Season 2: Chapter 110. Third Era Battle (1)
To win this game, Almond had to inflict a lot of damage.
[Commander: Loop]
[Residents: 56]
[Commander: BornToB]
[Residents: 19]
As more time passed, the vast difference in the number of workers would lead to an insurmountable resource gap.
Only Almond had entered the enemy’s territory. He ran like crazy toward the enemy's line of guard towers.
Almond rushed in while thinking, 'I'm the only one who can do this.'
He believed he was the only player who could damage Loop's camp. It wasn’t an obsession with winning the game, but it was the truth.
“It’ll take a while for the siege weapons to come out...” BornToB delivered the devastating news, almost in tears.
He wanted to quickly produce siege weapons that could breach the walls, but it wasn’t easy since he had already given up on economic and civilization advancement.
The resource gap had already widened by more than a hundred fifty points. Currently, their only advantage was the number of troops.
Loop didn’t have a single soldier yet. This was common in Civil Empire when quickly advancing through the eras.
In this game, a decent defense could be mounted with just workers and without any troops. Workers could increase the town hall's combat power and the number of guard towers.
The efficiency was completely different. Workers shot arrows inside buildings better than about twenty ordinary soldiers.
Destroying buildings with soldiers was an extremely difficult task. That applied to Almond as well, so he never intended to target the buildings anyway.
'Here it comes.'
Whew!
Arrows from the guard towers aimed at Almond.
They only shot one at first, but the number of arrows increased as he ran.
Shoot!
Four guard towers were capable of attacking Almond and four arrows came flying at him simultaneously from different directions.
'Luckily, there aren’t any from behind.'
Almond glanced left and right. Then, he calculated the optimal route to break through after comparing it with the position of the workers.
'There!'
Whoosh!
Kicking off the ground, Almond flawlessly followed the path he plotted.
Chick!
An arrow grazed his side.
'It worked.'
He didn’t take any damage and had accurately calculated to barely dodge the arrows like this. Dodging too widely would leave no room to avoid the next attack.
'Next.'
Zap!
Two arrows grazed both his shoulders at the same time. Again, he didn’t take any damage.
'Now, the last one.'
Swoosh!
The final arrow passed through between his legs.
Almond ignored the slight shiver running through his body and took another step forward. He had dodged all the arrows from the four guard towers, but they wouldn’t stop there.
Shoot!
They shot again. Only three arrows came flying toward him this time because he moved out of the first guard tower’s range.
Almond started to increase his speed a bit.
'It's like the survival challenge.'
Dodging attacks from three or four guard towers was nothing compared to the survival challenge where he unofficially set a world record. Only a few workers manned each guard tower and they attacked quite slowly.
Almond ran at a speed that was neither too fast nor too slow.
Meanwhile, the guard towers continued to shoot arrows at him and missed. It almost seemed as if there weren’t any guard towers as Almond dodged every single attack.
— Holy shittt.
— He's like a martial arts master.
— Why isn't he getting hit? Is there a bug?
— The arrows must be made of Rainawood.
— Isn't he going to get reported again? LOL.
Stopping Almond with mere guard tower arrows was impossible from the start once he focused solely on evasion.
Almond passed numerous guard towers.
'Now... I see them.'
He was closing in on the workers.
'The maximum range of their crossbows is about three hundred thirty meters.'
Considering the crossbow's range, Almond was almost within striking distance of the workers.
The workers didn’t flee. Either the commander wasn't paying attention or had another plan.
‘I don’t have time to think about what they're planning.'
Almond didn't know this game well. After all, coming up with strategies was the commander's job.
'Just thirty more meters...'
Almond focused solely on moving forward.
Whoosh!
Arrows flew again from the guard towers, but there were fewer than before.
***
"Are the guard towers shooting with their eyes closed? Why can't they hit him!" OrangeKing shouted as if something was wrong with the game.
"When I played, I got hit and the game ended! It's so different! Did they patch it? Put more workers in, Loop!"
— With their eyes closed, LOL.
— All your physical points went to your tongue, LOL.
— Why are you angry?
— LOL. That's because you are...
— They say the arrows are made of Rainawood~ What are you gonna do?~
While OrangeKing complained, Almond had almost reached the workers.
"He’s still dodging! Almond advances again! He’s getting closer to the workers! But isn't he moving a bit slow!?"
"Yeah, he can't run any faster because he's focused on dodging. Guard towers are quite good at predicting movements, so you’ll get hit if you just blindly run."
"What is Loop doing!? Is he busy with something else right now?"
"I don't know. He should have seen Almond getting closer..."
At that moment...
[Congratulations!]
[The Knight School has been completed!]
Lights lit up around the knight school as its construction finished.
"He must have been paying all his attention to this instead! Knights are starting to be produced! The production time is..."
"Forty seconds."
"Forty seconds! If we account for the time it takes them to get here, maybe fifty seconds! Can Almond get there in time and eliminate a worker or two!?"
Creak!
Almond pulled his bowstring.
"Huh!? Almond, that's quite far! You're shooting from there!?"
Despite OrangeKing's skepticism, Almond shot an arrow.
Bang─
With a slight curve in trajectory, the arrow struck a worker's head as if it was destined.
Thud!
A scream came from OrangeKing instead of the worker who was shot.
??"Aaaaaagggh!"
— LOL.
— When did the commentary team start feeling pain too?
— Is that a sniper rifle?
— He actually hit that, damn!
— Wow, that's crazy.
"From almost three hundred meters away! He precisely struck a vital spot! Does a crossbow even have that long of a range!?"
"Yes... but very few people can utilize this long range to its full extent..."
Bang!
The sound of an arrow’s release echoed out again.
Thud!
Shortly afterward, another worker fell.
"One more!? Two workers have already died! However, there's still one guard tower within range, right!?"
Bang!
An arrow flew toward Almond from a guard tower.
Almond simply tilted his head.
Chick!
It grazed his earlobe and didn’t inflict any damage.
"Almond says, 'Too slow!'"
Almond drew his bowstring again.
"No! Almond, you're shooting from there again!? That's dangerous─"
Bang!
As if to answer OrangeKing's question, Almond's arrow pierced through a worker's neck again.
"─ Instant kill!"
The worker instantly fell.
"What insane accuracy!"
— Wow~
— It feels so refreshing!
— I haven't seen this in a while, but it's still refreshing.
Each arrow pierced vital spots and felt refreshingly satisfying just to watch.
"But the guard towerrrr!"
The guard tower shot another arrow.
Swoosh!
Like déjà vu, Almond effortlessly dodged it by just moving a step.
"He dodged it!"
OrangeKing still felt anxious.
'Will this really work?'
Despite Almond's health being at one hundred percent, he was a fragile second era archer. Could Almond continue to attack the workers while dodging the guard tower's attacks?
"No, even if there's only one guard tower! He can't just focus on dodging! He has to keep attacking! Is he going to keep shooting from there!? Maybe it would be better to hide in the forest for a moment to distract them!"
"Hmm. He probably thinks even that is a waste of time right now. Still, as OrangeKing said, continuing to dodge and shoot like this is a bit..."
The commentators thought Almond couldn't keep dodging the guard tower arrows. He only focused on dodging earlier, but now he had to shoot at the workers while dodging arrows.
However, Almond's shooting speed only seemed to grow faster. He stood still and didn’t budge from his spot.
Bang!
Bang!
"Almond! He’s shooting faster!? And he’s not moving from his spot at all!? He’s going for it!!"
"I think that’s what’s happening."
Almond shot at one spot as if challenging them. He slightly shifted his body when arrows flew his way and miraculously dodged them all.
"Whoa, he dodged again! It's like he knows the pattern!?"
As OrangeKing said, guard towers did have a pattern. Of course, the AI had a fixed attack speed and it always shot at its maximum speed toward stationary targets. It began shooting at a fixed rhythm.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
The arrows flew like a metronome and humans adapted quickly to regular patterns even if it was dodging incoming arrows.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
As if dancing to a set rhythm, Almond grew even better at dodging the arrows. He made sure his arrows also hit their targets in between.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
After a few minutes between the monotonous guard tower and Almond, many more workers had fallen.
"No, no, no! Ten workers have already died now!"
The damage that Almond dealt couldn’t be ignored. It was on a level that required the enemy’s attention.
"Loop isn't pulling them back till the end!? Is this a battle of wits!?"
"It could be that... or maybe he's too busy with the new age. One-shot one-kills don’t trigger a warning sound. We also need to consider that the opponent is a B rank basement ghost. In terms of LIL, he’s about silver rank tier four. It’s hard to pay attention to everything when you're actually in the game."
"Ah ha..."
— Suddenly talking like a pro LOL.
— A moment of understanding everything, LOL.
— LOL.
— OrangeKing lost his words.
Thud! Thud!
The enemy commander didn’t issue an evacuation order even though workers kept dying. Whether it was a battle of wits or a lack of attention, the damage steadily accumulated.
"Regardless of B rank or whatever, Almond is killing all the workers! So merciless! The death toll has now reached fifteen!! He’s on a shooting spree at this rate!!!"
Fifteen workers had been slaughtered. The loss was too great considering all the effort put into raising the guard towers and surrounding walls.
"What do the workers think!? Hmm~ Let’s shoot back! If I get hit and die, so be it~~~!"
— ??
— Well, that's true;
— LOL.
— Hilarious LOL.
— The truth, LOL.
OrangeKing sarcastically commented as the workers died in vain.
"Loop! Why isn’t he responding!? They're all going to diiieeee!"
He was almost begging when Loop finally started to react.
[Evacuate]
Loop hastily issued an evacuation order for the workers.
Bam!
As a trumpet resounded, a knight on horseback dashed out.
[Veteran Knight]
A veteran knight had appeared. This high rank unit from the knight school differed from ordinary cavalry. One veteran knight was worth an entire castle.
No matter how much Almond ran or climbed, he was still a second era archer. The situation could change if he faced a veteran knight.
"A veteran knight has appeared! This could change everything!"
That wasn’t the only move that Loop made.
Bababam!
The trumpet sounded again from the opposite side.
[Third Era - Castle Age]
BornToB also entered the third era.
OrangeKing had to backtrack, "This makes it even more unpredictable! Really, RTS games are so unpredictable!"
— Isn't it just that you don't understand the game?
— Breaking News: OrangeKing says, "I just don't get it," during commentary LOL.
— LOL
— His comments change every 0.2 seconds, LOL!