I guess that I should start the log by explaining what I did at the end of the previous log. After all, I did not think that I would end up in such a suicidal position in the first place.

  I had prepared a little trick to destroy any vampire captain or any necromancer to walk that path.

  Well, you see the main tunnel was full of traps. Nine of the ten traps in it were of the fire element. On top of it, we had three barriers in the place.

  Thus I shifted all the traps in the tunnel, to between the two weakest barriers in the tunnel. The thing with fire spells is that they tend to get stronger the more that they are forced together. I managed to create an inferno with all the traps I had put in there. The main problem was hiding the mana being emitted by so many traps.

  The resonance between so many formations is not easy to hide. I have to thank my master's notes for even pulling this off. I still managed to hide by making use of quite a few tricks.

  Thus I crafted a death trap to kill one of the vampire captains. I was hoping that the void would have come personally to negotiate. If I had managed to take care of him, I would be more happy. The warrior is still a good consolation.

  The warrior is now dead, by the way. Even I had almost ended up dying in the process though. Thankfully the barriers fell quickly as the mayfires rushed to protect me. The warrior was still alive then, trying to crawl away. Thankfully, one of the soldiers had the forethought to stick a sword into his brain. If he had managed to get away, we would be in deep shit.

  His corpse is still lying in that tunnel, making the entire smell a bit rank. I mean if I was in a better position I would have removed the body.

  It is a good way to spread diseases, leaving dead bodies lying about like that. I am not even able to get up from my bed to get over there.

  Well, I am wondering if I need to. The warrior's body acts as a deterrent to the soldiers that he leads. They are being very careful around the tunnel now. I think it is because the corpse is scaring the shit out of the Bloodfire gang. Even I am getting scared looking at the corpse. I hadn't expected that my trap would have been so effective.

  The reason that the inferno was so strong was that I had trapped it between two barriers. If I had not put it between the barriers, my soldiers would have been put at risk.

  Also, there could have been a chance that it might not have hurt the warrior as much. The man was still a berseker. They are a hard bunch. The plan was to make sure that the warrior and his underlings were trapped between the barriers. If I had just managed to retreat during the negotiation I would have been fine.

  Being inside there was never part of the plan. The only reason that I am still alive is because I had absorbed the warrior's vital mana to keep healing myself.

  I don't think I have ever forced the sword to work to such a degree. The only reason that I even managed it was because I was linked to it. Even then I barely managed to survive.

  Well, my gamble worked amazingly. Still, I sometimes wonder why I do this to myself. Every inch of my body feels like a fresh bruise. A bruise which was coated with a shit ton of salt.

  Right now, I am inside the fire altar, recuperating. My doctor is one of the men who accompanied me to the negotiations.

  He is not much of a doctor though. I don't think any of the Mayfires are. I wonder If the rumors I have heard about him are true. Supposedly. The only reason he knows what he does is because the man is something of a stupid romantic.

  Much of what he had learned about healing came while pursuing a merchant's daughter. She ended up leaving him to work with one of the health houses in the south.

  It has supposedly caused quite a scandal as well. He was almost being expelled from the family.

  All in all, the man does not know much about healing people. The little he does is just enough to make sure that the burns on my flesh don't get worse.

  The pastes that he mixes to prevent infection feel like the man has lit a fire under my arm. Still, he must have done something right since I can feel myself getting better. I will be able to swing the sword in a couple of days.

  It is a bit slow, but there is improvement. Well, I can't give the full credit of this to him as well. After all, my sword is full of vital mana right now. If I am honest it has too much vital mana. I can feel the sword vibrating with the life force it is trying to contain. It is steadily producing blood mana which is being used just as quickly to fix my body up. Without that, I am sure that burns would have gotten the better of me.

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  The source of this vital mana is also the warrior. Just thinking about it makes my spine shiver. I had never thought that I would ever face the problem of overfeeding.

  You see, a vampire is capable of overfeeding. A vampire can absorb too much vital mana from their victims. When they do, their state is not pretty. What happens to them is a step worse than their mana cores rupturing.

  I have seen their very blood evaporate into mist, crushing their body in a matter of seconds. All in all, it is not a pretty sight.

  Personally, I don't think that I will suffer much due to this. At least I won't burst into a mist of blood. After all, I have not transformed into a vampire yet. My body won't be damaged by the process of overfeeding. Instead, it is my sword that is at risk.

  I don't know what would happen exactly if I were to stuff my sword with this vital mana. I mean I am sure that my sword will be destroyed completely.

  That does raise the question of what will happen to me though. After all, the sword is now linked to my mana core. Will it break causing unrepairable damage to the mana core? Will it directly cause it to rupture? Maybe it will just destroy the foundation slabs, forcing me to make it again.

  I don't even want to know about it if I am being honest.

  For how much bodily damage I had to go through, we at least managed to get a significant victory.

  The first thing is that the warrior is dead. That means that I have only two people to worry about among the vampires at the very least.

  The bandits had also run away in fear after this. My soldiers were more busy trying to make sure that I was alive, but a couple of them still struck the bandits. They managed to kill five bandits in the process and injured three more.

  Other than that, this has managed to buy us time. Not much time of course, but a day is still a day.

  We are now on the third day of the attack happening. I know for certain that I don't need to wait for too long to know what the result is of the patriarch's attack. Even at its longest, it will only take a single week.

  Our time of respite ending though. The pirates have begun to probe the main tunnel again. I have heard that the most recent probe had managed to reach the corpse of the warrior. They ended up dying in a trap while retreating though.

  Right now, they will not be thinking about the main tunnel for a while at least.

  Well, they might not have done much with the main tunnel, but they did not stop attacking the other two tunnels.

  The servants path is well-defended. Anybody trying to breach that place will struggle. Last I heard, Alfred Mayfire had taken over that place. So it is even less likely now. Though why the man would take to protect a less glorious position, I don't know.

  Right now the main problem is the hidden tunnel. It is the path that is at most risk of being taken over.

  The problem is not even due to the enemy. The problem here is the superstitions of the mayfires. They refuse to enter the tunnel itself. Holding even a small part of the tunnel means that the number advantage of the enemy will be negated. The tunnel is barely large enough for three people to stand side by side.

  Holding the tunnels would have been the best-case scenario. The problem is that the mayfires are not ready to do something so simple.

  They claim that this would enrage their ancestors. That their ancestors would curse them if they entered this tunnel without permission. Based on what I had heard, Jacob and Andrew did try to hold the tunnel.

  They did a glorious job, putting a fight to those damn pirates. Regardless of how well-trained they are, they are still humans. They had to retreat once they got tired and the injuries started accumulating.

  Right now, they are maintaining the defense at the crypt. It is a large open space, perfect for a melee. The enemy can make full use of their number advantage here. My soldiers don't seem to get that though.

  Right now also, I can hear the clash of swords and magics happening at the crypt as the mayfires fight there. For now, they have managed to hold the crypt against the enemy. Still, they will not be do it for long.

  No matter what happens, the crypt cannot be lost. If the crypt is lost to the enemy, then they would be able to just march with their full force on the altar.

  If that happens, we have lost already. I could raise the barrier to buy us some time, but that is all I can do right now.

  If I was just a bit better physically, to force a few of those soldiers to enter into the tunnel to hold it. I would have earned the ire of them all, but what else can I do?

  I wish that I could have joined the fight now. Not that I could have helped much without the traps. Still, it saves me from having to think so much about things.

  You could say that I have effectively lost command of the group now and it has split into two smaller groups. The first is led by Alfred Mayfire and he is holding the servant's path, as I said before.

  The second group is led by Lady Amelia and Trevor. Based on what I have understood, the tactical command of the group is right now under Trevor. How he convinced Amelia to give up control I don't know.

  Meanwhile, Lady Amelia is quite a beast based on what I have been hearing about her. Granted that my source of information is the mayfires. They would certainly exaggerate the achievements of one of their own.

  Still, I would like to see her in combat once. I seriously want to see her proficiency in combat. She has been questioning my authority based on that very combat ability of hers.

  Well, I won't be seeing any of them today. After all, they all are busy protecting their bases.

  They will come to me once the combat situation comes under control. After all, we have much to discuss. The main thing to be discussed is what the hell did they find in the enemy camp.

  That is the only way that we will be able to plan for their attack. After all, we still have another captain to worry about. I am not even thinking about the void. I am sure that he will be involved in this attack somehow. The only problem is how you plan for somebody about whom you know nothing about.