Mr. Frankinson grinned widely at that. “I’ve only got a few years left in me, boy. Too few to care about much else than having some fun. If you wanna come down on an old man for simply playing the game, go ahead. It’ll make life in the castle that much more interesting. Isn’t that right, Nelson?”
“Grandfather, I’m begging you here, please reconsider!” Nelson hissed, not bothering to hide his voice. No doubt he wanted me to know that he certainly wasn’t happy with this plan.
“I’ll let my great army do the talking!” the old man said, raising a fist into the air. He stumbled backwards a little, only to be quickly caught by Nelson, who moved so quickly it appeared to be his second nature at this point.
“Very well then,” I said with a deep sigh. This was no great and cruel betrayal, just an old man trying to prove he still had some vigor left in him. I could scarcely punish an entire estate for that. There wasn’t much I could do here other than wait for the battle to begin.
“Are the participants ready?” the Judge boomed. I glanced to see that this Judge seemed no different than the one I had met before. Was it the same one, or did they all dress the same? I nodded and opened the Grid back up, to watch the battle begin to unfold. Let’s hope that my delay strategy would work…
Chapter 17
The battle had commenced! I was quickly greeted by the upcoming stats about what I would be facing.
Wave 1/3
Enemies Remaining: 10
Total Enemies: ???
I wiped the sweat from my brow as the first golem appeared on the scene. It was a short blocky creature, made entirely of red stone. Frowning, I glanced at it, trying to figure out what it was. This certainly wasn’t a unit I had seen before.
Responding to my mental question, the Grid quickly pulled up a small description of the unit I was focused on.
Ignition Golem: Highly volatile units that explode when destroyed. Will attack anything, including barricades.
Right as I read those words, the first ballista fired at the little red imp, striking it clean in the head. The resulting explosion completely annihilated a chunk of my barricades. “Damn it!” I swore, clenching my fists. The unit was easy to stop, but killing them was actually quite deleterious to my maze design.
“Haha, you think your box ocean is a unique strategy? I knew you had nothing this morning and frankly, barricades are cheap as hell,” the old man said with a chuckle. “And don’t worry, I have plenty more of those little bastards for you.”
As he spoke, three more Ignition Golems swarmed out, advancing further and further, each time being struck by a ballista and dying instantly. The explosions were strong enough to carve a path all the way up to the bridge entrance. Six golems died on the way there, but that was hardly a victory. Those buggers were meant to die.
Three more appeared, still red little Ignition Golems. That was the first wave. A softener. And they’d hit my bridge, completely rendering my defensive structure placement useless. Unless…quickly, I activated my special ability, once again selecting Alchemical Barrage.
Ichor was one of the most common alchemical substances, a powerful binding agent used to fuse golems and to affix various pieces together. When released in liquid form, it would become a solid almost instantly upon contact with any other form of matter. Exactly what I needed for this scenario.
Quickly, I activated the ability and targeted the frontrunner Ignition Golem. A heap of blue goop fell from the heavens, completely covering the little bastard, gluing it to the ground instantly. Each golem had been spaced out to avoid a chain reaction killing them before they reached the bridge, but with the first one now stuck, the second one quickly caught up, just as the ballista fired. One exploded, taking out the other, resulting in two explosions at the exact same time.
The third straggler was easy to pick off since it was still so far behind. That one took two shots to kill, for it was moving slightly too fast for the tracking of the ballista. But thankfully, it was annihilated before it could reach the bridge. My four barricades were still safe, though the path through sector one had been more or less completely opened up. I wouldn’t be slowing anything down in the second round.
“Harumph,” the old man grumbled as the 5 minute timer appeared, showing that the round was over. “Those abilities are overpowered.”
“Don’t be a sore loser,” I said. “It’s unbecoming.”
“I’ll show you unbecoming,” he hissed and spat, cursing me underneath his breath. I ignored his frustration and focused on the map, checking what I could do to fix things. I figured I could just simply build more barricades during the downtime, but unfortunately a notice quickly appeared. You cannot delete damaged buildings during an invasion.
Just my luck. Barricades were so cheap I could just delete them all and build new ones, but apparently the rule system accounted for that. I suppose that made sense, else the rich folks would just delete towers and rebuild instantly each round. There was little I could do now other than hope that my designs would work.
I readied up to bypass the timer, figuring that I might as well get this over with. If I had more time and resources, I could have put down some actual units to avoid more of those Ignition Golems. Let’s just hope he was out of them.
Wave 2: Begin!
Enemies Remaining: 25
A Siege Golem appeared at the front of the maze, laying down and allowing a large shell of armor to cover it. It would be invulnerable for the two minutes that it would take to activate. Once the Siege beast had settled down, five Stone Golems came lumbering forward. They were quite slow and were perfect targets for my trebuchets, which had little trouble dropping payload after payload atop them, ticking away their health. By the time they were to the bridge, the Karrack Towers ripped them to pieces.
I heard frustrated groans from my opponent. Another swarm of Stone Golems appeared, six now, with a Shield Golem heading the front. It wandered forward, soaking up the occasional ballista shot, but thankfully it was far too slow to reach the Karracks before the Stone Golems could. The heaps of debris fired from the trebuchet were dealing out massive damage to each passing enemy, making it damn near impossible for them to reach the bridge before falling to bits.
Only the Shield Golem remained, and when it reached the bridge, it merely sat down. With the barricade in the way, it could not move any further. All six of my Karrack Towers focused on it at once and slowly the health ticked away. This was only a slight complication, for the six towers could still strike six other targets with ease.
Five Karrack Golems appeared on the enemy side, arms crackling with mystic power. As they arrived, the Siege Golem stood up, retracting its shell. The armed escort was more or less useless, since there were no golems of my own to fight. That didn’t stop them from escorting the large siege engine as it slowly made its way to the barricades.
Frowning, I decided to reactivate the Alchemical Barrage. Hey, if a strategy worked once, why not do it again and again? Another ichor dump poured upon the huge, slow moving golem, sticking it firmly to the ground.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Isn’t that illegal? He used that move before!” Mr. Frankinson shouted out.
“The move is legal,” the Judge said, no passion or amusement in his voice. I wasn’t quite sure that the old patriarch was actually challenging my action, but the Queen’s man seemed to take it all the same.
With their ward now stuck in place, the Karrack soldiers also stood still, allowing all five of my trebuchets to fire upon them at once. One trebuchet alone did quite a bit of damage, but five together? Their rocks and boulders smashed straight into the Siege Golem and the small debris obliterated the Karracks. I grinned as the big Siege Golem tried to move but it was just too slow. Too vulnerable to my trebuchets. I had this fight in the bag.
Three Shield Golems popped out of the entrance as the siege engine fell apart, turning into dust on the battlefield. These slow moving golems took the brunt of the
attacks from my towers with ease, slowly walking up to the crates and then stopping. The Karracks and ballistae were having a hell of a time damaging these things. They were just so resistant to damage.
Then…the last of the waves arrived. My eyes went wide at the sight. Four Siege Golems, each one laying down and putting a shield up to defend themselves.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I gasped. Four siege engines? How in the hell would I ever be able to fend those off?
“Hahaha, you familiar with a feint, young man? See that ichor trick was clever, so I figured I’d bait you into doing it as soon as possible,” Mr. Frankinson said. “A perfect maneuver.”
Damn…he tricked me. An admirable move. How was I supposed to win this one now? Once the Shield Golems were destroyed, the siege beasts would have no trouble smashing the barricades and then wrecking every single tower on the way to the Mana Sphere. I doubted that I could kill all four of them at once.
I rubbed my chin, wracking my brains for a solution. I had already used my ability for the round…wait! Of course! The Shield Golems were all blocking entry to the barricades. They were wide enough that they sort of functioned like barricades of their own. I noticed that only two could fit on each square. What if I…turned off my Karrack Towers? Was that even possible?
Sensing my desire, the Grid quickly showed me a set of tower commands. There were a few options, such as set target, hold fire, repair tower and overcharge. All of these options were greyed out, except for hold fire. With a shrug, I pressed the button and at once, all Karrack Towers stopped firing out their continuous stream of energy at the Shield Golems.
“What’d you do that for?” the old man asked.
“I have my reasons,” I said, feeling my heart rise to my throat. This was exciting, to say the least. Would my strategy work? The ballistae were still firing on the Shield Golems, but they did physical damage, not magic, so they were as effective as throwing rocks at a steel wall.
Two minutes passed painfully slow and not a single Shield Golem’s health dropped past 75%. I really hoped this would work. The large siege engines began to march, single file, too large to walk side by side, all the way up to where the Shield Golems were standing. And just as I had thought, the golems stopped immediately.
“There are no valid paths for the enemy to strike,” the Judge boomed, capturing both of our attentions. “The Shield Golems cannot be ordered to retreat, for the Siege Golems occupy the space behind them. The Siege Golems likewise cannot move forward. Round goes to the defender, for the attacker will ultimately be destroyed. All present enemy forces will be destroyed for sake of time.”
Before the old man could even say a word to complain, black lightning struck the battlefield, clearing it instantly.
“What, are you kidding me? I had four Siege Golems on the map! Four!” he bellowed. “This is an outrage.”
“By my observation, the damage output of the ballistae and catapults would have destroyed your siege engines within forty minutes,” the Judge said. “And your units were unable to move in any which way.”
“Then that should be a stalemate, not a loss on my part!” Mr. Frankinson protested. I turned off the Grid view to see the blustery old man was so red in the face that I wondered if he might die then and there.
“Stalemates favor the defender,” the Judge replied, calm and collected. Though he was being treated with a great deal of disrespect, he didn’t seem to take this personally. Of course, the nature of a judge’s life was probably to hear only complaints. I hoped the position at least paid well. “So even if a stalemate was declared, you would still have lost this wave. He was still capable of dealing damage, while you were not.”
“I shall write to the Queen about this!” the Frankinson patriarch shouted. “This is an outrage!”
I looked at the Judge to see if there was any hint of amusement on his face. None whatsoever. He blankly stared at the old man. “A five minute break has begun. Prepare your next wave and defenses.”
“Damn, I put all my eggs in that basket…” Frankinson looked over at me. He tried to force a friendly smile at me. “Speaking of baskets, you got the fruit from me, yes? Clearly you knew this was just a bit of sport. You wouldn’t mind calling this whole fight off right now? Declaring it null?”
“Nullification is a non-victory,” the Judge quickly said, as if reading the question from my mind. Who knows? Maybe he actually was reading the question. I shivered at that thought. “There are no rewards to be had, nor a rank increase.”
I slowly nodded at that and looked at the old man. I gently put a hand on his shoulder. “You made your bed, good sir. Now I kindly invite you to lie in it.”
Chapter 18
The third wave was so pitiful that it’s not even worth mentioning in detail. They didn’t even make it to the halfway marker of the sector before my Miniature Trebuchets obliterated them to pieces. I really should have taken the honorable way out and called for a nullification. The old man had made a fatal mistake and was greatly unhappy, claiming he had been cheated out of a win. If I had accepted his request to simply call off the battle, he would have undoubtedly been pleased with me. Now, I had made an enemy out of the old man and perhaps even his house. It was hard to tell how this news would be received by the rest of the family. Then again, his grandson seemed to clearly dislike this plan to begin with. Perhaps everyone else was of the same mind as him.
“This is pure and simple poppycock,” Mr. Frankinson said (I still hadn’t learned his name and figured that asking now would only cause greater fury on his part!), quivering with rage. “It’s one thing to lose a fight to a well-mannered defense but…you used a cheap technicality!”
“Cheap technicality? I’m merely trying to defend my land,” I said. “You’re the one who decided to waltz in here and pick on me.”
The patriarch certainly didn’t like that accusation. “Your uncle never would have stood for something like this!” he hissed.
“It’s strange how you pay respect for my fallen uncle by immediately attacking my land,” I said. “And I don’t think, regardless of the circumstances, he would have approved your feeble attempts to steal our vineyard.” I felt a strange heat overcome me, a red burst of anger that grew hotter and hotter the more I thought about his words. He was trying to use my uncle as some kind of bludgeon against me? The poor man was barely cold in the ground and here was this old bastard, bitching and moaning about a technicality?
The ire grew great and I found myself walking up to the old man, standing as tall as I could. I towered over him. “You think I’m an idiot?” I continued, forcing him to take a step back. “That I don’t know how much of an opportunistic vulture you are? You saw my vineyard was defenseless and you wanted it. You tried to steal it from my household. No matter how you tried to hide your intentions by sending gifts, I know you wanted a cheap and easy victory.”
“Come now, Richard,” Nelson said, stepping in between us. He held his hands up diplomatically. “Let’s not lose our tempers here. We lost fair and square; Grandfather is just blowing off some steam. Isn’t that right?”
The old man grumbled something under his breath but backed up. Clearly, he was beaten here, and my building rage ended up intimidating him quite a bit. He said nothing, merely glowering at me. Nelson continued to play the role of the peacemaker. “Let’s just chalk this whole thing up to a simple exercise in vigor and intellect? They do call it the Great Game, emphasis on the game part, right?”
I crossed my arms but softened my expression a little. “I suppose.”
“Fine,” Mr. Frankinson said. “Whatever. Let’s go.”
“Why don’t you get into the carriage while I speak with Mr. Richard,” Nelson said, prompting the old man to leave with an open hand towards the vehicle. Mr. Frankinson raised an eyebrow at that, scowling a little, but seemed to become cognizant of the potential damage he had caused with his foolishness and merely staggered off towards the cart, ref
using still to use his cane.
We both waited until the old man was in the carriage. Once the door slammed shut (rather hard, mind you), Nelson turned towards me and clasped his hands together into a pleading gesture. “I beg of you, Richard, please forgive my grandfather’s foolish indiscretion. We all tried to stop him, but he just wouldn’t stop talking about how open the vineyard was. He’s not a greedy man…but he is struggling to even get out of bed without a small staff to aid him. I fear he is unable to accept his age and still wants to prove himself.”
I kept my expression firm and displeased, if for no other reason to see if perhaps I could strike some kind of bargain with the young man. He seemed both exasperated and earnest about his own position, putting him at a disadvantage in negotiations. “Well, Nelson, I suppose the task falls to you to ensure relations between our Houses are kept cordial. Right now, I’m quite angry. How can you fix that?”
The young man sighed. “You’ve got me over a barrel here, sir. Grandfather is still the Gentleman of the House, though he leaves all the actual work to me and my sister. But when his whims strike him, he does as he wishes. But I can assure you that this won’t happen again. And if he does plan something, I can arrange a messenger to warn you well in advance. Would that put you at ease?”
My expression was more than enough to get Nelson to grimace. “Come now,” he pleaded. “He’s a senile old fool. But also a veteran! He served our nation long before they did away with war. Sometimes I think those gas fields he’s always rambling about actually took something away from his reasoning faculties. You wouldn’t dare try and get revenge on a senile, potentially disabled old man, would you?”
This statement forced me to end my angry façade, for Nelson truly had a clever way of assuaging the guilt of his grandfather and I couldn’t help but laugh. “You are quite the diplomat, Nelson,” I said in between chuckles. “Look, I don’t want to get into a fight with your House. But your grandfather doesn’t seem to be someone who can be easily contained. Tell me, do you have any prospects for marriage?”
Gentleman's Wars: The Rules of Engagement: A Tower Defense LitRPG Series (The Great Game Book 1) Page 11