全城危机

Chapter 6

"Well?" Shriak demanded. "Out with it. Why have you come?"

"Shriak, my prickly friend. We\'ve met quite a few times already. Surely you can treat me better than this?" The hooded figure pushed back his hood, revealing a smiling handsome face and a head full of shocking blue hair.

"Velanos, esteemed Minister of Agriculture, son of Velaros, Minister of Foreign Relations. Tell me why you\'re here before I feed you to my borgs." Shriak growled.

Velanos laughed uproariously. "Those cute little puppies? You\'d need more than a thousand of them to even get me warmed up. But enough with the threats, Commander. I am here on your King\'s behest. The deed is done. You have orders to invade Rin-Turah within the week. Here."

Velanos threw a scroll at Shriak which he caught with his left claw, his gaze never once leaving Velanos.

"Your Royal Decree. Remember, within the week. Do NOT be late." With that, Velanos pulled his hood back on and left the tent.

Shriak opened the scroll and found his King\'s orders exactly as Velanos had said.

Rin-Turah\'s new King had been fatally poisoned. Zan will mobilize its entire army of 5 regiments and invade Rin-Turah within the week. Shriak will be in overall command. Succeed, or die trying.

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It was almost night. Aleyria and her 3 personal guards were hiding in a slight depression in the ground near the entrance of the Valgorn Valley. They were waiting for the borgs to return to the valley before beginning their hunt.

"Hmm?" Aleyria stiffened as she signalled her guards to be ready. Something was swiftly approaching from within the valley.

Although it was already dark, Aleyria\'s could still see everything as clearly as midday. Within moments, a hooded figure garbed fully in black appeared in her sight. He was galloping on a black horse, with verdant magical energy clearly surrounding him and providing his horse with endless strength to ride at full speed across long distances.

A tinge of blue could be seen from within the hood. Very soon, he disappeared in the darkness.

A blue-haired mage. Velanos!

Why had he come from within the valley?

Princess Aleyria felt her blood run cold. Traitor? She hesitated. Should she return now, or should she clear out the borgs first?

"Here they come!" Shiranui shouted in a low voice as she drew out her wand.

Kan-Dari and Liz\'An drew out their wands as well and waited for Aleyria\'s signal.

Borgs first it is then. Aleyria decided. She raised her wand and cast a detection spell. A weak ripple of magic, completely undetectable by borgs gushed out and covered almost a ten-kilometer square area in front of the Valgron Valley entrance.

"About a thousand borgs in three waves. And another ten thousand about a kilometer behind. Let\'s make this quick. Hold nothing back." Aleyria commanded.

Her 3 guards all looked at her in surprise. Princess Aleyria usually warned them to be cautious. Never go all out unless it was a life or death situation. "Hide your power!" was her favorite mantra.

"Let\'s go!" Aleyria sprang out of their hiding place and summoned one hundred earth golems. They sprang forth from the earth like colossal titans. Each golem was 10 meters tall and had 6 arms. They bellowed out deep, guttoral battle cries and thundered forward toward the borgs.

Aleyria waved her wand again and a magnificent earth golem rose up from beneath her, lifting her up as she stood upon its shoulder. At 20 meters tall with 8 gargantuan arms, it towered over overyone, humans, trolls and borgs alike. It raised its head proudly and gave out a massive roar that reverberated across the valley and the grassland. "Attack!" Aleyria cried out.

Behind her, Shiranui, Kan-Dari and Liz\'An had no time to dwell on their surprise as they quickly followed suit and began to cast their spells in well-practiced coordination.

Walls of fire appeared and was fanned into raging infernoes by wicked tornadoes that surged ravenously towards the borgs. Even more golems appeared in front of the three Archmages and formed an impenetrable golem wall that served as their defensive bulwark.

The borgs roared in mindless fury and charged.

The battle was joined.

From the very beginning it was destined to be a short and bloody one.

One Red Archmage had enough Arcane Power to single-handedly crush a thousand borgs. With three working in synergistic coordination? Ten thousand borgs could barely serve as a warm up.

Maybe if they had another ten thousand borgs, they could attack in waves and in that manner, tire out the Archmages. That would win them an opportunity to at least close the distance and get within close combat range.

Close combat range of the golems, of course. Probably a hundred or so of those emotionless titans, each with 6 arms that could easily one-hit a borg to death.

And so maybe, just maybe, if the Archmages had no hidden trump cards, they could use even more borg wave tactics to finally break past the unbreakable wall of golems and at long last! See the faces of the Archmages.

Smiling faces.

Because well, surprise!

As deadly as they were in long distance attacks, Archmages had the tendency to reserve their best spells for short range attacks.

Self-defence, you know. Poor mages, they were usually so weak physically. They definitely could not do without a powerful short range spell.

And so the borgs would once again have no choice but to employ even more borg wave tactics.

"Come brothers! Let us throw our bodies at the Archmages and overwhelm their powerful spells!" They would say. Howls of pain would ensue as borg after borg died to exploding fireballs, swirling windblades and earthen spikes.

"Yes! We\'re through! We can finally get our claws on the Archmages! "

Slash! More borgs would die as the Archmages cast their final spells.

"Die, Archmages, die!" Screamed the last borg alive. As the bodies of the three archmages crumpled lifelessly down upon the bloody earth, it howled out a long and passionate howl. Victory!

But alas! Only silence greeted that borg. Because all around him, his entire clan of twenty thousand lay soundlessly upon the ground. Most of them were in pieces. Very few had their bodies intact. And all of them very assuredly, dead.

With twenty thousand borgs, that could very well be the conclusion of the battle. Maybe.

Only in this case, they merely had around ten thousand borgs.

And more importantly in this case, the three Red Archmages were actually not the main death dealer.

It was Princess Aleyria, the White Archmage.

A full two power tiers above the Red Archmages, capable of dealing with hundreds of Red Archmages by herself.

Thus, it was a short battle.

Within the hour, Princess Aleyria and her 3 guards were already speeding back to the Royal Palace, leaving behind over ten thousand splattered borg corpses.

Her anger vented, Princess Aleyria had to rush home to deal with more important matters.

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