Alexander The Great Mage

"Damn." Alexander said softly. "We forgot about my horse." It was still standing there, pawing the ground nervously. The departure of its \'lesser\' brothers and sisters did not faze him one bit. His master had ordered him to stand there, and by the Gods, he would do it.

"That demon horse would not survive the higher banshees\' attack." Aleyria said.

"Send me there. I\'ll bring him to us." Alexander said urgently.

Aleyria hesitated for a moment before nodding. Alexander had warned them that plans would change. She did not expect it to change so quickly.

She grabbed Alexander\'s arm and immediately, they teleported atop the demon horse.

By then, the banshee\'s wail had reached the peak of humanly-tolerable sound levels.

Alexander gasped in pain. His sight began to swim as visions began to appear in his mind. Thankfully Aleyria had followed him there. She immediately casted a sound barrier around them. A yellow elemental barrier also shimmered into being.

Alexander bit his lip viciously, using the pain to jar him awake from the forming hallucinations. It worked.

There was no time to teleport back to the copse, the banshees were already upon them.

The banshees were hideous floating creatures which floated above the ground. They had pale skin, streaming long red hair with red eyes and bloody fangs, as well as tattered green robes. Ten of them were flying at extremely high speed towards them. Their claws were outstretched and mouths open wide.

Thankfully the sound barrier held, so Alexander couldn\'t hear a thing.

BAM!!

The ten banshees smashed into the yellow barrier at high speed!

"RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!" The banshees howled and wailed as they rebounded from the barrier.

At this moment, Aleyria and her three bodyguards sprung the traps they had planted earlier.

BO-BO-BOOMMM!! The traps exploded with great power one after the other.

"RIIIIIII!!" The banshees shrieked as the world around them turned into a fiery purgatory.

They quickly retreated to avoid the fire. Ten banshees had launched the first attack, but only five survived to retreat. But the five that survived were now angry beyond reason.

BAMM!!

They slammed into the barrier once more after regrouping a slight distance away.

BAMM!!

They attacked relentlessly, slamming into the barrier again and again and again. Apparently these banshees were as stubborn and determined as they were ugly and deformed.

"Their weakness is fire. Aleyria should be able to kill them easily." Buccephalas said.

Alexander glanced at Aleyria. She was already casting a spell. And by the looks of it, it was her favorite heavy duty spell. Summon Fire Elemental.

"She\'s actually extremely powerful. Even in Symphonia, as an Empire Universe, a mage capable of summoning Elementals will be highly regarded. Especially one as young as her with so much room for growth." Buccephalas commented. "Of course, with her current power level, she would merely be a second rate mage."

"Second rate mage?" Alexander frowned. "Isn\'t White the highest level of Arcane Power?"

"It is. But in Symphonia, White Archmages have found a new method to reach much higher levels of power."

"What method?"

"Beast Contracts. I\'ll explain later, you better focus on staying alive." Buccephalas warned.

BAM! The yellow barrier rippled and grew slightly dimmer. The banshee attacks were starting to have an effect on the barrier.

Alexander looked back to the copse and saw that the three bodyguards were already upon their horses and galloping towards them as fast as they could. Shira and Liz\'An\'s spells were already blitzing towards the incoming cavalry.

Kan-Dari had successfully completed the first phase of her task, which was to wall up the cavalry. In fact, she had successfully completed the first phase of BOTH her tasks, since she had immediately raised a massive wall that seemed to stretch out endlessly from the left and right, effectively putting the mind-controlled people out of the battle.

The only unknown factor was the Red Robed Mayor.

GROOOAAARR!! A humongous Fire Elemental in the form of a flaming dragon roared mightily and started to clamber out of the portal. Aleyria\'s spell was finally finished.

Immediately, an intense and fiery magical pressure fell upon the area near the dragon\'s head and upper body which was already out of the portal. The temperature began to climb as the very air itself combusted around it.

The banshees shrieked and retreated slightly. But unfortunately for them, they retreated right into the spells of three Red Archmages in full fury.

Shira\'s wave of fire was force fed into Liz\'An\'s seemingly endless series of tornadoes, forming deadly flame tornadoes which ripped into the banshees with furious abandon.

Liz\'An focused her tornadoes around one banshee which began to wail a different sort of wail. Desperate, painful wails which very quickly faded and disappeared.

Kan-Dari summoned barriers around them and around Aleyria and Alexander. Although her red barriers could only withstand the banshee\'s desperate shrieks and wails for a few seconds, it was a welcome addition to the otherwise defenseless trio and a quickly-weakening yellow barrier which Aleyria had hastily put up earlier.

The Fire Elemental finally got its giant body out of the portal. The fiery pressure it gave out intensified even further. Even Aleyria\'s barrier began to dim significantly.

Unlike the other Fire Elementals Alyeria had summoned before, this particular one did not go berserk. Instead, it turned its giant head and glared at Aleyria. "You were the one who had been summoning my underlings?" A regal and majestic male voice sounded in Aleyria\'s mind.

"Yes." Aleyria calmly stared back at the giant dragon, much like a little mouse staring back at a full grown lion. She had weaved a particularly powerful control spell earlier and had it latch on to the strongest Fire Elemental she could reach. Apparently she had succeeded in summoning this Higher Fire Elemental.

"We will have an accounting of your actions after this." The voice sounded once more.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The banshees shrieked in anger and fear. One from their number had died, and more would probably follow. They had to attack!

They immediately identified the Higher Fire Elemental as the biggest threat and swarmed it, striking and slashing with their sharp claws.

GRAAAAAORRR!! The Higher Fire Elemental roared again and bit down hard at a banshee that wandered too close to its gaping maw.

The banshee\'s wail was suddenly cut short as its unholy life energy was snuffed out in an instant.

GRAAAAAAA!! A thick and highly concentrated pillar of fire blasted out from the Higher Fire Elemental\'s draconic maw and hit another banshee full in its body. The banshee disintegrated without a trace.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

"More banshees!" Buccephalas gasped.

Indeed, another bunch of banshees were approaching. They couldn\'t see them because of Kan-Dari\'s massive wall which was blocking the crazed people still screaming and attacking the earthen wall. But they could hear them clearly. This time, there were more of them. Many, many more.

GRAAAAAAAAAOOORR!! The Higher Fire Elemental bellowed in response. It spread its wings, intending to take to the skies and battle the incoming banshees.

However, a single command from Aleyria stilled his actions. She needed the Higher Fire Elemental near Alexander to protect him just in case the banshees launch another attack from a different direction.

"Protect him at all costs." Aleyria said to the glaring Higher Fire Elemental while pointing at Alexander.

The dragon spread its wings to the full and flapped it furiously as it roared yet again. It stomped down in anger at being commanded and at being unable to resist the command.

It released another fire blast into the sky which ripped into the final banshee and disintegrated it instantly.

Aleyria beckoned to her guards and quickly teleported them into her barrier. They had finally regrouped. But they knew that they were in for the fight of their lives.

Aleyria quickly closed her eyes and wove a series of complex spells which twisted and weaved themselves into a solid white barrier which seemed sturdy enough to withstand the sky falling.

"This should give us some time." Aleyria said rather breathlessly. Apparently the barrier she just casted took quite a bit out of her.

"Mistress, what should we do now?" Shira asked in a panicked voice.

Aleyria looked at Alexander expectantly.

"Any ideas? If not we\'ll have to brute force our way out of this predicament." She said.

"We\'ll have to decide quickly. Look, near their back line.\' Kan-Dari pointed into the rapidly approaching wave of banshees.

At that, everyone turned and focused on where Kan-Dari was pointing.

The banshees had crested the wall that Kan-Dari had raised and were rapidly closing the distance between them. Behind the few hundred strong banshees, a deeply ominous figure could be seen. It was much larger than its peers, and a dreadful aura of death which they could feel even through the distance radiated strongly from it.

Aleyria glanced at Alexander. She had faith in him.

"We can\'t fight them all at once." Alexander said. "Even if we could, I wouldn\'t want to risk it."

Aleyria nodded. She was confident that she could kill them all. But a single misstep would mean certain death to her or the entire team. It would be better if Alexander had a sure-fire plan.

"The only safe bet for us is to go all out in a sudden attack and kill their leader.. That lead banshee must die instantly if we are to have a chance of survival. If we allow it to attack us, we migh- WAIT!!"