Lion's Quest: Trinity: A LitRPG Saga

by Michael-Scott Earle

  A few hours of testing later, and I had found my counter.

  It was a melee Blitzkrieg build, but the play style was totally unique. Instead of making the obvious choice of running to capture the castles first, I needed to go after my opponent’s pieces first, and use a careful flanking strategy to move around the sides of the hexagon grid. I felt my understanding of the game grow significantly, and then I went about trying to figure out how I could prevent the melee Blitzkrieg from beating my missile Blitzkrieg by using better positioning.

  I soon had peeled back the counter to the melee Blitzkrieg, and then the counter to that counter, and then the counter builds to that counter. I looked at the clock in my room and realized that “soon” was not the correct word. It was now one o’clock in the morning, and I’d completely lost track of time. I had missed dinner, but I didn’t feel hungry, and I thought it would be more important to get some sleep instead of eat.

  I brushed my teeth and thought about the day tomorrow. I did feel like I knew much more about Castles than I did before my study today, but would it be enough? I had focused most of my time on the Blitzkrieg style builds. I really needed to spend equal time on the Defensive and Balanced styles, but I just didn’t have enough time. Even if I had known that the game was on my terminal before, I would have only been able to squeeze a few extra hours in during the last few days. Would it have been enough to make a difference? Would I be able to handle myself against Tia’tor or Moryana tomorrow?

  Would I be able to beat Cesnie?

  I walked to my bed and flopped down on the sheets, and then I double checked that my alarm was on and crawled under the covers. I thought about my mess up today, I thought about what tomorrow would bring, and I thought about what Chrysa offered me. I tried to push the thoughts of the beautiful woman out of my head, but it was difficult. Her offer seemed so sincere, and I wondered again at the complexity of the NPCs Ohlavar had created. The scenario also made me wonder about the variety of choices that players could make in this game. Even if I hadn’t been on the quest, the idea of becoming a king, or a well taken care of nobleman, didn’t sound very appealing. If I weren’t on my quest, I would have logged into Ohlavar Quest to do dungeon explorations and gather vast amounts of loot, but I was sure there were plenty of players who would have jumped at Chrysa’s marriage proposal. What would their game life be like? Would it get boring? What would happen if they had kids?

  I had more questions than answers with the direction of Zarra’s game, and sleep was not easy to find.

  Chapter 27

  “For the first round of Castles, the die have called upon… Sir Leo Lennox and… Tia’tor Barta!” Sharles yelled over the crowd after he had rolled his die for the second time.

  I sighed with a breath of relief and nodded at the massive minotaur man. Then we both walked down to the floor of the coliseum together while the crowd cheered. I could have sworn I heard Allurie’s voice cut through the roar, and it made me chuckle a little.

  New Quest: Finish first or second in the Castles challenge.

  Tia’tor was my preferred matchup for the first round. The man could have been a skilled Castles player, but I doubted he was as skilled as Moryana, and there was no way he was as good as Cesnie. I wasn’t just thinking that way because the man was a minotaur, of course. My judgment was based on some intel Cornalic picked up by walking around the palace and buying some of the Grytar staff drinks. Apparently, the minotaur’s deal had been to win, or place high in the first and second challenges, and then do his best in the castles event. It was possible that the bull-headed man wouldn’t even care about beating me in this round.

  Or, it was possible the information Cornalic picked up had been planted, and Tia’tor was an amazing Castles player.

  “Four castles are to be placed!” Sharles called from above, and we both nodded up in his direction.

  We began to make our castles selection, and I decide that I was going to go with one of my Blitzkrieg strategies. They might not be the best against my opponent, but they were the ones I had dissected the most, spent the most time playing. And I felt like I knew their weaknesses best.

  We ended up placing our castles right in the middle of the map, and the crowd started mutter excitedly. It was apparent both of us were going to go with an offensive strategy, and I watched the minotaur place a melee golem on the board.

  I placed a support.

  He placed a support.

  I placed another support.

  He placed a missile.

  I placed a support.

  He placed a melee.

  I placed my fourth and final support.

  He placed a support.

  Then I began to place my missile, and it became apparent to me that he was going to play a balanced build with an even split of everything. The crowd started shouting when I placed my tenth missile golem, and they were collectively laughing when I placed my last missile golem.

  “You have picked an odd combination,” Tia’tor rumbled. The intonation of his voice and the laughter of the crowd was starting to make me feel slightly nervous, but I managed to keep the emotions off my face.

  Maybe I had made a mistake.

  The match started, and Tia’tor moved his line of melee golems forward to the castles. I made the same movement with all my golems and let my support lead the way since they could move two spaces to my missile’s single space.

  Tia’tor’s melee golems made it to the center castles first. He was keeping his own support golems behind his missile golems, so there would still be a few rounds before his entire group reached the center.

  Meanwhile, my own four support golems ran like lemmings toward the castles.

  If my support golems made it to the castle, they could occupy them, and Tia’tor didn’t want that. He moved half of his melee group to intercept my support golems, and he positioned them as a wall that my golems would have to move around or through to get to the castles.

  I retreated with my support golems, and the crowd started to laugh louder. My missile golems were still moving up, but it would be two more turns before they would be able to fire on the golems Tia’tor had chasing my support.

  “Hmmm,” the man grunted as he studied the board. My strategy had little subterfuge, so I guessed he must have realized what was going on. If he did chase after my support, he would be running within attack range of my missile golems. If he let my support escape, he would have lost an opportunity to take them out. We only have half a minute to make a decision on each of our turns. The other issue he had was that while his melee could move three spaces, they couldn’t do that and attack, and my support could move two spaces. He would end up being within the range of my missile golems by the time he was able to attack them, so a decision to follow meant he would be sacrificing his melee’s until he could re-spawn them.

  Tia’tor shrugged and sent his melee after my support.

  It took them a few turns to catch up, and the distance closed between his melee golems and my missile ones.

  Then the battle started.

  My missile golems made their targeted attacks and busted down his melee. He got a hit off on one of my support pieces, but it would take two hits to eliminate a golem, and Tia’tor foolishly split his attacks between two of my support golems before my missile took them out. I had thought I would lose all of my support pieces and be forced to wait to re-spawn them, but I was left with all four still, and my missile group was fast approaching the center of the map.

  Tia’tor’s bull face betrayed a bit of his frustration, and he sent another wave of melee to intercept my support golems. My missile attacks ate these up, and I moved my entire group into the center of the map to take the castles. A few of his missile attackers tried to mount a last offense, but my targeted burst strategy took them down quickly.

  The crowd stopped laughing.

  “Leo Lennox has won the first round of Castles against Tia’tor Barta!” Sharles shouted. The crowd cheered hesitantly, and I raise
d my hand toward them.

  “Excellent performance, you are more intelligent than you look,” the minotaur man said to me.

  “Thanks,” I said with a laugh. Then we both exited the arena and walked back up the stairs to the box where the rest of the challengers were seated with their hosting families.

  “Lady Cesnie Kayleic and Moryana, the sword dancer!” Sharles called out as Tia’tor, and I reached the private box at the top of the stadium.

  “Interesting strategy, Leo Lennox,” the obsidian-haired sword dancer said as she walked past me.

  “Agreed. I’m looking forward to the next round.” Cesnie’s steel-blue eyes met mine as she followed the other woman down the stairs.

  “Leo, you were--”

  “Wonderful!” Allurie interrupted Chrysa and threw her arms around me. “You are so smart! You got him all confused. I wasn’t fooled when you made your golems run away. You are so smart, and handsome, and dashing, and I love you!” Allurie’s words gushed out of her mouth like a waterfall, and I had to peel her off me again.

  I would have thought that my elf friend’s display of affection would have made Chrysa a bit jealous, but the beautiful noblewoman just covered her mouth as she giggled.

  “The two of you make me laugh so much. Allurie, would you want to stay in the castle here with Leo and me?” she asked the silver-haired elf.

  “Of course! Anywhere Leo goes, I go.” She hugged my arm, and I managed to wiggle out of her grip after a few moments.

  “Dear friend, this means you have won second place. If Moryana loses to Cesnie, you will have won the most points during the first three rounds, even if the latter woman beats you,” Cornalic said.

  “Yeah. I’m feeling pretty good about it.”

  “What if Moryana wins?” Chrysa asked.

  “Then whoever wins the match between us will have the most points,” I explained, “but I thought that Cesnie was supposed to be the champion of this game?”

  “Yes, but no one knows how skilled Moryana is. If she beats Cesnie, we might be in trouble,” the beautiful woman mused.

  “Well, we are going to find out in fifteen minutes,” I said, and we all turned our attention to the arena below.

  “Three castles!” Sharles yelled as soon as the women had taken their positions next to each other by the hexagon spaced map.

  Cesnie placed her castle near her own border, and Moryana did the same, then Cesnie placed the next one near her own border. It meant she was going to be starting with a bit of an advantage, but it also means that Moryana would go first.

  They began to select their golems, and it was apparent that Cesnie was going to run a defensive build, while Moryana was running a more balanced build. The battle started after the blonde woman picked her last piece, and the sword dancer made her first move.

  Moryana made a rush to the other side of the board with her melee and support squad. Cesnie countered by moving her golems to take the castle furthest from her starting position. They clashed against that castle with the majority of their forces.

  The battle was frantic, not because of its pace, but because I could see that each woman was attempting to outmaneuver each other around the prize by using a multitude of strategies. Cesnie seemed to have the better position around the third castle, and I guessed she would eventually defeat the dark-haired woman, but then Moryana split off a trio of golems that made a run at the blonde woman’s unprotected castle.

  The crowd gasped as Cesnie had to adjust her defense. I thought she would have sent golems to chase after Moryana’s strike team, but she instead sent half of her forces to take Moryana’s unprotected castle. Both women ended up taking each other’s position but continued to fight over the third castle. For a few minutes, it became difficult to see who was going to win. Cesnie had fewer golems on the map by the contested castle, but she controlled a lot more support units than Moryana.

  Then the tide turned, and Cesnie topped over Moryana’s offense and took the third castle. Cesnie now had two locations captured, and each woman began to re-spawn their fallen golems. Cesnie’s strategy became apparent to me now. Moryana had only sent three units to take the castle nearest the blonde woman’s re-spawn point, but Cesnie controlled eight golems at the one on Moryana’s side. The sword dancer couldn’t get back the castle closest to her by the time Cesnie had defeated Moryana’s trio.

  “Lady Cesnie Kayleic has won against Moryana the sword dancer!” Sharles shouted as soon as the match ended, and the crowd went crazy.

  The blonde tactician and obsidian-haired sword dancer exchanged a few words I couldn’t hear over the distance and sound of the crowd, and then Cesnie turned to look up at the box. She pointed an armored finger at me, and then gestured for me to come down the stairs.

  “Good luck, Leo. Thank you again,” Chrysa said as she squeezed my hand.

  “You’ll beat her, Leo. You are so handsome!” Allurie said as she hugged me.

  “Dear friend, I believe you’ll be victorious. Your earlier match was excellent. I believe in you.” Cornalic put his hand on my shoulder.

  “Thanks, guys,” I said as I smiled at them. Bolverk had his eyes closed and was sitting cross-legged on the chair. The man didn’t look at me, so I guessed that he was busy thinking about his harem, and I began my walk down to the floor of the coliseum.

  In reality, the match between the tactician and I might not matter much. If I lost, I would still have more points than her going into the fourth and fifth challenges. But then again, the margin would be close, and there could be a chance that Queen Yrisi could get the most votes and end up winning.

  If I beat Cesnie now, I would finish with eight points. Team Sanduport would have a total of three, and my friend would become the new queen.

  I reached the Castles area and took my place next to Cesnie. The woman gave me a smile, and we both gestured that we were ready.

  “Five Castles will be placed! Lady Cesnie Kayleic will have first placement!”

  The woman put the first castle on her side in the middle of the map, and I placed mine to mirror hers. Then she placed one of hers near the corner where the centerline was, and I matched her. She had the last pick, and she set the fifth castle as close as she was allowed to her re-spawn point.

  Next, we chose our golems. I picked a missile first, and she picked support.

  I picked another missile, and she picked another support.

  I picked another missile, and she picked a melee.

  I picked another missile, and the crowd started to mutter with disbelief.

  “Leo, you do know you will need support to take the castles, don’t you?” the blonde woman raised an eyebrow to me and picked a melee.

  “Sure,” I said as I gave her a smile and picked another missile. “I can always place support when my missile golems die.”

  “You’ll lose rounds then. It is not a good strategy. Ahh well,” she said with a shrug.

  We continued our selection, and I finished by picking twenty missile golems, and not a single melee or support.

  “Are you throwing this match?” she asked with confusion.

  “I hope not,” I said with a laugh, but the rest of the crowd seemed to agree with Cesnie, and a few angry boos were being shouted.

  The match started, and I began to move my slow missile golems toward the centerline. Cesnie was running a balanced build with eight support, four missile, and eight more melee. She sent all of her melee to the front, and then a single support to each of the castles on her side of the map while the others charged behind the melee. I guessed her strategy would be to take all of the castles before my slow moving missile golems could make it there.

  Unfortunately for her, I’d done the math and played this scenario a few dozen times last night. I knew from counting the spaces that she would be able to capture all but one of the castles, and it was all the time I needed.

  She took the castle closest to her, the next one, and then the third. I was still only halfway through my side
of the map before she took the fourth. The woman must have realized that I could defend anyone from getting into the last castle since she sent most of her forces there, but it didn’t matter what she did. I was still three paces away from the last castle on my side, and I destroyed the first support golem she sent. Then I took out her next one with two of my missile golems.

  Cesnie made a bull rush toward me with her melee, but my group of slow moving missile golems were all there, and I destroyed them before she could reach me.

  Then I moved to the next farthest castle and took out the support she had there.

  A dead silence descended across the arena, and I moved my golems to take out the next castle. Cesnie’s missile golems got within range, but she must have realized that killing one of my golems would have given me the chance to just re-spawn a support golem. I killed them, and then I moved to clean out the next group of castles.

  A few minutes later I’d killed all of Cesnie’s golems, and my entire force of missile golems was sitting at the end of her map. Whenever she used her turn to spawn a golem, I just killed it during my next. There was nothing she could do, and the woman shook her head.

  “We have a draw it seems,” she said.

  “I don’t think so. I might not have captured a castle, but I own the map. If you kill any of my golems, I’ll just create a support one and take a castle. The thing is, you can’t kill any of my golems unless I let you. So I control everything.” I yelled my words loud enough for the entire coliseum to hear.

  “The rules of the game state that if no player has captured a castle--”

  “I can do this all day,” I said as I pointed at the game board. “You’ll bring out a golem, and I’ll kill it. You aren’t playing anymore. I’ve beaten you.”