Alexander the Great Mage

"King Aloxandros was extremely clear in his commands." Shira said to Dubaza hotly. She glared at Dubaza who had indirectly caused her to fall down. "Take Liz'An's Wyvern and build a Wyvern Regiment using the late generation Wyverns! Are you thinking of disobeying a direct command from the King?"

Dubaza sighed deeply. He looked Shira in the eye and said, "No, child. There is no thought of disobeying his orders within me. It's just…"

"Just what?" Shira pressed on.

Dubaza sighed again. All the bluster left him then, and he seemed really old and tired. 

"War is coming, child."

"War will come whether or not we build this Wyvern Regiment." Shira stubbornly retorted.

Dubaza looked at Shira wordlessly. She was so very young, and totally ignorant of the horrors and pain that war would bring. 

He then turned to look at the Forest of Elgar which was just ahead of them. Faint howls and roars could be heard coming from within. The Forest of Elgar was teeming so full of life that it was almost bursting at the seams. There were a lot of Wyverns there. 

Dubaza sighed again one final time before slowly clenching his fist. Very visibly, the tiredness that was so palpable suddenly disappeared. 

"Indeed it will." He murmured. "And this time, we will win."

In his mind, the crazy, rabid dog had finally grown tired of barking at the large bear and had finally attacked it. It leapt for the bear's jugular with surprising agility and ferocity. However, the rabid dog was not alone. Behind him was another rabid dog who made the same leap towards the roaring bear. 

That second rabid dog was old and scarred. 

And it was going all in. 

*-*-*-*-*

Liz'An sat atop her Contract Beast, the Wyvern she had fondly named Wywy. Dubaza was seated behind her and they were flying above the Forest of Elgar. It was actually Wywy's home, and it ruled a relatively large portion of the forest. However, it was nothing compared to the rest of the Forest of Elgar which was held firmly in the control of a much larger and stronger 3rd generation Wyvern. It was also the one controlling most of the 4th, 5th and 6th generation Wyverns. 

Based on what she could discover after communication with Wywy, Liz'An concluded that the other Wyvern was in fact her elder brother. They were both born from the same 2nd generation Wyvern who somehow mated with a giant demon ape. And astoundingly, there were many more Wyverns than they had predicted. Possibly more than twenty thousand of them.

As a third generation Wyvern, Wywy was still extremely intelligent, capable of comprehending difficult concepts. Although it was nowhere near as smart as a human being, elf, or even trolls, as it has gone through 2 generations worth of intelligence dilution with lesser beasts, it was still more than capable of estimating numbers. Thankfully the dragon had chosen a giant demon ape, which was still rather intelligent itself, as a mate.

Liz'An shuddered at the thought of how that disturbing union happened. She quickly banished such harrowing thoughts from her mind and focused on the mission at hand. 

The team had finally decided on a course of action after much discussion. 

Liz'An and Dubaza would first locate Wywy's elder brother, and then subdue it. Once the two 3rd generation Wyverns, who were effectively the overlords of the entire Forest of Elgar, were theirs, they would then bully the 4th, 5th and 6th generation Wyverns into signing contracts with the rest of the mages from Rin-Turah. 

That was the general plan, anyway. The most crucial first step would be subduing Wywy's giant brother. Shira and Kan-Dari had argued for the entire squad of Mages which Dubaza had brought along with him to Zan to go on the mission. But Dubaza had firmly rejected their arguments. Just him alone would be enough. He would need Liz'An and the Wyvern to bring him there, of course, but apart from the two of them, there would be no need for other mages to tag along.

"I may be old, but not so old that I could not handle a mere 3rd generation Wyvern." He had proclaimed. It was, of course, greeted with much derision from Wywy who snorted and belched out quite a bit of fire at Dubaza, much to Liz'An's great chagrin.

Dubaza had simply looked at the fire before it sizzled and disappeared without a trace. 

Liz'An, Kan-Dari and Shira were stunned. They had never seen magic like that before. Even the Wyvern had narrowed its eyes and glared at Dubaza warily. The old man was really weird, and as much as she hated to admit it, apparently very powerful as well. Powerful enough to deal with her.

And so Dubaza had left with Liz'An soon after the meeting. 

"Erm, Sir Dubaza…" Liz'An began.

"Just call me Dubaza." Dubaza interrupted lazily. He was seated cross-legged a short distance away from Liz'An. Even at the high speed at which they were flying, Dubaza was strangely untouched by the wind and sat very comfortably on Wywy's scaled back. Liz'An had to work very creatively to create a wind barrier that could withstand the full force of the wind blowing at her. 

"Ah yes, of course. Dubaza. May I know what magic is your specialty? We've always thought it was the extremely rare lightning element. But the skill you used just now to counter Wywy's fire doesn't seem to be lightning…" Liz'An asked very curiously. 

Dubaza chuckled at the innocence of Liz'An's question. It was quite a taboo to ask for another mage's specialty, as each mage had various secrets that they would not reveal. This was to avoid letting potential enemies know their trump cards and create a counter for it. 

And to avoid having to lie to each other, the mages had an unspoken rule that they were not to ask each other what their strengths and specialties were. Let their actions and battle record speak about that, but they would never speak of it. 

Apparently this little girl had no idea. However Dubaza did not take offence at that. 

He was there when Liz'An joined the Royal Palace as a cute little troll with a monstrous capacity for magic. He was there when she was presented to the masses as a Blue, then Red Archmage. He was also there when they made her Aleyria's personal guard. He knew there wasn't a shred of malice within her. 

So despite the inappropriateness of her question, Dubaza still smiled and answered her. 

"My specialty is indeed lightning. I have no other affinity with other elements" Dubaza grinned at Liz'An, who frowned deeply in confusion. 

"Once you reach a high enough level of affinity with an element, you'll realize that one is enough. You, Kan-Dari and Shira may be the monsters of the younger generation. But do not forget that there were monsters of the previous generation too. And these monsters had to take down many other monsters in order to be a part of the King's Guard." Dubaza said.

At this, Liz'An felt a slight shiver of excitement run through her. What could Dubaza's power be?

"There are 10 members in the King's Guard and all 10 of them are monsters. In fact, any one of them could take on all three of you without breaking a sweat." Dubaza grinned at Liz'An at this provocation. 

"Really?" Liz'An asked doubtfully, not provoked in the slightest. "Shira is extremely powerful, she has extremely high affinity with 6 elements! Kan-Dari has maximum affinity with the Earth element too! The King's Guard members may be powerful, possibly even powerful enough to defeat any one of us. But to go against all three, and win without breaking a sweat? Is that possible?"

"Oh yes, absolutely." Dubaza said. "The three of you are gems, rare talent that comes possibly once every thousand years. But all three of you are also extremely young and inexperienced. None of the 10 members of the King's Guard could match you in terms of pure talent and potential. But while your value is in the potential you carry, the value of each of the 10 members of the King's Guard is in their polished skills and absolutely deadly efficiency in their specializations."

Liz'An frowned slightly, still unconvinced. 

"Well, I guess you'll actually find out soon. Rhode, the member of the King's Guard with the least amount of firepower at his disposal, would still be able to employ approximately a tenth of my power. Coincidentally, he is also the most cunning of us all. He would have no problem single handedly taking down this giant wyvern we're hunting. 

I am not as cunning as Rhode, but I will take down this wyvern with just 10 percent of my power, just to show you the power of the King's Guard." Dubaza grinned. He may be old, but his competitive streak still runs deep. 

"Okay!" Liz'An said excitedly. She wanted to see how Dubaza planned to take down a mighty fire-breathing Wyvern capable of casting magic with only 10 percent of his power.