Alexander The Great Mage

"That's mighty generous of you, Blackfire." Aleyria said with a smile, appearing suddenly next to them. "Isn't this worth a lot of money?"

"It's nothing compared to what you're doing for us, Princess. Besides, King Alexander owes me quite a bit of Planetary Treasures." Blackfire said with a laugh.

Aleyria nodded and wisely refrained from asking how Alexander managed to owe him so many treasures.

"EHM! HAHAHA Yes yes! We're doing a lot for the realm, it's all good, Aleyria, don't worry!" Alexander laughed loudly. "Thank you very much for your generosity, Blackfire!"

Blackfire rolled his eyes internally in his mind while nodding gracefully. "Should I continue with my story?"

"Please do." Aleyria replied as she took her position beside Alexander.. "The night is still young and you're proving to be an excellent storyteller!"

"Very well. I will continue."

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

After we destroyed our first AAR, the mood of the mercenary group lightened up considerably.

The effect was threefold.

First, my regiment and I had managed to put to rest the worries that stemmed from all sorts of rumours that we heard in the taverns and bars we frequented.

Additionally, it also boosted Aragosh Dragonos's prestige, as it was he who accurately predicted my victory with a hundred percent certainty.

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Finally, although we were brashly confident that we were one of the top mercenary groups in Symphonia previously, and were willing to get into brawls with people claiming otherwise, it wasn't until that moment that we truly and completely believed it.

We were second in Symphonia, and anybody who disagrees with that can either shut up or speak up and get beaten within an inch of death's door.

We quickly reached the Symphonian base planet and submitted our report and evidence for our very first chunk of merits!

Completely annihilating an AAR - one thousand organizational merits.

For my contribution as the leading regimental commander to achieve that feat - one thousand personal merits.

Each of my battalion commanders got a hundred merits. While my troops received a range of five to fifty merits.

It was an incredible amount. Ten Eternal Battlefield merits could be traded for one Planetary Treasure! I basically got a hundred Planetary Treasure for half a day's work.

Everybody in the mercenary camp cheered up completely when they saw how much I got. We couldn't wait to engage the next AAR in battle! All the regimental commanders were submitting requests to Aragosh Dragonos to be the next regiment to enter battle against the AARs.

Our morale hit an all time high!

Aragosh Dragonos immediately set off from the Symphonian base planet after resupplying and dived deep into the seventh solar system. He had filled each ship with enough resources to last us a few years. Apparently he was determined to stay as close as he could to the special mining planet to increase our chances of awakening a 'Shora Crystal Hound'.

Hanging out at the edge of the seventh solar system was an extremely common idea and was shared by many leaders. And as such, we quickly came across a few other organizations. Two, in fact. One Symphonian and one Haran.

An incredible scene was taking place as we halted our advance to spectate.

Hundreds of thousands of Haran mechas were fighting against an equal number of Symphonian mechas.

As you can imagine, the Symphonians were taking an absolutely huge and one sided beating.

"Let's take them on!" A young and hot-blooded regimental commander eagerly shouted into the leader's communication group.

A murmur of agreement sounded from a few young leaders as well.

Yerra Draco sighed and spoke up.

"What do you think will happen if we join the battle, and the other Symphonian forces beat a full retreat?"

"Oh. That's true. I didn't think of that." The young and hot-blooded regimental commander said sheepishly. "What could we do then? Simply watching our faction get slaughtered like this is really hard to do!"

"Of course we're doing something." Aragosh Dragonos said in an as-a-matter-of-fact voice. "Zas is currently negotiating with them the conditions of our entry into the battle. He should be done soon. In fact… Ah here he is. Zas, tell us some good news."

"They're willing to give up all of their merits for this battle for our involvement. In addition, the leaders are willing to ah, visit, our main ship and do their commanding from there." Zas reported.

"Excellent!" Aragosh Dragonosh said evenly. "All regiments, Eagle Battle Formation. We will engage as soon as their leaders reach us and their identities are confirmed."

Eagle Battle Formation is a beautiful creation by Aragosh Dragonos.

He named it because of the initial formation which resembles an eagle. The left and right flanks would comprise of eight defensive regiments each and would curl outwards towards the enemy. There would be two regiments placed in reserve in each flank.

The flanks were actually nothing more than funnels. Each flank regiment would engage with a large number of the enemy and promptly retreat towards the center, while another regiment would swoop down to take their place once the first regiment had retreated.

This undulating movement of the regiments is a little bit like the flapping of an eagle's wings.

The center would be where the head and the sharp claws of the eagle will be. Our elite dragon regiment would serve as the eagle's beak and attack the enemy from above, while the other four heavy regiments would serve as the eagle's claws and smash the enemy from below.

The center is basically the meat grinder.

This formation works because of the absolute disparity of strength between a normal regiment and our elite and heavy regiments.

Hmm? A heavy regiment consists of solely heavy mechas. It is slow, but packs an incredible punch.

​ It is a beautiful formation that only works with our mercenary group. With Aragosh Dragonos, Yerra Draco, Rona Rhythmos and Zas holding the center, it was like a ship having a million kilogram anchor in the middle of a storm. They were absolutely unmovable and everything thrown their way would be reduced to nothing very, very quickly.

That battle was the first huge battle that involved every unit in our mercenary group, and I believe we performed admirably.

Sure, there were hot-headed regimental commanders who overstayed in their positions instead of beating an ordered retreat towards the center. But the flank reserve regiments, which were led by seasoned and senior members of the mercenary group, always moved in at the right time and helped these young commanders out.

As you know, casualties were unavoidable in battle. But excellent strategies and tactics can do so much to minimize that. And that battle truly opened my eyes to that fact.

Still, a formation could not hope to deal with all the crazy ideas that the enemy field commanders might have, and that battle too proved that while excellent strategies and tactics were paramount, having field commanders who are resourceful and who are able to react instantly was as, if not more, important than good strategies and tactics.

I was one of the defensive regiments assigned to the left flank and I was placed at its far end. We approached the battle from behind the original Symphonian regiments and Aragosh Dragonos had them form up into two beyond both our flanks to avoid our flanks from getting flanked. That was basically their entire job.

However, somehow, the enemy's right flank (which is our left, where I was) was much stronger than the rest. Their mechas displayed a much higher level of skill and their commander too was an excellent one.

They had never seen a formation like ours, but their commander apparently thought that he'd be damned if he were to do exactly what the formation expected him to do. So he led his extremely skilled regiment of mechas and went straight to circle around us.

His five thousand near-heavy mechas smashed into the original Symphonian regiments with their guns blazing and shredded those weak good-for-nothings to pieces. They didn't even last five minutes.

I quickly turned my regiment to face them, all the while signalling to our two reserve regiments that I needed help.

But to my horror, the two reserve regiments were already engaged in battle. They were helping out two regiments who had somehow managed to get themselves almost surrounded.

I was alone. Damn it!

I had a thousand heavy mechas, four thousand medium mechas and four thousand light mechas. My light mechas' attacks had proven to be highly ineffective against the Haran Mechas. There was no need to mention how they would fare once they got within range of the Harans.

My medium mechas had proven to be nothing more than armored target practice. Only my heavy mechas could stand their ground and fight. But being outnumbered five to one, they wouldn't last very long.

"Defensive formations!" I roared. Whatever happened, I would be damned if I despaired without giving them a good fight. "Commanders, your strongest barriers please!"

"No." A soft voice sounded in my head. It was Rona! "Send your units to an all out attack.. Now."