The middle circle of a tomb is supposed to be a defensive line. The thing is it is meant mainly to hold back people from entering into the place. After all,. t is usually the corpses of strong people that tend to be at the most risk of being looted. They tend to be the favourite targets of necromancers.

  In the southern part of the continent, they also tend to be designed to hold back the corpses should they rise again. After all, if you are leaving behind corpses in a place with this much death mana, you have to be ready for them to rise again.

  The door was originally meant to do exactly that. Firstly, it is a solidly built door, strong enough to withstand attacks from even a giant. Even now when the creature on the other side is clawing it, the door has barely taken much damage.

  Secondly, it is filled to its brim with formations that increase the durability of the door even more. With the formation active, I don't think even the creature will be able to break through it unless it were to spend hours on it.

  The thing is that the formations meant to enhance the durability of the door will not work. I had deactivated all the formations on the door after all. Now there are many ways to deactivate formations. The simplest usually tends to be cutting the link between the formation and it's mana reservoir. Without a mana reservoir to power the formation, it is just a pretty little painting. (that can only been seen with mana sense.)

  The problem with my method is that the formations don't have a mana source anymore. That means that even now the formations on this door remain laying there uselessly. Well, there is a solution to this problem. It is not going to be a permanent solution though.

  Well, I have managed to get them active for now. I did this by grafting my control strings onto the area that I had cut off. Now, I can activate the formation and it will be able to access mana from the place the control strings link to, which is my mana core. Even now the formation is steadily draining mana from my mana reserves.

  Well, it working for now. I don't know how long I can power it though. Still, this has brought us time. Time in which we will have to figure out an escape that will actually work.

  That brings me back to the situation at hand. The first things that I have to describe is that my injuries are better. They still throb like one of the hells whenever I try to move, but they are not going to cause my death. Right now, Alfred mayfire is studying these injuries of mine. The man would not have been my first choice. After all, the searchers have the best idea of healing magic among us.

  The issue is right now the lady is more busy trying to keep peace between those two idiots. They have picked a very good time to start fighting against each other. The two bastards are so lost in it that they are not focusing on the literal shitshow happening around us.

  I will have to deal with them soon enough. Before that though, I will have to make sure that I am in a stable state. After all, my injuries are pretty serious. There is no use stopping these two when I could fall dead any second.

  "How is it?" I ask Alfred.

  The mayfire's mana is moving inside of me even as I ask him this question. I can feel the mana as a warmth that makes me feel comfortable.

  "Well, I can't see anything that might threaten your life." The man speaks. "There is lightning damage all over your body, but it has already begun to heal. That is not even something you need to worry about. The main damage to you has been done by the fire, it looks like. I think it is some kind of magical fire. I can feel your blood mana struggle against the flame."

  "Well, that is pretty obvious given the source of this fire." I reply. "I have never seen a creature like that in my life."

  With this, I push the pain to the back of my head. Obsessing over the pain is only going to be a distraction right now. Well, I have deal with these two idiots.

  "...ou son of a bitch. What exactly were you thinking would happen." John screams, his voice loud enough to make my head throb. "We have enough shit to deal with without your fuck up."

  "Will you shut up. Do you think that now is the time to fighting with each other. What is the fucking issue." I snap at John.

  "Well..." John starts.

  "The fucker is trying to get us all killed, young master." Anthony interrupts the man. "You cannot expect me to follow the commands of a man that is clearly this suicidal."

  "ENOUGH." I find myself screaming, even as my wounds throb with pain at my scream "Whatever flaw that you find in John's plan will be left for later. You do not challenge the chain of command in the middle of a battlefield. That will get all of us killed."

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  "Well, the man is going to get all of us killed. His plan reeks of a gambler spending his last coin." Anthony replies, a steely rage in his eyes. (At the moment I don't feel like giving two fucks about it.) "why should I have to listen to his command?"

  "Well, you were asked, Anthony. You agreed to fucking follow his command. We gave you every opportunity to present us with a less risky plan. You did not do anything then." I reply, lowering my voice. Raising my voice is hurting me more than the other party. "You don't break that kind of agreements. That is about the quickest way to get us all killed."

  "Why should I?", Anthony replies. "I have already made arrangements for my survival. I don't need to rely on you."

  "Well then don't fucking get in our way." I snap. "John, you should have a plan of escape ready by now. What the fuck are you doing?"

  "Well, my backup plan is fucked, kid." John replies finally. There is rage in his eyes. "The bastard has managed to fuck it up so spectacularly."

  "What did he do?" I ask.

  There is a clear sentiment of rage in John's voice. The man's words makes it clear that Anthony has done something very stupid. John is not the variety to use that expletive lightly.

  "He is bringing the entire fort on top of us." John answers me. "The bastard has commanded his soldiers to follow after him should something happened to him. Now he is not agreeing to make them go somewhere else."

  John is angry enough that it is showing on his face now. He has a murderous expression that makes it look like he is barely holding himself from attacking. This is the expression that he usually reserves for monsters.

  "Explain yourself, Anthony." I command the man.

  Even as the man hesitates, I am brought out of the conversation. About five percent of my mana reserves has been pulled out of my mana core. The damn creature has attacked the door with some potent magic.

  I take control of the mana sent into the formation, guiding it through the thing. Right now, I don't have a whole lot of mana to spare. I have to make sure to use the little that I have as efficiently as possible. If it keeps attacking like this, I won't be able to hold for long.

  "Explain yourself, you brat." I curse at the idiot. He is just staring at me.

  "I had my backup plan." The man grumbles, like an annoying little kid. "I was sure that the sentinel's plan would fail, so I made my own plans."

  "Fuck it, lady Amelia. Do you mind explaining it? The idiot is just rambling now." I speak, remembering to be polite. "We don't have all day here to listen to the man's justifications."

  "Captain Anthony sent for his troop when the dragon attacked us. Even now, they are making their way here." Searcher Amelia replies. "Let's just say that the way in which they are making their way here is not subtle at all. We can feel their mana all the way from here. So can all the undead in the outer circle."

  "How did he do that?" I ask the lady. "I had assumed that any method of communication would have revealed us to the creatures."

  "Well, we guards have our own secrets, young master. Don't expect to be privy to all of them just because you want to play act as a guard." John replies, a smug little expression in his face.

  At the moment, he doesn't realise how close I am to just slapping the man, consequences be damned.

  "Then you idiot, use this secret of yours and command them to get out of the place." I snap at the idiot. "You do realise that if the undead all concentrate here then there is no way that we are leaving here alive."

  "It won't work anymore. That was an emergency beacon." The man replies sulkily. "It just transmits my location and my last commands."

  "My lady, can you build a mind web to Trevor. There is no use for stealth now." I turn to the lady. "Find out what they are doing to save the Aegis and if they can do anything from their side."

  "I think I can do that. Doing that will mean that I can't cast anything else. If the creature breaks through the door, you are going to have to deal with it on your own." She replies.

  "It is fine, my lady. We won't be beating the creature out there with brute force." I reply. "Right now, ensuring a path of escape is more important."

  "Sure my lord." The lady replies, as she sits down.

  "What did you call the creature that we faced just now?" I ask the lady.

  "It is a dragon, young master." The lady replies. "We did not expect see an undead dragon here, if I am honest. The process of creating one is supposed to be risky and dangerous unless you are really powerful."

  "Well, looks like the necromancers were getting desperate. To think they tried to raise something like that." I reply. "Well, it looks like their own creation has killed them all."

  "I know quite a bit about dragons, young master." She replies. "I can't say much about them as an undead, though. We don't even know if undeath will make their magic weaker or stronger."

  "Fine, tell me what you know about them." I reply. "Every little bit helps."

  "Well, there has been a lot written about the dragons." The lady replies. "The things that are relevant to us are the two magics that they are born with. I believe that the undead dragon can use these magics as well. These are dragonfear and dragonfire."

  "What are these magics?" I ask. "By the way, how long will the mind web take? I have already lost a quarter of my mana."

  "It is almost finished, young master." She replies. "As for the two magics, dragonfire is self explanatory. Dragons are able to instinctively able to produce flames in their mouth. This they can breathe at their targets. The next is dragonfear. I don't have much idea about it, but I know that this is the reason that we all froze in fear in front of the dragon. People speak about not even being able to think in front of the creature."

  "Thank you for this, my lady. John, what is the status on the other side. Is there any presence of skeletons on the other side?" I command John.

  "I did not check yet." The man replies. He seems to have calmed down a bit.

  "Well, then you know you are not supposed to waste your time. Do you want to know about a horde of skeletons coming our way the moment that they pass the doors." I snap at the man.

  That gets the man into attention as he finally begins the work of scouting.

  "Young master, the mind web has been established." The lady speaks.

  "Good." Is my reply. Time to get to work.