Chapter 103 - Clowns VS Mechas
"Not heavily armed warriors, but heavily armed drones and other possible traps." Barako replied emotionlessly.
Prince Jolto frowned. "We are launching a hundred thousand mechas, and the secondary cannons are on standby. I doubt the drones could threaten me. Personally, I'm thinking of using Lightning. It's much more powerful, and it's the fastest of the lot. It could definitely escape the drones if need be. What do you think?"
"I recommend Bulwark, Your Majesty." Barako replied.
Prince Jolto sighed. "Bulwark it is then." One of the most fearsome things about Barako was his incredible instinct. Somehow, he would know exactly when the enemy would strike, and when the enemy was feinting. And if his instincts were telling him to use Bulwark, then Bulwark it would be.
"What would you and your team use?" Prince Jolto asked before entering his mecha.
"Battlefuries." Barako replied quietly.
Prince Jolto grinned. "Sounds good to me." He quickly entered his mecha and closed the hatch.
HUMM!!!
His mecha powered up and its eyes glowed blue.
It was an impressive looking black coloured mecha designed like a fully armored ancient medieval knight. Its head was angular that came to a sharp point, and it carried a fearsome looking black sword on its right hand and a massive shield on its left.
Barako left the Prince's personal storage and entered an adjacent room where there are six sets of the exact mechas that were in the Prince's storage.
"Battlefuries." Barako instructed.
His men quickly dispersed and entered blood red mechas with dual swords instead of having one sword and one shield.
Within moments, Prince Jolto's black Bulwark exited the Starship. 6 red Battlefuries immediately surrounded him in a defensive formation.
The hundred thousand mechas had already assembled into neat formations and were standing by as they awaited the arrival of the "Queen Bee."
"Move out." Prince Jolto commanded.
Immediately, the hundred thousand mechas moved in unison. In groups of one hundred, the mechas began their concerted dive into Arcanus 26's atmosphere.
As expected, millions of drones began to mass and they swarmed towards the mechas rapidly. However, the secondary cannons of The Tiger Lord were charged and ready.
PEW! PEW! PEW!
Powerful energy beams ripped into the massing drones and disintegrated millions per hit. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The drones exploded before they could even deal a single point of damage to the mechas. There was no contest at all. Very soon, only scattered drones remained. The mechas simply fired their homing missiles and took care of them without breaking formation.
*-*-*-*-*
As soon as the mechas broke through the clouds, they were greeted with a literal wall of ice spears.
"ANTI-MAGIC SHIELDS!" The lead mecha shouted urgently into his communication device. The hundred mechas quickly released white barriers which surrounded each mecha completely. The thousands of ice spears which were speeding towards them immediately melted into nothing the moment they made contact with the white anti-magic shields.
With that, the hundred mechas pierced through the first line of defense safely.
The lead mecha, who was the commander of the mecha company, was about to breathe a sigh of relief when from the corner of his eyes, he spied a bright shining light.
"Fire energy detected. Engage evasive maneuvers immediately. Fire energy detected. Engage evasive maneuvers immediately" His mecha's AI blared out warnings repeatedly.
"Release anti-magic cannons!" He ordered.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! His company of mechas released their shoulder-mounted cannons and discharged hundreds of anti-magic shells at the incoming wave of fire.
As the anti-magic shells smashed into the wave of fire, the fire sputtered and were extinguished.
"So far so good." the commander thought to himself.
"Wind energy detected. Engage-"
CRACK!!!
An absolutely devastating frozen gale appeared out of nowhere. Without any warning, the atmosphere had plunged and it felt like they were in the middle of winter all of a sudden.
The frozen gale streaked upwards from the ground and smashed into the lead mecha. It ripped apart its weakened anti-magic barrier like paper and hit the mecha with such force that it was frozen solid within milliseconds.
BOOM!! BOOM!! CRACKKK! CRACKKK!!!!
The frozen gale smashed into the first mecha company viciously, causing many to lose control and smash into their comrades, and the rest to fall from the sky as they lost all power.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Thousands of mechas broke through the clouds all around them in a mighty air, their anti-magic shields shimmering lightly against the cold.
However, at their appearance, the frozen gale began to swirl into a massive super tornado.
*-*-*-*-*
"Ice spears are useless, don't waste your time summoning so many!" Shira nagged at Kan-Dari.
"What do you know? King Alexander said that metallic constructs are coming in large numbers. Of course we will need numbers to counter them as well!" Kan-Dari refuted Shira vehemently. "Look! My ice spears are solidly formed and extremely sharp! Metal or no metal, they will be pierced by my ice spears and die a horrible death! MWA HA HA!'
Kan-Dari continued to summon many, many ice spears eagerly. She had consumed a portion of the 'Water Goddess' fruit and had reached maximum affinity with water. She could now freely manipulate ice in large quantities with extreme ease.
Shira had consumed a portion of the Water Goddess too, but her favorite was still the fire element, so she didn't join Kan-Dari in her over-enthusiastic preparation against the incoming wave of mechas.
Instead, she summoned many, many globes of compressed fire energy and sent them into the sky like so many balloons, ready to explode and burn the invaders to crisp.
"A wall of ice, and a literal minefield of fire bombs against thousands of, what did he call them? Mechas with anti-magic shields. What do you think? Should I stop them?" Alexander mused.
"Oh let them be. The more they exert themselves, the more impact they will get when they realize that their random efforts were useless." Flamewing replied wisely.
"Hmmm." Alexander nodded in agreement as he fondly stroked Fluff-fluff's neck. She purred happily in Alexander's arms. "What alternative do you have in mind?"
"Oh, I don't really have alternatives." Flamewing said casually.
"But you just said random efforts are useless…" Alexander pointed out.
"I said THEIR random efforts are useless. Weaklings do not have the luxury of randomly choosing a plan and implementing it without working hard to find out about their enemy. The strong, however, can simply relax and wipe out the enemy without breaking a sweat." Flamewing said arrogantly.
Alexander laughed. "Now this is the Flamewing I know."
"Plus, with that lucky cat, I don't think we need to plan any alternatives." Flamewing said with a giggle.
Alexander nodded in full agreement.
With Fluff-fluff back in the picture, Alexander could feel his luck blowing up into epic proportions. He had managed to quickly get one of the battlecruisers to surrender by simply blowing up the battlecruiser next to it. They had willingly opened their hatch and allowed Alexander entry. He had then gained the eager cooperation of the battlecruiser captain who had spilled the beans on almost everything Alexander needed.
Access codes? Here you go.
Combat strength? Here, look at this chart.
Plans? Here.
Defensive protocol? It's here somewhere… Ah here you go!
What else do you need? Ok I'll be here if you need anything!
It was incredible. Alexander had never met with a more cooperative captive in his life. And it was not just the captain too. The ENTIRE battlecruiser seemed to be of one mind and spirit with the captain. They meekly obeyed Alexander's every command and allowed themselves to be locked into the main hall. Only a skeleton crew remained on the bridge to keep the battlecruiser running.
And so, Alexander had known the instant the command for the Queen Bee was given. In the spirit of training up the next generation to be experienced generals and capable subordinates, Alexander had immediately sent for the three girls to accompany him in defending against the incoming mechas.
Kan-Dari and Shira had enthusiastically thrown themselves into preparing the most horrific elemental defense the entire world had ever seen. Judging by the number of energy that went into preparing the ice spears and fire bombs, Alexander suspected that they had injected enough to level the City of Rin ten times over if all of it were to be released on the city.
"Liz'An, why aren't you joining your best friends in their mad scramble to create a death trap for our enemies?" Alexander asked her with a smile.
"Ah, yes about that, Your Majesty. I think I should hold myself in reserve, just in case Shira's and Kan-Dari's traps fail. Not that I am pessimistic about their efforts. I'm sure they will kill off a huge chunk of the enemy. But just in the case that their efforts fail to contain the enemy, I would be able to respond with my strength intact." Liz'An explained.
Alexander's smile grew wider at Liz'An's explanation. She truly was a gem!
"Excellent idea." Alexander praised her warmly. "You do that."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Liz'An bowed.
And so, Alexander had laid down on Flamewing's back and allowed himself to sit back, relax and enjoy the upcoming show.. And as it turned out, he was more than entertained.