Chapter 138 - Old Gamblers

"Ah. Two pronged attack. I doubt it would do much agai- Ah, Your Majesty, that's just not fair." Blackfire shook his head helplessly once more when he finally noticed a large monstrosity made up of countless skeletons rise up from the ground, glowing with all sorts of colours. A large pair of wings featured rather prominently on its back.

"Giant Skeleton Mage!" Alexander grinned. "It's pretty powerful. I dare say that even you will have a little bit of trouble dealing with it. Like it?"

"It would be a good ally to have, and a troublesome enemy." Blackfire smiled, feeling quite sympathetic for the two girls. "But as for me having trouble dealing with it? I believe that you're very much mistaken, Your Majesty."

"Really? How quickly do you reckon you'll take to defeat the Giant Skeleton Mage?" Alexander asked curiously.

"Two moves. Three, tops." Blackfire gave a modest estimation.

"Hmmmm. Either I am severely underestimating your attack power or you're underestimating my Giant Skeleton Mage's durability. Either way, I am pretty interested to find out. Let's have a go later." Alexander grinned.

"As you wish, Your Majesty. I believe that it is time you truly understand the might of Dragons as well." Blackfire bowed deeply. 

"Alright, I think this should be enough for the first surprise test." Alexander decided. "Go and do your worst." Alexander instructed his undead. 

As one, all of the undead gave out creepy roars and accelerated their charge towards the encampment. 

A literal wave of darkness with countless colourful and blinking auras denoting their prowess over the elements make for a very dreadful sight. Their vast aura of undeath surged towards the encampment.

However, Wyverns do not scare easily and the mages paired with each Wyvern were no pushovers either. They quickly and very professionally spurred their Wyverns into formation and awaited instructions from their esteemed generals. Powerful guttural Wyvern roars not one bit weaker than theirs answered the creepy cries of the undead. Along with it, a powerful elemental aura collided with the aura of undeath released by the black wave of undead monsters. 

The battle of auras were evenly matched.

Within seconds, the real battle was joined. 

*-*-*-*-*-*

"ENEMY ATTACK!!" The sentry screamed in utter panic. His voice was magically magnified thousands of times over, and thus resounded throughout the entire encampment. Within seconds, Liz'An and Shira rose to the skies to survey the situation with their own eyes. 

"Land based undead. They pose no threat to us." Shira concluded. "But we cannot let them enter the city. It would be a massacre."

"We have to kill them all here." Liz'An agreed. "Where's Dari?" She looked around worriedly. 

"She'll be fine." Shira said confidently. "She may be depressed, but she'll probably be able to take out half of the enemy's forces by herself. If I'm not concerned about training up our troops, I'll probably do that as well."

Liz'An nodded. "Against massed undead, let's go with 'Obstacle Course'."

"Sure!" Shira said brightly. "Let my regiment go first. You can command Dari's regiment and stay in reserve with yours. I like fighting against mass weaklings. Gives me a deep sense of satisfaction whenever my spells kill a thousand or two of them. Ah I envy the Fire Warriors, they'll have so much fun!" 

The Fire Warriors was, of course, the name that Shira had given her Regiment. They were not ALL warriors specializing in fire, but Shira had made it a point to recruit all the most powerful Firemages and insisted that ALL of the red Wyverns join her regiment. And as such, she now had slightly over six thousand red Wyverns under her command. 

"DEPLOY OBSTACLE COURSE!" Shira's voice thundered throughout the encampment. 

Immediately, a thousand Earthmages rose up into the air on their Wyverns and began their spellcasting. 

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The ground around the encampment immediately turned to mush and caused the charging undead to get stuck, slowing down their progress to a crawl. At the same time, countless slippering walls rose from the ground, creating impossibly tall obstacles for the undead. 

"READY THE FIRE BOMBS!" Shira shouted once more.

All around them, the remaining Wyvern Riders of Shira's Regiment slowly rose up into the sky in neat formations. They took on cuboid formations, twenty by twenty by five, allowing them to fire concentrated volleys spread over a large area. It was an incredibly fearsome sight. 

Shira squinted slightly as she studied the mass of undead wriggling and struggling in the soft, sticky mud, moaning and groaning their way slowly forward. "I've got fifty, sixty thousand stuck in the mud, maybe?" Shira wondered out loud. "And probably another hundred thousand or so still making their way here. Very strange indeed."

Liz'An nodded her head in agreement. All in all, the enemy attack was rather weak, considering how powerful they were at that moment. With King Alexander, Princess Aleyria, Flamewing and Blackfire around, cleaning up these undead wouldn't even take any one of them more than a minute. 

"This is probably just the first wave. Stay vigilant. I've already send the distress signal. We should have reinforcements joining us very soon." Liz'An cautioned Shira. 

"Let's finish this quickly then." Shira unleashed a massive fireball and sent it streaking towards the mass of undead still struggling to deal with the raised walls. Some have already started to climb, while others tried to make their way around it. 

Shira's massive fireball served as an attack signal to her regiment as well. 

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSHHH!!!!!!!

Immediately, thousands of fireballs in all sizes and colours came to be and lit up the night sky like so many miniature suns. 

BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!

The fireballs laid waste to the vanguard of the undead army, disintegrating them into a distant memory. 

However, before she could even smirk, a sharp cry from Liz'An caused her to frown lightly.

"Fliers!" Liz'An shouted. "Wind Warriors! Anti-air barrage! Fire at will! Giant Golems, standby!" 

Immediately, the mages in Liz'An's regiment released their spells. Liz'An's regiment was totally unlike Shira's and was not asked to stick to a single element. On the contrary, Liz'An asked them to always cast their strongest and most efficient spell, whatever that was. And so, countless ice spears, fireballs, lightning bolts, razor-bladed plants and wind blades made their way towards the flying undead. 

BOOM! BAM! SHREDDDD!! 

The first batch of fliers were totally outnumbered by the number of mages in Liz'An's regiment, so they were completely obliterated. However, they were merely the first batch of many, many batches. 

"More fliers!" Liz'An shouted. Her eyes were glowing slightly red as she enhanced her eyesight with a little trick. 

"WHAT IN ALL THE GOD'S NAME IS THAT?!" Shira shouted loudly, pointing at an utterly massive and disgusting  skeleton with many glowing spheres around its many hands flying in a stately manner behind several thousand large but smaller monsters towards them. 

"I don't think we can afford to hold back now. That thing can kill us all easily as we wait for reinforcements to arrive!" Liz'An exclaimed worriedly. 

"WATCH OUT! It can blink!!" Shira shouted in horror as the massive monster suddenly disappeared from their sight. 

True enough, the giant monster suddenly appeared mere meters away from them!

Wywy gave a powerful roar of defiance and unleashed a powerful barrage of wind blades at it. At the same time, Liz'An, Shira and Firestorm also hurriedly casted their strongest spells at it.

BOOM!!! 

Grooooooooooaaaaaaaahhhh!!

A mournful moan sounded from the giant skeleton. However, there was nothing mournful about the fearsome green mist which it released.

"POISON!" Liz'An shouted. "Shira! Command the troops. Let me deal with this! My wind element is effective against its poison!"

"Okay!" Shira instantly agreed. She peeled off from the attack after sending a maximum compressed fireball towards it. 

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Liz'An versus Giant Skeleton Mage. What do you think, old man?" Alexander glanced at Dubaza who had just joined them. Alexander had spotted him mobilizing and had immediately informed him of the true nature of the situation. 

"Fifteen moves, Your Majesty." Dubaza said contemplatively.

"Fifteen?!" Alexander said in surprise. "Aren't you overestimating that little troll a little bit too much?" 

"Liz'An is by far the strongest of the three girls, Your Majesty. Her power had skyrocketed beyond belief after consuming the Water Goddess. In fact, I do not think that she would have any problems dealing with two, or even three of the Giant Skeleton Monsters." Dubaza looked at Alexander with a slight smile on his face. 

"Mage. It's Giant Skeleton Mage." Alexander said in mild irritation. "Dare to put some money behind your wild claim, old man?"

"I would bet my one year's salary on Liz'An's victory within fifteen moves, Your Majesty." Dubaza's smile grew wider. "In fact, I would bet my ten year's salary on Liz'An's victory over three such Giant Skeleton Monsters."

"Excellent! I will triple whatever you placed if you're right." Alexander said. "Let me just create two mor-"

"Ehm." Blackfire coughed lightly. 

"What? You want in on the action too?" Alexander said irritably. 

"Ah, now that you mention it. I believe that I would like to put up ten Planet Grade treasures on Liz'An's victory.." Blackfire said smoothly.