thanks for all the helpful replies.
I avoided the area where the things were flying overhead and went on to finish up the Battle Tower and killing Laiken.
I have to mention this.... I had loaded/reloaded several times from a Quicksave in the throne room and threw out a firewall spell to thwart the approaching beasties. I took one fireball or something and then all of a sudden Laiken was dead and I won the battle with little or no effort.
I don't have a clue as to how that happened. I died more then a couple of times trying to kill the dude and then all of a sudden he was dead and I'm still standing. Very weird and suprising, but I'm not talking issue. I saved that game in a hurry. ;-)
