Alex's side was under great threat. They wouldn't be able to take too many of those cannonballs before their morale collapsed. He looked at the two men, squinting when he noticed that each of them was encircled by a strange colorful bubble. Despite that, he carefully aimed his laser rifle at them.

*Pew*

...Unharmed. The laser couldn't penetrate the bubble at all. It didn't even shake it. He shot a few more just in case, missing sometimes and occasionally hitting, but it was the same result.

*Pppphhhwwwoooo*

'The laser rifle even went on cooldown. Tch.' Alex frowned and sealed the rifle. 'Scott, what are those bubbles?'

'Sir, I believe those bubbles are magic shields, which provide very powerful protection against all attacks,' Scott replied.

Alex watched as one of the men chanted something, while looking at a black tome-like book in his hand. Soon after, a bubble also appeared around the cannon. Alex looked over at Lycaon and Adrian to see that they had been covered by bubbles too. He even watched as a bubble blocked a few of Hecate's attacks on Adrian before breaking and being reapplied by the magician.

The only reason Hecate hadn't been forced to escape already is that Lycaon had gone to suppress Devana. Devana's attacks, combined with Alex's previous laser fire, had already significantly thinned the werewolves on that side. 'Scott, what is that book?' Alex questioned.

'Sir, that appears to be the grimoire of Michael Scot, a powerful Scottish sorcerer of the 12th century A.D.,' he answered.

"Michael Scott? He should be at Dunder Mifflin! Why come here to cause me problems?" Alex cursed the paper industry as he made his way off the roof and towards the cannon, while he tried to come up with a plan. 'If they're energy shields...Scott, will Balisarda work against those shields?'

'It should, Sir,'

Alex looked over at the grimoire magician, noticing that he now had a couple of dozen werewolves in a loose circular formation around him. 'This guy is careful and intelligent. Even with the shields, he's still wary of my invisibility. He set up werewolves who can locate me by scent as a protection barrier.' Alex watched for gaps.

'Dracula said the range is 5 meters...No, they're too close together, I'll never make it through there before they all rush and surround me.' Alex knew he needed to take out that cannon, but he didn't have a way to get to it. He considered other options. 'Maybe I can use Wolfseggen?' Then he shook his head. 'That just annoys them, it won't make them leave the battle.'

'Gold? No, that might take out 1 or 2 but it'll limit my mobility and expose my position. I won't have time to reseal either.' Alex tried to think of every possible move. 'Dracula is probably fast enough to get through them. I could give him Balisarda but he'll be unsummoned after 60 seconds. It's just not enough time...'

Out of the blue, Alex remembered something strange he saw earlier. 'Scott, why do physical summons disappear in 60 seconds but that horse from earlier stayed around for over 5 minutes?'

'Sir, that's because the horse is a mount and not a standard physical summon. The reason soul items and mounts can persist indefinitely is actually due to energy transfer. When a chosen one summons a soul item or General, they are constructed with a fixed amount of energy. When time is spent out of contact from the chosen one, that energy gradually dissipates until it is exhausted, forcing an unsummoning. That typically takes 60 seconds...'

'Such is the case with a physical summon that fights independently of the Lord. However, an item that remains in contact with the chosen one, such as a piece of equipment, expends energy from the chosen one instead, maintaining and even slowly recharging its own energy from the chosen,' Scott explained.

Alex rubbed his chin, digesting this information. After several moments, his eyes flashed.

...

*BOOM*

"It shouldn't take much longer," Luca said as he observed the battlefield. The druids and witches had intelligently scattered to avoid concentrated fire from the cannonballs, but that only made it more difficult for them to resist the werewolves.

"AAARGGHH!"

Luca and Cristian looked to the right and saw a werewolf collapsing, blood pouring from its heart. "He's just making a desperate last attack. Let the werewolves handle him. You just keep firing at their army," Luca instructed Cristian.

*Fwoosh*

*Fwoosh*

The werewolves were attempting to surround the invisible assassin but he was moving extremely quickly. What's more, multiple terrible slashes would come out of strange directions, hacking them apart. 'He has two swords?' Luca was a bit confused, because the rhythm and locations of the two attacks looked completely chaotic, not like something a normal human could do.

The werewolves protecting Luca were getting pushed back. Alex was like a teleporting meat grinder, slashing and piercing from all angles. 'What the hell is that thing?' Luca wondered. Suddenly, one of the werewolves got a lucky paw swipe and knocked Alex's helmet off.

The entire section of the battlefield froze. Every being that was still living dropped its jaw. There, in the middle of a bloody field of corpses and body parts, the horrible killing machine finally revealed its terrifying appearance.

It was Alex sitting on the neck of Dracula, using him as a horse.

Author's Note:

Magician Michael Scot is said to have turned a coven of witches to stone, which has become the stone circle of Long Meg and Her Daughters in England. "Michael Scot" - (Wikipedia)