I swear that I should feel scared right now. I mean, it is not every day that you end up waking in a half destroyed ship, traveling in a land about which you nothing. On top of all that, I feel numb all over my body. I don't know what that is about, but I can't even let myself lose my mind over that. I have more immediate worries.

  Well, the storm has passed us by. I can't sense the storm wall anywhere near me. It could not have happened at a more opportune time as well. I don't know how much longer my ship could have survived in that storm. I am surprised that the ship is not a pile of scrap wood.

  My ship is not in a pretty state though. The bow has been bent to a weird angle. I certainly am not going to be doing any ramming with this ship and there are holes in the ship. The only one that I need to worry about is the one that is near the bow, the one that was caused by the ramming of the enemy ship. The hole has expanded becoming much larger in the process. It would be easy for an elephant to enter from there let alone a man. Not that I am worried that Laufen will be entering from here. That man would need to have the aim bow master to pull that off.

  These holes are my main worry. After all, there is s barrier on the ship that is keeping the ice mana out. I think that this barrier has begun to fail. I can feel myself shivering. I do not know how these barriers work. I have to assume that physical damage must affect them in some way. It still must be holding, since I am not a statue of ice.

  If that is the situation of my ship, the other ship is in a worse position. Laufen's ship is split into two, barely hanging on to each other by the thinnest plank of wood I have ever seen in my life. My ship will be able to move, even if barely. His ship is not going to be moving much.

  Right now the main threat that I am facing is Laufen. The man is making his way towards me even as we speak. As for how he is surviving in the truelands, I have to assume that the massive amount of mana that he is absorbing has something to do with it. Whatever the bastard is doing must be suicidal. Even he cannot manage absorbing that much ice mana,

  The man right now looks like a cyclone in my eyes. If I could see the man right now, I am sure that he would be shining like a little sun. Thank god I can't see him. The man is already overwhelming me too much.

  Well, the situation is somewhat similar to my mana sense as well. If I am honest I don't want to look at the man even through my mana sense, especially when enhanced by mana like this. I can already feel my vision darkening, something like dark spots appearing in my eyes. Well, that is nothing good, but if that man were to enter this ship, I would be dead. I can figure out what is the issue with my mana sense later.

  I start the ship feeling it slide forward. I don't think that is even a quarter of the speed the ship should be able to achieve. The crash has damaged it more seriously than I thought. Still, the ship is faster than the man, even if barely.

  Still, trying to get rid of the bastard is kind of like trying to swat a fly. No matter how I turn the ship, the man is there. I am barely able to keep the ship moving. I am surprised that I can even keep up with the man. You do need to realize that the formation that I am using is acting like a formation stick, allowing me to use the ship. No matter how well-made these formations are, there is going to be a lag in trying to control the ship. (I can assure you that these formations are not well made.) that is what the bastard is exploiting to keep up with me. Hells, he has begun to catch up with me.

  As if that was not enough I am barely able to keep my eye on the man. Compared to the ship, the man is the size of a mosquito. On top of that I can't even use the sensory formations for this. I have to rely on purely my mana sense. (Even

  How do I tell the whitest spot when the world seems to be made from shades of white? The only reason that I can track the man is because he is absorbing and emitting so much mana. If he could manage to be a bit more stealthy with his mana, he would already be on the ship with me. I can barely manage to keep the man away from my ship as it is.

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  I don't know what I am supposed to do now. I am trying to think about what I can do. At the moment I don't know where I am going. Even with the sensory formation, I could not see much due to the chaotic mana here. Now I am completely blind.

  Even when I could see the place, this place was completely plain (as smooth as a mirror). I don't think I have even noticed even a small hill in this place. There is no place for me to run away, nor any place for me to hide. No last-minute trick that I can pull off here. No haven towards which I can direct my ship.

  Who will tell my mind that, though? Even now it is trying to form plans, each plan doomed to failure. Plans of attacking that might have worked if I had a more intact ship. Plans of escape, that might have worked if the environment was not so hostile. If I even had my sword, I would not be in such a miserable position right. At least I would be able to think more clearly.

  Fuck, fuck. The ship swings to the left under my control as I dodge the man's attack. This attack was a bit too close for comfort. The man had managed to almost touch the ship. Maybe the ship would be able to hold the man's attack, but that is a gamble that I can't afford.

  Thankfully that has brought me a bit of time. The man is still running in that direction. Turning tends to be very hard when you move at your full speed.

  I can't pull of more direction changes like this, though. The damn thing was damaged it seems like. I can feel the formation crumple in my hands. If I were to push it a bit more, it would collapse. (And explode on my face.) then I won't even be able to move the sledder in the direction that I want it to go.

  Sadly, the man seems to realize this fact at the same moment as me. He begins to change directions towards me almost immediately. I accelerate the ship as much as dare to. Any faster and the magic that is making sure that this ship is running will fail. I can't even predict when because I don't know how it works.

  I feel the ship slow down even before I realize why it happened. The mana strings that I was using to control the formation have disappeared. I can feel the mana leaving my body but as much as I want to, I can't seem to bring myself to manifest the strings. It is almost like I can't recall the structure of the string. That shouldn't be possible. I have been making formations continuously for the last five years. This is something that I have to do thousands of times per day.

  I don't why this is happening. I think a reason can be that my vital mana has been almost consumed fully. Well, now is not the time to think about it. There is an enemy at the gate. I can learn about what is wrong with me after beating him. Not that I can see how I can do that right now.

  Even as I am thinking this, I feel my legs give as I fall to the ground. I try to move my legs, which I can't feel anymore. I retract the mana from my mana sense, which I redirect towards my legs.

  There is no change as I keep trying to get up. Screw it, I begin to redirect that mana to my arms. So what if I can't move, I will attack him the moment that he comes close to me.

  I lose sensation in my hands, just as my hand reaches my sword. It is not like my arm is numb. It feels nonexistent as if it was never there. I can feel the panic crawl up my spine as I feel the feeling spread across my body. Slowly and steadily like a snake crawling up my body.

  As the feeling spreads I look at the roof of this room. There is something off about it. It takes me a moment to realize that my mana sense is not working. The only time when my mana sense does not work is when I am actively suppressing it. Even then, I can still sense mana to a certain degree. I have never seen the world without my mana sense butting in one way or the other. All I can think for a moment is that it looks very weird.

  My panic is not affecting me. I can feel it but where it should have been overwhelming me, it feels muffled. Like trying to hear somebody speak a thousand feet away. I swear that I can hear somebody speak. I can't understand it. I still feel like I can understand this nonexistent speech. It is motivating me to move, to keep thinking, to keep fighting.

  Gods, is this what madness feels like? I feel the world fading around me, the void taking over my sight like it did the rest of my body. I don't even know why I am still fighting, to still keep moving. Even if Laufen did not have one of his arms and one of his legs I were to break through to the next stage. I still wouldn't be able to fight the man in a duel. Still, I am not able to stop myself from trying. Almost like it is the natural thing that I can do at this moment.