to be a genius at flame conjuration. Her variety of conjuration is something that we do not have a lot of ideas about. They say that she can summon weapons made up of flames.

  Based on our interactions with the mayfires we know a bit about her. We know that she is supposed to be a close contender for the position of the young master. The thing is we do not know whether it is because of her pure strength or because of the politics of this family.

  She is an unknown variable for me. Right now, I am wondering if I can challenge her to a fight. It would give me the best idea of her combat capability. The only problem is that the mayfires are a willful bunch. Victory could mean that my command over these people will become tenuous. These are a proud bunch and I am an outsider here.

  If I were to lose, this lady might not be willing to listen to my commands. As I said, these are a proud bunch. I might still challenge her, but I am going to have to think about it a bit more.

  This lady should be a bit easier to manage (at least that is the hope.). All that I have seen about her tells me that she is supposed to be very direct.

  It is not like I am free at the moment to think about a duel anyway. I have to check up on the formations and make sure that nothing is at risk of failing in the heat of the moment. After all, with the patriarch still here, the enemy is pretty unlikely to attack us. The man is planning to leave after a week, which doesn't give me a lot of time.

  Any maintenance work or any repair work has to be done now in this week. That is why I am right now back in the main tunnel, steadily going through the formations in the place.

  I am also going to be modifying a few of the formations. I won't say anything about it though. Let's just say it is related to the little trap I was talking about earlier.

  I have a troop of seven soldiers with me here right now. I have to say that they are well-trained at the very least. They keep an eye on the exit to this tunnel, In a cool and disciplined manner. Well, better that I don't form an opinion here. Things like discipline are only understood when you enter into the heat of things. Any assumptions made now would be wrong only.

  I guess with that I should start recording the enemies that we might be facing here. Again I don't know who or what will be fighting us

  I assume that we will be mainly fighting the vampires. The necromancers could attack, but that would leave their homes unguarded. Overall, it would be pretty stupid.

  Anyway, There is no use thinking about them since I have no idea about their strength. They are going to be an unplanned variable always. I have faced a few necromancers in my time with Legion. I can guess their ability based on that, maybe. They feel much stronger than the few necromancers we have hunted though.

  If it is the vampires, at least I have an idea of who could be attacking me. That allows me to plan for them. With all that I have on hand, I am worried about only three people in the Bloodfire gang. Everything else we will manage. That is the void, the warrior and the snake.

  The archer is busy holding off the guard corps from attacking them. So there is no way he will come in here. The demon is dead, beyond a doubt. I have to assume that the hunter is dead as well though even if survived he is in no state to fight.

  Surprisingly, the person that I am worried about the least right now is the warrior. Based on what I have learned about the man, he is good at direct confrontations only.

  In the narrow tunnels of the inner keep the man will struggle to show any of his capabilities. Still, I think that it would be wise not to underestimate him. After all, you never know what bag of tricks a vampire can have.

  Still, I am more worried about the snake. The man is the variable in this situation. I honestly don't know how effective the man would be if he were to attack now. He could be worse than the warrior or better than the void. I don't know enough about the man to make a guess.

  Yet it is the master of these two that worries me the most. How am I supposed to fight a man that even the black mountain could not get any information on?

  Well, I am not doing myself any favors by recording it now, am I? If anything I am just working myself into a panic.