One Step Back

It was the fourth Arena of Honor match they were playing alongside Lady Brissy, Uriel the Great, and Sigrid, having previously placed fifth, third, and second in the last match. They had been improving over time and already had a strategy that worked. Even though they couldn’t go for the City of Glory, by capturing altars, they could stay within the top 3, and that was a good result. They were advancing slowly but steadily, which was what mattered.

This time, THE WICH and Bezedash, both with considerable experience in these battles, joined them. In the absence of Diavola and Pish, and with two open spots that were always left empty, three members of GeN arrived to complete the ten participants needed to compete.

Chayle, who always remained silent, noticed that the new members hadn’t received any instructions before deploying. So, she told the three of them to reinforce wherever Uriel the Great and THE WICH went, using their best dragons, along with other instructions.

"Any questions or doubts about this?" 

"Can we use T1 as a metashield?" one asked. Upon hearing this, she knew things wouldn’t go well. She responded sharply, "No." After seeing the embarrassed look on the one who asked, she added, "Only T4 troops so that our attacks and defenses are more effective. Lower-class troops don’t help," softening the tension that had built up. She sighed and went to deploy her army, thinking that with THE WICH and Bezedash, they could balance any mistakes the three GeN members might make.

They deployed their armies, and this time they had to defend House Baratheon, located in the northeast of the map. Determined to follow the same strategy from the last two rounds, they built Trading Post strongholds in the first line and planned to do the same for the second. Sigrid was in charge of capturing the first altar. When the others started to open, they were captured by Baratheon members without much trouble. THE WICH even encouraged his comrades to take more. "It seems they don’t attack much here, go ahead and take other altars." But as soon as he finished saying those words, he was attacked by an enemy. Chayle was with him, and both were expelled with some losses.

The attacker was stronger in commanders and stats, but they might have resisted better with more reinforcements. That’s when the queen of K276 urged her allies to reinforce the strongest. THE WICH tried to retake the altar through a rally but was barely successful. He was hit again and expelled, and Baratheon’s altars began to be captured by the enemy.

Chayle tried to support her alliance mate, THE WICH, since both were part of tSB. In each attempt to capture an altar, they had a bit more reinforcements, but still couldn’t hold it long enough to reach protection status.

"Send dragons, not just troops," she began telling the newcomers, but some were trying to capture altars on their own, though they were too weak. Chayle was frustrated and saw that THE WICH was also losing patience. It seemed they had quickly forgotten the initial instructions to only support the strongest.

Sigrid tried to take Dragon Pit to score some points with the first capture, then focus on the altars. It was well reinforced, which scared off several enemies whose scouts reported commanders like the Night King or Jon Snow among its defenders. If they managed to reach protection status, they could focus on recovering the altars. They were in fifth place but not far behind the third and fourth. There was still more than half the battle left to turn things around. In fact, they began to point out which altars to hit first since there weren’t many seconds left to capture them. But a SOLO hit expelled them, and the plan fell apart.

Stark, who was in first place, had the towers and catapults and was about to capture Glory City. THE WICH warned that if they succeeded, NPCs would constantly attack their structures. Adding more enemies would only increase the workload for everyone. But the suggestion came too late. Uriel the Great tried to set up a rally, but they took too long to fill it, losing the opportunity.

Getting third place was difficult, but fourth seemed more feasible. They had to fight for that spot. If they succeeded, they wouldn’t win points, but they wouldn’t lose either. There was no clear strategy, but everyone wanted the same thing: to climb out of their current position. Some focused on recovering the altars, for which Chayle helped by sending scouts, gathering reports, and indicating who could attack to ensure a safe victory in each small battle. In a disorganized and almost intuitive manner, they started to get results and were only a few points behind fourth place with just a few minutes left in the battle. If they continued like that, they could achieve the objective. So they focused on defending what they had, and some tried to capture other altars or a Dragon Pit elsewhere. But those going for the altars were the weaker ones, who couldn’t withstand the defensive hits. Chayle insisted that their role, like hers, was only to provide support, but they seemed not to listen as time slipped away and the gap they had narrowed stayed almost the same.

Everyone was so focused on defending and attacking that they forgot the most important thing: defending their own House, which was captured by Stark. As soon as the alarm was raised, THE WICH started a rally, but due to the slow filling of the rally, the House already had three reinforcements. Sigrid, trusting in his strength, launched a SOLO hit, and that was enough to take it back. In the end, they finished in fifth place.

There was disappointment. Chayle, still consumed by anger, went directly to Brissy.

"For the next match, they shouldn’t be on our team."

Brissy understood perfectly. In part, they were responsible for the defeat by not providing support and going with their own flags to fight against warriors much stronger than even Sigrid. Not being able to capture their own altars in the first minutes of the battle also cost them, and they couldn’t recover from the situation afterward.