Season 3: Chapter 61: Hidden Tactic (1)
"Attacking the defensive tower will significantly strengthen our early rush. There is a certain probability that it could completely end the game."
Cookie gathered the ace archers, including Almond, to explain this.
Creeeeak.
He held a short bow and drew the bowstring. After waiting a moment, a faint light ignited at the tip and the [Focus] trait unfolded.
Woooom...
The light, gradually growing brighter, eventually reached its peak and emitted a clear sound.
Keeeiing!
"The problem is that even if we use the maximum duration of focus at three seconds, the range of the short bow is only about the same as England's longbow."
Bang!
The arrow Cookie fired toward the defensive tower fell before reaching it.
"If we're to penetrate a defensive tower with a short bow, there's only one way."
Cookie demonstrated by running while drawing the bow.
Tat-tat-tat.
He entered the range of the defensive tower. Although an archer on the tower shot at Cookie, he easily dodged the first attack since the tower’s projectile speed increased with each shot.
Whish.
An arrow grazed over Cookie’s shoulder.
Cookie sprinted further while drawing his bowstring.
Bang—
The arrow flew straight toward the soldier at the top of the tower.
Thud!
It hit the soldier squarely in the forehead and the soldier fell.
Although it wasn’t a real battle, he displayed remarkable archery. It felt even more impressive considering he was a commander.
At any rate, all of Korea’s ace archers precisely learned the tactic to attack a defensive tower at this time.
Almond had even successfully done it a few times in real battles. The problem was only Almond could do it. Even then, it only happened in basic matches using a Joseon crossbow.
‘It's my first time too.’
It was Almond’s first time trying this with a short bow in a real battle.
Whooosh...
Two arrows split the sky across the field. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. It felt slow enough to be tedious.
"I’m not great at hitting targets precisely... I just wish hitting anywhere would do."
Pang always lacked confidence in landing headshots. While he possessed excellent shooting skills to be considered world-class, he lacked finesse. That was why he rarely gave orders to aim for the head, but he had just changed the order to shoot at the head. ʀ
The situation was unfolding urgently. They had to decide without any delay.
‘Will it work?’
He watched the two arrows flying slowly.
The left arrow belonged to Almond and the right belonged to Pang. The left arrow would hit first.
Almond started drawing the bowstring again at this point. If he missed, he had to respond immediately.
Thud!
"!"
One enemy fell.
‘Did it hit?’
As one soldier began to fall, time seemed to return to its normal pace.
Thwack!
Everything ended in the blink of an eye. Both soldiers collapsed with arrows sticking neatly out of their foreheads and silently slid down.
Yes, both of them had hit their marks.
“It hit! It hiiiiiiit!!!” OrangeKing’s shout echoed.
The players couldn’t hear it, but the spectators erupted in cheers.
"Waaaaaaaaah!"
Their voices resounded clearly.
Thump. Thump.
Hearts pounded.
[They hit both of them in the head! It's a clean pass! There’s nobody left on the defensive tower!]
[Is this it!? Is Korea really doing it?! An upset in the first match?!]
[Actually, sports often see upsets in the first matches when bodies aren’t fully warmed up yet!]
Perhaps this was the beginning of a major upset.
Almond looked to the side.
Pang’s eyes were wide open and more focused than ever. Veins on his neck bulged as he burst into a shout, "Let’s gooooo!!!"
Almond and Pang sprinted directly across the defensive tower.
Sssssssssh!
The field brushing in the wind tickled their ears, but nothing could interfere with their objective.
“What will France do now!?”
“The only thing left is for the deputy commander to chase after them on horseback, even if it’s too late…”
The only chance for the enemy would be for their deputy commander to pursue them on horseback.
“The deputy commander is starting to leave his position!”
“Ah! But now! More archers have crossed over to France’s side! Are they starting to break through!”
As more archers crossed, there would be no one to direct the camp if the deputy commander vacated his post. Naturally, more archers would leak through like a strainer.
“Ah! The deputy commander is dealing with the other archers who crossed over while Almond and Pang are still unmarked!”
The other archers’ sacrifice allowed Almond and Pang to arrive at the gold mine.
‘I see it...!’
They could see the gold mine.
"Yes! This is a big catch! A big one Almond!"
"Stay calm."
"Ah, right. Ahem."
Ping! Ping!
Commander Cookie's pings loudly marked where to attack.
[Attack]
Their target was the enemy's gold mine and...
Ping!
[Caution]
A caution ping marked the town hall where workers spawned. Before the [Castle] was built in the third era, the town hall provided the best defense and couldn’t be compared to a defensive tower.
They had to fight as far away from the town hall's range as possible even if they found it annoying.
“Ah! What do we do about the town hall there!? France always builds the town hall near the gold mine!”
“That’s a problem only for barbarian soldiers or melee infantry!”
For archers, it didn’t pose much of an issue.
In the game, a player couldn’t just build a town hall right next to a gold mine. It had to be built at a somewhat removed distance. If long range archers started harassing them, the town hall wasn’t much of a threat.
“Aaaaah! That’s why advancing to the second era first and infiltrating with archers is deadly!?”
The mere presence of archers at this time was already a disaster.
“Yes! Especially since Joseon’s archers have that!”
— Shall we do that?
— What's that? lol
— Focus, isn’t it?
OrangeKing was about to mention the focus trait.
Workers hit by a short bow with maximum focus would suffer injuries that prevented them from performing their tasks, even if they were only hit in the torso. Being able to shoot further away from the town hall was also a bonus.
“They're almost there! The high ground is in sight! They're within range now!”
“Ah! The workers aren’t evacuating! They must extract as much gold as possible to produce more knights!?”
Almond and Pang rapidly closed the distance to the gold mine.
"This should be good!"
Pang, who had a good sense of distance, settled into position first.
"Hey, hey! Where are you going!?"
Almond went a bit further so he could hit when using maximum focus.
"Let me know the range of the town hall."
"Uh... okay! Slow down! Slowly!"
Almond continued running.
"There! Stop!!!"
He was dangerously close to the town hall's range.
"Yes."
Almond positioned himself on a rock and placed a bundle of arrows on the ground.
Thump!
'Focus is definitely a good trait, but...'
He quickly drew the bowstring.
Creeeeak...!
'Slow.'
Bang!
His arrow flew. There wasn't even time for commentary to add anything.
Bang!
And he quickly shot another arrow.
Bang!
"Ugh!"
A worker transporting gold collapsed, blood spurting from the arrow stuck in his head. Then, the worker next to him also fell. Then, the next one and the one after that… It was like watching a deadly plague unfold.
"Waaaaaaaaaah!!!"
The cheers from fans grew louder.
"Oh~~! Ooooooh~!"
They even started singing. It was a frenzy as Almond dealt tremendous damage to the enemies.
“Aaaaaah! They're all dying!”
“He’s sweeping them all away with only headshots and without using the focus trait!!”
Pang also neutralized workers from a distance.
Thump!
One worker took an arrow loaded with maximum focus in the stomach and collapsed, foaming at the mouth.
"Grrr… ugh."
The rate at which France gathered gold noticeably slowed.
“What will they do!? What is France’s decision!?”
They could avoid immediate harm if they moved the workers, but would fall behind in gathering gold. If they didn’t move the workers, they could earn slightly more gold. However…
“France needs to move their workers given the rate at which they’re dying!”
Two archers dealt unimaginable damage to the enemy like the Black Death itself.
— Plague Mond has gone mad.
— Wow, damn.
— From the very edge of the range!?
— Please nerf the short bow lol.
Bang! Bang!
As Almond and Pang continued firing arrows, perhaps ten seconds had passed.
“Aaaaah! They're retreating!”
The workers simultaneously stopped mining gold and began to run.
Almond didn’t miss those who were fleeing.
Woooom…!
[Focus]
From that moment on, he began to use the focus trait too.
“Ah, Almond is using focus now! Such excellent battle sense!”
“Right! He was initially firing rapidly just one step away from the town hall’s range!? Now is the perfect time to use focus!”
Bang!
An arrow imbued with the light of focus struck the back of a worker’s head.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
Woooom...!
Almond gathered more focus again.
Bang!
Another fleeing worker fell.
“The Black Death is merciless!!”
— Now they're just calling it the Black Death lol
— He’s really like the Black Death lol
— Almond Pesto, wow
“Is this the end now!? Have they pushed them to the brink!?”
“I think a little more shaking up will do it! Not sure though! France won’t give up easily since it’s a tournament! Knights are still coming out!”
“Ah! Right! France has even decided to build another gold mine elsewhere!?”
“Yes. It’s very far and inefficient, but it’s out of Korea’s sight! They’re trying to continue the game anyway… What?!”
Then, it happened.
Thud!
A scream came from behind.
“Damn it…!”
An arrow had struck Pang.
“!?”
Almond quickly turned around.
Two more arrows were already flying.
Thwack!
Pang instantly fell.
“Ah… so that’s why headshots are better!”
Thud.
— Pang-Goner
— Good shooting day...
— Why can't we win if we hit the head!?
“What!? What happened!?”
“Those are the archers that France produced! There are two of them!”
The commentators were too excited to notice the two French archers launching a surprise attack.
The two archers slowly drew their bowstrings and aimed at Almond.
“Gulp,” Almond swallowed dryly.
He wasn’t scared of them.
‘It’s already time…’
The existence of these archers meant something even scarier. Enough time had passed for two archers to appear. Sure enough…
[Royal Knight - Completed]
Ba-bam──!
Accompanied by resounding trumpets, a royal knight displayed his imposing figure on a white horse.
***
“Calm down. We knew they were going to come out, didn’t we!?”
As the royal knight appeared, the commentators’ voices grew urgent. They knew it was coming, but had been too caught up in the dying workers and missed it.
“Since the archers can't get inside, should we stop the harassment here!?”
“How many archers are running toward Almond right now!?”
“Three? About three! The problem is the defensive tower! The defensive tower has reactivated, so they have to return!”
“It looks like the right decision for Almond to run away!”
Almond had to flee first to continue harassing the enemies. Indeed, Cookie ordered a brief retreat to the forest.
The classic way to harass as an archer was to annoy the enemy by moving back and forth through the forest.
“The forest! It’s a good route, right!? It’s awkward for the enemy to come in on horseback! If necessary, we can also disrupt their wood gathering!”
While not as efficient as harassing the gold mine, disrupting the wood supply was also good.
“Yes, that’s right. And from the forest side, Almond will likely meet up with more troops.”
Just then, reinforcements also came down from the forest path.
“But now that the royal knight has appeared, will the harassment continue?”
Facing a knight without any spearmen was pure madness, especially with only a bow.
“Hmm…”
At this point, OrangeKing checked the upgrade list for Korea.
‘The third era upgrade is being delayed more than I thought.’
Korea had quickly reached the second era, but the transition to the third was slow. They had to have a reason like using resources elsewhere in an unusual part of the tech tree.
OrangeKing made a guess.
‘As expected…’
Korea was likely undertaking some unusual upgrade.
“Gulp,” OrangeKing swallowed dryly.
‘They’re really gambling and trying to finish this in the second era.’
Could this be what it took to beat France?
Korea had effectively given up on the third era crossbowmen.