Alexander The Great Mage

"Hold your ground. Let them engage the defenses first." Aleyria instructed her soldiers comprising half of the King's Guard and the two thousand members of the Royal Dragon Battalion and the Royal Phoenix Battalion.

They were hiding in a small forest two kilometers away from the Western Main which Isabella had created with her incredible Verdant magic. It was a very simple ambush, really. So simple that it bordered on stupidity.

They were simply lying in wait in two patches of trees and allowing the enemy to attack partially rebuilt walls of the City of Rin. Alexander had instructed them to station one battlecruiser there and have it switch on its engines on and off, as though it was struggling to power up. Station the mothership behind it and have its engines fully turned off. Then, surround the battlecruiser with a bunch of defensive mages and release their auras to the full.

This would give the enemy a target to focus on. A juicy target. A bunch of powerful but primitive mages hiding within a ruined city trying to power up advanced technology like the battlecruiser? Ha! We'll sweep them away in one go before you can turn it on!

The enemy would focus on the City and hopefully they would not pay attention to the small forests that were on either side of the Western main where Aleyria and the two Battalions were lying in wait. They would be the hammers, and the defensive mages in the City of Rin would be the anvil.

Simple.

Aleyria and Blackfire had simply remained silent, choosing to put their trust in Alexander. However...

"Too simple!" Isabella had argued earlier. "No enemy would be stupid enough to ignore the forests!"

"I agree." Caerose added as she nodded in agreement. "I know I wouldn't."

"They would if you do three things correctly. One, the forests must be small. The enemy must be able to see the beginning and the ends of the forest. The trees must also be short, nothing above two meters. Two, the anvil must be juicy. The enemy must look at it and want it badly. Three, situation and timing. The anvil must be on the verge of doing something they don't want, so they would be forced to rush into attacking it. If we can create a situation with these three factors, they will charge ahead towards the city and you will be free to ambush them." Alexander had explained.

It sounded good. Isabella and Caerose had grudgingly agreed to the plan. It was to be executed when Alexander gave the red signal from the top.

Aleyria squinted and focused her magically enhanced eyes on the approaching mechas. A very striking mecha in bright pink was flying right in front with three bright red mechas right behind her and approximately three thousand mechas in dull grey and black following them behind.

They weren't in any sort of formation. Just clusters and clusters of mechas flying at approximately the same speed. They were flying low and fast without any scouts or flankers. Suddenly, the pink mecha accelerated. Apparently it took everyone by surprise because she managed to burst forward for a full second before the three red mechas sped up as well. They too managed to shoot forward for another full second before the rest of the mechas began accelerating as well.

It was a mess.

"Perfect." Aleyria thought with a smile.

"It's perfect!" Isabella said happily, echoing her thoughts. "I can't believe it! They are literally acting out the script for our best case scenario! We're so lucky!"

"If only we had such luck when invading Arcanus 26." Caerose sighed lightly. Very slightly. She was very glad that she had switched sides. This side simply had too much ridiculous luck.

Aleyria giggled lightly at that. It was probably the effect of having Fluff-fluff up and awake after a very long nap.

She watched silently as the mechas approached the broken walls of the City of Rin and opened fire.

PEW! PEW! PEW! Energy beams and anti-magic cannons smashed into the barriers and earthen walls that were hastily put up by Rhode, Justin and Valen, the three Earthmages specializing in defense.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The first layer of walls immediately collapsed. Aleyria could see the pink mecha and the three red mechas smashing into the second layer and obliterating it within seconds. They started to attack the third layer.

The rest of their troops were still attacking the second layer.

Suddenly, sharp spikes and earth golems shot up from the ground within the mecha formation and attacked the mechas. A fearsome melee ensured as the mechas halted their attack on the defensive layers and engaged the golems.

GROAAAAA!! GROOAAAAAA!!

Unearthly moans could be heard as countless giant golems began swinging their massive arms in deadly attacks on the mechas. More often than not, these clumsy swings missed their targets. And for the ones that hit, the mecha's anti-magic shields were able to neutralize most of the damage.

"Hold." Aleyria commanded as she stared intently at the ongoing melee. The mechas were still very much overpowering the golems and avoiding most of the spikes. But Aleyria was sure that the tide would turn. Plus, she was also waiting for the four lead mechas to create more distance between them and the rest of the mechas first.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!

Powerful energy beams ripped golems apart and powerful punches and kicks launched by the mechas did the same. But the golems continued to rise from the ground as the defensive mages gave their all.

"The mages should be running out of energy soon." Isabella warned Aleyria. "Maybe two more golem summons each. Three tops."

Aleyria nodded in acknowledgement, still staring at the melee.

Here and there, she began to notice that the golems were beginning to deal more and more damage to the mechas. The time was almost at hand.

Finally, what she was waiting for finally happened.

BAM!!

A golem's massive fist burst through an anti-magic shield and smashed into a mecha!

The mecha flew backwards from the impact and crashed into a golem.

BOOM!!

The golem staggered forward a little bit before turning around and smashing down viciously with both fists.

BAAMM!!!!

One mecha down.

"Perfect! Ready. On my mark. Three… Two… One… Stage 1, attack!" Aleyria shouted.

Thick but strangely flexible vines burst out of the ground suddenly and began to entwine themselves on the feet and the bodies of all the mechas. Many vines failed to penetrate the mechas' anti-magic shields, but some of the more powerful ones managed to do so.

The mechas responded very quickly and fired powerful bursts of energy beams at these vines, disintegrating the vines as soon as they managed to break through their shields.

The mechas were still holding out very strongly, but here and there, mechas had begun to succumb to the golems.

BAM! BAMMM!!!

Two more mechas bit the dust.

"STAGE 2, ATTACK!" Aleyria shouted once more, mere seconds after her first command.

A volley of powerful ice magic erupted from both patches of trees and the temperature around the mechas plummeted. Ice spears, ice blades and other projectiles of all kinds rained down upon the battlefield.

Immediately, the mechas split into two and around a thousand mechas turned around and charged out towards the direction of Aleyria's ambush. The first group continued to fight against the golems and the vines.

"They're actually charging out towards us! They must have an excellent commander" Isabella grunted.

"STAGE 3, ALL OUT ATTACK!" Aleyria shouted. She began to weave her own advanced space magic and within seconds, tens of spatial rips began to appear.

AWOOOOOOO!!!!!!! AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

A giant ice wolf stepped out of the largest spatial rip. It stood almost forty meters tall and sixty meters long, around half the height of the mechas. However, it was vastly different from the usual ice elemental that Aleyria summoned.

A dark aura emanated strongly from the ice wolf and its eyes were fully black. It was a mixed breed.

A Dark Ice Elemental.

ROAAARRR!!!

Immediately, hundreds of similar but slightly smaller wolves leapt out of the spatial rips and charged out to meet the mechas.

A dark and depressing aura fell upon the mechas. With their anti-magic shields almost depleted and almost no experience at all fighting against such advanced magic, the thousand mechas began to be influenced by the wolves' dark magic.

Their movements became sluggish, and their attacks turned half-hearted.

BAAMM!! BAMMM!! BAMMM!!!

The wolves smashed into the thousand mechas and began wreaking absolute havoc. Each slash by the much smaller wolves seemed to cause their very much weakened anti-magic shields to melt and vaporize. And very soon, the mechas were deprived of their life-saving anti-magic shields.

Thousands of ice projectiles also continued to rain down upon them as the mages pressed on their attack. However, they were completely superfluous. The wolves savagely turned all the mechas into piles of scrap metal within a few short minutes.

"Very impressive, Princess Aleyria." Isabella commented in surprise as she watched the wolves speed away towards the remaining two thousand mechas.

They had agreed on the course of attack previously, and as usual, Isabella was skeptical. ALL mages to act in support of Aleyria's ice elementals? Foolishness! And arrogance too! How powerful can ice wolves be?

But Aleyria was adamant in that, and so Isabella had reluctantly agreed. And boy, was she glad she did.

*-*-*-*-*

"Princess Jenny, we are unable to hold! The enemy is too strong! Our rear line has collapsed, our anti-magic shields are low in power, and hundreds of demon wolves are upon us! They are very powerful, our mechas are no match against them! What are your orders?

…

Princess Jenny! What are your orders?!

Princess Jenny!!

AH DAMN IT, ALL MECHAS, RETREAT! I REPEAT! ALL MECHAS, RE- AHHHHH!!!"