Although the first attack resulted in failure, Arlen quickly organized the group to climb the path again. However, his sole goal was to make the enemies use more of their logs. As if they had been waiting for that, the followers of the demon god only fire Earth Arrows toward the soldiers. Although the soldiers were well trained to endure that kind of situation, every time their shields got hit, one of their arms cracked. In just a couple of minutes, Arlen was forced to retreat again because one hundred of his men had broken arms. Before he could prepare another attack, Vitalar summoned him.

"I heard that you are having a hard time, vice Commander Arlen," Vitalar said as if he didn't watch everything. "What is going on?"

"I am not someone to make up excuses, I admit that these failures are entirely on me," Arlen said.

"Very well," Vitalar said. "However, I want to hear what happened that you didn't expect."

"... The power behind earth magic is a problem, while it isn't lethal against shields, the impact causes damage to bones," Arlen said. "There is also the issue of the terrain. My soldier's stance isn't steady enough due to the elevation and snow. That is why they are suffering a lot more damage."

"What do you suggest in this situation?" Vitalar asked.

"We should keep trying, until they run out of mana or our people find some other route," Arlen replied. 

"That probably won't work, they must have thousands of them on the other side of the mountains," Vitalar said. "Even if we find those, unless we force them to concentrate their forces on the main route, we will never have the chance to use it."

Vitalar was expecting a new idea from the Captains and lieutenants there, but they all had the same ideas since that was more or less a siege. Keep attacking until the enemies tire out and run out of resources. Sieges are basically long tests of perseverance, after all.

"... I suppose, we can afford to spend one week following those basic strategies, but we will need to come up with better ones if we don't obtain any result," Vitalar said. "I will be counting on all of you for that."

Once everyone left the tent, Vitalar had a hard time controlling the urge to punch the table. The expedition had only started, but it started the worst way possible. He couldn't help but wonder if he was finally running out of luck. Vitalar made a name as a researcher and then was hired by the kingdom to help in the capture of followers of the demon god. Now he finally had the chance to do something that would be marked in the kingdom's story. He even had the command of ten thousand soldiers, and yet…

"It was my mistake… I should have listened to that kid," Vital said after a long sigh. "If we didn't have fallen for the trap, his unit would be able to do much more than just obey orders. If he were alive, he probably would help us find a solution to this situation… I have to learn from my mistakes because I can't make too many of them."

For the next two days, Arlen commanded many attacks while attempting to reach the peak of that path, but all of them ended in failure. Not only it seemed that the followers of the demon god had an endless supply of logs, but it also seemed like they would never run out of mana. However, that was only their imagination trying to play tricks on them. The soldiers were experienced enough to know that.

On the third day, the followers of the demon god stopped using the logs. Instead of that, they began to bombard the soldiers with Water Spears from the very moment they began to climb. However, instead of attacking directly, they fired the projectiles upward. At first, when they fell, it didn't cause any damage, but after a while, even though they used their shields, the soldiers began to freeze and tremble like leaves. Some unlucky ones developed frostbites in their hands and feet.

"This is getting worse with every passing day," Cohnal said. "How can plain water cause frostbites so fast?"

"My guess is that the water is almost frozen when they fire," Nyana said. "Once that cold water touches our bodies, it steals the heat, even if we had warmed up. Some clothes protect us against the cold, but when they absorb water, they cause more problems than they solve."

"It is kind of amazing that they can cause this much trouble without killing a single one of us… heh?" Cohnal frowned after saying that. "We didn't suffer any losses so far?"

"That seems to be the case," Melisse said. "I suppose it is because they are focusing solely on defending their territory. They can fight for longer while holding back a little, after all."

"Still… isn't that weird?" Cohnal asked. "Not even by accidents, we didn't lose a single one of us. It is almost like…"

"They are holding back because they know that we can't stay here forever and this kind of expedition costs a lot for the realm," Melisse said. "They are planning to fight until our resources are completely used, mainly food. That is probably why they aren't attacking to kill."

"I suppose…" Cohnal said.

  It made sense, but Cohnal couldn't help but think that they were missing something. Regardless, Arlen selected more soldiers armed with shields and then led them to climb the path ahead again after he had prepared the right countermeasure against that cold water that freezes almost instantly upon contact. However, when they tried to climb the mountain, they were forced to stop because someone heck of cold wind was coming down from it. When they looked above, they saw dozens of followers of the demon god using Cold Whisper to create that frigid wind… it almost seemed like they could read what the commanders and the captains were thinking.