Well, it did not take particularly long for the enemy to attack us. Well, I have to make sure that I am out of this fight. Right now, there would be nothing more damaging to the morale than me fighting right now. Their commander being pummeled to his death would not be very confidence-building.

  I have to keep reminding myself that I am only here to keep an eye out for the snake.

  For all of my talk about the snake being weaker, I am not sure how much weaker the man will be. I hope that he will be weak enough for the four of them to kill the man.

  If they are not strong enough to pull it off, then there is nothing that I will be able to do.

  He certainly would be able to kill me on the spot. The only reason that I am taking such a risk being here is because I need to do something. I am also the only warning that the people here would have should the snake attack.

  Right now, I am pushing my mana sense as much as I dare to see when the vampire is going to be coming here. If he is moving in this direction, I will be able to warn the folks here. Right now, only his underlings are attacking us at their full force.

  They are coming at us in groups of threes, attacking without letting up for even a minute. The mayfires have been more than capable of handling their own against them. It is taking their entire manpower to pull this off though.

  The only mayfires that are not fighting right now are Amelia and Alfred.

  They need to keep themselves well-rested for their fight with the snake. Well, I guess that I should be worried about the void as well. That man is not going to be a problem anymore I feel like. If he had wanted to act, he would have already acted. The void must be a pretty formidable figure if he is leading beings like the hunter and the snake.

  The vampires don't accept a leader that is weaker than them. The only thing good about all of this is that I get to see the Mayfires in action finally. I guess I have technically seen Alfred in action. The man did not even need to fight for that long before the zombies had fallen though.

  The bandits fight a bit better than the zombies at least. Well, there is a group of five people that stand in the tunnel linking the prison to the inner keep.

  It is a thin little place, with barely enough place for three people to move side by side. The tunnel itself is solid enough that I am sure that it will be able to survive a fight with the snake as well.

  Other than that there is nothing unique about the tunnel. The problem is that there are no formations here. No traps or anything that I would be able to use. The Mayfires were worried that their prisoners would make use of them should the prison be overtaken.

  The bandits are charging into the place like madmen though. The first thing they have to face is the flame creatures of the Mayfires. An assortment of creatures, such as dogs, cats and other such creatures attack them first.

  The creatures fight as if they have a mind of their own. The bandits have to keep moving, dodging the creatures. If a bandit is not careful, there is a good chance that he will be tricked by the creatures and burned by their attack.

  They can attack these creatures as much as they want, but most swords just pass through them. Even swords strengthened with vital mana don't affect them. Well, if they had magic capable of damaging the soul things would be different. They would have been able to destroy these creatures more easily and with less risk. That is one of the weaknesses of soul projection.

  Well, my point is that they still end up burning, regardless of what move they make.

  The only problem with soul projection is that it cannot last for very long. The mayfires are only able to maintain these creatures for half an hour at an end. That is when they have a full mana core.

  Then they run out of their mana and they have to replenish it. Then the next batch of mayfires summon their creatures as they fight the enemy.

  They will be able to maintain this for the next few hours only. There is a limit to how much their mana will recover after all.

  Well, this was something that I had expected if I am to be honest. This might be an easily defensible position. The Mayfires might be able to destroy the enemy in a matter of a few moves. The problem is that the enemy outnumbers us. You cannot simply plan around a numbers advantage.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Every single bandit that the vampire is throwing at me is barely noticeable. Together though they are much harder to fight. Individually, each Mayfire would burn each bandit like kindling. They wouldn't even struggle while doing it.

  Still, the numbers that they are throwing at us are enough to exhaust the Mayfires. (That is no achievement though.) They won't be able to hold against the enemy forever.

  I had not expected it to be such a treat to witness the Mayfires fighting. Their soul projection looks like a painting in my mana sense right now. Still, they are losing this battle.

  That is why I am here I think. To help out as much as I can.

  I will certainly be able to detect the man, but it is only going to be about half a minute before the man is in here. That is not enough time for anything to be done except inform Alfred Mayfire and Amelia Mayfire.

  The reason I am here is to reduce the stress on the soldiers. Me looking for the man would serve no other purpose.

  They don't need to worry about the snake suddenly popping in here and killing them all with me here. That way they can focus on fighting the enemy that is in front of them. My job is to make sure that the mayfires stationed here would be able to retreat into the prisons as safely as they can.

  The snake will still have to be fought by the two mayfires and my soldiers. Quite a few of the mayfires (maybe even me.) will end up dead before the troop meant to hold them comes here. My warning might end up saving a few lives or it might end up in my death.

  Well, what else can I do right now? It is not like I have any tricks left up my sleeve. The damn tunnels don't have any formations for me to exploit as well. Even if it did, I wouldn't be able to pull off something like I managed to pull off with the warrior. I would be burnt to ashes this time even if I did pull it off.

  Well, since I am recording anyway, I might as well record something of note. The mayfires are conjuring pretty interesting weapons. I wonder how they managed to hide this magic from the curiosity of the scholars.

  I mean we have always known about the skill of the mayfires at soul projection. The way that they can summon creatures of flame is the first thing that you know about them.

  What they are doing here with summoning their weapons is the exact opposite of that.

  With soul projection, the focus is to create a vessel that you will be able to project your soul into.

  The form of the creature doesn't matter at all. Only that the vessel is worthy of projecting to.

  Creating weapons can be said to be the opposite of that. The weapon created must have the perfect form. Otherwise, the entire thing will break before you even manage a single swing with it.

  Manifesting weapons is not something that anybody can do just like that. You need to study one weapon for years to be able to create something that would you be able to use on a battlefield.

  That is why all weapon conjurers tend to be martial mages. With how much work they have to do to create their weapons. Martial magic is the only thing that they practice other than it.

  Well, the people here can create weapons out of their flames. (Or their flame mana to be precise.)

  Right now these conjurers act as guards, only engaging the enemy when they are coming closer. Still, when they fight it is impressive. They have killed as many people as the ones that are conjuring beasts of flame.

  Most of them manifest swords made up of flames. Some of them are capable of summoning other weapons as well. Most of them are the kind that you make use of at a longer range, such as a spear.

  It is Lady Amelia who leads this bunch. This is especially because she is supposed to be a genius at this very magic. Her hammer is supposed to be quite an elegant creation. I have yet to see it myself. I have heard much about her hammer. Well, I might get to see it today.

  I wish that I had more of an active role in the entirety of this mess, but this is my limit. I can already feel the pain of my injuries beginning to rise again. Regardless of how much I try to focus, I can feel the pain worm its way back into my body. I should not be on the battlefield anymore.

  Well, I have recorded enough. I guess that I will continue recording when the snake finally ends up attacking us.

  (After about a couple of hours.)

  Looking at mana from the edge of my mana sense is like looking at the world during twilight. You have enough light to look around, but not enough to tell what the color of the thing in your hand could be.

  Thus at the moment, I can feel a massive burst of mana in my mana sense, but I can't tell what the mana is. All I can say is that the mana is large enough that there is only one possible source this close to us.

  I have already informed the necessary people. Even now the mayfires are running to call Alfred, Amelia and my soldiers here.

  The snake will be charging at any second. I just wish that my mana sense was a bit better so I could track his movement. Being blind like this annoying.

  There they are. A single glance and I can tell that there are four people in the tunnel with me.

  It is beginning to get a bit congested here. I guess that I should be joining the mayfires who have retreated into the prison.

  Well, if the four people here were to fall, then I would be dead regardless of where I am. It would be better to record this fight right now, rather than huddle in one of the cells.

  I focus on my mana sense looking at the mana source. The vampire should have already been here. What is taking the bastard so long?

  As I look, I can feel myself wanting to laugh. I control myself. Now is not the time to give the people here a minor heart attack. Let's just say that it is very good news.

  "You can relax, my friends.", I speak. Even I can hear the relief in my voice. "I am surprised that you have yet to feel it, Alfred. Did you feel anything, Amelia? I would have thought that you would have felt it by now. You really should train your mana sense."

  As I am speaking this, a short man enters into the tunnel, looking serene as if he has all the time in the world with him.

  Looks like the patriarch has come here to save us all.