Alexander The Great Mage

Chapter 105 - Bumblebees

Prince Jolto frowned slightly as he surveyed and analysed the situation. His blitz invasion of Arcanus 26 had gone horribly wrong every single step of the way.

He had lost almost two hundred motherships, and many hundreds more received medium to heavy damage. Overall, his Starship had lost almost ten percent of its power.

Ten percent! Just for the opening maneuver for the invasion of an experimental planet! It was totally unheard of.

True, Prince Flario had placed a deadly trap within the planet, and any Starship which attacked the planet would suffer the same fate as him, if not worse. But still, the fact remained that he got caught in the trap.

It was a deadly, deadly trap. Drone waves were the nemesis of manned invasions. Drones were extremely cheap to produce, and in sufficiently large numbers, drones were extremely powerful and could theoretically overwhelm and destroy even Starships IF the Starship captain chose to go toe to toe with the drones. However, drone waves had one glaring weakness. A single EMP bomb would destroy them completely.

The drone wave strategy's weakness was so glaring and easy to counter that it was rarely used anymore. And it was telling just how antiquated that strategy was by the fact that none of Prince Jolto's Motherships carried a single EMP bomb. And so he had to toughen it up and go head to head with the drone waves, to his great chagrin and loss.

Thankfully, Prince Flario did not prepare enough drones to actually overwhelm a Starship, and so Prince Jolto was able to land a few motherships in Arcanus 26.

But incredibly, one mothership which had the power to fully overwhelm and dominate an entire planet, was somehow disabled and cut off!

And to make matters worse, his second maneuver, the release of the 'Queen Bee', was actually resisted by merely four people sitting on little dragons. Princi Jolto was originally extremely skeptical that a Universe Level Threat actually existed. The last hundred or so Code Reds were all false alarms, so he had fully expected this one to be another false alarm as well.

But judging by how efficiently the enemy forces were resisting his mechas, he had begun to suspect that a Universe Level Threat truly existed. And even if it was not a true Universe Level Threat, it was definitely not too far off from being one.

"Release the Bumblebees." Prince Jolto finally said into his comms. "Initiate defensive formations until the Bumblebees arrive."

Immediately, the remaining mechas pulled back from the horrifying super tornadoes and gathered together in a formidable defensive square formation. They formed into three defensive squares within each other, with Prince Jolto's Black Bulwark and six Red Battlefuries in the middle. A massive white anti-magic shell shimmered into being and surrounded the eighty thousand or so mechas left.

It was a rather comical situation. An entire 80-thousand mecha army bunching up together in fear of four little figures atop little dragon-like creatures.

But for the mecha pilots, it was not comical in the slightest.

They had lost in excess of fifteen percent of their mechas. It was a terrifying number by any standard. Such terrifying losses after mere minutes of the beginning of the engagement only happened in the worst ambushes in history. And to think they actually suffered such incredible rates of casualty at the hands of four people.

The morale of the troops were heavily shaken and fighting spirit was at an all time low. Still, many of them cheered up considerably when they heard that the Bumblebees were being released.

"Finally! We will be able to crush those miserable mages!" A soldier raged to another.

"With the Bumblebees tanking and absorbing all the damage, we should be able to reach them and wipe them out." Another said in great relief.

However, before much else could be said, an incomprehensibly large number of windblades laced with freezing ice energy appeared on the horizon. They were translucent and because there were so many of them, they made the entire sky shimmer eerily.

"First row, brace for impact." Prince Jolto instructed calmly. "Second row, ready anti-magic cannons. On my mark."

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The windblades shot out towards the gathered mechas.

The frozen windblades smashed into the combined anti-magic shield that was set up by the mechas. However, instead of exploding upon impact, the windblades simply dissipated after consuming a portion of the anti-magic shield.

BSHH! BSHH!! BSHHH!

Endless waves of deadly frozen windblades smashed and dissipated almost silently on the shields as though they were harmless. However, the thousands of mecha pilots knew that if they were hit by even a single frozen windblade, it would be the end of them. It definitely was a creepy sight for them.

"Fire!" Prince Jolto ordered.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Anti-magic cannons fired all across the line and exploded in the mass of frozen windblades, causing them to dissipate.

However, the anti-magic cannons only bought them a few seconds of respite before the back line of the windblades reached them and continued their mindless smashing into the anti-magic shield.

"Fire!" Prince Jolto commanded once more. Anti-magic cannons fired once more, and repeated the previous volley's results down to the millisecond.

It was useless. The frozen windblades kept coming like the endless tides of the ocean.

BOOM!!

A massive explosion exploded on the western side of the defensive square. Apparently a massive fire-infused windblade had sneaked in and exploded right before it hit the anti-magic shield, consuming a huge amount of power.

BOOM!! BOOM!!

More windblades exploded on the anti-magic shield. Although they didn't deal any damage, it was a jarring experience for the mechas who were hiding within.

"We should just go out there and do a full charge on the damned enemy!" One mecha pilot snarled into his battalion voice channel.

"We just did that and we lost thousands, remember? Hello? Are you daft Jimmy?" Another mecha pilot answered.

"Damn you Toby, waiting to die in this damned square isn't a solution! This isn't what we're taught in training!" The first mecha pilot, Jimmy, shouted.

"Silence." His commanding officer coldly instructed him. "We are completely outclassed in terms of firepower. This is the safest alternative. You're lucky you're serving under Prince Jolto who values the lives of his soldiers."

Silence reigned for a few long minutes as the mechas weathered the storm of frozen windblades and the occasional explosion of fire-infused blades. The sense of horror slowly grew in the hearts of all the pilots.

"Are these windblades really cast by only four people?" Jimmy finally spoke up once more, his voice quivering slightly in fear. "Are human beings on this planet so powerful to the point that our technology can do nothing against them?"

"No, you're wrong." Toby answered him. "It's not four people."

"It's not?" Jimmy said with slight relief in his voice.

"It's just one." Toby said heavily.

"What?!" Jimmy shouted.

However, this time his battalion commander did not silence him. Instead, he too asked Toby. "How do you know that?"

"I have a slight affinity with magic. Not enough to be a mage, but definitely enough to sense that all these windblades only carried a single aura. It's just one person that's casting these windblades." Toby said.

"That's… That's crazy!! Not even the strongest mages in our army can cast so many powerful windblades!" Jimmy cried out.

"This is an experimental world. There are many things here that we do not have in the Empire. However, there are also many things that they do not have. For example, they are completely devoid of technology. And as you know, technology trumps magic. We'll subdue them once the Bumblebees arrive." The battalion commander tried to assure his soldiers.

"What's a Bumblebee?" Another soldier asked.

The Battalion Commander was about to open his mouth to explain when he stopped and looked up. "Hehehe, take a look at them for yourself. Look! They're here!"

*-*-*-*-*

"Wow! Liz'An, you've grown much more powerful than before! How did you do that?" Kan-Dari exclaimed in surprise.

"Hehehe. I was very inspired by Lady Flamewing's manipulation of wind magic and how she strengthened my tornado by so many factors. So I copied a little bit of her technique. And somehow the magic responded very enthusiastically!" Liz'An explained even as she continued to summon countless frozen windblades and sending them towards the mechas who were bunched up together. "I think I managed to increase the compression of my windblades by at least two times! Plus I was able to combine both ice and wind magic on a much smaller scale."

"Well done Liz'An." Flamewing praised her.

"Thank You, Lady Flamewing." Liz'An smiled.

"I don't think that this is a good situation for us." Shira announced suddenly.

"Oh? Why do you say that?" Alexander asked in pleasant surprise.

"Why are they on the defensive? They could have easily withdrawn from the battlefield. I think they are waiting for reinforcements, and those reinforcements are definitely able to deal with us." Shira said worriedly. "We need to break down their defenses now!"

"Excellent point. Good thinking, Shira. But you need to calm down." Alexander said with a smile.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Shira took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves.

"In fact, I don't think we have to wait much longer. I can sense a huge power fluctuation right above them. Their reinforcements should be - Oh there they are!" Alexander pointed at the sky.

"WHAT?!!!!" Shira shouted in shock as she stared at the 'reinforcements."