Alexander The Great Mage

Prince Jolto frowned. He had been frowning really frequently ever since the invasion of Arcanus 26 began. In fact, he had never frowned this much in his entire life.

Prince Jolto was the third son of the Emperor's twenty-first wife. In other words, a complete nobody in the hierarchy of the Palace. To make it worse, he did not have any redeeming qualities such as extreme magical power like Prince Flario, or access to powerful supporters like Prince Marius.

He was merely a prince of the powerful Empire called Symphonia. Thankfully, what he lacked in network and talents and birthright, he more than made up for with his extreme willingness to get things done at any cost. And so, after countless shady deals and despicable acts which yielded great results, he had become Prince Marius's chief henchman, and was gifted a Starship. His main mission at that moment? Destroy Prince Flario's campaign for the Symphonian Throne. And if the situation allows for it, destroy him physically.

He knew how deeply Prince Flario doted on Princess Anastasia.. He could fully understand Prince Flario's feelings, because he too had a little sister that he fully doted on, Princess Jenny. For some weird and unfathomable reason, Prince Jolto's evil and black heart had a unique space in it, one with absolutely no evil.

A space solely reserved for Princess Jenny.

And at that moment, his beloved sister was missing. And to make things worse, he suspected that the Universe Level threat was actually real, and was in the area. The current situation bore testament to that possibility too. What in the world could actually blind eighty thousand mechas with the latest Symphonian technology to the point where their advanced scanners cannot detect anything at all?

Even their connections to the Starship and to each other were severed. They had to depend on old fashioned shouting to communicate. Thankfully, their top of the line friendly fire sensors were still active. And from that, they could still detect and avoid crashing into each other.

Prince Jolto made a note to investigate the friendly fire sensor technology and incorporate more of it into the rest of his army's system. It could prove useful when fighting against similar enemies in the future.

"All units remain silent unless reporting enemy whereabouts and fighting powers." He boomed out from Bulwark - his defensive mecha. "Battalions one and two, advance in pincer formation. Battalions three, four and five, advance in the center slowly. Battalions six through ten, standby for my orders. Move out."

WHOOSH!

The mechas hastened to obey his commands. However, before they could go far, thunderous explosions rang out from their left flank!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Enemy attack!" Battalion Commander One shouted. "Battalion One, defensive formation! Prince Jolto, they are firing explosives that can pierce through our anti-magic shields! Thirty three units down!"

"Battalion six, advance on Battalion one's left. Attack the enemy from the side. Battalion seven, go up and over Battalion one. Attack the enemy from above." Prince Jolto responded calmly.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Thunderous explosions rang out from their right flank!

"Enemy attack!" Battalion Commander Two shouted and echoed Battalion Commander One's words. "Battalion Two, defensive formation! Prince Jolto, their attacks pierce through our anti-magic shields! Ten units down!"

"Battalion eight, advance on Battalion two's right. Battalion nine, Go down and under Battalion two. Attack the enemy from below." Prince Jolto issued another set of similar commands.

"Battalion three! Advance ahead and engage the enemy! Battalion four and five, flanking maneuvers and engage the enemy in a pincer attack!" Prince Jolto shouted to the three battalions advancing in the center.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions continued to ring out from their left and right flanks.

"Ready anti-magic grenades. Ready? Pull! Fire!" Battalion Commander One's voice rang out.

BOOOSHHH! BOOOOSHHHH!! BOOSSHHH!!!

Powerful anti-magic fluctuations rippled out from Prince Jolto's left.

"Prince Jolto! Anti-magic grenades have a minor effect!" Battalion Commander One's voice rang out.

"All units. Ready anti-magic grenades. On my mark, fire upwards. Ready? Fire!" Prince Jolto immediately commanded.

BOOSHH!!! BOSHHH!! BOOOSHHH!!! BOSHHH!!!

The darkness lifted slightly. Now, they could make out each other's vague silhouettes. It was not much at all, but it was better than nothing.

"Enemy sighted!" A soldier shouted from their right flank. "Humanoid figures! Three of them sighted! No, Four si-"

BOOM!

There was no question in anyone's mind whose mecha just exploded. However, the good news was, the enemy was visible.

The bad news? They were too small and too fast for the mechas.

The mechas may not lack firepower, but they were absolutely crushed in terms of strategy and tactics. They could not unleash their energy weapons in fear of hitting their own comrades and as such, could not bring their full power to bear. To say that it was frustrating would be a massive understatement.

"Two hundred and fifteen mechas down." Battalion Commander One's voice rang out heavily.

"Two hundred and seven mechas down." Battalion Commander Two's voice rang out as well.

It was a horrifying number after only minutes into the engagement. Its horror was compounded by the fact that the enemy was still very much unharmed and they had no way of damaging them.

"Engaging the enemy! Massive Ice Eagles of some sort!" A shout from the center battalions could be heard faintly.

Prince Jolto finally made a heavy decision. "Battalions One and Two, Link Formation." He ordered.

The remaining mechas of both battalions immediately closed ranks and linked up with each other, forming a massive cube. It was the ultimate defensive formation for mechas which sacrificed almost everything they had for the sake of defense.

"Battalions Six and Seven, Eight and Nine, initiate 'Rain of Fire' on Battalion One and Two's positions. On my mark." Prince Jolto paused for a few seconds to allow Battalions one and two to complete their formation.

"Ready. Fire!"

PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! WIIIII! WIIIII! WIIIIIIII! WIIIIII!!!

Thousands of energy beams and anti-magic missiles rained down upon battalion one and two's positions.

B O O O M M M ! ! ! ! B O O O M M M ! ! !

After a few seconds of terrifying explosions, the battlefield became silent, allowing for reports from the center battalions to be heard clearly.

"The Ice Eagles are too strong! Our mechas cannot take a single hit from their black energy beams! Two hundred units down!"

"Three thousand units down!" Screamed another voice. "Requesting back up!"

"Four hundred units down. Repositioning to support battalion four"

"Battalions One and Two. Report." Prince Jolto shouted urgently.

"Seven hundred twenty two units down. No trace of the enemy." Battalion Commander One's voice rang out.

"This is Vice Commander Leo. Nine hundred seventy three units down, including Battalion Commander Dust. No trace of the enemy."

"Maintain position." Prince Jolto commanded.

"Acknowledged." Both replied.

"Battalions six through nine, advance and support battalions three, four and five!" Prince Jolto ordered.

"ENEMY ATTACK FROM THE REAR!" Battalion Commander Ten shouted. "Battalion Ten, defensive formation!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Anti-magic shields holding!" Battalion Commander Ten's report immediately came a second time.

"It must be those girls from before." Prince Jolto said to himself. "The shields would not hold for long! I need to do something drastic to change the flow of this battle."

*-*-*-*-*-*

"Hey, aren't you hammering them a little too strongly?" Caerose asked Aleyria nervously as she stared at Aleyria's Dark Ice Falcons mercilessly savage the center battalion of mechas.

"No, I don't think I am. One battalion fully obliterated and two more sustaining heavy damage in exchange for breaking through our first line of 'defences' seem like a pretty reasonable cost." Aleyria said.

Caerose kept quiet and studied the battlefield before her, and the dark swirling mess that the Darkbane Arcanists were in which blocked all of her senses, with a deep sigh. "This Aleyria is a freak. First Dark Ice Wolves, now Darkbane Arcanists AND Dark Ice Falcons? Does she have a limit at all?"

"Hey elf. Why are you just staring and doing nothing?" Isabella grunted as she summoned yet another wave of vines which attacked the left most battalion and kept them from supporting the middle battalion.

"You guys are doing fine without me." Caerose said casually. She glanced at the thousands of mages behind them who were launching thousands of ice projectiles at the thousands of mechas ahead of them.

They were rather ineffective against the mechas. But they did have the effect of weakening the mechas' anti-magic shields, so that was not too bad.

It was almost a repeat of the earlier ambush. The only difference was that the enemy had close to ten times the number. Still, the difference was almost moot. Thirty thousand was still very much within Aleyria's capability to handle.

"Ah look, I believe that the idiot Devil King is making a grand re-entry." Blackfire remarked lightly.

"WHAT?!" Aleyria shouted in surprise. "I did not summon him!"

"I believe that he ordered one of his Darkbane Arcanists to swap places with him." Blackfire chuckled.

"Gahhh… What do I do now??" Aleyria asked Blackfire.