Alexander The Great Mage

Chapter 25 - The Bull

Aleyria raised her hands horizontally and closed her eyes. She slowly took a deep breath and an unusual hum began to sound. In the next moment, she opened her eyes and released her breath.

A horrifying amount of earth magic surged outwards to her left and right, and immediately the ground began to shake violently. The earth magic she released was fully refined summoning magic, and as such, had immediate effect.

Aleyria pulled up huge columns of rock and they formed themselves into giant humanoid shapes. Rumbling and pounding about, and at 20 meters tall, with long arms made of solid rock, these earth golems towered above everything in the vicinity.

They bellowed with unnatural anger and with a single thought from Aleyria, they formed a long line of defense.

At Aleyria's signal, the Earthmages behind her cast their magic and caused a plateau to rise up from beneath the battalion. Against non-magic users, height was definitely an advantage.

Rumbling and groaning, the plateau rose up to a height of 15 meters. Aleyria waved her hand slightly. She suddenly disappeared from her position and appeared atop the plateau.

Aleyria frowned slightly. This was the deciding moment.

Earlier, Alexander had told her this strategy. Fort up in front of the enemy and rain death from above.

Aleyria had laughed at him. Why would the enemy bother to attack them? They could simply make a slight detour and bypass the fort entire as they marched on the City of Rin. They wouldn't waste their strength attacking an impossible position without much significance.

Alexander had smiled at her and said, "Trust me, they will. Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics. They wouldn't bypass your little fort for the simple reason that they couldn't afford to. No army will leave behind an enemy strike force capable of annihilating their supply train. They wouldn't do that even if the enemy is infantry, much less mounted units. And much, much less, mounted mages. They will attack you. Take the defensive and decimate them. If you can kill their leader, they will definitely retreat."

Aleyria thought his words make sense, so she agreed. Worst case scenario, even if the enemy ignored her, she could always do what Alexander just said. Strike at their supply train and starve the enemy to death.

Secretly though, she was worried that the enemy would disperse and gather into squads to kill and massacre Rin-Turah citizens. If they did that, it would be catastrophic. Rin-Turah didn't have a large enough army to effectively hunt thousands of squads of enemies across the entire countryside. But she didn't voice out her worry because she feared it was an embarassingly dumb question.

In any case, her worries proved to be unfounded. With a roar, the Zantroll army charged.

Although she was a transcendentally powerful White Archmage atop a 15 meter tall plateau with hundreds of giant earth golems standing between her and the approaching Zantroll army, Aleyria still paled slightly as she beheld the Zantrolls charging at her.

She had never seen such an awe-inspiring scene. Fear-inspring, if you happened to be standing at the opposite end of the charge. The ground shook violently, made worse by the fact that she was 15 meters above ground.

Before this moment, 60,000 was just a number. But now watching that same number of trolls thundering across the plains shrieking their battle cries like thousands and thousands of tons of approaching death and destruction, 60,000 took on a whole new different meaning.

Behind her, Aleyria could hear a few of her mages whimpering in fear.

At this moment, Aleyria recalled Alexander's words.

"A general's ability to command in the heat and carnage of battle is much more important than whether the command itself is good or not." Alexander had told her before she finally left for the battle.

"Stand your ground, give clear and definite orders. Any order, to ensure that your troops can feel your confidence and a steady hand in control."

"Yes, yes Great General." Aleyria had said rather sarcastically.

As she looked down now on the Zantrolls from the plateau, she sighed and muttered quick word of thanks to Alexander for his advice.

The trolls were very close. Their battle cries were thick with bloodlust, heavy with impending triumph.

Aleyria raised her hand.

"Fireballs. Now!" Aleyria lowered her hand. All the mages, whether or not they were Firemages, casted fireball across the line. Instantly, a blinding light burst forth from the plateau and over 500 fireballs of various sizes were launched into the incoming Zantrolls.

A massive explosion which drowned out the cries of the Zantrolls roared out as the fireballs made impact. Aleyria, seeing the havoc wreaked by the fireballs, felt herself relax slightly. Very slightly. Thousands of trolls had been burnt to crisp, and many others were injured. The Zantroll army was like a bull half-stunned by a vicious hammer blow between the eyes.

However, the trolls were stubborn and extremely courageous. Whatever could be said about trolls, none could ever claim they were cowards. They clambered over the charred remains of their comrades, roaring with uncontrollable rage, brandishing their swords as they resumed their charge.

Their formation was a memory and their battle lines were gone. They were just like an angry mob burning, quite literally, to reach their tormentors. The bull may be half-stunned, but it was still a powerful beast.

With a single thought, Aleyria sent her golems charging into the sea of trolls. Although each stomp from a golem would kill a troll, and each swipe would send a few trolls flying to their deaths, there were still tens of thousands of trolls who would reach the plateau safely.

Aleyria raised her hand again.

"Your most powerful spells. Ready. Now!" Aleyria lowered her hand. This time, in addition to fireballs, ice spears, windblades, lightning bolts and earthen spikes were launched.

Aleyria pointed at the trolls and launched three of her own gigantic fireballs, one after the other at three different directions.

Another roar sounded as the spells impacted the trolls.

This time, screams of pain from the wounded trolls began to fill the air like the wail of a giant banshee. Trolls were tough, extremely tough in fact. But they were still flesh and blood. The bull had been sent to its knees. It was still bellowing in anger, true, but surely dying for all that.

Aleyria looked down grimly. She could hear some of her mages retching. The smell of fire, blood and roasted meat was extremely pungent. Worse than the smell was the sight of absolute carnage. Everywhere you looked, dead and dying trolls filled your sight.

Barely a third of the 60,000 remained standing.

Aleyria raised her hand once more.

"Fireballs." She would cleanse the area with fire.

"Now!"

Another blinding light burst forth. This time, it was not as bright as the first volley. Many of the mages were still retching.

Aleyria raised both her hands and casted her own spell. A wave of fire rolled off her fingertips and swept across the trolls.

The rear elements of the troll army was already staggering back in defeat. Seeing the wave of fire approaching, they finally broke and ran for their lives. Those in front had no time to run.

Thousands and thousands of trolls died in that third and final volley. The bull was no longer bellowing. It was just dying beast dumbly waiting the blow of the hammer to fall.

Aleyria had won.