Rupture

After finishing in fourth place in the previous Arena of Honor match, many on the team were frustrated at not earning more points. The team, composed of Vanette, Fraant, Boca, THE WICH, Megatron, Templarios, and Vangark, who were the core members, were preparing for the next match with the goal of earning more points and receiving better weekly rewards.

Vanette and Vangark were the strongest, but those most concerned about their performance were those who didn't have as much power. Fraant was the first to say that if they didn’t get good results in this battle, he would look for a new path. THE WICH and Boca, though less emphatic than Fraant, agreed with the idea, while the others remained silent.

Vangark, trying to keep calm, aimed to guide his teammates, telling them they needed to work in an orderly fashion. He asked Fraant to take charge of the House, but Fraant refused, and it was Boca who volunteered after his teammate’s refusal.

This time, they represented House Lannister, located in the bottom-right corner of the map, with Tyrell to the left and Baratheon to the north as their neighbors.

While Vangark was giving some instructions on how to defend and attack, Fraant interrupted him, bringing a report on the opponents they would face. HankHill from the TQL alliance was among them; they had encountered him in the previous match, and he was very strong in cavalry. The king of k276 hadn’t been able to defeat him, even with spearmen. “Rally him; every time he takes one of our altars, we’ll rally him before he’s fully reinforced,” Vangark replied, and almost everyone nodded in agreement.

There were no major doubts about which buildings to construct — they chose the trading post as it was less risky. Once constructed, they went for the altars. Vangark was delayed because a teammate dissolved a building before it reached level three. He sent his troops to fix the mistake, while Vanette ventured into enemy territory and took an altar. It was reinforced, and with that, they gained protection status. Almost immediately, Baratheon reacted and tried to do the same with a Lannister altar, but the king of k276 pulled his spearmen from a trading post and rushed in before the enemy arrived. He managed to withstand the first attack and called on his teammates to help secure the building.

THE WICH was the one who alerted everyone that the House had only one reinforcement, and an attack was headed their way. They had to reinforce quickly, as if the blow had landed earlier, they surely would have lost the building, and recovering it would have been a setback. It was the second mistake that had been made. Vangark was starting to lose patience and tried to organize his teammates, but his concerns grew when HankHill appeared in their territory.

"Fill the damn rally!" he shouted loudly. They were in fourth place, and Tyrell was only two hundred points ahead of them. It wasn’t the time to lose altars. They managed to push him back, but another altar was taken and reinforced, this time by infantry. The leader couldn’t do anything. He repeatedly asked for a rally, but everyone said their troops were elsewhere, and it was one of the altars that earned the most points. He called for defense of their own territory, which was the most important thing; otherwise, the situation would become even more critical. As soon as the bubble burst, he went to reclaim that altar and called for reinforcements to recover it, allowing them to take control of it once more. Now he would defend, as he realized his teammates weren’t doing it, and he was the only one who could face HankHill’s rallies, which continued to try to capture altars. The struggle was relentless, kicking out enemies from all sides but also recovering altars. They dropped to fifth place, meaning they were losing points. Vangark fought and called for reinforcements, trying to hold on; many times he was victorious, but on a few occasions, he lost. He noted who was reinforcing him and who wasn’t, and observed who defended their own territory, which was what mattered most to him.

What was important to him was to get out of fifth place and not lose points. If at the start of the match, the fourth place they had earned in the previous round had seemed bad, now he longed for it. He went for a mine and managed to hold it despite constant enemy attacks, spending a large amount of speed-ups. Then, he returned to defend the altars in his area with those who followed him. They had to keep fighting; it was the only way to climb the ranks, taking advantage of any enemy mistake, attacking, healing, and attacking again, sending coordinates and waiting for reinforcements, gaining protection status, and dissolving the rally to quickly go for another objective.

Fourth place was a reward for the effort for him, but he was dissatisfied, as were most of his teammates. There were no individual recriminations, but there were general criticisms. It was no surprise to hear Fraant being the first to say he was leaving. Boca and THE WICH also said they were stepping aside. Vangark tried to convince them, explaining where he thought they had failed: the initial mistakes, the lack of defense of their own altars, and the lack of teamwork were, in his view, the main reasons for that second defeat.

Those who said they were leaving countered, saying the matchmaking wasn’t fair with Vanette and him on the team, that it was very unbalanced, and that their accounts were insignificant. They showed defeat reports to prove their frustration. Seeing that many had already made up their minds, Vangark was the first to leave. He knew what the problem was, needed a break, and went back to his castle to find a new group, though he didn’t rule out fighting alongside some of his teammates from that group again.